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Jakuary 8, 1853.] THE LEADER. 39
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THE GIBBET AS A PULPIT. Science has esta...
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AN EVENING WITH A PROPAGANDIST * ADDRESS...
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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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'I Uk Unimmn(Mimj']|) Opposition To Mr. ...
i ^ ^ estanfc Protection . In September P ollowed the scandals of the smuggled Chancellor 2 J ? ' m . January an unholy alliance of discom frted lories , disappointed converts to State-Cimrcarnansliip , Protestant bigots , and Protectionist Anglicans , with other even less respectable elements of obstruction , convulses Convocation , distracts the peace of parsonages , and puts proiessional and rural Masters of Arts to all sorts of trouble and expense—for what ? To satisfy the impertinent dictation , to natter the inordinate pretensions , and to assuage the acrid suspicions of Mr . Archdeacon Denison and his strange
associates on the one hand , and to do the dirty work of the Carlton and flaunt the flag of religious intolerance on the other . And as if the University were not in a sufficiently compromised position and could afford to sink still lower in public estimation , as if commissions of inquiry were not suspended over her head , and Parliamentary committees threatened , her dignitaries are found dealing in the meanest tricks of the
dirtiest borough constituency : resorting to fraudulent electioneering manoeuvres , jockeying like Frails and Flewkers , bullying like Beresfor ' ds , and after forging fictitious candidates , adopting as the supplanter of Mr . Gladstone a crazy Chadband , quite as orthodox as insignificant . So underhanded and pertinacious , however , has been the canvass by the opponents of Mr . Gladstone , that his seat is really in danger , and lie bids fair to share the honourable repulse of his great friend and master , Peel .
It concerns all those to whom the good honour of the University is dear , to hasten at whatever inconvenience to the rescue . Whatever differences of opinion may exist about the temper or the consistency of Mr . Gladstone ' s politico , faith , it will not be denied that no representative more thoroughly identified with all that is best in
Oxford , by genius , character , and education , ( and at the same time , more liberal in sympathies , and generous in tendencies , ) could be found to represent that University than William Gladstone . What can be said of his opponent , unless it be that he too fitly represents the motley crew who are making him the tool of their dishonesty , their folly and thier malevolence ?
Jakuary 8, 1853.] The Leader. 39
Jakuary 8 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 39
The Gibbet As A Pulpit. Science Has Esta...
THE GIBBET AS A PULPIT . Science has established the truth , that every living thing carries with it the seeds of its own destruction ; and that these seeds are facilitated in their germination , by contact with objects with which they sympathize and assimilate . History furnishes abundant material to the investigator , and wherever we find this truth appreciated , there society is active in the work of preservation , by withholding food from the desolating parasite : hence the mission of the apostlo of anti-pestilence , and of every grade of reformer : and the fervent utterance of hone that
avc may bo led from temptation and delivered from evil , embodies the desire that philosophical research is teaching us bow to realize . Yet , in the face of tlieso facts , those whom we would wish to regard as the wisest and most . learned in our land , have- permitted a . statute to remain upon the books , which orders that a public spectacle should bo made ; of the execution of a murderer , by Avay of example , to deter others from crime ; and , contrary to general experience , there are those who are , it would appear , ho eager to be taught by example , that wo are informed by a contemporary , " at a late hour at niirht a crowd of the habitual attendants at
executions assembled at the Old Hailey , " in tin ; expectation of . seeing- the condemned convict , Horler , executed on the Monday morning following , " mid , although told tlio execution would not take place before Monday next , many persons persisted in remaining during the night , : m < l ! l ( ' llu <" . v liour m the morning additional numbers arrived , and ninny were the speculations Unit a reprieve bad been soul , from the Home OIHce , others insisting that the execution would tuite place . The gates of the prison having been opened . shortly before eight o'clock , and several barriers brought out , the mob began to be certain that the execution would take place , but it soon turned out that the- barriers were required lor the city of London election and the crowd nt length wearily dispersed . "
" Wearily < lisperse ( l . " Did they eonio there to Htand throng , the long night , to witness a harrowing hcc . o on tho ™<> rr <™ , » Y " » W ol penunco for their own » ins F . Did they eon verse with each other , and Hpoculato upon the awful debt the murcloror had to P » . y H or , Did not theno
" habitual attendants " come again , some of them to feed an idle curiosity , and others to gloat their imagination upon the legal slaughter P What example is it , then , when we find " habitual att endants , " and they not counted in tens , but in thousands ? Is it not an example rather for imitation than avoidance P The more hanging , the more ciime , which the following figures from a Parliamentary paper will prove .
