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Untitled Article
vinced that most of Mr . Raines ' s supporters would have voted in preference for the greatest dolt among the rich manufacturers or bankers of Leeds , if he would have professed as strongly their political opinions . The occupation of a journalist is under the ban of society . An individual here and there , though with
difficulty , escapes the stigma , and is placed , by personal qualities or adventitious circumstances , as high in conventional estimation as a barrister is placed by his mere calling . But the profession is decidedly not a gentlemanly one . It stands about on a level with the lower branches of the legal profession . The fact is almost universally admitted , that an editor , and that an attorney , may be a gentleman . Nay , many go so far as to say that some
are so . Another anomaly is , the very different degree of solicitude which society bestows upon the training up of those who are its real teachers , and of those who only pretend to be its teachers ,
having long ceased to be so in reality . We once heard the profoundest observer and critic on the spirit of the times whom we over knew , dilate upon this topic . Observe , he said , what an apparatus is put in motion , what large sums of money are expended , what a world of trouble is taken , to educate a select
individual from his infancy upwards , for the ultimate end of placing him in a pulpit , —from whence he discourses to the people , in language which nine-tenths of them scarcely understand , matter which has altogether ceased ( it may almost be said ) to have a meaning to them ; which never reaches their intellect , their imagination , or their affections , and has lost all power over their
will . Meantime , there has arisen a new set of instructors , who really do govern the minds and conduct of the people , who have succeeded to the place w hich the clergy formerly filled , and are , however unworthy in many respects , the sole priesthood of our time ; and the rearing up of these men , the work of qualifying them for the highest and most dignified office to which a human being can be called , is abandoned to chance , that is , to all
manner of demoralizing influences . The priest of the nineteenth mitur y struggles into existence no one knows how , and having served his apprenticeship in some cellar or garret which society never looks into , sets up his pulpit in a newspaper-office , and there , from the materials which he has picked up , and the
faculties which it has pleased heaven , not society , to bestow upon him , preaches to the world how they are to think , feel , and act ; wd they follow his instructions . This parallel is well fitted to give rise to reflections , which whoever follows up , will be led much further than lie is probably aware of .
Mr . O ' ConndVs Bill for the Liberty of the Press . —The Ka ^ dical part y in the House of Commons is a rope of sand . It is not onl y without a head , but without members or a body . It is
Untitled Article
Mr . O Connelts Bill for the Liberty of the Press . 173
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 173, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/13/
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