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PARLIAMENT -.—NEW MEMBERS.
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THE BALANCE OF RELIGIONS.
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so after debauchees and despots , the axe fell on the fat foolish Louis ; so after criminals the most hideous earth had ever seen , the Turkish sabre descended on the harmless neck of the last Cokstantine . It is one of the dreadful warnings history reads to bad kings , when she cries that their own unpunished crimes shall be visited on the heads of their innocent children . It is perhaps already written in Heaven , that on the harmless Pius IX . shall be visited all the crimes of the Papacy that , once useful to centralise Christianity and guard the church from despotism and wrong , has long grown a mere incumbrance of the earth . ¦ The sympathy of Ireland for the Pope under difficulties , let us conclude by saying , is generous , but it is as extravagant and irrational as Irish ebullitions generally are : it is seditious and factious ; and it is all the louder in its demonstrations , we fear , because it is antagonistic to Protestant England .
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OUR list of the New Members who have found seats m the House of Commons since the recent Election lias been enlarg-ed within the past week by the translation of the honourable member for Scarborough to the House of Peers , owing to the death of his relative . Lord LoUDESBOROUGir . Onr enumeration , also , of new English members was not quite conipiele ;—Marylebone ought / to have been noticed ; the seat vacated bv SirI ? . Hall , on his elevation to the Upper House , havin « : been sonic-. vhftfc unexpectedly filled by Lord 1 ' eemoy . Then South Shropshire has seen the vacancy caused by the death of the Hon . Mr . Cr-iVK supplied by Sir B . LEi&STbsr , through the interest ot the Ci . ive family . And , lastly , Monmouthshire has exchanged one Colonel Somerset for another Colonel Somerset , — -a piece , of electioneering- legerdemain due to paramount Beaufort influence . These two Conservative additions are owing to the action of that aristocratic and landed element in our House of Commons so
bitof both sides , whose absence from the House was A loss to the Irish party , and whose neglect by Governments , which showered patronage on the less deserving , is a standing reproach . The Scottish party is not specially distinguished for eloquence , t > ut on all questions , -financial , social , and political , it exhibits that strong * searching and distinctive national acuteuess which gives its opinions far more weight than its in ore impetuous and voluble Irish colleagues ; can claim . To the English side , whether in Lords or Commons , the j > alm » f oratorical force must , for the present , be conceded . Palmers-ton , Russell , Graham , Gladstone , Disraeli have rio equals . Derby , Ellenborough , Brougham , Oxford no rivals . It is true that the Scottish element is largely present even in this brilliant phalanx , but we believe the English party has most right to rank them on its side . The inference that may fairly be drawn from the recent elections is , that the new " Reform Bill , when it comes , will not prove that bugbear which timid Conservatives are inclined to believe . There is now no " pressure from without" to intimidate ; no torchlight meetings , no midnight drillings , no threats of ? pouring the countless hordes of . the north on the metropolis , in order to overawe the Legislature . All is quiet and decorous , as best becomes a great nation . The members recently chosen are not from the class of " unscrupulous demagogues" " revolutionary Chartists , " as predicted from the last Reform Bill .- they are a pretty fair selection fi * orn the general bodj ' , and they afford a tolerably strong indication that any new bill will not materially change but only enlarge , the composition of the House cf Commons . ,
terly as ailed by the Bright party . . We now come to the Scotch and . Irish catalogue , which will be fouiuV limited to the scanty number of three , —one for Ireland , two for Scotland , The splitary Irish case is that of Cork , where inexorable death has again pxerted his power . The late Mr . Pagan showed considerable promise at one period of his public career ;—a promise that subsequent . parliamentary performances never adequately justified . 1 Lis were not the shoulders upon which the mantle of the Great
Ag-itiitor was destined to fall : he wanted nearly every quality whiuh lriaue O'CoiJNELii great ; he possessed some , however , that the Gre ; vt Agitator lacked , and it was perhaps fortunate for the peaceful destinies of the Empire that it was so ordered . The death of Lord Jajius Stuart gave the representation of Ayrshire into the charge of Sir James Ferguson ; the contest was severe , but Conservatism triumphed . Mr . Disraeli ' s private secretary , Mr . Earle , who sat for Berwick , gave way to Mr . Majoribanks , —and here for the present doses our catalogue .
