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The Association filling his mind—it had no place far the press , which incessantly collects vast accumulations of facts of every description , though it does not marshal them so as to suit the views and conclusions of our would-be guides'and governors . The Associationmay want some peculiar facts ; the public wants a , ll the facts , and those are supplied by the press . If Lord Shaftesbury had been well-up iri , ; the facts which the press has recently collected and carefully displayed , he jtrould have been aware that since the corn laws were repealed the nation has been much better * and more regularly supplied with food than ever before ; that food has not only been abundant but the that the
priee has been comparatively steady ; bulk of the people have been well and continually employed ; that in spite of much acknowledged and : grievous mismanagement on the part of the aristocracy , especially in regard to the army , the navy , and the taxes , the nation has been prosperous and increasingly powerful ; that pauperism , in proportion to population , has decreased fully onehalf ; that crimes of all kinds , except the actions foolishly made into crimes by legislators like Lord jShaftesbury and Lord Brougham , have decreased more than at . any previous period of equal length since the records were first kept of the effects of penal legislation ; that a greater change , in short , for the better has ensued throughout England since the corn and some , kindred laws were
repealed than ever was known in iiny similar period of history . This great change and its cause are' wholly ignored by Lord Shaftesbury . The noble lord quoteda report of the Macelesfield Board of Health , stat ing a great improvement in the health and longevity of the inhabitants of that town , as other b oards of health have taken to themselves the credit of similar imprdvements , in order to show how much might be done by--removin g piggeries , &c . But if the corn laws had continued to deprive the people of food , all the boards of health in the world would not have
increased either their vitality or their longevity . Life depends on food—the more food the more life and the more health there will be ; and all other causes for the improved condition of the people in Macclesfield and elsewhere in health and longevity , within the . last ten years , sink into utter insignificance compared to the abolition of the low of the aristocracy to keep food from the people . Lord Shaftesbury , however , and all the doctors around him , the patrons of institutions borrowed from * the Continent , which never gave its people vigorous . health , entirely ignored the improvement , which had sprung from freedom , and falsely
ascribed to' themselves and their new sanitary regulations , the results of allowing the industry of the multitude to be freel One sycophant went so far as to couple the increase of wages with the Factory Act , All the proceedings of the Association , in reference to the health of the community , betray such ignorance or utter forgetfulness of the most important , event in our recent economical history and its consequences , that we are- not surprised at Lord Shaftesbury wanting facts to make all other people take the same views as himself and his associates . He wants them to forget freedom as a means of welfare , and rely on regulations . "
One little bit of theory Lord Shaftesbury seems to have learnt from the press " . It is not , his " success , " not the " success of the Association ; " it is emphatically ours to "have taught thepeqplethatto cry put ' a law , a law , ' on all occasions of a grievance ffeltj or an evil detected , is to check private , individual and combined exertions , oftentimes to perpetuate and extend the mischief , and to keep man from a wholesome conviction , that in many mattersj and especially such as these , they must be a law to themselves , " And how does the noble lord carry out our teaching 1 , which he has adopted P Why * he is perpetually introducing new
laws , which suit his own views and servo his own purposes , and still advocates a new law to " give power to the police to take-anyvagrant or begging cfiild beforc a magistrate , who , according to the evidence ^ niight send the child to the workhouse , ^ py , , p lace open to receive it ,. and make the , ESffl ^ 8 j ' * T ?? P 5 i ' ?/ ^ ' ^ r th ; Q charge . " He is the t ^ i M ^ toloatt ; . owV " ftJaw ,- a . jaw , ' to promote PW ^ M , ^ tihrpp 7 ic crotchets , ojftd does not under-^ P ^ f ^;*^^ iWi 8 Ow « ii case ,. on the : theory he . has ¦» »•¦** Wi > urg ^ ntly' * 'neceBS « rT ' now to remind the
Association and the public of the . conduct of the aristocracy and the hierarchy- —which was even worse than that of the lay aristocracy—in respect to the food of the people and the freedom of their industryy because the aristocracy and its partizans carefully consign it to oblivion , and treat it as- a thing which ought to be forgotten ; At the same tune the very classes which brought on this country * between 1915 and 1846 , an untold amount of pauperism , crime , and misery—which degraded , and continue to degrade , the masses— - are now putting forth , on an assumption of great merit , fresh claims to respect , and . admiration . They can no longer coerce * and they seek to cajole . Possessing the power to be tyrannous , to Lord .
