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Leader (1850-1860), 1st January 1853, Edition Town of 3, Page 12, Untitled Article

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      worth to share in his councils , to aid in the work which he has undertaken , we then understand that the declaration of a political truth is to have a substantial result , and that Lord Aberdeen ' s Ministry must be large and true indeed in its purpose , when steadily maintained convictions like those of Sir William Molesworth , are included in the scope of its action . Upon the constituents of Southwark is now thrown a duty superior even to that of electing a good representative . There have been little

      differences between them and their old Member , chiefly ascribable , perhaps , to the somewhat overstrained independence of his manner , when a little explanation would have made his constituents understand how thoroughly they were still of accord in all essentials . But they have not forfeited their right to return one of the most effective members of Parliament ; and they have now the opportunity of appointing a Minister for a Radical constituency . They have the opportunity of decreeing that the direct representative of one of the most Radical constituencies of the

      kingdom shall be sitting in the Cabinet . We cannot but regard that as a great advance for [ Radical opinions . The constituents have the power of cementing the union between the most advanced shape of reform yet seen in Parliament , with executive power , by continuing to their representative the confidence of a Radical constituency after he has acquired the confidence of the Crown . That union we regard as most important for the progress of Liberal power in our institutions .

      Sir William Molesworth ' s return by the constituency of Southwark is something much more than an ordinary election , and by their decision the electors of Southwark will have effected a much more than ordinary gain for the cause that they have at heart .

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      ARCHDEACON DENISON'S POLITICAL CHURCHMANSHIP . Lokd Derby ' s Ministry seems to have been fatal to nearly all the ' persons implicated in its origin , involved in its wonderful developments , or engaged in its support . And prominent among the fallen in the last category is one whom we had learned to respect and admire ; whose conduct , previously to February , 1852 , seemed a guarantee for future steadfastness in the path he had chosen . All our knowledge of him up to that period led us to expect a perseverance in the attainment of his unselfish objects ; and an unfaltering adherence to the principles which made thorn legitimate . We looked upon him as impulsive , it is true , but brave , conscientious , and simple-minded . We never dreamed ^ that anything approaching to Jesuitry could find a place in his mind . We doomed him a high ,

      straightforward Churchman , not a crooked politician . Judging from his conduct , but without sympathising with his ultimate aims , and even prepared to oppose them , we believed and hoped that lie was only one of a large parly in the Church of England prepared manfully to carry out her principles , malio Hie best of them , and accept the consequences , be they what they might . Wo have been deceived . The Archdeacon of 1 nunton is not a , hero of a . new parly ; Krasf ianism , the Dnliiah always courting the professors of a

      Slate religion , has vanquished him . He is the Peter of Traelarianism . Kre the twelvemonth has gone round , lie lias thrice denied his principles . W When Lord Derby entered oibee , he proelaimed in the City lliiit the Church of Kngland was a compromise . . Mr . Archdeacon Denison , whose whole teaching was adverse to the dictum of Lord Derby , accepted and supported the Ministry of the man who could find no belter epithet , than compromise to describe the religion of Mr Denison . Was not this an admission ol UraKtiunism in its boldest form F \ Ux \ . then . 1 , had been bruited abroad that Lord Derby and

      Mr . Denison ' s old opponent , Sir John 1 alungton would meddle with the management chuiHcs ; anc not , content with accepting the barren lr . ut o that , act , Mr . Denison Hung »» ' < ' < - hiH aivowed principle thai , n " churchman should Jiav » no politics , " and enlisted in the- Derbyito brigade . Once on the . slippery path lending downwards , Mr . Denison could " not Htay Iiih steps . At the SoinerHetnlnro election in July , ho dolled liin easHoek , and donned the Tory cockade , openly HUpporting t , lu , KruHtinn politicians , M ilcH und JCnatchbuil , agauiiHt a known friend of the

      Church , but a probable opponent of Lord Derby and Protection . The Duke of Wellington died in September , and foremost in the van of those who flung up their square caps for Lord Derby as Chancellor of Oxford , was George Anthony Denison . It must be admitted that this was a questionable mode of showing that a " churchman should have no politics . " We impute no interested motives to Mr . Denison ; we simply state the fact , and that is , that next to Dr . Simmons , of Wadham , probably the warmest supporter of the Minister , who declares that his Church is a compromise , was the Archdeacon of Taunton

      Lord Derby has not been a Chancellor three months before he falls from office . A new ministry is formed , of which Mr . Gladstone is a member . Mr . Gladstone is a gentleman , and he deliberately believes that he can act for the public benefit with Lord Lansdowne , Lord John Hussell , and Sir William Molesworth . But Mr . Denison , who believes that a " churchman should have no politics "—who accepted Derby , and Disraeli , and Paldngton—who approved of their " morality " at the last election , in appealing to the country

      with one loose set of principles for the towns , and another for the counties—who personally helped in July in the attempt to bring back a bread-tax , objects to the present " coalition" ministry . He , who trusted the Chancellorship of the University to Derby , can now " place no confidence" in Mr . Gladstone , either as a representative of Oxford , or a public man ! Hash in his trust , he is now rash in his suspicions ; and he thrusts aside the facts of Mr . Gladstone's whole life , and assumes that he has allowed himself to be willingly

      blinded by the foes of the Church , in order that he may join them in office . " Any amount of guarantee , " he writes to Mr . Gladstone , " which may have been taken by you in accepting office in the new Government for non-aggression upon the Church of England , or for the concession of her just claims , is , in my judgment , absolutely valueless when weighed against the fact of the coalition . " And the writing of this to his " loved and respected friend" formed Mr . Denison ' s occupation , before or after church service , at East Brent , on Christmas-day .

