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CHURCH ANARCHY AND ORTHODOX DISSENT. " I...
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force of conquerors . Secular and social education must precede Christianity in India ; and perhaps by the time we have trained our dark fiejlow-subjects up to the European level , we may be able to give them a more Catholic form of faith than that perverse and unintelligible dogma which the half-taught missionary now carries at the heels , of the soldier . Meanwhile , practically , the Hindu has a strong sense of our intelligence ; and may have a stronger sense , when we have illustrated it more copiously in practical works for his benefit . Mr . Herries enumerated several public works completed , in progress , or contemplated ; the latter category being the most extensive ; but our administrators had better make haste . A revenue
with a standing deficiency is a strong memento to be diligent in fetching out the resources of the country / A method of taxing that leaves only 20 or 30 per cent , to the actual cultivator may be an improvement on the old plan , but it is an improvement only in embryo . Luckily the State has not alienated the land in India ; it therefore keeps open the way to improve the condition of the actual cultivator ; ana there is no reason to believe that the system of tenure will be rashly altered . The prime objects must be , to relieve
the labouring class of excessive taxes , and to seek for revenue out of enlarged production / Mr . Hardinge boasts that the salt-tax is reduced to 8 d . a-head ; but 8 d . a-head is no trifle when the income of a labourer is not always more than 40 s . a-year . The tax is one impeding production : let ifc be abolished , and let the cultivator be aided with roads and irrigation , —not suddenly , perhaps , hut gradually , — -and the 8 d . a-head will soon be supplied to the revenue , and more with it . In India , as everywhere else , production is the true basis of social wealth and of official
revenue . But we should only suspend improvement , or arrest it altogether , if we went upon any bigoted plan of Europeanizing the country . _ Perhaps in no department however is deferetiee for that paramount British tyrant , Cant , carried to such injurious length as in the military . Not that Cant can altogether prevail in the teeth of facts : Cant forbids conquest , and we have added provinces comprising 9 , 000 , 000 souls to our empire within twenty years . But , in deference to
thrice-ignorant Cant , the military rule consents to enfeeble itself , shrinks into undue cringeing , instead of being bold , frank , and thoroughly effectual . It is mainly by , our victories that we stand in India . Instead then of affecting to avoid conquest , it should be pushed steadily forward . In the sense perhaps of consolidation rather than extension ; but always in the sense of complete subjugation to the foe , of full victory to our arms . While natives are admitted to a new
exaltation through our own institutions , let contumacious chiefs be absolutely crushed , or scored with chastisement until they tremble at the very sound of the name of England . The Burmans , tha Affghans , ought to bo guards for us to the tribes beyond ; lackeys to England , hearing her voice " with an obedient start . " Idle toys like " the Nizam , " inflated with the fantastical delusion of an existence , ought to pass into traditions . In consolidating our territory , rooting out the political " snags" that still beset our course , and correcting the erroneous ideas of the border tribes , there is ample work for some years to come : but it would be done bettor if it were done
frankly , boldly , and in the once-for-all stylo . Talk not of " inquiry" as the preliminary to some " altered course" in India , some reduction of tho army , and vast recruitment of missionary force : such dreams cannot attain practical existence amid the rough facts of Indian life . Meddle rashly with the rule of " John Coompany" and who shall answer for the consequences ? No , if there bo any change , let it bo in tho direction of boldness , efficiency , and expedition . Lot " John
Coompany" send over tho very best Governors ho can Jind—not men to bo " provided for , " but efficient Proconsuls . Lot local affairs be managed as much as possible locally , with local knowledge and local sympathy , and always in Indian fashion . If India is to be of any sorvieo to us , it must bo { is India can only bo ; and her service is groat , in illustrating our power boforo tho nations , in contributing to our commerce , in finding employment for numbers who would otherwise bo driven m upon us at homo in theao little islands .
But , we aay , the field may bo cultivated with double , with five-fold , with ton-fold profit , if pretences bo abandoned , and realities sought . In
more efficient service , there is extended employment for our civil servants—there is promotion for our young officers , to be trained in the nursery that produced a Wellington—there is new and incalculable employment for our civil engineers , disbanded from railway service at home ; yes , wealth , hope , activity , honour , life and fame , for the sons of many a family which at home Can scarcely hold its own in the incessant race rom th $ workhouse . Honest action in India may be new existence for the Indian tribes , wealth for Englishmen , strength for England in the great movements that await the world .
