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    REFORM—POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.

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    Untitled Article

    Sept . 8 , 1860 . 1 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 781

    Untitled Article

    which then perhaps is swayed most when most it seems to sway , and but manifests a vain reaction against a power already in operation and constantly gaining on its opponent . Vaiii reaction P Yes , most vain . Coercion is employed Where persuasion only lias the smallest chance of success ; arid , the transference to mental and moral forces of conditions only applicable to physical ones is quite as irrational as if a created , being should attempt to swim in the air , or to fly in water . In such an attempt , violence is suffered as well as inflicted , and . outrage nature groans with the anguish . In all nations , at some period or other , the groans of this great anguish have been heard . Louder proceed from the tyrant in his palace than the prisoner in his cell . The torture endured by the former is such as can only be supported by madmen . Whereas the dungeon-bird still retains his reason , and will sing of liberty while in chains , prophesying redemption . That Redemption is now in process in Italy , where it presents a grand spectacle to which the eyes of Europe are directed . On the same soil the previous Captivity- had , also , been illustrated— -the Captivity of the Soul . To the priesthood , the task of instructing the people had been entrusted ; but , ere long , they refused to instruct themselves . What learning they had they wished to use in support of their order , and not either to extend or to communicate . Of such meagre action as they exercised , selfishness was the motive spring . Where this was not sufficient , they sought to compel where they could not convince . Sensualism * content with gross enj oyinerit , was their aim and practice . Only not all were sunk , in material gratification . But the few that stood . out were enough to prolong the light and to project its increase . They did so—suffering for their temerity , until one became triumphant . Savpkaroila was a martyr , but UtrxHER flourished as the hero of an intellectual faith . From

    his time the way was upward , not down ward . The proclivity to religious degradation was stayed , and the ' course of the current turned into a better direction . Then it was that despotism sought for spiritual reinforcement ; and a reaction was planned , in which the most elaborate learning should be brought to bear against true knowledge , and ostensibly support the altars and thrones of absolute authority . Ostensibly , we say ; for , really and in its inward action , Jesuitism employed the intelligence which it cultivated , not only in the coercion of the common people , but also reduced Kaiser and Pontiff alike under its control . Such is the anomalous state of affairs , such the complex warfare which the last half century has had to sustain . 4 st ^

    V '' .. - — •¦ ^ . n The task of Protestantism has accordingly been two-fold , or , rather , three-fold . It has had not only to deliver the masses , but the priest and the monarch . The deliverance of the former , indeed , may be said to have been effected more than a century ago . Science , philosophy , theology had spread and become properties of millions of minds . Truth had its vindicators , its discoverers , its propogandists , and through them went forth conquering , and to conquer . Its way lias been onward , unstopped and unstoppable . Meanwhile Jesuitism the favourite of

    has been in power , and out of power ; now Popes and Princes , and now the execrated of both—alternately the tyrant and the victim of the nominally great . The one represents an artificial and constantly defeated tendency ; the other , an orderly and invariably growing progress . He who watches both closely , will perceive the irresistible influence of a moral law always operanfc ; certain and universal as gravitation ; like that in its nature , but with a spiritual world for its sphere—arid that world discovcuiblo in the mind and heart of man . Concurrent with , and dominant

    over all physical events , it may be seen shaping all accidents into agencies of development , and subordinating the materials of future history to tho ono purpose of augmenting its force and swelling tho volume of its aggression . Ho Who clearly perceives what hero wo have dimly indicated , will see no reason to despair of human destiny ; but will rejoice in hope , and believe in tho tiltimato victory of right principles , i thoir social , their political , and their religious aspects . ,

