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732 ©!) * ZLeaife V* Saturday, _ . ¦ __ ...
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UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND ITS OPPONENTS. Th...
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LAW FOR THE RICH. When any attempt is ma...
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CONFUSION OF CRIME. To few families has ...
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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 New Catholic Episcopacy. If We Welco...
through its infancy of developement , Catholicism through the civil oppression of a conquering faith . As we are advancing in that conflict of faiths from which all hope to see a spiritual unity arise—as harmony is gradually horn from the discord of an orchestra , —we hold it to he reasonable that the Roman Catholic faith should be allowed its full expression amongst us . It is just , because perfect freedom permits absolute equality of civil action to the men of all persuasions ; reasonable , because perfect freedom permits absolute equality of expression to all
doctrine j beneficial to the country , because on that field of perfect equality , science , reason , and innate faith , can alone fulfil their joint office in developing religious doctrine , in purifying it , and in building up the Church of the Future . Until each creed has its say , without stint or reserve , it cannot speak freely in council , and we can never deal with it finally . Henceforth , in England , unless some cowardly dogmatism in office should obstruct this great step in religious freedom , we shall have before us all that Catholicism can say or do , by itself , and by the sole instrumentality of moral and spiritual influences . It will be in England alone , then , that
it will contend , in perfect freedom and equality ^ with its three great antagonists—Apostolic Protestantism , Dissent , and Spiritualism ; and for that reason , while we hail an act which completes the measure of justice for our Catholic fellow-countryman , we hail also a free issue which must aid the conflict of opinion , the developernent of freedom , and the building up of truth on a basis broader than that of any special creeds , whether Protestant or Papal . We welcome the newly completed organization of our fellow countrymen , because ungoaded by Inquisitorial Rome , unshackled by Protestant Westminster , we see them banding
together and marching forth into the open day of truth , and we believe that they have thus but begun that glorious final journey which shall lead them to know their brethren , and meet together under the blue vault of the Church Universal and Eternal .
732 ©!) * Zleaife V* Saturday, _ . ¦ __ ...
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Universal Suffrage And Its Opponents. Th...
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND ITS OPPONENTS . The right of the People to the suffrage is denied at the present day only by some antiquated politicians of the bat and owlet school . Scared by the light , these timid and purblind night-prowlers shrink into holes and corners to escape its bright but painful influence , and thus remain impervious
to conviction , and unyisited by any knowledge of the principles for which men are combatting , or the ideas for which they live and die . These men , whether aristocrats by birth or millionaires by accident , speak of the People , when they condescend to speak of them at all , as the raw material from whence their wealth , splendour , and power are derived ; or , at the very best , as the agents of their pleasures , or as slaves subservient to their will .
There are others of this class , who , applying to the progressive Present the maxims of a superstitious and barbarous Past , strive to keep down the energies of the masses by maxims of so-called morality , and of a religion which has no title whatever to the name . As if , forsooth , morality could be divorced from Progress , or religion ( in the pure
vital sense of the word ) exist independently of freedom . They tell the many that it is their duty to submit to the One or to the Few , just as the form of oppression which they wish to support is the despotism of one man or of an oligarchy , they preach up " submission to the powers that be , " and profane the name of a Faith of which equality was the original watchword , by making it the support of all that is retrograde , coercive , and unjust .
This class is , happily for itself , not a very numerous one ; were it larger and more influential than it is , its numbers and influence would of themselves prove its bane ; the indignation of the in any would prompt them to rise and sweep it , like a noxious reptile , from the onward path of Democracy . As it is , the People can meet the scorn and dogmatism of this class with equal scorn , and , with feelings of indignation which the insignificance of the object prevents from assuming any more violcut form than that of sheer contempt .
But there is another class from which the popular cause is liable to receive much move damage , your moderate liberals , your reformers of the Whig or Whig-Radical school . These aro the men who can stand up on a hustings and talk tflibly enough of the " Peoples' Rights ; " can toast at banquets "Tho People , the only source of legitimate greatness ;" can declaim about " Reform , " " Constitutional
Freedom , " " Rational Liberty , " and a host of other fine and high-sounding phrases ; but , when you come to ask them for a definition of the terms they have used , you find that all their declamation about advancing has for its aim the keeping things as they are , that by the " Rights of the People" they mean their own privileges and monopolies , and that not unnaturally , for by the * People" it is evident they mean themselves . When you press them on the subject of the suffrage , and exhort them to carry out their professed principles , and work for the enfranchisement of the masses by the restoration to
them of their birthright , the voice of the governed in the election of the governors , you find you have applied the true touchstone to these pretenders , and they start up in their true character of monopolists and selfish oligarchs , desirous of gaining credit as champions of freedom , while they are , in fact , its most dangerous because its most insidious foes . These are the men whom the progressive party have most to fear . Your mere Tory or Conservative may be crushed by numbers or withered by contempt , but stern and complete repudiation is the only weapon to use against false friends , so fair-tongued and so deceitful as these . As Cromwell said of Sir
Harry Vane , ' the Lord deliver us from them !" We shall advert in future articles to the objections which they make to the possession of the suffrage by the People ; it is a painful task the exposure of cant and the demolition of hollow pretences ; but it is one that , like many other painful tasks , falls necessarily to the lot of advocates of the Many ; and from it assuredly the Many will find we shall not for a moment shrink .
Law For The Rich. When Any Attempt Is Ma...
