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December 17, 1853] THE LEADER 1213
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YOUNG TORY ENGLAOT AND OLD CONSERVATIVE ...
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THE GOVERNING 'CLASSES. No. XIV. THE MAR...
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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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December 17, 1853] The Leader 1213
December 17 , 1853 ] THE LEADER 1213
Young Tory Englaot And Old Conservative ...
YOUNG TORY ENGLAOT AND OLD CONSERVATIVE ROME . No one has contributed more to popular enlig htenment . on the subject of pai * ty cries than the Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli . The admiring readers of Coningsby and of Sybil would scarcely expect to find in the disciples of the literary statesman more slavish adherents to the principles of Tadpole and Taper than were those gentlemen themselves . But so it is ; On thePress there has as yet been ground but one
set of tunes , and those—anti-Ministerial , with a party howl for the invariable accompaniment . An anti-Papal article , headed " The Encroachments of Romanism , " in the last number of that journal , is a novelty—Young Tory England ' s Confession of Faith , accompanied b y the assertion that the members of the present Cabinet are in . league with the Pope . Plotting with the Czar on the one hand , and with the Pope on the other , it is plain that our Ministers , confreres as they are of the Chiefs of spiritual ^ and political despotism ,
are unworthy of the confidence of a free people ! These cries are original and hearty ; and if they answer the purposes of the party , no exception can he taken to . them . But Young England ' s Confession of Faith is a curiosity per sc ^ worthy of deeper consideration : though written for the sake of the refrain , it were a pity not to consider it apart , just as one can contemplate the doctrine in the Athanasian Creed , without dwellin * on the everlasting brimstone
therein threatened with a gusto so consoling , and an assurance so conclusive . How far , then , does this confession agree with the programme of the party . who have given it , who pride themselves on an emphatic embodiment of the intelligence which is to characterise the governing class of the next generation ? Towards an answer to this query , we digest into articles the beliefs of our dainty young advocates of enlightened
Conservatism . ' . I . '" We hold that there is an absolute and eternal 1 * ruth , of which the Scriptures are the revealed evidence . " ' II . " Webelieve that the Pi-otestant and not the Romanist lias rightly construed the message of salvation . III . " We may no longer make our views a test of citizenship ; " but , . IV . " We may soon be called upon to apply the resources of the Constitution in our defence aerainst Romanist encroachments . "
V . The weakness of Protestantism is due to its alliance with the infidelity of the first French Revolution . VI . There was a time when Papists on our soil were regarded as invaders : that time has past ; but we do believe that the salvation of Protestantism depends upon acts of Parliament . When we mention that articles V , and VI . might have been put between inverted commas , being reductions of more lengthened sentences , it
will be believed that we have before us Young Tory England ' s creed , in its length and breadth . We need scarcely point out the contradictions which it contains ; for instance , what in the first article appears as the -absolute and eternal , passes , in the second , into the relative and transitory ; what in the third is liberality , in the fourth is intolerance . The Scriptures , we are informed , have been wrongly interpreted by Romanists , and ri ghtly by Protestants : in other words , revolution datcrs from Luther and not from Christ .
