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Cmiimmtal Mains.
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diplomacy in league -with the Austrian rules in Naples , and stirs up dissensions in Ireland . Indeed , this is a crisis in the affairs of Europe ; and if we would not he a prey to barhariem , it is our bounden duty to help the regeneration of the nations . For , not till Western Europe has east off the fetters of its hierarchies can we safely defy the Czar and his arrogant pretensions . . > Three centuries ago England accomplished an historical mission of religious progress , and her present struggles with Popery prove that her religious mis-Bion in the nineteenth century is not less important . The state of Ireland shows the necessity of again
unfurling the banner of religious liberty in England , and of aiding the strugg les ag ainst P opery throughout the world . This is no time for delay ; for the enemies of mankind are alive , and darkness and slavery follow their track . I think it here necessary to direct attention to two prevailing errors , which unhappily divide the forces of Protestantism , and of all fronds of humanity , in their efforts against Popery , divisions turned to p rofitable account by the Jesuits . I mean the erroneous notion of toleration , and of the principles of religious liberty . In the commencement of the Papal aggression controversy ,
it was argued , on the Continent as well as in England , that a religious toleration of Catholicism requires that the Pope should rule freely over the Roman Catholics of England , and appoint bishops at will . Cardinal Wiseman , in his appeal , declared that it the princip le of religious liberty is to be a verity in England , the Pope , as the spiritual head of English Catholics , must have the right to carry out his hierarchy in all its completeness . It is , however , notorious , that the Church of Rome proclaims itself to be the only pathway to salvation , and that it anathematizes all who dissent from its doctrines .
Every Roman bishop is even bound by oath to persecute all such persons as heretics , and to bring them hack , by every sort of compulsion , to the pale of his Church . Is toleration quietly to permit the cruelties , the persecutions , the intellectual despotism of this hierarchy and its dogma that the aim sanctifies the means ? Does toleration mean the sufferance _ of Jesuitical craft and violence ? Is the law which insures religious liberty to one sect , tojauthorize it to oppress the religious liberty of all the others ? Religious toleration is the recognition and respect of every sincere and independent religious conviction .
The recognition of equal religious rights is its result . As soon as . a Church fails to recognize these equal rights , it violates the first principle of religious freedom . This has been the uniform characteristic of the Church of Rome when unchecked by the supreme power of the State . The persecutions of the Free Church in Germany , need only be referred to as a case in point . If religious liberty is to be understood as Cardinal Wiseman claims it for Popery in England , it would give with one hand what it takes with the other . It would be tantamount to a law
which should permit to English subjects , as a consequence of their personal liberty , to keep slaves ; or as a result of Free Trade , in time of peace , to equip privateers . Catholic bishops are , by virtue of their oath , ecclesiastical privateers . Such a doctrine of religious liberty would even involve the toleration of a Church which might deem it a duty to sacrifice all those who dissent from it as victimn on its altars . Every liberty , however , finds its legitimate limits , and its inherent power , in the moral system of the age from which it sprang . Popery in its very essence is opposed to religious liberty , based as il is on the principle of a blind obedience . The Pope only Iiuh religious liberty within the Catholic Church . It is both falsehood and
hypocrisy on the part of the Roman hierarchy to pretend that they are animated by a desire to procure a larger measure of religious liberty for the Catholics of England and Ireland . They would have best proved their sincerity by divesting themselves beforehand of their own privileges within the pale of their Church , by ceasing to treat the Catholic laity as dependant ininora without religious rights , and by permitting them , like the lirHt Christian communities , to choose their pastors , to determine their confession of creed free from dictation , to regulate the worship and to administer the property of the Church as their own .
Thin view of religious liberty does not involve that I should advocate the revival of the oppressions and injuries to which the Catholics of England were subjected in former times . 1 only oppose the . spiritual despotism which Popery exercises both within and without the Catholic Church . Having been a Catholic priest myself , I had ample opportunitieK of learning what craft and practices were employed by the Catholic clergy to lu-e . ' p the laity , and especially the youthin Hlavish subserviency . ....
