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This Pamphlet is mainly intended for the guidance of the pupils of the Dunedin Swimming School, containing as it does directions for the course through which they will be expected to pass; the com piler has, however, been induced to publish it in the hope of increasing the interest of the reader in the subject, as well as to add to his safety when in the water.
Swimming may be defined as the art of propelling and sustaining the body in the water, using the legs (assisted by the exertion of the body) as the propeller, and the arms as a support to the head. The hands are placed flat on the water between the chin and the breast, fingers and thumbs closed, the latter touching, the body is inclined gently forward, the legs drawn up with the knee turned out and toe turned up towards the shins (in order to strike the water as wide as possible with the soles of the feet); as the feet are kicked to the rear the hands are sent forward to the full extent of the arms, keeping them there until the heels meet after the kick, when they should be extended nearly square with the shoulders; and then dropping the elbows to the side, bring the hands over the breast to the first position. The beginner should remember that by a careful regulation of the limbs so that all movements tending to retard the motion of the body be made gently, and propelling movement with energy, much unnecessary exertion may be saved with
This stroke has the advantage of speed, and is also most useful when assisting others. It is important here to remember that the head is the helm, the slightest inclination of which will alter the course, and as on the side it is awkward to look ahead, the best way is to steer, if possible, by aligning two objects in the rear. The left side is the best for speed, being the heaviest, and the upper arm which has the most work, being the right, which is generally the strongest. Lie completely on the side (say the left) with the left arm extended, right hand resting on the thigh, legs closed. First motion—Draw the knees gently up until the thighs are nearly at right angles with the body, at the same time strike the left hand downwards, bringing it under the head by bending the elbow, and extend the right arm gently beyond the head as far as possible without lowering the right shoulder. Second motion—Extend the right leg in line with the thigh, straighten the left thigh and bend the leg backwards, and then quickly return the legs to their original position, at the same time hollow the right hand finger and thumb pressed together, then draw it smartly down close to the chest to its original position on the thigh, the left hand being extended to its first position; by making the forward motion of the right arm out of the water there will be a slight increase of speed, which, however, can be more easily gained by keeping the body as horizontal as possible.
Plunging is the art of entering the water head first. The principal plunges are known as the Flat, the Deep, and the Medium, their titles being suggestive. The flat plunge is most useful in
with the arm extended, forefingers and palms of the hands touching each other, straightening the body, which must be kept rigid while moving along the surface, the feet and thighs being close together. Care must be taken to close the eyes at the moment of entering the water, opening them afterwards, as well as to prevent the heels rising; and also at all times to prevent the head being suddenly jerked back, which is most dangerous. The same rules will apply to the Medium plunge, which is generally used by the swimmer when plunging from a moderate height without wishing to go much below the surface of the water. The water is entered at an angle of about 45 deg. instead of 10 deg., which is the angle for the Flat plunge. It should be remembered that in plunging, as in swimming, the arms act as a protection to the head by breaking the water, and thus saving the concussion. When beneath the water the back is to be hollowed, and the chin gently raised, which will quickly bring you to the surface, keeping the arms extended. The steep plunge is used for descending a considerable depth into the water. If taken from a small height, stoop down until the head is lower than the knees, which should be opened as well as the feet, incline gradually forward, and when the balance is lost straighten the body from the fingers to the toes; if accurately taken, the body will enter the water noiselessly, hands first. Avoid throwing the heels up, and, if plunging from a moderate height, spring forward with the body, so as to prevent it striking the water perpendicularly.
Diving differs from plunging, inasmuch as the progress is caused by the action of the limbs instead of resulting simply from the spring. Care must be taken to exhale all impure air from the lungs, which may be done by contracting the shoulders and exhaling several times, pressing the abdomen at the same time, and then inhaling fresh air. This not only allows the body to remain longer under the water, but adds to its buoyancy. The act of diving is the same as that of swimming, the head acting as a rudder. One
Floating is the art of lying motionless on the water, the secret of which is rightly to balance the body, the head acting as a rudder, by putting it gently in the opposite direction to which the body is inclining. The back should be hollowed, chest expanded and inflated as much as possible, to add to the buoyancy of the body, breathing as seldom and then as quickly as possible. The easiest float is with the arms stretched to their full extent beyond the head, which should be bent back until the water reaches the eyes, thighs open and extended, with the legs folded under them. Floating should next be practised with the arms in the same position, and the legs straight, with the body as straight as possible, and with legs and arms straight, with hands resting on the thighs.
This disagreeable subject I would gladly leave to more able pens than mine, were it not that any book for the guidance of swimmers would be worthless without it. The views here set forth do not profess altogether to be original, but they are in a measure verified by experience of which the writer, during a period of some years at sea, has had enough. It is of the greatest importance that the subject should be studied, as experience teaches the writer that persons of all ages will risk their lives for those in distress without a moment's thought for the consequences. To commence then it is too generally believed that a man must be a very expert swimmer before he ventures to rescue another, especially if the one in distress has his clothes on; but as to the latter, the reverse is the case, and as regards the former the writer ventures to assert that as many lives re saved by ordinary as by expert swimmers. Let me earnestly
There are a variety of ways of swimming, all more or less useful or amusing, which can, by practice, be done by those who have mastered the methods already detailed. I select a few of them, leaving any further curiosity on the subject to be gratified by perusal of a more extensive work.
Treading-water may most easily be done by simply representing the motion of running up stairs; most useful when caught amongst weeds, or for undressing in the water.
Swimming on the Back.—Lie on the water as when floating, kick from outside to inside, striking the water with the soles of the feet, turn the knees out as in the breast stroke. This can be varied
North American Indian Stroke.—Throw the body alternately on the left and right side, raising the arm entirely above the water, and reach as far forward as possible to dip with your weight and force on the arm under you which is propelling you like a paddle; whilst this arm is making a half circle and is being raised out of the water behind you, the opposite arm should describe a similar one in the air over your head to be dipped as far as possible ahead of you, the head being bent inwards.
The Foot Paddle on the Chest.—Lie on the chest with the hands supporting the head, raise the feet backwards out of the water one after the other, putting a strain on the small of the back, and strike the water quickly.
The Perpendicular Float.—Cross the hands on the breast, throw the head back as far as possible, cross the legs, and keep perfectly still.
The Foot Paddle on the Back.—Lift the feet quickly out of the water in succession, and strike them downward.
The Oar Stroke.—Lie on the back, keep the body quite stiff, toes out of water, the arms close to the sides, work the hands from the wrists in continual quick strokes.
Diving, Feet First.—Keep the elbows close down by the side3, using the hands like skulls, by giving them a semi-rotatory motion from the wrists.
The Boomerang Plunge—'Enter the water as in the Flat Plunge, going rather deeper; turn on the side, and bend the body at the hips so as to give it a curve; this, without swimming a stroke, should bring the swimmer round to the starting point.
The secret of swimming on the back is to lie on the water, and not sit on it.
Always take in breath before diving, plunging, &c.
To sound for depth keep the legs straight under the body, stretching the arms above the head. To rise, strike out downwards with hands and feet.
In case of cramp exert yourself more than ever, a sudden jerk is the most effective cure.
When swimming against tide remember that by diving and swimming under water the tide will not act so powerfully against you.
To cure deep and slow swimming the chest must lie with greater force on the water, and a strain put on the small of the back.
In swimming on the back the knee should not be visible above the water when the feet are drawn up for the kick.
A man swims faster under water than on the surface.
The hands should work about four inches below the surface of the water; lowering them is the cause of many a mouthful; also in returning them to their original position care should be taken to bring up the hand over the breast for the same reason.
Swimming does not consist in the mere passive working of arms and legs, but by the energetic action of the whole frame.
When swimming amongst weeds, if possible swim with the stream; if entangled dive down and lay hold of them to tear them from the roots or to break them off, and persevere if not successful the first time.
When under water the quickest way of rising to the surface is by throwing up the hands at the full extent of the arm, assisted by the exertion of the whole frame.
Wabbling (a common complaint) is the result of the arms and legs being out of time.
Breath should be taken in when the head is at its greatest height and the chest most expanded, i.e., when the arms are nearly square with the shoulder, at other times the mouth should be closed.
When diving, should you find yourself in a whirlpool or undercurrent, do not attempt to rise straight to the surface, but take a long slanting dive upwards.
When swimming the greater the half circle the legs make, the greater the distance the body will be sent after each kick, kicking the water as hard and as quickly as possible.
Avoid bathing within two hours after a meal, when fatigued, when the body is cooling after perspiration, &c., (after bathing), when there is a sense of chilliness or numbness of the hands and feet.
Avoid bathing on an empty stomach (except the strong and healthy early in the morning). The best time is from two to three hours after breakfast.
Salt water is more beneficial to the system than fresh, but as regards swimming it is best to leant in fresh water, it being harder to do than in salt water.
When bathing in the evening great care should be taken to dry the head.
There is no danger in bathing, however warm the day, if the water has been well warmed by the sun, otherwise it is dangerous.
Avoid putting on damp clothes, which are the most common cause of cold and rheumatism.
The ordinary bathe should not exceed twenty minutes in length.
Being unable to swim you may float for some time by hollowing the back, heaving the chest up, with the back of the head well under the surface, and all the limbs hanging freely.
Upon entering the water the head should be thoroughly wetted, and that frequently if the sun is out.
Avoid using cork belts, air belts, etc., which only tend to injure you eventually as a swimmer.
Suddenly jerking the head back when under water has sometimes proved fatal.
A suit of clothes weighing 6lb. in air, when thoroughly immersed in water, weigh 11b. in endeavouring to rescue a drowning man. The fact of his clothes being on is rather an advantage than otherwise, hampering his movements, and enabling the rescuer to obtain a firmer hold of him.
When capsised out of a boat, always cling to it and wait assistance, and try and induce others to do the same.
Sixty yards is the longest known dive; twenty-five yards an average one.
A minute is the ordinary time a man is able to remain under water; nearly two minutes, however, is sometimes done.
When assisting a drowning man, do not forget "That a drowning man catches at a straw," and be careful accordingly.
It may be necessary to practise for three or four hours on the patient when endeavoring to restore life to the apparently drowned.
When leaping into the water keep the body perpendicular (especially at the moment of entering the water) which can be done previously by inclining the arms and head in the opposite direction from the deviation; if a running-leap, incline the body slightly backwards, to stop the descent spread the arms out.
The most inexperienced may safely plunge into a depth of water equal to their own height and half the height plunged from.
Before plunging close the eyes, opening them when in the water.
Cotton-wadding saturated with oil is a useful precaution for the ears.
When slightly out of depth, persons unable to swim may be saved by giving a spring off the ground each time they sink, and taking breath each time they come above the surface, working towards the shallow.
Raising the hands above the head is a sure way to sink.
Send immediately for medical assistance, blankets and dry clothing, but proceed to treat the patient instantly on the spot, in the open air, whether on shore or afloat.
The points to be aimed at are, first and immediately, the restoration of breathing and the prevention of any further diminution of the warmth of the body; and, secondly, after breathing is restored, the promotion of warmth and circulation.
The efforts to restore breathing, and to prevent any further diminution of the warmth of the body, must be commenced immediately and energetically, and must be persevered in for several hours, or until a medical man has pronounced life extinct. Efforts to promote warmth and circulation must be deferred until natural breathing has been restored.
1. Place the patient on the floor or ground with his face down wards, and one of his arms under his forehead, in which position all fluids will escape by the mouth, and the tongue itself will fall forward, leaving the entrance into the windpipe free. Assist this operation by wiping and cleansing the mouth.
2. If satisfactory breathing commences, adopt the treatment described below to promote warmth and natural breathing. If there be only slight breathing or no breathing, or if fail then—
3. Turn the patient well and instantly on the side, and—
4. Excite the nostrils with snuff, heartshorn, smelling salts, or tickle the throat with a feather, &c., if they are at hand. Rub the chest and face warm, and dash cold water on the face.
5. If there be no success, lose not a moment, but instantly
6. Replace the patient on the face, rising and supporting the chest well on a folded coat or other article of dress.
7. Turn the body very gently on the side and a little beyond, and then briskly on the face, back again; repeating these measures deliberately, efficiently, and perseveringly about fifteen times in the minute, or once every four seconds, occasionally varying the side:
[By placing the patient on the chest, the weight of the body forces the air out; when turned on the side, this pressure is removed, and air enters the chest.]
8. On each occasion that the body is replaced on the face, make uniform but efficient pressure, with brisk movement, on the back, between and below the shoulder blades or bones on each side, removing the pressure immediately before turning the body on the side.
[The first measure increases the expiration, the second commences inspiration.]
∵ The result is—respiration or natural breathing; and, if not too late, life.
1. Be particularly careful to prevent persons crowding round the body.
2. Avoid all rough usages and turning the body on the back.
3. Under no circumstances hold the body up by the feet.
N.B.—These efforts must be made very cautiously, and must not be such as to promote warmth and circulation rapidly; for, if
1. Expose the face, neck, and chest, except in severe weather (such as heavy rain, frost, or snow).
2. Dry the face, neck, and chest, as soon as possible with handkerchiefs or anything at hand, and then dry the hands and feet,
3. As soon as a blanket or other covering can be obtained, strip the body; but if no covering can be immediately procured, take dry clothing from the bystanders, dry and re-clothe the body, taking care not to interfere with the efforts to restore breathing.
1. Commence rubbing the limbs upwards, with firm, grasping pressure and energy, using handkerchiefs, flannels, &c., (by this measure the blood is propelled along the veins towards the heart.)
[The friction must be continued under the blanket, or over dry clothing.]
2. Promote the warmth of the body by the application of hot flannels, bottles, or bladders of hot water, heated bricks, &c. to the pit of the stomach, the armpits, between the thighs, and to the soles of the feet.
3. If the patient has been carried to a house after respiration has been restored, be careful to let the air play freely about the rcom.
4. On the restoration of life, a teaspoonful of warm water should be given; and then, if the power of swallowing have re-
The above treatment should be persevered in for several hours, as it is an erroneous opinion that persons are irrecoverable because life does not soon make its appearance, cases have been successfully treated after persevering for many hours.
Breathing and the heart's action cease entirely, the eyelids are generally half-closed, the pupils dilated, the jaws clenched, the fingers semi-contracted, the tongue approaches to the under edges of the lips, and these, as well as the nostrils, are covered with a frothy mucus. Coldness and pallor of surface increase.
Mills, Dick and Co., Steam Printers, Stafford Street, Dunedin.
ur Magazine addresses itself in the first place to a small constituency. It makes its appearance to meet a want, or what at least is believed to be a want, in a single congregation. Other serials, calculated to do service in a larger sphere, cannot pay full regard to local needs. This is to be, as it were, domestic in its character, supplying some record of the proceedings of one Church, and affording to the members of that Church a new mode of communication with one another.
It is not intended to supersede in any way those publications of wider scope, by which our sympathies are excited in favour of work done in other Churches of the Congregational order, and in Churches of every name. The members of a family may take great delight in private letters relating to their own affairs, and yet be as much interested in the newspapers as their neighbours are. Our neighbours, then, must not think us exclusive in spirit because we have our family Magazine. Perhaps, indeed, as no letters are more interesting than private letters, even to those whom they do not immediately concern, our neighbours may find something in our pages that they will not be disinclined to read. We are so little disposed to secrecy that we shall be happy to print a large number of extra copies, if a demand should thus arise on the part of our friends beyond our own Church. Our articles cannot be really useful to our own people if they contain nothing worth reading by others.
As to neighbouring Churches of our own order, at Dunedin and Wellington for example, we hope to make this a means of circulating in our congregation some account of their doings; and we invite them, until they have some similar organ of their own, to assist us in our circulation, and to use us as far as they are able.
It is believed that the large number of members of our Church who are scattered through the Province, and in other parts of the Colony, where they have not the opportunity of uniting themselves with other Churches, will receive with warm welcome a monthly messenger reminding them of their fellowship with us, and assisting them to realise it. They will receive the first number, and it is hoped they will become subscribers, and perhaps induce others to do so.
So much for our design in general: now to be more particular. It has been suggested that we might find room for some of the July, 1872
It is perhaps unnecessary to explain that by the Pastor is meant the Pastor of the Congregational Church, Christchurch.
The reports of Synods, Presbyteries, and Conferences, set before the public the views of the Churches which these assemblies represent, on topics similar to those just referred to. However we may often dissent from the opinions to which publicity is thus given, it would usually be an impertinence and an ungracious display of hostility to express our objections, by newspaper correspondence or other means, on neutral ground. An organ of our own will enable us with more propriety to set forth our own convictions, or to criticise the conclusions of others. The action of the State with regard to education, cemeteries, grants in aid of religious bodies, and some other matters, comes into occasional contact with religion, and so commends itself to the consideration of the Churches, and when this is the case we shall pass it under review. Our financial arrangements, and certain organisations for religious work, as the Sunday School, and the Mission at the Ferry-road, may with advantage be set before our congregation with more definite and detailed statement than is possible in a notice given from the pulpit. New books, and older ones of unusual interest, will be occasionally introduced to our readers by short reviews or abstracts. With so many purposes to serve, and with occasional records of Missionary operations, and of exemplary incidents occuring in other Churches, we expect to be rather cramped for space than at a loss for matter. We shall endeavour to find room for correspondence on Church affairs.
A large circulation will be necessary considering the price at which we publish. Those of our friends who think that it would have been wiser if we had fixed the price at sixpence can make their liberal disposition serviceable to us by taking twice as many copies at the lower price as they would have done at the higher. We are compelled to regard the present issue as an experiment, by the result of which we must judge of the practicability of our scheme.
With regard to the tone of the Magazine, we must leave the articles which it contains to speak for themselves, only expressing our earnest desire that it may be used to promote the glory of the Redeemer and the welfare of His Church.
hese notes are intended to supply a brief exposition, such as may enable the reader to trace the course of thought through the Epistle. The doctrines expressed or implied will be rather indicated than illustrated and enforced. To most of those whose love for Holy Scripture will induce them to read it in the manner suggested by this exposition, the doctrines themselves are familiar and precious. The new interest which may be aroused in looking over the Epistle now will be chiefly that which springs from a discovery of the relations between the several parts of Christian truth as they are here exhibited.
We are in the way for finding the key to the whole Epistle when we carefully observe what prominence is given in it to the idea of the Church. The first three chapters may be regarded as constituting the three sections of the doctrinal part of the Epistle, and the three remaining chapters the practical part; although this distinction of doctrinal and practical is a very rough one and apt to mislead. Now, in every section the Church is prominently introduced; at the close of the first (i. 22, 23—"The Church, which is His body"); at the close of the second (ii. 21—"All the building [which is being] fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord"); and in the third (as iii. 10—"Known by [i.e., by means of] the Church the manifold wisdom of God"); and, once more, the first section of the more practical part sets forth our duties as members of the Church, rather than as mere individuals. Nor are these the only references to the Church; there are many of them—some seen at a glance (as iii. 21, and v. 23—27, 32), others becoming manifest as the whole argument is understood (as ii. 14, iii. 6, &c.)
But if we fix our thoughts on the Church alone we shall lose the clue we had laid hold of. In Scripture "Christ is all and in all." In the Church also "Christ is all, and in all;" and indeed it is with regard to the Church that this phrase is used (Col. iii. 11). Just as, when Christ's office of Mediator is fulfilled, such an order of things will be established "that God may be all in all;" so now, while His mediation continues, Christ is all, both in the life of the Church, and in the writings which reveal His redemption. In the first chapter of this Epistle, for example, the name of Christ, or some pronoun standing for it occurs, just as many times as there are verses. In fact, the subject of the Epistle is not so much the Church as Christ and the Church.
One other word occurs so often as to invite the inquiry whether it also may not be a key-word. The word is "mystery." We use it as meaning something inexplicable; but its true meaning is a The Epistles to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, and to Philemon appear to have been written during the same imprisonment.revealed secret. The Latin New Testament sometimes translates it by "sacrament," and so obscures the sense, and sometimes leaves it in effect untranslated, as we leave the word "baptize." That in our Epistle "mystery" means "revealed secret" is plain to any one who will look at chapter i. 9 ("made known, to us the mystery of His will"), and at chapter iii. 3, 4 ("the mystery . . . which in other ages was not made known . . . as it is now revealed.") From the 9th verse of the first chapter it appears that the mystery of God's will is to be the theme of the Epistle. For after a statement of the gospel, such a statement as, however grand, is not at all peculiar to this place and occasion, it is said that God in His grace has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence—"having made known unto us the mystery of His will." We are now prepared to find that the design of the Epistle is to unfold the mystery of God's will concerning Christ and the Church. In the third chapter (verse 4) the mystery which is the theme of the Epistle is expressly called "the mystery of Christ." The three key-words appear together in the fifth chapter (verse 32)—"This mystery is great: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Further to confirm the position here taken in combining these three words into one thought, let us turn to Colossiansmystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
And now, what is the "mystery?" An answer might be given rashly (by reference to Col. i. 27), that the mystery is Christ. But such an answer is not based on a full consideration of the passage relied on. That passage says, "Christ in you." The true answer seems to be this: the mystery is the union of Christ
The mystery of the union of Christ with His Church is a comprehensive theme, and is not treated exhaustively in the Epistle. The letter professes to be only a letter and not an essay. As Pascal wrote: "The order which Jesus Christ and Saint Paul observe is the order of love, not of mind; for they desired to warm, not to instruct. St. Augustin the same. This order consists principally in digressions upon each point that has relation to the end in view, in order always to exhibit that" Jesus Christ, Saint Paul ont l'ordre de la charité, non de l'esprit; car ils vouloient échauffer, non instruire. S. Augustin de même. Cet ordre consiste principalement à la digression sur chaque point qui a rapport à la fin, pour la montrer tonjours. Pensées, vii. 19.
The impression made upon the mind of one who earnestly studies the Epistle in all its bearings is not unlike that which is produced by the revelations of astronomy, as space beyond space stands revealed, and everywhere harmony and order appear. No part of Scripture surpasses this in height and depth and length and breadth. It opens up suggestive glimpses of truths not yet grasped; it moves with ease among the most stupendous difficul-
The more doctrinal part of the Epistle falls naturally into three sections, exactly corresponding with the three chapters into which it has been divided. The Will of the Father, the Work of the Son, the Power of the Holy Ghost; each of these is the leading idea of a chapter, neither as excluding the other, yet each in turn receiving more immediate consideration as concerned in the mystery.
The first two verses are occupied with the usual salutation. To recall the relations of Paul to the Church at Ephesus, and to investigate the question raised by the omission of "at Ephesus" from some MSS., is beside the present purpose. Three things, however, should be noticed. 1. The true members of the Church are "saints," and "faithful in Christ Jesus." They are "saints," as counted holy for Jesus' sake, as renewed by the Holy Ghost, as separate from the world. They are "faithful," that is, believing; they believe on Jesus as their Saviour, they trust in him for pardon secured by his death, and they receive strength for a holy life by "looking unto Jesus." They are "in Christ Jesus," bound to him by ties spiritual and beyond the perception of sense and of reason, yet as strong as they are tender, as influential as they are inseparable. 2. A good prayer for those we love is that they may have "grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ;" not only his favour and bounty manifested in outward gifts, not only circumstances of peace with all around; but grace pardoning, sanctifying, permitting communion; and peace, as cessation of enmity against him, as assurance of his love, as confidence before him, as comfort in all distress. 3. The real origin of Paul's apostleship was in the Will of God. Historically it originated in the vision of Christ near Damascus. But Paul sees beyond that. As in this chapter the whole work of redemption is traced to the Will of God (i. 9), and the work of salvation in the individual soul is referred to that will (i. 4, 5), so it was Paul's happiness to believe that his position as a minister of Christ, of the Church, of the Gospel, had been fixed by the same will; being not simply by permission of God, but by his determinate counsel. When this is understood, all the preparatory discipline by which he was in some measure fitted for his office appears to be part of a far-reaching design.
ew things are more surprising to those who are old enough to look back over a period of say thirty-five years of the history of the country, still by most of us called "home," than the growth there of intelligence amongst the masses, and consequently the development of the power of public opinion. This is doubtless attributable to a variety of causes, tending in one direction, but a few of them have mainly, I think, produced the result. The others have followed, as it were, in their train.
Sunday-schools have been so important an agency, even in this respect, that I believe it would be very difficult to over-estimate their effects, without taking in their value as a means of spiritual good to the people. In the earlier history of these institutions they were very much more devoted to teaching the elements than they are now. I presume that, excepting the infant classes, most of the scholars are now taught, at least to some extent, to read, before entering these schools, and also principally attend schools of some sort during the week. I also believe that, even in the infant classes, the teachers' time is given to higher objects, which is an incidental recognition of the other means of obtaining the first rudiments. In the earlier days of Sunday-schools, however, it was almost entirely different. At that time a very large proportion of the scholars entered without any knowledge of the alphabet, and the teachers had a great deal of preparatory work to do, which is now done either before, or concurrently with, their work. The working classes, at the time I refer to, may be described as a stolid mass of ignorance, and without the desire to be otherwise. Parents amongst them were only anxious to make their children assist as soon as possible in earning the means of sustaining a merely animal existence. Sunday-schools may truly be called the thin end of the first wedge which was driven in below this almost immovable mass—their advocates had not only to teach the children, but frequently to overcome the obstacles in the minds of parents and others against their being taught. Some labourers who entered this field at the beginning of the day lived to see a blessed change in this respect, and witnessed parents and children alike in the list of Sunday-scholars. I
The Legislation of the last forty years may also be very properly considered as a means of National Education. My memory just takes me back to the passing of the great Reform Bill of not better than these. That great measure was not all its authors and champions desired it to be. It had to be accommodated to the jealousies of the Lords by the admission of the "Chandos clause," which fixed the county franchise at £50 tenants at will, and thus laid the counties at the feet of the Tories. It was, nevertheless, a splendid instalment of the peoples' liberties. It took them for the first time into the councils of the nation. It gave the people so much of what was due to them that it became impossible to withhold the balance, and laid them under a debt of obligation to its champions, such as Grey, Russell, and Brougham, which on many later occasions they have been too ready to forget. Lord J. Russell was, perhaps, above all the others, the hero of that measure, and of him at least I believe it may be truly said, that he was actuated by no merely political party motives, but by those proper to a great constitutional reformer and true friend of mankind. Except on unimportant occasions, when his temper has got the better of his heart and his head, he has all through his long political career been consistent with himself and with his early professions as the advocate of liberty. One of the predicted results of the measure I have referred to has been the growing interest ever since taken by a continually widening circle of the people in the affairs of the country, and that has quickened the national intelligence, and been a most important means of educating and raising the community. There is now vastly more respect for the institutions of the country, and the people are more law-abiding, as might have been expected, seeing that they are now conscious of exercising some influence in the making of those laws by which they are governed. In my early days soldiers were necessary up and down the country in the centres of population, and "riots" and "Riot Act" were familiar terms, but now a few "Peelers," assisted occasionally by some special constables, are all that is required. No doubt we have a dangerous population in the large cities in every part of the empire, and I would by no means speak lightly of this element. But are they not numerically a small minority? Is it not a bright sign of the times, and especially of activity in the Christian Church, that the conviction should be so general, that this is an evil for which a remedy must be at once found? I believe that
They arc, however, at home, a long way from the enjoyment of that equality before the law, especially in ecclesiastical matters, which is I believe the birthright of every man, but it is all obtainable by constitutional means, and is so evidently approaching, that its advocates and friends calmly await the result of public enlightenment, and of political agitation and discussion.
The question of National Education has been one of very voluminous controversy during the period of which I have been writing, and I had intended to have given a short sketch of it, and to have shewn the stand-point of the different parties engaged therein, especially in relation to the Elementary Education Act, Congregational Magazine, I will endeavour to do this in a future number.
here are many things spoken in the church that are too hard for children to understand. But many of you go to the Sunday School, and your teachers try to make everything very easy for you. Most of you have fathers and mothers who tell you of Jesus in words that you know the meaning of and can remember. In the magazine there are some things that you will not like to read. But I want to write something every month for you, so that you may be glad when the magazine comes. You know that when Jesus was on earth he was kind to children. When the grown up people thought the children would be a trouble to him he said, "Suffer the little dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," and he took them in his arms and blessed them. All Christians ought to love children, and to let them see that they love them. So there is to be always a page in the magazine for you. I hope it will remind you that Jesus loves you, and help you to love him.
You all know what a spy-glass is. There are some spy-glasses made for looking at things that are far off, and when you look through them they seem to bring things near so that you can see them plainly. These glasses are called telescopes. Others are meant to make little things look large. These glasses are called microscopes. The microscope shows us how very beautiful are some of the least things that God has made. If we get some of the very finest sand from the bottom of the deep sea and
Think of these beautiful things lying for ages and ages at the bottom of the sea where no man could see them, and so small that until men had learnt to make the microscope their beauty could not be known to us. Why should God make such little things, that for a long time no one could see, so very beautiful? When people build a house or a church they Very often make the front of it very grand, but the back part they take very little pains with, and spend very little money on it, because no one will see it. But God makes things beautiful whether people will see them or not. If men go in a ship to an island where no one lives, and where, perhaps, no man has ever been before, they very likely see the loveliest flowers, and the noblest trees, and hear the sweetest songs of birds covered with the brightest feathers. Why does God put all this beauty where people do not live? We put our best furniture in the rooms that will be most seen, and do not care so much for every little bedroom. Why does God do so differently?
Perhaps there are angels and other spirits that can see the inside of things when we can only see the outside; perhaps they can see things at the bottom of the sea, and in dark caves, and in the heart of rocks. But whether they can or not, God can. He can see always all the beautiful things he has made, and he loves beauty; and this is one reason why the smallest things and the most hidden things are beautiful. He made them for himself, and he loves beauty.
I will tell you one thing that God thinks beautiful. It is beautiful to do what is right. What is right is beautiful in the sight of God, and of all good spirits. What is wrong is ugly and disagreeable to look at. Many people do what seems right only when some one will see. Some children appear obedient till their mother's back is turned, and then they do what she bade them not to do. A really obedient child does just the same whether any one is looking or not. That is like God making things beautiful though they are to lie at the bottom of the sea for countless years. Ask God to make you like him in this, that you may love what is right and beautiful, and do it not because some one is looking, but because you love it. If you are tempted to do anything sly, or to be disobedient, or untruthful, or slovenly, say to yourself, "But if no one else sees it, I shall see it and know how ugly it is; and besides, God will see. I should like him to see nothing but what he loves."
Provincial Government Votes.—The Council at its last session revived a bad precedent, which we had hoped was obsolete. A sum of £230 was granted to assist in building a German Church, and £24 (the price of two sections of town land bought at a Government land sale), to the Church of England at Waimate. In the former case the division showed 22 for and 14 against; in the latter Cade, 18 for and 13 against. We notice with more satisfaction a vote of the 4th June, on the motion of Mr. Sawtell, upon the question of a public cemetery for Christchurch It was resolved to request his Honor the Superintendent to make a reserve of not more than 100 acres of waste land for the purpose. It will be hard to find so much near enough to town, unless it be among the Sandhills. On the necessity for the vote a remark will be found in another paragraph.
Public Cemetery.—The present cemetery arrangements for Christchurch are very unsatisfactory. The only public cemetery is a small one of one acre, and we believe is quite full. The Roman Catholics have one of the same size adjoining it. The Church of England cemetery consists, we believe, of twenty acres. The so-called Scotch cemetery belongs to a private company. It is high time that some public and adequate provision were made for the wants of the town in this respect. Until the recent vote of the Provincial Council (referred to in an another paragraph) is carried into effect we must continue to be subject to an inconvenience under which we have long suffered. There have been five deaths this year in connection with our congregation; in three cases out of the five the Church of England cemetery was deemed the most convenient, and the pastor was therefore shut out from the exercise of his ministry at the grave. We earnestly hope for some improvement in this matter. Meanwhile it may be interesting to our readers to learn that the Barbadoes-street cemetery, lately known as the Wesleyan Cemetery, is now under the management of a Board nominated by the Superintendent, and who probably have the confidence of the various denominations who are interested. The regulations for its management have been decided on and published in the Government Gazette. A visit to this long-neglected cemetery will shew that already great improvements are effected, the walks being laid out, the larger trees all removed, and a new fence placed round the boundaries. Persons desirous of obtaining an exclusive right to any plot can now do so, on application to the Board, in writing, and we would suggest that those interested in this announcement should lose no time in communicating their wishes. The following are the names of the Board:—Messrs. G. Gould, F. Garrick, G. Booth, T. Abbott, and J. P. Jameson. Information as to funerals may be obtained from T. Cotton, sexton, Kilmore street.
Canterbury Collegiate Union.—Seeing that connexion with this association is necessary to qualify residents in Canterbury for an intro-
At the close of the Synod just held in Christchurch there was a general meeting of members of the Church of England, at which four papers were read and submitted to discussion. We have read three of these papers with unusual satisfaction. Mr. C. C. Bowen, R.M., had for his subject "The Secularisation of Education." We cannot endorse his approval of Mr. Forster's Education Act, of which we shall have more to say at another time. But we most cordially welcome his statement of the objection to denominational education at the expense of the State, He says, referring to the fact that undenominational schools are established in the country districts in connection with a system of local rating, while Christchurch depends on the efforts of the denominations, expecting them to be aided by State money:—
"It is out of the question to expect that the State will grant as large assistance proportionally to communities that do not tax themselves as to those that do. Such a distribution of the public funds would be obviously unfair; and it is practically out of the question to suppose that the Legislature will authorise the levying of a direct tax upon all ratepayers with a view of distributing the proceeds among a few denominations."
We should go a little beyond this, and say that the unfairness does not depend upon the way in which the money is raised, whether by direct taxation, or by land sales, or by other means, so long as public money is applied to denominational uses.
The Dean of Christchurch read an admirable paper on "Pastoral Visiting." We should like all our readers to give it a careful perusal. He asks the members of the Church to lay themselves out to make a good and spiritual use of a visit from their pastor, and to cast off some of that reticence which so often prevents any real contact of minds and hearts on spiritual subjects. He shows the comparative uselessness of mere hasty calls, and the necessity of staying long enough at each house to feel one's way to some profitable conversation. He invites those who know of cases that call for pastoral attention to inform the minister, and recommends all whose leisure and ability are sufficient for it, to give
The Archdeacon of Christchurch followed with a paper "On the Action of the Laity in the Church." It is too often assumed that the clergy are the Church, but in this paper it is shown that they are but a part of the body, and that the co-operation of members who are not ministers is now possible in a higher degree than ever before, in the work of teaching, and in the work of government. The Archdeacon says:—
"We stand simply in the position of the first converts to Christianity, voluntary members of a voluntary body. Each of us, if our profession means anything, has received a treasure of Divine knowledge and blessing—the one treasure which beyond all others grows by distribution. Men and women we are called on to see and try how much we can do by our own personal efforts to evangelise the world, and well will it be for us if the progress of our Church shows a constantly increasing company of lay fellow-helpers in the work of the ministry such as gladdened the hearts of the first preachers of the Gospel, and received in Scripture their living commemoration."
These are wholesome words, whether considered as exhortation to those who agree with them, or as a protest against that false doctrine of priestly prerogative, which, in some quarters, is openly advocated, and among many who are taught better is practically believed, and expressed in their abstinence from all Christian work.
The Archdeacon of Hokitika advocated the removal of the power of nomination to vacant cures from the Parochial and Diocesan Nominators to the Bishop. With this, as a matter of government internal to the Church of which Archdeacon Harper is a minister, we have no concern. But the case is different with some of the arguments by which he supports his view. Having remarked that "Diocesan organisation is the opposite of Congregationalism," he further says:—
"Whatever may be the advantages of a congregational choice of ministers, without doubt it is based on a selfish principle, in which the good of the many is gradually lost sight of for the benefit of the few; and more than this, I believe it to be a principle which is radically deficient in that wise and well controlled element of central authority which is as much a necessity to the work of the Church of Christ as it was to the Prussian army in its late campaign."
And, again—
"The Bishop's office is not merely a result of human organisation, suitable to the economy of the Church. It is this, but it is also one of those facts which grew out of the principles laid down by Divine authority in the New Testament, which abundantly proves the principles of Episcopacy, whilst history, from its earliest records of Christianity, shows the natural development of the principle."
We believe that the "element of central authority," on which we do well to depend, is the Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. We see neither in the reason of
Where the "selfish principle" referred to lurks, and how it operates, we are at a loss to guess. Any system may admit of selfish action in detail. Even Diocesan Episcopacy knows something of nepotism. Does the Archdeacon mean that a small Church may wish to keep a man who ought to fill a wider sphere? It cannot keep him against his will. Or does he mean that a large Church may seek to secure the services of one who is pastor of a smaller Church? There is nothing in this that does not exactly fall under the idea of that "promotion" which he wishes to see in the hands of Bishops. We do not understand the charge of selfishness, which he introduces by the phrase "without doubt."
Archdeacon Wilson's paper "On the Action of the Laity in the Church," reads in many parts almost like a reply to that of Archdeacon Harper. Practically it may serve as an antidote. An anonymous writer, calling himself "Plain Truth," criticises Mr Harper's paper with some severity; he has evidently been misled in one place by a typographical error, and perhaps his letters suffer a little from a similar cause. "Plain Truth" does not positively state whether he is in the strict sense a Congregationalist.
Presbyterian.—Our limited space will only allow a brief reference to the active operations of the Church Extension Society. Already it has been the means of securing the services of the Rev. J. W. Cree for Southbridge, Leeston, and Brookside; of the Rev. W. McGregor for Kaiapoi, Rangiora, and the Cust; and of the Rev.—Ewen for a large district between the Selwyn and the Waimakariri.
Wesleyan Church Durham Street.—At the performance, on the 20th of June, of the "Dettingen Te Deum" and selections from "The Messiah," the collection amounted to £132 18s. 9d.
Parramatta, N.S.W.—The Rev. T. S. Forsaith, whom many of our readers will remember, settled two years ago at Parramatta, with the design of forming a Congregational Church in that place, which was
Ferry Road Chapel.—About six years ago a Sunday evening service was commenced in Mr. Joseph Smith's house. After a time it was found necessary to erect a building for the use of the congregation. In s. 8d. In addition to this about £32 is promised, making a total of about £114, Provision is yet to be made for the cost of lamps and seats, and the land ought to be fenced and laid out. It is expected that the formal opening will take place about the 6th of July. The building is already in use.
Congregational Mutual Improvement Association.—President, Rev. W. J. Habens. The following is the programme for the quarter ending
Members meet in the chapel once a fortnight. Meetings (open to visitors) commence at 7.30, and close at 9.30p.m. An order and remmittance has been sent to England for a regular supply of periodicals. The library is accessible each evening of the meeting, and at 7.15 p.m. on Wednesdays. Those wishing to become members will please communicate with the honorary secretary, F. S. Malcolm.
Presentation.—The Young Women's Class which Mrs. Newton has for some years conducted on Sunday met on Tuesday, June 18th, and spent a very pleasant evening together. The class took the opportunity, in anticipation of Mrs. Newton's removal from Christchurch, to mark their appreciation of her services by a present of plate.
Death.—June 20th, William, youngest child of William and Barbara Unwin, after long illness, aggravated by the recent accident at Avonside.
Correspondence.—We must request intending correspondents to study brevity. We do not hold ourselves responsible for the views of correspondents. The same remark applies, in some degree, to communicated articles. A correspondent asks, "May Bible readers send passages of scripture for interpretation?" we shall be very glad to receive such communications, and will do our best with them.
Post.—Our Magazine will be registered for transmission by post, and can then be sent for a penny to any part of New Zealand, Australia, or Great Britain and Ireland. The present number, being over the ounce, can be sent per "Book Post" for twopence. Subscribers at a distance will please add the postage to the subscriptions they remit.
Believing that a sincere desire existed in the minds of natives of Caithness and Sutherland resident in Otago, that they should become more intimately acquainted with each other in this the land of their adoption, and thus be helpful one to another here, as also unitedly be able to extend a hand of welcome to new arrivals hailing from their native counties on their landing in this Province, an advertisement was inserted in several of the leading newspapers in the Province, requesting those in favour of forming such an Association to place themselves in communication with one of the promoters.
The suggestion having been most favourably received, a preliminary meeting was held in the Provincial Hotel, Port Chalmers, on the William Elder in the chair, when it was unanimously agreed—"That it was desirable to form 'a Caithness and Sutherland Association of Otago.'"
The gentlemen present then formed themselves into the nucleus of said Association. Messrs. Cormack, Elder, Gunn, and Matheson, were appointed to draw up rules, to be submitted to the first General Meeting, which was appointed to be held on Friday, the 19th December. The following rules are the result of their deliberations, and were adopted as the rules of the Association, at the General Meeting held in the Athenæum, Dunedin, on Friday, Wm. B. M'Kay in the chair.
1. That this Association be denominated The Caithness and Sutherland Association of Otago.
1. The object of the Association are to cultivate and maintain a friendly intercourse amongst natives of Caithness and Sutherlandshire resident in Otago and the other Provinces of New Zealand.
2. To afford assistance to persons belonging to these counties in quest of employment, and to give temporary relief from a fund (to be raised for that purpose among members) to those who from sickness or any emergency may stand in need of such aid.
3. To initiate and maintain, through their Secretary, a regular correspondence with the Caithness and Sutherland Associations throughout the world, and also with the Press in those counties, for the purpose of affording reliable statistics respecting this part of the Colony to parties desirous of emigrating to this Province; as also to welcome and assist such immigrants on their arrival here with advice, or pecuniary aid if required. (Any pecuniary assistance of this character granted by the Association to be repayable when the circumstances of the recipient enable him so to do.)
4. To bring the Association under the notice of the Government as a body under whose auspices eligible persons from Caithness and Sutherland might be assisted to emigrate.
Any person who is a native of Caithness or Sutherlandshire, or who has resided three years therein, may become a member of the Association, on being recommended by a member at a regu-
The subscription money payable by each member shall be one pound per annum in advance; youths under 18 years ten shillings. Any eligible person subscribing ten pounds shall be a life member, and entitled to a vote in the affairs of the Society. A subscription of five pounds shall constitute an honorary member, but without the privilege of a vote.
There shall be four stated General Meetings of the Association,—viz., the Annual Meeting on the third Friday in December, and the Quarterly Meetings on the third Friday in March, June, and September. In order also to promote that friendly intercourse contemplated by the Society, an annual social gathering will be held on the second day of January in each year, to which members will have the privilege of introducing their friends.
The direction and management of the whole affairs of the Society shall be vested in a President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and twelve Directors, five to form a quorum. These shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Meeting, and continue in office for one year, and be eligible for re-election.
The President shall have power to call a meeting of the Association at any other period besides those specified, provided that a requisition to that effect be sent him, signed by sis or more members. On such occasions he shall instruct the Secretary to send intimations to those members of the Association residing within a reasonable distance of the place of meeting. He shall also have a discretionary power to call meetings of Committee. The President, or in his absence the Vice-President, or failing both, some one of the Directors, shall preside at the General and Committee Meetings, and be entitled to a deliberative and also a casting vote in cases of parity. The Treasurer shall collect the funds, and lodge the same in a Bank specified by the Directors,
Every application for relief must be made through two members of the Association, who shall give to the Secretary a written statement of the applicant's circumstances to the best of their information; upon which the Secretary, by the authority of the President, shall call a meeting of Committee to decide on the application, and determine the amount of relief, if it is to be granted. When the sum does not exceed five pounds, the Treasurer is empowered to pay away the same upon receiving authority from the President, Vice-President, the Secretary, and two Directors, without the sanction of Committee. The Association shall not expend in any one year on charitable grants more than the interest of the capital, and the annual amount of the subscriptions; such amount to be determined by striking an average of the three preceding years.
Members in arrears for twelve months shall not be entitled to vote in the affairs of the Society.
The Association shall have power to alter or amend any rule at present in force, or to add to their number, on due notice of their intention so to do being given at the previous Quarterly Meeting by any member.
It was always intended that man should mutually benefit his fellow-man. Mankind would soon cease to exist if mutual aid were discarded, and, because of the recognition of this fact by some who do think, not only for themselves, but also for others, there are now established in all English-speaking lands, societies for the express purpose of affording help just at the time when help is most needed. "A friend in need is a friend indeed," is fully illustrated practically by the blessings resulting from Assurance and Benefit Societies.
We desire to express a few mental convictions relating to the mutual dependence of society. First, we unhesitatingly aver, that it is the duty of every man to assure his life in accordance with his position and ability; and, secondly, that it is every man's duty to associate himself with what is termed a "Benefit Society." There are many objections urged against both these propositions, some because they are rich and have no personal need, others because they are poor, and hold the opinion that they can't afford to do so. Both of these notions are erroneous, and if the space of this paper permitted, arguments in proof of their falsity could be easily given. Then we advance a step further, and state that such association should be determined on only after a careful examination of the advantages given, or supposed to be given, by these Societies.
The chief point is to take into consideration the characters, the health, and the longevity of the various memberships, for whilst we cannot shut our eyes to the existence of what are known as "Natural Laws," whereby to a nicety almost the sick and death rate of a whole community is easily determined—yet individually man has it in his own power, to a very considerable extent, to promote his own health, ward off sickness and disease, by the observance of well-known sanitary laws, judicious diet, and the avoidance of contact or association with principles, habits, and systems, which in themselves are pernicious, health-destroying, and death-accelerating. "Against diseases here the strongest fence is the defensive virtue abstinence."
We believe it to be the duty of every person to abstain from! indulgence in anything which impairs either mind, body, or estate, and especially is it the duty of All to abstain from the use of Alcoholic Liquors. The use of them is productive to a higher extent than any other known cause, of the crime, sickness, ruin of health, waste of wealth, and the general troubles of the community, in proof of which we have no need to fall back merely upon the statements of the Teetotal platform, but take the records and statistics of the colony, collected at great cost by a most impartial hand, the Government Statist. By the perusal of the statistics of Friendly Societies, it will be seen that the Benefit Societies which are based upon Temperance principles generally show a much lower percentage of sickness than any other Society, and when it is remembered that, as a rule, the members of all these Societies are picked men, men of thought and care, to some extent, men who are required to pass a medical examination, and, as a rule, may be considered above the average in prudence of living, &c., Temperance Benefit Societies should strongly commend themselves to the commonsense of every well-wisher to; himself, his family, and his fellows. We do not hesitate to present the Society of the Independent Order of Rechabites to the community with a firm conviction of real and substantial benefit. One important feature is, no rent meeting can be held at a public-house. Drink, with all its evil associations and influences, is discountenanced. To young and old alike, the invitation can be given with good faith, "Come thou with us, and we will do thee good," as the moral influence of the Order is of no small importance. We regard true Temperance, which is inculcated and promoted in our Rechabite Order, as exercising an ennobling power, and worthy of general recognition.
Any Total Abstainer of good moral character, and between 15 and 50 years of age, may become a member of the Independent Order of Rechabites, and thus secure relief during sickness, payment of a sum at death, and medical attendance and medicines for self, wife, and family.
As an inducement to Youths, and other Total Abstainers in receipt Of small incomes, to become members, a system of half benefits and payments has been established.
Dear Sir—In reply to the queries contained in your note of the 26th ult., I will most gladly give you my views on the subject of emigration to North America, and especially as to the possibility of landed proprietors making settlements of poor people in such a manner as would afford a fair prospect of having the expenses incurred in conveying these people out and settling them on land repaid by the people themselves. I have no objection to your publishing my letter. To give my views, however, as you request, with "as full explanation as Lam able" or as I would wish, would be impossible within the compass of such a paper as it would be convenient for you to publish, or as I could prepare within the time that would make it available for your purpose. The circumstances, the views, and the character of the persons desirous to emigrate, as well as the views and circumstances of the persons disposed to aid them, are likely to be too various; and the modifications by which a plan of emigration or colonization might be made to adapt itself to varying conditions, are too numerous to be treated of at large in a brief and hasty paper. My aim therefore will be, to give you broad circumstances and general views. But for sake of clearness and distinctness, I will endeavour to do this by suggesting such a scheme as I conceive would be applicable to what I suppose to be the probable circumstances of the particular estate which you manage; giving you at the same time, as I go along, a full explanation of the circumstances and reasons which lead me to the suggesting of each arrangement that I propose. Tims you will have all the facilities for taking my scheme to pieces, and reconstructing it according to your own judgment, to suit any other set of circumstances different from those to which I have endeavoured to adapt it.
You are aware, that although I made a tour in Upper Canada some years ago, my personal knowledge is mostly of the United
I would have extended my last year's tour into Canada, but that I had reason to feel assured that Canada did not afford the same facilities for establishing a desirable system of colonization as the Western States. The government price of land is higher in Canada than in the States: this government price is not uniform, but varies with circumstances; and this must needs produce to the emigrant, perplexity, disappointment, and delay. The land in Canada is very heavily timbered; there is no prairie, Land naturally clear of timber.exemplary taxation in the United States than in Canada; therefore, in the States speculators are discouraged from holding such lands over for inordinately long periods, and industrious settlers are not as liable, as in Canada, to have their locations removed from the centres of population and from market by intervening wildernesses. I may add, that the great body of my countrymen who are disposed to emigrate, are more anxious to settle in the States than in Canada. For all these reasons my attention was directed to the Western States, and such information as I possess relates chiefly to them.
You ask me—
"First—Can our emigration be carried to any considerable extent by the absorption of our labourers into the ordinary labour market of the United States and the Canadas? and if so, to what probable extent in each of those countries, at what probable cost per family, and under what class of agency—keeping in mind that the emigrant is not merely to be thrown on shore, but that he must be placed in a permanent position of earning a livelihood? The emigrants may be considered as belonging to two classes:—
"Second—Can a system of emigration be established that would relieve us from the chance of creating a mischievous glut in the American labour market? and with this view could individual pro-
Your first question relates wholly to a scheme of helping your emigrants to find employment as labourers in the existing labour market; your second relates to a scheme of establishing the same emigrants as farmers on lands of their own, or ultimately to become their own,—in fact, to a scheme of settlements.
I shall consider these schemes in order, having first made a few observations on the character and the comparative expensiveness of the two.
There can be no doubt as to which scheme would be more acceptable to the emigrants. In the ordinary course of emigration, emigrants proceed, for the most part, on the invitation of friends previously settled in the new country. They go direct to the place where their friends are settled, and from them receive both "aid and comfort." With them they find both the associations of their old home, and the information, direction, and assistance that helps them to success in their new home. The few who do, in the ordinary course of emigration, proceed to America wholly destitute of this advantage, and possessing but small means, enter on their enterprise as a bold adventure, obscured with uncertainty, involving therefore considerable risk, and requiring some courage to face it. Your emigrants would, of course, proceed without the advantage I have named (the invitation of friends ready to receive them on their arrival), and what they would want from you—besides the means of conveying those who were unable to convey themselves—would be, that you should reduce their enterprise to a certainty—in a word, that you should become their ensurer. How much more perfectly, how much more satisfactorily, and with how much clearer demonstration to them you could do this, by having land, the means of tilling it, and a temporary support provided for them, than by referring them to the general labour market of the country, even with all the aid and direction you could provide for them, does not need to be insisted on.
A project of settlements, therefore, would be infinitely more satisfactory to your emigrants, than any plan that would leave them to the chances of employment. It would also, no doubt, be more satisfactory to yourself, as it would enable you to see at a view the progress of your settlers, to see the good you had done, and to estimate it. All this is plain—perhaps plain enough to amount to a truism; but it may not be equally obvious, that under certain circumstances—and these the most likely to be the prevailing circumstances of your scheme—the plan of settlements would also be the cheaper one to you. If the families could all pay the whole amount of their own expenses out, the cheapest way in which you could befriend them would certainly be, to help them to find employment
To proceed then to the direct answering of tour first question—as to the extent to which emigrant labourers can be absorbed "in the labour market of the States and Canada?" I will say nothing of Canada, because, as to Canada, there is abundant information before the public from persons who have had better opportunities of judging than I have had. I believe that the amount of emigration which Canada is capable of absorbing each year is generally estimated at 50,000 persons, which would comprise, I suppose, ten or twelve thousand labourers. As to the capacity of the United States, it, of course, greatly exceeds the capacity of Canada. The population of the two Canadas approaches two millions; that of the United States is supposed to be now rather over than under twenty millions. You may safely take the capacity of the United States to exceed that of Canada in proportion as its population of twenty millions exceeds the two millions of Canada. I feel certain that half a million of European emigrants arriving each year would, if they were well distributed, meet a ready demand for their labour in the States. The industrial expansion of such a population as twenty millions, in a country that is practically boundless in extent, and of immense fertility, must be capable of absorbing far more than any amount of emigrant labour that is at all likely to arrive from Europe in any one year. The emigrants arrived from Europe in the ports of the United States last year (a year unparalleled for the amount of its emigration), I have lately seen stated in an American paper at two hundred and thirty-three thousand; I know that, notwithstanding this large emigration, the demand for labour everywhere throughout the United States last year was very great. The emigrants arrived in the port of New York alone were about one hundred thousand. Notwithstanding this immense number of emigrants arrived in New York, that city and the region immediately around it absorbed all the able-bodied labourers who chose to remain there. The Irish Emigrant Association were anxious to push the emigrants on into the country, but Mr. Dillon, the president of that association, assured me, in July last, that they found great difficulty in doing this, owing to the great demand for labour, and the high wages (a dollar, and a dollar and a quarter a day) which then prevailed in the city. This great demand, of course, would not last after winter had set in. Throughout the State of New York, European labourers, newly arrived, got twelve or fifteen dollars a month and their board and lodging, hiring for the summer months only; or hiring for the whole year, eight and ten dollars a
The best way of assisting your emigrants who were seeking their support from the ordinary labour market of the country would be, to have an intelligent, zealous, and well-paid agent in one of the western cities of the union—say Detroit, Milwaukie, or Chicago, (I would be disposed to say Chicago), to whom they should all proceed, and who would direct them on their arrival, and distribute them to the points where they were likely to find a market for their labour. About £150 a year would probably command the services of a good agent, to conduct such a business on a large scale; but if the right man could be had it would be a very mistaken economy to stickle about twenty or fifty pounds. I say a western city for these reasons:—In the first place, the demand for labour is generally greater in the west than in the cast. In the second place, it would be much easier for you to take care of the family, while the father travelled through the country in search of employment, in a western city or its neighbourhood, than in New York or its neighbourhood. In the third place, land is cheaper in the west, and labourers rise faster to the condition of farmers, than in the cast, therefore it would be better for your emigrants to be there. And, fourthly, an emigrant and his family, travelling by way of Quebec, could reach a western city as cheaply, or even more cheaply, than they could reach New York, going to New York direct. The passenger law of the United States, in limiting the number of passengers that ships shall carry, and determining the space that shall be given to them, makes no distinction between children and adults. But by the British law two children under fourteen years of age count only as one statute adult. Consequently in ships sailing to any port of the United States children are charged full price, to Quebec they are only charged half price. A family, therefore, can reach a western city of the States, travelling by way of Quebec, for as small a sum, or, if the family be large and young, smaller than they could reach New York, sailing for New York direct.
The expense of conveyance to Quebec during the approaching season (including provisions), can scarcely I think be estimated at less than £5 10s. per statute adult. The emigration and the consequent demand for passages will be as great as it was last year; and although provisions will be lower, the enactments of the new passenger act, requiring a superintendent of emigrants to be carried and paid or by the ship, and requiring a certain space to be devoted
s. per statute adult is not more than a reasonable estimate of the probable cost of passage (provisions included) during the approaching season. To this you may add from £1 10s. to £2 per statute adult for their conveyance to the point on the western lakes where you would fix your agent. This makes in all from £7 to £7 10s. for conveyance from an Irish port to your agency in the Western States. Thus the cost of conveying a small family of three statute adults, say a father, mother, and two children under fourteen years of age, would be from £21 to £22 10s.; a large family of five statute adults, say a father, mother, one child over fourteen and four under fourteen, would be from £35 to £37 10s.; and a still larger family of six statute adults, say a father, mother, two children over fourteen and four children under fourteen, would be from £42 to £45.
The duties of your agent should be, to make himself acquainted with the several localities around him where Labourers would have the best prospect of finding remunerative employment, to receive your emigrants as they arrived, and to direct and forward them to the localities where he had previously ascertained that labour was most in request. In some years this would be a very easy task, as your labourers would sometimes be employed on the spot as fast as they arrived. In other years it would require exertion, as your agent should see not only that your emigrants found employment from day to day during the summer months, but also that they were likely to be employed and have a home for their families during the succeeding winter. It often happens, even in the western cities, that labourers who have lingered on in them during the summer months, finding at that season a fair amount of employment, are thrown almost wholly idle in winter. When winter arrives, they find themselves in a place where lodging is dear, and firewood dear, and their earnings almost nothing, and they consequently suffer great distress, and are no small burden on the benevolence of the citizens. Your agent should, therefore, as much as he could, forward them into the circumjacent country, to the employment of farmers, if possible. They would find many farmers who could give them a log hut for their families; when winter came then they would have their lodging provided for, their firewood for the cutting, and provisions so cheap that the smallest earnings would support their families.
This brings me to speak of the families. It is this circumstance of "the families" that made the emigration of the last year so disastrous. In former years emigration flowed according to its natural course; one member of a family went out first, then other members of the family or the whole family in a body went out to him. He was there to receive them, to direct them, to hunt up employment for them, or to have it bespoken for them before they arrived, in fact, in every way to aid and befriend them. Almost every family that left Ireland left it bound for some particular point, it might be in the far interior of the remotest State. Disregarding every other point they made for that. They had a letter with them, received from their pioneer friend. Speak to the head
going to America," or any more means than would carry them ashore. Landlords "shovelled out" whole families; and the most liberal thought they had made a generous provision for them when they took care that one pound per family should be given to them on landing, about enough to support them in the lowest lodging-house ashore for two days!! The guarded emigration, the emigration that was promoted by friends already settled in the new country, went for the most part to the States where these friends were settled. Of the amount of emigration thus promoted to the States, you may judge by the fact now well known as ascertained and made public by Jacob Harvey of New York, that in the first six months of last year 800,000 dollars had been forwarded in small drafts by the labouring Irish in the States to their friends at home, through houses in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. But there is a still greater fact behind. When I was in New York at the close of November last, Mr. Harvey was collecting his materials for a similar account for the second six months of the same year. He had then nearly ascertained the amount forwarded from the four principal cities (taking in Baltimore), within the five months then just passed. He showed me the amounts remitted from each city up to that time; and on the supposition that the remittances would continue to go forward in December as they were going then, he estimated that the amount forwarded in the second six months of the year, would amount to no less a sum than one million and four hundred thousand dollars!! These immense sums are supposed to have been forwarded mostly for the purpose of aiding friends to emigrate, and from this we may estimate the amount of emigration (promoted by transatlantic friends, and therefore well directed and well provided for,) that has taken place to the States in the past year, and is likely to take place in the present year. There can be no doubt but a very considerable amount of emigration similarly directed and similarly provided for took place last year to Canada; but Canada was also almost the sole recipient of the emigration that was wholly undirected and wholly unprovided for. A family comprising a number of children could be conveyed to Canada for little more than half the price that it could be conveyed to the States. The price for even
all who were swarming with helpless families, and who, therefore, had "shovelled" themselves out, or had been "shovelled out" by others;—all these went to Canada. A more helpless spectacle can scarcely be imagined than a man thrown ashore in America with a family of a wife and young children, and, as was frequently the case, infirm old people, without money, without friends, and without knowing where he is going to. What can he do with these encumbrances? He must tramp about, and tramp considerable distances too, if he would find employment; but he cannot take these with him, and if he leaves them behind him he leaves them to perish. In Canada the natural consequences have occurred—one-fourth of all the emigrants in this past year (such are the latest accounts), the Montreal Emigrant Committee state that "full one-fourth" of all the past year's emigrants to Canada, have already perished. Such are only the necessary results of poor emigrants going out or being sent out without provision made for them, without money, and far' the most disastrous condition of all, with a weak, helpless family, hung as a millstone about their necks. I dwell upon this matter of "the family," because it is really the most serious, and has been the most unappreciated circumstance connected with emigration. Suppose a man even to have reached some part of the interior of the country where labour, say farm-labour, is most in request;—still it is not every farmer that is prepared to take a labourer on the instant, and the labourer must travel in quest of the farmer who is. What is he to do then if he has a family at his heels, unable to walk with him, and he unable to leave them behind and pay for their keep while he traverses the country? Take an illustration. I was myself interested last summer in procuring employment for five young men who were steerage passengers in the ship I sailed in. I procured them letters to a part of the country about three hundred miles from New York, where farm hands were very much in request. They went up there. The farmer to whom they had the letters had no employment that he could give them at that moment, but he gave them a recommendation on to another farmer about fifteen miles distant. This second farmer was likewise unprepared to employ them, but he recommended them to another place twenty miles further distant. In going to this latter place they met a person on the way who employed three of them at high wages; and on arriving the other two found employment, also at high wages (fifteen dollars a month). But how would they have fared if they had had families at their heels, who could not have tramped with them? Nor is this the only difficulty which the family entails. Among three farmers who might be prepared to employ a single man, taking him into their family, there might not be found one who would be able to give a labourer a house to shelter his wife and children. What shall we say, then, of the calamitous condition of the poor emigrant who is cast ashore at Quebec or New York at a time of excessive emigration, without money, and with a helpless family encumbering him?
If any one doubts that a period of some duration, long or short, must needs elapse before emigrants arrived as total strangers in any new country can all find themselves finally settled, no matter how great, how positively avid, may be the demand for employment in the new country, the doubter will do well to read the evidence of Mrs. Chisholm, of New South Wales, given before the Lords' "Colonization Committee" of last session. The public is pretty generally aware, that so pressing is the necessity for additional labourers, both male and female, in the Australian colonies, that the whole of the fund raised by the sale of the public lands is devoted to importing emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland into these colonies, passage free. The passage of each adult emigrant costs the colony about £18. The emigrants are selected by the Commissioners of Emigration, in London, and those Commissioners have adopted the strictest rules against taking any family of which the parents are more than forty years of age, or which comprises more than three children under ten years of age. It is thus effectually provided that these emigrant families exhibit, on their arrival in Australia, the greatest possible amount of physical ability, and the least possible amount of physical helplessness. But, they arrive without any friends settled in the country before them, and ready to receive and direct them; the consequence is, that even in those colonies, where the demand for labour is so eager, and such sums are paid to introduce emigrants into them, the men who arrive there with even the small and easily managed families that are admitted by the Emigration Commissioners, are frequently unemployed for weeks, and often subject to the most serious distress. Even when the single men and women will be engaged on board ship, before they land, by persons going out in boats, the encumbered men—the men with families—will be for weeks without employment, on account of the inconveniences attendant upon employing persons so encumbered. Mrs. Chisholm, with a singular benevolence and devotedness, has given her exertions for years to the task of distributing and finding employment for the newly-arrived emigrants. She first began with interesting herself on behalf of unprotected single females, and afterwards took up the case of families; with these latter she has made journeys of three hundred miles into the interior in quest of employment. Nor has this been a matter of a casual glut of emigration. Mrs. Chisholm has been engaged in those good offices for six years—in her own words, she has "had six years' hard work." Mrs. Chisholm's evidence is so illustrative of the time that it takes to distribute emigrants who arrive in a new country without any friends before them, or any fixed destination in that country—of the gradual character of the process, even when labour is in the greatest demand—and of the peculiar disadvantages which those emigrants labour under who are encumbered with families of young children, that I will ask you to publish along with this letter the following portion of Mrs. Chisholm's evidence:—
Did you find any difficulty in placing those young women?—Not in the country, but they were not so suitable to Sydney. They were country girls generally speaking.
How long was it before you disposed of this first venture?—Almost immediately.
Did you then return to Sydney?—Yes; I returned to Sydney, having made arrangements for the establishment of country depots, which I supplied on the principles stated in that paper; besides, I got married families to promise shelter and protection to such young females as might require it.
Did you subsequently conduct other emigrants into the country?—I did. But I ought to mention that the number of emigrant families that were in Sydney unprovided for induced the emigration agent to entreat his Excellency to permit the families, to have shelter in the emigration barracks, where they might receive food and lodging until provided for. There was an excess of labourers in Sydney at the time they were required in the interior.
How was the excess of labourers in Sydney supported; was it supported at the public expense?—They were supported at the expense of government.
Did the course you took not only provide for these persons happily for themselves, but put an end to public expense altogether?—Yes; in providing for families I undertook journeys of 300 miles into the interior with them; indeed, the further I went the more satisfactory the settlement, the men receiving from £18 to £30 per annum, with double rations.
Was there any aid given to you by the public in taking those emigrants up the country?—When the public had an opportunity of judging of the effects of my system they came forward, and enabled me to go on; the government, to assist me in my exertions, contributed altogether in various ways to the amount of about £100.
How was it possible for you to conduct these operations with such inadequate means?—I met with great assistance from the Country Committees. The squatters and settlers were always willing to give me conveyance for the people. I never wanted for provisions of any kind; the country people always supplied them. A gentleman who was examined before your lordships the other day, Mr. William Bradley, a native of the colony, called upon me, and told me that he approved of my views, and that if I required any thing in carrying my country plan into operation I might draw upon him for money, provisions, horses, or indeed any thing that I required. I had no necessity to draw upon him for a sixpence, the people met my efforts so readily; but it was a great comfort for me at the time to be thus supported.
Was the same liberality of disposition manifested on the part of others of the colonists and settlers?—Oh, yes, indeed. I never was put to any expense in removing the people except what was unavoidable; at public inns the females were sheltered, and I was provisioned myself without any charge; my personal expenses at inns during my seven years' service amounted only to £1 18s. 6d. My efforts, however, were in various ways attended with considerable loss to myself; absence from home increased my family expenditure, and the clerical expense fell heavy upon me; in fact, in carrying on this work the pecuniary anxiety and risk were very great. With the permission of your lordships I will mention one impediment in the way of forwarding emigrants as engaged servants into the interior; numbers of the masters were afraid if they advanced the money for their conveyance by the steamers, &c., they would never reach their stations. I met this difficulty,—advanced the money, confiding in the good feeling of the man that he would keep to his agreement, and in the principle of the master that he would repay me. It is most gratifying to me to state, that although in hundreds of cases the masters were then strangers to me, I only lost throughout £ 16 by casualties. Some nights I have paid as much as £40 for steamers and land conveyance.
Can you state to the committee how many emigrants from first to last you have been the means of settling with families?—About 11,000 souls.
Your first expedition with this good object was for the protection of females?—Yes.
On your return to Sydney were you induced to carry your efforts further?—Yes. In fact, I was enabled by the aid of committees and benevolent good people to establish a system of protection throughout the country.
Was it limited altogether to females, or were you enabled to assist any male emigrants to procure settlements?—All were included. My object was to establish a system of country dispersion, and to remove crowds from Sydney.
Did you find an anxiety on the part of the settlers to procure the services of well-conducted young women?—An extreme anxiety. The demand for females was very great.
Did you find that that anxiety was increased by the very circumstance of the supply that you afforded?—Yes, being much more convenient; parties for the sake of one servant would never go to Sydney. It is by conveying emigrants into the interior that you give them a fair opportunity of getting fair wages for their services.
What wages did they generally get?—I encouraged them not to seek high wages, particularly females, as protection was the principal thing. The wages for them were from £9 to £16.
Were these the money wages independently of the house-accommodation and the rations?—Yes; female servants are not rationed, but they are boarded and lodged as members of the family.
How many of those expeditions did you make in the colony?—I really could not say.
For how many years were you engaged in these good offices?—Upwards of six years. I had six years' hard work.
What was the largest number that you ever took into the interior at any one time?—The largest number that left Sydney at one time was 147 souls; but from voluntary accessions on the road they increased in number.
Had you any protection of police or military during your progress through the colony?—I never required any thing of the kind. If I wanted any aid on the road I had only to ask for it. Even the proprietors of the public mails showed such a good feeling that they used to allow me, if any of the party knocked up, to put them on the public mail, which was a very expensive conveyance, Provisions were also conveyed for them by the coaches without charge to me.
Were there any instances of insubordination during your journeys?—I never met with but one, and that was one of a very trilling character, and I was enabled in a very short time to overcome it.
Were you enabled to do so by your own influence and authority, without any auxiliary aid?—Entirely by my own influence.
Were those selected bodies of emigrants, or did you extend your services to the whole class?—My exertions were not restricted to any class. If any persons wanted work I was ready to seek it for them.
Did those emigrants consist exclusively of the natives of one part of the United Kingdom, or were they English, Irish, and Scotch mixed indiscriminately?—I made no difference; the good of the whole was my object. I also included in the parties any ticket-of-leave men, Emancipatists,—any persons that wanted work that would go into the country. My object was, to remove them into the country to lessen the city population. I had English, Irish, and Scotch,—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Orangemen, and Repealers,—and I never found any difficulty beyond such difficulties as must always be expected in a work of the kind.
What was the longest time you ever knew any persons to remain on your hands before you got them a situation?—Besides Sydney engagements I have made sixty country engagements in a day independent of the bounty homes. All the emigrants in two ships (not burdened with families of young children) have been engaged in a day in Sydney; but these rapid board-ship engagements must not be taken as a fair criterion of the demand for labour. I found them frequently add to my labours by the numbers thrown out of employment in Sydney; but in the interior there is a great and absorbing demand. My object was always to strike off out of the regular road, and to go amongst the farms to provide for the people; so that it would take three weeks to get to a place where they were wanted; but I never left any parties at those situations to be provided for.
What was the longest period that elapsed from the time that any person first applied to you to get a place till the time that you procured a situation?—It was done very quickly. If a person arrived seeking any particular employment, it would be difficult to find it in Sydney; but if a person was willing to work as a farm labourer, or as a shepherd, there was no difficulty; he had only to wait till I could find it convenient either to go with him or to make the necessary arrangements.
What was about the longest time that you required for this purpose?—Taking the longest journey, perhaps it would be five weeks; and at least three weeks of that time were passed on the road.
In the efforts made by yourself you have stated your experience of the different classes of the English, Irish, and Scotch. Did you find any particular difficulty in dealing with the Irish emigrants as compared with the others?—Not the slightest difficulty in any way.
There was no greater insubordination or disposition to turbulence on the part of the Irish as compared with any other class of people?—Not at all; indeed I could manage the Irish best. I found them always exceedingly good-tempered. It latterly became a point with me first to explain to two or three sensible Irishmen the line that I intended to take. I endeavoured to give them hope; and having succeeded in that, I used to let them loose amongst the others, if I may so express myself; and by that means confidence would spread without much direct influence from me. If I had taken the Scotch or English first I should have had more difficulty. I tried all ways, and I have stated the one that I found most successful.
Such is the slow process of distributing emigrants who have no friends to receive them, even in a colony where emigrants are so much needed, that £18 a head is paid for introducing them, and though the emigrants are so selected as to be wholly unencumbered with infirm age, and very little encumbered with weak childhood. What else then could happen in Canada, where families were shovelled ashore in sweltering heaps of age, decrepitude, weak womanhood, helpless infancy, poverty, nakedness, and sickness, but what has happened, and the consequences of which are thus described by the Montreal Emigrant Committee—
"Probably in no year since the conquest has Canada presented such fearful scenes of destitution and suffering. Destitution and suffering, however, have not been the only companions to the poor immigrant while on the billowy Atlantic, nor when landed upon our shores. Death has come in for its share in the great drama; and of the one hundred thousand, or thereabouts, of souls, who left the British isles to seek a home in this western world, full one quarter of the whole have been swept from existence.
one unbroken chain of graves, where repose fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, in one commingled heap, without a tear bedewing the soil, or a stone to mark the spot. Twenty thousand and upward have gone down to their graves—and the whole appears, to one not immediately interested, like a tale that is told."
If any one, after the experience of the past year, again undertakes to send out families without any provision for them on their arrival, or with the provision that some agents of proprietors have boasted of as peculiarly ample and liberal, of a pound a family, that is 2s. 6d. or 3s. a head (it is the large families that have been shovelled out), given to them on their arrival, what less will he be guilty of than wilful murder. Last year men acted without a full knowledge of the consequences—this year all men are warned.
What then should you do for the families of your emigrants? There are two ways in which you might act. You might either induce one man of each family to go out first, and when in a few months he had found employment and provided a home for the family, you might then send the family out to him. In such case you should, of course, undertake to see that the family suffered no want during the absence of the party (probably the father of the family) who went out. This course could scarcely be adopted but in the case of large families who could spare one male member to go as pioneer, and still leave a male capable of helping and protecting the family on their passage out afterwards. Or—what would probably be the best course—you might make provision, wherever you had located your agent, for taking ample care of the families, while the father, and other members capable of labour, sought employment, and provided a home for them. This need not be a matter of great expense; you might either have a few houses taken in the city, or you might have a farm near the city with buildings cheap and slight, but comfortable, which in summer would receive your emigrant's families; while in winter they would serve the multitudinous purposes for which buildings are desirable on a farm in a country where the winters are so long and so severe as in North America. You can still get prairie land for three dollars an acre within six or seven miles of Chicago, a city of 16,000 inhabitants. You could have a farm of a few hundred acres very cheap, and the buildings would not be very expensive. Your emigrant families would be furnished with flour, Indian meal, potatoes, milk, butter, beef, pork, and mutton at first cost from your farm, while the men would be unencumbered and at liberty to disperse themselves through the country in quest of employment and permanent homes, which there is no possible doubt that they would every one of them find in any average year, within a reasonable distance, and say within one or two weeks' time at most. Your agent should then forward the family to the place where the father had settled himself. Such a plan as this, while it would be cheap in itself, would secure your emigrants against all reverses and contingencies of bad years, so
It might be desirable that when one of your ships was expected, an agent should go down to the seaport to conduct the people up. This course would save imposition and delay, but it would itself be a matter of some cost. Probably the arrangements of the government emigration agents in Canada may become sufficiently broad and perfect to make this cost unnecessary hereafter. I have known this course adopted by an emigration association in the west, and it might become necessary for you; still it might possibly be obviated, independently of the government agencies, by arrangements with some respectable forwarding house.
I have heard it objected by parties in Ireland, that if you formed an establishment of the sort I have described, supporting the families in it, they would hang on, and remain a lingering burden to you. But this objection is altogether based upon views of Irish society, not American. People might linger on with you in such an establishment in Ireland, where they could not earn by working out of it as good a subsistence as you afforded them in it in idleness; but in America, where men and women, boys and girls, can all earn by working, good eating, good drinking, good clothing, and money besides, with respectability into the bargain, the objection I am now noticing would never occur to any one.
As to the cost of this plan, you can easily estimate it yourself by the following materials. Your farm, with the necessary fences, buildings, and stock, would cost you, say from £700 to £1,000, according to the scale on which you proceeded. This might at any time be sold for about the price it cost you, more or less. It would more than pay its own expenses for the working of it, and besides the sum I have named above, a couple of hundred pounds of capital would work it. If you preferred renting a farm, you could adopt that course. It would save you from making any outlay of capital for purchasing, and the farm should pay its own rent. You could rent a few houses in the city; but I conceive the farm would be far the most economical in the end, besides being more comfortable and healthful for your emigrants. Then if any pinch came, the farm would be a most valuable resource. The father of the family would, in a very large proportion of cases, find work on the spot immediately on arriving; in which eases, of course, your expenses with him would be nothing; and with his family they would not continue for more than, say a week or so. In other cases, the father might have to travel through the country to seek work. You should, in such cases, give him two or three dollars for his expenses. To support the family well, during his absence,
Such would be the cost of this plan—independent of the expense of conveying the family from Ireland to the place at which you had located your agent. Thirty shillings a family would probably more than cover the cost, agency included, if the thing were done upon a large scale. This would be the sole cost, if the families could pay the whole expense of their own conveyance to your Agency. This cost of conveyance, I have already stated, would range, according to the size of the family and other circumstances, from twenty to forty, or even forty-five pounds. From what you state of the class of families who are desirous to emigrate from the estate you are interested in, it appears that some few families would be able to pay all their own expenses to the western city. In the case of such families, if they were willing to emigrate merely as labourers, your outlay would, on the plan I have stated, be quite inconsiderable; but, in the great majority of cases, it appears that you should pay either all or a great portion of the cost of the people's conveyance out. From what you state, I conclude that you should, probably, on an average of the families, advance £20 or £25 per family for the cost of conveying them alone. For a large number of families you see this would amount to an enormous sum. I can imagine circumstances and arrangements under which the families, even after being settled as mere labourers, would repay you a considerable portion of this cost; but, unless your circumstances were singularly favourable, and your arrangements singularly perfect, you must, under any scheme of leaving your emigrants to seek employment in the general labour market, submit to make your outlay as a total loss. If you had to help the emigration of, say, a thousand families such as you describe, and had to assist them with the sum I have supposed towards the cost of their conveyance, the circumstances should be singularly favourable under which you should lose less than from twenty-two to twenty-seven thousand pounds; yet, I do not say that it is at all impossible but that by making part of the sum a present to the people, and part of it a loan, and adopting other well-contrived arrangements, the loan part might be repaid with tolerable punctuality, affected as the people would be with a lively gratitude for the care you had taken of them. In this case your loss might be reduced to from twelve to seventeen thousand pounds on the number of families that I have named. There is no doubt but the people could repay you if they chose to do so.
In order to get back, however, any portion of your expenditure from people who had been scattered abroad as labourers, the circumstances should be so favourable, and the contrivances so well adjusted, that I think we must say, on the whole, that in any ordinary case it would be a very bad speculation to count on the return of any portion of such an expenditure.
I now come to your second and most important query, which introduces the question of
I entertain no doubt but that landed proprietors could establish in the North-Western States of the American Union, "special "colonies for the settlement of their own surplus population in a way "that would ultimately refund the whole expense incurred" for the class of emigrants indicated in your note; that is, labouring families who are absolutely indigent, and the small farming class who possess a capital of £20 or £30.
In order to speak with clearness upon this subject, I must first give you some general account of the country in which I would contemplate the formation of your settlements. The country I have in view is the country bordering upon Lake Michigan: that is, the western part of the State of Michigan lying on the east side of that lake, the north part of the state of Illinois lying on the south side of the lake, and the territory of Wisconsin, lying on the west side of the lake. A very large proportion of the lands in the regions I have just named consists of Prairle, land (that is, open meadows without any timber,) interspersed with timbered lands; and lands covered with thinly scattered timber, principally oak, which latter lands are called "oak-openings." Old country men on their first arrival in America are very awkward and ineffective in using the axe; and save in very rare cases, never become as expert at it as the natives of the new countries. They are therefore very badly adapted upon their first introduction to America, to enter upon heavily timbered lands and commence the hewing of farms out of the dense forest. It is true they learn to do tolerably well in time; and if you would carry them out, place them even upon heavily timbered farms, giving them a year's provision and all the other necessaries for starting, they could get along and do very well for themselves; but they would get along so slowly that if you had to require repayment of the outlay you had incurred upon them the debt would be stale and obsolete, and therefore difficult, nay, impossible to collect, before they had acquired the ability to commence the repayment of it. The advantage then of a country of prairie and of oak-openings for a settlement consisting of old country men (and especially when poor people, the expense of whose passage out you must pay, are to be settled and they are expected to repay the outlay incurred in settling them,) is obvious.
I wish to observe that besides prairie and oak-opening there is timbered land of all various degrees of density, from lightly timbered to the heaviest timbered; and just in proportion as the timber is light or heavy, so is the task of clearing it easy or difficult—tolerably suited to men fresh from the old country, or utterly unfit for them.
The leading characteristics of the Prairie, the Oak-Opening, and the Timbered Lands may be stated as follows:—
The prairies are open meadows, sometimes quite level, some-
new settler; as until the country comes to be thickly settled, he has abundance of pasture and meadow on the uncultivated prairie in his neighbourhood, and the stalks and leaves of the Indian corn crop supply a great quantity of very superior winter fodder—besides that the low-lying prairie makes very fine permanent grass and meadow land. To prepare the Prairie for the production of crops, it only needs to be ploughed. This is done with a very large plough, called a breaking plough, that I turns over a furrow-slice of from twenty to thirty inches wide. The plough is drawn by three or four yoke of good oxen. Such a team ploughs from one and a-half to two English acres per day. Few j new settlers are able to furnish team enough to break up their own land, and accordingly settlers generally hire this work to be done for them. There are persons, particularly in the southern parts of Illinois, who make it a regular business to have a great number of oxen to break up land for hire. They will come up north one, two, and three hundred miles to take jobs of breaking. Their cattle, while travelling or working, have no other support than the grass of the prairie. The price for breaking prairie is pretty uniformly from one and a-half to two dollars per English acre. The prairie should be broken up while the grass is still succulent, so that when the sod is turned over, it will heat and rot well. Settlers generally wish to have their breaking finished by the 10th of June, as after that season there is danger that the weather may set in dry, and the grass become hard and wiry, so that the sod will not rot well through the whole year afterwards. But in wet summers the breaking goes on with advantage frequently to the middle of August, and it may generally go on to the middle of July. When the breaking is done in good time, the sod heats and rots thoroughly.
You will observe that there is a great deal of the work of cattle connected with the making and the occupation of a prairie farm: a heavy team of cattle is needed to break it up; and unless it be very favourably situated, immediately contiguous or adjacent to woodland, house logs, fire-wood, and fencing timber have all to be hauled from a distance of probably some miles. This should be kept in mind, in order to strike a fair balance in your comparative estimate between prairie and timbered land, as to the advantages they respectively offer for a settlement.
This rapid view of the characteristics of the prairie country would be very imperfect if I did not add that, for nine or ten months of the year the roads over the prairies are excellent, and this with scarcely any making. Every one is aware of the excellence of the roads in North America during the winter when they are covered with snow; but the roads over the prairies are excellent also in the summer; in fact at all times when they are dry—and they are dry, I may say, throughout the whole spring, summer, and autumn, except for two or three weeks in early spring, and two or three weeks in late autumn. Not that rain does not fall copiously in summer, but it falls—not as in this climate, in continuous drizzles—but for the most part in heavy bursts of thunder-showers. These showers last for a few hours; the water which thus falls for a great part runs off the beaten roads; and for the rest, a few hours', certainly, a day's, hot sun dries it up and restores the roads to their usual condition. This ready drying-up cannot take place in the timbered country, where the roads are covered in from sun and air by an impenetrable forest. For the carrying of produce these roads are, when dry, almost as good as Macadamised roads; and for rapid travelling in a light vehicle, they are better, because they are less jarring to the vehicle, and they are easy and springy to the horse's foot. They are thus good in the new prairie country without any trouble of making, save to rudely bridge over the running streams (with timber), and to ditch the low spots, raising the road towards the centre. This last operation is performed with a plough and a horse-scraper. These roads are so good, that one horse with a four
The oak-openings are lands covered with a thinly scattered growth of small oak trees. They are very easily cleared of their timber, of which they furnish on each farm not much more than the settler requires for building his log-buildings, for fire-wood, and for fencing. They are more difficult to plough for the first time than the prairie, because the plough has to cut the roots of brushwood which grows among the scattered trees, but once broken up they are very easily tilled, being generally a sandy soil. They give the very best quality of wheat, and good crops of all kind, but without the use of plaster of Paris (gypsum) it is very difficult to get any grass (whether meadow or pasture) at all from them. The new settler however does not suffer much from this deficiency, as there are always low marshy grounds to be found at no great distance, and these are very grassy. In the oak-opening country the roads are good for the same reason that they are good in the prairie country—the sun and air have free access to them.
The Timbered Lands, once they are cleared, are not only good for cultivated crops, but are also excellent grass lands, yielding both meadow and pasture of superior quality; so that the settler may have his rich meadow and grazing lands snug within the fences of his home farm. They are also generally better watered than the other lands; but the labour of clearing them is immense. Lands that are heavily timbered cost ten dollars an acre to clear, and some lands may cost twelve or fifteen dollars—labour being, say, at a dollar a day. The timber so perfectly shades the earth that neither grass nor brushwood grows under it, and consequently when the timber is cut down and burnt away it is not always necessary even to plough for the first crop, but the seed may be sown at once on the ground and covered in with the harrow. In timbered lands the settler of course has his building logs, his fencing timber, and his fire-wood upon the spot without hauling from a distance. You will observe then that in timbered land the settler, although very slowly and laboriously, creates almost every thing for himself with his axe, needing the help of cattle less than in cither prairie or oak-openings. This is an important point, to which I may draw your attention again. There is another fact of the first importance, viz., that timbered lands (and these not very heavily timbered), being less
Of all these kinds of land it is plain that to an old country man prairie is the best suited and the most attractive. Any quantity of prairie land may be broken up and taken into cultivation at an inconsiderable expense—6s. or 8s. British per English acre—an expense no greater than it requires to turn our own pasture or meadow lands to tillage. Once broken up the land is tilled with an ease that is quite surprising to the old country man, so mellow and friable is it. But the great charm of its after-culture is, that it is as free and unencumbered from that grievous eyesore and great discouragement and perplexity to old country farmers in America, stumps, as if it had been familiar with the plough for centuries. Passing through the newest prairie country the finished stylo of the tillage presents to you everywhere the aspect of English farming. The farms are large and ample; the fields are regular, clean, and smooth; the plough furrows run a quarter or half a mile in length (the length of the forty or the eighty acre lot) as straight as an arrow flight. Cultivation extends itself so rapidly that even the sweep of the cradlescythe is unable to cope with the great breadth of the harvests, and reaping machines have come into general use; nor after the first few years does any one think of threshing out his great crops of grain otherwise than with the threshing machine, The whole aspect of the newly-settled prairie country is in strong contrast with that of the newly-settled timbered country. In the one you have spacious fields, clean and perfect tillage, with an open country and excellent roads, to see where you will, and to go where you will. In the timbered land, on the contrary, you have small irregular fields full of unsightly stumps and still encumbered with numerous heavy logs, not giving straight passage to the plough in any direction for twenty yards together, closely walled in with walls of massive forest that seem to bid defiance to further progress; the whole presenting to the eye a most cheerless aspect of painful labour, choked and overwhelmed with the difficulties of the task it has undertaken. The roads are indescribably bad, closed in on either side, and arched overhead with forest which excludes both sun and air. Even when the stumps have been with infinite labour and enormous expense dug out, these roads are one mass of deep tenacious mud, varied with sloughs and waterholes, and this even after considerable lapses of dry weather; the water cannot sink, for the subsoil is a stiff clay, poached by the feet of cattle and the wheels of vehicles; it cannot dry off, for neither the sun nor air can reach it. After some years, indeed, when the timber is cleared away at either side, the face of things is altered, and then these clay roads of the
There is, however, one leading inducement that might, under some circumstances, determine you to give a preference to timbered land. I have glanced at it above; I will state it here more particularly. It is this:—The prairie lands and the oak-opening lands being so evidently the more desirable for new settlers, have been much more run upon than the timbered lands; and the consequence is, that timbered lands, and some of them too not to say heavily timbered, are neglected and left behind in very desirable situations, while prairie lands and oak-openings for forty or fifty miles behind them and farther from the lake, have been eagerly bought up. Thus it will sometimes happen that timbered lands at government price may offer so near to a good market as to make it matter well worthy of consideration whether you should not choose such lands for your settlement, especially if they can be had, as I have said, not heavily timbered.
Still the prairie lands, or the oak-opening lands, are evidently the lands for old country men, even where they have to be taken at some circumstances of disadvantage, unless indeed the disparity of circumstances be quite overwhelming.
Prairie lands with sufficient timbered land in their neighbourhood to meet the wants of the settler can still be had at the government price of one and a quarter dollar an acre, at distances from Lake Michigan of from fifty to eighty miles, with roads leading to the lake ports for the most part through a prairie and oak-opening country, and for the rest through a timbered country pretty well settled and opened. Any quantity of prairie only can still be had within thirty or thirty-five miles of the city of Chicago (a port on the lake) at the government price, but without timbered land. The prairies are very large there, and timbered land is scarce, having long since been bought up by speculators; but these speculators will sell their timbered land at from four to seven dollars per acre, so that you could procure your large tracts of farming lands in this favourable situation at the government price, and the comparatively small quantity of timbered land that you would require to have attached to it at the advanced price I have named. To procure in large quantities, such as you would need for a settlement, prairie lands with a sufficiency of timbered land attached to them, all at the government price, you must go from sixty to eighty miles from the lake. Timbered land you could still procure at the government price in any quantity you need desire in either Michigan or Wisconsin, at distances of ten, fifteen, and twenty miles from the lake—or from
might be selected that was not so heavily timbered as to preclude a tolerable progress even among old country settlers.
Oak-openings may be had under much the same circumstances of distance from the lake ports as prairie land with timbered land attached.
Such is the choice of land that would be open to you in the United States.
Having made this explanation I now come to your question—could self-paying settlements be established for the class of emigrants indicated in your letter in a way that would ultimately refund the whole expense incurred?
You say your emigrants would, some of them, be wholly destitute, while others would possess £20 or £30 of capital. I take it that those who would possess no capital would form the majority of your emigrants, and that any scheme you would adopt must therefore have this class principally in view. I also take it for granted, that those who would possess so large an amount of capital as to be able to pay the whole of their own expenses of conveyance to your settlement would be hut a small proportion of the whole. All would, of course, belong to a hardworking class, used to farm labour.
Your emigrants, then, could be very conveniently divided into three classes:—First, those who could pay the whole of their own expenses to your place of settlement; £30 would do this for a small family, £42 for quite a large one. Secondly, those who could pay about half their own expenses to your place of settlement; £15 would do this for a small family, £21 for quite a large one. And thirdly, those who could pay no part of their own expenses, but would require that you should pay all.
The thing you desire, could, I am confident, be accomplished for all the three classes, but it should be by adopting a very different arrangement with each.
Now in dealing with these different classes of emigrants you will meet a difficulty at the outset. If you take out any parties who have no means, and whose whole expense of passage, &c., you must therefore bear, (and your emigrants will consist mainly of this class,) those who have means will deny that they have them, in order that they too may be taken out at your cost, and you will soon find your whole emigration reduced to one class—those who have nothing, or profess to have nothing. The remedy for this seems obvious enough—that you should give some superior advantages to those who will pay their own passage out, and proportionate advantages to those who will pay a part of their own passage. But these advantages will cost you money, and consequently you will find yourself involved in this anomaly, that it will cost you on the whole about as much to establish those who pay their own passage out as those whose whole expenses you bear from the beginning. This anomaly I believe you will have to submit to; but you will complain less of this necessity for establishing a certain class of your emigrants in rather a superior way, when you consider the matter a little. It is true, that if you had to deal only with that
But if you established all your settlers in a very poor way, they would not only have to endure many hardships but in order to get on at all they would be called upon to make numerous shifts. Of these shifts old country people freshly arrived are totally ignorant. They would have to learn them as they would have to make them, and would therefore find them infinitely painful, perplexing, and harassing. Your emigration would thus be greatly discouraged, and it is not at all unlikely that you would find it stop up pretty much where it had commenced—the accounts sent home by your first settlers would be so coloured with disappointment and despondency. Perhaps after all, therefore, you will account it rather fortunate that circumstances should have indicated to you a particular class of your settlers whom it will be expedient and just that you should start with greater advantages than the rest. The condition of these settlers will give its character to your settlement, and by the accounts received from them the opinions entertained of your settlement by intending emigrants at home will be regulated. If the other settlers are slower to prosper it will be understood that they arrived out in your debt for their passage, and that they cannot be expected all at once to overtake those who went out at their own expense. Other advantages also would arise from the presence of this better class of settlers which I will speak of more at large again.
The general outline of the plan that I would suggest would be this: To move out your emigrants, not all at once, but gradually, year by year, through several years, say seven or eight years. To purchase, the first year, a large tract of prairie, with its due proportion of timbered land, in quantity perhaps twice as much as you would need for the immediate occupation of your emigrants of the first and second years, and afterwards to make new purchases as you might need them. To settle your emigrant families each upon, say, forty acres of land, which you would give them at the same price that you paid for it yourself, and to reserve the adjoining forty acres, with a right to the emigrant to purchase it at any time within, say three years, at a fixed and reasonable advance in price. To break up, or help to break up, a quantity of land for each of your emigrant families, and do such other work for them as they could not advantageously do for themselves. To give them such assistance towards building their log-houses (sawed timber, shingles, glass, carpenters' work, &c.,) as it would not be within their own power to procure. To supply them with a plough, working cattle, a cow, pigs, a few sheep, seed, and provisions for a year. To charge them with all your expenditure, and a moderate interest on it. To require this debt to be repaid to you in a fixed number of yearly instalments—four, or at most five, yearly instalments; and to use these instalments for the settlement of new families, until all the families you were disposed to assist had emigrated. To give your settlers
You should, of course, have an agent resident in your settlement.
I beg you to observe, particularly, that the Leading Principle of any plan that I would suggest, would always be this—to make your settlers repay you in a few yearly instalments, And to Use These Instalments from Year to Year, for the Establishment of New Settlers. It cannot be expected that a landed proprietor could command the sum which would be necessary to convey out and to settle all at once, in a tolerable way, any very large number of families; but by settling in a sufficient manner, a moderate number of families in the first year, and then using the instalments repaid by them to establish new batches—and so with each successive batch—you will be surprised to see how rapidly the work accumulates. In a few years you can thus establish a greater number of settlers than you will probably think it possible to settle by these means, until you have gone into the arithmetical calculation. The work grows like compound interest. But of this again.
It should be made perfectly plain to the settlers from the beginning that they were not expected to pay you any thing but the money which you had directly advanced for them, and the interest which you would be obliged to pay for it yourself. This would leave you without any direct profits in your dealings with your emigrants to cover the expenses of agency and casualties. But whenever a settlement is effected in any new district, the land immediately adjoining becomes, at once, by the mere fact of there being a settlement there, worth from two to three times the government price. Your unsettled lands are thus at once enhanced in value; some of these you may sell at an advanced price to strangers—others, as I have suggested, you can sell at an advanced price to your own settlers. This advance of price will produce a fund sufficient to cover the cost of agencies, and those numerous incidental losses that must occur from the deaths of some parties indebted—the continued sickness of other parties, the assistance that you will find it well and expedient to give towards schools, roads, doctors, and the support of clergymen, &c., &c. Thus it will be unnecessary for you to make any direct charge upon your settlers, or to make any immediate profit on your transactions with them. Any such charges or profits, however well founded and reasonable in themselves, might grow into abuse; with a people not indisposed to suspicion, they would certainly be liable to be misconstrued, and set down as extortions and oppressions, and they might thus become the source of a discontent that would mar the success of the best-intended enterprise.
As to the amount and the cost of the outfit that you must supply to your settlers, this question is most materially affected by your having one very poor class of settlers to deal with. I have already explained that it will be your best policy—indeed a necessary policy —to expend on your settlers who can pay their own expenses of
If, indeed, you were dealing only with families all of whom would pay their own expenses out, the case would be widely different. Twenty pounds would set them a-going in some kind of way: after some years they could begin to repay you; and it would not greatly endanger the ultimate collection of so small a debt to let it lie over for a few years. On the other hand, it would require an outfit of from £55 to £75 to enable them to commence making you repayments immediately (this is a greater after-outfit than I have stated to be necessary for a similar purpose in the case
The prairie land is particularly well suited to the more liberal system of expenditure: since for an additional outlay of 6s. or 8s. British per acre, you can break up any quantity of additional land for your settlers which they can thenceforth work with a facility that we are totally unused to in this country. In timbered land the expenditure of an additional hundred dollars (£21) would only increase the profitable acreage of your settler's farm by ten acres, encumbered with stumps—100 dollars would clear about so many. In prairie land the same sum would add fifty, or perhaps sixty-five acres, clear, smooth, and unobstructed, to the land under the plough —100 dollars would break up that quantity; and up to the point at which the settler's family would find full occupation in the cultivation of the land broken up, it would evidently be your policy to break up the greatest surface possible, because the consequence would be so to accelerate the repayments as to make your capital revolve faster, and actually to enable you, with a smaller capital, ultimately to establish, in a better way, a greater number of settlers.
The more I have thought over this matter, the more I feel satisfied that the point to which you should direct whatever increased liberality you might be disposed to exercise on behalf of your settlers, should be the breaking up an increased quantity of land for them—thus placing them in possession of farms largely productive, from the start. In corresponding, some time since, with your brother, on this subject, I made some estimates; without making any difference in the sums of the estimates I made for him, I would now so far alter the items, as to include the breaking up of more land for the settlers, and to economize at other points.