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Church Anarchy And Orthodox Dissent. " I...
CHURCH ANARCHY AND ORTHODOX DISSENT . " It eannofc be pretended by Sir Robert ' s worst enemy , " says the Tvtnes , — summing up the Maynooth case , with a due regard to the " popnlar" taste for truth and error , in the form of " half-and-half , " —it cannot be pretended " that the elaborate arrangements of 1845 , comprehending the formation of these new colleges , and , in fact , a new university , were aimed only at a momentary pacification . The whole scheme , both in its religious and its secular aspects , was designed for posterity ; and it is for us who survive to watch over the results . They have not been satisfactory hitherto . So far there is a case for inquiry ; and that inquiry constituencies may very properly demand , and the Legislature as properly concede . " Oui honot What we want , in Ireland as well as in England , is not " inquiry , "— -that refuge of indecision and insin--cerity , but religious liberty . Liberty , so admir * ably defined by Kossuth . is the one thing that men are the last to concede to others . In com-: nierce , men desire free trade , exeept in their own ifet
wares . JL-Ue opitaineias weaver aepreuatgs > trade in silk . In polities , the Bepublican , Democrat , or Chartist , would tram up the young in his own opinion , and cannot tolerate others who differ from "him .. In . religion , even the dissejaigr Jiaajiia " oi'tllodoxy . " We know all about what has happened in Ireland , without any inquiry ; a church is kept up , with endowments "taken originally from the Catholics , and is specially enjoined to
teach the falsehood of catholicity ; the soldiers of the church quartered on the conquered people . Still a large portion of the church of the conquered was but lately half inclined to enlarge its opinions and fraternize with all knowledge , scientific activity , and liberal feeling ; but , for party purposes , English statesmen raised a howl against the very name of "popery , " so that the most liberal Catholics would have been craven had
they sided with the aggressors , llehgious opinion is not free in Ireland : it is required to call itself anti-papal , required to take an oath of abjuration , required to confess itself conquered , arrested , beaten , even b y low dogmatists , whose protestantism is nothing but tho incapacity , through ignorance and grossness , for understanding the dogmata of the lloman creed . Beligious opinion is not free in Ireland to purify itself by its own working , —as it is so well inclined to do .
Nor in England . While courts of law are deciding that a man must not bo a Jew—not oven that wholly modern form of the stiffnecked race , which is found in the Liberal English gentleman veraed in all tho amenities of the nineteenth century ; while tho Prime Minister is suffering to peep through reserves and disclaimers tho intention of a new crusade against Popery , —whilo tho House of Commons is fomenting a now and aggravated converse of tho Gorham case , in tho diocese of Bath and Wells : whilo all this is
going forward in courts of law , and law-making , tho council of the London College of Dissonting Ministers is expelling thrco fltudontN for—nonconformity ! Yea , a pamphlet is beforo us , by IVTr . Jloberfc ] VT . Theobald , " ono of tho cxpollod , " i * elating how it all happened . * Briefly to toll the facts as thoy happened practically , tho story is this : —Oil the 3 rd of February . last , in clasa , I ) r . Harris , tho Principal * whoso attention Beoms to havo boon diroctod to tho heresies of certain studenta , put questions , wliieli led to a conversation that lasted throe quarters of an hour . Threo of tho students , Mr . Theobald , Mr . Halo Whito , « md Mr . Frederick White , wore summoned before a meeting * Statement of JPaots connected with tho JSatpulaton of Three fttudonta from the Jfoio Oollor / ti , London , liy lloborfc M . Theobald , A . M ., Ono of tho Expelled . A drilling pamphlot , published by ! Mfcr Jtobort Theobald , of Paternoster-row .
