The accuse the mob of sanguinary intention. No mob was ever more lenient. They had numerous and evident opportunities had assassination been designed. There were knives in the crowd, but none were used. There were bludgeons, broom-handles, stones, but no mortal blow was struck. honourable general, who has grown old in Austrian service, was, in classical English, simply 'served out.' The outrage, if you will, was perfectly justifiable. Where ordinary law will not touch an offender, Judge Lynch is the only competent authority. If a man seek the shores of England as an exile, a refugee, then we are bound to offer him hospitality, and insult him not. But visitors are not included in that category. Haynau chose to come, while Metternich could not choose but come. The latter has been as safe here as any Englishman. Who insulted Louis Philippe ? did not crowds applaud him? Yet was he really a greater scoundrel than Haynau. Besides the mobbing of Haynau is not a persecution for opinion, but for acts. Priestley's house was burned over his head, and himself hunted out of the island, by a fanatical mob, not because he was guilty of crimes, a flogger of women, but because he disbelieved certain doctrines. That is an important difference. The prospects of France are still uncertain and clouded. Prince de Joinville seems to have an eye to the presidency, Counts de Paris and de Chambord to the throne. Louis Napoleon still appears to dream of the empire. The Councils-General, about which so much has been said, have been engaged in matters of more practical importance than in discussing the defects of the constitution. The majority have decided in favour of revision. But we do not attach much importance to those decisions. Strange to say, the law by which these Councils were elected was passed in 1833, and their constituency is very narrow indeed. They are an aristocratic, not a popular, body. Their opinion on the republic is only valuable in so far as it shows how the electoral power of royal France appreciates the republic. Louis Napoleon's progresses have been comparative failures. A collation of authorities on the much-disputed subject of the party 'eries' give a large majority both of the armed and unarmed force in favour of the republic. There has been a revolution in Hesse Cassel, the results of which, at the time we write, cannot be appreciated. Legal authority was instrumental in effecting this revolution, and we hope legal authority will maintain and secure the fruits. The Elector had a forger for his minister, and pursued a reactionary line of policy. The people passively resisted: a state of siege was declared. The magistrates resisted-still legally. The soldiers refused to obey; the officers mutinied; the minister was compelled to fly; and the Elector followed him. What other conduct could we expect from the half-brother of the hunted Haynau. II. At this period of the year, home politics are generally flat and uneventful. It is the season of meditation-the time to devise and plan. The three long, dull months which intervene between this and the opening of the session of 1851 afford ample opportunities for the reconciliation of differences, the settlement of common convictions, and the arrangement of a common system of agitation. While the parliament men relax, the politicians of the people should labour. Our efforts should be directed, not to a single session, but to all sessions, until the work of social reorganisation be completed. It is time now to begin. Parties are paralysed; statesmen are at fault; the men in power have a weak, improvident, and inefficient leader. The Tories want a real programme, the Peelites lack a leader, the Whigs have no principles. As to the Radicals, they have neither leader, convictions, audacity, nor statesmanship. Seldom in the history of England have the people been so imperiously called upon to take the initiative, to declare their will, and carry their measures. The public lies at the mercy of the first bold man who can enunciate its thought, and shape its desires into practical legislative acts. The parliament lies at the mercy of the first compact popular organisation which can bring to bear upon the House that 'pressure from without,' without which no change is possible. Thus the field is clear for action, which must be successful if at once animated by sufficient audacity and directed with sufficient foresight. But the tactics of agitation must be remodelled. We must have no more blood and fury speeches, no more denunciations of whole classes, no more appeals to the most brutal passions and unamiable qualities of the people. We must not excite terror by our vehement, undiscriminating, and powerful rhetoric, but terror by our reasoning. Recollect that we have not to convince the people, they are convinced, but to convince, and if that be not possible, then to overawe the privileged. Awaken and animate the dormant convictions of the people, but command and compel the adhesion of their opponents. Unity, which is the isolated purpose of thousands, combined and enforced with the directness and energy of one, is the