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&8 The Leader and Saturday[Analyst. [Jan...
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PEERS AN> 15AKQNETS. MR. BRIGHT has late...
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*'P<w«,7o and Baronetage, I860. Twenty-f...
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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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Religious Revivals.* Betwee N" The 'Form...
the wild agitation , we ought nevertheless energetically to insist that holiness is merely the health of the soul . The more , then , the sotil is unhealthy , the more it is unholy . Religion is the blending of joj- and of : i \ ve : it is the consciousness of the Unseen—it is the identity with it , The most religious natures have been the least clamorous in their utterances of adoration . By gorgeous ritual , by pregnant symbol , they tried to give breath to their rapture in the presence of the Invisible . It is loathsome to be furnished with what . Mr . Wilkinson calls the dynamics of prayer , to have hysteria , epilepsy , catalepsy , & c , disputing- the ground with the Holy Ghost . Tne lethargy of the churches no one iu England deplores more than we deplore it . But there are only two ways in which it can be vanquished ; first , by the assertion of a valiant individuality , whatever may become of churches and creeds ; and , secondly , by claimmarch
ing a development as harmonious for the religious life as the and music of the stars . Men will fall very low if they are not convinced that there is ' -a heroic , immutable , incorruptible morality , independent altogether of theologies ; they will fall lower still if they do not see in : the religious life the return to the healthier , which means holier , commune with God . In these kingdoms at this hour there are no voices to preach sublime virtue , none to declare the true nature of the religious life , for which religions excitement is foolishly mistaken . The order of the universe is , it seems , to be worshipped by disorder . It is silly to tell us that out of religious excitement something nobler than itself may arise . Out of religious excitement assuredly the religious life never yet sprang ; and the more we are content to accept religious excitement for the religious life , the more impossible are we rendering a complete religious redemption .
The places affected by the Irish Revival will , in ten years , have rushed back to a worse than their former indifference and sin . Nowhere in the world has religious excitement been so absolutely the substitute for the religious life as in the United States of America . But has not each fresh religious excitement left America more depraved than before—more sunk in every abomination and iniquity ? We pretend neither to judge God ' s mysteries , nor to limit His miracles But the religious life must be as slow as it is stupendous in its operations , otherwise it loses its affinity with'life in general . Mere conversion , or the inere adoption of a faith , differs entirely from the religious life , though so often identified with it . He who cometh under the influence of the religious life is not converted , does not
adopt a faith . God steals so insensibly into his soul , that it is only by a great gladness , by a great love to God and the brethren that he knows thereof . An appeal to a vulgar wonder , to a gross incredulity is ejisily , made ; and , by ghastly pictures of hell-fire ^ and by an accumulation of melodramatic agencies , thousands may be convinced one moment that they are the children of wrath , and the next that they are the children of grace . But what is the process other than materialism and charhitanism combined ? Our age , in truth , is so materialistic , that even its spiritualism ^ is only a niaterialism of a subtler sor , tr-T-a <; lt 5 ver or cluinsy theatricality , as it inay he To speak the whole of bine thought with utmost frankness , ire are afraid that Protestantism is galvanising itself , and trying to
galvanise society . Far below the religious life must ever stand religious revivals , as we have said . But what the Covenanters did in Scotland , and what the Camiaards did in France , —though only a form of religious revival , was a revelation of God ' s glory and of man ' s valour , and beauty , and love . Yet who would venture to compare these noble Covenanters , these noble Camisards with the howling creatures in Ulster and Ainerica ? We ai-e filling India with almost as many Missionaries as troops . But is there ought more furious or fantastic
in'the performances of the Hindoos before one of their idols than in the antics of an Ulster man or woman before Jehovah ? Our countrymen are drifting fast toward Fetichisin ; the louder they yell , the uglier the gestures—the better the Christian . Mr , Wilkinson is an accomplished master of the legerdemain whereby whatia detestable in other religions is made adorable in Christianity . Is Christ—is Christianity- —thereby honoured P We think not . If we have not already reached , we are approaching the time when all religions will be tented with l'egard to their merit , and not with regard to their authority . If you are a Fetichist in England , you are a no more exalted being than a Fetiuhist in Africa or in Hindostan .
Mr , Wilkinson ' s phrases are ponderous , but they are not per * Huasive ; there is a touch of the Jesuit in him . Will ho oblige ha by showing hoVv we are to distinguish between sacredbooks produced in one part of Asia , and sacred books produced in another ? We reverence all religions too mucli to scoff'ut tiny . But how fatal the blow you strike at Christianity by asserting t > hat to be permitted to the Christian which is not permitted to the Buddhist . Verily there is no humble Christian disciple , no deep Christian mystic , no undaunted Christian martyr , who could so spenk or who has so spoken . Religion from its very name is inclusive , is Catholic ; it confcs « es that all its countless daughters have , however defaced , a celestial lovolinoas ; that it is not willingly but unwillingly that man id unduliful to his Omnipotent Father ; { hat hpw far soever ho may have gone astray he always rejoices to return ; that the loneliest orisons are the most welcome « t the starry gate ; that religious revival in of earth , while the religious life is of Heaven , and that the religious life never arrives till nations have wearied , themselves in tr » intr to imitate it . .
&8 The Leader And Saturday[Analyst. [Jan...
& 8 The Leader and Saturday [ Analyst . [ Jan . 2 S , 1 S 60 .
Peers An> 15akqnets. Mr. Bright Has Late...