Now, to proceed to details:—and, first, as to the First Class of settlers—those who would pay the whole of their own expenses to the place of settlement. This class I would deal with and outfit as follows:—
I would have them come on to the settlement in May. My general arrangements would be such as to make it easy for me to provide a temporary shelter for the families, while they were building their own log-houses. Towards the building of those log-houses I would help each family to the amount of about thirty dollars each, furnishing them to that amount with boards, shingles, nails, carpenters' work, and the superintendence of a skilful American axe-man, employed in overseeing the work of, say, every ten or fifteen of them, &c. I would give each family forty acres of land at the cost price, with the right of having the forty adjoining it at some very moderate advance on the cost price (say, one dollar an acre) in the second year—providing that at the end of the first year they had paid up, say, one-fourth of their whole debt. I would break up
The following is my estimate for establishing a family in the manner just described:—
Three hundred and forty-five dollars make seventy-one pounds seventeen shillings and eight pence. As some small additional items would no doubt be still found requisite, let us say seventy-five pounds for each family. Now, a family established in the manner above estimated for could easily pay off the whole debt, with interest, in four yearly instalments. The settler and his family would arrive at your settlement early in May (say, of the year
I will now inquire what would be their ability to make you this repayment by examining into their condition at this time—the close of their first year, or rather the close of their first fifteen or seventeen months after their arrival out. Their crop consists of twenty acres of wheat, eighteen acres of Indian corn, two acres of potatoes, and if the family be as I have said industrious and strong-handed, of whatever spring crop they may have planted in such part of the forty acre lot newly taken in, as they may have broken up that (their second) year. Now the wheat may average any thing from fifteen to thirty-five or forty bushels per acre; we will take it at the moderate rate of eighteen bushels per acre. The amount of the Indian corn crop depends not only on the soil but in a great measure upon the latitude in which your farm is situated; if it be further south than 40°, the crop may vary from thirty-five to seventy, or even on rich bottom lands, 100 bushels per acre; north of 40", up say to 45°, it may vary from twenty-five to forty bushels per acre. We will estimate the produce at the moderate rate of thirty-five bushels per acre. Your settler's crop, then, harvested at the end of fifteen or seventeen months after his arrival out, should be as follows:—
The probability of his having an additional crop upon land newly taken in that year, I will leave out of account.
Out of the crop stated above your settler ought to be able to spare you, say, 200 bushels of wheat and 300 bushels of Indian corn, which at very low prices would be worth, 200 bushels of wheat at forty-five cents per bushel—ninety dollars; 300 bushels of Indian corn at eighteen cents per bushel—forty-eight dollars; in all, 138 dollars, or £28 10s. Let us say that in round numbers he could pay you £30 out of his first harvest: in each succeeding year his
Once the prairie is broken up a family can manage a great extent of farm, which you may judge of from the following facts:—First, the land requires no manure for many years, which saves all that vast labour of mixing, carting, and spreading manure, that constitutes so large a proportion of the work of an old country farm. Secondly, the land is very clear of weeds for the first few years and very friable, and a single ploughing is generally sufficient in the year, especially as the horse-hoeing among the Indian corn crop serves all the purposes of a fallow. Thirdly, the soil is so mellow that a pair of horses or a pair of oxen plough two English acres in the day as their ordinary work. A pair of smart horses can plough three acres in the day when pushed, and in this mellow soil a smart boy of fourteen or sixteen can hold a plough with as much effect as a man. Fourthly, there is little or no hand-work in the cultivation. The Indian corn, and even the potatoes, are planted in what are called "hills;" that is, light plough furrows are run crossbarred each way across and along the field at four feet apart, and at the points where they intersect each other the Indian corn or the potatoes are planted, so that in the after culture, when the weeds are to be destroyed, the plough runs both ways close up to the plants, throwing the earth towards them, and thus forming "hills;" there is; therefore, little or no hand-weeding, and though there is some hand-hoeing, there is not much even of that, as the plough runs through the hills every way and close up to them. Fifthly, in harvesting, a good cradler, with a cradle-scythe, cuts down three acres of wheal in a day; a less expert cradler cuts in proportion. Sixthly, the wheat once cut, bound up into large sheaves and stooked, after standing thus for about two days is fit either to be carried to the barn or to be threshed and ground into flour, such is the dryness of the atmosphere; and for the same reason in hay making, the grass once cut the hay almost saves itself. From these facts you will see that a single family could cultivate three or four times the quantity of land in America that they could in this country, especially of prairie land unobstructed as it is by stumps. A moderate family, comprising say a father and a couple of boys or even one boy, could manage quite a large farm and raise an immense quantity of produce without any help from without. The crops estimated above are far within their ability to manage and to harvest.
I have estimated the prices of the produce on the supposition that they should be considerably below the rates which were current in the region I allude to in the past autumn of s. per barrel. In fact, this latter quotation was based upon a price of 29s. and 30s. a barrel at Liverpool, with some hopes of a slight advance. But it must be plain to you that the prices I have counted on are not high, when I have estimated wheat at only 45 cents, that is, 1s. 1½d. per bushel of sixty pounds—or 15s. British per quarter.
I would require a large repayment from the settlers the first year, because I would wish to reduce the tail end of the debt as fast as possible, bringing the balance as far within the limits of the security and at the earliest moment that it could be done. The first year, too, would be the time to press the settler for repayment, because in that year he would still feel himself an Irish labourer, not yet an American farmer, and would not deem it any hardship if, in order to become the owner of a farm and stock, he had to live for a time in a manner that was not yet quite a world removed from that to which, as an Irish labourer, he had been accustomed.
"But," I have heard it said, "in a new country where it is not so easy as in old countries to enforce the obligation of contracts, will the settler keep faith with you? He would clearly be able to make you these payments if he were so inclined, but will he make them?" It is in some measure true that in new countries when a man once parts with his property it is not so easy to compel payment for it from a poor and reluctant creditor as it would be in the old countries, because harsh measures that would strip a poor man of all his means would, in these new countries, be looked on with greater disfavour by the community; but when a man has not parted with his property there is no sentiment incident to new countries any more than to old ones that would countenance any other party in carrying off that property from him. Now, although I have spoken of your giving the settler so much land, ploughing so many acres for him, giving him cattle, a cow, tools, pigs, sheep, provisions, &c., I have done so only for the convenience of using a short phrase in describing the transaction. The fact is, you should not give him any thing until he had paid for it. For the first year he should occupy the land only as your yearly tenant. The land would still be yours; the house you helped him to build would be yours; the breaking-up done upon the land would be yours; ploughs, tools, and cattle would still be yours; and the landlord's proportion of the growing crop would be yours; nay, the very provisions with which from week to week you were supplying him would still be yours,—for as fast as his family consumed them they would be turned into improvements made by his labour on your land. Tenancy, as a permanent thing, is not practised in the Western States; but temporary tenancies, meant to last only for a few years, are almost as common as occupancy accompanying the fee simple. The form of tenancy most common in the Western
on shares. Sometimes the owner of the land hires to the tenant the farm only, in which case the tenant pays for rent usually one-third of the gross crop. Sometimes he supplies him not only with the farm, but also with seed, working cattle, tools, &c., and in this case the landowner usually receives one-half the gross produce, about equal, you may see, to what I have set down as the first year's payment to be made to you by your settler. Now, although the honourable understanding between you and your settler should be, that the land and all that you put into his hands should be his absolute property, at specified prices, and these first cost prices, when he had paid for them; and that every payment he made to you, under whatever name made, should apply upon the purchase; the written legal contract between you for the first year should be a contract of tenancy, such as is common in the country, under which you should supply to him the land, and break it up for him; furnish him with seed, and also with cattle, implements, sheep, a cow, pigs, &c.; all of which should continue to be your property, and he on the other hand should pay you a certain proportion of the produce of the farm. This sort of tenancy is quite common in the western country; and under it men no more dream of its happening that the tenant should wrong the landlord, which he could do only by carrying off the landlord's cattle or implements, or his share of the crops, than they fear that he should carry off the like property from the landowner's own homestead. At the end of the first year, when the tenant had made his first payment, you should give him to the extent of that payment a bill of sale of the cattle, implements, &c., and at the same time give him a bond for a deed of his farm; that is, a bond conditioned that you should convey to him the fee simple of his farm when he had paid you the balance of the debt. At the end of the second year, if he had paid up the instalment of that year, and had meantime been industrious in improving his farm, that farm should be worth more than double the balance then remaining due. In this case you should at once convey the fee simple to him, taking a mortgage back for the amount still due to you. If he had not been industrious, and if the farm was still but a scanty security, the conveyance should be delayed for another year. Under this arrangement, which any one who is acquainted with the business of the Western States will at once recognize as consisting of the every-day modes of assurance used there in the very common transaction of selling farms to persons who have no ready money to pay for them, but buy them on credit, with the expectation of paying for them out of the produce they raise from them, your settler has no opportunity of making away with your property, nor is he at any time placed under the mischievous delusion that he is a landowner, nor an owner of anything, before that thing is paid for; but he is constantly kept in mind that he is simply a labourer lately arrived from Ireland, placed by you in circumstances that will enable him, by the exercise of a reasonable share of industry and self-denial, to earn himself a farm. The virtual arrangement between you and him consists in some part of a loose
He certainly can possibly suffer none.
The sum of £75 may seem a large amount to expend for the settlement of each family; but it is not really a large amount when you consider that it is to be repaid back, with interest, in four annual instalments; and that these instalments, continuing to be used for the same purpose as the original sum, multiply, several times, the work of that original sum, within a very moderate number of years. For instance, at £75 per family, £6,000 would settle at first only eighty families; but perhaps you will scarcely expect to find that used as I have suggested above, it will at the end of the sixth year have settled no less than two hundred and forty-nine families. Yet, this is only the result of a simple arithmetical calculation, of which you can satisfy yourself in a few minutes.
Thus—
So far for the first class of settlers.
I now come to consider the second class of settlers—those who could pay, say one-half of the expense of their own conveyance to your place of settlement. This, and the third class, who could pay no portion of the cost of their own conveyance, introduce a new element to be dealt with—viz., the cost of their conveyance. This cost of conveyance has been found the great difficulty in the way of colonizing, on a self-paying system, with poor families, by every person who has given his attention to this subject. This portion of the expenditure is so heavy, and, as respects any direct productiveness, so barren, that it is looked upon as overwhelming alike the ability and the will of the settler to reimburse the capitalist, even though the enhanced value of the adjacent lands accruing from the settle-
But your case is different. In the first place you do not seek to make a commercial profit upon the enterprise, but only to accomplish the operation without loss. And in the next place you should adopt, for families who could not pay their own expenses of conveyance, a plan of emigration widely differing from that ordinarily contemplated—a plan, too, which could not easily be adopted by any but a landed proprietor colonizing with his own tenantry. An Irish landed proprietor stands in quite a different position from an ordinary capitalist in undertaking such an enterprise as this. The proprietor of an estate that is unable to afford employment and support to its population would be very richly repaid for such an enterprise, if he only incurred no direct loss in the transaction. The saving of poor rate and other advantages to be gained at home would constitute an abundant profit indeed. But even the proprietor of an estate would run too great a risk—in fact, would be pretty sure to make total shipwreck of the business—if he took out whole families at once, paying all the expenses of their conveyance to the place of their ultimate location, and landing them at his settlement already from £30 to £45 in his debt for conveyance, with some £60 or £70 more to be expended in establishing them, all of which value was still to be created and extracted from the land by the settler. He must set to work in quite a different manner. If he has to pay the expense of conveying the families, he must take out the members of each family by degrees; and according as the members who have first gone out improve the farm allotted to them—making it a sufficient security for the expense to be incurred in taking out the remaining members of the family—and create and extract from the soil for themselves those items of necessary outfit which the landlord has had to supply to those settlers who pay their own expenses out—he should then send out those members of the family who have been left behind. This requires that the party colonizing should take a certain care of that part of the family which is last to go out; and this, you see,
If you examine the actual nature of the difficulties which stand in the way of any self-paying system of colonizing with parties whose expenses of conveyance you should be compelled to pay, you will see how naturally the mode that I have just indicated, of colonizing with the poorest class of families, presents itself, and how effective it may be made for securing repayment. The improbability of repayment does not arise from any want of the physical elements, so to speak, that would enable and facilitate it; these exist abundantly. The productiveness of labour, and, consequent upon the productiveness of labour, the rate of wages is so high in America, that a poor family removed from this country and either left to the ordinary labour market of America or settled on a farm for themselves, could unquestionably, with great ease and within a very reasonable period, repay the cost of their conveyance out to any parties who had so far befriended them as to advance their expenses. This is abundantly attested by the enormous aggregate of sums (already alluded to) that are sent home by the labouring Irish in America to take out the portions of the family that still remain in this country. If an individual or two of a family can go out and earn and remit the funds necessary for taking out all the rest of the family, a whole family having gone out at once at another party's expense, could certainly earn and repay the sum advanced for conveying them. The question is—are they likely to repay? And this is a question not of honesty merely, but of strong will, of steady purpose, of forbearance, of self-denial. The Irish labourer in America who has left friends behind him whom he wishes to bring out, sticks to the cities where he gets ready money wages; he does not spend these wages, but hoards them—he continues to live in many respects as poorly as he did in Ireland—he wears the old gray coat, and is willing to be laughed at for it—he forbears investing his savings in land—he lets the world pass him, and foregoes all hope of advancing in life until he has accomplished the one sacred object, the rescue of his immediate friends from the misery of Ireland. This is the power that accomplishes that spontaneous emigration of the poor which we see working itself out every day. But of this you cannot avail yourself if you take out whole families at once at your expense. No average parcel of men, whether settled as labourers or as farmers, will cither strain themselves to the same incessant labour, or torture themselves with the same painful forbearances and self-imposed inferiorities in order to pay you a bygone debt incurred in the conveyance of their families (especially when you had an object of your own to accomplish in taking them out), as they would do to get these families out if they were still left behind. The settlers, if taken out by whole families at a time, would arrive at your location each from £30 to £45 in your debt, which indebtedness must be still enormously increased by the expenses of establishing them. This overhanging weight, so much of it a dead weight, would kill every energy. They would feel as if they were your bondsmen: Such a debt would be too heavy an encumbrance even on the advantages you offered them; it would be looked on as merely the chain of a long slavery which they
would not drag. They would either in a short time abandon your settlement, or they would enter on your farms to live lazily on them without improving them, and without any resolute intention of ever making you a repayment. Such a plan of colonizing, therefore, you cannot entertain. If you would succeed with families the expense of whose conveyance you should wholly or partly bear, you must observe the natural course by which the spontaneous emigration of the poor works itself out, and imitate it. Send out a portion of the family first, and as their labour, employed upon the farms which they are ultimately to occupy—at the same time that it creates a home and a seat of industry for their family—makes a security to you for the repayment of any advances that you may afterwards make in taking out the family, send the family after them. By doing this you use the same natural affections as a power to aid you in bringing about the emigration of the family that are found to operate so effectually in the emigration that works itself. There is this difference, however, that you would enable your emigrants to do with ease, with certainty, and within a few months—or in the case of the poorest families, within a year—what poor families left to their own resources can do only painfully, with much uncertainty, and after several years. How the portion of the family that remains at home is to be taken care of I will hereafter inquire.
To proceed to details, then, as to those parties whose expenses of conveyance out you should in part, or in the whole, bear. They constitute two of the classes into which I have divided your emigrants—the second and third: those who could pay half of their own expenses, requiring you to pay the other half; and those who could pay nothing, but would require you to pay all. I would deal with both of these classes on the principle which I have just been endeavouring to explain, but putting a wide difference between them. The first class, who could pay half their own expenses, I would require each to send out in May one male member of the family—such a member as the family could rely on for fidelity to it, (this must almost always be the father)—or, if the family was very large, two. When this member of the family had worked upon his future farm until autumn, you might then send the family out to him; thus all the members of this second class of families would be united again, after a separation of only five or six months. The third, or poorest, class of families you should require to send out in like manner, but at your expense, a male member of the family in the month of May; but, as you would be obliged to bear the whole of the expenses of those families, you could not send the remainder of the family as early as in the case of the second class of families: you might, indeed, in autumn, take out to the father any one or two (if the family were large, and he desired it,) members of the family whom he might designate, but the whole of the family you could not send out to him until the succeeding year; thus the members of this third class of families would not be all united again until after an interval of twelve months. But this would not be the only difference that I would place between the
not money were placed by you in as good a position as themselves, they would deny having the money, and would fling themselves altogether upon you. But under the arrangement that I have suggested, no man who possessed the means of paying the whole expense of his family's conveyance would, for the sake of concealing £17 or £18 of it from your observation, drop himself into the second class, in which he would be separated from his family for six months, especially, when by doing so his outfit on his arrival at the location would be by so much the less advantageous. Nor again, would any man who could pay half the expenses of his family's conveyance conceal his ability to do so, and drop himself into the third class, when the consequence would be, that he would thus separate himself from his family for "no less a time than twelve or fourteen months; and that in starting as a farmer he would place himself a full year behind cither of the other classes, with disadvantages as to outfit besides.
You will gather from what I have already said, and will see on the face of my estimates by-and-by, that, on the plan I contemplate, you would have to expend about the same sum per family on each of the three classes: those who could pay all, and those who could pay half, and those who could pay none of the expenses of their own conveyance. You will be disposed to ask then, what advantage do you derive from having any class who could pay the whole or any part of their own expenses out? Your advantage would be this:—First, your first class of families would take their whole family in a body, leaving you unencumbered with the charge of any portion of the family at home; your second would relieve you from the encumbrance in about five months; while your third would leave you affected with the encumbrance for twelve months. Secondly, your first class of families would make their repayments with more facility and with more rapidity than your second; your second would make them with more rapidity than your third. Thirdly, your first class of families would arrive at your settlements not in your debt at all; your advances to them would include no dead weight, they would all be for property fresh put into their hands and becoming immediately productive: your security, therefore, (independently that you would not part with the legal property in anything until it was paid for,) would be just so much the more satisfactory. This would be partially true of your second class also, just in proportion as that class had paid its own expenses out. The advances to your third class for the conveyance of their families would, it is true, also be covered by
families arrived out with the very first settlers, and a still greater number before the winter set in. This would be necessary in order that the labourers arriving out without their families should be conveniently lodged, cooked for, and washed for. This necessity would be exactly met by the mode I have suggested for dealing with your first and second class of settlers. I hope you will think then with me, that these advantages conferred on your general system would give you the full benefit of the contribution towards the expense of their own establishment elicited from the first and second class of families, without your insisting that these contributions should be made the means of diminishing your direct outlay upon them.
The details of my proceedings with the Second Class of settlers would be as follows:—The father of the family (or such other male labourer of the family as might be selected by them,) should go out as I have said in May. During the spring and summer they should be employed in helping to break up their own land, in fencing it, in planting potatoes and Indian corn—and such other spring crop as newly broken ground would be fit to yield—to help in the support of their family and their stock during the succeeding winter; also in cutting hay for their cattle. Towards the close of summer they should build their log-houses and prepare for the arrival of their families, the whole of which you should take out to them in the autumn. The latter end of autumn and the whole of the winter they should devote to preparing fencing timber and fencing their land.
My estimate for the conveyance and establishment of these families I give below. It will be seen that for them I propose to break less land than for the first class of families. It would be necessary thus to limit the quantity of land broken for them, because I fear it might prove physically impossible to make arrangements to break up all the land that you might desire to have broken for all your families; and your first class settlers should get the preference and have the greatest quantity broken up for them. Some of your land you should get broken by hired men and teams; but for the breaking of the
It would be very easy to arrange, that as soon as the houses of the first class of settlers were built they should lodge these pioneers of the second class of settlers, and also wash and cook for them (you furnishing such rations as they would need in addition to their own crop,) until their own houses were built and their own families had arrived towards winter.
It may occur to you as a difficulty in these arrangements, that these families who could pay only half their own expenses of conveyance would not always be so large as to admit of being divided in the manner I have suggested. The classification could not of course be always made with mathematical correctness; but I think you would generally find that the families who could pay about half their own expenses would be the large families of your small farmers, so large as to constitute five or six statute adults, whose cost of conveyance, therefore, would amount to from £37 10s. to £46; while the small families of this farmer class, which would constitute only three or four statute adults, and whose conveyance, therefore, would cost only from £22 10s. to £30, would generally be able to eke out the whole amount of their expenses, or nearly the whole amount, and would fall into your first class. Your families, therefore, who could pay a portion of their own expenses out, but would require some large assistance from you to make up the whole amount of their expenses—in fact your second class of families—would generally be large families, who could be conveniently divided in the manner I have suggested.
The pioneer members of these families would of course pay their own expenses out, so that you would have no advances to make for the conveyance of any part of their families until considerable work had been done upon the farm abroad. If the father could take out nearly half of the family when he was going out, so much the better—say himself and a couple of boys under fourteen years of age. These boys would be most useful, and if the family was not such that he could take two boys, a girl would not come at all amiss.
For each of these families I would, as in the case of the first class,
I think that these families ought to pay you very nearly as fast as the first class families. They would generally be stronger handed than the first, and could manage any quantity of land that you could break up for them. It would be well, therefore, to help them to break up some further quantity of land in the second year, as your best policy would be to help them well forward at the outset, and then to press for early repayments. These families would, at their first wheat harvest, have fifteen acres of wheat and ten acres of Indian corn on the land broken in the first year (not to speak of potatoes, &c., in the newly broken ground), which should produce about 270 bushels of wheat and 350 bushels of Indian corn. They should be quite able to spare you, say 170 bushels of wheat and 200 bushels of Indian corn, which, at the prices I have supposed in the case of the first class settlers, would produce about £25. These families should repay you in four or five years. I would have you press for a large repayment in the first year, that is in the year of the first wheat harvest, as the first repayment would be the important one to secure, and that first harvest being almost altogether of your own creation, it would not be considered hard of you to press for a large share of it. It would be better policy to lighten the after payments than the first payments.
Three hundred and forty-nine dollars is about £73. We will therefore say in round numbers that it costs £75 for establishing each of these families; and let us say that you would be repaid in five yearly instalments, not in four. At this rate £6,000 would have established 243 families,—in round numbers 250—by the end of the seventh year.
Now, as to the Third Class, who are wholly without means to assist themselves. In this class I take it for granted that you would have great numbers of families pressing on you, and you would,
s. When he arrived at your settlement he, like the others, should have his forty-acre lot. I would not break up for him the first year more than about fifteen acres—not that if I had this class to deal with alone I would not deem it as desirable to break up largely for them as for any other class, but having the other classes to deal with whose families would be with them in the first year, and apprehending, as I have already stated, that it would not be possible to make arrangements to break up as largely as desirable for all, I would throw my force upon the first two classes, to push them ahead from the start; while I would have these pioneer labourers of the third class employed partially upon their own farms, and partially engaged on hire, both in executing the extensive work of breaking that you should undertake to perform for your first class, and in the numerous operations, as hay-saving, fencing, farm-work, &c., &c., that it would be necessary for you to undertake yourself, in order not only to support the great number of cattle that you would first employ in breaking, and would afterwards distribute to your settlers, but also to supply your settlers with articles of produce, both in provisions and seed, at first cost. It would be impossible to follow all this into detail, as the works in which you would have to employ the men would be numerous and multifarious. I will only say, that I believe that for more than one-third of the year these men would be labouring for wages for you, at work that, either directly or indirectly, would form a portion of the charge made by you against the other classes of settlers in the foregoing estimates. For instance, you charge your first class of settlers eighty dollars each for forty acres of land broken up. This land might, for the most part, be broken up by the third class of settlers with your cattle. The second class of settlers are supposed for the most part to do their own breaking up with your cattle. But if you have cattle to do this breaking up, you do not gather them all for the first time on the day you send them out to break for your settlers. You have had them for some time beforehand, and must have had hay and provender provided for them, and they must have been tended: this is employment for the pioneers of your third class of settlers. The labour of your cattle, employed in breaking up the land of your settlers of any class, is so far the produce of these men's labour; and the wages you pay them may be considered as already charged in the estimates for these classes, whether for the first, for the second, or for the third themselves. While working for themselves, I would expect these third class pioneers to break up, as I have said, fifteen acres; to
My estimate for this class of settlers is as follows:—
Three hundred and forty-one dollars make seventy-one pounds, sterling. We will again leave a margin for small omissions, and say that seventy-five pounds is the cost of carrying out a family of the third class, consisting of seven persons, and establishing them in the manner indicated in the above estimate. As already explained, I have not included in this estimate any charge for furnishing them with working cattle nor a plough; but in the first year I have charged them with twenty-five dollars for the hire of working cattle, and I leave them the harvest, which they begin to reap in a month or six weeks after the arrival of the family, to procure those necessaries. That harvest will consist of ten acres of wheat, producing about one hundred and eighty bushels—five acres of Indian corn, producing about one hundred and seventy-five bushels—and as many acres of potatoes and Indian corn as they choose to plant in the twenty-five acres newly broken in that year. I conceive that those third class families will start in their second year, that is, the year in which the families have arrived out, under as favourable circumstances as the first class families have started in their first year; they should, therefore, be able to pay you in four yearly instalments, commencing at the close of their second year, that is, commencing with their second wheat harvest.
It will be necessary that you provide the pioneers of the third class families with lodgings, and take care that they have their cooking and washing done for them for the first year, before their own families have arrived, or their houses are built. All this can easily be provided for by arrangement with those families who are already on the spot.
This class of settlers is settled at the same expense as each of the other classes. But it is probable that the number of families in this class will be as numerous as in both the other two classes; and as we have supposed two hundred and fifty families in each of the other two classes, it may be a fair proportion to suppose that this class will include five hundred families. It will be found on calculation, that (although the arrangements both for the outlay and the repayments differ somewhat,) the capital employed for this class of settlers will be returned in about the same time as that employed in settling the second class; and the same amount of capital will establish about the same number of families within the same period, as in the case of the second class. Six thousand pounds, therefore, would establish two hundred and fifty families of this class, at the end of seven years—or twelve thousand pounds would establish in that time five hundred such families. As these families are estimated to include seven members each, five hundred such families would comprise a population of not less than three thousand five hundred persons.
Before I proceed to consider certain points which require to be examined with some care in respect to my proposed mode of dealing with these third class families, I wish to make an observation or two which apply equally to all those classes of settlers.
You will observe that I propose to furnish each family with a few sheep. This I deem important, as it will give the women of the families employment in the domestic manufacture of clothing for their families; and the families of all the Irish farmers and country labourers are skilful in making up flannels and friezes.
You will also observe that I propose that you should undertake the breaking up of their land for every family, doing a large proportion of the work with your own cattle, which cattle you afterwards, when the breaking is completed, distribute among your settlers—selling them—for the after-culture and other work connected with their farms. It is evident that the arrangement might be different: you might at once give your settlers each a yoke of oxen, some of them two yoke, and let them club together their cattle to make up the heavy breaking team, and exchange their own work—you furnishing some skilful Americans to work some of their teams, both as a help and an instruction to your settlers, who would not be familiar with that kind of work. This method might be adopted; but as the cost would not vary much, I prefer the other—because I think that this important work would be better done by being in your hands, and when matters are left to the mutual arrangements of poor people, and their mutual exchanges, many arrangements fall through, and almost as much time is lost in looking after and contriving the exchanges as is expended in the work which they are meant to promote.
And now to consider certain important points relating to the plan I have proposed for dealing with your third class settlers, whose whole expenses of conveyance you should bear. Two questions obviously arise:—First, is the plan effectual in creating for you a fair security for your expenditure, according as that expenditure is incurred? Secondly, what is to become of the portions of families left behind when the father or other male member has gone out as pioneer?
As to the first question I will answer it by following the settler and observing how he and you stand from the time you first take him up, until you bring his whole family out to him. You first take himself out at a cost of £7 10s. He certainly has it in his power to leave you the moment he has got out, and thus cheat you of the £7 10s.; but his object must be to get out his family, and, until he does get them out, to have them well taken care of at home. If he now leaves you he can not get out his family in many years by his own unaided exertions, and he will lose the benefit of your undertaking to take charge of them at home. If he remains with you and is industrious he can have some of his family out in a few months, and all of them out with him in twelve months. There can be no doubt then that he will remain with you. Towards the end of summer he has fifteen acres of his forty-acre lot broken up, and ten of it sown in wheat; he has a crop of potatoes and some Indian corn; and he has besides earned say thirty or forty dollars in wages from you over and above the cost of his support. If his family at home be such that they could now spare a boy of fourteen or fifteen, or a boy and girl, it would be well that these should be sent out to him towards the close of summer. The advantage of this would be obvious; though for simplicity I have made my calculations above on the supposition of the father being alone throughout the year. During the autumn and winter the father is employed in fencing his farm; by steady work he should be able to have his forty acres fenced in the fall and winter, and also to have his logs
This is altogether independent of the enhanced value which has accrued both to the actual forty-acre farm occupied by this settler and to the adjoining lands from the presence of the large settlement that has come on to them, which cannot be estimated at less than 100 dollars for every family brought in. It is evident then that after you have paid for the conveyance of the settler's family you still stand much better than on equal terms with him; and it is your fault if you do not make such arrangements then and thenceforth as shall make it certain that whatever change afterwards takes place in your mutual position shall only be to make the debt bear a decreasing proportion to the security.
The ordinary wages paid to farm labourers in the United States (and indeed in Canada also) last year was ten and twelve dollars a month for the whole year (that is from £25 to £30 a year) and board and lodging with the fanner's family. You see that this value of labour, hired to make a profit on it, quite consists with the results anticipated above from the labour of a farmer employed upon his own farm.
And now to answer the question: "What is to become of the families, or such portion of the families as are left behind after the pioneer labourers have gone out?" The answer to this is not difficult. There are crowds of unemployed labourers who find nothing profitable to do; and finding nothing profitable to do, can, of course, contribute nothing to the maintenance of the families to which they belong. It may not be mathematically true that any labourer is
all. There are many families comprising two labourers from which no doubt you employ only one labourer, leaving the other unemployed; as to the boys, whose labour in America would be almost as valuable as the men's, I suppose you can seldom employ them at all. These, then, are the families that would exactly suit. Let the unemployed labourer (again, I say, the father, if possible,) go out; and when he has got fairly to work, send out one or two of the boys of his family to him—or even some of the girls, if boys are not to be had. The boys that would be idle and an encumbrance at home would be almost as valuable as the man himself in America, and would greatly increase the amount of improvements made within the year upon the farm. Even the girls that would be an encumbrance in Ireland could either be made directly useful in helping to make a home for the family, or service could be found for them. Thus, although I have only estimated for one of the family going out the first year, it is clear that as much as one-half the family might go out, with advantage to them, and without any too great risk to you, and with the effect of greatly lightening the encumbrance to you at home. It would be only necessary that, with the weaker part of the family which remained at home there should remain some male member or members sufficient to earn them a subsistence, and to give them aid and protection in afterwards going out to join their father. It is obvious that you should positively undertake that the family at home should not be left to want. They should be secured in the possession of their house and their small holding, until the time would come for their joining the father of the family; and they should be made sure of a certain amount of employment, sufficient to subsist them in, at least, as much comfort as they could reasonably expect to have enjoyed if their father had still remained with them. It is obvious from what
You will see that in this plan a great variety of adjustments are practicable. Say that it is not possible to divide a certain family on the precise principle that I have suggested. Well, then, that family has probably another, or several other families, on your estate, related to them, who will be willing, in order to enable their friends to emigrate, to take charge of some of their children until the next year, particularly, if in consideration of their doing so you give them some advantages of employment, or some privilege for that year with regard to the holding of the emigrating family. These children could go out with the families emigrating in the next year, perhaps with the very family that harboured them for that year. This would be an easy arrangement. Again, I would not make my plan so rigid as in all cases with regard to those third class families to refuse to take out more than one person in the first instance. For instance, if a family consisted of a father, mother, and five young children, I would have no hesitation in saying you might take out, in the first instance, the father, mother, and the youngest child, if they could distribute the other children among friends until the succeeding year. You would be quite safe in doing so.
This plan of separating the members of a family, might at first be received with hesitation and disfavour by the labourers; but I feel confident that, wherever, from the general dealings of the landlord and his agent, the people had reason to confide in them as regards their promise in favour of the family left at home, all hesitation would soon disappear. I have frequently been consulted by intending emigrants. Whenever they have had no friends in America, I have always advised them, whatever were their means—(unless indeed these were large enough to make the expenses of staying with their whole family some weeks or months at taverns, while they looked about them, a matter of indifference)—I have always advised them to send out some members of their family a year before the rest, to provide a home to which the body of the family might go straight upon their arrival without incurring either the ruinous expense of taverns or the necessity of making a precipitate and unadvised choice of a farm. I cannot therefore think that to labouring families anxious to emigrate, but able to do nothing to help themselves, and whose whole expenses you should advance, it will be deemed on consideration either a hard or an offensive proposal that you should ask them to do likewise.
For conducting this plan on a large scale, it is evident that you would need a resident agent of a very superior stamp—a man of
at once, without waiting to learn how to do it, while your capital was running to waste and your enterprise to ruin—without in fact acquiring his experience by experimenting at your cost.
The selection of an agent is a point of great importance and no small difficulty. To a proprietor having connexions in America, through whom the ability and integrity of an agent could be vouched to him, the matter would be comparatively easy; but this is an advantage which few proprietors would be found to possess. Still if this enterprise were worth undertaking at all, it will strike you that there are many ways in which this difficulty might be overcome. There are many gentlemen of character, high position, and great business experience in the western country who would undertake the conduct of such an enterprise, and who would probably think four or five hundred pounds a year a sufficient remuneration for conducting it on a very large scale. On this point liberality would certainly be your best policy, if you could once satisfy yourself as to the man.
But a proprietor might even use an old country man as his agent, provided that old country man would take care to associate with him an American of great local experience, familiarly acquainted with the sort of business that would have to be transacted, and generally versed in the dealings common in those new countries. Such men are to be had everywhere in the west, of great intelligence, wonderful practical sagacity and resource, making little show or pretension, and who would act for quite a moderate compensation; not the sort of men to whom you would intrust the sole guidance of your enterprise, but men who would constitute a very perfect supplement to an old country man of general practical ability. One hundred and fifty pounds a year would command the services of a very competent man of this sort. The proprietor might send out as chief agent a person with whose general ability and trustworthiness he was himself acquainted—perhaps a member of his own family. The principal requisite in such a man, besides general intelligence and integrity, should be that he should know how much he had to learn. A self-sufficient, precipitate man, who had not the modesty of mind to learn, would make your enterprise a ruin from the commencement.
As to the whole amount of capital required to carry out the plan, it is easily calculated from the materials I have already given, when you know the number of families who would desire to emigrate, and whose emigration you would desire to assist. Suppose the number of families to be 1,000, a great number, and comprising a very great population—6,000 or 7,000 persons, (seeing that you should always give the preference to large families,) the capital requisite to be employed in directly establishing 320 of these families in the first year, and the remainder of the thousand in the five or six ensuing years, would be about £24,000. But besides the capital employed in the direct outlay of establishing each family, at £75 per family as above estimated, two other capitals would be necessary. In the first place,
within the truth. (Either of these suppositions would go far to controvert the admission that I made at the commencement of the paper, that such an enterprise as the one I describe could not be made to pay if undertaken as an ordinary commercial enterprise). I do not contemplate, however, that you should employ so large a capital for this purpose, although I am persuaded that the doing so would make the enterprise result in a very large profit. Your object would be, not to make a profit but to effect the colonization without loss, and with the employment of the least possible capital. Probably, then, the employment of £6,000, vested in the purchase of land not immediately occupied by your settlers would serve this purpose; though in all that you declined to invest thus between that sum and £20,000 you would unquestionably throw away an opportunity of immensely profitable investment, created by you, to be picked up by any persons to whom the good luck might befall. Let us say, then, that it would require another capital of £6,000 for investment in this way. Besides the two capitals mentioned, yon would require another capital for a farming establishment to be occupied and managed by your agent. I mean that, to conduct in the most effective and economical manner the operation I have described, your agent should have a large farm, with sheds of considerable extent, though rude and cheaply put together, for the winter accommodation of a very large number of cattle; and also barns suited to the extent of the farm, which in summer would give
I have estimated for 1,000 families as a round number convenient for calculation, not that I suppose that upon any, even a very large estate, so many families would be found desirous of emigrating; probably even on the large estate that you manage, 500 families would be as many as would be desirous to go out. About £17,000 would be sufficient capital to establish this latter number in the manner I have been describing. The estimates of expenses and repayments that I have given you are not made at random, nor have they been put together in the closet; they are the result of estimates discussed, conned over, and examined at all points, with great numbers of settlers on the prairies, Irish, American, English and Scotch, as I visited them on their farms, sat with them in their log huts, and walked with them over their fields, or met and conversed with them at way-side taverns in the interior of the prairie country of Illinois and Wisconsin, when I was travelling through these regions in the months of September and October last, for the special purpose of satisfying myself on these points.
I visited an English settlement about 120 miles in the interior of Wisconsin. What I learned at that settlement thoroughly confirmed the views which I had already conceived—that to furnish your settlers with an incomplete outfit, would be to bring upon yourself the very imminent peril of a complete loss. The settlement that I allude to, Gorseville, situate some thirty-five miles west from Madison, was the effort of an English Temperance Association. It has proved, I regret to say, a failure; but so many causes conspired to make that failure inevitable from the commencement, that it is a wonder that the settlement ever had existence, much more that it should have 120 families to show upon the spot; who are all, I was informed,
fenced. This was done at a cost of 200 dollars, that is, 100 dollars for the land, 50 dollars for the log-house, and 50 dollars for breaking, seeding, harrowing, and fencing five acres of wheat. This gave the settler nothing to help him towards his immediate support
You will scarcely think that the sums I have set down as necessary for conveying families out and establishing them upon farms are exorbitant, when you consider that it has cost other landlords £40 a family merely to convey the families out to Upper Canada, bringing them there to seek employment as labourers, which £40 was of course a total loss; while on the plan I suggest, by expending £75 on each family, you establish the family on a farm and have the £75 repaid so rapidly that the instalments being used for the establishment of new settlers, the £75 will in the course of six or seven years have carried out and established, not one family, but three families. Add to this, that it will ultimately be returned to you with interest.
By referring to the evidence of Mr. Brydone, given before the Committee of the Lords, on "Colonization for Ireland," sitting in and established upon farms near Peterborough, in Upper Canada, in the year
As to the cost of forming settlements in America, there is a general tendency in the popular opinion (that is the opinion that is formed, whether by the literate or illiterate, without sufficient calculation), both in this country and in America, greatly to underrate the amount. In this country even practical men are apt to think, that, the settler once arrived in America, there is little further expense required but to procure him a few acres of land at some very small cost; and they therefore talk as if there were no expense worth considering to be incurred in making settlements save the expense of taking the settlers out. In America, again, converse with even practical men on the subject, and until you direct their attention especially to the point, you will find that they only think of the cost of the after settlement, omitting to take into account the expense of conveyance to America at all. Their habit is to consider the emigrants as already arrived. When stating, in reply to the inquiries of Americans, the horrible sufferings of the poor of this country from the famine of last year, I have constantly been asked, "Why don't they come here," the questioners never taking time to reflect that the family that was perishing for want of a shilling to procure them one day's food in Ireland, were scarcely likely to be able to procure £30 or £40 to carry them to Illinois or Wisconsin. Thus the popular (I should rather say the unreflecting), opinion on each side of the Atlantic would reduce the cost of forming settlements to one-half the amount actually required; each set of people leaving out of consideration that half of the expenditure that is farthest removed from their own observation. Another way in which the expenditure necessary for the formation of settlements is made less of by persons giving flying opinions in America is this: they are familiarly aware of the very small amount of ready means with which an individual family of settlers going into a half settled country thinks it necessary to provide themselves. They do not reflect that this settler whom they take as the standard of their estimate, works half his time with persons who have been settled before him, thereby earning himself provisions, the work of cattle, &c., and turning to his use, by a fair exchange of his labour, the capital which he finds realised in the possession of settlers who have preceded him. It does not occur to them that a considerable body of settlers cannot avail them of this means of helping themselves along. A large colony which would procure lands at the upset government price must be taken into the wilderness where no settlers have preceded them, where they will have no neighbours but each other; and they must therefore have, within themselves, all the resources that will be necessary to their progress. Whatever the individual settler going into a partially settled country relies on earning from others, all that, your colonists, going to a totally unsettled neighhbourhood, must possess within themselves.
You will observe that in my estimates for your settlers I have not included horses or waggons;—oxen and sleds must serve them for a time. Horses and waggons however would be acquisitions very early made by such of your settlers as would be distinguished by industry, and what the Americans call "shift." But the presence of some few horses and several waggons would, for some purposes, be an almost indispensable necessity in your settlement from the commencement. You would of course have a number of horses and waggons at your own agency establishment, and no doubt many persons would be found among your first class settlers who would be possessed of means, some of considerable means, after defraying the expense of their own and their family's conveyance. These parties would of course have horses and waggons from the outset; and for the occasional purposes for which they would be necessary for the other settlers, they would of course be at their command in exchange for labour, which the better circumstanced settlers would stand quite as much in need of for their larger harvests, as their poorer neighbours would need the use of waggons or horses for special occasions.
I wish to call your attention to the peculiar facilities afforded by prairie lands for the immediate provisioning of a settlement. Any quantity of potatoes can be planted the first year, they will be ripe for your settlers in the middle of August, and they will thenceforth supply not only food for your settlers, but food also for pigs and cattle. Notwithstanding the potato disease, the crop will be sufficiently reliable to secure you a large quantity of human food,—and also a large supply of pork, in the first year. The portion of the land that is earliest ploughed can also be planted with Indian corn which will produce about half a crop in the first year. Buckwheat will also grow in the newly broken land. Then, as I have already said, the prairie grass not only feeds cattle but fattens them, and also sheep. Hay also is to be had on the prairies for the mowing of it. Thus, in the very first summer, within a few months after your settlers have arrived, you have, of your own produce, potatoes in any quantity; a reasonable quantity of Indian corn and buck wheat; of pork, beef, and mutton, you have all that you may desire to feed; and you have abundance of winter provender prepared for your cattle.
There is an important point to which, in proceeding with a settlement, on a large scale, you should pay especial attention. You should assist your settlers during the first few years to support a clergyman of their own religious persuasion. Your settlers would, I presume, be for the most part Catholic. Their own numbers and their progress in wealth would in a few years make them quite independent of any extraneous assistance towards supporting their clergyman; but for the first two or three years some aid in this way would be peculiarly grateful and valuable to them; and even taking into account your own interests only, such aid would be well bestowed. It could not fail to be advantageous to you to secure a religious and moral influence among your settlers. It would also render your settlement attractive to Irish Catholics already residing in the country. To the Irish Catholics in America, no one attraction towards a place of settlement is so great as the presence there of a
You should also assist for a year or two in the support of schools; in this you would be largely helped by the government school fund of whatever State your settlement would be located in.
Another point to which you should attend would be, to give some encouragement to a medical man well acquainted with the diseases of the western country to settle in your district. Your settlers would arrive so poor that for a time they could offer but slender prospects of emolument to a practitioner; and unless you stepped in to aid them they might at first find themselves totally destitute of medical services.
To meet those public expenditures and the expenses of agency, and also to cover some casual losses from which you could not expect to be exempt, I am confident, as I have already stated, that you would find an ample fund in the sale of reserved lands, whether to strangers or to your own settlers, at a moderate advance upon their first-cost price. Speculations in wild lands are uncertain when the parties purchasing have no power to direct towards them the tide of immigration; but to a party holding in his own hand the sluices of population to direct the current where he will, the speculation becomes a certainty, provided he is content to sell for a moderate advance in price. The price of government land in the United States is so low, (a dollar and a quarter an acre,) that even a considerable advance upon it still leaves the price within the limits of what a settler can well afford to pay, if it were only for the accommodation of having his existing farm enlarged by the addition of land contiguous or nigh to it—leaving altogether out of account the general enhancement that takes place wherever a settlement, with the roads, schools, churches, mills, mechanics' shops, and merchants' stores that pertain to it as the necessary incidents of its growth, exists. A few years would elapse before this fund would begin to be realized—probably two years or three—and the expenses which I have counted that it should meet must at first be paid out of capital. This, you will say, puts the calculations I have made as to what
Especial care should be taken in the selecting of your land. You should first seek a district of good land that was open for entry. You can purchase by quantities as small as lots of eighty acres each. You should carefully exclude from your purchase every eighty-acre lot, that was inferior, either from its general quality, or from having any considerable proportion of its surface taken up by unprofitable land. The whole scheme might most easily be ruined by injudicious selections of land. You might light upon a district presenting a largo unbroken tract of uniform good land, in which case, the district once determined on, the after selection would be matter of little trouble. But you might have to make your selections in a district where it would be necessary to pick and cull a good deal. In the latter case care and time would be required, as the purchasing of any considerable proportion of bad land would involve a loss that no after management could retrieve. It is quite curious to observe the very injudicious selections that are sometimes actually made, even at times when the whole country is open to the selectors to choose from. I have seen a man, who had come into the country with property, ruined by having located himself on the margin of a picturesque lake, where the land was light and unprofitable, while settlers who had come in long after him and located themselves upon other land not over a mile distant—which he had passed over because the scenery was tame, though the soil was fertile and productive—had grown independent and wealthy. The utmost care, then, should be taken in selecting the lands. This might require some considerable time, and you could not count upon making any large settlement in the same year in which you would make your selections. Indeed, in-dependently of any consideration of the season at which you could have your selections complete, you could not bring in any great number of colonists in the same year in which you had made your selection of lands, as you should have some preparations previously made for their reception. It would be desirable, or almost necessary, on many accounts, to have some small settlement made the year previous to that on which any large number of settlers would be brought in.
So far I have spoken of lands that were to be purchased at government price; to procure which, of eligible quality, and in large quantity, you should go to a considerable distance from the
First, you could procure for your settlers lands nearer to a market, by thirty, forty, or fifty miles, than if you had purchased government lands. Secondly, you and your settlers should pay a higher price for your lands, but you would pay it for the most part in instalments, as you received those instalments from your own settlers; and your settlers being so much nearer to a market would receive so much higher a price for their produce that they could easily pay the heavier instalments induced by the higher price of the land. Thirdly, so far as the price of the land was concerned, you need not incur any personal liability in standing between the landowner and the settler, as you would generally find the landowner willing, in selling to you, to look to the improved land as his sole security. Fourthly, in thus dealing with a private landowner you would lose the opportunity of creating a fund to cover expenses and losses by purchasing the lands adjacent to your settlement and selling them when enhanced in value:—But you would have another fund. The landowner would, as I have said, sell to you, on condition of your bringing in a settlement, at a much lower price than he would sell to isolated settlers. He would sell to you for two and a half or three dollars an acre, what he would not sell to the others for less than five dollars; you might, therefore, charge your settlers say one dollar an acre advance upon the price you paid yourself, and they would still find that they got the land cheaper by a dollar than they could procure it from any one else in the neighbourhood. Fifthly, it is plain that this plan would require a smaller capital by about £6,000, on an operation of the extent that I have been calculating on above, than the plan of purchasing
I feel confident that after the nature and object of your operations had become known in the country, there is no conceivable modification of agreement, within reason, into which you would not find capitalists who had invested or were willing to invest their money in lands ready to enter with you. I am confident that you could make such agreements with capitalists as would leave all your own capital free for the establishment of settlers, while the capitalists not only found the whole capital required for the purchase of land but also built mills, brought on artisans, and encouraged the settlement of all those smaller capitalists who are necessary for giving motion to the trade of a district; at the same time of course giving you such advantages as would create a fund for covering your expenses and casualties. This would lead to a still further reduction of the capital which it would be necessary for you to employ; but it would be a sort of thing that you could not find at once ready to your hand;—it would grow up.
The choice between purchasing government lands or dealing with private parties possessing lands nearer to market, should depend on the character of those opportunities of dealing with private parties that might from time to time present themselves. If the desirable opportunities that would sometimes offer could be had always at the moment they were needed, it would be your advantage to deal always with private parties, as you could thus accomplish the same ends by the employment of a much smaller capital.
I would say, then, in recapitulation, that if all the parties who desired to emigrate could pay their own expenses, and were content to settle themselves as labourers your expenses on their account need be very trifling—probably 30s. a family would cover all the expenses you need incur for them. The labour market of the United States is capable of absorbing all the healthy labourers that are at all likely to arrive there from Europe.
But if you are compelled to bear all the expenses of conveyance of the parties to America, the expense is then enormous—not less than £30 or £40 a family; and if they are merely thrown on the labour market, all this must be a dead loss; so that if you would enable a thousand such families to emigrate it must cost you from £30,000 to £40,000, according to the size of the families. If you would settle those parties, however, on farms, and manage in the manner I have suggested, you could recover all your money back again; and although you must expend upon each family about £35 beyond the mere cost of conveyance, still a capital of £33,000 would, not all at once, but in the course of seven or eight years, convey out and settle 1,000 of the largest families, pay its own interest all the time, and in the end be refunded without the loss of one shilling. If you dealt for your land with private landowners, a capital of £27,000 would effect the same operation.
Again, if your emigrants were mixed—some able to pay their own expenses, others not able to pay any—I am confidently of opinion, that having to undertake the whole of the expenses of some parties, you would find that there no longer existed for you the possibility of settling as mere labourers, at a small cost to yourself, those parties who could pay their own expenses. No persons would acknowledge that they had the means of paying their own expenses, if the consequence was to be that they should be placed at a disadvantage as compared with those who could pay no part of their expenses. They would either deny having the means they possessed, or else they would stay at home until they had spent them, and had thus qualified themselves to claim the superior advantages afforded to those who had nothing. If you undertook, therefore, to settle the poorest of your settlers upon farms, you should settle all upon farms. You must settle all as labourers, or you must settle all as farmers; and a mixed emigration, for reasons that I have already explained, would, I believe, require the use of as large a capital as an emigration consisting of the poorest families only.
I will compare, then, the cost of the two modes of settling 1,000 families, mixed as you describe, as labourers or as farmers. They would consist probably of 250 families, who could pay all their own expenses of conveyance; 250 families who could pay one-half of these expenses; and 500 families who could contribute nothing towards these expenses.
To enable them or help them to settle themselves as mere labourers would cost as follows, even supposing that all those who had means would acknowledge that they had them, and would use them to pay or help in paying their expenses.
Thus, to settle 1,000 families such as you describe, merely as labourers, would cost £24,875, which would be all a dead loss; nor is it very likely that even this amount would cover the actual loss; for it is scarcely probable that if you were paying the whole expenses for 500 families, you would find 250 families ready to acknowledge that they needed no assistance from you, and 250 others willing to acknowledge that they could contribute one-half towards paying for themselves.
To settle the same families upon farms within seven or eight years would require, as I have just now stated, the use of a capital of about £33,000, which would all be ultimately repaid with interest. Or, if you found a good opportunity of dealing with private landowners, a capital of £27,000, or even less, would effect the operation.
The advantages, then, of settling emigrants such as you describe yours to be, on farms, according to the plan I propose, is obvious. The great disadvantage of this plan is, that the operation would not be complete for seven or eight years.
But this disadvantage does not exist by any means to the extent
So far I have spoken only of prairie land; but it is possible that a tract of timbered land might be found open for purchase, at government price, sufficiently attractive from its situation to induce you to prefer it to any prairie land that might be offering at the same time. The mention of such a probability may seem strange, after the very decided preference that I have already expressed for the prairie land; but the fact is, that however preferable the prairie land is, per se, in the course of settlement the two species of land find their level, as regards choice, in this way. The prairie land (when it can be had with a due proportion of timbered land near it,) is so desirable, and it is so accessible, that all the very good prairie land has been purchased up for fifty or sixty miles inland from the shore of the lake. The timbered land not being so desirable, and not so accessible, is left behind unpurchased in places within six, ten, and fifteen miles of ports upon the lake, or upon navigable rivers running into the lake; consequently, the choice open to the purchaser at present is not between timbered land and prairie, lying side by side, or in the same district, but between timbered land within ten or fifteen miles of a port, and prairie land fifty or seventy, or even eighty miles distant from it. Supposing the roads between either tract of land and the port to be equally good, the difference in marketable value of produce at the two places would be about 15 cents or 20 cents a bushel, upon wheat,
heavily timbered) so situated that, under all the circumstances of the case, you might prefer it to any tract of prairie then open to you. Your settlers would bring their land under the plough much more slowly; but when it was brought under, and the roads made, it would be a great deal more valuable: the quantity of produce raised by them would be much less—but what they did raise would fetch a higher price. In fact, all the disadvantages of timbered land might be overbalanced by the favourable situation in which you could procure it, added to the superior quality of the land when once cleared. Care should be taken, however, that it was not very heavily timbered: if it was heavily timbered the difficulties of it would overwhelm any set of old country colonists; and, as compared with prairie land, land heavily timbered would, in my opinion, be quite unfit for their occupation, whatever might be its advantages of situation. On timbered land, well chosen, the general result of an operation of settlement would be about the same as I have estimated it on prairie land, though brought about in rather a different way, and with some considerable difference in the circumstances. I will not now enter into these circumstances, nor into any estimates peculiarly applicable to timbered lands, as I feel that this paper has already grown to too great a length.
Permit me to forward to you a letter which I received not long since from the Honourable J. B. Doty, of Milwaukie, lately governor of the territory of Wisconsin. Governor Doty's letter is in reply to one from me asking his opinion as to the possibility of forming a self-paying settlement of families, all of whom would pay the cost of their own conveyance, at least, to the American seaport. You will observe Governor Doty's preference for timbered land; but you will also bear in mind, that the case I put to him was of families who would pay all their own cost of conveyance, and there was no question to be considered as to obtaining repayment of the large sums that would be expended in carrying them out. If the question were put to him respecting parties for whom you should pay their whole cost of conveyance out, I feel confident that the same reasons which have influenced me would also influence him to a decided preference for the prairie lands.
The mere cost of settling families in any cheap way, so that they could begin to live, was the question to be considered; and Governor Doty conceives that families could be so settled with so small an outfit, and in so cheap a way, that the general enhancement of the lands which you should purchase and reserve for sale at an advanced price would in itself reimburse your expenses, even though the repayments from the settlers should altogether fail. I would suggest, that if you publish this letter of mine, you might very advantageously append to it an extract from Governor Doty's letter. Governor Doty's long acquaintance with the western country, his able, practical mind—which has secured him a high reputation in the United States, as a judge, a delegate to Congress, and, ultimately, governor of the territory of Wisconsin—combined with the special bent of his tastes, which have always inclined him to pay particular attention to matters that are kindred to this question, render him a very high authority on the subject. I have not ceased to regret that, after I had travelled two hundred miles specially to see him and converse with him on this subject, I lost the benefit of a personal communication with him, in consequence of a serious attack of fever under which I found him lying, when I reached his residence.
In tracing the plan of colonization suggested in this letter, I feel that I have been very diffuse; but the fact is, I have been anxious to develop as much as possible the reasons of my suggestions, and the elements of all my views, that I might thus furnish you rather with the materials of various plans, than with the rigid outline of any one. No one plan can be suited to all circumstances. You will easily see from what I have said how great a variety of modifications any plan of emigration is susceptible of; and the views I have suggested, perhaps, more than the actual scheme that I have sketched, may aid you in constructing for yourself such a plan as may best suit all the circumstances of the emigration which you are interested in promoting.
In closing, allow me to say, that I am not one of those who look to systems of emigration as likely by themselves to prove, in any considerable degree, an efficient corrective of the evils of this country. Such systems can plainly be made vastly advantageous to the parties emigrating; and wherever, upon really over-crowded estates, it is desired to procure larger accommodation for men (and not for cattle), emigration can be made the means of serving the parties who remain behind by facilitating such re-arrangement of farms as may be necessary for this purpose. In the case of an individual proprietor, whose estate is not sufficiently extensive to afford the means of living to all the population who now occupy it, it is plainly the only remedy that, as an individual, he can use. Single-handed, he cannot stimulate general trade or manufactures, so as to absorb his people, but he can help them to emigrate. I am anxious that it should not be inferred from this letter that I join in the cry of over-population. Over-population was accounted the great source of evil in Ireland, when she numbered little over two millions of inhabitants. If her present eight millions were reduced back again to two, it would be a remedy for over-population strong enough to
It appears to be your purpose to devise a plan by which one estate may provide a home in this country for its surplus tenantry, and create a fund to repay the costs and charges of their removal. The expense of management in such a case must, of course, fall much heavier upon one estate than if several were united in the object.
To tax the labour of the emigrant to pay the expenses advanced for his removal—unless he is secured employment here—would be useless, for the tax would never be paid. Every emigrant will have as much as he can do for three or four years after his arrival, to support himself and family by his industry.
The landlord, or capitalist, may secure himself abundantly, I think, by purchasing, in the first instance, a good tract of land, sufficiently large to enable him to keep off those who would purchase adjoining his settlement for the purpose of speculation, and twice the quantity which would be required for the use of his emigrants for two or three years. If twenty acres would be sufficient for one family, with the privilege of taking the adjoining twenty, if unsold in five years, by paying for it, sixteen families might be settled on one section of 640 acres (the section is one mile square). If forty acres should be allotted to each emigrant family, then eight families would occupy one section—the one-half of the section being reserved for sale.
The section would cost, at the minimum government price, eight hundred dollars. If a tract, equal to a whole township (six miles square) be purchased—which I would strongly recommend—there would be thirty-five sections to be paid for; the thirty-sixth section of each township being already given by government for the support of schools.
These thirty-five sections would contain 22,400 acres, and would cost twenty-eight thousand dollars; and with a small log-house on each alternate twenty or forty acre lot, could readily be sold, say in less than ten years, for one hundred thousand dollars, which is less than five dollars an acre.
The agent, however, should at any time sell unoccupied lots at a stated price—say three, four, or five dollars the acre—to actual settlers, whether foreign or American born.
You will readily perceive, therefore, that any gentleman who is willing to invest his capital in this way would, in my judgment, not only be quite sure to obtain repayment for all of his expenditures, but would derive a handsome profit from the investment. His own estate at home would be improved, and a thousand families rendered comparatively independent and happy.
My estimate is made upon the value of this measure to the person making the investment, without reference to the fact whether the emigrant occupies the lot assigned to him or not, or wholly abandons the settlement, and does not repay one cent of the money expended for his passage, &c. The actual value of the land, where the adjoining country is being settled, is sufficient to secure him against this loss; and it would be the same whether one or all of the emigrants sought their own homes on reaching our shores.
I would leave it wholly optional with the emigrant, when he landed in Wisconsin, to take the land provided for him by the landlord, or seek employment and a living elsewhere. I should entertain no fear for their success. Nobody starves here; and there is not one beggar in Wisconsin, in a population of 300,000 souls.
This liberty would, I am sure, be the means of rendering the colonists
Governor Doty proceeds to estimate the expense of settling each family as follows, He supposes the landlord to commence his expenditure on the arrival of the families at New York. He also supposes the settlement to be made on Transportation to the land selected, for waggon and horses, two and a half dollars per day. This makes 120 dollars, or about £25 sterling for each family, besides the expense of conveying them and their luggage, from the lake port in Wisconsin to the settlement in the interior—the amount of which would vary with the distance, and the quality of the roads. Probably one pound per family would suffice for this purpose. Thus, Governor Doty estimates that about £26 would convey up from New York, and settle in the manner indicated in his estimate, each family of five souls. He also makes a rough statement of the whole amount of capital he would deem sufficient for settling a thousand such families "during a period of from one to six years;" but as he does not enter into any of the explanations which would be necessary to show how he arrived at his conclusion; and I have reason to apprehend that, in the haste of writing a private letter, merely intended for my information, and not for publication, he has really set down wrong figures by some mistake, respecting which I have not had time to communicate with him, I omit this passage. From the estimate made for each family, however, and the other statements of the letter, each reader may make for himself an estimate of the whole amount of capital necessary. I may mention that the whole sum estimated by Governor Doty, as necessary for purchasing land, and for conveying from New York and settling the thousand families, within the time stated, is as low as fifty thousand dollars, or about ten thousand five hundred pounds; but, as I have already said, I believe there timbered land:—
part),must be a mistake in these figures.—M. W. G.
* * * * * * * * *
The investment would be safe, and after the first year, I think, would pay the interest and all agency charges, and after the third year, a portion of the principal, if required.
I do not think it would be prudent to calculate upon the emigrant paying any portion of his indebtedness before the third year, as he could do no more than improve his land and support his family to that time; and this is one reason why a large tract should be purchased at the commencement of the settlement.
You inquire, in what part of this territory should such a colony be located? I notice your preference of a prairie, over a timbered, country. In the counties of Marquette, Postage, Columbia, and Dane, there is good prairie, from sixty to eighty miles distant from Lake Michigan. Scattered lots, in three or four townships, could be obtained in Four du lac or Winnebago counties. I look particularly, however, to the prairie west and north of Fox lake, and examine the country and plots together. Your own observation here will satisfy you that the lands are being daily entered. It requires almost daily examination at the land offices to determine what and how much remains for sale. There is some prairie land north of Fox (or Neenah) river, and east of Wisconsin river; but it belongs to the Indians, is occupied by them, and it could not be purchased and offered for sale by government under three years. Along the valley of the Neenah, from Winnebago lake, up stream, there is much good land, consisting of prairie and openings; but it is reserved from sale at present by government—the proceeds, when sold, being set apart to be applied towards the improvement of the navigation of that river; and the price of each alternate section which is retained by government, is raised to two and a half dollars per acre. I have no doubt but those who settle on this tract, which is three miles wide, will eventually get the land by pre-emption, at one and a quarter dollar per acre; but in this case the occupant must become the purchaser, and no one can
how the public domain can be appropriated to their own use, and after years of uninterrupted possession, finally pay only the minimum price for the land they want.
The best location, in my opinion, for your people, which can now be made in this territory, is in the townships on the Manitoowac river, and between Lakes Winnebago and Michigan. The country is well watered—not heavily timbered, being timbered with maple, ash, bosswood, oak, &c.—lies rolling to the south and east—is broken occasionally with ledges of limestone, and is the best soil for wheat, oats, and potatoes. After thirty years' residence in this part of the country, I do not hesitate to express to you the opinion, that the small farmer, the man who can cultivate but five, ten, twenty, or even forty acres, does so much easier, and with much greater profit in the timber than in the prairies. The man of wealthy who can farm largely—who wants extensive fields and many cattle, undoubtedly does best on the prairie; but a farm in the timber will sell for one-third more than one in the open country, to any man who has lived on a prairie.
You will find that most of the Germans, and also your own countrymen, have chosen the timbered land in this country for their homes. And I have often remarked that the Indians, civilized and uncivilized, have always, in selecting their planting ground, manifested the same preference.
But in this case you are buying land with a view to the interest of the landholder as well as the emigrant—that is, you must make such a choice that the former may be sure to sell again in a reasonable time to reimburse his expenditures. You can readily imagine that land lying within ten or twelve miles of the mouth of a large river, and at its junction with the lake, will be ten-fold more valuable and saleable than if situated from forty to eighty miles inland, away from navigation and a market.
Besides, the emigrant himself would derive great advantages from the proximity of his residence to a small town and landing-place, where he could readily sell every article of produce for cash; and this only a part of a day's walk from his home. The expense and trouble are also saved, of transporting the emigrant, his family, and luggage, a great distance into the interior, to his place of settlement.
There will, undoubtedly, be a public highway much travelled between Manitoowac and Winnebago lake, which would be of great advantage to this settlement, and to this tract of land.
There are now three or four townships of land in that quarter, in which, I think, there have been no purchases made; and as there are no roads leading through them, it is not probable they will attract emigration before next spring.
If the settlement should be made between Lakes Winnebago and Michigan, Manitoowac would be the proper place for the emigrants to land. There are warehouses and a pier there—a lighthouse, and thirty or forty dwellings. If the Fox river country, or the prairie country around Fox lake or Fort Winnebago should be preferred, Green Bay is the best landing; transportation being, by Durham boats, from that town to any place on Winnebago lake, or Neenah or Pauwaugan rivers. This is a cheaper and much more convenient route for emigrants, than any land route or carriage.
There is a beautiful country, almost wholly unoccupied, along the Mississippi, from the mouth of Wisconsin river to Minesota river, as also up the Minesota one hundred and fifty miles. The soil is rich and productive, and the climate healthy. It is capable of receiving and sustaining one-half the population of Ireland. It may be reached by steamboats from New Orleans; and also with boats by way of the Neenah and Wisconsin rivers.
Any further information or explanations which I can give upon the subject of your letter, you may freely command; and I assure you that I remain, &c.,
Dublin: Printed by Alexander Thom, 87, Abbey-street.
The Council of the Convention have thought it well to publish, in the present shape, the Resolutions adopted by the Convention, together with a few papers which were considered of sufficient interest to be entered on the minutes of that Assembly: in order that the members of the several Land and Reform Leagues throughout the colony, associated with the Convention, may have these documents in a convenient form, and without the trouble of searching for them through newspapers.
The following was the first paper issued suggesting the calling of the Convention. It met with a response of general approbation from all the parties to whom it was addressed:—
230 Elizabeth street, Melbourne, 20th June, 1857 .
Dear Sir,—As the danger of the Public Lauds being handed over, in perpetuity, to the present occupants is imminent—the Bill for that purpose having passed its second reading—I am requested by the Committee of theVictoria Land Leaguerespectfully, to ask your opinion and advice on the desirableness and practicability of holding, on an early day, in Melbourne, or some central place, a Congregational Assembly of Delegates chosen from every district and town in the colony, to deliberate and determine some plan of united action, by which this impending calamity may be averted, and immediate steps taken to adjust, on a comprehensive, liberal, and equitable basis, the all-important question of the Land, both as it regards the miner, the agriculturist, and the squatter.I beg to assure you that any suggestions you may kindly offer will be duly appreciated and acknowledged by the Committee of the League. An early answer will oblige.
I have the honor to be, dear sir, your most obedient servant,
To_____ Hon. Sec. J. J. Walsh,
The following requisition was afterwards published in the public papers:—
Convention of Delegates.The various districts and towns throughout Victoria are respectfully invited to elect Delegates to meet in Congress, in Melbourne, on 15th July, to deliberate and determine a plan of United action, by which the Land Bill now before the Legislature may be defeated: and steps taken to adjust, On a broad, liberal, and equitable basis, the all-important question of the Public Lands, as regards the miner, the agriculturist, and the squatter.
By order of the Committee of the Victoria Land League,
Melbourne, 22nd June, 1857 ., Hon. Sec. J. J. Walsh
Several letters having been received making inquiries, among other matters, as to the principles on which the Convention was expected to assemble, and whether it was to be considered as adhering to the views of the Land League, the following circular was forwarded in reply to the letters, and sent generally to all parties to whom the first circular had been addressed:—
239 Elizabeth street, Melbourne, 1st July, 1857 .
Dear Sir,—By desire of the Committee of the Land League, I have the honor to acquaint you that Wednesday, the 15th of July, has been fixed for the Delegates to meet in Convention in Melbourne; the place of meeting to be the Long Room of Keeley's Australasian Hotel, Lonsdale street; the hour, 6 o'clock p.m.I beg to draw your particular attention to the necessity of having your district adequately represented on this occasion: and, with that view, I would most respectfully ask you to exert your influence in getting the people together with as little delay as possible, and urging the necessity of immediate action.
The Committee decline to assign any number of Delegates to any town or district; they prefer to leave this to the judgment and discretion of the residents themselves. It would, however, be exceedingly desirable that as influential a body as possible be deputed to join in the Convention.
We have received several letters inquiring whether the Conference is to be considered as connected with and adhering to the Land League. We beg to say that we do not consider that any Delegate who attends the meeting is bound to any principles, but to represent the opinions and
sympathies of his district. The object of the meeting is to gather and concentrate the opinion of the country; to defeat the present Land Bill; and to originate such a scheme as will be acceptable to the people and may fitly embody the future land policy of the colony. At the same time we wish respectfully to impress upon you that the country has already suffered deeply from vague ideas; and that the use of mere general expressions has opened wide the gate to political falsehood and betrayal. All our present members have been returned on the promise of a "liberal and comprehensive" land policy. We submit that what we now want is an "explicit and intelligible" policy, and that the members of the present Convention should be sent forward on principles sufficiently definite to shape a well-defined and decided scheme that the country shall demand as one man.
There are certain leading principles that will be brought for discussion before the Convention. They are already more or less familiar to the public mind. The Committee hope that they will be tested, and made the subject of discussion in the several districts, and that the delegates will come prepared to represent the opinion of the districts upon them. We beg to suggest the following principles for consideration:—
As Regards the Agricultural Settlement of the Colonywe beg leave to submit—
- That the actual cultivator should be allowed to select for himself, to the extent of a moderate-sized farm, the lands best suited to his purpose, wherever they may be found unalienated in the colony. We recognise the fact that some lands in the neighborhood of towns and settlements have already been so long withheld from sale that they have acquired an exceptional value, and will need to be specially dealt with; but for the general lands of the country, we submit that it is equally opposed to the interests of the individual and the interests of the State that the industry of the people should be directed to inferior lands while superior lands remain untilled.
- We submit that the actual cultivator should be enabled to enter upon his land the moment he has selected it, at a known uniform price, withont auction. We submit that the auction system should be retained merely as a means of determining a preference when capitalist competes with capitalist.
As regards the Unalienated Grass Lands of the Colony, we submit—That these should not be subject to any exclusive occupation. We submit that the best use that can be made of them, for the benefit of all, is to have them open to all, as the gold fields are.
We hope that this latter point will engage the especial attention of the Delegates. This Committee begs respectfully to state that they are unanimously of opinion that there can be no effective land reform as long as the unalienated lands are the subject of any
exclusive occupationfor pastoral purposes.We believe that the opinion of the country is unanimous that the present system of squatting should not be permitted to endure. But
another questionwill be submitted to the Convention; —it is this: Ought another system of squatting be permitted to take its place that shall differ from it only in this, that the runs shall be let by auction, and the number of the runs be increased by breaking up some of the present larger ones. The doctrine begins to be mooted that this should form part of a liberal land scheme. The Convention will have to pronounce upon this question. We submit it respectfully now as the opinion of this Committee, that this suggestion shouldreceive no countenancefrom the people; that to exchange 700 squatters, with runs averaging 60,000 acres each, for 4000 squatters, with runs averaging 10,000 acres each, would be to make our last state worse than our first. If an army of occupation, 700 strong, has been found difficult to dislodge, we submit that the country would have little chance in attempting to cope with an army 4000 strong.As grass lands merely, we submit that the country should no more rent out its grass fields than its gold fields. But the unalienated Crown lands are more than mere grass fields; they are the fields for the future settlement of a population. Unless these lands
remain openfor the choice of the settler as long as they are unalienated, there can beno free settlement. If an exclusive grazing occupation is permitted to precede settlement, then the public must stand outside the fence, as now, until it is the pleasure of the Government Board, dominated as it will be by squatter influence, from time to time to go in and cut them a slice.It is said that a large revenue could be realised by letting the runs by auction; but we submit that this should form no consideration to induce the people of the colony to perpetuate squatting in this shape. In this respect there is no parallelism between an individual proprietor and a State. An individual can make a revenue from his lands only by letting them; a State makes revenue out of its lands by settling them. If settlement is discouraged, every pound of
rentgained is several pounds ofrevenuelost: to a State, therefore, rent should not constitute even a temptation to thus obstructing the industry of its citizens.We have dwelt thus long upon this idea—the introducing a new race of squatters by letting the unalienated Crown Lands by auction—because we believe it to be a coming danger, and one that ought to be forestalled by the Convention.
We do not pretend to enumerate all the subjects that are likely to be brought for discussion before the Convention, but we have been anxious to bring these leading topics early to your notice, that you might afford us the advantage of having them discussed in your neighborhood, and that
your Delegates might come prepared to speak with confidence the opinion of the district they represent. We ask, then, your particular attention to these points:—
- Free selection for the actual settler at one uniform price, without auction.
- All unalienated Crown Lauds to constitute an open country of pasturage, free to the people.
- No new pastoral tenancies to he created when the lands are resumed from the present tenants.
The further topics of
Pre-emptive Right, Upset Price, Taxation of all Purchased Land, &c., &c., we cannot touch within the compass of a circular.I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your obedient servant, Hon. Sec. J. J. Walsh,
On the evening of the 15th of July, accordingly, a large number of Delegates, who had been appointed at public meetings in various districts of the colony, assembled in the Long Room of Keely's Parliamentary Hotel, Melbourne. On this, first evening, sixty-seven Delegates were present. This number was within a few days increased to eighty-eight.
The following are the names of the eighty-eight who ultimately assembled, and the places which they represented:
On this first evening, Thomas Loader, Esq., as Chairman of the Committee of the Land League, the body which had been instrumental in calling the assembly together, took the Chair as preliminary to the inauguration of the Convention.
The Chairman said that the meeting, for the present, would be considered as a Committee of the Land League. As Chairman of that Committee, he would lay before it a short report. The Committee would then disappear, and leave the Convention to organise itself, and shape its own proceedings.
The Chairman then read the following report:—
To the Delegates appointed by the several districts of Victoria to assemble in Convention at Melbourne, on the15th July, 1857 .
Gentlemen,—The present Convention has been specially called into existence by the following advertisement and circular letter issued by direction of the Central Committee of the Victoria Land League.[The circular and advertisement will be found above.]
The Committee of the Land League rejoice in their pleasant duty of receiving you upon this occasion, and unite in offering to you, Gentlemen Delegates, a hearty welcome to the city of Melbourne; and, further, respectfully tender their great admiration and satisfaction at the noble, unanimous, and energetic maimer in which your several districts responded to the call from the Land League; and to you, Gentlemen, in particular, for your patriotic conduct in placing yourselves so punctually in personal communication with the League.
The Committee will furnish you with a short report of their past proceedings, preparatory to committing to your consideration the vast interests of the people in the public lands of Victoria.
The Land League, during the past eight months, has been acting within the immediate reach of a very large proportion of the population of the colony; and having communicated with, and endeavored to ascertain, as far as possible, the views of that population, the Committee have taken the liberty of inviting the several districts of the colony to send Delegates to Melbourne, in order that the judgment of the country might be pronounced upon the Land Bill which is now before the House of Assembly; and, also, that the opinions of the country might be collected, for the purpose of framing the outline of a Bill which would embody the experience and desires, and satisfy the rightful expectations, of the colonists in general.
The Committee, without presuming to do more than suggest, respectfully solicit the attention of the Convention to the principles which are advocated by the Victoria Land League.
The Committee, in conclusion, would suggest that the Convention should at once petition the House of Assembly to stay the further progress of the Land Bill now before the House, until the people are fairly represented in the Assembly.
Wishing you, Gentlemen, every success in your noble and most important mission,
We have the honor to remain, &c., Chairman. Thomas Loader,
One of the Delegates inquired whether it was understood that the Delegates came pledged to the principles of the Land League.
The Chairman said the Delegates came pledged to no principles, save as they might have pledged themselves to the districts from which they were delegated. He would now vacate the Chair, and this would become a meeting of the Convention.
Mr. William Henry Wingfield, one of the Delegates from Dunolly, was then called to the Chair, and the Convention was declared opened.
Mr. J. J. Walsh was appointed Secretary pro tem.
At this meeting the Convention organised itself in the following manner. It was resolved that it should meet in Committee of the whole every forenoon, at eleven o'clock, when all the business, to be afterwards presented to the Convention in its evening session, should be prepared: and, that the Convention should
Before the Convention separated this evening, the following resolution was submitted by Sir That this meeting of Delegates represent the opinion of an immense majority of the inhabitants of the colony, and that such opinion is, that the Land Bill now before the House of Assembly is, in every respect, adverse to the best interests of the colony, and is so erroneous in principle that it is incapable of any amendment, so as to satisfy the just expectation of the colony; and, therefore, it must be at once and for ever abandoned.George Stephen, and unanimously adopted:—
On the next forenoon, Thursday, the Convention, at its meeting in Committee of the whole, elected the following gentlemen, whose names should be submitted to the full session to be officers of the Convention: Wilson Gray, Esq., as President; Sir George Stephen, and Michael Prendergast, Esq., as Vice-Presidents; Thomas Loader, Esq., and Michael Keeley, Esq., as Treasurers; and J. J. Walsh, Esq.. as Honorary Secretary. These names were subsequently approved of by the full Convention.
It was also determined that the business of the first two evenings should be to call upon all the Delegates to express the opinion of their respective districts on the subject of the Land Bill then before Parliament—and the principles proper to be embodied in such a bill as would meet the wants and wishes of the people of the colony. And it was resolved, that the Convention should afterwards adopt a series of resolutions in accordance with the opinions then expressed, and embodying the principles on which a land law suited to the colony should be framed.
Two evenings were accordingly spent in receiving the opinions of the Delegates.
Some of the Delegates came entrusted with resolutions expressing the views of their districts. A few of these will indicate the opinions which predominated in these districts. The Delegates from Ballaarat presented the following credentials:—
To All whom it may Concern.The people of Ballaarat, in public meeting assembled, at the Victoria Theatae, on Saturday, the eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, agreed to the following resolutions:—
Resolved—That the Victorian Crown lands are the property of the people, and that in order to secure the peace and future prosperity of the country, the following principles should form the basis of future legislation:—
- That the actual cultivator snould be allowed to select tor himself a moderate-sized farm, 300 acres being the maximum, at the uniform price of one pound per acre, without auction.
- That the actual cultivator should be enabled to enter upon his farm on payment of a deposit of ten per cent, on the purchase-money, the payment of the balance to extend over a period of five years—10 per cent, the first year, and 20 per cent, the second, and each succeeding year, till the amount of the purchase-money is paid up.
- That all lands in existing towns and their neighborhood which have obtained an exceptionable value should be specially dealt with, and not subject to the above conditions.
- That all unalienated Crown lands should constitute an open country for pasturage, free to the people, and that the present system of squatting is unjust in principle, oppressive in practice, and opposed to the progress of the colony.
- That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is the duty of the Government to resume the Crown lands of the country from the pastoral tenants, and that, in no case, should any new tenancies be created when these lands are resumed.
- That all the gold fields of the colony, as well as all the known auriferous lands in their neighborhood, should be reserved from sale.
And further—That four Delegates be sent to attend the Melbourne Conference, and that a subscription be at once opened to defray the expenses of the delegation.
That the resolutions passed at this meeting be signed by the Chairman, and submitted to the Delegates for their guidance at the Melbourne Conference, to be held on the 15th instant.
And I hereby certify, that—
John Yates, Member of the Local Court of Ballaarat,
Alfred Arthur O'Connor, Member of the Local Court of Ballaarat,
Duncan Gillies, Member of the Local Court of Ballaarat, and
John Cathie, Merchant of Ballaarat,Are declared by me to be duly elected as Delegates to represent Ballaarat at the National Congress to be held at Melbourne.
Chairman of the Meeting, Ballaarat. Joseph Henry Dunne,Dated this 11th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven .
Mr. Strickland, from the Ovens, presented the following resolutions, adopted in his district:—
s. per acre should be fixed as the upset price for all unalienated land. That the land should be open to free selection, at the upset price. Should any dispute arise as to who is the first occupant, it should be settled by four assessors. That the present system of squatting should be entirely abolished, and all unalienated lands should be open to all.
That the unalienated Crown Lands of the colony be open to the public for purchase by selection. That the cost price of agricultural land so selected shall not exceed 10s. per acre, payable in two instalments; fifty per cent, on occupation, the balance in three years.
That the maximum area that can be settled by any one person shall be 640 acres, but whatever the quantity, the water frontage shall in no case exceed the depth.
Mr. Mooney, of Sebastopol, presented, from that district, a document, from which the following is an extract:—
As respects the public lands, the condition upon which actual cultivating occupiers shall have portions of the public domain, we submit for consideration as follows:—
Farms of 160 acres up to 320 acres, the most that any one person can hold in his own right.
The farms to be open to selection; price ten shillings an acre: five shillings per acre cash on taking possession, the remaining five shillings to be paid at the end of three years. When any fraud is practised by persons holding more land, in contravention of this law, such lands may be "jumped," that is, taken possession of by the first person detecting the fraud. All lands, when sold, to bear a public tax per acre towards the public revenue, and especially towards public roads and schools. The unsold portion of the public domain to be considered a common, open to all, but a suitable tax to be levied yearly per head upon all grazing stock of every kind found on the public domain, whether they belong to squatter, miner, merchant, or farmer. New townships to be suffered to gather and grow by the presence and necessities of immigrants. All mines and minerals of every kind to be reserved in all sales for the benefit of the whole people, to whom, in common, they belong. The right to mine upon property already purchased to be fully recognised.
To extract from the speeches delivered by Delegates would exceed the space of this paper. They were generally in accordance with the views expressed in the above documents. The condemnation of the present land bill was universal.
Having elicited the opinions of the Delegates, the Convention proceeded to frame resolutions which would embody the general views that had been expressed, and which would receive the assent of the Delegates, and of the districts they represented.
Cotemporaneously with this business, the Convention arranged an interview with the Chief Secretary, Mr. Haines, and with the minority who were opposed to the Land Bill in the House of Assembly, memorialised the House of Assembly, and adopted a protest against the bill.
The following were the resolutions which, after much careful and anxious
1st Resolution—That all exclusive occupation of unalienated Crown lands for pastoral purposes should cease, and such lands should be open as free pasturage for the public.
2nd Resolution—That every adult person in the colony should have a right to select a claim of land not exceeding acres, at a uniform price, without auction; such right of selection to extend over all the unalienated lands of the colony, surveyed or unsurveyed: this right, however, to be subject to the following conditions and qualifications:—
- Substantial occupation.
- Payment of ten per cent, of the purchase-money on entering into occupation. The time of paying the subsequent instalments left an open question, to be determined at a future time.
- All persons taking up their claims beyond the State survey, to take them subject to having the boundaries of such claims adjusted to the boundaries of the lots as afterwards run by the survey.
- Certain lands that have been long withheld from sale, lying in the neighborhood of settlements, and which have thus acquired an exceptional value, to be exempt from this right of selection, and to be specially dealt with.
- All the gold-fields of the colony, as well as all auriferous land in their neighborhood, to be exempt from such selection: the Crown, in disposing of all waste lands, whether by selection or other mode of sale, to reserve all gold and minerals in such lands, retaining the right to resume such lands, and to permit mining upon them under certain regulations.
- All waters and water frontages with convenient rights-of-way thereto, to be reserved from selection, as more generally provided for in resolution No. 3, hereafter following.
Price: The amount of the uniform price to be hereafter fixed, but not to exceed £1 per acre. Opinions in the Convention varied-between 10
s.and £1.The Convention recognised that a question will arise hereafter as to the restriction of this right, as well as the general right of purchasing land, to races of certain extraction, but they consider the question to be one of detail, on which it is not now necessary for them to adopt any resolution.
The Convention decided by a considerable majority that the number of acres be, for the present, left blank in the above resolution, leaving the number to future opinion to determine; but they also directed it to be made public, that opinion in the Convention ranged from a maximum of 160 to a maximum of 320—preponderating in favor of 320.
3rd resolution—That in all sales of land the Government should reserve all waters and water frontages, with rights-of-way leading thereto at convenient intervals, as easements for the public.
4th resolution—That all lands alienated from the Crown, whether cultivated or uncultivated, should be subjected to equal taxation for municipal and local purposes; and that uncultivated lands should be further subjected to a special State tax.
5th resolution—That, in surveying the lands of the colony, all discretion and all possible favoritism by surveyors, as to the size and boundaries of lots, be excluded, by making all lots of one uniform size, and running the boundaries by right lines.
Purchasers for money merely, without condition of Cultivation or Occupancy.Resolved—That while this Convention recommends that the actual cultivator be invested with the special rights set forth in the foregoing resolutions, they are of opinion that persons who may find it inconvenient or impossible to proceed to cultivate at once should not, therefore, be wholly debarred from purchasing from the State; but they are of opinion that this right of purchase should be controlled by such reasonable regulations as may discourage monopoly without shackling enterprise or obstructing fair investment.
Resolved—That this Convention will not at present attempt to define the exact restrictions by which such purchasers should be controlled; but, holding in view that practical legislation on this subject must still be at least some months distant, they will only suggest certain general principles on which they think those restrictions might be based, leaving the closer definition of them to the result of public discussion and the further ripening of opinion.
Resolved—That, as principles likely to be effective in framing such restrictions, they suggest—
- That the purchaser for money merely, should not, like the actual cultivator, have access to all the lands of the colony, but only to lands brought into market district by district, as the course of previous settlement by the free selection of actual cultivators advances and thus indicates the districts suitable to be brought in.
- That such purchasers be permitted to buy for ready money only.
- That, as provided in a foregoing resolution, No. 4, purchased lands remaining uncultivated be subject to a special State taxation.
- That, as provided for in a foregoing resolution, No. 5, no discretion or possibility of favoritism be left to surveyors in determining the size or boundaries of lots, but that all lots be surveyed by right lines and made of uniform size, such size as may be considered the unit of a reasonably small farm, so that purchasers for money merely, if desirous of having larger tracts of land, shall not, as hitherto, be protected from general competition, but shall encounter, lot by lot, the competition of the small purchaser, besides being preceded by the free selector.
As the best means of indicating the opinions prevailing in the Convention, and the degree of unanimity which existed as to the several principles embodied in these resolutions, some of the principal divisions that took place are here recorded.
On Tuesday evening, July 21st, (Fifth day)—the first resolution was discussed:—
That all exclusive occupation of unalienated Crown Lands for pastoral purposes should cease, and such lands should be open as free pasturage for the public.
After a lengthened discussion, or rather a lengthened expression of opinion, for opinion proved to be nearly unanimous,
The following was the Division List:—
Ayes, 52.—Ballaarat—Messrs. O'Connor, Cathie, Yates. Bendigo—Messrs. Benson, Thompson. Brighton—Messrs. Houston, Thomson. Bacchus Marsh—Mr. James. Colac—"Mr. Miskin. Collingwood—Messrs. Galloway, Gibson, Cattach. M'Minn, Riley, Murphy, Capt. Harrison. Caris-brooke—Messrs. Laskie, Richardson. Dunolly—Messrs. Quinlan, Wingfield. Emerald Hill—Messrs. Short, Leitch. Geelong—Messrs. Whinam, Clarson, Kyneton—Mr. Kenworthy. Mount Blackwood—Messrs. James, Garland. Melbourne—Messrs. Don, J. J. Walsh, Dodds, Sherwin, Warman, Hayden, Patterson. North Melbourne—Messrs. Calvert, Richardson, Hayes, Strickland, Schultz. Ovens—Messrs. Strickland, Smith, Mooney. Prahran—Messrs. Crews, O'Hca. Rich-mond—Messrs. Batten, Cutter, Philip Johnson. Seymour—Mr. Tiernan. South Bourke—Messrs. Johnson, Brooke. Tarrengower—Messrs. R amsay, Gainsford.
Noes, 1.—Richmond—Councillor Henry Johnson.
The second resolution, which embodied several principles was divided into separate propositions for convenience of discussion. The resolution stands as follows:—
2nd resolution—That every adult person in the colony should have a right to select a claim of land not exceeding_____acres, at a uniform price, without auction; such right of selection to extend over all the unalienated lands of the colony, surveyed or unsurveyed: this right, however, to be subject to certain conditions and qualifications mentioned in pp. 6, 7.
The first proposition submitted to discussion, was a resolution to the effect:—
That every adult person should have a right to select a claim of land not exceeding_____acres, at a uniform price, without auction.
This discussion was taken on Wednesday evening, July 22nd. (Sixth day.)
Mr. Hepburn, of South Bourke, moved the following amendment:—
That inasmuch as the unsold lands of the colony are the property of the people of Great Britain, as well as the inhabitants of the colony, it would be both impolitic and highly injudicious to dispose of the public lands, otherwise than at a fair valuation, to be fixed upon by valuators, or by auction.
Mr. Johnson, of South Bourke, seconded this amendment.
After a very full expression of opinion there appeared at the close of the evening, For the amendment:
2.—Messrs. Hepburn, South Bourke; T. Johnson, South Bourke. For the original resolution:
52.—Messrs. Benson, Bendigo; Chisholm, Kyneton; Kennedy, "Nine-Mile," Ovens; John Strickland, Woolshed; Ramsay, Tarrengower; Watt, Bacchus Marsh; Sloane, Heatheote; Dods, Melbourne; Clarson, Geelong; Sherwin, Melbourne; Smythe, Ovens; Doyle, Melbourne; Malcolm, Templestowe; Hayden, Melbourne; Tiernan, Seymour; F. Strickland, North Melbourne; Garland, Mount Blackwood; Cutter, Richmond; Patterson, Melbourne; Don, Melbourne; Gainford, Tarrengower; O'Hea, Prahran: Hayes, Parkside; Mooney, Sebastopol; Walsh, Melbourne; Warman, Melbourne; Gibson, Collingwood; M'Minn, Collingwood; Houston, Brighton;
Thomson, Brighton; Richardson, North Melbourne; Calvert, North Melbourne; Cattach, Collingwood; Galloway, Collingwood; Riley, Collingwood; Quinlan, Dunolly; Murphy, Collingwood; James, Mount Blackwood; Cathie, Ballaarat; Scotson, Fryer's Creek; P. Johnson, Richmond; Wingfield, Dunolly; Yates, Ballaarat; C. W. Thompson, Sandhurst; Leith, Emerald Hill; Crews. Prahran; Short, Emerald Hill; Keeley, Melbourne; O'Connor, Ballaarat; Batten, Richmond; Whinnam, Geelong; and Ken worthy, Kyneton.
The next proposition submitted for discussion was a resolution to the effect that the right of free selection to be exercised by the actual cultivator should not be confined within the surveys, but should extend over all unalienated lands, surveyed or unsurveyed. This proposition produced a longer debate than any other that came before the Convention. It was debated for two nights. It also developed, when first submitted, more difference of views than any other question that was debated. On the first night of its discussion an amendment was submitted "that the right should be confined to surveyed lands." On that night a division took place on the amendment. It obtained the support of a minority of 12. It was negatived by a majority of 32. The division list was as follows:—
For the amendment—
Ayes, 12.—Messrs. Cattach, Collingwood; Patterson, Melbourne; Leitch, Emerald Hill; Short, Emerald Hill; Benson, Bendigo; Scotson, Fryer's Creek; Smyth, Beech worth; John Strickland, Woolshed; Whinhan, Geelong; Tiernan, Seymour; Donovan, Melbourne; Sloaue, Heathcote.
Against it—
Noes, 31.—Messrs. Warman, Melbourne; Hitchcock, Castlemaine; Dr. M'Kay, Prahran; Gibson. Collingwood; Garland, Mount Blackwood; Ramsay, Tarrengower; M'Minn, Collingwood; J. W. Thomson, Brighton; O'Connor, Ballaarat; James, Mount Blackwood; Cutter, Richmond; Murphy, Collingwood; Houston, Brighton; Quinlan, Dunolly; Dods, Melbourne: Walsh, Melbourne; Clarson, Geelong; Wingfield, Dunolly; Mooney, Sebastopol, Ovens; Schultz, North Melbourne; Gainford, Tarrengower; Hayes, North Melbourne; Keeley, Melbourne; Batten, Richmond; Harrison, Collingwood; F. Strickland, North Melbourne; Malcolm, Ballan and Templestowe; Sherwin, Melbourne; O'Hea, Prahran; Calvert, North Melbourne; Haydeh, Melbourne.
On the next evening the discussion was continued on the original motion, the result of which was that the original motion was adopted without any division, in a larger house than had been in attendance on the previous night, the result of the protracted discussion being to bring the Convention nearly to unanimity.
On this night some papers were read illustrative of the question under discussion, which the Council directed to be inserted on its minutes, and which are thought sufficiently interesting to be recorded in this brief account of the resolutions adopted by the Convention.
The following extract was read from Gibbon Wakefield's book on colonisation. The delegate who read it explained that Gibbon Wakefield had laid down several valuable principles in relation to that sort of colonisation for which he (Mr. Wakefield) wrote—a class-colonisation for the benefit of capitalists. Many of these principles were equally good for the colonisation of the people. Wakefield strenuously advocated a-system of a perfectly free selection for his colonists, uncontrolled by officials, and therefore necessarily unconfined by surveys. The extract read was as follows:—
Free Selection. (Extract from Gibbon Wakefield.)There is no business more entirely a man's own business than that of a settler picking new land for his own purpose; and the truism of our time, that in matters of private business the parties interested are sure to judge better than any Government can judge for them, is an error, if the best of Governments could determine, as well as the settler himself, the quality and position of land the most suitable to his objects. He is deeply interested in making the best possible choice. He alone can know precisely what the objects are for which he wants the land. The Government choosing for him, either a particular lot of land, or the district in which he should be allowed to choose for himself, would have no private interest in choosing well; and the private interest of the officials employed by the Government would be to save themselves trouble by choosing carelessly.
In most cases they would be utterly ignorant of the purposes for which new land was in demand. Their highest object as officials (except in those rare instances where love of duty is as strong a motive as self-interest) would be to perform their duty so as to avoid reproach; and this motive is notoriously weak in comparison with self-interest. But, indeed, they could not by any means avoid reproach. For supposing (though but for argument's sake) that the surveyor-general of a colony, in marking out districts to be opened to purchasers, made an absolutely perfect selection with a view to the purchasers' interest, the intending purchasers would not think so. Every man is fond of his own judgment, especially in matters which deeply concern himself. If the Government said to intending purchasers—"Take your land hereabouts," they would reply, "No, we wish to take it thereabouts:" they would reproach the Surveyor-General with having opened a bad district to settlers, and left a good one closed against them. Again, even if any were not dissatisfied at the moment of taking their land, it is certain that if they failed as settlers, and from whatever cause, they would lay the blame of their failure upon the Government, complaining that, if they had been allowed to take land where they liked best, their undertaking would undoubtedly have prospered. For all these reasons (and more might be urged), I would if possible open the whole of the waste land of a colony to intending purchasers; and I hereby declare, that as perfect a liberty of choice for settlers, as the nature of things in each, case would allow, is an essential condition of the well-working of the sufficient price. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Colonial Secretary, or the Private Secretary, thinks that in such a settlement the colonists ought to be "discouraged" from spreading to the east or west, because it will be more for their advantage to spread northward or southward. So individual judgment is controlled, and colonisation forcibly diverted from its natural course, by a great "reserve" in the "improper" direction. The officials of the Land Office have friends—or, perhaps, secret partners, who would like to acquire this or that spot by purchase, but not at present: either their funds are not ready, or they would like to keep their money for use at colonial interest, till the spread of colonisation beyond the coveted spot shall have given it a position value, when, by means of the rogueries of the auction system, or some other mode of benefitting by official favor, they hope to get it for less than its value; so it is "reserved" for their convenience and profit. * * * * According to the whole plan of colonisation which I am developing, there would indeed be no liberty of appropriation for the dogs, small or great; but there would be absolute liberty for the cows, and because all the dogs would be effectually kept out of the manger.
The same delegate read, in support of the same principle of selection unconfined by surveys, an extract from a paper of Mr. Westgarth, read by that gentleman before the Chamber of Commerce, Melbourne, in January of this year (
Free Selection. (Extract from Mr. Westgarth.)What we require is a higher step in settlement, and a more productive use of the lands. It is to these steps, and these higher uses, that the squatting must at once give way, and be dealt with in effect as if it had no existence. Our great error in the past has arisen from the great power of the squatting interest in practically defeating this view, and even raising up an argument to question the necessity for further land sales. If every enterprise of society depended, as a preliminary, on a successful argument, with others than those interested as to its prospects, our enterprises would, I fear, be very few and far between. Allowing every man to make his own calculations for himself, let him also have free scope to carry out his plans. If a man finds a spot that will suit his views, and he desires to settle upon and cultivate it,
let him have the power to do soat once, even although the squatter he is displacing, and the whole world beside, are entirely convinced that he has only ruin before him.And now, as to the condition of our country for the purpose, let us first examine the state of the surveys. The total quantity of land yet sold is 2,200000 acres. The quantity open for selection is 140,000 acres; besides which, there is a smaller quantity, the most of which is partially, but not yet completely, surveyed. The whole surveyed portion, sold and unsold, is less than two and a half millions of acres, of which I believe that not more than a quarter of a million of acres, partially or wholly surveyed, is in advance of the sales. The great desideratum of our colony, therefore—an open choice of its public lands—cannot be obtained within the surveyed territory, nor can we await the long future of such an attainment.
