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106 C»l : j6l«> ; |t» ' [S4J0RPAT,
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rising price op corn—a. problem. While t...
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XOTTIS BONAPARTE IN lONDON. A. contempor...
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AGRICULTURAL EXAMPLE TO MANUFACTURING ' ...
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SOCIAL REFORM. "notes of a social ckcono...
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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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Political, Letters. Ill ,—Tlib Pllqcutes...
understood by those that looked into it ; and to revert to that enduring law is progress . Social reformers have restored the spirit of generosity and regard for- ¦¦ others to the laws of industry ^ -and ^ no human institution can live without that spirit . Trade is decaying , because it tried to do without . And when I see ah immense organized class of practical working men assembled , and welcoming as fellow labourers in a common cause the known Social Reformers like John Minter Morgan , whose graceful pen worked in the cause before some of us
were born—like Vansittart Neale , who has pledged a fortune to the cause—like Goderich , who abandons aristocratic ease to master a great social question in its practical details—like" Henry Travis , the disciple of Robert Owen—when I see a combination like that , I know that we are sending this spirit into the very body of English industry . And observe , we are not going back to the homely methods of the good old times of barbarous
industry : no , we are restor ing the right spirit , ever young , to a new body . The cooperative workshops , established through the union of the Social Reformers and the working engineers , will turn out models of the best engines—are beginning to do so . We are . proving that the spirit of Jesus is not incompatible with the perfect trade of England , nor either with the real liberty of the human beings engaged . Do you not call that progress ?
The spirit of Jesus , I say—for most devoutly do I wish that the spirit inculcated by that divine heretic against the established faith of his day , the truly Catholic faith which he restored to religion , could be introduced into our daily life and work . How can men go to church , and believe , and yet act as they do out of church ? To those who are not of the Christian sect in the eternal and universal
church is it left to call Christians to their faith There is indeed a Charles Kingsley in the Church , but he is called heterodox—not , observe , because he shares opinions like all of those which we uphold , for he expressly repudiates them ; but precisely because he insists on fulfilling the precepts of Jesus in the letter and in the spirit , as real precepts , to be obeyed , and not as forms to be satisfied by a quitrent of empty observance .
And yet , exclaim certain friends , you uphold the Church ? I do . I subscribe to every line traced by a brother pen in the paper on " The Church in Distress , " in our last number but one . How can I refuse support to the Church , when I claim absolute freedom for opinion—when I insist that men should act upon their opinions—and when I account it the bitterest reproach and shame of our day that men flinch from their own conclusions , and hold opinions as honorary intellectual distinctions not to be substantiated ! If men think Church , let them
act Church ; and as a number of men , honest , earnest , learned , and gifted , exist and are a Church —as a Church is but one organized effort towards the truth which becomes manifest to us , with renewed blessings , precisely in proportion to our sincere efforts—in God ' s name , say I , give to every Church full and free action to do its best , and let us see what it can do . Which of us shall say " I am the truth , " " I have got further on towards the truth ? " Not I , for one . I strive for truth , according to my faculties , and get as far towards it
as I can ; but I will not Bay that I am further than any other . I only say that I am nearer to it , wherever I may be , than the man who acknowledges any final arbiter but God himself . But there is arising a Catholic assent to leave that appeal as it should be left—a Catholic spirit which is one among men of us who are most diverse in our special opinions—a spirit which I believe to be one in such men as George Anthony Denison , Charles Kingsley , Robert ^ aughan , Edmund JLarken , Thomas Wilson , Joseph Brown , George Dawson , and many others , not leas separated in special tenets ; and such spirit can only be brought out by the freest
development of faith and intelligence in every form . It is thus through absolute freedom of thought , with its companion , trusting sincerity , that we get , through variety , to unity . Is not that progreas ? I believe that there is but one God ; that it is ours to study his laws in the dictates of sincere conscience and instinct , and in hie own works ; and that he serves God best who does his best to carry out yet further the laws of God ; and I believe that the eternal truth might' always have been expressedhas always been expressed in such terms--though often in terms better framed . But observe , it is not because we revert to eternal truth thut we forego the results of modern science , such as it is ; on the contrary , the day is breathing into