great want. But unity is impossible without a programme, which is the declared purpose of a party. To obtain a programme we must have discussion, deliberation, and ultimately agreement. To assist in arriving at this desirable result shall be one of the main objects of the Freethinker's Magazine. We have frankly declared that our object in all political changes is republican; and we shall therefore advocate those measures only which tend to develop those elements of our constitution which are republican; and we shall advocate only those means which tend to achieve that result by opinion. The throne is no enemy of ours. The throne is only the semblance of power, and it is absurd to combat shadows. But that barricade of privilege which surrounds and hypocritically defends itself in the name of the throne, that we shall do our utmost to overthrow. The means by which this may be effected are simply these-the destruction of Lord John Russell, as a political power, and thereby the destruction of the Whig faction. We want to know our enemies, we want to distinguish our friends. By the side then of the programme to be enunciated, we must have an incessant and concerted attack upon the Whigs. No flinching, no temporising, no paltering; upon the ruins of their power only, and not by means of it, can the people seize on the government. Lord John is the essence of Whigism-the essence and quintessence-its symbol-the exponent of its power. Lord John represents what it can do, what it believes. He is the exemplar of its self-complacency, its patronising contempt for the people, its want of foresight, its administrative incapacity, its aristocratic haughtiness. Lord John is the legatee of 1688-a revolution which substituted the privileges of the oligarchy for the privilege of the monarch, and the exclusive aggrandisement of a few families for the welfare of the nation. He is the patron of castes; the symbol of hereditary right. As a simple member of the House of Commons he would be of little importance, as the mouthpiece of a wealthy oligarchical faction he is a political power. Hence his overthrow is a necessity. But as the mere overthrow of one faction to set up another would be a repetition only of the old scenes of political warfare, so we require a programme of a re-formation which shall afford an ample and a solid basis for a new and a national party, and, therefore, a party founded on the majority of the nation. This, of course, presupposes a machinery of government which shall enable that majority to express its wishes, and execute its decrees. Hence we must have free and universal suffrage; parliaments of a sufficiently limited duration to ensure the responsibility of members; and a readjustment of the elective power. It will be seen that the formula 'free and universal' includes the ballot, no pecuniary qualification, and payment of members; for that suffrage cannot be said to be 'free' which is coerced or limited in the objects of its choice, nor those members 'free' who, having been chosen to serve their country, may not have wherewithal to exist meanwhile. Side by side with these demands for organic changes in the political, should be placed certain others in the social constitution of the country. We require a thorough revision of our financial system, which would necessitate a new adjustment of public burdens, and substitute direct taxes on property for indirect imposts on wages and capital. We should require a new, comprehensive, and easily-understood law of partnership, and facilities for obtaining possession of the land. The laws of primogeniture and entail must be abolished, and the distinction between bankrupts and insolvents set aside. Radical and startling as these measures may appear, faith in their justice and union in demanding them are only necessary to ensure their accomplishment. Let our readers resolutely meet the difficulties, and reflect upon the means of conquering them. If they approve of the principles above snggested, then let them forthwith gather together in twos and threes, in hun dreds or in thousands, communicate with their brethren, agitate their own localities, spread knowledge far and wide, lecture, speak, discuss, in all convenient places; but, above all, let them believe with all their hearts and might, and work each and all as though the safety of the nation depended on their individual exertion. Something must be done, and that something must be recognised beforehand. Let us no longer rely on chance, occasion, opportunity-nor yet neglect these; but with diligence, veracity, and foresight, anticipate victory. There are some signs of an approaching organised agitation on democratic principles, and we only wait to see them take some tangible form in order to fairly state them to our readers. The political and social reformers now in conference in London and Manchester furnish some of these hopeful symptoms of activity. G. H. THE THEOLOGICAL REVIEWER. IN the midland parts of England there stands an ancient University, whose influence on the moral destinies of England cannot be too highly rated. There, amidst groves and