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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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t 5 fti ^^^ w ;^ bt ^ bt ^ bddfefeiid ; the freedom of men in ilioiig ^ , word , and action , against the DTOieaaiYe dictation of man . In this case , b £ «^^ tno practical question ia , which power ^ ct a ^ j , ^ mich ^ ower most obstructs freedom oSnojl ^ i ^ "tfcr& t and action . It is the owoilpx ^ Patriaich , who is the special g rbfeifd . o ^ JbttBW * . ¦ - -Which power most exercises its attthorft ^ - fof the protection of freedom affaulBt gmntualV ODtwession P It is the
! S ^| ii ^ y « Enn \ ent , aa compared mth that bfi ^ Zstasufo' - > IEt « ia : evident therefore that all jtfo ^ fc&rw 1 ; hatr can actuate Protestant disw ^^^^^ ll" ptpinotin ^ Christian freedom ^^^^ l j |^ j ^| u ^ ui ; horiijjr should engage them ifygmjfjiQ $ b £ tiie "^ &g |^ i ^ oyernment- an . p * e ^ ventang 1 even O&b coeredon- of r . the Turljash ( jfer oia ^ l ^ B * iW ; of Eussia . *¦¦* . « i ^^^ felM relim 6 tti 3 consiMetatians that -m gpft&efrKi * : ; , but . its olpcts ^ ire repeat , ateKptirel y political . As Lord Palmerston s ^ jfc ^ lfr 7 # fr ; iWete to iateifere mthin the ? WW £ ^ WK& m ; sast ^ ing 06 e _ claB 8 « £ e ^^ a ^^
^ . iSttDjjftcta ( agaanst . another , we sboiild be doing exactly that which , we conddin&a ^ fii ^ the Czar . Our business * as a fSg ^^ fe ^ bb ; tor njHold fe * % hts of 8 ^^^^^ & ^ i ^|^ 4 e > $ Bometimes' instances of ^^ her humanity that . can justify an . intervffiition , but > ia the present inatanca we can really ^ ^ all that is required by humanity by ; iaetual justice , 3 > y Protestant synapathy , if ¦ f | i « l j ftjfi ^ h ? or&lcrjH dictate ^ of inter-TwfcimiinT ^ -tTisrfctitoa " "O . tvrl ^ aiicrf imtv filiA fS-rwcvmMria « +.
o ^^^^ W'i | s ' ' £ ad ^ 6 tidence > and itB rightB . Itt aBBaifing that independence and those wjffi' ^ ftfr < - fc ) verame ^ ca ^ rjy iitg out tfiat same attempt at dictation , a ^ ^ n eral encroachment , and af ? supreme < a ^ omi 6 n , -wiich has : msde- heir the < mrse of ittqjbi ; iaalfl . Ibhe dhjecfr of the ^ ar with 3 § Mira& ^ - $ fre Solely poHtiieal object , is ; thus d " eacritmd , by Ijord Clarendon in a passage wlj&ha'ppearff to us to explain the duty of mjmffi i nr woT < ls ^ lueict as they are BiffiHy * - : . ; ' ¦ - '¦ : ' ¦ ¦
"ifWi ' fke abW id engage' In a contest in support oftte prin < Hpl <»* f jiMtice and of Bound policy-, wo ^ axi ^ yaiMilti ^ pteveiitriiief perriieibui * example being gfttai ' 6 o £ - * fe w 4 akf State beipg overwhelmed * by a pojrerigj nei ^ bbour ; we we about to prevent the iiEUiistaaterpretation of a treaty fceujig supported by viblerce ; ' we "* are about to prevent the territorial limit * eetAWishod by treaty , and the equilibrium of Butbpfr . from , ibedng ; violently disturbed ; and I hop ^ j a ^^ y . poble frtend stated , . that we shall also put a xaat inmience wnica
swa ^ vmn oiasting nas aeprivea ncrore tfian bne ^ cotmtry of Eiirope , —indeed , I may BHf , fib Iftrge ^ ptirtftm of Europe , of its freedom of actionW 4 n influence which , is always exerted to cteipk | b 4 | t ^ r » gre » s which is essential to the welfare of natabns—and an influence ) moreover , which b y stigmatising as revolutionary , and by checking au those improvements which Governments have been willing ft > give and the people being lit to receive wiere entitled to expect , has encouraged disloyalty and discontent , and has so operated that Russian influence has really served the cause of revolution . "
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to withhold " compulsory labour" * from Tan Diemen ' s ! Land might have bred an insurrection in that island ; liit more recently , the obstinacy of the Home Government , in retaining a hated relic of convict ; emigration to Tan Piemen ' s jja nd , had very nearly induced the same disastrous tumult . But what was the real cause , —the one thing
to bring about the difference between this healthy conscience that repelled the very suggestion of vice ,, and that unhealthy conscience that admitted the vice ,, and even hugged it ? The cause was the manful declaration thai the vice existed—the persevering and courageous refusal to tak © the part of an accomplice in hushing up the notorious fact .
