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own trade . The opportunity is worth the investment . But we bring it home closer to the industrious man . It is said that war will drain our industry , and that taxes will oppress the poor . Now what was our prospect last year ? It is evident that the next improvements for the . extension of industry will consist in applications of improved machinery to field and factory . Machinery displaces labour , and the displaced labourer starves . By the
blessing of Qody the development of colonies , fertile and free , and now also this call of'war , are acting as a summons to our " surplus populat ion , " who recruit our colonies , our armies , and our navies , ^ with equal readiness and ardour . The example of those brave men , whose strength anf d . aring can be seen by any one that notes the march of recruits through the streets , acts with a life-giving
impulse on those who remain behind . Fewer labourers are left , and the employing classes will yet be pnt to their wits to get the work of industry done . Machinery will be improved under the press of that ingenuity , and the great domestic want of our commerce will be accelerated . " Will the remaining labourer suffer ? The improved character of industry will secure to him higher wages ; while the labourer who was . to have been
" displacedis already gone to the colony , to the battle-field , or the naval victories of a Kapier . , The pittance which will be extracted © yen from the labouring man for his contribution towards the war will be returned to him in higher wages—doubled in some instances , or more than doubled ; for at this moment , the Irish labourer , who rejoiced " in 3 s . 6 d . per week , is earning 9 s . ; and the wages of the English labourer afield not long hence will perhaps mount to the standard of Manchester .
The profits of the war , certain to be reaped if it be properly , administered , are—revived national feeling ; new fields opened to our commerce ; and facilities given for improving pur machinery , industry , and wages , without 4 p triment to $ ie JUhourer—nay securing to him a position oFmbre independence towards liis employer , of more importance towards the State .
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THE CHURCH-RATE QUESTION . HOW AITD WHEN" IT WILIi BE SETTLED . "We take 4 no joy in Sir " William . Clay ' s victory . Church-rates are doomed , but not by Sir William ' s majority . This casual advance in a thin House is one of the windfalls in which minorities may rejoice , but which great countries cannot accept as deeds . The great " Corporation of soothsayers , " which holds feudal possession of the parishes , possesses
an insurance worth millions sterling against displacement , —is allied with every official department in the country , is incorporated through the monarch with our constitution , is not to be overturned by the unexpected division which has glorified Sir William . It is true that the Church itself confesses , in the impossibility of levying church-rates throughout the country its uon-national character—avows that its' hold over the English people is doomed , —true that the building of churches by private subscriptions confesses
its adoption of the voluntary principle , and places it de facto in tho position of a sect . But a Beet retaining the manorial rights , the impropriation of tithes , as unjustly as if they ay ere diverted to temporal purposes , but as securely in tho eye of the law as if the whole country had consented , and Parliament had ratified , the bestowal of the pariah churches and the revenues from all the cathedrals and tho prebendal stalls upon the Mormons or upon the Secularists . Possession is nine points of the law :
indeed it is the whole law when no concurrence can be obtained for ousting the possessor . A minority amongst minorities , the Church of Ed gland is safe against displacement through the discord of other sects , — -through that state of public feeling and opinion in this country , which makes men more conscious of their differences with each other than of their agreement . We have little respect for each other , and we , the public , therefore are impotent to enfore any general
judgment . The fleas , said Curran r speaking of an inn , were numerous enough to have dragged him out of bed if they had been unanimous ; but we , who are as numerous as the fleas , are as little united as they wece , on theological subjects . " We know the Church of England to be a sect in a minority , but it laughs at our efforts of turning it out of place , and justly laughs , it depends on the , traditions of the country ; on the past , if not
the present , Unanimity of the people ; and we who have not the past unanimity to sustain us traditionally , have not the virtue to realise any present unanimity , or the candour aad zeal to work out the future unanimity . "We cannot accomplish many things which we impotently declare to be necessary : sanitary reform , Parliamentary reform ; public education—all stand in order of necessity before the abolition of church-rates : but we cannot
say that one is more likely to be accomplished than the other . It appears that , on these matters , as well as on economical questions , we owe something to our great enemy the Emperor of Russia . On one point , at least , he has taught us to be unanimous . On the [ European battle-field we do not ask our comrade what is his creed , what are his views upon education , secular or otherwise , or now far he would extend the
suffrage ? We only know that he is an Englishman ; we know that he will stand by us as we will stand hf him ; and we will share the fight , we will honestly divide the victory br the defeat . And afterwards , when we have gone through the toil and the danger , still remembering that we are both Englishmen , having learned that we are both hearty in our regard for each other , having acquired a mutual respect for each other ' s purposes ^ and
power , we may discover that we can agree even , on such subjects as Parliamentary reform , public education , or church-rates ; we may find that whatever our class or birth , being both Englishmen , we can trust each other . We may discover on the battle-field how just it is that the man standing beside us , partaking the danger , the defeat , and the victory , should equally share whatever the nation can give to its sons , be it the allowance of education
a voice in the election , or a standing-place in church , —ay , a church even after his own conscience . We mi g ht have accepted facts as they are , and without requiring every Englishman to think as we thinlc , respecting his opinions , because they are his , at such time we may discover how good it is to give an Englishman a school to learn in , a
Parliament to be represented in , a church to pray in , without much regard to worn-out parties , obnoxious tests , or exhausted creeds ; and then we may discover that the education rate , or the church-rate , must be levied upon the Englishman , and returned to him in a Parliament which is his , a Bchool which is his , a church which is his , whatever either one of those great institutions may be .
