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Should newspapers ignore Religion ? This somewhat startling question is forced from us by a courteously reproachful correspondent , who complains that we have " recently taken to the discussion of religion , and such , discussions appear unfitted to a newspaper . " Our correspondent is in error in supposing that we have " recently '' taken up this office . Our first number began it , and we have continued it on all suitable occasions . We resolved upon taking the part we have taken , in the most serious
conviction of the duty of doing so . Its perils we foresaw ; indeed , we greatly exaggerated them , as the event has proved , for there is in England so true a feeling in favour of Liberty , that sincerity everywhere forces respect . We have not equivocated , we have not abated the expression of our convictions , and as in uttering our own we have studiously respected the convictions of others , claiming for them the same right we claimed for ourselves , we have met with the approbation and support of men of all creeds . What we have done we shall continue to do .
The question , however , Should a newspaper ignore Religion , and write as if there were no such thing ? is forced upon us by those who object . For it is quite clear that if we were orthodox , like the Standard , or the Guardian , or the Nonconformist , or if we tacitly assented like so many others we could name , there would be no objection , such as that raised by our correspondent . If Religion may be discussed by these papers , why may it not be discussed by others ? We hold opinions very emphatically opposed to those expressed in other journals , —are we to withhold them because they are not orthodox ? It is asking too much to ask it ! Religion cannot be ignored by any serious man . It pervades our life . We meet
it everywhere , in Politics , in Morals , in Art , in Literature ; and everywhere according to its sincerity and truth , it is either an impulse or an obstacle ; and we are told that a newspaper is not the place to discuss it in . ' Where then ? What is the Press but an arena for the debate , of principles ? What are Men of Letters but a Priesthood ? If people are afraid to hear any opinions adverse to their own , they will , of course , only take papers which express their opinions ; and if the Church , with all its learning , with all its multiplied machinery , with all its prestige ( and with Truth into the bargain !) , cannot afford to let its adherents witness the occasional skirmishing of the Leader , it must rest on very insecure foundations .
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In the Lancet of the 15 th inst ., Dr . Forbes Winslow prints his lecture on Medico-Legal Evidence in Cases of Insanity , a lecture all lawyers and medical men will do well to read attentively , for there can be no doubt that the subject is in a pitiable state of confusion . On the one hand , the evidence of insanity wants thorough systematization . On the other , lawyers want a general comprehension of the nature of such evidence , and the value of medical testimony . Considering how often insanity is pleaded , both in criminal and civil cases , the importance of something like clear views on its evidence cannot easily be exaggerated . There is a vulgar
prejudice respecting " mad doctors" which an advocate may always turn to account . Yet , although a " doctor" is not necessarily a competent person , he is presumptively more competent than another , whose special studies have lain elsewhere . In cases of poisoning * a chemist is listened to ; no one exclaims " Oh , he is a chemist , " as if that were agftinst him ; but , let any one who has attempted , by study and practice , to qualify himself us a judge of mental diseases , be brought into the witness-box , to speak on the sanity of a criminal , and the sarcastic accusation " mud doctor " seems sufficient to discredit him !
It is true our psychology is in a hopeless condition . We cannot settle what insanity specifically is . We know a raving tnudmali , and we know a sane citizen . Hut , when we descend to the niceties of the subject , we find it iis impossible to accurately " draw the line , " as we find it is to demarcate the animal from the vegetable , in the lower forms , however obvious the distinction between a cabbage and a cat . Delusion is no test . Sense of right and wrong is no test . Absence of motive is no test . Absence of power of self-control is no test—for , in anger , ( which Horace tells Us is " brief mildness , " ) sdf-eontrol is lost ; , when the anger has passed a certain liinit . There is no test hitherto proposed which some cases will not elude . Is this wonderful ? We Imve not yet a science of mind in its healthy conditionhow then , can we expect a science of insanity ?
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A new volume , the sixth , of Sainth Hkuvk ' h charming Causertes du huntli will be very welcome to our readers , and we hasten to announce its publication . Aiimand Cariuu ,-Soimiik Gay—VavuLovih Cov hi mi !_ HKAIJMAIt < : ilAIH DlJCIH HlSKNAKDIN 1 ) K SAINT l » l KKHlfl—Roi . M N — Marshal Ma bmont— -Hoikkau —Etiknnk— and l'Abbe ( Jk . riuct , are among " the topics of these causrries . We never liked Saintk Kkijvk so well as now . Helms found bis vein . The ripe experience oi age lias mellowed boll . Htyle and thoughts . He was always , to use the phrase of Tacitur a mind of charming amenity well adapted to the spirit of us age —inncnimn amtrimm , H teMpuHs tjns ocnHls nfemrtmodatum- and he has altered with the alterations of his time , No longer in fealty to the Rouwiitic School , lie is now too ** it » c , pur wnlknv s ft Mo -cvoro pcrllajm
upon his ancient idols , a severity , however , which is nearer the mark than his former sweetness . On the whole we can name no such collection of Literary Portraits as these Causeries du Lundi . Another , and a very different work , Lei Tables de Proscription de Lottis Bonaparte et de ses complices , by the republican exile Pascal Duprat , will have more interest some years hence than it has now , for it will be a . curious memoire pour servir to those who may be inquiring into the histor y of the coup d'&at . It gives the names and professions of the various exiles , with chapters of historical declamation intercalated . Frenchmen may be curious abdut it ; few Englishmen will care to read two volumes of such details .
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Whatever may be the political vicissitudes of Continental Europe , the " nation of shopkeepers" knows how to make its game . We print Victor Hugo ' s burning invective against the coup d ' etat and its author ; and before his ink is dry , we are negotiating with the responsible editor of the Journal de I'Empire for a quasi-official reply to Victor Hugo , an " eloquent" exculpation of the coup d ' etat , and a " glowing " eulogiuni of the hero of the Second of December . Meanwhile , we have already arranged with Victor Hugo for the publication of his indignant rejoinder . His adjectives are ready boiling , only awaiting a few facts and dates . Thus trade works justice . Let us not be supposed to blame this impartial
activity of our publishers . We only note the tranquil march of English industry . Birmingham sells muskets to the Kafirs , and supplies friend and foe indifferently with the instruments of deadly warfare ; in our shipyards , foreign , if not hostile , navies are replenished ; why should we hesitate , then , to turn an honest penny by the discords of French patriotism ? M . de la Guerronniere ' s apology for Napoleon III . will scarcely make readers forget Napoleon le Petit . It is one of the feeblest and trashiest compilations ; a mere stringy rechauffe of stale articles of Le Pays , of Louis Napoleon ' s own speeches and proclamations , with a reprint of the author ' s pen and ink sketch of Louis Napoleon—( of which it was wittily
said , II ne lui manque que le nez , " it only wants the nose to be perfect" )—and the official reports of the coup d'&at . As a reply or a defence , this book is ludicrously inadmissible . It merely re-affirms , on the faith of people whom nobody believes , what has been refuted a thousand times byevidence the most incontestable . It has , however , one rare merit—that of compendiously setting side by side the Constitution and the Coup d ' etat ; the oath and the perjury ; the warlike declaration before the Peers , in 1840 , by the prisoner of Boulogne , and the p acific discourse of the Emperor , at
Bordeaux , in 1852 . There are many pungent " formulas , " too , in M . de la Guerronniere ' s Apology . For instance , in one place he emphatically pronounces France to be a democracy ; while in another he affirms that the outrage upon the representatives of the people on the second of December avenged the humiliation of Louis XVI . in the Hall of the Jeu de Paume Why has not Louis Napoleon employed Granicr de Cassagnac to write liis Apology ? That reckless condottiere would have done the work far better than a rose-pink enthusiast , destitute even of the courage of mendacity , whose slipshod verbiage and emasculate phrases do not even succeed in provoking our indignation .
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itUTJ-L JRutii . A novel . By tho author of " Mary 11 art an" 3 volt ) . Chapman and Hall , The author of " Mary Barton" ha * wisely clone what very few authors see tho wisdom of doing—opened a new mine , instead of working the old one . Her previous success in the regions of Manchester life and manufacturing " evils , " would have seduced a lens sagacious mind into H repetition of the old work under new names . ? She has quitted the inky atmosphere of Manchester and its many miseries . Her story is not of tho struggle between employers and employed ; it is the old and everrenewing struggle between Truth and Truth-seeming , virtue and convention , good deeds and bad names ,- the trials and sorrows of a beautiful soul , trying to adjust its life to the necessary imperfections which surround it in \> ur semi-civilized condition . Ruth in not a " social" novel , but a moral problem worked out in fiction . A book so full of pathos , of love , lyid kindliness ; of charity in its highest and broadest meanings ; of deep religious feeling , and of fine observation , you will not , often meet with . It cannot be rend with nnwet eyes , nor with hearts uninlluenced . The lessons are suggested , not preached ; they arc not formally " inculcated , " but are earried straight to the soul by 1 , 1 le simple vehicle of the story . A eon temporary critic has , indeed , ' raised a protest against the story and its teachings , ' lecturing tbe author , in bis accustomed style- of priggish pretension , on Die " want of art" displayed in one of" tbe leading incidents ; ho that in // . ** ease we are forced to confess the story lias not earned its meaning home . We doubt , however , whether dircclcr minds will leel any finch misgiving . At all events the point is worthy a brie ! discussion . Thin is the case : —
Ruth , while yet a , child—lit least , in innocence , ami scarcely more in years-is seduced by a young man , and by him subsequently abandoned , in her grief she would have conn . litted fliiieido , Imt lor the nicrlereneo of a DisMenting minister , with whom she has previously formed a slight acquaintance . This minister , Mr . Meson has all Ins active sympathy excited for her . He mils bin sister to aid bun m the task of saving theyoung creature , not only from suicide , but from tho world . I hey agreeto take her home with them . Tin * sister , womanlike , perceives the " eon-HemienreH" of such an act , and her perception ih intensified when bIio learns that Ruth is about to be a mother . Jodo an net o ( charity , and
to shield both Ruth and themselves from the harsh and miHlalten " judgements of conventional morality , she suggests that on going home , . Ruth should bo paasod oIT hh u widow . Imih ih done , though not without very
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not , jnake Iaw 3—tney interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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January 82 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 89
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1970/page/17/
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