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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1030, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      pr no' real disposition towards reform from within B should be recollected / however , that the natives of the sunny climate of the South are more influenced than ours by sentiment , and assuredly no Government that desires immobility would , trifle with the means of enkindling so inflammable a population . ' ' ' .

      Untitled Article

      THE BOYN-HILL COMMISSION . We doubt -whether the official inquiry and its result is quite as satisfactory to Mr . West as his friends and . sympathisers , Traetarian and Romish , could wish . The light in which Mr . West now stands before the people of England is by no means of a dubious character . The most charitable and latitudinarian , and they ' fevr , consider that he has only escaped condemnation because the character of His accuser was not of the purest , while the honest and clear-sighted , and they are legion , hold that the charge is substantially proved , and that henceforward Mr . West is to be regarded as a black sheep in the Church of England fold .

      or less by more than one Right Reverend Bishop , is also unquestionable . Will the Church of England , through its ministers , proclaim openly its views ? . . ' . , , i A iuai

      We suspect , however , in the comiugcontesr ., the Church of England will hardly find- fair playat-least , from the Press . Every creed and sect has its established organ . ' Dissenters mall their endless ramifications-Deists , Calvinists , Nonconformists , Baptists , Romanists , all have their separate journals in EnHand—the Romanists , especially , are to be found linked together in one common pill-pose throughout the whole of the Metropolitan and Provincial Press . The Church of England is absolutely unrepresented . But the question concerns not the Established Church alone—it even more deeply concerns the people of England . If the people choose to look on supinely , they must be prepared for another " Reformation . " For our own part , we do not hesitate to avow that our opinion ot the value of confession to a priest is pretty much that of Bishop Joskins : — "If stung by a viper , says the sneering divine , " shall I cure my wound by whispering my grief into the car of an ass ? It will be a fatal day for England when priestcraft succeeds in insinuating the confessional into every private house . This is , however , what is aimed at .

      The real question at issue , and it is one of the gravest that can possibly be conceived , was not broadly denned ; indeed , we do not see how it could have been fairly raised in the case on which the commission was called upon to pronounce an opinion . The case itself , stripped of what we must conceive to be its irrelevant accessories , was this : — Did . Mr . West , assuming to be a clergyman of the

      Church of England , enter the cottage of a poor , ignorant , and depraved woman , while alone and prostrated by the pangs of child-bearing , and question her about lusting before and after marriage for sexual connexion with men other than her lawful husband ? Mrs . Arnold communicated to a benevolent ladv , while labouring under the excitement caused by Mr . West ' s visit and questioning , the nature of the examination to which she had been

      unexpectedly subjected . The statement was made naturally , and without the most distant idea of any after result . The poor , ignorant woman could by no possibility have invented the conversation she disclosed , nor could she , in her humble condition , have had the remotest notion of the system it illustrated , or the new powers claimed by priests . Mrs . Ellen , a lady of acute and cultivated mind ,

      with noble , matronly indignation and instinct , comprehended the whole revolting affair at once . In order that there should be no mistake , she wrote down instanter the substance of the questions from the lips of the woman herself . Here , then , is the whole case . Did Mr . West put filthy questions to the woman , or was the accusation an invention ? Surely , it did not require a formal commission and a couple of lawyers to determine this issue . In favour of this charge there was

      its irresistible probability , the absence of all motive other than that which has regard to the claims of truth , and the notorious antecedents of Mr . West . In refutation of the charge , there was the fact of the former profligate habits of the accuser , and certain alleged discrepancies in her versions of the story to some of her gossips . We do not quite see the fairness or propriety of raking into the nast historv of the woman . If it was

      right tp do so in order to test the weight that ought to be attached to her testimony , surely the same process ought to have been used with Mr . West to test the value that was due to his denial . The woman Arnold had nothing to gain by her accusation— -Mr . West had everything to gain , by his denial— -and his denial was couched in true nan mi ricortfo fashion , and apparently with that adroitness which Jesuitical

      previous training confers . The Commissioners , however , expressed themselves satisfied , and publicly declared there was nothing in Mr . West's doings for the Bishop to take cognisance of . Be it so ; the Commissioners have ; as they no doubt imagine they have , whitewashed the one , and blackened the other . We fanoy , however , that the people of England will come to a pretty accurate conclusion on the real merits of this inquiry and verdict-. If Mr . West , or his rector Mr . Grosloy , conceives that the people of England henceforward will regard their proper ministration to bo in the Church ot England , they will possess an unsurpassed amount of

      credulity . But then comes the question of tlio recognised establishment of the confessional in the Church of England . That it is there , and spreading stealthily , s beyond all doubt , —that it is countenanced more

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      of productive knowledge and productive skill . Political economy , the science of these laws , has been too much in conflict with Government to ask favours from it , and has assumed to be its teacher and master . Rightly or wrongly , the professors of this science claim to observe and interpret the natural laws of the production of wealth . Without a continual increase of wealth society cannot prosper without wealth it cannot even exist , and with the * authority of those who teach from possessing knowledge , political economists require Government toabolish restrictions , to refrain from imposing them

      and to leave all kinds of honest 'industry , perfectly free . Inasmuch as they only state facts and interpret the laws of nature , their requirements sooner or later will be complied with . The physical sciences , however , although the facts and laws they are conversant with are more positive and more evidently independent of all Go-, vernment control than the facts and the laws with which literature and political economy deal , do not assume the character of teachers of Government .. The professors of these sciences , though why it should be mav be hard to explain , seem rather

      the sycophants than the superiors ot Government They do not say , with authority derived from a full and deep conviction of tho truth of wlial they know , that Government must do one tiling and abstain from another , because facts dictate such a course ; they only hope , at most , as L ' rofessor Owen lately expressed it , that they may have Government approbation and support . They hope that what they dp and have done is pleasing to the authorities . They seem to estimate the approbation of Government as equal to the discovery of truth . They are delighted that sums continue to be devoted m aid of their pursuits , and grateful for the co-operation

      RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO GOVERNMENT . Literature in our country , where it is free , and in the United States , where also it is free—and especially the newspaper—seems to have taken , up its proper position in relation to Government . It is wholly and entirely independent . It asks no favour from Government , and is theunsparing critic of all its acts . It speaks to the Government with a voice of authority , but authority not its own . It does not say to ' Government , " You are not to throttle the soldier with a tight stock , because , I dislike it , or 1 forbid it ; " but it says , " You are riot-to throttle the soldier , because that deprives the country , which has been at great expense to rear him , of his services ; because it constrains the free movement of the agent you wish to make the greatest exertions , brings on apoplexy , and ends in evil and death . " It appeals to Tacts which are the masters of Governments as well as individuals , and by their voice it tells the Government of its wrong-doing , and tells it what it ought to do .

      Only by interpreting or proclaiming tacts as they arise can literature and the newspaper have any but a most evanescent authority . Nor can it be of lf tuch utility . Where it is forbidden , as in Prance , Russia , and Austria , to notice and proclaim facts , it may amuse idle people like Punch in the streets , or rope-dancers , or fire-eaters , but it has no authority , and little other utility . Where it is dependent on the Government , and can only speak as Government bids , where no book can be written of which Government disapproves , no sentiment be printed which it fears may shake its authority , literature and journalism cannot rise superior to Government , on whatever principles it is founded . There old prejudice , or the will of one man , or of a fe \ v ignorant persons , is substituted for the facts of the universe as the guide of conduct . If our literature wore dependent on our Government it could say nothing of which the Government disapproved , and be of no more service to the nation than were the officials who sent an army to Turkey without an efficient commissariat , and sent green coffee for the men to drink . It may amuse tho idle by its narratives or charm the intelligent by its wit , but it can have no authority and be of little utility except as it finds the proper guides for human actions in tho facts

      and laws ot tho universe . One science , which possesses rather the charac * [ eristics ojf literature than of mathematics , stands in much the same relation to Government as the newspaper press . Politioal economy interprets facts and speaks to Government with an authority superior to Government itself . It docs not say that what Government enacts is right , it says that tho production of . wealth , including subsistence which limits society , is determined by natural laws which Government cannot alter . Government , therefore , is as much abound as the meanest labourer who handles a shovel or wheels a barrow to obey tlieso laws . If the latter cannot work successfully unless he continually proportion his exertions to tlio physical resistance ho has to overcome , neither can the former , unless it know and follow tho laws which govern the division of labour and the increase

      of the Board of Trade . In return , science ai >! s Government , not merely by words of praise , bul by efforts to promote the public weal . That science lias g iven mankind the crime-decreasing gas-lamp , the iightning conductor , tho electric telegraph y . rules for the mariner ' s guidance in storms , &c . &c , is its glorious privilege ; that it is the means of promoting to an indefinite extent the objects at which true state policy aims is acknowledged by all ; why , then , should not science , which has achieved these great works , speak rather as a master thaii n suitor to the Government , which professedl y wishes to accomplish such work and is unable ? It the patronage it seeks and the honours of which it . is greedy , arc in the course of nature anul consistent with its

      jaws , why docs not science boldly say so , and demand compliance with these laws , as it demands that dwellings shall be ventilated , and all excreta be removed ! ' The professors of these sciences are either too humble or too boastful , and at once inconsistently exult in the power they derive row studying nature , and represent it as something much inferior to a ministry or a prince . A far-seeing finance minister , Professor U \ vcn informs us , will regard the man of science with a favourable eve , on account of tho streams of wealtli that may flow from the application of the abstract truths to the discovery of which he devotes himself . Science , then , is to be honoured by ( jovcmment as an indirect contributor to the puuuc

      collers . Such an assertion opens up all the questions connected with Government patronising « na rewarding men of science . On these poliuciu economy assumes to speak with an authority wimcii the professors of the physical sciences put iisuio » y their clamour for Government assistance JN < h » 10 j saying whether giving such assistance be f ; 0 Ils . lsl f J or not with the duties of Government , whether in hend it promote accurate knowledge and increase " «" sum of wealth and . enjoyment or not , we onl . yat . stu that tho riirht or wrong of so doing is slis ? f'i" „ ll

      of demonstration , and tho claimants of l » . ° ""^ should make it as clear and cerium that n is i «« duty of Government to bestow it as it Has . « shown to bo the duty of tho Government to abo isii all restrictions on industry . The professors oi no physical sciences repeat experiments to "sCI V the proportions of tho different elements , suci « carbon , hydrogen , and nitrogen , in our lorn ¦ » they arc not content unless this bo iweerlamt tho smallest weight ; but any Jmal-y ft ** . "" ' ' , , ' satisfies them that Government onn help sc > c , ' J , honours and rewards , though they nm , y sn ° "' . perverting or stifling truth wherever , t 1 y m applied , iPhoy . entirely forgot their Ji « ib tjiil «« J curacy and devotion to facts whenever tlioic is question of obtaining public money oi !> " «' honours . . . . „„ nH of The true relation of tho physical scionces , na

      Untitled Article

      . THE LEAPB It . [ No . 445 , October 2 , 1858 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 1030, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2262/page/14/