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YOUNG TORY ENGLAND AND OLD CONSERVATIVE ROME . jfo one has contributed more to popular enlightenment on the subject of party cries than the Ria-ht Honourable Benjamin Disraeli . The admiring readers of Coningsby and of Sybil would scarcely expect to" find in the disciples of the literary statesman more slavish adherents to the principles of Tadpole and Taper than were those gentlemen themselves . But so it is . On the FresS there has as yet been ground but one set of tunes , and those—anti-Ministerial , with a
party howl for the invariable accompaniment An anti-Papal article , headed " The Encroachments of Komanism , " in the last number of that journal , is a" novelty—Young Tory England ' s Confession , of Faith , accompanied by the assertion that the members of the present Cabinet are in league . with the Pope . Plotting with the Czar on the one hand , and with the Pope on the other , it is plain that our Ministers , confreres as they are of the Chiefs of spiritual and political despotism , are unworthy of the confidence of a free
people ! These cries are original and hearty ; and if they answer the purposes of the party , no exception can be taken to them . But Young England ' s Confession of Faith is a curiosity per sCy worthy of deeper consideration : though written for the sake of the refrain , it were a pity not to consider it apart , just as one can contemplate the doctrine in the Athanasian Creed , without dwelling on the everlasting brimstone therein threatened with a gusto so consoling , and an assurance so conclusive . How far ,
then , does this confession agree with 4 he programme of the party who have given it , who pride themselves on an emphatic embodiment of the intelligence which is to characterise the governing class of the next generation ? Towards an answer to this query , we digest into articles the beliefs of our dainty young advocates of enlightened Conservatism . I . " We hold that there is an absolute and eternal Truth , of which jthe Scriptures are the revealed evidence . " II . " We believe that the Protestant and not the Romanist has rightly construed the message of salvation . "
III . We may no longer make our views a test of citizenship ; " but , IV . " We may soon be called upon to apply the resources of the Constitution in our defence against Romanist encroachments . '' V . The weakness of Protestantism is due to its alliance with the infidelity of the first French Kevolution . VI . There was a time when Papists on our soil were regarded as invaders : that time has past ; but we do believe that the salvation of Protestantism depends upon acts of Parliament . When wo mention that articles V . and VI .
might have been put between inverted commas , being reductions of more lengthened sentences , it will be believed that we have before us Young Tory England ' s creed , in its length and breadth . We need scarcely point out the contradictions which it contains ; for instance , what in the first article appears as the absolute and eternal , passes , » n the second , into the relative and transitory ; what in the third is liberality , in the fourth is intolerance . The Scriptures , we are informed , have heen wrongly interpreted by Romanists , and
iJghtly by Protestants : in other words , revelation dates from Luther and not from Christ . ih > 8 plainly is a matter of opinion ; and as the evidence of the existence of the Truth referred to , "us in the Scriptures , which arc the very grounds ° t tho controversy , there U no tribunal other than juniau intellect to which tho dispute can bo re-H'rred . Unfortunately both claimants concur in Keeping out of court . Tims much at least is cer-««« , that the ltoinanist , altogether excluding reason from tho right of judgment upon doctrine , procvveai
j an unity and fixity in his beliefs to which i l r « testant can make no pretence . If the 'toetruic of infallibility is absurd to some minds , w others it is satisfactory ; and no man rests atwfied short of certainty in some sense or mo ther . It iB a tr ; » yhig , tlmt ProteHtanism " | s only resisted Rome with effect when HWiimi' tea to it in Hptrifc , if not in form ; but now it np-{|) ' f rfl . " Komo triumphs over resistance ? , and nil n " tllu Wftr of creeds victory inclines , nx in i ) li ° " . ° nfl « ct 8 to the side on which are diHci-[> ne » llmty , and strength . It in confessed that lo M 5 Htiuitj wu iH too weufc , even in Knglnnd , its
