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means any or all of these things , Ttt-wHbHy and mischief . But if the " No-Popery feeling has yet a deeper root amongst us—if in the hearts of the English people , or of any portion of them , it means the annihilation , by argument and agitation , of that most aged of earth ' s intellectual fallacies , the belief that a certain unmarried man , living in one of the peninsulas of the Mediterranean , and professing to have a charter from the Apostle Peter , is necessarily the supreme link between this planet and its God , and the lord of European , Asiatic , African , and American thought
then , let the speculative platform from which this cry of " No-Popery" is raised , be the narvovrest and most sectarian possible , it is so far respectable , and it ought to have power . And if , farther , this " No-Popery" feeling should pass the bounds of a mere contemptuous personal dissent from the fallacy , or a mere readiness to do battle with it in its intellectual shape , and should assume the form of an active political digressiveness , a desire to employ the whole resource of the country , its diplomacy , and its statesmanship , in honestly dissolving and weakening those worldly
institutions , whether in Italy or elsewhere , in which the fallacy has embodied itself , or round which it has wound itself — then the feeling amounts to a right instinct of England ' s political place and duty among the nations . In short , the " No-Popery" cry is not yet defunct for England : all that it wants is to he corrected tip to the present time . Every nation , like every man , is strong only in the line of his ancestral sentiments ; and if the greatness of England for three hundred years has consisted in , or has been identified with her Protestantism , then it is precisely in
spreading abroad this Protestantism , and making it prevail over the earth , that England will discharge her natural and hereditary duty . England and the Papacy are natural enemies now , as they have always been . True , Protestantism is not what it Avas , and we must take Protestantism as corrected up to the present time ; but that correction surely consists in no diminution of hostility to Papal institutions , or the essential Papal dogma . Many Englishmen , disgusted with the sectarian associations that have gathered round the name Protestant , would almost abjure it ; but in the original and true sense of the wordas meaning a desire to see the whole earth relieved from the thraldom of believing , or of being
orccd to seem to believe , that the aforesaid unmarried man of Italy is spiritual lord of the earth , and sole spokesman for it to God—all Englishmen are Protestants , and may surely exult in being so . The " No-Popery" cry , as corrected up to the present time , consists , we should say , in the persuasion now gaining ground among us , that the true , battle-field between England and the Papacy in not in Exeter Hall , or in English Law Courts , bill , in Italy itself ; that , in short , the question of Knglaiul ' s relation to the Papacy is involved in tlu ; question of England ' s relation to the Italian people . (> ( hat our statesmen had perceived this Join- years ago ! On this point hear the Society of the l ^ riends of Italy : —
"II Uii ! Society can thus congratulate itself on hav-»^ done something to disseminate correct information , 'iikI to promote an expression of just opinion in regard ¦ " Itnliini iil ) hii \ s , it cannot pretend to have yet accomplished any dirert or measurable . step towards that » reat «! >>< l of all political discussions—the initiation , through iiniiinient ,, of an appropriate course of national action . ^ " is this to be , wondered at . Let us only consider ¦ 4 L lllflltWfctll 'if' 111 I 1 JI f- ,.,., it J' T ¦ » «* ttrt *»«\> h' *« V A- * h »» B ^^ ttltfe 1 ) 11 : •¦ moment atwhat pointin reference to politi
* . * * * . , our - ( 'i » l relations to Italy , t . ho ouicial and diplomatic mind 1 ) 1 Uiis country , even under a Whig administration , Nlooil three- yei , rs a . £ o . No Uril . ish friend of Italy "Mould ever ior- (!| , : l , id tins Society of the 1 'Yiends of ¦> l , y will never be tired of repealing , those words in which oiir YVhifr ambassador at the I'Yeneh court , Lord ^ "i-inanby , at the time of the negotiations for I'Yeneh "'•'' i-ference to pnf ; down the Roman Republic and resl ( " < ' Uie Pop ,, nm ( , iHj OI | ihn ,, ) Ul () f A j ] 1 H 4 J )—Miirsscd
• ' the wishes and the policy of the government "' ' ""ca t , Urit . ain in l , haf , scandalous affair . The words , 111 'P'olcd from the Correspondence laid before- I ' arlin''' " ¦¦ I ., lire these : - ' /¦ ( I J () nl Norniiinby ) told M . ' ¦ "iti / u , { r A ////// . V (( , ! , „ French Foreign Minister ) , that , " ¦ <> l > jcrl- whir / ,. Urn Wrench (/ ovrrumenf professed to _ "'' ¦ ' in vwiv the restoration of lh , < I ' ope muter an . '^ I'roned far m < f t / onerniitc > tt . was- - pre . ci . sef j / that ' I / , "' /' ' / f "" ' " '" '" . ' / f ) <'< ' » instructed to . state , was also it ' / ' ' / ni "J ''' . ' f ' ( loiwrnmcut ; tfioni / h , for reasons f 'U l llatl Men < : rptaine . d to him , wo had not , wished > lako an , / active share in the negotiations . ' This