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    A LETTER from Mr . Bright to w ^ Association ha » beeu published , in which . he says there must be more lojoal feeling and local exertion before tte oauso of reform can make more progress . Lest the superficial should imagine that the reform spirit has died out , merely l > cjcause it has ceased to develope itself in u political direction , it may be W 8 well to indicate the fact that it is now beginning to permeate andj animate our whole 5 oc «'«/ organisation , True it is , that

    these efforts , like other early attempts at reform are crude and immature , but they foreshadow the vigour and success of the better-pianried ' and more energetically-conducted attempts of the future . Instinct , by which we mean experience , unconsciously acquired , grown into a habit of mind , and spontaneously applied , is on this subject producing- a slow but total change in that mass of unanalysed convictions and desires , that goes under the vague designation of public opinion and public feeling-. It must be remembered that our principal societarian arrangements , institutions , usages , and laws , are not the systematic creation of enlightened benevolence and the suggestions of a profound sociology ( a science which the pressure of eircumr

    stances is just beginning to force on human attention , as it formerly did the already elaborated sciences , froni mathematics to physiology)—but the undersigned random product of " things left to themselves . " Now a moment ' s reflection will convince those capable of appreciating the data , that the present political systems of Europe are not out of harmony and correspondence with its social organisations . The American republic is a decided step in the right direction , because all reforms , in the present state of moral and intellectual development , are effected by instalments , and by fitful efforts here and there , rather than by duly co-ordinated , and regular simultaneous improvement throughout the whole social system . But the

    political state of America is far in advance of its societanan conditions . We find united with the fullest political development , as regards the form of government , not merely the bad social institutions common to Europe , not merely the virtual serfdom of Europe * disguised as it is here under the mask of another name , but the very essence of slavery is maintained- — maintained in theory , in substance , and in form . Here we have one of those unhappy soeietarian phenomena , produced by local circumstances , ' . which . consist in extra ^ ordinary progress and expansion on one side , counteracted bv retrogression and degeneracy on the other . Our social ant and barbarous

    arrangements are those of an ignor a age . Social despotism , as Mr . Mill , in his admirable work " On Liberty , " shews , is not only as bad as ever it was , but in some respects worse . Proletairism is only serfdom , in disguise , and in many points is a flagrant deterioration of its prototype . The recognised position of woman is in essentials just as indefensible , saving a few . recent enlightened and salutary legal changes , as as it was in the dark ages . But vigorous , if . not thoroughly matured plans are on foot for relieving the degradation and inhumanity of proletairism , and the various other flagitious social wrongs which mere political changes would leave rampant and intact . We want a new school of reformers— -reformers

    who understand the full scope and significance of the terms " Ethology" and " Sociology , "—reformers who can comprehend , appreciate , and apply the great principles elaborated by such writers as Comte , and Buckle , and John Stuakt Mill . Any movement that will stir the mind of Europe , like the theological revolution of the 16 th . or the polical reformation of the 18 th century , in which Luther and the great French thinkers were the leading agents—or even the mind of a single nation , aa the final dissolution of feudalism through the abolition of rotten boroughs and the establishment of free trade in this country did within the past quarter of a century , —rnust assume the shape of a social regeneration . But before social reform can be successfully prosecuted , Sociology must not merely be constructed , but popularized , and before it can even bts duly formuluted , morals must be reduced to a science .

    In the tidinbiuyh Review , No . 213 , we find the following passages in an article on Buckle ' s " History of Civilisation in JSngltuui ' . "¦— " The first and highest knowledge of which mankind is possessed , " we are informed , is resolvable into " the rules of life which restrain and govern the moral feelings of individuals . " We are then told , and no one will gainsay it , that 4 i the working rules of life , und mornlity , are not based on scientific observation , or olothed in scientific language ; " uod the author adds , and justly , that " to inquire into and revise theae is the highest function to which the human mind can devote itself . " The transcendant importance of Moralogij is well

    signalized in these passages ; but tho notorious fact alluded to in the sentence we have marked with italics is a scandal to the oivilization of the 19 th century . Mondayy ought by tins time to be an exact science . Morulogy we define oa the science which teaches whut voluntary conduct and notions of their own intrinsic imtu . ro . and essence tend to human well boivig ; Sociology teaches what laws , usug ( 3 S and institutions tend to evolve this hnppiiiess-prorluoing conduct on tho part of tho community . Tho chioC difficulty iu regulating individual conduct , framing public laws , imputing oustoms , devising institutions , consists in distinguishing those sorts of conduct , those human tiots which intrinsically axul m

    Reform—Political And Social.

    REFORM—POLITICAL AND SOCIAL .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 781, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2364/page/5/