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300 4 TflE LEADER. [No, 314, Saturday , ...
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THE SIGN AT BANGER. If there be a thing ...
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| Prussia And The Princess Royal. We Do ...
throne of the Swedes is married , and has a family . The uncle of tlie King of Denmark is to succeed to his mutilated dominions , perhaps to a convulsion and a war . . The Low Countries possess a constitutional throne , of which the heir apparent is a youth of sixteen years of age ; but the Government of Holland stands in a state of almost complete isolation , takes little or no part in the political affairs of Europe , concentrates its attention on the East and West Indies , and
rarely corresponds with the British Cabinet , except in a tone of expostulation or jealousy . The German Courts , with their exuberant growth of princes remain—the pantomime royalties of Hesse , Gotha , Coburg , and Brunswick . There is Baden , where the young prince Frederick reigns as regent in the name of his incapable brother ; WurfcembcTg , where two Kussian princesses have found husbands ; Hanover , with its perpetual crisis , and its heirapparent , a child of eleven years ; Saxony , which
Russia , once proposed to incorporate with Prussia , and which Prussia considers as half herown ; Bavaria ; , which gave a miserable king to Greece . This king , the puppet OoPHO i will , in default of personal issue , bequeath his crown to Prince Adalbert of Bavaria . Which from this procession of royal names would the liberal and suspicious' public select to bestow on the Princess Royal ? For our part , while royal families aire of importance to the commonwealth of England , we desire to see the union of strength with strength , and cannot discover aqy advantage in linking an English princess
tosoine obscure dangler of a German Court , without a name or a heritage . Prussia is a great military power * with maritime tenden cies , ¦ and it may not be long before Great Britain will besoTicitous to gain her friendship . Day by day , the Russian influence strikes root in Paris ; day by day , France is more closely knifc to Austria ; ultimately , the policy of England naay be strongly counteracted by a -undeclared confederacy 6 f the absolutist ¦ powers . 3 tfow Prussia , notwithstanding her -Tiataral lea , nings to-a Russian policy ^ has never & bapdone & the forms of constitutionalism .
TheRing , whatever his disposition may be , tfiri & s it impossible to suppress the authority of the Chambers , and he , being now aged , and not in vigorous health , must soon , in the course of nature , leave the throne vacant for his successor . That successor , presumptively , is his brother William :, a military pedant , who despises the press , the academies , the liberal parties of the kingdom , and who , in all probability , will have to contend with a Revolution , or to establish an absolutism inherently hostile to all that is educated
and intelligent in Prussia . He has never consented to take the oath of the Constitution , not being versed in the casuistry taught to exiles by our semi-official press , which explained last week that refugees swearing allegiance to the French Empire were by no means prohibited from perjury . He himself , however , is neither a young- nor a healthy man , and his son Frederick William Nicholas Charles , twenty-six years of age , who is said to derive uiany liberal traits of character from his accomplished and amiable mother , is his natural successor on the Prussian throne .
It is the disaster of Europe that the polioy of nation , ? should depend on the character of itMttyiduals ; but the Great British people has W $ f to blame if any-family ever again enjoys the , power of endangering its safety or honour . Wljat with Okomwjjll ' b axe and tho Bill of f { TOMbmsbhmg has been done in this ooun-: JT : * o change Prerogative from a reality to a T j ^ ' r * xi > y & l authority is now only the ™ * F ? # *^* of th < s Constitution ; it mu 9 fc / Wo * k ^ htfrtor vrith Parliament ; it ia
the representative of electoral majorities . Why then is the public disquieted by the prospect of a Prussian alliance ? After the war comes the duty of Reform , when it will be for the real liberal party to see that the educated opinion of the country obtains a true representation . " When that task is accomplished , what will it signify whether Prussian influence thrive at the Court of St . James , or whether the royal family is incliued to favour the intrigues of Berlin in preference to the intrigues of France or Austria %
Prussia has for some years pursued a policy wlich renders it very important to establish relations of sound friendship between her government and that of Great Britain . Since the battle of Jena it has been obvious to her statesmen thai a geographical position such as hers , inviting invasion is a cause of
perpetual danger and weakness . Thus , Prussia has been compelled to seek new outlets on the sea , in addition to her confined and inconvenient ports on the Baltic coast . From Oldenburgh , therefore , she has obtained the cession of the harbour , the mole , and the site of a fbrtress , at the mouth of the Jahde , in the North Sea , where at this moment the foundations of an effective
marine , military , and commercial , are being prepared . In this way a new maritime power rnay grow up in Europe , competing at least with either of the Baltic kingdoms . Great Britain can entertain no jealousy by such a development on the part of Prussia ; but other States , which have profited by her geographical isolation , may not witness without regret such preparations as these of a new basis of
her military independence and commercial prosperity . It is for England , while the continent is in the possession of irresponsible monarchies , to cultivate the alliance of the most liberal , arid among the most liberal de < - cidedly is Prussia . Besides , the Germans are not in a political lethargy ; a great national party is in formation , at the head of which the young Pimnce may , or may not , be found .