That some future inconvenience may result from the formation of permanent settlements in an unsurveyed country, cannot he doubted,—but in some recent inquiries, I have been agreeably surprised to learn how small is the practical difficulty in this respect, a difficulty, if in this urgent case it can be so called, that should not for a moment be weighed against the benefit to which it is opposed. The following are the views I have been able to arrive at:—
The colony is now sub-divided into surveyors' districts, each of which has a resident surveyor and staff. There are ten or twelve of such separate districts. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *An intending settler having made his selection under the approval of the surveyor
might settle at once, and have his bounds marked out in connexion with local features, the Government reserving only the right to make roads, if necessary, through the ground. Lands surveyed and open for selection are paid for in full on application. This is our present system, but lauds unsurveyed might be paid for by deposit of one-half, or 10 s.per acre, the remainder at a fixed rate, in the case of 20s.per acre being payable when the locality is brought to sale.* * * * * * * * * *
In some such manner I think we might arrive at the great desideratum of opening up the country without the loss of awaiting the surveys.
A still more important paper on this subject was read on the same evening. The subject had engaged the attention of the Convention in Committee on that forenoon, and they instituted an inquiry into the practice of the United States of America in this respect. Several of their own delegates were personally acquainted with the land system of that country. One of them (Mr. William Henry Wingfield, of Dunolly) was particularly familiar with it. Mr. Wingfield was examined before the Committee. His evidence was reported to the full Convention on the evening in question. This evidence as at first reported was confined to the practice of the United States as regards the right of free selection exercised in that country by the actual cultivator, and the limits within which this selection was permitted to range. Mr. Wingfield stated that the right extended over all the unalienated lands of the United States, surveyed or unsurveyed, and explained in detail how the boundaries of farms came to be ultimately adjusted. This evidence when reported was considered so valuable that Mr. Wingfield was requested to submit himself to a further examination comprising a more extended view of the whole land system of the United States; and it was directed that the report of this more extended examination should be entered on the minutes of the Convention.
Mr. Wingfield's evidence was as follows:—
Mr. Wingfield's Evidence as to the Land System of the United States.In the year
1850 and1851 witness was employed as a Topographical Engineer in the Civil Service of the United States, attached to the military department. Was engaged during these years in the topographical survey of the territories in the Far West. His duty was principally to define positions astronomically, to ascertain elevations barometrically, and to determine base lines for the future land surveys. He had also to report botanically, metallurgically, and geologically as to the character of the regions in which he acted; and on some occasions of pressure he took part in the land survey. These duties made him familiar with the land surveying system of the United States and generally with the circumstances under which immigrants settle into the new countries of the West. In the course of these duties he has been all over the Western regions from Utah to Minasota.Free Selection for the Actual Cultivator.Witness is familiar with the system of free selection and pre-emptive rights which prevails in the United States. By this system the actual settler is entitled to enter upon any land that has not yet been brought into market, select a claim of 160 ácres wherever he chooses, and occupy it without any payment until the district is brought into market. When the district is afterwards about to be brought into market, he is entitled at any moment before it is actually brought in, to purchase this claim at the upset price of dollars an acre without any auction or competition. The only condition is that he must show by affidavit that he has occupied it as his homestead for at least six months immediately previous. In exercising this right the settler has not to ask permission nor license of any kind.
The settler is not bound in selecting his claim to keep within the surveys, but may select as freely beyond them as within them. But this very circumstance is itself the cause of the surveys being rapidly extended in every direction towards which the stream of population flows. No person has anything to gain by retarding them, because retarding them could not stop the settler nor hold the lands back for any unfair purpose; therefore no sinister influences are used to retard surveys, and they are not retarded, but are pushed rapidly forward wherever the movement of population indicates the direction. They are generally kept well a head of population, but occasionally where some inviting lands lie far out, it will happen that settlers go beyond them. To this subject witness will revert again. Witness considers this right of free selection for the actual cultivator over all the unalienated lands of the colony, coupled as it is with the right of unrestricted pasturage over all unsold lands, as the key-stone of the American system of settlement. It is the first stage of settlement, and influences and regulates all the succeeding stages. At this stage the actual settler is free from any competition of the capitalist. No person can get land at this stage
without actually tilling and cultivating; unless one actually settles and cultivates he must wait until the next stage at which the lands are "brought into market." This right of the actual settler is, as already stated, confined to a claim of 160 acres for any one person, but when the district in which he has settled is afterwards "brought into market," an operation which witness will presently explain, he may add to his farm, to any extent, by purchasing at that stage on the same terms with the general public. The surveys are always very far a head of the land that has been "brought into market," and afford the most ample scope for a free selection of the actual cultivator within the surveyed lands, before the district comes to market, and before any of it can be sold for money merely.
The Pasturage of all Unsold Lands Free to the Whole Public:Before passing on to speak of the stage at which the lands are "brought to market," witness wished to advert more particularly to a matter already alluded to, viz., the rights of the settler with regard to the grass of the unsold lands. This he conceived to be an important consideration at all stages of settlement, as in a new country large tracts of inferior land will remain for very long peoriods unsold, affording to the settlers on the purchased lands valuable rights of pasturage if these lands are left free to them for that purpose. But in the early stages of settlement this consideration is one of paramount importance. At that stage a very large proportion of the land is still unsold and unoccupied. The quantity of natural grass land is very great, and the privilege of pasturage affords to the settler not only what he most stands in need of—provender for the cattle necessary to his farming operations, and milk, butter, cheese, wool, and meat for his family—but also, at a time when he is yet distant from markets for agricultural productions, it gives him in the stock themselves, and in wool, a produce which is capable of being carried to any market, however remote.
In the United States all the unsold lands are the open pasturage of all the settlers. Except the pre-emptive claim of the settlers (160 acres each) there is no exclusive occupation of any land until it is sold. No such persons as squatters are known or thought of in the sense in which that term is used here—persons holding the public lands in their exclusive occupation for pastoral purposes before they are sold. Without the right of open pasturage, settlement could not pour over the country as it does in the United States. Witness would not say that the people of the States carefully guarded this right, because that would intimate that some different state of things had ever been presented to their conception; but he would say that they had never thought of a state of things in which any set or class of persons should take the exclusive use of the public lands while they were still the property of the whole people. The value of this right of pasturage to the settler, Mr. Wingfield proceeded to say, could only be understood by those who had lived in a country where it was denied to them. He never knew any difficulties arise from the intermingling of the cattle of different settlers, in these open wastes. There is more than grass enough for all; every man naturally feeds his cattle in the neighborhood of his own homestead, and the 160 acres which he has occupied as his pre-emptive claim. The consequence of this open pasturage is: to the settler, that he has not only abundance of milk, butter, cheese, meat, and wool, for his family, but a large surplus for the market, besides feed for his working stock, all without cost; the result to the general public is that cattle are very abundant, and meat and all grass produce are plentiful and cheap in the towns and cities supplied by those settlers. Beef of prime quality is to be had at from 1½d to 2½d. a-pound; milk and butter are abundant; fresh butter can be had at from 4d. to 5d. a-pound. This abundance is the manifest consequence of the grass of the unsold land being open to all. Every man has feed for cattle in any numbers that he desires to keep them. The farmers of the Western States look upon the produce and increase of their stock as so much clear profit over and above the proceeds of their agricultural land. This cheapness of the materials of life co-exists with a comparatively high rate of wages; the wages of a laboring man in those regions being a dollar to a dollar and a quarter, that is 4
s.to 5s.a day; and a good mechanic, from 1¾ dollars to 2 ½ dollars, that is from 7s.6d.to 10s.The general features of the country of which witness has been speaking much resemble those of Victoria. All the United States territory west of Ohio is in great part an open country; tracts of timbered land alternating with open grassy plains, unincumbered with a tree. These plains are called prairies. They are sometimes flat, sometimes high undulating uplands. The farther we proceed west through Illinois, Iowa, &c., the larger are the prairies, and the scarcer the timber. Besides timbered and prairie land, there is also a good deal of land of an intermediate character, called Oakopening land, lightly interspersed with dropping trees, and park-like in its scenery. It would be quite as profitable to a race of great pastoral squatters to occupy for pastoral purposes these territories of the United States in advance of settlement, and keeping settlement back, as the like occupation has proved to this class of persons in Australia. Indeed, the profits would be of a more certain and permanent character in proportion to the greater population of the United States, as such squatters would have the monopoly of supplying meat to a large proportion of a population now numbering nearly thirty million of people. So, too, if the people of the United States wanted to make a revenue out of their lands by giving them in exclusive occupation to a class of great grazier tenants until they were take up for exclusively agricultural purposes, they could receive
a great rent from them; but any person proposing such a policy would, witness believes, be regarded, there, as scarcely sound in intellect. It would kill out the working settler, prohibit the pioneer, make a country of master and servants, and effectually stop the progress of civilisation and settlement over the continent. In a word, it would produce what we have in Victoria. Witness has also been in California, and knows that the unsold lands of the United States in California are the open pasturage of the public in that country as well as in the Atlantic States, and there also this free pasturage is the means of great facilities and great profits to the independent settler as well as of great abundance and comparative cheapness of meat, milk, butter, and all grass produce, and indirectly of agricultural produce too, to the rest of the community.
[Since Mr. Wingfield left town, he has written to the Council of the Conveution, calling their attention to the following passage in a recent commercial article of the Argus, shewing, on the authority of an American writer, why agriculture has been profitable in California, with prices lower and wages at least quite as high as in Victoria:—It will be found in the
ArgusofAugust 20, 1857 , Commercial Intelligence. TheArgussays:—"In California the fanners complain of their prospects, but without much reason as yet. The pursuit has been a profitable one for them hitherto, and they should not grumble if they have short crops one season, after several years of abundance. They have one great advantage which is denied to the farmers here, and that is the opportunity of keeping stock on the public lands at little or no expense. In all other respects they have the same disadvantages to contend with as agriculturists in Victoria have: labor there is quite as high, and prices have been usually lower: still the pursuit is allowed to be profitable. The following paragraph is taken from the letter of a correspondent to one of the New York journals:—
"'For the past two seasons farming here has been highly remunerative. No class of our population better deserved, and none met with, greater success. The thrifty industrious tiller of the soil has made money, and is making it To be enabled to chronicle this is most gratifying to me as a Californian. But why should not the farmers do well? Our soil is among the richest, easiest cultivated, and most productive in the world. The expense of keeping cattle or horses is next to nothing, for the plains—on which there is provender during the whole year, with no frost or snow to render it inaccessible—are open to all.' "]
The matter of which witness has just spoken—the right of open pasturage over the unsold lands—is a matter of very important consideration in all the stages of settlement. Witness has specially spoken of this right of free pasturage in connexion with the earliest stage of American settlement, because at that stage its value to the settler is so great that without it he could not settle; but it is a matter of the greatest importance at all stages of settlement,—in fact, until the country is filled up.
Bringing the Lands "Into Market."The second stage of American settlement is when the lands "are brought into market." "Bringing the lands into market" may be said in a general way to mean in the United States the same thing that the like term would signify in Australia. It means offering the land in exchange for money. In the United States, however, this is done under arrangements very different from the arrangements in Australia, and all the American arrangements tend to make favoritism impossible, to discourage the monopoly of the capitalist, and to facilitate settlement. The waste lands belong not to the several states in which they are situate, but to the Federal Government. When lands are about to be "brought into market":—In the first place, they are not brought in by scattered or isolated lots, nor in an irregular or capricious manner. It is advertised for six months beforehand in the Government Gazette, published at Washington, not that certain lots, but that a certain district of country is about to be brought to market on a certain day. The whole district—generally a district of say 20 miles by 20 or 30, that is, from 400 to 600 square miles—is brought into market on this occasion without a single lot of it being excepted or withheld from sale save for a few specified purposes. Again, this district is all surveyed into uniform lots: first, into square miles, or sections of 640 acres, then by right lines into quarter sections of 160 acres, and these again are divided each into two 80 acre lots. The sale takes place at a land office near the spot. The whole district being thus brought into market, all at once, on a given day, it is a great public event in the region of country in which it takes place. It takes no one by surprise, but it has been long known beforehand. Not only has it been advertised for six months in the Washington Gazette, but long before the sale has been determined on, and advertised, it has been the subject of public debate and consideration.
The district about to be "brought to market" is about the size, and very frequently has already acquired the organisation of a county, a considerable population being already settled there on pre-emptive claims. The whole district, and not a lot here and there, is what is to be dealt with. The event therefore is one of common interest, affecting all the inhabitants. These inhabitants are in a position to influence the event, accelerating or retarding it through the senators and representatives of their state, and of their Congressional districts in Congress. It is therefore an event not merely known by means of the Gazette six months before hand, but anticipated and agitated in the district
long before it is announced in the Gazette. It may be safely stated that the people of the district itself, and the districts about it, have at least twelve months actual notice of an approaching sale. Before the given day, all persons who have settled on pre-emptive claims, if they would avail themselves of their rights, must file an affidavit at the land office (near the spot), that they have occupied their claim for at least six mouths before the day of sale as their homestead; and that they have made certain stated improvements, being just enough to constitute a test of actual and bona fide occupation. This affidavit being filed, they pay the upset price of 1¼ dollars an acre into the office, and the land is then theirs. This must be done before the day of sale. On the day of sale the whole district, excepting those pre-emptive claims, is put up for sale in eighty acre lots, and offered lot by lot at auction. If any one wants a larger tract than eighty acres, say eight hundred acres, he must buy ten eighty acre lots. It will be seen at once that at this sale the land can scarcely be pushed by auction to a price materially exceeding the upset price, inasmuch as any one who may have thought any lot of 160 acres desirable enough to induce him to go and settle on it six months before hand, for the purpose of securing it at upset price, was free to do so. The result is that the auction produces no material enhancement of the upset price. It appears by statistical returns extending over all the lands that were sold in ten years that it has not enhanced the average price more than 1½d. or 2d. an acre on the upset price of 5 s.2½d. The whole district lot by lot, having been rapidly passed under the hammer, all the lots that remain unsold are thenceforth open to be purchased at the land office at upset price by the first comer. Very commonly ¾-ths of the lots remain unsold. They are all open for selection at the upset price once the auction is over. Often when there is much inferior land in the district, as much as 7/8-ths or 9-10ths of the whole surface of the district remains unsold, and is thenceforth open to selection to the first comer, who pays his money into the land office. Those who have settled on pre-emptive claims are of course, as already stated, equally free to purchase at the auction, and to select after the auction as any other parties. In this manner they can enlarge their original 160 acre farms to any extent that their means permits them. Until the district has thus been brought into market, they cannot secure more than 160 acres, and this consideration is always the efficient one in determining whether the first pre-emptive settlers will use their influence in promoting or retarding the bringing of their district into market. Of course capitalists who up to that period are themselves shut out are always anxious to have the land brought to market. In the early settlement the pre-emptive settlers are anxious to have the district kept out of market, for until they have been a year or two settled they are scarcely prepared to buy even their 160 acre claims. But after a few years great numbers of them are prepared not only to secure their pre-emptive claims, but to enlarge their farms by purchasing a further extent of land, either at the auction, or by selection after the auction. In time, therefore, the pre-emptive settlers who have put some money together become anxious to have the opportunity of making these purchases, and are desirous to have the district brought into market. This expression of "bringing the land into market" is, it will be observed, a very appropriate and significant one. A thing may be said to be "in the market," when it is to be had for money. None of the land of the United States can be had for money until the Government has proclaimed and brought it "into market" in this manner. Thenceforth it can be had for money merely. Before that period any inhabitant of the state can have the choicest 160 acres of the public lands by settling on it, but no man can have an acre of it for money.To recapitulate:—In the United States Land System there are
threestages.First, before the land is brought to market)the actual cultivator,and he alone, cau choose 160 acres, not more, where he wills, overall the unalienated territory of the Union. He can occupy this without payment until the district is brought to market. When the district is. brought to market he has the pre-emptive right to buy this claim without auction at the upset price of 1¼ dollars, that is 5s.2½d.per acre.Secondly, the day that the land is brought to market; this is the first day on which any person can buy land for money. This day may be considered a second stage, though a very short one. On this day there must need be many persons who have been waiting for the opportunity to buy lots in the district that is brought in, and several may have an eye on the same lot. The preference is decided by auction; all the lots of the whole district, except the lots already taken by preeemption, being put one by one through the auction on that day. It seldom happens, however, that more than a small proportion of them are then sold. The great bulk of them still remain. And then comes thethirdstage. All the lots which remain are from that day forward open to the free selection of the first comer who chooses to pay the upset price for them. Any man can then take as many lots as he finds vacant and is able to pay for; the check upon inordinate purchases being that, the moment land is purchased from the Government, it becomes subject to taxation.Settlers Going Beyond Surveys.—the Great Advantages of the Right to do 80.—the Slight Inconveniencies in so Doing.The pre-emptive settlers often go beyond the surveys. Witness wishes it to be understood, however, that in his experience the result of allowing the settlers to go beyond the surveys has been that they generally have no need to go beyond them, as the surveys are, under such circumstances, sure to be pushed rapidly forward. There is nothing to be gained by holding them back, as holding them back would not prevent the people from going on, and could not, therefore, be practised
with the effect of reserving any special region for friends or favorites to have early information of the survey, and to seize the first opportunity. Witness has, within his personal experience, known several cases, however, in which the settlers did take their pre-emptive claims beyond the surveys. No inconvenience worth considering resulted. Such settlers find it necessary, as already stated, to adjust their boundaries to the lines of the surveyed allotments when the survey reaches them, as the Crown grant which they ultimately obtain describes the allotment by the Government lines. Witness has frequently, in the course of his own surveys, seen these settlers re adjust their boundaries when the survey overtook them, and it gave very little trouble. It will be observed that the uniform character of the United States survey—all the lots being of uniform size—gives the settler a facility for anticipating where the boundaries of allotments will run, if he is within a few miles of any existing survey. Generally speaking, in taking up a land claim, the settler so endeavors to arrange his boundaries that they may coincide as nearly as possible with the subsequent lines of the survey. He is not always able, however, to succeed in this; the greater or less accuracy with which he does it will, of course, depend upon the distance which he is in advance of the survey. If he has gone far in advance, it is not possible for him to pay any regard to the future survey; he is, in fact, too far ahead of it to do so. If he is within five or six miles of the survey, he may be able to form a tolerably correct idea of the future lines: at all events, accurate enough for all general purposes in settling the boundaries of his 80 or 160 acre allotment. In forming the survey, the American surveyors adapt themselves to circumstances. In a level country, the lines of the survey are run by the cardinal points. In such a country, the settler even at a considerable distance from the survey can anticipate by private survey where the boundaries of his pre-emptive claim are likely to run, with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes. In regions that are greatly broken by mountain and valley, however, the surveys are of necessity topographically adjusted to these difficult features of the country, and the settler cannot anticipate what circumstances may guide the surveyors in the direction of their lines. Thus it often happens, either from the great remoteness of a settler's location from all surveys, or from the location being in a broken country where the future discretion of the surveyor cannot be anticipated, that a settler chooses his pre-emptive claim without being able to select it in reference to existing surveys. But this creates no difficulty of any account. If the settler can approximate the boundaries of his claim to the future survey, he does so. He builds his log-house as near the supposed centre as possible. He erects his permanent fences near the centre, and makes but a snake fence round the presumed exterior boundaries. This snake fence is of a purely temporary character, and is easily removed in accordance with the lines of the survey when ultimately determined. In localities remote from the survey, great aberrations from its future lines take place—it is, in fact, impossible that it could be otherwise; the subsequent adjustment, however, is effected without trouble. Witness has seen instances where a whole valley had been taken up by pioneer settlers, and where the boundaries of each man's allotment had to be removed from 100 to 200 yards each. He has seen instances where the lines of a survey ran through the temporary log cabin; nevertheless, there was no complaint. The instances which he has in memory at this moment occurred in Pyke County, Missouri State, but they occur everywhere. Their permanent houses were not put up by the settlers until the surveys were completed and the boundaries settled; and the removal of the temporary log cabin, or the removal of the temporary snake fence, was not regarded in any way as a hardship. It was taken as a matter of course. In fact, on these occasions of the removal of boundaries or huts, the pioneer settlers, instead of complaining, just turned to and helped to put one another right. It is common throughout all the Western Districts of the United States to find pioneer settlers established in the far interior for many years, on locations of their own selection, before the survey of the district was made. He had known instances where these pioneer settlers had cropped the land, season after season, prior to the survey coming up with them; and yet, when the survey did reach them, the boundaries of their allotments were adjusted to the lines of the survey without contention or any serious inconvenience, though a patch of ground which had grown wheat for one settler for many seasons was incorporated in the location of a neighboring settler,—he getting the land on the other side in lieu of it. Each of the parties had taken up the ground subject to the condition of this subsequent removal of boundary, and the nature and character of their improvements were adapted to it.
Facilities for Making Rapid Surveys in Victoria, and the Possible Cost of Such.Mr. Wingfield was further examined as to the possibility of accelerating the surveys, so as to afford every facility for allowing settlement to proceed at once with freedom and convenience.
Mr Wingfield's evidence on this subject was to the following effect:—
He knew there were ample materials in the colony for pushing forward the surveys with any degree of rapidity that might be desired. There were abundance of qualified surveyors in the colony. In making a survey of a country, the first thing to be done would be to make a topographical survey of it, defining by astronomical observation the true position of the most prominent features, and its highest elevations. According as this was done the sections could be laid off by the land surveyors with great rapidity; in fact, with efficient surveyors and assistants, the land could be surveyed almost as fast as the surveyors could walk. It would be only marking out the
ground which the astronomical surveyors had already marked out on paper. He presumed that the colony must be already topographically surveyed. It seemed hardly possible, after the country had maintained such a numerous staff of surveyors for so many years, that the true position of the prominent features of it should not be already defined. At all events, great part of the work must be already done; and even if it had all to be done, if nothing were vet done, two staffs of topographical surveyors, of nine men each, ought to make a topographical survey of the whole colony in a year, at an expense of about,£10,000, and this allowing for a geologist, a botanist, and a draughtsman, at a salary of £500 each, to he attached to each staff. As each portion of the topographical survey was done, the land survey would proceed with great rapidity. The rapidity of the survey would depend on the minuteness of the sub-divisions. A staff of twenty-five men, properly organised in five parties of five men each, surveying on a plain, could lay off over 26,000 acres a-week, in allotments as small as 160 acres each. Twenty-five men in five parties of five each, each party walking over four miles in one day, would give 26,400 acres in six days. Making allowance for the defining of hills, rivers, &c., 20,000 acres could, with this number of men, be surveyed in that time, which would give about 1,000,000 of acres in a year. If the sub-division did not proceed lower than a mile square, and this would be sufficient for the first survey if it were necessary to proceed with great despatch, a staff of twenty-five men (making the same proportionate allowances as in the last case) could survey 1,750,000 acres in the year, in sections of a mile square. Six such staffs, consisting in all of 150 men, could survey over 10,000,000 of acres in such sections, in a year. Allowing each party of five to consist of cue chief surveyor, at £400 a-year, two assistant surveyors, each at £300 a-year, and two chain men, at £100 a-year each, the salaries of each party of five would only cost £1300 a-year, less than £7000 a-year for each staff of twenty-five. Six such staffs would be £42,000 a-year. Make the most liberal allowance for supplying each staff with tent, provisions, and modes of conveyance as they passed along; and add any large allowance within reason for the expenses of the department and the staff necessary to the department, together with the due proportion of the cost of the topographical survey, and then spread the total sum over 10,000,000 of acres, and the result will be an insignificant sum per acre for a survey into sections of a mile square. If the exigencies of settlement in any direction made it necessary to proceed with greater rapidity in that quarter, the speed could be accelerated to almost any degree, without an increased staff, by running the sections, say two miles square, or even four miles square, leaving the settlers for the present to make rough approximations to their boundaries by the aid of private surveyors until such time as the Government surveyor had leisure to fill up the detailed survey down to 160 acres, or even down to 80 acre lots. Approximate calculations are easily made both as to the expense and the rapidity with which the country could be surveyed, and the result in each respect will show that the settlers may be permitted to settle where they like beyond the surveys without any fear that the surveys need lag far behind them. The expense of survey in the United States is 4½d. an acre, sub-dividing down to 80 acre lots. It need not much, if it at all, exceed that sum here. Sites of Towns and Cities.Mr. Wingfield was further questioned as to the practice of the American Government in laying out towns. His evidence was that the Government never does anything of the sort; at least, he never saw such a thing done by Government, though he has seen towns and cities growing up of themselves by hundreds. In a country were settlement is unobstructed in every direction, towns grow up naturally in the currents and cross-currents of traffic; on the ports of great waters, and on convenient points along the course, or at the junction of rivers. He has never seen the Government interfere in founding them, nor attempt to make a profit by withholding the presumed sites of them from the earliest use that the public could put them to. He has always understood that the sites of the great cities of the West were originally purchased from the Government at the upset price of 1¼ dollars an acre, or some insignificant advance upon it.
While witness has spoken throughout this evidence of an uniform upset price of dollar an acre, he is aware that the United States Government has occasionally reserved certain tracts of land for the benefit of railroads, or the improvement of river navigation, which they have held until the lands fetched 2½ dollars an acre, but these are exceptional cases, not interfering in any appreciable degree with the general principle on which that Government acts in the disposal of its publtc lands.
Mr. Wingfield's statements respecting the system of selling lands in the United States, and the advantages thence resulting to the settlement of the country, were confirmed by Mr. Gray of Melbourne, Mr. Patrick Hayes of North Melbourne, Mr. Mooney of Sebastopol, Mr. Gibson of Collingwood, Mr. Rielly of Collingwood, and others,—all of them Delegates, who had resided for some time in the States.
Ample confirmation of Mr. Wingfield's statements as to the rapidity and cheapness with which the colony might be surveyed was tendered by actual surveyors, but the Convention thought it unnecessary to accumulate further evidence on the subject.
The Council of the Convention have had their attention called, in one of their recent meetings, to a passage in a book, published by a well known English gentleman, descriptive of the United States as a location for emigrants. The author is Mr. Sydney Smith, at one time Secretary to the English Corn Law League. The book is entitled "The Settler: New Home, or the Emigrants' Location." It was published in London in
The farms are generally made on the prairie, near to the timbered land (for convenience of firewood, fencing-stuff, &c.) The abundance of grass growing on the prairie, and the quantity of wild vegetable food for animals, offer an ample subsistence for horses and cattle, sheep and hogs, during the summer months. (The ground is covered with snow through the winter months.)
The number of these animals that a farmer keeps is only limited by the amount of winter food that he can raiseon his farm. The actual farm is enclosed land, used for the sole purpose of growing the grain, or grass for hay; but not for summer pasturage.The great pasture is all outside —open to everybody, and to everybody's cattle;and the abundance and extent of the range is one of the resources of a new country. The cattle thus let loose on the wide world do not run away as people who have kept them only in houses and enclosures are apt to suppose.Why should they? There is abundance of food everywhere.The animals like to come to their home where they have been wintered, and a little salt given to them every time they return will generally
circumscribe their range within a mile or two from home.In the autumn or early winter we bring them into the farm, and feed them night and morning. In the day, during the moderate weather of winter, they browse about the woods, and the skirts of the prairie. Thus are cattle and horses raised in great numbers.
In the same publication, and almost on the same page, are numerous letters from settlers, showing the prices of meat and other articles of provision in these regions. These letters make it sufficiently evident that cheap beef can be raised without the aid of monster squatters; and that, in fact, the way to raise beef cheap is to do away with the monster squatting of this country. The letter says:—"I will give you the price of various articles of food in English money, that you may understand it better: Beef 1½d. a pound, mutton 1½d. a pound, pork 1½d. a pound, flour 20s. per barrel of 195 lbs., veal 1¼d. per lb., a turkey 1s. 6d., hens 6d. each, butter 6d. per lb., sugar 3½d. per lb., tea 2s. per lb., &c., &c."
The same letter shows that these low prices did not produce low wages, for concurrently with them wages averaged from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a clay for the mere laborer, that is from 4s. 2d. to 5s. 3d., and this in a country that had no gold mines, and depended for its wealth and wages fund solely on the free access opened for its population to its best virgin soils, and its natural pastures.
The above extracts present a succinct epitome of the grounds on which the two cardinal resolutions—the first and second—were based.
The first and second resolutions having been adopted, the other resolutions, down to those which relate to "purchasers for money merely," were adopted after much consideration, but, except the fourth resolution, without any division of opinion.
As to the fourth, which relates to the taxation of all lands, once they are alienated from the State, and by which it is resolved that uncultivated lands ought to be subjected to a special State tax, there was some diversity of opinion. Several Delegates thought that it would sufficiently discourage the monopoly of speculators if all lands were subject to equal taxation, but the resolution was ultimately carried in its present shape by a large majority.
The next resolution that gave rise to any diversity of opinion was the first resolution, under the head of "purchasers for money merely." This resolution was discussed on Friday evening, the 31st July. The resolution is as follows:—
That while this Convention recommends that the actual cultivator be invested with the special
rights set forth in the foregoing resolutions, they are of opinion that persons who may find it inconvenient or impossible to proceed to cultivate at once, should not, therefore, be wholly debarred from purchasing from the State; but they are of opinion, that this right of purchase should be controlled by such reasonable regulations as may discourage monopoly without shackling enterprise, or obstructing fair investment.
Mr. O'Connor, of Ballaarat, moved, and Mr. Mooney, of Sebastopol, seconded the following amendment:—
That this Convention cannot recognise the right of the State (which is merely the trustee for the people) to alienate any portion of the waste lands, except on the terms stipulated heretofore by the Convention, viz., "substantial occupation."
After a protraeted discussion, a division was called for. There were 46 members in the room. Of these, 6 voted for the amendment, 2 declined to vote, and 38 voted for the original resolution.
All the other land resolutions were carried after much consideration and debate, but without giving rise to any difference of opinion in the Convention.
It will be observed that, on those resolutions which gave rise to any diversity of opinion, the dissentients were so few in number that it may be safely stated that these land resolutions were unanimously adopted by that great mass of opinion which was represented at the Convention.
While the Convention was engaged in discussing these land resolutions, it was contemporaneously performing other work.
Immediately after its assembling, it appointed, as already stated, a Select Committee to arrange an interview with the Chief Secretary, Mr. Haines; also to arrange an interview with the Parliamentary minority who opposed the Bill.
This Committee reported to the Convention a short address to Mr. Haines, requesting the withdrawal of the Bill, recommending the request to be presented to that gentleman by a deputation.
The request to Mr. Haines was as follows:—
Melbourne, July, 1857 .To the Honorable the Chief Secretary.
Honorable Sir,—At public meetings held at the towns and districts hereinafter mentioned, it was determined that the persons whose signatures are attached to this request should meet in Melbourne, for the purpose of using all lawful means in order to obtain the withdrawal of the land bill, at present before the Legislative Assembly.
The requisitionists represent the metropolis, the metropolitan suburbs, the agricultural, and the mining districts of the colony.
Having assembled, the requisitionists have come to the unanimous conclusion to request the Administration to withdraw the land bill at present before the House, and hereby do earnestly request its withdrawal.
This request was presented by a deputation of twelve members of the Convention. Mr. Haines declined to withdraw the Bill; but, at the close of his interview with the deputation, he gave them to understand that no bill should be passed that any future legislature might not repeal. This promise stands so much in contrast with the subsequent conduct of Mr. Haines and his Government, that the Council of the Convention desire to record it here, as it was recorded next day in the respective journals by the several representatives of the daily press of Melbourne who we're then present.
The Age reports Mr. Haines thus:—
He could not admit that the intentions of the Government were otherwise than to frame a bill which would be acceptable to the people, and to the whole community, and he could by no means accede to the request of the deputation, and pledge himself either to postpone or withdraw the bill, because he honestly believed that it might be so modified and amended in its progress through committee as to become acceptable to the community.
If it should prove otherwise, they must bear in mind that finality did not attach to any act of the present Legislature. They were wishful indeed to pass a law which the people would not be desirous to alter by means of anyfuture Legislature, but if the present measure was found in its operation to be injurious and not acceptable to the country, as it owed its temporary validity to the act of the Legislature, it might hereafter be repealed at the instance of a decided expression of the will of the country to that effect. The Government could have no wish to adopt a law which, instead of settling this question—a settlement admitted by all sides of the House to be necessary and desirable—would require to be altered or repealed by a succeeding Legislature: and he was so well assured that this was not the case, and that the bill could be satisfactorily framed, that be could not consent to its withdrawal.
The Herald—
He thought it was the case, that no ten men in the community, who opposed the Government Land Bill, could concur in the details they would recommend. Indeed, there were things in the bill he did not approve of himself: and as this was so, the Government being, as he had before said, actuated by an honest desire to meet the requirements of the people of the colony, were desirous of at once settling the question.
Should any reformed Parliament object to the details proposed, it was a question quite open to them to deal with, and the acts of the present Assembly were not final.
The Argns—
He begged to call the attention of the gentlemen who addressed him to the fact that the present measure
was by no means one which need be binding upon any future Parliament: there was no finality in it. All parties of gentlemen in the House concurred in the belief that there was a strong necessity for a speedy settlement of this question, and this being so, he could not promise on the part of the Government that they would withdraw this measure. He was quite willing to admit that the agricultural interest should be considered. He was an agriculturist himself until within the last year or two, and was quite ready to admit that it was necessary to the well-being of that interest that some of the pastoral lands of the colony should be placed at their disposal, but there were many other details which the opponents of this measure had insisted on, and to which he could not agree. He thought it was the case that no ten men in the community who opposed the Government Land Bill could concur in the details they would recommend; indeed, there were things in the bill he did not approve of himself; and, as this was so, the Government being, as he had before said, actuated by an honest desire to meet the requirements of the people of the colony were desirous of at once settling the question.Should any reformed Parliament object to the details proposed, it was a question quite open to them to deal with, and the acts of the present Assembly were not final.
In contrast with this undertaking, the Council desire to record that, on the third reading of the Bill in the House of Assembly, on the evening of the 3rd of September, Mr. Ireland, the member for Castlemaine, desiring to have this principle of the right of any future legislature to deal with the subject, as if this Bill had not been passed, recognised in the bill itself, moved the following resolution:—
That notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, the Legislature may, from time to time, amend, alter, or repeal the whole or any part of the provisions of the Act, so as to authorise the alienation or disposition in fee simple, or for any lesser estate or interest of the whole or any part of the lands comprised on any run, for any purpose calculated to facilitate the settlement of the country; and to alter the terms and conditions provided by this Act in relation to the resumption of lands by the Governor in Council, or to substitute such new terms and conditions in lieu of those already provided as may be deemed advisable for effecting the purpose aforesaid."
This resolution was opposed by the whole force of the Government, and negatived by a majority of 28 to 17, Mr. Haines voting with his ministry in the majority. The following are the names of this Parliamentary majority:—
The same Committee also reported a resolution expressing the thanks of the Convention to the Parliamentary minority, requesting the minority to persevere in their opposition to the Bill, and promising them the support of the country in
The resolution was as follows:—
Convention of DelegatesAssembled at Melbourne, in the Colony of Victoria, in the year of our Lord,
1857 .At a meeting of the Convention, held on the
twentieth day of July, 1857 , the following resolution was unanimously adopted:—Resolved,—That inasmuch as the present Land Bill, introduced into Parliament by the Executive Council, is utterly subversive of the best rights and interests of the great body of the people of this colony, this Convention records its hearty approval of the determined and patriotic stand taken by the Minority in the Legislative Assembly in its opposition to the Government Land Bill; and, in tendering this expression of its thanks, this Convention would urge, in case the bill be persevered with, the necessity of further opposition by every means which the forms of Parliament allow; and this Convention declares, that the course thus suggested will receive the concurrence and support of the great mass of the community, whose opinions, on the present occasion, this Convention has the honor to represent.
Signed on behalf of the Committee, J. J. Walsh, Honorary Secretary.Wilson Gray, President.
The Convention desired to pay the minority the respect of waiting on them in full body, to present them with this resolution, but owing to the smallness of the room in which the minority had to receive them in the Parliament House, the minority conveyed to the Convention their regret that they were thus prevented from receiving more than a deputation, and that not to exceed thirty.
Accordingly, on the evening of the 29th July, a deputation of thirty waited on the minority in one of the committee rooms of the House of Assembly.
The following is the report of this interview which appeared next morning in the Age newspaper:—
Deputation to the Minority.On Wednesday, between seven and eight o'clock, a deputation from the National Convention waited upon the members of the Minority in the Assembly who opposed the Land Bill. The objects of the deputation were to present a resolution passed by the Convention expressive of their hearty approval of the course of opposition pursued by the minority, and to entrust—for presentation to the House—a remonstrance against the further prosecution of the Land Bill by the Government. The deputation comprised thirty gentlemen. The members of the minority present were—Messrs Myles, Hughes, Evans, O'Brien, Brooke, Read, Humffray, O'Shanassy, Syme, Duffy, and Baragwanath.
The reception took place in the committee room belonging to the Assembly.
Mr.
Wilson Gray, president of the Convention, opened the proceedings in the following terms:—Gentlemen of the Minority,—I have been deputed by the deputation of the Convention now sitting in Melbourne,—the gentlemen you see are the deputation,—to present you with a resolution which was adopted at a full meeting of that assembly. I beg now to do so. The resolution is addressed:—To the Honorables B. C. Aspinall, D. Blair, H. Brooke, C. Gavan Duffy, G. S. Evans, J.V.F.L. Foster, A. Fyfe, J. M. Grant, G. Harker, G. S. W. Home, D. A. Hughes, J. B. Humffray, J. Myles, P. O'Brien, J. O'Shanassy, J. D. Owens, P. Phelan, C. Read, T. Baragwanath, P. Snodrgass, E. Syme, and J. D. Wood—who voted in the minority on the second reading of the Government Land Bill, in the House of Assembly, on the
10th day of June, 1857 .(Here Mr. Gray read the resolution.)
It is directed to the minority by name, taking the minority in alphabetical order; and I presume I shall be following the strict letter by handing it to the gentleman whose name—among those present—is first on the list. (He then handed the document to Mr Brooke.) Another resolution was passed expressive of the wish of the Convention to wait upon you in a manner the most respectful, as well as to show most emphatically its approval of your conduct, and it was intended that the whole Convention should attend. It is only the capacity of the room in which you receive it that has prevented the whole Convention from attending. There are, however, thirty present. It is almost impossible to introduce the deputation personally, but I may remark that there is a delegate from each of the following places:—Ballaarat, Bacchus Marsh, Beechworth, Bendigo, Brighton, Carisbrook, Castlemaine, Collingwood, Colac, Dunolly, Emerald Hill, Fryer's Creek, Geelong, Gisborne, Heathcote, Heidelberg, Kyneton, Melbourne, Mount Blackwood, North Melbourne, Ovens, Prahran, Richmond, Sebastopol, St. Kilda, Seymour, Tarrengower, Teraplestowe, Williamstown, and Wangaratta. From the variety of the places represented, and the numbers that have come here, and who have sat for weeks, away from their business at great personal inconvenience, you can estimate the strength and force of opinion represented. I have nothing to do but
to introduce the body to you, gentlemen. There are one or two of the delegates who wish to address a few words to you. Mr.
O'Connor(Ballaarat) said there was no part of the duties of the Convention they could more heartily perform, or with greater sincerity, than to record the opinions of the people in reference to the conduct of the minority. (Hear.) He could speak of the district from which he had come, and the unanimous approval which the people had shown to the minority since the introduction of the Land Bill. They were perfectly satisfied that the opposition was made, not from any factious motives, but simply because they (the minority) thought that the bill, if passed, would be entirely subversive of the best rights of the people, and he could inform the minority that they would have, for the future, the unanimous approval of the people to bear them out in their opposition to the bill, which was intended to upset the rights of the colony at large. (Hear, hear.) He begged to express his own and the thanks of the community he had the honor to represent to them (the minority) for their conduct.Mr.
Benson(Bendigo) said, they appeared there for the purpose of giving the minority a vote of thanks for the stand they had made against that measure, which they considered injurious to the best interests of the community. The Convention had met for the purposes of patriotism and the good of this country, and they considered the minority had the same feelings on behalf of the country; and, therefore, they respectfully thanked the minority for the stand they had made in the cause of freedom, and the future happiness of the people of this country. (Hear, hear.) He concluded by thanking the minority: and expressing his anticipation that the result of their, and the Convention's labor, would be beneficial not only to the district which he presented, but would tend to the general welfare of the land of their adoption.Mr.
Quinlan(Dunolly) said, believing their (the minority's) time to be very valuable and very limited, and believing that the resolution just read expressed the unanimous opinion of the Convention, he would only say that what was therein expressed was fully re-echoed by the people he represented—the inhabitants of Dunolly.Mr.
Smyth(Ovens) said, on the part of the people he represented, that the whole of that district—the Municipal Council, the freeholders, the miners, to the number of 20,000—with one voice acknowledged themselves, and their children, and their children's children, under a debt of gratitude to the minority. (Hear.)Mr.
Brookesaid: Gentlemen of the Convention, I much regret that any alphabetical arrangement should have made me the respondent on this occasion, because there are so many other members of the minority who have occupied a long and distinguished position in this country, and in the eyes of other countries to whom this country will naturally look for approval in this emergency. But I may be allowed to say that a common sentiment actuates every member of the minority who thought proper to oppose this Land Bill. I am quite sure that there is no member who sits on that (the opposition) side of the House but opposed it on the most conscientious grounds possible, feeling it was his duty. (Hear, hear.) After the discussion of the bill which had already occupied so many days, and which will yet occupy many more, it is a source of gratification to me, and to every one holding the same views, to find that we are supported out of doors; to find the members of the Convention, representing political opinion so largely, were with us; and to find that our efforts meet with their approval. For myself, and on behalf of the minority, I have the honor to thank you.Mr.
O'Shanassysaid, as he stood next to his friend Mr. Brooke, he would take that opportunity of accepting in the most grateful manner the compliment paid not only to himself but to all the members of the minority. He differed from Mr. Brooke in this:—that he rejoiced that the Convention had addressed them in alphabetical order, as clearly showing that they were not supposed—as was said by one of the speakers—to be acting from factious motives, but opposing this bill for the simple reason that it was not conducive to the interests of the people; and that the minority on this occasion were acting upon their individual opinions, although unanimous in their opposition. (Hear.) He begged to state that no organisation of any character did exist in the arrangements of the minority; and, consequently, no greater compliment could be paid than to give them an opportunity of suiting publicly that no combination existed in the minority. (Hear.) As one living a long time in this country, he rejoiced to see the meeting by convention, and the petitioning of the people; it was an earnest to him, an old resident, that public spirit was at length awakened. He expressed that he was willing to serve the people still; and he hoped they were determined to assert their rights. He would not detain them, as the time for re-entering on the discussion of this measure was drawing nigh. He could only reiterate his thanks for the acknowledgment of their (the minority's) services, and he trusted that the objects they had in view in defeating the measure would succeed. He did not think the gentlemen forming the majority in this session would concede to them all that they required; but he trusted that they might reasonably expect, at all events, that, if the Government would not defer to the opinions of the people and withdraw the Land Bill, they might rest sure of this—that no new fights should be created. (Hear.) To effect this, he pledged himself to attend and to vote most systematically against any clause that created any new right. In conclusion, he said he trusted the time was not far off when the Government would be in accordance with the opinions of the people of the country.Mr.
Humffrayjoined with his hon. friend in expressing his deep sympathy with the great work they (the Convention) had undertaken; and he believed the time was not very far distant when—if they only did their duty—instead of coming there as petitioners, they would have an opportunity of addressing them (the minority) on terms of equality. (Hear.) He thanked them and urged them strongly to continue their support; so long as they did their duty out of doors, they would find a party in doors, however small, ready to do theirs. (Hear.)Mr.
Duffysaid he thought they (the Convention) had done very wisely in presenting this recognition of the efforts of the members who opposed this bill; because, it must be remembered that those resisting the aggression on the people had to bear the slanders of their enemies—(hear, hear); that the men who had endeavoured to oppose this bill had been habitually misrepresented by the journals representing the Government and the squatters. (Hear.) He thought, therefore, that this would serve to clear those misrepresentations. He had more confidence than some of his friends had expressed that this bill would be defeated. (Hear, hear.) Since it had been under the consideration of the House the elections had made a marked change in sides. (Hear, hear.) If it were defeated, it was not to be forgotten that they had not only to stop this bill, but to carry an efficient bill. (Hear.) The only road to that was to reform the Parliament. And they must not forget in their habitual earnestness and zeal on this question, that there was another. He reminded them that the question of State-aid was taken up with great zeal, and many were returned to the Assembly simply on the ground of advocating it: they had been returned to that House—they had advocated it—and they had betrayed the people on every other measure. (Hear, hear.) But when returning men to that House, they must not be content that they be right on the Land Bill; they must take care that they be right on the question of Reform. (Hear, hear.) At all events, when this present measure was disposed of, the Assembly and the Convention must turn their attention to get the Reform Bill passed; to get the Government of this country carried out by the people of this country. When that was done, there would be no need of Conventions. There would be those in the House who were wanted in it. We should have the mind and earnestness of the country represented by those who had the confidence of the people. (Applause.) He thanked them.Dr.
Evansbegged, with his friends who had already addressed them, in acknowledgement of the very great honor they (the deputation,) had conferred upon them in the way in which they bore testimony to their (the minority's), sincerity of conduct in opposing this land bill, to thank them. He begged leave to express his entire concurrence in everything that had been said by his colleagues. He begged to state, however, that the bill was still in committee, that they had retarded the progress of the bill, the bill was still before the House, and every prospect of its being carried by what they, (the Minority,) had termed "a tyrannical majority." (Hear, hear.) But they would still endeavor to oppose it and strike out every bad clause. This was certain that as the people were determined to oppose this bill, so were the Government determined to carry it out. It was to their (the Convention's) exertions out of doors, and the elections, that he looked for help. When their labors were ended in Melbourne, he looked to them to have what they had not now—a people's representation in this colony. He assured them that the minority would continue to do, as they had done already, their duty to the public on perfectly conscientious and disinterested grounds. (Hear, hear.)Mr.
Wilson Graythen handed to Mr. Brook "the Protest (or Remonstrance), against the Land Bill, from the Convention," to be presented to the Legislative Assembly. He said it was respectfully worded, and he had no reason to doubt that it would be received. All the members of the Convention had not signed it, because there was not time for their so doing; it was, however, signed by above sixty Delegates.Mr.
Brookesaid he felt much pleasure in accepting it to present to the House. But he was afraid that, it being a protest or remonstranee, he would be debarred by the the usages of Parliament.Mr.
Wilson Graysaid, that though called a "protest," the body of the document would be found an ordinary petition. It was presented with a request that all the gentlemen of the minority should support it.
The Convention adopted the following memorial to the House of Assembly, (the same that was alluded to above), which was signed by all the delegates, and was presented to the House by Mr. Brooke:—
To the Honorable the Legislative Assembly.The Petition of the undersigned, forming a Convention, now sitting in Melbourne, having been elected by a large majority of the people of this colony, for the purpose of opposing the Land Bill, now before your honorable House,
Shews that we approach your honorable body with every feeling of respect, for the purpose of expressing through this document our firm, but respectful, conviction that the said Land Bill not only does not accord with the opinions of the people whom your honorable House purports to represent, but that the said Bill is in every way calculated to retard the prosperity of the whole community.
We do, therefore, hereby respectfully and solemnly record our opinions that the passing of the
aforesaid Bill by your honorable House, as at present constituted, will not be accepted by the country as an equitable settlement of the Land Question. We therefore humbly pray that your honorable House will, in its wisdom, suspend all legislation upon this subject until an alteration in the Electoral Law shall give a more full and fair representation of all classes in the community.
And we, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
At the same time that the Convention took these proceedings it also adopted the following protest against the bill, intended more especially as a warning to capitalists and others whom it might concern, that no public faith was pledged to the recognition of any interests that the bill might pretend to vest in the pastoral tenants, and that such interests, if created by it, would be annulled by the first Parliament in which the people of the Colony should find themselves represented.
Of the Convention now assembled in Melbourne against the Land Bill at present before the Legislative Assembly of Victoria.
We, the Delegates, assembled in full convention in reference to the Bill now before the Legislative Assembly, for disposing of the Crown Lands, declare that the said Bill is, in the opinion of this Convention, objectionable and unconstitutional, for the following among other reasons:—
To give effect to this protest the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:—
The Convention adopted the following resolutions, on the subject of Immigration conducted at the public expense:—
That, while this Convention desires to see this country rendered so attractive that a tide of voluntary emigration shall pour into it, similar to that which is now setting into America and creating an empire on that continent, it is of opinion that all immigration at the public expense is, in the present stage of these Colonies, a violation at once of the true principles of colonization and of political justice, for the following among other reasons:—
The Convention adopted the following Report on the subject of Parliamentary Reform:—
This Convention begs to impress it on each delegate, and on the district be represents, that, having given expression to public opinion on the present Land Bill, and, it is hoped, contributed largely to the defeat of it, and having also collected opinion as to the general provisions of the land bill which the people should hereafter demand, the next subject indispensable to the accomplishment of their object is, the consideration of the means by which this "People's land bill," and every other good legislation, can be secured.
The one effective means of achieving good legislation, and making future conventions unnecessary, is thorough Parliamentary Reform.
The Parliament itself must be made the convention of the people.
The Convention reminds the people that on Parliamentary Reform, as on the Land Bill, attempts will be made to blind them by vague and illusory promises, if they do not themselves adopt some leading principles as indispensable, and by these principles test every candidate who presents himself at the hustings.
As such leading principles, the Convention suggest the following:—
- Manhood suffrage, without any special privilege to property.
- Equal electoral districts, based on population, and to be re-adjusted by every new census.
- The same qualification—simple manhood qualification—for the electors of both Houses of Parliament.
- The duration of the House of Assembly not to exceed two years. The duration of the Legislative Council not to exceed three years.
- No property qualification for members of either House.
- The abolition of all preliminary registration of voters as tending to the disfranchisement of the people. The security for the right and identity of the elector to be the oath of the party himself, that he is 21 years of age, a British subject, born or naturalised, a resident of the district for two months, and that he has not voted before at the same election; a security of the same nature as that on which property and life are daily disposed of in courts of justice.
- The number of members of the Assembly to be increased—say to 100.
- There is another principle which the Convention have reserved to the last, because there is no other that they deem so important at present to impress upon the popular mind. They have reserved it in order to give to their recommendation of it a special emphasis and force.
This principle is the
Payment of Members of Parliament.The sacrifices required from a Member of Parliament in this colony are very great. He removes himself from his home and his private affairs; he lives in Melbourne at considerable cost and, if he discharges his duties honorably and efficiently, his labors are. most onerous. It is idle
to suppose that such duties will be well discharged without at least sufficient remuneration to idemnify him from loss or expenditure. By a few persons, and for a short time, they may be so discharged; but by the mass of members, or even by a few continuously, they cannot and will not be. If members are not paid, the people must be content to be represented by persons, who. having other business besides the people's business to transact in Parliament, will not only accept the duties to discharge them gratuitously, but will be very happy even to pay considerable sums for the profitable privilege of being entrusted with them. The history of the present Land Bill proves that is has been a very dear bargain for the people to have accepted for nothing the services of gentlemen who ultimately propose to pay themselves by confiscating the public lands to themselves and their friends. The Convention submit that the experience of the colony is, that the services of men known and trusted in the several districts cannot generally be secured, unless these men are paid at least such a reasonable sum as may cover their expenditure, and save them from direct loss.
The Convention, while they request the attention of the people to all the foregoing points, solicit it especially to the following three—equal electoral districts; the abolition of registration; and the payment of members of Parliament.
The other points of Parliamentary Reform are, more or less, conceded, and the struggle will not be upon them. The efforts of the enemies of Reform will not be open, but disguised. Their endeavor will be to keep the promise to the ear, but to break it to the sense.
They will profess to give manhood suffrage, but they will endeavor to arrange the districts so as to make one man in certain districts equivalent to five or ten men in others.
They will profess to make the right of voting universal, but they will so embarrass it with regulations, and choke it with impossible conditions of continuous residence, as to make it unattainable in practice to a fourth of those whom they promise to enfranchise.
Professedly, they will enable the people to select any representative they choose, unrestrained by property qualification; but they will make the trust so expensive that few will accept it to do the people's business, and it will, in the majority of cases, be continuously held only by persons who retain it for the purpose of furthering transactions of their own.
The Convention, therefore, urge upon the several delegates that, in all local organisation, Parliamentary Reform, embracing all the principles herein enumerated, and, especially, equal electoral districts; the abolition of registration; and the payment of members of Parliament; be made a prominent subject for discussion, and a test for candidates presenting themselves on popular principles.
The Convention adopted the following Report on the subject of Mining on Private Property:—
The first clause of the bill is objectionable—
- Because the words "Mining District" will confine the provisions of the Act to the present Gold-fields' Districts, and not extend beyond them.
- And because it proposes to invest a judge of the court of Mines (who is not competent to decide on mining matters) with the power to determine whether, or not, mining shall be permitted on private lands; of deciding what compensation should be paid to the owner of such land. And further, of imposing on the miner whatever conditions he may thing proper.
Clause 2 is objectionable—Inasmuch as it is quite unnecessary.
Clause 4 is objectionable—As it requires the forwarding of documents to the Chief Secretary.
Clause 5 is objectionable—On account of the decision of arbitrators, so appointed, being likely to be slow and unsatisfactory.
Clauses 8 and 9 are objectionable—Because they increase the difficulties of access to private property, by encouraging litigation and vexatious delays.
Clauses 10 and 11 are objectionable—Because the miner is compelled to pay costs whether he gains or loses the suit.
Clause 15 is objectionable—As it does not give power to mine, when the depth would be so great as to prevent any injury to the surface or buildings.
Clause 16 is objectiouable—As it legalises unjust contracts already entered into, in opposition to the regulations of the Local Courts of the districts, thereby conferring on individuals a monopoly of certain auriferous lands.
Clause 17 is objectionable—As it confers on the Governor and Council the power of deciding when auriferous lands are worked out.
Finally: the bill is objectionable
in toto—As it does not give, as it purports, increased facilities of access to private property—and because it is expensive, slow, and litigious.
The Convention adopted the fallowing Report respecting the Chinese:—
The Convention adopted the following Report of their Finance Committee:—
Report of the Sub-Committee Appointed to form a Scheme of Finance to Sustain the Operations of the Convention.The first element of power which can be wielded by an associated body such as ours is
Truth, the second thePressto disseminate the Truth, and the thirdFundsto defray the expenses attendant on its dissemination.A well organised subscription is invariably the most successful; by becoming general, it is more cheerfully paid, and enlists a greater amount of sympathy.
We submit, therefore, that cards of "Association with the Convention" be prepared, with a suitable motto, and on the reverse side of the Card the heads of the Convention Land Bill be printed, which will thus afford a means of circulating the principles of the Convention among the people, whilst teaching them to think and act in unity.
For the Delegates of the Convention the Card might be somewhat varied, and the price fixed 20
s.; for supporters of the Convention, probably 5s.might be considered enough.A third class of collections might be monthly payments of One Shilling, from those whose limited means forbid a greater contribution.
A fourth mode would be, that merchants, professional gentlemen, tradesmen, and others who are friendly to the people's cause, be applied to for donations and subscriptionss towards the Convention Fund.
A fifth mode of raising Funds might be by Public Lectures and Public Entertainments, &c., where the principles of the Convention may be explained. The operation of raising Funds and the discussing of the great questions which these Funds are to support produce a double action of utility, informing the public mind on the one hand, and raising necessary Funds to sustain the movement on the other.
The Victorian Convention has it in its power to emancipate the country and open the lands, if the people support it with Funds—already two responsible Treasurers and a permanent Finance Committee have been appointed, and we now recommend that the work be forthwith commenced in the Convention; and that Collectors for the City and Suburban Districts be appointed as one of the most pressing duties of the Convention; when the Gold Fields' and Country Delegates return to their constituencies, they will put the same machinery into motion and remit the proceeds to the Central Committee.
That a monthly Balance Sheet be furnished and printed.
Finally—In making this appeal to the people, it is necessary to remind them that, as they are the basis of power, they are likewise the only legitimate source from whence Funds can be obtained to sustain a National movement of this character. Their willingness to contribute the necessary Funds towards its support is at once a proof of their adhesion to the principles, and a means of disseminating them over the whole community.
And also the following Report, supplementary to the above:—
Supplementary Report of Sub-Committee on Finance.Your committee would suggest the advisability of forming a common fund of at least £1,000, to be placed at the disposal of the Executive Council to carry out the great objects for which this Convention has been convened.
With regard to the appointment of a permanent Finance Committee, your committee recommend the appointment of such body to be left to the Council of the Convention.
In bringing up this report, your committee would earnestly impress on the gentlemen composing the Convention the great importance of bringing under the notice of the people of their various districts the urgent necessity of contributing promptly and liberally to the general funds of the Convention.
But, as a means of meeting expenses already incurred, your committee would respectfully urge that remittances be forwarded from each locality with as little delay as possible.
The Convention, before adjourning, adopted the following resolutions authorising a Council to sit in Melbourne:—
Resolution as to a Council of Twenty-One.That this Convention, before adjourning, do appoint a Committee of twenty-one of its members as a Council of correspondence and administration, to sit in Melbourne, and meet, from time to time, as they shall deem expedient. Such Council to consist of six members from the gold-fields, three from the country districts, and twelve from the metropolitan and suburban districts; and the officers of the Convention to be
ex-officiomembers.Resolutions Amending the Above.That the resolution heretofore adopted by this Convention, appointing a Council of twenty-one members to act as a council of correspondence and administration in Melbourne, be so far rescinded that the Council shall not be limited in number, but shall consist of as many members of the Convention as find themselves able to attend. That seven constitute a quorum, provided these seven include one of the officers of the Convention, that is to say, the President, Secretary, or one of the Vice-Presidents, or Treasurers.
That in matters coming before such council, and being of sufficient importance to justify the expense of the necessary circulars and postages, all the members of the Convention be communicated with before any decision in such matters be arrived at. And that such members be at liberty to vote on such questions by proxy, and that their letters in reply to the circulars be accepted as their proxies.
Before the Convention adjourned, they adopted a resolution to the following effect:—
That the delegates be requested, 011 returning to their several localities, to establish local leagues, holding themselves in correspondence and connection with the Convention Council of Melbourne, and that these Leagues be requested to use a common card, and style themselves by a common name, varied only by the name of the place in which they may be established, thus—"The Convention Land and Reform League of Ballaarat," "The Convention Land and Reform League of Bendigo," &c., &c.
In accordance with this resolution, numerous local leagues have been established, and cards have been struck by the Council and circulated to these several leagues.
The Convention having sat from the 15th of July to the 6th of August, on the latter day adjourned sine die.
The publication of the foregoing pages having been unexpectedly delayed, the Council is now able to add to them the final result of the opposition to the Land Bill. This Bill passed its third reading in the House of Assembly, on the 3rd of September, by a majority of 30 to 23. A few of its clauses had been modified, but in substance it was not materially altered. It still gave the public lands to the squatters on pastoral leases, for protracted periods, and on such terms as would have made it easy for them gradually to acquire a title on fee simple; and, as already stated, ministers and their supporters refused to recognise the right of any future Parliament to alter "arrangements" thus made by this Bill. The division on the third reading was as follows:—
Majority the for Bill.
Ayes 30.
Minority Against it.
Noes—23.
On Tuesday, the 8th of September, the Bill was introduced into the Legislative Council, and read a first time. Faithful to the course they had pursued in the Lower House, ministers proposed to rush it through the Council as they would fain have done through the Assembly, and to make the second reading an order of the day for that day week. But Mr. Fawkner met the proposal with an amendment postponing the second reading for a fortnight, and to this amendment ministers were compelled to yield. The country immediately began to rouse it to a new effort. Public meetings were held in all parts of the colony, and petitions to the Legislative Council determined on. It was known that the Bill would encounter a strenuous opposition in the Council, and it was thought that the debate would be more than once adjourned. It was resolved, therefore, not to hurry down the petitions before they were largely signed, but to prove by the number of signatures that the hostility of the country had increased, not abated, since the Bill had passed the Lower House. But the fate of the Bill was decided more summarily than the country expected.
For the reasons just stated, scarcely any petitions from the country districts were presented on the night that the second reading was moved. Melbourne, and two of its suburbs—Richmond and Prahran—sent in petitions which numbered over eight thousand signatures, intending to follow them up with supple-
On Tuesday, the 22nd of September, Mr. Mitchell moved that the bill be now read a second time. Mr. John Pascoe Fawkner moved, as an amendment, that it be read a second time that day six months. Mr. Keogh seconded the amendment. After a debate of some hours, the amendment was put, and the Legislative Council, without even waiting to hear the country, summarily ejected the bill by a vote of 21 to 6. The division was as follows:
For the Amendment—21.
For the Bill—6.
The Council of the Convention, whilst they acknowledge that there is cause for rejoicing in this result, desire not to lose time in exulting over it, nor to lose force by overrating this popular success. Only one step has been gained—a bad bill has been defeated; the main battle has still to be fought and won—a good bill has to be carried. This can only be accomplished by organising the opinion of the country. The Council therefore urge it on the people to organise. And, in organising now, the Council submit that they must organise, not only for a good Land Law, but also for that great Reform, which is the only effective instrument of this and all other reforms. The popular agitation must now proceed upon a more extended basis. A "People's Land Law" and "Parliamentary Reform" must be demanded together.
The Council desires to record the following speech of present Chief Secretary, Mr. Haines, delivered in the year
Mr. Haines said he should first of all proceed to read a few extracts from the Orders in Council bearing upon this important question, and as doubts might arise in the minds of some persons as to their real purport, it became highly necessary that every individual in the country should be made thoroughly acquainted with their import. Time would not allow him to read the whole of these Orders in Council, but in selecting some which bore more particularly upon the question, he should take care that the meaning should not be garbled by means of his not quoting their context both before and after. Mr. Haines then proceeded to read to the meeting the sixth section of these Orders in Council, and observed that by that ordinance the Crown lands of the colony in the unsettled districts were effectually locked up from the public, and only made available to a certain exclusive class for the lengthened period of fourteen years. In the intermediate districts the lime was limited to eight years, but in both instances it might be again renewed, to the exclusion of the public generally, and to the advantage of one particular class of the people. The effect of these orders would be to prevent any person coming into competition with the lessee. He was under the impression at the time they were framed, that is five years ago, the supposition was that the Crown Lands in the interior of the colony would not be required for occupation like those situated nearer to the sea coast. Such indeed might have been the case formerly, but the late discovery of gold had considerably altered the case. (Cheers.) These lands were about to be thrown open, it was true, hut not thrown open to public competition, but merely to a distinct body of men, who are to have the unjust privilege of purchasing the most choice spots at the minimum price of 20s. per acre, (cries of "shame, shame.") He would ask is this fair dealing? (Cries of "no, no.") The favored few were not people who were merely in struggling circumstances, or poor; oh no, they were the individuals who enjoyed more wealth than any other section of the community. The squatters waited until the most favorable opportunity for their raising corn and the other necessaries of life had arrived, and most assuredly, if they obtain the advantages they now seek, they will secure the monopoly in corn as completely as they have that of wool. (Cheers.) The public lands adjacent to the gold-fields were of the utmost importance to the colonists at large, and if put up for sale would meet with ready purchasers from the agricultural and laboring classes. From their proximity to the immense population at the various diggings, they would be preferred to any other for the purpose of laying out small farms, and so reduce the exorbitant rates now paid by the diggers for almost every necessary of life. (Cheers.) If the various provisions of these orders were calculated to act fairly on all branches of the community, without great alteration, there would be an end to the matter. He was not antagonistic to the welfare of the squatters, some of whom he counted among his most intimate friends, but he could not remain inactive when he saw the Government of the country disposed to secure their particular interest at the expense of all others. (Cheers.) The pre-emptive right of these gentlemen, of which we have heard so much, and which is a monstrous invasion of the British Constitution, has already been acted upon even before the leases have been issued. He was no lawyer, but could safely say that such gentlemen who had exercised a pre-emptive right before obtaining their respective leases, have purchased an imaginative property which has never been legally vested in them, and which is not worth a farthing's purchase. They have certainly anticipated their position. The Governor may be called upon by the Orders in Council to assess the value of the Crown Lands, but no provision has been framed rendering it compulsory on him to do so. With respect to the purchasing of lands in the intermediate districts, he would simply make the remark, that, before such land, according to the obnoxious orders, can be exposed to public competition, the lessee, or in other words, the squatter, is to have the chance of picking the best portions, at 20s. the acre. (Cries of "Shame, shame.") In the face of this one great disadvantage, the people would have the option afterwards of securing the inferior portions, by a spirited competition, at perhaps from three to four times the amount paid by the favorite lessee. (Groans.) The number of persons present on this occasion convinced him of the great interest that was felt on this subject. He could have wished, however, the serious consideration of so momentous a question had been delayed for a day or two longer. He had only had intimation on the previous afternoon, and had hardly time to bring more decisive arguments against the iniquity of issuing
s. per acre for his land, or was living upon a tenancy at the rate of 2s. per acre per annum. It is to be wondered, then, that these two divided interests should regard one another with a jealous and suspicious eye? This is the case unfortunately in most instances, and though the agriculturist has purchased and paid for his land at so much disadvantage, he cannot, unless his ground is well and securely fenced in, impound the squatter's stock when found trespassing; but the squatter, in his turn, who has obtained the run at so moderate a rate, can do this, and has but too frequently used his power, to the great annoyance of his neighbors; and this has been more frequently done from vindictive motives than from the legitimate desire of preventing trespass. As regards manuring or improving land, the squatter would have a great advantage in turning stock on the ground, whilst the farmer would have to feed his stock upon artificial food. He could adopt no alteration of crops, and would be reduced to the necessity of turning his agricultural land into pastoral. He would ask, what advantage would he be likely to derive under present circumstances from his doing so? (Cheers.) He felt no hesitation in affirming that if the leases were issued to the squatters, and the privileges which they are anticipating granted, then it would cause the ruin of the agricultural farms, and afford a monopoly in grain similar to that which has so long been enjoyed by that class in the article of wool. With regard to the only real argument or objection that he considered worth while attending to against suspending the Orders in Council, the alleged breach of faith involved, he would say, in answer to those who affirmed that promises ought to be held sacred, that they should in the abstract, but should they, in the particular instance now before them, when the carrying such promises into execution would involve disastrous and unhappy consequences upou a whole people? (Cheers, and no, no.) It must be remembered, also, that these promises had been extorted from the British Government by misrepresentation. On the same principle, it might be said he was bound to pay a promissory note which had been surreptitiously obtained from him. Before he (Mr. Haines) took his seat in the Legislative Council as a nominee, his first inquiry of Government was regarding the issuing of the leases; and the information from that quarter was that they would not be issued. Upon this condition alone did he take his seat in the House; but, since the commencement of the present session, he found that Government had altered their views upon the subject, and they were determined to issue the obnoxious leases, upon ascertaining which, it became his duty to vacate his seat. (Hear, and cheers.) Previous to the gold discovery, neither the squatter nor the Government were anxious to have the leases issued, or the lands put up for sale. A short time ago, a certain gentleman of his acquaintance requested his assistance in the purchasing of land in the intermediate district; on application to the Government, he was plainly informed that no lands could be disposed of until they had been offered to the squatter. But from the altered condition of the colony, and its accumulating population, the squatters perceive that, if they do not at once get their leases, they never will. A few months more, and the Government dare not issue them. With respect to the returns relative to the squatting question called for by the elective members of the Assembly, their non-production has been attributed to the inefficiency of the printing department. He would not hesitate to say that, when they do come forth, such a budget of corruption will be presented to the public gaze, as will astonish the most indifferent and careless observer. The people have only to resist this measure for two or three months longer, and the day will be their own, and this without any violent commotion. They should remember that, if this great object is achieved now, it may be done peacefully, but if not, he prayed to heaven he may not be present to witness the result. (Loud cheers.) He would now propose the first resolution, "That this meeting considers the Orders in Council, which have been framed under the authority of the Act IX. and X. Victoria, opposed to the advancement of the colony and the welfare of the vast majority of the community."
W. H. Williams, Printer, 94 Bourke street East, Melbourne.
At the interval of about a generation from the passing of the first Reform Act, by a sort of universal consent the Legislature is about to employ itself in enacting a second. This determination has been adopted in circumstances strikingly contrasted with those by which it is usual for constitutional changes to be ushered in, and, at least immediately, brought about. The change to which all are looking forward, has not been pressed upon the ruling powers by impetuous and for-midable demonstrations of public sentiment, nor preceded by signs of wide-spread discontent with the working of the existing political institutions. It was thought a great thing that the Reform Bill of
This state of things, so apparently anomalous, is one of the most satisfactory signs of the times, and a significant exemplification of the new character which has been permanently impressed upon the politics of this empire by the great popular triumph twenty-six years ago. The Reform Act, and the mustering and trial of strength between the Progressive and the Stationary forces which filled the fifteen years from
A constitutional reform brought forward in such circum-
The first condition, that of breaking in upon the existing system at its worst point, will be in a considerable degree fulfilled by any measure which clears away the small constituencies.
The most peccant element in the present state of the representation is not the small number of the electors, taken in the aggregate. They are too few, doubtless, and they will always be too few while any are excluded whose admission would not deteriorate the quality of the mass. At present, too, admission and exclusion are capricious; the same description of persons are admitted in cities and parliamentary boroughs, who are excluded in all other towns and in the rural districts. Whatever qualification, or variety of qualifications, may be fixed upon, it is reasonable that they should be the same in one place as in another. But these are not the crying evils. They might be removed without making any very material difference, either in the composition of the House of Commons, or in the inducements acting on its members. The most serious mischief is, not that only a fraction of the community have the right to vote, but that the majority of the House is returned by a very small fraction of that fraction. The small boroughs, those which number from 200 to 400 electors, are the seat of all the evils which the Reform Act of
To correct this evil, without throwing down the barrier between the borough and the county constituencies, a change which, even if desirable, is not at present attainable, there is an obvious expedient; to unite the small towns into districts of boroughs, as is already the case in Wales and in Scotland. The "Parliamentary Representation Bill" introduced by Lord John Russell in
One of the declared principles of Lord John Russell's Bill was, that there should be no disfranchisement; and in this perhaps he may have been in the right: since few, if any, of the small boroughs are so absolutely insignificant as to require their entire exclusion from the representation. But Lord John Russell thought it necessary that every existing small borough should become the nucleus of a separate aggregation of townships. He eked out the constituencies by annexing insignificant places close by, instead of going a little farther off for considerable unrepresented towns; while in no case did he think it admissible to include two places, which already returned members to Parliament, in one and the same district.
While the representation of the small boroughs was thus patched up, a host of towns, dispersed all over the country, far exceeding them in population and importance, were left, as at present, unrepresented. The new places taken in to form a district never exceeded the smallest scantling which, it was supposed, would afford the minimum of a presentable constituency. Thus Reigate, at that time a nomination borough, requiring to be extended, the town of Dorking was added to it, and nothing more: while Croydon, Kingston, and Epsom, towns in the immediate neighbourhood, all of them with equal or greater claims to be represented, were put aside.
Had this schedule been adopted, it would have spotted the map of England with groups of small places so capriciously distributed as to bring the very idea of districts of boroughs into contempt, and without mitigating, but rather in some respects increasing, the present causes of complaint. The small constituencies would still have remained small, while, instead of being what they professed to be, they would have
Yet, if the principle of combining several boroughs was once admitted, what course could be more obvious than to take all the present boroughs, and all unrepresented towns of more than a certain amount of population (say, for example, 5000), and leaving out all those, whether existing as boroughs or still to be created, whose importance entitles them to one member, or more than one, of their own, to arrange the others in groups according to geographical convenience, care being taken to give to each group something like the same number of electors. No reason is apparent why this plan was not adopted, except the misplaced scruple against merging two existing boroughs into one. If what is now a borough, is to become one of a group, what difference can it make to the electors whether they are bound up with existing, or only with newly enfranchised co-electors? What could be more absurd than that Calne and Chippenham, both nomination boroughs, and actually conterminous, should (as in Lord John Russell's scheme) subsist as a sort of double star, with each its separate system of planets; or that Amesbury and Downton should be recalled from Schedule A to furnish a supplementary constituency to the little borough of Wilton, instead of adding it to the adjacent city of Salisbury? The proper aggregate number of members for small towns being first, after due consideration, determined, all places of such size as to he politically entitled to the designation of towns, should be admitted to share in it. The greater the number of places included in each district, the better prospect of a creditable choice. The
Subsequently to Lord John Russell's abortive attempt, another Reform Bill, to which he was also a party, was brought into Parliament, by Lord Aberdeen's Government. In this second Bill, the principle of grouping boroughs, which had been introduced in so awkward a manner in the former Bill, was dropped altogether; and the older plan, a complete disfranchisement of some boroughs, and a reduction of others from two members to one, was reverted to; the representation, withdrawn from them, being transferred to single towns not at present represented, or added to the representation of those constituencies which were thought entitled to a greater number of members than they possess. Most of the private projects of Reform hitherto promulgated, proceed on the same idea, involving a large amount of disfranchisement. All such schemes are good and commendable, in so far as they get rid of the small and dependent constituencies: but they do so as it seems to me, in a manner far more objectionable, than that of merging those small constituencies in districts of boroughs. For, in the first place, many electors would be entirely disfranchised who are as well entitled as other people to vote for representatives, though not to have representatives to themselves; and, in the next place, this method falls greatly short of the other in extent of enfranchisement. For the improved repartition of the suffrage by grouping of boroughs provides also for a considerable extension. Even the ten-pound householders of all the unenfranchised towns with more than 5000 inhabitants, would be a large addition to the numerical amount of the constituency, obtained without lowering the qualification, or introducing any change which could alarm timidity in the conditions for the exercise of the suffrage.
If, indeed, every elector in the disfranchised boroughs, and
It has been stated as an objection to the formation of districts of boroughs, that elections would be rendered more expensive. The candidates, it has been said, would require as many committees as there are boroughs, and other things in proportion. The objection cannot weigh much with reference to the particular question, since every other mode of forming district constituencies would be liable to it in an equal, if not a greater degree. No elections are free from it, except those for single, and even for small, towns: for if the town is of any size, the candidates have almost always a plurality of committees for the different quarters or divisions. But the remark points to one of the most conspicuous vices of the existing electoral system; the only one which can dispute pre-eminence with the multitude of small constituencies; and one against which the new Reform Bill, if it is to deserve support, should contain some decided and effectual provision. In a good representative
If it be asked, in what manner the object here pointed out is to be realized, I believe that there is one, and but one, means which would probably be effectual. No mere prohibitory law-would accomplish the purpose, but it would probably be effected if every member of Parliament, previously to taking his seat, were required to make a declaration on honour that he had not paid, and a solemn engagement not to pay, money or money's worth, directly or indirectly, on account of his election. A declaration on honour is still not thought lightly of, by any who, unless by a rare exception, are likely to be returned to Parliament. I am quite alive to the fact that the veracity even of an affirmation thus sanctioned could not be depended on if opinion ceased to enforce it; and that the declaration might, like political oaths, come to be considered a mere form. The great reluctance, however, invariably manifested to require such a disclaimer, even in the case of bribery, shows that it is considered likely to have some efficacy. And I believe that
It has already been remarked, that a Bill such as we may expect, a measure of compromise, which does not profess to make any alteration in fundamentals, but only to introduce such amendments as are consistent with the general outline of the existing arrangements; a Bill, therefore, which cannot satisfy the wishes of those who think the present system radically defective—ought to fulfil two conditions: it should remove or alleviate the most peccant parts of the existing system; and, as far as it goes, it should be a recognition and embodiment of the principles which are fittest to preside over an entire renovation; so that it may not be an impediment to further improvement, but, on the contrary, a step towards the quarter in which, if anywhere, further improvement is to be looked for. The former of these topics having been considered, the latter, and more difficult, remains. In order to judge how this partial reform may be made conformable to the principles of a thorough reform, it is necessary to consider what these principles are: a subject which for a century past has been often enough discussed, but on which, as on all great subjects, there still remain many things to be said. We should endeavour to set before ourselves the ideal conception of a perfect representative government, however distant, not to say doubtful, may be the hope of actually obtaining it: to the intent that whatever is now done may if possible be in the direction of what is best, and may bring the actual fact nearer, and not further off from the standard of right, at however
First, then, in every system of representation which can be conceived as perfect, every adult human being, I pass over the question whether insane persons, or persons convicted of crime, should be exceptions to this general provision. As far as the direct influence of their votes went, it would scarcely be worth while to exclude them. But, as an aid to the great object of giving a moral character to the exercise of the suffrage, it might be expedient that in case of crimes evincing a high degree of insensibility to social obligation, the deprivation of this and other civic rights should form part of the sentence.
But ought every one to have an equal voice? This is a totally different proposition; and in my judgment as palpably false, as the other is true and important. Here it is that I part company, on the question of principle, with the democratic reformers. Agreeing with them in looking forward to universal suffrage as an ultimate aim, I altogether dissent from their advocacy of electoral districts, understood as a means of giving equal weight to the vote of every individual. They say, that every one has an equal interest in being well governed, and that every one, therefore, has an equal claim, to control over his own government. I might agree to this if control over his own government were really the thing in question; but what I am asked to assent to is, that every individual has an equal claim to control over the government of other people. The power which the suffrage gives is not over himself alone; it is power over others also: whatever control the voter is enabled to exercise over his own concerns, he exercises the same degree of it over those of every one else. Now, it can in no sort be admitted that all persons have an equal claim to power over others. The claims of different people to such power differ as much, as their qualifications for exercising it beneficially.
If it is asserted that all persons ought to be equal in every description of right recognised by society, I answer, not until all are equal in worth as human beings. It is the fact, that one person is not as good as another; and it is reversing all the rules of rational conduct, to attempt to raise a political fabric on a supposition which is at variance with fact. Putting aside for the present the consideration of moral worth, of which, though more important even than intellectual, it is not so easy to find an available test; a person who cannot read, is not as good, for the purposes of human life, as one who can. A person who can read, but cannot write or calculate, is not as good as a person who can do both. A person who can read, write, and calculate, but who knows nothing of the properties of natural objects, or of other places and countries, or of the human beings who have lived before him, or of the ideas, opinions, and practices of his fellow-creatures generally, is not so good as a person who knows these things. A person who has not, either by reading or conversation, made himself acquainted with the wisest thoughts of the wisest men, and with the great examples of a beneficent and virtuous life, is not so good as one who is familiar with these. A person who has even filled himself with this various knowledge, but has not digested it—who could give no clear and coherent account of it, and has never exercised his own mind, or derived an original thought from his own observation, experience, or reasoning, is not so good, for any human purpose, as one who has. There is no one who, in any matter which concerns himself, would not rather have his affairs managed by a person of greater knowledge and intelligence, than by one of less. There is no one who, if he was obliged to confide his interest jointly to both, would not desire to give a more potential voice to the more educated and more cultivated of the two.
This is no justification for making the less educated the slave, or serf, or mere dependent of the other. The subjection of any one individual or class to another, is always
right to power over others; and the electoral suffrage is that, power. When all have votes, it will be both just in principle and necessary in fact, that some mode be adopted of giving greater weight to the suffrage of the more educated voter; some means by which the more intrinsically valuable member of society, the one who is more capable, more competent for the general affairs of life, and possesses more of the knowledge applicable to the management of the affairs of the community, should, as far as practicable, be singled out, and allowed a superiority of influence proportioned to his higher qualifications.
The most direct mode of effecting this, would be to establish plurality of votes, in favour of those who could afford a reasonable presumption of superior knowledge and cultivation. If every ordinary unskilled labourer had one vote, a skilled labourer, whose occupation requires an exercised mind and a knowledge of some of the laws of external nature, ought to have two. A foreman, or superintendent of labour, whose occupation requires something more of general culture, and
The perfection, then, of an electoral system would be, that every person should have one vote, but that every well-educated person in the community should have more than one, on a scale corresponding as far as practicable to their amount of education. And neither of these constituents of a perfect re-
One mode of effecting this has been urged, with considerable emphasis, in a memorial addressed to Lord Palmerston, and bearing the signatures of many persons distinguished in literature and science. It consists in giving to certain classes and professions, considered as of an intellectual character, a representation apart; the persons composing them throughout the country being registered as a separate constituency, and having a large number of representatives separately allotted to them, to be elected by them in local divisions. The object aimed at by this scheme is the same which I have in view; but, with sincere deference to some of those whose names are appended to it, I cannot think that they have chosen an eligible mode of encountering the difficulty. Nothing could be invented more calculated to make the privilege assigned to education, and the educated class itself, unpopular, and to create a permanent opposition and rivalry between the representatives of the educated and those of the presumed uneducated. Neither should I expect that the specially and professionally educated classes would be by any means so certain to return good representatives of their own, as they would be to form a valuable element in a miscellaneous constituency. It is a melancholy truth, but it is one which the experience of all academics and learned or scientific bodies establishes, that the suffrages of a select class of intellectual men are rarely given to the most really intellectual of their own number. Not the men of genius who are in advance of the body, and who compel it to advance, but the well-tutored and inoffensive mediocrities who best represent its average composition, are those whom it delights to honour. The man of real eminence, on the contrary, is the candidate whom it could with most effect present to a mixed constituency. In this, as in every other case, it is not separating classes of persons and organizing them apart, but fusing them with other classes very different from themselves, which eliminates class interests and class feelings. One who desires to be a legislator should rest on recommendations not addressing themselves to a class, but to feelings and interests common to all classes: the simple as well as the learned should feel him to be their representative; otherwise his words and thoughts will do worse than even fall dead on their minds; will be apt to rouse in them a sentiment of opposition.
Since the time is not come for obtaining, or even asking for, a representative system founded on the preceding principles, the point for practical consideration is, what measure it is possible to adopt now, which may in any degree conform to and recognise these principles, and facilitate instead of impeding a further application of them when circumstances may require or admit of it.
One means for this purpose very obviously presents itself. It is universally agreed that the expected measure, whatever else it may contain, shall include a considerable extension of the suffrage: the desirable object will be realized if this extension be made subordinate to an Educational Qualification. Even in the most democratic system of representative government, some sort of educational qualification is required by principle. We must never lose sight of the truth, that the suffrage for a member of Parliament is power over others, and that to power over others on right can possibly exist. Whoever wishes to exercise it, is bound to acquire the necessary qualifications, as far as their acquisition is practicable to him. I have expressed my conviction that in the best possible system of representation, every person without exception would have a vote; but this does not imply that any one should have it unconditionally; only that the conditions should be such as all could fulfil. The greatest amount of education which can he fairly regarded as within the reach of every one, should be exacted as a peremptory condition from all claimants of the franchise.
Society is at present as backward in providing education, as in recognising its claims; and the general standard of instruction in England is so low, that if anything more than the merest elements were required, the number of voters would he even smaller than at present. But reading, writing, and the
If there ever was a political principle at once liberal and conservative, it is that of an educational qualification. None are so illiberal, none so bigoted in their hostility to improvement, none so superstitiously attached to the stupidest and worst of old forms and usages, as the uneducated. None are so unscrupulous, none so eager to clutch at whatever they have not and others have, as the uneducated in possession of power. An uneducated mind is almost incapable of clearly conceiving the rights of others. There is a great abatement in the dread which people of property once entertained of universal suffrage. Recent example has shown that, if it subverts a constitution, it is as likely to do so in favour of despotism as of democracy. But, whatever be the most probable complexion of the evil to be feared', no lover of improvement can desire that the predominant power should be turned over to persons in the mental and moral condition of the English working classes; and no Conservative needs object to making the franchise accessible to those classes at the price of a moderate degree of useful and honourable exertion. To
Nobody will pretend that these effects would be completely produced by so low an educational qualification as reading, writing, and arithmetic; but it would be a considerable step towards them. The very novelty of the requirement—the excitement and discussion which it would produce in the class chiefly affected by it—would be the best sort of education; would make an opening in their minds that would to in light—would set them thinking in a perfectly new mnner respecting political rights and responsibilities. That all aould be admitted to the franchise who can fulfil these simple requirements, is not to be expected, nor even desired, inless means were also taken to give to the higher grades of instruction additional or more influential votes. Without such a provision, the educational test adapted for permanency would require to be much more stringent. What should new be pressed on the consideration of practical statesmen is, tht any lowering of the pecuniary qualification for the purpse of giving the franchise to a greater number of the working classes, should be combined with the further condition: of an educational test. It would not be indispensable to disfranchise, on this ground; any electors already registered; but upon all new applicants the test should be imperative. It would be a most substantial improvement in the existing representative
This, then, is one important principle which the expected Reform Bill, without going to any length in innovation which need alarm anybody, may inaugurate. Another principle, only second to this in value, which might also on the present occasion be admitted into the Constitution, is the representation of minorities.
I am inclined to think that the prejudice which undoubtedly exists in the minds of democrats against this principle, arises only from their not having sufficiently considered its mode of operation. It is an eminently democratic principle. The elementary propositions of the democratic creed imply it as an inevitable corollary. Even the government of mere numbers requires that every number should tell in proportion to its amount. What is anti-democratic is, that the minority should be allowed to outweigh the majority; but the principle of universal suffrage requires that, as far as is consistent with practicability, every minority in the constituency should be represented by a minority in the representative body; and a mode of voting which does not keep this object in view, is contrary to popular government; it does not sum up the opinion of the community correctly. There is no true popular representation if three-fifths of the people return the whole House of Commons, and the remaining two-fifths have no representatives. Not only is this not government by the people, it is not even government by a majority of the people: since the government will be practically in the hands of a majority of the majority. A Parliament may be obtained by universal suffrage, which may represent the opinions of a bare majority of the people; and again, when this Parliament proceeds to legislate, it may pass laws by a bare majority of itself. The governing body, reduced by this double process of elimination, may represent the opinions or wishes of little more than a
If the House of Commons were elected by the entire population in a single list, every one would sec that the node of voting would entirely disfranchise the minority. The party which was numerically strongest would rule without opposition, until by its abuse of power, it had provoked a change of public sentiment; and then the whole party would besurned out at once, and the same unrestrained rule would pas into the hands of its opponents. People do not fear any imilar inconvenience in the present case, because they reckon that the party which is in the minority in some places will have the majority in others, and that the local minorities will be virtually represented by the nominees of majorities of their own way of thinking elsewhere. And doubtless this is to a considerable extent the fact; and it generally will be so in the case of those great sections of opinion which pervade all classes, and divide society nearly equally. But it will not be so with others. In France, for example, it is probabe that the Protestants do not form the numerical majority of any constituency. If the politics, therefore, of the moment were to turn on any question specially interesting them is Protestants, they would be entirely unrepresented. The lass of mere manual labourers would everywhere form a large majority in any electoral district grounded solely on a local division of the country. It might happen, therefore, that ever single member of the Legislature would represent the opinions and feelings of manual labourers alone.
To enable minorities to be represented without placing them on an equality with majorities, it would be necessary that every constituency should return at least three numbers; and I venture to suggest that this is a sufficient number, and
In the preceding review of the essentials of a new Parliamentary Reform, no mention has been made of the Ballot. I hope to show sufficient reasons why this should be included, not among the things which ought, but among those which ought not, to form part of a measure for reforming the representation. It appears to me that secret suffrage, a very right and justifiable demand when originally made, would at present, and still more in time to come, produce far greaser evil than good.
The operation of the Ballot is, that it enables the voter to give full effect to his own private preferences, whether selfish or disinterested, under no inducement to defer to the opinions or wishes of others, except as these may influence his own. It follows, and the friends of the ballot have always sad, that secrecy is desirable, in cases in which the motives aeing on the voter through the will of others are likely to misled him, while, if left to his own preferences, he would vote as he ought. It equally follows, and is also the doctrine of the friend of the ballot, that when the. voter's own preferences are apt to lead him wrong, but the feeling of responsibility to others may
This is the criterion distinctlylaid down by a philosopher who did more than any other man of his generation towards making Ballot the creed of Parliamentary Reformers:— 'There are occasions on which the use of the ballot is advantageous: there are occasions on which it is hurtful. If we look steadily to the end, to which all institutions profess to be directed, we shall not find it very difficult to draw the line of demarcation. 'A voter may be considered as subject to the operation of two sets of interests: the one, interests arising out of the good or evil for which he is dependent upon the will of other men; the other, interests in respect to which he cannot be considered as dependent upon any determinate man or men. 'There are cases in which the interests for which he is not dependent upon other men impel him in the right direction. If not acted on by other interests, he will, in such cases, vote in that direction. If, however, he is acted upon by interests dependent upon other men, interests more powerful than the former, and impelling in the opposite direction, he will vote in the opposite direction. What is necessary, therefore, is to save him from the operation of those interests. This is accomplished by enabling him to vote in secret; for, in that case, the man who could otherwise compel his vote is ignorant in what direction it has been given. In all cases, therefore, in which the independent interests of the voter, those which, in propriety of language, may be called his 'There is, however, another set of cases, in which those interests of the voter, which have their origin primarily in himself, and not in other men, draw in the hurtful direction, and in which he is not liable to be operated upon by any other interests of other men, than those which each possesses in common with the rest of the community. If allowed, in this set of cases, to vote in secret, he will be sure to vote as the sinister interest impels. If forced to vote in public, he will be subject to all the restraint which the eye of the community, fixed upon his virtue or knavery, is calculated to produce; and, in such cases, the ballot is only an encouragement to evil.'own interests, would dictate the good and useful vote; but in which cases, at the same time, he is liable to be acted upon in the way either of good or of evil, by men whose interests would dictate a base and mischievous vote, the ballot is a great and invaluable security. . . . . . .
It is for this reason that no one, either Conservative or Reformer, approves of vote by ballot in Parliament itself. A member of Parliament, however secured against misleading influences from without, would often promote his private interest by voting wrong; and the chief security against this violation of his trust, is the publicity of his vote, and the effect
Thirty years ago it was still true that in the election of members of Parliament, the main evil to be guarded against was that which the ballot would exclude—coercion by landlords, employers, and customers. At present, I conceive, a much greater source of evil is the selfishness, or the selfish partialities, of the voter himself. A 'base and mischievous vote' is now, I am convinced, much oftener given from the voter's personal interest, or class interest, or some mean feeling in his own mind, than from any fear of consequences at the hands of others: and to these evil influences the ballot would enable him to yield himself up, free from all sense of shame or responsibility.
In times not long gone by, the higher and richer classes were in complete possession of the government. Their power was the master grievance of the country. The habit of voting at the bidding of an employer, or of a landlord, was so firmly established, that hardly anything was capable of shaking it but a strong popular enthusiasm, seldom known to exist but in a good cause. A vote given in opposition to these influences was therefore, in general, an honest, a public-spirited vote: but in any case, and by whatever motive dictated, it was almost sure to be a good vote, for it was a vote against the monster evil—the overruling influence of oligarchy. Could the voter at that time have been enabled, with safety to himself, to exercise his privilege freely, even though neither honestly nor intelligently, it would have been a great gain to reform; for it would have broken the yoke of the then ruling power in the country—the power which had created and which maintained all that was bad in the institutions and the administration of the State—the power of landlords and borough mongers.
The ballot was not adopted; but the progress of circumstances has done and is doing more and more, in this respect, the work of the ballot. Both the political and the social state
Exactly in proportion as the vote of the elector is determined by his own will, and not by that of somebody who is his master, his position is similar to that of a member of Parliament, and publicity is indispensable. So long as any portion of the community are unrepresented, the argument of the
It will of course be objected, that these arguments derive all their weight from the supposition of an unjust state of the suffrage. That if the opinion of the non-electors is likely to make the elector vote more honestly, or more beneficially, than he would vote if left to himself, they are more fit to he electors than he is, and ought to have the franchise. That whoever is fit to influence electors, is fit to be an elector. That those to whom voters ought to be responsible, should be themselves voters; and, being such, should have the safeguard of the ballot, to shield them from the undue influence of powerful individuals or classes to whom they ought not to be responsible.
This argument is specious, and I once thought it conclusive.
But if not now (it may be said), at least hereafter, when all are fit to have votes, and when all men and women are admitted to vote, in virtue of their fitness,—then there can no longer be danger of class legislation; then the elector, being the nation, can have no interest apart from the general interest: even if individuals still vote according to private or class inducements, the majority will have no such inducement; and as there will then be no non-electors to whom the ought to be responsible, the effect of the ballot, excluding none but the sinister influences, will be wholly beneficial.
Even in this I do not agree. I cannot think that even if the people were fit for, and had obtained, universal suffrage, the ballot would he desirable. First, because it could not, in such circumstances, be supposed to be needful. Let us only conceive the state of things which the hypothesis implies: a people universally educated, and every grown-up human being possessed of a vote. If even when only a small proportion are electors, and the majority of the population almost uneducated, public opinion is already, as every one now sees that it is, the ruling power in the last resort; it is a chimera to suppose that over a community who all read, and who all have votes, any power could be exercised by landlords and rich people against their own inclination, which it would be at all difficult for them to throw off. But though the protection of secresy would then be needless, the control of publicity would be as needful as ever. The universal observation of mankind has been very fallacious, if the mere fact of being one of the community, and not being in a position of pronounced contrariety of interest to the public at large, is enough to ensure the per-
For it must be borne in mind that the ballot cannot be, and has not been, defended otherwise than as a necessary evil. Necessary it might have been, but an evil it could never fail to be. The moral sentiment of mankind, in all periods of tolerably enlightened morality, has condemned concealment, unless when required by some overpowering motive; and if it be one of the paramount objects of national education to foster courage and public spirit, it is high time now that people should be taught the duty of asserting and acting openly on their opinions. Disguise in all its forms is a badge of slavery. No one will require from slaves the virtues of freemen, nor will scan nicely the means by which slaves effect their emancipation. They begin by resisting covertly; but when the time is come for rebelling openly, a man must have the soul of a slave who prefers the slave's weapon for himself, however his distrust of the courage of others may lead him to sanction its employment. And there is truth in what has always been urged by the enemies of the ballot—that, even supposing it necessary, it could only produce its effect at the price of much lying. The friends of the ballot have indulged a faint hope that it would put an end to canvassing. If it really held out this prospect, the force of the objection to it would be considerably weakened; but such a result is not in the nature of man and of things. As long as human beings exist, the most direct mode of obtaining a person's vote will be to ask him for
There is a suggestion of another kind, respecting the mode of voting, which has found a favourable reception from some
This pamphlet was written and published before I had seen or heard of Mr. Hare's important Treatise on Representation; which, had I been acquainted with it, would have enabled me greatly to improve those parts of my own performance, which go over the same ground with Mr. Hare. It would have been impossible to reprint this tract without making any reference to the great enlargement which my opinions on the subject have received from Mr. Hare's speculations; and a new edition having been called for, the easiest, if not the best, mode in which I can perform this duty, is by subjoining, from an article contributed by me to
Though Mr. Hare has delivered an opinion—and generally, in our judgment, a wise one—on nearly all the questions at present in issue connected with representative government; the originality of his plan, as well as most of the effects to be expected from it, turn on the development which he has given to what is commonly called the Representation of Minorities, he has raised this principle to an importance and dignity which no previous thinker had ascribe to it.
That minorities in the nation ought in principle, if it be possible, to be represented by corresponding minorities in the legislative assembly, is a necessary consequence from all premises on which any representation at all can be defended. In a deliberative assembly the minority must perforce give way, because the decision must be either aye or no; but it is not so in choosing those who are to form the deliberative body: that ought to be the express image of the wishes of the nation, whether divided or unanimous, in the designation of those by whose united councils it will be ruled; and any section of opinion which is unanimous within itself, ought to be able, in due proportion to the rest, to contribute its elements towards the collective deliberation. At present, if three-fifths of the electors vote for one person and two-fifths for another, every individual of the two-fifths is, for the purposes of that election, as if he did not exist: his intelligence, his preference, have gone for nothing in the composition of the Parliament. Whatever was the object designed by the Constitution in giving him a vote, that object, at least on the present occasion, has not been fulfilled; and if he can be reconciled to his position, it must be by the consideration that some other time he may be one of a majority, and another set of persons instead of himself may be reduced to cyphers: just as, before a regular government had been established, a man might have consoled himself for being robbed, by the hope that another time he might be able to rob some one else. But this compensation, however gratifying, will be of no avail to him if he is everywhere overmatched, and the same may be said of the elector who is habitually outvoted.
