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with police , statute labour , and even poor-rates , which our reformed magistrates have lately imposed on us by the enactment of their New Police Act . These are a few of the blessings that modern civilization has bestowed on our trade . But the Doctor says , that it is our drunken habits that have sunk us into this pit far rather than the oppression of the monied classes . " If so , we must leave him to explain it more clearly , as our obtuse faculties cannot compre-But it is not in trade
hend such reasoning . our alone that reductions have taken place . I find . that in almost every trade here great reductions have taken place since the passing of the income-tax . Sir Robert Peel , in his generosity , thought that he was imposing a tax on the rich ; but he was very much mistaken , as the rich immediately made reductions on the wages of labour to a far greater amount than the income-tax . I have not time just now to enumerate the reductions that have been
made in the different trades ; but , if necessary , I will undertake to prove that a general reduction in almost all trades has taken place to the amount of from ten to thirty per cent , in the West of Scotland . With regard to the intemperate habitB of the working classes I think there is much exaggeration . Many of the teetotallers set down the whole of the spirituous liquors consumed to the account of working men , and point out what great good they might
do for themselves with the fifty million pounds they thus wasted , as if the upper and middle classes never tasted a single drop . I believe we will arrive nearer the truth by relating the anecdote of the minister and the miner . The miner was in the habit of getting drunk every time he got his pay , which was once a month / and the minister , having observed his intoxication on several of these occasions , reproved him for his intemperate habits . The miner retorted that he did not drink so much as he . •¦ How so ? " said
the minister . Why , " said the miner , " you take a glass every day after dinner . " " Yes . " " And another every night made into toddy before going to bed . " " Yes . " " That is fourteen glasses a- week , or about sixty glasses a month ; whereas six or seven glasses when I get my pay makes ine drunk . " " Yes but , " said the minister , « I time the thing . " Here lies the secret . The upper and middle classes time the thing ; they keep drink in their houses in gallons , and take it regularly along with good meals and open air exercise , and it is never seen on them ; and the working classes get the name of drinking all the intoxicating liquor that is made .
' As far as my own trade is concerned m intoxicating habits , I know that when our wages were three times the amount they now are that there was not the third part of the drink consumed by them men as there is now . To them " The Good Time Coming " is so very far off that they have no hope of ever enjoying it , and they have no belief in the boasted dignity of labour when they are obliged to toil fourteen or sixteen hours per day for a bare supply of healthful
their physical wants ; and , no other more excitement being provided for them , they fly occasionally to that which makes them forget their misery for a time . In the words of the wise man , *• It is not for Kings to drink wine , nor for Princes strong drink ; give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish , and wine unto those that be of heavy heart ; let him drink and forget his poverty , and remember his misery no more . "
Let the friends of education and temperance unite to remove this physical misery , and we will then believe them in earnest in their efforts to remove our ighoranco and intemperance . —Yours very truly , S . Wellwood .
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REFORM IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH . Blackburn , September 11 , 1850 . Sin , —I have read from week to week your many excellent articles upon the ntct'ssity of a reform in the Christian Church , and am fully persuaded from all that I know , see , and read , that the time has arrived for the commencement of this great work . With the conclusions of your letters I fully agree , relative to the substituting fact for dogma , and know that there ure all the materials in existence for working it up ; but I am anxious to see . &ome line of action laid down , which may be found sufficient for determining or settling the common mind . I believe that the whole of the creeds and formul a ) 5 , with all
their absurdities , ridiculous as they really are , or appear t <> be to men of reflection , are but the living evidences of the constituent element found in the compound of humanity everywhere prevailing with the Hiunc forct ; among the lowest tribes of our race as with the highest . The great mistake that most thinkers have made has been the confounding creeds with religion ; the former is only an effect flowing from the latter , which in an eternal reality , nor cun all the changes that mny ever take place in the former alter in the least the immutable nature of the latter . " ' Before Abraham
wBBrLam , " is purely the representation of tho Eternal Spirit £ n man , of which Christ , thi > annotated of God tho Fatn <{ T ^ is tho living reality . I know that home of your / Judders muy object to ' this , by replying that , if this I bo admitted , what is to become of tho
Chrishna of the Hindoos , the Moses of the Jews , and the Mahomed of the Turks ? To which I reply , names alter nothing—each and all of them are the same . They represent the * ' great fact "—God , Jehovah , Buddha , Foh , &c . ; and through the various names , symbols , or signs we observe only the Christ spirit embodied in the flesh , the " mediator between God and man , the man Christ Jesus ; " and let me ask how , or by what means , can the mind grapple with abstractions ( " God is a spirit" ) but through embodiment or representation ? Three parts of the confusion , mistakes , and differences arise from the want of comprehending our own natural wants .
