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    BELIGIOUS REVIVALS.* ¦

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    BETWEEN the formalism of the Churches , dept wealth arid 'fruitfulness of the Religious Life , there is a wide region . It is in this region that we encounter Religious Revival ** . In the somewhat heavy and pretentious but thoughtful book which Mr . Wilkinson lists dedicated to the subject , we find much to commend : but there are serious limitations and objections to be arrayed against his views and conclusions . No pious or intelligent person would think of ridiculing' the recent religious revivals in the North of Ireland and in some parts of England and . 'Scotland ; but no one gifted with what may be called the ¦ religious genius , or capable of appreciating the nature of religion , would assign them a high value or expect from them grand and abiding 1 results . The question is not whether convulsionary movements like the present

    are half impostures , half insanities ; the question is—what relation the present convulskmary movement holds to the divinest devotional and moral principles . Mr . Wilkinson treats all who are disposed to criticise the movement as mockers , or cold philosophers ; but many of them may be the lowliest adorers of the Infinite God , yet turn from the obstreperous and the hysterical simply because they are adorers . What is profoundest , most prolific in the religious sentiment , is mystical , seeks secrecy and silence . Take it as * represented and- expressed in the Gospel of John and in the Imitation of Christ , and you find it solemn and serene—hushed , like some great forest which no human eye or human i ' oot hath- yet penetrated . We lwjve the riaddueees to deal with the revivals as rebukehowever

    they think proper : we are not Siulducees . We , the Pharisaic priisiniiption On the part of Mr . "Wilkin . sini and his friends , which scorns as a Siidducee every one who does nut deem horrible noises , ' hideous contortions , necessary to the auakiminent of the soul , and to its outpourings of prayer and of j / raise . A religious revival , as distinguished from the religious life and i ' vom ; i religious reformation , is a reaction against the apathy of sectsj whilst it prochiims that barren theological dogmatism has obliterated the faintest trace of moral teaching . We are intimately acquainted with the working of the Presbyterian system in that part of Scotland which is nearest the lir .-t scene of the revival in Ireland , and we can testily that an explosion now and then of ferocious bigotry was the only sign of vitality ever given . .

    It is from Scottish Presbyterianism that the North of Ireland has received whatever it has of a religions character . Now , Scottish Presbyterianism was an admirable discipline—though it is ceasing to oe BO > —hut it never was a religious nourishment . We have frequently felt that it viw a most erroneous notion to regard the Scotch as a religious people ; they are a highly'acute . and intellectual people , chained by a theological creed , controlled by an ecclesiastical government equally despotic . There is no room here . for the play of the religious instincts , even if the religious instincts in Scotchmen were strong , which they are not . The mass of the Presbyterians in Ulster , like their Scottish progenitors , have bowed to the thraldom of a creed of an ecul < jyia . stienl organisation ; they have not , however , been , anv more than the Scotch themselves , a religious people . Jliufc

    in the midst of religious penury there was abundance oi Oraugo fanaticism ; that is 1 o say , there could not be religious love , but there could b * c party hatred . Indeed , the religion of many persons in the North of Ireland seemed to consist in cursing the Pope . Scottish Prosbytcrinnism , bo far sis we arc aware , has never produced a wiuglo devotional book . Interminably argumentative , fiercely polemical , it had no time and no temper to give to tho worshipper tins Minillest morsel ol' spiritual food . If , also , by its inquisitorial machinery , it enfo . 'ced moral'duties it taught none ; and who can deny that Uio Culvinistie doctrines of election nnd reprobation are essentially immoral ? But were not the Scotch a moral nation ? In many important respects they wero ; but this arose from tiro pnJHSniifc and causeless action of the Scottish Inquisition over every family and every individual .

    ] bYom inevitable circumstances , this Inquisition , both in tiuotland ami iu Ireland , huu , in modern days , relaxed its gra-p i hence » dead theological unechanism , without any moral power , is there not here liuld enough , is there not necessity enough , for a religious revival P The details of this revival , and of other Himihir revivals contained in Mr . Wilkinson ' s volume , nre overwhelmingly rupulaiye . Of all pathologies , the most disgusting is tho pathology oi' religion in its abnormal mnnifbatatioiiH . When the ancient und venerable bond botweon health and holinosa is broken , wo know that imhuiichb antl misery are not far oil '— -and through these Atheism , the titanic-audacity of denial . Granting 1 that the revival , oren with its Ufliriouri excesses , is better than death ,, bettor than the drearinuurt of ( ho ( joserf ? granting that some enduring moral benefits nmy bo left "' ' "'"'^ ky

