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Leader (1850-1860), 28th May 1853, Edition 1 of 1, Page 513, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ncan state , it has been governed on the Chinese or Protectionist principle of independence of foreigners . Sir Charles Hotham , our plenipotentiary lately , entered into negotiations with the President , Don Carlos Lopez ; he was first bullied , and afterwards cheated out of a recognition of the independence of tho country , while he seems to have wanted tact in persuading the President . With more address , the French Minister , the Chevalier St . Georges , conciliated Don Carlos , by courteous bearing , and was received well . Finally , a general treaty was concluded , granting to foreigners free navigation and free trade with the country , and the privilege of intermarrying with the women of the country .

      Santa Anna has been inaugurated as President of Mexico . We need scarcely add , that , with his old instincts of absolutism , he has adopted the usual policysuspended the liberty of the press .

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      A NEW LOW CHURCH NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EDUCATION . The objectors to the present management of the National Society are preparing to organize a society which will carry out their own views . At a meeting at Willis ' s Rooms , on Wednesday , the Rev . Mr . Girdlestone exposed the position of the old , and the necessity of the new institution . He pointed out , that the National Society is at present the only educational institution in connexion with the Church of England . It is nominally managed by the bishops , but really by an active and energetic party in the Church , who seek to exclude the laity from the management of the schools , and to subjugate the lay element to priestly power . This policy was fully developed in the Society ' s active opposition to the management clauses ; " the leading men of the body , Archdeacon Denison especially , organizing an agitation against the Government and lay influence in the schools secured by these clauses .

      Against this tendency and this policy 609 laymen and 1592 clergymen had protested ; and in 1851 , an attempt was made through new members to change the conduct of the Society . But its constitution hindered such a reform as would make it represent the whole body of the church . Mediaeval practices prevailed in the Colleges of the National Society , such as an entire intonation of the Church service , and a musical exhibition in which the clergyman took a part almost like the director of a concert . Protests

      against this course of conduct were disregarded ; but it was in vain to make the National Society truly represent the Protestant Church ; they should originate a new Society , neither Low-Church nor High-Church , that would supplement , not supplant it . Such another society was wanted , for the annual income of the National Society was but a paltry 10 , 000 £ . ; and with this fund it did little more than institute training and elementary schools . After this exposition by Mr . Girdlestone , and speeches from other clergymen , the formation of the new Society was rosolved on .

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      THE HOLYOAKE TESTIMONIAL . On Thursday evening , the large room in the Freemasons' Tavern was filled with an audience , who had mot to pay their respects to Mr . George Jacob Holyoake by their presence , and witness tho presentation of a handsome purse of 250 sovereigns , a testimonial contributed by those who are frionds to Mr . Holyoitke , and to his mode of advocating tho right of all men to utter their opinions in fearless confidence . Two hundred of the assembly sat down to dinner ; and at tho cross tho chairman was surrounded by reformers of different classes . Wo recognised tho " Organization of Labour , " " Religion of Shakespeare , " tho " Purgatory of Suicides , " tho " Organization of Ideas . "

      Dinner over , tho tables wero partially removed , and tho company organized thoir groups to admit a larger number tlmt now joined the party . Tho Apollonic Society , which boasted good voices and protty faces , galloped in Weber ' s inspiriting " Huntsman ' s Chorus , " nnd continued their harmonious contributions throughout tho evening . Letters wero road from Itobert Owon , Mr . Chilton , Harriet Martineau , and George Dawson , who conveyed thoir sympathies , but could not attend .

      Tho Chairman ( Mr . Thornton Hunt ) introduced tho business of the evening with a speech , declaring tho nature of tho meeting . Ho oxpluinod that it woh not one of persons exclusively agrooing with Mr . llolyonko in opinions . His own presence- in tho chair , and that of many frionds around him , proved tho contrary ; but it was one to recognise thut gentleman ' s services in promoting tho free and foarloss uttoruueo of opinion . Mr . Holyoako had done a double service in that ro-Hpoot ¦ ho hud proved that free discussion had become safe- ' he had shown that ovon religious controvert could bo conducted with cour . tesy and mutual

      forbearance . He had , in fact , contributed to rescue religion itself from the . discreditable protection of the tyrant and the policeman . " Reformers of all nations—may their efforts tend to universal brotherhood ! " was the " sentiment" introduced by Thomas Cooper , and supported by Mr . Le Blond . Mr . Cooper maintaining the wisdom of the re-former , and the battle of moral warfare to be fought before we could secure the universal brotherhood ; while Mr . Le Blond fraternally replied , that the end to be gained was so important to strive for , that the employment of sharper weapons than words would be necessary to obtain it . Mr . Robert Cooper , Mr . Charles P . Nicholls , and other speakers , took their stand before the meeting , the earnest advocates of the right and the duty to speak out and well .

