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heart ; Nonconformity assails its treasury and steals away its flock ; science saps its foundations . Within ^ the strife of faction breaks its harmoay x ^ lth discords ; simony stains its mantle with corruption ; love of gold makes some of its servants rather miiwtwB of Mammon , striving for the A great prizes , " than ministers of Christ , absorbed in saving souls : its dignitayies are rich , its workmen sunk in poverty ; and State tutelage , pressing upon the whole body like an incubus , weakens , degrades , enslaves its ministers . Is this picture
too highly coloured ? Let-those who have studied the facts judge for themselves . With the facts before us , it is impossible that we can be surprised by a cry for revival . This latest plan is set forth in an able little work , written with earnestness , eloquence , and candour , tearing ^ aside all concealment , probing and making manifest many of those H sores and ulcers ' * Mr . Gladstone spo&e of , and aptly entitled " The Knot of to-day , and a Hand to undo it . " The author , sternly in earnest , and feelingly alive
to the dangers which beset the I 5 stablfefc _ me . nt , without and within , proposes to revive the Church by founding a . grand Society , which shall operate at once against the Jesuits , the Nonconformists , and those who belong to none ; of the aeots of the day . He eaMs upon the laity and clergy to wateh and frustrate Romanism ; rather to seek for the common grounds of agreement between the Church and Nonconformity than the grounds of difference , and to relax her rigid system so far as
to admit to spiritual functions all kinds of sincere men available for missions , scripture readings , street preachings , and the like . In short , be proposes to set in motion a society , the effect of whose success would be to enlarge ihe pale of the Church of England , and wv&ke it something like a Church of the People . Does not this show clearl y enough how deeply a sense of the scandalous dis * orders of the Establishment has eaten into the hearts even of its ministers ?
We shall probably notice this significant little book again . At present , and on the eve of the meeting of Convocation , all we wish to do is to point out its existence , as the initiative of a movement quite distinct from the demand fo * the free action of the Church ' s Parliament ; as a movement requiring full consideration n . ot only from Churchmen of all parties , but from those who are without the Church also .
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RELIGIOUS EQUALITY NOT CIVIL EQUALITY . Last week we published the case of Mr . Alexander , of Edinburgh , who was sentenced to thirty days ' , imprisonment , as a penalty for having conscientious scruples against oattUtaking . This is pretty well in a country where we are assured that religious equality prevails . From this case we find the operation of the law to be such that
if a thief has a pique against a conscientious tradesnaan , he may gratify his acquisitiveness and his malice at once . He may take the tradesman ' s property , and afterwards give him thirty days' imprisonment for appearing to prosecute . An instance of a similar kind was very near occurring to a tradesman in the City of Xiondon . A person found his way into the house of Messrs . Ho | yoake and Co ., Fleet-street , and stole therefrom the
stereotype plates of a new work , entiled Pel Verjuice , the Wanderer , " broke the plates up and disposed of them as old metal , — -an operation effected with considerable ingenuity . The plates were traced , and the thief detected , and brought to Messrs . Holyoake ' s , but the principal of the firm , warned by his recent treatment at the hands of his Honour , Commissioner Phillips , found it
impossible to protect himself by prosecuting . Catechetical examinations , insult , and probable imprisonment of himself , instead of the thief , would have been the result . This state of things may be religious , but it certainly is not religious equality . We believe Messrs . Holyo-akc intend bringing that disability before Parliament in the form of a x > etition , praying the Act tliat enfranchises the conscience of the Quaker , the Mora vian , and the Separatist , may legalise aifUrinations * n the part of the Secularist .
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STATE OF TllK KUSSIAN AltMY . JVk have heard of Icings of " shreds and patches : " perhaps the present Czi » r of all the Kussias may be described an an Emperor of—wadding- Not content with the munificence of nature , whieh liua bestowed on him a ( 'onunnnding stature and Hue proportions , his imperial corpulence * seeks to improve upon a splendid physical conformation , by those artillees of
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whalebone and crenoline , which are the death of girls and the armoury of despairing coquettes . Perhaps it is to this diseased vanity that we owe much of the cruelty and heartlesaness of the man who holds the fate of Europe in suspense . Perhaps * too , if Russia has an EUnperor of wadding , she may be found to have an army of paper and parade- At ail events , we hear suoh alarming accounts of the military resources and preparations of that enormous empire , that it may be well to inquire with some
particularity into the accuracy of the reports which from day to day are trumpeted by the continental press , with all the mendacious minuteness of official statistics and impossible figures .. The Caurt of St . Petersburg has so many lying tongues and purchased pens at its service in every European capital , that we cannot accept the ingenious mystifications of pamphleteers wifb . more confidence than the bulletins of unpronounceable Generals whose invention . kn . aws no defeat ..
