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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1131, Untitled Article

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      had his eyes open to what is going on during the last two years in the Turkish Empire well knows . The Russians have long pursued a similar system among the Greek' population , with what success the war of 1854 and 1855 too manifestly revealed . Go where you will , whether on the main land or m -tire islands , and enter the churches where the Greek ritual is celebrated , and you will find upon the altar or in the sacristy tangible proofs of the interpenetrating sympathy of the Czar . Vessels of gold for the sacrament , substantial embellishments of the edifice ., and not unfrequently valuable tokens of patriarchal care for the comfort and dignit y of the

      ministering priest , are pointed out to you significantly . To countervail all this in the interests of Western Catholicity may be a legitimate act of French ecclesiastical zeal . We can even understand the sincerity of politicians , whatever we may think of their wisdom , who would advise the systematic expenditure of French treasure into similar ways for the sake of political ends . But then we should expect to hear those ends avowed , and we should not expect to find the application of the means disclaimed . . France has no doubt a . right to do what

      she will with her own ; and failing to exercise her discretionary will , while she entrusts her purse to an irresponsible ruler , neither England nor any other nation would be justified in quarrelling with the lavish expenditure in the Levant on consulates , schools , factories , convents , churches , monks , and nuns . What does , however , cast a sinister view over the whole , is , that whenever observation or inquiriry is directed by English diplomacy to these matters , broad and general denials are uniformly given to any insinuations of privity or cogiiizanee on the part of the French Government ,

      But what is more important than , all this is the sort of masked policy of Napoleon III , respecting Italy . From the hour when the French and English Ministers were withdrawn from-Naples in 1 S 50 , all real confidence between the two Governments in Italian affairs virtually ceased . Louis Napoleon refused to give any p ledge against the reestablishment of the " family of Murat , unless Lord Palm erston would give an equally unconditional pledge not to recognise any othfer constitutional regime in Southern Italy . King Bomba has thus had the opportunity of setting us at defiance , and now that we are in the arms of Austria , he naturally

      feels comparatively secure . Meanwhile , the breach between Sardinia and Austria becomes daily deeper and wider as the influence of the Tuileries becomes greater at Turin . It was at the pressing invitaflon of the Frenph Emperor that M . Cavotir visited him at Plombieres , and the tone taken since his return by the Piedmoutese Government , and all those who are subject to its influence , has been , more and more indicative of designs which the battle of Novara ten years ago suspended but did not extinguish . That Napoleon III . lias held out to Victor Emmanuel the crown of Northern Italy as the reward of his friendship and fidelity it is impossible to doubt . The Cabinet of Turin cannot , of course , be advised to admit the fact , though we can hardly

      excuse their general denials when questioned , that the proposition has been made , and not rejected . Yet , what are they to do ? To avow that they only wait for an opportunity to send an army into Lombardy , there to fraternise with its inhabitants , for the expulsion of its foreign garrison , would bo to draw down upon its head prematurely the serried might of the Austrian Empire , and this before it had , or could have , any security of adequate aid from Frauce . With a iVench army of eighty thousand men , the expulsion of the Germans beyond the Alps would , indeed , be secure ; and it is hard to believe that to such an event Napoleon III . is not looking forward . That the Austrian Government apprehends the struggle as an inevitability wo aro confident ; that the English Cabinet looks upon it as probable , if xiot imminent , wo aro sure .