This plainly is a matter of opinion ; and as the evidence of the existence of the Truth referred to , lies iu the Scriptures , which are the very g rounds of the controversy , there is no tribunal other than human intellect to which the dispute can be referred . Unfortunately both . claimant *) concur in keeping out of court . Thus much at least is' certain , that the Romanist , altogether excluding reason * rom the right of judgment upon doctrine , preserves nil unity and fixity in his beliefs to which fc h
c lVoteatnnt can make no pretence . If the doctrine of infallibility is absurd t o some minds , fco others it ia satisfactory ; and no man rests satisfied short of certainty in some sense or ""other . It i 8 a trite saying , that Protcstanism « ua only resisted Rome with effect when as . simi-Wted to it in spirit , if not in form ; but now it ftp-Wars that , Rome triumphs over resistances , and '" at m the War of creeds victory inclines , as in , ! »<; « ' conflicts , to the side on which are disci-PfUMJ , unit y , and strength . It is confessed that ¦¦ rotesLumisiiii is too weak , even in Knglaud , ita
stronghold , to prevent the encroachments of Rome , and Young Tory ; England recommends us to fall back upon the resources of the Constitution ! not upon faggots and fires , but upon Acts of Parliament , which imply coercion . Young Tory England appears not to have profited by the supreme lesson of history , that creeds , opinions , and the spirits of systems make way through ramparts , walls , and guarded coasts , b y a law of their own , like that which carries pestilence in the air ; that no system of quarantine is long efficacious against the Influx of ideas . It will appear plain , that if Protestantism lacks the inherent strength necessary for resistance , it cannot long be protected by enactments . In our belief there is but one
security against the . Papal and all other superstitions , and that is in the severe but never servile humility of positive science , from which results a belief respecting , the universe which cannot be shaken , joined to doctrines . which ' , if any , may justly claim the merit of what fallible beings call infallibility . The conflict must wholly lie between these two ; Romanism on the one side , and Positivism on the other . Nothing rests long in a position of unstable equilibrium , and to one or other of these two extremes all protesters tend . Between the two the difference is not one which can be
bridged over : there is not an infallibility of fact which can join on or be reconciled to an infallibility of dogma , but the former eternally contradicts and gives the lie to the latter . Of the two we must take one : —Rome , hoary with crimes against humanity , with all her conspiracies of darkness , her spurious mysteries , and her enslaving dogmas—Rome , holding chains and a scourge in one hand and a sealed book in the other ; or Positivism , clear-eyed and trustful , presuming
nothing , fearing nothing , reverencing all , with the World as a text-book , truth and human happiness as a goal , and the -Infinite as an aspiration and a recompense . As science advances superstition recedes ; when things are known they are no longer the subjects of conjecture . To inquire beyond what can be known is the first of human follies , or the excess of human arrogance ; to discern the limits of knowledge is the perfection of human wisdom .
To return to our esteemed contemporary . It is inexact to allege the recoil from the alliance with French infidelity as a sufficient explanation of the weakness of Protestantism . It is generally believed , on the contrary , that this reaction has been extremely favourable , and that . there is at this moment more vitality in the different sections of Protestantism than has existed since the enthusiasm and earnestness that animated the struggles of the first Reformers , shrunk into compromise and respectability . We venture to say , that during the hist ten years , in which Rome has accomplished
so many marked successes , the weakness and division that lent strength and audacity to the adversary have arisen mainly from the same causes , which have sent numbers , more or less consciously , to swell the ranks of the Positivists . The thinking Protestant in vain utru ^ gles to hold the anomalous position iu which he finds himself —protesting in part , and retaining in part , till , wearied of battling with contradictions , he hecomes glad of any escape- We say it is noticeable , that exactly within the same period both Romanism and Positivism have achieved their
triumphs . That this coincidence fs not accidental is sufHeiently demonstrated by the multitude of cases in which the choice of the extreme appeared to depend on the temperament of the struggler . Brothers have gone in company up to the conclusion that to one extreme or the other they must betake themselves ; and when they parted , the one leaned upon Rome , the other trusted in God , in his own ( Jod-givcn intelligence . Nor have instances of this kind been few , and merely such an came before the public ; no observant man can have escaped evidences of this struggle which Imh been , and is , jroing on in the minds of the thoughtful , and of the uncompromising youth especially , throughout the country .
As to the qualified toleration professed by the Coryphau of Young Tory England , we have little to say to it . We had , we know not by what illusion , hoped to seo it free of the spirit of the old dry port school of theology with which its Church - and-King predecessors have familiarised us ; hut we arc sorry to nay that in religion , as in politics , our Young Tory England advocates betrays the mouldy hones of a defunct political tradition strapped over their . shoulders . They have not aH yet advanced to a position . where they may , in tho
mt ervals of discouragement , ' catch a few rays from afar of the more enduring faith which even now is dawning on the world .
