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revolution will commence throughout that enormous area , which must end in the stipplanting of the Turks in Europe by the Christians . It is not a religious difference merely that is involved ; it is a difference of national character , habits , traditions . The Turks have never been an industrious or commercial race . They are naturally landowners , dictators , soldiers . The Janissaries were necessary to their system . Such a nationality will be impossible , as a governing power , ¦ when the social developments now proceeding with more or less activity throughout Europe have reached a higher stage .
The more immediate question is , when the Treaty of Peace has been signed between the belligerent powers , this winter , next autumn , or years hence , how long will Turkey be occupied by foreign ai'mies ? Austria , probably , will not surrender the Principalities until France and England have retired from Constantinople . What will France and England do , and what- will be the question that will arise between them ?
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THE UPHOLSTERY OF RELIGION . Lushingtox has decreed , and the churches of St . Barnabas and St . Paul must be stripped of their ornaments . If Liddell neglect obedience to the decree , "Westerton is to carry it out : he is to bear off the cloths that deck the altar in St . Barnabas , to throw away the flowers , to put out the lights ; and " the house of God" is to be the scene where , exiilting , he will carry oiit that triumph over Liddell , and inflict pain and mortification on his brother worshippers .
On some points , indeed , the judgment failed to satisfy the protesters : the altar of St . Paul , although highly carved , is not stone , and may stand ; although very heavy and difficult to move , it can be moved , and so it does not break the law . This is bitterness to Beal ; but there is redemption in Wksterton ; so taken together they are victorious . " Belo si celebri !"—honour to Belus , as well as to Westerton—for their worship is in the ascendant , their doctrine is accredited , their faith is admitted , their spirit prevails . Yet we arc not sure that it is the better—that more of the life
of Christianity lies in the breast of Westerton or flows from the lips of Beal , than shines in the countenance of Liddell . Rather the reverse . There may be weaknesses in St . Paul and St . Barnabas , but they are not weaknesses that disturb our love . The nature may be frail that finds its piety flourish best amid flowers , or cherished best under the many coloured cloths of the altar ; but what of that piety which rankles when the altar is arrayed in glory , which turns to bitterness at the sight the
hath his fitting temple at hand . Why then conspire against St . Paul and St . Barnabas ? Why , instead of carrying the cross among the heathen , malignantly turn back to pull it down among the faithful ? Why appeal to the letter of the law , and set up a tyrant minority to disturb the majority at their devotions , and so kill the very spirit of Christianity ? As to the law , who can settle it ? Not Lushington . Uncle derivata ? The Protestant Elizabeth , the judge confesses , clung to cross and sacrifice ; and was she not the " head of the Church ? " She yielded to the remonstrances of her bishops ; but Butler himself felt the ci-oss to be available in concentrating his wandering thoughts . And does it not V Is there a Christian who can look upon the form of an upright beam crossed by another , whose memory is not touched ? Alas for him , if there is ! Can a man give a keepsake to his affianced , bequeath a lock of hair to his child , or feel his eyes glisten at reading that Charles Albert sent his worn-out , anxious heart back to his native land , and yet look coldly on that memorial ? Elizabeth and Butler were better Christians , we suspect , than Westektox or Beal ; although Butler wrote , and Elizabeth issued an Order in Council forbidding the " disorder" of eatingmeat in Lent . But perhaps the churchwardens are right . The Church " of England , " according to these " wardens , " is not the Church of Christendom , and it is well that the xmsectarian faithful should not stray into it to be vexed by the discordant spirit of Belus . It is not the Church of the people of England . It is only one of our sects—a sect with a monopoly of parish grounds and the privilege of levying rates from other sects . Let us know it for what it is . It is the fane of the spirit of Bklus , and the votaries worship at the wooden altar of Wksterton . Christians , as such , it excludes . Those whose thoughts sympathise with other Christians , or linger among the lilies of the valley , are to be shut out , or driven forth with intolerable bickerings . Be it so . When the people of this country know that the Parish temple is not open to them , hut shuts them out with forms and brawls , — when they have perfectly caught the full spirit of the broad faith preached by Alijeut , Prince Consort , they Avill know that the Church " of England" at Pimlico , and sonic other places , is no more the Eternal Catholic Church than " the Champion of England" is nil the flower of her manhood ; and then they will erect fanes to admit ull the children of ( Joel in this laud of England , united not divided . Much doubt we whether Belus will bo the architect of that temple , or W kstkkton its keeper .
of lilies of the valley , and is malevolent in presence of the cross ? Verily this is unchristian , barbarous , and altogether doubtful in its truth—doubtful whether it . spring from above or rather below . If we were in tribulalion , should we send for Liddeix to comfort us , or Wester-ton ? if we were dying should we ask our solace from Belus , come he never so unadorned ? Assuredly not : there is no such sustainment in Wicsterton , no salvation in Beal : they can destroy , and pull down , and strip : they cannot build up or vivify .
