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    Untitled Article

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    LORD MACAULAY.—THE POLITICIAN.

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    short time our attention to a subject in which most people are interested , and to which if they neglect to turn their eyes , they will have to regi-et their own apathy , and execrate , when malediction will be useless , the subtle pertinacity of a crafty crew confederated for the perpetuation of pu blic abuses ;~ and indefatigable , in blocking up every avenue to improvement by which their- ovvfi sinister influence may be impaired or the complacency of their prejudices disturbed . We allude to the stir about to be made for the upholding of Church rates , and in connection therewith , though somewhat incongruous , the abrogation or neutralisation of those improvements ' in the law of divorce and of the degrees of consanguinity in marriage , which have received the sanction of public opinion and the Government , and by which the well-being and happiness of the general community will be advanced and secured .

    It will save time and prevent misapprehension of the nature and objects of these people , to take their description of themselves and of the nature of the objects they have in view , out of their own mouths ; and for this purpose we will quote the words of one of the principal props by which it is sought to shore up the declining cause in which they consider their interests to be implicated . At a meeting of the association called the " Bury St . Edmunds district Church Institution , " held oh the 23 rd of last month , in the Guildhall of Bury St . Edmunds , which was attended by a host of clerical members and lay consultees , the Rev . Lord

    Arthur Hervey , who filled the chair , after a preliminary prayer and many professions of good feeling and Christian charity to all people from whom he differed in religious opinions , said : — " They were bound firmly and uncompromisingly to resist the attacks and attempts to deprive the Established Church of what she had so many centuries enjoyed . He would say one word with regard to the particular machinery by which they were endeavouring to carry " out their object . When a fewv of the clergy hastily met together the . other day ( for there was no time to lie lost ) to consult with one another what was best to be done , they were informed that there was in London a central institution , called 'The Church Institution , ' which iwas composed , they were told , of men who were totally free from all whose to ather the

    parties in the Church , object was g together scattered strength of the Church throughout the country , and bripg it to bear on one common object . In proof of which , they were authoritatively informed , that the institution , which was established in London as a centre , was cordially approved of by the Archbishop of Canterbury , the Bishop of London , and the Bishop of Winchester , and that they had given their encouragement to it ; and a letter was read from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Mr . Hoare , the founder of this Church Institution , wherein he gave his cordial approval to Mr . Hoare ' s labours . Under these circumstances , they thought they could not do better , with a view to act efficiently on this occasion , than adopt the machinery of this Church Institution , and it seemed exactly suited to their purpose . "

    After some further imputation of motives to those whose opinions were at variance with his own- —which , considering that the noble speaker had just said his prayers , and professed his Christian ' charity to those from whom he differed , was , to say the least of it , in very bad taste—his lordship , without wishing to disparage the zeal and liberality of the dissenters in providing houses of worship for their communities , would simply ask > where did the dissenters build and maintain a place of worship ? Where it would pay , where there was a sufficient number of the community to enable it to do so . " These specimens of liber rality in Lord Hervey will convey a tolerably accurate notion of the general feeling of his coadjutors on this occasion , and is of a piece with the sayings of the orators at other similar meetings . Lord Redesdale , who held forth a few days since at Shipstonupon-Stour , in the diocese of Worcester , at an assembly of antiabolitionists , held out a threat to his tenants : "If church-rates were abolished , he should add to each of his tenants' rent such a sum as would cover the average of his church-rates , and pay the rates himself . " In other words , set public opinion at defiance , neutralize the effect of an Act of Parliament , and compel , nolehtes or vole ? des , those dependant upon him to pny a tax which the legislature had abolished . The public should , however , be aware that for the concoction of this organisation for the perpetuation of a nuisance , they are indebted to the fertile brain and disinterested advocacy of Mr . Ho are , by whose mole warp industry , in silence and darkness , the scheme has been planned and methodized . This gentleman , at the meeting held in the metropolis , described his cautious and hidden movements in the furtherance of his holy object . He told his auditors how he had written to an archbishop and to bishops , and received approving answers to his communications . The archbishop , however , had somewhat qualified his approval ; whether or not his grace felt some misgivings for the prudence of his correspondent , and thought that his zeal for the stones , bricks ^ and mortar of which the ^ fabric " of the church is composed , might induce his intrusion upon the functions for which he , a . s archbishop , is specially appointed , did not appear . His grace'took the opportunity of reminding , him to examine and adhere = to the directions of his /' c atechism , to respect his spiritual pastors and masters , " and to recommend such respect to those with whom he had influence-, to leave spiritual things to spiritual authority ! , or , in more homely phrase , to restrain the propensity of the cobbler from quitting his last ; all which Mr . Ho a re very devoutly promised to ^ do , and will n 6 doubt keep his promise . Mr . HoaRE , in the peroration of his speech , informed his friends that he was the sole proprietor of a secret which would prove a solution of all difficulties connected with the question , and please everybody concerned . This secret he did not divulge , so that we must be content for some time to remain in unblissful ignorance of the efficacy of the gentleman's nostrum . Let those who are of our way of thinking exert a little of the energy he has displayed , and persevere to Obtain the object they have in view with as little delay as possible , lest this promised panacea should prove a failure .

