Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Ar the close of the great London season, we feel naturally disposed to take a review of our social progress, and to ascertain where we stand. London, it is true, is not England, in the sense in which Paris is said to be all France, and we hope it never will be; but it is the centre from which a vast deal of what is good amongst us emanates; and when anything of real importance originates in other parts of the kingdom, it soons find its way to this vast metropolis, and here receives those finishing touches which adapt it to more general usefulness.

Every careful observer of the changes which take place amongst us must have noticed with satisfaction the philanthropy which of late years has begun to take a systematic form, and to show itself in constant endeavours to improve the condition of the poor. He will have noticed, too, and not without regret, that many promising schemes fail, and many of their promoters soon grow cold. But if he be a Christian man, as well as a thoughtful one, this is easily explained. They fail because our philanthropists have almost everything to learn; many grow weary, because philanthropy is not exactly Christian piety. It is sometimes dissevered from it; and men are even to be found who boast of their devotion to the one and their indifference to the other. It is a new thing for gentlefolks to visit kindly amongst the poor; and when they began, feeling awkward, they seemed to be distant and supercilious; and while this lasted, more harm than good was done. A far better understanding now prevails on both sides; and if Christian principles can always be brought to bear upon the work, the happiest results may follow.

We are speaking of secular rather than religious schemes. For example, we regard with the greatest satisfaction a flower show held a few evenings since in one of the squares near Holborn, when prizes were given for flowering plants raised by the poor, and in many instances by their children, at the windows of their own lodgings or small tenements. Other prizes were given for the neatest apartments. All this is gratifying; it shows that the higher classes have begun to take such an interest in the poor as to visit them from house to house; not merely to leave a tract at the door, but to sit down with them and have a little cheerful conversation. This we are sure will be to the advantage of both parties; perhaps it is not easy to determine which will profit most. May we, however, interpose one caution here of some importance? plants, especially when in flower, consume a vast quantity of pure air, and therefore should never be kept in a close apartment, least of all in a sleeping one,-this, however, by the way.

Clubs for working men, and in some places for their wives, have been formed both in London and in several of our large towns, with every prospect of success. They are simply the West End club of our nobility and gentry upon a very humble scale. The working man may here walk in without ceremony at mid-day, and find an excellent meal provided for him at an almost incredibly small cost; or in the evening he may sit down in a well-aired room and share a little quiet conversation with men of his own station, or he may read the

newspapers; all intoxicating liquors are very properly excluded. Now it is true that none of these have any direct tendency to promote the spiritual welfare of the poor; which is only to admit, what every real Christian knows full well, that the philanthropist is not doing the work of the evangelist, unless, indeed, he combines, as he ever ought to do, the two characters in one. So our Lord both taught and fed the multitudes; so He who maketh our valleys to stand thick with corn, lights up the hedgerow, simply it would seem for man's delight, with decorations which far surpass in beauty the array of Solomon in all his glory. For our own part, we should entertain a mean opinion of the piety of those who may think themselves superior to these considerations.

As we write, the session of Parliament is drawing to a close; like human life, it has presented a checkered scene of good and evil. The Prison Ministers' Bill has passed, and the Maynooth Grant has been repeated, and each of these we think an evil unmixed with any good, and not even to be defended by any plausible apology. But the apathy of the nation on these points is greater than the indifference of Parliament. It does not appear to us that there is any increasing love of Popery, nor perhaps indifference to Protestantism. It is a sort of national fool-hardiness: we despise the danger and the men who remind us of it. How few public men write or speak in the tone of Mr. Newdegate in Parliament, or of Mr. McGhee and Mr. Poynder in our own pages.-The happiest piece of home legislation will, we have not a doubt, in the course of years, prove itself to be that which empowers the Lord Chancellor to part with the advowson of three hundred and twenty of his poorest livings. Few of them are worth two hundred a-year, many of them are not worth one-half so much; and in general they have either no parsonage houses, or only mean and ancient structures, which need large repairs. Whoever may buy them, the purchase money is to be laid out in the improvement of the living. We earnestly invite the attention of our wealthy readers to the opportunity which is now presented for the introduction or permanent establishment of evangelical religion in no less than three hundred and twenty parishes. Who can calculate the spiritual results of Simeon's liberality in spending a noble fortune upon the purchase of advowsons which he vested in trustees, men of high character and decided principles? The sale of the old corporation livings, under the Municipal Reform Act, gave him an opportunity which he promptly seized. His principle was, as he expressed it, to purchase the largest population at the lowest price. And thus his advowsons are chiefly in great towns, and few of them can be held, except by a wealthy incumbent. Still, while such incumbents can be found, we offer no complaints. A similar opportunity now returns; with this difference, that whereas most of the advowsons now to be sold under the Lord Chancellor's Bill contain only a poor and rustic population, comparatively small sums will purchase most of them; far less, indeed, than are generally spent on building a church, parsonage, and schoolhouse, in some outlying hamlet. The spiritual condition of our agricultural population is in many parts deplorable indeed, and no such opportunity of evangelizing it has occurred in our day, or may ever return again. Besides, the influence of one pious, active, and wise