Of late years several modes have been suggested of giving an effective voice to a minority; by limiting each elector to fewer votes than the number of members to be elected, or allowing him to concentrate all his votes on the same candidate. These various schemes are praiseworthy so far as they go, but they attain the object very imperfectly. All plans for
These semi-dissentients might even amount to a majority of the minority; for (as Mr. Hare remarks) if fifty persons agree to combine their strength, who, left to themselves, would have divided their votes among ten candidates, six of the fifty may impose their candidate on all the rest, though perhaps only relatively preferred by them.
Mr. Hare offers an outlet from this difficulty. The object being that the suffrages of those who are in a minority locally, should tell in proportion to their number on the composition of the Parliament; since this is all, that is required, why should it be imperative that their votes should be received only for some one who is a local candidate? Why might they not give their suffrage to any one who is a candidate anywhere, their number of votes being added to those which he may obtain elsewhere? Suppose that a comparison between the number of members of the House and of registered electors in the kingdom, gives a quotient of 2000 as the number of electors per member, on an average of the whole country (which, according to Mr. Hare's calculation, is not far from the fact, if the existing electoral body is supposed to be augmented by 200,000): why should not any candidate, who can obtain 2000 suffrages in the whole kingdom, be returned to
This arrangement provides for all the difficulties involved in representation of minorities. The smallest minority obtains an influence proportioned to its numbers; the largest obtains no more. The representation becomes, what under no other system it can be, really equal. Every member of Parliament is the representative of an unanimous constituency. No one is represented, or rather misrepresented, by a member whom he has voted against. Every elector in the kingdom is represented by the candidate he most prefers, if as many persons in the whole extent of the country are found to agree with him, as come up to the number entitled to a representative.
To enable the scheme to work in the manner intended, a second and subsidiary expedient is necessary. A candidate who enjoys a wide-spread popularity, if votes are received for him everywhere, will often be voted for by many times the number of persons forming the quota entitled to a member. If this multitude of votes were all counted for his return, the number of members required to constitute the House would not be obtained; while the many thousand votes given for these favourite characters, will have had no more influence than the simple 2000 given for the least popular candidate who is returned at all. To obviate this, Mr. Hare proposes that no more than 2000 votes be counted for any one; that whoever has obtained that number be declared duly elected,
which 2000 should be chosen out of the 8000, as this is the solitary point we have yet discovered, in which Mr. Hare's arrangements appear to us susceptible of improvement. The 2000, on whatever principle selected, form the constituency whom this candidate will represent. His name will then be cancelled in the remaining 6000 papers, each of which will be counted as a vote for the person next in order who is named in them, unless he also shall have been already returned by other votes—and so on. In this manner the 8000 electors who prefer A. B. will obtain from among the list of persons by whom they have declared their willingness to be represented, the full complement of four members due to them, A. B. being one; or will have exerted an amount of influence equal to the return of four members, in the election of some greater number.
Of this breadth, clearness, and simplicity are the principles of the plan. Indeed, if Mr. Hare had stopped here, the chief difficulty he would have had to encounter would have been the doubt whether a scheme so theoretically perfect could be brought into practical operation. But since he has taken the trouble to point out, even to the minutest detail, the mode in which the plan can be executed, and has drawn up in all legal form the statute necessary to give it effect, the danger now is lest the inevitable prominence of the mechanical arrangements should confuse the mind of a mere cursory reader, and enable the scheme to be represented as too complex and subtle to be workable. Such a notion would be extremely erroneous. Mr.
That these arrangements are just and reasonable, and afford a complete remedy for an evil for which none but very imperfect palliatives were supposed to be attainable, is obvious almost at first sight. But it was not till after mature reflection and diligent study of Mr. Hare's admirable exposition, that we fully realized the greatness of the incidental benefits, not at first apparent, which would result from the substitution of personal instead of exclusively local representation.
In the first place, it would prodigiously improve the personnel of the national representation. At present, were they ever so desirous, a great majority of the most distinguished men in the country have little or no chance of being elected anywhere as members of the House of Commons. The admirers, and those who would be the supporters, of a person whose claims rest on acknowledged personal merit, are generally dispersed throughout the country, while there is no one place in which his influence would not be far outweighed by that of some local grandee, or notabilitié de clocher, who neither has, nor deserves to have, the smallest influence anywhere else. If a man of talents and virtue could count as votes for his return all electors in any part of the kingdom, who would like to be represented by him, every such person who is well known to the public would have a probable chance; and under this encouragement nearly all of them, whose position and circumstances were compatible with Parliamentary duties, might be willing to offer themselves to the electors, Those voters who
élite of the nation.
Nor must it be supposed that only the minorities, or weaker parties in the localities, would give themselves a wider range of choice, to acquire, by combining with one another, their just share in the representation. The majorities also would be brought under inducements to make a more careful choice. There are few things more discreditable to the country than the mode in which the member for a borough, when not the mere creature of the local influences, is generally selected. What do the body of those who give him their suffrages usually know of him? Unless in the ease of those who live among them, and are known to them privately, nothing at all, except that he is of the right political party; that he calls himself the Liberal or the Conservative candidate. But there are Liberal and Conservative candidates of all qualities; and what are the qualifications looked for by the attorney the Parliamentary agent, or the half-dozen local leaders, who king down the candidate from London? What they seek for is a man with money, and willing to spend it—if of any social rank so much the better—and who will make professions on some subjects, and be silent on others, according to what they tell him is required by the local opinion. Whatever may be his worth, or want of worth, in other respects, the voters who are on the same side in polities vote for him en masse: whether he is to their taste or not, they cannot, by proposing another candidate, divide the party; they must either bring him in, or lose their votes, and give a victory to the other side. Under Mr. Hare's plan things would be far otherwise. The candidate of the party which is strong enough to carry its nominee would still, no doubt, be generally selected by the local leaders; when many persons are to be brought to act together, some must take the initiative. But the position and
A member who had already served in Parliament with any distinction, would under this system be almost sure of his reelection. At present the first man in the house may be thrown out of Parliament precisely when most wanted, and may be kept out for several years, from no fault of his own, but because a change has taken place in the local balance of parties, or because he has voted against the prejudices or local interests of some influential portion of his constituents. Under Mr. Hare's system, if he has not deserved to be thrown out, he will be nearly certain to obtain votes from other places, sufficient, with his local strength, to make up the quota of 2000 (or whatever the number may be) necessary for his return to Parliament.
The considerations on which we have hitherto dwelt are independent of any possible changes in the composition of the electoral body. But the bearing of Mr. Hare's proposals on the question of extending the suffrage, is of the very greatest importance. Why is nearly the whole educated class united in uncompromising hostility to a purely democratic suffrage?
strongest power; that many of the educated class would think only just. It is because it would make them the sole power; because in every constituency the votes of that class would swamp and politically annihilate all other members of the community taken together; would put them in the same position, as regards Parliament, in which the labouring classes are now, without the same imposing physical strength out of doors; and would produce (or would be in danger of producing) a Legislature reflecting exclusively the opinions and preferences of the most ignorant class, with no member of any higher standard to compare and confront themselves with, except such as may have stripped themselves of their superiority by conforming to the prejudices of their supporters. But if the greater number could obtain their share of political power without silencing the smaller number; if the educated and the propertied classes could still be represented, though by a minority, in the House; there would not, in the minds of many of those classes, be the same insuperable objection to the political preponderance of the majority. Represented as the minority would be likely then to be, by the ablest heads and noblest hearts in the nation, their representatives would probably acquire considerable personal ascendancy over the other section of the House; especially as the majorities would have been under the inducements already spoken of to get themselves represented by the most intelligent and morally recommendable persons they could find. The cause of the minority would be likely to be supported with such consummate skill, and such a weight of moral authority, as might prove a sufficient balance to the superiority of numbers on the other side, and enable the opinions of the higher and middle classes to prevail when they were right, even in an assembly of which the majority had been chosen by the poor. We have not the smallest wish that they should prevail when they were wrong, as no doubt they often would be. So much confidence, indeed, have we in the moral efficacy of such a representation of minorities as Mr. Hare's scheme
Meanwhile, however, and so long as the working classes are not admitted to the suffrage so indiscriminately as to outnumber the other electors, those classes have a most direct interest in the due representation of minorities, since in numerous cases they would themselves be in a position to benefit by it. There is great difficulty, under the present machinery, in measuring out influence to the working classes, so as to be just to them without being unjust to every one else. They are not represented even as a class, unless they are the majority of the constituency, and if they are, nobody else is represented. A strong sense of the importance of their obtaining, by whatever means, a certain number of members who actually represent them, has led an intelligent writer, Mr. Bagehot, to propose so violent a remedy as that of giving up the representation of the large towns to day-labourers, by establishing, in them, equal and universal suffrage, thereby disfranchising the higher and middle classes of those places, who comprise the majority of the most intellectual persons in the kingdom. All this Mr. Hare's plan would supersede. By admitting the working classes into the constituencies generally, in such numbers as to constitute a large minority therein, they would be enabled to return all their leaders, and a considerable number of other members without swamping, or even outnumbering, the rest of the electors. They would be relieved from the mischievous alternative of all or none. They would have the exact amount of influence in the composition of Parliament which it was the intention of the Legislature to give them; whereas on the present system the effects of any extension of the suffrage would be so entirely uncertain, that to be sure of not giving them more than Parliament is willing to allow, it would be thought necessary to give much less than is fairly allowable.
Consider next the check which would be given to bribery and intimidation in the return of members to Parliament.
Those who demand equal electoral districts should strenuously support Mr. Hare's plan; for it fulfils, in a far preferable manner, their professed purposes. In his system all the constituencies are equal, and all unanimous. Disfranchisement becomes unnecessary, for every place is represented in the ratio, and no place in more than the ratio, due to its number of electors. The endless disputations, the artful manipulation and elaborate ponderation of interests, to endeavour to make sure (which can never really be done) that there shall always be places enough returning persons of certain descriptions, may all now be dispensed with. Every description of persons, every class, every so-called interest, will be sure of exactly the amount of representation it is entitled to. The system, moreover, is self-adjusting; there would not be need of an Act of Parliament once in every quarter of a century to re-adjust the representation. Every year the whole number of registered
But in no way would the effects of this masterly contrivance be more unspeakably beneficial, than in raising the tone of the whole political morality of the country. A representative would be under nothing like the same temptation to gain or keep his seat by time-serving arts, and sacrifices of his convictions to the local or class prejudices and interests of any given set of electors. Unless the prejudice was universal in the nation, a spirited resistance would cause his name to be
against him, by electors of sentiments he remotest possible from his, he will not even have been accepted by him as a compromise; he is the man whom the elector has really preferred. No longer required to choose between two or some small number of candidates, much alike probably in all respects except the party banner they carry, and seldom having any strong public recommendation but that, to the suffrage of any one who votes for them; the elector would have the opportunity, if he chose, of tendering his vote for the ablest and best man in the Empire who is willing to serve. Is not this a situation to rouse a moral feeling in any one, who has sufficient conscience belonging to him to have any of it to bestow on the performance of a public duty? It is the seeming. insignificance of men's individual acts that deadens their consciences respecting them. The self-deluding sophistry of indolence or indifference operates by "What does it matter?" Place before any one a high object; show him that he can individually do something to promote that object; and if there is a spark of virtue in the man, it will be kindled into a glow. To the new feeling of duty would be added a pride in making a good choice—a desire to connect himself as a constituent with some one who is an honour to the nation—to be known to him and to the world as one who has voluntarily sought him out to give him his vote. Mr. Hare, when he reaches this part of his subject, rises into a noble enthusiasm, which is irresistibly attractive when combined, as it is in him, with a sober and sagacious perception of the relation between means and ends, and a far-sighted circumspection in guard-
With this exalted sense of the moral responsibility of an elector, Mr. Hare is, as might be expected, an enemy to the ballot. Pp. 168 et seq.vultus instantis tyranni, might and would be present. The system of personal representation does so much in other respects to weaken the inducements to the exercise of the undue influences, that it can afford to leave them such advantages as voting papers would give. But the evil is a real, and, in any system but Mr. Hare's, a conclusive objection.
On many other points in the theory and practice of representation, Mr. Hare's opinions are valuable, but not in the same degree original. On some minor questions he has not, perhaps, bestowed the same maturity of meditation as on the one which is peculiarly his own. He would remove all disqualifications for membership (pp. 136 et seq.). Neither clergymen, nor judicial officers, nor persons in official employment, should in his opinion be excluded from Parliament. If attendance in the House is inconsistent with a functionary's official duties, it should be left (he thinks) to the functionary's superiors to remove him. In some of these cases Mr. Hare may be in the right, but he takes no notice of the reasons which are commonly considered to justify the exclusion: in the case of clergymen and of judges, the importance of their
We heartily join in Mr. Hare's condemnation of the proposal for payment of members of Parliament. 'The constant meddling of a body of men, paid for making laws, and acting under the notion that they are bound to do something for their salaries, would in this country be intolerable' (p. 122). Moreover, as Mr. Lorimer remarks (p. 169), by creating a pecuniary "inducement to persons of the lowest class to devote themselves to public affairs, the calling of the demagogue would be formally inaugurated." Nothing is more to be deprecated than making it the private interest of a number of active persons to urge the form of government in the direction of its natural perversion. The indications which either a multitude or an individual can give, when merely left to their own weaknesses, afford but a faint idea of what those weaknesses would become when played upon by a thousand flatterers. If there were six hundred and fifty-eight places, of certain, however moderate, emolument, to be gained by persuading the multitude that ignorance is as good as knowledge, and better, it is terrible odds that they would believe and act upon the lesson. The objection, however, to the payment of members, as Mr. Hare remarks, is chiefly applicable to payment from
Though Mr. Hare is strongly averse to this "point of the Charter," he would relieve candidates from the heavy burthen of election expenses, except a payment of fifty pounds, which he would require from each on declaring himself a candidate, "to prevent any trifling or idle experiment, whereby the lists of candidates might be encumbered with the names of persons who can have no rational expectation of being usefully placed in nomination."
This preliminary payment should
exonerate the candidate from all liability in respect of any further expenses, except such as he may voluntarily incur. Such voluntary expenses will of course, as now, vary according to the peculiar circumstances of every candidate. They will probably be in the inverse ratio of his political eminence and distinction. Men of high character and reputation, and those whose political conduct and discretion have been tested and proved by experience, would stand in need of no more than that announcement of their names which the gazetted list would publish. A man of less distinction might require something more; possibly the charges of a public meeting, and of an advertisement or printed address, declaring his general views on political questions. This, perhaps, would be less necessary if the candidate were a person of any mark in literature or science, and had in his previous career become known to the public. Those who would probably be compelled to spend most, would be the persons who have the least to recommend them besides their money.—p. 126.
With regard to the suffrage, Mr. Hare does not deliver a decided opinion as to the most proper test of capacity, but lays down the broad principle, that it should be
one which will exclude no man of ordinary industry and skill in his calling, and ordinary prudence and self-denial in his conduct. It cannot be necessary that the suffrage should be given to every youth as soon as he is out of his apprenticeship: it is not necessary that it should be given
This general doctrine is sufficiently liberal to satisfy any one; but when Mr. Hare (p. 313) considers the present £10 qualification in the large towns, and one varying from that to £6 in the smaller towns and in the counties, to be a standard "so low that it is within the reach of every well-conducted man who is not a victim of some extraordinary misfortune, forming an exception to the general lot," we fear statistics will not bear him out. An educational test he deems inapplicable (p. 310), because "it would be next to impossible to apply" such a test "to every individual of a multitude" (not true of the simple test of writing and arithmetic, which might with ease be applied to every elector at the registry); because "it may exclude men of much practical knowledge and good sense" (we greatly question the knowledge and good sense, as applicable to politics, of any one who has not the power and habit of reading); and finally, because "it would operate severely on those who were more advanced in life, and to whom elementary tests are less suitable." The rights of existing electors should certainly be reserved; but in the case of any others, the supposed hardship, being merely that of not being entrusted with duties they are not fit for, is no subject for complaint.
Mr. Hare passes an unqualified and most just comdemnation on the exclusion of women from the suffrage:
In all cases where a woman is sui juris, occupying a house or tenement, or possessed of a freehold, or is otherwise in a position which, in the case of a male, would amount to a qualification, there is no sound reason for excluding her from the parliamentary franchise. The exclusion is probably a remnant of the feudal law, and is not in harmony with the other civil institutions of the country. There would be great propriety in celebrating a reign which has been productive of so much moral benefit, by the abolition of an anomaly which is so entirely without any justifiable foundation.—p. 320.
Such is this remarkable book: of the contents of which we have been compelled to leave a great portion unnoticed, including the simple arrangements by which the system of voting is adapted to the case of single elections, and of municipalities. In our brief exposition we have given a much more adequate idea of Mr. Hare's specific proposals, than of the instructive and impressive discussions by which he introduces them. Yet if the book made no practical suggestions whatever, and had no value but that of the principles it enforces, it would still deserve a high rank among manuals of political thought. We trust it will be widely read, and we are convinced that, by competent thinkers, the system it embodies will be recognised as alone just in principle, as one of the greatest of all practical improvements, and as the most efficient possible safeguard of further Parliamentary Reform.
The End.
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Reader! avast, before you proceed any further, for, if you have not been in the habit of exercising your reflective faculties, or if you do not intend to begin now to exercise them, you may save yourself the trouble of reading the following pages—they are not intended for you and will do you no good—the shallow and the unthinking can reap no benefit from their perusal—but if you have trained your mind to reflect, to weigh evidence and form your own conclusions, I hail you as a brother of independent mind, an individuality, a soul, a man on your own account, and I invite you to a consideration, with me, of those principles which so much affect the problems of physical, intellectual, moral, social and spiritual life. I do not lay claim to much originality of thought; I cannot tell how much of the following is original, or how much has been suggested by other authors; I will not oven guarantee that many of the passages, marked as quotations in the following pages, are correct, or that many not marked at all are not quotations; I may have altered both to suit my own ideas, for, in nearly all instances, I quote from memory, and many of the authors I have never read; but this I feel, whether the following thoughts have originated with myself or with others, whether I have read them in books, or whether I have been impressed with them by my spirit guides, they are equally dear to me in the present state of my mind, and I hope they may meet with the same approval on your part. But whether they meet with your approval or disapproval I shall be equally satis, fled, providing your verdict is conscientiously given.
The men who have set their mark upon the progress of thought hare done so, not so much by the originality of their views, as by the happy manner in which they have compiled and brought within reach the advanced views of the age in which they lived; their success has not consisted so much in declaring something new, as in introducing—probably in a new dress—old thoughts of sterling value, which have lain dormant and neglected in men's minds for ages. Few writers of advanced thoughts live to see the fruits of their labors. Silently and unobserved they rise and take their place among the stars in the intellectual constellations, and when the healthful breeze of freedom has cleared the atmosphere of haze and clouds, they shine forth with truthful and beautiful splendour, guiding stars in the pathway of mind, culminating points in the realm of thought.
How true it is that one shall sow and another shall reap! Think you that a sensualist living in Jerusalem, with his harem of 1,000 wires and concubines, could be the author of all the ancient Jewish proverbs, so simple and so truthful! I say 'tis an impossibility. The mind of such an individual might give birth to the lascivious thoughts contained in that production of the Jewish Anacreon, The Song of Songs, but the wise sayings of the sages are too much above the plane of his thought. Thoughts are as natural as any other product of life, Nature never contradicts herself.
The fine moral precepts found in the sayings of Jesus existed ages before his time, his true value as a reformer consists in that he evolved from the region of Idea and Thought, as he understood them, a religion of action—ill understood by his immediate disciples, and still less understood by the majority of that people calling themselves Christians.
There was an Illiad before Homer wrote his, many Philosophers were before Socrates and Plato, Galileo and Copernicus, before Newton, Bacon's method had been followed, from the hour that reason dawned, and Aguste Comte is not the last that will carry it beyond its legitimate province.
Many of the ancients and a Monbaddo wrote of the origin of the human species before Darwin, and Professor Owen is neither the first nor the last nor the greatest of our philosophers. Mind succeeds mind in the kingdom of thought, ever onward rolls the wave of human pro-
Before we proceed let me define our terms. Harmonial Philosophy! The term Harmonial is used as implying perfect unity—a happy oneness and accord in all its parts—
We use the term philosophy in its most extended sense, as not only embracing the physical sciences, but all the higher problems which have engaged the minds of mankind from the earliest dawn of thought. Theology, metaphysics, positive science, the physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual constitution of man, his relations with the external worlds of matter and spirit, with his fellow men, and with the great positive mind of the universe.
This is no system of high philosophy, purely abstract, designed only for the pedantic and sour-minded misanthrope, flaunting his learning before the eyes and in the ears of the untutored clown', bus is interwoven in all its details with human sympathies and social interests.
The vulgar notion of liberty only implies a freedom from constraint of action. This is a very defective definition, and you will perceive its defects when you hear what the Harmonialist says—
"True liberty can only be enjoyed by the united freedom and union of internal and external law working in harmony; physical action is hounded by the power and circumstance of our being, and its social relations, but the range of mind is illimitable, and we claim for it free course to pursue its unrestricted enquiry, and to spank its sentiments as well as Moses, Buddha, Jesus or Mahomed. Nothing must be considered too sacred, nor yet anything too profane, on which to exercise the powers of man's intellectual endowments, but thin: which appears so simple is a most difficult task. The iron sceptre of im-
Reader, you are perhaps better acquainted with the methods of reasoning followed as a fashion by the different schools of wranglers than I am, let us however refer to them.
That known as Aristotle's mode, the syllogistic, was long adhered to; it obtained particular favour among dogmatists, but its days are on the wane, it is uncertain and oft leads to error. We cannot be sure that the major term is always correct, it has first to be proven. The minor term may or may not correspond with it, so in every case the conclusion is extremely liable to be vitiated. Reasoning from hypotheses is like building castles in the air, it takes the foundation for granted which may be no foundation at all, and the first fresh breeze of true discovery lays our superstructure prostrate in the dust.
Reasoning from Analogy, of which Butler has given us the best example in our language, is now so generally considered unreliable that it has almost ceased to be a process of reasoning, and is now simply used by sensible writers for purposes of rhetoric or embellishment; there are however a few who still adhere to what they chose to term—strict Analogy, but their number is lessening every day. In my view Analogy seems rather to be a process through which the mind passes the subject before it proceeds to investigate it, than a mode of proof
David Hume and Dr. Paley misapplied the method, and drew opposite conclusions. When two such minds as these follow the same method and arrive at opposite results, the fault is more likely tobe in the method than in the men.
But the most amusing result of all is to see the Length to which Aguste Comte has been driven. He has got as far as "Materialism in Physcology, Selfishness in Ethics, and Atheim in Theology," and he could not help himself. The system ho lays down for himself drives him to that pitiful end, and whoever accepts his method cannot escape his conclusions.
But the Harmonialist refers to the other end of the same chin of reasoning; a very old method "more ancient than the divine plato, its august diciple," probably the oldest of all, as the mind invaiably adopts it before it seeks to prove by induction. This mode commences a priori from what appears self-evident to the mind, descends,
We have already noticed the absurd conclusions to which M. Comte has been driven by carrying the sensuous method beyond its proper domain, and such has also been the result of the Cartesian method, from its one-sided spiritual view, that its disciples have truly earned for themselves the titles of Mystics, Dreamers, and Visionaries, landing ingloriously through their unbalanced enthusiasm in the mire of absurdity.
No wonder Descartes is now at a discount; he will never be properly appreciated until his book of Method and Principles takes its place by the side of Bacon's Novum Organon, and the Physical and Spiritual unite as a harmonious whole, forming a full and complete mode of reasoning.
In speaking of human happiness the harmonialist says, that it is derived from a natural basis. "Our whole nature most participate, for no true happiness can be found except in the development of our whole nature; physical power, in harmony with the power of conscience, the unity of the external with the internal man, the truthfulness of the soul in perfect agreement with the words and actions of the phenomenal man. That inharmonial or purely physical pleasures are sensuous, transitory and partial;" whereas harmonial pleasures, in unison with the whole of our nature, physical and rational, are permanent to the last degree." That inharmonial pleasures produce discord in our nature. The severance of the rational from the natural prevents all permanent enjoyment, and that where our nature is thus thrown into discord, we can neither see clearly, nor enjoy fully, the general beauty social order, and harmony of all existences..
The harmonialist affirms that there is nothing in the professedly revealed religions existing among mankind but what the human mind could either discover or invent.
That the evolution of religious thought follows the exact law of man's development.
The faculty of wonder lying immediately over the animal faculties which constitute the basis of man's nature, comes into operation before the higher organs of intellect, and thus gives birth to the mysterious, which in its turn begets the theological—the first outgoings of mind on the road of progress—the second stage of progress turns the mind in upon itself, and gives birth to the metaphysical. Still onward, and the mysterious and metaphysical become modified by the analytical process of the mind. These stages must of necessity all remain imperfect until the intellect by direct knowledge reduces the mysterious, the theological, and the metaphysical to their proper value in the currency of exact science, a feat which the harmonialist alone seems capable of accomplishing. The harmonialist avers that nothing tends more to damp the soul and produce ungenial and inharmonious thoughts than a stern and gloomy creed. That all conceptions of a future state of existence partake of the mental idiopathy, and moral and intellectual state of the conceptionalist. The great faith of the Harmonialist in the supreme fountain of all wisdom appears to lay at the basis of all his chief enjoymcnts, and, in anticipating his future advancement, he reasons thus: "In our present state the greatest among us can take in but a small portion of clear knowledge as respects the vast universe around us, but we perceive the all comprehending mind, and our rational nature suggests that the intellectual desires of all his creatures will as assuredly be satisfied, as their appetites, for natural desires are nowhere falsified in the plan of nature. "Without this satisfaction life would be a fragment without a design, a delusion and a misfortune." He follows up this train of thought by saying "The greater portion of the human family are born, live sensuously, feel, and die in darkness and ignorance, understanding not, nor being understood. Millions of illuminated insects whose span of life is short; just long enough to
It is no part of our present purpose to enter into an examination of these proofs, but simply to state that millions of living witnesses, men and women of virtue and intelligence, bear witness to the truth and variety of spirit communications.
In reviewing this philosophy we find it to be peculiar in its freedom from dogmatism." It lays no claim to infallibility, sets up no fixed standard of thought; beyond the bounds of which you may not pass; professes not to have displayed the whole of truth, but leaves the future generations of the race to ascend still higher in the great temple of mind, that riches vast and invaluable, from the inexhaustible recourses of the mighty university may be added to its store."
It recognises no direct antagonism in any of the systems of Religion or Philosophy, which have gone before it, nor stands at direct variance with any of the systems which occupy men's minds at the present day, but sees a measure of good and truth in all, even the simplest and meanest, and propounds, as a fact arrived at by retrospective investigation, that the durability and permanence of every system depends upon the measure of Truth which it contains. That Truth alone is permanent —hath a never ending existence—that Thoughts, Ideas, and Principles alone contain Truth in its purity—that men, and parties of men, are only imperfect symbols, and the strongest union of these symbols must come to an end. If bad, their glory will be shortlived, if possessing a large measure of truth they will endure much longer, but no longer than until the race outgrows them. When that period arrives they must yield their old spirit and commence a new life, or perish of neglect as a part refusing to unite with the whole in its advancing changes.
The Harmonialist believes that the whole order of the universe originated in the divine unity, and that, when its cycle is complete, t'will be resolved again into perfect unity, and that all the deviations
In all matters of judgment the Harmonialist takes reason as the standard of appeal, he admits that errors may arise, but these arise from imperfect knowledge, and not generally from any defect in the faculties. Correct knowledge will lead to correct reasoning.
In matters connected with morality and virtue he acknowledges with Jocobi, the authority of conscience, although it is no absolute test in matters of right, owing to its impersonal and subjective quality; yet it possesses considerable value, and may be appealed to, except in the case of the hardened offender who denies its existence.
He agrees with Bentham that "virtue has no reality apart from the rational pursuit of happiness," and with Bentham's opponents that a disinterested act produces the greatest amount of internal pleasure.
He agrees with Kant and Hegel and Shelling, and "many of the German Idealists, that reason and conscience are impersonal, and may be corrected and adjusted by an appeal to the collective reason and conscience, in history and external nature, since all are in harmony.
He defines Truth as the relation of things as they are, and Error as the relation of things as they are not." Facts as things which are, done, and can be attested by the senses. History he regards as a relation of facts, mingled with the myths of past ages, still he does not impugn the veracity of old authors, well knowing that no man can entirely free himself from the prejudices and frailties of the age in which he lives.
To sum up our definitions. The Harmonial Philosophy is not so much a letter, a word, a system of principles or ethics, or spoken thoughts and sentiments, as a life, a true religion of action recognizing the law of God as stamped in and upon universal nature, and obeying that perfect law as written in the human soul. It encourages the utmost freedom of thought and bows in bondage to no fixed creed, daring to scrutinize all systems of faith, well knowing that truth and science can never imperil true faith, nor can God's houseever be divided against itself.
Our spiritual philosophy being natural and universal, which cannot be said of any of the religions of mankind, it must necessarily follow that spiritualism is greater than them all, for, according to their spirituality, which ought to be the one essential element of their being (in fact the only thing that entitles them to be called religions) they must all be comprehended within its scope, reduced to the position of so many servants or witnesses, all bearing a testimony, more or less clear, according to their light, in favor of Spiritualism, the universal tree of the great Father's planting, with its roots in the earth and its branches shooting up into the heavens.
Man is a religious being, or rather possesses a religious element in his nature, which makes Deity, Immortality and Spiritual Progress facts necessary to his very being. Where this element and these facts are ignored, true harmony is an impossible attainment. Such is the power of this natural sentiment in the human soul that it can subdue and conquer the fear of death, enforce pain, privation and mortification of the flesh, and, when misdirected, can be made to do violence to the holiest and most sacred ties that bind humanity. Atheists, and mere secularists, who ignore it, must of necessity fail in their efforts to bind in one homogenous mass the conflicting interests of mankind.
The Harmonialist proceeds upon the principle of induction in proving his conclusions in regard to spiritual matters, he collates the various facts of so-called spirit phenomena, and, from a combination of unvarying results, giving forth an intelligible phase; from the unseen and invisible, he is led to the conclusion that unseen intelligences bound our material existence on every hand.
Animal magnetism he finds to be the conduit or channel through which the thoughts of these intelligences come to us, he finds magnetism to be no intelligent entity but an element bound by the
Our philosophy comprises not only the spiritual but the pysical, intellectual, moral and social condition of the human race in this the birth-sphere of their existence, and preparation to enter with advantage into the succeeding stages of being in the after-life. It embraes The Science of Man, The Science of the Universe, The 8cience of a Pure and Lovely Religion. In its universality it is apart from human authority, however learned, and from hero worship, however siblime. Tradition and the records of old opinions may corroborate our views but cannot give the sanction of proof. That rests with ourselves and within the compass of our natural powers. Our God is the supreme and infinite life of universal nature, our knowledge of him is derived from fixed and universal laws, demonstrated as humanity advances; our religion, our morals and our social relations must be alike based on science; and our faith must be the result of our real knowledge. To extend our faith beyond our knowledge is presumption, and in a knowledge of the principles which govern all life are we to find our road to complete happiness.
All primary ideas of God are true, all human conceptions of him are false; their conflicting nature proves them to be so; we can form no just conception of that which we cannot fully comprehend, we can only comprehend what is inferior or less than ourselves, or what comes within the range of our powers, hence the conflicting and consequently erroneous conceptions of God put forth by all the religions of the world. Plato's discovery of a geometrizing God as every substance in the physical universe exists in a state of geometrical and mathematical precision, however beautiful and true, is but a cold conception. The Father God of Jesus is a warm and happy conception
We avoid all hero worship, and seek not to impose our principles by the sanction of great names, for no name, however revered by man' can render truth more true or falsehood more false, or yet substitute the one for the other. Authority must give place to enquiry and precedent to our highest sense of right. The admiration of a long passed away moral hero, however great and good, must not take the place of the teachings of the omniactive spirit of all goodness within and without, the all and in all, of purity and truth.
There is no distinction with us in the nature of truth, no such division as human and divine truths. The knowledge of God, of the Earth, of man, and the facts or laws of the universe, are alike from one source, and of one harmonious origin; all science is from one root, and all true knowledge of it is obtained by one method—investigation.
The universal belief of a principle does not prove its truth, free investigation by intelligent minds in the pursuit of knowledge has overturned many of the time-honored beliefs of mankind; which fact serves to teach us modesty' and points to progress.
We look upon no religious system ever invented by man as being utterly alse; all possess more or less good according to the genius and habits of the people from whom they emanated, or by whom they were adopted and professed.
A Religion of beliefs as an effort to reform the race, consisting of naught but words of advice, and, as such, however good, is utterly valueless to change the world. The Religion of Action which Does and Bids you do will accomplish more in an age than windy, wordy, boms bastic beliefs have done since the world began. Indeed, the professors of the latter, who have propagated their system by flourish of trumpet,
There are periods of infancy, adolescence, maturity, and drivelling old age, in the life of all human religious as well as in that of man. In infancy they are subservient to their parentage: kicked and cuffed by persecution. In adolescence pleading by apologies for bare toleration. In maturity persecuting in their turn the young scions of thought for non-conformity to their useless ceremonials and vain, stupid, dogmas. And by this shall all men know them. For the great eternal truths of heaven-born pure and undefiled religion never yet engendered enmity in a human heart. They are not religious who believe in religion, those who practice it are alone entitled to be called so.
We aver that no human language ever spoken or written is capable of conveying an immutable and infallible meaning to all mankind; for such is the mutability of all languages that, were it possible to do so in the first instance, the transmutation of the language alone, without taking into account the differences of human recipients, or the clanges undergone by translation' would cause it to be variously understood in different and succeeding ages.
That teaching which approaches nearest to infallibility must be that which is stamped by deity direct upon the general nature of humanity, and the impression of which is renewed in every succeding generation of the race.
Experience may lead to mistakes and reason to errors, but man
Our Mother Nature never inspires her children with desires which are designed not to be gratified. She holds out no illusive hopes; utter no false prophecies; evolves no instincts to mock herself, but she is consistent and truthful throughout.
Aguste Comte but repeats the idea of Immanuel Kaut, when he admits the necessity of a God but denies the existence, or possibility of proofs of his existence, or of the immortality of the soul; arguing that we have no absolute demonstration on such topics, but that such beliefs are necesary to the harmony and satisfaction of the mind, and must therefore be admitted, now as harmony, and satisfaction is the full end and enjoyment of all God's creatures and everything is provided in nature to accomplish that end. Such absolute demonstrations on these topics must exist, and and that they do exist is proven by man's intercourse with the spirit world.
Mind like muscle follows the same law of development, use gives strength and vigour to both. The human mind excels the capabilites of the widow's cruise of oil and barrel of meal, take as much from it as you please extraction only increases its capacity to produce. The influx of great thoughts is increased in the same rratio as we actively pursue our true line of duty in putting them forth, and decreased in proportion as we neglect them and allow them to become stagnant in the mind. All men feel that they have power over all circumstances in a greater or less degree to change or modify them to their well-being, and advantage or neglect and slight them to their hurt and sorrow.
We do not accept the idea that sensual impression is the only source through which we receive our ideas, our intuitions lead us to reach beyond the objects of sense, and our spiritual perceptions give a proper and definite meaning to the terms Mind, Life, Nature, Eternity, Infinity, Almighty, &c., &c., upon these we can reason as truly and come to conclusions as certain as upon the material objects which we
In nothing is this more exemplified than in the science of geometry which lays at the foundation of all the physical sciences, the foundation of this science is in the mind's ideal, it describes a point asbeing without length, breadth or extension—such a thing cannot be produced, it is no sensible or tangible thing, it is nothing material. It describes a line as a continuation of points, i.e., a continuation of nothings. Yet there is no two ideas existing in the mind more real than the ides of a point and a line, and we must accept these ideas which can only be negatively described before we can proceed to investigate any physical csience whatever. There are three ways in which impression are produced upon the mind. The first is external and through the senses; the second, internal, or by spirit impression; the third by the geneating power of the thinking sentient being entering into harmonial relations with both the former sources of knowledge, and thus giving birth to new thoughts or impressions.
Memory, Mental Identity, Personal Unity, Love of Life projecting into the future, belong to the spiritual part of our being, the are nevertheless as real and distinctive as the form of the visage; the stture, or the complexion of any individual, and an idea more distasteil to the well developed human being, than the destruction of his rortal body, is the annihilation of his mind.
We must therefore seek our development according to the laws of our nature operating within us in harmony with the laws of nature operating without, a true and rational love of self in harmony with fraternal man, as also the harmonization of the desires, instincts, passions, and functions of the body with the spirit life within; for every gift that God has bestowed upon us is intended to be used in the best and highest sense our judgments can dictate, and not abused omeglected, which converts them to evil and a curse. Every arden and longing desire of our true nature is destined to receive its fulfillment if free from the misdirected influences of sensual passion or perverted instinct.
Through the triumphs of our mentality we find ourselves the apex
Geology proves the development of the forms of life in a grand ascending scale, from the lowest monad to man; it is a glorious science-and reveals the wonder-working mind of the Creator. But the highest branch of science—in short, the science of all other sciences—the master-key that unlocks the mighty casket—is the science of humanity, its innate laws and its social development ought to constitute our chief study. If this be neglected, whatever other attainments we may possess, we are yet uncivilised, and in the bonds of barbarism.
Everything of which we cannot trace the cause is to us a mystery; but when our intelligence has obtained a thorough knowledge of the cause or causes, the mystery disappears. Mystery will therefore always find a place in the world until knowledge of all causes and their effects are mastered by the intelligence of man; but to what height will that intelligence lead him as he rises in the scale of being, passing from sphere to sphere higher and yet higher, ascending towards the fountain of true knowledge, and capable of comprehending all beneath him. We are utterly unable to prognosticate man's full capabilities in the future; to the Great Father of Life alone is man's ultimate truly known.
There can be no true use of wealth unless you share it with your neighbours nor true spiritual development of yourself unless you seek the spiritual development of others, think not to raise yourself in the scale of being by reading good books and adopting true principles, only let the care of your actions engross your greatest thought and attention, for by deeds alone we rise, and the truest and purest principles are valueless unless we practice them.
All nature moves forward in the grand procession of the ages — humanity follows the same law of progress, the aggregate of the worlds
We look upon ourselves as moral and accountable beings, yet there is no department of our nature more misunderstood and neglected than this. Many think they have fulfilled their moral obligations to society when they have pointed out their bypath through their own particular church to a sectarian heaven, or got rid of their accountability by believing that some one else has been made a scapegoat for their shortcomings. True moral teaching shows us how to control our nature, and act in accordance with the laws upon which our Father God has founded our being, for to these laws alone are we accountable.
Moral virtue consists in the temperate use of all our natural faculties, as when the whole of our instincts are governed by reason and we are thoroughly imbued with a willingness to forego self-gratification if it cannot be indulged except at the expense of the good of others or injury to any part of our being.
Moral and mental harmony is only possible when we have obtained calmness and serenity of mind by freedom from inordinate care and over anxiety, the isolation of ourselves from society will not accomplish this mental and moral harmony. This is the abuse of this law, its proper use alone is pursued when, in social concert, we enjoy life and communicate its enjoyments to others in the best, most complete, and happiest manner possible.
It is not humility that cries, "Am I my brother's keeper?" What good can I do? It is selfishness and laziness, or the spirit of self-indulgence speaking from the bottom of a depraved mind alluring its votary to thus sin against society.
But supineness and indolence are also sins against self in as much as
Every human being is an integral part of society, and his weal or woe, his peace or misery, is bound up in the bundle of social union, if the individual acts not upon general society for its good, it will react upon him or his progeny to their hurt. God has given harmony to our animal organisation for the performance of our animal functions, violate that harmony and we suffer, preserve it and we enjoy life. We must build our social fabric upon the same principle of harmony in all its parts, or it will be as it has hitherto been, an ill-success and a disgrace to a world of rational beings.
As man must suffer when ho by vicious actions deranges his animal functions, so must society suffer while they tolerate the possibility of vice arising from the existence of poverty and ignorance, these causes of discord must be removed, or 'tis vain and against all natural law to expect either a Golden Age or a Millenium.
No individual creates entirely the circumstances that bound his moral liberty in this life, for these the collective body of the community are responsible in the greatest measure and become the chief sufferers, and deservedly too, for permitting the existence of bad circumstances which it was in their power to remedy.
Every circumstance, whether it be Race, Family, Nationality, Religion, or aught else which prevents the affections of the individual from embracing the whole of his kind, must of necessity be false and bad, and ought to be rigidly examined, and the Golden Rule of Right and Harmony found and acted upon for no true brotherhood of our race can exist unless there be first established Harmony of sentiment, in the absence of all disparity in our social condition, and for the want of this not only every single individual but society in its collective force is responsible.
Our habits are the strongest power that bind us, in many minds much stronger than convictions; when firmly fixed, convictions cannot act directly upon them and uproot them; when bad and pernicious, nothing can effectually change bad habits but the substitution of good ones, thus the physical lays at the basis of all permanent moral and spiritual reform.
Motives are not always the cause of action, they serve rather to give character to our actions than to compel them, they enable us to judge whether the action be good or bad according to the character of the motive the self interested feeling impels to action, and being living and sentient beings our nature is to feel free and justify our acts by reference to the purity of our motives.
Conscience is a faculty of the mind which requires directing and cultivating as do all our other faculties, for its healthy and vigorous action it depends not upon one organ or group of organs of the brain but upon the concentrated power and free operation of all our higher faculties, we may be so misdirected as to cause us to have conscientious scruples at variance with the most fundamental laws of our being. Conscience can only be properly directed, when our law of what is right and proper is fully known and practised, when this takes place external law in all human society may perish from the earth. Man will have become a law unto himself.
Man possesses freedom of will or choice in a limited degree; his will is bounded by necessity and fixed by the general tendency of his nature or disposition; ho cannot carry out what he wills if beyond the limit of his power; he can, by industry and perseverance, substitute one class of circumstances for another; and he moves in the right direction when he changes inferior or bad circumstances for superior or good ones.
Sometimes our will is the result of our feelings, at other times the result of our convictions; these, separately or combined, influence us to action, and may be termed voluntary; at other times we act from mere habit or impulse. This may be termed involuntary action, as the predisposing cause lays more remote; but whether the cause be Peeling, Conviction, Habit or Impulse which induces our will, when we make our choice and fix our desire we form our will.
Common Sense is only the average of the world's intelligence, prevalent in the market-place and at the comers of the streets, blown forth by the popular lecturer and preacher, or paraded in the columns of shallow newspapers, received without being tested by reason or justified by experience.
Your votary of Common Sense takes nothing upon its own merit but judges all by the standard of his own predilections.
Common Sense is shaped by the prevalent fashion of thinking, and worn as a garment to hide our nakedness of mind, when the popular voice shall have shaped out a new garment of Common Sense the common sense of this age will be thrown aside as old rags and the now one worn in its stead.
The discovery of what is right and wrong is not always the result of reasoning, it is oftimes the result of our intuitive sense or preception or conviction which we cannot help feeling to be the impress of a spiritual intelligence. Eight is obedience to the highest dictates of our understanding, and wrong disobedience to those dictates.
No man willingly does wrong for wrong doings sake, ho only persues a criminal or wrong course because in his ignorance ho conceives that such a course is most calculated to render him happy, for happiness is the pursuit of all. The intelligent and wise take the right path and enjoy life, while the ignorant and foolish take the wrong one and don't enjoy it. It is wrong to leave that which we can control to chance or fate, and it is right to bring the highest amount of intelligence we possess to regulate ourselves and all our affairs.
For an individual to obtain the greatest amount of happiness here upon earth the means of temperately satisfying all his physical, moral and spiritual desires must be provided by society, and placed within easy reach, and he must be trained not to run into excess and thus abuse God's good gifts, and sin against himself and suffer for his folly, or sin against his fellow beings by continuing to consume without rendering a just equivalent to society, and thus be the cause of suffering in others. The bountiful hand of omnipotence has made the earth to teem with all that is necessary to man's health and enjoyment if he will put forth his skill and energy to obtain it. The temperate use of this skill and energy tends to the greatest personal good in promoting the health and developing the mind, its intemperate use to which some are driven by the absurd usages of society, robs man's soul of its highest glories, and makes him a mere chattel. The disuse of skill and energy incidental to a luxurious life makes man a poor, helpless and dependent soulless thing. Temperance is the rational mean between repletion and want.
All our social, moral and physical evils result from a want of temperance, being either the result of repletion or want, there is therefore no such thing as absolute evil to be found anywhere in the gifts of God. In its nature evil is contingent, being either the abuse, or entire disuse of what is really good. Therefore, evil not being a natural product but an abarretion of nature—when all have become natural, and rational, evil will cease, and, furthermore, we may justly infer that evil is not necessary to the production of good, nor is temptation necessary to prove virtue.
For virtue is a rational, temperate and faithful obedience to the laws of our nature, its opposite vice a disregard of, or acting contrary to those laws.
Many fall into the error of confounding intelligence and under standing with wisdom; they are not to be so confounded.
I define wisdom as the apprehension and practice of truths relating to man's happiness and progress by the fullest and best
The education of the human being commences at the hour of conception, and continues till birth through the organization of the mother—how important then that the maternal condition should be made the most favorable for the development of a justly balanced organization.
The science of educating the human being after birth is one of the most important, not so much to teach him what to think, but how to think and act so as to secure to himself the greatest amount of wisdom and happiness.
Every faculty of body and mind requires education, if that education be false the consequences are discordant and productive of misery; if true they invariably result in harmony and happiness. We must study the physical, moral, mental and spiritual peculiarities of each pupil, so that unnatural peculiarities may be corrected, moral diffi ciencies made good, and physical malformations altogether avoided or rendered harmless, for mental and physical peculiarities can only be overcome by effectual education or the continual operation of counter-acting circumstances, fostering and encouraging the good, and restraining the defective qualities or quantities of our temperament and organization, thus you will perceive that training and intellectual acquirements, coming from without, do not constitute the sum of true education, they only furnish a part of the means of obtaining it. True education bears its fruit from within. It is true development of soul.
Physical education, or the development of our bodily powers, constitutes the basis of true education, for our mental and moral nature cannot be kept in a healthy condition unless due attention be paid to physical exercises. To cultivate the physical to the neglect of the mental and moral is to give man the education of a beast of burthen.
To neglect the physical and over-tax the mental may produce the weathered husks of book-worm learning, but never the hale, green, vigorous plant of fruit-bearing thought.
To under-educate man physically we need not altogether neglect his sensual feelings and desires: we need only to teach him as men do monkeys—by imitation—failing to show him the virtue and happiness arising from the rational use of his natural powers.
False or over-education is produced when the mind is so misdirected as to throw too much restraint upon the natural feelings and desires, hiding or suppressing all natural propensities, over-riding poor human nature until she sinks and dies beneath the hoofs of a vile and inhuman fanaticism.
The popular motive for educating the coming generation is too low; it's mere end is the mitigation of the amount of crime, in order to save the expense of punishment. Higher ground than this the Harmonialist occupies. His aim is the development of the human soul to the full extent of its capabilities, producing an effect that shall carry its consequences into eternity.
Mankind have collated their facts in the different departments of science, and formed those glorious monuments of intelligence and art which are the wonder of our age, while to himself and his social relations man has been utterly neglectful; as if God designed all nature should be understood and improved, man alone being left in darness and barbarism to prey upon his fellow men, finding his type anion; the savage beasts of the forest, whose perfection in many respects he has not yet reached.
The grand reason for this neglect has been the bigotry and arrogance of social and religious systems, which having once marked out their course of thought and practice, have declared their claim to
We may admit that the present state of society among the Anglo Saxon race is a great improvement upon many which have gone before it, yet is it fixed upon no true scientific basis; its laws and its usages are alike the result of empiricism; its law makers and its politicians the most misohievous of all quacks; see how many hundreds of years they have labored at their class legislation; and with what result? Not even among them nor in any country under heaven, nor any society existing on the face of the earth, could a perfectly harmonial being be produced; the clash of contending interests, the proximity of vice and selfishness; under the sanction and protection of villanous and deceitful laws, tend to perpetuate evil and would nullify the teachings of the most divine teacher that ever appeared on earth.
Man is a social being, and cannot be happy to the full extent of his capabilities while alone, he must dwell in society, but not altogether for himself—he has no true interest apart from the interests of the whole.
Individual interest as pursued in the present state of society cuts asunder every tie that binds man to his fellows, and sends him isolated and grovelling after his own ends. He cannot love his neighbor as himself so long as his neighbor remains his inferior in the social scale, or possesses an interest at variance with his own. He cannot be truly pious, for true piety seeks the good of others rather than its own. He can find no true outgoings for his own self-love, for even that finds its true sphere in administering
Personal wealth is a hideous demon in the path of spiritual progress. It has placed the rich where the wise ought to have been in the conduct of public affairs, competition has given the low-minded, acquisitive, secretive organizations every facility for absorbing the greatest share of the good things of this life, and there is really no barrier in our present insane social condition to prevent these neglected and unscrupulous children of nature from pursuing the full bent of their mind, or stay the best things in this life from passing into the hands of the worst of men; even many of our rulers, standing on the pedestal of wealth, furnish the worst specimens of our race, and yet we honor them, while the generous, large-hearted, benevolent, well-balanced human being has to put up with the worst, if ho has not to go about in absolute want and misery, passing out of this life forlorn and neglected.
Every attempt to patch up the present state of inequality must prove a failure, for so long as such pernicious practices prevail and mammon rules in mens hearts we can only shift the evil not destroy it as we ought.
All precipitate action must be avoided in our social changes towards a pure harmonial state of society, the beauties of which seem so attractive and the advantages so great; fear of want and prospect of ease and abundance will drive or draw men into a trial of a new state
We must not follow the example set us by Christian teachers who do not try to make their hearers lives conform to the precepts of Jesus, but do their utmost to make His precepts fit to the lives of their hearers, thus producing a worse condition than ignorance—stupid sophists, vain and puffed-up, inaccessible to reason, yet laying claim to the greatest amount of humility. Poor deluded souls, they ought to excite our greatest commiseration. All human law should be kept inviolable so long as it remains law, and any under-mining, over-riding, or evasion of laws enacted by the supreme authority (the aggregate intelligence of the people) ought to meet with our utmost condemnation.
We must avoid the vital error of making laws for the government of mankind in society contrary to Nature's laws, fixed by the Eternal. Our reason for this is based on the fact that all the laws of Nature in and around us are not the result of an unintelligent force: they are the speaking voice of the ever-living, omnipresent God instructing us in the path of duty and obedience.
When we see the evils of Riches or Poverty, Gluttonous Luxury or Destitute Want, Unhallowed Extravagence or Starving Misery, Pampered Ease or Over-wrought Physical Power,—men who hare hewn their way through forests of human beings or plunged through
Finis.
The report of the London Dialectical Society's Committee on the "Phenomena alleged to be Spiritual Manifestations," has met with a reception remarkable as showing the variety and changes of attitude assumed by the press in relation to subjects of proscribed or unpopular character. On the one hand, straitened by mercenary considerations and actuated by motives of superficial expediency, the press, in some of its phases, is too venal for the duties devolving upon it. To be on the popular, or rather, the paying side is the main consideration; hence upon tabooed subjects are brought into play all the artifices of obscuration, ridicule, inuendo, suppression, and mis-statement, but so cleverly woven into a general appearance of candour, that the community is misled rather than informed, or, at any rate, that large portion of the public mind sufficiently gullible to believe in immaculate editors and reviewers, or sufficiently enervated to substitute for its own thought-effort, mere passing commentaries, indifferent as to their trustworthiness or origin.
Spiritualism, so called, is a case in point. It is a subject in bad odour—a subject to be avoided—a subject on which feeling, especially religious feeling, runs high—a subject "uncanny"—a subject held meet for derision, but never deemed worthy of painstaking investigation. No surprise need, therefore, be occasioned by the fact that the late report has met with the usual treatment of the unpopular, and that conscientious reviewing has given place to misquotation and garbling, and the endeavour to misrepresent its character and incidence.
But, on the other hand, a more worthy section of the press has at heart the interests of truth; and regardless of merely popular impulses, seeks to present controverted subjects in a tentative, if not a judicial spirit. In this direction the criticism on the inquiry in question has been tempered, and seems to invite a rejoinder in like courteous manner. Having regard to the amount of attention now bestowed upon Spiritualism, such rejoinder cannot be out of place, and may help to modify the disappointment, arising in many
First, then, it may be urged that although the report incidentally covers the whole question of Spiritualism yet that practically, it is concerned with the phenomenal aspect of the subject only; for the Dialectical Society appointed its committee to report specifically on the phenomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and not upon Spiritualism as a creed or a philosophy. Thus it will be found that to whatever extent the investigators may have testified to the occurrence of certain phenomena, they have not ventured to determine their source.
Fairly, however, to review the investigation a comparison must be made. First should be noted the general and public condition of the subject, immediately prior to the enquiry; and next, to what extent that condition has been affected by the results attained.
At the outset were the spiritualists, considerable in numbers and pretensions, avowing the frequent occurrence of certain phenomena, asserting for them a highly beneficial character, and attributing such occurrences to the agency of departed human beings.
On the other hand was a vast public and the press, for the most part wholly indifferent to the subject; but where concerned, entertaining towards it opinions of marked scepticism and hostility. These opinions may be thus briefly enumerated:—
This, roughly, was the popular view of the subject at the commencement of the enquiry; and the first fact to be noticed at its
rationale of the report it satisfies neither of the opposing parties. To the sceptic it goes too far, to the spiritualist it is much too tentative; thus do both sides indirectly bear testimony to a faithful discharge of the investigator's office.
The committee immediately upon its appointment urgently invited oral and written evidence from every quarter. The spiritualists alone responded, being represented by witnesses of well-ascertained respectability from every grade of society; while the upholders of the imposture and delusion theories were conspicuous only by their absence, at any rate from the ordeal of the witness-box and of cross-examination.
Had the enquiry gone no further, the evidence thus collected would have been answer sufficient to much of hostile criticism. To characterise such evidence as "hearsay" is to misrepresent it, for it is as direct as that received in our law courts, each and every witness having been requested to speak only to facts within his or her personal knowledge, a restriction with which most complied. The value of this evidence is enhanced by the declaration from many of the witnesses that their original attitude towards Spiritualism was one of scepticism; while some again had made acquaintance with the manifestations years ago, and had not ceased to continue observers, or wavered in their belief as to the existence and origin of the phenomena.
That the "greater marvels" belong to the oral evidence and to the correspondence is probably true; but is this the precise question to raise? To what extent is there agreement or disagreement amongst the witnesses themselves? Has the committee been enabled practically to prove or disprove any of the facts alleged in the evidence? These are questions, perhaps, more pertinent; and is it of no significance that men and women of acknowledged trustworthiness, professional status, culture, and refinement should be found willing to give their personal testimony upon matters exposing themselves to almost certain contempt and ridicule; the while not a single champion volunteered to testify to the more popular beliefs in trick and hallucination.
But the investigators (thirty-six in number) determined to experimentalise, and for this purpose divided themselves into six sub-committees. In this circumstance may the true value of the report be found, or rather in the corroboration thus obtained of much in the oral and written evidence. This corroboration, so far as it took place, may indeed be considered by the spiritualistic party as but "ordinary" or elemental, and as "outdone" at many a private seance. But by the public or by sceptics no such considerations can be advanced. For them the enquiry must be, Has there been corroboration at all? and next, What is the nature, extent, and authority of such corroboration? For were not the spiritualists challenged on the very grounds that the phenomena alleged never occurred, or were but the produce of fraud or impos-
Proceeding then to private experiment "without the aid or presence of any professional medium," the more diligent and persevering of the sub-committees were enabled to report the occurrence of certain of the disputed phenomena which need not here be explained, but which are popularly known as "table moving" and "rappings," the said manifestations being commonly accompanied in greater or less degree by marked indications of intelligence. A large majority of the investigators thus became actual witnesses to the phenomena under conditions far removed from the possibility of fraud or delusion, and their testimony is the more valuable seeing that the report records that "the greater part of them commenced their investigation in an avowedly sceptical spirit." Such evidence indeed can hardly be over-rated, especially in view of the status and trustworthiness of the investigators and of their carefulness not to over-state their conclusions, but rather to leave moot points for further research.
We have presented the case as it stood at the commencement of the enquiry;—let us now state how it stands at the close:—
professional mediums, and that mediumship, so called, appears to be a somewhat widespread gift or condition claimed and practised, quite irrespective of pecuniary considerations, by numbers of persons in every rank of life.
If these propositions but approximately reflect the truth, it is clear that the public now stands in an entirely new relation to the subject. It may be urged that in the matters of causation, philosophy, theory, &c., but little ground has been gained, and that many of the phenomena have yet to be endorsed. But, on the other hand, it must be conceded that these latter have not been negatived; and that as a necessary sequence the theoretic department naturally falls into a subsequent stage of investigation.
The way, however, is paved by the great fact ascertained that phenomena really exist for elucidation, and a more respectful attention is fairly earned for whatever may yet require examination.
For the sceptic then, this subject has taken an enormous stride. Phenomenally it is now removed from a condition of suspicious partisanship and is elevated by an unsectarian inquiry into a region of fact meet for the further research of the scientist, psychologist, religionist, or philosopher. Indeed, the worth of this famous investigation can hardly be over-estimated as a starting point for renewed inquiry, and its moral can scarcely be better conveyed than in the concluding words of the report itself:—"Your committee, taking into consideration the high character and great "intelligence of many of the witnesses to the more extraordinary "facts, the extent to which their testimony is supported by the "reports of the sub-committees, and the absence of any proof of "imposture or delusion as regards a large portion of the phenomena; and, further, having regard to the exceptional character "of the phenomena, the large number of persons in every grade of "society and over the whole civilised world who are more or less "influenced by a belief in their supernatural origin, and to the fact "that no philosophical explanation of them has yet been arrived "at, deem it incumbent upon them to state their conviction that "the subject is worthy of more serious attention and careful investigation than it has hitherto received."
Turn we again to those other reviewers who have failed to note, or endeavoured to hide, the enormous ground gained in this subject, that we may ascertain their treatment of the report and their claim for the position of censorship they have assumed. With but very few exceptions, the investigation has been treated with a dishonesty, a flippancy, and an inconsequence well nigh beneath contempt. One fact however is prominent, viz., that the subject for the moment so thoroughly interests the public that it has been impossible to pursue towards it the ordinary tactics of total suppression. Failing this, derisive, unphilosophic, and garbled reviews have served to obscure the questions raised, to ignore the facts revealed, and to misdirect the public mind, so to prevent that further investigation which, if pursued, will unfailingly expose the small qualification possessed by their authors for the affected leadership of thought and opinion on this debateable subject.
With an assumption almost astounding, they have not scrupled to call in question the intelligence and observant powers of a number of gentlemen to whom they for the most part must have been utter strangers, but whose high character and social standing is better ascertained than their own, and whose status as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and scientists would imply more than average qualifications. Has it never struck these leaders of opinion (!) that such investigators must necessarily have been forewarned and forearmed in regard to the possibilities of fraud and delusion, and that the very labour upon which they entered was, in intent, the detection of imposture? So marked, indeed, is the hostility to the results recorded (elemental though they be), and to the recorders thereof, that one is driven to the conclusion that no compliment could have been too high—no paean of praise too intense for the self-same investigators, had they but have been careful to have taken the side of unexamining incredulity rather than that of truth and conscientiousness.
Again changing their ground, the inquiry has been voted worthless, because experimental séances of but twelve months' standing have not testified to the greater marvels which years of record have accumulated for the spiritualist. Thus there is an admission of the very phenomena primarily denied and urged impossible of demonstration,—an admission, however, only made for the purpose of asserting their inherent triviality.
Putting aside the inconsequence of this position, what possible warrant can there be for thus anticipating an answer to one of the questions propounded for solution? The actual investigators, with all the collected data before them, have not thus prejudged the case, for they at any rate felt, that apart from a full knowledge of the source, nature, and incidence of the manifestations, to have asserted their unimportance would have been absurd and a begging of the whole question. It would, however, be very easy to show the hollowness of this assumed appraisement. The very phenomena now decried, were, some twenty years ago, the wonderment of the world, when as the "Rochester rappings," they appeared among a small and obscure community. Notwithstanding that the said manifestations have since become of almost universal occurrence, they now, as then, defy any elucidation of general acceptability. Meanwhile, however, a numerous party has grown up who assert for them a relationship to a large family of phenomena of the most varied pretensions, and who claim for them a source of unparalleled significance. Curiously enough, this party has no special bond of union, but has been gathered from every section of the civilised world irrespective of kindred impulses or beliefs; while
In recognising the proven existence of phenomena a step is gained towards any estimate of their value, and if such commonplace incidents as the fall of an apple or the vapourising of boiling water have led to whole revolutions in science, who can say hat the automatic movement of a table may not imply a mode of force capable and worthy of utilisation?
Much has been made of alleged errors of theory, philosophy, and belief said to accrete around an acceptance of the phenomena. But again, it must be urged that such considerations should be postponed, and can really exist as assumption only until more known of the phenomena under investigation. And if surrounding error is to be pleaded as a bar to investigation, then it may be asserted that none of the phenomena known to science could ever have been accepted at all. Chemistry is a case in point, a department of science daily reaching to a higher phase of precision, but lone the less the result of centuries of error. If we off times arrive at good through our experiences of evil, so no less to reach truth do we press through and clear away the encumbering error. Error, whatever its nature, is an argument for, and not against, inquiry, and imposes upon the investigator an additional responsibility, its subsidence becoming but a matter of time and experience when once a point of contact is established between the mind and truth.
The animus of the reviewers is further manifested in the prominence they have given to the adverse reports which, by the suppression of all the explanatory notes, they have endeavoured to nurse into an importance by no means their due. But what of these reports, or of the failure of the least persevering of the sub committees? Their undeterminate character is sufficiently exposed by their mere juxtaposition to the other reports, while the impartiality of the inquiry is placed beyond all dispute by their inclusion in the volume. The very failure of some of the sub-committees to obtain manifestations has a corroborative value, for no facts have been better ascertained than that the phenomena cannot be commanded at pleasure, and appear to depend upon most subtle conditions. Each of the successful committees had occasional séances without result, but total failure was the lot only of the unpersevering. Of the two individual reports denying the phenomena, it is notorious that the authors had or took but few opportunities for the experimental investigation accomplished by others, as the book itself discloses. The attempt, therefore, to make the tale of inadequate investigation do duty for the story of hard work and perseverance by the more diligent members is after all but a sorry expedient, which only need be noticed as a means of estimating the
Were this an article on the nature of evidence and the credibility to be attached to phenomena of unusual character, it would be easy to show (upon the trumpery arguments and premises set forth to discredit so-called spiritual manifestations), that not a murderer could ever be convicted upon such testimony as over and over again has consigned the criminal to the gallows. Millions of the community have never seen a murder committed, nor do they know any one who has. May not therefore the excitement, the flight, and the blood-stained appearance alleged of the prisoner by an eyewitness be but an imagination, a case of unconscious cerebration, a something wholly subjective. 'A shot, perhaps, was fired—but what of that? This but makes the evidence still more unreliable. The nerves would be shocked, and the mind would become excited to an abnormal expectancy, and would be the more ready to conjure up images of blood and horror. Gentlemen of the jury, "while we admit the high character, honour, and trustworthiness of the witness," we are sure you will not upon such evidence, consign the prisoner at the bar to a felon's doom, but will send him out of the dock without a stain upon his character.'
This is a specimen of the reasoning too frequently applied to the phenomena of Spiritualism; for, amongst other theories, we are gravely asked to accept "expectant attention" or "unconscious cerebration" as solutions sufficient for the multifarious manifestations occurring not only to spiritualists, but also to investigators after investigators who have approached the inquiry, anxious to expose the alleged wonders, and determined to apply with rigour every such theory. Boldness is not only excusable, it is even desirable in the formation of theoretic solutions; but progress towards proof cannot be expected while the fashion is maintained of speculating upon the explanation before the thing to be explained is sufficiently examined. There is a distinct difference between the fitting of theories to phenomena and of phenomena to theories, and this has yet to be recognised both by the public and spiritualists. The subject however, will not yield to reviewing or to newspaper theorising. Eminently it is one for the investigator, and no better plea for investigation exists than the lamentable ignorance so lately displayed by the press.
In conclusion, it is hardly probable that any one solution will meet the case of phenomena alleged to be so varied. Should even the spiritualist be right, his triumph will be one only of degree; for, should an agency of disembodied spirits be ever proven, it seems difficult to escape from the conclusion that there may be also latent possibilities of the embodied mind, only now in process of development. Nor should the investigator by any means put fraud and delusion out of the account. Their occasional admixture is not
In reprinting (by request) the foregoing paper, the author would endeavour to make good its deficiencies by directing inquirers to useful sources of information upon the phenomena and philosophy of Spiritualism.
"Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World," by Robert Dale Owen, is a work of much research, written in a philosophical spirit. It treats of "Hauntings," "Apparitions," "Dream-warnings," and other phenomena of apparently spontaneous character, or occurring without the agency of "Mediumship," as generally understood. Each section is illustrated by well-chosen and remarkable narratives, the nature, authenticity, and probabilities of which are carefully analysed. Planchette, or the Despair of Science," by Epes Sargent, records comprehensively the various phenomena of modem Spiritualism, and gives an interesting rcsum6 of the many theories entertained as to their nature and origin.
As strongly corroborative of the results attained by the Committee of the Dialectical Society, and as showing the relation of scientists to the phenomena in question, three pamphlets by William Crookes, F.R.S., the well-known spectroscopist and chemist, are especially worthy of notice, viz.:—(1) "Experimental Investigations on Psychic Force;" (2) "Spiritualism Viewed by the Light of Modern Science;" and (3) "Psychic Force and Modebn Spiritualism," a reply to the Quarterly Review and other critics. The labours of this painstaking investigator are well nigh conclusive as regards the occurrence of the physical phenomena, but cannot yet be considered as sufficiently matured to dispose of the questions of intelligence and causation.
The five works just named, together with the Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, make out a most important case for investigation; but for those who may wish yet further to pursue the literature of the subject, the following volumes may be mentioned as covering several of its departments, whether spiritual, sceptical, or religionistic:—"Judge Edmonds on Spiritualism," being a narrative of experiences in trance and writing mediumship, prefaced by a weighty and judicial introduction; "Concerning Spiritualism," by Gerald
The Debateable Land between this World and the Next," by Robert Dale Owen, a work addressed to the religionists of Christendom; "The History of Spiritualism," by Mrs. Hardinge; "Hints for the Evidences of Spiritualism," by M. P.; "After Death, or Disembodied Man," by Randolph; the works of Andrew Jackson Davis and Hudson Tuttle; and Mrs. De Morgan's "From Matter to Spirit," the result of ten years' experience in Spiritualism, but chiefly interesting to the investigator on account of its introduction, from the pen of Professor De Morgan, the eminent mathematician. These and other relative works and periodicals may be obtained at Bums' Library, 15 Southampton Row, Holborn, W.C., London.
No amount of reading, however, can take the place of actual experiment; and this may be achieved wherever parties or committees of from four to seven members can conveniently be formed, pledged to regularity in attendance at meetings, and determined to abide by an orderly and persevering system of investigation.
H. Nisbet, Printer, Trongate Glasgow.
At the Fourth Annual Convention of the above Society held in Cambridge Hall, Newman Street, London, on the
June 1.—The Vice-President, Mr Robert Cooper, took the chair (Mr John Hodge, the President, being unavoidably absent) and opened the proceedings with an excellent address. The Hon. Secretary Mr Green then read the Report of the past year, which, though not startling in results, was sufficiently encouraging, and was unanimously adopted. It referred to the efforts which had been made to carry out the recommendations offered at last Convention in respect to lectures, mediums, and correspondents, and the promotion of Children's Lyceums. Mr John Scott, Belfast; Mr Hodge, Mr Harper, Rev. John Page Hopps, Mr John F. Morgan, Manchester; Mr Houghton, Huddersfield, had reported their labours on the platform to the Secretary. Others had also occupied the same field, but had not reported their doings. It then glanced at the progress of some of the Societies in the larger towns; some had thirty to forty members, and from three to thirty mediums connected with them. The Secretary had received upwards of 1900 letters (correspondents should please enclose a stamp) from all classes of society, and distributed a considerable amount of literature. Himself and Mrs Green had made several missionary tours, and unmistakeable evidences of spirit power had been shown.
Local reports were also given by Signor Damiani, of Bristol; Mrs Gribble, of Braintree, Essex; Mrs Jones, of Bradford on Avon; Mr Harper, of Birmingham; Mr Watson, of Darlington; and Mr Simkiss, of Wolverhampton. Many of these local reports were extremely interesting.
June 2.—Mr Green read a paper by Mr Etchells "On the Occult Forces," which gave the impression of profound thoughtfulness on the subject. Valuable papers from the same pen will be found in the Reports of the second and third Conventions. Mrs Spear read a beautiful little paper on "Spiritual Culture."
Then followed a long discussion upon Organisation as contradistinguished from individual efforts, in which Mr Harper, Mr Simkiss, Mr Green, Mr Burns, Mr Spear, Mr Livermore, and Mr Coleman took part. This discussion lasted fully half the day and elicited many valuable ideas; the balance of opinion seemed to be in favour of organisation. Mr Harper then read the financial statement, which showed on the year past a balance due to the Treasurer of £3 7s 3d.
The following Officers were elected for the ensuing year, viz.: —President, Mr Robt. Cooper, Eastbourne, Sussex; Vice-President, Mr Wm. Tebb, 20 Rochester Road, Camden Road, London; Treasurer, Mr R. Harper, 4 Glo'ster Place, Soho Hill, Birmingham; Hon. Secs., Mr and Mrs E. H. Green, Marsh House, Brotherton, Yorkshire; Foreign Correspondent, Signor Damiani, 2 Pembroke Villas, Clifton Park, Bristol. The following central committee was appointed to conduct the society's general business for the ensuing year:—The officers of the Association, Mr and Mrs Spear, Mrs Wm. Tebb, Dr Wilmshurst and Mr Everett, all of London; Mr John Hodge, Darlington; Mr Etchells, Pool; Mr John Scott, Belfast.
The following is a list of honorary lecturers who, under circumstances convenient to themselves, are willing to lecture on Spiritualism, and whom this Association recommends. This Convention further offers its cordial thanks to the majority of the list for their services in lecturing during the past year:—Mr John Hodge and Mr Thos. Watson, Darlington; Mr John F. Morgan and Mr Witham, Manchester; Mr Andrew Cross, Mr Jas. Brown, Mr Nicholson, and Mr G. B. Clark, of Glasgow; Mr A. Baldwin, Mr A. Franklin, and Mr B, Harper, of Birmingham; Mr Andrew Leighton, Liverpool; Mr J. Macdonnell, Dublin; Mr John Scott, Belfast; Mr Houghton, Huddersfield; Signor Damiani, Bristol; Mr Simkiss and Mr Cogin, Wolverhampton; Mr Robt. Cooper, Eastbourne; Mrs Hitchcock, Nottingham; Mr J. M. Spear, Mr J. Burns, Mr Wm. Tebb, Mr Wm. Wallace, and Mr Livermore, of London.
Mr Harper read a short but excellent paper from Mr Hopewell, of Nottingham, on the Children's Lyceum there. Mr Burns further illustrated the subject from personal observation, and the following committee was appointed to obtain all the necessary information or instructions for conducting such lyceums, and to distribute the same to societies and circles throughout the kingdom:—The President, Mr Spear, Mrs Spear, and Mr James Burns.
After a discussion upon the subject of holding the next Convention in Manchester, Mr Spear offered the following resolution, which was passed unanimously:—
"Resolved that the next Convention of this Association be held at such
Spiritual Magazine, monthly, 6d; Haman Nature, monthly. 6d; Daybreak, monthly, ld. Supplied. by all booksellers.
A further discussion upon organisation took place, in which Mr Coleman, Mr Green, Mr Harper, Mr Tebb, and Mr Cooper took part. It was elicited from Mr Coleman and Mr Tebb that both gentlemen had been moving in the way of obtaining a central book-store and institute in London. Mr Tebb explained the scheme of his committee to be as follows:—
"To obtain suitable premises, as near to the heart of the publishing trade as possible, with rooms for committees, seances, conversazioni, and where friends from the country might call and obtain all current information, have their letters addressed there, &c. It was also designed to found a library for reference and circulation, a reading room, and a publishing and bookselling department—in short, to establish, if possible, an institution that will be the centre of a society for the advancement of Spiritualism, a truth which, we believe, is destined to exercise a marked influence upon the literature, thought, and conduct of the age."
"Whereas this Association learns that the Fourth National Convention of Spiritualists, held in Cleveland, Ohio, June 3.—Signor Damiani gave a Report of Progress in Italy and in France. Mr Bums also spoke of progress in Italy, Switzerland, and Sicily. The following resolution, introduced by Mr Harper, was passed unanimously:—
Mr Harper offered the following resolution, with some appropriate remarks, and it was unanimously
"Resolved, that while this Association looks with favour upon all movements that tend to elevate and improve mankind, it takes special interest in the efforts now being made in this kingdom and in other countries in behalf of women."
Mr Harper then read his paper, upon "The embryology of the human spirit," which proved interesting, and elicited a spirited discussion, in which Mr Gardner, Mr Burns, Mr Harper,
"The clergy, full of holy zeal and pious indignation, have favoured me with denunciatory epistles teeming with mild promise of everlasting torment, as a fitting reward for the performance of my duty as a truth-seeker; and this reward was promised me in the name of the ever-loving Father of all humanity.
"On the other hand, my spirit has been cheered and gladdened by the receipt of many letters from the true followers of the meek and loving Jesus—seeking through spirit intercourse a confirmation of the doctrines taught by the Great Medium of old, who set us the glorious example of holding commune with the spirits of those who had gone before; insasmuch as he invited his disciples to be present at the grand spiritual seance held upon the Mount, conferring upon them the gift of spirit sight, by which they were enabled to see Moses and Elias.
"I rejoice to be able to add that I have also received the written testimony of many ministers, generously and candidly acknowledging that through spirit teaching they were able morre clearly to distinguish the true and legitimate meaning of the inspirational records of the past, and had now got a firmer, higher, holier, and truer trust in the love and wisdom of the Great 'I Am, who said, 'Let there be light and there was light.'
"Mr Etchells says—' Our library has been a great lever in the spread of our great spiritual life truths, and has silently by the quiet fireside turned the thoughts of many hardened minds upward; and we cannot do better than recommend every circle of friends to read over the thoughts of those labourers who have passed on before on the road leading upward.'
In a hall capable of containing about 150, they (Nottingham Society,) held on an average three weekly meetings, to which the public are admitted, the attendance being so great as to necessitate the sending away, for want or room, many inquirers. In addition to the public meetings, six or eight private circles are held, where very superior spirits are gradually developing the minds of their disciples by enabling them to comprehend the grand secret of nature's laws, and gently guiding them in the paths of our harmonic philosophy.
"For brevity's sake I omit to read the names of the different places in which circles are held."
These four Reports may be had for 1s, 1s 2d post free, on application to
J. Burns, Progressive Library, Camberwell, London.
where all works on Spiritualism may be obtained. These Reports contain much excellent matter. They are the cheapest spiritualistic literature published, and, as there is a large quantity on hand and a heavy debt on them, friends would effect several good purposes by distributing them freely.
From the sketch which has now been given of the recent treatment of the subject by popular and scientific writers, we can summarise pretty accurately their mental attitude in regard to it. They have seen very little of the phenomena themselves, and they cannot believe that others have seen much more. They have encountered people who are easily deceived by a little unexpected trickery, and they conclude that the convictions of spiritualists generally are founded on phenomena produced, either consciously or unconsciously, in a similar way. They are so firmly convinced on a priori rounds that the more remarkable phenomena said to happen do not really happen, that they will back their conviction against the direct testimony of any body of men; preferring to believe that they are all the victims of some mysterious delusion whenever imposture is out of the question. To influence persons in this frame of mind, it is evident that more personal testimony to isolated facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable expression of Dr. Carpenter, "no place in the existing fabric of their thought into which such facts can be fitted." It is necessary therefore to modify the "fabric of thought" itself; and it appears to the present writer that this can best be done by a general historic sketch of the subject; and by showing, by separate lines of inquiry, how wide and varied is the evidence, and how remarkably these lines converge towards one uniform conclusion. The endeavour will be made to indicate, by typical examples of each class of evidence and without unnecessary detail, the cumulative force of the argument.
Modern Spiritualism dates from It may be as well here to explain that the word "spirit," which is often considered to be so objectionable by scientific men, is used throughout this article (or at all events in the earlier portion of it) merely to avoid circumlocution, in the sense of the "intelligent cause of the phenomena," and not as implying "the spirits-of the dead," unless so expressly stated.was the spirit
The Misses Fox now became involuntary mediums, and the family (which had removed to the city of Rochester) were accused of imposture, and offered to submit the children to examination by a committee of townsmen appointed in public meeting. Three committees were successively appointed; the last, composed of violent sceptics, who had accused the previous committees of stupidity or connivance. But all three, after unlimited investigation, were forced to declare that the cause of the phenomena was undiscoverable. The sounds occurred on the wall and floor, while the medium, after being thoroughly searched by ladies, stood on pillows, barefooted, and with their clothes tied round their ankles." The last and most sceptical committee reported that "They had heard sounds, and failed utterly to discover their origin. They had proved that neither machinery nor imposture had been used; and their questions, many of them being mental, were answered correctly." When we consider that the mediums were two children under twelve years of age, and the examiners utterly sceptical American citizens, thorougly resolved to detect imposture, and urged on by excited public meetings, it may perhaps be considered that even at this early stage the question of imposture or delusion was pretty well settled in the negative.
In a short time persons who sat with the Misses Fox found themselves to have similar powers, in a greater or less degree; and in two or three years the movement had spread over a large part of the United States, developing into a variety of strange forms, encountering the most violent scepticism and the most rancorous hostility, yet always progressing, and making converts even among the most enlightened and best educated classes. In for four years, and all became spiritualists.
By this time the movement had spread into every part of he Union, and, notwithstanding that its adherents were abused as impostor or dupes, that they were in several cases expelled from colleges and churches, and were confined as lunatics, and that the whole thing was "explaned" over and over again, it has continued to spread up to the present lour. The secret of this appears to have been, that the explanations given never applied to the phenomena continually occurring, and of which there were numerous witnesses. A medium was raised in the air in a crovded room in full daylight. ("Modern American Spiritualism," p. 279.) A scientific sceptic prepared a small portable apparatus by which he could produce an instantaneous illumination; and taking it to a dark sceince at which numerous musical instruments were played, suddenly lighted up-the room while a large drum was being violently beaten, in the certain expectation of revealing the impostor to the whole company. But what they all saw was the drumstick itself beating the drum, with no human being near it. It struck a few more blows, then rose into the air and descended gently on the shoulder of a lady. (Same work, p. 337). At Toronto, Canada, in a well-lighted room, an accompaniment to a song was played on a closed and locked piano. (Same work, p. 463). Communications were given in raised letters on the arm of an ignorant servant girl who often could not read them. They sometimes appeared while she was at her household work, and after being read by her master or mistress would disappear. (Same work, p. 106). Letters closed in any number of envelopes, sealed up or even pasted together over the whole of the written surface, were real and answered by certain mediums in whom this power was developed. I: mattered not what lauguage the letters were written in; and it is upon record that letters in German, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, French, Welsh, and Mexican, have been correctly answered in the corresponding languages by a medium who knew none of them. (Judge Edmunds's "Letters an Spiritualism," pp. 59-103, Appendix). Other mediums drew portraits of deceased persons whom they had never known or heard of. Others healed diseases. But those who helped most to spread the belief were, perhaps, the trance speakers, who, in eloquent and powerful language, developed the principles and the uses of Spiritualism, answered objections, spread abroad a knowledge of the phenomena, and thus induced sceptics to inquire into the facts; and inquiry was almost invariably followed by conversion. Having repeatedly listened to three of these speakers who have visited this country, I can bear witness that they are trully equal, and not unfrequently surpass, our best orators and preachers; whether in finished eloquence, in close and logical argument, or in the readiness with which appropriate and convincing replies are made to all objectors. They are also remarkable for the perfect courtesy and suavity of manner, and for the extreme patience and gentleness with which they meet the most violent opposition and the most unjust accusations.
Men of the highest rank and greatest ability became convinced by these varied phenomena. No amount of education, of legal, medical or scientific training, was proof against the overwhelming force of the tacts, whenever these facts were systematically and perseveringly inquired into. The number of Spiritualists in the Union is, according to those who have the best means of judging, from eight to eleven millions. This the estimate of Judge Edmunds, who has had extensive correspondence on the subject with every part of the United States. The Hon. R. D. Owen, who has also had great opportunities of know ing the facts, considers it to be approximately correct; and it is affirmed by the editors of the "Year Book
In other parts of the world the movement has progressed more or less rapidly. Several of the more celebrated American mediums have visited this country, and not only made converts in all classes of society, but led to the formation of private circles and the discovery of mediumistic power in hundreds of families. There is scarcely a city or a considerable town in continental Europe at the present moment where Spiritualists are not reckoned by hundreds, if not by thousands. There are said, on good authority, to be fifty thousand avowed Spiritualists in Paris and ten thousand in Lyons; and the numbers in this country may be roughly estimated by the fact that there are four exclusively Spiritual periodicals, one of which has a circulation of five thousand weekly.
Before proceeding to a statement of the evidence which has convinced the more educated and more sceptical converts, let us briefly consider the bearing of the undoubted fact, that (to keep within bounds) many thousands of well-informed men, belonging to all classes of society and all professions, have, in each of the great civilised nations of the world, acknowledged the objective real try of these phenomena; although, almost without exception, they at first viewed them with dislike or contempt, as impostures or delusions. There is nothing parallel to it in the history of human thought; because there never before existed so strong and apparently so well-founded a conviction that phenomena of this kind never have happened and never can happen. It is often said, that the number of adherents to a belief is no proof of its truth. This remark justly applies to most religions whose arguments appeal to the emotions and the intellect, but not to the evidence of; the senses. It is equally just as applied to a great part of modern science. The almost universal belief in gravitation, and in the undulatory theory of light, does not render them in any degree more probable; because very few indeed of the believers have tested the facts which most convincingly demonstrate those theories, or are able to follow out the reasoning by which they are demonstrated. It is for the most part a blind belief accepted upon authority. But with these spiritual phenomena the case is very different. They are to most men so new, so strange, so incredible, so opposed to their whole habit of thought, so apparently, opposed to the pervading scientific spirit of the age, that they cannot and do not accept them on second-hand evidence, as they do almost every other kind of knowledge. The thousands or millions of spiritualists, therefore, represent to a very large extent men who have witnessed, examined, and tested the evidence for themselves, over and over and over again, till that which they had at first been unable to admit could be true, they have at last been compelled to acknowledge is true. This accounts for the utter failure of all the attempted "exposures" and "explanations" to convince one solitary believer of his error. The exposers and explainers have never got beyond those first difficulties which constitute the pons asinorum of Spiritualism, which every believer has to get over, but at which early stage of investigation no converts are ever made. By explaining table-turning, or table-
And is this world of strife to end in dust at last?" Thus it is that there are so few recantations or perverts in Spiritualism; so few that it may be truly said there are none. After much inquiry and reading I can find no example of a man who, having acquired a good personal knowledge of all the chief phases of the phenomena, has subsequently come to disbelieve in their reality. If the "explanations" and "exposures" were good for anything, or if it were an imposture to expose or a delusion to explain, this could not be the case, because there are numbers of men who have become convinced of the facts, but who have not accepted the spiritual theory. These are, for the most part, in an uncomfortable and unsettled frame of mind, and would gladly welcome an explanation which really explained anything—but they find it not. As an eminent example of this class, I may mention Dr. J, Lockhart Robertson, long one of the editors of the Journal of Mental Science —a physician who, having made mental disease his special study, would not be easily taken in by any psychological delusions. The phenomena he witnessed fourteen years ago were of a violent character; a very strong table being, at his own request and in his own house, broken to pieces while he held the medium's hands. He afterwards himself tried to break a remaining leg of the table, but failed to do so after exerting all his strength. Another table was tilted over while all the party sat on it. He subsequently had a sitting with Mr. Home, and witnessed the usual phenomena occurring with that extraordinary medium—such as the accordion playing "most wonderful music without any human agency," "a shadow hand, not that of any one present, which lifts a pencil and writes with it," &c., &c.; and he says that he can "no more doubt the physical manifestations of (so called) Spiritualism than he would any other fact—as, for example, the fall of an apple to the ground of which his senses informed him." His record of these phenomena with the confirmation by a friend who was present, is published in the "Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritualism," p. 217; and, at a meeting of of Spiritualists in
The subject of the evidences of the objective phenomena of Spiritualism is such a large one that it will be only possible here to give a few typical examples, calculated to show how wide is their range, and how conclusively they reach every objection that the most sceptical have brought against them. This may perhaps be best done by giving, in the first place, an outline of the career of two or three well-known mediums; and, in the second, a sketch of the experiences and investigations of a few of the more remarkable converts to spiritualism.
Career of Remarkable Mediums.—Miss Kate Fox, the little girl of nine years old, who, as already stated, was the first "medium" in the modern sense of the term, has continued to possess the same power for twenty-six years. At the very earlies': stages of the movement, sceptic after sceptic, ommittee after committee, endeavoured to discover "the trick;" but if it was a trick this little girl baffled them all, and the proverbial acuteness of the Yankee was of no avail. In
But Miss Fox's powers were most remarkably shown in the seances with Mr. Livermore, a well-known New York banker, and an entire sceptic before commencing these experiments. These sittings were more than three hundred in number, extending over five years. They took place in four different houses (Mr. Livermore's and the medium's being both changed during this period), under tests of the most rigid description. The chief phenomenon was the appearance of a tangible, visible, and audible figure of Mr. Livermore's deceased wife, sometimes accompanied by a male figure, purporting to be Dr. Franklin. The former figure was often most distinct and absolutely life-like. It moved various objects in the room. It wrote messages on cards. It was sometimes formed out of a luminous cloud, and again vanished before the eyes of the witnesses. It allowed a portion of its dress to be cut off, which though at first of strong and apparently material gauzy texture, yet in a short time melted away and became invisible, Flowers which melted away were also given. These phenomena occurred best when Mr. L. and the medium were alone; but two witnesses were occasionally admitted, who tested everything and confirmed Mr. L.'s testimony. One of these was Mr. Livermore's physician, the other his brother-in-law; the latter previously a sceptic. The details of these wonderful seances were published in the Spiritual Magazine in
Miss Fox recently came to England, and here also her powers have been tested by a competent man of science, and found to be all that has been stated. She is now married to an English barrister, and some of the strange phenomena which have so long accompanied her, attach themselves to her infant child, even when its mother is away, to the great alarm of its nurse. We have here, therefore, a career of twenty-six years of mediumship of the
Mr. Daniel D. Home is perhaps the best known medium in the world; and his powers have been open to examination for at least twenty years. Nineteen years ago Sir David Brewster and Lord Brougham had a sitting with him—sufficiently acute and eminent observers, and both, of course, thorough sceptics. In the "Home Life of Sir David Brewster," we have, fortunately, his own record of this sitting made at the time, although six months later, in a letter to the Morning Advertiser, ho made the contradictory statement, "I saw enough to satisfy myself they could all be produced by human hands and feet." He says: "The table actually rose from: the ground when no hand was upon it;" and "a small hand-bell was laid down with its mouth on the carpet, and it actually rang when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in my hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham." And he adds, speaking for both, "We could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism." Coming from the author of "Letters on Natural Magic," this is pretty good testimony.
These and far more marvellous phenomena have been repeated from that day to this, many thousands of times, and almost always in private houses at which Mr. Home visits. Everybody testifies to the fact that he offers the most ample facilities for investigation; and to this I can myself bear witness, having been invited by him to examine as closely as I pleased an accordion, held by his one hand, keys downwards, and in that position playing very sweetly. But, perhaps, the best attested and most extraordinary phenomenon connected with Mr. Home's mediumship is what is called the fire test. In a state of trance he takes a glowing coal from the hottest part of a bright fire, and carries it round the room, so that every one may see and feel that it is a real one. This is testified by Mr. H. D. Jencken, Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, and many others. But, more strange still, when in this state he can detect the same power in other persons, or convey it to them. A lumn of red-hot coal was once placed on Mr. S. C. Hall's head in the presence of Lord Lindsay and four other persons. Mrs. Hall, in a communication to the Earl of Dunraven (given in the Mr. Hall was seated nearly opposite to where I sat; and I saw Mr. Home, after standing about half a minute at the back of Mr. Hall's chair, deliberately place the lump of burning coal 011 his head! I have often wondered that I was not frightened, but I was not; I had perfect faith that he would not be injured. Some one said, "Is it not hot?" Mr. Hall answered, "Warm, but not hot." Mr. Home bad moved a little way, but returned, still in a trance; he smiled, and seemed quite pleased; and then proceeded to draw up Mr. Hall's white hair over the red coal. The white hair had the appearance of silver thread over the red coal. Mr. Home drew the hair into a sort of pyramid, the coal, still red, showing beneath the hair."Spiritual Magazine,
When taken off the head, which it had not in the slightest degree injured or singed the hair, others attempted to touch it and were burnt. Lord Lindsay and Miss Douglas have also had hot coals placed in their hands, and they describe them as feeling rather cold than hot, though at the same time they burn any one else, and even scorch the face of the holder if approached too closely. The same witnesses also testify that Mr. Home has placed red-hot coals inside his waist-coat without scorching his clothes, and has put his face into the middle of the fire, his hair falling into the flames, yet not being
Human Nature, Spiritualist,
As to the possibility of these things being produced by trick, if farther evidence than their mere statement be required, we have the following by Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, who says, 'I may also mention that Bosco, one of the greatest professors of legerdemain ever known, in a conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the possibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Home being performed by any of the resources of his art."
The powers of Mr. Home have lately been independently tested by Serjeant Cox and Mr. Crookes, and both these gentlemen emphatically proclaim that he invites tests and courts examination. Serjeant Cox, in his own house, has had a new accordion (purchased by himself that very day) play by itself, in his own hand, while Mr. Home was playing the piano. Mr. Home then took the accordion in his left hand, holding it with the keys downward while playing the piano with his right hand, "and it played beautifully in accompaniment to the piano for at least a quarter of an hour. ("What Am I?" vol. ii., p. 388.)
Mr. Home's life has been to a great extent a public one. He lias spent much of his time as a guest in the houses of people of rank and talent. He numbers among his friends many who are eminent in science, art, and literature—men certainly not inferior in perceptive or reasoning powers to those who, not having witnessed the phenomena, disbelieve in their occurrence. For twenty years he has been exposed to the keen scrutiny and never-ceasing suspicion of innumerable inquirers; yet no proof has ever been given of trickery, no particle of machinery or apparatus has ever been detected. But the phenomena are so stupendous that, if impostures, they could only be performed by machinery of the most elaborate, varied, and cumbrous nature, requiring the aid of several assistants and confederates. The theory that they are delusions are equally untenable, unless it is admitted that there is no possible means of distinguishing delusion from reality.
The last medium to whoso career I shall call attention is Mrs. Guppy (formerly Miss Nichol), and in this case I can give some personal testimeny. I know Miss Nichol before she had ever heard of Spiritualism, table-rapping, or anything of the kind, and we first discovered her powers on asking her to sit for experiment in my house. This was in
Another very curious and beautiful phenomenon was the production of delicate musical sounds, without any object calculated to produce them being in the room. On one occasion a German lady, who was a perfect stranger to Miss Nichol, and had never been at a seance before, was present. She sang several German songs, and most delicate music, like a fairy musical-box, accompanied her throughout. She sang four or five different songs of her own choice, and all were so accompanied. This was in the dark, but hands were joined all the time.
The most remarkable feature of this lady's mediumship is the production of flowers and fruits in closed rooms. The first time this occurred was at my own house, at a very early stage of her development. All present were my own friends. Miss Nichol had come early to tea, it being midwinter, and she had been with us in a very warm gas-lighted room four hours before the flowers appeared. The essential fact is, that upon a bare table in a small room closed and dark (the adjoining room and passage being well lighted), a quantity of flowers appeared, which were not there when we put on the gas a few minutes before. They consisted of anemones, tulips, chrysanthemums, Chinese primroses, and several ferns. All were absolutely fresh as if just gathered from a conservatory. They were covered with a fine cold dew. Not a petal was crumpled or broken, not the most delicate point or pinnule of the ferns was out of place. I dried and preserved the whole, and have, attached to them, the attestation of all present that they had no share, as far as they knew, in bringing the flowers into the room. I believed at the time, and still believe, that it was absolutely impossible for Miss N. to have concealed them so long, to have kept them so perfect, and, above all, to produce them covered throughout with a most beautiful coat-
Similar phenomena have occurred hundreds of times since, in many houses and under various conditions. Sometimes the flowers have been in vast quantities, heaped upon the table. Often flowers or fruits asked for are brought. A friend of mine asked for a sunflower, and one six feet high fell upon the table, having a large mass of earth about its roots. One of the most striking teste was at Florence, with Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, Mrs. Trollope, Miss Blagden, and Colonel Harvey. The room was searched by the gentlemen; Mrs. Guppy was undressed and redressed by Mrs. Trollope, every article of her clothing being examined. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy were both firmly held while at the table. In about ten minutes all the party exclaimed that they smelt flowers, and, on lighting a candle, both Mrs. Guppy's and Mrs. Trollope's arms were found covered with jonquils, which filled the room with their odour. Mr. Guppy and Mr. Trollope both relate this in substantially the same terms. ("Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritualism," pp. 277 and 372).
Surely these are phenomena about which there can be no mistake. What theories have ever been proposed by our scientific teachers which even attempt to account for them? Delusion it cannot be, for the flowers are real, and can be preserved, and imposture under the conditions described is even less credible. If the gentlemen who come forward to enlighten the public on the subject of "so-called spiritual manifestations "do not know of the various classes of phenomena that have now been indicated, and the weight of the testimony in support of them, they are palpably unqualified for the task they have undertaken. That they do know of them, but keep back their knowledge, while putting forth trivialities easy to laugh at or expose, is a supposition I cannot for a moment entertain. Before leaving this part of the subject, it is well to note the fact of the marked individuality of each medium. They are no copies of each other, but each one developes a characteristic set of phenomena—a fact highly suggestive of some unconscious occult power in the individual, and wholly opposed to the idea of cither imposture or delusion, both of which almost invariably copy pre-existing models.
Investigations by some Notable Sceptics.—In giving some account of how a few of the most important converts to Spiritualism became convinced, we are of course limited to those who have given their experiences to the public. I will first take the case of the eminent American lawyer, the Hon. J. W. Edmunds, commonly called Judge Edmunds; and it may be as well to let English sceptics know what he is thought of by his countrymen. When he first became a. Spiritualist ho was greatly abused; and it was even declared that he consulted the spirits on his judicial decisions. To defend himself he published an "Appeal to the Public," giving a full account of the inquiries which resulted in his conversion. In noticing this, the New York Evening Mirror said: "John W. Edmunds, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this District, is an able lawyer, an industrious judge, and a good citizen. For the last eight years occupying without interruption the highest judicial stations, whatever may be his faults, no one can justly accuse him of a lack of ability, industry, honesty, or fearlessness. No one can doubt his general saneness, or can believe for a moment that the ordinary operations of his mind are not as rapid, accurate, and reliable as ever. Both by the practitioners and suitors at his bar, he is recognised as the head, in fact and in merit, of the Supreme Court for this District." A few years later he published a series of letters on Spiritualism in the New York Tribune; and in the first of these he gives a compact summary of his mode of investigation, from which the following passages
It was in
I resorted to every expedient I could devise to detect imposture and to guard against delusion. I felt in myself, and saw in others, how exciting was the idea that we were actually communing with the dead; and I labored to prevent any undue bias of my judgment. I was at times critical and captious to an unreasonable extreme; and when my belief was challenged, as it was over and over again, I refused to yield, except to evidence that would leave no possible room for cavil.