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      ANTI-CONFESSIONAL AGITATION . Tite meeting of metropolitan vestrymen at St , James ' s Hall on Monday last , on the subject of the confessional , may be looked upon as the inauguration of a movement having a far wider scope than the defeat of Belgravian Puseyism , or the removal of Belgravian scandals . The practical view of the case is this : —A number of clergymen , ostensibly affiliated and professing members of the Established Protestant Church of this country , avail themselves of their ecclesiastical position to teach , suggest , and

      practise things which the majority of her members hold to be at variance with the doctrine which their forefathers , who established that Church , intended to bequeath to them , to have and to hold—at variance , as they believe , with the language , and as ? certainly with the spirit of the Church ' s written law as well as of her tradition . The innovating , or , let us say charitably , the differing party , decline to retire from the community , and turbulently insist , on the promotion ' of continual scandal , and thus interfere with thedecencyand good order of the body . The

      Church authorities are in the majority of cases stalemated , or elect so to be . The Crown , nominal head o £ the Church and Defender of the Faith , moves not . Ifc is perhaps considered that there is no dignus vindice nodus ! But , at all events , the situation has hitherto Ecrmitted the dissatisfied majority no resource but itter complaint or abortive reference to inefficient or inactive power , while the minority virtually tyrannises , TJnder such circumstances , nothing so naturally suggests itself to the exhausted patience of ' / the strong as the employment of their force . Now the mighty exponent of force in our days , thank God , is public opinion . The appeal to is

      the people , through the municipal organisation , a fine move , for which its originators deserve thanks ^ On the face of it , it is perhaps rather vulgar : it will certainly be proclaimed so . But Puritanism always was vulgar until long after it had triumphed . It will gather together all sorts of insincere , and ignorant , and foolish , and possibly oven knavish , partisans ; but such atoms were over borne upon the winds of popular agitation , and being found in equal abundance on both sides , may be allowed to " cut out . " In conclusion , if only the financial sinews , necessary in controversial and Eolitical as in military strife , bo as liberally contriutod as their rhetoric by the promoters , a very telling response may be looked for . The ultimate

      result to be hoped For- —and , if men be resoluto , to be won—is the gradual purgation of the Church by tho institution of more searching testa , the excision from tho Prayer-book of rubrics nowused as a oovor by the malignanls , ' and t / iemove acourato adjustment of tho ccclosmstjcml machinery for Church regulation whioh , to say tho Jcasc , i unkindly , if it is not out pt ffour . An J-stablished Churoli Health Amendment . Act . has long been wanting , and a stop has certainly boon . tato * towards obtaining it . Tho names of Weetorton and Vorekor may novor figure at the back oi such a bill , but . wo know enough of mon aad parties to bo-

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      THE PROMISED REFORM BILL . Tun quiot aspect of tho people just now must not bo taken ns indicative of apathy on tho subject of the promised Reform Bill . The external tranquillity that provftils is duo mainly to tho uncertainty that exists as to tho extent of tho change and the character of tho principles whioh will guide Ministors in their manufacture or tho now Constitution , and to the fact that nil parties are disposed to reserve their energy until . they have something tangible before them to oxpond it upon . But tho Government must not underrate the magt lutudc of the task before them , nor tlie momentous

      consequences which a false or feeble step in the wrono- direction may "bring upon themselves and perhaps on the future destiny of the empire . Above all it must be prepared to ' satisfy the expectations of the people at large—not the several cliques , political , aristocratic , and mercantile , which will have to be propitiated , hut the millions—the masses who have risen into consequence from the spread of intelligence , who have hitherto had no adequate , no honest representation , wlio know their rights , and who will be found in the coming struggle prepared to demand them . The new Reform Bill must not

      be a mere series of compromises between parties and factious—it must be a fair adjustment of power between the various interests high and low , and sufficiently comprehensive and satisfactory to do away with the necessity of another change for at east a century to come . Government , we have said , has a grave task before it . Government must not seek to throw dust in the eyes of the country by a sham Reform Bill ; nor must Ministers attempt to model their course on that presented to them by the Bill of 1831 . The Bill of 1831—only extorted from its opponents by the menaces of an actual revolution—was cunningly framed and devised by its authors to yield the minimum of justice to the

      and labour that will make themselves heard " , that will be prepared to demand their full share in the government of the country when the Reform Bill is divulged . The country , we have said , is quiescent , and apparently apathetic , now . By-and-by the mutterings of a rising storm may be heard , and by-and-by we may find the masses in a glow and ferment that will prove as irresistible as the profitless insanity oi 1832 . Another new difficulty will be in the way of Government . We speak of the press , and the vast difference there is between the condition of the press in 1832 and what it is in 1858 . In 1832 the press exercised very great influence , but insignificant compared to the influence exercised by the press of

