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" The one Idea which History exhibits as...
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News of the Week— P«ge National Charter ...
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No. 39. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1850. Pki...
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Reaction is in full swing; it moves, not...
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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Transcript
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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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" The One Idea Which History Exhibits As...
" The one Idea which History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Idea of Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw dovra . all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Homboldt ' s Cosmos .
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News Of The Week— P«Ge National Charter ...
News of the Week— P « ge National Charter Association 916 Public Affairs— Literature—The American President ' s Message 914 Sunday Postal Delivery .. 916 * Truth of the Anti-Popi-h Turmoil .. 923 Mary Barton ' s Christmas Book .... 927 The Slave Question 914 Murders , Suicides , and Murderous The Great Day in Smithfield 924 The Dark Ages 923 The Undeveloped German Drama .. 914 Assaults 916 A Glance at Both Sides of the P * ndennis »*» The Law of Marriage 914 Death from Starvation 917 Atlantic 924 Books on our Table 930 Industrial Schools and Social Reform 914 A Breach of Promise Case 917 The Grizzly Bears 925 Portfolio—Dinner to the American Ambassador 914 A Felonious Assault 918 Opbn Council— The Bad Time Present 931 Agricultural Prospects 915 The Smithfield Nuisance 918 Religion versu 3 Sectarianism 925 Sketches from Life Ml Aiiti-Popery Movement 915 Europe an Democracy — Social Reform 925 The Sony of the Stars and the Dance Earl Grev and Dr . Lan ? 916 The German Democratic Party .... 921 The Testimony of Mr . Lucas of the of Heaven *> - Attempted Escape of Mr . S . O'Brien 916 The Polish Refugees 941 National Public School Association 926 Commercial Affaiks—Mr . Cobden and Sir T . Hastings .. 916 Associative Pkogrkss— Political Economy 926 Market * , Gazettes , Births , Mar-The Alleged Seduction Case 916 The Promotion of Cooperation .... 922 Justice to Catholics 926 riages , & c 933-36
No. 39. Saturday, December 21, 1850. Pki...
No . 39 . SATURDAY , DECEMBER 21 , 1850 . Pkice 6 d .
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Reaction Is In Full Swing; It Moves, Not...
Reaction is in full swing ; it moves , not only abroad , but at home ; it is seen , not only in France and in Germany , but in Limerick , and even in the agitation of England . The election which has just taken place for Limerick county is an event that stamps the so-called Reformers as recreants ; it is a calamity for Ireland , an opprobrium and disgrace to English Liberals . There were three candidates , and they divided between them 565 votes ; the registered electors are set down , for 1850 , at 1096 .
Two years earlier they amounted to 1678 , having been reduced , no doubt , by famine and emigration . But supposing the population to have been reduced , by the same means , in spite of the natural encrease , below the amount at which it stood in ' —281 , 638—what a farce is it to talk of popular election in Ireland ! The 565 persons elect the members for 280 , 000 ; the registered electors being fewer than the figures cast out to make round numbers .
It is notorious that certain Ministers and Liberals have pandered to the Protestant agitation in England , in order to divert public attention from the substantial political questions of the day—financial reform , extension of the suffrage , the state of the poor and of the working agriculturists , the grand questions , in short , of taxation , representation , and land : and by the declaration of Mr . Hall , at the . Cambridge meeting / we see the systematic perseverance with .. which' the promoters of such
meetings < avoid the presence of the working classes . It is an ' 1 agitation carried on between Ministers , members of the two Houses , and the middle class , while the real People is unconsulted and ignored . The worst trait of the time is , that the People knows this and suffers it . The past policy of the working classes is worn out ; they have not yet maturea another policy : and until they do so , they must be content to let public affairs be carried on without them .
