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    believe the aggressive tendencies of St . Vla doiik ; but we do not see the advantage o meeting such aggression by counter-aggressidh Nor is Dublin the only place where thi Protestant enters into a damaging competitioi with the Catholic Church . There is a nev Church of a very peculiar kind rising ii Turkey . The Society for the Propagation o the Gospel in Foreign Parts , with the sanctior of " J . B . Cantuar , " is carrying out the request of the Reverend John E . Sabin , senio ] chaplain at Scutari , by sending out two chaplains to Pera . The first object of these mei is modest enough : it is , to supply spiritual ministrations for the " English sailors , shipping agents , store keepers ^ and other temporary residents near Constantinople ; " but besides supplying divine service and religious consolation for store keepers and sailors who may be in want thereof , the mission has an eye to business in another line . The Roman Catholics have three Churches in Constantinople , and they will not certainly be behind-hand in endeavouring to convert the Turks ; and " Now that no Turk on the Bosphorus could be put to death for accepting the religion of Jesus Christ , if he claimed the protection of Prance or England , " the Society for the Propagation seizes the opportunity . " Turkey being under obligations to us , she cannot slay her sons for listening to the voice of the charmer . The Roman Catholics , says Mr . Sabin , " will doubtless have great successes , with the French army to back them ; " can the English expect less , when they have the British army to back them ? Such is the calculation avowed by the Reverend John E . Sabin , and the Society for the Propagation , > with the sanction of J . B . Cantuak . The Protestant aggression is more temperate than the Catholic , but it is still aggression . We calculate on being able to disobey the laws of the Sultan , because the Sultan is down in the world , and so we can force a contraband trade in doctrine , with armies to back us in overruling the spiritual Custom House of Turkey . The independent papers of this country are reiterating the story of the re-marriage at Greywell . Mr . Lush , the Curate of that place , found that two members of the Church had been married before the Registrar , and he encouraged their doubt , whether , although they were married legally , they had been married spiritually , lie re-marries them ; whereupon great public indignation . But Lush is only carrying amongst the Dissenters of Greywell , the same spirit that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is carrying at Pern , and that the Pori ; , with more arrogance , is carrying into Austria . Mr . Lush is more temperate than the Society or the Pon : ; for he docs not calculate upon mi army to back him , and he does not attempt to disturb the civil relations of his parishioners . If propagating societies and Popes would limit themselves entirely to spiritual questions ? , they might perhaps be suffered to marry any number of people once a year , since the re-married must be volunteers in that sell-disparngiug process , and " Volenti noil Jit m /' uria . " One curious confession in all these cases of aggressive policy is , the want of confidence which the aggressive ministers feel in thoir own doctrine . The Irish Attoknhy GENEJtAMhinkstlrat Protestantism cannot maintain its ground in Ireland against the antics of a St . ViiAPiMiit , unless a grave quarrel be made with that , temporary representative of the Irish mob on the relative value of the authorised and the Dot . 'AY versions of the Scriptures , with a , competition between the bonfire and the Criminal Court in judicial miracles . The Propagandist Society colints upon the abject condition of Turkey and the occupying army , and the Porn requires material backing

    : - to enforce his views of matrimony , education : f &c . Lush stands free from these intempe-. ranees . e Now , in all these cases , the aggression really 1 consists , not in the promulgation of the docv trine , but in the collateral forces . prostituted to 1 the purpose of conversion . If J . B . Cantuarj f the Propagating Society , and Mr . Sabin would 1 simply lay their arguments before the Turk , - that silent person would exercise a really inde-[• pendent judgment . . If the Pope and Ltjtiieu - were to plead their respective causes before l Italian , Hungarian , or Bohemian , probably the I popular judge would show favour to neither f . of the missionaries ; but would perceive that r the sectai'ian dogmas urged by either with so i much acrimony against the rest are not essential to the religion of Jesus Christ . These : temporal appeals , in fact , whether for offence i or defence , only disturb the mind from its free judgment . How can we trust the conversion of the Turk , backed by an army ? How can avo win the Irish to Protestantism through the Attorney-General ? The true function of the civil power is , not to enforce the de-? mands of any sect whatever , or in any degree , but rather to protect the citizen in the free exercise of his will , as well as his limbs , against the compulsory claims of any sect . If , in this country , we could set an example of absolute freedom in that way , leaving every man who behaves himself with decency to walk , talk , and worship as he pleases , defending him against the obstruction or coercion of any priest or prophet , we should teach the "world Iioav to rule in matters of religion , and should no doubt open the way for the propagation of 7 * e « # y powerful doctrines . It is free discussion which , in our day , has abolished Atheism , and done much to drive out other anti-religious " isms . " As doctrine will force its way by its own vital energy , it needs no protection : the citizen alone needs to be protected against the presumptuous aggression of human sectaries , affecting to serve a writ in the name of Divine Power . ¦ ¦

