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TvTo.493. Sept. 3, 1B59.] THE LEADEB, 10...
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THE CHURCH IN THE EAST. Every one iu ear...
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GEK »I AN Y. Aug. 31 . 1859.—The agitati...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Secret Of The Serpentine. It Is The ...
artists who comp lained of tlie colour of the water ; from people of refined susceptibilities , who 6 biected to the presence of bathers not in full dress ; and from humanitarians , who were shocked at the possibility of the water being deep enough to drown any one who jumped off the bridge . By these constant comp laints , Supported in influential quarters the Government have been at last induced to take the matter in hand . With a moderation , however almost without example , they purpose to crive the Serpentine a thorough cleaning only , that will cost some £ 17 , 000 , at least . JSTot content with this the fashionable faction of Rotten Row are niovhv heaven and earth to force the Government to undertake the enormous work-of making a new bottom to the Serpentine , at an outlay of some ten or twenty times the amount proposed .
Now if it could be proved , that the re-bottoming of the Serpentine was necessary to the health of London , and more necessary than any other improvement in other parts of the metropolis , we should be the last to oppose the work , however oreatits outlay . The advocates of the scheme nave however failed entirely to make out their case . After all , the proof of the pudding is in the eating . If half or any part of the statements as to the offensiveness and noxiousness of the Serpentine were correct , is it conceivable that " all the rank and fashion in London , " to use the
stereotyped term , would crowd round its banks every hot summer evening throughout the season ? Nothing forces them to go there , except their own pleasure and convenience . The drive round Regent's Park , though unfashionable , is not exposed to the perils of the Serpentine . Yet we are not aware that there has been any increase in the . scanty number of carriages " which roH round the north-west passage from Regent's Park to St . John's Wood . Kensington Gardens are thronged with crowds of people , wellrdressed and well-to-do , who come there for recreation . The number of
'bathers is undhninished , which is a pretty fair test of the water not being so very -offensive , for we suppose if there is one thing -a .. man' does to please himself and-not others , it is bathing . The evidenco-of one man , who says he smelt an offensive smell , is of no more value than that of one mail who says he did not . Still , as a rule , we do not find , that people choose the bank of an open sewer for their favourite walk , or lie down by preference iii the neighbourhood of a cesspool , Y ^ e may therefore be pretty sure , that while the ring at Hyde Park is thronged , and the gardens crowded , the Serpentine is no unbearable nuisance . We are ready to admit that the state of the water tillwhen think
is not what it should be ; but s , we of the dark places in London—of St . Giles ' s and Spitalfields and Rotherhithe—and of how much might be done to improve the health and happiness of their inhabitants , with the money proposed to be thrown into the Serpentine , we own that we grudge the expense . If the wealthy martyrs of Hyde Park like to remedy their own . alleged grievances at their own oxpense , well and good . A very small subscription of a few pounds a piece , amongst all who use the ring , would _ givo the Serpentine a new bottom ; but why do it out of the public money ? What reason or justice is there in taking from those who have not , to give it to those who have ?
Tvto.493. Sept. 3, 1b59.] The Leadeb, 10...
TvTo . 493 . Sept . 3 , 1 B 59 . ] THE LEADEB , 1011
The Church In The East. Every One Iu Ear...