I was severely exacting in my demands, and this would frequently happen. I would go to a circle with some doubt on my mind as to the manifestations at the previous circle, and something would happen aimed directly at that doubt, and completely overthrowing it as it then seemed, so that I no longer had any reason to doubt. But I would go home and write out carefully my minutes of the evening, cogitate over them for several days, compare them with previous records, and finally find some loophole—some possibility that it might have been something else than spiritual influence, and I would go to the next circle with a new doubt, and a new set of queries.
I look back sometimes now, with a smile, at the ingenuity I wasted in devising ways and means to avoid the possibility of deception.
It was a remarkable feature of my investigations, that every conceivable objection I could raise, first and last, was met and answered.
The following extracts are from the "Appeal—
I have seen a mahogany table, having a centre leg, and with a lump burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in spite of the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place, though its glass pendants rang again. I have known a mahogany chair thrown on its side and moved swiftly back and forth on the floor, no one touching it, through a room where there were at least a dozen people sitting, yet no one was touched; and it was repeatelly stopped within a few inches of me, when it was coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken my legs.
Having satisfied himself of the reality of the physical phenomena, he came to the question of whence comes the intelligence that was; so remarkable connected with them. He says:—
Preparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat down alone in my room, and carefully prepared a series of questions to be propounded, and I have beenprised to find my questions answered, and in the precise order in which I wrote him without my even taking my memorandum out of my pocket, and when at a person present knew that I had prepared questions, much less what they were My most secret thoughts, those which I have never uttered to mortal man or woman, have been freely spoken to as if I had uttered them; and I have been admnished that
Still the question occurred, "May not all this have been, by some mysterious operation, the mere reflex of the mind of some one present?" The answer was, that facts were communicated which were unknown then, but afterwards found to be true; like this for instance: when I was absent last winter in Central America, my friends in town heard of my whereabouts and of the state of my health several times; and on my return, by comparing their information with the entries in my journal, it was found to be invariably correct. So thoughts have been littered on subjects not then in my mind, and utterly at variance with my own notions. This often has happened to me and to others, so as fully to establish the fact that it was not our minds that gave forth or affected the communication.
These few extracts sufficiently show that the writer was aware of the possible sources of error in such an inquiry, and the details given in the letters prove that he was constantly on his guard against them. He himself and his daughters became mediums; so that he afterwards obtained personal confirmation of many of the phenomena by himself alone. But all the phenomena referred to in the letters and "Appeal" occurred to him in the presence of others, who testified to them as well, and thus removed the possibility that the phenomena were subjective.
We have yet to add a notice of what will be perhaps, to many persons, the most startling and convincing of all the Judge's experiences. His own daughter became a medium for speaking foreign languages of which she was totally ignorant. He says: She knows no language but her own, and a little smattering of boarding-school French; yet she has spoken in nine or ten different tongues, often for an hour at a time, with the ease and fluency of a native. It is not unfrequent that foreigners converse with their spirit-friends through her, in their own language." One of these cases must be given:
One evening, when some twelve or fifteen persons were in my parlor, Mr. E. D. Green, an artist of this city, was shown in, accompanied by a gentleman whom ho introduced as Mr. Evangelides, of Greece. Ere long a spirit spoke to him through Laura, in English, and said so many things to him that he identified him as a friend who had died at his house a few years before, but of whom none of us had ever heard. Occasionally, through Laura, the spirit would speak a word or a sentence in Greek, until Mr. E. inquired if he could be understood if he spoke Greek? The residue of the conversation for more than an hour was, on his part, entirely in Greek, and on hers sometimes in Greek and sometimes in English. At times Laura would not understand what was the idea conveyed either by her or him; at other times she would understand him, though he spoke in Greek, and herself, while uttering Greek words.
Several other cases are mentioned, and it is stated that this lady has spoken Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Hungarian, and Indian, and other languages which were Unknown to any person present.
This is by no means an isolated case, but it is given as being on most unexceptionable authority. A man must know whether his own daughter has learned, so as to speak fluently eight languages besides her own, or not. Those who carry on the conversation must know whether the language is spoken or not; and in several cases—as the Latin, Spanish, and Indian—the judge himself understood the language. And the phenomenon is connected with Spiritualism by the speaking being in the name of, and purporting to come from, some deceased person, and the subject matter being characteristic of that person. Such a case as this, which has been published sixteen years, ought to have been noticed and explained by those who profess to enlighten the public on the subject of Spiritualism.
Our next example is one of the most recent, but at the same time one of the most useful, converts to the truths of Spiritualism. Dr. George Sexton, M.D., M.A., L.L.D., was for many years the coadjutor of Mr. Bradlaugh, and one of the most earnest and energetic of the secularist teachers. The celebrated Robert Owen first called his attention to the subject of Spiritualism, about twenty years ago. He read books, he saw a good deal of the ordinary physical manifestations, but he always "suspected that the mediums played tricks, and that the whole affair was nothing but clever conjuring by means of concealed machinery." He gave several lectures against Spiritualism in the usual style of non-believers, dwelling much on the absurdity and triviality of the phenomena, and ridiculing the idea that they were the work of spirits. Then came another old friend and fellow-secularist, Mr. Turley, who, after investigating the subject for the purpose of exposing it, became a firm believer. Dr. Sexton laughed at this conversion, yet it made a deep impression on his mind. Ten years passed away, and his next important investigation was with the Davenport Brothers; and it will be well for those who sneer at these much-abused young men to take note of the following account of Dr. Sexton's proceedings with them, and especially of the fact that they cheerfully submitted to every test the doctor suggested. He tells us (in his lecture, "How I became a "Spiritualist") that he visited them again and again, trying in vain to find out the trick. Then, he says—
My partner—Dr. Barker—and I invited the Brothers to our houses, and, in order to guard against anything like trickery, we requested them not to bring any ropes, instruments, or other apparatus; all these we ourselves had determined to supply. Moreover, as there were four of them—viz., the two Brothers Davenport, Mr. Fay, and Dr. Fergusson—we suspected that the two who were not tied might really do all that was done. "We therefore requested only two to come. They unhesitatingly complied with all these requests. "We forming a circle, consisting entirely of members of our own families and a few private friends, with the one bare exception of Mrs. Fay. In the circle we all joined hands, and as Mrs Fay sat at one end she had one of her hands free, while I had hold of the other. Thinking that she might be able to assist with the hand that was thus free, I asked as a favour that I might be allowed to hold both her hands—a proposition which she at once agreed to. Now, without entering here at all into what took place, suffice it to say that we bound the mediums with our own ropes, placed their feet upon sheets of writing paper and drew lines around their boots, so that if they moved their feet it should be impossible for them to place them again in the same position; we laid pence on their toes, sealed the ropes, and in every way took precautions against their moving. On the occasion to which I now refer, Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. diaries Watts were present; and when Mr Fay's coat had been taken off, the ropes still remaining on his hands, Mr. Bradlaugh requested that his coat might be placed on Mr. Fay, which was immediately done, the ropes still remaining fastened. We got on this occasion all the phenomena that usually occurred in the presence of these extraordinary men, particulars of which I shall probably give on another occasion. Dr. Barker became a believer in Spiritualism from the time that the Brothers visited at his house. I did not sec that any proof had been given that disembodied spirits had any hand in producing the phenomena; but I was convinced that no tricks had been played, and that therefore these extraordinary physical manifestations were the result of some occult force in nature which I had no means of explaining in the present state of my knowledge. All the physical phenomena that I had seen now became clear to me; they were not accomplished by trickery, as I had formerly supposed, but were the result of some undiscovered law of nature which it was the business of the man of science to use his utmost endeavours to discover."
While he was maintaining this ground, spiritualists often asked him how he explained the intelligence that was manifested; and he invariably replied that he had not yet seen proofs of any intelligence other than what
"The proofs that I did ultimately receive are, many of them, of a character that I cannot describe minutely to a public audience, nor indeed have I time to do so. Suffice it to say, that I got in my own house, in the absence of all mediums other than the members of my own family and intimate private friends in whom mediumistic powers became developed, evidence of an irresistible character that the communications came from deceased friends and relatives. Intelligence was again and again displayed which could not possibly have had any other origin than that which it professed to have. Facts were named known to no one in the circle, and left to be verified afterwards. The identity of the spirits communicating was proved in a hundred different, ways. Our dear departed ones made themselves palpable both to feeling and to sight j and the doctrine of spirit-communion was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. I soon found myself in the position of Dr. Fenwick in Lord Lytton's 'Strange story.' 'Do you believe,' asked the female attendant of Margrave, 'in that which you seek?' 'I have no belief,' was the answer. 'True science has none; true science questions all things, and takes nothing on credit. It knows but three states of mind—denial, conviction, and the vast interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of judgment.' This describes exactly the phases through which my mind has passed."
Since Dr. Sexton has become a spiritualist he has been as energetic an advocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of secularism. His experience and ability as a lecturer, with his long schooling in every form of manifestation, render him one of the most valuable promulgators of its teachings, he has also done excellent service in exposing the pretensions of those conjurors who profess to expose Spiritualism. This he does in the most practical way, not only by explaining how the professed imitations of spiritual manifestations are performed, but by actually performing them before his audience; and at the same time pointing out the important differences between what these people do and what occurs at good seances. Any one who wishes to comprehend how Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats have only to read his lecture, entitled "Spirit Mediums and Conjurors," before going to witness their entertainments. We can hardly believe that the man who does this, and who during fifteen years of observation and experiment held out against the spiritual theory, is one of those who, as Lord Amberley tells us, "fall a victim to the most patent frauds, and are imposed upon by jugglery of the most vulgar order;" or who, as viewed from Professor Tyndall's high scientific standpoint, are in a frame of mind before which science is utterly powerless—"dupes beyond the reach of proof, who like to believe and do not like to be undeceived." These be brave words; but we leave our readers to judge whether they come with a very good grace from men who have the most slender and inadequate knowledge of the subject they are criticising, and no knowledge at all of the long-continued and conscientious investigations of many who are included in their wholesale animadversions.
Yet one more witness to these marvellous phenomena we must bring
In Mr. Crookes's latest paper, published in the Quarterly Journal of Science for January last, we are informed that he has pursued the inquiry for four years; and besides attending seances elsewhere, has had the opportunity of making numerous experiments in his own house sixth the two remarkable mediums already referred to, Mr. D. D. Home and Miss Kate Fox. These experiments were almost exclusively made in the light, under conditions of his own arranging, and with his own friends as witnesses. Such phenomena as percussive sounds; alteration of the weight of bodies; the rising of heavy bodies in the air without contact by any one; the levitation of human beings; luminous appearances of various kinds; the appearance of hands which lift small objects, yet are not the hands of any one present; direct writing by a luminous detatched hand or by the pencil alone; phantom forn.s and faces; and various mental phenomena—have all been tested so variously and so repeatedly that Mr. Crookes is thoroughly satisfied of their objective reality. These phenomena are given in outline in the paper above referred to, and they will be detailed in full in a volume now preparing. I will not, therefore, weary my readers by repeating them here, but will remark, that these experiments have a weight as evidence vastly greater than would be due to them as resting on the testimony of any man of science, however distinguished, because they are in almost every case, confirmations of what previous witnesses in immense numbers have testified to, in various places, and under various conditions, during the last twenty years. In every other experimental inquiry, without exception, confirmation of the facts of an earlier observer is held to add so greatly to their value, that no one treats them with the same incredulity with which he might have received them the first time they were announced. And when the confirmation has been repeated by three or four independent observers under favourable conditions, and there is nothing but theory or negative evidence against them, the facts are admitted—at least provisionally, and until disproved by a greater weight of evidence or by discovering the exact source of the fallacy of preceding observers.
But here, a totally different—a most unreasonable and a most unphilosophical—course is pursued. Each fresh observation, confirming previous evidence, is treated as though it were now put forth for the first time; and
per contra? Neither science nor philosophy', neither scepticism nor religion, has ever yet in this quarter of a century made one single convert from the ranks of Spiritualism!
This being the ease, and fully appreciating the amount of candour and fairness, and knowledge of the subject, that has been exhibited by their opponents, is it to be wondered at that a large proportion of spiritualists are now profoundly indifferent to the opinion of men of science, and would not go one step cut of their way to convince them? They say, that the movement is going on quite fast enough. That it is spreading by its own inherent force of truth, and slowly permeating all classes of society. It has thriven in spite of abuse and persecution, ridicule and argument, and continues to thrive whether endorsed by great names or not. Men of science, like an others, are welcome to enter its ranks: but they must satisfy themselves by their own persevering researches, not expect to have its proofs laid before them. Their rejection of its truths is their own loss, but cannot in the slightest degree affect the progress of Spiritualism. The attacks and criticisms of the press are borne good-humouredly, and seldom excite other feelings than pity for the wilful ignorance and contempt for the overwhelming presumption of their writers. Such are the sentiments that are continually expressed by spiritualists; and it is as well, perhaps, that the outer world, to whom the literature of the movement is as much unknown as the Vedas, should be made acquainted with them.
Investigation by the Dialectical Committee.—There are many other investigators who ought to be noticed in any complete sketch of the subject, but we have now only space to allude briefly to the "Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society." Of this committee, consisting of thirty-three acting members, only eight were, at the commencement, believers in the reality of the phenomena, while not more than four accepted the spiritual theory. During the course of the inquiry at least twelve of the complete sceptics became convinced of the reality of many of the physical phenomena through attending the experimental sub-committees, and almost wholly by means of the mediumship of members of the committee. At least three members who were previously sceptics pursued their investigations outside the committee meetings, and in consequence have become thorough Spiritualists. My own observation as a member of the committee, and of the largest and most active sub-committee, enables me to state that the degree of conviction produced in the minds of the various members was, allowing for marked differences of character, approximately proportionate to the amount -of time and care bestowed on the investigation. This fact, which is what occurs in all investigation into these phenomena, is a characteristic result of the examination into any natural phnenomena. The examination into an imposture or delusion has invariably exactly opposite results—those who have slender experience being deceived, while those who perseveringly continue the inquiry inevitably find out the source of the deception or the delusion.
Before leaving this report, I must call attention to the evidence it furnisher "the state of opinion among men of education in France. M. Camille Flammarion, the well-known astronomer, sent a communication to the commiitte which deserves special consideration. Besides declaring his own acceptance of the objective reality of the phenomena after ten years of investigation, he makes the following statement:—
My learned teacher and friend, M. Babinet, of the Institute, who has endeavored, with M. E. Liais (now Director of the Observatory of Brazil), and several others of my colleagues of the Observatory of Paris, to ascertain their nature and cause, is not fully convinced of the intervention of spirits in their production, though this hypothesis, by which alone certain categories of these phenomena would seem to be explicable, has been adopted by many of our most esteemed savants, among others by Dr. Haefflic, the learned author of the 'History of Chemistry' and the 'General Encyclopaedia,' and by the diligent laborer in the field of astronomic discovery whose death we have had recently to deplore, M. Hermann Gold schemidt, the discoverer of fourteen planets.
It thus appears that in France, as well as in America and in this country, men of science of on mean rank have investigated these phenomena, and have found them to be realities; while some of the most eminent hold the spiritual theory to be the only one that will explain them.
This seems the proper place to notice the astounding assertion of certain writers, that there is not "a particle of evidence" to support the spiritual theory; that those who accept it betray "hopeless inability to discriminate between adequate and inadequate proof of facts; "that the theory is "formed apart from facts;" and that those who accept it are so unable to reason, as to "jump at the conclusion" that it must be spirits that move tables, merely because they do not know how else they can be moved. The preceding account of how converts to Spiritualism have been made is a sufficient answer to all this ignorant assertion. The spiritual theory, as a rule, has only been adopted as a last resource, when all other theories have hopelessly broken down; and when fact after fact, phenomenon after phenomenon, has presented itself, giving direct proof that the so-called dead are still alive. The spiritual theory is the logical outcome of the whole of the facts. Those who deny it, in every instance with which I am acquainted, either from ignorance or disbelief, leave half the facts out of view. Take the one case (out of many almost equally conclusive) of Mr. Livermore, who during five years, 011 hundreds of occasions, saw, felt, and heard the movements of the figure of his dead wife in absolute, unmistakable, living form. A form which could move objects, and which repeatedly wrote to him in her own handwriting and her own language, on cards which remained after the figure had disappeared. A form which was equally visible and tangible to two friends; which appeared in his own house, in a room absolutely secured, with the presence only of a young girl, the medium. Had these three men "not a particle of evidence" for the spiritual theory? Is it, in fact, possible to conceive or suggest any more complete proof? The facts must be got rid of before you abolish the theory; and simple denial or disbelief does not get rid of facts testified during a space of live years by three witnesses, all men in responsible positions, and carrying on their affairs during the whole
The objection will here be inevitably made: "These wonderful things always happen in America. When they occur in England it will be time enough to enquire into them." Singularly enough, after this article was in the press, the final test was obtained, which demonstrated the occurrence of similar phenomena in London. A short statement may, therefore, be interesting to those who cannot digest American evidence. For some years a young lady, Miss Florence Cook, has exhibited remarkable mediumship, which latterly culminated in the production of an entire female form purporting to be spiritual, and which appeared barefooted and in white flowing robes while she lay entranced, in dark clothing and securely bound, in a cabinet or adjacent room. Not with standing that tests of an apparently conclusive character were employed, many visitors, spiritualists as well as sceptics, got the impression that all was not as it should be; owing in part to the resemblance of the supposed spirit to Miss Cook, and also to the fact that the two could not be seen at the same time. Some supposed that Miss C. was an impostor who managed to conceal a white robe about her (although she was often searched), and who, although she was securely tied with tapes and sealed, was able to get out of her bonds, dress and undress herself, and get into them again, all in the dark, and in so complete and skilful a manner as to defy detection. Others thought that the spirit released her, provided her with a white dress, and sent her forth to personate a ghost. The belief that there was something wrong led one gentleman—an ardent spiritualist—to seize the supposed spirit and hold it, in the hope that some other person would open the cabinet-door and see if Miss Cook was really there. This was, unfortunately, not done; but the great resemblance of the being he seized to Miss Cook, its perfect solidity, and the vigorous struggle it made to escape from him, convinced this gentleman that it was Miss Cook herself, although the rest of the company, a few minutes before, found her bound and sealed just as she had been left an hour before. To determine the question conclusively, experiments hare been made within the last few weeks by two scientific men. Mr. C. S. Yarley, F.R.S., the eminent electrician, made use of a galvanic battery and cable-seting apparatus, and passed a current through Miss Cook's body (by fastening sovereigns soldered to wires to her arms). The apparatus was so delicate that any movement whatever was instantly indicated, while it was impossible for the young lady to dress and act as a ghost without breaking the circuit. Yet under these conditions, the spirit-form did appear, exhibited its arms, spoke, wrote, and touched several persons; and this happened, be it remembered, not in the medium's own house, but in that of a private gentleman in the West. End of London. For nearly an hour the circuit was never broken, and at the conclusion Miss Cook was found in a deep trance. Since this remarkable experiment Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S. has obtained, if possible, still more satisfactory evidence. He contrived a phosphorus lamp, and armed with this was allowed to go into the dark room accompanied by the spirit, and there saw and felt Miss Cook, dressed in black velvet, lying in a trance on the floor, while the spirit-form in white robes, stood close beside her. During the evening this spirit form had been, for nearly an hour, walking and talking with the company; and Mr. Crookes, by permission, clasped the figure in his arms, and found it to be, apparently, a real living woman, just as the sceptical gentleman had done. Yet this figure is not that of Miss Cook, nor of any other human being, since it appeared and disappeared in Mr. Crookes's own house as completely as in that of the medium herself. The full statements of Messrs. Varley and Crookes, with a mass of interesting detai' on the subject, appeared in the Spiritualist newspaper, in March and April last; and they serve to show that whatever marvels occur in America can be produced here, and that men of science are not precluded from investigating these phenomena with scientific instruments and by scientific methods. In the concluding part of this paper we shall be able to show that another class of manifestation which originated in America—that of the so-called spirit-photographs—has been first critically examined and completely demonstrated in our own country.
"We now approach a subject which cannot be omitted in any impartial sketch of the evidences of Spiritualism, since it is that which furnishes perhaps the most unassailable demonstration it is possible to obtain, of the objective reality of spiritual foams, and also of the truthful nature of the evidence furnished by seers when they describe figures visible to themselves alone. It has been already indicated—and it is a fact, of which the records of Spiritualism furnish ample proof—that different individuals possess the power of seeing such form? and figures in very variable degrees. Thus it often happens at a seance, that some will see distinct lights of which they will describe the form, appearance, and position, while others will see nothing at all. If only two persons see the lights, the rest will naturally impute it to their imagination: but there are cases in which only one or two of those present are unable to see them. There are also cases in which they all see them, but in very different degrees of distinctness; yet that they see the same objects is proved by their all agreeing as to the position and the movement of the lights. Again, what some see as merely luminous clouds, others will see as distinct human forms, either partial or entire. In other cases all present see the form—whether hand, face, or entire figure—with equal distinctness. Again; the objective reality of these appearances is some-times proved by their being touched, or by their being seen to remove objects,—in some cases heard to speak, in others seen to write, by several persons at one and the same time; the figure seen or the writing produced being sometimes unmistakably recognisable as that of a deceased friend. A volume could easily be filled with records of this class of appearances, authenticated by place, date, and names of witnesses; and a considerable selection is to be found in the works of Mr. Robert Dale Owen.
Now, at this point, an inquirer, who had not prejudged the question, and who did not believe his own knowledge of the universe to be so complete as to justify him in rejecting all evidence for facts which he had hitherto considered in the highest degree to be improbable, might fairly say, "Your evidence for the appearance of visible, tangible, spiritual forms, is very strong: but I should like to have them submitted to a crucial test, which would quite settle the question of the possibility of their being clue to a coincident delusion of several senses of several persons at the same time; and, if satisfactory, would demonstrate their objective reality in a way nothing else can do. If they really reflect or emit light which makes them visible to human eyes, they can be photographed. Photograph them, and you will have an unanswerable proof that your human witnesses are trustworthy." Two years ago we could only have replied to this very proper suggestion, that we believed it had been done, and could be again done, but that we had no satisfactory evidence to offer. Now, however, we are in a position to state, not only that it has been frequently done, but that the evidence is of such a nature as to satisfy any one who will take the trouble carefully to examine it. This evidence we will now lay before our readers, and we venture to think they will acknowledge it to be most remarkable.
Before doing so it may be as well to clear away a popular misconception. Mr. Lewes advised the Dialectical Committee to distinguish carefully between "facts and inferences from facts." This is especially necessary in the case of what are called spirit-photographs. The figures which occur in these when not produced by any human agency, may be of "spiritual" origin, without being figures "of spirits." There is much evidence to show that they are, in some cases, forms produced by invisible intelligences, but distinct from them. In other cases the intelligence appears to clothe itself
for purposes of recognition.
Most persons have heard of these 'ghost-pictures," and how easily they can be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore disposed to think they can be of no use as evidence. But a little consideration will show them that the means by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being so well known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply tests or arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. The following are some of the more obvious:—
1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes his own glass plates, examines the camera used and all the accessories, and watches the whole process of taking a picture, then, if any definite form appears on the negative beside the sitter, it is a proof that some object was present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays, although invisible to those present. 2. If an unmistakable likeness appears of a deceased person totally unknown to the photographer. 3. If the figures appear on the negative having a definite relation to the figure of the sitter, who chooses his own position, attitude, and accompaniments, it is a proof that invisible figures were really there. 4. If a figure appears draped in white, and partly behind the dark body of the sitter without in the least showing through, it is a proof that the white figure was there at the same time, because the dark parts of the negative are transparent, and any white picture in any way superposed would show through. 5. Even should none of these tests be applied, yet if a medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees and describes a figure during the sitting, and an exactly corresponding figure appears on the plate, it is a proof that such a figure was there.
Every one of these tests have been now successfully applied in our own country, as the following outline of the facts will show.
The accounts of spirit-photography in several parts of the United States caused several Spiritualists in this country to make experiments, but for a long time without success. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur photographers, tried at their house, and failed. In cartes de visite of Mrs. Guppy. After the sitting, an idea suddenly struck Mr. Guppy that he would try for a spirit-photograph. He sat down, told Mrs. G. to go behind the background, and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a large, indefinite, oval, white patch, somewhat resembling the outline of a draped figure. Mrs. Guppy, behind the background, was dressed in black. This is the first spirit-photograph taken in England, and it is perhaps more satisfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse under which it was taken, and the great white patch which no impostor would have attempted to produce, and which, taken by itself, utterly spoils the picture. A few days afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little boy went without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground, holding the boy on a stool. Her husband stood behind looking on. The picture thus produced is most remarkable. A tall female figure, finely draped in white, gauzy robes, stands directly behind and above the sitters, looking down on them, and holding its open hands over their heads, as if giving a benediction. The face is somewhat Eastern, and, with the hands, is beautifully defined. The white robes pass behind the sitters' dark figures without in the least showing through. A second picture was then taken as soon as a plate could be prepared; and it was fortunate it was so, as it resulted in a most remarkable test. Mrs. Guppy again knelt with the boy, but she did not stoop so much, and her head was higher. The same white figure
it has changed its position in a manner exactly corresponding to the slight change of Mrs. Guppy's position. The hands were before on a level; now one is raised considerably higher than the other, so as to keep it about the same distance from Mrs. Guppy's head as it was before. The folds of the drapery all correspondingly differ, and the head is slightly turned. Here, then, one of two things is absolutely certain. Either there was a living, intelligent, but invisible being present, or Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, the photographer, and some fourth person, planned a wicked imposture, and have maintained it ever since. Knowing Mr. and Mrs. Guppy as well as I do, I feel an absolute conviction that they are as incapable of an imposture of this kind as any earnest inquirer after truth in the department of natural science.
The report of these pictures soon spread. Spiritualists in great numbers came to try for similar results, with varying degrees of success, till after a time rumor of imposture arose, and it is now firmly believed by main', from suspicious appearances on the pictures and from other circumstances, that a large number of shams have been produced. It is certainly not to be wondered at if it be so. The photographer, remember, was not a Spiritualist, and was utterly puzzled at the pictures above described. Scores of persons came to him, and he saw that they were satisfied if they got a second figure with themselves, and dissatisfied if they did not. He may have made arrangements by which to satisfy everybody. One thing is clear, that if there has been imposture, it was at once detected by Spiritualists themselves; if not, then Spiritualists have been quick in noticing what appeared to indicate it. Those, however, who most strongly assert imposture allow that a large number of genuine pictures have been taken. But, true or not, the cry of imposture did good, since it showed the necessity for tests and for independent confirmation of the facts.
The test of clearly recognisable likenesses of deceased friends has often been obtained. Mr. William Howitt, who went without previous notice, obtained likenesses of two sons, many years dead, and of the very existence of one of whom even the friend who accompanied Mr. Howitt was ignorant. The likenesses were instantly recognised by Mrs. Howitt; and Mr. Howitt declares them to be "perfect and unmistakable." (Spiritual Magazine, Spiritual Magazine,
Mr. Thomas Slater, an old-established optician in the Euston road, and an amateur photographer, took with him to Mr. Hudson's, a new camera of his own manufacture and his own glasses, saw everything done, and obtained a portrait with a second figure on it. He then began experimenting in his own private house, and during last summer obtained some remarkable results. The first of his successes contains two heads by the side of a portrait of his sister. One of these heads is unmistakably the late Lord Brougham's; the other, much less distinct, is recognised by Mr. Slater as that of Robert Owen, whom he knew intimately up to the time of his death. He has since obtained several excellent pictures of the same class. One in
any figures, so clear and unmistakably human in appearance as these, should appear on plates taken in his own private studio by an experienced optician and amateur photographer, who makes all his apparatus himself, and with no one present but the members of his own family,—is the real marvel. In one case a second figure appeared on a plate with himself, taken by Mr. Slater when he was absolutely alone—by the simple process of occupying the sitter's chair after uncapping the camera. He and his family being themselves mediums, they require no extraneous assistance; and this may, perhaps, be the reason why he has succeeded so well. One of the most extraordinary pictures obtained by Mr. Slater is a full-length portrait of his sister, in which there is no second figure, but the sitter appears covered all over with a kind of transparent lace drapery, which on examination is seen to be wholly made up of shaded circles of different sizes, quite unlike any material fabric I have seen or heard of.
Mr. Slater has himself shown me all these pictures and explained the conditions under which they were produced. That they are not impostures is certain; and as the first independent confirmations of what had been previously obtained only through professional photographers, their value is inestimable.
A less successful, but not perhaps on that account less satisfactory confirmation has been obtained by another amateur, who, after eighteen months of experiment, obtained a partial success. Mr. It. Williams, M.A. Ph. D., of Hayward's Heath, succeeded last summer in obtaining three photographs, each with part of a human form besides the sitter, one having the features distinctly marked. Subsequently another was obtained, with a well-formed figure of a man standing at the side of the sitter, but while being developed, this figure faded away entirely. Mr. Williams assures me (in a letter) that in these experiments there was "no room for trick or for the production of these figures by any known means."
The editor of the British Journal of Photography has made experiments at Mr. Hudson's studio, taking his own collodion and new plates, and doing everything himself, yet there were "abnormal appearances "on the pictures although no distinct figures.
We now come to the valuable and conclusive experiments of Mr. John Beattie of Clifton a retired photographer of twenty years experience, and of whom the above-mentioned editor says:—"Everyone who knows Mr. Beattie will give him credit for being a thoughtful, skilful, and intelligent photographer, one of the last men in the world to be easily deceived, at least in matters relating to photography, and one quite incapable of deceiving others."
Mr. Beattie has been assisted in his researches by Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, M.D., who has practised photography as an amateur, for twenty-five years. They experimented at the studio of a friend, who was not a spiritualist (but who became a medium during the experiments,) and had the services of a tradesman with whom they were well acquainted, as a medium. The whole of the photographic work was done by Messrs. Beattie and Thomson, the other two sitting at a small table. The pictures were taken in series of three, within a few seconds of each other, and several of these series were taken at each sitting. The figures produced are for the most
in every case, minutely and correctly described the appearances which afterwards came out on the plate. In one there is a luminous rayed star of large size, with a human face faintly visible in the centre. This is the last of three in which the star developed, and the whole were accurately described by the medium. In another set of three, the medium first described,—"a light rising over another person's arms, coming from his own boot." The third,—"there is the same light, but now a column comes up through the table, and it is so hot to my hands." Then he suddenly exclaimed,—""What a bright light up there! Can you not see it?" pointing to it with his hand. All this most accurately describes the three pictures, and in the last, the medium's hand is seen pointing to a white patch which appears overhead. There are other curious developments, the nature of which is already sufficiently indicated; but one very startling single picture must be mentioned. During the exposure one medium said he saw on the background a black figure, the other medium saw a light figure by the side of the black one. In the picture both these figures appear, the light one very faintly, the black one much more distinctly, of a gigantic size, with a massive, coarse-featured face and long hair. (Spiritual Magazine, Photographic News,
Mr. Beattie has been so good as to send me for examination a complete set of these most extraordinary photographs, thirty-two in number, and has furnished me with any particulars I desired. I have described them as correctly as I am able; and Dr. Thomson has authorised me to use his name as confirming Mr. Beattie's account of the conditions under which they appeared. These experiments were not made without labor and perseverance. Sometimes twenty consecutive pictures produced absolutely nothing unusual. Hundreds have been taken, and more than half have been complete failures. But the successes have been well worth the labor. They demonstrate the fact that what a medium or sensitive sees (even where no one else sees anything) may often have an objective existence. They teach us that perhaps the bookseller, Nicolai of Berlin,—whose case has been quoted ad nauseam as the type of a "spectral illusion"—saw real beings after all; and that,
We find, then, that three amateur photographers working independently in different parts of England, separately confirm the fact of spirit photography,—already demonstrated to the satisfaction of many who had tested it through professional photographers. The experiments of Mr. Heat tie and Dr. Thomson are alone absolutely conclusive; and, taken in connection with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test photographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a scientific fact the objective existence of invisible human forms, and definite invisible actinic images. Before leaving the photographic phenomena we have to notice two curious points in connection with them. The actinic action of the spirit-forms is peculiar, and much more rapid than that of the light reflected from ordinary material forms; for the first figures start out the moment the developing fluid touches them, while the figures of the sitters appear much later. Mr. Beattie noticed this throughout his experiments, and I was myself much struck with it when watching the development of three pictures recently taken at Mr. Hudson's. The second figure, though by no means bright, always came out long before any other part of the picture. The other singular thing is, the copious drapery in which these forms are almost always enveloped, so as to show only just what is necessary for recognition, of the face and figure. The explanation given of this is, that the human form is more difficult to materialise than drapery. The conventional "white-sheeted ghost" was not then all fancy, but had a foundation in fact,—a fact, too, of great significance, dependent on the laws of a yet unknown chemistry.
As we have not been able to give an account of many facts which occur with the various classes of mediums, the following catalogue of the most important and well-characterised phenomena may be useful. They may be grouped provisionally, as, Physical, or those in which material objects are acted on, or apparently material bodies produced; and Mental, or those which consist in the exhibition by the medium of powers or faculties not possessed in the normal state.
The principal physical phenomena are the following:—
Simple Physical Phenomena.—Producing sounds of all kinds, from a delicate tick to blows like those of a sledge-hammer. Altering the weight of bodies. Moving bodies without human agency. Raising bodies into the air. Conveying bodies to a distance out of and into closed rooms. Releasing mediums from every description of bonds, even from welded iron rings, as has happened in America.Chemical.—Preserving from the effects of fire, as already detailed.Direct Writing and Drawing.—Producing writing or drawing on marked papers, placed in such positions that no human hand (or foot) can touch. Sometimes, visibly to the spectators, a pencil rising up and writing or drawing apparently by itself. Some of the drawings in many colors have been produced on marked paper in from ten to twenty seconds, and the colors found wet. (See Mr. Coleman's evidence, in "Dialectical Report," up. 143, confirmed by Lord Borthwick, up. 150). Mr. Thomas Slater of 136 Euston Road, is now obtaining communications in the following manner:—A
Musical Phenomena.—Musical instruments, of various kinds, played without human agency, from a hand-bell to a closed piano. With some mediums, and where the conditions are favorable, original musical compositions of a very high character are produced. This occurs with Mr. Home.Spiritual Forms.—These are either luminous appearances, sparks, stars, globes of light, luminous clouds, &c.; or, hands, faces, or entire human figures, generally covered with flowing drapery, except a portion of the face and hands. The human forms are often capable of moving solid objects, and are both visible and tangible to all present. In other cases they are only visible to seers, but when this is the case it sometimes happens that the seer describes the figure as lifting a flower or a pen, and others present see the flower or the pen apparently move by itself. In some cases they speak distinctly; in others the voice is heard by all, the form only seen by the medium. The flowing robes of these forms have in some cases been examined, and pieces cut off, which have in a short time method away. Flowers are also brought, some of which fade away and vanish; others are real, and can be kept indefinitely. It must not be concluded that any of these forms are actual spirits; they are probably only temporary froms produced by spirits for purposes of test, or of recognition by their friends. This is the account invariably given of them by communications obtained in various ways; so that the objection once thought to be so crushing—that there can be no "ghosts" of clothes, armour, or walking-sticks—ceases to have any weight.Spiritual Photographs.—These, as just detailed, demonstrate by' a purely physical experiment the trustworthiness of the preceding class of observations.
We now come to the mental phenomena, of which the following are the chief.
The purely mental phenomena are generally of no use as evidence to non-spiritualists, except in those few cases where rigid tests can be applied; but they are so intimately connected with the physical series, and often so interwoven with them, that no one who has sufficient experience to satisfy him of the reality of the former, fails to see that the latter form part of the general system, and are dependent on the same agencies.
With the physical series the case is very different. They form a connected body of evidence, from the simplest to the most complex and astounding, every single component fact of which can be, and has been, repeatedly demonstrated by itself; while each gives weight and confirmation to all the rest. They have all, or nearly all, been before the world for twenty years; the theories and explanations of reviewers and critics do not touch them, or in any way satisfy any sane man who has repeatedly witnessed them; they have been tested and examined by sceptics of every grade of incredulity, men in every way qualified to detect imposture or to discover natural causes—trained physicists, medical men, lawyers and men of business—but in every ease the investigators have cither retired baffled, or become converts.
There have, it is true, been some impostors who have attempted to imitate the phenomena; but such cases are few in number, and have been discovered by tests far less severe than those to which the genuine phenomena have been submitted over and over again; and a large proportion of these phenomena have never been imitated, because they are beyond successful imitation.
Now what do our leaders of public opinion say, when a scientific man of proved ability again observes a large portion of the more extraordinary phenomena, in his own house, under test conditions, and affirms their objective reality; and this not after a hasty examination, but after four years of research? Men, "with heavy scientific appendages to their names "refuse to examine them when invited; the eminent society of which he is a fellow refuses to record them; and the press cries out that it wants better witnesses than Mr. Crookes, and that such facts want "confirmation "before they can be believed. But why more confirmation? And when again "confirmed,"' who is to confirm the confirmer '? After the whole range of the phenomena had been before the world for ten years, and had convinced sceptics by tens of thousands—sceptics, be it remembered, of common sense and more than
confirmed by the first chemist in America, Professor Robert Hare. Two years later they were again confirmed by the elaborate and persevering inquiries of one of the first American lawyers, Judge Edmonds. Then by another good chemist, Professor Mapes. In Prance the truth of the simpler physical phenomena was confirmed by Count A. de Gasparin in confirmed them. Professor Thury of Geneva again confirmed them, in confirmed large portions of them; and lastly comes Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., with four years of research and unrestricted experiment with the two oldest and most remarkable mediums in the world, and again confirms the whole series! But even this is not all. Through an independent set of most competent observers we have the crucial test of photography; a witness which cannot be deceived, which has no preconceived opinions, which cannot register "subjective impressions;" a thoroughly scientific witness, who is admitted into our law courts, and whose testimony is good as against any number of recollections of what did happen or opinions as to what ought to and must have happened. And what has the other side brought against this overwhelming array of consistent and unimpeachable evidence? They have merely made absurd and inadequate suppositions, but have not disproved or explained away one weighty fact!
My position, therefore, is, that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their entirety do not require further confirmation. They are proved quite as well as any facts are proved in other sciences; and it is not denial or quibbling that can disprove any of them, but only fresh facts and accurate deductions from those facts. "When the opponents of Spiritualism can give a record of their researches approaching in duration and completeness to those of its advocates; and when they can discover and show in detail, either how the phenomena are produced or how the many sane and able men here referred to have been deluded into a coincident belief that they have witnessed them; and when they can prove the correctness of their theory by producing a like belief in a body of equally sane and able unbelievers,—then, and not till then, will it be necessary for spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which are, and always have been, sufficiently real and indisputable to satisfy any honest and persevering inquirer.
This being the state of the case as regards evidence and proof, we are fully justified in taking the facts of modern Spiritualism (and with them the spiritual theory as the only tenable one) as being fully established. It only remains to give a brief account of the more important uses and teachings of Spiritualism.
The lessons which modern Spiritualism teaches may be classed under two heads. In the first place, we find that it gives a rational account of various phenomena in human history which physical science has been unable to explain, and has therefore rejected or ignored; and, in the second, we derive from it some definite information as to man's nature and destiny, and, founded on this, an ethical system of great practical efficacy. The following are some of the more important phenomena of history and of human, nature which science cannot deal with, but which Spiritualism explains:—
facts from the absurd inferences, which people imbued with the frightful superstition of diabolism drew from them, and from which false inferences all the horrors of the witchcraft mania arose. Spiritualism, and Spiritualism alone, gives a rational explanation of witchcraft, and determines how much of it was objective fact, how much subjective illusion.for which no provision in advance was ever made (for that Midler considered would show want of trust in God), no such explanation can cover the facts.nine years, and he was able to trace back their existence in the same house for sixty years. Another ease had lasted twenty years, and could be traced back for a century. Some of the details of these cases are most instructive. Trick is absolutely the most incredible of all explanations. Spiritualism furnishes the explanation by means of analogous facts occurring every day, and forming part of the great system of phenomena which demonstrates the spiritual theory. Major Moor's book is very rare; but a good abstract of it is given in Owen's "Debatable Land," pp. 239-258.
"We have now to explain the Theory of Human Nature, which is the outcome of the phenomena taken in their entirety, and is also more or less explicitly taught by the communications which purport to come from spirits. It may be briefly outlined as follows:—
The foregoing outline propositions will suggest a number of questions and difficulties, for the answers to which readers are referred to the works of R. D. Owen, Hudson Tuttle, Professor Hare, and the records of Spiritualism passim. Here I must pass on to explain, with some amount of detail, how the theory leads to a pure system of morality with sanctions far more powerful and effective than any which cither religious systems or philosophy have put forth.
This part of the subject cannot, perhaps, be better introduced than by referring to some remarks by Professor Huxley in a letter to the Committee of the Dialectical Society. He says:—"But supposing the phenomena to be genuine—they do not interest me. If anybody would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates at the nearest cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having better things to do. And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk more wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put them in the same category." This passage, written with the caustic satire in which the kind-hearted Professor occasionally indulges, can hardly mean, that if it were proved that men really continued to live after the death of the body, that fact would not interest him, merely because some of them talked twaddle? Many scientific men deny the spiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that real, genuine spirits might reasonably be expected not to indulge in the commonplace trivialities which do undoubtedly form the staple of ordinary spiritual communications. But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and philosopher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expectation. Does he not hold the doctrine that there can be no effect, mental or physical, without an adequate cause; and that mental states, faculties, and idiosyncracies, that are the result of gradual development and life-long—and even ancestral—habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any known or imaginable cause? And if (as the Professor would probably admit) a very large majority of those who daily depart this life are persons addicted to twaddles, persons who spend much of their time in low or trivial pursuits, persons whose pleasures are sensual rather than intellectual—whence is to come the transforming power which is suddenly, at the mere throwing off the physical body, to change these into beings able to appreciate and delight in high and intellectual pursuits? The thing would be a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable miracles as part of the order of nature; and all for what? Merely to save these people from the necessary consequences of their misspent lives. For the essential teaching of Spiritualism is, that we are, all of us, in every act and thought, helping to build up a "mental fabric" which will be and constitute ourselves more completely after the death of the body than it does now. Just as this fabric is well or ill built, so will our progress and happiness be aided or retarded. Just in proportion as we have developed our higher intellectual and moral nature, or starved it by disuse and by giving undue prominence to those faculties which secure us mere physical or selfish enjoyment, shall we be well or ill fitted for the new life we enter on. The noble teaching of Herbert Spencer, that men are best educated by being left to suffer the natural consequences of their actions, is the teaching of Spiritualism as regards the transition to another phase of life. There will be no imposed rewards or punishments; but every one will suffer the natural and inevitable
Although, therefore, the twaddle and triviality of so many of the communications is not one whit more interesting to sensible spiritualists than it is to Professor Huxley, and is never voluntarily listened to, yet the fact that such poor stuff is talked (supposing it to come from spirits) is both a fact that might have been anticipated and a lesson of deep import. We must remember, too, the character of the stances at which these commonplace communications are received. A miscellaneous as semblance of believers of various grades and tastes, but mostly in search of an evening's amusement, and of sceptics who look upon all the others as either fools or knaves, is not likely to attract to itself the more elevated and refined denizens of the higher spheres, who may well be supposed to feel too much interest in their own new and grand intellectual existence to waste their energies on either class. If the fact is proved, that people continue to talk after they are dead with just as little sense as when alive, but they being in a state in which sense, both common and uncommon, is of far greater importance to happiness than it is here (where fools pass very comfortable lives), they suffer the penalty of having neglected to cultivate their minds; and being so much out of their element in a world where all pleasures are mental, they endeavour to recall old times by gossiping with their former associates whenever they can find the means—Professor Huxley will not fail to see its vast importance as an incentive to that higher education which he is never weary of advocating. He would assuredly be interested in anything having a really practical bearing on the present and on the future condition of men; and it is evident that even these low and despised phenomena of Spiritualism, "if true," have this bearing, and, combined with its higher teachings, constitute a great moral agency which may yet regenerate the world.
For the spiritualist who, by daily experience, gets absolute knowledge of these facts regarding the future state—who knows that, just in proportion as he indulges in passion, or selfishness, or the exclusive pursuit of wealth, and neglects to cultivate the affections and the varied powers of his mind, so does he inevitably prepare for himself misery in a world in which there are no physical wants to be provided for, no sensual enjoyments except those directly associated with the affections and sympathies, no occupations but those having for their object social and intellectual progress—is impelled towards a pure, a sympathetic, and an intellectual life by motives far stronger than any which either religion or philosophy can supply. He dreads to give way to passion or to falsehood, to selfishness or to a life of luxurious physical enjoyment, because he knows that the natural and inevitable consequences of such habits are future misery, necessitating a long and arduous struggle in order to develop anew the faculties, whose exercise long disuse has rendered painful to him. He will be deterred from crime by the knowledge that its unforeseen consequences may cause him ages of remorse; while the bad passions which it encourages will be a perpetual torment to himself in a state of being in which mental emotions cannot be laid aside or forgotten amid the fierce struggles and sensual pleasures of a physical existence. It must be remembered that these beliefs (unlike those of theology) will have a living efficacy, because they depend on facts occurring again and
Contrast this system of natural and inevitable reward and retribution, dependent wholly on the proportionate development of our higher mental and moral nature, with the arbitrary system of rewards and punishments dependent on stated facts and beliefs only, as set "birth by all dogmatic religions; and who can fail to see that the former is harmony with the whole order of nature—the latter opposed to it. Yet it is actually said that Spiritualism is altogether either imposture or delusion, and all its teachings but the product of "expectant attention" and "unconscious cerebration!" If none of the long series of demonstrative facts which have been here sketched out, existed, and its only product were this theory of a future state, that alone would negative such a supposition. And when it is considered that mediums of all grades, whether intelligent or ignorant, and having communications given through them in various direct and indirect ways, are absolutely in accord as to the main features of this theory, what becomes of the gross misstatement that nothing is given through mediums but what they know and believe themselves? The mediums have, almost all, been brought up in some of the usual orthodox beliefs. How is it, then, that the usual orthodox notions of heaven are never confirmed through them? In the scores of volumes and pamphlets of spiritual literature I have read, I have found no statement of a spirit describing "winged angels," or "golden harps," or the "throne of God"—to which the humblest orthodox Christian thinks he will be introduced if he goes to heaven at all. There is no more startling and radical opposition to be found between the most diverse religious creeds, than that between the beliefs in which the majority of mediums have been brought up and the doctrines as to a future life that are delivered through them; there is nothing more marvelous in the history of the human mind than the fact that, whether in the back-woods of America or in country towns in England, ignorant men and women having almost all been brought up in the usual sectarian notions of heaven and hell, should, the moment they become seized by the strange power of mediumship, give forth teachings on this subject which are philosophical rather than religious, and which differ wholly from what had been so deeply ingrained into their minds. And this statement is not affected by the fact that communications purport to come from Catholic or Protestant, Mahomedan or Hindoo spirits. Because, while such communications maintain special dogmas and doctrines, yet they confirm the very facts which really constitute the spiritual theory, and which in themselves contradict the theory of the sectarian spirits. The Roman Catholic spirit, for instance, does not describe himself as being in either the orthodox purgatory, heaven, or hell; the Evangelienl Dissenter who died in the firm conviction that he should certainly "go to Jesus," never describes himself as being with Christ, or as ever having seen Him, and so on throughout. Nothing is more common than for religious people at seances to ask questions about God and Christ. In reply they never get more than opinions, or more frequently the statement that they, the spirits, have no more actual knowledge of those subjects than they had while on earth. So that the facts are all harmonious; and the very circumstance of there being sectarian spirits bears witness in two ways to the truth of the spiritual theory—it shows that the mind, with its ingrained beliefs, is not suddenly changed at death; and it shows that the communications are not the reflection of the mind of the medium, who is often of the same religion as the communicating spirit, and, because
The doctrine of a future state and of the proper preparation for it as here developed, is to be found in the works of all spiritualists, in the utterances of all trance-speakers, in the communications through all mediums; and this could be proved, did space permit, by copious quotations. But it varies in form and detail in each; and just as the historian arrives at the opinions or beliefs of any age or nation, by collating the individual opinions of its best and most popular writers, so do spiritualists collate the various statements on this subject. They know well that absolute dependence is to be placed on no individual communications. They know that these are received by a complex physical and mental process, both communicator and recipient influencing the result; and they accept the teachings as to the future state of man only so far as they are repeatedly confirmed in substance (though they may differ in detail) by communications obtained under the most varied circumstances, through mediums of the most different characters and acquirements, at different times, and in different places. Fresh converts are apt to think, that, once satisfied the communications come from their deceased friends, they may implicitly trust to them, and apply them universally; as if the vast spiritual world was all molded to one pattern, instead of being, as it almost certainly is, a thousand times more varied than human society on the earth is, or ever has been. The fact that the communications do not agree as to the condition, occupations, pleasures, and capacities of individual spirits, so far from being a difficulty, as has been absurdly supposed, is what ought to have been expected; while the agreement on the essential features of what we have staled to be the spiritual theory of a future state of existence, is all the more striking, and tends to establish that theory as a fundamental truth.
The assertion, so often made, that Spiritualism is the survival or revival of old superstitions, is so utterly unfounded as to be hardly worth notice. A science of human nature which is founded on observed facts; which appeals only to facts and experiment; which takes no beliefs on trust; which inculcates investigation and self-reliance as the first duties of intelligent beings; which teaches that happiness in a future life can be secured by cultivating and developing to the utmost the higher faculties of our intellectual and moral nature, and by no other method,—is and must be the natural enemy of all superstition. Spiritualism is an experimental science, and affords the only sure foundation for a true philosophy and pure religion. It abolishes the terms "supernatural" and "miracle" by an extension of the sphere of law and the realm of nature; and in doing so it takes up and explains whatever is true in the superstitions and so-called miracles of all ages. It, and it alone, is able to harmonise conflicting creeds; and it must ultimately lead to concord among mankind in the matter of religion, which has for so many ages been the source of unceasing discord and incalculable evil;—and it will be able to do this because it appeals to evidence instead of faith, and substitutes facts for opinions; and is thus able to demonstrate the source of much of the teaching that men have so often held to be divine.
It will thus be seen, that those who can form no higher conception of the uses of Spiritualism, "even if true," than to detect crime or to name in advance the winner of the Derby, not only prove their own ignorance of the whole subject, but exhibit in a marked degree that partial mental paralysis, the result of a century of materialistic thought, which renders so many unable seriously to conceive the possibility of a natural continuation of human life after the death of the body. It will be seen also that Spiritualism is no mere "physiological" curiosity, no mere indication of some hitherto unknown "law of nature;" but that it is a science of vast extent, having the widest,
In concluding this necessarily imperfect though somewhat lengthy account of a subject about which so little is probably known to most of the readers of the Fortnightly Review, I would earnestly beg them not to satisfy themselves with a minute criticism of single facts, the evidence for which, in my brief survey, may be imperfect; but to weigh carefully the mass of evidence I have adduced, considering its wide range and various bearings. I would ask them to look rather at the results produced by the evidence than at the evidence itself as imperfectly stated by me; to consider the long roll of men of ability who, commencing the inquiry as sceptics left it as believers, and to give these men credit for not having overlooked, during years of patient inquiry, difficulties which at once occur to themselves. I would ask them to ponder well on the fact, that no earnest inquirer has ever come to a conclusion adverse to the reality of the phenomena; and that no spiritualist has ever given them up as false. I would ask them, finally, to dwell upon the long series of facts in human history that Spiritualism explains, and on the noble and satisfying theory of a future life that it unfolds. If they will do this, I feel confident that the result I have alone aimed at will be attained; which is, to remove the prejudices and misconceptions with which the whole subject has been surrounded and to incite to unbiassed and persevering examination of the facts. For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, that every one must find out the truth for himself. It makes no claim to be received on hearsay evidence; but on the other hand, it demands that it be not rejected without patient, honest, and fearless inquiry.
In the number of this periodical for February last, I ventured to give some experiences in reference to a subject which, for more than a decade, has puzzled the researches of the curious, evoked the ridiculc of the ignorant, and opened a new field of inquiry for the thoughtful.
When I undertook to introduce the subject of apparitions, in a hard matter-of-fact age like the present, I was not wholly unmindful of the consequences. I was prepared for incredulity (as a matter of course), and I was equally ready for flat contradiction and the shafts of ridicule. I own, however, that I have been agreeably disappointed. Professional conjurors and show me have certainly continued to palm off their mechanical contrivances and sleight-of-hand for the genuine phenomena; but the tide of public opinion is at, length beginning to turn, and many now condescend to listen and even examine, who a year or two ago were too prejudiced or too apathetic to discuss.
The able and logical articles of Mr. Alfred Wallace, in the May and June numbers of the 'Fortnightly Review,' are admirable contributions to the literature of the most astounding series of researches of which we have any record in modern times. In these papers the writer brings down his experiences to the period when Mr. Crookes, the well-known chemist, and editor of the 'Quarterly Journal of Science,' was enabled, in common with Mr. Varley, the equally famous electrician, to prove, beyond all possibility of doubt, that the apparitions now seen are distinct entities, or real beings; and are not phantoms of the imagination, or the creations of an abnormal condition of the brain.
I have already described, at some length, the apparition and some of 'the attendant phenomena produced through the mediumship of Miss Florence Cook.
Before again referring to more recent experiences acquired at séances when this young lady was present, I propose to narrate equally wonderful but, in some respects, different phenomena, brought about when another medium was the passive agent.
In an isolated house in a western county, the attention of the inmates the last twelve months or more been attracted to noises for which they could not account. Articles of furniture were moved without, any one approaching them; objects were carried from one room to another without hands; bells were violently rung when nobody was near them, and many other incidents were noted, of a character to warrant the belief that the house was what is conventionally called 'haunted.' The occupants of the house are Mrs. and Miss Showers, the wife and daughter of Col. Showers, late of the Indian service. Col. Showers is now in India, on business, and the family are known, both in India and in England, to be persons unlikely to be the victims of delusion, and wholly incapable of lending themselves to anything savouring of imposition.
The unaccountable circumstances to which I refer became, in course of time, more surprising and mysterious. Messages were written on pieces of paper and flung down in the rooms in which the ladies were sitting, and in the garden where they were walking; and at length voices were heard, and notably one of a man who gave his name as 'Peter,' and told them that he had endeavoured to communicate with them in the first instance by writing. He gave them to understand that he and others would use the throat of the medium occasionally, and this it seems they do, although Miss Showers is unconscious that her voice organs are thus utilised. I bought to state that this young lady is about the same age as Miss Cook (between seventeen and eighteen), that her appearance and manner are pleasing, that she sings and plays as most young girls of her age do, and that she is perfectly candid, truthful, and unsophisticated. She knows no more about the wonderful faculty she possesses than do her family and friends, and she can have no possible motive or object in attempting to practise anything so foreign to her nature as wilful deception. Her state of health in childhood caused, at one time, some anxiety to her family; but she is now perfectly well.
With regard to Mrs. Showers, I bought, I think, to state that she possesses. in a marked degree, many of those qualities which the parents of eminent men and women have so frequently been endowed with. To a highly cultivated mind she adds unusual powers of discernment, individuality of character, and more than the average of that indispensable commodity—common sense. Such a woman naturally endeavoured to solve, by all the means in her power, the phenomena which took place in her presence. One of the servants of the family is also, I understand, what is termed a 'medium,' a circumstance which may account for the physical character of the manifestations to which I have referred.
Failing, however, to arrive at any intelligible clue to the mystery, Mrs. Showers and her daughter came to town early in the present year, and became acquainted with several persons who, like themselves, were interested in the elucidation of the phenomena. They took apartments in a northern suburb, in order to be near some friends, and here I had the pleasure of being introduced to them. They had heard, of course, of Mr. Home and Miss Kate Fox (now Mrs Jenckin), and they had read with amazement the accounts that had been published of séances with Miss Florence Cook. It is right, however, I should state that they had never met that young lady, and in point of fact, did not meet her until they had been some weeks in
Before describing what occurred on the first occasion when I met Miss Showers, it may be desirable that I should state that the apartment in which the séance was held was a small front drawing-room, with a bow window just large enough to admit a table and a couple of chairs: that there were no shutters or anything to exclude light or observation, save ordinary Venetian blinds. The curtains were of the usual damask, attached to a brass pole; but. as the latter was fixed about a foot or more below the cornice of the ceiling, there was a considerable aperture through which light could be admitted into the space formed by the how window when the curtains were drawn. I am particular in thus describing the situation of the window and of the blinds, for reasons which will be obvious hereafter. The back room was used as a bedroom, a heavy curtain being drawn across the opening usually closed by folding doors. This back room was locked before the séance commenced. The only persons present on this occasion were Mrs and Miss Showers, the friend who introduced me, and myself. The fire was burning very low, and the lamp was extinguished. We sat. quiescently for perhaps ten minutes, when slight knockings were heard on the pillar of the table, and subsequently on the top. The table shortly afterwards gave a sort of lurch, and then rose in the air and tame down with a somewhat heavy thud. Then came a loud, clear voice, with a cheerful tone, saying 'Good evening.'
'Oh, you are come, Peter, are you!' said Mrs. Showers.
'Yes, replied Peter,' 'I am hero;' and he added, 'how are you? 'mentioning the name of the gentleman who accompanied me.
Presently, 'Peter 'said he would sing, if Miss Showers would play the pianoforte; and ho was as good as his word, for he not only sang himself, but brought three or four other voices, who also contributed to the concert thus marvellously improvised.
'Clever ventriloquism, of course,' is the natural reply; but Miss Showers has no ventriloquial gift of any kind, and I have never heard of a well-authenticated case of a young girl singing in a baritone voice, such as we heard on this occasion.
As, however, the argument of ventriloquism is one which it is useless to discuss in an article like this, I shall dismiss it, merely adding that no one who has heard the eight or nine voices speaking in the presence of Miss Showers believes that they are those of the young lady herself, more especially as they sometimes speak in a language utterly unknown to her. But of all the voices, that which attracted mc most emanated from an entity professing to be 'Florence Maple.' The accents were clear and distinct, but, to my mind, ineffably sad. I do not think that any one who has heard that voice can readily forget it. I asked her where she lived, and she replied, in a town in Scotland, the name of which she gave. She said she had passed out of this life about six years ago, after a lingering illness, and that she would be glad to communicate with her family, but was unable to do so. She answered every question put to her readily; but on pressing her to tell me why her voice was so triste in tone, she begged me not to press her on the subject. She promised, however, to show us, if possible, the face and form from which the voice was emanating.
Miss Showers subsequently went behind the curtain; and the table being removed, she seated herself in a chair, while a lighted candle, a roll of
'Peter' talked away, and told us that he was sending 'Rosie' to sleep; but that she was tied so tight that he had some difficulty in doing so. He then sang; and after an interval of some minutes we heard the clear, sad voice of Florence joining in his song.
'Oh, you are there, Florence!' we said, and she answered 'Yes, I am here; would you not like to see me? 'Of course we replied in the affirmative. Mrs. Showers then made an opening in the curtains where they met, by pinning back the folds, and a face appeared. It was that of a female, older, 1 think, than the medium, and equally good-looking. The complexion was pallid, but not unpleasantly so, and the eyes were large, and seemed to look straight out, without turning to the right or left. The head was enveloped in white, and on hair was visible. We could, however, see her hands. She was unquestionably very like the medium, save in one important feature—the nose was straighter. The eyes, too, were larger. She spoke to us; and occasionally the head disappeared, as if in the direction of the medium. She said she had not materialised her body, but would endeavour to do so on a future occasion.
On subsequently drawing aside the curtains, we found Miss Showers in a trance. The tapes were tied precisely as we left them, and the seals were unbroken.
A few nights afterwards, I again had an opportunity of witnessing the phenomena. In this case I was accompanied by a friend, who certainly did not at that time (whatever he may do now) believe in the possibility of apparitions. Miss Showers was told to go into the bedroom; and, having seated herself on the bed, she was subsequently found tied to the metal-work at the foot of it, and sealed with tape and wax provided by myself for the purpose. We then withdrew to the front room; and shortly afterwards the curtain was pushed aside, and out stepped Florence Maple, literally and figuratively 'as large as life.' She had a head-dress similar to that worn the preceding night, as also a long white robe, fastened up to the throat and sweeping the carpet. I advanced to meet her; and she took my hand, and sat beside me on the sofa. The lamp was on the mantel-shelf, and she said the light was too strong for her. I offered to reduce it, but she got up and did it herself. She went to the piano and played and sang. My friend asked whether he might approach her, and she at once acquiesced, without making any condition whatever. He came up and scrutinised her features,
'I am not, I assure you, the medium,' said Florence, in her softest accents; and she added, 'I know I am very like her.'
I pointed out to my friend that the figure was taller than Miss Showers, and she said,' Yes, I am taller.'
On this occasion the apparition returned only twice or thrice, and then for a moment or two only to the medium. She was, I should think, about three-quarters of an hour in the room with us. On eventually entering the, back room to release the medium, we found her tied and sealed precisely as we had left her. How she got back again into her ligatures was a puzzle to my friend, who no doubt found a solution (as nearly everybody else would have done under similar circumstances) for the rest of the manifestations in ventriloquism, and in the dexterity with which the young lady had slipped out of the tapes and dressed herself up to play the part of a ghost!
On another occasion, when Miss Showers was securely fastened behind the curtain, and when 'Peter' was singing, and when the apparition was out in the room talking to us, the servants of a friend who accompanied me were standing outside with the carriage, so that no person could (as has been hinted) have got access to the room from the street, to help, in an imposture.
But, happily for Miss Showers, as also for Miss Cook, who may have been unjustly suspected, the period was approaching for their vindication. The attempt had been made to seize and detain the figure of' Katie King' at Mr. Cook's and had caused much concern to Miss Cook and her family. The former felt all the pain with which a generous and sensitive mind is penetrated at being the object of unworthy suspicion, and the latter were equally anxious to vindicate their honesty and fair fame; for it is idle to deny that, if Miss Cook had been guilty of deception, every member of her family must have been equally compromised with her. It was under these circumstances that' Florence Maple' was asked, if possible, to allow the medium to be seen with her at one and the same moment. This, it was hoped, would be sufficient to disarm the most sceptical, and to silence the ridicule of the ignorant. I need scarcely say that this test was not considered by any means necessary by those who had traced the phenomena through all their stages, who had adopted, without the detection of imposture, every test and contrivance that ingenuity could devise, and who knew the character of the media. They felt, however, that as the bona-fides of Miss Cook had been doubted (chiefly on account of the similarity of the apparition the medium), and as a gross outrage had been committed upon her, and might be perpetrated on other mediums in similar positions, it was all-important that the apparition and the medium should not only be seen simultaneously, but should actually be touched and felt. Those who are acquainted with the phenomena have reason to believe that any seizure of the apparition may have an injurious effect upon the medium, so subtle and sympathetic is the chain of communication between them. Seeing both and touching both was the crucial test, so to speak, because the phenomena are so astounding that even well-intentioned and can did persons, anxious to ascertain the truth, but still prejudiced in favour of ignorance, and the accepted traditions of science, could never be brought to believe in their genuine character unless the senses of vision as well as of touch were both satisfied. Representations on this subject were, I believe, made both to 'Katie King' and 'Florence Maple,' and both promised that, if possible, the test should be given.
It was, consequently, with no ordinary sense of satisfaction that I
We subsequently returned to the front drawing-room; and Miss Showers having taken a scat in an easy-chair immediately behind the sliding door in the back room, the curtain was drawn over the opening, the lamp was turned down, and we waited the result. 'Peter' spoke, as usual, and sang; and in a short time we recognised the voice of 'Florence,' and 'Florence' herself came out and advanced to the farther end of the room, where we were seated. She spoke to us in a less sedate manner than usual, moved about the room from place to place, and seemed immensely pleased with a fan that I had brought her, and which was eventually found in the lap of the medium when the séance was over. As Mrs. and Miss Showers were to leave town the following day, and knowing the importance of getting the crucial test on that occasion, I said to 'Florence.' 'I want you particularly to give me a test that must satisfy everybody.' She replied, 'I will if I can. 'I then said, 'I want to see you and the medium together, as you know it is said that you are so like the medium that you must be one and the same person.' Her answer was, 'I will try.' No condition of any kind was imposed. 'Florence' then went behind the curtain, and a minute or two afterwards reappeared, and, beckoning mc forward, said, 'Come and sec her.' I responded immediately, and crossing the room, stood beside the figure. She was then, I should add, taller than the medium, and, to my view, had a certain angularity of form which I had never observed in Miss Showers. She then drew aside the curtain with her left hand, and, pointing with her right, said,' Look!" There, seated in the chair as we had left her, but with her head thrown over her left shoulder, and the right side of her face visible, was unquestionably the immobile and unconscious form of Miss Showers! There could be no mistake about it. It was no delusion. She was there beyond all possibility of doubt. Having satisfied myself on this point, I returned to my seat; but on the reappearance of 'Florence' immediately afterwards, I said, 'will you give me one more test to satisfy me?' The answer was, as before, 'I will if I can; but what is it?' I replied, 'I want this crowning test: I want to follow you instantly behind the curtain; and I wish to place the light so that I can see well into the room.'
I returned to my seat perfectly satisfied—firstly, that the apparition was a thoroughly materialised form, instinct with intelligence; and secondly, that it could disappear at will, by making itself instantaneously invisible. This latter phase of the phenomena I look upon as even more marvellous than the materialisation.
In connection with materialisation and immaterialisation, this may be a convenient place to refer to an objection taken by many persons but partially acquainted with the phenomena, and which, I admit, is not capable of satisfactory explanation off-hand. I have, for instance, heard people say, '"Why should a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes elapse, between the hearing of the second voice and the appearance of the form from which it proceeds? and why should the interval be occupied with music, singing, conversation, &c.?' The question is reasonable enough, it must be owned, although it may not be answered in such a manner as to banish suspicion from a prejudiced mind. The question has been put to the form when visible and invisible, and the answer invariably is that music promotes harmony (an essential element of success), and that when the sitters are singing and in conversation it becomes easier to draw power from them. Whatever be the measure of belief that such answers are calculated to inspire, the necessity no longer exists for either raising the objection or supplying the rejoinder. As a matter of indisputable fact, the apparition now appears without that suspicious interval to which I have referred, and which many persons thought was devoted to the undressing of the medium preparatory to playing the part of a 'ghost.' On several recent occasions, and in the presence of persons of undoubted credit and veracity, the apparition known as 4 Katie King' or 4 Annie Morgan' has appeared within two or three minutes after the medium has become entranced. She has come arrayed in white, with a veil, and head-dress, and naked feet, while the medium has at the some time been seen costumed in her ordinary attire, and with her usual shoes and stockings. Moreover, the medium, when entering the room, had been observed to wear ear-rings, while the ears of 'Katie King' were undecorated, and had never even been pierced! This is certainly hard to get over; but harder still remains behind.
The apparition in question having repeatedly informed Miss Cook and
littérateur, and editor of the 'Art Journal,' having asked a variety of questions, was favored with a special test. Just before the conclusion of the sitting, 'Katie' threw back the curtain, and said to Mr. Crookes, 'Turn up the gas as high as you can, and let Mr. Hall come in.' Mr. Hall rushed behind the curtain, but declared that he could see nothing but the impassive form on the carpet. 'Katie' had instantaneously disappeared.
On Saturday, the 16th of May, a séance very similar in character was held in the same house; and 'Katie' again assured us that, as the three years within which alone she should show herself would expire on the following Thursday, (the 21st of May), she wished certain persons who had witnessed the development of the phenomena to be present. It was also arranged that some further photographic experiments should be made by Mr. Crookes under a magnesium light. These were made on the following Wednesday (20th May). On this occasion I was the only stranger present, the rest of the sitters consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Cook and the members of Mr. Crookes' own family. The cabinet was improvised in this manner. The swab of a sofa and a pillow were laid on the floor of the library. One of the folding doors was then shut, and a curtain was loosely hung over the aperture thus caused. Miss Cook lay down on the cushion, and we sat in the adjoining room, used by our host as his laboratory. In a very few minutes, without any prelude for music or singing, we heard the voice of 'Katie,' and immediately afterwards she drew aside the curtain and stood before us. She was, beyond all question, taller, stouter, and more developed than the medium; while her hair was much longer, and seemed to be of a light chestnut colour. She spoke to me, and expressed her regret that I could not be present at her final séance the following evening. She allowed me to feel her arm and hand, and touch her ringlets, so that I might be assured that they were real for all present purposes. She subsequently bore a stronger light, and then we distinctly saw the form of Miss Cook, but with a shawl thrown over her head. She requested Mrs. Crookes to bring her chair behind the curtain, that she might chat with her unreservedly, as she added that she would never see her again. Mrs. Crookes went accordingly. 'Katie' afterwards broke up a bouquet of flowers, provided for her by Mrs. Crookes; and made up smaller bouquets, presenting one to each person present. Mr. Crookes and others then asked her for some of her hair. Calling for a pair of scissors, she cut a ringlet for Mrs. Crookes, and gave me one about five inches long. It was then discovered to be of that colour which used to be popular with the great Italian painters, and which we see so often in the works of Francia, Raffael, Dominichino, and others. Mr. Crookes subsequently asked for a ringlet, but stipulated that he should be allowed to cut it himself from the roots; and this was permitted, without the slightest remonstrance or condition of any kind. I ought to add hero that the hair of the medium is short for a female, and nearly black.
The camera was then prepared for photographing the figure, and the process was substantially similar to that adopted at the house of Miss Cook's father, a twelve-month ago. 'Katie' bore the intense glare without shrinking, and I can only compare her figure to an illuminated statue in Parian
The figure was as I myself saw it photographed at Hackney, with the agency of magnesium light. The operator in this case was Mr. W. H. Harrison, a gentleman well known in connection with scientific and daily newspaper literature in the metropolis. Mr. Harrison is a very matter-of-fact person, and is not at all disposed to take anything for granted when scientific truth is the object of investigation.
As absolute exactitude is necessary in describing the process by which so astounding a result as the photographing of a materialised apparition was accomplished, I have asked Mr. Harrison to relate in his own words the S modus operandi:—
'Many conditions had to be complied with to secure successful results. A harmonious circle was necessary, that the medium might be at ease, free from all care and anxiety, in order that the manifestations should be given with the greater power. It was necessary that the medium should not sit too frequently, and have little to do at other times, so as to reserve power and vital energy for the séances. In short all the conditions which Spiritualists know to favour good manifestations were supplied as nearly as possible on this occasion.
'The cabinet being in one of the corners of a room in the basement of the house, the light was too weak, and not in the best direction for photographic purposes. For the same reason that spirits can always handle old musical instruments better than new ones, and "at the manifestations are usually stronger after a medium has lived for some time in the house, it was not desirable to make a new cabinet, the old one being well charged with imponderable emanations from the medium, of which science at present knows nothing, It was, therefore, thought desirable to use the old cabinet, and to do the photographing by the magnesium light.
'Magnesium ribbon will not ignite readily at a desired moment, and sometimes goes out unexpectedly, so would be liable to cause many failures. As both materialised spirit forms and photographic plates deteriorate rapidly after they are prepared in perfection, it was necessary to have a light which should not fail at a critical moment.
'Accordingly, magnesium powder mixed with sand was used, on the principle devised by Mr. Henry Larkins. A narrow deal board, three feet long, was nailed to a base-board, and firmly held in a vertical position. A Bunsen's burner, to consume gas mixed with common air, was fixed horizontally through the vertical board, and an indiarubber tube supplied the burner with common gas. The end of a funnel was then brought close to the gas-flame. When some magnesium powder and sand were poured into the latter the stream caught fire, and produced a flame of dazzling brilliancy. The larger the proportion of magnesium in the powder, the larger was the flame; and the best results were obtained with a flame averaging two feet in length, and lasting for five or six seconds.
'As might be expected, there was more success in obtaining positives than negatives, as a shorter exposure would do for the former. The ordinary processes were used—namely, a thirty-five grain nitrate of silver bath, and proto-sulphate of iron development. Mawson's collodion. A half-plate camera and lens were used, with a stop rather less than an inch in diameter, between the front and back combinations of the lens.'
As already stated, I was prevented by another engagement from witnessing the final departure of 'Katie King,' on the 21st of May; but I am
'On the 21st inst., the occasion of 'Katie's' last appearance amongst us, she was good enough to give me what I consider a still more infallible proof (if one could be needed) of the distinction of her ideality from that of her medium. When she summoned me in my turn to say a few words to her behind the curtain, I again saw and touched the warm breathing body of Florence Cook lying on the floor, and then stood upright by the side of 'Katie,' who desired me to place my hand inside the loose single garment which she wore, and feel her body. I did so thoroughly. I felt her heart beating rapidly beneath my hand; and passed my fingers through her long hair, to satisfy myself that it grew from her head, and can testify that, if she be of 'psychic force,' psychic force is very like a woman.
"Katie' was very busy that evening. To each of her friends assembled to say good-bye she gave a bouquet of flowers tied up with ribbon, a piece of her dress veil, a lock of her hair, and a note which she wrote with her pencil before us. Mine was as follows: 'From Annie Owen de Morgan (alias Katie King) to her friend_____, with love. Pensez à moi. souvenirs for her friends, there was not a hole to be seen in it, examine it which way you would. It was the same with her veil, and I have seen her do the same thing several times.'
I may add that I have seen the pieces of cloth cut from the tunic. Another eye-witness tells me that fifteen or sixteen pieces were cut in his presence, and that the front of the skirt 'looked like a cullender,' but all that' Katie' did to restore it to its original shape was to bring the folds together with her hands, and then shake them out, when the skirt was found to be whole and entire as before! I do not presume to supply a solution for this or any other phase of the phenomena.
In drawing attention to the subject, it is not my desire to speculate, much less to dogmatise. All I care to do is to invite candid inquiry, But to secure this I find to be a matter of enormous difficulty. Here is an illustration. Wishing to attract a friend—a man of great ability in the scientific world, and an admitted authority on those subjects, which may be regarded as his specialities—I addressed him thus: 'You are an F.S.R!., a deep thinker, and widely known for your scientific attainments; therefore, what you say will carry weight. Will you accompany me to a private house, and see a non-professional medium? Satisfy yourself by every possible expedient that your ingenuity can devise that imposture is impossible, and tell me what you think of it.' The answer was, 'I don't believe in it, and I don't care to take up any new things; but I will meet any man you like on my own ground!'
This response might be reasonable enough when all that was known of the phenomena was limited to table-turning, rappings, bell-ringing, and the other elementary, and possibly frivolous, indications of a physical power exterior to the body. But the phenomena have passed out of the realm of conjecture, and have entered the region of fact. Science may still fold its arms and stand aloof. It did the same in all the earlier developments of those great discoveries which will make the Victorian ago the grandest epoch of
I admit, with the utmost frankness, that what I have related as perfectly true is, at the same time, as diametrically opposed to all the researches of science as to all the traditions of probability. When I assert that two ladies and three gentlemen sit down in a room, and that room in their own house, and lock the door, and that they are shortly after joined by another individual (making the party six, instead of five), and that the sixth, in the form of a woman, talks with them for an hour, sings, plays, walks about, and does many things that they do, and that she then throws back the curtain by which she entered and shows you the living form of the fifth, and permits you at one and the same time to feel her, and also feel the insensible figure to which she points, and which you recognise as the fifth—then I say that an astounding and inexplicable fact has been established, which challenges the attention of the thoughtful, and demands all the scrutiny that science can bring to bear upon it.
I advance no theories of my own to explain or account for what I have seen. All I lay claim to is critical accuracy for my description of experiences, acquired in many cases under circumstances which would have given me especial facilities for the detection and exposure of fraud. I found none. My story, and those of others far more competent to deal with the subject, may be discredited. We care not. We can afford to wait. Time is on our side. Facts which to-day are contemptuously denied will to-morrow be admitted and vindicated. Out of the mists of ignorance and prejudice a light will be evolved. Through the rifts in the clouds that obscure the future I think I can discern a form that, in the fulness of time, will assume the majestic image of Truth.
To many it will be unnecessary to preface the two articles of Mr. Alfred R. Wallace with any remarks. His name and position in the scientific world are known to most. But at a time when the so-called Orthodox—the professing Christians—are ridiculing the "fact" of spiritual communion in the nineteenth century, whilst they are ready to believe that angels talked and ate with Abraham, and released Paul from his bonds—it is necessary that the "fact" be shown to be proved as well, if not better, than the facts of spiritual communion which they believe. Indeed, during the last few years—a time in which the question of man's and nature's dualism has been fought with greater earnestness and ability than heretofore, one has had it continually insisted on, "go to men of science." The publication of these articles is an answer to this challenge. Not that any "fact" ought to be proved by the mere authority or standing of the "witness;" but still we, n judging of another's testimony, desire to know the antecedents of him who relates to us a wonder, Spiritualists have all along stated that they were not afraid of men of science. On the contrary, they have ever invited them to investigate. And the strange phenomenon has been witnessed of the men of science, who have investigated 'spiritualism "becoming Spiritualists. Let a chemist, like Crookes, the editor of the 'Quarterly Journal of Science,' approach it with his crucibles and the ghosts will vanish! But no, by an "unconscious cerebration" which a Carpenter cannot explain, the more the chemist analyse?, notes, considers, the more confirmed does he get in his belief that Spiritualism is real. In Mr, Wallace we have not only a man of science, but a man of philosophy, approaching the subject. He is one who has done as much for the evolution hypothesis as Darwin or Spencer. As a naturalist, he is not behind Darwin, and his criticism on "The Descent of Man," which appeared in the highest critical weekly of England, "The Academy," was considered the ablest. Men of science give him every credit for his naturalistic researches in the East Indian Archipelago, but his spiritualism some of them cannot understand. Well, the publisher now only desires that his statement of phenomena be weighed as we would consider his relation of the habits of the animal life of the Indian Archipelago. After all, Spiritualism must be viewed from the "positivist's" position, and by a careful induction of facts proved false or true. These papers are published to show what one of the most eminent of scientific men thinks of Spiritualism, and it is asked if these things are myths, what can be thought of the miracles of the Old and New Testaments that had no men of science to test them? Let there be consistency. Either man is a dual creature, having a body and soul, or he is not. If he be, then comes the question, when his body dies, docs his other part die also? If not, is communication piossible? If possible at one time, why not now? "The progress of knowledge is slow. Like the sun, we cannot sec it turning; but, after a while, we perceive that it has moved, nay, that it has moved onward." So wrote one many years ago. Can it be that we have reversed this, and that the knowledge of spiritual existence has vanished—that, like a retreating comet, it has passed beyond our system and is lost to view? Mr. Wallace says No! Hearken then to his statement—
The following are the more important works which have been used in the preparation of this article:—Judge Edmond's "Spiritual Tracts," New York, The Spiritual Magazine, The Spiritual Newspaper, The Medium and Daybreak,
It is with great diffidence, but under an imperative sense of duty, that the present writer accepts the opportunity afforded him of submitting to the readers of the 'Fortnightly Review' some general account of a widespread movement, which, though for the most part treated with riducule and contempt, he believes to embody truths of the most vital importance to human progress. The subject to be treated is of such vast extent, the evidence concerning it is so varied and extraordinary, the prejudices that surround it are so inveterate, that it is not possible to do it justice without entering into considerable detail. The reader who ventures on the perusal of the succeeding pages may, therefore, have his patience tried; but if he is able to throw aside his preconceived ideas of what is possible and what is impossible, and in the acceptance or rejection of the evidence submitted to him will carefully weigh and be solely guided by the nature of the concurrent testimony, the writer ventures to believe that ho will not find his time and patience ill-bestowed.
Few men, in this busy age, have leisure to read massive volumes devoted to special subjects. They gain much of their general knowledge, outside the limits of their profession or of any peculiar study, by means of periodical literature; and, as a rule, they are supplied with copious and accurate, though general, information. Some of our best thinkers and workers make known the results of their researches to the readers of magazines and reviews; and it is sel lom that a writer whose information is meagre, or obtained at second-hand, is permitted to come before the public in their pages as an authoritative teacher. But as regards the subject we are now about to consider, this rule has not hither be been followed. Those who have devoted many years to an examination of its phenomena have been, in most cases, refused a hearing; while men who have bestowed on it no adequate attention, and are almost wholly ignorant of the researches of others, have alone supplied the information to which a large proportion of the public had access. In support of this statement it is necessary to refer, with brief comments, to some of the more prominent articles in which the phenomena and pretensions of Spiritualism have been recently discussed.
At the beginning of the present year the readers of this Review were treated to "Experiences of Spiritualism," by a writer of no mean ability, and of thoroughly advanced views. He assures his readers that ho "conscientiously endeavoured to qualify himself for speaking on the subject" by attending live stances, the details of several of which he narrates; and he conies to the conclusion that mediums are by no means ingenious deceivers, but "jugglers of the most vulgar order;" that the "spiritualistic mind falls a victim to the most patent frauds," and greedily "accepts jugglery as manifestations of the spirits;" and, lastly, that the mediums are as credulous as their dupes, and fall straightway into any trap that is laid for them. Now, on the evidence before him, and on the assumption that no more or better evidence Would have been forthcoming, had he devoted fifty instead of live evenings to the inquiry, the conclusions of Lord Amberley are perfectly
"It was difficult for me to give in to the idea that solid objects could be conveyed, invisibly, through closed doors, or that heavy furniture could be moved without the interposition of hands. Philosophers will say these things are absolutely impossible; nevertheless it is absolutely certain that they do occur. I have met in the houses of private friends, as witnesses of these phenomena, persons whose testimony would go for a good deal in a court of justice. They have included peers, members of parliament, diplomatists of the highest rank, judges, barristers, physicians, clergymen, members of learned societies, chemists, engineers, journalists, and thinkers of all sorts and degrees. They have suggested and carried into effect tests of the most rigid and satisfactory character. The media (all nonprofessional) have been searched before and after séances. The precaution has even been taken of providing them unexpectedly with other apparel. They have been tied; they have boon scaled; they have been secured in every cunning and dexterous manner that ingenuity could devise, but on imposture has been discovered and on imposture brought to light. Neither was there any motive for imposture. No fee or reward of any kind depended upon the success or non-success of the manifestations."London Society for February—the author, a barrister and well-known literary man, says:—
Now here we have a nice question of probabilities. We must cither believe that Lord Amberley is almost infinitely more acute than Mr. Dunphy and his host of eminent friends—so that after five séances (most of them failures) he has got to the bottom of a mystery in which they, notwithstanding their utmost endeavours, still hopelessly flounder—or, that the noble lord's acuteness does not surpass the combined acuteness of all these persons; in which case their much larger experience, and their having witnessed many things Lord Amberley has not witnessed, must be held to have the greater weight and to show, at all events, that all mediums are not "jugglers of the most vulgar order."
In October last the New Quarterly Magazine, in its opening number, had an article entitled "A Spiritualistic Séance," but which proved to be an account of certain ingenious contrivances by which some of the phenomena usual at stances were imitated, and both spiritualists and sceptics deceived and confounded. This appears at first sight to be an exposure of Spiritualism, but it is really very favourable to its pretensions; for it goes on the assumption that the marvellous phenomena witnessed do really occur, but are produced by various mechanical contrivances. In this case the rooms above, below, and at the side of that in which the séance was held had to be prepared with specially constructed machinery, with assistants to work it. The apparatus, as described, would cost at least £100, and would then only serve to produce a few fixed phenomena, such as happen frequently in private houses and at the lodgings of mediums who have not exclusive possession of any of the adjoining rooms, or the means of obtaining expensive machinery and hired assistants. The article bears internal evidence of being altogether a fictitious narrative; but it helps to demonstrate, if any demonstration is required, that the phenomena Which occur under such protean forms and varied conditions, and in private houses quite as often as at the apartments of the mediums, are in no way produced by machinery.
Perhaps the most prominent recent attack on Spiritualism was that in the "Our position, then, is that the so-called spiritual communications come from Quarterly Revieiw for within, not frem without, the individuals who suppose themselves to be the recipients of them; that they belong to the class termed 'subjective' by psychologists, and psychologists, and that the movements by which they are expressed, whether the tilting of tables or (he writing of planchettes, are really produced by their own muscular action exerted independently of their own wills and quite unconsciously to themselves."
Several pages are then devoted to accounts of seances which, like Lord Amberley's, were mostly failures; and to the experiences of a Bath clergyman who believed that the communications came from devils; and, generally, such weak and inconclusive phenomena only are adduced as can be easily explained by the well-worn formulæ of unconscious cerebration," "expectant attention," and unconscious muscular action." A few of the more startling physical phenomena are mentioned merely to be discredited and the judgment of the witnesses impugned; but no attempt is made to place before the reader any information as to the amount or the weight of the testimony to such phenomena, or to the long series of diverse phenomena which lead up to and confirm them. Some of the experiments of Professor Hare and Mr Crookes are quoted, and criticised in the spirit of assuming that these experienced physicists were ignorant of the simplest principles of mechanics, and failed to use the most ordinary precautions. Of the numerous and varied cases on record of heavy bodies being moved without direct or indirect contact by any human being, no notice is taken, except so far as quoting Mr. C. F. Varley's statement that he had seen, in broad daylight, a small table moved ten feet, with no one near it but himself, and not touched by him—"as an example of the manner in which minds of this limited order are apt to become the dupes of their own imaginings."
This article, like the others here referred to, shows in the writer an utter forgetfulness of the maxim, that an argument is not answered till it is answered at its best. Amid the vast mass of recorded facts now accumulated by spiritualists there is, of course, much that is weak and inconclusive, much that is of no value as evidence, except to those who have independent reasons for faith in them. From this undigested mass it is the easiest thing in the world to pick out arguments that can be refuted, and facts that can be explained away; but what is that to the purpose? It is not these that have convinced any one; but those weightier, oft-repeated and oft-tested facts which the writers referred to invariably ignore.
Professor Tyndall has also given the world (in his "Fragments of Science," published in
The discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in
From the sketch which has now been given of the recent treatment of the subject by popular and scientific writers, we can summarise pretty accurately their mental attitude in regard to it. They have seen very little of the phenomena themselves, and they cannot believe that others have seen much more. They have encountered people who are easily deceived by a little unexpected trickery, and they conclude that the convictions of spiritualists generally are founded on phenomena produced, either consciously or unconsciously, in a similar way. They are so firmly convinced on a priori rounds that the more remarkable phenomena said to happen do not really happen, that they will back their conviction against the direct testimony of any body of men; preferring to believe that they are all the victims of some mysterious delusion whenever imposture is out of the question. To influence persons in this frame of mind, it is evident that more personal testimony to isolated facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable expression of Dr. Carpenter, "no place in the existing fabric of their thought into which such facts can be fitted." It is necessary therefore to modify the "fabric of thought" itself; and it appears to the present writer that this can best be done by a general historic sketch of the subject; and by showing, by separate lines of inquiry, how wide and varied is the evidence, and how remarkably these lines converge towards one uniform conclusion. The endeavour will be made to indicate, by typical examples of each class of evidence and without unnecessary detail, the cumulative force of the argument.
Modern Spiritualism dates from It may be as well here to explain that the word "spirit," which is often considered to be so objectionable by scientific men, is used throughout this article (or at all events in the earlier portion of it) merely to avoid circumlocution, in the sense of the "intelligent cause of the phenomena," and not as implying "the spirits-of the dead," unless so expressly stated.was the spirit
The Misses Fox now became involuntary mediums, and the family (which had removed to the city of Rochester) were accused of imposture, and offered to submit the children to examination by a committee of townsmen appointed in public meeting. Three committees were successively appointed; the last, composed of violent sceptics, who had accused the previous committees of stupidity or connivance. But all three, after unlimited investigation, were forced to declare that the cause of the phenomena was undiscoverable. The sounds occurred on the wall and floor, while the medium, after being thoroughly searched by ladies, stood on pillows, barefooted, and with their clothes tied round their ankles." The last and most sceptical committee reported that "They had heard sounds, and failed utterly to discover their origin. They had proved that neither machinery nor imposture had been used; and their questions, many of them being mental, were answered correctly." When we consider that the mediums were two children under twelve years of age, and the examiners utterly sceptical American citizens, thorougly resolved to detect imposture, and urged on by excited public meetings, it may perhaps be considered that even at this early stage the question of imposture or delusion was pretty well settled in the negative.
In a short time persons who sat with the Misses Fox found themselves to have similar powers, in a greater or less degree; and in two or three years the movement had spread over a large part of the United States, developing into a variety of strange forms, encountering the most violent scepticism and the most rancorous hostility, yet always progressing, and making converts even among the most enlightened and best educated classes. In for four years, and all became spiritualists.
By this time the movement had spread into every part of he Union, and, notwithstanding that its adherents were abused as impostor or dupes, that they were in several cases expelled from colleges and churches, and were confined as lunatics, and that the whole thing was "explaned" over and over again, it has continued to spread up to the present lour. The secret of this appears to have been, that the explanations given never applied to the phenomena continually occurring, and of which there were numerous witnesses. A medium was raised in the air in a crovded room in full daylight. ("Modern American Spiritualism," p. 279.) A scientific sceptic prepared a small portable apparatus by which he could produce an instantaneous illumination; and taking it to a dark sceince at which numerous musical instruments were played, suddenly lighted up-the room while a large drum was being violently beaten, in the certain expectation of revealing the impostor to the whole company. But what they all saw was the drumstick itself beating the drum, with no human being near it. It struck a few more blows, then rose into the air and descended gently on the shoulder of a lady. (Same work, p. 337). At Toronto, Canada, in a well-lighted room, an accompaniment to a song was played on a closed and locked piano. (Same work, p. 463). Communications were given in raised letters on the arm of an ignorant servant girl who often could not read them. They sometimes appeared while she was at her household work, and after being read by her master or mistress would disappear. (Same work, p. 106). Letters closed in any number of envelopes, sealed up or even pasted together over the whole of the written surface, were real and answered by certain mediums in whom this power was developed. I: mattered not what lauguage the letters were written in; and it is upon record that letters in German, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, French, Welsh, and Mexican, have been correctly answered in the corresponding languages by a medium who knew none of them. (Judge Edmunds's "Letters an Spiritualism," pp. 59-103, Appendix). Other mediums drew portraits of deceased persons whom they had never known or heard of. Others healed diseases. But those who helped most to spread the belief were, perhaps, the trance speakers, who, in eloquent and powerful language, developed the principles and the uses of Spiritualism, answered objections, spread abroad a knowledge of the phenomena, and thus induced sceptics to inquire into the facts; and inquiry was almost invariably followed by conversion. Having repeatedly listened to three of these speakers who have visited this country, I can bear witness that they are trully equal, and not unfrequently surpass, our best orators and preachers; whether in finished eloquence, in close and logical argument, or in the readiness with which appropriate and convincing replies are made to all objectors. They are also remarkable for the perfect courtesy and suavity of manner, and for the extreme patience and gentleness with which they meet the most violent opposition and the most unjust accusations.
Men of the highest rank and greatest ability became convinced by these varied phenomena. No amount of education, of legal, medical or scientific training, was proof against the overwhelming force of the tacts, whenever these facts were systematically and perseveringly inquired into. The number of Spiritualists in the Union is, according to those who have the best means of judging, from eight to eleven millions. This the estimate of Judge Edmunds, who has had extensive correspondence on the subject with every part of the United States. The Hon. R. D. Owen, who has also had great opportunities of know ing the facts, considers it to be approximately correct; and it is affirmed by the editors of the "Year Book
In other parts of the world the movement has progressed more or less rapidly. Several of the more celebrated American mediums have visited this country, and not only made converts in all classes of society, but led to the formation of private circles and the discovery of mediumistic power in hundreds of families. There is scarcely a city or a considerable town in continental Europe at the present moment where Spiritualists are not reckoned by hundreds, if not by thousands. There are said, on good authority, to be fifty thousand avowed Spiritualists in Paris and ten thousand in Lyons; and the numbers in this country may be roughly estimated by the fact that there are four exclusively Spiritual periodicals, one of which has a circulation of five thousand weekly.
Before proceeding to a statement of the evidence which has convinced the more educated and more sceptical converts, let us briefly consider the bearing of the undoubted fact, that (to keep within bounds) many thousands of well-informed men, belonging to all classes of society and all professions, have, in each of the great civilised nations of the world, acknowledged the objective real try of these phenomena; although, almost without exception, they at first viewed them with dislike or contempt, as impostures or delusions. There is nothing parallel to it in the history of human thought; because there never before existed so strong and apparently so well-founded a conviction that phenomena of this kind never have happened and never can happen. It is often said, that the number of adherents to a belief is no proof of its truth. This remark justly applies to most religions whose arguments appeal to the emotions and the intellect, but not to the evidence of; the senses. It is equally just as applied to a great part of modern science. The almost universal belief in gravitation, and in the undulatory theory of light, does not render them in any degree more probable; because very few indeed of the believers have tested the facts which most convincingly demonstrate those theories, or are able to follow out the reasoning by which they are demonstrated. It is for the most part a blind belief accepted upon authority. But with these spiritual phenomena the case is very different. They are to most men so new, so strange, so incredible, so opposed to their whole habit of thought, so apparently, opposed to the pervading scientific spirit of the age, that they cannot and do not accept them on second-hand evidence, as they do almost every other kind of knowledge. The thousands or millions of spiritualists, therefore, represent to a very large extent men who have witnessed, examined, and tested the evidence for themselves, over and over and over again, till that which they had at first been unable to admit could be true, they have at last been compelled to acknowledge is true. This accounts for the utter failure of all the attempted "exposures" and "explanations" to convince one solitary believer of his error. The exposers and explainers have never got beyond those first difficulties which constitute the pons asinorum of Spiritualism, which every believer has to get over, but at which early stage of investigation no converts are ever made. By explaining table-turning, or table-
And is this world of strife to end in dust at last?" Thus it is that there are so few recantations or perverts in Spiritualism; so few that it may be truly said there are none. After much inquiry and reading I can find no example of a man who, having acquired a good personal knowledge of all the chief phases of the phenomena, has subsequently come to disbelieve in their reality. If the "explanations" and "exposures" were good for anything, or if it were an imposture to expose or a delusion to explain, this could not be the case, because there are numbers of men who have become convinced of the facts, but who have not accepted the spiritual theory. These are, for the most part, in an uncomfortable and unsettled frame of mind, and would gladly welcome an explanation which really explained anything—but they find it not. As an eminent example of this class, I may mention Dr. J, Lockhart Robertson, long one of the editors of the Journal of Mental Science —a physician who, having made mental disease his special study, would not be easily taken in by any psychological delusions. The phenomena he witnessed fourteen years ago were of a violent character; a very strong table being, at his own request and in his own house, broken to pieces while he held the medium's hands. He afterwards himself tried to break a remaining leg of the table, but failed to do so after exerting all his strength. Another table was tilted over while all the party sat on it. He subsequently had a sitting with Mr. Home, and witnessed the usual phenomena occurring with that extraordinary medium—such as the accordion playing "most wonderful music without any human agency," "a shadow hand, not that of any one present, which lifts a pencil and writes with it," &c., &c.; and he says that he can "no more doubt the physical manifestations of (so called) Spiritualism than he would any other fact—as, for example, the fall of an apple to the ground of which his senses informed him." His record of these phenomena with the confirmation by a friend who was present, is published in the "Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritualism," p. 217; and, at a meeting of of Spiritualists in
The subject of the evidences of the objective phenomena of Spiritualism is such a large one that it will be only possible here to give a few typical examples, calculated to show how wide is their range, and how conclusively they reach every objection that the most sceptical have brought against them. This may perhaps be best done by giving, in the first place, an outline of the career of two or three well-known mediums; and, in the second, a sketch of the experiences and investigations of a few of the more remarkable converts to spiritualism.