Whatever may be his disposition , whatever the political influences dominant in Prussia , ¦ where else could a husband be found for the Princess Royal ? Or , is it essential to our constitutional liberties that she should remain a spinster .
300 4 Tfle Leader. [No, 314, Saturday , ...
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The Sign At Banger. If There Be A Thing ...
THE SIGN AT BANGER . If there be a thing to which Christian communities cannot be brought , it is concord in conduct and unity in creed . There is scarcely a quarter of the Christian world that is not at the present moment stirred by tlie mosfr vehement agitation—vehement , in proportion as the power of the ecclesiastical bodies has declined . We have watched the proceedings of the Pope under favour of the Austrian Government . The
PoNTOFhas procured from the Emperor Francis Joseph a new permission to exercise despotical authority throughout the Austrian dominions , and the priests are exercising their power with so ra , inute , as well as im perious a demeanour , that their rule becomes instantly intolerable , oven to the Government — except in Italy , The Austrian Government is obliged to apply some kind of moderator to the newly-stimulatec zeal of the priests .
In a small way the same kind of spirit is shown in Ireland , whero Archbishop Oullen is putting down even journals favourable to the papal sway ; driving them out of readingrooms , and otherwise endeavouring to abolish them from the world . Ho has visited with his displeasure the Nation and tho WceJcb / Telcgraphj and tho Tablet is only rescued from extinction by acquiring a now proprietor and editor in Mr . John E . Wallis , an Englishman who has been convorfcod to tho Roman Church . Tho oxilcd papers arc faithful to tho Poi > k , but not enough so—not slavishly enough .
We can scarcely boast of more unity in this country , where the newest manifestations are certainly not favourable to concord . Some gentlemen , clerical and lay , of high position and earnest enthusiasm , have been for some time engaged in the endeavour to frame a plan for re-uniting- various nonconformist bodies to the Established Church . They propose to begin with the Wesleyans , and they have actually constructed a memorial to the two Houses of Convocation , suggesting a plan for the redemption of Wesleyans to the Established body . Tlie drift of this memorial is , to beg from Convocation the removal , not of obstacles to the
admission of Wesleyans , but of objections which the Wesleyans may entertain against tlie Establishment—the want of sufficient sanctity in the ministers of the Church ; the necessity of discontinuing class-meetings ; the necessity of separating from the Wesleyaa body ; and the delay in actually obtaining orders under the Established Church—three years . The gentlemen -who framed this scheme held their meeting in the fashionable rectory of St . James ' s ; they are understood to have the approval of the Bishop of London ; and how are they met by the Wesleyans ? The Watchman , organ of the Wesleyan Conference , speaks thus of the plan , with a studied charity :-
—" Few , indeed , are the menibei's of the Chureirof Methodism who could be transplanted into the coiisecrated ground of the Church of England without iujurj . to their iiiner life . We refrain from saying more . The crude report of the committee we do not wish to fling in the faoe of their Church . We are unwilling to permit ourselves an allusion to the doctrinal divisions , the portentous heresies , the Romanism and nationalism , which darken laitge spaces in the territory
of the Church of England , and which sit itnpei-sonated upon , her Episcopal bench or in her University chairs . Before even ' individual ministers and other members of the Wesleyan body' are asked to join the ranks of the Church of England and march along with , her , they ought to know whither she herself is going ; and that we fear is what the sagest ' individual minister or other member' of the Piccadilly committee can in no wise tell . "
What does this language mean 1 We can put it in a very short and peculiar form . When certain members of the Church of England , high in position , and active in spirit , make these overtures towards reconcilement with an outlying Christian l ) ody , whose founder himself regretted the schism from , the Established Church , the organ of the Wesleyans , putting on an extremely charitable , not to say condescending air , replies—virtually replies , * ' Go to—Bath !" Let the reader re-peruse the extract , and say if this is not almost the literal meaning of the words which we have quoted .
Nor is it only vithin this country , it is within the body of the Church itself that the same discord is flagrant , tumultuous . Scarcely a week passes without some proof of the volcanic state of the Church . We have this week a Welsh report . The Established Church has extended into Wales as it has into Ireland , and there a ^ re its ministers . It was quite lato in the day that they discovered the necessity of preaching to the Welsh in Welsh ; and the Bishop of St , David ' s has earned just respect
for his efforts to secure a preaohing in Welsh to the Welsh . How would the lloman Ohurch get on if its emissaries came over to this country and preached the word , according to their construction , only in Italian or Latin , among tlie working churohes , say , of London or Manchester ? Not only does tho clorgjman preach in a foreign language , but the Church , which ought to invite the attendance of tho Welsh , romains for them ' with closed doors , save once in tlio week—once on the sevonth
day . Is not this absurd ? Soino gentlemen connected with tho Principality havo been moved by tho Reverend I * . 0 . Ellis , a joung clergyman , and assisted , not for tho first time , by Mr . W . 0 . Stanmcy , to attempt an inv
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29031856/page/12/
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