The Governing 'Classes. No. Xiv. The Mar...
THE GOVERNING 'CLASSES . No . XIV . THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE , E . G . When Napoleon asked Cambaceres whether a certain man could be trusted , Cambaceres answered , " Why , — really—his linen is remarkably white , — and—I believe he is gourmet . " The first impression about that illustrious statesman , the Marquis of Lan sdowne , is , that he is very clean , and is a great patron of the Arts and Belles Lettres . Particularly he is very clean : and only that Robespierre ,
who never soiled Ins boots , was partial to the guillotine , one would judge of the Marquis of Lanadowne ' s character by the consistent purity of the Marquis of Lansdowne ' s dress . He would attract your attention , any pleasant Monday , Tuesday , Thursday , or Friday evening , during the " season , " when he is picking . his way up Parliament-street at about seven , on his way from legislation to dinner , is the cleanest old gentleman you had ever beheld . The speckles sness of tbe costume « is that of a Sevres ornament : and the cold , calm face increases the effect of the clean glitter—dazzling , in a dirty to ^ vn , street , and among soiled Londoners , as a
meteoriced . It is a great thing to fix , without offending , attention ; and though the Marquis of Lansdowne-ia not noble in aspect , is only plain and- gentlemanly , yet most people turn , pleased , to look at him as he passes in a crowd . And they are not surprised when they find that is the great Marquis of Lansdowne : he fulfils , in air , dress , and manner , the public notion of the man . Chief in precedence , and last in fact , of the Whigs—that is precisely the sort of man such a man should be . The Whigs were always famous for neat dressing : and the Marquis wears what was once the common dress of the party . You see he is clotlied in a cover of th . Q \ Edinburgk—buff and blue . There is a tradition that Lord John was once seen
m such a dress ; and that the Marquis does not change , is an indication that he is the purer Whig . As to the Marquis ' s other characteristic , the characteristic of Maecenas , it is just as conspicuous . His Whiggery is attested by his coat : and his love and patronage of the " ingenuas artes" is demonstrated by the letters ( in Burke ) after his name—D . C . L ., F . R . S .: —further evidence being , on the same authority , that he is President of the Literary Fund Society , a Trustee of the National Gallery , & c . Then there is the . story that he was " prsesiuium et dulce
decus meum" to Moore , to whose fourth baby he stood godfather ( giving the mirse a 10 / . note , half of which Mrs . Moore kept , Avith the poet ' s assent ) , and to whom lie gave a cottage—magnanimous man ! for he only owns two or three counties . Moore records several literary conversations with the Marquis , all of which shows that his Lordship ' s literary profundity was very much like Marshal Murat ' s , who , hearing Virgil named , exclaimed , " All quo j ' aime Virgil ! ce grand potto ! qucl beaux vers ! Tityre tu patulao , " & c ; though , indeed , the Marquis had principles of
taste , analogous with his principles of politics , —possessing a Wbiggish desire to ridicule the ancients , because they were ancients—and perhaps because he couldn't read them . The Murquis of Lunsdowne loved arts and letters I > e « auso ho was a Whig . That was the sort of thing tho AVhig . s sot up for , in his time : and ho followed the fashion , just aa Lord John , with as little capacity , did much about the same time . Why tho Whigs should \ m literary and the
Tories onlv political , cannot be easily explained . Giflbrd used to say he wished there was n Holland House on tho other side : which would have been n pity ' ¦ because the Tories got . such great trust simply by establishing a reputation as > best men of businoss : but tho reason was not that there were not cleverer Lords than Hollaml among the Tories , but only because they , none of them had got into the habit of cultivating social fascinations of the Holland House sort . Whitf love ttf letters waa only a hnbit : in later times IVol ' fl was the Holland House : —Peel being 1 ,
certainly , n nobler patron of literature , and enjoying a finer appreciation of science , than Lord Grey , Xiord Melbourne , or Lord John ItusHell . The Whig habit of Maeaenasing was acquired in Vox ' s time . Fox ' s father
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17121853/page/13/
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