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    administration , which we have not , tlie Government would see that the whole number of the population should be proTided with edifices , and that they should be provided and endowed for coming numbers . But while we repel the claim of the Church to rule over us and command our temporal affairs , we do not provide in the temporal Government any department to take care of our ecclesiastical affairs . The

    Church of the State stands at once as a monopoly , and a thing repudiated . It insists upon attempting to levy rates from the people ; the people repudiate it , although it has a right of compulsory tax for the purpose of its maintenance ; and the whole question is in a state of suspended litigation . Now that a grand extension of the Church is to be made in the metropolis , we want to -know whether the

    exmight be possible to witness , out of the present chaos , the growth of a National Church , permitting local diversities , such as our common law permits , with a general unity , and that capacity for change and . progress that belongs to true organic vitality .

    tension will be based upon principles that will tend to perpetuate discord ; or will it be made the opportunity of introducing new principles ? If so , it might really be constituted a fresh ground upon which our national ecclesiastical administration may rest as upon a basis , wliile the older part of the Church is reformed . This -would indeed be to double the utility of the Metropolitan Church Endowment scheme .

    Let us explain oiir meaning somewhat further . If we take a very stern , view of the church-rate question , we might say , —either church-rates should be abolished , and not be levied for a Church which only represents a minority ; or , if they be retained as universal local imposts , payable by every parish , then the parish , as in the Free Kirk of Scotland , ought to choose its own pastor , and the wliole body of the churches tlras constituted should be represented in their Synod . In that case ,

    we should have , however heterogeneous it might he , a really National Church . It is quite possible that a material foundation of that kind would occasion many changes in the doctrinal unity of the Church ; and already we see unmistakeable signs that the doctrinal unity is daily growing feebler . Not to retention diversities of opinion on subjects of pr jevenient and subvenient grace , of the imposition of hands , of the essential character or merits of different kinds of church furniture , we may point to the

    last case of diversity in opinion—the Keverend B . Jottetx ' s speculative divergencies on the subject of the Atonement ! In his treatise on the Epistles of St . Paul , Mr . Jowett declares " satisfaction" to be " inconsistent with the divine attributes , " anger to be impossible in a real Godhead . " Such a thought refutes itself by the very indignation which it calls up in the human bosom , " " Human feelings revolt at attributing to 1 the God in whom we live , and move , and have our being , the momentary clemency of a tyrant . " God cannot bo "

    reconciled " to us through Jesus , says Mr . Jowext , because God is unchangeable ; it is we who are reconciled to Him , not lie to us , through the Sacrifice which was the greatest moral act ever done in this world . This argument is most impressive , and undoubtedly , while powerful in itself , it reconciles many difficulties felt by inquiring minds . But here a fundamental doctrine of Christianity , as it has , hitherto been understood , is stricken ; but , again we ask , what becomes of the thirty-nine articles .

    True , the vital spixit of Christianity has something superior to disputations on special points . It is not the human interpretation of any particular doctrine which is essential to the truth of religion , for truth is sufficient and absolute in itself , whether we understand it or not . Each sect may be sakl to be refuted by the existence of all the rest ; but all of them unite ijn . tho greatest truths of all . This is the true unity . Tine sum of the broadest opinions constitutes tlic national creed ; and it really

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    THE DUCAL DECREES . The Duke of Aegyle is Hareiet Martineau in reverse . While that unwearied lady applies her powerful- mind to expose the abuse of intervention , the Duke of Akgyle , regarding himself , apparently , as the father of his people in the island of Tirree , constitutes himself in detail

    the manager of the house and of the men , for each one of his tenants . His agent in that island has issued a notice announcing , that after the 16 th of November last , " no tenant paying under £ 30 of rent is to be allowed to \ ise whisky or any spirits , at weddings , balls , funerals , or any other gatherings ; and all offenders aorainst the terms of this notice will

    be dispossessed of their lands at the next term . " We are at present ¦ without any complete explanation of this notice , and are left , therefore , to the internal evidence . It is clear that the Duke is no friend to intoxication , and so far he must be considered to entertain meritorious opinions . It is something to catch a Duke who " objects to intoxication , even in otlier men . We will not ask whethor

    sons requiring to use such drinks after ten o ' clock in the evening are either thieves , drunkards , or prostitutes . And perhaps he would not be a bad person to be appointed as commissioner for the untitled Aiwvlk , who would introduce sobriety into either House , as the ducal AkgyleIs introducing it into Tirree . Another Duke has been proposing to regulate the agriculture of this country , "beginning with his own farms . For , as the Model of Dukes said , May not a man do what he likes with his own ? " The Duke of

    Nokthumiveuland will not allow a tenant to remain on his estates who will not sign an agreement forbidding him various agricultural proceedings under penalties . The farmer shall not grow his own turnip-seed ; he shall not break up grass-land without leave , on penalty of £ 50 for every acxe so broken up , in addition to the rent ; he shall pay " £ 5 an acre for every acre of fallow not manured with 20 tons of rotten

    durfg ; £ 5 an acre more for every acre not cultivated in the four-course rotation ; £ 10 an acre more for every acre of potatoes grown beyond a specified quantity ; i ! 5 an acre more for every acre of certain fields then in tillage which should not be laid to permanent grass after the first rotation ; j £ 5 an acre more for every acre of grass-land which should , be mowed without having been previously dressed with 12 tons of dung ; £ 5 per ton more for every ton of hay or straw sold . " And even these are not all the penalties to be incurred by an experimental and enterprising farmer on the Duke of Nouthujibeiilanp's estates .

    We know there are landlords who dictate bow many children a man shall have in a family ; others point out the proper church to attend ; some the proper costume to be worn : those persons arc all the self-styled ' * ' fathers " of their tenantry . And we do not see so much objection to the encroachments of the Restoration , for this is the paternity of feudalism . We very much doubt whether the farmer who lins ceased to be a resident dependent upon his landlord is in so much better a condition

    than the old occupant by base temire . The correlative of all authority like tins is the dependence of the inferior . The Duke oi XoirmuMBEULANi ) will not allow a man to cultivate his own land in his own way : good ; but then the Duke must be ex-] [ X'Cted to guarantee the tenant against adverse seasons , fluctuations of the markets , mistakes in farming or in trading . To guarrantee , in short , the whole results of agriculture . Will he do so ? Will he who directs the i farming of the farmer undertake to give his tenants a handsome income irrespectively oi

    agricultural success . -Hie Duke of Akgvle will not allow his subordinate tenantry to make merry at weddings , balls , or funerals , with the usual means of conviviality . Will he , then , give those superior moans of enj oyment , winch arc not Avhisky or other spiritsV Tor that is exactly the correlative . If the Dukes will undertake for their people , lot the people .-isle the Dukes to fulfil the contract . If the Dukes make themselves felt only by dictalion and prohibition , the people are very likely to ask , what is the good of Dukew ? Is there any Duke able to answer that cj [ uos-I ion ?

    he indulges in'it himself ; for , although Dukes have been known to cultivate alcohol , and have been seen , yea ! in the House of Peers , in an alcoholic oondition , the Duke of Aegyle is far too refined and conscientious a man ever to be under the influence of any spirits but the most exalted . It is rather remarkable , however , that he stands on the right side of

    the line . Evidently , the notice does not preclude the Duke himself from using whisky or other spirits at weddings , balls , or funerals , if he be so minded . It apj > ears , therefore , that he is not absolutely against whisky and other spirits , but that he limits the prohibition to persons on one side of a given line . He yields , perhaps , to the dogma , that " one must draw the line somewhere . "

    But why fix upon £ 30 of rent ? Is it that , in the island of Tirree , all persons paying that amount in full , hare the self-possession or the refinement to contemn the abuse of whisky and spirits ? If this is the case in the island of Tirree , then we must say that that island is more blest than the remainder of Scotland . We have seen men paying more than £ 30 of rent , who showed that they were as little to bo trusted with whiskjr , even at funerals , as

    men of the lowest conceivable rent . Kent * is not a test of morals , or of self-control , ' and we have gome difliculty of understanding how it comes to betaken for such by the accomplished Duke . ' The only conclusion at which we can arrive is , that the qualification is a tribute to property . The Duke , perhaps , thinks he can do what he likes with his own , when his own are tenants , and poor ; but men above £ 80 have a right to a will of their

    own . If it were . otherwise , and all sober people had a right to refuse a restraint upon the unsober , how would either House . of Parliament , fare ? Surely some non-ducal Akgyi . e , who has joined the Teetotal Society , though he is not paying £ 30 of rent , might morally impose his veto upon members in both Houses of

    Parliament . Notice might " be hereby given that — " After this date , no Member or Peer is to be allowed to us « whisky or any other spirits while the Spkasceu is at prayers , at dinnor time , ov before ten o ' clock , in order to protect the decorum of debate . " Wo all know how desirablesueh jituIois . Mr . Hall , the magistrate , is an authority ; lie saya that all per-

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    t 4 i THE LEA DE R ;> [ No . 302 , Saturday ,

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    IiiB iMi'KMAr . Guard . —A . decree haiB boon issued for the reorganisation of the Imperial Guard . It in intended to enlarge the buain of the Ounrd " by introducing , " to quota the hmpmge of tho Minister of Wivr , the excellent eloinoiitu which tliu army of tho lOnst o » u now provide it with . " It in believed that tho OunrdB nndfjomo of th « other troops which have RorvecHn tho Crimea wilFforni tho uuoUmih of an ( inny of picked men , which ci \ n bo directed against nny point whenever occutiion muy require . A campaign on tho llhinoiflt til Iced of ; nnul l ' nmsia , wltioh is much Iohs popular no-win Frnnoo that it wcwi a nhort time buck , may have to look to ilw frontiers .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 5, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2122/page/14/