In the county of Middlesex alone , there were , from 1810 to 1826 , 34 criminals convicted of murder and executed , notwithstanding 188 murders were committed . From 1836 to ' 42 , out of 27 convictions only 17 were hanged , and but 90 persons committed for the crime . In England and Wales , all who were convicted of murder in 1815 , ' 17 , ' 18 , and ' 29 , were executed , and in the four years following , the crime increased to 12 per cent . In 1836 , ' 38 , ' 40 , and ' 42 , 31 were executed out of 83 condemned , and in the succeeding years the crime of murder increased 17 per cent .
Weak natures , in the throb of excitement , yield obedience to the powers of contamination sooner or later , and the elements destructive to healthy instinct , which are found in the " habitual attendant , " thrive apace and receive continued supplies of food to satisfy their craving . The highwayman and burglar have manifold admirers , and the murderer who dies " game " is an example which , to the debasing and debased , leaves in their mind an image , not so much to be shuddered at , as to be contemplated and
spoken of with a brutal zest . It is really worth while to act upon these well-known truths , although the subject has been discussed until it is threadbare . The work of improvement has been slowly going on , in the suppression of harmful theatrical representations . Why not then suppress the greatest and worst in the Theatre-Royal Old Bailey ? We have improved our treatment of juvenile offenders : have we not at last learned that it is not necessary to exhibit vice to the child whom we would make virtuous ?
An Evening With A Propagandist * Address...
AN EVENING WITH A PROPAGANDIST * ADDRESSED TO ANTI-SLAVERY LEADERS AT HOME ATCD ABROAD . ( Concluding paper . ) Years ago , I sat one nig ht on a platform , at a large public meeting in the North , to hear a gentleman of great talking-power make an oration against certain indefinite industrial oppressors , who occupied villas outside the town . My friend was then a Member of Parliament , but some little service I had rendered him before he had dreamt of that elevation , had maintained n speaking- acquaintance between us . Poor fellow ! he is dead now ; but he had an eloquent tongue . My friend that night made oik ; of his best speeches . Even now the melody of his noble voice resounds in my ear . No music moves me like oratory . I , who can read Walkingame at the Opera , cannot turn my oyes one moment from a Master of Aasemblics while a single cadence sways the human forest , before Iiini . This is an excellence which 1 could never imitate , nor even attain the point of endurable mediocrity ; but , us many passionately worship the faculty they least possess , and worship it ; tlie more ardently as it , is more hopelessly beyond their reaVh , so the admiration hero confessed to , arises perhaps from the despairing distance of the gift admired . The condition of the white slave was my friend's subject , and his generous heart had a pulsation equal -to the great , theme , and he had a great opportunity that night . The English Planter was there , part of the audience , as well as the ' factory Negro . Attracted hy the reputation of " 1 ' arliament men , " they bad come < lo \ vn " jus ( , to hear what , had to be said ; " and the orator determined that they should " come for something . " And he kept his word .
" Havn't 1 given it them ? " he said to me , as he nnf down , amidst , n storm of applause . " Yes , you Magnificent IJlockheiid , " I answered ; " and don't they thank y for it ? Listen to that half-suppressed titter in the boxes—watch'tho curl of satisfaction and contempt , now playing on the cotton-lords' lips . Them jead your triumph ! They should have turned me twice ou a gridiron before 1 . would have done them the service of that speech . You have allbrded them u pretext for buttoning up their pockets and keeping out o ( your franchise agitation for six years more . " " What tho devil do you mean i' Come and collee with me , mid talk it over . " " What . I mean is this , " I said , tho moment we sat down in the smoking-room of his Hotel ; '' that , you * Vido previous art . iolos on tho " Anti-tfluyory Agitation " Leader , Now . 130 , lyy .