Career of Remarkable Mediums.—Miss Kate Fox, the little girl of nine years old, who, as already stated, was the first "medium" in the modern sense of the term, has continued to possess the same power for twenty-six years. At the very earlies': stages of the movement, sceptic after sceptic, ommittee after committee, endeavoured to discover "the trick;" but if it was a trick this little girl baffled them all, and the proverbial acuteness of the Yankee was of no avail. In
But Miss Fox's powers were most remarkably shown in the seances with Mr. Livermore, a well-known New York banker, and an entire sceptic before commencing these experiments. These sittings were more than three hundred in number, extending over five years. They took place in four different houses (Mr. Livermore's and the medium's being both changed during this period), under tests of the most rigid description. The chief phenomenon was the appearance of a tangible, visible, and audible figure of Mr. Livermore's deceased wife, sometimes accompanied by a male figure, purporting to be Dr. Franklin. The former figure was often most distinct and absolutely life-like. It moved various objects in the room. It wrote messages on cards. It was sometimes formed out of a luminous cloud, and again vanished before the eyes of the witnesses. It allowed a portion of its dress to be cut off, which though at first of strong and apparently material gauzy texture, yet in a short time melted away and became invisible, Flowers which melted away were also given. These phenomena occurred best when Mr. L. and the medium were alone; but two witnesses were occasionally admitted, who tested everything and confirmed Mr. L.'s testimony. One of these was Mr. Livermore's physician, the other his brother-in-law; the latter previously a sceptic. The details of these wonderful seances were published in the Spiritual Magazine in
Miss Fox recently came to England, and here also her powers have been tested by a competent man of science, and found to be all that has been stated. She is now married to an English barrister, and some of the strange phenomena which have so long accompanied her, attach themselves to her infant child, even when its mother is away, to the great alarm of its nurse. We have here, therefore, a career of twenty-six years of mediumship of the
Mr. Daniel D. Home is perhaps the best known medium in the world; and his powers have been open to examination for at least twenty years. Nineteen years ago Sir David Brewster and Lord Brougham had a sitting with him—sufficiently acute and eminent observers, and both, of course, thorough sceptics. In the "Home Life of Sir David Brewster," we have, fortunately, his own record of this sitting made at the time, although six months later, in a letter to the Morning Advertiser, ho made the contradictory statement, "I saw enough to satisfy myself they could all be produced by human hands and feet." He says: "The table actually rose from: the ground when no hand was upon it;" and "a small hand-bell was laid down with its mouth on the carpet, and it actually rang when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in my hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham." And he adds, speaking for both, "We could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism." Coming from the author of "Letters on Natural Magic," this is pretty good testimony.
These and far more marvellous phenomena have been repeated from that day to this, many thousands of times, and almost always in private houses at which Mr. Home visits. Everybody testifies to the fact that he offers the most ample facilities for investigation; and to this I can myself bear witness, having been invited by him to examine as closely as I pleased an accordion, held by his one hand, keys downwards, and in that position playing very sweetly. But, perhaps, the best attested and most extraordinary phenomenon connected with Mr. Home's mediumship is what is called the fire test. In a state of trance he takes a glowing coal from the hottest part of a bright fire, and carries it round the room, so that every one may see and feel that it is a real one. This is testified by Mr. H. D. Jencken, Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, and many others. But, more strange still, when in this state he can detect the same power in other persons, or convey it to them. A lumn of red-hot coal was once placed on Mr. S. C. Hall's head in the presence of Lord Lindsay and four other persons. Mrs. Hall, in a communication to the Earl of Dunraven (given in the Mr. Hall was seated nearly opposite to where I sat; and I saw Mr. Home, after standing about half a minute at the back of Mr. Hall's chair, deliberately place the lump of burning coal 011 his head! I have often wondered that I was not frightened, but I was not; I had perfect faith that he would not be injured. Some one said, "Is it not hot?" Mr. Hall answered, "Warm, but not hot." Mr. Home bad moved a little way, but returned, still in a trance; he smiled, and seemed quite pleased; and then proceeded to draw up Mr. Hall's white hair over the red coal. The white hair had the appearance of silver thread over the red coal. Mr. Home drew the hair into a sort of pyramid, the coal, still red, showing beneath the hair."Spiritual Magazine,
When taken off the head, which it had not in the slightest degree injured or singed the hair, others attempted to touch it and were burnt. Lord Lindsay and Miss Douglas have also had hot coals placed in their hands, and they describe them as feeling rather cold than hot, though at the same time they burn any one else, and even scorch the face of the holder if approached too closely. The same witnesses also testify that Mr. Home has placed red-hot coals inside his waist-coat without scorching his clothes, and has put his face into the middle of the fire, his hair falling into the flames, yet not being
Human Nature, Spiritualist,
As to the possibility of these things being produced by trick, if farther evidence than their mere statement be required, we have the following by Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, who says, 'I may also mention that Bosco, one of the greatest professors of legerdemain ever known, in a conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the possibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Home being performed by any of the resources of his art."
The powers of Mr. Home have lately been independently tested by Serjeant Cox and Mr. Crookes, and both these gentlemen emphatically proclaim that he invites tests and courts examination. Serjeant Cox, in his own house, has had a new accordion (purchased by himself that very day) play by itself, in his own hand, while Mr. Home was playing the piano. Mr. Home then took the accordion in his left hand, holding it with the keys downward while playing the piano with his right hand, "and it played beautifully in accompaniment to the piano for at least a quarter of an hour. ("What Am I?" vol. ii., p. 388.)
Mr. Home's life has been to a great extent a public one. He lias spent much of his time as a guest in the houses of people of rank and talent. He numbers among his friends many who are eminent in science, art, and literature—men certainly not inferior in perceptive or reasoning powers to those who, not having witnessed the phenomena, disbelieve in their occurrence. For twenty years he has been exposed to the keen scrutiny and never-ceasing suspicion of innumerable inquirers; yet no proof has ever been given of trickery, no particle of machinery or apparatus has ever been detected. But the phenomena are so stupendous that, if impostures, they could only be performed by machinery of the most elaborate, varied, and cumbrous nature, requiring the aid of several assistants and confederates. The theory that they are delusions are equally untenable, unless it is admitted that there is no possible means of distinguishing delusion from reality.
The last medium to whoso career I shall call attention is Mrs. Guppy (formerly Miss Nichol), and in this case I can give some personal testimeny. I know Miss Nichol before she had ever heard of Spiritualism, table-rapping, or anything of the kind, and we first discovered her powers on asking her to sit for experiment in my house. This was in
Another very curious and beautiful phenomenon was the production of delicate musical sounds, without any object calculated to produce them being in the room. On one occasion a German lady, who was a perfect stranger to Miss Nichol, and had never been at a seance before, was present. She sang several German songs, and most delicate music, like a fairy musical-box, accompanied her throughout. She sang four or five different songs of her own choice, and all were so accompanied. This was in the dark, but hands were joined all the time.
The most remarkable feature of this lady's mediumship is the production of flowers and fruits in closed rooms. The first time this occurred was at my own house, at a very early stage of her development. All present were my own friends. Miss Nichol had come early to tea, it being midwinter, and she had been with us in a very warm gas-lighted room four hours before the flowers appeared. The essential fact is, that upon a bare table in a small room closed and dark (the adjoining room and passage being well lighted), a quantity of flowers appeared, which were not there when we put on the gas a few minutes before. They consisted of anemones, tulips, chrysanthemums, Chinese primroses, and several ferns. All were absolutely fresh as if just gathered from a conservatory. They were covered with a fine cold dew. Not a petal was crumpled or broken, not the most delicate point or pinnule of the ferns was out of place. I dried and preserved the whole, and have, attached to them, the attestation of all present that they had no share, as far as they knew, in bringing the flowers into the room. I believed at the time, and still believe, that it was absolutely impossible for Miss N. to have concealed them so long, to have kept them so perfect, and, above all, to produce them covered throughout with a most beautiful coat-
Similar phenomena have occurred hundreds of times since, in many houses and under various conditions. Sometimes the flowers have been in vast quantities, heaped upon the table. Often flowers or fruits asked for are brought. A friend of mine asked for a sunflower, and one six feet high fell upon the table, having a large mass of earth about its roots. One of the most striking teste was at Florence, with Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, Mrs. Trollope, Miss Blagden, and Colonel Harvey. The room was searched by the gentlemen; Mrs. Guppy was undressed and redressed by Mrs. Trollope, every article of her clothing being examined. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy were both firmly held while at the table. In about ten minutes all the party exclaimed that they smelt flowers, and, on lighting a candle, both Mrs. Guppy's and Mrs. Trollope's arms were found covered with jonquils, which filled the room with their odour. Mr. Guppy and Mr. Trollope both relate this in substantially the same terms. ("Dialectical Society's Report on Spiritualism," pp. 277 and 372).
Surely these are phenomena about which there can be no mistake. What theories have ever been proposed by our scientific teachers which even attempt to account for them? Delusion it cannot be, for the flowers are real, and can be preserved, and imposture under the conditions described is even less credible. If the gentlemen who come forward to enlighten the public on the subject of "so-called spiritual manifestations "do not know of the various classes of phenomena that have now been indicated, and the weight of the testimony in support of them, they are palpably unqualified for the task they have undertaken. That they do know of them, but keep back their knowledge, while putting forth trivialities easy to laugh at or expose, is a supposition I cannot for a moment entertain. Before leaving this part of the subject, it is well to note the fact of the marked individuality of each medium. They are no copies of each other, but each one developes a characteristic set of phenomena—a fact highly suggestive of some unconscious occult power in the individual, and wholly opposed to the idea of cither imposture or delusion, both of which almost invariably copy pre-existing models.
Investigations by some Notable Sceptics.—In giving some account of how a few of the most important converts to Spiritualism became convinced, we are of course limited to those who have given their experiences to the public. I will first take the case of the eminent American lawyer, the Hon. J. W. Edmunds, commonly called Judge Edmunds; and it may be as well to let English sceptics know what he is thought of by his countrymen. When he first became a. Spiritualist ho was greatly abused; and it was even declared that he consulted the spirits on his judicial decisions. To defend himself he published an "Appeal to the Public," giving a full account of the inquiries which resulted in his conversion. In noticing this, the New York Evening Mirror said: "John W. Edmunds, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this District, is an able lawyer, an industrious judge, and a good citizen. For the last eight years occupying without interruption the highest judicial stations, whatever may be his faults, no one can justly accuse him of a lack of ability, industry, honesty, or fearlessness. No one can doubt his general saneness, or can believe for a moment that the ordinary operations of his mind are not as rapid, accurate, and reliable as ever. Both by the practitioners and suitors at his bar, he is recognised as the head, in fact and in merit, of the Supreme Court for this District." A few years later he published a series of letters on Spiritualism in the New York Tribune; and in the first of these he gives a compact summary of his mode of investigation, from which the following passages
It was in
I resorted to every expedient I could devise to detect imposture and to guard against delusion. I felt in myself, and saw in others, how exciting was the idea that we were actually communing with the dead; and I labored to prevent any undue bias of my judgment. I was at times critical and captious to an unreasonable extreme; and when my belief was challenged, as it was over and over again, I refused to yield, except to evidence that would leave no possible room for cavil.
I was severely exacting in my demands, and this would frequently happen. I would go to a circle with some doubt on my mind as to the manifestations at the previous circle, and something would happen aimed directly at that doubt, and completely overthrowing it as it then seemed, so that I no longer had any reason to doubt. But I would go home and write out carefully my minutes of the evening, cogitate over them for several days, compare them with previous records, and finally find some loophole—some possibility that it might have been something else than spiritual influence, and I would go to the next circle with a new doubt, and a new set of queries.
I look back sometimes now, with a smile, at the ingenuity I wasted in devising ways and means to avoid the possibility of deception.
It was a remarkable feature of my investigations, that every conceivable objection I could raise, first and last, was met and answered.
The following extracts are from the "Appeal—
I have seen a mahogany table, having a centre leg, and with a lump burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in spite of the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place, though its glass pendants rang again. I have known a mahogany chair thrown on its side and moved swiftly back and forth on the floor, no one touching it, through a room where there were at least a dozen people sitting, yet no one was touched; and it was repeatelly stopped within a few inches of me, when it was coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken my legs.
Having satisfied himself of the reality of the physical phenomena, he came to the question of whence comes the intelligence that was; so remarkable connected with them. He says:—
Preparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat down alone in my room, and carefully prepared a series of questions to be propounded, and I have beenprised to find my questions answered, and in the precise order in which I wrote him without my even taking my memorandum out of my pocket, and when at a person present knew that I had prepared questions, much less what they were My most secret thoughts, those which I have never uttered to mortal man or woman, have been freely spoken to as if I had uttered them; and I have been admnished that
Still the question occurred, "May not all this have been, by some mysterious operation, the mere reflex of the mind of some one present?" The answer was, that facts were communicated which were unknown then, but afterwards found to be true; like this for instance: when I was absent last winter in Central America, my friends in town heard of my whereabouts and of the state of my health several times; and on my return, by comparing their information with the entries in my journal, it was found to be invariably correct. So thoughts have been littered on subjects not then in my mind, and utterly at variance with my own notions. This often has happened to me and to others, so as fully to establish the fact that it was not our minds that gave forth or affected the communication.
These few extracts sufficiently show that the writer was aware of the possible sources of error in such an inquiry, and the details given in the letters prove that he was constantly on his guard against them. He himself and his daughters became mediums; so that he afterwards obtained personal confirmation of many of the phenomena by himself alone. But all the phenomena referred to in the letters and "Appeal" occurred to him in the presence of others, who testified to them as well, and thus removed the possibility that the phenomena were subjective.
We have yet to add a notice of what will be perhaps, to many persons, the most startling and convincing of all the Judge's experiences. His own daughter became a medium for speaking foreign languages of which she was totally ignorant. He says: She knows no language but her own, and a little smattering of boarding-school French; yet she has spoken in nine or ten different tongues, often for an hour at a time, with the ease and fluency of a native. It is not unfrequent that foreigners converse with their spirit-friends through her, in their own language." One of these cases must be given:
One evening, when some twelve or fifteen persons were in my parlor, Mr. E. D. Green, an artist of this city, was shown in, accompanied by a gentleman whom ho introduced as Mr. Evangelides, of Greece. Ere long a spirit spoke to him through Laura, in English, and said so many things to him that he identified him as a friend who had died at his house a few years before, but of whom none of us had ever heard. Occasionally, through Laura, the spirit would speak a word or a sentence in Greek, until Mr. E. inquired if he could be understood if he spoke Greek? The residue of the conversation for more than an hour was, on his part, entirely in Greek, and on hers sometimes in Greek and sometimes in English. At times Laura would not understand what was the idea conveyed either by her or him; at other times she would understand him, though he spoke in Greek, and herself, while uttering Greek words.
Several other cases are mentioned, and it is stated that this lady has spoken Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Hungarian, and Indian, and other languages which were Unknown to any person present.
This is by no means an isolated case, but it is given as being on most unexceptionable authority. A man must know whether his own daughter has learned, so as to speak fluently eight languages besides her own, or not. Those who carry on the conversation must know whether the language is spoken or not; and in several cases—as the Latin, Spanish, and Indian—the judge himself understood the language. And the phenomenon is connected with Spiritualism by the speaking being in the name of, and purporting to come from, some deceased person, and the subject matter being characteristic of that person. Such a case as this, which has been published sixteen years, ought to have been noticed and explained by those who profess to enlighten the public on the subject of Spiritualism.
Our next example is one of the most recent, but at the same time one of the most useful, converts to the truths of Spiritualism. Dr. George Sexton, M.D., M.A., L.L.D., was for many years the coadjutor of Mr. Bradlaugh, and one of the most earnest and energetic of the secularist teachers. The celebrated Robert Owen first called his attention to the subject of Spiritualism, about twenty years ago. He read books, he saw a good deal of the ordinary physical manifestations, but he always "suspected that the mediums played tricks, and that the whole affair was nothing but clever conjuring by means of concealed machinery." He gave several lectures against Spiritualism in the usual style of non-believers, dwelling much on the absurdity and triviality of the phenomena, and ridiculing the idea that they were the work of spirits. Then came another old friend and fellow-secularist, Mr. Turley, who, after investigating the subject for the purpose of exposing it, became a firm believer. Dr. Sexton laughed at this conversion, yet it made a deep impression on his mind. Ten years passed away, and his next important investigation was with the Davenport Brothers; and it will be well for those who sneer at these much-abused young men to take note of the following account of Dr. Sexton's proceedings with them, and especially of the fact that they cheerfully submitted to every test the doctor suggested. He tells us (in his lecture, "How I became a "Spiritualist") that he visited them again and again, trying in vain to find out the trick. Then, he says—
My partner—Dr. Barker—and I invited the Brothers to our houses, and, in order to guard against anything like trickery, we requested them not to bring any ropes, instruments, or other apparatus; all these we ourselves had determined to supply. Moreover, as there were four of them—viz., the two Brothers Davenport, Mr. Fay, and Dr. Fergusson—we suspected that the two who were not tied might really do all that was done. "We therefore requested only two to come. They unhesitatingly complied with all these requests. "We forming a circle, consisting entirely of members of our own families and a few private friends, with the one bare exception of Mrs. Fay. In the circle we all joined hands, and as Mrs Fay sat at one end she had one of her hands free, while I had hold of the other. Thinking that she might be able to assist with the hand that was thus free, I asked as a favour that I might be allowed to hold both her hands—a proposition which she at once agreed to. Now, without entering here at all into what took place, suffice it to say that we bound the mediums with our own ropes, placed their feet upon sheets of writing paper and drew lines around their boots, so that if they moved their feet it should be impossible for them to place them again in the same position; we laid pence on their toes, sealed the ropes, and in every way took precautions against their moving. On the occasion to which I now refer, Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. diaries Watts were present; and when Mr Fay's coat had been taken off, the ropes still remaining on his hands, Mr. Bradlaugh requested that his coat might be placed on Mr. Fay, which was immediately done, the ropes still remaining fastened. We got on this occasion all the phenomena that usually occurred in the presence of these extraordinary men, particulars of which I shall probably give on another occasion. Dr. Barker became a believer in Spiritualism from the time that the Brothers visited at his house. I did not sec that any proof had been given that disembodied spirits had any hand in producing the phenomena; but I was convinced that no tricks had been played, and that therefore these extraordinary physical manifestations were the result of some occult force in nature which I had no means of explaining in the present state of my knowledge. All the physical phenomena that I had seen now became clear to me; they were not accomplished by trickery, as I had formerly supposed, but were the result of some undiscovered law of nature which it was the business of the man of science to use his utmost endeavours to discover."
While he was maintaining this ground, spiritualists often asked him how he explained the intelligence that was manifested; and he invariably replied that he had not yet seen proofs of any intelligence other than what
"The proofs that I did ultimately receive are, many of them, of a character that I cannot describe minutely to a public audience, nor indeed have I time to do so. Suffice it to say, that I got in my own house, in the absence of all mediums other than the members of my own family and intimate private friends in whom mediumistic powers became developed, evidence of an irresistible character that the communications came from deceased friends and relatives. Intelligence was again and again displayed which could not possibly have had any other origin than that which it professed to have. Facts were named known to no one in the circle, and left to be verified afterwards. The identity of the spirits communicating was proved in a hundred different, ways. Our dear departed ones made themselves palpable both to feeling and to sight j and the doctrine of spirit-communion was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. I soon found myself in the position of Dr. Fenwick in Lord Lytton's 'Strange story.' 'Do you believe,' asked the female attendant of Margrave, 'in that which you seek?' 'I have no belief,' was the answer. 'True science has none; true science questions all things, and takes nothing on credit. It knows but three states of mind—denial, conviction, and the vast interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of judgment.' This describes exactly the phases through which my mind has passed."
Since Dr. Sexton has become a spiritualist he has been as energetic an advocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of secularism. His experience and ability as a lecturer, with his long schooling in every form of manifestation, render him one of the most valuable promulgators of its teachings, he has also done excellent service in exposing the pretensions of those conjurors who profess to expose Spiritualism. This he does in the most practical way, not only by explaining how the professed imitations of spiritual manifestations are performed, but by actually performing them before his audience; and at the same time pointing out the important differences between what these people do and what occurs at good seances. Any one who wishes to comprehend how Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats have only to read his lecture, entitled "Spirit Mediums and Conjurors," before going to witness their entertainments. We can hardly believe that the man who does this, and who during fifteen years of observation and experiment held out against the spiritual theory, is one of those who, as Lord Amberley tells us, "fall a victim to the most patent frauds, and are imposed upon by jugglery of the most vulgar order;" or who, as viewed from Professor Tyndall's high scientific standpoint, are in a frame of mind before which science is utterly powerless—"dupes beyond the reach of proof, who like to believe and do not like to be undeceived." These be brave words; but we leave our readers to judge whether they come with a very good grace from men who have the most slender and inadequate knowledge of the subject they are criticising, and no knowledge at all of the long-continued and conscientious investigations of many who are included in their wholesale animadversions.
Yet one more witness to these marvellous phenomena we must bring
In Mr. Crookes's latest paper, published in the Quarterly Journal of Science for January last, we are informed that he has pursued the inquiry for four years; and besides attending seances elsewhere, has had the opportunity of making numerous experiments in his own house sixth the two remarkable mediums already referred to, Mr. D. D. Home and Miss Kate Fox. These experiments were almost exclusively made in the light, under conditions of his own arranging, and with his own friends as witnesses. Such phenomena as percussive sounds; alteration of the weight of bodies; the rising of heavy bodies in the air without contact by any one; the levitation of human beings; luminous appearances of various kinds; the appearance of hands which lift small objects, yet are not the hands of any one present; direct writing by a luminous detatched hand or by the pencil alone; phantom forn.s and faces; and various mental phenomena—have all been tested so variously and so repeatedly that Mr. Crookes is thoroughly satisfied of their objective reality. These phenomena are given in outline in the paper above referred to, and they will be detailed in full in a volume now preparing. I will not, therefore, weary my readers by repeating them here, but will remark, that these experiments have a weight as evidence vastly greater than would be due to them as resting on the testimony of any man of science, however distinguished, because they are in almost every case, confirmations of what previous witnesses in immense numbers have testified to, in various places, and under various conditions, during the last twenty years. In every other experimental inquiry, without exception, confirmation of the facts of an earlier observer is held to add so greatly to their value, that no one treats them with the same incredulity with which he might have received them the first time they were announced. And when the confirmation has been repeated by three or four independent observers under favourable conditions, and there is nothing but theory or negative evidence against them, the facts are admitted—at least provisionally, and until disproved by a greater weight of evidence or by discovering the exact source of the fallacy of preceding observers.
But here, a totally different—a most unreasonable and a most unphilosophical—course is pursued. Each fresh observation, confirming previous evidence, is treated as though it were now put forth for the first time; and
per contra? Neither science nor philosophy', neither scepticism nor religion, has ever yet in this quarter of a century made one single convert from the ranks of Spiritualism!
This being the ease, and fully appreciating the amount of candour and fairness, and knowledge of the subject, that has been exhibited by their opponents, is it to be wondered at that a large proportion of spiritualists are now profoundly indifferent to the opinion of men of science, and would not go one step cut of their way to convince them? They say, that the movement is going on quite fast enough. That it is spreading by its own inherent force of truth, and slowly permeating all classes of society. It has thriven in spite of abuse and persecution, ridicule and argument, and continues to thrive whether endorsed by great names or not. Men of science, like an others, are welcome to enter its ranks: but they must satisfy themselves by their own persevering researches, not expect to have its proofs laid before them. Their rejection of its truths is their own loss, but cannot in the slightest degree affect the progress of Spiritualism. The attacks and criticisms of the press are borne good-humouredly, and seldom excite other feelings than pity for the wilful ignorance and contempt for the overwhelming presumption of their writers. Such are the sentiments that are continually expressed by spiritualists; and it is as well, perhaps, that the outer world, to whom the literature of the movement is as much unknown as the Vedas, should be made acquainted with them.
Investigation by the Dialectical Committee.—There are many other investigators who ought to be noticed in any complete sketch of the subject, but we have now only space to allude briefly to the "Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society." Of this committee, consisting of thirty-three acting members, only eight were, at the commencement, believers in the reality of the phenomena, while not more than four accepted the spiritual theory. During the course of the inquiry at least twelve of the complete sceptics became convinced of the reality of many of the physical phenomena through attending the experimental sub-committees, and almost wholly by means of the mediumship of members of the committee. At least three members who were previously sceptics pursued their investigations outside the committee meetings, and in consequence have become thorough Spiritualists. My own observation as a member of the committee, and of the largest and most active sub-committee, enables me to state that the degree of conviction produced in the minds of the various members was, allowing for marked differences of character, approximately proportionate to the amount -of time and care bestowed on the investigation. This fact, which is what occurs in all investigation into these phenomena, is a characteristic result of the examination into any natural phnenomena. The examination into an imposture or delusion has invariably exactly opposite results—those who have slender experience being deceived, while those who perseveringly continue the inquiry inevitably find out the source of the deception or the delusion.
Before leaving this report, I must call attention to the evidence it furnisher "the state of opinion among men of education in France. M. Camille Flammarion, the well-known astronomer, sent a communication to the commiitte which deserves special consideration. Besides declaring his own acceptance of the objective reality of the phenomena after ten years of investigation, he makes the following statement:—
My learned teacher and friend, M. Babinet, of the Institute, who has endeavored, with M. E. Liais (now Director of the Observatory of Brazil), and several others of my colleagues of the Observatory of Paris, to ascertain their nature and cause, is not fully convinced of the intervention of spirits in their production, though this hypothesis, by which alone certain categories of these phenomena would seem to be explicable, has been adopted by many of our most esteemed savants, among others by Dr. Haefflic, the learned author of the 'History of Chemistry' and the 'General Encyclopaedia,' and by the diligent laborer in the field of astronomic discovery whose death we have had recently to deplore, M. Hermann Gold schemidt, the discoverer of fourteen planets.
It thus appears that in France, as well as in America and in this country, men of science of on mean rank have investigated these phenomena, and have found them to be realities; while some of the most eminent hold the spiritual theory to be the only one that will explain them.
This seems the proper place to notice the astounding assertion of certain writers, that there is not "a particle of evidence" to support the spiritual theory; that those who accept it betray "hopeless inability to discriminate between adequate and inadequate proof of facts; "that the theory is "formed apart from facts;" and that those who accept it are so unable to reason, as to "jump at the conclusion" that it must be spirits that move tables, merely because they do not know how else they can be moved. The preceding account of how converts to Spiritualism have been made is a sufficient answer to all this ignorant assertion. The spiritual theory, as a rule, has only been adopted as a last resource, when all other theories have hopelessly broken down; and when fact after fact, phenomenon after phenomenon, has presented itself, giving direct proof that the so-called dead are still alive. The spiritual theory is the logical outcome of the whole of the facts. Those who deny it, in every instance with which I am acquainted, either from ignorance or disbelief, leave half the facts out of view. Take the one case (out of many almost equally conclusive) of Mr. Livermore, who during five years, 011 hundreds of occasions, saw, felt, and heard the movements of the figure of his dead wife in absolute, unmistakable, living form. A form which could move objects, and which repeatedly wrote to him in her own handwriting and her own language, on cards which remained after the figure had disappeared. A form which was equally visible and tangible to two friends; which appeared in his own house, in a room absolutely secured, with the presence only of a young girl, the medium. Had these three men "not a particle of evidence" for the spiritual theory? Is it, in fact, possible to conceive or suggest any more complete proof? The facts must be got rid of before you abolish the theory; and simple denial or disbelief does not get rid of facts testified during a space of live years by three witnesses, all men in responsible positions, and carrying on their affairs during the whole
The objection will here be inevitably made: "These wonderful things always happen in America. When they occur in England it will be time enough to enquire into them." Singularly enough, after this article was in the press, the final test was obtained, which demonstrated the occurrence of similar phenomena in London. A short statement may, therefore, be interesting to those who cannot digest American evidence. For some years a young lady, Miss Florence Cook, has exhibited remarkable mediumship, which latterly culminated in the production of an entire female form purporting to be spiritual, and which appeared barefooted and in white flowing robes while she lay entranced, in dark clothing and securely bound, in a cabinet or adjacent room. Not with standing that tests of an apparently conclusive character were employed, many visitors, spiritualists as well as sceptics, got the impression that all was not as it should be; owing in part to the resemblance of the supposed spirit to Miss Cook, and also to the fact that the two could not be seen at the same time. Some supposed that Miss C. was an impostor who managed to conceal a white robe about her (although she was often searched), and who, although she was securely tied with tapes and sealed, was able to get out of her bonds, dress and undress herself, and get into them again, all in the dark, and in so complete and skilful a manner as to defy detection. Others thought that the spirit released her, provided her with a white dress, and sent her forth to personate a ghost. The belief that there was something wrong led one gentleman—an ardent spiritualist—to seize the supposed spirit and hold it, in the hope that some other person would open the cabinet-door and see if Miss Cook was really there. This was, unfortunately, not done; but the great resemblance of the being he seized to Miss Cook, its perfect solidity, and the vigorous struggle it made to escape from him, convinced this gentleman that it was Miss Cook herself, although the rest of the company, a few minutes before, found her bound and sealed just as she had been left an hour before. To determine the question conclusively, experiments hare been made within the last few weeks by two scientific men. Mr. C. S. Yarley, F.R.S., the eminent electrician, made use of a galvanic battery and cable-seting apparatus, and passed a current through Miss Cook's body (by fastening sovereigns soldered to wires to her arms). The apparatus was so delicate that any movement whatever was instantly indicated, while it was impossible for the young lady to dress and act as a ghost without breaking the circuit. Yet under these conditions, the spirit-form did appear, exhibited its arms, spoke, wrote, and touched several persons; and this happened, be it remembered, not in the medium's own house, but in that of a private gentleman in the West. End of London. For nearly an hour the circuit was never broken, and at the conclusion Miss Cook was found in a deep trance. Since this remarkable experiment Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S. has obtained, if possible, still more satisfactory evidence. He contrived a phosphorus lamp, and armed with this was allowed to go into the dark room accompanied by the spirit, and there saw and felt Miss Cook, dressed in black velvet, lying in a trance on the floor, while the spirit-form in white robes, stood close beside her. During the evening this spirit form had been, for nearly an hour, walking and talking with the company; and Mr. Crookes, by permission, clasped the figure in his arms, and found it to be, apparently, a real living woman, just as the sceptical gentleman had done. Yet this figure is not that of Miss Cook, nor of any other human being, since it appeared and disappeared in Mr. Crookes's own house as completely as in that of the medium herself. The full statements of Messrs. Varley and Crookes, with a mass of interesting detai' on the subject, appeared in the Spiritualist newspaper, in March and April last; and they serve to show that whatever marvels occur in America can be produced here, and that men of science are not precluded from investigating these phenomena with scientific instruments and by scientific methods. In the concluding part of this paper we shall be able to show that another class of manifestation which originated in America—that of the so-called spirit-photographs—has been first critically examined and completely demonstrated in our own country.
"We now approach a subject which cannot be omitted in any impartial sketch of the evidences of Spiritualism, since it is that which furnishes perhaps the most unassailable demonstration it is possible to obtain, of the objective reality of spiritual foams, and also of the truthful nature of the evidence furnished by seers when they describe figures visible to themselves alone. It has been already indicated—and it is a fact, of which the records of Spiritualism furnish ample proof—that different individuals possess the power of seeing such form? and figures in very variable degrees. Thus it often happens at a seance, that some will see distinct lights of which they will describe the form, appearance, and position, while others will see nothing at all. If only two persons see the lights, the rest will naturally impute it to their imagination: but there are cases in which only one or two of those present are unable to see them. There are also cases in which they all see them, but in very different degrees of distinctness; yet that they see the same objects is proved by their all agreeing as to the position and the movement of the lights. Again, what some see as merely luminous clouds, others will see as distinct human forms, either partial or entire. In other cases all present see the form—whether hand, face, or entire figure—with equal distinctness. Again; the objective reality of these appearances is some-times proved by their being touched, or by their being seen to remove objects,—in some cases heard to speak, in others seen to write, by several persons at one and the same time; the figure seen or the writing produced being sometimes unmistakably recognisable as that of a deceased friend. A volume could easily be filled with records of this class of appearances, authenticated by place, date, and names of witnesses; and a considerable selection is to be found in the works of Mr. Robert Dale Owen.
Now, at this point, an inquirer, who had not prejudged the question, and who did not believe his own knowledge of the universe to be so complete as to justify him in rejecting all evidence for facts which he had hitherto considered in the highest degree to be improbable, might fairly say, "Your evidence for the appearance of visible, tangible, spiritual forms, is very strong: but I should like to have them submitted to a crucial test, which would quite settle the question of the possibility of their being clue to a coincident delusion of several senses of several persons at the same time; and, if satisfactory, would demonstrate their objective reality in a way nothing else can do. If they really reflect or emit light which makes them visible to human eyes, they can be photographed. Photograph them, and you will have an unanswerable proof that your human witnesses are trustworthy." Two years ago we could only have replied to this very proper suggestion, that we believed it had been done, and could be again done, but that we had no satisfactory evidence to offer. Now, however, we are in a position to state, not only that it has been frequently done, but that the evidence is of such a nature as to satisfy any one who will take the trouble carefully to examine it. This evidence we will now lay before our readers, and we venture to think they will acknowledge it to be most remarkable.
Before doing so it may be as well to clear away a popular misconception. Mr. Lewes advised the Dialectical Committee to distinguish carefully between "facts and inferences from facts." This is especially necessary in the case of what are called spirit-photographs. The figures which occur in these when not produced by any human agency, may be of "spiritual" origin, without being figures "of spirits." There is much evidence to show that they are, in some cases, forms produced by invisible intelligences, but distinct from them. In other cases the intelligence appears to clothe itself
for purposes of recognition.
Most persons have heard of these 'ghost-pictures," and how easily they can be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore disposed to think they can be of no use as evidence. But a little consideration will show them that the means by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being so well known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply tests or arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. The following are some of the more obvious:—
1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes his own glass plates, examines the camera used and all the accessories, and watches the whole process of taking a picture, then, if any definite form appears on the negative beside the sitter, it is a proof that some object was present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays, although invisible to those present. 2. If an unmistakable likeness appears of a deceased person totally unknown to the photographer. 3. If the figures appear on the negative having a definite relation to the figure of the sitter, who chooses his own position, attitude, and accompaniments, it is a proof that invisible figures were really there. 4. If a figure appears draped in white, and partly behind the dark body of the sitter without in the least showing through, it is a proof that the white figure was there at the same time, because the dark parts of the negative are transparent, and any white picture in any way superposed would show through. 5. Even should none of these tests be applied, yet if a medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees and describes a figure during the sitting, and an exactly corresponding figure appears on the plate, it is a proof that such a figure was there.
Every one of these tests have been now successfully applied in our own country, as the following outline of the facts will show.
The accounts of spirit-photography in several parts of the United States caused several Spiritualists in this country to make experiments, but for a long time without success. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur photographers, tried at their house, and failed. In cartes de visite of Mrs. Guppy. After the sitting, an idea suddenly struck Mr. Guppy that he would try for a spirit-photograph. He sat down, told Mrs. G. to go behind the background, and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a large, indefinite, oval, white patch, somewhat resembling the outline of a draped figure. Mrs. Guppy, behind the background, was dressed in black. This is the first spirit-photograph taken in England, and it is perhaps more satisfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse under which it was taken, and the great white patch which no impostor would have attempted to produce, and which, taken by itself, utterly spoils the picture. A few days afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little boy went without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground, holding the boy on a stool. Her husband stood behind looking on. The picture thus produced is most remarkable. A tall female figure, finely draped in white, gauzy robes, stands directly behind and above the sitters, looking down on them, and holding its open hands over their heads, as if giving a benediction. The face is somewhat Eastern, and, with the hands, is beautifully defined. The white robes pass behind the sitters' dark figures without in the least showing through. A second picture was then taken as soon as a plate could be prepared; and it was fortunate it was so, as it resulted in a most remarkable test. Mrs. Guppy again knelt with the boy, but she did not stoop so much, and her head was higher. The same white figure
it has changed its position in a manner exactly corresponding to the slight change of Mrs. Guppy's position. The hands were before on a level; now one is raised considerably higher than the other, so as to keep it about the same distance from Mrs. Guppy's head as it was before. The folds of the drapery all correspondingly differ, and the head is slightly turned. Here, then, one of two things is absolutely certain. Either there was a living, intelligent, but invisible being present, or Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, the photographer, and some fourth person, planned a wicked imposture, and have maintained it ever since. Knowing Mr. and Mrs. Guppy as well as I do, I feel an absolute conviction that they are as incapable of an imposture of this kind as any earnest inquirer after truth in the department of natural science.
The report of these pictures soon spread. Spiritualists in great numbers came to try for similar results, with varying degrees of success, till after a time rumor of imposture arose, and it is now firmly believed by main', from suspicious appearances on the pictures and from other circumstances, that a large number of shams have been produced. It is certainly not to be wondered at if it be so. The photographer, remember, was not a Spiritualist, and was utterly puzzled at the pictures above described. Scores of persons came to him, and he saw that they were satisfied if they got a second figure with themselves, and dissatisfied if they did not. He may have made arrangements by which to satisfy everybody. One thing is clear, that if there has been imposture, it was at once detected by Spiritualists themselves; if not, then Spiritualists have been quick in noticing what appeared to indicate it. Those, however, who most strongly assert imposture allow that a large number of genuine pictures have been taken. But, true or not, the cry of imposture did good, since it showed the necessity for tests and for independent confirmation of the facts.
The test of clearly recognisable likenesses of deceased friends has often been obtained. Mr. William Howitt, who went without previous notice, obtained likenesses of two sons, many years dead, and of the very existence of one of whom even the friend who accompanied Mr. Howitt was ignorant. The likenesses were instantly recognised by Mrs. Howitt; and Mr. Howitt declares them to be "perfect and unmistakable." (Spiritual Magazine, Spiritual Magazine,
Mr. Thomas Slater, an old-established optician in the Euston road, and an amateur photographer, took with him to Mr. Hudson's, a new camera of his own manufacture and his own glasses, saw everything done, and obtained a portrait with a second figure on it. He then began experimenting in his own private house, and during last summer obtained some remarkable results. The first of his successes contains two heads by the side of a portrait of his sister. One of these heads is unmistakably the late Lord Brougham's; the other, much less distinct, is recognised by Mr. Slater as that of Robert Owen, whom he knew intimately up to the time of his death. He has since obtained several excellent pictures of the same class. One in
any figures, so clear and unmistakably human in appearance as these, should appear on plates taken in his own private studio by an experienced optician and amateur photographer, who makes all his apparatus himself, and with no one present but the members of his own family,—is the real marvel. In one case a second figure appeared on a plate with himself, taken by Mr. Slater when he was absolutely alone—by the simple process of occupying the sitter's chair after uncapping the camera. He and his family being themselves mediums, they require no extraneous assistance; and this may, perhaps, be the reason why he has succeeded so well. One of the most extraordinary pictures obtained by Mr. Slater is a full-length portrait of his sister, in which there is no second figure, but the sitter appears covered all over with a kind of transparent lace drapery, which on examination is seen to be wholly made up of shaded circles of different sizes, quite unlike any material fabric I have seen or heard of.
Mr. Slater has himself shown me all these pictures and explained the conditions under which they were produced. That they are not impostures is certain; and as the first independent confirmations of what had been previously obtained only through professional photographers, their value is inestimable.
A less successful, but not perhaps on that account less satisfactory confirmation has been obtained by another amateur, who, after eighteen months of experiment, obtained a partial success. Mr. It. Williams, M.A. Ph. D., of Hayward's Heath, succeeded last summer in obtaining three photographs, each with part of a human form besides the sitter, one having the features distinctly marked. Subsequently another was obtained, with a well-formed figure of a man standing at the side of the sitter, but while being developed, this figure faded away entirely. Mr. Williams assures me (in a letter) that in these experiments there was "no room for trick or for the production of these figures by any known means."
The editor of the British Journal of Photography has made experiments at Mr. Hudson's studio, taking his own collodion and new plates, and doing everything himself, yet there were "abnormal appearances "on the pictures although no distinct figures.
We now come to the valuable and conclusive experiments of Mr. John Beattie of Clifton a retired photographer of twenty years experience, and of whom the above-mentioned editor says:—"Everyone who knows Mr. Beattie will give him credit for being a thoughtful, skilful, and intelligent photographer, one of the last men in the world to be easily deceived, at least in matters relating to photography, and one quite incapable of deceiving others."
Mr. Beattie has been assisted in his researches by Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, M.D., who has practised photography as an amateur, for twenty-five years. They experimented at the studio of a friend, who was not a spiritualist (but who became a medium during the experiments,) and had the services of a tradesman with whom they were well acquainted, as a medium. The whole of the photographic work was done by Messrs. Beattie and Thomson, the other two sitting at a small table. The pictures were taken in series of three, within a few seconds of each other, and several of these series were taken at each sitting. The figures produced are for the most
in every case, minutely and correctly described the appearances which afterwards came out on the plate. In one there is a luminous rayed star of large size, with a human face faintly visible in the centre. This is the last of three in which the star developed, and the whole were accurately described by the medium. In another set of three, the medium first described,—"a light rising over another person's arms, coming from his own boot." The third,—"there is the same light, but now a column comes up through the table, and it is so hot to my hands." Then he suddenly exclaimed,—""What a bright light up there! Can you not see it?" pointing to it with his hand. All this most accurately describes the three pictures, and in the last, the medium's hand is seen pointing to a white patch which appears overhead. There are other curious developments, the nature of which is already sufficiently indicated; but one very startling single picture must be mentioned. During the exposure one medium said he saw on the background a black figure, the other medium saw a light figure by the side of the black one. In the picture both these figures appear, the light one very faintly, the black one much more distinctly, of a gigantic size, with a massive, coarse-featured face and long hair. (Spiritual Magazine, Photographic News,
Mr. Beattie has been so good as to send me for examination a complete set of these most extraordinary photographs, thirty-two in number, and has furnished me with any particulars I desired. I have described them as correctly as I am able; and Dr. Thomson has authorised me to use his name as confirming Mr. Beattie's account of the conditions under which they appeared. These experiments were not made without labor and perseverance. Sometimes twenty consecutive pictures produced absolutely nothing unusual. Hundreds have been taken, and more than half have been complete failures. But the successes have been well worth the labor. They demonstrate the fact that what a medium or sensitive sees (even where no one else sees anything) may often have an objective existence. They teach us that perhaps the bookseller, Nicolai of Berlin,—whose case has been quoted ad nauseam as the type of a "spectral illusion"—saw real beings after all; and that,
We find, then, that three amateur photographers working independently in different parts of England, separately confirm the fact of spirit photography,—already demonstrated to the satisfaction of many who had tested it through professional photographers. The experiments of Mr. Heat tie and Dr. Thomson are alone absolutely conclusive; and, taken in connection with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test photographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a scientific fact the objective existence of invisible human forms, and definite invisible actinic images. Before leaving the photographic phenomena we have to notice two curious points in connection with them. The actinic action of the spirit-forms is peculiar, and much more rapid than that of the light reflected from ordinary material forms; for the first figures start out the moment the developing fluid touches them, while the figures of the sitters appear much later. Mr. Beattie noticed this throughout his experiments, and I was myself much struck with it when watching the development of three pictures recently taken at Mr. Hudson's. The second figure, though by no means bright, always came out long before any other part of the picture. The other singular thing is, the copious drapery in which these forms are almost always enveloped, so as to show only just what is necessary for recognition, of the face and figure. The explanation given of this is, that the human form is more difficult to materialise than drapery. The conventional "white-sheeted ghost" was not then all fancy, but had a foundation in fact,—a fact, too, of great significance, dependent on the laws of a yet unknown chemistry.
As we have not been able to give an account of many facts which occur with the various classes of mediums, the following catalogue of the most important and well-characterised phenomena may be useful. They may be grouped provisionally, as, Physical, or those in which material objects are acted on, or apparently material bodies produced; and Mental, or those which consist in the exhibition by the medium of powers or faculties not possessed in the normal state.
The principal physical phenomena are the following:—
Simple Physical Phenomena.—Producing sounds of all kinds, from a delicate tick to blows like those of a sledge-hammer. Altering the weight of bodies. Moving bodies without human agency. Raising bodies into the air. Conveying bodies to a distance out of and into closed rooms. Releasing mediums from every description of bonds, even from welded iron rings, as has happened in America.Chemical.—Preserving from the effects of fire, as already detailed.Direct Writing and Drawing.—Producing writing or drawing on marked papers, placed in such positions that no human hand (or foot) can touch. Sometimes, visibly to the spectators, a pencil rising up and writing or drawing apparently by itself. Some of the drawings in many colors have been produced on marked paper in from ten to twenty seconds, and the colors found wet. (See Mr. Coleman's evidence, in "Dialectical Report," up. 143, confirmed by Lord Borthwick, up. 150). Mr. Thomas Slater of 136 Euston Road, is now obtaining communications in the following manner:—A
Musical Phenomena.—Musical instruments, of various kinds, played without human agency, from a hand-bell to a closed piano. With some mediums, and where the conditions are favorable, original musical compositions of a very high character are produced. This occurs with Mr. Home.Spiritual Forms.—These are either luminous appearances, sparks, stars, globes of light, luminous clouds, &c.; or, hands, faces, or entire human figures, generally covered with flowing drapery, except a portion of the face and hands. The human forms are often capable of moving solid objects, and are both visible and tangible to all present. In other cases they are only visible to seers, but when this is the case it sometimes happens that the seer describes the figure as lifting a flower or a pen, and others present see the flower or the pen apparently move by itself. In some cases they speak distinctly; in others the voice is heard by all, the form only seen by the medium. The flowing robes of these forms have in some cases been examined, and pieces cut off, which have in a short time method away. Flowers are also brought, some of which fade away and vanish; others are real, and can be kept indefinitely. It must not be concluded that any of these forms are actual spirits; they are probably only temporary froms produced by spirits for purposes of test, or of recognition by their friends. This is the account invariably given of them by communications obtained in various ways; so that the objection once thought to be so crushing—that there can be no "ghosts" of clothes, armour, or walking-sticks—ceases to have any weight.Spiritual Photographs.—These, as just detailed, demonstrate by' a purely physical experiment the trustworthiness of the preceding class of observations.
We now come to the mental phenomena, of which the following are the chief.
The purely mental phenomena are generally of no use as evidence to non-spiritualists, except in those few cases where rigid tests can be applied; but they are so intimately connected with the physical series, and often so interwoven with them, that no one who has sufficient experience to satisfy him of the reality of the former, fails to see that the latter form part of the general system, and are dependent on the same agencies.
With the physical series the case is very different. They form a connected body of evidence, from the simplest to the most complex and astounding, every single component fact of which can be, and has been, repeatedly demonstrated by itself; while each gives weight and confirmation to all the rest. They have all, or nearly all, been before the world for twenty years; the theories and explanations of reviewers and critics do not touch them, or in any way satisfy any sane man who has repeatedly witnessed them; they have been tested and examined by sceptics of every grade of incredulity, men in every way qualified to detect imposture or to discover natural causes—trained physicists, medical men, lawyers and men of business—but in every ease the investigators have cither retired baffled, or become converts.
There have, it is true, been some impostors who have attempted to imitate the phenomena; but such cases are few in number, and have been discovered by tests far less severe than those to which the genuine phenomena have been submitted over and over again; and a large proportion of these phenomena have never been imitated, because they are beyond successful imitation.
Now what do our leaders of public opinion say, when a scientific man of proved ability again observes a large portion of the more extraordinary phenomena, in his own house, under test conditions, and affirms their objective reality; and this not after a hasty examination, but after four years of research? Men, "with heavy scientific appendages to their names "refuse to examine them when invited; the eminent society of which he is a fellow refuses to record them; and the press cries out that it wants better witnesses than Mr. Crookes, and that such facts want "confirmation "before they can be believed. But why more confirmation? And when again "confirmed,"' who is to confirm the confirmer '? After the whole range of the phenomena had been before the world for ten years, and had convinced sceptics by tens of thousands—sceptics, be it remembered, of common sense and more than
confirmed by the first chemist in America, Professor Robert Hare. Two years later they were again confirmed by the elaborate and persevering inquiries of one of the first American lawyers, Judge Edmonds. Then by another good chemist, Professor Mapes. In Prance the truth of the simpler physical phenomena was confirmed by Count A. de Gasparin in confirmed them. Professor Thury of Geneva again confirmed them, in confirmed large portions of them; and lastly comes Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., with four years of research and unrestricted experiment with the two oldest and most remarkable mediums in the world, and again confirms the whole series! But even this is not all. Through an independent set of most competent observers we have the crucial test of photography; a witness which cannot be deceived, which has no preconceived opinions, which cannot register "subjective impressions;" a thoroughly scientific witness, who is admitted into our law courts, and whose testimony is good as against any number of recollections of what did happen or opinions as to what ought to and must have happened. And what has the other side brought against this overwhelming array of consistent and unimpeachable evidence? They have merely made absurd and inadequate suppositions, but have not disproved or explained away one weighty fact!
My position, therefore, is, that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their entirety do not require further confirmation. They are proved quite as well as any facts are proved in other sciences; and it is not denial or quibbling that can disprove any of them, but only fresh facts and accurate deductions from those facts. "When the opponents of Spiritualism can give a record of their researches approaching in duration and completeness to those of its advocates; and when they can discover and show in detail, either how the phenomena are produced or how the many sane and able men here referred to have been deluded into a coincident belief that they have witnessed them; and when they can prove the correctness of their theory by producing a like belief in a body of equally sane and able unbelievers,—then, and not till then, will it be necessary for spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which are, and always have been, sufficiently real and indisputable to satisfy any honest and persevering inquirer.
This being the state of the case as regards evidence and proof, we are fully justified in taking the facts of modern Spiritualism (and with them the spiritual theory as the only tenable one) as being fully established. It only remains to give a brief account of the more important uses and teachings of Spiritualism.
The lessons which modern Spiritualism teaches may be classed under two heads. In the first place, we find that it gives a rational account of various phenomena in human history which physical science has been unable to explain, and has therefore rejected or ignored; and, in the second, we derive from it some definite information as to man's nature and destiny, and, founded on this, an ethical system of great practical efficacy. The following are some of the more important phenomena of history and of human, nature which science cannot deal with, but which Spiritualism explains:—
facts from the absurd inferences, which people imbued with the frightful superstition of diabolism drew from them, and from which false inferences all the horrors of the witchcraft mania arose. Spiritualism, and Spiritualism alone, gives a rational explanation of witchcraft, and determines how much of it was objective fact, how much subjective illusion.for which no provision in advance was ever made (for that Müller considered would show want of trust in God), no such explanation can cover the facts.nine years, and he was able to trace back their existence in the same house for sixty years. Another ease had lasted twenty years, and could be traced back for a century. Some of the details of these cases are most instructive. Trick is absolutely the most incredible of all explanations. Spiritualism furnishes the explanation by means of analogous facts occurring every day, and forming part of the great system of phenomena which demonstrates the spiritual theory. Major Moor's book is very rare; but a good abstract of it is given in Owen's "Debatable Land," pp. 239-258.
"We have now to explain the Theory of Human Nature, which is the outcome of the phenomena taken in their entirety, and is also more or less explicitly taught by the communications which purport to come from spirits. It may be briefly outlined as follows:—
The foregoing outline propositions will suggest a number of questions and difficulties, for the answers to which readers are referred to the works of R. D. Owen, Hudson Tuttle, Professor Hare, and the records of Spiritualism passim. Here I must pass on to explain, with some amount of detail, how the theory leads to a pure system of morality with sanctions far more powerful and effective than any which cither religious systems or philosophy have put forth.
This part of the subject cannot, perhaps, be better introduced than by referring to some remarks by Professor Huxley in a letter to the Committee of the Dialectical Society. He says:—"But supposing the phenomena to be genuine—they do not interest me. If anybody would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates at the nearest cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having better things to do. And if the folk in the spiritual world do not talk more wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put them in the same category." This passage, written with the caustic satire in which the kind-hearted Professor occasionally indulges, can hardly mean, that if it were proved that men really continued to live after the death of the body, that fact would not interest him, merely because some of them talked twaddle? Many scientific men deny the spiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that real, genuine spirits might reasonably be expected not to indulge in the commonplace trivialities which do undoubtedly form the staple of ordinary spiritual communications. But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and philosopher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expectation. Does he not hold the doctrine that there can be no effect, mental or physical, without an adequate cause; and that mental states, faculties, and idiosyncracies, that are the result of gradual development and life-long—and even ancestral—habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any known or imaginable cause? And if (as the Professor would probably admit) a very large majority of those who daily depart this life are persons addicted to twaddles, persons who spend much of their time in low or trivial pursuits, persons whose pleasures are sensual rather than intellectual—whence is to come the transforming power which is suddenly, at the mere throwing off the physical body, to change these into beings able to appreciate and delight in high and intellectual pursuits? The thing would be a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable miracles as part of the order of nature; and all for what? Merely to save these people from the necessary consequences of their misspent lives. For the essential teaching of Spiritualism is, that we are, all of us, in every act and thought, helping to build up a "mental fabric" which will be and constitute ourselves more completely after the death of the body than it does now. Just as this fabric is well or ill built, so will our progress and happiness be aided or retarded. Just in proportion as we have developed our higher intellectual and moral nature, or starved it by disuse and by giving undue prominence to those faculties which secure us mere physical or selfish enjoyment, shall we be well or ill fitted for the new life we enter on. The noble teaching of Herbert Spencer, that men are best educated by being left to suffer the natural consequences of their actions, is the teaching of Spiritualism as regards the transition to another phase of life. There will be no imposed rewards or punishments; but every one will suffer the natural and inevitable
Although, therefore, the twaddle and triviality of so many of the communications is not one whit more interesting to sensible spiritualists than it is to Professor Huxley, and is never voluntarily listened to, yet the fact that such poor stuff is talked (supposing it to come from spirits) is both a fact that might have been anticipated and a lesson of deep import. We must remember, too, the character of the stances at which these commonplace communications are received. A miscellaneous as semblance of believers of various grades and tastes, but mostly in search of an evening's amusement, and of sceptics who look upon all the others as either fools or knaves, is not likely to attract to itself the more elevated and refined denizens of the higher spheres, who may well be supposed to feel too much interest in their own new and grand intellectual existence to waste their energies on either class. If the fact is proved, that people continue to talk after they are dead with just as little sense as when alive, but they being in a state in which sense, both common and uncommon, is of far greater importance to happiness than it is here (where fools pass very comfortable lives), they suffer the penalty of having neglected to cultivate their minds; and being so much out of their element in a world where all pleasures are mental, they endeavour to recall old times by gossiping with their former associates whenever they can find the means—Professor Huxley will not fail to see its vast importance as an incentive to that higher education which he is never weary of advocating. He would assuredly be interested in anything having a really practical bearing on the present and on the future condition of men; and it is evident that even these low and despised phenomena of Spiritualism, "if true," have this bearing, and, combined with its higher teachings, constitute a great moral agency which may yet regenerate the world.
For the spiritualist who, by daily experience, gets absolute knowledge of these facts regarding the future state—who knows that, just in proportion as he indulges in passion, or selfishness, or the exclusive pursuit of wealth, and neglects to cultivate the affections and the varied powers of his mind, so does he inevitably prepare for himself misery in a world in which there are no physical wants to be provided for, no sensual enjoyments except those directly associated with the affections and sympathies, no occupations but those having for their object social and intellectual progress—is impelled towards a pure, a sympathetic, and an intellectual life by motives far stronger than any which either religion or philosophy can supply. He dreads to give way to passion or to falsehood, to selfishness or to a life of luxurious physical enjoyment, because he knows that the natural and inevitable consequences of such habits are future misery, necessitating a long and arduous struggle in order to develop anew the faculties, whose exercise long disuse has rendered painful to him. He will be deterred from crime by the knowledge that its unforeseen consequences may cause him ages of remorse; while the bad passions which it encourages will be a perpetual torment to himself in a state of being in which mental emotions cannot be laid aside or forgotten amid the fierce struggles and sensual pleasures of a physical existence. It must be remembered that these beliefs (unlike those of theology) will have a living efficacy, because they depend on facts occurring again and
Contrast this system of natural and inevitable reward and retribution, dependent wholly on the proportionate development of our higher mental and moral nature, with the arbitrary system of rewards and punishments dependent on stated facts and beliefs only, as set "birth by all dogmatic religions; and who can fail to see that the former is harmony with the whole order of nature—the latter opposed to it. Yet it is actually said that Spiritualism is altogether either imposture or delusion, and all its teachings but the product of "expectant attention" and "unconscious cerebration!" If none of the long series of demonstrative facts which have been here sketched out, existed, and its only product were this theory of a future state, that alone would negative such a supposition. And when it is considered that mediums of all grades, whether intelligent or ignorant, and having communications given through them in various direct and indirect ways, are absolutely in accord as to the main features of this theory, what becomes of the gross misstatement that nothing is given through mediums but what they know and believe themselves? The mediums have, almost all, been brought up in some of the usual orthodox beliefs. How is it, then, that the usual orthodox notions of heaven are never confirmed through them? In the scores of volumes and pamphlets of spiritual literature I have read, I have found no statement of a spirit describing "winged angels," or "golden harps," or the "throne of God"—to which the humblest orthodox Christian thinks he will be introduced if he goes to heaven at all. There is no more startling and radical opposition to be found between the most diverse religious creeds, than that between the beliefs in which the majority of mediums have been brought up and the doctrines as to a future life that are delivered through them; there is nothing more marvelous in the history of the human mind than the fact that, whether in the back-woods of America or in country towns in England, ignorant men and women having almost all been brought up in the usual sectarian notions of heaven and hell, should, the moment they become seized by the strange power of mediumship, give forth teachings on this subject which are philosophical rather than religious, and which differ wholly from what had been so deeply ingrained into their minds. And this statement is not affected by the fact that communications purport to come from Catholic or Protestant, Mahomedan or Hindoo spirits. Because, while such communications maintain special dogmas and doctrines, yet they confirm the very facts which really constitute the spiritual theory, and which in themselves contradict the theory of the sectarian spirits. The Roman Catholic spirit, for instance, does not describe himself as being in either the orthodox purgatory, heaven, or hell; the Evangelienl Dissenter who died in the firm conviction that he should certainly "go to Jesus," never describes himself as being with Christ, or as ever having seen Him, and so on throughout. Nothing is more common than for religious people at seances to ask questions about God and Christ. In reply they never get more than opinions, or more frequently the statement that they, the spirits, have no more actual knowledge of those subjects than they had while on earth. So that the facts are all harmonious; and the very circumstance of there being sectarian spirits bears witness in two ways to the truth of the spiritual theory—it shows that the mind, with its ingrained beliefs, is not suddenly changed at death; and it shows that the communications are not the reflection of the mind of the medium, who is often of the same religion as the communicating spirit, and, because
The doctrine of a future state and of the proper preparation for it as here developed, is to be found in the works of all spiritualists, in the utterances of all trance-speakers, in the communications through all mediums; and this could be proved, did space permit, by copious quotations. But it varies in form and detail in each; and just as the historian arrives at the opinions or beliefs of any age or nation, by collating the individual opinions of its best and most popular writers, so do spiritualists collate the various statements on this subject. They know well that absolute dependence is to be placed on no individual communications. They know that these are received by a complex physical and mental process, both communicator and recipient influencing the result; and they accept the teachings as to the future state of man only so far as they are repeatedly confirmed in substance (though they may differ in detail) by communications obtained under the most varied circumstances, through mediums of the most different characters and acquirements, at different times, and in different places. Fresh converts are apt to think, that, once satisfied the communications come from their deceased friends, they may implicitly trust to them, and apply them universally; as if the vast spiritual world was all molded to one pattern, instead of being, as it almost certainly is, a thousand times more varied than human society on the earth is, or ever has been. The fact that the communications do not agree as to the condition, occupations, pleasures, and capacities of individual spirits, so far from being a difficulty, as has been absurdly supposed, is what ought to have been expected; while the agreement on the essential features of what we have staled to be the spiritual theory of a future state of existence, is all the more striking, and tends to establish that theory as a fundamental truth.
The assertion, so often made, that Spiritualism is the survival or revival of old superstitions, is so utterly unfounded as to be hardly worth notice. A science of human nature which is founded on observed facts; which appeals only to facts and experiment; which takes no beliefs on trust; which inculcates investigation and self-reliance as the first duties of intelligent beings; which teaches that happiness in a future life can be secured by cultivating and developing to the utmost the higher faculties of our intellectual and moral nature, and by no other method,—is and must be the natural enemy of all superstition. Spiritualism is an experimental science, and affords the only sure foundation for a true philosophy and pure religion. It abolishes the terms "supernatural" and "miracle" by an extension of the sphere of law and the realm of nature; and in doing so it takes up and explains whatever is true in the superstitions and so-called miracles of all ages. It, and it alone, is able to harmonise conflicting creeds; and it must ultimately lead to concord among mankind in the matter of religion, which has for so many ages been the source of unceasing discord and incalculable evil;—and it will be able to do this because it appeals to evidence instead of faith, and substitutes facts for opinions; and is thus able to demonstrate the source of much of the teaching that men have so often held to be divine.
It will thus be seen, that those who can form no higher conception of the uses of Spiritualism, "even if true," than to detect crime or to name in advance the winner of the Derby, not only prove their own ignorance of the whole subject, but exhibit in a marked degree that partial mental paralysis, the result of a century of materialistic thought, which renders so many unable seriously to conceive the possibility of a natural continuation of human life after the death of the body. It will be seen also that Spiritualism is no mere "physiological" curiosity, no mere indication of some hitherto unknown "law of nature;" but that it is a science of vast extent, having the widest,
In concluding this necessarily imperfect though somewhat lengthy account of a subject about which so little is probably known to most of the readers of the Fortnightly Review, I would earnestly beg them not to satisfy themselves with a minute criticism of single facts, the evidence for which, in my brief survey, may be imperfect; but to weigh carefully the mass of evidence I have adduced, considering its wide range and various bearings. I would ask them to look rather at the results produced by the evidence than at the evidence itself as imperfectly stated by me; to consider the long roll of men of ability who, commencing the inquiry as sceptics left it as believers, and to give these men credit for not having overlooked, during years of patient inquiry, difficulties which at once occur to themselves. I would ask them to ponder well on the fact, that no earnest inquirer has ever come to a conclusion adverse to the reality of the phenomena; and that no spiritualist has ever given them up as false. I would ask them, finally, to dwell upon the long series of facts in human history that Spiritualism explains, and on the noble and satisfying theory of a future life that it unfolds. If they will do this, I feel confident that the result I have alone aimed at will be attained; which is, to remove the prejudices and misconceptions with which the whole subject has been surrounded and to incite to unbiassed and persevering examination of the facts. For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, that every one must find out the truth for himself. It makes no claim to be received on hearsay evidence; but on the other hand, it demands that it be not rejected without patient, honest, and fearless inquiry.
In the number of this periodical for February last, I ventured to give some experiences in reference to a subject which, for more than a decade, has puzzled the researches of the curious, evoked the ridiculc of the ignorant, and opened a new field of inquiry for the thoughtful.
When I undertook to introduce the subject of apparitions, in a hard matter-of-fact age like the present, I was not wholly unmindful of the consequences. I was prepared for incredulity (as a matter of course), and I was equally ready for flat contradiction and the shafts of ridicule. I own, however, that I have been agreeably disappointed. Professional conjurors and show me have certainly continued to palm off their mechanical contrivances and sleight-of-hand for the genuine phenomena; but the tide of public opinion is at, length beginning to turn, and many now condescend to listen and even examine, who a year or two ago were too prejudiced or too apathetic to discuss.
The able and logical articles of Mr. Alfred Wallace, in the May and June numbers of the 'Fortnightly Review,' are admirable contributions to the literature of the most astounding series of researches of which we have any record in modern times. In these papers the writer brings down his experiences to the period when Mr. Crookes, the well-known chemist, and editor of the 'Quarterly Journal of Science,' was enabled, in common with Mr. Varley, the equally famous electrician, to prove, beyond all possibility of doubt, that the apparitions now seen are distinct entities, or real beings; and are not phantoms of the imagination, or the creations of an abnormal condition of the brain.
I have already described, at some length, the apparition and some of 'the attendant phenomena produced through the mediumship of Miss Florence Cook.
Before again referring to more recent experiences acquired at séances when this young lady was present, I propose to narrate equally wonderful but, in some respects, different phenomena, brought about when another medium was the passive agent.
In an isolated house in a western county, the attention of the inmates the last twelve months or more been attracted to noises for which they could not account. Articles of furniture were moved without, any one approaching them; objects were carried from one room to another without hands; bells were violently rung when nobody was near them, and many other incidents were noted, of a character to warrant the belief that the house was what is conventionally called 'haunted.' The occupants of the house are Mrs. and Miss Showers, the wife and daughter of Col. Showers, late of the Indian service. Col. Showers is now in India, on business, and the family are known, both in India and in England, to be persons unlikely to be the victims of delusion, and wholly incapable of lending themselves to anything savouring of imposition.
The unaccountable circumstances to which I refer became, in course of time, more surprising and mysterious. Messages were written on pieces of paper and flung down in the rooms in which the ladies were sitting, and in the garden where they were walking; and at length voices were heard, and notably one of a man who gave his name as 'Peter,' and told them that he had endeavoured to communicate with them in the first instance by writing. He gave them to understand that he and others would use the throat of the medium occasionally, and this it seems they do, although Miss Showers is unconscious that her voice organs are thus utilised. I bought to state that this young lady is about the same age as Miss Cook (between seventeen and eighteen), that her appearance and manner are pleasing, that she sings and plays as most young girls of her age do, and that she is perfectly candid, truthful, and unsophisticated. She knows no more about the wonderful faculty she possesses than do her family and friends, and she can have no possible motive or object in attempting to practise anything so foreign to her nature as wilful deception. Her state of health in childhood caused, at one time, some anxiety to her family; but she is now perfectly well.
With regard to Mrs. Showers, I bought, I think, to state that she possesses. in a marked degree, many of those qualities which the parents of eminent men and women have so frequently been endowed with. To a highly cultivated mind she adds unusual powers of discernment, individuality of character, and more than the average of that indispensable commodity—common sense. Such a woman naturally endeavoured to solve, by all the means in her power, the phenomena which took place in her presence. One of the servants of the family is also, I understand, what is termed a 'medium,' a circumstance which may account for the physical character of the manifestations to which I have referred.
Failing, however, to arrive at any intelligible clue to the mystery, Mrs. Showers and her daughter came to town early in the present year, and became acquainted with several persons who, like themselves, were interested in the elucidation of the phenomena. They took apartments in a northern suburb, in order to be near some friends, and here I had the pleasure of being introduced to them. They had heard, of course, of Mr. Home and Miss Kate Fox (now Mrs Jenckin), and they had read with amazement the accounts that had been published of séances with Miss Florence Cook. It is right, however, I should state that they had never met that young lady, and in point of fact, did not meet her until they had been some weeks in
Before describing what occurred on the first occasion when I met Miss Showers, it may be desirable that I should state that the apartment in which the séance was held was a small front drawing-room, with a bow window just large enough to admit a table and a couple of chairs: that there were no shutters or anything to exclude light or observation, save ordinary Venetian blinds. The curtains were of the usual damask, attached to a brass pole; but. as the latter was fixed about a foot or more below the cornice of the ceiling, there was a considerable aperture through which light could be admitted into the space formed by the how window when the curtains were drawn. I am particular in thus describing the situation of the window and of the blinds, for reasons which will be obvious hereafter. The back room was used as a bedroom, a heavy curtain being drawn across the opening usually closed by folding doors. This back room was locked before the séance commenced. The only persons present on this occasion were Mrs and Miss Showers, the friend who introduced me, and myself. The fire was burning very low, and the lamp was extinguished. We sat. quiescently for perhaps ten minutes, when slight knockings were heard on the pillar of the table, and subsequently on the top. The table shortly afterwards gave a sort of lurch, and then rose in the air and tame down with a somewhat heavy thud. Then came a loud, clear voice, with a cheerful tone, saying 'Good evening.'
'Oh, you are come, Peter, are you!' said Mrs. Showers.
'Yes, replied Peter,' 'I am hero;' and he added, 'how are you? 'mentioning the name of the gentleman who accompanied me.
Presently, 'Peter 'said he would sing, if Miss Showers would play the pianoforte; and ho was as good as his word, for he not only sang himself, but brought three or four other voices, who also contributed to the concert thus marvellously improvised.
'Clever ventriloquism, of course,' is the natural reply; but Miss Showers has no ventriloquial gift of any kind, and I have never heard of a well-authenticated case of a young girl singing in a baritone voice, such as we heard on this occasion.
As, however, the argument of ventriloquism is one which it is useless to discuss in an article like this, I shall dismiss it, merely adding that no one who has heard the eight or nine voices speaking in the presence of Miss Showers believes that they are those of the young lady herself, more especially as they sometimes speak in a language utterly unknown to her. But of all the voices, that which attracted mc most emanated from an entity professing to be 'Florence Maple.' The accents were clear and distinct, but, to my mind, ineffably sad. I do not think that any one who has heard that voice can readily forget it. I asked her where she lived, and she replied, in a town in Scotland, the name of which she gave. She said she had passed out of this life about six years ago, after a lingering illness, and that she would be glad to communicate with her family, but was unable to do so. She answered every question put to her readily; but on pressing her to tell me why her voice was so triste in tone, she begged me not to press her on the subject. She promised, however, to show us, if possible, the face and form from which the voice was emanating.
Miss Showers subsequently went behind the curtain; and the table being removed, she seated herself in a chair, while a lighted candle, a roll of
'Peter' talked away, and told us that he was sending 'Rosie' to sleep; but that she was tied so tight that he had some difficulty in doing so. He then sang; and after an interval of some minutes we heard the clear, sad voice of Florence joining in his song.
'Oh, you are there, Florence!' we said, and she answered 'Yes, I am here; would you not like to see me? 'Of course we replied in the affirmative. Mrs. Showers then made an opening in the curtains where they met, by pinning back the folds, and a face appeared. It was that of a female, older, 1 think, than the medium, and equally good-looking. The complexion was pallid, but not unpleasantly so, and the eyes were large, and seemed to look straight out, without turning to the right or left. The head was enveloped in white, and on hair was visible. We could, however, see her hands. She was unquestionably very like the medium, save in one important feature—the nose was straighter. The eyes, too, were larger. She spoke to us; and occasionally the head disappeared, as if in the direction of the medium. She said she had not materialised her body, but would endeavour to do so on a future occasion.
On subsequently drawing aside the curtains, we found Miss Showers in a trance. The tapes were tied precisely as we left them, and the seals were unbroken.
A few nights afterwards, I again had an opportunity of witnessing the phenomena. In this case I was accompanied by a friend, who certainly did not at that time (whatever he may do now) believe in the possibility of apparitions. Miss Showers was told to go into the bedroom; and, having seated herself on the bed, she was subsequently found tied to the metal-work at the foot of it, and sealed with tape and wax provided by myself for the purpose. We then withdrew to the front room; and shortly afterwards the curtain was pushed aside, and out stepped Florence Maple, literally and figuratively 'as large as life.' She had a head-dress similar to that worn the preceding night, as also a long white robe, fastened up to the throat and sweeping the carpet. I advanced to meet her; and she took my hand, and sat beside me on the sofa. The lamp was on the mantel-shelf, and she said the light was too strong for her. I offered to reduce it, but she got up and did it herself. She went to the piano and played and sang. My friend asked whether he might approach her, and she at once acquiesced, without making any condition whatever. He came up and scrutinised her features,
'I am not, I assure you, the medium,' said Florence, in her softest accents; and she added, 'I know I am very like her.'
I pointed out to my friend that the figure was taller than Miss Showers, and she said,' Yes, I am taller.'
On this occasion the apparition returned only twice or thrice, and then for a moment or two only to the medium. She was, I should think, about three-quarters of an hour in the room with us. On eventually entering the, back room to release the medium, we found her tied and sealed precisely as we had left her. How she got back again into her ligatures was a puzzle to my friend, who no doubt found a solution (as nearly everybody else would have done under similar circumstances) for the rest of the manifestations in ventriloquism, and in the dexterity with which the young lady had slipped out of the tapes and dressed herself up to play the part of a ghost!
On another occasion, when Miss Showers was securely fastened behind the curtain, and when 'Peter' was singing, and when the apparition was out in the room talking to us, the servants of a friend who accompanied me were standing outside with the carriage, so that no person could (as has been hinted) have got access to the room from the street, to help, in an imposture.
But, happily for Miss Showers, as also for Miss Cook, who may have been unjustly suspected, the period was approaching for their vindication. The attempt had been made to seize and detain the figure of' Katie King' at Mr. Cook's and had caused much concern to Miss Cook and her family. The former felt all the pain with which a generous and sensitive mind is penetrated at being the object of unworthy suspicion, and the latter were equally anxious to vindicate their honesty and fair fame; for it is idle to deny that, if Miss Cook had been guilty of deception, every member of her family must have been equally compromised with her. It was under these circumstances that' Florence Maple' was asked, if possible, to allow the medium to be seen with her at one and the same moment. This, it was hoped, would be sufficient to disarm the most sceptical, and to silence the ridicule of the ignorant. I need scarcely say that this test was not considered by any means necessary by those who had traced the phenomena through all their stages, who had adopted, without the detection of imposture, every test and contrivance that ingenuity could devise, and who knew the character of the media. They felt, however, that as the bona-fides of Miss Cook had been doubted (chiefly on account of the similarity of the apparition the medium), and as a gross outrage had been committed upon her, and might be perpetrated on other mediums in similar positions, it was all-important that the apparition and the medium should not only be seen simultaneously, but should actually be touched and felt. Those who are acquainted with the phenomena have reason to believe that any seizure of the apparition may have an injurious effect upon the medium, so subtle and sympathetic is the chain of communication between them. Seeing both and touching both was the crucial test, so to speak, because the phenomena are so astounding that even well-intentioned and can did persons, anxious to ascertain the truth, but still prejudiced in favour of ignorance, and the accepted traditions of science, could never be brought to believe in their genuine character unless the senses of vision as well as of touch were both satisfied. Representations on this subject were, I believe, made both to 'Katie King' and 'Florence Maple,' and both promised that, if possible, the test should be given.
It was, consequently, with no ordinary sense of satisfaction that I
We subsequently returned to the front drawing-room; and Miss Showers having taken a scat in an easy-chair immediately behind the sliding door in the back room, the curtain was drawn over the opening, the lamp was turned down, and we waited the result. 'Peter' spoke, as usual, and sang; and in a short time we recognised the voice of 'Florence,' and 'Florence' herself came out and advanced to the farther end of the room, where we were seated. She spoke to us in a less sedate manner than usual, moved about the room from place to place, and seemed immensely pleased with a fan that I had brought her, and which was eventually found in the lap of the medium when the séance was over. As Mrs. and Miss Showers were to leave town the following day, and knowing the importance of getting the crucial test on that occasion, I said to 'Florence.' 'I want you particularly to give me a test that must satisfy everybody.' She replied, 'I will if I can. 'I then said, 'I want to see you and the medium together, as you know it is said that you are so like the medium that you must be one and the same person.' Her answer was, 'I will try.' No condition of any kind was imposed. 'Florence' then went behind the curtain, and a minute or two afterwards reappeared, and, beckoning mc forward, said, 'Come and sec her.' I responded immediately, and crossing the room, stood beside the figure. She was then, I should add, taller than the medium, and, to my view, had a certain angularity of form which I had never observed in Miss Showers. She then drew aside the curtain with her left hand, and, pointing with her right, said,' Look!" There, seated in the chair as we had left her, but with her head thrown over her left shoulder, and the right side of her face visible, was unquestionably the immobile and unconscious form of Miss Showers! There could be no mistake about it. It was no delusion. She was there beyond all possibility of doubt. Having satisfied myself on this point, I returned to my seat; but on the reappearance of 'Florence' immediately afterwards, I said, 'will you give me one more test to satisfy me?' The answer was, as before, 'I will if I can; but what is it?' I replied, 'I want this crowning test: I want to follow you instantly behind the curtain; and I wish to place the light so that I can see well into the room.'
I returned to my seat perfectly satisfied—firstly, that the apparition was a thoroughly materialised form, instinct with intelligence; and secondly, that it could disappear at will, by making itself instantaneously invisible. This latter phase of the phenomena I look upon as even more marvellous than the materialisation.
In connection with materialisation and immaterialisation, this may be a convenient place to refer to an objection taken by many persons but partially acquainted with the phenomena, and which, I admit, is not capable of satisfactory explanation off-hand. I have, for instance, heard people say, '"Why should a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes elapse, between the hearing of the second voice and the appearance of the form from which it proceeds? and why should the interval be occupied with music, singing, conversation, &c.?' The question is reasonable enough, it must be owned, although it may not be answered in such a manner as to banish suspicion from a prejudiced mind. The question has been put to the form when visible and invisible, and the answer invariably is that music promotes harmony (an essential element of success), and that when the sitters are singing and in conversation it becomes easier to draw power from them. Whatever be the measure of belief that such answers are calculated to inspire, the necessity no longer exists for either raising the objection or supplying the rejoinder. As a matter of indisputable fact, the apparition now appears without that suspicious interval to which I have referred, and which many persons thought was devoted to the undressing of the medium preparatory to playing the part of a 'ghost.' On several recent occasions, and in the presence of persons of undoubted credit and veracity, the apparition known as 4 Katie King' or 4 Annie Morgan' has appeared within two or three minutes after the medium has become entranced. She has come arrayed in white, with a veil, and head-dress, and naked feet, while the medium has at the some time been seen costumed in her ordinary attire, and with her usual shoes and stockings. Moreover, the medium, when entering the room, had been observed to wear ear-rings, while the ears of 'Katie King' were undecorated, and had never even been pierced! This is certainly hard to get over; but harder still remains behind.
The apparition in question having repeatedly informed Miss Cook and
littérateur, and editor of the 'Art Journal,' having asked a variety of questions, was favored with a special test. Just before the conclusion of the sitting, 'Katie' threw back the curtain, and said to Mr. Crookes, 'Turn up the gas as high as you can, and let Mr. Hall come in.' Mr. Hall rushed behind the curtain, but declared that he could see nothing but the impassive form on the carpet. 'Katie' had instantaneously disappeared.
On Saturday, the 16th of May, a séance very similar in character was held in the same house; and 'Katie' again assured us that, as the three years within which alone she should show herself would expire on the following Thursday, (the 21st of May), she wished certain persons who had witnessed the development of the phenomena to be present. It was also arranged that some further photographic experiments should be made by Mr. Crookes under a magnesium light. These were made on the following Wednesday (20th May). On this occasion I was the only stranger present, the rest of the sitters consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Cook and the members of Mr. Crookes' own family. The cabinet was improvised in this manner. The swab of a sofa and a pillow were laid on the floor of the library. One of the folding doors was then shut, and a curtain was loosely hung over the aperture thus caused. Miss Cook lay down on the cushion, and we sat in the adjoining room, used by our host as his laboratory. In a very few minutes, without any prelude for music or singing, we heard the voice of 'Katie,' and immediately afterwards she drew aside the curtain and stood before us. She was, beyond all question, taller, stouter, and more developed than the medium; while her hair was much longer, and seemed to be of a light chestnut colour. She spoke to me, and expressed her regret that I could not be present at her final séance the following evening. She allowed me to feel her arm and hand, and touch her ringlets, so that I might be assured that they were real for all present purposes. She subsequently bore a stronger light, and then we distinctly saw the form of Miss Cook, but with a shawl thrown over her head. She requested Mrs. Crookes to bring her chair behind the curtain, that she might chat with her unreservedly, as she added that she would never see her again. Mrs. Crookes went accordingly. 'Katie' afterwards broke up a bouquet of flowers, provided for her by Mrs. Crookes; and made up smaller bouquets, presenting one to each person present. Mr. Crookes and others then asked her for some of her hair. Calling for a pair of scissors, she cut a ringlet for Mrs. Crookes, and gave me one about five inches long. It was then discovered to be of that colour which used to be popular with the great Italian painters, and which we see so often in the works of Francia, Raffael, Dominichino, and others. Mr. Crookes subsequently asked for a ringlet, but stipulated that he should be allowed to cut it himself from the roots; and this was permitted, without the slightest remonstrance or condition of any kind. I ought to add hero that the hair of the medium is short for a female, and nearly black.
The camera was then prepared for photographing the figure, and the process was substantially similar to that adopted at the house of Miss Cook's father, a twelve-month ago. 'Katie' bore the intense glare without shrinking, and I can only compare her figure to an illuminated statue in Parian
The figure was as I myself saw it photographed at Hackney, with the agency of magnesium light. The operator in this case was Mr. W. H. Harrison, a gentleman well known in connection with scientific and daily newspaper literature in the metropolis. Mr. Harrison is a very matter-of-fact person, and is not at all disposed to take anything for granted when scientific truth is the object of investigation.
As absolute exactitude is necessary in describing the process by which so astounding a result as the photographing of a materialised apparition was accomplished, I have asked Mr. Harrison to relate in his own words the S modus operandi:—
'Many conditions had to be complied with to secure successful results. A harmonious circle was necessary, that the medium might be at ease, free from all care and anxiety, in order that the manifestations should be given with the greater power. It was necessary that the medium should not sit too frequently, and have little to do at other times, so as to reserve power and vital energy for the séances. In short all the conditions which Spiritualists know to favour good manifestations were supplied as nearly as possible on this occasion.
'The cabinet being in one of the corners of a room in the basement of the house, the light was too weak, and not in the best direction for photographic purposes. For the same reason that spirits can always handle old musical instruments better than new ones, and "at the manifestations are usually stronger after a medium has lived for some time in the house, it was not desirable to make a new cabinet, the old one being well charged with imponderable emanations from the medium, of which science at present knows nothing, It was, therefore, thought desirable to use the old cabinet, and to do the photographing by the magnesium light.
'Magnesium ribbon will not ignite readily at a desired moment, and sometimes goes out unexpectedly, so would be liable to cause many failures. As both materialised spirit forms and photographic plates deteriorate rapidly after they are prepared in perfection, it was necessary to have a light which should not fail at a critical moment.
'Accordingly, magnesium powder mixed with sand was used, on the principle devised by Mr. Henry Larkins. A narrow deal board, three feet long, was nailed to a base-board, and firmly held in a vertical position. A Bunsen's burner, to consume gas mixed with common air, was fixed horizontally through the vertical board, and an indiarubber tube supplied the burner with common gas. The end of a funnel was then brought close to the gas-flame. When some magnesium powder and sand were poured into the latter the stream caught fire, and produced a flame of dazzling brilliancy. The larger the proportion of magnesium in the powder, the larger was the flame; and the best results were obtained with a flame averaging two feet in length, and lasting for five or six seconds.
'As might be expected, there was more success in obtaining positives than negatives, as a shorter exposure would do for the former. The ordinary processes were used—namely, a thirty-five grain nitrate of silver bath, and proto-sulphate of iron development. Mawson's collodion. A half-plate camera and lens were used, with a stop rather less than an inch in diameter, between the front and back combinations of the lens.'
As already stated, I was prevented by another engagement from witnessing the final departure of 'Katie King,' on the 21st of May; but I am
'On the 21st inst., the occasion of 'Katie's' last appearance amongst us, she was good enough to give me what I consider a still more infallible proof (if one could be needed) of the distinction of her ideality from that of her medium. When she summoned me in my turn to say a few words to her behind the curtain, I again saw and touched the warm breathing body of Florence Cook lying on the floor, and then stood upright by the side of 'Katie,' who desired me to place my hand inside the loose single garment which she wore, and feel her body. I did so thoroughly. I felt her heart beating rapidly beneath my hand; and passed my fingers through her long hair, to satisfy myself that it grew from her head, and can testify that, if she be of 'psychic force,' psychic force is very like a woman.
"Katie' was very busy that evening. To each of her friends assembled to say good-bye she gave a bouquet of flowers tied up with ribbon, a piece of her dress veil, a lock of her hair, and a note which she wrote with her pencil before us. Mine was as follows: 'From Annie Owen de Morgan (alias Katie King) to her friend_____, with love. Pensez à moi. souvenirs for her friends, there was not a hole to be seen in it, examine it which way you would. It was the same with her veil, and I have seen her do the same thing several times.'
I may add that I have seen the pieces of cloth cut from the tunic. Another eye-witness tells me that fifteen or sixteen pieces were cut in his presence, and that the front of the skirt 'looked like a cullender,' but all that' Katie' did to restore it to its original shape was to bring the folds together with her hands, and then shake them out, when the skirt was found to be whole and entire as before! I do not presume to supply a solution for this or any other phase of the phenomena.
In drawing attention to the subject, it is not my desire to speculate, much less to dogmatise. All I care to do is to invite candid inquiry, But to secure this I find to be a matter of enormous difficulty. Here is an illustration. Wishing to attract a friend—a man of great ability in the scientific world, and an admitted authority on those subjects, which may be regarded as his specialities—I addressed him thus: 'You are an F.S.R!., a deep thinker, and widely known for your scientific attainments; therefore, what you say will carry weight. Will you accompany me to a private house, and see a non-professional medium? Satisfy yourself by every possible expedient that your ingenuity can devise that imposture is impossible, and tell me what you think of it.' The answer was, 'I don't believe in it, and I don't care to take up any new things; but I will meet any man you like on my own ground!'
This response might be reasonable enough when all that was known of the phenomena was limited to table-turning, rappings, bell-ringing, and the other elementary, and possibly frivolous, indications of a physical power exterior to the body. But the phenomena have passed out of the realm of conjecture, and have entered the region of fact. Science may still fold its arms and stand aloof. It did the same in all the earlier developments of those great discoveries which will make the Victorian ago the grandest epoch of
I admit, with the utmost frankness, that what I have related as perfectly true is, at the same time, as diametrically opposed to all the researches of science as to all the traditions of probability. When I assert that two ladies and three gentlemen sit down in a room, and that room in their own house, and lock the door, and that they are shortly after joined by another individual (making the party six, instead of five), and that the sixth, in the form of a woman, talks with them for an hour, sings, plays, walks about, and does many things that they do, and that she then throws back the curtain by which she entered and shows you the living form of the fifth, and permits you at one and the same time to feel her, and also feel the insensible figure to which she points, and which you recognise as the fifth—then I say that an astounding and inexplicable fact has been established, which challenges the attention of the thoughtful, and demands all the scrutiny that science can bring to bear upon it.
I advance no theories of my own to explain or account for what I have seen. All I lay claim to is critical accuracy for my description of experiences, acquired in many cases under circumstances which would have given me especial facilities for the detection and exposure of fraud. I found none. My story, and those of others far more competent to deal with the subject, may be discredited. We care not. We can afford to wait. Time is on our side. Facts which to-day are contemptuously denied will to-morrow be admitted and vindicated. Out of the mists of ignorance and prejudice a light will be evolved. Through the rifts in the clouds that obscure the future I think I can discern a form that, in the fulness of time, will assume the majestic image of Truth.
As I told you, in announcing this lecture last Sunday, I have no liking whatever for the subject of to-day, neither do I find any pleasure in speaking of the sayings and doings of other people: but it is well that you should know what is going on in the world around you, and it is necessary to test prominent popular teachings by the standards which we, whether rightly or wrongly, believe to be safe and true. In the present case, however, there are special reasons for dealing with this subject. Mr. Moody has been accepted by millions as the messenger of God and the medium for the operations of the Holy Ghost. He is admired, believed in, and widely accepted, as a modern evangelist or prophet, set apart by God to bring the nations to His feet. It is impossible, therefore, to avoid the conclusion that we who stand alone in standing aloof from his teachings and work should justify ourselves before the world.
I might have attempted to give a general and comprehensive view of Mr. Moody's teaching, or I might have chosen some other topic, such as the possibility of instant conversion, or the reasonableness of salvation by faith or emotion, or the value of his favourite doctrine of redemption through blood: but I prefer to consider this sermon of his on Hell for this reason mainly,—that everything turns upon it. He came here because of Hell, his work is to save people from Hell. To use his own words in this very sermon, (which let me explain, appears verbatim in an organ of the movement—"Signs of Our Times") —"If I believed there was no Hell," he said, "I am sure I would be off to-morrow for America." He added, "You would not find me here, going from town to town, spending day and night preaching and proclaiming the Gospel, and urging men to escape the damnation of Hell. I would go back to my own country, and take things easy." That, then, is his own account of it; so that the subject of Hell is the subject. He came here because of Hell; he preaches in order to save people from Hell; the whole thing is a piece of fireworks, ending in smoke, if his Hell is not the reality he says it is. Another thing must be explained. In spite of the disclaimer that has been now and then put forth, Mr. Moody makes much of this subject of Hell. How could it be otherwise? He comes on purpose to warn us,
The sermon before me is his last on the subject, but it is only one of many,—it is neither better nor worse than his others on the same subject: though, if anything, it is milder, less brutal and less indecent, than some of the others. I use those two words "brutal" and "indecent" deliberately. More than once,—once, to my knowledge, in Manchester and once in London, he pictured good "beautiful girls" in Hell—not because they were wicked, but because, to use his favourite phrase, they were "out of Christ," or, in plain English, because they could not agree with Mr. Moody, and accept what he told them about salvation by blood. He pictured those girls as given over by Satan in Hell to the lusts of his devils, with not even a policeman to hear or help them. I call that both indecent and brutal: what else it is, in reference to God, Jesus, and the angels, I shall shew presently. In this very sermon, he still harps on these girls, in a way that suggests unpleasant feelings about the speaker. He tells how he saw a "lady" weeping at the door of the inquiry room, but a "woman" came and "shoved" him away: these are his own words. The hopeful emotional person was a "lady," the person who interposed was a "woman," and lie says she "shoved him away," telling him that the "lady" was her daughter, and that she did not wish her "to be associated with Christians." A most improbable story, and one that would probably resolve itself into a thoughtful mother doing her best to save her child from hysterics,—a piece of good sense which, quite in the fashion of the Moodys and Talniages of the day, was at once magnified into the falsehood of her saying she did not wish her daughter to be associated with Christians,—a thing scarcely any woman would say. Mr. Moody in telling that story, cried out "Is there such a mother here to-night?" followed by "May God have mercy upon you!" and this,—"It is a thousand times better for your daughter and your children to be associated with Christians than it is to have them go down to death and be associated with fiends as eternal ages go on." That is bad enough, but worse follows. Mr. Moody is not content with the brutal and vulgar threat of eternal fiends if the young lady is not allowed to go into hysterics, —or, not to jest about it, if she is not allowed to go into his inquiry room and "find Christ;"—but he goes on, in his too familiar style, to drag in again the old indecent picture of this young lady with the libertines of Hell. He seems to like it, and I must say that the frequent occurrence of this particular picture suggests the most serious thoughts about his own state of mind. He goes on to say;—"If a young lady, going home to-night, should be spoken to by some drunken man, how alarmed she would be; but did you ever think that in that lost world libertines and drunkards and murderers shall be your companions?"
Now I am going to use some plain language about that. First, I say that it is a burning disgrace to the British people that such brutal thoughts and brutal and essentially vulgar language should be encouraged, in the name of religion: second, that it is provocative of mournful thoughts that the man who habitually indulges in such abominable ideas and speeches should be the most popular evangelist of the day, endorsed as such, not only by the mob, but by my lords and my ladies in the capital itself. I say this reveals where we really are on the subject of religion: it shews that, in regard to our thoughts of God and the future, we are only at the barbaric stage, and that a mighty revolution must be accomplished before the country generally, in matter's pertaining to religion, can be considered either rational or humane. To vast multitudes, the old theory of religion is infallibly true. Man was created pure and happy: he fell, dragging down in his fall all races and generations of mankind. The result of that fall was exposure to the wrath of God and the punishment of eternal Hell. Christ came, to bleed and die in our stead. God accepts the vicarious sacrifice. We have nothing to do but believe: salvation is then secure: but unbelief, or being "out of Christ," will end in the misery of that eternal Hell. That is the theory; and, though Unitarians in their complacency, are apt to imagine it is dying out, it is still, as Mr. Moody's success proves, the ruling faith of the British people.
And yet, anything more barbaric, more inhuman, more horribly cruel and hideously unjust, could not be conceived. This "young lady" who is weeping at Mr. Moody's door is not a wicked person: she is anxious and interested even, she would shudder if, in going home, a drunken man spoke to her: yet, in Hell, "libertines and drunkards and murderers" will be her "companions" if she fail to "find Christ." Why 1 Mr. Moody leaves us alone with the shameful atrocity, unjustified and unexplained. When people are punished here on earth, even by imperfect men, they are punished for something, and their punishment has some relation to their offence. We should think it scandalous to punish a child as we punish a man: we should thing it monstrous to punish the thief who steals a loaf of bread, as we punish the swindler who heaped up riches by forgery and lying. For a first offence we do not punish as for a second or a third. All kinds of considerations are introduced to make the scales of justice true. Some young criminals are not even punished at all, but are sent to a reformatory—a kind of compulsory school; and, when they learn to do well, they are gladly admitted to the open world, and have free course among their fellows. Now will anyone tell me why this that is right with men should be all wrong with God? Why, even with wicked women who have to be imprisoned, it is our custom to keep them apart from "libertines, and drunkards, and murderers;" and, from one end of the country to the other, there would be a cry of horror if in. the obscurest prison even the worst women were subjected to the horror of being turned loose and unprotected upon the society of other prisoners, known to be "libertines,
He who has ordained the allotments of the future life; it is He who has declared that all who are "out of Christ" shall be damned; it is He who will turn "beautiful" young girls into Hell, regardless alike of justice, humanity, or the credit of His own name or reign. Some one ought to brand that as an insult to Deity; someone ought to make a stand for the honour of the Almighty; someone ought to speak a word for the God of Jesus; someone ought to say that this is blasphemy, as horrible as it is infamous; someone ought to say that the man who uttered this atrocity should have been sent from this country, followed, not by benedictions and adulation, but by stern sharp words of sober British sense. But we are farther behind than we hoped we were: the religion of the nation is still the religion of brutality and fear: the dread of Christendom is Hell; its hope is Blood; and it is left for a Unitarian—like the voice of one crying in the wilderness—to rebuke this horrible profanity, and speak a word for Humanity and God.
But the worst half of this miserable picture of Hell remains. This poor girl being surrendered to the "libertines and drunkards and murderers," one naturally asks;—And what about the saved in Heaven? The answer Mr. Moody gives tells us as much about Heaven as Hell, and the answer is a frightful impeachment of "the redeemed." On earth, if this "young lady" were spoken to by a drunken man going home, she would have help not far away. The British public, with all its selfishness and sin, has even taxed itself to provide policemen for the protection of decent girls: and if no policeman were by, the man would be a dastardly coward and no man who would not take his place to protect her. Nay, if we knew of but one village in the land where young girls were exposed to the dangers of the streets, defenceless against "libertines and drunkards," to say nothing of "murderers," the country would be aroused, to man that village with maintainers of order, security and law. But, in Mr. Moody's Hell, all is chaos, and riot, and ruin, with not even a policeman to protect "young ladies" against indecent, drunken, or murderous fiends. But what I want to know is;—where are the saved all this while?—what has become of the philanthropists, the reformers, the teachers of this lower world? Mr. Moody tells us. He declares that not one will lend a hand; not one will ever say a word, or aim a blow, for the rescue of the lost. These are his words;—"There will be no Bible in the lost world." If you get into that lost world, there will be no minister to pray for you, no earnest sermons preached there. . . . Bear in mind, there will be no friend to come and put his hand upon your shoulder, and speak loving words to you there. . . . You will not have friends in that lost world. . . You may have a Praying wife now that weeps over you, . . but there will be no wife there to weep over you
Then I want to know what has happened to them all. I want to know what has happened to that "praying wife." I want to know what horrible miracle has been wrought upon her that she can be a saint in glory, content and happy, while her once loved husband is panting and screaming in Hell.
