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now ? Trust to yourselves—look to your own exertions—procure machinery : consider yourselves manufacturers of farming produce , make science your " protection . " Is not all this precisely what the " enemy" said , long ago ? Between the professed friend and the abused " enemy , " it is , then , a question of honesty ; nothing more . On the eve of the session which is to fulfil the
long-deferred hopes of Lord Derby s supporters , many are the meetings in country towns : the farmers hang on the lips of their representatives ; they ask for bread and they are offered a stone ! William Miles , the Protectionist member par excellence , has nothing to say about " burdens on land , " " re - adjustment , " " fixed duty ; " but plenty to say about the British Constitution , the Church in Ireland , Lord John Uussell and the Pope ' s " Brass Band . " A lectured la Blackstone , an essay a la Delolme , to fill the gaping mouths of Somersetshire farmers !
In July , the " enemies" of the farmers warned them that Lord Derby would throw them over to remain in power . They have waited to be convinced . Lord Derby is the Boomerang of the political world . He started as a Radical-Reformer , and to Reform ( perhaps even Radical-Reform ) he returns , and the farmers—O ! fortunati agricolce !
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THE THIRD SAINT LUKE . Every member of the Romanist Church in this country must feel shamed by the vehement and impudent nonsense which Mr . Frederick Lucas has put forth in a prominent organ of the party , the Dublin Tablet . We have always drawn a distinction between the great body of the Roman Catholics in this country , and those who are impelled by zealotry , or a low ambition , to enter upon agitations and intrigues against the influence of religious freedom . We can sympathise with the large number of intelligent men born and trained to the tenets of that faith which centres
in the capital where Christianity first took up its European abode . We can sympathise with their reluctance to abandon the faith of their forefathers , when , as we freely admit , no absolute intellectual test can establish the perfectness of the many other " truths" competing for their allegiance . Most especially and deeply do we sympathise with those men of the Church , who , raising no casuistical questions on matters of doctrine , have been steadfastly working to introduce amongst the men and women of their communion a spirit of greater freedom in political , social , and intellectual matters , reconciling the habit of observance in a certain ceremonial rendered venerable
by antiquity , with a participation m the progress , the scientific search , and the enlarged practical piety to which the present day aspires . Our sympathy with men of that stamp is so great , that any injury inflicted upon them through an unfair advantage taken of anything that may be in a literal sense illogical in ( heir position , we feel as we should an injury to a brother . JNTo . set of men can he more deserving of liberal conNtructioriH , and no state policy in clearer to us than that of supporting them .
Jt is not for us to deny even that some ol ( lie arguments employed in . support of ivonianiHt doetrine and unage have a weight and value of their own ; and , wc ! U' ° 1 U ) niore in love with a vulgar and obtrusive IVotcNtant proselytism , than we lire with Mr . LuciisH inquisitioniKin . Upholding absolute freedom of ( iiHeussion , we must maintain , us . st . renuoiisly aa we have maintained any other right , perfect freedom to read jind circulate the Bible , a volume which . so large a section of the : lOternal Church has made its
text book . But . when Roman Catholics represent that the volume contains many things , chpecially in relation to human conduct and aberrations , which are unlit for the uncontrouled perusal of the young , we are bound to admit that the arguments on thai- head have a very great . force . The inero obtrusion of the Bible , or ol " tracts , " therefore , upon any given population , educated or otherwise ; the thrusting of clasped
volumes from the " { Society lor the Distribution " into the hands of a peasantry ho unlettered and ho far unconlaminated as that of TuHcany- -we Hay nothing of Mm towns--m a , mis » ion which we regard , not with Hyinpal . hy , but with u nombre antipathy . It in ii Htupid kind of tyranny to r ^ pAfjqfeHMi e text-book of the national ( aith a pro-JzImrim * t * tF imprisoning thono who read il , like the iOMl | ttHt& it iu right in Protestants—we were dpi