country clergyman is felt over half a county. We trust that the matter will be seriously undertaken by our wealthy laymen, and, above all, that no time will be lost. A society might at once be formed for the purchase of these livings, or at least of some of them. Five trustees should be named, in whom evangelical churchmen have confidence, and in them the patronage should be vested. We have not a doubt as to the success of such a step. The Bishop of London proposes to raise a Million Fund for his own diocese alone, and he does not appear to be too sanguine. Why should we be less confident as to the success of a project which has been already tried? It was no sooner known that Mr. Simeon was willing to accept contributions, than they flowed in upon him beyond the most sanguine expectation of himself or his friends. So it would be again.

These are only a few of many great questions which have lately begun to occupy the public attention. Liturgical revision and clerical subscription have again been discussed in both houses of parliament. Convocation, too, has ventured to take them up. They are no longer clerical questions; the public feel that they are interested, and they have learned, too, that they have a right to speak and to be heard. We are unwilling to offer a few desultory remarks upon questions of such importance-questions upon which we have hitherto observed, as far as possible, a quiet neutrality; not knowing, in fact, how far the demands of the reforming parties extended, or at what points they would really make a final stand; or, if they committed themselves to the stream, when and where they would be able to arrest its progress. of

If we look abroad, we may congratulate ourselves that the peace Europe is still unbroken, except in Poland. Russia courteously refuses to entertain the proposals of the Great Powers, and it remains to be seen whether they, or any of them, will step in and give the Polish insurrection the support of arms. Italy is still unquiet; and Rome is the curse of France, as she has been for ages that of every nation whom she undertook either to serve or govern. In lands more distant we have an insurrection of Maories in New Zealand; and a revolution to deal with in Madagascar, which threatens serious evils to the cause of the Gospel, and of our British interests in the island. We have a war in China, and are likely to be plunged into one in Japan. In Brazil we seem to have provoked a needless quarrel, but it has been submitted to the arbitration of the king of Belgium, and we hope that no serious consequences will be permitted to ensue.

In America another great battle of two days' duration, and this time upon Northern soil, at Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. Another scene of doubtful triumph but of horrible carnage, for the loss in killed and wounded on both sides is said to be at least thirty thousand men; and by the admission of the Northerns, who claim the victory, the loss is nearly equally divided. Another reaction at New York, which is now madly exultant and resolved to prosecute the war; for Vicksburg is said to have fallen, although the fact is doubted by many, though borne out by what professes to be an official dispatch. But that which concerns us most, and grieves us most, is the profound insensibility of our fellow-Christians, and especially our fellow-churchmen, there. They seem to feel no compunction; we hear of no prayermeetings to plead with God for mercy on the land defiled with blood.