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    all that the scientific man shall not do , or be in reference to courts of law , he proposes that a scientific assessor shall be appointed to sit as assistant judge , that " a position shall be given to the scientific man ( i . e ., witness ) independent of the barrister / - ' arid that " scientific men shall be allowed to deliver their evidence in writing . " The moat important of these proposals is for the appointment of an assessor or assessors to be nominated by the Ceown ; and in the Rev . " Vjebnon Haecouet ' s scheme of a bill for this purpose the duties of the office are thus set forth : — " That the said assessor shall , conjointly with the judge , hear the evidence , and , if need be , under his sanction examine the witnesses , on scientific points , and advise the judge as to the scientific bearings of the evidence . " Sir William Page Wood pointed out—what Dr . Smith might have learned from reading almost any criminal trial in which scientific evidence is adduced— " that it is a great mistake to suppose that a witness had difficulty in making a clear connected statement upon scientific matters in the witness-box ; " and after touching upon other points , expressed his belief that "it mig-ht be beneficial in strictly scientific cases to appoint assessors to sit with the judge , who should be bound to give their opinion in public , as well as the reasons upon which that opinion was formed . " But he added that the responsibility should i-emain with the judge . Public interest in these questions is mostly excited in criminal trials , which ai-e rarely , if ever , " strictly scientific ;" and without hastily deciding against assessors in any shape , we may remark that it would be highly inconvenient to have two judges on the same bench—one restricted to the scientific features of the case , and the other bound to survey and consider all its bearings . Moreover , a source of fallacy'which . runs through Ih \ Smith ' s paper , and infects much reasoning on this question , is the assumption that scientific men — " scientists " ; as Dr . Smith and . Mr . Chadwice horribly designate them - — are essentially different frohv other men ; or are the exclusive possessors of methods of reasoning as well as of technical'knowledge' and procedures . Now , if we omit the reasoning belonging to the highest branches of mathematics , this is far from the case ; and ordinarily educated , clear headed persons ave competent to follow and test the accuracy of scientific evidencewhenit is properly placed before them and sifted in their presence . 'If we deny thisj we strike at the root of judge-and-jury trial , and must , in all cases in which , scientific evidence is involved , lea ve" the decision entirely in the hands of a single '"' expert , " for if there were two they might quarrel , and illustrate the proverb that " doctors disagree . " In cases relating to complicated . conditions of the human organism , we lhust often , as the b , esb evidence we can obtain , take the opinion of a well . practised Surgeon or physician who has seen the patient , and it is not reasonable to expect that the medical witness shall be able to convey in either a written or a verbal statement such a minute and comprehensive account of the grounds of his decision , as shall prove to all other persons , the precise amount and character of the derangement he alleges to exist . If a doctor should conclude that , a child was ill of the measles Avho was covered with pustules of small pox , there would be ample cause for rejecting his testimony ; bub where natural and poison-induced diseases bear a strong resemblance to each other , and scientific men are not precisely agreed as to the minute grounds of distinction between them , the positive impression one way or the other of a skilful physician ought to have its wciglit , to be lesseiied or increased by collateral circumstances , la such a case , if two addresses were made to a jury , one by the scientific assessor , excluding- { he bearing of non-scientific circumstances , and another by the judge , who would feel himself more or less relieved of the duty of dealing with the scientific evidence , it is difficult to conceive that the plan would work well . Sir W . P . Woop evidently sees the impropriety of allowing the assessor to be a sort of private ' witness , influencing ' the mind of the-judge , but not amenable to th 6 observation of the jury ; and the witness character of such a functionary—ajways witness to opinion , aiid often to fact , as where he affirms the sufficiency of a certain process of detection-=-rendcrs it inconvenient that he should bo protected from the ordeal of an examination . There ia another operation of the assessor plan which ought to be ¦ considered , and that is , its action in removing 1 from tho class furnishing scientific witnesses a considerable number of their ablest men . We , have so many good lawyers that we can spare enough to supply the bench without weakening 1 the bar ; but the number of scientific exports known to possess sufficient knowledge and skill to nmko their ovidenco of the first value in n difficult investigation is very email , and if all the best were taken to form assessors enough to attend all courts and circuits , considerable harm would be done . A demand for scientific witnesses would , of course , soon create at supply , but the existence of a class of men who make a trade of Boiling scientific proof one way or the other , is already a serious evil , and as a rule juries should be cautious in attaching much weight to tho statements of any evidence-monger at all . In the course of tho discussion at the Society of Arts tho operation of scientific evidence in patent cases , and the incompetenoy of juries to deal with them , wan alluded to as proving 1 the need far n new system . But it must not bo forgotten , that we are by no jtnonns ugreqd as to what amount of protection a patent ought to ¦ give , ivna as inventions and processes , multiply , this difficulty must increase . We liavo already protected so much , that nobody knows its extent ; and when the state soils anew patent , the purchaser buys a guesswork article , estimated partly upon his own judgment , and partly according 1 to that of his professional adviser . The fact is , tijat invention prows too big- for the patent process to comprehend it , and botweon tho desire to protect a new inventor , but ut

    the same time notto deprive the public of too great an amount of free working- ground , we are constantly getting 1 into a fix . These , and other considerations , tend to place the patent question , with its attendant evidence , in . a category distinct from that of scientific evidence in ordinary cases , and we come back to the inquiry what are Our principal desiderata in this respect . First , we think . c > rr . es the need of a public prosecutor , and a more precise way of preparingevidence of nil kinds , scientific included ; then we . want a better education of the middle class , from whom juries are ordinarily selected , and the institution of popular lectureships on medical jurisprudence ; and lastly , and chiefly , we require a better training- of the experts themselves , who now contradict and dispute with one another about every point of importance that can be raised . .

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    Jan 28 , 1860 . 1 The Leader and Saturday Anah / si . 87

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    * The ( tovit'fd , in it * VIii / hUhiI , ' l \ i / vhh < nl , onl Itutl j / loim J . y <• ¦ /* . Uy W . M . Wilkinson . London : Clmnuuxn and Hull .

    Beligious Revivals.* ¦

    EELIGTOUS REVIVALS . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/11/