      The testimonial , or rather testimonials , were presented by Mr . James Watson . The first was an address from the subscribers , then the purse , containing 250 sovereigns , subscribed by numbers even to the remote parts of Scotland and Ireland ; then a beautiful engraving of " Exiles on their way to Siberia , " and a photographic portrait of himself : these two private contributions . Mr . Watson spoke with all the eloquence of feeling ; contrasting the present times with those when even the selling of books on free thinking formed a penal offence , punishable with the pillory .

      " Mr . Holyoake had been subjected to such greetings throughout the evening as accounted for the unusually earnest and subdued tone in which he began his acknowledgment . He had prepared it in writing , that be might say exactly what he intended ; and it will be published in extenso . In it he modestly contrasted his present position to that he occupied eleven years since in the dock of Gloucester gaoL His speech was a review of recent movements , a serious dissertation of stern

      high moral purpose , on the working wisely and generously for the good now , leaving the future to the proper care of wise workers in a further developed then . The composition in fact was a definition of " secularism , " which is not an antagonistic denial of a God , but an exhortation to leave polemical disputations , and attend to practicable works for the welfare of mankind . The speech evidently told home to every heart in that immense meeting .

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      MR . MACCALL'S LECTURES . { From a Correspondent ?) Mobe than two centuries ago a gallant and fine-eared English gentleman , fresh from the German wars , declared from his place in Parliament that ho heard " the passing-bell ring for religion : " Tilly ' s cannon abroad and Laud ' s " reformation" at home carried that funeral-sound to his quick ear . Whether religion actually was buried in tho > e tumultuous years , or not , is

      for history to say ; but philosophers maintain that it is a thing spiritual which cannot die ; that though its body may be buried , itself will remain above ground , seeking new embodiment , striving after visibility and expression ; and that during those stages of bodyless , ghostly existence , it will often appear under ungainly shapes and forms ; that it will speak by more inarticulate " raps , " and do other strange abnormal things to convey to dull mankind the fact that it is not dead , that it is here , and there , and has something to "

      communicate . " Some such unnamable manifestation of this religious spirit , in its ghostly , as yet uncrnbodicd state , wo witnessed last Sunday at No . 36 , Castle-street ( which street is also tho haunt of Christian Socialism ) , in attending one of Mr . Miicciill ' s " Sunday morning lectures . " Mr . Maccall , not quite unknown to readers of a certain class of modern serious books or tracts , nnd evidently one in whom that same spirit of religion is

      very active , striving for utterance , while the old phraseology has become dead and . unprofitable to him , has chosen this platform to speak forth tho truth that is in him , that those who euro may hear it . Such attempt , both on tho part of speaker nnd hearer , in serious soberness , to find a name and conscious recognition for things that , at present , work latently within , and confusedly without them , is worthy of all respect , nnd not undeserving of some record ; therefore theso

      lines . We cannot my , however , that tho lecturer has nn yet found his right uttoranco ; ho docs still but somowlmt painfully nnd inarticulately " rap ; " nay , ho confesses himself with becoming modesty that , his teaching is still in the inorganic state , and that till it has bocomo organic and presentable in form , ho had no right to expect aceoptaiK-o of men ; for " humanity being form , it can but appreciate form . " But his utterances , such as they are , fltriko us m those of u thoughtful , sincere , studious mind , who inuHthnvo had much silontwrostlings before ho oaino to speak even as he does ; nnd whom to hoar may l > e profitable and helpful to many of that numerous and daily increasing class of men , who belong