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A COUNTER-BLAST FOR SOULE . There is a redemption for Spain . Any lover of his country cannot help feeling a great anxiety with respect to its future fate , not at a distant hour , but even from day to day . The position of that kingdom is critical on all sides . Tho probability that it may be
about to enter upon war with i 3 ie United States is not the only cause for solicitude ; and although it looks spirited to send out 6000 troops to defend the Spanish "West Indies , no Spaniard who has not recklessly cast discretion to the winds can vie-w without apprehension the commencement of a contest with i ; he powerful republic in the west . Sow much more when the position * fc home ia so precarious ! ' . ' • ,
It is all very well to enter upon war with traditional Spanish courage , but war is costly , and how can it be sustained by a Government whose bankrupt condition , long notorious in every irioney market oOhirope , i 8 again proclaimed by the announcement of " a forced loan , " to bear interest at G per cent ., and accompanied by the financial jofea of a profession that "it shall berefuiidedinfolir ySars ^ ^ A Spanish loan refunded in four y&ars $ - *^ j ! Ls Ho
the high interest , it does not much matter , since Spanish interest is nominal . It has been found difficult , if not impossible ; to establish in Spain those railways which are urgently demanded by the honest and trading part of the country ; ' but . sucli is Spanish credit that capital ; cannot be found . -Mow then can ? it be discovered ? forth © purposes of a war with America , or for the purposes of a Gourb which it is difficult to characterise politely ? ' - ' ¦ ' ] ' '
There are , indeed , two alternative measures which Spanish statesmen are at present-discussing . There is a general agreement that it is necessary to turn over a , n < &w leaf , # ut whieh way to turn the leaf isN ; he question . The Court party , which is in po 8 session"Jof pofrer , talks of turning over vOt , ol&t lead ^** - turning back in the book of history ; " and by a coup d ' etat re-establishing an absolute
monarchy . The Opposition , which ' is > # e * y numerous , talks of tujrning over a nejwr leaf in the other direction , and abolishing the Court by a revolution . Neither party : likes to begin , from a feeling that whichever commences will run the greater risk . Both pro jects , however , are bo notorious that they are actually discussed in mystic' . language between the advocates of the several sides ; -
Such is the critical position , of the kingdona , when Queen Isabella . Tesorts to ' a step which creates some hope of an intervention that may yet , perhaps ^ rescue Spain . Her Majesty has appointed herself <
entrusted the sisterhood . with , the duty of ringing a bell from the eve of the first Sunday in October until sundown on their- day of festival . In various countries peopled by the Spanish race it has been the custom ,: on the threatening of a volcanic irruption or earthquake , to ring consecrated bells ; and let us hope that this tinkling will be effectual to exorcise and averb the political earthquake in Spain .
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THE FIEND IN THE HOUSE . Iv has been observed by those who are experienced in mining , that when deep excavations are made , and the soiL is turned up , certain flowers are sure to spring from the newly-exposed earth . We do not know whether any trace of ancient germs can be discovered ; we only state the patent faot .
Bach soil has its own form of life and beauty , which can survive the roughest treatment , and the deepest burial ; and so it appears if we dig into the lowest strata of society . At present there is a wonderful upheaving and upturning of these lowest strata ; our policecourts are full of crimes and depravities which would put the wildest French uov « lism to the blush . Base and brutal murder is becoming a common event , as it has frequently been at distant periods before ; but
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May 27 , 1854 . ] THE LEADE it . 493
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 27, 1854, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2040/page/13/
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