pf the Council * : on the 18 th , and ; in the mterval invited each to hold a conversation , Beverallv ' with Professor Godwin . On the 13 th , each was before the council for about half an hour , an ( j cross-examined , by laymen as well as ministers Next day , the students were told that they had expressed opinions incompatible with their retention in the College . The fathei * of the ' two een ^ tlemeri named White attended at the next meeting of the council , and niade three demands :- ~ . That the moral character of the students should be placed above suspicion ; that the opinions for which they were * condemned should be distinctly
stated ; that the creed , or law , according to which they were judged , should be produced * These demands were not granted . A few brief conversations resulted in a new proposition by the council , that the three students should withdraw from the college for three months , to reconsider their position . The students declined this species of voluntary rustication , and desired to know in what way they had broken the law ? Still no compliance was made with , this repeated demand ; but , on the 27 th of March , the students were peremptorily told by the council that their connexion with tne college must cease .-
The points in controversy with Mr . Theobald appear to have been these . He regarded the Bible as being not in itself a revelation , but the record of a revelation ; he accepted the Bible as an- historical record of authority resting on its internal worth ; lie repudiated a comparison of the inspiration accorded to tie writers and that accorded to men of genius like Shakespeare , although derived , from the same origin , because in . the one case directly conveying injunctions to
mankind , and in the other , indirectly instructing . This is our own summary of his views , in order to let the reader have some idea of the nature of the controversy , and Mr . Theobald must not be held responsible for it . Hoi must be held only partially responsible for the subjoined extract from a letter to his father , because it is avowedly hTreriedai & d ^ flap ^ rXect ; but it is more compact and sharp than his more"Stmiied-exposition , and therefore better suited to let the reader see the
spirit at work . . " ^ E believe that the opinion which makes the Bible so unique in its origin and nature arises from a false intellectual expression and interpretation of a true feeling . Men have felt that tho Bible is the greatest of books , and that it contains an articulate and clear expression of the very truth which they need in their most important relationships—their spiritual position before Grid , —and they havo rightly said , ' This is God ' s Book , His chosen puido for life , His appointed messenger concerning Himself and immortality . ' Now , so long as this truth remains thus iu the region ' of mere fooling , not as yet clothed in precisely scientific notionsit is true . Directly it is translated into
, tho language of tho intellect , thero are a th ousand chances that it will bo misrepresented and perverted . And so it has been . That it is God ' s Word is made to mean another tiring than tho eame expression does mean when it is spoken of every true , beautiful thought that stirs and inspires a man ' s being , and gives life to his spirit : —and thus God is represented as having two voices , ono very uncertain , indistinct , inarticulate , and oven distorted , in nature , consciousness , books in goneral , history , and humanity , — anotlier voice , perfectly clear , distinct , articulate , & o ., in the Bible . Tho two are opposed to one another instead ot being identified , and what is contained in a book , subject to all tho uncertainties of interpretation ( $ c , $ c ., tyc ., )
which necessaril y belong to literature of all ki nds , is maao by confident and baseless assumptions more certain ana final than tho teachings of nature and consciousness , Jiowovor enlightened by culture and by the JBook ttself . in truth tho New Testament is valuable not bo much tor ita statements as for its descriptions , ita pictorial reprcsoutationn of tho most perfect and divinolifo that has over iivcu upon earth ; and , presenting this picture , it leaves roan , if ho dare , to theorize upon it , and spend lua inteJleccua resources rather in curious investigations concerning uw nature of tho colours in which ifc is drawn , than tho tiivino
beauty which is represented . " In the main , tho two other expelled students arp understood to hold similar opinions . Our readers will remember that we havo boior e pointed to tho goneral schism which dmcloa almost ovory Dissonting body , ' from tho Weslevim s to the Unitarians , into two , —tho " orthodox , . oi rpantionarv . and tho heterodox , or
progrcsBiM-Wo beliovo wo shall not bo wrong in saying , flw * tho number of Uiobo in tho Wow College wJio hold progressive opinions is by no means lnniie to the three oxpollecL Tho loavon is stoll tUcio { it consists in the difference between the young ana tho old , J ) r . Harris and his coadjutors did no * produce tho TJiirty-mno Articles of their « "T ° r tion ; but verbally , tho l rincipal pronounccil W » opinions of tho throo gtudonts to bo not . oi wi dox "; practically , the students wore reqmroa w subscribo , by a lcind of Uintod underst » n 4 in & some unwritten TWrty-nino ArfcwlQB } A »<* ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041852/page/14/
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