Brougham ' s terror the multitude must have the power to determine their own fate ; and it will be their own fault if they continue to be the objects of Loid Shaftesbury ' s pity and Lord Brougham ' s morose dread . It will be their own fault if they " submit to be drilled into an admiration of the bulwark erected against their freedom ; and take at second-hand ,: perverted by ^ Privy Councils and ambitious associations , the delightful knowledge which Nature offers to all her children . Indeed she may be said , as it is the indispensable guide to right conduct , to force it on their senses ; while it is the great object of social associations , and other contrivances for guiding , and governing the people , to keep it from them .
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no great harm if it never had a beginning . Good , however , may come out of evil . Contact with the hard world had hardened our belief in human virtue . After the perusal of the Gloucester and Wakefield inquiries our failing faith has revived again . To us , Utopia is no longer an empty name , Gloucester is the garden of Eden , and Wakefield is Paradise regained . What is there more beautiful than mutual benevolence ; what more noble than silent and unostentatious
THE BEAUTIES OF BRIBERY . Hypocrisy is tie homage that vice pays to goodness . If so , a bribery commission must be . ja kind of gigantic hecatomb , offered on the shrine of offended virtue ^ If ever there was an organised hypocrisy" it is a parliamentary inquiry into purity of election . The thief is set , not to catch a thief , but to tide a thief . We are bound to confess that the task of non-detection is fulfilled most admirably . The inquiry is not only a story without an end , but it is a story also that was never meant to have an end . Perhaps there would be
generosity ; vyha . t more endearing than simple , child-like confidence ? Henceforth virtue is no poet ' s dream , benevolence no visionary conception . No ; Gloucester is . their dwelling place , and Wakefield their local habitation . Unto the pure we know already that all things are pure , out in , the charmed atinosphere of these favoured spots the very impure themselves become innocent and guileless . Sir Robert Carden is chairman of a joint-stock bank , alderman of the City corporation , and a member of the London Stock Exchange : one would suppose , a priori ) that none of these positions were favourable for the cultivation of simple trustfulness and implicit confidence . Mr . Monk is the son of an English bishop , and the son-in-law of a Greek merchant ; yet ; notwithstanding , for guilelessness
and simplicity , he might be the scion of spine Greek Episcopas , in tlie days of primitive Christianity , when the church had all things in common , and when spiritual peers , and country curates , and Greek loans had not yet arisen on the face of the earth . Mr . Price is a timber merchant , and yet a life-long experience of charter-parties , and policies , and drafts against consignments , has taught him to trust all men at all times . Mr . Leatham is a Manchester man , a mill-owner and cotton lord , and brother-in-law to Mr . Bright—not the most oharitable or unsuspicious of mortals—and yet the lesson Mr . Leatham has learnt in life is one of
faith , hope , and charity . All these gentlemen—however unlike their careers may have been , however dissimilar their politics- —are alike in the simplicity of ' their oha- » raoter . Well liave they followed the scriptural precept . Being in the world * thtyvare out of the world . Whonthey'are at Gloucester * they do as Gloucester docs , Elsewhere they may pe shrewd , hard-headed men , proud-of their knowledge of the world , Herejpnd here alone , they exchange- the wisdom of the serpent for the meekness of the dove . Thfcy tHnjr no evil . They behold vice
and know it not . They touch pitch and are not defiled . ^ Political Godivas , they are exposed to the public gaze , and strong in the innocence of purity , come forth chaste and stainless . A portion of their mantle descends on their adherents . Their friends , and supporters are , for the time being , gifted with a scarcely less degree of trustfulness and simplicity . They go about doing good . They help the needy and" feed the hungry—voter . They go into shops / and ask the shopman to sell them what article he likes and name his own price . They write off old debts , and volunteer to compound with the creditors of ' distressed electors . Their pockets are always open , and their right hand never knows what their lef t hand gives . They find . £ 500 notes lyino- in