passage , we repeat , ought incessantly and everywhere and on all occasions to be quoted ; it ought to be learnt by heart by all citizens of Great Britain ; it ought to be engraven , as a sentence of shame , on a pillar of brass in Downing-street—for it represents the crime of our land against Italy , and it reveals , in one glimpse , that depth of bad statesmanship , from which the official and parliamentary mind , even of our Whig administrators , has to be brought up , before England and Italy shall stand in their proper relations to each other . And to bring up the official mind of a country from such a depth , is not the work of a day or a year . The Papal policy , with regard to our own country , and the spectacle of the horrors consequent on that very
restoration of the Pope in which we so hypocritically implicated ourselves , have indeed contributed to open many eyes ; perhaps there is even now a touch of remorse in the official heart ; and , at any rate , it is not likely that a Whig ambassador would again write such si passage as the foregoing were the same circumstances repeated now . Still we are far from any promise of such a Parliamentary or ministerial policy with regard to Italy as would answer the demands of sterling justice—a policy to which we could trust for the expiation , on a fitting occasion , of the fearful blunder indicated in that Normanby despatch , and for the indemnification to Italy of the wrong so done , by nobler conduct towards her at any similar juncture that may yet arise . "
May such a juncture soon arise ! All is calm now , and it looks like irrelevance to present events and pressing sorrows to talk of Italy at all . But the time will come ! Some morning , — and who knows how soon ?—a spark through that electric cable which connects England with the Continent will fetch once more into our cities and streets the intelligence , " The Continent is in arms ; " there will again be enthusiasm , and public meetings , and councils of Cabinet ministers ,
to discuss the policy , and prepare the answer ; may we then profit by our past errors ; and may the answer which we flash back through that electric cable , to be sent trembling along the telegraphic wires , and by the mouths of couriers , to the remotest extremities , where despotism rules , and Papacy lingers , be someanswer such as this : — " England will act , on this occasion , like free and Protestant England — corrected up to the present time . "
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THE CHRISTIAN HEROD . The Morning Chronicle returns to the subject of " infanticide , " with new arguments , and a new fact , in support of its old position . The new fact is , that at a recent trial in Hampshire the court was crowded with girls , who undisguisedly made common cause with the prisoner , who loudly applauded when she was acquitted , and who arc reported to have said , as they left the court , " Now we may do as we please . " The last point must be regarded as apocryphal , and the acquittal may have been a , just acquittal ; but the exhibition in court , if the report approaches to the truth , is painful enough . The mere assembling of the girls indicates a too lively interest in the question at issue . The argument of the writer who notices this fact is curious . As a number of the women arraigned on the charge of murder arc married , it has been presumed by another critic that poverty must be the immediate incentive to tne crime of infanticide . Admitting the probability in some degree * , the Chronicle contends that the crime itself , originating amongst the unmarried women from other causes , is copied by the married women of the agricultural class , under the pressure of poverty , and Lhal . it is likely to extend from them to the industrial classes of towns . Hence the Chronicle ( tomes back to its old position , ( hat jurors must be made to inflict a severe example , in order to check the progress of the crime ; in other words , Punish the girls , and the married women will learn bow to behave properly . The loiter of an esteemed correspondent at , Leeds , however , shows that the crime has already established il , nelf in the towns . It is computed
thai / three hundred children in Leeds , unregistered , are murdered annually ! The crime , we believe , is not to be cheeked by preaching Draconian principles l , o jurors , nor by transporting the uneducated girln of the agricultural districts . Education will bo a more effectual cheek . Reproductive < tnpl . oi / mcnl still more promptly efleetive , as that in i , he moans by which the ? Stale secures thai , each individual born may make good his own position on the surface of tho land . Our
correspondent is mistaken in supposing that we think it mere cant to demand a remedy ; but his challenge deserves something better than a hasty response , and he shall have what occurs to us , deliberately and outspokenly .