going to say . " like Sir Culling Eardley , " hut we doubt whether he is a creditable specimen—who stand up for the defence and liberation of the Madiai ; but we cannot admit that this Biblemongering presents a case wholly unequivocal , or unmixed with very questionable matters . The , Roman-Catholics of Ireland have lately been endeavouring to push their doctrines under the claim of " religious equality . Sir Culling Eardley invites Mr . Lucas , a leader in that de
movement , to join a Protestant deputation , - manding the liberation of the Madiai . The Roman-Catholics of Ireland had provokingly laid themselves open to the taunt ; but there is many an opportunity afforded for a witticism or a practical joke which any gentleman will avoid . , because he knows that , while it might raise a laugh , it would damage his character for discrimination and good taste . The taunt implies a confounding of functions , and it shows that he who makes it as little knows his place as the man at whom he
casts it . It is not from any sympathy with his antagonist , therefore , that we feel especially bound , as we do , to record our protest against the reply of Mr . Lucas . JSTor , though we should not venture to level at the Protestant mission in Tuscany , such epithets as " souping , swindling , and mammonproselytizing , " is it the insolence of Mr . Lucas ' s language which calls us forth : we should setoff
have been content to leave that as a - against the impertinence of his challenger . That which we have to do , is to point out the bad spirit , the logical foolishness , the transparent impudence of the position which Mr . Lucas deliberately takes up . We use the word impudence in its literal sense , meaning the culpable want of shame in avowing that which is foolish , unjust , or ungenerous . We quote his words : —
" When you dare to suggest to me a similarity between Tuscany and Ireland—between the Madiais and the Catholics of this land—between your souping , swindling , mammou-proselytism , the Avhole practical aim of which is directed to root out the Christian faith , and to plant infidelity in its stead ; to disturb , destroy , disorganize , break , and tear asunder an ancient and virtuous society by foreign influences and foreign gold ; to make men devils , or anything , if it were possible , that is wor . se , rather than allow them to save their souls in the pure way in which their fathers worshipped God;—when you dare to suggest to me a parallel between resistance to the first beginnings of such revolutionary innovations , and of such hostile invasions from without , and the efforts of the Tory bigots here to
maintain their plunder and their ferocious gripe upon the throat * of a famished people , I turn from the suggestion with a contempt which assuredly there is nothing either in vour letter or in anything I know of
your career to modify or diminish . " In other Avords , when Mr . Lucas and his faith are out of power , he is the champion for religious equality , freedom of discussion , and so forth ; but when he is in power , he and his faith become " the truth , " anything but that is " gangrene , " and he will extirpate and destroy . The stupidity of the avowal is not ; lesn aurpri . sing than its impudence . When I am down , he cries , I am all for forbearance and generosity : set ine up , and I shall be an uncompromising tyrant . When I am in manacles , I am all for freedom : when you mv in manacles , 1 shall treat the proposal to unlock them as gangrene .
How Mr . Lucas ' s brother Catholics like the proclamation of thin covert intent , we do not know . It , defeats itself . The first Hi . Luke , drawn from a more accomplished class than most of the first preachers of ( 'lirist . ia . nity , has supplied one version of the gospel of Love : in his capacity of phy . sicia . il , he is appropriately the nominal patron of the well-known metropolitan asylum for those who are alllicted with mental disease ; hence the second ftf ,. Luke connects tho two ideas of l , ho religion of ChriHtia / iiify and madness . The third St . Luke , of Dublin , supplies the missing wing of the triad , and represents only the madness " , ^/ . veonnect . ed from the religion of Love ; he represents ( lie polemical nttinia—the i > ersuanion of I latrod .