But , it is said , yon may bring about the same result without the details . This is simple nonsense . Ho general propositions will ever convince the- common run of men . Philosophers and scientific yeiaons , may Ibe satisfied by algebraic formulas , which are sufficient for the logical treatment of a subject . As Euler , in discovering the law of arcs , declared " this is true ,, although it is contrary to all experience , " the ph ^ osopher can admit an abstract truth upon the simplest ¦ working of the problem .. Bat ; the
pliuosopher cannot get the House of Commons to pass & resolution . Euclid never . eoulcl by abstract grounds have got Honourable Mouse over the Pons Asinorum , and as little would general statement that Kew South Wales was as bad as bad can be > lave drawn forth that public < jpinioji in this country which brought Government to its , senses . It was tlie statement of comparatively few facts as specimens of their entire class , — hi 4 eous facts ,, which , wifchout sufiieient
cause , must not be repea |; ect r—ImprobabJ ^ facts , which without proofs must not T ) e believed— -&cts that made the perspiration stand as we have seen it on . the foreheads of English men listening to " the details / ' and infilled into the Tieart of fhcse Englishmen the resb ^ lution tbat these things must not go on . Now New South "Wales , by common consent ^ had hushed up its enormities ,, and continued enormous : Sir William Moleaworth a » 4 the
cited to aofc upon their knowledge impr-operlyj or , at all events , will be weakened in their resistance to the suggestions of vice . This fallacious idea of strength accruing from ignorance is transparent . " We will not dwell upon the many cases which occur , of women nrtio " fall / ' youths , too , entirely through ignorance of that into which they are about to plujfge ; we will not rel ^ upon tie fact that systematic pursuers of vice reckon that ignorance amongst their own resources ; and ¦ we lay no Btress at all upon the long-refuted
innocence of Arcadian youth . But no man tvoII pretend that , comparing different parts of the same level of society with each other , the country population is more vicious than the town population . Upon the whole , the great balance of vice lies in the towns , not only because there is more concentrated industry in the , production of that commodity as weH as of others , but because tte verymorbid tendencies of a town atmosphere weaken the frame and incline it to depart more , and more from th © type of nature . jPor which reason is it that the town-bred human
being is leas , strong to resist depraving influences than the . rustic , although' when the rustic does take , depravity into his head , he has a povrer of carrying it to lengths for which the town man is too feeble . On the other ; hand , a moment ' s reflection will show , that on certain subjects the rustic must have innumerable crowding suggestive illustrations of -whicu tbe town-bred human being may grow . up in absolute ignorance .
But it is not only on the score of with * - hplding an acquaintance with practical life wliicii majyjserye for the " infbrmatnon and guidance' ^ of the . young , that we object to ^ ihe suppression of these reports . The bad result of " hushing up" the scandals of society goes far deeper . It has to do with the tery government of society , the construction of its habits , the toleration of things intolerable , and the health of its conscience . "We may be bad or good ; but always—short of depravities whwh must ever remain monstrous and
exceptional—where our acts are avowed , there is . a guarantee wli ^ ch human instinct supplies , that we shall not depart very far irQ , m the common type of our nature . If we forego the check which publicity affords to our own Conscience , we abrogate the strongest law by wliich virtue can enforce its dictates . One hqmhle and signal example of that result in a practical reform was presented by the state of New South Wales before the
abolition of convictism . Vices had grown up in that community in such general prevalence and such excess as to bring upon society a character too much approaching that of the cities destroyed and now lying at the bottom of the Dead Sea . GomorraTi and its companion in destruction became the common types of New South Wales in the mouths of those to whom the condition of
" UOTIT FOR PUBLICATION . " NW fcatf tbd -case of the Belgian girl has yefc com ^ ft efor © tlie public , and there is one part of * ^ ottlkat is hot likely to be paraded in the generttlj view . In some respects tliat part ia the . TOardt . There are many persons—some perhaps * connected with the particular casewho ¦ object to the publication of such incidents , although they take an active part in the drama which they ilinch from placing befothe
re publio . It is necessary to announce the existence of this party , and its active though unpublished protests , in order that wo may appreciate the objection of another more numerous class , which protests against the publication of such stories for the reason tliat they will corrupt the morals of society . Now we have long held that this last reason rests upon totally erroneous grounds . It rests Upon the presumption tfaafc'if people know oi certain subjects they ' Trill necessarily be
inthe country was notorious . Yet , by a general consent , these hideous facts were hushed up ; and when , with equal courage and probity , Sir William Molesworth , to whom the case had been presented by Mr . Edward Q-ibbon Wakeneld and other colonial reformers , obtained his committee of inquiry , presented his repoit to Parliament , and declared the facts , a burst of indignant denial was the response from New South Wales . There waa some trouble to obtain an official recognition
of a fact generally notorious . At Lust , 1 k ) Wever , healthier councils prevailed—the Home Government suppressed convictism ; the colony became reconciled to its own improved health ; and a little later , when Lord Grey proposed to restoro convictism , tlic colony was as loud as any of the colonial reformers had been in denouncing tbat proposal to reestablish vice on the ground from which it had beem exiled . ' At on © time the proposal
few with him raised then * voices ,, stated " the , details , " said things in public unfit for publication , " and the whole enormity broke down . But even that illustration by no means exhausts the question . There is a farther
truth . At home we are doing . worse than the people of JSfew South Wales . TCkef were hushing up an enormity , —winking at unspeakabid crimes for the sake of lucre , — tolerating the presence of criminals for the sake of the compulsory labour ; but they did not share the crimes themselves . Their own
dependents indeed suffered , most especially their servants and their children j but yersonally they might say , We are not a part of this wrong . In England it is different ; &ome of those wlio object to the publication , do not object to the wrongdoing , except in other people . The community" theretbre , is consenting to hush up enormities which it ia itself sharing ; and so far , although the offences do not altogether equal those of New South Wales , the share of complicity on the part of many protesters is infinitely
greater . But what must , be the condition of a community in which some of the governing classes , —for so we believe it to be , —are sharing in the wrong over which they -throw a veil , pretending that it doas not exist ? There ia not onl y the depravity , nor only the hypocrisy of hiding it , but tlrexe is a certain impudence which ijnplies a Jaardenicg of the heart , indurating the senae © von to the reception of better feeling . Let us take a few facts not altogether beyond our own knowledge i for let us observe , that the sig ht ol
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< tm . THE LEADER * [ Sattjrda ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 18, 1854, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2030/page/14/
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