laborious science the courage . ' afnd zeal of a diviner faith . Is not that progress ? ' ¦ . Do I forswear Peace , because I have been torward to raise the cry "To arms ! "I No ; but I forswear a peace which grows corrupt in sluggishness , which inflicts upon us evils worse than war ,, and cannot even defend itself . Peace , which is breathing time for Art , security for industry , holiday time for affection—let us earn it , and keep it as long as we can . But I note that we are born with animal energies , impelling us to conquest ; note that , when we are too long sunk in repose , those animal energies become perverted or stifled . However it may be possible to train our nature to to
a state in which contention shall not be needful our healthy development , we have not yet achieved that training , nor even established its possibility . Meanwhile the vices of Peace ,, which history has so often displayed , are again amongst us , corrupting the very sources of life , and , what is worse , the very heart of society . A spirit of chivalry is incompatible with that spirit of meanness which is the bane of our day—a rifeanness creeping even over the class that has a right to bear , as if in mockery of its own degeneracy , the heraldic symbols of departed chivalry T Meanness is making trade itself commit suicide . Meanness is teaching that callous phildsophy which , has made men think it wise to let their fellow creatures want ,
pine , and perish , under the assumed laws of the youngest and most imperfect of the sciences— - " political oeconomy . " Yes your advocates of Peace , who shudder at the thought of setting men to fight , do not blush to let their fellow creatures starve unaided ; nay , will push competition to the point of destruction ; and when their fellow perishes , talk about the ' ** Board of Nature " having no place for bim ^ -as if t he Board of Nature were a Board of
Poor-Law Commissioners ! Peace , that murders our fellow creatures under trading competition , and even rebukes the hand of help ; Peace , that plays the part of a destructive devil among the flower of our youth , in physical inaction , in vice , and in empirical medicine ; Peace , that permits the whole force of a great nation to be handed over to a standing army—that delegates the manliness of a race to an official manliness ; that mpaii j ftiicidal Peace I hate and abhor . They tell me't ^ at-wfe wh o dwells among an armed population occa & ibttally sees the arms used in a hasty brawl : what then ? Is that' country . so
illconditioned which occasionally sees a splash of red upon its ground as that ' which turns pale at the sight ? Is that country mo ^ b truly endowe ^ with life which prefers 1 -liberty to life , or that which will rather be a little " put upon" than run a risque ? A " South Saxon , " whom I take to be the chief of these peaceful oeconomists , is trying to persuade the Times to hush up the outburst of manly cheerful defiance to which the sense of danger has reawakened our countrymen $ but the Times , with all its faults , is still too " English " for that . We English have become suddenly but fully awake to
the fact that the Peace is not going to last much longer ; that England must not find herself at the mercy of any horde of rascals who may choose to make a razzia in our fields , houses , and most tempting banks ; that the exercise of preparation for war is in itself a manly , health-breeding exercise ; that the spirit which pervades it is better than the mere money-gruhbing , pauper-hunting , brother-disowning spirit ; the Stock Exchange itself is getting ready its rifles ; Tories and Chartists are uniting to forget bickerings in the one national sentiment ; and really the Peopleof England seems to haveroused itself to a consciousness that its men are men ! Is
not that progress ? And observe , we are not going back to the barbarous days when barons sat in castles and robbed passengers , and kings made war upon neighbouring states ; on the contrary , we are learning that the nation must defend itself ; also , that nations are seldom each other ' s enemies ; but that , come war when it may , the English people , if it aeeko , may always find allies in the People of every civilized country , whether of Amerioa or Austria itself , ; for Downing-atreet is not England , nor Vienna the People of "Hungary , Italy , and Germany . Is not that progress ? Thornton Hunt .
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106 C » l j 6 l «> ; | t » ' [ S 4 J 0 RPAT ,
Rising Price Op Corn—A. Problem. While T...
rising price op corn—a . problem . While the Frotectioniata arc muttering between their teeth of a flve shilling fixed duty on corn , or worse , most inopportunely for them the price of corn is riBing—rising even at thin usually flat reason of the year 1 And it ia rising in all the markets of the Continent ; so thnt we must ; rely on Egypt nnd America . But Egypt has already ceased selling ; andit is very doubtful , say Messrs . 8 . H .
