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IT IS COMING . The movement is making way , even faster and more steadily than any of us could have hoped a few months back : the union of Chartism and Social Reform is promoted to discussion in the leading columns of the Times , and the great Globe itself has become the exponent of Universal Suffrage I Here are " great facts " for a holiday time What do such facts mean , but that the leading journalists see the progress of popular influence too strongly to keep up the reserve which is to Ministerial journalism what discretion is to valour in action ? The Times sees that Political and Social
Democracy is among the living influences of the day , even here in tranquil England , and must be discussed ; the Globe sees that the day for compromises is up , that the Financial Reformers are " taking the shine" out of Lord John Russell's promised Reform Bill , without a chance of saving an exclusive franchise ; so the Whig journalist boldly throws the Manchester School overboard , and virtually declares for the one possible alternative—Lord John or Universal Suffrage . The avowal will not be lost on the Chartists ; it ought not to be lost on the " Parliamentary and Financial Reformers . " The Globe disposes of the compromises with considerable force : —
" We seldom read any observations on the extension of the franchise without being struck by their strange combination of timidity and rashness . We have a difficulty in conceiving how several most estimable public men can fail to be struck both by the excessive improbability that the unrepresented classes will be satisfied with such concessions as , for example , Mr . Gibson proposes , and by the excessive dangers that in certain cases would follow even the limited terms to which he is roady to agree . We go at once to the question of the Suffrage , for the whole
dispute turns on the degree in which the direct popular element can safely be introduced ; and that once disposed of , it . is idle to strain at the ballot , the duration of Parliaments , or the necessities of ratepayers . On the Suffrage , then , we are in no fear of misiepresenting the Manchester School when we say that they would adopt the principle , while they extended the provisions , of the Reform Billthat , like it , they would admit to the franchise a large number at present beyond that pale , while—also , like it ¦—they would leave a vast numerical majority wholly unrepresented
" There is no good in concealing that , rightly or wrongly , exclusion from the franchise is looked upon as < i wrong and an injustice in a totally different sense from that attached to the non-posseKsion of property , the liability to endure taxation , or any other hardship that presses with peculiar severity on the poorer class . It may not be a reasonable feeling , but of its existence we have no more doubt than of our own . It is a grievance in much the same sense as the exclusion of Jews from Parliament is a grievance . Baron Rothschild , no doubt , already exercises a direct weight in European politics , to which a scat , in Parliament can biing very
Hlight addition . But it bus been made a point of honour t > deny him t . liis trifling distinction , and no one can be surprised at the tenacity with which lie rind bis coreligionists cling to their demand for it . We may add that no Hinalt ulter . 'itiniiH , no chipping and chopping of household Hud ' ragc , can be looked on an anything but temporary ; and that , the period may not be far distant when our wisest politician * will hold the same language on the Hiiflra ^ c which Lord John Russell held on the corn laws , and determine to get , rid of the question once for all , by making up their minds to concede everything . "
This in vigorously said . 1 he Globe , indeed , hints at some middle course , different from nny hitherto published , us tstill practicable—some restoration of freemen , and some " double election" ; an election of members by electors who shall be themselves elected by the original constituents— -like the Senate of the United States , or the Representative Members of British Guiana . . Are these to he features of Lord John ' s forthcoming Reform Bill ? Is the Globe putting out a " feeler ? " If so , we would only ask our far-seeing contemporary to reperuse bin own arguments , and Hay whether the cumbrous , complicated idea of such a process would not effectually deter men from it , and make
them " determine to get rid of the question once for all , by making up their minds to concede everything "—especially since everybody has ceased to be afraid of Universal Suffrage . Even the Globe can talk of " the defects of the Reform Bill" in not giving an " unbiassed choice" to " the people—the populace , if we will ; " though that choice should result in an election like that of Henry Hunt by the freemen of Preston . Bravo , Globe ! Only we have by this time got too far to forego Universal Suffrage , and are not , at this day , by any means inclined to put up with scot and lot voters . Really it is too late to talk of completing the Reform Bill , or revivifying it , by adding to it the fossil curiosi ties of the pre-Adamite time before the Reform
Bill . The Times is further ahead , though rather more vague in its ideas than its Ministerial comrade . It evidently sees that the united movement of Chartists and Social Reformers must be noticed ; and , as a mode of notice , instinctive and safe , it repels the new idea ; but gently , and with a winning smile . Its repulsion takes the shape of pleasantry , in a long criticism on the Programme of the Chartism Convention : and , with the distinguished
ability for which the Times is preeminent , it manages to make the most of the weaker points in that document ; striving to frighten off certain classes by assuring its readers that " Mr . Feargus O'Connor ' s total expenditure " would be a hundred millions yearly . Who told the Times that Mr . Feargus O'Connor would be Chancellor of the Exchequer by Social-Chartist appointment ? Who told the gay alarmist that the Chartists and Social Reformers would be so foolish , so very like Whigs ,
as to keep up useless African squadrons , or standing armies a hundred thousand strong ? Who told him that they would permit so much to be spent and get so little for the public money as we now do out of the public servants ? For that is the point : the Chartists have shot ahead of your ordinary Financial Reformers , and have got so far as to know that mere expenditure is not the question , but the return for your expenditure—the half of finance which is so neglected by our present financiers .