stronghold , to prevent the encroachments of Rome , and Young Tory England recommends us to fall back upon the resources of the Constitution ! not upon faggots arid fires , but upon Acts of Parliament , which imply coercion . Young Tory England appears not to have profited by the supreme lesson of history , that creeds , opinions , and the spirits of systems make way through ramparts , walls , and guarded coasts , by a law of their own , like that w . hich carries pestilence in the air ; that no system of quarantine is long efficacious against the influx of ideas . It will appear plain , that if Protestantism lacks the inherent strength necessary for resistance , it cannot long be protected by enactments . In our belief there is but one
security against the Papal and all other superstitions , and that is in the severe but never servile humility of positive science , from which results a belief respecting the universe which cannot be shaken , joined to doctrines which , if any , may justly claim the merit of what fallible beings call infallibility . The conflict must wholly lie between these two ; Romanism on the one side , and Positivism on the other . Nothing rests long in a position of unstable equilibrium , and to one or other of these two extremes all protesters tend . Between the two the difference is not one which can . be bridged ovei ; : there is not an infallibility of fact which can join on or be reconciled to an
infallibility of dogma , but the former eternally contradicts and gives the lie to the latter . Of the two we ^ must take one : —Rome , hoary with crimes against humanity , with all her conspiracies of darkness , her spurious mysteries , and her enslaving dogmas—Home , holding- chains and a scourge , in one hand and n sealed book in the other ; or Positivism , clear-eyed and trustful , presuming nothing , fearing nothing , reverencing all , with the World as a text-book , truth and human happiness as a goal , and the Infinite as an aspiration and a recompense . As science advances superstition recedes ; when things are known they are no longer the subjects of conjecture . To inquire beyond what can be known is the first of human
follies , or the excess of human arrogance ; to discern the limits of knowledge is the perfection of human wisdom . To return to our esteemed contemporary . It is inexact to allege the recoil from the alliance with French infidelity as a sufficient explanation of the weakness of Protestantism . It is generally believed , on the contrary , that this reaction has been extremely favourable , and that there is at this moment more vitality in the difFerent sections of Protestantism than has existed since the
enthusiasm and earnestness that animated the struggles of the first Reformers , shrunk into compromise and respectability . We venture to say , that during the last ten years , in which Rome has accomplished so many marked successes , the weakness and division that lent strength and audacity to the adversary have arisen mainly from the same causes , which have sent numbers , more or less consciously , to swell the ranks of the Positivists . The thinking Protestant in vain struggles to hold the anomalous position in which he finds himself —protesting in part , and retaining in part , till , wearied of battling with contradictions , he becomes glad of any escape . We say it is noticeable , that exactly within the same period both Romanism and Positivism have achieved their
triumphs . That this coincidence is not accidental is sufficiently demonstrated by the multitude of cases in which the choices of the extreme appeared to depend on the temperament of the struggler . Brothers have gone in company up to the conclusion that to one extreme or tho other they must betake themselves ; and when they parted , the one leaned upon Rome , the other trusted in ( Jod , in hit ) own God-given intelligence . Nor have instances of this kind been few , and merely such iw ' camc before the public ; no observant man can have escaped evidences of this struggle which hasbeen , and in , going on in the minds of the thoughtful , and of the uncompromising youth especially , throughout the country .
As to the qualified toleration professed by tho Coryphaei of Young Tory Knglund , we have little to say to it . We had ,. we know not . by what illusion , hoped to see it free of the npirit of the old dry port school of theology with which UsChurchand-King predecessors have familiarised us ; but we are sorry to say that in religion , u . s in politics , our Young Tory Kngland' advocates- betrays the mouldy bones of u defunct political tradition strapped over their . shoulders . They luivo not » w yet advanced to n position , where they may , in the
intervals of discouragement , catch a few rays from afar of the more enduring faith which even now is dawning on the world .