      1858 . In 1 S 32 the power of the press was more diffused among ' the whole of the leading journals , which were generally prosperous , and , being so , they were , to a certain extent , independent . Now , influence is virtually concentrated in two or three journals which have weathered the inroad of the cheap press . But on this question the whole of the press will have a voice , and by no means a subdued one ; and here we suspect Government will encounter a formidable and an unmanageable element . We have only touched upon a few of the salient points of the difficulties which will be found to environ Ministers in their important task . In its hands is the future of this empire .

      unrepresented . It was artfully contrived by its Whig framers to strike a blow at Toryism , and to increase the power of Whiggisni—at that period the only two parties between which the line of demarcation was broad and defined . The people and the people ' s rights were all subordinated to this occult purpose ; the result , as time has shown , is , that after the trial of a quarter of a century , the Bill of 1 S 32 is found to be a sham , and to have worked with less effect in favour of real liberty and public honesty than the anomalous system which it superseded . Lord John Russell very soon perceived that the hollow pretexts of the concocters of the Bill became sessionally

      more obvious ; he saw that symptoms were manifesting themselves of the creation of a party in the House of Commons which would speedily demand another and a real Reform Bill . It was this perception that led him to make his "finality " , declara tion , which he has now been obliged to recant , and to assert that he would not consent again to " lift the anchors of the monarchy "— -an assertion which he has conveniently forgotten and abandoned . A great and mighty cliange has come over the condition of society since 1832 . Old constitutional

      landmarks have been removed or obliterated—old traditions have exploded of themselves—old party cries have ceased—and new parties , new rights , a new order of things , have all simultaneously sprung up to demand a new Reform Bill that shall correspond and be in harmony with the progress of the age . Government will have to look its difficulties—and they are great and manifold—steadily in the face , and it must bo prepared to meet them manfull y and honestly . The ill-received assertion of the Prince-Consort

      that " representative institutions are on their trial" may not be so wide of the mark as the offended British public were then inclined to believe . Government may find to its surprise that in its new Reform Bill it will have to give a confirmation or a refutation of that unexpected declaration . Certainly , this is the age of changenot of superficial , but radical change . That this is the age of real " progress" may be fairly doubted , but that this is tho age of absolute " change" is indisputable . Gradually , power and tho seat of power have been changing positions . The checks and balances of our constitution have been

      steadily but surely alternating and disappearing . Tho relative positions of State , Church , Crown , Aristocracy , and Commons , have shifted and are shifting . Everything appears to tend towards the centralising principle , but at the samo time to practical Republicanism . Power is conce . nt rat ing in tho House of Commons , the Crown and tho Lords havo already been shorn of half their authority , and one constitutional brcinoh at least can hopo to bo no gainer by any Reform Bill that any Government may initiate . The middle classes and tho working classes in proportion as they have becomo more wealthy and more enlightened , havo cropt up into power , not perhaps actual , but moral \|> TVT Tj i AMlWl Hkll ir t 1 /] t lh 4 Wtt «/ % 41 % ino xvoiorm jjul win io

      VAI AM J-V * -. - « I «* J " 'J-N » J-SX * - S > power , uaro . ignore mo rights of those classes to bo fully and fairly rop * o ^ sonted . Hereditary honours , wealth , commerce , possibl y havo their share , and more than their sjmro , m tho government of the country . Intellect and labour have unquestionably less . It is iutellcot

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      No . 448 , Octobeb 23 , 1858-1 THE £ E A DEB . 1131

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 1131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2265/page/19/