      But this is not all . " D . C . L ., " a well-known writer on Church matters in the Morning Chronicle , has approved of the Ministry ; whereupon Mr . Denison writes a letter to the Morning Chronicle , which will be found elsewhere , and in case the editor should not publish it , he sent a copy to the Morning Herald—so anxious was he that it should be printed . In that letter he declares that " Churchmen who support the ' coalition' Government will be hard put to it to

      defend their support upon any recognised moral principle . If they are content to look to the possible action of such a Government , putting aside all considerations of June it came to he a Government at all , this may be expediency of a low kind , but it is not morality : ' Now we put it to the ; reader , whether a Churchman who has supported the Government of Lord Derby is in a . position 1 <> accuse any one of immorality in joining or supporting any practicable JJrifish Government whatever .

      As avo have , under a , different phase of Jus shifting character , admired and praised Arehdeacoiri ) enison , and led our readers to believe that he was a , Churchman without politics- a , new ecclesiastical character in Kngland , at ; least , among active men—so we have thought it , right to show that we trusted too much in professions , and that the metal we thought true , at the lirst test , proves to be sadly alloyed .

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      " And then Genoa . " The story is evidently ma . de up ; but it slums that the very name of an English statesman has an ellcel , in I lady , / - // . . spite of the paist . And , indeed , that paint haiH been terrible for the good fume or good influence of our country in the land where temporal and spiritual despotism is now doing its worst again . st civil and religious liberty . Hof ' ore wo consider those struggles , one word inunt be given to the past . England has appeared in Italy only to bo tray

      the hopes she raised . In Sicily , thrice has England helped to incite the people to take their own cause into their own hands , thrice to betray them—in 1812 , 1821 . and 1848 . Twice under Lord Castlereagh did England support the Sicilians , until they relied upon her and her advice , and then she handed them over to the mercies of . the King of Naples . We have already told that tale ; and told how , in the first-named year , Sicily consented , on the advice of England , to give up her old Parliament for one which Ferdinand afterwards retracted

      without restoring the constitution of the Normans . In 1848 , Lord Palmerston persuaded the Sicilians to give up their republic and their united action with Itary , in order to adopt a King and English principles ; and then he left them to the mercies of Filangieri and Ferdinand . In Tuscany and Eome , Minto showed himself as an apparition of constitutional hope , shouting " L ' independenza d'ltalia ; " and then , after a conversation in which Lord Minto thought the Pope meant all that England could desire , and the Pope thought

      England meant all that the triple tiara could desire , the father-in-law of Lord John Russell , now our new foreign secretary , then Premier , disappeared . Lord Palmerston protested on behalf of Sardinia , and then protested ; and there it ended . English opinions have had great influence , especially in Tuscany , in developing free thought ; English authors are read , English examples are emulated ; but no advantage is taken of the English influence . On the contrary , our Government made a great fuss about that " aggression" which Lord Minto condemned

      by anticipation ; our Government passed a Bill to coerce and offend CardinalWiseman—specially withholding coercion and offence from Archbishop M'Hale ; and then , in conjunction with the French republic , England restored the Pope to his spiritual and temporal authority . But the last appearance of England in that duchy has been a deputation from Exeter Hall to intercede for a courier and his wife , who have turned evangelical—and to intercede in vain . Such is the manner in which England has wasted her Italian influence .

      So much for the past—preface to a period when the influence of England might have been most valuable . In Piedmont is now proceeding a struggle that ought , above all others , to interest the people of the most Protestant country in the world . The Government of Piedmont , under d'Azeglio , introduced into the Parliament a Bill exactly , in its- main purpose , like our own law , making marriage a civil contract , and leaving the religious ceremony to be performed at the dictate of conscience ; the ministers well knowing that in

      almost all cases , as with us , the contracting parties spontaneously invoke a religious benediction . Of course the priesthood resented this abstraction of their right ov # r the very initiation of the home and the family , and the Bill was made the subject oi' a contest between the Vatican and the Court at Turin . The Pope , whom we have replaced , under the vieeroyalty of the reaict ionairy cardinals , has adopted a course insolent , towards K . ingVietorEmanuel , oppressive towairds Italian Protestants in Piedmont . . He has made

      the Bill a case of war spiritual , he hais formally refused the request of the King of Sardinia for a staiteincnt of the reasons on which his refuHal is baiscd , and he has upheld the exiled Archbishop Franzoni in resisting the authority of tho Sardinian Government . Pius the Ninth lui . s done more than what would have been equivalent to

      upholding a , Wiseman against the Ministry and the Sovereign of EngJund , for Fram / . oni is more like our a . Becket . The Archbishop has shown in what contempt Ik ; holds the Government of Turin , by addressing to the clergy am insolent letter agaiinst the Act of Parliament , which declares that marriages contracted under that , act aire not vailid .

      And what , in their struggles lo maintain civil and religious liberty aigainst an alien church has been the condition of the Government of Piedmont r One of unaided endeaivour . England has been ais nothing to the Piedniontese Protestants , for such ( hey are ; and per force they begin to yield . Tim Senate—their "Houno of JnoumbleH "—haw destroyed the main principle of the Bill ; the Government haH for the time given way , by withdrawing the measure , although the Lower Chamber might have restored it ; and l ' votvpUinthut has received a novero cluck in Piedmont . Such is tho way in which English

      Lord Minto in ait NTKUCJCiLKS OF I'KOTKSTANTISM IN TIKDMONT . It did not need the argument which is s ; ii < l to have been used to frighten the Grand Dulce Leopold info renewing punishment of dentil in Tuscany for proving the strong moral influence of England — " K poi . ' Lord Minto e a Genova "—

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      12 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 1, 1853, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1967/page/12/