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THE GOVERNING CLASSES No . XIV . THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE , K . G . When Napoleon asked Cambaceres whether a certain man could be trusted , Cambaceres answered , " Why , —really—his linen is remarkably white , — and—I believe he is gourmet . " The first impression about that illustrious s tatesman , the Marquis of . Lansdowne , is , that he is very clean , and is a great patron of the Arts and Belles Lettres . Particularly he is very clean : and only that Robespierre , who never soiled his boots , was partial to the guillotine , one would judge of the Marquis of Lansdowne ' s character by the consistent purity of the Marquis of Lansdowne ' s dress . He would attract your attention , any pleasant Monday , Tuesday , Thursday , or Friday evening , during the " season , " when he is picking his way up Parliament-street at about seven , on his way from legislation to dinner , is the cleanest old gentleman you had ever beheld . The speeklessness of the costume is that of a Sevres ornament : and the cold , calm face increases the effect of the clean glitter—dazzling , in a dirty town , street , and among soiled Londoners , as a meteoriced . It is a great thing 1 to fix , without offending-, attention ; and though the Marquis of Lansdowne is
not noble in aspect , is only plain and gentlemanly yet most people turn , pleased , to look at him as" he passes in a crowd . And they are not surprised when they find that is the great Marquis of Lansdowne : he fulfils , in air , dress , and manner , the public notion of the man . Chief in precedence , and last in fact , ef the Whigs—that is precisely the sort of man such a man should be . The Whigs were always famous for neat dressing : and the Marquis wears what was once the common dress of the party . You see he is clothed in a cover of the'Edinburgh—buff and blue . There is a tradition that Lord John was once seen
in such a dress ; and that the Marquis does not change , is an indication that he is the purer Whig . As to the Marquis ' s other characteristic , the characteristic of Macsenas , it is just as conspicuous . His Whiggery is attested by his coat : and his love and patronage of the " ingenuas ' ftrt . es" is demonstrated hy the letters ( in Burke ) after his name—D . C . L ., F . R . S .: — further evidence being , on the same authority , that he is President of the Literary Fund Society , a Trustee of the National Gallery , &c . Then there is the story that he was " praisidium et dulee
decus mcum" to Moore , to whose fourth baby he stood godfather ( giving the nurse a 10 / . note , half of which Mrs . Moore kept , with the poet's assent ) , and to whom he gave a cottage—magnanimous , man ! for he only owns two or three counties . Moore records several literary conversations with tho Marquis , all of which shows that his Lordship ' s literary profundity was very much like Marshal Munit ' s , who , hearing Virgil named , exclaimed ; " Ah quo j ' aime Virgil ! ce grand poete ! quel beaux vers ! Tityre tu patulse , " &c . ; though , indeed , the Marquis had principles of
taste , analogous with his principles of politics , —possessing a Whiggish desire to ridicule the ancients , because they were ancients—and perhaps because ho couldn't read them . The Marquis of Lansdowne loved arts and letter * because- ho was a Whig . That was tho sort of thing the Whigd . set up for , in hia time : and he followed tho fashion , just m Lord John , with us little capacity , did much about the same time . Why the Whig" should bu literary and the Tories only political , cannot bo ensity explained . Gifiord used to nay he wished thero was a Holland
House on the other side : which would have been a pity , beaume' the Tories got such great trust simply by establishing u reputation as boat men of business : but the reason was not that there were not cleverer . Lords than Holland among the Tories , but only because they none of them had got into the habit of cultivating social fascinations of tho Holland House sort . Wbipr love of letters was only a habit : in later times IVol ' ft was the Holland House : —I ' eel being , certainly , a nobler patron of literature , and enjoying a tlner appreciation of science , than Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , or Lord . John RiihhcU . Tho Whig habit of Macienusing whs acquired in Vox's time , Fox ' h futhor
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j ^ cEMBEit 17 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1213
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 1213, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2017/page/13/
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