It is an invasion—an oppression . The churches of St . Barnabas and St . Paui- were established by Christiana who cling to the flowers and to the colours of the creation , and do not feel their piety glow in a washhouso alone ; and they arranged their funes accordingly . Why meddle with them ? W Wicsterxon and Beal cannot march under the ensign of the cross , visibly , let them file off to another church ; there is the orthodox waslihouso open at Brompton for Wkstkhton , and Belus
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MUMMY WORSHIP . A tew of the sectional agitators among the working-classes are offering < i now remedy for the abuses of the State . They arc tired of progress , disgusted with reform . Self-government , in their sight , is a failure . Accordingly , instead of the franchise , the ballot , more complete control over Parliament , the extirpation of the aristocracy , they propose the restoration of Prerogative , and traeo nil our ills to the di . suetude of the Privy Council . This fantastic ihcory would ( scarcely deserve analysis were it not * that sonic really useful men are led hy it away from their proper
avocation , which is that of keeping alive , in the working-classes , a sound political energy , and of aiding them in the work of self-organisation . With 1 , 11 o bcHt feeling towards nil earnest friends of the industrious ordeix , wo would point out the absurdity of tlic notions
, Mummy Worship
that are now in some places paraded before the public mind . The worst effect of such an agitation , supposing it successful to that extent , would be to produce a division of opinion in the unrepresented class—the class that is to come in , when peace restores its opportunity . This class has been taught , by its own studies , and
by the counsels of its friends , to look for social elevation , and increased independence , to the possession an unfettered franchise . Whatever section takes up the new ideas is led away from this , which should be the . invariable object of popular policy . Thus , new dissensions arc introduced into the camp , and while the main body presses ou to Reform , a division goes in search of Prerogative .
This idea , which would be too contemptible to notice , were not some of the working-classes still unenlightened , has its . source in another , equally a fallacy—viz ., that the one object of an Englishman , in his mortal state , is to fight Russia . War , among " its other results , good and bad , has a tendency to derange the public mind . Disgust is a low form of despair , and the remedy proposed is the device of men who have " abandoned their faith . With their constancy has gone the clearness of sight which enabled them in the midst of
disappointments to keep their hope in view , and to struggle for their purpose , without scepticism as to the result . This courage has vanished from the recalcitrant body of the working classes , from the men who condemn their old programme , not because it had faults , but because it failed , and who now lay bare the foundations of English history and discover that to be a superficial anticruary is to be a politician . Shiremotes and privy-councils , the abolition of responsible government , and the arming of Prerogative : have the workingclasses come to this ?
1 hey have not ; but a few false friends , who have entered the service of a crazy zealot , would persuade them that their creed is extinct . Let us recal to thorn what has been their own position , ( luring the successive epochs of English history , that they may judge whether the reorganisation of any
dissolved power of the realm would be likely to improve it . It seems ridiculous to ask a working-man , at this hour of the day , whether he would choose to be what the : working-imm was in the age of Wittcnagemotes , under the Saxon , Kentish , and Mercian kings ; yet such are among contemporary phauiasina ; and it in not superfluous to remind the people that they were ji . s citric , sold and scourged , in those
" good old times . What was the value of the great councils and purlin men la of our early history ? Not that they governed the land wisely or humanely , but , that , they left room in their laws for the developments we now enjoy . The adherents of Tyi . kr and Cam-: —whose histories have yet to be written—rose , not against suspicion * acts on the part of a luinistci , but , against bitter grievances . The grandeur of our foreign policy , after the fall of Ciiaklk . s the First , was not due to the vigour of any old institution or council , but to the revived vitality of the nation , and to the
genius of a dictator , who could not now reign unless England hud been insulted hy lining subjected to a coup d ' etat , and debused by being reconciled to it . To what subsequent , period Hl . ull we be referred for « ' «« ' » P' « «' our nation ; , ! greatness and prosperity . ' What was the condition of the people under the UeHtoration- umlci ' tbcKing of the Involution , under the C * KonuK *' t They were never free ; they improved their position by nlow dogrees ; several acts of public : justice facilitated tl ^ ir progress to independence ; the Kotorm ill
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December 15 , 1855 . 1 THE LEADER 1201 '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 15, 1855, page 1201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2119/page/13/
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