The Times confesses that the " pure democracy " of the Six Points has received a captivating adjunct in Socialism , " a far more genial system than the other . " The " ardent and affectionate , but undisciplined mind , " quoth the reflex of the times , " embraces far more gladly the idea of a great industrial compact which is to give every man a due reward for his work without the suicidal competition , the flagrant inequalities , the soul-destroying drudgery , the terrible risks of common manufacture and commerce . " And the Times argues that , " to speak the iilain truth , the scheme is only too
magnificent , "—to wit , the scheme set forth in the Programme . We agree with our contemporary , that some of the provisions adopted prospectively by the Convention will never be realized in practice ; that they will be set aside as experience matures during the onward march . But that is not the present point : the fact of present importance is , that the main idea of the Programme has seized a firm hold on a large and increasing number ; that it unites the Chartists , or active politicians of the working classes , with the Social Reformers , now for the first time entering
into political agitation ; that it calls forth the practical grievanceH and desires of the working classes , as well as the ambitions of the People , and that by force of such reasons the Programme opens the way for a popular agitation such as England has not yet seen . We devoutly believe that it will be as much more exalted in its sentiments as it will be in power , among the movements of the People in English history . But we need not magnify " it , in the eyes either of the Times or the Globe : for they see , as well an we do , of what if , is capable . The Nobles obtained their Magna Charta , —and England was the better for that " extension of the
franchise" alter the craven despotism of John ; the Gentry obtained their Bill of Rights from the Dutchman promoted vice Stuart ; the Middle ( "lass obtained their lleform Bill from the unconscious William through the half conscious John Russell : each of these ; great victories paved the way for the other ; each succeeding sta ^ e was shorter and easier than the one before : —now , we are in the shortest stage of all , the last -the People advancing to take their Charter , with one hand , while with other they offer to all classes the blessed endowment of concert ; . The Times discerns tins " great fact , " and knows right well that it is not too good to be true .
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« O YE OF LITTLE FAITH !" We have been a second time to the stake ; for we see by a brief paragraph in the Leeds Mercury , that the Leader has been burned at Gainsborough . If we ask ourselves , what the fact proves , we must confess that it only proves how little the reverend executioner who officiated on the occasion understood either the spirit which moves us , or the position of the establishment to which he belongs , or the real tendency of the time in which he lives . On the superficial view , the most obvious and formidable fact in ecclesiastical affairs is the threatened disruption in the Church of England . Puseyite and Gorhamite are pulling it , bodily , in opposite directions ; Idealizers and Platonizers are altering it within ; the blank sceptics beneficedmen who sneer at our own paper as " fanatical "are daily increasing , though the number is already formidable . The reverend executioner probably knows these facts as well as we do . The most sagacious and most cautious of the weekly
journalists already is warning the Bishop of Exeter that his inflexible adhesion to High Church principles will hasten the break up ; but does any one expect that highminded Henry will desist through fear ? We scarcely know what can now be called , in the good old meaning of the word , " the Church of England , " except that respectable full waistcoated impersonation of John Bull in black , that rises at county dinners to return thanks for " The jolly full bottle" toast ; a residuary portion which is not even a sect , but only a usage .
It is not against us that the Church should raise its hand : let it look to its own servants most forward in its name . It complains of the progress of Catholicism among the poor . If you pass certain metropolitan churches in frequented thorough ares , you may see a policeman , dressed in brief authority , staying the noisy career of reckless omnibuses , lest the ear of piety within the fane be distracted . Enter the church , and you find the people all penned off from each other , the poor admitted to the " free sittings "—perchance , not over-crowded—but kept " to know their place ! " Enter a church in a
Catholic country , and you see none of those pens ; the clergy there , many of them—nay , most of them —are poor , familiar with the poor , consorting with the poor ; and in the fane the beggar shall kneel beside the prince . Here , " all are equal in the sight of God , " but not of churchwarden ; there , all are equal in the H ouse of God , because it is the House of God . The Establishment complains of the progress of Dissent : Dissent is missionary among the poor—though not on terms so brotherly as the Romanist mission proffers : your " respectable" Englander cannot shake off the habit of social distinctions , even in the service of God ;
before whom !—The Orthodox complain of the progress of Scepticism : their own conduct is practical scepticism . Yet there is still work for the Church of England to do , in giving to what remains of thoroughly English manners and sentiments a spiritual life , in helping to teach the untaught , in becoming what the clergy used to be , the guide , philosopher , and friend of the people , more needed than ever on the long journey which they are just commencing from Egyptian slavery to a better life .
There is , however , only one power that can save the Church , and that is—itself ; only one way to do so , and that is , by turning its attention rather to develope the strength and life that are still within it , than to hostile antagonisms seeking the destruction of coordinate powers . Or where it does appear as a Church militant , let it he so against real monsters . In times past , the Church was the denouncer of the f » iant wrongs of
those times ; it still denounces the same monsters , dead and buried though they be . Established St . George is content to be for ever slaying the Dragon of the Past . But there are monsters of our own day ; and the Church is in its duty when , like the Australian clergy denouncing the official attempt to revive male convictisrn with all its unutterable abominations , it is conflicting with the devouring beasts that threaten our existence .
The Church of Kngland is not the Church of the World , but one amoiw those Churches—a section of the great Christian Church . Humanity , however , is rising above sectarian , boundaries , mid i » beginning to recognize the broadest truths which move mankind to the love of God and to a wiser obedience . Humboldt , high priest of the Kosmos , like the prophet of old , is lifted to the highest pinnacles of earth , and surveys the expanse of the universe ; where artificial bounds diminish out of sight , and bupreine laws are discerned ruling equally over all ;
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things tixed when all the world is by the very law of its creationin eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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SATURDAY , APRIL 26 , 1851 .
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390 JCJj * & * && **? [ Saturda y ,
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Leader (1850-1860), April 26, 1851, page 390, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1880/page/10/
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