Let ine not , however , occupy the too-valuable tithe of yourself or readers , Mr . Editor , by enlarging upon this subject just now . What I want to see worked , put is some general good . The time has come , and how shall we begin it ? Can we lay a foundation upon which a structure sufficiently strong can be raised for effecting our purpose ? Can we substitute fact for fiction , and point out the way in
which it is to be done ? If so , I say again , it is our duty to Work it Out by laying down some general plan of action sufficiently expansive £ o embrace and cement the - # hole of the mind , which now lies ready to be moved and moulded for the great and glorious work of religious progression . " The Sabbath was made for man , " and we should take advantage of it ; but , before we begin the mission , it is necessary to know well what we mean to do . Where shall we
start from , or what standard of faith have we to set up for our rule of action ? Shall we acknowledge the Bible as the word of God , Christ as the Saviour of mankind , and the infallibility of the Church which embodies and represents the whole ? Shall we , in fact , organize a Church ? If so , what kind of a Church is it to be ? If it is worth doing , let it be done ; and I venture to predict that minds will be found in numbers sufficient to go forth to the world with zeal and perseverance , preaching God ' s truth in the spirit of Christ the salvation of mankind . The few remarks thus thrown together , Mr . Editor , are for the purpose of eliciting something further upon what I conceive a very important point in the great Social movement . J . E . S .
P . S . I may just say that the harvest m this part is ripe , but we have no way of gathering it in . We want an organization or Church . We must , in fact , have it , if we mean progress . This question should now be agitated fairly through the Leader , and at an appointed tinie a Conference should be called to determine the line of action best calculated to ensure success . The world wants the truth .
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EXTRACTS OF LETTERS . Mr . T . F . Barton takes exception at Miss Martineau ' s letter . He says : — "A gentleman who has had considerable experience in farming , to whom I submitted Miss Martineau ' s letter , considers that she has not been sufficiently explicit in the information furnished to be of any use to others as an example of * what may be done with the land . ' A labouring man cannot be content not to lose ; he must have sufficient profit and subsistence out of his land , and that farming on so small a scale as that referred to will produce these results is certainly not proved by Miss Martineau ' a letter in the Leader .
" The gentleman above-mentioned desires to know if Miss Martineau has sufficiently considered and taken account of the following particulars : —the interest on the purchase money of the land—on the buildings , gates , fences , &c , &c , on the live and dead stock , the rent , tithes , poor-rates , highway and church rates , government taxes , the expenditure of hay , straw , Indian meal , turnips , grains , seed , fuel , labour , horse-work , repairs , the yearly depreciation oj stock , and the loss of stock , bad seasons , and the failure of crops , wear and tear of implements , the bills of the carpenter , blacksmith , and cattle doctor . These are points which every practical firmer must take into account although too apt to be lost Bight of , or not sufficiently considered by the theorist or the amateur farmer . "
The Editor has received a letter from " A Christian" at Oxford , so written that , although the arguments do not coerce his mind , the manner fills him with , esteem and regard for the writer . A matter of fact is touched upon ; the writer , it should bo premised , having vindicated the all-sufficiency of the New Testament as a guide and law : — •« You speak of young Dissenting ministers taking a broader line and preaching a universal faith . I have lived amongst them all my life , and can tell you their mu'versalism is an echo of the invitation they find in the New Testament : none lay that aside . See the last impressive invitation in the last chapter of the Revelations , verse 17 , ' All may come , but in the appointed way , * as a test of character and obedience . "
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about it . Of course , newspapers would be established for the purpose of making every speech and matter pub - lic , and probably the debates in Convocation would exceed in interest the debates in Parliament ; while a love of taking one side or another , in exciting controversial topics , would rather tend to place in the background the humble practice of true religion . We may be sure such , a stir would arise in the Church as would add greatly to her convenience or inconvenience . —Dr . Johnson , his Religious Life . 8 tc .
Convocation . —We must recollect that Convocation now would be a different matter to what it has hitherto been , inasmuch as multitudes of persons can read who beluie could not ; the means of conveying intelligence aie multiplied ; and thus a whole nation would be staudinir , on tiptoe to learn every word spoken in the Houses , where before but a portion of it could know anything
George Dawsont . —Lately there has sprung up , one of Grotian spirit , except that he accepts not so fully the teaching of the Church of England ; yet is he one of an earnest , thoughtful mind , eager for coalition . His main error—but then he is a young man—seems to be set forth in the idea that truth has not yet appeared in the world ; that the words , " Lo , I am with you alway , " ought rather to have been , " Lo , I shall be with you some time in the twentieth century , and Mr . George Dawson is to be my pioneer and discoverer . " But , notwithstanding this intellectual conceit , much , that he speaks may be loved ; and , therefore , let us hear him when he is descanting on the blessing of unity rather than diversity of spirit . " Do we not know , " he "writes , " some families that read none but Baptist books ; others , none but Unitarian
tracts and writings ; many who , m their narrow notion s of sacred literature , study only the prophets of their own sect ? They know nothing about others ; they understand them not : they desire not to understand them . Nursed up in their own little narrow apartment , they walk wearily round it , till they have left their footprint on the stone of its floor . Should a wise man be brought up so ? Shall I refuse to be taught by the holy words of Fenelon , because he belongs not to my sect or creed ? Shall Jeremy Taylor have written eloquently , and Chrysostom of the ' golden mouth' have spoken and preached , in vain for me , because I belong not to their communion ? Verily , no ! I accept with thankfulness all the good , that God sends me , come from where it will . I believe in good men of every church . "—Dr . Johnson , his Religious Life , See .
"Value of Beading and Writing . —The man who cannot read , what is his sense of hearing worth ? The communications of business , the gossip of the household , the clink of guineas , and the whir of spindles he can hear ; but to the high and highest voices which God has fashioned to edify him and all men , he is deaf . The man who cannot write beyond some little temporary circle , he is dumb . While he who can read has an ear-trumpet that conveys to him the uttered thought of the remotest past and distance , he who can write has a speaking-trumpet that carries his messages over all the continents . through the loudest storms of the ever-noisy sea of time . This is true indeed of all ages , in which the art of
writing has been practised : but of no age is it so widely true as of ours While the eighteenth century antiquaries were collecting their ancient reliques and the like , a Scottish ploughboy , with the fiery and susceptive heart of an old minstrel in him , was driving his tpam afield . Had the lot of Robert Burns been cast in an unreading and unwriting age , the dumb ploughboy might have died a dumb ploughman ; his melody might have fallen like rain upon the dry ground , refreshing it , but disappearing for ever . But Robert had been taught both to read and write , and a book or two lay instead of
in his pocket as he drove his team afield ; so an anonymous minstrel , like oue of the cattle on a thousand hill-, he became a song writer for Britain and the world . William Shakspeare ' s father it is pretty certain could not write ; luckily there was a free grammar school in Stratford ; and now we have Shakspeare ' s works . Were it only for the sake of the few Shakspeares and the few Brindleys , let schools everywhere be built in England ; and the sounds of young instruction blend everywhere with those of labour which rise there without ceasing , up to the cope of heaven . —ilia * . Espinasse , in the Lancashire School Association Essays .
Convict Labour . —A great proportion of the walls , ditches , fortifications , and public buildings of the Continental towns , aie constructed by penal labour . Offenders are condemned to work on these public edifices and fortifications , and there is no other way of disposing of them . It is surprising that our government has not adopted , to a greater extent , the same means of employing convict labour at homo , instead of an expensive transportation to Gibraltar , Bermuda , or Australia , and the application of convict labour in the same way in those colonies . We have not at home any strong , regularly fortified place to which the sovereign could retire in the event of invasion from abroad or tumults at home . There are many military points which , however unlikely it may be that such
events as the invasion of the country by an enemy , or rebellion and organized tumult of our own population , should ever take place , ought not to bo left unguarded and unprepared for defence . The 336 fortresses or garrisoned towns in the Prussian dominions , may be an unnecessary extension of the system ; and in the war against Napoleon which preceded the Peace of Tilsit , were a main cause of the rapid success of the French arms hi that campaign . The Prussian army was frittered down into isolated garrisons too weak to defend their posts , or to arrest the advance of the enemy . But thirty or forty places of strength in this country , commanding the access to our main railways and roads , would neither be ridiculously unnecessary nor costly . havo , unhappily , too much , of convict labour to apply to such constructions , we have officers of skill and science to
construct them , we have property to defend , and every rational motive to retard any hostile movement , either by a foreign or domestic foe , in the land , and we have scarcely a strong place in the kingdom that could hold out for ten days against an enemy . The constitutional objection to strongholds in the hands of the executive power belongs to the age of Kins' Stephen , nut to our times ; or to the policy of Louis Philippe , not to our constitutional raonarcliy . —Laing ' s Observations on Europe .
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592 H £ t ) t 3 LtaX * tt + [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 14, 1850, page 592, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1853/page/16/
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