We allow for a censorship of the press quite as severe and more despotic than that of France; this may compel silence, but it could not compel the flippancy of affected indifference, much less the approbation which cheers on the merciless prosecution of a hopeless war. The Christian Times represents the Episcopalians of New York; it is their organ; and how does it speak? The war is generally dismissed in less than a dozen lines; and even when mentioned, it is treated with much less feeling than our own newspapers are just now expressing for the New Zealand insurrection, or the remote conflict in Japan. The following paragraph is taken from the Christian Times of the 11th of June. The date is rather old, but we reprint it, as it shows very painfully the indifference of our Christian friends at New York, at an hour when one would have thought that every heart should have been lifted up, and every knee bowed down, in earnest prayer:— "Central Park was the resort of thousands of pedestrians and carriage folk on Saturday afternoon, when the second concert of the season was given by Dodsworth's Band. The Park looks really beautiful this summer. The trees are better grown, the shrubberies are denser and more brilliant in colour, the grass is softer and thicker, and the rougher features of rock and half completed engineering are wonderfully toned down or brought towards completion; there have also been many attractive additions made to the zoological department. Peafowl strut in flocks over every pleasant glade; swans and rare varieties of aquatic birds abound on all the lakes; in out-of-the-way reedy pools are pelicans, spoonbills, adjutants, and herons; while in the inclosure are fawns, cockatoos, and genuine American eagles-a most delightful place wherein to spend a portion of the day, especially the afternoons of all the coming summer Saturdays, when the crowd is sure to be brilliant, and the music charming.

"The capture of Vicksburg is again reported, and we may hope with truth this time. Gen. Banks gives a most favourable account of the conduct of the coloured troops under his command. He says that there is no doubt they will make good soldiers.

"There has been a severe conflict between our cavalry and that of the enemy near Culpepper, where a force of 10,000 had assembled for the invasion of the North."

Another mail has arrived. Vicksburg has fallen. General Lee has re-crossed the Potomac, and the tide of success is once more in favour of the Federals. But the conscription is resisted, and New York is now the scene of horrors, in comparison of which even civil war loses something of its atrocity. A mob roves through its streets, firing the houses, murdering the men of colour, and hanging its victims to the lamp-post. Since the days of the first revolution in France, when Paris was in the hands of Marat and Robespierre, no such atrocities have been heard of in any city in Europe. Surely the judgments of God will be acknowledged, and the national sins of America confessed at last!

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have received, at different times, suggestions from various quarters that we should give a page or two of original poetry. But short pieces of a high standard of merit we seldom meet with, and our readers would not be satisfied with the common run of poetry,-ordinary thoughts clothed in easy rhyme or smooth blank verse. Perhaps we are fastidious. It seems to us the craft of poetry is just now at a low ebb; but then we should consign whole poems which are much admired-Hiawatha, for example-to the waste paper basket. The space at our disposal is much shorter than we wish, and on the whole we feel indisposed to make the experiment.

[blocks in formation]

The History of Girolamo Savonarola and of his Times. By Pasquale Villari, Professor of History in the University of Pisa. Translated, from the Italian, by Leonard Horner, F.R.S., with the co-operation of the Author. Vols. I. and II. Longman and Co. 1863.

TRAVELLERS in Persia relate that the following remarkable phenomenon is occasionally beheld in those Eastern countries: -Some time before daybreak, the horizon presents all the usual symptoms of the near approach of dawn. Faint streaks of light are seen, as if the sun were about to rise, which gradually increase in brilliancy; and the inexperienced traveller fondly imagines that the night is at an end, and that the vision before his eyes is the herald of the long-expected morn. Soon, however, the light fades away, and is succeeded by a darkness like that of midnight, which seems the more intense from its contrast with the momentary splendour which preceded it. To this singular phenomenon is given the name of the false dawn.

The foregoing incident in travel furnishes no unsuitable emblem of the fate of those isolated reformers, of whom we occasionally read in history, and who may be said to have lived before their time. When the world has long groaned under some system of tyranny and corruption, men of loftier spirits, full of warm and earnest zeal, raise their voice from time to time against the evils of the age. Such men, after diffusing a momentary light amongst their own contemporaries, and being suddenly removed by death at an early age, leave but little trace of their existence; and the minds of the faithful are often impressed with a feeling of despondency and regret, that, owing to untoward circumstances, such great talents have been in a measure lost, which under happier auspices might have

[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »