On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    the Empress of Uttssia meets liiin as an equalj but not as a sister . The Principalities were also discussed . Trance , possibly , had to tell Russia that their design of a union , of the Principalities must be given up—after the manner of the surrender of Bo lgrad . l ? or T urkey , England , and Austria ^—old and wily in the game of politics—are too cunning and too powerful combined

    to be checkmated by the new empires . 3 Trance and llussia wished a foreign prince on the throne of the united province , but there is as much , chance of such a potentate as of an Ameer in Hackney , or a Nawab in Hammersmith . A union , administrative , commercial , and financial , there will be , but no complete political union . We simply record this as a piece of news for readers curious in polities .

    Untitled Article

    A SERMON FOR THE FAST-DAY . Is Wednesday to be a mockery or a reality p Do the words in which the Queen has proclaimed a day of ' solemn , fast , humiliation and prayer , ' mean that the people of this country are expected really to obey that command ? If there could be such earnestness of religion , or even of conscientiousness that

    the whole body of the people could mortify its spirit and concentrate its mind upon the sins committed , which 3 iave brought about the calamities in India , we should have arrived at a pitch of greatness not witnessed amongst us in these latter days , and we might acquire the strength of soul to turn over a new leaf , and open brighter days for England as well as India . But who believes it ? "Who

    • will fast on Wednesday next ? Who will rise with the dawn , chew the cud of sweet and bitter fancy all day , and nothing else , and go to bed without a meal ? Who will humble himself ? It is quite true that the calamities which have befallen us in India could not Lave happened save for some violation on our part of ' the laws of nature and of the God of nature , ' as an able preacher said on a former fast-day ; and , if we were to look back into our own conduct to find the causes of our misfortunes in such violation , we might mend our ways and restore our empire .

    It would bo a stern dutjr . The first business of the Church would be to turn round and look upon itself in its enfeebled and degraded condition . A command such as that uttered by the Sovereign , 'the Defender of the Faith , ' ought to be addressed to a national church ; but where is the national church ? On Wednesday next we shall see the people of this country like a vast flock divided into many pens , well knowing that if they were folded together they would quarrel amongst themselves like wolves . Each church will bo addressing its Divine head with some kind of

    implied reflection upon all the rest . The Koman Catholic , through Cardinal Wiseman and the prayers which he dictates , 'forgives ' its Protestant fellow Christian in a manner that recals a long tall y of grievances . The Protestant turns round upon the Cardinal , and accuses him of sympathy with the enemy . And tho Dissenter turns round upon tho Protestant . Should that window be opened Which Bkujvnge ' r , has imngincd to afford a View of humanit y hero down below , the nation on Wednesday next would -exhibit the sceno _ of Christian divided against Christian , each invidiously praying ngaiust the other

    . 11 national unity were restored to the Church—if wo assembled under one vault « a ChriBtiana and us Englishmen—tho clergy could not bo better engaged than in chastising na for those faii'lta which wo have committed , and in pointing out how we may ptirge owTftelvca of our win by monding our ^ 'aya . But liow ia the clergy to lift 1 ; lic Scourge itgajimfe wrongdoers if those

    wrongdoers stand in high places 1 ? With the one ' established' half dependent upon the favours of the very classes whose conduct has to be challenged , and the other nonconforming half invidiously marked out as inferior , the clergy of this land possess neither influence nor spirit to be the instigators of the English people . They preserve the form of censorship only to waive the substance of it ; and Sunday after Sunday ministers of all persuasions

    may be seen , in order that they may retain pew sitters and pew rents , conveying an inverted flattery to their flocks , under the thin disguise of spiritual remonstrance without practical end or purpose . We have no clergy that can do the duty of Wednesday next " ; and the first words of remonstrance from any earnest pulpit should be against these theoretical and metaphysical divisions which render tlie teachers of the people impotent before their very fioaks .

    If , indeed , we did possess a Peter the Hermit exalted to the level of the crusade of our day—a John Kyox sufficiently taught to recognize the sinner before him- —there would be grand duty for the preacher ; for there is both humbling arid fasting in the events which we have to ¦ contemplate on that solemn day . Humiliation , — 'for our flag has been disgraced ; our public men-have been proved incapable , blind , and trivial ; our own blood has been reduced to the lowest indignities ; and all through mistakes that might

    have been easily obviated . However' men may on that day put on their Sunday clothing , and employ the day of ' solemn fast' as a day for feasting and holiday-making , they are humbled in the events that have happened , and their degradation is the greater in proportion as they feel it less . For if the individual is ridiculous who is ' incapable of his own distress , ' how low has that nation gone which cannot understand its own degradation or the farther indignity that awaits it !

    A day of fast it will be for many , by a tolerably direct process . The observance has been fixed for a working day ; industry will be arrested , wages will bo stopped , and numbers of the working- classes will be compelled to fast for the sins of their betters . And there ia more 'fasting behind . The "bloody wars which are now costing us so many lives will in the years approaching cost us millions upon millions of money , which the working classes will have to pay , and will have to starve for . Fasting and humiliation does Wednesday next involve , but not for those who have decreed the observance , or for all who will go to church .

    Could the preacher on that day bo strengthened to carry home shame to wrongdoers , there might be sonic use in tho sacrifice . We sustain these terrible sufferings iu India because we have administered that Empire unjustly , fallaciously , against reason , and in violation of our own sense of responsibility . Tho events arc illustrating in how many ways wo liave played with firebrands where avo should have been sagacious rulers . We Christians have constructed an army mainly of barbarian caste ; we have framed that army ns if avo designed an instrument for the

    intrigues ot our Mussulman competitors . Amongst tho latest reforms wore new hnvs intended to patch up a magistracy without the materials for magistrates , and while we neglectod to post competent European judges to administer European laws , avo subjected free Europeans to tho judgment of corrupt and barbarous natives , exempting the civil Rovvftnta from tho same jurisdiction . In short , avo English , wlio b . xi ^ i . that ' ovcry nmu is equal before the-law , ! and that our freedom resides in our administration of justice , are establishing throughout-tth at ¦

    immense empire a wholesale mockery of justice . The entire administration was a system of favouritism . We kept up a salt monopoly to extort a huge tax by depriving every poor man of his salt . The great Company which governs the land grew opium to poison the Chinese for a profit . If a local Governor , here and there , attem pted to administer his government according to the laws of common sense and English justice

    , he was reproved for setting up the spirit of English justice above the rules of red tape and official foolscap . And if he > then tried to introduce European discipline in the army , he was reprimanded for so mistaking the spirit of Indian government . And above that system of misrule we recently set a Postmaster-General , to carry on the system of idolatry among the natives , of mutiny in the army and abuse in the civil service .

    The crisis comes upon us . The empire is at stake ; the Government rallies Britons to the rescue , and the Britons do not come forward . Why ? Because in this country Ave have constructed an army iu which caste prevails , though money can purchase the privileges of birth . We pay for the expense of the war by taxes imposed upon disfranchised classes avIio , alienated from , the Government , are cool in their national spirit ; and at this very moment our Government is

    reckoning upon combinations "b etween the Emperors at Stuttgard or Weimar for retaining the peace of Europe , and permitting England to retain her position upon sufferance . These are the very sins that occasion great imperial calamities ; and if Ave had a clergy capable of exercising its duty 3 Wednesday next would see one great national rebuke to this wholesale sinning upon earth . The rule lias lately been put forward only for a scoff .

    that the true principle of Government is to post 'the right man in the right place . ' Certainly , the events in India have shown that if occasionally there is the right man in the wrong place , there are Avrong men everywhere . The leader of the country at the present day , IJord Paxmerston , has admirably defined dirt to be nothing but matter in the wrong place : it was a prophetic censure of Indian administrators .

    Untitled Article

    MANIN'S EXAMPLE . The great and good man Avho has been lost to the cause of liberty , has bequeathed an example to all the aspiring patriots of the Continent . No one was more sincere or more devoted than . Daniel Ma . nin . "When an opportunity seemed to have arisen for setting Italy free from tho Austrians , he entered bravely into tho struggle , and by his defence of Venice acquired a renoAvn which will for ever brighten at least one page of

    J ^ uropcan military history . But he Avas not more Aviso as an administrator than gallant as a commander . He maintained order , and he never encroached upon freedom . The Venetians loved him while ho was their dictator , and now that he is gone , if at any time thoy regain their independence , the first monument they erect in front of St . Mark will bo to the memory of Man in . More than this ; even by his enemies lie was respected . K . vdktzky , of course , had it been in his

    j . iAVcr , would liavc hanged tho friend of Italy ; but Austria governs by tho gallows in l-iombnrdy , and her generals havo neithoi * heart nor conscience . By all others , howover , tin * name of M ' anin Avas held in honour . In England , thoso avIio sympathized least Avith tho revolution , havo admired tho persistency ., the modesty , tho generous ' dignity of his diameter . Not a breath of reproach has sullied his career , so untimely ' interrupted . In Venice , Avheil at tho height of authority and reputation : ho won golden

    Untitled Article

    No . 3 , 93 , October 3 , 1857 . ] T H E L E A D E B . 951

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 3, 1857, page 951, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2212/page/15/