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THE PETTIFOGGING CHURCH INQUISITION. The...
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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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Indian Finance. At The Eleventh Hour Mr....
festivities , told in the jargon peculiar to w Mulls , " " Backs , " and «* Qui Hyes , is by no means surprising . But it is passing strange that the Government and administration of the finest possession of the British Crown should fell to awaken the attention and sympathy of those who represent the wisdom and sentiments of the British people . Some allowance , perhaps , should be made for the natural repulsion produced by Sir Charles
Wood ' s dull facts and dreary manner on the same occasion in the last session—an excuse , however , that cannot be made for those who lave listened unprofitably to Mr . V . Smith ' s unusually interesting statement . Still , it is not only desirable , but just and necessary , that , for the future , the subject of Indian iinance should be submitted for discussion at an earlier period , and allowed to take precedence of party squabbles and struggles for place .
The accounts now laid before the House , come down no farther than the official year 1852-53 , at which date there was a surplus of income over expenditure to the amount of nearly half a million . Unfortunately this state of pecuniary plethora no longer exists . Instead of an excess of income , we find an excess of expenditure in the estimates for 1854-55 , and to an extent very little short of three millions . This result , we are told , is to be attributed to the increased outlay for public works instituted
in obedience to the expression of public opinion at home . There may be some ingenuity in thus shifting the burden of responsibility upon that small section of speechifters and journalists who are held to represent the people of England . But , on reference to the actual estimate , it appears that the increased expenditure for public -works , buildings , & c , very little exceeds that under the head of military charges : in either case it is less than one million . -And of the
amount ascribed to permanent improvements one-tenth has been employed in the construction of the electric telegraph , a very useful aid to the Government , but of equally doubtful benefit to the natives . What these really require is facility of intercommunication , and canals of irrigation . These two means will greatly diminish the ravages of famine , even if they do not render that affliction almost impossible . And much good might also be done by making au escape for the waters of
the jheels , or marshy lakes , which might thus be diffused in fertilising rills through a barren and thirsty soil . Various temporary causes may no doubt be assigned for the increased military charges , among which may be placed the annexation of Pegu , and the unsettled state of our relations with Ava . It is not our intention to discuss the policy of the hist war with Burmah , but it may be incidentally remarked that Mr . Bright appears to have overlooked the real motives which
induced the Governor-General to undertake the conquest of Pegu . Ifc was not for a paltry claim of 900 £ ., or to avengo a childish slight , but to prevent the Stars and Stripes from waving over the walls of Rangoon . Brother Jonathan likewise had established a grievance at the hands of the somewhat insolent governor of that port , and the next step would assuredly have been the presence of
an American squadron in the waters of the Irrawaddy . It ia needless to inquire what would be ] bhe probable consequences of an American settlement on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal- ; but it is a fair subject of congratulation that the contingency has for the present been averted by the expenditure of a few millions . ' JSTo one who possesses any actual knowteflge of India can desire to behold the
slightest reduction of the army during the existence of the so-called Independent States , which are so many elements of discord and confusion . Of these protected or independent states there are one hundred and eighty , varying in extent from a single square mile to ninety-five thousand . In all there exist the same frightful abuses , the same grinding oppression of the people , tempered only by the greater or less restraint imposed by the British Government . It would demand
more space than we can now afford to consider the justice and expediency of graduallv absorbing the whole of this vast territory . " Sooner or later this result is inevitable , and for the interests of humanity it is desirable that such a joyful consummation may not be long deferred . The expenses of Government would then be sensibly decreased , because it would be no longer necessary to maintain so large an army . The consolidation of our empire would also enable the authorities to direct
their undivided attention to the amelioration of the people and the general improvement of the country . One entire system of police —perhaps eventually of law and revenuemight be established from the mountains to the sea . And , in addition , to these manifest advantages , an increased revenue of thirteen millions sterling would enable the
Government to introduce Free Trade in its largest form , and gradually liquidate the debt that now absorbs too large a portion of the resources of our Indian Empire . " We shall then never again have to lament a deficiency of three millions . The greater the expenditure , the greater will be the income , for even at thia moment the real wealth of India is an
unexplored mine th » t requires only peace , enterprise , and capital to pour forth an abundance surpassing the dreams of Oriental fabulists .
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The Pettifogging Church Inquisition. The...