Think of the millions of wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends in Heaven, who have husbands, wives, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, friends in Hell. What are they all doing? Why do they not all clamour and cry at the very gate of Heaven, and beseech the good Lord of Glory to let them out, that they may at least try whether they cannot save that which is lost? How can they bear the hateful splendour, the glory, the ravishing music, the unbroken calm? Shame upon angelic fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, if they are happy, while millions of lost children, and parents, and brethren, and friends are in Hell! O beautiful angels! break the strings of your golden harps, or hang them on the willows of some new Babylon! Cry, as poor earth-captives once cried, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" for you are captives, and in a strange land, if your kindred and your children are in Hell.
But kindred and friends are not all. What of the noble spirits of all ages and nations, the choice souls who on earth lived to teach the ignorant, save the fallen, restore the wandering, and help the weak? What has happened to them, that they seek and save no more? And what has happened to Jesus of Nazareth? On earth he went about doing good: he sought out the sinner, he spoke hopefully to the most despairing, he turned no sorry soul away. But what does Mr. Moody say? He says, in this sermon:—"You came here tonight to hear Mr. Sankey sing 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by;' but bear in mind you will not hear that song in the lost world: or, if you do, it will not be true—He does not pass that way." How does Mr. Moody know? Or if he is right, I want to know why Jesus does not pass that way: I want to know if he has nothing to say about that young girl and the "libertines, drunkards, and murderers": I want to know whether he is tired, or helpless, or hopeless. I want to know who is responsible for this gigantic horror,—that Hell is supremely wretched, supremely hopeless, and full of cruelty, injustice, and crime, and that Heaven makes no effort to mitigate, instruct, or save. Someone must be responsible for the hopeless misery of Hell, and someone must be responsible for the horrible selfishness or inability of Heaven; and it is an urgent question,—Who?
Mr. Moody says of the lost, "If they would, they could not" receive Christ and find mercy. Why? Who has ordained that? Who has given life to men under this horrible condition, that they shall have no real chance here, and then be shut up to hopeless inability forever? Who has made improvability a fact of this life only? Who has decreed that the first few steps—the first experiment—of life shall determine its eternal character? Who is it that has so ordered
So God has ordered it. Then I say plainly;—If such a God there be, He is Himself the Arch-Demon of the Universe; His cruelty is unspeakable, His injustice is immeasurable, His rule is the most detestable of tyrannies, His Heaven is the scandal of the Universe, and it is shameful to be saved.
When I proceed to inquire how Mr. Moody knows that all he says on this subject is true, I find a reply. In this sermon he says: "There was a time when I did not believe it, but God revealed it to me." He does not tell us how God "revealed" these horrors to him, but I presume he relies upon a few stale texts which seem to threaten eternal torments, and of which he has made the most, with the help of an hysterical temperament, a morbid imagination, and a tricky style of oratory. Of these texts I will say nothing, for I cannot stay to dispute the meaning of a Greek adjective when the question is the very honour and character of God. But God is "revealing" Himself in other ways than by means of half-a-dozen texts. He is revealing Himself in the human heart, in the human conscience, in the human intellect, in the common charities, the common justice, and the common humanities of life; and all these revolt against Mr. Moody's barbaric Theology, his savage Deity, and his brutal Hell.
Mr. Moody says much in this sermon that I do not care either to repeat or to reply to. He tells a story of a man who died declaring his" damnation" was "sealed," which I solemnly declare I do not believe; the story lacking nearly every internal evidence of credibility, and having nearly every characteristic of the old stock stories of the kind. But if the story be true, it is a ghastly illustration of the effect of Mr. Moody's teaching, for, as he himself unwittingly confesses, it was his persistent haunting of this man with threats of perdition that affected him in his weak condition, that clouded his last moments, and sent him to his grave with the cry that he was lost. And so, says Mr. Moody, with a sickening mixture of the revivalist, the actor, and the vampire, and so "he lived a Christless life, and died a Christless death, we wrapped him in a Christless shroud, nailed him in a Christless coffin, and bore him to a Christless grave." "O how dark," he adds, "O how sad." Nay, but I reply,—O how sickening, 0 how tricky! I suppose his hearers would weep, and make haste to close with his oft-repeated offer,—' Don't delay; better come straight away now.' O it is pitiful! This man talks about being "in Christ," about "finding Jesus." Did it never occur to him to reverse it, and to picture Jesus finding us? They buried Mr. Moody's friend in a "Christless grave," and left him to his Christless Hell, and Mr. Moody has no spark of hope for him! God help us to regard it all as a horrible nightmare! God help us to trust Him, and to believe that Hell is not eternally hopeless, that Heaven is not eternally selfish. The poor soul stumbling from earth, confused and blind and harassed and ignorant, does not deserve to be thrust down
[Copies of this Lecture can be had free by post, from Mr. Hopps, Crosshill, Glasgow, at the rate of one penny each.]
"Multum in parvo emphatically describes this publication. There is indeed much in little. Under the following heads:—God, The Holy Spirit, Man, Immortality, Religion, Duty, Conscience, Sin, Rightcousuess, Punishment, Hell, Reward, Heaven, Salvation, Pardon, Faith, Revelation, The Bible, Jesus, and the Church—Mr. Hopps has said things much needed by young people. . . . Children well read in this book will be prepared, in great degree, for the battle of life, and it is also fitted to help those of larger growth. Mr. Hopps has indeed given, as he hopes he has in his preface, 'in a concise and systematic form, a general view of religious ideas that are, as a rule, unfairly judged because they are grievously misunderstood.'"
"The best thanks, not only of the Sunday-school teacher, but of every minister, are due to Mr. Hopps for this valuable and suggestive work. The author says that the book is intended for the young and teachers of the young, but no less adapted is it for the highest clssses in the school; indeed, here our adult classes have the book which they have so long needed, one that is worth earnest study during the week, and then on the Sunday afternoon to be discussed by the members together in the class-room. In these lectures such subjects as God, The Holy Spirit, Man, Immortality, Religion, Duty, Sin, Heaven, Hell, Jesus Christ, The Church, are briefly yet ably and clearly discussed. Our teachers have often asked for a book which should enable them to give an account of the faith that was in them, and explain the fundamental truths of religion to their scholars. In this book all will find invaluable assistance, for it appeals alike to teachers of every 'school '; indeed, seldom, if ever, have we found a book so doctrinal, and yet so absolutely unscetarian. There is hardly a single sentence which anyone, whatever may be their own doctrinal position, can wish away."—The Sunday-School Teacher's Manual.
"Twenty short sermons for children, each with a few stanzas appended, on the great themes of God and the Spirit; on Man and the Immortal Life; on Religion, Duty, and Conscience; on Sin, Righteousness, Punishment, Hell, Reward, and Heaven; on Salvation and Pardon; on Faith, Revelation, and the Bible; on Jesus and the Church. The doctrine is high, and rational, and true; the words are simple, clear, and fervent; the tone is positive and not polemic; and the spirit is noble. Mr. Hopps has printed nothing better than these short discourses. They are as good for men and women as for children, and we bespeak for them a wide circulation in their convenient form."— The Christian Register.
London: Trübner & Co., and through all Booksellers.
Post free from the Author, Crossbill, Glasgow. Special terms for Schools.
T. Bennett, Steam-Power Printer, 10 Alston Street, Glasgow.
The Rev. John Page Hopps, Crosshill, Glasgow, will send any of the following, by post, on receipt of the prices statea:—
The Truthseeker:
A Monthly Review. Edited by Mr. Hopps.
Containing Original Lectures, &c., on subjects of present and permanent interest. 3d. monthly; 3s. 6d. a year; Two Copies, 6s. a year.
Summer Morning Songs and Sermons. Half-a-crown.
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The Life of Jesus. Re-written for Young Disciples. Fourth Edition. Richly bound in magenta, gilt extra. One Shilling.
Twelve Sunday Morning Prayers: for the Twelve Months of the Year. One Shilling.
Spirit-Life in God the Spirit: A Meditation on God and Immortality. One Shilling.
First Principles of Religion and Morality. Twenty Lectures, mainly for the Young. One Shilling.
Verses by the Way. One Shilling.
Light for Bible Readers: Notes on a Hundred Passages of Scripture, usually quoted to prove the Deity of Christ, the Separate Personality of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Salvation by the Punishment of Christ in our stead, and Everlasting Torments. With an Appendix. A new edition (tenth thousand). Threepence.
The Four Guiding Voices: or, the Absolute Supremacy and Divine Authority of Reason, Conscience, and Love, in all matters pertaining to Faith and Life. A Lecture delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow. Twopence.
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Two Sermons for the Times—"Trust in the Living God," and "Preaching the Gospel." Twopence.
Jesus Christ the Son of God, Not God the Son. A Lecture. Third Edition. Twopence.
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The Future the All-Revealing World. One Penny.
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The increasing demand for ministers, rendered necessary by the extension of the church, led the Synod at its Last meeting to resolve on sending to Scotland for two ministers, of whom one should be appointed for the Gold Fields. A much larger number than this is required to overtake the work of the church, but the heavy expense connected with bringing them from such a distance necessitates the church's proceeding cautiously, in order to avoid the incumbrance of debt. This consideration, together with the increasing facilities for education now enjoyed throughout the country, and the near prospect of a University in full operation in Dunedin, has led some to urge upon the church the desirableness of raising a supply of ministers from among ourselves.
It seems to us that the time has now arrived when this may be carried out. There are now large numbers of youths, born in the country, who are ready to enter on the various professions or employments which will form the business of their lives. The choice of these is more restricted than in the home country, arising from the want of facilities for obtaining the necessary training. Hitherto, the office of the ministry has been regarded by many as unattainable without spending a number of years in the home country in preparation; and some have gone to Britain for this purpose. Now, however, this is quite unnecessary. In fact, for some time past, our church has been training candidates for the Ministry, though under some disadvantage. Henceforth, with our Grammar Schools in the principal centres of population, with the University in Dunedin equipped with a staff of Professors able to overtake the regular branches of an academical course, and with the arrangements for instruction in Theology which the church has already made, and will probably soon place on a more satisfactory footing, there can be no excuse for any who desire to prepare for the work of the ministry, hanging back.
Our church will never be in a satisfactory position until a fair proportion of her young men offer themselves, willingly, for this work. So long as we must depend on bringing ministers from the home country to supply the church here, and to carry on the missionary work on which we have entered in the neighbouring islands of the Pacific, our progress will be
West Taieri.—Presentation to the Rev. W. Gillies.—A deputation from the members of the congregation in West Taieri, Maungatua, and Waipori, waited on the Rev. W. Gillies, and presented him with a handsome phaeton and harness, as an expression of their respect and affection.
The following letter from the Rev. P. Milne, dated "Dillon's Bay, Eromanga, New Hebrides,
"I trust you have received my last letter of the 4th of September, informing you of our arrival at Aneityum. Since then our time has been chiefly spent voyaging among the Islands. We were, on our arrival, recommeded by the brethren to proceed with the Dayspring on both the voyages she was about to make, viz., one to the more southern islands of the group, and the other to Fate and Santo, and some others of the northern, in order that we might see as much of them as possible before settling; which we have done. We have thus seen more of the islands than any new missionary on his first arrival has heretofore done. We have been also allowed the privilege of choosing a place for ourselves, which we have found a somewhat difficult thing to do; seeing, as we have done, so many places, almost all equally open, and equally in need. We have, however, resolved to spend the summer (D.V.) at Dillon's Bay, with a view to our settlement on the south-east side of Eromanga next year. Meanwhile, we must apply ourselves with all our might to the acquisition of the language, without which we could be of little or no use at a station of our own.
"As to our first voyage, it was commenced on the 13th of September. The first island we visited was
taking back the Copelands, after a temporary stay on Aneityum, greater than when they departed, by a baby, a cow, a house, and a canoe. All the people of Fotuna are heathen yet, but a good many atten I church, and those who do not, seemed more friendly to Mr. Copeland on his return, he said, than they used to be. From Fotuna we proceeded to
touching at Aniwa by the way, and anchored in Dillon's Bay on the evening of the 15th. The weather being unusually stormy at this time, we were detained there six days.
"On Saturday the 18th, Mr. M'Nair and I took one of the Day-spring's boats and went round in the lee of the island to a place called
abinferiori, as he calls it. Seating himself on a stone, he opened a bundle of bread and fowls' flesh, and having asked a blessing in the Eromangan language, he began to eat, distributing also to those sitting or standing by. Having finished lunch, he next enquired where the chief was, that personage not having made his appearance, and we both went in the direction of his house in search of him, but being assured by his sons that he was some distance inland, at his plantations, we returned to the people on the beach. Mr. M'Nair there had a short service with them under the shadow of an overhanging cliff. After the singing of a hymn by an Aneitymnese teacher, and a converted Eromangan whom he took with him in the boat, Mr. M'Nair addressed them, and the Eromangan prayed. Some of them listened very attentively. Service being over, and the ab inferiori argument being repeated in the shape of a piece of calico to each of the chief's sons, a piece to his brother, and a few fish-hooks to the rest, we took our departure, shaking; hands and bidding them "good bye," in the Eromangan form, of course, which is Kik e pau, "You are dear," the usual form of salutation both on meeting and parting. A teacher had once been stationed at Bunkil, and had imparted to the people some idea of Jehovah and of the Sabbath. None of them worship Jehovah, but they seem to keep the Sabbath after a fashion. One of them told Mr. M'Mair that they did not work at their plantations on that day, but that they slept on Sunday. On the 22nd, the weather being a little more favorable, we left Dillon's Bay, with Mr. M'Nair on board, and went to a place called Bokil on the north side of the island, and settled a teacher with a chief there who had, of his own accord, applied to Mr. M'Nair for one, and built a house for him. It was nearly sunset when we landed, and as most of the people there live some little distance inland, there were but few on the beach to receive us besides the chief and his nephews.
"We sailed past Portinia Bay, but did not call there, as Mr. Gordon, whose station it is, was absent at Santo. The two following days we spent in making explorations on the south-east side of the island, a good place for a mission station. There are several good boat harbours there, at the mouths of rivers, one of which, at a place called Ifu, is navigable a considerable way up. There are plenty of people there, people who never heard of Jehovah, and plenty of food. Very little is known yet of this side of Eromanga, our visit being the first by any missionary; and still less is known of the south side. No missionary has ever yet been there, yet those places seem to have a larger population than the "lee" side has, and being the "weather" side, they must be the more healthy. We wished to visit a place on the south side called Noras, about fourteen miles from Dillon's Bay, where there is a large population, but as the sea became too rough for landing, we were obliged to leave it for the present. The boat which Mr. M'Nair has at present is too small for going beyond the bay, but he is to get a large one when the Dayspring returns from the colonies next year. He will then be able to visit more distant places.
"Eromanga seems to be more open for the preaching of the gospel now than it has been for many years. The white men who have been such a curse to it, have now all left it, and the people are at peace among themselves. I like the scenery of Eromanga. It is finely diversified with mountains, glens, and rivers. The coast, in general, is rugged, and often looks gloomy. We thought it did especially so at Dillon's Bay, on our first sight of it; which, perhaps, was only from our recollection of the deeds of darkness done there. Dillon's Bay, however, is a lonely place, and when one first sets his foot on shore he feels that he is treading on holy ground. The people of Eromanga are still heathen; there are only eight baptised native adults in it all; but the soil, at least, is Christian, and also the rivers, and the sea, being all already baptised; not, indeed, with water, but with blood. The sea, as you know, at the mouth of the river, on its left bank, was red with the blood of Williams; not many yards up the river, with that of Harris; a little further up, on the same side, but on the high ground, the soil was wet with the blood of the Gordons, whose bodies now rest in the valley below: so that mountain,
"We have seen the grave of the Gordons. It is enclosed by a low white wall of stone and lime. Beside it is buried Kauiaui, the murderer of Williams, and who was also concerned in the murder of the Gordon's. He fell in battle three years ago. His spear and the arrow that killed him are preserved in the present Mr. Gordon's museum. He had, after all, to be indebted to the missionary for his grave; a token, perhaps, of the final victory of Christianity over heathenism on Eromanga. The ground on both sides of the river, for nearly a mile up, is mission property; being purchased from the sandal wood traders at the breaking up of that establishment, and there is a native burial place upon it. I have seen Kauiaui's widow. She is a kind-hearted old woman, and a constant attender at church. His sons also attend church occasionally.
"On the afternoon of Saturday, the 25th, we left Eromanga, and returned to
"The passengers, beside ourselves, were the M'Nairs, going to Aniwa until the return of the Dayspring, for the benefit of Mrs. M'Nair's health, who was suffering from fever and ague; and the Neilsons on their way back to Tanna, having gone to Eromanga some time previous.
"There is now a native church here, consisting of 12 baptised adults, of whom three are chiefs and three children. These are the first fruits of Aniwa, and but newly gathered in, being baptised only about six weeks ago; and what is the more encouraging, all the rest are likely soon to follow. All the people of Aniwa attend church. They have been almost in a state of starvation this year, having little to cat hut cocoa nuts. Owing to the unusual dryness of the season, and the shallowness of the soil at Aniwa, their yams have been a complete failure. The Aniwa men were wishing to go to Tanna, to return a visit which they had from a number of Tanna men some time ago, and to get some food. Accordingly, on Monday, the 27th, with Mr. Neilson, Mr. Paton, and 50 Aniwa men on board, we sailed for
"The first place we visited was Waicisse. The people there still object to either a missionary or teacher coming. 'No place here for missionary; all place here belong a white man. Alan Tanna no like Sunday. Man Tanna like smoke' It seems they had been told by white men that if they took Missionaries, they would have to give up smoking. Tobacco, powder and shot, are valuable articles of trade to white men on these
"Matters are not very encouraging just now on Tanna. As far as I can judge, it seems more closed against the gospel than it was years ago, chiefly through the influence of white men, more wicked than the Tannese themselves, who are settling on the island, cultivating cotton, and making cocoa-nut oil, &c. These prejudice the minds of the natives against both missionaries and teachers, telling them not to receive either. Such we found to be the case not merely at Waicisse, but also at Black Beach, and at a place half-way between Black Beach and Kwamera. There are, however, some rare exceptions, and one, Mr. Smith, whom we saw at Imalau on the west of Tanna, seems to have been one. He told us that if a missionary came to his place he would be very glad, and that if either a missionary or teacher were to come, he would let them have any place on his ground for a house that they might choose, and would render them every assistance in his power. One, Mr. Williams, a nephew of the late Mr. John Williams, missionary in Polynesia, was living with Mr. Smith. We have heard that one of these men has been In a postscript, Mr. Milne slates that he learned that it was Mr. Williams who was killed.killed, we are uncertain which.Kasse-kasse tribe, shot him through the breast, that the ball came out at his back, and that another man, whose name our informant did not know, struck him on the head with his club; that he was then carried away to a small village called Itanmarin, and according to their custom, tied up by the hands to the banyan, or sacred tree, let hang there all night, and next morning, (Sunday,) taken down, cut up, cooked, and distributed among the villages; that a piece of his arm was brought and given to one Kahi, that Kahi
"Sabbath, the 3rd of October, we spent at Port Resolution. Mr. Paton went ashore on the afternoon, and conducted worship with the Aniwa men; and we were glad to learn that they had been worshipping with the Tanna men all round Port Resolution, on the forenoon. As most of the people of Aniwa can speak Tannese, and have the Tanna men friendly to them, I think they are likely to prove very instrumental in the conversion of Tanna. Mr. Paton was not well that day, else, I believe, he would have been ashore preaching to the Tannese on the forenoon. On Monday, he showed me his first wife's grave, and the grave of Mr. Johnstone, also the graves of several Aneityumese that died there. He showed me also where his house stood, and the orange trees, &c., which he planted. No wonder that his heart is still on Tanna. I trust the way may yet be opened up for his return.
"The Tannese were very kind to their friends from Aniwa; they entertained them very hospitably, and sent them away laden with about 40 or 45 tons of pigs and yams. Having taken these and Mr. Paton back to Aniwa on Tuesday, and returned to Port Resolution on Wednesday with Mrs. Neilson and children, whom we left at Aniwa when we were last there, as they did not consider it safe to be at Port Resolution alone, we proceeded to Aneityum, which we reached on the afternoon of Thursday, the 7th of October. So much for our first voyage.
"The object of our second voyage was to take Mr. Gordon back to Eromanga for the summer season, and to give Dr. Geddie an opportunity of visiting some of the small islands to the north of Faté, for the purpose of preparing the way for the settlement of Rarotongan teachers next year.
"We sailed from Aneityum on the 14th of October, and arrived at
on the 23rd, having touched at Tanna, Aniwa, Eromanga, and Faté, by the way. We were glad to find Mr. Gordon well, and apparently, successful in his work. He had got a temporary meeting-house erected, capable of containing some 400 people, and at the morning meeting on the Sabbath we were there, it was full; the audience, consisting of people of both sexes, of all ages, and of all ranks. But more were present on that occasion than usual. Many came not so much for the purpose of hearing the word, as of seeing the strangers. This was at a place called Piliar on the north-west side of Santo. We also visited Cape Lisbourne, at the south-west end. Mr. Gordon had been as far as Cape Lisbourne, one week, by his boat, calling at all the principal villages between.
"Of all the places that I have seen among these islands, none seem so open for missionaries, and so inviting as Santo is. The people there
"1st. There is some prospect of the London Missionary Society's sending missionaries to Santo, for which reason some of the brethren here are opposed to anyone's going there from this Society for the present.
"2nd. Mr. Gordon claims Santo for the Church of New South Wales. He having taken possession of it in her name, thinks that no one has a right to go there as a missionary without first consulting that church.
"Mr. Gordon is not now a member of the New Hebrides Mission. He has resigned all connection with it, for reasons which I do not fully understand. The matter is not yet settled, and I do not know how it will end. The next island we visited, after leaving Santo, was
the largest of the Shepherd's group. We arrived there on Sunday morning, the 31st of October. The Flirt, a brigantine, belonging to Auckland, was anchored there. The object of her visit to the New-Hebrides was to get laborers for Fiji. She had on board about twenty natives of Three Hills Island, and three natives of Tongoa. A Tongoa man (a chief) who came on board of the Dayspring, told us that a little before our arrival he went to the Flirt in his canoe to try to get his countrymen off, and that as one of them was attempting to get into the canoe, a white man on board of the Flirt presented a musket and said that if he took that man away he would shoot him. Soon after this, Captain Fraser went on board of the Flirt to see the captain, who told him that he was not kidnapping natives, and that he was not going to take the Three Hills and Tongoa men that he had on board to Fiji, but that he was merely taking them, at their own request, to the neighboring island Epi, to see their friends, and would return them again to their own islands three days after. Their passage to the Epi and back, we were told, they paid with pigs. That afternoon the Flirt weighed anchor and went in the direction of Epi.
"On Monday, November 1st, we had a good deal of intercourse with
We found the people, on the whole, friendly, and willing to have teachers. They sold us a good many yams. Some of the people on the beach, however, were overheard talking of killing the two white men in charge of the boat sent ashore for the yams. Perhaps they were beginning to have some suspicion, by this time, that they had been deceived by the Flirt.
"A little before sunset we weighed anchor and steered for Gunna, a small island on the north coast of Faté, expecting to reach it by next morning, but the wind being unfavorable for anchoring there, we put into
where we were detained seven days, a favorable wind for anchoring at Tanna never having come.
"Here we heard that the Flirt did not restore the Three Hills and Tongoa men to their own islands at the end of three days, as agreed, but took them, pigs and all, to Fiji. A Faté man who escaped from the Flirt at Mau, another small island on the north coast of Faté where the Flirt called on her way to Fiji, brought us this word; and so also did a Faté lad whom the Flirt's agent in the kidnapping business, (one Jimmy Shangoon, a native of Wea, one of the Loyalty Islands), had taken ashore with him on his leaving the Flirt at Faté. This Jimmy has been before engaged in this way, and is affirmed to have committed several murders while so engaged—attacking canoes, cutting down those that resisted, and carrying off the rest. He is at present residing at Havannah Harbour.
"While we were detained here, word was also brought us that the chief of the other side of Tongoa is greatly enraged just now at white men, owing to a schooner having taken away two of his wives and a number of his people to Port au France, New Caledonia, that he is waiting for an opportunity to take vengeance, and that he intended to come on board of the Dayspring, on the day that we left, with a number of his men, as if in a friendly way, and then suddenly fall on us and kill all the white people on board. We left, however, at daybreak, and thus providentially escaped them.
"I have heard that the captain of one of those slaving vessels having come to an island where he knew Bishop Pattison had been visiting, dressed himself like a bishop, went ashore with a Bible in his hand, and sang psalms in order to allure the natives on board; and that he thus obtained a good many.
"On the sixth day after we came to Havannali Harbour, we visited
by boat. It is distant from Havannah Harbour about eight or ten miles. The people were very, friendly, and would gladly receive either a missionary or teachers. Dr. Geddie promised them teachers next year. Gunna would also be a good mission station. By means of his boat, a missionary would be within reach of Mau, and also the mainland of Faté opposite. Havannah Harbour would be an excellent mission station, but it does not seem so open yet as the places mentioned above.
"On Wednesday, the 10th November, we left Havannah Harbour and came to Panga, Mr. Cosh's station. The work there is progressing very favorably. All the people of Panga attend church now, and the Erakor people are still standing steadfast.
"On the afternoon of Saturday, the 13th, we reached Eromanga, and landed Mr. Gordon at his station at Portinia Bay. His house is beautifully situated in a lovely and romantic place. Some of the people had been talking of burning his house, and the Christian natives had been watching it to prevent them. No damage, however, was done, except by the rats, which had made an attack on his books, &c. Worship had been conducted in his absence by the natives themselves. Their meeting-place is an old war-cave.
"Having landed Mr. Gordon, we proceeded to Aniwa to take Mrs. M'Nair back to her own station, and on the morning of Tuesday, the 16th November, we found ourselves again in Dillon's Bay,
"Here our voyage ended. Having got our boxes, &c., ashore, we bade good-bye to the Dayspring, and she, immediately, without casting anchor, glided slowly away, intending, I believe, to call again at Aniwa, at Port Resolution, and at Fotuna on her way to Aneityum.
"We are both quite well. Neither of us have had fever and ague yet, and I trust never shall. I think we are likely to stand the climate very well.
Call.—The 'Glasgow Herald' understands the Rev. Henry Batchelor, of Elgin Place Chapel, Glasgow, has been invited to succeed the Rev. Mr. Binney in the pastorate of Weigh-House Chapel, London.
At the last Synodical meeting of the Presbyterian Church in Dunedin, Mr. Honore, Maori Missionary, in comparing some of the Maori practices with Spiritism, called it a "polite superstition," and to our mind he was not far from the truth. If, however, the superstition be polite, it is not so clear that the professors of it are either modest or polite. No doubt, hard things have been said about them; and, as a matter of course, it is to be expected that they should say hard things in return; especially when they find men, and in particular teachers of religion, so stupid as not to be convinced by the multitude of their facts, and so stubborn as to remain unmoved by their scientific conclusions. Perhaps we might be allowed to suggest to the apostles of the New Faith, that men do not always reject a new thing because they have not examined it; sometimes it happens that they reject what is new because it is not true; and such we believe is the case in regard to Spiritism.
Our object in the present article is indicated in a general way by the heading; that object is to compare and contrast Spiritism with Christianity—rather, perhaps, with certain aspects of Christianity than with it as a whole. This course, to a certain extent, is forced upon us by the tactics of a considerable portion of the Spiritists. It is well known that Spiritists are much divided in regard to the place and position which should be assigned to Bible religions. Some of them take very low views of the whole matter; others hold more modified opinions, and speak with respect of Bible teachings as confirmatory of their views, and allege that these teachings are confirmed by what is taking place every day among themselves. This opinion appears to be gaining strength of late in the ranks of Spiritism; hence the necessity of keeping clearly before our minds the essential character of this system, which, we believe, eats out the very vitals of all true religion, while it appears to respect the Word of God.
How the state of things just indicated has been brought about we do not profess to explain; but we feel sure that Spiritists did not work out from Bible facts, or phenomena, as a centre, to their present position. The claim that they have the Bible on their side, must, we think, be looked upon as an afterthought; and whatever may have been the original intention of the idea, the use now made of the assumption is very treacherous. Spiritists take advantage of former prejudices, former beliefs, etc., to introduce into some minds an antagonistic belief, as if it were an identical one. They say to the unwary—Our doctrine is substantially the same as the doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles, from which doctrine the Church has turned aside; and this goes down with many who would otherwise be guarded. Here Spiritists take rank with all errorists in matters
In this matter, Spiritists are chargeable with a manifest fallacy. They assume that two systems are substantially the same, because they hold some things in common, as if e.g., a man were to say that the sensational school in Philosophy is the same as the intellectual school, because they hold many things in common; or as if one were to assert, that the Governments of Great Britain and the United States were virtually identical, because parallels can be traced between them. On a like principle we affirm that Christianity is not the same as Spiritism, though both assert the immortality of the soul; but even in this agreement there is a difference, viz., in regard to the manner of the soul's future existence: Spiritism denies the resurrection of the body, a thing expressly taught in Scripture, and a thing on which great stress is laid.
Again, Christianity is not identical with Spiritism, though both speak of progression in a future state of existence. The two schemes differ widely, even in regard to the character of this progression, for it simply reveals to us what the state of the redeemed is to be; but from the description given, we necessarily infer, eternal progression; e.g.—"Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him." "We know in part, and we prophecy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. . . . Now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face."The progression, however, of Spiritism is quite a different thing. Spiritualists speaks much in stock phrases of "progressive development," of "first, second, third, etc. spheres of the Arabula, or summer land," etc., and it daily professes to give us samples of that progression; and if the stuff which is being constantly poured forth, like an unhallowed stream, from the Spiritualistic press, is to be a criterion of spirit progress, then welcome annihilation—for hopeless madness is the goal towards which the mighty dead are moving.
Further, Christianity is not virtually the same thing as Spiritism, because Christianity admits the possibility of spirit communication. Spiritism asserts the universality of spirit communication: a thing not at all countenanced in God's word. We are well aware that the attempt has been made, again and again, to show that the angels spoken of in Scripture are the spirits of men: but such is not the teaching of Scripture.
like angels; and the writer of the Hebrews, when comparing Christ with angels, calls them ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation; and lest this might be mistaken, he draws a distinction between angels and the seed of Abraham. From which it follows, that whatever be the truth or falsity of spirit communication as taught by Spiritism, the doctrine is not found in Scripture. In the word of God there appear to be only two exceptions, viz., Samuel and Moses with Elias, and these are stated with such minuteness that we are led to the belief that such communication was a most unusual thing.
It may be useful here to call attention to the fact, that Abraham and the spiritists of the present time are sadly at variance in their opinions, for when Dives wanted Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren (by-the-bye he had no power to go himself), his request was denied, on the ground that such a course would have no good effect; "if," says Abraham, "they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Spiritists, on the contrary, seem to expect much from their supposed contact with unembodied spirits; but there is reason to fear that they are sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind. Spiritism, moreover, is not Christianity, because it lays claim to gifts of healing, &c. Our Lord, his apostles, and some of the early Christians exercised such gifts, but these were not of the essence of Christianity. Christianity can afford to do without such things; in fact, in ordinary circumstances, it is probably better without them, inasmuch as their continuance would distract men's minds from its cardinal doctrines. We do not say, however, that these gifts shall not be restored to the Church, as at the first; but if they should be restored, we shall demand satisfactory proof of the fact. It would not follow, however, that Spiritism is from God, even supposing its devotees could establish a claim to gifts of healing, for we read that in the last times "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." We have however, grave doubts here; in fact, we do not believe that Spiritists have exhibited any such gifts, any more than did the followers of Irving and Campbell, about 30 years ago. But perhaps a better comparison can be found in the healing gifts manifested by every well, dedicated to a saint in Romish times; or in the healing powers claimed for many years by Mesmerists; we may therefore dismiss this point as not sufficiently established to be adduced by way of evidence.
In the foregoing things there is an appearance at least of agreement between Spiritism and Christianity, but it is really only an appearance. A striking difference, however, emerges, when we come to consider the central idea of each—the idea without which neither system could retain its identity. The grand central idea of the Bible is God. Take the idea of a God from Scripture, and what is it? In fact, this idea is so wrapt up in Scripture, and Scripture depends in turn so much on it, that we may safely say, no God no Scripture. But is it so with Spiritism? not at all, The central idea of Spiritism is spirit communication—remove this and it ceases to exist in any of its phases. In this system, which puts forth at the present day such pretentious claims to the homage of man, spirits are everything, and God is nothing, or next to nothing; spirits are every-where and God nowhere. So far as known to us, Spiritists do not deny the existence of a Supreme Being; but there is nothing in their system which directly leads to a belief in such a being; we do not see anything to prevent a man from being an Atheist and a Spiritist at the same time; the Atheist has only to change his ground a little and take up a middle position between the pantheistic and old atheistic platforms.
It appears to us, that in a spiritual point of view, Spiritism is a retrogression of centuries; it sinks far below the systems of Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed, and the purer deists of by-gone ages, for with all their faults, these systems held the idea of a Supreme Being somewhat prominently before the minds of men; no doubt they did so in a very distorted form, but they did far more to satisfy the soul of man than Spiritism, with its feeble humanism (for this it is at best) can do.
Turn now to scripture, and how different is the atmosphere. God is everywhere; God is everything. Scripture declarations are prefaced with a "Thus saith the Lord," and David expresses the consciousness of all inspired men when he says "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue;" and the deep feeling of the heart of every saint is more or less expressed in these words "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." The same thing holds good in the Gospels and in the Epistles; in these every event is subordinated to the will of God, and wisdom, might, majesty, dominion and blessing, are constantly ascribed to him. God is represented as strengthening man here by his Spirit, and fitting him for the inheritance above, and filling him with all the fulness of God. It is quite unnecessary to say more on this point; it is so well known to every careful reader of the Word of God.
Spiritism thus breaks down in the first and fundamental requirements of all religion, and is therefore not entitled to the name of religion at all;
The teachings of Spiritism do not carry weight with them; they are not of sufficient authority to command assent; and not being backed up by Divine authority, they cannot claim our supreme regard. These "spirits" moreover, are known to be incorrigible liars, suiting on all occasions their opinions to the creed of the circle which calls upon them. If therefore they should say anything which cannot be corroborated otherwise, they are not to be trusted; and if what they say can be otherwise known, what purpose does their revelation serve? In all cases, Spiritists, by their own confession, are thrown back upon themselves—"consciousness," "spiritual illumination," &c., in order to settle the truth or falsity of all things said to be revealed by the spirits; and what is this but a God-denying humanism, in perhaps its worst form.
We purposely abstain from considering the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, and pointing out their utter incompatibility with Spiritism, as we may have an opportunity of doing so on some future occasion. Thus far we have thought it better to do little more than oppose Bible Theism, pure and simple, to the Spiritism which has grown up (not silently) among us, and which like the parasitical Maladore, would kill the tree on which some desire to train it.
If any of our readers are inclined to tamper with Spirit ism, seduced by the belief that they may be Spiritists and yet hold by the truth as it is in Jesus, we warn them of their fatal mistake, and we repeat that even Bible Theism is wide as the poles from Spiritism.
The effrontery of Spiritists in claiming connection with Christ and his Apostles is very offensive. They completely ignore the fact that they have other representatives in scripture than those they lay claim to—men who believed pretty much as Spiritists believe. We refer to those who were thought to have familiar spirits, and who sought knowledge from the dead instead of coming to God. The similarity of the doctrines of the old Spiritists with those of the new, and the condemnation of both by the universal church of their respective times, is a significant fact. For our own part we do not believe that spirits out of the body have anything to do with the matter beyond what they have to do with every evil current of thought and feeling; and then these are not of men but of devils. With this, however, we have nothing at present to do; and we would meantime close with a solemn warning to those who wish to hold Bible religion with the one hand, and Spiritism with the other. You cannot hold both—you cannot serve God and the devil—and if Spiritism is true, Christianity as taught in Scripture must be false. "Choose you this day whom you will serve."
The simple story of the Lord's dealings with a soul in awakening it and bringing it through all its mistakes and difficulties to the exercise of a simple saving faith in Jesus Christ, has ever been one means largely blessed of God, to the conviction and conversion and instruction of others. The Wesleyans, fully alive to this powerful means of impression and instruction, have made regular ecclesiastical provision in their class-system for utilizing the religious experiences of all to the mutual edification of the body, and whatever objections may be taken to the plan pursued by them, it cannot be denied that a large amount of good is done by this means. With the hope and prayer, therefore, that the following narrative may be owned by the Spirit to do some work for Jesus, the writer would record the leadings and dealings of the Lord in a case intimately known by him. It is cause of much thankfulness to God, that from earliest years A. B. enjoyed the instructions both of home and school in the Word of God, and that admirable compound of its teaching on most of its principal subjects, the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Though such instruction does not save the soul, yet still it lays up a store of Bible truth in the memory at a time when that is easiest and most effectually done, and which is of in-calculable value when afterwards vivified by the quickening power of personal faith in and love to the Lord Jesus Christ, through the operations of the Spirit of God. The first decided awakening to religious anxiety and inquiry experienced by A. B., took place at a communion season in the old Church in Dunedin, now many many years ago. It was not by any word brought home to the conscience, but when the solemn Sacrament was about to be dispensed, and father, mother, sister, and brother, rose and left the family pew to take their places at the Table of the Lord, and he was left alone, an oppressive sense of loneliness came over him. The question then arose in his mind, "why am I here, and not with them, there?" At once the answer followed, "why, but because I am not fit to be there;" with the superadded reflection, "and if not fit to be there, not fit for heaven, and what if you should die in this state?" He then experienced something of what the Psalmist describes when he says "the pains of hell gat hold on me, I grief and trouble found." With smothered tears and deep-felt anxiety he sat out the service, scarce seeing or hearing aught that was going on. When it was over, and home was reached, earnestly did he on bended knee, with many tears cry unto the Lord to save him, and fit him for heaven, and there he solemnly resolved to set about preparing himself that he might be ready before next communion season to take his place at the Lord's Table, if spared. He resolved diligently to forsake all that he saw to be wrong and do all that he saw to be right, and thus hoped to work out for himself a title and a fitness for the Lord's table and for heaven. Heaven's simple plan "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and so thou shall be saved" was not apprehended and embraced. Jesus Christ and his finished work were not indeed altogether excluded,—they had a place given them, but not the only place, as the alone ground of a sinner's justification. It was hoped that what was required of him would be attained by a painful laborious process of self government, restraint, and purification, and that the merits and the mercy of Jesus would do all the rest, and thus in the end he hoped to be saved. Through this hope his fears and anxieties to a great extent departed, and zealously did he set
faith has for its object not the truths received and assented to by the mind, but the person
testified of by the truth. Another difficulty which sorely perplexed him was that of the life to be lived after a man becomes a believer. Supposing he did believe in Christ to the pardoning of his sins and his acceptance with God, what of the Christain life to be led among men? How was he ever to accomplish that? The whispered suggestion was "resolve to begin and carry it out faithfully;" but then the reply as speedily rose up "I have before resolved again and again, and tried hard to keep my resolution, but I always failed, and what reason have I to suppose that I shall succeed any better in the future?" In this perplexed state he remained till the Thursday before the Communion, when he resolved that he would not go forward to the table of the Lord on the coming Sabbath, and incur the guilt of again making a false profession. On the following evening the subject as usual engrossed his thoughts, and after all the household had gone to rest he sat alone, distressed and gloomy and desponding; at last he resolved not merely to refrain from going to the table of the Lord, but also to cast off all pretence and forms of religion. "Better," said he; "to be an openly and professedly ungodly man than a hypocrite and pretender to religion, when there is no such thing in its reality." Having taken this resolve, his alarms and anxieties in great measure departed. He felt calm in the settled resolve to be at least no longer neither one thing nor another; but to let it be known decidedly that he was not on the Lord's side, and made no profession of being a Christian. 'Twas in some measure the calmness of despair, for he said "there is no hope for me, and why then should I trouble or torment myself before the time; I will be what I am, and so at least be honest; I will make the best I can of the present life and must just endure the future when it comes." In this state he rose to go up stairs to bed, but just as he put his foot on the first step, a passage of God's word flashed into his mind with a strange light and power, and brought him to a standstill. It was Galatians ii. 20, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." At once the completeness of redemption in Christ Jesus was apprehended. Paul's double declaration of his relation to Christ as a believer "he crucified with Christ," and "Christ living in him," brought the matter clearly and fully before his mind. "Christ then," said he, "is offered to me, not merely as having died for me, and not only thus am I by faith to embrace him, but also is he offered to me to live in me and for both my death and my life am I to accept of him." Now, at once the way of pardon and the way of life. Christ for secret of justification, Christ in him the secret of the new life; with special reference to the latter point and his previous difficulty in relation thereto, he said to himself, "Christ lived in his own flesh on earth a holy life of obedience to the will and law of his Father, and is he not able to live it over again in my flesh? It is not I, then, who am to live the new life, but Christ in me; and cannot I do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me? Here, then, is my strength and my salvation."
We have received the first number of 'The Christian Observer,' a religious periodical, published monthly at Christchurch. It contains 16 pages, with three columns in each, and presents a large amount of varied and interesting matter, comprising articles original and selected, on topics connected with religion. There is also a large amount of intelligence regarding Church affairs, and interesting extracts for the children. We wish it great success.
Erratum in Report of Synod.,—In our abridged report of the Meeting of Synod in last issue, it was stated in reference to the Report of the Church Extension Committee, that "it was agreed by a majority of 24 to 13 to approve the report, record the thanks of the Synod to the Committee and Convener for their zealous attention to the work committed to them, and further receive with much pleasure the announcement of the liberal donation of £50 from a member of Knox Church, in aid of bringing out a Minister for the Gold Fields, and authorise the Committee to send at once for a Minister, with a special view to settlement on one of the Gold Fields not yet supplied with Ordinances. The Synod also authorise the Committee to send for one additional Minister for the Church generally." It should have been stated that the vote was taken not on the question of approving the Report, but simply on the point raised whether one or two Ministers (additional to the one for the Gold Fields) should be sent for,—24 voting for one additional, and 13 for two.
Rome.—the Œcumenical Council.—This Council was opened by the Pope on the 9th December. He was followed by 700 Bishops to the Council Hall. The galleries were occupied by the Sovereign Princes then in Rome, and by the members of the Corps Diplomatique. Bells were ringing and cannon were fired from the forts of St. Angelo and Mont Aventine, and the whole ceremonies far exceeded anything of the kind witnessed in Rome for the last century.
In the small town of Husum, situated in Sleswick, in South Denmark, resided an old woman who for many years was commonly spoken of, not by her proper name, but by the title of "Die liebe alte Mutter," "the dear old mother," being regarded as a kind of dear old mother to the whole of the inhabitants.
But it came to pass that the "liebe alte Mutter" earned for herself a change of title to that of "brave alte Mutter," and became so known by it that the former one ceased to be used. Thus it came about:—
It was winter, and the ice was thick. The inhabitants of Husum determined to make a great holiday. They raised tents on the ice, and old and young were collected together out of doors. Some skated, some drove in sledges. In the tents there were music and dancing, and the old people sat at tables and drank and smoked. Thus passed the whole day; and the moon rose, but they had no idea of returning homewards; on the contrary, the festivities seemed but renewed.
One old woman alone remained in the small town, even our "liebe alte Mutter." She was bedridden and crippled; but as her house lay high upon a rising ground, she could look out from her window upon the ice, and see all that was going on.
Towards evening, she perceived risind on the horizon, over the sea in the west, a small white cloud. Immediately she felt alarmed. In her younger days she had been to sea with her husband, and understood many of the signs of wind and weather. From the appearance of the sky she reckoned that in one short hour there would be a deluge of rain and a breaking up of the ice, —"And all will be lost," she cried. Then she began to call out as loud as she could, but no one was with her in the house—no neighbour near; all were gone out on the ice, and she was not heard. Ever greater and blacker grew the cloud. Shortly, she knew, the storm must break and the flood of waters descend.
At length, nerved to exertion by the intense excitement she felt at seeing so many human beings in such imminent peril, she collected all the little strength of which she was possessed, and, seemingly to herself, almost by a supernatural effort, crawled out of her bed upon her hands and feet to the oven. With joy she seized a burning stick from the fire, and, returning to her bed, shoved it into the straw mattress of which it was composed, and then hastily crawled out of her cottage to a place of safety.
The house was in a few minutes in flames; and as the brilliant light was seen by the people on the ice, they all rushed to the shore, fearing that the whole town might soon be on fire. Almost immediately the wind rose, and blew the loose snow before them. The heavens grew dark, the ice began almost instantly to crack and to break, the wind increased into a storm; and as the last person placed his foot upon the strand, the ice heaved, and the tide of waters broke upon the shore.
Thus did this truly "brave old woman" save the whole town, and give up all she possessed for their safety.
With a like feeling of pity and love for perishing sinners, Jesus Christ
Certain little incidents that find casual record reveal Falk's relation to the children in the happiest way; such as this, while they sat one evening at supper. For when one of the boys had said the pious grace, "Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and bless what thou hast provided," a little fellow looked up, and said, —
"Do tell me why the Lord Jesus never comes? We ask him every day to sit with us and he never comes."
"Dear child, only believe, and you may be sure he will come, for he does not despise our invitation."
"I shall set him a seat," said the little fellow; and just then there was a knock at the door. A poor frozen apprentice entered, begging a night's lodging. He was made welcome; the chair stood empty for him; every child wanted him to have his plate; and one was lamenting that his bed was too small for the stranger, who was quite touched by such uncommon attentions. The little one had been thinking hard all the time:—
"Jesus could not come, and so he sent this poor man in his place; is that it?"
"Yes, dear child, that is just it. Every piece of bread and every drink of water that we give to the poor or the sick or the prisoners for Jesus' sake, we give to him. 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'"
The children sang a hymn of the love of God to their guest before they parted for the night, and neither he nor they were likely to forget this simple Bible comment.—Praying and, Working.
Paris.—Steps are being prayerfully taken to carry on vigorously the work of evangelisation commenced last year. A meeting for prayer and conference on the subject was held in the Presbyterial Hall of the Oratoire, between Christian Protestants of various denominations. Two new Baptist stations have been authorised by the authorities for permanent worship.
Spain.—At the great annual fair of Valladolid, there were sold 266 Bibles, 15 Testaments, 2,700 Gospels'; and 20,000 tracts were distributed, amongst which were 8,000 of a tract entitled "The Martyrs of Valladolid," which told how greatly Spaniards had suffered in the 16th century for the Gospel's sake. In Madrid, a young Spaniard preaches four times a week to audiences of from 200 to 250 people. In one or two other parts of the city there are also mission stations where the gospel is preached by converted Spaniards. In
The sixth annual meeting of the Otago Seamen's Mission was held in the First Church, Dowling street, evening of Thursday, February 9, but owing to the heavy rain, the attendance was small. Mr John Gillies was voted to the chair.
The Rev. Mr. Blake having opened the meeting with prayer,
The Chairman made a few remarks regarding the character and importance of the Mission, and then called upon Captain Thomson to read the annual Report.
The Report showed that the sum received from church-door collections, and as donations from friends, was L234 4s 10d. The expenditure for the year was L232 9s 3d, leaving a balance in the Treasurer's hands of L1 15s. 7d.
Mr Gilbert, the missionary, was then called upon to read his Report, which was as follows:—
In presenting the sixth annual Report of the Otago Seamen's Mission, it is scarcely needful to go back to the origin of the scheme, when the great Head of the Church put it into the hearts of His servants to em bark in an enterprise for promoting Christianity among our maritime brethren.
It is pleasing, however, to take a retrospect of the way by which the Lord has sustained this mission through all its vicissitudes—although fears were at one time entertained that it would become a wreck, and its promoters were at their wits' end to know what to do under the circumstance. But He who trod upon the troubled waters of Galilee, and calmed the fears of his tempest tossed disciples, came to the rescue, so that it still floats, and bids fair to do good service to those who "go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters."
The sphere of operation is principally among the floating and ever-changing population who flow and ebb like the tides on our shores, at a rough estimate of from three to four thousand per year, who, but for the efforts of this mission, would be without the means of grace.
From the peculiar nature of this part of the field, much labour is involved in doing but comparatively little work. Not having a place to assemble the various ships' crews together in a hulk or chapel, such as they have at Melbourne, Sydney, and many other places, I have therefore to multiply my services, and go from ship to ship, where my congregations are small, being composed only (as a rule) of the ship's company in which the service is held. Although the Bethel flag—a well-known signal for Divine service among our seafaring friends is hoisted, yet as a rule, few only avail themselves of it.
And I think the reasons are obvious.—First, there is in a large proportion of seamen, as in other men, a want of desire after those things which belong to their peace; and in the second place, (in many instances) they are not allowed to go out of their ships, although they were ever so desirous.
Therefore under these circumstances I think the plan adopted by this Mission for promoting the Gospel among our seafaring friends is the
My week evening meetings as a rule are held in the ship's forecastles, which resemble pastoral visits more than stated services, the word is read and expounded, and prayer and praise are offered.
At the close of these I give my hearers an opportunity of asking me any questions that may have been suggested to them, which they often do, and although they are sometimes of a rather strange character it affords me a good opportunity of imparting religious instruction.
It will be gratifying to the frinds of the Mission to learn that, as ever, I am cordially received. I believe I am within bounds when I say I have not met with six ships in six years where I have not been welcomed.
As heretofore I continue to go once a month to Taiaroa Heads, where the pilots, lightkeepers, signal master, and their families, are ever confined to their posts of duty, and if the Gospel was not carried to them they would be without the means of grace.
I also go occasionally to the North Harbour School, in the neighbourhood of which there are many settlers, many of whom are unable to attend Divine service at Port Chalmers, and who gladly avail themselves of the opportunity of hearing the Gospel when it is brought within their reach.
My work is not confined to preaching and expounding the word of life only, but distributing religious tracts, selling and sometimes giving Bibles, which are thankfully received, and, in many instances, eagerly read.
The Bibles have been supplied by the Bible Society, and the tracts from various friends whose names I would thankfully record. They are as follows:—Mrs E. B. Cargill; Captain Logan, ship J. N. Fleming; Mr. Torrance, chaplain to H.M. Gaol; Rev. A. Blake, Maori Missionary; Mr. Thomas Dick; Mr. Boot; Mr. A. Thomson, Port Chalmers; and a parcel from a friend whose name is unknown, from London, by the ship Robert Henderson. Most of the above have given large parcels, which I trust will prove good seed in good and honest hearts, and bring forth an abundance to the praise and glory of God.
In the past year I have visited, in connection with this mission, some of the Gold Fields and stations, held divine services, and advocated the claims of the mission. I met with a very hearty reception, and received collections and donations in aid of the mission. Subcommittees were elected at Naseby, Alexandra, and Teviot, to co-operate with the managing committee.
Although I have nothing marvellous to relate in connection with this mission for the past year, I am satisfied to know that I have, through divine assistance, endeavoured to be "instant in season and out of season" in publishing the good news; "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son," as a sin-offering for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." But to what extent the Gospel has been blessed in the salvation of souls eternity alone will unfold, when the Judge eternal shall descend, and the sea shall give up her dead.
In conclusion I would, on behalf of this mission, embrace this opportunity in thanking the friends and supporters of the scheme for the very hearty responses we have received to our appeals. And I would further most earnestly solicit the prayers and pecuniary contributions of the Church of Christ and other friends of seamen, to aid us in our purely missionary enterprise, and thus impart the choicest blessing to this noble class of men who have been the bulwark of the British nation, and whose energies in connection with commerce are adding so much to our colonial greatness and domestic comfort.
Christian friends, let us seek to realise the fact that we are not our own, but bought with a price—and what a price! May Christ the great Missionary Head inspire us all to imitate his example, and to be willing to spend and be spent in His service.
The Rev. Mr. Johnston moved, and the Rev. E. M. Stuart seconded, the adoption of the Report, which was unanimously agreed to. Both gentlemen bore testimony to the zeal and efficiency of the missionary, Mr. Gilbert, and hoped that the friends of the Mission would not relax their efforts in keeping up public interest in its work.
Several gentlemen expressed their belief that a portion of Mr. Gilbert's time might be devoted to the religious instruction of the watermen and others at Dunedin.
Mr. Street thought that this would be a waste of time, as sailors at Dunedin could attend the churches there.
The Rev. Mr. Sutherland made some remarks on the importance of giving as much information as possible in the Report regarding the religious history of the sailors.
Several other gentlemen having expressed their sympathy with Mr. Gilbert in his work,
Mr. R. Gillies moved that the following gentlemen be appointed as the Dunedin Committee:—Messrs. J. Gillies, C. H. Street, E. B. Cargill, A. Rennie, It. A. Lawson, T. Hill, and Captain Dickie. The motion was carried.
The old Committee for Port Chalmers was re-appointed, the name of Captain Duncan being added to it. Mr. C. H. Street and the Rev. Mr. Johnston were appointed conveners for Dunedin and Port Chalmers respectively; and Captain Thomson was re-appointed treasurer and secretary.
On the motion of Mr. Glasgow, a cordial vote of thanks to Captain Thomson for the interest he had taken in the Mission, was carried.
The Rev. Mr. Sutherland then closed the meeting by pronouncing the benediction.
Tokomairiro.—The annual meeting of the congregation was held on the 3rd February, the Rev. J. M. Allan, Moderator of Session pro tem., in the chair. The financial statement for the past year was read, from which it appeared that the Congregation had raised for Sustentation Fund £216 15s.; Synod collections, £9 19s.; Missions, £43 7s Id; ordinary collections, £161 4s. 5&.x00BD;d., and scat rents, £196 5s. The principal matter for consideration was the filling up of the present vacancy. It was agreed to issue schedules to the members, requesting answers to certain questions in order to guide the Session and Deacons' Court in the steps which they should take.
The above list shows the total contributions received for the Mission Funds of the Synod during the past year. It is to be observed that the sums on the second, third, and fourth columns, headed respectively "New Hebrides," "Maori," and "Chinese," are donations given specially for these particular missions. The sums mentioned in the first column, headed "Mission Fund," are for the same objects, but have not been specially assigned by the donors. The sum collected for the support of the Dayspring, chiefly by the Sabbath Schools, has been remitted to the treasurer of the mission vessel, Sydney. The balance of the other money in the hands of our treasurer, on Dec. 31st, amounted to £369 18s. 4d. Against this, however, there is a debt of £175, due to the treasurer of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, on account of monies advanced by him for our missionary to the New Hebrides, for passage and outfit, and part of salary. There will remain, therefore, to meet this year's expenses, only a balance of less than £200. We earnestly trust that the treasurers of the various congregational associations will punctually remit to the General Treasurer, Dunedin, the amounts collected each quarter as they are received, so that he may be able to meet the claims for the
Dunedin.—Opening of St. Andrew's Church.—This new church was opened for public worship on Sabbath 13th February. The Rev. Mr. Johnston, Moderator of Synod, preached in the forenoon, the Rev. Mr. Williams in the afternoon, and the Rev. Mr. Scrimgeour in the evening.
Knox Church.—This congregation held its annual meeting on the 25th of January. As the weather was favorable, about 400 of the congregation attended. Instructive addresses were delivered by the Rev. Messrs. Fitchett, Williams, Thomson and Sutherland, and Messrs. Gilbert, E. B. Cargill and J. Hislop. The ability of Mr. Francis and his friends in conducting the music, was heartily acknowledged. The report of the Session and Deacons' Court, which was read by Mr. E Smith, spoke of work done in the course of the past year. It told of 94 members added to the church, of 130 baptisms, of prosperous Sabbath Schools—the Church School averaging, in good weather, 320—of separations from the fellowship of the church by death and removals, and of erring brethren restored through faithful discipline. The report took special notice of the Congregational Library, and of the increasing numbers who avail themselves of its treasures; while it expressed regret that the Young Men's Association was not so largely attended as it deserved. The minister reported favorably of the Bible Class, and promised by the Divine grace to make it still more useful as a means of spiritual enlightenment and blessing. The Session, the report added "affectionately exhorts the young men and women of the congregation to avail themselves of this institution of our church." While four of the Deacon's resigned in the course of the year, their place was more than supplied by the election of six others. Of the Missionary Association, the report said "Your Session and Deacons' Court feel deeply grateful to the Committee and Collectors for the efforts put forth in connection with this most important association, and trust and pray that success may attend their future endeavors." The report concluded with a prayer in which we join "that true and vital godliness may be greatly promoted in the coming year, not only among ourselves, but in this the land of our adoption." The Financial Report was read by Mr. Street, the Treasurer. We gather from it that the ordinary collections for the year was £605; special collections, £131; missions, £131; church extension on Gold Fields, £50; seat rents, £348; sustentation fund, £416, &c., &c. In the disbursement, we notice that Knox Church gives the minister a supplement of £300. Of the £s. 7d., remained in the hands of the Treasurer on the 31st of December.
Historical Sketch of East Taieri Congregation—The following historical sketch of the congregation was read by Mr. Somerville on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the New Church, on the 19th January:—"On the s. 6d., was opened on £55, including an addition to the teacher's house. The income of the congregation for three quarters ending
At this time Mr Will had under his charge the districts of West and North Taieri and Waihola, and preached in East Taieri once a fortnight, and in the other districts once a month. In
Presbytery of Clutha.—This Presbytery met on the 27th January, at Balclutha, to moderate in a call to the congregation of Balclutha. After sermon by the Rev. C. Connor, of Popotunoa, the Rev. A. B. Arnott, the Rev. R. C. Morrison, and the Rev. J. Wood were proposed as candidates. After a vole, the Rev. A. B. Arnott was declared duly elected. The call was left for signature, and the Presbytery resolved to meet again for determining it on the 9th February. The Presbytery met again on the 9th February for the purpose of considering the call from Balclutha to the Rev. A. B. Arnott. The Presbytery sustained the call, and placed it in the hands of the Rev. A. B. Arnott, who declared his acceptance of the same. The induction was appointed to take place on the 24th February, the Rev. Mr. Kirkland and the Rev. Mr. Bannerman to officiate.
St. Andrew's Girls' School, Christchurch.—A tea and public meeting in aid of the newly-erected Presbyterian Girls' School, Christ-church, was held on December 14, which, notwithstanding unfavourable weather, was largely attended. Addresses were delivered by the Mayor of Christchurch, who presided; the Rev. C. Fraser, Dr. Turnbull, and Mr. Restell.
Auckland.—A meeting of the members of congregation of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Auckland, was held on December 13, to receive subscription lists towards repairing and improving the church property, which amounted to £189 4s. As this was considerably below what will be required, steps were taken to increase the amount.
Diocesan Synod of Dunedin.—This body met in Dunedin on the 23rd February, under the presidency of the Primate of New Zealand. In the course of the introductory address, the president dwelt on the necessity of securing an increased supply of clergymen, and on the desirableness of forming a diocesan fund for guaranteeing passage money, and support to clergymen who may be sent for from the home country. In the report of the Standing Committee, brought up by the Rev. Mr. Edwards, we observe that a collection was appointed to be made once a year in all the churches for the Melanesian Mission, and that a fund for supplementing the stipends of clergymen in weak congregations, was provided for by monthly collections in the churches, and fees for the celebration of marriages.
Rev. J. S. Muir.—On Thursday, Jan. 13, a tea and public meeting was held in Wellington, on the occasion of the return of the Rev. J. S. Muir to Scotland, after some years' ministry in Wellington. His brother ministers presented him with a suitable address, expressive of their esteem, and addresses were delivered by the Hon. Mr. Gisborne, Colonial Secretary, and the Rev. Messrs. Fell, Rigg, Paterson, and Moir. Mr Muir replied in suitable terms.
Temperance.—A public meeting was held at Christchurch on the 17th February, to receive a report on the best means to be adopted for the prevention of drunkenness. The meeting was addressed by the Superintendent, the Primate of New Zealand, Mr. Justice Gresson, the Dean of Christchurch, and other gentlemen, all of whom deplored the evils arising out of habits of drunkenness, and urged the necessity of efforts to lessen them. It was agreed to form a Temperance Society, with the following objects —1. To obtain amendments in the laws regulating the liquor traffic. 2. To promote strict moderation in the use of alcholic drinks in private life. 3. To discountenance all habits which tend to foster useless and excessive drinking, such as "shouting," drinking at sales, conducting bargaining in public-houses, drinking and inviting friends to drink at unseasonable hours. 4. To promote the cause of temperance by counteracting influences, as education, libraries and instirutes, recreations and amusements of a healthy character. A society was initiated, with the Superintendent as president, the Bishop of Christchurch, Mr. Justice Gresson, the Mayor of Christchurch, Dean Jacobs, Messrs H. J. Tancred, and J. C. Wilson, C.B. as vice-presidents; the Rev. C. Fraser, secretary; and Mr. John Anderson, treasurer.
Auckland Presbytery.—A meeting of the Auckland Presbytery took place Jan. 4. The principal business brought before the meeting was a call from two districts to the Rev. John Wallace of the North Shore. The final decision was adjourned for the decision of a fuller meeting.
New Maori Church.—The church built by the Maoris at Little River, at a cost of £200, was opened on Wednesday, Jan. 19, by the Rev. J. W. Stack. The building is a very creditable one, and is very nicely finished inside. The opening services were in English and Maori, and were well attended. The collections amounted to £18 14s 3d. During the day, the Maoris hospitably entertained the residents in the valley in a large booth erected near the bank of the river.
Nelson.—The Nelson Presbytery met on the 12th and 19th of January, in the Trinity Church, Nelson, presided over by the Rev. Patrick Calder, moderator. The business on both occasions was of a miscellaneous character.
Kaiapoi.—The annual tea meeting of the Kaiapoi Presbyterian Church was held on Wednesday, December 15, when, despite the falling rain, the attendance was good. The trays were provided by Mrs. and Miss Kirton, Mesdames Alexander, Stevenson, Young, R. Wilson, Brough, Gow, and Callender. At the meeting afterwards, the Rev. Wm. Kirton, minister of the church, presided, and addresses were delivered by the Revs. R. Powell (Christchurch), J. M'Intosh (Lyttelton), J. B. Richardson (Wesleyan), and Mr. Councillor Hall (Wesleyan). Several pieces of sacred music were efficiently sung between the addresses by Messrs. Bell, Funston, and H. and J. Feldwick, Mr. J. Feldwick presiding at the harmonium.
Canterbury Presbytery.—A meeting of this Presbytery was held on Wednesday, Jan. 12. The Rev. George Barclay was appointed Moderator for the current twelve months. The clerk read a call from the congregation at Ross, Westland, to the Rev. John F. Sutherland, and the necessary steps were taken to complete the call. A call from the congregation at Greymouth to the Rev. Joshua M'Intosh, together with a guarantee of a minimum stipend of £350, with manse and garden free, was read and entertained. Mr Fraser drew attention to the fact that ten acres of land destined for the Presbyterian Church at Pigeon Bay, had been in error conveyed to the trustees of the Church of England. After the transaction of other business, the Presbytery adjourned —A meeting was also held on Wednesday, Jan. 26, when the following resolution in reference to St. Paul's Church, was passed by 14 to 4:—"That a minister be chosen for this church by three commissioners in Scotland; such commission to be appointed by the Elders and Finance Committee of the congregation, and that the appointment be sanctioned by the Presbytery of Canterbury." The call of the Rev. Joshua M'Intosh to Grey-mouth was unanimously agreed to, and the rev. gentleman was formally inducted as minister of the Presbyterian Church there. His connection with the Lyttelton church was declared to be dissolved. The Presbytery adjourned to the second Wednesday in April.
Egypt.—Mission work is carried on in Egypt chiefly by the American Missionaries, who have schools in Alexandria, Cairo, Mansoura, and Osiont. Five congregations have been formed with a membership of 150, and an average attendance of 300. Miss Whately, daughter of the late Archbishop of Dublin, presides over a large Seminary in Cairo, where 200 boys and girls receive instruction.
Burmah.—Within the last half-century, the first Burmese convert was baptized. Now there are 20,000 names on the rolls of the 390 churches planted in the Burman towns and Karen jungles, and these are ministered to by more than 400 native Pastors and Preachers. Schools of learning and theological training have been established; the Bible has been translated, and Christianity tolerated. Within the space of a year, more than 1000 converts have been baptized.
Poland.—In the neighbourhood of Warsaw, a Protestant land-owner Mr. A. Janaoz, having a desire to benefit the people around him by teaching the Gospel, turned his attention to the young. About two years ago he took two orphans under his care, and is now about to erect on his estate an orphanage for the reception of at least twenty. He at present employs a Bible-woman, who labours in Warsaw with encouraging results. The superintendent of the proposed orphanage will, in a more systematic way, preach the Gospel, both to the Gentiles and also to the Jews, of whom there are about 80,000 in Warsaw, besides a quarter of a million of Roman Catholics. The institution will also serve as a home for a few adult inquirers. The total estimated cost of the establishment is £1,200, of which sum Mr. Janaoz will give £250, besides a free site and £100 annually, in addition to firewood, vegetables, &c. A committee is formed in England to assist in carrying out the project, which we trust will meet with success.
The Church of Progress.—A new society, under the above title, was inaugurated at St. George's Hall, Langham Place, London, by Mr. Baxter Langley. The object of the society, as explained by the chairman in rather a lengthy address, was to provide rational Sunday evenings' occupation and amusement for the public generally, totally regardless of sectarian or priestly distinctions. Instructive lectures would, he said, be delivered, sacred music would be provided, and everything, in short, would be done to improve and to amuse the people. Such is the nature of a so-called religious society, which is said to receive the approval of such men as Lord Amberley, Sir John Bowring, and Mr. J. S. Mill.
Glasgow.—Sunday School Convention.—A convention of teachers and others interested in the Sunday schools of Scotland was entered upon in Glasgow, on the 7th October. The meeting was held in the Merchants' Hall, and was numerously attended by Christians of all evangelical deno minations. Bailie William Taylor presided. Delegates were present from Ireland, England, and different parts of Scotland. The chairman, in the course of some introductory remarks, mentioned that there were upwards of 6,000 teachers at work every Sunday in Glasgow alone, diffusing a knowledge of the truth to upwards of 65,000 children. A paper was subsequently read by Mr. Charles Inglis, of Edinburgh, in regard to the necessity and value of Sunday schools, with reference to the educational, social, and spiritual destitution of the young, especially in large cities. Mr. George Hunter, of Glasgow, also contributed a paper, in which he recommended the establishment of a special institution where young men and women might be trained to the work of teaching. Discussion followed the reading of both papers, and the Convention adjourned. A public meeting was held in John street United Presbyterian Church in the evening—Mr. M'Cowan presiding.
Marylebone Presbyterian Church.—The Rev. Donald Fraser, Inverness Free High Church, is understood to have accepted a second call to the Presbyterian congregation, Marylebone, London. Eight or nine months ago he declined a call to the same church. The salary is about £800 a-year.
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The most casual observer cannot fail to notice the vast and increasing activity of the forces which influence the world. As the years roll on, they seem to increase in intensity and magnitude. A European war in this age (as we witnessed in that unhappy Franco-German war, which was brought to a close during last year) is now prosecuted on a scale of magnitude and with a degree of relentless ferocity such as it might have been expected during the preceding reign of peace, would never be witnessed on earth. The amount of the indemnity alone, however—upwards of four hundred millions of pounds sterling—paid by the vanquished nation to the conqueror, should lead all who wish well to the race to long for the happy time when wars shall be unknown, and reason shall hold sway. So long as the spirit of selfish and reckless ambition rules the world, all the advances of science and art, the discoveries and inventions for facilitating intercourse between distant places, for meeting the emergencies which arise in connection with accident and disaster, and for other purposes—however beneficial and valuable in themselves, become but doubtful benefits in view of the preponderating forces which now rule the world.
The only hope of advancing even the temporal well-being of the world at large, lies in the success of the work which the Church of Christ has been charged to do. Some may say those nations whose internecine war we have mentioned were Christian nations, and yet they could find no other way of settling their dispute than by an appeal to arms. If they had been controlled by the spirit of the religion which they professed, they would never have rushed into war. It is no breach of charity to say that Christian principles had nothing whatever to do in prompting the assailant to declare war, and as little, wo fear, did they influence those who were thus challenged, in their determined and relentless conduct in the prosecution of it. Strife, however, is as the letting out of water. A small beginning, if unchecked, may
It must be a matter of deep concern to learn from the recent home intelligence that Britain seems to anticipate coming evils of a similar kind. Every effort is being made to increase the strength and efficiency of our naval and military forces in preparation for emergencies which seem to be imminent. In what way these may arise we cannot toll; but the existence of the spirit of unscrupulous aggrandisement which still rules the nations, and the mighty military armaments which are at present unused, seem to be sufficient ground for fearing an outburst on the slightest pretext. Internally, Britain is passing through a process of restless sifting, affecting the opinions and conduct of all classes, and seems to be preparing for political, social and religious changes of a radical kind—in many instances, we fear, for the worse instead of the better.
The only guarantee of the world's peace and well-being is the maintenance of true religion. If the churches in this land were all closed, the ministers banished, and public worship interdicted, in a few years religion would be brought to the lowest ebb, morality would be corrupted, and the country at large descend speedily to the state of sodom, till Sodom's doom, or something like it, would be the result. On the fidelity and zeal then of all who belong to the Church of Christ depend the most momentous results affecting the world at large. Left to its own influences and resources, the world shews that its whole head is sick and its whole heart faint. To the church has been committed the earthly guardianship of that tree that beareth its fruit every month, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Let each member then consider, as he enters on this new year of labor and responsibility, whether he has done all that in him lay to invite the weary and the heavy-laden to receive the healing, and enjoy the rest and pleasures which are here provided.
There is a feeling, openly expressed by unbelievers, and even lurking in some professing Christians, that the religion of Christ is a weak and sickly plant that may be fragrant and beautiful in the hot-house of the sanctuary, but unfit to bear the rough blasts of the outer world, and utterly insufficient to yield healing and strength and happiness to the whole world. Yet this is its true character, and only they who believe this, and act in accordance with this, have any claim to be regarded as worthy disciples of Christ.
The work of the Presbyterian Church has been steadily prosecuted during the past year, with a fair measure of outward success, yet with
The mission work among the Maoris and Chinese in Otago, and among the natives in the New Hebrides, has been prosecuted with praiseworthy devotedness by our missionaries, who deserve our highest encouragement. We trust the funds provided by the church for the past year may prove sufficient for meeting the liabilities connected with this work, although as we write we have misgivings about it. Yet even these three missionaries are a small number to be sent forth as the representatives of so many congregations in this necessary and glorious work. There are probably over thirty thousand, old and young, who claim to be Presbyterians in Otago and Southland. If five thousand of these contributed on an average one shilling per quarter, we should have an income of £1000 a year, and be able to do much more than at present. The work is left, however, to few, and is therefore in a languishing state. Our only hope lies in an awakening of the church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let this be the burden of the prayers of God's people. Realising the momentous interests which are at stake—the dangers to be avoided, and the glory which may be secured, let them with one heart and one voice cry mightily to God for his grace, and doubtless such prayers will be heard. The Lord will open the windows of heaven, and pour down a blessing which shall fill the land. Then the shadows will flee away, and the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings.
Moralists, Jurists, and Legislators, have written and spoken somewhat fully on this important subject. It is one regarding the application of which much difference of opinion prevails in the colony. This disparity of opinion arises partly from ignorance of the law affecting the matter under consideration, and also in some measure from a disregard of some of those rules of conduct which should govern a free and enlightened nation.
The views of moralists are available to most of our readers, but
All human laws are supposed to be founded on the revealed will of God, and the law of nature; and such as are repugnant to either of these are not binding, and we are excused from observing them. On 'such matters as the Divine will is silent, we are bound to observe and fulfil all human laws; but if these enjoined us to act in defiance of, e.g., either the eighth or the ninth commandment, we should be justified in refusing to do so. The law of nature, except in some of its more forcible dictates, e.g., against homicide is one somewhat variable, and difficult to define, even by those who advocate an innate moral sense. Whether we are stimulated by such a sense, or are pursuit of our own happiness and that of our fellow men, we must zealously guard against transgressing human laws, as these can only be set aside when obedience to them would be disobedience to God. Christianity is part of the laws of England."
It is an elementary maxim that the Lord's day is not a day for legal proceedings; the reason assigned being that it ought to be consecrated to Divine service. The parliament of Great Britain and Ireland has declared in the preamble of an Act still in force, passed 3 and 4 W. IV., c. 31, that "it is the duty of the legislature to remove as much as 'possible impediments to the due observance of the Lord's Day."
Perhaps the oldest law extant in England on this subject, is the one of King Ethelstan, which prohibited merchandizing on Sabbath, under the penalty of forfeiting the thing sold, and thirty times its value. Many statutes have been passed in England regulating the observance of this day. Some of these laws have been repealed, others of them, not being suited to the circumstances of the colony, have been practically superseded by local legislation, and several of them are in full operation here. It may be interesting, and probably not uninstructive, to mention all or most of these statutes.
Before the year
In the years
In considering these statutes, the reader need scarcely be reminded that the fines inflicted were then as heavy in proportion to the value of money as are the penalties in modern Acts.
In the year s. 4d. is imposed for every offence.
If our colonial legislators require precedents for dealing with the matter under discussion, they will find numerous instances in the old and more modern statutes, to the latter of which attention will be given in another number.
(To be. continued.)
Baptism is a question that has provoked much discussion, and that on various aspects of it. Much of the writing is learned, vigorous, and candid; having no appearance of a conscious, or thinly hid partiality,—but not a little of its literature manifests contrary characteristics. The subject is one of importance; more so than many genuine christians even, attribute to it. The inquiries into its import have been mainly occupied with—who are its proper subjects? and in what form should it be administered? These questions naturally suggest each other—and, perhaps, they are no nearer being settled than ever. The writer of this paper believes that there is still a more internal aspect of the subject, than that generally taken, or taken at all, as far as known to him; and the following statements are an instalment of that view. Like most if not all permanent ordinances of the church, baptism has an historical origin, and the principles embodied therein, a progressive development. This origin and development pertain to its internal contents, and the first question is—How came water to have a place in the ritual of the church? and with what import has it its place there? The subjoined statements are an attempt to answer these questions historically. The two passages of Scripture on which the reasonings are based, seem to warrant such an answer. And if the answer appear unsatisfactory, it might be replied—it cannot be more so than any of the numerous explanations which have been made of these two texts. A clear view of the historical antecedents embodying the principles now represented in baptism, must cast much light on its nature; nay, is essential to the right understanding of its import, and may contribute something to weigh on one or other side of the two questions, namely—Who are the proper subjects? and, what is the proper form of administration? But, meantime, we deal only with the question—How came water to have a place in the church's ritual? and what is its import there?
It is said, referring to Noah and his house, that they were saved by water—not from or out of the water. 1 Peter, iii. 20. God brought in the Flood on the world of the ungodly, and saved the godly Noah from being overcome and destroyed by that world—that godless association then occupying this earth, so far as it was then occupied. And in reference to this, it is said in the same place: "The like figure
whereunto baptism doth now also save us,"—v. 21. That is, the flood was a figure of what is now signified by baptism. As the flood is thus spoken of by the Apostle, and as its effect was direct and palpable, it may be called a saving baptism: and thus it did save. It destroyed the outward and human associations and life carried on without God, and thereby saved and freed that godly life in midst of, and endangered by the antagonism of the worldly life. In that deed the godly was saved by devoting the wicked to destruction. Viewed thus, the flood was a symbolic act, the meaning of which was to be, and has been, symbolically preserved in the institution of grace, which God has given the world.
We say that the flood destroyed the outward associations and life; there is no need of saying more, as there is no room for asserting or implying that all who died in that event perished forever. Many swept from this life thereby, knew not right hand from left—that death was to them the effect of parental or ancestral disobedience—and there might many grown men and women be involved in that judgment on the earth, whose souls were not involved in eternal condemnation for sin.
We refer in the second place to Israel's passing through the Red Sea. In that passage they are said by Paul (1 Cor. x. 2) to have been baptised unto Moses by the cloud and the sea. As far as the present is concerned, no distinction need be made between the cloud and the sea—both may be regarded as one. The sea, then, was the instrument of saving the Israelites unto that salvation of which Moses was the captain, and which by his hand was granted to the tribes of Jacob in that great crisis of their history. Now, in this case, as in that of the flood, water was the instrument employed by God in saving the Israelites from the power of Egypt, as it was the instrument made use of in saving Noah and his house from the power of the ungodly world.
The two cases are alike in all essentials. In both there was a double effect. There was mercy and judgment, deliverance and destruction, and water was the instrument by which that effect was wrought. In each of the cases the persons or people that called on the name of God, crying to him for deliverance from, or help against, that evil world of which they were bodily a part, and which threatened to consume them, were delivered. The one was a household of eight persons; the other, a people numerous enough for a nation, and
Now, both these events—that at the Red Sea in the days of Moses, and that in the valley of the Euphrates in the days of Noah—are recorded in the Bible for our learning, and by inspired men both are called baptisms. They were two deeds in which God dealt with the church and with the world, and, like the cloud that guided and protected Moses' march, they had each a side bright and a side dark—a side shedding mercy, and a side inflicting judgment—that brought deliverance and brought destruction. In them, we feel persuaded, there was a display, though mysterious, of the principles by which men individually could be saved from sin,—the church collectively from the power of the hostile world, and the human world from becoming a territory of Satan's—a province of Pandemonium, as that adversary must have meant to make it, to complete his conquest, but from which it has been conclusively and gloriously saved by the reconciliation effected by Jesus, the Christ between God and man.
It is from the salvation by the flood, and the salvation by the sea, that water has come to be used as a symbolic sign, and a covenant seal between God and men. From those events it has acquired an his-
The physical properties of water may not, we believe they are not, excluded from its symbolic import—but, we believe, it was not originally, nor is it mainly, because of those properties, but originally and mainly because of its historical use in the double sense of a saving and judicial instrument in the hand of God, that it got, and continues to hold its use among the ordinances of the church. It had a place in her ritual when she was limited to Israel and to Canaan, with Moses as her embodied mediator, and formally founded on her pascal sacrifice; and it has a place, now, in her ritual, when she is constituted an institution of grace for all families of the earth, with Jesus, the Son of God, as her Mediator, and formally founded on the blood of the lamb of God, that hath taken away the sin of the world. It had one place in the church's ritual when she was associated with the name of Moses and limited to Israel; it has another now, when it is associated with the name of Jesus Christ, and opened alike to all nations. What should be the place, and what the symbolic and prophetic import of water in any of the church's dispensations, must be his appointments whose institution the church is.
According to the above view, water had in the Israelitish, and has in the Christian Church, an historical and commemorative import. It commemorates the Flood—that intervention wherein God saved those trusting ill him, and made manifest the power of his judicial wrath against unrighteousness and ungodliness; and it commemorates the church's memorable night passage through the Red Sea, when she was pursued and pressed on by one of the finest and fiercest armies of the
Such, we feel assured, were the historical glory and saving benefit of those two interpositions of God in behalf of his church, and such their symbolic and prophetic import, that a memorial of them should have, and has a place in the sacramental ceremony of a church that is one from beginning to end—from Eden to Sinai—from Sinai to Calvary —from Calvary to the Second Advent. And most meet is the presence of water in our simple baptismal ceremony, whereby the covenant of salvation is formally entered into by incorporation in the visible church. It is historically sacred in consequence of its instrumental application in God's dealings with the church and with the world. It commemorates deeds of mercy and of judgment, of most remote antiquity; deeds of deliverance for the church of the most signal nature. As a seal and sign of the covenant of grace, it is now historico-symbolical—its historical import is embodied in its prophetic symbol. As a seal, it is most assuring; and as a sign, most solemnising. It assures us that He who saved Noah and his house, and who saved Moses and the twelve tribes, will save the christian church, the christian house, and the christian individual—it assures us that his counsel to do so is concluded and confirmed. And its sign is, that He may answer their cry for deliverance by fearful works. The church, the family, the individual, may get deliverance, perhaps only can get it, by judgments that will leave them throbbing and thankful, as were Noah and his house on Ararat, and Moses and Israel on the shore of the sea. Throbbing: because they have seen Jehovah's judicial anger displayed against sin; thankful; because they have seen it and yet live.
The Manse, Warepa,
This Psalm was written by David, yet not of and for himself alone, but of and for all Israel, in that and in every after age. Such troubles and such deliverances are found among God's people in all times.
1. "But for the Lord!" He was the one and only succour left, and found able and ready in the day of their calamity. "Let Israel say it!" It is known by them, let it also be expressed in words. The utterance of it will at once be giving God his due, enable them better to appreciate his goodness, and prepare them to receive further favors.
2. "But for the Lord!" A repetition according to the style of the pilgrims' psalms, called for too by the weight of the sentiment. It is the key-note of this psalm of deliverance, will bear to be told twice, and should ever be kept in the memory of the Israel of God. "When man rose up." Man: i.e., men at large, a large and strong combination of the power of the world under the prince of this world, so that none were left to help or befriend the people of God. This fits in with "But for the Lord." The totality of men being against them, but for the Lord they should have been altogether unaided. The rising up is a standing up to battle, with the purpose not to sit down or return to their place till they have made others fall.
3. "Then alive." This might be understood of those against whom the fury of the enemy was directed: while they were still alive they were swallowed by the devourer, as the voracious monsters of the deep
rage of the enemy.
4. "The waters." Both water and fire are needed to represent the adversaries of the church: they are brought through fire and through water to their wealthy place. As fire the rage, so water expresses the overwhelming number of the enemy. The waters had inundated, or overwhelmed as a flood or spate (almost the Hebrew word), that makes a clean sweep, drowning the living creature and destroying what springs out of the earth. That swollen torrent had passed over the soul, and left it a dead thing on the muddy bank. Not so great as the mighty deep is the swollen stream, yet quite sufficient to make an utter end of helpless men exposed to its fury.
5. "Proud waters," foaming and seething. The word employed here is almost the same as our Saxon seethe, and may probably be one of those roots which the Eastern and Western languages possess in common. Here the word may be taken in its primary meaning of seething and foaming, as the waters of a torrent; not, however, to the exclusion of its secondary meaning of proud, as applying to the haughty, overbearing demeanour of those from whom God delivers. These were like the wild raging elements, and could be controlled by no power short of God's.
6. The next comparison of the enemy to a wild beast, represents to us their cruel and bloodthirsty spirit. This cruelty he advances to speak of with a "Blessed be God!" an expression in advance of those he has hitherto employed. He is rising to greater confidence and joy as he proceeds, speaking of the deliverances of God. Before, he had only breath to say, "But for the Lord:" now he has time and composure to bless and praise him. This progress of confidence, this rising from prayer to praise, may be observed in almost any of the psalms. "Hath not given us a prey." God did not by leaving His people hand them over to their cruel enemies that were watching to devour. They howled around in vain; the Lord stoou between; and their greedy, cruel teeth were disappointed of their prey.
7. "Soul like a bird." A comparison more than once used in Scripture, aptly expressing the timidity and agility of a living man in running for his life. The danger is very imminent. They are now caught
cunning and skill he employs against the Israel of God.
What of all this varied description of danger and deliverance? Was one occasion or many in the eye of the Psalmist when he wrote these words? A little research and ingenuity might find incidents in the history of Israel or David agreeing to each of these deliverances. One enemy like the fire; another like the swollen torrent; a third like a wild beast; a fourth like a skilful fowler;—and the power and wisdom of God just such as to counteract the enemy. They who study closely will, no doubt, be able to produce many individual illustrations of these comparisons. We would at present adduce, as illustrating the whole psalm, the deliverence of Israel out of Egypt, which it is not at all unlikely the writer of the psalm had before his mind, and which was so familiar to the people.
1. We know that the anger of Pharaoh was kindled, and burnt like a fire against Moses and his people. Egypt itself is spoken of as a furnace to them; and at the time of going out the furnace was seven times heated. Pharaoh was like a tongue of fire that shot out from the furnace, if possible to envelope and destroy the people that seemed ready to effect an escape. His mind was to seize and quite destroy as the devouring flame.
2. When the people had got within the mountains adjoining the Red Sea, with the host of Egypt following hard behind, there was nothing which they more resembled than someone in a valley, liable to be overtaken and swept away by some formidable inundation ready to carry away all before it. But He who delivered from the hot wrath of Pharaoh rescued also from the multitude of his host. It came as a swollen stream, to cover and carry away all before it; but there was a place prepared where itself might be covered and lost; and the people of God saw its destruction instead of their own.
3. Again the position of Israel at the Red Sea might fitly be described as that of a creature ready to be leaped upon and torn by a wild beast. They could hear his roar. They knew his rage and cruelty;—they trembled in every limb, they had no power to escape; they are feeble through terror. He almost has them in his teeth. But God just here interposed; God gives them not up a prey to his teeth—the trembling creature escapes from its destroyer.
4. Once more the position of Israel had a striking resemblance to that of a bird taken in a snare. They had come into a place where they were completely enclosed, all that remains is that the fowler come near and lay his hand upon them, to keep them as captives, or destroy as he may please. How possibly can they escape? A break is made in the net, and that, too, at the point which seemed strongest and most complete. An opening is made through the Red Sea, and they escape from the fowler, already pleasing himself with the thought of having accomplished his object and got the reward of his skill.
The varied description by which this psalm sets forth the dangers and deliverances of the Church, will make it all the more extensively useful among the people of God. Whether their enemy resemble the fire, the water, the wild beast, or the fowler,—here is their encouragement. From the variety here presented, they also learn that nothing can come up in their experience which God will not be ready to meet and overcome. "He will deliver them in six troubles; yea in seven He will not forsake them.
8. The Psalm closes as the CXXI., only that here mention is made of the Fame of the Lord. The name of God is just the nature of God, His character as expressed or outspoken by His acts of mercy and power. Our help and comfort is in the acts and manifestations of Him who made heaven and earth. As broad as the earth, as high as the heaven, as varied and as great as all the powers at work in earth or heaven?, is the help of the Lord. Ho is everywhere, and can do everything for His people.
Rev. Dr. George Johnston, of Nicholson street U. P. Church, Edinburgh, died on 18th August, aged 70 years.
At the Second Anniversary of the Edinburgh Good Templars held in September, the Chairman stated that since the commencement of the movement in Edinburgh, two years ago, 49 lodges had been constituted, and 4000 members received in Edinburgh and Leith. Of these 4000 members there were at least 1000 bona-fide reclaimed drunkards. The membership for Scotland amounted to between 70,000 and 80,000.
This is the title of an earnest and eloquent sermon delivered by the Rev. James Cosh, M A., in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Auckland, on the occasion of the death of Bishop Patteson, the Rev. James Aitken, and a teacher named Steven, who were killed by the natives of Nukapu, on the
"Let no one think then, because a black disaster has recently befallen our cause, and a cruel blow has been struck at the enterprise of Christian missions in Western Polynesia, that the promises of God have failed, or that His watchful Providence has been withdrawn from the work which He has promised so largely to bless. Let no one for a moment deem that the lives of these three martyrs of Melanesia have been recklessly thrown away. The work to which Bishop Patteson and his associates had consecrated themselves, and which for many years they had prosecuted with untiring zeal and activity, was the noblest work that can engage the energies of even the most gifted of our race. And if at length they have fallen in it, they could not have fallen in a better cause. For them we need not now mourn with any mourning of hopeless grief. They have died for immortal truth; and in such a death they have met with the noblest fate that could have come to them. They had consecrated their
"And gone though they are from their work and their warfare here, yet their usefulness is not ended. They have fought a good fight, they have finished their course; but their memory will long live amongst us, and, fragrant with a sweet perfume, their death will hallow all our lives. Gone up they are in a chariot of fire; but may we not hope that their mantle will fall on some whom they have left behind? Will not their noble example animate us all with a higher spirit of self-devotion to the good cause in which they fell? Shall we not all henceforth be more zealous on behalf of God's work among the heathen; and by prayer and effort seek to hasten on the day when deeds of violence and bloodshed will no more be heard of, when ignorance and sin shall all be overcome, and the kindom of righteousness and peace established on every continent and isle?"
In the providence of God I was led, many years ago, to reside in Hawke's Bay, and there I became acquainted with little Willie. He was about four years old. His father was a whaler, and his mother a Maori. We lived in one of those narrow valleys in the white marl cliffs on the northern side of the Bay. We resided in a neat cottage composed of wattles with marl plaster. My occupation keeping me much at home, I was frequently in contact with Willie and his brothers and sisters. The whalers were a very rough set of men. When they had been fortunate in taking many fish, as they called them, they would purchase a large quantity of rum, and remain in a state of drunkenness
Languishing in a "populous solitude," I found pleasure in my children friends. Detecting my love of nature, they would accompany me to the hills to search for manna in the manuka trees, or into the valleys of the forest to procure choice ferns and lycopods. Sometimes they would find a piece of obsidian or volcanic glass, and would bring it to me, conscious of the acceptable nature of the offering. Once they brought me a fine tooth of the sperm whale. This I many years afterwards sent to London in that ill-fated ship the Royal Charter. The tooth went down in the ship, but was afterwards recovered, and is again in my possession, and will ever be to mo a memorial of little Willie. Sometimes the little ones would assemble round me, and I would repeat to them some sweet little hymn or poem. I remember that Jane Taylor's 'Twinkling Star' was a great favourite with us; and the little ones soon learned to repeat it, and then we used to sing it together to a simple tube. And so matters proceeded for a few months, when, in the midst of winter, poor little Willie sickened and took to his bed. We had no medical man in the neighbourhood, but every one sought to do what he could for the child. About noon one day as we were all engaged in the house where he could see us, the little sufferer called each of us by name, and severally bid us good night. Was it because the shades of death were gathering round him that ho thus bid us farewell? Or was it that the light of heaven, to which the light of earthly day is as darkness, was beaming upon him? He never spake again, but shortly after his spirit winged its flight beyond the stars. While the poor mother and her Maori friends were performing the "tangi" over the body of the child, I assisted in digging his grave in a quiet spot in the valley; and there we buried him, I reading over his
And after giving God the thanks of your heart for his sovereign goodness to you, see if you can do anything to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of poor little children like little Willie, who are born among the heathen, and are surrounded by unholy and soul destroying influences.
The following statement of the value of payments in goods made by the Rev. Mr. Milne for work in connection with the mission premises on Nguna will give some notion of what is done with the boxes of goods that are occasionally sent to the missionaries on these islands In addition to the following, other work was paid for in connection with the new dwelling-house. Native buildings require frequent renewal.
Invitation for Week of Prayer throughout the World,
Suggestions to Christians in all Countries for a Continuous Concert of Daily, Private, or Family Prayer.
The Subjects of Prayer mentioned above, might be copied on the blank leaf of the Bible for daily reference.
Circulation of the 'Evangelist.'—The 'Evangelist' is placed on a new footing this years, so that the whole profits, after paying the printer's bill and necessary expense of publishing, will be devoted to the Mission Fund of the Synod. The price has been considerably reduced, while the size remains as before. At the same rate of circulation which was attained to last year—about 700—the magazine at the reduced price will do no more than pay expenses—that is, provided no loss be incurred through the neglect of subscribers. Every additional hundred subscribers however will (we expect) yield a profit of about £20 in the year. Looking to the vast number of Presbyterians in Otago alone—according to the last census—over 27,000 (not including Southland), surely it would not be an extravagant expectation to look for a circulation during the present year double that of the past. If the office-bearers of the church generally would use their influence on its behalf, we feel confident it would be done. We would respectfully request them to give this matter their consideration
Annual, Missionary Meeting of Synod.—This meeting is arranged to be held on the evening of Monday, the 15th inst., in the First Church, Dunedin, at 7 o'clock.
Meeting of the Synod of Otago and Southland.—The meeting of the Synod, the Supreme Court of our Church, takes place on Wednesday, the 10th inst., at 7 o'clock, in the First Church, Dunedin, when the opening sermon will be preached by the retiring moderator, the Rev. D. M. Stuart,
The Dayspring.—This vessel is appointed to leave Melbourne for the New Hebrides, not later than the 10th March. There is still time for the preparation of boxes of clothing, calico, ironmongery, &c., which the friends of the mission may design to send.
The second of the course of popular lectures in aid of the Building Fund of the North Dunedin Church, was delivered on the 22nd day of December, by Mr. Black, on Astronomy. With the aid of diagrams he expounded, in a lucid and most attractive style, the nature of the solar system, and shewed himself thoroughly master of this interesting and elevating department of science.
Death of the Rev. George Mackie of South Yarra.—It is with deep regret we have to announce the death of the Rev. G. Mackie, on the 12th December. On the 5th he became unconscious, and continued so with few brief intervals till his death. He was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church during its session the previous month, and had acted for years with the utmost zeal and success as convener of the Chinese and aboriginal Mission Committee. He was born in
The Provincial High School for Girls brought its labours to a close for the year on the 13th December, by an exhibition of the accomplishments of the pupils in music, recitations, needlework, &c., attended by a large concourse of the parents and friends. The great success attending it has shown the wisdom of the Government in establishing it, and reflected the highest credit on Mrs. Burn, the Lady Principal, and the teachers conducting it.
The University of Otago has concluded its first session, having met with a degree of success far exceeding the most sanguine hopes of the promoters of it—seventy-nine students in all having been enrolled. Of course only a part of these can be regarded as regular students preparing for professions, and intending to finish the curriculum prescribed for the degrees. Still, the benefits of the University to the community at large will be felt to be most satisfactory. Next session Professor Black is expected to begin his work as Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science, a department which we are sure will prove most attractive and useful.
University of Otago.—The Richardson Scholarship, value £30 a year, will be competed for in the course of a month or two. It is open to present and former High School boys. Two scholarships, value £25 and £15 respectively, open to all within the Synod of Otago and Southland who intend to study for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, will be competed for previous to the opening of the session.
Presbytery of Dunedin.—This Court met in the First Church, Dunedin, on Wednesday, 6th December—Rev. A. B. Todd presiding. There was a full attendance. The minutes of previous meetings having been read and confirmed, Mr. Johnston called the attention of the Court to a report which appeared in the 'Daily Times' of the services in the First Church on a recent Sabbath, in which the usual singing had been dispensed with. Mr. Sutherland having been asked if said report was correct, intimated that it was substantially true, and gave explanations regarding the circumstances. The Presbytery thereupon expressed its strong disapproval of such interference with the usual course of the public services. An overture sent down from the Synod to Presbyteries, desiring the enactment by the Synod of the Barrier Act, and also desiring all proposals affecting the administration of the Sustentation Fund to be sent down to Kirk Sessions and Deacons' Courts, as well as Presbyteries, before being adopted, was considered. After full discussion, it was resolved to intimate to the Synod the Presbytery's disapproval of said overture. An Interim Session was appointed for the North Dunedin Church, and the Presbytery next appointed committees to examine records and report. An overture to the Synod on the subject of Sabbath Schools, proposed by Mr. Johnston, was adopted by the Presbytery. The evening sederunt was occupied with the consideration of a complaint by the Rev. G. Sutherland against certain of the office-bearers in the First Church, relating to the holding of a meeting of the Deacons' Court without being summoned or sanctioned by their minister, and to their opposing his exercise of authority in dismissing the precentor. Parties having been heard, the Presbytery unanimously resolved that the holding of the meeting was illegal, and the proceedings null and void, and that the appointment and dismissal of the precentor was not within the authority of the minister, and therefore declared the precentor, who had been dismissed, to be legally the precentor of the First Church. The Presbytery met again by adjournment on the following day. An overture, proposed by Mr. Watt, desiring the Synod to authorise the Kirk Sessions to appoint any elder to act as their representative in the Synod—though not belonging to their own session—was adopted by a majority of 18 to 5. Mr. Gillies's overture on the Moderatorship of Synod was, after discussion, rejected; and his overture on instrumental music was fallen from. The evening sederunt was occupied with the consideration of a memorial from elders and deacons in the First Church, setting forth complaints respecting the minister. Parties on both sides were heard at great length, and the Presbytery resolved to delay any judgment until a presbyterial visitation of the congregation should be held, which was appointed for Monday, the 18th December, to which all parties were summoned. The Presbytery thereafter adjourned. The Presbytery met again on the 18th December, and, after conference with the minister and office-bearers of the First Church, resolved that all hope of effecting a reconciliation between the two parties being taken away, the Presbytery meet on the 8th January to consider the memorial from members and adherents of the First Church, respecting the present unsatisfactory state of matters in the congregation, and advise the
East Taieri.—The first annual tea meeting of the East Taieri Total Abstinence Society was held in the Drill Shed, Mosgiel, on 28th November. Mr. James Allan occupied the chair. The Rev. Mr. Chisholm, of Tokomairiro, the Rev. Mr. Gillies, of West Taieri, and Messrs. Rennie, Jago, and A. J. Burns, delivered addresses. Messrs Ross and Barton gave a dialogue on the advantages of abstinence. Music by the band, and a song by Mr. P. Brown, enlivened the proceedings. The number on the roll of the society is 165.