THE CHURCH IN THE EAST . Every one iu early life has some object of ambition—some bright vision , which even the wild fanoy of youth scarce hopes to realise . Some men dream of wealth , and fancy themselves Rothschilds , rolling amidst bars of bullion . Some , again , long for Parliamentary distinction , and hope one day , as Premier of England , to sway by their voice an enraptured senate . ¦ Others revel in the thoughts of connubial bliss , and picture to
themselves an ideal partner of their existence , ' who shall unite tho beauty of Helen with the virtue of Lucretia . AVo , aluo , have had our dream , as . unreal and as unattainable : its proportions may have been humbler , its features homelier , but its realisation is as mythical aa that of any of tho proceding hallucinations . Our hopes , since early youth , have been sot upon a pew—a family pewin a parish church . Tho offer of a sitting in a proprietary chapel is to us nothing but an idlo mockery ; thp . pew , tho whole pew , and nothing hut tho paw , i « tho fJKst and Jast article of our oread . Even now that the bri g ht fabric of our dreams has vanished into mid-air , wo cannot
rufrain from dwelling fondly on the beauties of our conception . Seated on the soft-stuffed cushions of our ideal pew , with the dry hassocks crackling beneath our feet , and the heavy prayer-book lying open before us , and the tones of the preacher floating drowsily about our ears , we should have felt so eminently respectable ; our position in this world would have been so satisfactory , our prospects in the next so decidedly promising . Then , indeed , we should have learned to look on all terrestrial and celestial matters from the proper parochial point of view ; then should we have understood the vital difference that exists between
sinners with pews and prayer-books and those godless sinners who never open a prayer-book and never go within a church . The Peri , in truth , did not long for Paradise more ardently than we did for a parish pew . Now , " alas ! this last illusion of our youth is broken . Sentimentalists tell us that the pain of not winning the , hand of the woman that you love is nothing to the misery of finding her unworthy of your affection . How this may be , we cannot tell ; we only know that our grief at never having been able to obtain a pew was joy compared to our feelings when we awoke to the fact that even this unattainable pew would not have afforded us the repose we longed for . Parish pews , like all other mortal things , are vanity : our own pew—dreadful thought!—^ might have been situated in the parish of St . George's-in-the-East .
Picture to yourself , if your imagination is powerful enough , the feelings of any respectable parishioner of St . George ' s-in-the-East , _ on any recent Sunday . We suppose that even in those remote Eastern districts there must be parish-r sioner who are men of common sense ; men . who , in the words engraved ' on a monument erected to a late canon , " have an equal abhorrence for fanaticism and scepticism ; " who pay their rates regularly ; make their children learn the catechism , and go to sleep every Sunday during the sermon . To such men the Sabbath , instead of being a day of rest , must be a day of martyrdom . This unfortunate parish halts between two opinions . The rector-, is addicted to
appointed by a non-resident patron , the most elevated Tractarianism ; the lecturer , appointed by the vestry , is an Evangelical of the Evangelicals . What , then , is to become of our model arid moderate church-goer ? If he attends the service he is a follower of anti-Christ ; if he goes to the lecture , ho is a son of Belial ; if he goes to both , he is a Laodicean , neither hot nor cold ; if , as we should do , he goes to neither , he is a Gallio , who careth for none of these things . The very name of service must become odious to him . The sound of church bells must be an abomination in his ears . His Sunday mornings pass off with comparative quiet ; it is in the afternoon ' winch have
that his trial comes . The exhibitions made St . George ' s-in-thc-East notorious do not put forth their full vigour before noon . At three o ' clock , the performances commence , with a Protestant lecture against Papist . Avolves in Anglican clothing . The church is thronged with an excited audience , whose polemical views are more fervent than profound . The occasion is improved . The " odium theologicum " is raised to its highest pitch —and then the lecturer departs , to make way for a rival performer . His flock , though left like sheep without a shepherd , possess no other resemblance to those peaceful animals . They arc a pleasant congregation , and they arc not dealt with
pleasantly . At four o ' clock , after a vara attempt to clear the church , a sort of travestied hybrid Anglo-Catholic service is commenced . There are olergymon in all kinds of colours , there are pandles , and crosses , bowings , and genuflexions , and intonations , conducted by foolish young men and admired by foolish old women . The mob grows excited . Thon follow shouts , and hootings , and hustling . Tho clergyman has to leave the church by a side door for safety ; tho altar itself is threatened , and the service has to bo discontinued . Sunday after Sunday , on these sultry summer afternoons , have these soenes boon repeated , and unless the autumn rains shall chill tho ardour of tho combatants , they
seem little likely to end . We have no wish to lay tho blame more on one party than tho other . It is a shame and disgrace to both alike , that they should not perceive tho absolute necessity of stopping suoh occurrences , at any Bacriuoo of personal fooling . Ona thing is certain , that quiet ; and thoughtful men , to whom church is a house of prayer , a place of peaceful houghts and inward comumningfi , will turn awny
froni St . George ' s-in-the-East with much of sorrow and something of contempt .