Startled at ; the transparent avowal of " si . double dealing , which would ii . se freedom to re-establish tyranny , many l <] ngliHhinon accept ; the War declaration of ' the Dublin St . Lucas , m . h a rciuson for reviving coercion of Mie llonian-CatholicH . II we don't coerce them , it ; iH Haul , they will coerce us ; if wo don ' t keep them down , they will put us down ; and in making them free , freedom commits suicide . Tho argument in Hpeciou . s , but
unsound . Fear is mostly foolish , and has a natural propensity for tyranny . This fear implies a want of faith in our own conviction . If We belie \ e that freedom of discussion is better than constraint , we can confidently let discussion , be froe , even when it includes the preaching of restraint . Put fetters upon discussion , and you only substitute Protestant Popertf for the more venerable Popery of-the seven , hills . The triple shovel hat would be as cruel as the triple tiara but not so picturesque . '
Free discussion is as capable of self-maintenance as coercion is—more so . The state of Ireland proves it . While discussion ami education are free , the tenure of bigotry becomes every day more precarious ; the foolishness of the Dublin St . Luke has no final and irresistible attraction for the human mind ; and if it swaggers freely in the open atmosphere of discussion , it does but serve as a volunteer Helot , with which sound sense can point the moral of its tale
to an amused public . While sectarian proselytizers are squabbling to get over their paltry gains , counting a " convert" here , and a " per-A ert" there , education and science , set free , are rapidly taking possession of Ireland and its people . This is a process too great to need that the new spirit should establish its tenancy by any formal livery of seisin .
But there is more at stake than the liberty of Ireland , great as that stake is : so long as discussion is free , England is able to maintain before the world an open field in which the Catholicism of Rome meets practical education , unfettered science , and political freedom , and profits by the meeting . The fact is , that the emigration is draAving away from the priests , by yearly hosts , those belieA ers upon whom the revenue of the priests depends , in order to convey their believers to that land of long established freedom ,
America , where dogmatic incorporation rapidly melts away . Seeing themselves thus abandoned , seeing Ireland itself yielding to the influences to AA'hich it is thrown open , the priests of an intolerant regime foresee their doom ; they understand that from a reproach Ireland is being converted into an example ; nay , the ground is so rapidly departing from under their feet , that they are at last forced to step on to the firm rock of open discussion , to avail themselves of the privilege be
of freedom for preaching intolerance , and to themselves the refutation , the scoff , the laughingstock of their own doctrine . It is no wonder , then , that a few of the more hot-spirited givo vent to inflamed language , or get a little incoherent in their anger , like our friend St . Lucas ; but how inconceivable the folly of England , it irritation at the unblushing but instructive outspeaking of a Lucas could provoke her to forfeit that groat Hold of open discussion , on which sho is so gloriously Avinning her way .
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Tin- ] SPIRITUAL INSOLVENCY OV "THE CHURCH . " Ok all wonderful institutions which have survived the necessity for their existence , the Churdi or England i « the most astounding . Look at it " » what way we may , from what absolute or theoretical point of view wo will , it presents the sawinsane anomalies , the same unaccountable a [ - pearanceH , tho name Protean nhapos , alturnawi'h unity and division , harmony and discord , woaiui and " indigence , untruth and veracity , con orrniij ' witli the wants of the time , and the most < ieu » - mined retrogression arid obsfcructivones . s . altering under itn nacre < l mantle , men ol eve ¦ y Htamp , of every degree of goodneHH and viIcium , of Hpintual enrncHtnefiH and low earthly aniuiw —in one p lace the friend of the people »> « J other their Hoourge-now the haughty iiu ]> ufl »«\ Laiuiian , tlion the supple cringing J /' , " ,.. / prcHenlH itself to any mind which tr . t'H nonCNi y to see ii ; , with all l . ho facility and all tho ovumn uchh of 1 larlequin . "Who can toll uh what i r ^ Who can lay liifl linger < m it , and nay I"" ' . , Who can . net down its pretensionH on on ' and its performancen on another , a"" " J tho balance is on the right Hide Y 1 <) HOJ ; ' . rally , Hpiritu ;» lly , the Church jh a hIiiuu ; < nof ' do for the nation what it proteges to U <> ,
one word , it in insolvent . , . 'Vlwvo We not down lactH an we liml » lt'm \ w ja « ( hey arc glaring before tho eyes ol ¦ aa world : for them wo are not rospouHiDK • _ . ^ ((> the . stake i . la . yed for m m much , to u » , . ut ] cn tho Church , no are only periomnng oui Uou .
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992 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 992, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1956/page/12/
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