PEERS AN > 15 AKQNETS . MR . BRIGHT has lately brought the Peerage into some notoriety , llti has thought it worthy of his abuse , and one source of popularity may l > e found in' tho disdain of a democrat . Peers of the . botjor
sort are of a retiring disposition . They shun large towns , but are well known in the country . In London , Birmingham , or Manchester they would be lost ; and if they wandfered up the High-street at Preston , a Lancashire " lass" would not mind , treading on their toes with lier clogs •/ should they move about the black country , one of the aborigines might possibly " heave ' alf a brick" at any one supposed to be an aristocrat . But it would be better if , as well as abusing them , we took care to know something about them . * When we make an attack , it is convenient to know our opponent ' s strength . If we wish to abuse a man , we certainly ought to find out his weak points ; if we wish to praise him we should know his virtues , lest , being
mistaken , cur bliime fall harmless , or our praise be mistaken tor satire . In truth , there is about as much ignorance existing even in the best * informed middle classes about the Peerage , as there is about anything else in theworld , save the millennium and the British constitution . Not all of us ; have seen a lord ; in fact , very few . JVon omnibus datum est haberei iiasum . Time was when we , like others , took an unknown thing to be magnificent . We were first awakened Tro . ni . our dream by seeing an Irish marquis borrowing money in a little back parlour from a feeble old woman , he himself at the time rejoicing in a ragged shirt collar and wristbands frayed out to their utmost . What 1 we were ready to exclaim with the song—
" What ! that the Kino ! what that man there ? Why I seed a man at Bartlemy fair More like a king than that man there . " But our earl was a real live peer after all . Our measure of wonderment still exists with many of the young and middle age . Those who write should afford a pretty good criterion of ideas of the educated on the subject—and yet take our modern plays and novels , and mark what the peer or the baronet is there . Take Buhyer ' s creations—Biilwer , as we shall see , is a ' " Bart . " himself—and what glittering spasmodic dolls the dukes , earls , marquises , and barons are his . Earls and dukes are popular in novels ; viscounts the authors omit ; Barpnets on the stage are generally wicked , clever , daredevil fellows—very effective * no doubt , but hot real ; " good men and very good bowlers , " to quote Costard , but for " Alexander i' faith .
You see bow it is , ' tis a little o ' er parted . " The utter nonsense which fertiale writers give vent to about their noble heroes is immense , and never enough to be condemned whilst they can beg , borrow , steal , a peerage ( the books , by the way , are books of reference , and may be found in the large reading-room at the British Museum ) . We write this for the benefit of lady novelists , one of whom objected , with half the world , to Mr . Thackeray ' s Sir Pitt Crawley , " You draw your characters very well , but surely you must be wrong , indeed utterly mistaken , in making a baronet such a coarse , brutal clown ; oh , you are wrong . " . " That , madam , said the great author , " is the only character I have painted without exaggeration , and most closely to nature itself . " We have no doubt that he spoke the literal truth . When Vanb . rugh drew * his Sir Francis Wrdnghead , or his Sir John Bru ^ e , he did not give us a poor ideal in Pelham costume and yellow kid gloves .
A few statistics of the peerage taken from the books under review will help xis amazingly . The kingdom , or rather the three kingdoms , is populous with peers . Burke ' s volume has upwards of twelve hundred pages in very small type , containing only a very short digest concerning each peer or baronet . Of dukedoms we have twenty-Beven ; maiquisates , thirty-eight ; earldoms , about two hundred and thirty-one ; viscounties—or , as Sir Bernard puts it , viscountcios— - seventy-seven , not counting " Wiscount Williams ; " of baronies , we have three hundred and eight . From these , also , we have hundreds of courtesy titlea ; so that , what with the lords in reality ,
i . e ., barons , and the courtesy people , we may double the latter number . Of baronets , a lesser hereditary nobility , we have close upon six hundred . Of these , of the baronets of James I ., yve have only thirty-one remaining ; of King Charles I ., forty-eight ; of Charles II ,, seventy-eight ; of James II ., four ; William and Mary , six ; Anne , eight ; George L , nine ; George III ., three hundred and forty ; and of Victoria , one hundred and five . Amongst the very fresliest creations of these latter will be found Sir Archdale Wilson , of Delhi , Sir Henry Havelock , Sir John Lawrence , Canard , and Nicholson , besides the Parsee baronet , Sir Jamsetjee Jejeqbhoy .
Amongst so many , it follows that the aristocracy , as they we conventionally termed—although tho word means a form of government , not a class , and our aristocracy cannot claim to be the apurroi , i , ., " the best "—it follows , wo say , that amongst so many , some must be fools , knaves , dolts , vicious , and the like : no class is exempted from the common lot . Many , also , must be clever , good , bravo , noble , generous , great , and wise . Proud moat of theni are . If you were to take one boy out of any family , call him "My lord , " give him place , obedience , subservience even ,
attention and honour—single him out : for preference , and overwhelm him with it at school and college , at home , and in the world , he would be a very remarkable boy if he did not imbibe proud , lofty notions , and think himself better than the rest . We think that it must be conceded that the members of tho peerage generally do think themselves hotter than tho rest . They are nous aulres / we are tho people ; noblesse oblige : aye , ayo , it does , and in more senses than one , Tlie Queen herself , who is , by the way , in some souse a {> ee r , appeals to the pride of tlie baron . when she terms him " right lonoArable , " uml " . right , trusty and well beloved . " The viscount she is jinoro polite to ; moving , we may any at once , in " a crescendo
*'P<W«,7o And Baronetage, I860. Twenty-F...
* 'P < w « , 7 o and Baronetage , I 860 . Twenty-flQCond . Edition . By Sfr Bernard Ifurko , Ulster KinR-ftt-Arma . Dodd ' it I ' vorme and Baronetage . 1800 . WhSttakcr & Go . Hardwioka ' a Shilling Peerage . 1800 . Hnrdwioke . .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28011860/page/12/
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