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Gek »I An Y. Aug. 31 . 1859.—The Agitati...
GEK » I AN Y . Aug . 31 . 1859 . —The agitation for union and parliament is fast subsiding under the imperturbable indifference of the great mass of the people . Beyond the columns of some journals there are no signs of interest in tbe movement whatever . The papers willingly publish the few and meagre reports of the utterances and intentions of this or that village conclave , but any thing like an agitation in the English sense of the term is altogether imperceptible . The movement , such as it is , forms , however , the chief topic at this moment ; and as the object sought by it is uppermost in the hearts of the intelligent and patriotic few , and the attainment ultimately by no means to notice
impossible , it may be worth while any evidences of activity in the movement . The patriots of Gotha have lately waited upon their Duke to lay before him the declaration of their views and wishes with reference to union and parliament , beseeching him to lend his power and influence in furtherance of the same . The declaration enunciated the desires contained in the other declarations , and concluded with the following tribute and request " We have the honour of being governed by a prince accustomed to wield the sword for the political honour and independence of the German nation . ( An allusion to the share which the Duke took in the war against Denmark ) . We , and the other kindred tribes of Germany , can never forgot , that in the cause of Schleswig Holstein the Thurmgian
Prince , was the only one who had the boldness to raise his voice against delivering over German duchies to a non-German power . Nor _ can we or other Germans ever cease to remember another patriotic act . When , at the Congress of Princes held in Berlin , the last attempt , under most unfavourable circumstancesj was made to save the Duchies ( as an inseparable state ) , in spite of the threats of foreign powers , your Highness was again the champion of that highminded and patrotic policy which embodied demands exactly similar to those now brought forward by the majority of the people of Germany . Since that period—a lapse ol years unmarked by deeds evincing self respect or national elevation—your Highness has ardently striven to give our scattered patriots courage , unity and patriotic ambition . Therefore , iu
knowing we'll , ana dearly appreciating « noble German sentiments which animate your Highness , we reverently approach you with the request : That it may please your Highness to take under consideration the present patriotic desires offethe German people , and countenance , support , and further the same in the conclave of the sovereign powers . " To this his Highness replied : " Gentlemen—By this address I perceive with sincere satisfaction that the evils of our present condition as a nation have been profoundly felt even in my own little native land . So , then , after many years of the deepest apathy , the wish for national { neatness and power abroad , and independence at
home is once more awakened . This re-agitation must be welcomed by every patriot with joyf -ill hope . Be tho ways what they may by which the , _ gool longed for is sought to be attained , let the constitu-2 fe ^» sc-2 trv Of this I gave spontaneous proof on the osta-SJiWent of the contra ! power In 1848 , and at tho s ^ ttloTent of 1850 . The friendly acknowledgments which m ? endeavours nave called forth from you and Kt ^ Smn people have indeed boon high y
that I shall ever bo ready by word and deed to wd [ noblainmgfor our beautiful country that power and eSLnXn to whleh the Gorman nation , above al DukS , ^ V our a Jeaaers know , Had once a proit of becoming Emperor of Germany , and ovon SoWis election is within tho range of Pof ^ ihty , for ho is undoubtedly the only prince that the Germans would tolerate In case of a revolution . Tho journals , with an instinctivo foe ing that iwuvw
tho union of Parliament agitation wm « Kure . aro beginning to stir up the long dormant quarrel upon tfio question of BohloBwia and Ilolsteln , whluli has boon a rich xnlno of subject-matter for tho Gorman pross , and will undoubtedly bo oxnlorccl
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 3, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03091859/page/15/
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