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May 18, 1850.] W&t 3LtK * Ott+ 181
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LETTERS TO LORD ASHLEY ON PRACTICAL CHRI...
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Characteristic op our Day.—If there is o...
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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The Laureateship remains nebulous as an ...
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In France the week has not been barren, ...
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 New Marriage Bill. Regent's Park, Ma...
so much at variance -with natural impulses has a direct immoral tendency , by inducing some parties to cohabit together without marriage , and by leaving it in the power of others who go through the cetemony of m arriage , to deny its validity when it suits their purpose . " Your petitioners , therefore , humbly pray that your Lordships will take the subject of the existing law relating to marriage into your early consideration , with a view to such an alteration thereof as your Lordships shall seem meet , and & c , & c . " The second of the untruths I have alluded to as being so well calculated to impose upon the public mind was , " that all such marriages were always forbidden by the ancient Jewish nation . "
Now , Sir , in answer to this falsehood , you are doubtless aware that the Chief Rabbi in England , the learned and Reverend Doctor Adler , has given quite a contrary testimony . On his examination before the Commissioners he says , " that such marriages were always held to be most desirable and praiseworthy ; and , if there were any children , the days of mourning were always shortened . " What farther testimony then , Sir , I humbly ask , can either be expected from Scotland or anywhere else , that can weigh one feather with the understanding of calm and reflecting mi-n ?
Pray , Sir , at this most critical juncture , withhold not the whole of your powerful aid . The question is a just one . It is neither more nor less than a great moral struggle of the people at large against the rapacity of the Church . —I remain , Sir , your obliged friend and reader , Alfred .
May 18, 1850.] W&T 3ltk * Ott+ 181
May 18 , 1850 . ] W & t 3 LtK * Ott + 181
Letters To Lord Ashley On Practical Chri...
LETTERS TO LORD ASHLEY ON PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY , WITH REFERENCE TO AN IMPROVED CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE . No . I . My Lord , —The long course of years in which you have devoted an unwearied attention to the discovery of means for alleviating the various distresses of the people has given you a rank and influence in public estimation far greater than any that can be derived from hereditary distinction , however exalted . When any new proposals are submitted for ameliorating the condition of the people it is almost invariably inquired , particularly by the clergy , whether your lordship entertains a favourable opinion upon the subject ; and it has even been reported that her Majesty , in her solicitude for the welfare of her poorer subjects , had commanded your opinion on the best means of relieving their wants . It was , therefore , a graceful act of condescension , on the part of the Prince Consort , in reflecting the humane virtues of her Majesty , to preside at a public meeting of a society which , under your auspices , has effected some slight and partial benefit . Lodging-houses , public baths , allotments of land , washhouses , & c . all must approve ; but still the great want , and that which exceeds all others in its lamentable
consequences—that of regular employment—remains without a remedy . In all the large cities of Europe , where revolution has subverted established institutions , no sooner has violence in some degree subsided—for in no instance have they settled into order—than multitudes of the people are found destitute of employment : and it may be safely predicted that , until some means can be devised , differing in its results from the fluctuating and uncertain employment which , for the last fifty
years , has prevailed , no government , whether monar chical or republican , can long remain tranquil and secure ; but this , it is asserted , is the great and difficult problem which Europe has to solve ! or , in other words , Europe , Christian Europe in the nineteenth century , superabounding in wealth , and with the means of adding to it indefinitely , with the accumulated knowledge and experience of six thousand years , makes the humiliating acknowledgment that it is impossible to form detached communities of 500 or 1000
destitute families capable of producing far more than they can consume , and to build up a society surpassing all others by avoiding those errors which , have occasioned their dissolution . It cannot be any matter of surprise that the problem should remain unresolved , while any new organization of the unemployed should be repudiated by almost all parties , not excepting the Labourers' Friend Society . We frequently hear statesmen declare that grievances complained of must remained unredressed , because they are inseparable from the present complicated state of society ; and yet thpy refuse to assist in forming , with the discarded materials of old society , one more simple and consistent , and which it is scarcely possible could be unattended with good results , even should it fail in realising the expectations of the more sanguine .
