On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tween imperative doubts , but more imperative interests , parties rose into sharp distinctness , and the anarchy of the Church became a visible thing . An institution based less securely than this wonderful product of a thousand years would have been ere this in ruins . But fortunately , at least for the Church , Henry's [ Reformation made her , and Charles' and William ' s Settlement left her , one of the most
complete organizations , as a political institution , the world ever saw . Bound up in the State , her chief officers appointed by the responsible Ministry of the Sovereign , and made subservient to political purposes ; half her property under lay patronage , a mass of it in the hands of the Lord Chancellor ; her Ministry opened as a " career " to the ambitious , like law , arms or physic , and her so called sacred office classed as one of the
learned professions ; welded into the very fabric of society from its highest to its lowest platforms , the Church has survived the roughest handling , and lost very little of her real power . Fortunately , also , she was deprived of temporal power , and disappeared as a Church militant ; and with unconscious prescience , or unusual foresight , the suspicious patrons of the Church even
locked up her Parliament House , and deposited the keys in the safe keeping of the Crown . Everything that worldly wisdom could do to strengthen and uphold her politically has been done . Gold , reputation , honours , even veneration , have been hers . One thing alone was wanting ; and had that been attainable , perhaps the clergy of the Church of England would have been " content to dwell in decencies for ever . " The
Church lacked the dogma of infallibility in its head . Ministers of no day could stop theological controversy ; the human mind , even when environed with formulas , and often lulled ^ to sleep in substantial luxuries , could not be at rest . Hence came divisions ; hence bitter feuds ; hence anathemas hurled here and there ; lience secessions and concessions ; lience flagrant inconsistencies ; hence disbelief , misbelief , unbelief , all lodged in the same great almshouse , all fed at the same buttery , all clothed with the same external attributes , and all
making , officially , the same professions . The astute politicians who fixed the status of the Church of England , made its temporal conditions of existence so strong , so entirely one with the interest of the ruling faction in the state , so blended with the whole system of tenure in the country , that even the passionate disputes and profound antagonisms of its members cannot split it asunder . At the present moment the property of the Church is its true rclif / o , without which its members Avould split up into the fifty sects they really are , though apparently one .
We should have the Low Church , the High Church , the Broad Church , and all their offshoots . Some would cling to the Apostolical Succession , and Baptismal Regeneration , some to justification by faith , and conversion by grace ; some would recognise only the elect , and damn all the rejected ; and . some would reconcile all the doctrines , and explain them—with the utmost haziness , but with apparent self-content . Take away the bond of properly , and where would bo the Church of England , one and indivisible ? Wo do not even exclude the Record party from the
condemnation implied in this sweeping charge . Wo put the question point blank to the Record , for ih it not the organ of purity andumvorldliness P Do not let it bo said that we are supposing an impossible—we had almost said , an improbable case . The elements of separation arid tu'ision are all at work ; the formations to which they give birth crop out here and there , jutting up afresh daily , and demonstrating the anarchy oi" tbo central ( ires of tho system . Have wo not seen how tho scalpel has boon remorselessly applied by the Kdinbttn / k Review , laying bare tho anatomy of tho Church , apparently for tho Hake of contribution to its natural his
making an useful - tory , utterly forgetful of tho effect produced upon tbo ingenuous mind of tho public . ? Do wo not see one bishop returning from the consecration of a Protestant Church at Geneva , only to meet the indignant reproaches of his own party who , rod-hot Calvinists , accuse tho prelato of consorting with ArianH and SooiniansP and another bishop , who protested against the act of tho Church , in appointing ft Bishop of Jerusalem , and has now renewed thai , protest ? Is there not a wluinboring Etna in tho diocoso of Bath and Wolls , whore Mr . Donison , only a fow months nao , was quarrelling with hia auporior about tho
real presence P And , lastly , has not the Reverend Frederick Maurice just been dismissed from the chair of theology at King's College , London , for teaching which was dangerous , unsettling , and liable to misinterpretation . # i We pause over this latest fact . Mr . Frederick Maurice is a man well known to our readers . Those who do not agree with him respect and admire him . So subtle , so profound , so eloquent have been his expositions of divinity , that bishops are proud to acknowledge how much they owe
to Mm . High Churchmen consider him " one of the most original and independent thinkers of the day . " The Chronicle and Guardian express open sympathy with him ; he is the favourite aversion of the lowest of Low Church papersthe Record . Indeed , it is whispered that two members of the College Council vainly opposed the removal of Mr . Maurice ; and that they were —the one , a bishop , —the other , Mr . Gladstone ! The dismissal of such a man , therefore , is no ordinary symptom of the anarchy of the Church ;
and on both sides we hear prognostics of strife and mischief . Well may what is called the " religious" world feel some alarm ; well may the Chronicle eagerly deprecate controversy—nay , almost the exercise of the power lodged in the Council . Well may the Guardian , which is never " good at need , " and always flinches , in an emergency , give personal praise to Mr . Maurice , but profess to look at the act of the Council only as a bystander , and to dare no opinion . Here is one
of the lights of the Church , one of the foremost men , practically considered an unsound teacher of youth . Here is private society already agitated with the rising tempest ; here are the vindication of Mr . Maurice , and the justification of the Council issuing from the press ; here is the pugnacious Record rubbing its fat palms with glee , and predicting , ihore suo , " a fierce and lengthened controversy . " It is not for us to prophecy ; but , noting that the controversy will rage over the doctrine of eternal punishmentsomething to contend for—we shall stand by and look on , keeping a record of the progress of the battle , and handing it now and then to our readers .