Ve are threatened with the mobilisation of the entire Russian army , which is to bring up the forces of the Czar to the stupendous -effective of 2 , 226 , 000 men . All public works are to . be suspended , and the workmen to be turned into soldiers . The Russian clergy , burning to plant the eross Qnce more on the Mosque of St . Sophia , have devoted to ihe holy war twenty millions of roubles ( about 3 , 200 , 000 i . ) j and recent letters from St . Petersburg announce that 3 O 00 retired of&cers have demanded to te restored to activity , and that 30 . 0 , 000 discharged m . en have
already been recalled to the orthodox standards . Let us examine ) these terrifying rumours with disinterested calmness . We follow the investigations of M- Leouzoo Leduc , a gentleman who , from his long residence in an official position in Russia , and from his proved intimate Acquaintance , with all details of the Russian administration , is entitled t © be considered an authority on the question . He has contributed to our able French contemporary Lafre&sz a succinct review of the military resources of a . power which seems equally made up of violence and epi ruption .
On what branch of the forces , he asks ,, is this mobilisation to fall ? Not on the guard , which is always on a war footing , nor on the army of the . line , which never suffers reduction . Guard and line together scarcely make up a total of 800 , 000 men , or * according to official documents , 11 , 00 , 000 men ; certainly an enormous figure , bq . t far below tbe 2 , 200 , 000 of the mobilisation . M . Ledwc inclines to believe this mobilisation a fable , and nothing more in fact
than the annual -conscription , which takess place at the close of tfce year . . The military forces of Russia are divided into three distinct armies ; the active army , the reserve , and the local army , The first , a force varying from 250 , 000 . to 300 , 000 men , a » d the second about half that effective , are destined for foreign service ; the third , of equal strength with the first , guards the frontiers , and preserves order a , t home . Not a man could be spared from these troops without danger to , the Empire ,
Supposing these figures to be exact , does it follow that the troops are really in a condition for active service ? All that we know of the Russian administration would make us hesitate to accept such a . conclusion without considerable qualifications . Supposing the mobilisation to refer to the soldiers discharged after terms- trf service , varying from six to fifteen years , the effective of the army would not be increased , as these men are retained on the rolls ; and as the greater portion of the reserve was called out in 1848 and 1850 .
What sort of troops , it may be further asked , would thia reserve supply ? What becomes of the discharged soldiers ? They are said to return to their usual occupations , but such a description is very far wide of the truth . They enter the army aa serfs , they are discharged free men , with neither homes nor master , nor means of livelihood , and fit only to serve as drudges , or to steal as vagabonds . The Government is so well aware of the false and precarious condition of all discharged soldiers , that it offers a premium to the generosity of the lords of
the soil , by considering every discharged soldier taken into service and furnished with , the means of livelihood , as equivalent to a recruit . But this exemption diminishes the real effective of the army . If the discharged soldiers are unfitted for civil occupations they are equally unfitted for military service again , after a dreary interval of starved and vagrant pauperism . They have lost the habits of order and discipline , the organised activity and the esprit de corps so painfully aequired by years of service in barracks and in the field .
Where , then , are the two millions of conscripts to come from P . From the Kirghises , the Kalmouks , the Tartars , and other Asiatic hordes of predatory marauders ? Or from the hardy and peaceful Finlanders , whose simple Lutheran faith has withstood alike the threats and the cajoLeries of political and religious missionaries , and who refuse to sink into the degraded idolatries of the Russo-Oreek Church ? Are these the crusadera of a holy war , and of an orthodox : crusade , repugnant at oneo to their conscience and to their patriotism ?