. Perhaps the most remarkable- feature m these new Elections is their comparative tameness , and the general absence of that exhibition of Reform Jwrore which made the years 1831 . and 1832 memorable in the history of this country . We may be said to be on the verge of another political Revolution , another lifting of the "' Anchors of the Monarchy / ' and that too by the same statesman who proclaimed " finality , ' * and who declared that " one such revolution was enough in a generation . " No inference , however / unfavourable to the necessity for Reform can fairly be drawn from this fact . The public generally appears to have mads up its mint ! that , reform must take place . Boroughs and constituencies in esse i \\ u \ in posse are alike— -not apathetic , but acquiescent—as to
the inevitable necessity which renders the advent or a new Reform Bill a mutter no longer for dispute or delay . The new Members , for the most part , have gone into the House unfettered by positive jplcdgws from their constituents , and a \ s the majority of the new House lire understood not to be too strictly bound by Hustings ' promises , there is every prospect that the new Reform Bill will , be < lebu ( , y ( i with less heat and receive more fair play than was extended to the firtit Roform measure . Wo have already noticed the absence of what may be termed superior debating , power in the Members more recently introduced into the lower brunch of the . legislature . Perhaps 4 ' 1 ' iis dolicionoy is nowhere more obvious than in what may be called the Irish pnrty . " Irish oratory" has borne a traditional reputation which recent years have not maintained , Since Daniel O'Connell tfind Smar , disappeared no orator of the Irish plass has made his 4 ippuur < mco worthy of hig-her than second ' place in the rank of
parliamentary debaters . Even Siiceil und O'Connell never attained the very highest rank . , Shiiil ' s oratory was n rhetorical firework , — opavkliug , co ( r-ruacating , but iininistakoubly artificial and histrionic . O'Connkll wna only occasionally great , but his greatest efforts wore immeasurably surpassed by those mental athletes with whom be , perforce , was called upon to grapple in the arena of St . Stephen ' s . What have wo in their p ] aco P Take the Pqllaru-XjRQUiJUUTS , the Maquuiw , the MoMaiions , nnd the collective oratorical strength of that section which calls itself , ^ w exoollonoc , the " Irish party , " and together they would foil to qorne up to the high oratorical standard of the least renowned of their dopartdd ¦ count 17 inon . The traditional Irish gentleman is hardly to be found in Uiq House . The last and possibly tho best specimen *—n mixture of genial humour , shrewd sense , and large-mindod sympathies , was to bo seen in Mobgan Joust O'Connbll , the favourite
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HPHE European international system is a balance of religions , as X well as an equipoise of material forces , and of forms of government . In the peutarchy of the great Powers-, France and Austria weigh in the one . scale . for Catholicism against England and Prussia in the Protestant scale ; whilst Russia , as the representative ^ of Greek Christianity , 'is the pivot on which the beam turiis . Russia ' s epicene ecclesiastical geiider admirably fits her for this neutral position , which is analogous to that occupied by Austria in territorial questions , and to that taken up by Napoleonic France in the struggle between representative institutions and absolutism . Moreover , apart from the fact that the Greek Church is alike anti-Papal
arid anti-Protestant , there "is another circumstance which helps not a little to guarantee the ' Czar ' s , impartiality in cases where , none but religious interests are at . stake . Air-powerful as lie is , there are under his august ' . protection other doxies besides orthodoxy , whose tastes he is obliged to consult . Luckily , however , their sympathies are as evenly distributed as the ' antipathy-of the Muscovite sultana . For if Poland is fervidly Catholic , his important Baltic provinces are still , for the most part , as staunchly Lutheran as when they ' were-ravished from Sweden . Hence , for all practical purposes , the Russian quantities , the positive no less than the negative , may be treated , in the algebra of European religious politi c , as equals added to both sides of the equation . They do not affect the result .
How then do the other factors stand ? At first sight the odds against Protestantism would seem to be truly formidable ; so much so , indeed , that there might be said to be no balance at all . Counting 1 noses , for instance , we might be told that there are at least some sixty millions to which ecclesiastical pustiles are a first necessity of the spiritual life , ng-ainst little more than half that number to which ( except for getting rid of still more unpleasant smells ) incense is an abomination . This' calculation , moreover , does not credit the Catholic Powers with a single Pope ' s nose m the British or Prussian dominions , and tukes for granted that the nose of every Anglican Tractarian , and of every admirer of the Berlin Kreus ' Zeitimg will be turned up with the true Puritan twist at the sight of a crucifix . It assumes that all the friends of His
Holiness throughout England , Scotland , and Ireland , as well as in Prussia ' s Polish und Rhenish provinces , will prove unflinchingly loyal to their Protestant sovereigns , through whatever liory trials the fine gold of their allegiance iniiy have to pass . It simply does not poll them on . cither side , just as , on the other hand , it does not count tho Hungarian and Transylvani » n Protestant e , nor the Gjreek Christians of Austria ' s Slavonic populations , nor the Lutherans of Alsace and Lorraine , nor the Culvinista of tho south of France . _ If we add to tho great masses on both sides the declared minorities , tho Catholic mnks swell to seventy-two millions , whilst the Protestants receive an accession of scarcely six millions to set over against the twelve millions of recruits who pass over to the hostile camp . In the subsidiary system of tho Minor States , tho nuiriericul balance , it is true , is a little better preserved . Even hero , however , the disproportion is very fur from vanishing . It still remains alarmingly
great . Even more decided , at tho first blush , seems the advantage on tho side of the Cutholio interest on the score of superior cohesion and greater solidarity . Again , without going so far as to say that Protestants as a body are less in eiirnosfc about their religion , there can bo no doubt whatever that Catholics make theirs a question oi the political conscience , far more than their opponents , Wplifc up as we are into scores of rival sects and churches , what chance do we stand ? agai « st Rome with hoi' proud , boast pf unity , and her restless spirit of intrigue P Those facts , it must bo granted , have n » ugly lopk . Especially do they merit attention at a lime like tins . Wo floem to bo living 1 in tho duyB of Pjutbb tmkHbmmit mid Wawbb tub Pjwnilkss once more , On ovary patch of Rornam » t » on . in Europe' hosts of maddo . ied fanatics are clustering around nutreq
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Jan . 21 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 63
Parliament -.—New Members.
PARLIAMENT-. —NEW MEMBERS .
The Balance Of Religions.
TM TUT , \ Ar ( TFV OT 7 "R / RUPTONS .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2330/page/11/
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