, J .. . i t , i ...... wwl i « 11 moral tmicide and a JJut bocimw ; I deemed it a moral suicide and a crime to suffer myHelf to be used as an instrument Un the degradation of my fellow men , L broke he yoke . For that reason 1 know than there is a great dilierenee between the Catholic hierarchy and liuly . Ask an intelligent Catholic layman if ho approve of 1 he cruelties and heretic persecutions of the Cntholu clergy , and ho will toll you that there ih a distinction to he mudebetween Catholicism widi > neBtly Jesuitism .
lam also convinced that , the intelligent portion of the English Catholics discern the designs of Cardim ) l Wiseman and of his superiors in Propaganda , and that they know and feel that they can gain nothing from them . Their patriotism will doubtless P ^ vent their being used to bring Popery and R ™ sian Absolutism into England . Many , I venture to hope , will , as in Germany , obey the call ot the new Reformation , and form Free Congregations independent of Rome and priestcraft . of
The ascendancy of Popery over the progress religious knowledge mainly depends on its per tec t organization throughout the globe , and on its ability , wherever a religious movement appears , to bring to bear on that one point all the Catholic power of the world to crush it . To oppose it with success , all religious communities and intellectual powers , which consider it as the root of spiritual evil , must concentrate their energies throughout the world against it . This union can be based , without respect to differences of creed , upon general principles . Preeminently qualified for the attainment of this great purpose will be those religious communities which recognize perand unchecked
fect religious freedom , active love , religious progress as fundamental points of their creed . The presiding committee of the Free Congregations of Europe and America , now in London , has taken steps in the United States of America for the accomplishment of this object . May no one tarry who can now discern the present dangerous position of Europe ! May we learn to unite our powers , and we shall yet be able to break the power of Popery and hierarchy , though they triumphantly exult on the approaching downfal of Protestantism in England , and to raise an impenetrable barrier against the barbarism of Russia in an intellectual and moral regeneration of nations . I remain , Sir , your obedient servant , Johannes Ronge .
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SUGGESTIONS ON RAILWAY SAFETY . September 23 , 1851 . Sib , —Reading the other morning , as the Train screamed under the Claycross-tunnel , your admirable notice in your summary ( of September 13 ) of Railway Accidents , and passing afterwards by the Cottage where still lies one of the mangled victims , I was struck by the strange truth of your remark , viz ., " Butchers grieve to see mutton bruised , horsedealers grieve over broken knees , but railway passengers are a live stock not thought to be lowered in market value by any amount of knocking about . Eels in a Hamburg boat , lobsters in a fishmonger ' s tub , passengers in an excursion train—perhaps it is an exaggeration to presume a perfect equality ; for in the strict letter passengers have no saleable value . Look at the accidents recorded this week at Bieester , Hornsey , Nottingham , Leith , and Gateshead . " And , reflecting upon it , I find that passengers are really worse off than horses and oxen . Cattle have clover time of it compared with travellers . You never hear of a smash of sheep , or of six or seven hunters being killed , or the bones of twenty nags being broken . It must be because quadrupeds fetch
something in the market , and men and women nothing ; and so in a commercial age only commercial things are cared for . Had not passengers better place themselves at the disposal of the Railway Company to be sold at the end of their journey at a moderate tariff ? Any person would be happy to redeem his friends or relatives at some moderate sum , il ollured in the Railway Market unmangled . The proceeds of the sales , if divided among the Directors , Station-masters , and Engine-drivers , might be influential in procuring common safety .
Very soon there will not be a tunnel which has not been choked up with human beings—nor a station which has not been the Bcene of a tragedy , nor a part of any line which has not its reminiscence of a disaster . Private travellers tell us that the banks of the Mississippi are strewed with the graves ol emigrants who perish voyaging on it—not a little owing to the recklessness , the go-ahead habit of the American cup tains — and is not our own Railway becoming one interminable Golgotha ? Some find satisfaction in the recent verdict which gave £ 4000 to the widow of the gentleman killed near Derby . But poor people have not the legal advisers to instruct them how to brin # actions— -nor the means to do it if they had- -nor would juries be likely to
regard their claims very liberally it they could bring actions . County Magistrates and County Juries are rather apt ta be impressed with a sense of surplus populaWon , and not to regard us a nerioun <; vil every diminution of it . Will the families of the : slain at Hicoster get proportional compensation for the losses they have sustained ? We shall see . The jury seem to have ^ ot somewhat j » iyHt . iii f travellers is ve .-ry small . 15 ut is it necosaury in the Railway system that there should be a
certain proportion of disasters ? It will make little difference to me , when my turn comes to he crushed , to be assured that the ratio of death is very low . An excuse is found for those responsible for Railway management , in the fact that the public still continue to rush to the line and accept the temptation of " cheap " rides , although they may foresee that the Excursion may prove one to the Hospital or the grave . But , Sir , it ought not to be overlooked that at least in densely populated , and hard-workin ?