    The speaker then proceeded to dilate on the blessed state of Church polity during the Heptarchy , and to deduce arguments from , the precedents of those days in support of what ought now , according to his views , to be the practice throughout England . He described the very natural dislike of those who derived nb benefit from the administration of the Church , as ar ising from a wish to transfer £ 350 , 000 a year , the amount of the rates throughout the country , into the pockets of those to whom it did not belong , who did not wish to possess it » and had no right to nave it . He then diverged to quote the late speech of Sir John Coleridge , whose antiquated lore and limping logic appears to 1

    be the text book of the supporters of the tottering system , In so doing , his lordship , either from ignorance or from that obliquity of vision which prevents a man from seeing anything antagonistic to his own prejudices , ignored the fact that one-third part of all the "tithes of the country , " in the good old times to which he alluded , were specially appointed to be set aside for the upholding and repairing the edifice of the Church , and coupled , or rather endeavoured to couple , the efforts of the « Society for Liberating the Church from Stnte Control , " with the general movement throughout the land for getting rid of a allusion

    vexatious , unnecessary , and unequal impost . From this to the Liberating Society , he suddenly turned round on the Government . " Our statesmen , on whom devolved the carrying oh the government of the country , had observed that a good many seats in Parliament turned upon whether the candidates would support the , abolition of Church ra ^ es or not ; they perceived , consequently , that a good deal of support in Parliament depended upon the degree of enoouragement they . might , give to a society so earnest in its desire for the destruction of the Union iu Church nnd State " ( the Society for Liberating ., the Church from State Control ) .

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    THE public know Lord Magaulay , whose unexpected death we announced last week , as an author and a politician . To be fully appreciated , he must be considered in both capacities . We are about to speak of him as a politician . He begnn his working life as a politician . He had made a reputation for himself at the University . He had . gained prizes for poetry , and was a firstclass scholar . He •« belonged by nature to that order of men who always form the front ranks in the great intellectual progress . " His own inclination might have led him to literature and philosophy ; his position and connections made him a politician . He was scarcely removed from the University , where lie had acquired reputation also as a speaker , before he was introduced to the public , at anti-slayery meetings , as an orator destined to serve

    the great cause of freedom . At that time , the noble rewards which literary men—himself , SirWALTKRScoTT , Mr . DiCKBNs , andotMers—havesirico obtained , were scarcely known . Literature , as a profession , was then little honoured , and ill paid . Apparently , it could only l ) e successfully exorcised as an adjunct tq some Church preferment , the legal profession , or some tolerably well-paid public office . Tho dependent position of Moore , Wordsworth provided for under the Stamp Office , Hallam and Soott both occupying official positions , probably made Mr . Maoaulay ' s friends deem it essential that lie should receive some public appointment . Leading statesmen , like the Jesuits , were on tho look but tor rising talont , that they

    might seduce it into their servioe . Mr . Macau ^ ay s oomwmww were liberals , and when Mr . Canning introduced aome ^ of them into office , Mr . Maoaulay was at once provided for . without having done more professionally than eaten his commons , ana

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    Jan . 7 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 7

    Lord Macaulay.—The Politician.

    LORD MACAULAY . —THE POLITICIAN .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/7/