hme made a very eloquent and a very useless speech . Had I your Atlantean shoulders , your imperial presence , your lungs of Mirabeau , I would have spoken like the voice of Nature to those men . My cadences should have had the ring of fate iif their ears . It makes me mad to see you lay your Sampson ' s head on tbeir Dalilah lap to be shorn at their discretion . " " Ah ! is that what you mean , Coldblood ? " he said ,
in provoking indifference to my impetuous reproof . Then thinking some justification necessary , he added , " Look at the enormity of the callousness of these men to the misery around them . Their plethoric brains repose on down . If they would but open their windows before they sleep , they might hear the dying scream of famished poverty in the bitter night air . Gentleness , < Ion / only pampers the evil . They overflow with indulgences . "
" For that very reason treat them tenderly . In a venal and ease-loving opulent middle-class effeminacy is strength . Only exaggerate their ninety-ninth vice , and their piteous cries will echo through all newspapers , and drown the next people ' s petition in St . Stephen's . Your brilliant outrage upon them will bring them newattentions . The town will forget their hundred sins of omission in its decorous sympathies for those who g ive dinners and vote places . The poor man ' s life may be one long series of aches and pains . Nobody thinks of that . It is his lot ; he is used to it . . But if a rose-leaf is crushed under the cheek of affluence , all Town Councils and Corporations agree to an instantaneous vote of condolence . "
f r "TTl X 1 1 . __ . _ ?) * , T 1 » ^ -d sx «* asiI » r C £ T nrmil ^ " For that very reason , " said he , fiercely , " I would make them feel what wretches feel . " " That ' s just where you are wrong , my Greatheart . It is not worth your while making them feel what wretches feel . There ' s enough of suffering in the world already . Contrive to make wretches feel less . You can ' t force these men , except through blood , and that ' s a new and a worse mischief , not an amelioration . " " What better course can I take than telling them the truth ? " he demanded , in a tone of acrid expostulation .
" Beware of the Truth , my dear friend . Truth , alarming as the paradox sounds , is the weak point of the propagandist . As common men rise in adversity and fall in prosperity , so the advocate will steer clear through shoals of Error and split at last upon the rock of Truth . Ho does this partly from a commendable reverence for truth , which he looks upon as a Deity , rather than as an Implement of warfare . None of us must deal in Falsehood—we are clear on that point : but Truth may be used at discretion . Out of all that we know to be true , we must take only so much as
will accomplish the end in view . A man rises upon a platform . He says he will speak plainly . The audience applaud . No one asks whether the orator will speak juxt . li / . The liar speaks plainly , the ruffian speaks plainly , but we detest their perspicuity and their bhmtness . A speaker rises on the platform , lie says , he proposes to apeak the truth . The multitude vociferate with ecstasy , " J / e will give it ' em . " No one inquires whether the orator will speak his truth to some purpose . It seldom happens . so ; yet that is taken for granted by those v » ho are . so ill-informed as to believe that all truth is relevant . The size of n
town , the length of the . streets , the height of tho houses , the colour of cabmen ' s guifers , and the width of the vicar ' s brim , are all truths - and yet we would not take in that newspaper ii . second week that distended its leading articles with such inanities . Yet ; these truths answer all the requirements of the populace . The facts cannot be denied . All is perfectly t , nu im , l perfectly useless . Kvery faet . is undeniable and unnecessary . Nobody can contradict them , and nobody cares for them . The Times newspaper was the first to make a household word of the phrase " a
great fact . " Hefore it so christened the Anti-cornlaw League , thousands of persons in this country wen : unconscious that some facts vvc . ro great and some small . And to this day there aro orators on our platforms who do not know the distinction . And there are people who applaud them for their ignorance . If you interpose to correct , this . sublime folly , they cry out , ' () ! you have no enthusiasm ! ' And thus enthusiastic men go on , with great , noise , throwing pebbles , when the age wants cool-headed , steady-armed giants to
remove inoiinl . aniH . " I'Yont , " na . id he , with ono of those iiihnilahlo waves of the head , that » ny plebeian toil-stilfoned lack would never accomplish— " Krost , ( hero ' s a trille of thaw in then yet . ; but I don't see whut you nro driving at . Am I to take (! ocker on the platform with me , and work u Kule of Three Hum at every round of apphuwe . Your theory would all run into calculation . "
Speaking , my dear Orator , in tli ' m quiet manner to you , one may Hay confidentially , what would bo called dreadfully egotistical if uttered in tho cars of tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/15/
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