manufacturing districts , the " public is a poor and ill-educated creature , so limited in means that " cheapness " must seduce it , and so seldom seeing a pleasant sight that a " Great Exhibition " must tempt it . If , however , the " public " were wholly cul pable it would form no proper excuse for the greater culpability of Railway Directors , who being gentlemen of fortune and education , we have a right to expect from them strict honour , active consideration , and humanity , as the attributes of their character and
position . In my former letter , in reference to Railway Insurance , it is said that the Railway Assurance Company , in St . James ' s-street , assure the amount of £ 50 for life for 5 s ., it should have been £ 100 , which can be assured for that small sum ; and I learn that that Company is now actually negotiating with several of the leading Railway Companies to effect the insurance of their Officers in the way suggested , the successful result of which the public would be glad to learn . One who almost lives upon the Line , G . J . Holyoake .
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Praise and BLAME .-We may take the opportunity to notice a popular fallacy into which many peSons have fallen who have but imperfectly mastered fhe doctrine of p hilosophical necessity ; a fallacy so often repeated by Robert Owen that he may e B » d to have made it his own , but which we find put forward as a n original conception in the Letters on Mans Norland Development It is , that as -an is th creature of circ umstances , he is not properly ^ t he sub iect of praise or blame , reward or punishment . JNow , is the creature of
i ^ rSel y bemuse man = stances , and for no other reason , tht p ^^ J blame , reward and punishment are apphoiUfc * ™ case . For what , among other things , are the circum stances of which he is the creature ? Why , ^ rawe and blame , reward and punishment . \\ c V ^ J man , and he is influenced by our comnic ,, daUoM j We blame him , and he is affected by our censure- « he were not thus influenced and affected , our prune and blame would of course bo thrown away . _ vvc not , therefore , praise or blame an idiot , noi o e cso hardened nature as to be insensible to the }«« B ™ £
a of kindnesB or reproach . The root ot the ^)^ the use of the abstract term " circumstances , vri out a previous analysis of its meaning . ^ stances , " in reference to tho human ? h wftCt ^ ! « motives . Man is tho creature of motives : m < ^ as arising from emr own observations and rctiext e > r as suggested to us by the mimls ot others . j in which considerations of praise and » la ™ e , u-w punishment , are largely mingled . —From lYestmtnii Review for October .
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MONKY MARKKT AND CITY INTKLL 1 <^ N <^ - Satuhhav . On Monday the Board of Trade earned Bomo ttn V J ,, tie > ii in the English funds , and Connote ^ Jn , d . 974 I ; i" » "' improvement hu " ' ' ; " Vu « 'H « i » y «> Hy suceuBsivi : dcine-ssion * they dropp ed on 1 ; iy to mh !> 7 ; on W . elneHduy to i ) Gj | £ ; ami on 1 > " JU . . <)(>{ i , BubBequently recovering Ui 6 previous day The cloning price yesterday wuh -Consoln , M > & ^ The ( luma . io . minCo . molHhav . b . m :- ^; ; <) 7 I ¦ Kxchc < iueT UillH , from -IHh . to 47 » . l' ^'"" " " A ; r , ^ n securities we .., brink at . the bW . unjjK »« . week Yesterday the transactions in . ' ! " ' , i lOl cX , < , npriMd . Dutch Four , u , r ( J .-nt . U ™? " ' « " - \ f % b iv JSquHdor HoihIh , ; j Mexican lor a . « ' » " (' . lB , October , 27 , h , B ; Kummm Femr-am -u-hull y «^ £ ; 10 H - Burdiiriiui benp , H dis . ; Snunuju Active x iv i
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976 fflU * UtateV * [ Saturday ,
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HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK . ( From the Registrar-General's Report . ) In the week ending last Saturday 1014 deaths were registered in the metropolitan districts . In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1841-50 the average number was 980 ; but if the population in which this mortality occurred had been equal to the present number of inhabitants , the average would probably have been 1078 . In the previous week , ending September 27 , the deaths week has
were onlv 958 , compared with which the last apparently produced an increase . It must be observed , however , that the present return has been unduly augmented by coroners' cases , many of which properly belong to antecedent periods , but have been accumulating till the end of the quarter , when their registration was ultimately completed . By far the larger proportion of deaths on which the coroners hold inquests are produced by violent means , and fall under the general denomination " violence" in the table of fatal causes .
Cmiimmtal Mains.
Cmiimmtal Mains .
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1851, page 976, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1904/page/20/
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