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The population of Finland \» lijbtfe wwe than hatf the population of London , and of these 1 500 . 000 jxwhaps 20 QO are soldiers « a < J 3 aiiora . \ v >^ FiKid to rise in arms as a nation , it would tnaely be at tho call of Sweden , not of her oppressor . •»•• " ¦» The mobilisation must then fell m fl ^ Qrtfcodox Russians , and here the diflftculties of the Imperial Grovernment are manifold . Even if the c&n > auuie % could aflford these extraordinary levies , would \ U * lords conseftfc without murmurs to atrip their Wdi of labour , and to sacrifice their property , the « erfg , to the state ? Even Catherine , in the war against Sweden , was compelled by the resistance of the lords
to desist : -will Nicholas be more fortunate ? Even if these levies -were realised , whati wouM an army of * aw serfs be worth in a campaign ? The Russian peasant , Bays fcT . Leouzon Xeduc , i » not « bora soWier : he abhora the conscription , and only after years of iron discipline becomes a dogged brute machineto eUnd fire , aud rot , in hospitals } h # i « 90 $ * fanatic ; he is merely superstitious . As to the suspension of public works , they a ? e aecessarily suspended dwing half -the years tj&e workmen sie disijharge 4- » Qldier »; at for the money diverted &ona these woriq to the mvr , ws Itaow to the
enough of Hossian financ ^ understand ingenious idea of Prince <^ rt 8 Qb , ako& who » pays for provisions and omnitigns in tills j «^«< Jte « tf oawtfiie «<*? k Xtis said Hx&t the . inhabitants , th ^ B ^ tfepfOr vmces hav « offered 4 h « a * sjefflpeej ! .. -W& ' < wk a «* Mi * theJartheiMM « r the Qrafctop 4 o * £ ! w 4 | mmmMi have offered a . tithe of t&eir « tf « ie * . Considering that these fcinctiQnaries subsist on peculation , w $ are not ^ ojfprisecl to hear Jfeat these otters haye be $ n generously dsoUned . The orthodox clergy have advanced 20 , 000 , 000 silver roubles . No doubt their sympathies are due
to the holy va ?? But where does th < & money come from ? Peter the Great and Catherine IL , we inow , stripped the churches < n < d the monasteries ^ and appropriated the revenues to the State . "The bishops and priests ~ of the Russo-Greek Bstablishraent have long been dependent on the chariW of the State , and on the superstition of the gaithmi . And yet w tire io believe that these pauper priests and l > c ^ ing bilhops have advanced a sum « xceedi » g the Hcontribution of the' merchants oif Moscow . Enough of these ridiculous parades and mystifleations . Whale ihe Western Powers vacillatedj iEussia persisted in dipk > matie treaoheries . As « oon 9 s Irhey $ && ** on action , sb « seeks to terrify us with impossible « rra ^» of'paper armies . NocwLe presumdft to saythatRastiaisapo ^ er
to be despisect ; brland and sea iaheckeserves to l )» een . ^ countered with au the ittight bf France and'Bn | landt but , as CQW ^ xd » areftpt to shout in the-flark to conquer fear , all her hyperTaolacal ekag ^ eriitioiis , all her flourishes of trumpets abdut armies , fleets , andftlnd » that have no existence ojuyserw to disguise a secret apprehension , and , it may be , at last toc 6 ver » retreat It may , however , be useful to reattme briefly the > actual condition of the Bussian army . 'English 1 ra « vellers who return from St . Petersburg ^ daisied ; by the splendid appearance of the picked Imperial Guard , know as little of the Russian army as fo * reigners who have only seen our Iiffc Guards know of our troojs of the line who conquer India , and protect on ? colonies .
It has l > e « n said that Kus ^ ia wants generals } and a good general fe worth an army . An Austrian marshal said of the Hungarians : ** They are 8000 men * it is true ; but Bern is worth 60 , 000 men . " Napoleon , said to an aide-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander , in 1812 , " You have no generals . " Yet the cause of national independence seated men like . Koutouzoff , Koulneff , DokhtorofT , Bagratim , Termoloff , and Wittgenstein ; not to mention Barclay de Tolli : all Russians but the two last named .
It is also said that Russia has oJaly good general of division .. Faskiewiteh is a sufiSeient refutation of that assertion ,. But like Radetsky , his Austrian brother in years and services , he is of extreme age , as is also Biidiger , who is now repx )» ing in the Council of the Empire , and Woronsef , who has lately resigneel his command in the Caucasus . ^ Udera is reported to be the ablest Russian general capable of active service ; but neither AndronikofawBogowoutcan be oked without respect . On the whole , it may be * said that the Russian generals are capable of coping ; when their action
with those of any European arm ^ is not hampered by contradictory orders from Stk Petersburg . We ha-ve on a former occasion described the commissariat as the weakness of the Russian army . We believe the supply of arms is as defective as that of clothes and provisions , and through thesame causes . The JRussian sabrea are more apt to . fly in splinters than to cut , while the Turkish ateel ia wo know , the pride of the Mussulman . la an cngugemont with JKussian troops more skulls are broken by tho butt-end of guns than bodies pierced by sword-blades .
The clothing of tho troops is very defective ' , the helmet in too cold in winter and top not in summer . Tho clocks are too big , and in the cavalry only the non-commissioned officers are decently armed and clothed . Many officers of rank and family have quitted the tjervice in disgust during the present roign , and their
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Jantjaby 28 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ^^^ $ 7
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1854, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2023/page/15/
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