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    Untitled Article

    world by the following extract from the pen of the Reverend Sidney Godolphin Osborne , and printed by the Times : — " I have before me the report for 1852 of ' the Poor Pious Clergymen Clothing Society ; ' in it there is a copy of a letter of thanks for relief to the manager of that institution , under every letter of the alphabet ; and these are headed ' Extracts from Correspondence / I fiiid in these letters from clergymen , —i . e ., from men who might be bishops—gratitude expressed for coats , which fitted themselves as though they ' had been made to measure ; ' secondhand frocks , equally

    fortunate in At , ' for their daughters ; ' ' brown linen , which makes up into wagoner's bibs for our boys ; ' ' Old bed curtains , which , re-made , made nice winter curtains for my room / ' When we are sitting round our hearth , ' writes letter ' G , ' we talk over our dress , and one points to one thing and another to another , all and each supplied by your parcel . ' Letter ' L' says , ' Accept our warmest thanks for all you have sent , but especially for the linen , which Mrs . L much required ; the boqts and coats are matters of delight to my boys . ' ' O' says , ' The black cloth comes very seasonably ; the coat , trousers , and waistcoat , ready-made , fit very nicely / ' Q' says , 'My dear daughters are delighted ;

    they know that they could not be clothed , year after year , as they are , without your kind help . ' ' U * says , ' The cloth would be amply sufficient to include a vest , did I not usually wear a frock-coat , which will require the whole quantity now sent ; but this is of no moment , as I scarcely need a new vest / ' Y' says , ' The articles are so good and so suitable , that we stand astonished ; you will be pleased to hear that in most instances the wearing apparel is really a good fit , requiring but little alteration ere it can be worn / 'Z' writes , ' Humiliating as it is to the natural feelings to be the object of such bounty , I cannot but yet feel that the association which you represent is entitled to my deep gratitude and thanks / "

    Probably among these humble men we might find some of the lights of the Church as she should be . What a hard step-mother tbey have found her as she is . She ordained them to be children of Gf-od ; she compels them to be the suppliants of men for food and raiment to keep them respectable . A member of this national Church dare not preach where he can , and so get him together a congregation who trust and love him . No , he is admitted to the grace of starvation , while the property amassed in the course of ages is shared mostly on the principle of patronage and favouritism .

    Tben there is the enormous folly of simony ; the enormous folly of non-residence ; the enormous folly of doing work by badly paid deputies , who are ground down to the earth—the clerical Uncle Toms of clerical Legrees—victims of the worst kind of slavery , the slavery of mock freedom , the slavery whoso alternative is starvation , It is said curates connive at low salaries , glad to catch at straws . Here is a case which has been brought under our notice ; we commend it to the attention , if we may be allowed , of the Bishop of Bath and Wells .

    Not a hundred miles from the fine old episcopal palace of Wells there is an aristocratic rectory . The rector , good easy man , is Japped in the luxury of many good things . Cited at every visitation , by the indulgence of the superior clerical authority , he never answers to his name . This gentleman receives one-half of the tithes , the rent of the Rectory House , and of above a hundred acres of glebe land . For this pay ho has never given any consideration , never done any duty , and we believe he has never been in the parish since ho was inducted and read himself in abou t thirty years ago *! Now this parish , of which tins worthy id lloctor , comprises five hamlets and twelve

    hundred souls . Who looks after their spiritual welfare P The Hector is one of those shocking anomalies , a clerical lay impropriator ; ho takes iho lion ' s share ; and other lay impropria , tors take tho remainder of the tithes and glebe lands . The Vioar , who does the work , gets something over a hundred a year . Bui ; then the liectory House in lot to him ; and when ho has paid rent and taxes , hia honorarium is less than a hundrod a year ! Tho natural consequence ensues . Tho vicar , a gentleman and a scholar , as well as a clergyman , is obliged to take pupils , and , of course , tho time he devotes to them ia iilchod from tho parish euro . Js this not an abomination P Now wo have reason to believe , this is by no means an unusual , or even an extreme case . Tho Church has splendid bishops , opulent d eans , magnificent canons—in tho city eonso $

    the same standard judges her curates to be poor , and not respectable enough for promotion . If the Church had her parliament , properly constituted , could these things be P If her parliament could not devise a remedy , then—but we must leave futurity to settle that question . It is possible that all this gross mismanagement may bring about changes wonderful to survivors . At all events , whether the property held by the magnificoes of the Church be rightfully the property of that Church , or the property of the Nation , one thing is clear—a just and earnest people will not long allow it to be abused and misapplied , after the fashion current for these many , many years .