gardens, girdled by fertile hills, washed by pleasant streams, arise those famed edifices which, built and endowed by our Catholic ancestors for the poor, are now devoted by their Protestant descendants to the rich. Schools are there which once rang with the voices of controversialist and disputant, now consigned to the professors of dogmas which it is blasphemy to question and dangerous to dispute. Libraries are there-old, noble, and venerable-almost surrendered to the moth, the worm, and the rotting mould. Colleges are there where profligacy runs riot, and comparatively useless learning moulders away in peace. Chapels are there resounding with the formal preaching of a dead doctrine, and the lipworship of a forgotten God. It is the cradle and the throne of mental despotism, the grave of mental liberty; and within its precincts conscience must be stilled, free-thought submit itself to fetters. Before you enter the temple you must put on the livery of the priests. You go to learn, and the results of study are already limited and formalised. A ban is put upon the intellect-you must not investigate, you must accept, All theologic truth has been discovered, tabulated, and lies ready for your signature; you must swear to believe as your forefathers believed; you must set your hand to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and swear a great oath that, in your inmost belief, they are the truth of God, All the fine educational means which the noble nature of our fathers placed at our disposal are perverted or denied. Priests and priestcraft there lord it over the human mind: and its name is Oxford, We know it well; we have felt the iron of its tyranny in our souls, We have mused among its storied piles, and in the quiet of its solemn cloisters, upon the great wrongs against humanity there done hourly under the sun; and, though there are a few grains of goodness in the place, they do not sweeten the lump of evil. But not for long can this nest of iniquity remain untouched. A Royal Commission has been appointed, with powers, it is true, much too weak for the inherent cunning of the place, but yet the small end of the wedge has entered-the rising spirit of the people must drive it home. Its labours will and must fail of being satisfactory to the public, or even the parliament. Of Whig appointment, it partakes of the strong Whig characteristic-weakness of purpose. All the members have been at the respective Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and all hostile elements have been carefully eschewed. The University authorities do not intend to give direct answers to direct questions, because they will not be put upon their oath! The fifth edition of a pamphlet, first published eight years ago, and entitled 'Oxford Unmasked,' has recently appeared. The writer is an Oxford Graduate, and he certainly does rend asunder, after a vigorous fashion, the veils which surround that profane temple. Take the following with respect to those at College destined to the church itself: The greatest license, in many instances, if not allowed, is winked at and passed over. Until the youthful clergyman has taken his degrees, and is ready for the process of what is there not unfrequently termed japanning' -viz., an actual admittance into the clerical profession, and the consequent adoption of a sad and sober garb of 'staid wisdom's hue'-he may frequently be seen prominent amid the profligate, the Coryphæus of a Bacchanalian rout, a man of pleasure in every sense of the word. Is this a right preparation for la vie celibataire, which a Fellowship requires; or for the exercise of that virtue and self-denial which the life of a Churchman demands ? True it is, that a man may, on the occasion of his being ordained, and some, whose irregularities have been caused by example and the violence of their passions, not by actual predisposition to vice, do suddenly pause and effect an alteration in their course of life.* In the phraseology of the world, "they have sown their wild oats;' their young blood is purged; and they are prepared, in an incredibly short space of time, to sit in judgment on the indiscretions and vices of which they themselves were just now guilty. Some, * We have, indeed, remarked, that it is not unfrequently the custom among the young novices of the Church, whose notions of morality are founded somewhat on the principles of the Italian bravo, who slays and pillages in his early days and becomes a devotee in his old age, to make up their minds to exhaust every pleasure during their noviciate and before the fated hour arrives to debar them from, at least, open profligacy. Come,' they say, we have but a few years of liberty, let us make the most of it.' Thus it is, that the melancholy worn-out expression, the placid-looking debility, induced by early and constant debauchery and hard living, when all the freshness and vigour of life is departed, so often supplies, in the visage of the Churchman entering on the solemn duties of his profession, the calm, pale, chastened look that may be supposed to refine the countenance of the cloistered ascetic. |