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      to no fold and hear the voice of no shepherd , but wander scattered in oppressive silence and solitude , through" Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte , " where the voice of any fellow-traveller , however indistinct , must be cheering . With some interest also we recognised in the communications of this " medium" the voices of great spirits , widely separated from each other by time and space and mode of being , mingling , if not in harmony , yet in agreement : Spinoza , Calvin , Goethe , Carlyle , had been co-operating ; and although the lecturer was somewhat merciless to the worshippers of the " dead " Hebrew Bible , the living spirit of it does seemingly yet abide with him , and constrains him , along with much

      severe and startling criticism , to acknowledge " the Bible and Christ the foremost triumphs of humanity . " Indeed his doctrine , as far as we understand it , with modern definitions and interpretations , amounts practically to an enlightened Calvinism : acceptance of our destiny which is decided at our birth "—" nature and necessity being one . " Christian self-denial and selfdevotion , too , he preaches , " it being more manlike to serve at the banquet of Nature than to sit down at it . " He even accepts miracles though but " poetically ; " , on the whole , his heresies and emphatic condemnations , though he is not always clear on this subject , have reference only to the dead symbol that has lost its meaning , not to the thing signified ; while his prayer is ever for " the Advent of the living God . "

      Mr . Maccall is not a " popular" lecturer ; his style is more that of the thinker , and of the abstruse student , than of the speaker and teacher ; yet he abounds also in picturesque images , in terse sayings , and pregnant aphorisms : " God is life ; life reveals itself in form ; man is the completest form ; " — "We undergo many conversions ; " — " There is a fatality from within , and never from without . " Those and more

      such sentences we heard . Bald criticism too was uttered against things of respectability , and writers of well-established fame . Burke , Guizot , Alison , had to stand the reproach of a sort of Atheism , ascribing all things to " causes , " and " influences , " and " institutions , " and leaving no room for the operation of living manhood . Owen ' s " doctrine of circumstances" severely denounced , and history declared " interesting only for the manifestation of universal life . "

      If , with regard to some of these criticisms on men and things , and institutions , we might be allowed a word of advice , we should tell Mr . Maccall to keep rather to the affirmative than to the negative . Let him , as boldly and fearlessly as he pleases , announce his new thought , his new interpretation of the meaning of life , of duty , of " God and the world ; " and let him leave it to the dead to bury their dead . Criticisms and negations are easily understood , and their sarcasm wins smiles from an audience ; but they carry no seed of fruitfulness ; they may of bitterness and offence . It was one of the wise maxims of Goetho : " If I have said that bad is bad , I huve done nothing yet ; but if unfortunately I happen to say of something good that it is bad , I have done a fatal thing . "

      Mr . Maccall ' s audience , though not numerous , is , as far as we were able to judge , extremely select , and consists mainly of tho ' cultivated" classes ; which is also a curious sign of the times .

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      OXFORD AS IT LS : PAINTED BY A FRIEND . ( From tho Morning Chro ? ticlo . ) Loud I ) j ! KBY is carrying down his whole tail , both political and literary , to receive honorary degrees at Oxford" Inconsa Danai dominantur in urbo . " Wo perceive that this step iw regarded uh injurious , and that there in ovon a desire to oppose tho degrees—a coursewhich would involve a very odious and acrimonious proceeding . For our own part , wo cannot think that this would bo right . Courtesy has given tho now Chancellor the power , to bo used according to his tasto and discretion , of nominating to a certain number of honorary degrees ; nnd it is not only necessary , but even desirable , that Lord Derby should havo tho free exercise of this power . Tlio Univoraity , in blind panic , lias laid hornelf at the feot of tho Tory chief , and ho uhos her unscrupuloutiJy— us ho did Protestantism and tho dockyardo — for tho

      purposes of his own political olovation . Those who expected him to tako a more generous course must havo boon blind to the occurrences ' of the late general election , and the manojuvroH which preceded and followed it . Lord Derby ' s chivalry is of that naturo which permits him to uho the dockyard patronage aguintit . any Conservative who will not be absolutely HubHerviont to himself and Mr . Disraeli—to hint at tho repeal of the Muynooth Endowment for electioneering purposes , when ho has uo intention of touching it—and to indemnify himself b y magnanimity in tho Lords , while ho humbly pausea under tho yoko to IVoo-trade in tho Commons , lie can uho hot words as well as anybody , if Mint in chivalry ; but he is not tho man to hesitate about taking an advantage . No ; Lo and Mr . Disraeli , and their whole not ( except tho detected . Stafford and Mio detected "W . !» . " ) , will go down to Oxford , and show tho world that it is thoirs—a part of their political stock in trade—like Buckinirhataflhiro and

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      May 28 , 1853 . ] THE LEA PER , 5 *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 28, 1853, page 513, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1988/page/9/