an envelope on their tables , and are not surprised They no more think of asking where it came from than Elijah did of questioning the ravens in the wilderness . They see nothing strange in men bringing down sovereigns under a feigned name , and take it for an ordinary ' trade precaution . The Saturnian age has returned again . Our sole regret is that its duration should be so short , and that we ourselves were not admitted within the sacred circle , or shared in the sanctifying influence ; As , however , ttc have only watched the revival from a distance . our conversion is not yet complete . Something of the old man still i-emains within us , and a misplaced curiosity compels us to ask how it is that in no other occasion in life do zealous
philanthropists expend money on behalf of their friends without being solicited ; without ever expecting or asking to be repaid ; and strangest of all without ever letting the objects of their benevolent charity even . suspect the obligation conferred upon them . The stern law of fact suggests that the money spent at Wakefield and Gloucester must ultimately have come out of somebody ' s pocket . Whose pocket , we cannot guess ; of course , not the candidates ! Perhaps the money , like manna , had a miraculous origin . Marvellous , indeed , are the effects of Gloucester grace .
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THE CURE OF SOULS . The Bonwell story is not a pleasant episode in our social history . The admirers of Holy well-street literature may find the details of the case elsewhere , and may revel to their heart ' s content in extracting therefrom the utmost amount possible of suggestive impropriety . It is not our Avish to enter upon the discussion of its merits . We should be heartily sorry to say anything unduly hard about the unfortunate clergyman , who is apparently the hero of this melancholy drama . Without , however , prejudging the case , or stating anything that is not a matter of public notoriety , we wish to draw attention to one peculiar aspect of the case , which in our eyes is not the least important .
The charge against Mr . Bonwell , whether true or false , virtually amounts to this—that being the incumbent of a London district church , and , we believe , a married man of mature years , he formed an illegitimate connexion with a young lady ol respectable position ; that he used the school-house attached to his church for a hiding-place for tins lady when she was about to be confined ot a child of which he is the putative father ; and that after the death of the infant , whether vw ** m \ 4 ^ v * At 1 ' V % V * V ^ rf ^ S > f "" V ^« % rfti ¥ Vmm ^ r ^ ^ - - ^ ? _ ftu
caused by disease or culpable noglect , he J » it buried surreptitiously , in order to avoid exposure . It would bo mere folly t o att empt drawing any conclusion from this story ns t ° morality , or immorality , of the English clergy . There are black sheep in every Hook , even admitting thq worst features of the story , Jt ia clearly one of the cases in which the public never know , or will know , enough of the real foot * to decide on the , amount of moral guilt attacking totne offence , Tlie important consideration is about tlie narish . not about the nastor . Even taking tne im
mosfc favourable view of the case , it is almost - possible to suppose that Ma % Bonwell ' s previous career can have been such as to entitle him to ino respect or sympathy of his parishioners . X no raw that . the pariah schools have been shut up for a long period , owing to want of funds , is almost a conclusive proof Of the contrary . Mr . Bonwell , however , has remained undisturbed in his position . Even now we believe that his incumbency remains untouched , and short of a voluntary resignation , or an actual oonyiotion by a civil court of some criminal offence , we doubt whether there is any
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M 5 & THE LEADEK pSTo . 499 . Oct . 15 ; 1859 ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 15, 1859, page 1154, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2316/page/14/
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