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W^^^llMftl n/A MliiMMIl__ 1M5_
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THE MILITIA. A militia, should be essent...
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A WORD TO SHEFFIELD. Some of the middle ...
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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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.
"The Leader'* In Exeter Hall. Those Pers...
tfcis century ,, geologists now living _ were con- , demned as uttering , opinions , « at variance with theWrative of holy writ . " " Is every man , asked Lor Jchn , " who has made a physical discovery , to ask eyjay magistrate whether his demonstration is at variance with some ignorant interpretation of the Scriptures , before he ventures to publish it to the world ? " Lord John vindicates the rig ht of freely discussing all sub
jects , in religion as well as science , by the examples of the disciples who refused to obey the dictate of the magistrate that they should be silent . He showed how the attempt lo ' repress intellectual or scientific progress has not succeeded in establishing the old opinion , but only in causing its overthrow through a violent convulsion . But Lord John did not stop at this . comparatively low position ; he asserted that " the first step to the discovery of truth is the exercise of the faculties of the human mind . " He
was not content with asserting the right of truth to its own free utterance , but he insisted upon " the free circulation of truth and error . " This , even at the present day , is a really courageous position ; not the less courageous for being strictly logical and confirmed in . its wisdom by experience . Lord John might have immensely increased his authorities . There is no truth , however early uttered in the history of mankind , that has not been strengthened by subsequent discoveries . The square of the hypothenuae is equal to the square of the two sides as much in our own day as it was in the days of Thales . The two new commandments that men
should love God with all their hearts , and that they should love one another , have continued to gain in forpe and in the practical obedience of mankind , exactly in proportion as they have been discussed with freedom by large numbers , And not simply uttered- dogmatically by priests in uniform . On the other hand , dogmatic errors which were invulnerable while discussion was forbidden , have fallen beneath argument as soon as discussion was free . That sceptical philosopher Lucretius was not put in his right place by the dogmatism of Rome in his day , or even of Rome in ours , but by that free discussion of facts which lias shown the insufficiency of his knowledge . Tom : Paine has ceased to be an opponent worth
remembering , now that his little book must no longer be read in secret . Nay , Pa : ley has ceased to lend his aid to scepticism , now that free discussion has admitted higher minds , and the orthodox have learned from their opponents to raise the discussion above the low grounds on which he placed it . The most bigoted now admit that the great truths of the Creation are » ot to be comprehended and settled like questions of watch-making . It is free discussion , in truth , that has given finite reason its fling , and shown it that it cannot compass the creation or measiiro the truth of all things . Lord John , therefore , might have told the whole story of dogmatic scepticism as a corroboration of hia leading principle .
In all this there is nothing new to the Leader . The distinctive principle with which we started was the right of every opinion to its own free utterance . We contended equally with Lord John , that free discussion would be in tho interest of truth . And not only of truth , but of something which belongs to truth , though not part o it . Wo have always held and maintained that freedom of discussion would conduce to
respectful consideration for tho vanishing opinions of tho jaat , Human powers are incapable of complete knowledge , or of any absolute knowledge except iiuthe divinely-inspired form of instinct , which is independent of reason ; but the freer discussion isj < the more conscious wo are of thia common imperfection , and now opinion , knowing that it muet ! die , haa the stronger sympathy for old dogma ! on its death bed , knowing that old dogma was tho new opinion of a former day .
It was persecution that made new opinion contraband , that forced upon it all its lawlessness , upon its votaries all their bitterness . For no custom-house was so easily evaded as that of dogma . The Inquisition itself could not prevent , the " converse o thought , but could only identify the belief in mathe matically-demonstrated truths with revolution ; rendering , for instance , every astronomer who believed that two and two make
four ipso facto an enemy to constituted authority . Lord John perceives , not only that Governments * and hierarchies , but even Young Men ' s Christian Associations , must beware how they place themselves in direct antagonism to any rule that two and two make four . The prohibitions on discussion were evaded ; evasion is always immoral ; and in this sense , the evasions borrowed their worst vice from the bad government they counteracted . The master of satire related in plain
language the facts recorded in the most Sacred Vofumes and converted them to ridicule by bringing them in juxtaposition with homely notions of modern discoveries ; but he cast ridicule on the truth that came down to us with rude cosmogonies . So again , after exposing the base attributes ascribed to divinity by dogmatic perpetuations of obsolete forms , and making us logically understand that the old mythologists had not given us logical proof of t / ieir God ,
the sceptic ventured upon the mad assertion , " There is no God . " Scepticism itself , exasperated by the scourge of persecution , went beyond the utmost extravagance of religious dogma , and took its suicidal stand upon an assertion of the negative ! Outrages of that kind are rendered impossible by free discussion . In our day , the sceptics , not to use a more offensive term , are represented by the calm and conscientious Secularists , who simply confess their own
vocation for dealing with temporal . affairs rather than eternal inquiries , while they combat the remnant of social persecution which is carried on in the name of " religion . " And in our day , the leader of the Whig party , accepting an invitation from Lord Shaftesbuuy and the Young Men ' s Christian Association , stands up in Exeter Hall to proclaim in the interest of the prevalent faith , with much historical corroboration—the fundamental principle of " Tlie Leader "
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The Militia. A Militia, Should Be Essent...