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    December IV 1855 . ] THE LEABEIt lAsi

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    THE SPITAT . F 1 ELDS WEAVERS . What a keen eye we have for distant affairs ; and how blind arc we to that Avhich is going on under our very noses ! Hero is the whole London press in a turmoil about the strike ut Manchester , while seemingly unconscious that a deadly strife between capital and labour is actually waging in Spital fields . The leading journal busies itself with the Lancashire matter , and gives whole columns of speeches and manifestos spoken and written on either side of ( he question , but the Spital / ields dispute has been hitherto altogether ignored by it—us indeed by all those organs of the daily press which circulate among the thoughtful chisses . There is something in the history <> f these Spitnlttekls weavers which separates them from all other operatives , and invests them with peculiar intere . it . In 1 ( 185 , when the ( Jkkat MoNAitcii , Loi . 'is the FoL ' iriT . K . NTii , wickedly repealed the edict of Nantes , and persecuted all the Protestants out of France , a large body of silk weavers , staunch Pro 1 cfiliinl . su 11 , eiuuo and settled themselves in ttpilaliii- 'lds , where they continued to pursue their calling . This was a hundred and seventy years ago , bill the trade still holds to the locality , and tin ; traditions of the operatives , and the" number of foreign names yet among ; them indicate that ( lie original stock has been equally constant . The inhabitant of western and fashionable London may nut be familiar with these facts , but to those , of eastern experience that colony of workers , so industrious and generally so patient , ( though : \ . \> t occasionall y to betray the hot blood of Lyons and Marseilles by boiling up indignantly against oppression and wrong )

    ' has afforded matter for contemplation before to-day . To see poverty making clothes few the poor is a spectacle sufficiently affecting but a starving man seated at his loom anc weaving bright and delicate tissues , to cove ] the limbs of the rich , the lusty and the heedless , is a far sadder and more terrible picture . From time to time the Spitalnelds weavers have been heard complaining of a hard lot , —* scanty wages in a dear food market , and occasionally their voices have readied St . Stephen ' s . In Mr . Pitt's time , it was under contemplation to give the Spitalfield weavers a minimum rate of prices , aiid to enforce that by legislative enactment ; but somehow or other the thing was not managed , the crisis blew over , and so did Mr . Put ' s scheme . Not that sucn a rate would have permanently settled tlie question ; for it has since been shown that tlie minimum rate then prepared ( which was at tlie time rejected by the operatives themselves ) exceeds the maximum rate now granted . So futile are all legislative attempts to fetter tlie freedom of trade . The Spitalfield weavers have now turned out , because their masters have lowered theii wages upon the plea of bad trade . They use precisely the same arguments as their Manchester brethren , and say that when food is dear and work scarce , it is a bad time to lo . wei wages ; they also meet their employers upon economical grounds , and attempt to show that there is no good reason ivhy they should be mulcted of theii pay . They are holding " shop meetings , " and deputations of delegates are waiting upon the employers , some of whom receive them kindly , others contumeliously . The whole affair is proceeding with all tlie I regularity of a Lancashire strike , and he that j wishes to study the details of one of these ter-! rible battles need not go to Manchester , but [ betake himself to that populous and povertystricken district which lies about WhitechapcJ , Shoreditch , and Bethnal Gieen . In the course of one of th <> discussions which have been already hold between the workpcoyjle and their employers , one of the latter observed that when machine-makers were badly o ( T , they were glad to sell their machines at a very low figure , and he did not see why capitalists should not have the same advantage ; in purchasing human labour . This was stating the , question boldly and honestly , and here we have the whole creed of tlie " hard-fact , " capitalists . "What , is the operative , after all , but a se . U-aeting machine of ilesh , bone , ami sinew ? Is be not to be bought and sold like his brethren of brass and stud ? What have we to clo ¦ with any . other consideration but his market , price ? Softly , good sirs ! Your machines of brass and steel may be laid by for a time , if your trade- will not permit you to employ them ; only wrap them up warmly aud oil them well , ami they will take little harm from years of inaction . lint your human machine is quite another sort , of thing . The unfed operative pines , starves , becomes desperate , forgets how to work , learns how to beg , drink , rob , riot , and destroy . "You may imprison him , you may . sboot him down with musketry in the streets ; but you can no more make u good workman of him again than you ean restore putrid meat , to its original fresh new . '" a word ( to bring tin- matter , gentlemen , to your unulumis un

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 1151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2117/page/11/