Lucas and Sons , in their trade circular , "if America haa enough surplus to supply the requirements of this country and the Continent . " Protection will propose its panacea , therefore , at an awkward time . Yet free-trade does not suffice . It is now found that " unless additional capital , or its equivalent , namel y , additional credit , is used to produce the surplus growth of other countries , that surplus will not find its way to our markets . " In other words , " supply and demand " will not do , unless special means be taken to direct the application of capital for the good of the community . ln
default , mere traders encounter failure and bankruptcy . Their means do not suffice to cover the fluctuations of the corn trade , which sometimes overwhelm them with excessive stock , as in 1849 , ' 50 , and' 51 . " The losses sustained precede instead of following high , prices "—a striking and instructive fact , showing that present speculation would be perfectly safe . The thing with which the dealer cannot contend is excessive and protracted prosperity—his means not being vast enough to hold out until scarcity repay * him with compacter dealings and higher prices for vast purchases at a scanty profit . Protection does not meet this ease ; neither does free trade .
Xottis Bonaparte In London. A. Contempor...
XOTTIS BONAPARTE IN lONDON . A . contemporary not usually given to levity , except by mistake , but who " had ought" to know better , recently contained an enticing bit of exclusive intelligence . Here it is ! A specimen of the contrivance by which an old stager sometimes tries to deviate into News !—" Louis Napoleon was in London , on a flying visit , on Monday Ia 6 t . We have good authority for stating the fact , incredible as it may appear . He came in disguise ; his business being of a strictly private nature . What
that business was , we are of course unable to say . " We think we can solve this enigma . Our contemporary , by an allusion which , all readers of Punch will allow to be natural , has mis taken the morning visit of a domesticated Hebrew for the flying visit of a foreign Dictator . It is possible that he may have been disguised — as a Christian : it is certain that his business was of a private nature , and our contemporary should have kept it " as such . " " What that business was , " we are able to say . It was " Ole Clo ! Ole Clo!—or was it-indeed Louis Bonaparte in the disguise of his uncle , crying for sale the defroque of the Empire ? .
Agricultural Example To Manufacturing ' ...
AGRICULTURAL EXAMPLE TO MANUFACTURING ' . ; SLOAVNESS . "' ^ The wise men of the factory look down upon the agricultural districts for antiquated notions , but not always with reason . The Registrar-General—that able " flapper " to our official Laputans—records two * examples in the Newcastle district of cases in which the public health has been improved by improved drainage : at North Collingham drainage has abolished epidemics that used to be common ; at North Clifton the influence of " an intelligent farmer " has in like manner banished fevers , and endowed the district with comfort . In Cheshire and Lancashire the mortality is high—the habits and habitations are bad and crowded . Compare the deaths in Lancashire with those in the West Midland
divisionneither of them very light in the mortality : — Population . Deaths . Lancashire 2 , 065 , 913 .. 54 , 938 W . M . Division 2 , 132 , 8 . ^ .. 49 , 238 Excess of deaths , in Lancashire , with the smaller «<< population 5 , 700 ! " Agriculturists understand , better perhaps than any other class , the effect of external circumstances , not only on breeds of cattle but on races of men ; and it is gratifying to see measures for the improvement of the dwellings and dwelling-places of thp people so ardently taken up , not only by the great and enlightened landowners of the country , but by men like this ? intelligent farmer , ' who haa delivered North Clifton from low fever , and from the epidemics which were once so
common " The excess of sickness and death in Lancashire is constant—in infancy , in adult age , and in both sexes . Yet the land of a great part of the county is hig h , and salubrious , and the occupation of the people has nothing in it essentially injurious . What , then , is wanting ? Apparently only this one thing : that the leading men of Lancashire , animated by goodwill , should apply that skill and vigour which have been so successful in the use of machinery and the production of clothing for mankind , to the amelioration of the flooial condition of the two millions of Englishmen around them . "
Social Reform. "Notes Of A Social Ckcono...
SOCIAL REFORM . " notes of a social ckconomist . " the cooperative associations otf jbngfcand . XIV . " Every man has a right to be in the country where he was born . But , if one landlord have a right to drive » H the people from his estate , every other landlord ha § the same right ; nnd , as all would huve the same right »¦ the first driver , all the peoplo except the landlords might be driven into the sea . ' —William Ooubbtt . Turn organs of tfye feudal aristocracy still clamour for protection to native industry : but the real
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31011852/page/14/
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