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THE EMIGRATION CONTROVERSY AT BRADFORD . In a paper of courteous moderation and candour , but of' inordinate length , the Bradford Observer challenges our arguments respecting the " transportation of the condemned Woolcombers . " The main object of the paper , we conceive , is , to show that the movement is one originating amongst the working classes themselves — is for their benefit—is not an employers' scheme , and is only aided by certain employers from benevolent motives . Other communications which we have
received from Bradford , incline us to believe that this representation is in the main correct ; and it is not contradicted by anything which we have received before the remarks we wrote , or since . If we have been at all misled , it was by the language of the Bradford Observer itself , which was conceived in a tone veiy different from that which the writer now employs . He still , indeed , adheres to one or two assumptions ; amongst others , to the idea that he knows the name of the writer with whom he is in controversy ; but on that point we doubt whether he has not fallen into a natural mistake .
According to the present position of the Bradford Observer , that paper is to be regarded as the adviser and friend of the working class , and of the wool combers in particular ; and we do not repudiate its friendly intentions , but it was difficult to detect the friendly heart through the language which imputed to the woolcombers a variety of misdemeanours and depravities . He spoke of them , as degraded , " as having " morbific habits" of life , as lowering the tone of society , and "increasing our poor-law rates . " The report of the woolcombers' committee is now quoted to show that
these phrases are derived iroin that document , in which mention is made of a system leading thousands to " deep degradation "—of woolcombers as forming " the main portion " of applicants for parochial relief—of pauperism as the nurse of " contaminating influences , " and so forth . It is one thing , however , ' for a man , or a class , to speak of self in disparaging terms , and another , for a second person to use even the same terms . But it will be perceived that the phrases quoted
from the report undergo a , species of inversion when they become adapted by the Bradford Observer . When men complain that their inevitable circumstances are contaminating , that their fellow workmen are liable to degradation , and become dependent on poor-rates , it is retorting , rather than adopting their language , to say that they are contaminating , morbific , or degraded ; and to echo the complaint about poorrates has a , moral effect exactly reversed when it conies from the rate-receiver , or from the ratepayer . Our contemporary accused Uie men of wasting their means and nol , providing for a rainy daya position which , throughout the immense reply , he has omitted to defend ; ami we are not ourselves inclined to dwell again upon ( bat point . To say that emigration might be advantageous ( o \ hc wooleombors is no more than a truth which we admitted in the paper now challenged . Probably there is not a wooleomber in Bradford who would not , find himself better in Australia tluin ^ i England ; but ( here is a manner in dealing with these things . To speak of the expatriation of a whole elans as a destiny entailed by the heartless operations of trade , is an offence against , social feeling . To speak of men in terms only applicable (<> rubbish { . hat ought l , o be removed , is what , we void believe the writer never intended ; but undoubtedly his first paper had ( hat , appearance . Immigration is a good thing when it , in absolutely spontaneous , and lo furnish facilities for it , is an excellent service ; but ! , ho choice should , lie wholly with each individual emigrant , and it , should bo a choice determined by no indirect , compulsion . Tin ? wooleombern are our country men , and we an ; bound to Htaiul by them in misfortune , while they elect to remain in I heir native country . If they choose to emigrate , lei , us help them ; bill , absolute willingness i . s tho lir . sl , essential to all interference in Mich mn ( Lern . We arc represented as uttering a threat , in case- ( ho vroolcombors be subjected to language
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September 18 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , 899
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1852, page 899, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1952/page/15/
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