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    LAW AND LUNACY . Term has commenced , and the law reports of the week , telling principally of civil injuries , lose their interest for general readers . We must wait now for the May meetings and the next assizes before we again hear how wicked the world is ; meanwhile we must endeavour to forget with what an equality of failure these two noxious influences have hitherto attempted to improve it . " There are then but two cases of late date which seem to deserve mention at our hands : the first is in Monday ' s papers , and is that of a young mother , aged 20 , wilfully murdering her child , as stupidly as brutally , with oil of vitriol , for the mere sordid motive of obtaining the paltry gain to be got out of a burial club , of which the infant had been entered as a member . In the trial there is nothing peculiar to remark ; nor is there , we fear , in the wretched woman who was tried , any such great peculia ^ ty as there should be . So low is the moral cultivation of the classes by whose

    patronage burial clubs thrive , that among them the murder of members by their relatives for the fees is of almost constant occurrence—that even maternal instinct becomes distorted or destroyed . So low is their mental cultivation , that discovery always follows on their crime , and the secretary of the club hangs them , as they poisoned their acquaintances , neither from personal malice nor from public feeling , but simply with a calm and business-like view to the possession of the

    undertaking expenses . In this case , the mother administers oil of vitriol to her child , and doubtless is surprised at the traces left by the dose—an argument for or against education , seeing that the crime would not have been committee ! , had the criminal been properly trained ; and on the other hand , that it would not have been discovered had she not been perfectly ignorant . The only question left by the dilemma is , whether to prevent be not better than to punish .

    The other case we find reported in the Durham Advertiser ; it occurred at Quarter Sessions , and , as tending to show that at other lunatic asylums besides the Bethlehem , the practice of gross cruelty towards insane persons still exists , should not be lost sight of by those who do not think that diseases of the mind are to be cured by sufferings inflicted on the body . The Commissioners , we notice with pleasure , are on the alert ,

    and it was in consequence 01 a communication from them that tho matter became the subject of inquirv . As tho accusation runs , the proprietor of tho ' Dunston Asylum has horsewhipped one of his pationts , and ( on the ground that he used them to hi to him with ) has caused the extraction of some of his teeth . Tho horsewhipping does not appear to bo denied , tho tooth-drawiug responsibility seems possibly to lie with the dentist , and not with ^ he accused . Hero , therefore , the

    matter lies ; a report is sent to the Commissioners ; the license of Mr . Wilkinson , against whom this misconduct is charged , is suspended ; and the public waits for tho result . Wo trust that it will be satisfactory , and that if the vindication of tho accused be not suflicient , his punishment will be certain . A question of Bar morality , often canvassed , but never yet properly pronounced upon , has been raised again in the Leicester Election Committee . The petition ,

    weak enough in itself , was deserted one day altogether by the two leading couiihoI who had boon paid to support it ; the . unfortunate junior , whose principal occupation should havo been to look official , and mend tho pens of his seniors , was loft to cope , unassisted , with Serjeant Wilkins , the most formidable antagonist ho could have hud ; and a not over-brilliant Committee found itself without that excuse for not understanding the arguments , which , hod thoro boon

    any opposition , they might have got rid of by saying they had been met . Accordingly , there were symptoms of disgust , murmurs that barristers should not receive payment for duties which they did not perform , and at length a record made on the minutes , " That the absence of both the leading counsel for the petitioners was unjust to their constituents and disrespectful to the Committee . " However , ubiquity is lucrative , and the habit of taking briefs which they must inevitably neglect , a barristerial

    characteristic of long standing . So the leading counsel next day remonstrated , the intelligent Committee relented , the obnoxious minute was expunged , and neglect of clients by gentlemen who never neglect the honorarium , has received Parliamentary sanction . Juniors may deplore , and the public may denounce this state of things in the legal profession ; at present we wish only to expose it . But the matter is hardly amenable to public opinion . Clients and solicitors have protection in their own hands , and it is their own fault if barristers are encouraged in obtaining money under false pretences .

