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makes us feel our equality in the eight of God , none but the cynical or the thoughtless man could resist the force of this remark . On reflection , we call it a common-place ; and bo it is ; but it is one of those common places that will bear repetition to the crack of doom , because they are the stuff of which life is made . It is a great religious truth— -common alike to all sects and races , to IiOrd John Russell , to Cardinal "Wiseman , to the lied man and the Black man , to the Turk and the Hindoo . And the truth of that axiom is
sometimes in another they appear ; one race puts this construction on the great open book of revelation , another that ; one sect rears up a magnificent pile of doctrine upon a basis of common truth , another contents itself with rules and axioms ; but , like this beautiful attribute of charity , what is true lies at the basis of all ; and when it is taken away , or when it becomes encrusted with corruption , then comes the death and disappearance of that form of religion . But love , aud charity , and truthfulness , and faith , and the rock of trust , Duty , survive for ever .
driven home , when it is followed by the touching spectacle of a procession of orphan girls , as it was on Wednesday night . Still the spectacle had its painful side ; for these intelligent-looking , neatly-clad creatures marched softly round tables which had been covered with all the luxuries that delight the sense of man , and it was impossible not to remember how much happier Joseph Brown and his flock of orphans would have been had we all handed in our subscriptions plus
instead of minus the cost oZ that prodigal dinner . Joseph Brown wanted not costly meats and drinks , but the means of clothing , sheltering , and instructing more orphans . Yet there were many ministers of the Church , and a great officer of State , eating and drinking and making merry , and sitting to hear their names read up as collectors of subscriptions , and as subscribers to the Orphan's
. Home , and . anxious to make speeches before a lord . That is the unlovely side of the picture—a painful commentary on human weakness . Here is one way in . which the Church of England collects funds for the support of the poor and forlorn . It has other modes , pulpits for example ; but this mode is not beautiful as the mode of a Church so wealthy as ours . Better , however , that the work be so done than not done at all .
There is another m , ode not practised by the Church of England , and more beautiful by far . L-efc us describe an instance . At the east end of Hammersmith , there is a dwelling called Elmhouse , inhabited by Sisters of Mercy—and good and merciful they are . Fourteen ladies , some of them born to
luxury , live and labour in that house . They have gone forth into the lanes and byeways , into places where few ladies penetrate , and they have caught up and carried to Elmhouse no fewer than sixty-two aged and poor old women . They have washed them ; they have tended them ; they have fed , and clothed , and sheltered them . It is a beautiful sight to see—a sight tender hearts weep with joy over . Tlie Sisters of Mercy themselves wait Upon their aged guests ; make their beds ; scrub their rooms ; wash their clothos ; cook their food ; do all , and more than all , that servants would do . Two of them drive a cart round to the neighbouring Catholic families to gather up brokon _ victuals ; for these Sisters of Mercy are Sisters of Poverty too , and have no luxuries , no turbot and champague , no public dinners , little beside daily
bread and water . JTor is this all . The house is riot in good repah ' , and the rain drips through tho root '; but the Sisters ot Mercy give up the win-proof rooms to their guests , and sleep themselves wlioro the rain may patter through at pleasure . . How different from tlio charity dinner niodo ol helping the poor . Yet these are tho institutions which tho Spooncrs ami New dogates call upoa us to dostroy .
Not , however , for tho purpose of blaming either Church—or either sect , properly speaking—do wo draw this contrast ; but" for tho purpose of remembering- what it is good to romombor , that tho groat religious truth , charity , or tho practical lovo of one to another , belong alike to all sects . All true religious principles two universal ; nil untrue prmciploe particular . Sometimes in oao form
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LORD DERBY'S TITLE DEEDS . Lord Debby has stood forward as the defender of an aristocratic institution in Canada . Abolish the Legislative Council nominated by the Crown , he says , and you remove all check upon mob le gislation ; you degrade the Members of the Council by obliging them to seek their election at the hands of the same constituency which elects the House of Commons ; arid the connexion with , the monarchy might as well be given
up . Lord Derby , therefore , regards it as " degrading" for the member of the House of Lords to be appointed directly by the public instead of by the Queen ! The Duke of Newcastle defended his own bill for making the change in Canada , and sustained it by three arguments . In the first place , he said , mere nominees , of the Crown are not regarded with so much respect in the colony as to render the post one of ambition'for really eligible candidates ; in
the second place , the colonists wish the change which be is going to establish by legislation ; and in the third , place , the concession to the popular wish in Canada , which has continued without interruption from the titne since Lord Durham suggested the adoption of local and responsible government in lieu of imperial and absolutist government , has converted the colony from a state of chronic rebellion into one of loyalty and affection . These are remarkable admissions , asserting as they do that the satisfaction of
the popular wish , the concession of self-government , and the fullest extension of liberty , create loyalty to Government , and restore affection for the monarchy . In other words , " democracy , " —for the " Dulte of Newcastle uses the Avord , —democracy , which cannot be resisted , may be reconciled -with monarchical government . We will not cavil about words : the meaning is quite clear ; and it is perfectly consistent with our own experience in Euglaud . The largest extension of representative government , and of enfranchisement for all freemen in a country where there are none
but freemen , is not only consistent -with a loyal iidelity to tho monarchy , but actually reproduces that disposition when it has "been injured by bad government . Wo might say to tho Duko of Newcastle , that the experiment which succeeds in Canada , and which is corroborated by the past history of our own country , might be carried out at home ; and what- is more , wo are strongly persuaded tlint tho Duko of Newcastle is not tho man to deny that home-thrust proposition , It the English people retained us much active will to secure their own rights as tho Canadian people h ' avo exercised , they would find n Newcastle to concede a statute- as the
Cnnndians have found one . But our affair , lot' tho moiuout , id that of a different speaker . Lord Derby has some peculiar notions respecting dignity , llo admits that thoro is a dillorcnco between tho Legislative Council and the Houso of ~ Srords . « ' But , " ho says , " is thoro nuy Poor bo degraded , so little conscious of his duties us a legislator , who would consent to exercise those duties , it" it wore possible , nfcer thia House for two successive years hud rejected
or amended , to the displeasure of the House of Commons , any measure , you should be compelled to vacate your seats and to go for re-election to the very body that returned the House of Commons , whose bills you had humbly ventured to take the liberty of amending . " The whole tone of this passage indicates the spirit of the man . He evidently considers the Commons as an inferior body to the Lords ; he would hold himself degraded by being in the position of a commoner .
Judging from his defence of the Legislative Council , he would rather be a nominee of the Crown , even in a community that despised nominees , than the freely chosen representative of a people . He says this , although he has accepted the suffrages of Englishmen , and has sat as a member amongst commoners . The public , therefore , now notes with what feelings he has stood before them to ask their votes , with what feelings he sat behind his brother commoners in the House of Commons .
He despises his countrymen , not being Peers . He would now consider himself " degraded " by asking their votes and sitting amongst them ! There might be grounds for this pride . We can conceive a very reasonable source of pride at a day when a Stanley could bring forward to the defence of his sovereign a body of his own retainers , supported at his own expense , to defend his country and its Crown . Lu those days a Peer was a person of dignity ; lie
possessed real power , and real power is always respected . Although not so literally the " owner" of his lands , he was " lord" over them- —a minor sovereign , often able to defend his title against the Sovereign of the country . But since those days the power of the Peer has declined . He lias , indeed , by a species of encroachment , become landowner instead of landlord ; he can sell his lands , and often does ; he pledges them , and cannot
retrieve them from the pawnshop ; he retains an hereditary seat in one House of Parliament ; but he does not always inherit the faculties which render that seat available , and he is frequently no better than the member for a pocket borough ; with this difference , that the Peer sits there in his own right . There is something in . that , but not much , for he no longer performs suit and service . He has shuffled off the maintenance of Church to
the ratepayers , he lias shuffled off the providing of an army to the taxpayers ; he is . no longer bound to go to the wars in person , and frequently prefers to stop at home : in short , he doea nothing for his privileges , except give obstructive votes to prevent the legislation of tho people . Canada may be an example to the English at large , but it ought to be a warning to tho Peerage . There has been in some degree tho same regard in . the colony for superior rank and for connexion with the Crown . But
people have asked , of what use are the Legislative Councils ? How do they suit our present circumstancoa , £ _ J \ Yliat do they do for their scats ? Tlioy only hinder us ; they are not auso , but an obstruction . Can a different tale bo told of the House of Lords ? It is truo that they may occasionally furnish statesmen ; but oven they have got their pay for that service ; and it docs not , like the old expedition to tho wars , entail either porsoua . dangor , or bodily hardship , or tho risk of
loss . No man who serves his Bovcroign now runs tho chanco of losing his lauds and head by tho victory of that sovereign ' s rival . Above nil , no " mnn now signalises his high position by making any tfuiiuino sacriilcu to tho state . J . t is active service , generous sacrifice , public utility , tluit constitute tho truo title-doeild of an aristocracy . There i . s a period in tho rise and fall of moat states when leading men como forward and tuko a high position ; when by tho exercise of groat powers they secure privileges , because
Untitled Article
Juby 8 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 637
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 637, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2046/page/13/
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