THE PETTIFOGGING CHURCH INQUISITION . The defective energy in the official administrators of the Church of England has its usual results in cruelty and injustice . The episcopal body neglect their true office , of overlooking the administration of the Church , and seeing that it be correct according to the rules ; they leave the correction of error to that most unchristian of all tests , litigation ;
they submit the control of the material machinery designed for spiritual purposes to the temporal courts ! This is certainly reducing Protestantism adabsurdum ; and it shows how depraved has become the state of an establishment , which is neither true to its own standards as a corporation dictating the faith of a people , nor faithful to what would be its more enlarged duty , of conforming itself to the actual state of intelligence and belief in the country , and becoming the Church of the People of England .
A contemporary , not remarkable for any innovating tendencies in Church matters , points to this state of the Ecclesiastical Government , and especially to four cases , now disturbing the peace of parishes in as many dioceses . Knightabridge is awaiting the decision of Dr . Lttbihngton on the dispute between Churchwarden Westeiiton and
Pastor IiiBDKTiTi , respecting tho old nuestion of cross , stono altar , and candlesticks . At JYorao , Mr , Bennett ia vindicating flowers , <^ c , against tho attacks of a lay parishioner , and the epietolaiVtlisapproval of the Bishop of Bath anjj Wells , who throws cold water on ' the flowers . Tho Hildebrand of Exeter refuses to institute tho Reverend C . 0 . IiArARD , who has been presented to tho living of Escpt by Sir John Kennaway , on the ground that tlfio presentee is unsound in doctrine — according to tho rubric of
Exeter , ' whidh unhappily'' is not iihe satoe as thie rubric of Canterbury . At BedjEumster there is a new church recently built by the munificence of a resident in the neighbourhood , assisted by some other amateurs . In the church is a reredos , or screen , representing the nativity , the crucifixion , and the ascension , not in picture , which has often represented these events to Protestants , but in sculpture ; and some Protestantly sensitive eyes have discovered
that in the sculptured representation of tht crucifixion there is a crucifix ! The Bishoi or Gloucester visited the church , did not disapprove of its ornaments , and all seemed to go smoothly for consecration . The screen had been presented to the church by three gentlemen in the neighbourhood—one of whom is a Unitarian , another a Dissenter—as amarl of respect to the friend who was principally interested in building the new church . It is pleasing to witness this uniou of men belonging to different sections of the great Catholic Church in an act of respect for
a friend , embodied in a permanent tribute to the Father of all . Some persons , however , who call themselves Christians , use this very gage of" Christian union as a means of discord ; and the } ' addressed a letter to the Bishop , so bitter , so wanting in personal respect , so evidently designed to produce " strife and contention , " says the Bishop , " and to wound the feelings of the donors—three of the most respectable citizens of Bristol , who never were suspected of any papistical bias "—that the Bishop lias heen obliVpfl to rondi'nm the screen on the
score of its inexpediency . He also has some objection on the score of " imagination ; " the artist not having been sufficiently accurate in the representation of the events in question . Evidently there is wanted a tribunal to settle what is or is not the usage of the Church of England in such matters—what can or cannot be allowed—what is or is not
the final authority for reference . We frequently see Bishops compelled to do that ot which they disapprove , or to disallow that of which they approve , while wo see other Bishops in mutiny Against the law of the land , and called to account before tho civil courts for matters strictly within the discipline of the Church .
Iu revenge , as tho French say , they take it out sometimes upon some less fortunate member of the I 3 cclesiastieal ^ bdy , who serves as scapegoat or whipping-boy , because he does not manage to arrange his mutiny according to the established rules which have grown up under the instituted litigation of the Christian Church . Archdeacon Dknison ia ono of these bad boys , llo has already been called to account , and he is now about to bo subjected to a mandamus from the
Court of Queen ' s Bench . If there wore a proper tribunal , Gkokot-: Anthony would be called before it , ordered what to do , puni . shod for disobedience , or expelled from the-Church if finally mutinous . Il mi ^ lit . be arbitrary , but it would be regular , spiritual , and episcopal . Failing either to asserb or enforce its authority , tho { Supreme Administration of tho Church leaves its duty to : wy beneficed Dissenter in disguise , and hi 1 Hers ft son of its corporation to be persecuted ,
according to tho modern English fushion , in tho purse , IJo in not put to " tho question " as ic would have been in tho Inquisition , but he ia subjected to tho torture of lawyers ' bills . Huch is tho Holy Office as it ih ndniinjHtorod by our sacred und orthodox Cliurrh ! It is a meivn exorcise of power ; nnd , without approving the spirit or tho conduct of a I ) bni 8 ON , wo protest in the strongest manner that wo can against tho pitiful form of such a persecution .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081855/page/12/
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