We see how the system of popular passiveness works abroad . Look at France : public action , even of a covert order , is limited to the professional politicians in Paris , who have forgotten the People as completely as a party of Hottentots have forgotten the lion that shook its mane among them last year ; and now they are engaged in their own petty tradings and competitions . The only overt action is that among the Legitimists : the Count de
Chambord , who pretends to be King of France as " Henry the Fifth , " keeps up a sort of provisional government in Paris , under the modest title of " committee , " and there has just been a " Ministerial crisis" in this Cabinet of King Henry : such are the gambols played by the lower creatures of the political world , while the People is asleep or oblivious . The blowflies of Royalty are sporting on the carcass of the Revolution . [ Country Edition . ]
In Germany it is the same . The People of any Austrian state , to all appearances on the surface , is non-existent . After exciting his subjects to the highest pitch of national pride and military ardour , after calling for the vast but willing levies , King Frederic William has exceeded himself in hoaxing his People . He and the Emperor Francis Joseph , as it appears by the recent accounts , —the Peachum and Lockit of Germany , —have compounded their quarrel , and are henceforth to divide Germany
between them ; Prussia coequal with Austria in sharing the Residency of the Federation . Prussians are moody ; but what will they do ? Schleswig-Holsteiners are indignant ; but they will be overwhelmed . Schleswig-Holsteiners , Germans , Frenchmen , Italians , may be as indignant as they please ; but they have , as yet , no machinery to bring tff & n into alliance ; while the Governments of Paris , Vienna , Naples , Berlin , Rome , and St . Petersburg , can arrange their combined plans within any given
week . Let the People of Europe watch two movements just commencing . Austria has proclaimed a common tariff and customs for all her states , a " Zollverein" imitating the Customs League which has at last made Prussia and her adherent states a " collectivity" in Germany ; and the new " solidarity " will take effect in the spring . Russia has just proclaimed the like for her states , including Poland . The new plan is " good for trade "—will conciliate the trading interests ; but , as we have seen in the development of Prussian schemes , the People gains nothing by this consolidation of bureaux . sectarian view
We have been led away from the of the Anti-Papal movement by its political bearing ; but the week has not been without its peculiar incidents . First in extravagancy is the Liverpool drama . The sentiment imputed to the Reverend Hugh M'Neile at Liverpool—claiming the punishment of death for Roman priests who use the practice of the confessional—created much sensation on both sides : it grossly committed the Anti-Papists . His subsequent explanations , however , although they have not quite cleared him from the indiscretion , show that there was no such turpitude in the sentiment as he expressed it . He only said that the priest criminal intent
who received the confession of a , which he took no steps to prevent , was as deserving of death as the murderer who actually committed the crime . This is a very prejudiced view , inasmuch as the very practice of the confessional presumes , in the first place , an absolute confidence , and , in the second , a consideration of the disclosures solely for spiritual purposes , and not for worldly uses . A violation of these rules would be equivalent to enforcing a discontinuance of the practice . We share the feeling of the country , which condemns the practice ; but the Romanist interest is promoted , not injured , by exaggerated or one-sided representations . First in insignificance ia the Archbishop of
Canterbury : certain of the laity ask his advice in reference to what they should do to discountenance Tractarian practices in the churches that they may attend : substantially , he advises them to do nothing , except perchance subscribe to some Protestant missionary society ; he seems to have no ideas on the subject , and to shrink from any decided course . Contrast with the poor Archbishop the explicit account which Dr . Pusey gives of his own highly-Tractarian practice of confession . Probably , if he were attacked , he would prove a less yielding antagonist to an embarrassed Bishop than Mr . Bennett has been . Pusey is a bold , meek man , astutely candid ; carried on , but not carried awav , by his purpose—a John Henry Newman still within the cRurch of Archbishop Musgrave . Contrast with the poor Archbishop , too , Bishop Thirlwall ' s self-possessed , clear declaration of opinion , against the episcopal agitation . Contrast with it Sir Edward Sugden ' s most anti-Catholic but specific declaration of opinion , that the promulgators of the bull in this country have been guilty of a distinct offence at law , although not amenable to the excessive penalties which , and which alone in that regard , were repealed by the Relief Act of 1847 : so thinks Sir Edward ; a high authority in mere questions of law , and a man who knows what he means . President Fillmore ' s Message to Congress is much admired for its dignified style—a great relief after the Yankee slang of recent Presidents . But in England we are not likely to rate very highly a gentleman who avows the wish to dabble in a little revived Protection , and the opinion that the slavery question is "finally" settled by the recent budget of Compromise Acts ! Our readers remember that Dr . Lang , the leader of the separation movement in Australia , has deounced Earl Grey as a discourteous and heedless Minister of the colonies : the Earl has just published a letter at Dr . Lang , virtually attesting that he is a sort of swindler , and denying the discourtesy ; while affecting , in aristocratic superiority , to forget whether he has seen Dr . Lang or not ! It is pleasant to turn from meanness to the nobler aspect of humanity—from Lord Grey to the brave seamen who bore up in the wreck of the Helena Sloman under hopeless difficulties , and those not less brave who rescued them , the seamen of the Devonshire . Better the fate of Johnson and his men , who perished in their obstinate efforts to save their fellow-creatures , displaying , amid the storm of death , " the inextinguishable goodness of human nature , " and the sustainment which courage gives to goodness , than the paltry victories of the petulant Earl , sustained in his place by Whig cabal , to make the colonies identify allegiance to the Crown with degrading subjection to cliquery , and hope for separation as a release from servitude under pampered officialism .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 21, 1850, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21121850/page/1/
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