LAW FOR THE RICH . When any attempt is made to obtain Government aid for any scheme which is to improve the condition of the labouring classes , the Doctrinaires in Parliament protest in the strongest terms against any such application of the public money . " The poor , " say they , " must be left to their own resources . Any attempt to assist them would destroy the noble spirit of self-dependence . " But
when the wealthier classes wish to borrow money out of the National Exchequer not a word is said about leaving them to their own resources . Take the case of the Drainage Bill , for example . In the year 1846 an act was passed by which the Lords of the Treasury were empowered to make advances to the landowners from the Consolidated Fund , to the extent of £ 2 , 000 , 000 , for the purpose of enabling them to improve their estates . Out of that sum the landowners of Scotland obtained no less than
£ 1 , 600 , 000 , leaving only £ 400 , 000 to those of England , the latter having been more careless in applying for it . Last session a similar measure was carried . The landowners of Great Britain were again asked to come forward and put their hands into the public treasury , for money to improve their estates , at the very moderate rate of three-and-a-quarter per cent . The main conditions required are merely a certificate from a Government officer that the projected improvements are likely to yield six-and-a-half per
cent ., and the repayment of the sums advanced by instalments of £ 6 10 s . per cent , per annum , so that the whole of the money advanced would be repaid in twenty years . Any person can easily see that these advances of money are very advantageous to those landowners who wish to improve their estates ; nor do we deny that the community derives some immediate benefit , at least , from such an application of the public money . But why should these loans be extended to the wealthy classes and not also to those in more humble circumstances ? In
Ireland there arc thousands of small farmers who have saved a little money , and to whom a loan of moneyfrom £ 50 to £ 300—for the purchase and improvement of a small farm would convert into comfortable substantial yeomen . Why cannot Ministers , if they care for the improvement of Ireland , and wish to be thought impartial in their treatment of rich and poor , come forward with a proposal to advance £ 2 , 000 , 000 , on sufficient security to the small farmers of Ireland , for drainage and other improvements ?
Confusion Of Crime. To Few Families Has ...
CONFUSION OF CRIME . To few families has England been so often indebted for valuable practical suggestions in the constructive improvement of the social fabric as to the Hills . No man has thrown more light on the wants and practicabilities of prison discipline than Frederic Hill ; and him al « o tho public ought to acknowledge as the suggester of a plan for establishing a Defensive Force which would cure many
of the evils incidental to an unarmed population , a standing uncitizened army , and an ill-drilled militia . Rowland Hill ' s name is a household word ; but to him the public owes many things besides that which has immortalized him—the universalizing of the Post-office . And Matthew Davenport Hill is distinguished among lawyers as the promulgator of many sound doctrines , one of which assumes a peculiar practical importance just now , as it shows the true escape from the absurd practice of our law which permits noted ruffians to go at large , robbing and murdering , and setting an example of robbery and murder . At present the dogmatic
rule of English law , that every man is to be deemed innocent until he be proved guilty , is ahsurdly exaggerated . Rightly interpreted , it means , of course , that no man is to be punished for a crime until the crime be proved ; but as it is applied , it is used to tie the hands of the preventive police from restraining a noted ruffian even in the actual advances to crime , until the crime be consummated . Such human vermin as the fellows that murdered Mr . Holiest , whom the police knew , should be under some kind of restraint to bar them against committing outrages , and Matthew Hill has shown us how that is to be done .
He pointed out , some time ago , that pervading defect of our law , which subjects the criminal to a fixed term of vindictive punishment , and then turns him loose again , unreformed but exasperated , to prey upon society ; and he declared that the true plan would he to detain that criminal , so long as he should exhibit the signs of being dangerous to society . He has now stated , in his place as Recorder of Birmingham , that there is a statute which authorizes the arrest of noted thieves on
their haunting a particular spot , so that our law does recognize the expediency and right of arresting and detaining habitual criminals . But while indicating the existence of the statute , he shows that it is nearly useless , from the difficulty of fixing the charge that the criminal has repeated his visits to a particular spot ; so that we want an improved statute to perfect what the law recognizes but does not complete .
In brief , the thing wanted is this—a law to seize upon those persons , who , by misconduct , bad training , or defective organization—are dangerous to society ; to detain them in wise custody ; and to employ them so as to train them into a better condition , and to diminish the cost of their maintenance . Such a law would be no more than a proper element in the regulation of society . But , while we hold such a statute to be so
essentially necessary to the right conduct of society , that not a day ought to be lost in preparing it , we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that it might be very dangerous and oppressive , unless it were accompanied by other measures ; While the great body of the People is without Universal Suffrage and perfect freedom of electing its own representatives in the Legislature , we must feel a jealousy of all new restrictive measures for the protection of the rich against the poorer classes .
Especially while our laws make criminals and vagabonds . Our Poor-law treats destitution as prima facie an offence , at the very time that the tenure of land is driving labourers off it to swell the crowded slums of our towns ; and it thrusts men into hopeless places , where despair is puzzled in the choice betwixt utter want and crime , at the same time that laws put restrictions on the
Association of workmen in partnership ; so that the body of the People is debarred from getting at the land , or from concerting in its labour ; and when the honest labourer is thrown into destitution , he is referred for relief to a law which confounds him with vagrants . The details of this system bear out its general character , and all help to make the outlaws whom Mr . Hill calls upon us to restrain .
See how the public , nay , the magistrates themselves , are perplexed in dealing with a Rosina Herbert , —how impossible it is to tell whether her repeated embezzlements were urged by want or dishonesty ; how still more impossible it is to draw the line between habitual thieves and the poor wretch who is betrayed into an illegal pawning ; how eager the public is to make good the laches of the lawi and to otter " a premium on crime " when it recognizes the extremity of want where that passes into felony . See the habitual outrages of workhouse rioters , rebelling against laws that decree starvation , or punish want with mortification .
Not that we would delay the reform of the law indicated by Mr . Hill : it is necessary , and we ought to have it \ but we foresee that if that most desirable law were completed , its operation wou
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 26, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26101850/page/12/
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