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JuiiY 8, 1854.] THE LEADER. 637
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LORD DERBY'S TITLE DEEDS. Loud Djesby li...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Church Charity And Catholic Charity. Tbu...
makes us . feel our equality in the sight of € rod , none but the cynical or the thoughtless man could resist the force of this remark . On reflection , we call it a common-place ^ and so it is ; but it ia one of those common places that will bear repetition to the crack of doom , "because they are the stuff of which life is made . It is a great religious truth—common alike to all sects and races , to Lord John 3 Jussell , to Cardinal "Wiseman , to the Red man and tha Black man , to the Turk and the Hindoo . And the truth of that axiom is
driven home , when it is followed by the touching spectacle of a procession of orphan girls , as it was on Wednesday night . Still the ' spectacle had its painful side ; for these intelligent-looking , neatly-clad creatures marched softly round tables which had been covered with all the luxuries that delight the sense of man , and it was impossible not to remember how much happier Joseph Brown and his flock of orphans would have been had we all handed in our subscriptions plus
instead of minus the cost of that prodigal dinner . Joseph Brown wanted not costly meats and drinks , but the means of clothing , sheltering , and instructing more orphans . Yet there were many ministers of the Church , and a great officer of State , eating and . drinking and making merry , and sitting to hear their names read up as collectors of subscriptions , and as subscribers to the Orphan's Home , and anxious to make speeches before
a lord . That is the unlovely side of the picture—a painful commentary on human weakness . Here is one way in which the Church of England collects funds for the support of the poor and . forlorn . It has other modes , pulpits for example ; but this mode is not beautiful as the mode of a Church so wealthy as ours . Better , however , that the work be so done than not done at all .
There is another mode not practised by the Church of England , and more beautiful by far . Let us describe an instance . At the east end of Hammersmith , there is a dwelling called JElmhouse , inhabited by Sisters of Mercy—and good and merciful they are . j Fourteen ladies , Borne of them born to luxury , live and labour in that house . They have gone forth into the lanes and bye ways , into places "where few ladies penetrate , and
they have caught up and carried to Elmhouse no fewer than sixty-two aged and poor old women . They have washed them ; they have tended them ; they have fed , and clothed , and sheltered them . It is a beautiful sight to see—a sight tender hearts weep with joy over .. The Sisters of Morcy themselves wait upon their aged guests ; make their beds ; scrub their rooms ; wash their clothes j cook their food ; do all , and more than all , that servants would do . Two of them drive a cart
roun d to tho neighbouring Catholic families to gather up broken victuals ; for these Sisters of JMCercy are Sisters of Poverty too , and have no luxuries , no tuvbot and champagne , no public dinners , little boside daily bread and water . Nor is this all . The house is not iu good repair , and the rain
qrips through the roof ; but the Sisters of Mercy give up the raiu-proof rooms to their guests , and aleop themselves whoro tho rain may pattor through at pleasure . How different from the charity dinner mode of helping the poor . Yot those aro the institutions which the Spooners and Nowdegatea call upon us to destroy .
JSot , however , for the purpose of blaming either Church—or cither soot , properly Bpoaking—do wo draw this contrast ; but " for tho purpose of romomberiug what it is good to romembor , that tho great religious ( ruth , charity , ior tho practical love of one to another , belong alike to all sects . All true religious principles are universal ; all untrue principloo particular . Sometimes iu on © form
sometimes in another they appear ; one race puts this construction on the great open book of revelation , another that ; one sect rears up a magnificent pile of doctrine upon a basis of common truth , another contents itself with rules and axioms ; but , like this beautiful attribute of charity , what is true lies at the basis of all 3 and when it is taken away , or when it becomes encrusted with corruption , then comes the death and disappearance of that form of religion . But love , and charity , and truthfulness , and faith , and the rock of trust , Duty , survive for ever .
Juiiy 8, 1854.] The Leader. 637
JuiiY 8 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 637
Lord Derby's Title Deeds. Loud Djesby Li...