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    "A STKANGEB / ' IN PARLIAMENT . The House of Commons recipe for a Coalition Government would appear to be , " when taken to be well shaken ; " and the Coalition Government , like " women , spaniels , and walnut trees , " seems to be the better for the beating—at any rate takes it as a matter of course . It set the fashion of " unprincip led combinations , " accepts the penalty ; Mr . Disraeli having to the full his revenge on Thursday for the coalescing vote which drove him prematurely from office ; and Mr . Butt and Mr . Cobden , on Tuesday , on the Kilmainham and

    Clitheroe matters , affording to the nation ample evident ^ that there may , after all , be some inconvenience from a too philosophical dispensation with " Government by party / ' But , properly considered , the teasing incidents of the week contribute perhaps new evidence of the immense strength of the Cabinet , which lias illustrated the fable of the bundle of sticks , and the sagacity of Lord Shelburne ' s notion that if the great families would only share and share alike , the destinies of humanity would be easily manageable . A weak Government would have been forced into resignation

    after such a set of divisions ; a strong Government does not feel the blows , hardly thinks it decent to notice the intentions , of dwarfs in league against the giant . Besides , is not Lord John leader , and . is he not famous as the Toots of politics whose view of any catastrophe is that it ' s of no conseque nce ? Struck on one cheek he is notorious for a development of iace ; or , at all events , the extent of his indignation when kicked has been the procrastinating , " You 'd better not do that again . " Tho present is also a Government which takes too high ground to be sensitive to petty assaults . Lost in

    comprehensive considerations about civil and religious liberty , why should it mind a snub about Kilmainham , a correction about Clitheroe , or a sotting down about a paltry 200 , 000 / . worth of advertisement duty ? Pistol Gladstone , pressed for a reckoning' with wan tens of situations , is exclamatory about golden joys and the reduction of the national debt . Skhnpole Sidney Herbert , pushed at tho doors of Kilmainham for payment of a debt for lodgings , goes of ! " into statesmanlike generalities about the lieauties of benevolence , and the bouquet of British virtue . Cheapen literature ! said Lord John to Mr . Gibson , " How ean you waste time

    in such talk about details , when I have put before you a bill for national education ? " " Stop corruption" is the cry of committee niter committee , and Lord John does agree , generally , to a commission , to pass tho time ; but what moro can you expect when he's so engaged in tho crowning victory of religious liberty which ho got last night P Leader of a Government beaten four times in a week , you might suppose fiorao slight modesty in his tone in tho presence of tho triumphant Jew gentleman , who rewards by defeatsthe Cabinet which removes Hebrew disabilities . But Lord John , always looking after gre > it principles , is quite indifferent about small facts . No religious Keclesiastieid

    liberty is his creed when be pusses an Titles Bill , and political liberty is bis < -recd when be agrees with Lord I ' almerston ( when tl . e two agree tiieir unanimity is wonderful ) that the system of police visits to jH ) litiwil refugees is suitable to the Unglish climate . All those inconsistencies are dinceii » cd accurately onough by tho parties who lmvu an interest in disabling tho public of a credulity in conservative liberality ; « n < l though there are advantages about a Coalitioii which includes both the preacher and tho frightful example , tho influence , of the last iw in thin cas * o likely to bo the longtwt felt . Thoso interpellationsabout KosHuth hint nigliL were extremely inconvenient , to a Government which wanted f /> look bold advanced

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    April 16 , 1853 . J THE LEADER , 375

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 16, 1853, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1982/page/15/