Untitled Article
THE WAR OF WIGAN . " The Strikes , " as they are called , present several questions which are in their nature really distinct , and a great contemporary has not rendered the whole more clear by mixing them up with a totally distinct subject—that of the franchise . We see as strongly as any politicians the culpability of using violence without the hope of success by that means ; but if tho doctrine is to be maintained that those who resort to violence in
vindication of what they conceive to be their just rights , ipso facto prove themselves worthy to bo disfranchised , then thewholeEnglish nation , which has obtained most of its valuable political rights by means of force , ought to be disfranchised at the dictate of closet philosophers . Let us , however , dismiss that question , with tho single remark that the subject of tho franchise is not to bo decided by tho impulses of tho hour .
Tho most important questions which aro mixed up in the discussion under tho conspicuous title of " the Strikes , " are the adjustment of wages , tho method of arranging differences , the right of the men to act in concert with each other , and the preservation of tho public peace . Tho last point we hold to bo as important as any . Wo would have tho public peace preserved at all events . Wo do nol ; indeed regard with so much abhorrence those who resort to the ultima ratio . Where n , subject cannot be decided by logic ; , where philosophy has not yet arrived at any final decision , force is a very convenient and a very time-honoured method of settling a dispute ;
provisionally , —of finding out which party is tho stronger , and leaving that party in possession of tbe administration undisturbed by the discontents of a , weaker and less able party . Where two sides are essentially arrayed against each other , it is manifest that the victory for the time must remain with the stronger ; and it is for the interest ; of both sides that ; the victory should be ascertained as soon as possible , and with as littlo waste us possible of penalty to either . Tho stronger party in the factory districts—that party which , is most ; united with the whole body of the nation , and is in fact both ablo and bound to dictate the municipal law , ought to be prepared to maintain its authority , happen what may . With
all our sympathies for the working-classes , we are not prepared to admit that the rioters at Wigan ought to administer the law in those districts . We consider that the law ought to be administered by the constituted authorities , and we do hold that the constituted authorities , and those who hold themselves peculiarly interested in siding with the constituted authorities , were grossly culpable for not having provided more efficient means to sustain theiminterrupted power of the layv . With four thousand colliers , all-more or less disaffected ; with six thousand operatives
in a similar mood ; with masters not only resisting demands that the men regard as just , but resisting in a spirit not unadulterated by perversity , it is manifest that the peace of the town was very likely to be disturbed by large bodies of a vigorous and impulsive population , not greatly under the moral control of public officers appointed by mill-owners and coal-owners . It was necessary , therefore , that forces should be provided to maintain the law against crowds of colliers and working men . The forces which the local governors provided consisted of eleven men , one
of whom was sick , and another absent . To sustain the majesty of the law as against hundreds and thousands of a justly angered population , the Mayor had nine men ! It became necessary to summon the military ; but the local governors had taken no steps to prepare the military for the summons . The weakness of the force was no doubt one of the causes which tempted the rioters to violence ; and the blood which was afterwards shed in suppressing violence must , in part at least , be laid at the doors of those who tempted aggression by exposing the deplorable weakness of the local government .
The employing classes , who are really the governing classes in those districts , wish to eat-their cake and have it . The men have offered negotiations , but the offer has not been accepted . Some of the employing class have actually tried conferences with the men , and successfully . We have mentioned one manufacturer in Manchester , who , by showing his books , convinced his -workpeople that he could not maintain his trade if he granted their demands ; and they revoked those demands . Another instance has come to our
knowledge , of a coal-owning proprietary , who appointed one person , to meet one person appointed by the men ; and , after a single conversation , we believe , those two persons arranged matters to the satisfaction of both sides . In their over-land circular for India , Messrs . Maudsley and Co . —a firm whose eminence is known throughout the world—specially recommend councils of sago men , like those in France , for the adjustment of differences . In an excellent letter to the committee of working men at Preston , Mr . Hume , while deprecating strikes ,
says" You declare , that workmen have always been for arbitration , and that tho masters have refused that fair course . I am not in a condition to know whether you are correct or not ; but whichever party havo refused to refer their differences to arbitration , havo much to answer for , both to the public , and to the parties who have become the sufferers thereby . " I see on the list of advocates for arbitration to settlo tho disputes of nations , instead of having rocourso to war , many master manufacturers who aro at this moment in strife against their men . "
Tho masters at Preston , however , as represented in a circular just issued by Messrs . Birley and Co ., not only refuse negotiation , but call upon tho men to abandon their union , without which abandonment no man shall be emp loyed . Tho masters then refuse all terms exeopt their own ; and require tho men to pay no attention , to y Esop ' s fable of the Lion and tho Four Hulls-For our part , wo recommend that book to all classes as a store-house of practical wisdom ; mid that fable is most especially pertinent to this question of union .
Thcro is no doubt that many of these persona , who aro now refusing arbitration , which they recommend to nations at war , have been amongw the most prominent to attack the standing army . They havo opposed the estimates in the Jlouuo oi Commons ; they have got up public meetings ana resolutions against the forces ; and now , in thoir tribulation , they are only too glad to accept U »<> assistance of the forces which they vilify , i' 1 mP ~ pressing the men with whom they refuse to trout . Such is tho practical manner in which the commercial adherents of tho Peace party carry ow > their own doctrine in conduct ! They refuse tin" - which thoy recommend ; they accept ossistaiuJ " from that which they reprobate ; and thoy wim * -
Untitled Article
1066 THl LEADER . [ Saturday ; ... ¦ - ' ¦ . - - . . ¦ ——»—*—————^^^ aM Illl I I - ¦
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1853, page 1066, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2011/page/10/
-