During the period of the English Commonwealth , nnd again for nearly half a century preceding the French Revolution of 1789 , there were many authors who speculated upon improved constitutions of society , but without any suggestions as to the practical steps by which any change could be brought about ; they were all , with scarcely any exception , the reiteiation of a general principle : but in modern times , two individuals , Mr . Owen in England and M . Fourier in France—whatever difference of opinion may prevail regarding their respective plans—have
indicated the path in which , the renovation of society may be sought with the greatest probability of success , namely , by forming , with 400 or 500 families , institutions of such limits as will admit the direction and control of all the moral influences surrounding the inhabitants , and thereby of training the children in the way they should go ; and when the various religious denominations have established congregational societies , in whieh secular affairs will be rendered subservient to the moral , religious , and general improvement of all their members , the greatest blessings may be expected .
For ages , the powerful influence of circumstances , in moulding the general character , had been so universally recognised , that it was proverbially said that man was the creature of circumstances ; and when , thirty years since , a plan was brought forward , professing to combine all those circumstance !* favourable to the development and right direction of the human faculties , and excluding all of an opposite tendency , the projector was hailed with enthusiasm , and was encouraged and consulted by individuals of the highest rank . Her Majesty ' s illustrious father
and the Duke of Sussex presided together at one of his public meetings at Freemasons ' -hall . Subsequently , Mr . Owen united with his economical plans other subjects and opinions irreconcilable wiih religion , in consequence of which he was very generally deserted . But I am sure your lordship will conclude that , however justifiable the desertion of the individual , it could be no sufficient reason for abandoning the principle that first attracted general and dsitinguished attention . The condition of the people , so far from being improved , since that period , has been occasionally much , worse .
Long has this country , from its vast wealth , excited the astonishment of Europe , but of late years the unjust distribution of that wealth , especially among the producers , and their consequent destitution and misery , have made it an object of equal astonishment and reproach ; and it is now regarded as a beacon for all others to avoid a similar disastrous course . You , my lord , must be an advocate for the union
of Church and State ; and no principle can be more legitimate , while we support that Church described by the great Apostle— " And whether one member suffer , all the members suffer with it ; or one member be honoured , all the members rejoice with it . " I need not ask how far this country has realised such a Church . Are we not rather governed by State and Church ; meaning , by State , the axioms of political economy , inculcating the sacrifice of every humane consideration and noble sentiment to the
accumulation of wealth—interdicting every interference suggested by benevolence and religion as a derangement of its political schemes—allowing all manner of physical and moral evils to torment society before the dictates of Christianity are to be listened to , and too late to admit of much substantial improvement ; and meaning by Church , one that shall accommodate itself , by plausible pretences , sustained by isolated texts , to a false system of society ; and assuming that , however deplorable the condition of vast masses , it is ordained by Providence ; and that all that the influential can do is to mitigate a fraction of those evils by a few washing-houses , little allotments , lodging-houses , and public baths .
At the meeting referred to , his Royal Highness Prince Albert remarked that its objects were unpretending , and that the society did not seek to be arbiters of the fates of thousands ; but , considering the exalted rank and powerful influence there congregated , together with the presence of those who had long made the condition of the people an object of their peculiar study , it might have been expected that that was the precise occasion when large and
comprehensive measures would have been developed , not to benefit thousands , but millions of the population , not only of this country , but of all Europe ( as other countries in the same calamitous condition would , upon beholding a successful experiment , be eager to adopt a similar course ) , something more worthy of a great nation hitherto leading the van of human improvement , and about to enter upon a far more glorious career . M .
Characteristic Op Our Day.—If There Is O...