LORD DERBY'S TITLE DEEDS . Loud Djesby lias stood forward as the defender of an aristocratic institution in Canada . Abolish the legislative Council nominated by the Crown , he says , and you remove all check upon mob legislation ; you degrade the Members of the Council by obliging them to seek their election at the hands of the sanae constituency which elects the House of Commons ; and the connexion with the monarchy might as well be given
up . Lord Derby , therefore , regards it as " degrading * ' for the member of the House of Lords to be appointed directly by the public instead of by the Queen ! The Duke of Newcastle defended his own bill for making the change in Canada , and sustained it by three arguments . In the first place , he said , mere nominees of the Crown are not regarded with so much respect in the colony as to render the post one of ambition for really eligible candidates ; iu
the second place , the colonists wish the change which he is going to establish by legislation ; and in the third place , the concession to the popular wish , in Canada , which has continued without interruption from the time since Lord Durham suggested the adoption of local and responsible government in lieu of imperial and absolutist government , has converted the colony from a state of chronic rebellion into one of loyalty and affection . These are remarkable admissions ,
asserting as they do that the satisfaction of the popular wish 3 the concession of self-government , and tbe fullest extension of liberty , create loyalty to G-overnment , and restore affection " for the monarchy . In other words , * democracy , " —for the Duke of Newcastle uses the word , —democracy , which cannot be resisted , may be reconciled with monarchical government . We Avill not cavil about words : the meaning is quite clear ; and it is perfectly consistent with our own experience in
England . The largest extension of representative government , and of enfranchisement for all freemen in a country where there are none but freemen , is not only consistent with a loyal fidelity to the monarchy , but actually reproduces that disposition when it has been injured by bad government . We might soy to tho Duke of Newcastle , that the experiment which succeeds in Canada , and \ vnicb
is corroborated by the past history of our own country , might be ciu ried out at home ; and what is more , wo aro strongly persuaded that tho Duko of Newcastle is not tho man to > deny that home-thrust proposition , If the English peonlo retained as much activo will to secure their own rights as tho Canadian pooplii have exorcised , they would find a Newcastle to concede a statute aa tho
Canadians h ' uvo found one . But our affair , for tho moment , ia that of a differout speaker . Lord Derby has soino peculiar notions ro-H ^ ecting dignity . He admits that thoro ia a diiForenco between tho Legislative Council and tho Houso of Lords . " But , " ho suya , " is thoro any Poor so degraded , 80 little conscious of his duties ns a legislator , who would consent to excruiso those duties , if it wore pooslblo , nfcer this Housu for two successive years had rqjeoted
or amended , to the displeasure of the House of Commons * any measure , you should be compelled to vacate your seats and to go for re-election to the very body that returned the House of Commons , whose bills you had humbly ventured to take the liberty . of amending . " - The whole tone of this passage indicates the spirit of the man . He evidently considers the Commons as an inferior body to the Lords ; he would hold himself degraded by being in the position of a commoner .
Judging from bis defence of the Legislative Council , he would rather be a nominee of the Crown , even in a community that despised nominees , than the freely chosen representative of a people . He says this , although he has accepted the suffrages of Englishmen , and has sat as a member amongst commoners . The public , therefore , now notes with what feelings he has stood before them to ask their votes , with what feelings he sat behind bis brother commoners in the House of Commons .
He despises his countrymen , not being Peers . He would now consider himself " degraded ' by asking their votes and sitting amongst them ! There might be grounds for this pride . We can conceive a very reasonable source of pride at a day when a Stanley could bring forward to the defence of his sovereign a body of his own retainers , supported at his own expense , to defend his country and its Crovra . In those days a Peer was a person of dignity ; he
possessed real power , and real power is always respected . Although not so literally the " owner" of his lands , he was " lord" over them- —a minor sovereign , often able to defend his title against the Sovereign , of the country . But since those days the power of the Peer has declined . He has , indeed , by a species of encroachment , become landowner instead of landlord ; he can sell his lands , and often does ; lie pledges them , and cannot
retrieve them from the pawnshop ; he retains an hereditary seat in one House of Parliament ; but he does not always inherit the faculties "which render that seat available , and he is frequently no better than the member for a pocket borough ; with this difference , that the Peer sits there in his own right . There is something in that , but not much , for he no longer performs suit and service . He has shuffled off the maintenance of Church to
^ he ratepayers , he has shuffled off the providing of an army to the taxpayers ; he is no longer bound to go to tho "wars in person , and frequently prefers to stop- at home : in short , he does nothing for his privileges , except give obstructive votes to prevent the legislation of the people . Canada may be an example to the English at large , but it ought to be a warning to the Peerage . There has been in some degree the same regard in the colony for superior rank and for connexion with the Crown . But
people have asked , of what use are the Legislative Councils ? How do they suit our present circumstances ? "What do they do for their seats ? They only hinder ua ; they aro not a use , but an obstruction . Can a different tale be told of the House of Lords ? It is true that they may occasionally furnish statesmen ; but even they have got their pay for that service ; and it does ixot , like the old expedition to the wars , entail either persona . dangor , or bodily hardship , or tho rialc of
loss . No man who servos his sovereign now runs the chance of lo-auig his lands and head by tho victory of that sovereign ' s rival . Above all , no man now signalises hia high poaition by making any gonuin © enorifioe to tho state . It in active sorvico , genoroua sacrifice , public utility , that constitute tho truo titlo-docda of nu aristocracy . Thoro is 11 period iu . tho riao and fall o £ most states when fading men come forward and tako ti high pos ^ m ; whou by tbe exercise of groat powers thoVfteouro privileges , because
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08071854/page/13/
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