THE MILITIA . A militia , should be essentially a national force , never employed out of the country , except in cases of very great emergency—those severe trials which every people , at certain periods of their history , must inevitably undorgo ; periods when they are beset by foes , or when , in consequence of negligence , they have suffered the military machine to break down . If we had taken those steps , indicated in a recent number , as tho " Basis of an Army ; " if we had established those habits and institutions , that , by developing
their faculties , make men good soldiers , we should not be greatly troubled to form a militia . As every man would be trained to arms from his youth up , volunteers for an embodied militia , independently of tho voluntary companies , would never fail . At any moment the country could command , not a mob , but an army , to defend itself against invasion , numbering hundreds of thousands ; an army wliich could use the spado as effectually as tho rifle , so that with our wooden walls , and our wall of men , we should really need " no more bulwarks , no towers along the steep . "
A militia , raised as wo propose , with a partial training as a basis , might bo made into a force , only leas formidable than the regular army , for war purposes , and eminently beneficial to the country in time of peace . Taken young , entry into the militia corps , should be , in fact , only an entry into a higher school , where the peer and tho peasant might undergo a training in common for a given period , which would not only fit them
for a military , but improve them , fov , a civil life To carry out ; this plan , camps ami t barrack ) would be needed , each with its schools aud . pro fessors . Under the present system , we catch a a young fellow , thrust him into a red coat , makf him submit to manual drill , and dismiss him from the parade to the public house , a prey to idleness and debauchery . Under an improved and proper system , we should consider every man who entered the corps as , for the time of his service , under the immediate guardianship of the national authorities . We should teach him to handle the pen as well as the musket ; to use his brains as well as his limbs : to cultivate his affection , and
control his passions . We should set before him , not pedantically , but naturally , tho highest examples . We should make him a diligent student of " common things , " teach him to cook , to saw , to build , to drain , and to cultivate tho earth . We should practically educate him in obedience , frugality , self-reliance , and selfrenunciation ; so that service in the militia might really serve many of the purposes , and , in some respects , more than the purposes , of superior schools .
For in the camp-school the great object should be not accomplishments , not unnecessary acquirements , but strictly training ; and the greatest attention should be paid to the growth and ripening of the germs of moral excellenceto character , in short , and to the fullest development of physical vigour . To make a good soldier , as well as to make a good citizen , a man must have strength and self-respect ; and if our youth could be imbued with selt-respect , depend upon it , drunkenness , lewdness , personal uncleanness , filth of all kinds would be tho exception and not the rule .
Thus trained and educated , the young militiaman would , when his term of service exp ired , enter civil society with tripled faculties , and a firm manly character . Instead of being a burden , he would be a benefit to society ,, and carry with him everywhere the habits acquired during his military training ; whereas , if he preferred military life , and entered the regular array , he would take to that service the germs of all the attributes that characterize an old soldier .
Surely it would not be very difficult to approximate to some system similar to that roughly sketched above , and to blot out our present no-system , which , although it improves the men in many cases , injures them in others , and neither converts them into good soldiers nor prevents them from being bad citizens . Do our readers need authority in support ot these views ? If so , let them lake to heart tho lecture delivered by Sir John M'JN ' eill at Edinburgh last week , whic-h e so Hi ^ ojwa . l > ot them study that lecture and seo how deoply it
cuts down to tho roots of our recent disasters , and lays bare their origin , in the division of labour , the bad training of the poor in their homo and tho school , the imperfect training of our soldiers even , whom a Government has under its hands . Depend upon it , if we would keep our place as a nation , and do its high duties , > vo must govern more diligently , and work more assiduously to elevate from flllh , intemperance , and self-debasement , those who form tho basia of society .
A Word To Sheffield. Some Of The Middle ...
A WORD TO SHEFFIELD . Some of the middle and working-class es in Sheffield hesitate whether or not to ' > olie ™ . "' " revelations" they have heard ! ™»<»™» Lord . Palbwbotoh and Englwh fore . g P ° " <*• To the majority of intelligent PJ «*' | * j ! only iu Sheffield but in * £ X ! # £ w £ ^ t castle , and other North and M . dl jj » U towm ^ it SS £ SS = « 3 S ZtlZmme , M wl ' ' ° ' "" " - ° " *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111855/page/13/
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