Characteristic op our Day . —If there is one thing eminently characteristic of the present day , it is solicitude for the well being of the people . Noblemen vie with demagogues in their expressions of sympathy with the suffering poor ; and they do more than " weep , " they " act " —they set vigorously to work to alleviate that Buffering as they best can . The sentimental philanthropy of the last century has bpcome the practical philanthropy of this . From declamations about the rights of man we have descended to inquiries about the wants
of man ; from grandiose abstractions we have descended to actualities . If philanthropy is a cant , as drivelled through our literature and public speaking , it is also a real ferlinsr in hundreds and hundreds of hearts , and shows itself in baths and washhouses , in factory-bills , and much beside . No one can deny that , theoretically and practically , all the serious thinkers and workers of the day are endeavouring to ascertain and carry out the principles of social justice , as resulting from the clear recognition of humanity in the place of classes , —British Quarterly Review , May .
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
The Laureateship Remains Nebulous As An ...
The Laureateship remains nebulous as an argument and undecided as a fact . Meanwhile newcandidates are proclaimed by their friends , not to mention those who quietly to their own consciences proclaim themselves . Of the candidates , Leigh Hunt , Tennyson , Professor Wilson , or Dean Milman , may severally be admitted as having claims and chances , but upon whose brow the bays will fall we cannot say ; our sympathies are so strong with all of them that we should rejoice ui any good fortune that befel them .
The announcement of the approaching publication of Wordsworth ' s great posthumous poem excites in the minds of his partisans hopes of exquisite delight , while in the minds of less resolute worshippers , remembering the Excursion , it excites mitigated terror . A poem purely meditative , having the amplitude of that with which ^ we are threatened , and bearing a signature which in some sort forces us to read the work , is enough to make one serious . Remember the Excursion , and how
difficult , in spite of its occasional grandeur , depth , beauty , and solemnity , you found it to go honestly through with it to the end , and then reflect that this forms only the third part of the great poem—The Recluse—about to be thrown upon your shoulders , and you will understand at once that the announcement is not without its terror ; the mitigation , however , is in the certainty of the noble passages which will relieve the weight of so much prosing and preaching , and the chance of its biographical details opening some vistas into the recesses of the poet ' s nature . -
The week has given us two remarkable books : the first is Bayle St . John ' s Two Years in a Levantine Family , which differs essentially from books of travel in the concentration of its materials . Nestling himself in an Oriental family , aloof from European prejudices and European habits , he lived himself , so to speak , into orientalism ; and his pictures of every-day life in the East , surpass in truth and comprehensiveness those of ordinary travellers , as the conclusions formed out of a wide experience insensibly and incessantly modified by new accessions , surpass the hasty generalizations of superficial and incidental acquaintance with- ^ the in its
facts . His book is a panorama of the East domestic aspects . The second book we have to notice is Francis Newman ' s Phases of Faith . Our expectations were great ; they have not only been realized , they have been surpassed . It is more than a striking book—it is a great action . No work in our experience has yet been published so capable of grasping the mind of the reader , and carrying him through the tortuous labyrinth of religious controversy ; no work so energetically clearing the subject of all its ambiguities and sophistications ; no work so capable of making a path for the New Reformation to tread securely on . In this history of the conflicts of a deeply-religious mind , courageously seeking the truth , and
conquering for itself bit by bit , the right to pronounce dogmatically on that which it had heretofore accepted traditionally , we see reflected , as in a mirror , the history of the last few centuries . Modern spiritualism has reason to be deeply grateful to Mr . Newman : his learning , his piety , his courage , his candour , and his thorough mastery of the subject , render his alliance doubly precious to the cause .
In France The Week Has Not Been Barren, ...
In France the week has not been barren , since it has produced one work at least which excites a sensation , namely , Ledru Rollin ' s Decadence de VAngleterre . It begins with an examination of the Anglomania in France during the 18 th century , » nd then examines our " glorious constitution . " The present aspects of English life—at least some such aspects as the Morning Chronicle holds up to view—are then sketched with all the vivacity and , most probably , all the well-known accuracy of French writers . We speak only from report ; but in every case the work must excite considerable noise both in France and England .
A new work by Mazzini entitled Rtpublique et Royautd en Italic has just appeared . In the preface , which bears the signature of George Sand , there are some noble passages and a strong expression of adhesion to the two capital principles of the work , first , that Italy can never conquer her emancipation through her Princes , but only through
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 18, 1850, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18051850/page/13/
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