The Clutha Presbytery met at Tapanui, for the purpose of moderating in a call. Mr. Arnot preached and presided. The Rev. Mr. Kirkland, of Inch Clutha, having declined to accept the call sent to him, it was proposed that Mr. Allan, of Waihola, be asked. A call to that gentleman is being numerously signed. In the evening, the Rev. William Bannerman delivered a lecture on the "Restoration of the Jews," in aid of a fund to procure prizes for the district school.
The First of a series of popular lectures in aid of the building fund of the North Dunedin Presbyterian Church was delivered in that building by the Rev. Dr. Copland. There was, considering the state of the weather, a fair attendance. Mr. John Marshall occupied the chair. The subject was—"A visit to Luther's home;" and the lecture was illustrated by diagrams. At the close, a vote of thanks was passed to the Rev. lecturer.
Waitahuna.—A few of the ladies of Waitahuna have presented the Rev. Dr. Copland with a handsome epergne and a barometer, as a token of their esteem.
The Rev. Mr. Bruce, of Auckland, left Scotland to resume his duties as Minister of St. Andrew's Church, Auckland, on the 20th September. He brings with him the Rev. Mr. Sidey, to occupy Napier in room of the Rev. Mr. Morrice, the present minister, who intends to return home on the arrival of his successor.
The Rev. Mr. M'Gregor, who was inducted into the pastoral charge of Meanee, near Napier, leaves for Canterbury, the reason being, we understand, the contracted nature of the charge at Meanee.
Auckland.—At a meeting of the Presbyterians of the North Shore, Auckland, on the 14th November, Mr. R. Somerville was presented with a handsome gold watch and chain, in acknowledgment of his gratuitous services in conducting the services during eighteen months when they were without a stated minister, before the settlement of the Rev. P. Mackenzie, the present pastor.
A movement to establish a "Bishop Patteson Memorial Fund" has been originated, under the most favorable auspices, at a meeting held in Auckland. The purpose of this fund is to support the Melanesian Mission, in connection with which Bishop Patteson lost his life, and to aid in the training of missionaries for this work.
The Congregation of Lawrence have given A call to the Rev. R. Morrison, of Switzers, to be ther pastor.
Blueskin.—This little township is beautifully situate on a shallow bay of the same name, which, when seen from the ocean, appears very close to the northern side of the Otago Heads. It is surrounded on all sides, but that facing the ocean, by a range of lofty hills, which were once densely and almost impassably covered with bush, but which now present numerous clearings, and afford a living to a pretty large population scattered over the district for miles. The main road to the north passes through it. Leaving Dunedin by the North-east Valley, a tortuous road conducts gradually to the top of the range, from which Port Chalmers and the delightful scenery around it, are seen to great advantage. The road to Port Chalmers diverges to the right; that to Blueskin and the North, to the left. Pursuing the latter, we are able, from the altitude at which it is cut on the mountain side, to command a wide and pleasing prospect. Wood and water, two great requisites in a good landscape, are picturesquely blended. From the Junction, 5 miles from Dunedin, the road is for the most part downward; winding through what was once an unbroken forest stretching from the bottom of gullies far below, to the top of hills which rise to a considerable height above the road. The township, 13 miles from Dunedin, lies in a flat of no great size, and presents a cluster of houses on each side of the road. A beautiful clear river, crossed by a wooden bridge, which forms part of the main road, flows along a pebbly bed to the bay. A furlong or two beyond the bridge, on the right side of the road next the bay, stands the Presbyterian Church, a building of wood intended for about 150 sitters, having a porch in front and a vestry behind. Within the enclosed ground there is also a stable. This district forms part of the parish placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. Johnston, of Port Chalmers. It is attended to by Mr. Morris, missionary, who has laboured there for a number of years. He holds service in the Church every Sabbath forenoon, and in the afternoon goes on one Sabbath to Merton, a place having a school, 5 miles beyond; and on the other to another station nearer Port Chalmers. The congregation held its Annual Soiree in Bhieskin Church, on the 28th November, and the occasion brought together a very full representation of the inhabitants of the surrounding country, as well as visitors from Port Chalmers and Dunedin. The church was completely crowded. After tea, the Rev. Mr. Johnston, who occupied the chair, read a statement of the financial position of the church, from which it appeared that after clearing all expenses for the year, there was a balance in hand of upwards of £8. Mr. Morris spoke of gratitude for their continued prosperity. The Rev. Dr. Copland spoke of the resources which even the poorest now possessed, compared with what the wealthiest in other ages could command, as for instance, in the means of communication, books, artificial light, &c., and argued from the greater gifts we had received, the stronger call for gratitude to God. He pointed to the way of showing this gratitude which christians should follow, namely, engaging in the work which Christ gave his church to do on earth—"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." He then spoke
West Tamaki—Province of Auckland.—A complimentary soiree was given to the Rev. John Macky, M.A., by the congregation of this place, on the 22nd November. Mr. W. J. Taylor presided. Mr. A. Thomson said that this was the oldest country congregation of Presbyterians in the Province. It had been organized about twenty years ago. For the first three years of its existence it had had no stated minister; but they wants of the congregation in this respect had been kindly supplied by the ministers of the Wesleyan and Independent Churches, one of whom (the Rev. Mr. Hamer) he was happy to see present on that occasion. For thirteen years they had worshipped God in the first church which they had erected, and at the end of that time they had replaced it with the much handsomer one in which they now met, which was quite free free from debt. He spoke of the love and esteem in which he (Mr. Macky) was held by every member of his flock at Tamaki. Seventeen years had now elapsed since he became their pastor, and during all that long period not a single cloud had ever come between him and them to darken their friendship. He referred to the faithful way in which he had discharged his duties as a minister, ever showing readiness to counsel them in perplexity, and to comfort them in sickness and trouble. He assured Mr. Macky that he had the grateful love and sympathy, and also the earnest prayers of all his people, and he expressed it as their united hope that he might be long spared by Almighty God to go in and out among them, and that his labors for their welfare might be even more blessed than heretofore. Mr. Macky and the people of Tamaki all knew he (Mr. Thomson) took great pleasure in attending to the duties of the Sunday school in connection with the church, and that being an amateur at photographing, he had taken the portraits of all the teachers and scholars at present in connection with that school; he had mounted these portraits on a shield, and now having got the picture finished and framed, he begged Mr. Mackay to accept of it as a memento of the young of his congregation in the Tamaki district at the present time. He also wished to take this opportunity of presenting to Mrs. Micky a portrait of Mr. Macky himself, and as the substance was better than the shadow, he hoped
Books and Tracts for the Chinesr.—The convener of the Mission Committee has received a large consignment of the above through the Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, which will prove very serviceable in our efforts to evangelise the Chinese in this country. The selection includes copies of the Old and New Testaments, Catechisms, Pilgrim's Progress, Short Treatises on the Glory of Christ, on Human Nature, Outline of Christianity, Chinese and Christian Doctrines Compared, On Heaven, Earth and Man, &c., and a variety of smaller tracts. Small packets of tracts have been forwarded for distribution among the Chinese in the principal parts of the gold-fields where they are located. Any Christian friends who are interested in the evangelization of the Chinese, and desire to have tracts or books to give to Chinese, will receive them on communicating with the editor. As our missionary Paul Ah Chin is located in Tuapeka, it is only by means of tracts and books that the knowledge of the Gospel can in the meantime be imparted to the Chinese in other parts. It is very desirable that the committee were placed in a position to procure another Chinese missionary to settle elsewhere; but the want of funds presents a barrier. Will our readers use their influence to remove it?
The Mission Vessel, the "Dayspring."—From a letter by the Rev. Mr. Cosh, printed for circulation among the children of the Presbyterian Church in the Province of Auckland, we present the following extract:—"The mission schooner "Dayspring" is at present in need of very large repairs. She has been sailing on missionary work among the New Hebrides Islands for the last eight years; and the sails, and ropes, and other things with which she was fitted out at first, are all getting so much worn, that it would be quite unsafe to put her to sea again without new ones. The missionaries are, therefore, very anxious that when she goes to Melbourne, next January, she should be completely overhauled, and every weak part in her and about her made strong again. To pay for this a large sum of money will be required; and the missionaries have written to request all the children in connection with the Presbyterian Church in Australia and New Zealand to do what they can to provide what is needed. The ministers in Australia have said that the children of their Sabbath Schools will do their share; and at the last meeting of the Presbytery here, your ministers all said that they were quite sure that you would not be behind others in this good work. They instructed me to write to you on the subject, and in their name to ask you all to make a vigorous effort this year to double your contributions for the mission vessel. Last year the Sabbath Schools in the Province of Auckland sent altogether about £50 for the support of the "Dayspring;" this year we
The Rev. James Cameron, of the 2nd U. P. Church, Newburgh, Perthshire, has demitted his charge for the purpose of going to Otago.
The following account of a curious Chinese ceremony is given by the Ballarat Star:—"In accordance with their half-yearly custom, the Chinese of Golden Point proceeded, a few days ago, to drive the devil from the camp. The ceremony is rather a curious one. Two or three loads of firewood are purchased by subscription for the purpose of making a large fire in the open oir, and near the fire are placed tables, with washing basins, clean towels, and plenty of Chinese soap-balls. Along the main street of the camp were placed candles at intervals of several yards. The Chinese make a great [point of sending the devil away in an amiable mood, and the fire and washing materials are provided so that he may leave the camp in a comfortable condition, and the candles are to show him the way. While the candles were burning, a band of Chinese musicians performed on the drum and gong in a very decided manner. The ceremony lasted for several hours."
According to Dr. Macdonald, of Melbourne, there is not in Victoria a town of 500 inhabitants where a place of worship cannot be found.
News from Fiji, brought by the "Sea Gull," states that forty Solomon Islanders, hired from a vessel at Levuka, who were being taken to Taviuni by Messrs. Kington, Robson, and Whittaker, planters there, in a cutter of ten tons, murdered the white men, including Mr. Warburton, a Levuka merchant. They also killed the Fiji crew, except one man, who swam ashore to the island of Angau, whence word was sent to Levuka of the massacre. The Government sent the mission schooner "Jubilee," the schooner "Kate Grant," and the cutters "Xarifa" and "Pomona" in pursuit of the islanders, who, after committing the murders, ran away with the cutter.
A large meeting was held in the Town Hall, Melbourne, to procure Imperial interference for the suppression of kidnapping in the Pacific.
Victoria was visited with heavy thunderstorms on the 22nd and 23rd November. At Bendigo, a brickmaker named Jones was struck dead instantaneously, and fifteen in one building were knocked down senseless, but afterwards recovered. At Melbourne, a woman was struck blind. On board the brigantine Belle (from Dunedin) Captain Hill and Pilot Hansen were struck down by a flash of lightning, while the vessel was in the Bay. A second flash killed Hansen, who had only time to say, "Better anchor," before he died.
New Guinea.—It is remarkable that this island should be so little known to Europeans and should have been left so long without the knowledge of the Gospel. After Australia, it is the first in magnitude of all the Australasian islands, and has been known since
Dr. Parke and Dr. Sanderson, the two commissioners appointed by Professor Huxley to investigate the sanitary state of Liverpool, sent in their concluding report on Friday to the Town Council. They state that the utterly degraded and destitute condition in. which many of the laboring classes live took them wholly by surprise. Hardly a fifth of the population live under any kind of restraint or decency; and the dock laborers are worse off with respect to houses than common tramps. They recommend that steps be taken to limit the reckless indulgence in drink which is at the bottom of all the poverty and crime of the town, and also that the streets in which overcrowding exists to such an enormous extent be recast, and built with a due regard to ventilation and the comfort of the inhabitants.
English Bishops in a, Presbyterian Church.—The Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of Winchester, officiated in the parish church of Glengarry. Their action, however, has given offence to the Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the English High Church party. In the Reformation age, such interchanges were the rule in Protestant Churches differing in church organization; but in these days, not a few, by elevating circumstantials above fundamentals, do violence to the Divine law of charity. Will the Bishops act on the principle of reciprocity, and throw open their churches to Presbyterian ministers?
For Students.—In addressing the students of the U. P. Theolog-f cal Hall, Dr. Edmond took for his general theme "What I would do ii I were a student again;" and he illustrated this under the six particulars—"1st. I would dearly love the brotherhood; 2nd. I would greatly revere my tutors; 3rd. I would resolve to be a student always; 4th. I should purpose to be always young; 5th. I should be disposed to take more than ever for my motto 'Pray without ceasing;' and 6th. I should thank God for casting my lot in the present age." In speaking of the first of these particulars the rev. doctor made touching reference to the recent deaths of Rev. Dr. George Johnston, Dr. Smart, and Mr. Muir, of Leith, and in the conclusion of his address he directed attention, with great earnestness and ability, to many of the more hopeful signs of the present age. Nearly 160 students have been attending the Hall during this session, which has in all respects been a prosperous one.
The Origin of Life on the Earth.—The hypothesis, that the germs of life were conveyed to the earth by meteoric stones, the fragments of other worlds, with which Sir William Thomson lately astonished the savans of the British Association, was claimed by Mr. Peter Bayne to have been anticipated by himself in his "Life and Letters of Hugh Miller." An idea of a similar nature was given forth more than forty years ago in France by Charles Fourier, who gained considerable popularity and power as a Socialist or Communistic leader, as the following quotation shows:—"The phnets procreate their own species, but their functions of creative industry consist in furnishing each other with the various types of animal and vegetable life which live and grow upon the surface of each globe respectively. Thus, all the moons and planets of our solar system have contributed to the creations of our globe, in the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms. The elephant, the oak, and the diamond were created by the sun; the horse, the lily, and the ruby were created by Saturn; the cow, the jonquil, and the topaz were created by Jupiter; the dog, the violet, and opal stones were created by our earth itself; and all the moons and planets have created special series, classes, orders, and varieties of animals, vegetables, and minerals upon our globe, and also on each moon and planet of our solar system.' ("Doherty's Introduction to The Passions of the Human Soul," by Charles Fourier, page 14.) Ordinary readers will probably exclaim, "This is very absurd!" We would simply remind them of an old saying, "Nothing is so absurd as not to have been said by someone of the philosophers."
Progress in Rome. —"One of the most important features of the new movement, is the opening of secular schools, removing the rising generation out of the hands of the priests, which is now not only being done by private benevolence, but very effectively by the Italian Government, which has taken possession of a portion of the great building of the Jesuit school, the Collegio Romano, and applied it to this purpose. The English, American, and Scotch churches also, hitherto forbidden to worship within the city, and with their cluster of chapels outside the walls, within a stone's throw of the Porto del Popolo, are anticipating, with great satisfaction, the erection of their own places of worship, cathedrals it may be, within the old city itself, Prince Humbert having assured the chaplain of the American church, when speaking with him on the subject, that there would be, henceforth, liberty of conscience in Rome. The world moves in this nineteenth century more effectively than it did in the days of Galileo, and all that Pio Nono seems to have obtained, in the common outer world by his two great Church dogmas is a passing joke, that he has proved himself the greatest miracle-worker in the church—he has made one immaculate woman and one infallible man. In fact, almost every day loosens a link in the chain which has held for so many ages the Roman mind in bondage. Day by day innovation advances. But few even, comparatively speaking, of the poor animals came in for a blessing on the 17th of January, the day of their patron, Saint Anthony. People are beginning to doubt its efficacy, many a vetturino saying truly that his horses would be better by a few soldi-worth of provender, than by all the saints' blessing."—Leisure Hour.
Religious Accommodation in London.—For the three millions and a quarter of persons residing in the metropolitan district, the following provision is made by the various religious bodies:—Church of England, 461 places of worship; Congregationalists, 200; Baptists, 176; Wesleyan Connection, 102; Primitive Methodists, 77; United Methodist Free Churches, 60; Plymouth Brethren, 21; Undenominational, 25; English Presbyterians, 31; Methodist New Connection, 12; Society of Friends, 11; United Presbyterians, 6; Bible Christians, 6; Wesleyan Reformers, 5; Church of Scotland, 3; Countess of Huntingdon's, 2; Calvinistic Methodists, 2; Moravians, 2; and Calvinists (not otherwise described) 2; making a total of 1204. This is, of course independent of religious services held in schoolrooms, mission halls, &c. Supposing, however, there were as many of these places as of the regular churches and chapels, each building would have to contain 1350 souls, to hold the entirepopulation; the average capacity is, however, only about one-fourth of this; so that, with efficient men to minister, and a disposition to attend religious worship, about as many more churches and chapels as these would have to be erected. It is also worthy of note that, notwithstanding the immense effort made by the Church of England, through the "Bishop of London's Fund "and other means, that the Free Churches have about two buildings for religious worship for every Episcopalian edifice.—Nonconformist.
Rev. Francis Muir, of Junction street U. P. Church, died on the 13th September, in the 75th year of his age, and the 49th of his ministry.
Souls in Purgatory.—A Freeman's Journal of August last contains the following advertisement:—"Help for the Holy Souls.—All who com-passionate the sufferings of the souls in purgatory, will assist the Rev. Fr. Kirk, a native of Dublin, in building the new church and school of St. Mary of the Holy Souls, at Kensal New Town, near London. The name of any deceased relative or friend may be forwarded with every ten shillings subscription: it will then be enrolled on the mortuary list and share in all the special devotions of the Church Living people who wish to secure themselves against the forgetfulness of those they leave behind, can send in their own names, merely adding the words, 'when deceased.' Subscribers of one shilling can have any soul prayed for during the space of one year from date of entrance. Full particulars sent by post. Address, during the months of August and September, the Rev. Francis Kirk, 5, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin."
Licensing Statistics.—Some returns as to the trade in beer, wine, and spirits in the United Kingdom have just been issued in the form of a Parliamentary paper, which was moved for by Mr. Bass. They refer to the year ending the
The, death of Dean Mansel, Dean of St. Paul's, from the sudden bursting of a blood-vessel in the head, took place on the 30th July. He was promoted to the deanery in
At the Wesleyan Conference, held in July last, a long discussion ensued in reference to the Contagious Diseases Act, opinions being freely expressed on both sides of the question. Eventually the following resolution was carried nem. con.:—"That a memorial be presented to the first Lord of the Treasury, expressing the solemn conviction of the Conference that the requirements of Christian morality demand the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and that no amount of supposed sanitary or other advantages derived from these Acts can outweigh the evil involved in their original enactment, their continuance on the statute book, and their practical administration."
The Christian Vernacular Education Society printed during the last year 260,300 copies of school books and periodicals, in seven of the principal languages of India. Their circulation has been 303,152 copies, and the proceeds of sales, £2613.
Fiji news, via Sydney, states that 25 settlers burned a native town on the Ba river, killing 22 Fijimen.
Medical Missions.—A valedictory meeting of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society was held on 30th July, in the Queen street Hall, Edinburgh, on the occasion of the departure of three of their students for stations in India and China. The chair was taken by Professor Balfour, and among the gentlemen on the platform were the Rev. Thos. Binnev, London; Rev. Dr. Alexander, Rev. Thomas Main, Rev. Dr. Thomas Smith, and Rev. Mr. G. D. Cullen. After the delivery of a number of addresses from gentlemen present, the departing students were each presented with a handsome copy of the Bible.
Mission Festival at Utrecht.—A correspondent of the Weekly Review describes a missionary festival held on the 9th of August, near Utrecht in Holland, at which about 40,000 persons attended. There were six platforms at equal distances, each disposed picturesquely among the trees Some things in the national Church of Holland indicate a revival of religion, and promise better time than have been known in the country for a century or two. That church, though originally highly orthodox, and blest with a Presbyterian form of government, was for a long time sunk in Erastianism, nationalism, and worldliness. But of late years favorable symptoms have appeared in the Church and State politics of Holland. The people, in all the cities and parishes that have chosen to claim the right offered them by Government, have now the privilege of selecting their own ministers. This is an awful blow to the Rationalist and anti-Evangelical party. In Amsterdam, for example, all the vacancies in the ranks of the national clergy are being filled up with Evangelical pastors of eloquence and talent. This change is telling beneficially on the interests of true religion in Amsterdam, and in Holland generally. We find here, also, a fresh illustration of the power and value of popular election. Whenever the people have the power of choosing their own ministers, they are almost certain to fix upon men who know and are able to preach the Gospel. In this respect the common people are often wiser and more to be relied on than the learned and mighty of the earth.
Infallibility of the Pope.—The infallibility dogma is being fully discussed in Bavaria, and amongst the intelligent classes it evidently has scant favor. Professor Zirugiebb, a theologian of the Munich University, has published a pamphlet against the dogma. He charges the Pope with having used corrupt means for the attainment of his elevation to infallibility. Several anti-infallibilists have been appointed senators of the University. In Saxony some sensation has been caused by an order having been issued by a Roman Catholic Bishop in Dresden for the celebration of mass in honor of Ignatius Loyola. The order has importance chiefly because the Jesuits are strictly prohibited in Saxony.—'Scotsman.'
The congregations of Winton and Forest Hill, Southland, have resolved to call the Rev. J. M. Thomson to be their minister.
The Independent Order of Good Templars (teetotallers) has now upwards of 500,000 members.
Mills, Dick & Co., Printers, Stafford Street, Dunedin.
It Has been long felt by many that our work, as a church, in meeting the spiritual necessities of the people throughout our borders has been greatly hindered by the difficulty of maintaining a sufficient number of regularly qualified ministers. The population is widely scattered, and therefore requires, in proportion to its numbers, a much larger number of services, and of ministers to conduct them. By a number of ministers, elders and members of piety and prudence have often been engaged to render such assistance as they were able and willing to give, but this has been done on their own authority, and without recognition or support on the part of the Synod, our supreme court. At its meeting last month, the Synod has fairly looked at the necessities of the case, and has given authority for the employment of suitable lay agents, as students and others, in places where there is a necessity for such additional labourers. This we regard as a most hopeful sign. It is in no sense an innovation on the peculiarities of the Presbyterian system. It presents no indication of a desire to depart from that which is the peculiar characteristic of the Presbyterian Church, and which can be claimed by no other—namely, the requiring of a full education and training on the part of all her regular ministers. This characteristic, we trust, she will ever maintain. It is, under God, one of the strongest bulwarks of her orthodoxy and efficiency as a Christian Church.
The lay agency referred to is not intended to interfere with, but rather to strengthen, the efficiency of the regular ministry. At the very foundation of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, lay agents, called readers, were appointed, and they contributed greatly to maintain and extend the Church at a time when the number of regular ministers was quite inadequate to overtake the multitudes scattered throughout the country that were in want of Christian instruction. In the Wesleyan Church agents of a similar kind, called local preachers,
There are, however, obstacles which sometimes stand in the way, to which we would ask the consideration of the Church, in order that they may be cleared away, and the efficiency of the Church thus promoted. Regarding the system itself, it is proper to state that it does not contemplate the sending forth of a host of untrained men to occupy our pulpits, and be placed in permanent charge of congregations. Their work will be mainly in remote and necessitous districts that cannot support regular ministers; it will be conducted under the oversight of the ministers and presbyteries of the bounds, and the character and fitness of the men who may be employed will be carefully looked into, so that only those of piety, Christian prudence, and a fair measure of natural fitness for the work will be engaged. At times they may occupy the pulpits of the ministers who have the oversight of their districts, to enable them to preach and administer the sacraments of the Church, which otherwise they could not do.
In view of such an arrangement, it must be confessed that there exists in many congregations a large amount of prejudice against accepting the services of any but regularly qualified ministers, and many who hear of lay agents coming to occupy the pulpit for a day or two are disposed to stay away. This discourages both him who temporarily officiates and the minister who thus seeks to extend the benefits of his ministry. It may be granted that such agents as we speak of may not be qualified to expound the Scriptures and set forth the truths which they contain, so lucidly and powerfully as the regular ministers. This is not to be expected. But the end of the services of the sanctuary is not merely the exposition of the doctrines of Scripture, but one great and principal end of a living ministry is the holding forth of a living and personal testimony on behalf of the truth, so that it may be declared from age to age by those who have themselves believed that the
The tendency of modern legislation on this subject has been to deal with the negative, rather than with the positive aspect of the question. The earlier Acts were directed against the non-observance of the day by neglecting religious worship; whilst those of more recent date were intended to prevent open desecration, and to remove all obstructions to the keeping of the day by those persons disposed to observe it.
We shall endeavor to point out hereafter the grounds upon which legislation on this subject is justifiable by a State acknowledging and professing Christianity. By the abolition of the day, it is evident that the true religion, and all the advantages which flow from the proper
Before referring to the most important Act in force in England and which is also in operation here, it may be proper to advert briefly to some of the earlier statutes, not already noticed. In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry the Seventh, an Act was passed, the preamble of which alludes to the "abominable injuries and offences done to Almighty God, because of fairs and markets upon high and principal feasts, and of the people so specially withdrawing themselves and their servants from divine service."
In the year
The important statute to which reference has been made was passed in the twenty-ninth year (
It is a principle in all legislation that when a law becomes unsuitable, or is disapproved of, it should be repealed. The fact that this one is still in force, furnishes a somewhat cogent reason in support of its utility, and of its being held in favorable estimation by the legislators of the present day. The preamble states "For the better obsering and keeping holy the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, that
From an Act passed in
Turning to local legislation on this subject, we find that the Provincial Council of Otago on the
The only other Ordinance of the Otago Provincial Council which affects this subject is the Licensing Ordinance of
Under regulations framed in pursuance of the Marino Board Act
Except what has been already shewn, neither the Colonial nor any
An objection has frequently been started involving the right to regulate by municipal law the observance of this day. It has been urged that every person should be at liberty to judge for himself how and to what extent it ought to be kept. An argument of this kind obviously disputes the right of the government to carry out by enactment its views on this subject. The question not unnaturally arises, In whom does the government reside? Unquestionably, in the people at large, who by their representatives enact such laws as are proper, or necessary, they possess the real as distinguished from the nominal power, and the ruling authority has been brought into existence, or is sanctioned or tolerated, by them. It may be accepted as a rule founded on an equitable principle and carried out in daily practice, that the voice of the majority prevails and governs the general body of the people. This rule is observed in every public meeting, in our municipal and political elections, in all ecclesiastical courts and by the various legislative bodies, whether of a Provincial or a Colonial character. By extending the same principle it may with propriety be urged that whatever religious views the great body of the people holds, respect should be paid thereunto, at the same time doing no violence, or as little as the circumstances admit, to the opinions and feelings of the minority. Toleration in thinking is of the highest importance, and should therefore ever be sacredly protected, but so long as the Government professes the Christian religion, it is not only entitled but bound to suppress all conduct which tends openly to imperil the existence, obstruct the observance, prevent the spread or mar the usefulness of that religion.
In civil society it is well known that there does not exist liberty in its full import, although in another sense of the word the persons constituting such a society possess greater freedom and more exemption from tyranny than they would amongst a barbarous people. For whose
In the next paper reference will be made to the views of some of the legal writers, and the opinions of several of the Judges. Some suggestions also will be given, showing what ought to be done in reference to this matter.
The Synod met in First Church, Dunedin, on the evening of 10th Jan., at 7 o'clock. The opening sermon was preached by the Rev. D. M. Stuart, the retiring Moderator, from 2 Cor. x. 3-5. He referred to the severe losses which the Church had sustained since the last meeting of Synod by the death of the Rev. Dr. Burns, the father of the Presbyterian Church in Otago; the Rev. James Urie, of Tapanui; and Mr. John Gillies, elder. He then nominated as his successor in the Moderator's Chair, the Rev. James Kirkland, a minister whose abundant and successful labors in his ministerial work had shown his fitness for this office.
The proposal being unanimously adopted, the Rev. James Kirkland took the chair, and delivered an address in which he fully pointed out the distinctive features of Presbyterianism, and the necessity of these being prominently set forth and impressed upon the members of our Church.
The Roll was made up, and the changes that had occurred since last meeting were reported.
The arrangements for the missionary meeting of Synod were intimated, which was appointed for Monday, the 15th, at 7. Committees for arranging business and revising records, also to prepare a minute relative to the losses sustained by death, were appointed.
The first hour of this meeting was spent in devotional exercises, con-
The Moderator stated, in reference to the proposal which had been made in the previous sederunt, that as some had expressed a difficulty in agreeing to the request in the name of the Synod, he desired to relieve such by intimating that the address would be published on his own responsibility. The motion was accordingly withdrawn. The thanks of the Synod were voted to the Moderator for his admirable address; also to the retiring Moderator for his excellent sermon at the opening of the Synod.
An overture from the Dunedin Presbytery was brought up by the Rev. Mr. Watt, proposing that Kirk Sessions might be allowed to choose as their representative elders at the Synod, elders who belonged to other sessions. It was alleged in favor of the proposal that many sessions had frequently not been represented at all in the Synod, in consequence of their distance and other circumstances, and that good might accrue from the presence in the Synod of experienced elders who might be selected. On the other hand, it was stated that the evil complained of was already in course of adjustment, so that there was nearly an equality in the numbers of ministers and elders; that confusion might arise in connection with appeals; and that the permission proposed to be given might lead sessions at a distance to be less anxious to send representatives of their own number. The overture was carried by 21 to 19.
The report of the Church Extension Committee was brought up by the Rev. Mr. Stuart. One preacher, the Rev. J. M'Cosh Smith, M.A.
The preachers available for supply are Messrs. Bett (who will probably be settled at Tapanui); M'Lean, C. S. Ross and Arnot. Mr. Fleming, a divinity student, will be immediately licensed and added to the number. Since the report was given in, the Rev. A. Blake has been transferred to the work of the Church, and declared open to a call. The report complained of the small funds available for its work; recommended founding of scholarships by congregations to encourage suitable students for the ministry; and suggested the employment of students in home mission work. The report was adopted with thanks; the Committee empowered to employ ministers or probationers newly arrived who are duly certified by the Presbyteries of this Church; and Presbyteries enjoined to see that the collections for the fund are made in all their congregations.
On the motion of Mr. Stobo, it was agreed that it be lawful to vacant congregations to call ministers holding charges in other churches, having principles common to the Presbyterian Church here.
Mr. Fleming, divinity student, was authorised to be taken on trial for license.
The Rev. Dr. Copland brought up the report of the Union Committee, which pointed out the desirableness of co-operating with the Northern Church in giving expression to their views on the questions which engage the attention of the Legislature, bearing on the moral and spiritual welfare of the community—especially education, the marriage question, the Sabbath law, and the so-called Contagious Diseases Act. Further, it recommended the institution of a common fund for scholarships for students for the ministry from all parts of the country, and the providing of a common Theological Institution for education of students for the whole Church. The report was adopted, and it was afterwards agreed that the deputies to the General Assembly should express the desire of the Synod to co-operate in forming a common fund for scholarships for students for the ministry, and to ascertain the intentions of the General Assembly in
The Rev. Mr. Sutherland gave in the report of Committee on the State of Religion. It deplored the continuance of traffic on the highways and by steamers, and the keeping open of some shops, which were unnecessary. It noticed with approval the united action of the churches in Melbourne against the opening of places of recreation on Sabbath, and suggested similar co-operation among the churches to oppose running of railway trains on Sabbath if this should become necessary. The evangelistic services had been generally held, and with good results. The report was adopted with thanks, and the Synod instructed ministers to preach on Sabbath Observance on second Sabbath of March, and to hold special services for the conversion of the young on first Sabbath in November. Presbyteries were instructed to arrange for special evangelistic services in those congregations where they were not held last year, and to give encouragement to a judicious system of colportage where practicable. Congregations were recommended to petition against all Sabbath traffic. The Committee was recommended to invite co-operation of other Christian Churches in petitioning against Sabbath traffic.
The Sustentation Fund Committee's Report was presented by the Rev. Mr. Will. The dividend for the first half year was £94 Is.; for the second half-year, £93 11s.; total for the year, £187 12s. The Committee acknowledged with thanks a donation from Miss Muir, of Percetown, of £19 12s. 4d.; and from Mr. Edmonston, of Edinburgh, of £2.
It was resolved to approve of the report with thanks, and to recommend this fund to the earnest consideration of the Churches, as the chief fund by which the means of grace are maintained and extended throughout the Province in connection with this Church.
At a later sederunt, a Committee, composed entirely of laymen was appointed as the Sustentation Fund Committee for
On Saturday the Synod, as usual, did not meet; and on Sabbath, the Rev. Mr. Bannerman and the Rev. J. M'Cosh Smith preached by appointment of Synod in the First Church.
This meeting was held as the annual missionary meeting of Synod.
The annual report of missionary operations of the Church reviewed briefly the several spheres of work. In the New Hebrides Mission, discouragement had been felt from the effects of the labor traffic which is carried on in the islands. The missionary, the Rev. Mr. Milne, was laboring in Nguna without any assistant native teacher, holding service with the natives in the open air. During Mr. Milne's absence at the Conference of New Hebrides Missionaries at Aniwa in July, news had reached this country that the mission premises on Nguna had been ransacked by a party of slavers who had come to revenge injuries which the natives had inflicted on a slave vessel which had come to the island. The Committee, however, had received no reliable intelligence regarding this. The report expressed sympathy with the Melanesian Mission under their severe losses in the cruel deaths of Bishop Patteson and the Rev. Mr. Aitken—the effects of the prevalent slave trade.
The gift of £50 for a second missionary could not be applied to that purpose. The amount of money contributed for the Dayspring was £251.
The Maori Mission had been systematically carried on in the various Maori settlements of the Province, and in the gaols and hospitals of Dunedin and Invercargill. In consequence of the health of Mrs. Blake being found unsuited for the climate at the Heads, the Synod agreed to Mr. Blake's transferring his services to the general work of the Church.
The Chinese Mission has achieved a fair measure of success. Paul Ah Chin, the missionary, has preached every Sabbath to a small congregation of Chinese in Lawrence, numbering about twenty. Three have renounced their heathen ideas and practices, and been received by baptism into the Christian Church. A fourth had applied for baptism, and good hopes were entertained of others now under instruction. Tracts and books in Chinese had been received for circulation. The report expressed the regret of the Committee at the death of the Rev. George Mackie, Convener of the Chinese Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church, Victoria, who had rendered great service to this Church in all our arrangements regarding the Chinese Mission.
The contributions to the General Mission Fund amounted to £475 8s. 11d. Maori Mission £4 10s.; New Hebrides, £14 10s.; Chinese £20 10s.; Native teachers, New Hebrides, £5—in all, £519 18s. 11d., in addition to the donation of £50 reported at last Synod for a second missionary to the New Hebrides. The disbursements are—Maori Mission, £281 18s.; Chinese, £201 6s. 9d.; New Hebrides, £16414s.; sundry expenses, £9 13s.; balance of debt to R. P. Church, £76 4s.
d.—in all, £732 16s. 3d. The balance in Treasurer's hands to meet liabilities for s. 5d.
This is by no means satisfactory, inasmuch as—although all liabilities up to
The income for s. 11d.; expenditure, £732 16s. 3d. For s. 9d.; expenditure, £585 6s. 4d. For s. 4d.; expenditure, £554 7s. For s. 3d.; expenditure, £209 4s. 6d. For s. 3d; expenditure, nil.
In the deliverance given on the report, the Synod "urge upon the members of this Church more earnest prayer to [God, and increased liberality, that all the branches of the mission may be prosecuted with increasing vigor and success, and more especially that a second missionary may be provided for the increasing number of Chinese within our borders."
Addresses were delivered by the Rev. Messrs. A. Blake, D. Ross, D. M. Stuart, and A. B. Todd; Messrs. Geisow, E. B. Cargill, and J. E. Brown, elders, and by Paul Ah Chin, Chinese Missionary.
Tuesday, 16th January.—A new Presbytery was formed, to be called the Oamaru Presbytery, and the Rev. Messrs. Christie of Waikouaiti, Baird of Hampden, Clark of Palmerston, Riley of Otepopo, Todd of Oamaru, and M'Cosh Smith of Naseby, were disjointed from Dunedin Presbytery and connected with it. The seat of the new Presbytery is fixed at Otepopo.
An overture was introduced by Mr. Geisow to the effect that ministers be recommended to address their congregations in the course of the year on the principles of the church, which was agreed to.
On the recommendation of the Presbytery of Clutha, authority was given by the Synod to sanction Waitahuna as an independent charge if the Presbytery should see fit to do so.
Tuesday Evening.—The whole of this sederunt was occupied with the hearing of parties in the First Church case, which shewed the congregation almost equally divided, each desiring the retirement of the other—nearly all the office-bearers being arraigned against the minister.
Wednesday, 17th January.—Three motions were submitted. The first as follows, by the Rev. Mr. Stobo:—"That the Synod express its deep regret at the state of things existing in the First Church, as disclosed in the papers on the table and in the pleadings at the bar; find that this state of things is due largely to the course pursued by the minister; regret that instead of striving to conciliate those dissatisfied with the course pursued by him, the minister has acted in a way rather to irritate and increase the aberration of those dissatisfied with him. Find that from the statements made by the minister and other parties at the bar, as representing the sections into which the congregation is divided, there is no hope of a reconciliation between the minister and those dissatisfied with him, and that in consequence his usefulness is so impaired as to destroy all hope of his retaining the congregation originally committed to him, and therefore with a view to the interests of the congregation and of religion and the good of the church, the Synod recommend the minister to resign his present charge."
Mr. Millar moved as an amendment to add to the above—"That in the event of Mr. Sutherland resigning, the office-bearers be requested to resign also."
The Rev. Mr. Riley proposed a further amendment—"That the Synod having considered the reference from Dunedin Presbytery anent First Church, expresses its regret that differences should have arisen between the pastor and a large number of his congregation; find that faults and irregularities have been committed by both parties, and resolve for the good of the church to ask the minister and officebearers to resign, and appoint assessors to form an interim kirksession."
On a vote on the two amendments, Mr. Millar's was carried against Mr. Riley's by 22 to 13. On the vote between the motion and Mr. Millar's amendment, the motion was carried by 19 against 17. Three members and one elder declined to vote.
Wednesday Evening.—The motion which the Synod adopted was dissented from (for reasons given) by the Rev. Messrs. Riley, Connor,
Mr. Sutherland intimated his regret that he could not comply with the Synod's recommendation, for reasons stated to the Synod. After reasoning, it was resolved by the Synod—"That the Synod having already declared Mr. Sutherland to be mainly to blame for the present state of matters existing in the First Church, and having recommended Mr. Sutherland to resign in order to effect a settlement of the difficulties, and Mr. Sutherland having refused to comply with the recommendation, the Synod instructs the Presbytery of Dunedin to enjoin Mr. Sutherland to act in a more befitting and constitutional manner towards the Session and Deacon's Court. In the event of further difficulties arising requiring the intervention of the Synod, authorise the Moderator of the Synod, on the request of the Presbytery, to call a pro re nata meeting of Synod to dispose thereof.
The Report of the University Committee was given in, from which it appeared that the Knox Church Scholarship had been awarded to Mr. Ferguson, Tokomairiro. Thanks were awarded to the Committee, and it was remitted to them to make the necessary arrangements regarding the disposal of the scholarships, with a recommendation that the Lang scholarship should be offered to second-year students, and be tenable for two years.
Thursday, 18th January.—An overture on hasty legislation was sent down for consideration by Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions. The Temperance Committee's report recommended generally that ministers should use their influence as far as possible in promoting the formation of bands of hope, temperance societies, &c and that petitions should be largely signed in favor of a Permissive Bill.
On the motion of the Rev. Mr. Todd, the Rev. Messrs. Kirkland and Riley were appointed as an evangelistic deputation to visit some of the more remote districts of the Province—especially the Goldfields.
The Rev. Mr. Gow brought up a report on the subject of employing students and lay agents in the work of evangelising. It suggested that Presbyteries should forward to the Church Extension Committee full particulars of destitute districts within their bounds, and seek out suitable men for the work of evangelisation. It also recommended that means should be used to increase the fund at the disposal of the Committee to enable it to overtake the work which will devolve on it. The report was adopted.
Regulations for the administration of the Widows' and Orphans' Fund were agreed to.
Thursday Evening.—The Psalmody Committee gave in their report. It was resolved by a majority that the English Presbyterian Hymn Book be sent down to Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions for their consideration, that if it be deemed expedient said collection may be adopted at the next meeting of Synod. Rev. Mr. Bannerman and Messrs. Grant, Duff, and J. W. Thomson dissented.
Resolutions on education were introduced by Mr. A. D. Johnston of Warepa, in support of a system of education like that existing in Otago, opposing the introduction of a denominational system, and desiring the co-operation of other churches in securing a colonial system of education in which the practical management of schools will not rest with any ecclesiastical denomination. The resolutions were unanimously adopted.
The Rev. James Cosh, formerly missionary in the New Hebrides, was received as a minister in connection with this Church open to a call. A memorial from the New Hebrides missionaries was read and remitted to the Mission Committee, with power to act. The Rev. A. B. Todd was appointed Moderator of the Oamaru Presbytery, to meet on the 11th March next, and the Rev. Dr. Copland was appointed interim Moderator of the Dunedin Presbytery in lieu of Mr. Todd. The Finance Report was given in by the Rev. Mr. Gillies, and adopted. Collections were appointed for church extension not later than March, passage money of ministers, July, and for Missions, November. A collection for the Bethel Mission was also recommended. The Synod regretted want of time to hear Mr. Watts's paper read as previously arranged, but requested him to read it at next meeting of Synod.
The various Committees were appointed, with their Conveners—viz.: Church Extension, Rev. D. M. Stuart; Missions, Rev. James Kirkland; Sustentation Fund, Captain Thomson; Sanctioning Charges, Rev. A. H. Stobo; Finance, Rev. W. Gillies; University, Mr. E. B. Cargill; Temperance, Rev. James Clark; Sabbath Schools, Rev. John Gow; State of Religion, Rev. John Riley.
The Moderator then briefly addressed the Synod, and the meeting was brought to a close in the usual way by the singing of a portion of the 122nd Psalm and by grayer.
The Synod adjourned, to meet in First Church, Dunedin, on Tuesday,
The transit of Venus across the sun's disc which takes place in
And now, what really are the benefits astronomy will derive from the transit being observed at stations either close or apart from each other, and what are the principles involved in the process?
The first part of this question may be very briefly answered by stating that one important result will be the verification or correction of the sun's present estimated size and distance, and the latter part explained by referring to a very simple mode of illustration. Let any of the readers of the 'Evangelist' hold up his finger at arm's-length between his eye and the opposite wall of the room in which he sits, and observe the particular point on the wall which his finger eclipses; then let him move his head to the right or left, and he will find that his
Such are the problems; and these only form a part of the problems Man is continually endeavoring to solve. There are unsatisfied longings within him that ever prompt him to the task of unravelling the higher mysteries of the wondrous scheme of the universe—a scheme that though continually unfolding still leaves him so much to search after and comprehend. The more he explores it, still the more are opened up to view new beauties of design, and greatness and fitness of purpose—purposes that, though general in their scope, are still particular in their tendencies, ever operating and ever fulfilling the highest ends.
Before closing these remarks, it will only be in place here to say that the study of the great truths of astronomy forms a consistent and even congenial part of the Christian's duty. Let him depend upon it that so many worlds—some of them far exceeding our own in size—have been created for other and higher purposes than merely to shine upon us as insignificant points of light. If a single drop of water be a universe in itself—peopled with vital organisms whose number manifests an unstinted liberality on the part of the Creator in the bestowal of life, shall we in the face of that, deem all space beyond our own sphere to be a desert without an oasis—a wilderness without one fertile spot on which may be manifested instances of the Creator's power and associated with proofs of His benignity? From the physical aspect of some at least of the planets, it is apparent that they are in all respects fitted to he the habitation of beings like ourselves, and when once the admission is made that they are so, where are our conclusions to end? Who shall place a limit to the number of animated groups that may people immensity? If we are surrounded by numberless proofs of wisdom and power, as developed in terrestrial creation, and which.
I Am when the thought steals over us that such indications of His vivifying presence may extend throughout worlds whose number is only surpassed by the infinitude of His deity?
"And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?"—I Kings xviii. 21.
When Cortes with a handful of Spaniards invaded Mexico, as soon as he had landed upon its shores, he burned the ships that had brought him and his troops. There was to be no indecision, no vacillation, no halting between thoughts of returning home and pressing onwards. Decision is an important element in earthly combats, and many a battle has been lost simply through the want of it. But if indecision be dangerous in the things of time, it is still more so in the things of eternity. Alas! how many are halting between two opinions. Just let me set two pictures before you, both taken from the Word of God, the first illustrative of irresolution, and the second of resolution in spiritual things. Picture with your mind's eye that mighty mass who have assembled on that eventful day to which the text refers upon the sides of Mount Carmel. There was all Israel, at least by its representatives. Some of those present were probably secretly worshippers of the true God. There were creeping Nathanaels, timid Melancthons, who, in those evil times, had hidden their heads. There stood in solitary majesty the austere and heaven-illumined Elijah, who had lately thought himself alone faithful among the faithless. There were also thousands and tens of thousands too indifferent to all religions to sacrifice anything for any of them. Many of them had, doubtless, taken up with Baal because that religion enjoyed the court's patronage. Some there were who were somewhat uneasy in their minds, for their consciences were not yet quite deadened. Many had adopted the religion, of Baal, because they wished it to be true, and because they were bent on the gratification of their lusts. Alas! is not this a true picture of the great mass of professors still? They are "ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth," saying with Felix, "Go thy way for this time," resolving and resolving and dying the same. With Agrippa almost Christians. Neither wholly one thing nor wholly another; neither God's nor the devil's; neither fish nor flesh;
Now, let us look at the picture of resolution in religion. Take two examples. One is of an aged man with one foot in the grave, who after the trial of a long course of walking with God, declares his unalterable resolution to persevere to the end. Joshua xxiv. 15. "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." The other example I have always thought one of the most beautiful and affecting in the whole Word of God, as occurring in the period of youth, when the heart is so apt to be undecided or to be ensnared by the allurements of the world. It is the noble resolution of Ruth (i. 10-20). Orpah sorrowfully kisses and takes farewell of her mother-in-law, but Ruth cleaves unto her, saying, "Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest I will die, and there I will be buried; the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." (I.) The first thing that we wish to remark from these words is, that the lukewarmness and indecision of the Christian world are virtually a halting between God and Baal. Baal signifies master or lord. It answered generally to the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans. It seems to have been a name given to several idols, and it is probable that there were more than one idol that were worshipped by that company of eight hundred and fifty priests who were present on that day. The question to be decided on that day was, Who was to be God, who was to be served, who was to be followed, who was to be worshipped? That is still the grand question. But here an objection may arise; perhaps you may be saying that you do worship the true God. Is it an outward worship only, I ask you? That is not enough. Who has your heart? that is the question. The heart is the battle-ground around which a war is raging. Picture in your imaginations that impressive and memorable spectacle on Carmel—the frantic priests calling for hours in vain—Elijah approaching at the time of the evening sacrifice, and the lightning-bolt that descended in answer to his prayer and decided the controversy. The minds of men have been lately much occupied with that great contest which has been waged in Europe between two powerful nations. Could you draw aside, O sinner, the veil of the invisible world, you would see a
- "The Lord shall come, the earth shall quake,
- The mounta to their centres shake;
- And trembling from the vault of night
- The stars shall pale their orbed light.
- * * * * * *
- While sinners in despair shall call—
- Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall—
- The saints ascending from the tomb
- Shall joyful sing,—The Lord is come!
The Thuth in its Own Light; or, Christianity Shown from Itself to be a Divine Revelation to Man. In five parts. By the Rev. John Cooper, author of "The Science of Spiritual Life," &c. Melbourne: George Robertson.
Mr. Cooper is Presbyterian Minister at Coburg, a suburb of Melbourne. The book before us was composed at intervals snatched from the cares and toils of ministerial life. It is not a book of sermons, nor a book founded on a series of sermons; but a book from its first conception down to its final completion. We do not object to a volume of sermons, nor to a volume founded on sermons, but we confess to a partiality for books designed and executed after the manner of the one before us.
The Parts of this volume appeared separately, and were reviewed as they appeared. Now that the volume is completed we are in a better position for judging of the book as a whole. It has been objected to the volume as it appeared in parts that it contains no division into chapters. This defect has at length been partially remedied by an analytical table appended to the Fifth Part. Having seen Mr. Cooper's book in its completed form, we unhesitatingly say that it is upon the whole a masterly work. Occasionally the ideas are repeated where repetition might have been avoided. The writer explains the cause of this repetition, but, rightly, does not seek to justify it. As a remedy we would strongly recommend division into chapters should a second edition be called for. It appears to us that the author now and again loses time establishing truths which few are likely to question. Critics have alleged that Mr. Cooper's tendency is too much in the direction of using abstract terms and thus repelling ordinary readers. This is hardly just. To our mind the ordinary reader will in no case fail to grasp the author's meaning, unless perchance in the preface to the Third Part.
The premises assumed in the book are for the most part sound, and he arguments conclusive. There is a freshness in the author's mode
The book is entirely free from denominationalism—the truths handled are as precious to Christians of every name as to the denomination to which Mr. Cooper belongs. Towards the close of the book there are ideas on the end aimed at in church discipline with which we do not agree. We think there is a penal element in all discipline, whatever be the object subserved by that discipline—whether the restoration or the destruction of the individual. If in any case the Church seeks the destruction of an erring brother, she departs from her acknowledged mission and her recognised principles.
The conventional Christianity of the day comes in for an unsparing, almost fierce, assault. How far the author is justified in his merciless attack, it is for every man to judge by his personal experience and observation. It is certainly a pity that so much cause should be given for such attacks. It is healthy boldly to be told our faults. Polite hints about the nastiness of our sins will not do. Where our affections are deeply engaged, we must be made to wince before we can be stirred up to thought and change of course. We heartily commend the book to our readers.
Mr. Cooper's book on the Science of Spiritual Life we have only recently seen. It is an able book; unfortunately its second chapter is a sort of literary pons asinorum. A number of readers never get any further; it is a sea of fire through which they cannot wade. We recommend all such to pass it over, for fortunately, unlike the pons asinorum of Euclid, it is not needful to the understanding of the rest of the book.
The author's sphere of labor is a quiet one. Whether such a sphere developes an active mind, we do not inquire, nor do we reflect on any when we say that some able men have not only begun but have also ended their course in obscure fields of labor, while men of very inferior talents and general attainments have to the hurt of the Church been thrust into great prominence.
On 20th September, the anniversary of the occupation of the city by Italian troops was celebrated enthusiastically in Rome.
The Roman Catholic Split in Germany.—The split in Germany, respecting the Papal Infallibility dogma, between the Ultramontanes and a large portion of the Roman Catholic people who have now called themselves "The Old Catholics," becomes daily greater.
Man's high position in creation is evidenced by his possession of contemplative and inquisitive faculties. While other creatures are employed continually in matters pertaining solely to their animal wants, man enjoys the privilege of surveying and investigating the universe around him. "The comprehension of creation," says Dr. Owen, "is the ordained result and reward of the right exercise of the faculties of investigation and discovery." And we may add that the comprehension of creation is, so far as it goes, a comprehension of the Creator, whom to know is perfect blessedness. In order to assist our young readers in this pleasant and profitable employment, we shall endeavor to sketch out the natural history of the Singing Fly.
In the hottest and brightest days of summer, in the groves by the margins of rivers and pools may be heard the incessant clamour of numbers of these insects. Popularly they are known as "creakers," and we till lately imagined this to be a colonial appellation; but, on turning over the pages of Dryden's Virgil, in search of a line in which allusion is made to the Cicadae, we found as follows: Georgics iii, 510, "When creaking grasshoppers on shrubs complain." The term is therefore as old as the times of Dryden, and probably older.
Cicadæ are very rare in Britain, only one species being found in the forests of Hampshire; but they are very numerous in warm climates. New Zealand possesses many species, the largest being about an inch and a half in extreme length. Their prevailing color is dark brown, but some are of a bright green, and others yellow. In general appearance they resemble a fly, but they are furnished with four wings, while the fly has but two. Like the fly, they have two large compound eyes on the sides, and three small simple eyes on the backs of their heads. Their mouths differ from those of flies in the absence of a proboscis, as a substitute for which they are furnished with a set of lancets, and their lower lips are curved at the sides, so as to form a spout. Their mouths being suctorial, they wound the bark of vegetables with their lancets, and suck the fluid that oozes from the puncture through their spout-like lips.
Their vocal apparatus is very remarkable, and is found only in the male. It consists of a pair of stretched membranes situated in a cavity in the underside of the abdomen, surrounded by brilliant modulating plates, and acted upon by powerful muscles. If a cord be affixed to the handle of a flexible kerosene tin, and be briskly contracted and relaxed,
Cicadæ were much esteemed by the ancients. Allusions are made to them as ministers of religion in Egyptian hieroglyphics—the Athenians were in the habit of wearing golden images of them in their hair; a Greek poet styles them the nightingales of the nymphs. Aristotle says they were eaten in the pupa state, and were very palatable.
Frequently in the height of summer do we light upon a band of these insects, working their tambours with all their might, and apparently enjoying a perfect ecstacy. A poet speaks of bees chanting hymns to God. Surely these insect choruses are expressions of praise to the adorable Creator. If so, O man, take thy harp and prepare to praise Him and magnify Him for ever.
Taranaki.
Presbytery of Dunedin.—This Presbytery met on the 10th January for conference respecting the state of religion. Reports were given in by most of the brethren present, some of which showed good results from the special evangelistic meetings which had been held in their congregations. The desirableness of making special evangelistic efforts in parts of the country in which there are no regular or only occasional public ordinances, was expressed by some. It was suggested that this might be best accomplished by two or three ministers being released from their own charges for a short time to overtake such work. There was also suggested the necessity of employing a larger number of agents than at present, embracing probationers, students, colporteurs, students, or other Christian men to press the truth on the attention of all.
North-East Harbor.—About five or six miles beyond Anderson's Bay, on the main road through the Peninsula, there stands in a solitary position on the side of the road a neat little church. For whose accommodation it was intended a stranger might be at a less to conjecture. The country is so uneven and so thickly covered with wood that the number of inhabitants which it contains cannot be readily seen. These are, however, numerous enough to yield a fair congregation which meets here under the pastorate of the Rev. Mr. Greig, whose charge includes also Portobello, about five miles farther down the Peninsula. The first soiree in connection with this congregation took place on the 24th January. The church was tastefully decorated with ferns, and was crowded by a large audience. From the report read, it appeared that the Church cost £225, and the debt now remaining is £54. The manse has a debt of £200 resting on it. It is a large and elegant building, in a most romantic situation, less than half-way down the declivity that stretches from the church to the township on the side of the bay. Addresses by Rev. Messrs. Stobo and Copland, by Messrs. Paul Ah Chun and E. B. Cargill, were interspersed with recitations and songs, and altogether a most enjoyable evening was spent.
Inchclutha.—The Rev. James Kirkland was presented, last month, with the sum of fifty pounds from some of his parishioners, as a mark of their esteem. The presentation was made by Mr. Anderson.
Taranaki.—The efforts made to discharge our church debts have been abundantly successful. The proceeds of a bazaar held on 28th and 29th of November amounted to nearly £200. The church at Wanganui very kindly sent us £12, and after services conducted by Rev. J. Elmslie, M.A., who with apostolic zeal rode up from Wanganui to visit us, we collected £10. These sums have enabled us to pay all our debts, and have left a small balance in our favor.
Waikouaiti.—A soiree was held on the evening of the 26th Deer., in the Presbyterian Church, Waikouaiti, in connection with the Sabbath school, the Rev. D. Christie in the chair. Suitable and interesting addresses were delivered by the Rev. J. Clark, Palmerston, the Rev. James Baird, Hampden, and the Rev. F. Reeves, Waikouaiti. There was a goodly gathering of the children, parents, and others. The missionary box was opened and the sum of £14 6s. 6d. was found to have been collected by the Sabbath scholars during the year on behalf of the missions of the Synod. The sum of £10, the proceeds of the soiree, will be devoted to the Sabbath school library. The evening being a pleasant one a good many friends of other denominations were present, and a very profitable and enjoyable evening was spent. In the intervals of the addresses the children sung several of Bateman's hymns with good effect. A very pleasant variety was given to the evening's proceedings, by a mutual interchange of gifts between the teachers and scholars, showing that the right kind of sympathy and feeling exists amongst them as a school of Christ.
The Native School at Ruapuke, under the Management of the Rev. J. F. H. Wohlers.—When, in
We take the following notes from the 'Watchtower' of January: —We have great pleasure in being able to announce the appointment of several additional labourers for the Presbyterian Church in this Colony. The Rev. James Lawrie has already arrived and has gone to Wairarapa, where we hope he and the people of that most important district may soon have gone through the necessary preliminaries to a happy settlement. The Rev. Wm. Stewart of Warkworth near Aln-
Obituary.—The Rev. Wm. White, F.C., Haddington; Rev. Dr. Gibson, Glasgow; Rev. John Sandison, F.C., Arbroath; Rev. Wm. Allan,. U.P.C., Arbroath.
Death of Rev. Tiyo Soga.—It is with deep regret we learn that this Kaffir missionary, the first of his race who attained the position of a regularly educated and ordained Christian minister, died on the 12th August last. As a student at the Theological Hall, we can say from personal knowledge, that he held a high place in the estimation of his fellows both as a student and a man. Having finished the regular course of study, he was ordained as a missionary, and during the few years he has been permitted to labour—about 14 years—he has besides founding two mission stations and doing all the hard work of a pioneer missionary, translated the Pilgrim's Progress, composed many beautiful hymns in the Kaffir language, taken a very important part in the translation of the New Testament as far as the twenty-third chapter of the Acts, and has written many valuable discourses in both the English and Kaffir languages. He was forty-two years of age at his death. The Grahamstown journal says in reference to it: —"Individually, it is a great loss; and relatively, it is a loss which at the present time cannot be estimated. His missionary power and influence was peculiarly great in the South African mission-field. He was the only educated Kaffir—the first of his race—who had struggled manfully and successfully up to the platform of educated English life. He was the only University-trained missionary from among his people, and this training really elevated and ennobled him."
The Fire at Chicago.—The dreadful nature of the fire at Chicago which began on the 8th October last, can hardly be realised by us. It has been estimated that 12,000 houses have been burnt, 100,000 persons rendered homeless, and property worth 150 millions of dollars destroyed. It began on a Sabbath night. A kerosere lamp in a stable was knocked over by the kick of a cow, the place was set in flames, and the fire spread to the adjoining houses. Great excitement seized the people; the smoke and flames blinded many who were trying to escape. Amid the general panic, thieves and even incendiaries were pursuing their nefarious practices. About forty of these were caught by the soldiers who were brought to assist by the order of General Sheridan. They were hanged on the nearest post. Universal sympathy has been expressed, and substantial assistance has flowed in freely from many parts of the world, but all we fear insufficient to meet the necessities of the case. The area of the city laid in ruins extends over more than twice the space destroyed in the Great Fire of London, in
Reform Movement in Austria.—Father Anton, of Ling.—This priest was recently suspended by his Bishop for preaching against the Infallibility dogma; but as his parishioners sympathised with his views, he took to preaching in barns in the open air, where his ministrations were attended by eager listeners. The reforms proposed by him and which have been widely accepted are as follows:—"1. Each community shall have the right to choose its own priest; and priests are no longer to be named by the bishops. 2. Priests must be sufficiently paid by the community to enable them to live respectably. 3. Compulsory celibacy must cease. Priests shall be allowed to marry as in the early times of Christianity. 4. The Chapters shall be dissolved. 5. Masses and the service of the Church must be spoken and read in German, or in the common language of the province. 6. There can be no separate payments for masses at burials, baptisms, &c. The priest's salary shall be sufficient io enable him to live without charging additional fees. 7. Inequalities between the burials of rich and of poor must cease. There shall be no pomp or extra ceremony. One priest only shall officiate on such occasions. 8. Auricular confession must cease. 9. Pilgrimages, processions, and begging missions must cease. 10. The worship of pictures, statues, and images must cease. 11. The traffic in relics must be discontinued, and be proceeded against by the State."
English High Churchmen express sympathy with the views of Dr. Döllinger, and are sanguine of the fusion of this party, and of the old Catholics of Germany.
Frequent union prayer meetings are held in America for a revival of religion, and there is a prevailing expectation of its immediate occurrence.
Mills, Dick & Co., Printers, Stafford Street, Dunedin.
The Course of Lectures delivered by the Dean of Westminster, and referred to in those which follow, closed on Friday, the 12th of January. Those now published were resolved upon on Tuesday, the 16th, and were delivered on the earliest days thereafter on which the Music Hall could be procured for the purpose—viz., on the 24th, 26th, and 31st of January. Readers will understand that no great elaboration is to be looked for in such circumstances. The Lectures are now published as they were delivered; except that passages omitted in delivery from want of time, are restored to their places, effect is given to one or two corrections in matters of fact, forwarded to me by the courtesy of gentlemen on whom I had commented, and one or two notes are added which have occurred to me in passing the sheets through the press.
When a clergyman of the Church of England comes among us to deliver to us his impressions of our Churches and of our Christianity, we owe him first of all a courteous reception. We are to presume that he came among us on a benevolent design to do us good, and we are to treat him accordingly. In that, I hope, we have not failed. And we thank him for all that was friendly, either in his criticism or in his praise. Next, however, we owe him, and we owe it to ourselves, to sift the statements which he makes and the conclusions which he implies. In the present case this duty is the more incumbent, because Dean Stanley has given us, not a version of our history only, but a version with a moral. No one, I suppose, is so blind as not to see that it is the moral rather than the story which interests the Dean. He did not come among us merely to reform our notions about our past history. He came to influence, if possible, the history of the years that are before us. Every one of these lectures, like Æsop's Fables, looks towards a practical application. The Dean, one may complain, does not state his moral quite so plainly as Æsop did. But we shall have no great difficulty in gathering what it is as we proceed.
The element of the lectures now referred to is that which
their consciousness, much as the Dean does. Defence here is useless; let us not attempt it. The Dean, coming among us, discerns this family likeness in us all. He only discerns in us all what we have all discerned in one another. To enjoy a joke and a laugh at one another is a privilege that has been claimed and exercised by religious parties in Scotland ever since the days of John Knox. Long may it be ere so wholesome a practice shall be proscribed. We have been able to combine it with reverence, with earnestness, with a strength of conviction and of purpose not easily shaken either by laughter or tears.
It is no untried "strategical operation" which the Dean has employed, in making our history the means of raising doubts in our mind about our principles and our prejudices. Every
But if profitable lessons are to be drawn from our history, our mentor must first understand it and us. For I hope it is not Scottish arrogance to assume that with all our faults we have done enough in the world to have a claim to be understood. Perhaps Dr. Stanley does thoroughly understand us. But if so, I shall take leave to say that it is his first great success in this department. Through all his works—works written always so charmingly—works that bear token of an eye which nothing picturesque escapes, either in the physical or the moral world—this is precisely what one misses—a sympathetic appreciation of the deeper and the stronger currents of religious life and of doctrinal controversy. In Dr. Stanley's pages movements dependent on these have their outside wonderfully depicted, but their inner meaning scantily realised. And the reason is plain. Dr. Stanley's mind turns ever to the limitations, the compensations, the counterpoises which balance and qualify all assertions, which take away the sharpness of the definition, which temper and assuage the confidence with which it is propounded. That habit of the understanding may or may not be desirable in itself; but let this be remembered, that Church history has been mainly made, certainly in all its worthier passages, by men of intense convictions; and hardly without the experience of intense conviction shall it be understood or represented.
I am anxious to be done with these preliminaries. But I must yet further say that in any estimate the standard by which we are to be measured, and the point of view from which it is applied, is the main point. One way of applying a standard was not, I think, intended by the Dean. But it might, I fear, be impressed on the audience, and how to deal with it I don't know. In many a smiling allusion and many a quip-courteous, as events and
Now I leave introductory observations. And I pass the sketch which Dr. Stanley has given us of the early Christianity of Scotland. Those fragments of our buried past, which he pieced so gracefully together, he treated with a cordiality of appreciation which we in turn appreciate. I will not be tempted to say one word of the changes introduced by Margaret and her sons. Nor will I meddle much with the history of the Scottish Episcopal Communion in its separate state. One point must be touched upon, perhaps, before I end. But for the present it is enough to say that while I have the very worst opinion of the system of Scottish Episcopacy as it existed in the days of its supremacy, I admit most willingly that all along men memorably good were found among its adherents; and adversity brings out the best points of all Churches. I do not know a pleasanter experience than when, in travelling through the strifes of ecclesiastical parties, one stumbles on a clear instance of unequivocal religious and holy life associated with that very thing which one is for the present called to fight with. In so far as the Dean held up truly devout and good men in any of the Scottish Churches to the admiration of the
But I must he allowed to say a few words about the relations of our Scottish Presbyterianism to the Prelacy which was introduced among us, and pressed upon us at different periods. And to-night, so far as I touch on Prelacy, I shall confine myself within strict limits. Practically, and as a matter of fact, Prelacy and the royal supremacy were mixed up together. That ought never to be forgotten; each supported the other, and each made the other worse. But I reserve to next night whatever concerns the liberty of the Church; and on next Wednesday I intend to speak of the Moderate party, and of the views of the gospel and of Christian religion which ought to be applied to our Scottish history. To-night, after saying what I think requisite regarding the topic of Episcopacy, as I have just now limited it, I will take up some other matters which must be touched on, and which do not fall naturally under either of the other heads. Tonight's topics, therefore, are of subordinate importance intrinsically, and a little miscellaneous as well, defects for which I apologise beforehand.
On the topic of Episcopacy, as now limited, I should wish to be as short as possible. Dean Stanley appeared to imply that our Scottish history, rightly read, proved us mistaken in supposing that there was any difficulty in combining the two systems in the most friendly relations. Difficulties, as it would appear, were manufactured or imagined; that was all. To illustrate this we were directed to
Now in that year the Church, along with the State, was entering into a very curious experiment. The object was to get some arrangement effected in virtue of which the patrimony of the Kirk, or some of it, might be applied to
not to have the ecclesiastical character of bishops, for they were to have the powers only of superintendents, according to the well-known order then established, and were to be subject in that character to the General Assembly. It was an experiment, whether the Church could not effect an adjustment regarding the property by consenting to names and titles, without introducing thereby any serious change into her preexisting constitution. It was not a safe experiment, for a variety of reasons, and the Church very soon came to see that, and withdrew from it again in a very few years, rather unceremoniously. But that was the nature of the experiment. John Knox did not like it. He gave it no countenance. He was in his "decrepit age," as he pathetically calls it, and within a twelvemonth of his death. His brethren thought the experiment might be tried. And he did not publicly oppose it. But that which he did not oppose was the giving of the name and legal incidents of a bishop to a man who in the most important respects was not to be a bishop. For those bishops were not clothed with personal jurisdiction over their brethren as members of a superior order, and they had not committed to them the administration of any ordinance to which their brethren were not competent.
But at a later period, we are told, the two systems flourished together—that is, in the latter days of James I., and in those of Charles I. Episcopacy was set up again by the Crown. Bishops, presbyteries, curates, and kirk-sessions were all welded into one system, and need never have quarrelled if men had been wise. The inference drawn from this statement for our Scottish Episcopal neighbours does not concern me. But the inference implied as to the subsequent unreasonableness of Scottish Presbyterians is plain enough. Why did they divorce what was so happily joined? Now, this is an essential misrepresentation. And it draws all its plausibility from circumstances very easily explained.
With all possible goodwill to the work, it was not possible of a sudden to banish Presbyterianism and introduce Anglican Episcopacy. The thing could not be done; and therefore a large though a diminishing amount of Presbyterianism was spared for the time. The policy was to make head step by step, to keep up a steady pressure in the hope of ultimately tempering the Church to the intended result. With this view, during the reigns of James and Charles every device was exhausted to outwit, deceive, and concuss the Presbyterians, yet in such a way as to avoid any general collision. Leading and resolute men were banished. Pliable tools were placed in great positions. Promises were made and broken. Innovations were introduced with the assurance that nothing more was intended, while yet those innovations were made the stepping-stones to new changes. Nonconformity was treated with that judicious sot of repression which discouraged it without driving it mad. The names and forms of Church Courts were allowed to remain, vhile yet power was steadily though gradually concentrated in the hands of the bishops. It was a very well managed scheme, and it had a kind of success. Men were gradually bought to accommodate themselves to each successive stage at the process. At last, however, an attempt to ac-
I was a little amazed, I confess, at the Dean's statement that the Assemblies of Andrew Melville sat side by side with the hierarchy of Charles I., remembering, as I did, that the want of Assemblies was a notorious and outstanding grievance of that reign. But I perceive that the Dean must have intended to convey that the hierarchy were haunted by the ghost of the murdered Assembly, which I believe to be quite true. The Assembly came to life indeed in
Nay, so shadowy was the distinction, as we may gather, that actually Prelacy was called "black," because the prelatic ministers wore black gowns; whereas we are to take it that those of the other side wore blue cloaks and broad bonnets. Let the Dean be assured that no Presbyterian minister ever troubled his head whether the cloak he preached in was black or blue. Disputes about the colour of vestments in which the gospel is to be preached do not belong to our parish. We have never been civilised enough to understand them. And we had other reasons, tolerably strong, for calling Prelacy black.
In the resistance which our fathers made to Episcopacy, and also to various institutions and ceremonies which usually go with it, they sometimes exaggerated the intrinsic importance of the point in debate. That happens in all debates, and it is peculiarly apt to happen when men are maintaining their sincerity under oppression, and are like to be ruined for so doing. But not to speak at present of the royal supremacy, which I have reserved, I wish to call up to your minds what Scotsmen looked back upon in
Nor let it be said that the recoil connected with those temporary circumstances betrayed men so far into a narrow and petty position, unfit to be permanently maintained. It is always to be maintained. All that might tempt us to look askance on Christians who are persuaded in favour of Episcopacy has long passed away. We have the best reasons for honouring and loving many of them; and some of them are among the foremost in upholding those very views of Protestant truth and of evangelical religion which we count to be unspeakably more important than any form of government. All that might tempt us to look askance on such men is past. But all remains that should dispose us to enduring and enthusiastic thankfulness that our fathers upheld Presbyterianism and shut Prelacy out.
For the earnestness with which Presbyterianism was maintained was due to something else besides the confidence men had in their theoretical conclusions about Church government. Everything that is theoretically good and true has its practical witness in itself, from which it receives daily confirmation. So it was with Presbyterianism. Presbyterianism meant organised life, regulated distribution of forces, graduated recognition of gifts, freedom to discuss, authority to
But, besides all that, there was, and there is, another reason for the strength of the objection to prelatic Episcopacy cherished by Scottish Presbyterians. In itself the difference might be regarded as implying merely a diverse judgment from ours as to the number and relation of office-bearers by whom the Church is to be governed—surely a very small affair, the existence of which need not hinder the warmest recognition and co-operation. But Episcopacy is fated, I fear, to bring other things in its train. From the circumstances of its long history; from the fact of its being established, where it is established, rather on grounds of tradition than of Scripture; from its being associated with festivals, and ceremonies, and like inventions, methods of Church life which rest on the same traditionary ground; from its being the link on which hangs suspended a whole system of salvation by Church and sacraments, which depends on Episcopal succession; it follows that wherever Episcopacy comes, the rest presses in behind. Episcopacy led up to Popery, though many a bishop fretted and fought against that result. So, though many a sincere and honest Episcopalian Protestant detests the system I am speaking of, he can never get rid of it. It comes, and it comes not merely as an element or fact, but as a singularly arrogant and imperious force, demanding for itself and its principles a complete ascendancy, and forcing on the Churches where it exists the alternative of submission or of perpetual strife about the very first principles of Protestant truth. It was the perception of this, growing clear to the Scottish mind, that lent more than half its intensity to the revolt of
Now, when we take our stand against Episcopacy, and against the multitude of things that go with it, in worship and otherwise, it seems to be thought that we betray a small, scrupulous spirit. Why object to this one and this other beneficial and useful invention, graceful, poetic, fragrant with the associations of 1500 years? Our answer is, that if we once began we should have plenty of small scruples, such as agitate our friends across the Border. And the only remedy is either to swallow all that any one plausibly proposes, or else to sweep all these things away in a mass, on the ground that whenever we begin to introduce man's inventions into God's worship and service we deviate from the true path. Of these alternatives we adopt the second. There is nothing petty or small about it. Like every other principle, it may be taken up and applied in a small, anxious, casuistical spirit. In itself it is large, broad, and manly. We have nothing to say to that immense apparatus of human inventions, we refuse to have anything to do with them, we simply dismiss them all; and thereby we are rid of a thousand small questions and petty disputes.
Here I had intended to speak of the nature and influence of the covenanting movement: but I will reserve it to next lecture.
But, before I close this lecture, I wish to advert to one of the things which struck the Dean about us, and that is the smallness of the points on which the Scottish Dissenting sects divided. I think he might have told us in the first place, but perhaps he did not know it, that beyond all question the moving influence which led the first Seceders to take up a marked position was no small point, but it was anxiety with respect to the chief matters of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ; neither did they secede even on that ground, but were deposed by the enlightened and liberal Moderates. It was after being deposed they made up their minds that from the position thus providentially assigned them they had no cause to return, all things considered. And as this influence had much to do with their beginning, so it continued to be the secret of their multiplying and the source of their influence, at the very least, as much as any peculiarity whatever. However, what strikes the Dean about all the Presbyterian sects is, first, that we are all conservative, which is true, resting on the old constitution, and protesting against corruptions; and, secondly, that we divide on small points. So that he can think of nothing like us but the Russian sects. Now, here the Dean did not openly declare all that was in his heart; but I am glad to be able to supply that lack. For, long ago, as it happened, the Dean described the Russian sectaries, coupling the description with an admonition to Free Churchmen and Established Churchmen alike to lay the facts to heart. As he still, after long years, dwells on the parallel with a more precise application, I feel it a privilege to hold the mirror up. Hear, therefore, Seceders, and Cameronians still more, what you are like. Here are some of the grounds of the Eastern nonconformity. It is a sin in the Established clergy that they give the benediction with three fingers instead of two. It is a sin to pronounce the name of Jesus with two syllables instead of three, or to repeat the hallelujah thrice instead of once.
Not presuming to add anything to this instructive picture of our friends, I remark that it is perfectly true that Scottish religious bodies were, for a time, in the way of dividing on small points; it is quite true, and really if I had any means of throwing doubt upon it, I could not have the heart to do it. Who would deny or abridge the peculiarities of that phase of Scottish character and incident to which the Dean pointed? Who would forego the touches of Scottish life that cluster round those "testimonies?"
I knew of a couple who lived many years ago in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire. They were eminently worthy people, and deeply attached to one another. The man was a typical Scottish patriarch—his name is not unknown to Scottish literature—his mind overflowed with a sweet reflective piety, as elevated as it was sincere. Of this couple the one was a Burgher, and the other an Anti-Burgher. Cherish-
Well, of those divisions it is enough to say that the parties concerned can well afford not to be very careful either to excuse or account for them, can well afford to join in the laugh over any Scottish idiosyncrasies that appeared in them. They stand as a warning of dangers to which our Scottish Churches are exposed. I think the line of things along which they came admits of explanation in a way that is instructive, but I cannot trespass on your
But was it not due to those bodies to remark, that instead of giving themselves up to the dividing tendencies, they still clung to the catholic conception of the Church—they still realised the duty which the Church owes not merely to truth, but to love, and to the just liberties of their members; and that under these influences they did what Churches have not very often done,—they worked themselves out of the complications from which the dividing influence sprang? Was it not worth noticing that a reuniting movement, thoroughly Scottish in its whole principles and working, set in and prevailed? Look across the Border, and see whether anything like this earnest application of mind and heart to realise a worthy Church life exists there. You have there in the Establishment a loose system of Churches, held together by the external bond, which notoriously would fly in pieces if that bond were removed; and you have a system of Nonconformist Churches, which, with distinguished excellences, yet escapes all difficulty on this subject by declining to carry Church life, organised upon definite principles and responsi-
Now, though I have been touching mainly minor points, I think it has partly appeared that he who will draw lessons from our history ought to appreciate and investigate one question. What is the meaning and source of that grave enthusiasm about the Church as a divine institution which has so remarkably appeared among our Scottish people? It is an enthusiasm connected not with a hierarchical or sacerdotal, but with a Christian popular view of the Church. Has Dean Stanley appreciated it? Not at all, but only noted points in which the working of it appeared to him, looking from his point of view, odd or unaccountable. To try to get a little nearer to the heart of this business must occupy us in the remaining lectures.
But in its intensest and most exclusive forms, this enthusiasm of ours always maintained a wide catholicity of view with respect to the visible Catholic Church of Christ. This may be best illustrated by a contrast.
What would have been said if in any of these Dissenting Churches it had been held forth by leading ministers that the salvation of the soul turns on the belief of a point of Church government? In point of fact, although they were occasionally run into difficulties and divisions, they all held wide and catholic principles respecting the fellowship of salvation, and unchurched no Christian body on the mere ground of not holding with them. But if they had held forth any such doctrine as I have indicated, how would Dean Stanley most justly have pointed his moral and adorned his tale! But some one says, Why put such a case? The thing is out of the question—salvation depend on a point of Church government! I beg such an one's pardon. There are those among us who
See Appendix, A.invincible ignorance or prejudice will not let them see the truths of these principles." In like manner, in a work by Rev. John Com per, of Aberdeen, published in not assert that salvation cannot be had by any out of the apostles' fellowship. There is such a thing as involuntary, invincible ignorance. . . . He who knows well how far error is the result of the force of early instructions, associations, and other circumstances which unconsciously to ourselves give a bias to the mind, and how far it is the fruit of wilful prejudice, intellectual pride, or indocility of heart, will award to each according to his deserts; saving, as we trust and do not doubt, in His own inscrutable ways, those whose errors are their misfortune and not their fault, being involuntary and invincible; and as surely—for His Word has affirmed it—consigning the wilful deniers of His one truth to the fate of those who make or believe a lie, which, in the awful words of Holy Scripture, is 'to be damned.' Of individuals, indeed, we judge no man. To his own Master each standeth or falleth." That is, he will not judge who is or is not invincibly ignorant. Other materials I have from quarters nearer home, but I forbear to use them.
Do I say that all this is uncharitable? Not at all. I make no doubt Bishop Jolly would have gladly rendered any charitable office to the soul or body of any of us. I impute no want of charity. But I say, What a gigantic superstition, and, be it remembered, one by no means peculiarly Scottish—a superstition certainly involving far stranger views of God and of Christ, and of the administration of salvation in the world, than can be charged on the Church principles of the Cameronians or the Seceders, or even the Free Church itself.
The vision of the Scottish Church that floats before the eye of the Dean of Westminster is a vision of the Church militant. To him it appears militant, not only in the sense of withstanding and enduring what an evil world might lay upon it, but in the sense of standing ready, with a peculiar appetite for combat, to call to a reckoning any one who may cross its path. Here he finds his main clue, as regards the question of the Church's independence. Looking at that principle merely as a principle, he finds it very difficult to account for. It grew partly, he says, out of convergent circumstances and a democratic spirit. But he is not very happy in selecting his "circumstances." Much is to be ascribed, he thinks, to the influences that arose when the covenanted Church and the covenanted State fell asunder and quarrelled. Unfortunately, the doctrine was most clearly, carefully, and elaborately defined, just at the very time when they had not quarrelled, but were in the strictest friendship. The doctrine of the Church's independence could not be very ripe, he thinks, in the early covenanting days, for in those days the Church taught a quite different doctrine, viz., that the State had a great deal to do with religion. But what will he say when he learns that these outrageous Scots taught both doctrines, and even developed them side by side in no fewer than a hundred and eleven propositions? After all, however, the passion for national independence and the passion for antagonism he finds to be the main sources of it. So that, if I may translate the Dean into the language of our worthy
For the present we speak of the Church.
In the presence of this great gulf between the Dean and us, will the audience forgive me if I halt a little, and try to get footing and survey the position before we proceed? Since the difficulties are so great, we must look well about us. Is the Church of Christ a distinct society? Indeed, is it a society? Was it meant to be such? Was it constituted as such? Was it furnished with means and institutions, whereby it could exist and be—could have a mind, express a mind, and apply its mind as a society? Is it distinct, as such, from other societies, say the State? When we are aiming at complying with God's revealed will about the Church, are we to aim at what I have now expressed? are we to take that to be our duty and set it before us, as part of our ideal and our goal?
It has been a prevailing conviction among Christian people that the Church of Christ was to be a society, having its own basis, its own peculiar life, its own constitution and means of action, and supplying some uses and ends not unimportant to the world. If so, there is no escaping the question what sort of society it should be, and on what principles it should be regulated. That is a question which will exercise the world—not the Church itself only, but the world too—in the coming years.
Well, but if we mean that, let us understand what we mean.
i. e., the State. This is the goal. All other arrangements are therefore provisional and inferior.
One ground on which this scheme tries to rest itself, in a confused way, is the general impression conveyed by this question, After all, are not the Christians the great thing—the Christians with their Christian belief and their Christian practice? If you have got the Christians influencing the community, and influencing one another, as they cannot but do, is not that the great thing? What more do you need or should you care for? Well, I reply, being a Protestant, Yes, that is the great thing. In those Christians, those believers, whom spiritual bonds link to Christ and to one another, stands that great eternal Church invisible, which, frail and fleeting as it may seem, is steadfast as the being of the Son of God. Whatever Churches may be, or may not be, let believers be the salt of the earth. But then most Christians believe that, in virtue of their obedience to Christ, one of their first duties is to join outwardly in society with other Christians for some appointed ends, whereby they become visible as a society; and the operations of this society, in point of fact, were meant to bear most directly on the continual maintenance and reproduction of that invisible Church. Now, if it still be
Now, the question about the Church which comes before us to-night is more general and more important than any question of Church government merely in itself is. It is a question for all Churches, on the assumption that they believe themselves to be organised and governed in a lawful way. But questions of Church government do get mixed up with that which alone concerns us to-night in this manner—Churches may be organised in such a fashion that they could not possibly get on, if they were set to do Church work, without help and without control. Hence the members of those Churches are biassed in favour of vague and confused views, and they try to bias others. The answer to any representations coming from this quarter is to say, Go and get organised better, and then we will speak to you. For instance, the Church of England, for the purpose of forming and expressing its own life through its own organs, is clearly the worst organised Church in the world, with the exception perhaps of some of the Lutheran Churches. It would be a mockery of common sense to trust the uncontrolled government of that great Church to a score of bishops, or to such a body as Convocation now is. But then while German writers modestly confess that the Lutheran Church organisation
Now, not in our bewildered country only, but even elsewhere, a suspicion has visited the minds of Christians, that this society, the Church, ought to be free—more particularly that it ought not to be subjected, and ought not to subject itself, to the authoritative control of the State in the discharge of those functions which are allotted to it by Christ. To speak of Scotland only, one of Knox's companions wrote these words to the Regent:—"There is a spiritual jurisdiction and power which God hath given unto his Kirk and to those who bear office therein; and there is a temporal power given of God to kings and civil magistrates. Both the powers are of God, and most agreeing to the fortifying of one another, if they be right used. But when the corruption of man entereth in, confounding the offices, . . . then confusion followeth in all estates." Knox himself embodied
But now, before we go further, we have a great difficulty to face. How I can decently ask such an audience to join me in attempting it, is a hard question. I am to make plain what this liberty of the Church can possibly mean. Yet to Dean Stanley it is either utterly unintelligible—and in that case how can it be made plain either to me or to you?—or it is Hildebrandism, that is to say, rank Popery—in which case, if I dare to utter it, surely I shall as well deserve a "cutty stool" as if I had even sung mass in your "lug." In this strait I shall, at all events, try to be short. We say that the Church of Christ, as a society, acting through its own organs and guides, is entitled and bound to have a conscience about the doing of those things which are the peculiar work of Churches. This conscience is to be regulated by a regard to God's revealed will, and not to accept authority imposing obligation to obey from any other quarter; and the Church is entitled and bound in all the things specified always to give effect to this conscientious judgment.
Those things which the Church is thus freely to do, subject to the bidding of no master on earth, are those things which Christ set it up to do. As to all other matters, the Church and the members of it are simply to obey lawful rulers. But Christ delivered to His Church truth to be confessed and taught, and also work to be done in the forming, maintaining, and loosing of various relations, and in seeing to the performance of various services. These, as we fanatical Scottish men say, are the sphere in which the Church must not bind herself to take authoritative direction from any quarter but one.
Now this may be true or false, absurd or sane; but to say that it is difficult to understand is what, in a Scotsman, we should call affectation. In the Dean one does not know what to call it. Perhaps civilisation. As to calling it Hildebrandism, we shall say a little about that by and by.
Yet the Dean finds it so difficult to imagine the principle I have stated taking root in any body of men as a genuine principle, that he is forced, as we have seen, to account for the whole long struggle as merely one form of our national jealousy of foreign domination. It is the same temper, he thinks, the same principle, the same cause. The Scotsman would not have his national way of it altered. When a question in dispute concerned his Church, he cast about for a theological pretext, and persuaded himself to believe it. But that was merely putting on an ecclesiastical uniform for ecclesiastical battle—changing the kilt, as it were, for the celebrated blue cloak. Really, it was the old secular national self-assertion applying itself to the new battle. Nolumus mores Scotice mutari. And so certain is this, that on the strength of it he appeals pathetically to the Seceders. You have been persuaded, he says, to become voluntaries, to cut loose from Church and State connection. That, on your part, is so great a mistake that it is a kind of felo de se. The Seceders, I may say, have often been told that, but now they must hear it on a quite
Who will despair of progress or deny new light? Here are Andrew Melville, who came from Geneva, formed in the school which Calvin had left to the presidency of Beza, and that circle of genial and able men who went with Melville into banishment. Here are Henderson, and Gillespie, and Dickson; and Rutherford, as interminable in distinctions as he is rich in poetry and feeling; and Durham, whose favourite field is not Church questions, but who touches them often, and always with a master's hand, and many more, contemporary and subsequent, whom I do not name. They thought they had a principle in their minds. Really they did. They were confirmed in that opinion by finding that they agreed with one another about it. They also thought, or were under an impression, that they loved that principle as scriptural. In their own apprehension also they felt bound to contend for it—they thought that was what they contended for. Great numbers of their countrymen also were under the imagination that an agreement with these men had come to pass within them. Some wrote books and some read them, and some even answered them; some went to banishment, some went to battle, some went to the hills and were shot, or captured and hanged, or starved, thinking in their own minds they had a belief, which they could not deny as long as they had it. On the strength of the idea that they were contending for this principle, men have differed about them ever since; some have blessed them for it, and some have banned them. Down comes the Dean of Westminster, and he tells us, Pooh! principle! not a bit of
Yes, I reply, very magnificent; but if this be the true view, oh, what fools! what utter, arrant fools! what unchristian fools, that cursed the history of their country with the miseries, the divisions, the arrested development, the interrupted Christian activities, not for a principle, not even for a false principle, but for a mere doggedness which only fell into the mistake of supposing that it served a principle! What an array of fighting fools, from Andrew Melville down to the greater name of Thomas Chalmers! And how great a man the Dean of Westminster, who has seen through them all!
And what is the ground of it? How had the patriotism of Scotland occasion to betray men into so wonderful a mistake? When the question began, it began on Scottish soil, between Scottish men. James wished arrangements made which the Church disapproved; the Church stood upon her right; James stood on his supremacy. What he proposed, and what he professed would content him, was the revival of the arrangements entered into in the year
It is nothing to the point to say that political circumstances
As little does it affect the merits of the case to say that feelings of patriotism reinforced the energies of the Church's struggle. Very likely they did; and when Dean Stanley speaks of the temper formed in the wars of independence reappearing in the Church conflicts, I have nothing to object. I suppose that for the maintenance of any kind of independence, secular or sacred, some natural staunchness is a help. God can make the weakest strong; yet that which Burns calls a "stalk of carle hemp in a man" is a gift not to be despised. If the Scots had any of it, they needed it all.
In this as in other connections the Dean is fond of pointing out what he deems the littleness, of the questions that sometimes arose. I grant it to be very clear that, in defending the liberty of the Church, if the cause itself be great, the points which become the occasion of raising it must sometimes be little. That depends on the assailants. They are generally skilful enough to try to make their onset on a point that seems small, knowing that so they can make the defenders seem more punctilious and unreasonable. Besides that, however, it is quite true—let us conceal nothing that is true—men may be small as well as points. You cannot avert the presence of human infirmity. If you discuss questions, you cannot always avert casuistry; if you call men to have a conscience and to exercise it, you cannot always avert scrupulosity; if you call men to take up responsibilities, you cannot always avert fussi-
Those who heard or have read the Dean's lectures will remember his description of the crisis in Edinburgh in corpus delicti. That was what provoked the women and brought on the catastrophe. Who could have thought it? A young man said Amen, in a corner, and forthwith Scotland rose up and revolutionised three kingdoms. What a people! May not Scotland stand still with horror, even at the distance of two hundred and thirty years, and moan with Macbeth—
And if the Dean should kindly say, with Lady Macbeth—
must we not still reply—
How impressively does the Dean end his account by reminding us that the "main offence which provoked these terrible manifestations might now be repeated, one might almost say with impunity, in every Church of Scotland, Established, Free, or Seceding!"?
Well, now, I will not make much of the fact, believed then, and believed still, that these innovations were but steps in a progress; and that the progress was to be, under Laud's inspiration, either to Popery or to a point so near Popery that it would not be difficult, after it was reached, to complete the baneful transformation. That was what made people's minds so electrical about the mass. But I will not dwell on it. Look at the obvious facts. I mentioned in my last lecture what the experience of the Scottish Church had been for a generation before the date in question. What happened now? Under the authority of the Crown there came forth, first of all, a Book of Canons, and then a Prayer-book; and I shall not dispute about the character of the Prayer-book. Look only at what is indisputable. The Book of Canons might seem at first to bear hard on the ministry only. It involved and required an explicit acknowledgment of the royal supremacy. By what it contained, and by what it omitted, it could be shown to provide for sweeping away the remaining framework of a Presbyterian Church, and it laid the Church completely at the feet of the bishops. But more than that, it denounced excommunication on all who should deny the king's supremacy, on all who should say that the Liturgy contained anything contrary to Scripture, on all who should deny the authority of Church government by archbishops and bishops. Hereby the people, as well as ministers, were exposed to the severest oppression at the hands of the bishops' courts. A man must not have a mind nor speak his mind about the worship of God without incurring excommunication. And excommunication in those days was no light matter. I have not really had time to look up the point, but I believe it inferred confiscation of goods for all who did not within a certain time make their peace with the Church. And then, which is the main matter, there was the Prayer-book. It was imposed without the least pretence of examination or sanction by any organised body or court
It was when things were in this state, the whole country getting into ferment, deputations coming to Edinburgh to supplicate and remonstrate, all ranks organising and combining—it was then that the use of this Liturgy was begun in the High Church—taking place for the first time in public service, and claiming the acquiescence of those who worshipped there. The outburst was merely the accidental and yet inevitable explosion, among passionate people, of a feeling which possessed the gravest and wisest men. It was no more dignified than any explosion is apt to be. Nobody need applaud it; but nobody need moralise over it. As to the young man in the corner, I don't know what he was saying Amen to. I make no doubt he meant nothing but good; but if he was thought to be saying Amen to the imposition of the Canons and the Liturgy, I don't wonder that any one who was near him should lay hands on his throat.
All honour to the firmness of the people who said that this should not be done, who resolutely stopped it; and all honour to the discernment of the people who saw that the principle here embodied was false and dangerous in all its applications, and resolved that henceforth the Church should not be called upon to sanction or submit to institutions not in her own judgment warranted by God's Word.
I ask if this uprising of the Scottish people is worthily spoken of by the Dean, not in reference to its manliness—he admires that—but as to the worthiness of the cause that was put to issue?
When those who adhered to the Commons of England rose in arms, what was the quarrel? "Various causes mingled; but no doubt with many of them the decisive point was this, that taxes should not be raised in England without the consent of Parliament. All other powers and prerogatives hinged on that one. Would it be thought well in a historian to say of those who died in that quarrel, that they threw away their lives for a matter of half-a-crown, perhaps, or five shillings?—for the question, whichever way decided, was never like to concern them to more than that amount. Do we not honour the men who stood for a principle that concerned the destinies of England, all the more because their personal stake was small? Did not these men do well to judge that if the sum was small, the principle might be great? But I say fearlessly, which was the nobler cause, or if you will, which was the nobler nation—the nation that fired at the thought of taxes raised by power without the consent of Parliament; or the nation that fired at the thought of worship thrust in by force without the consent of the Church?
It was this feeling which expressed itself in that great movement, the signing of the Covenant. There was the deepest conviction in men's minds that the course of things which had been submitted to in the past was fraught with intolerable mischief. The Crown forcing on and the Church dubiously and unwillingly submitting to arrangements which the Church judged unscriptural and unedifying—this was a state of things in itself wrong and demoralising, leading to a moral paralysis of the Church's best energies, and sure to multiply inward division and distrust. Moreover, it was becoming plain that no one could tell to what
So far most Scottish Presbyterians will be agreed. Beyond this I daresay a great variety of opinions will emerge. For myself, I think it only candid to express my belief that the use made of the Solemn League and Covenant, when it was made, in theory at least, a test of membership in Church and State, was to a certain extent I say to a certain extent; because I admit the right of States, and Churches too, on particular occasions, when they are placed on their defence, to subject their officials to tests which it might not be warrantable permanently to maintain.
The temptation, however, was of the very strongest kind; strongest for the strongest and most resolute minds in that difficult time. To resist the influence of the Crown in Scotland, taken by itself, might prove in the long run hard enough. But if England backed the Crown, if the Crown gained and held England in the name of the supremacy and Prelacy, what would the result be?
But the effect was that the nation proved to have pledged itself to a work beyond its strength, for England proved not at all to be of the temper which covenanting implied. And since the requisite consent in England could not be maintained, the task was really as much beyond Scotland's rights as it was beyond her strength. Yet Scotland was sworn
And so there is no difficulty in producing from the martyr time, along with the basis of clear conviction on which the sufferers stood, evidences enough of the painful intricacies through which some of them strove to hammer out the scheme, at once complete and consistent, of their own duty, and their Church's, and their nation's. Now, I honour first of all the clear, broad truth on which those sufferers stood, and which mainly sustained their
Ah, but martyrdom in a good cause is the life-blood of the Church and of the world. It is that which stems the current of an unbelieving epicureanism and of a scoffing scepticism, and rings into the hearts of men the conviction that the faith cannot die, cannot be killed, cannot be conquered, lives on in the strength of an unseen Lord, and has its coming victory sure. It is not the less impressive—all the more, I think—because the men who suffer and overcome have plainly enough their human infirmities and defects. Smooth insinuations about absurdity are not going to cheat us of the memories of our Scottish martyrs.
The Dean, making another effort to find out the meaning of this mysterious Scottish principle, says that it was intended, no doubt, to represent, though in a very distorted manner, the indefeasible superiority of moral over material force, of conscience over power, of might against right. This is only about half of what it represents. It represents also this, viz., the conviction that Christian people, joining together in an instituted society called the Church, are called and bound, and may expect to be helped and enabled, all of them, and each one in his own place, members, elders, pastors, and so forth, to act out the Lord's will as a society. I repeat, as a society; that at all events they must try to do it; and their doing of it must be guided by truth and animated by faith all through. Therefore, they must hold themselves free to do that thing, out of conscience and faith—free, not as individuals only, but as a society.
Here it is that the Dean and we diverge, and here is the point that is utterly impenetrable to his understanding. It seems to him that all reasonable exigencies are satisfied if it is granted that an individual man is not to do or say what is against his own conscience. He grants if any such thing is required, he must refuse; if it is made the condition of any society in which he is,
The life and being of Christianity, which is first of all in Jesus Christ our risen Saviour, is doubtless to be found next in the actual faith and love of individual men and women, saved by grace, learning Christ's will, and doing it. That is the main, most essential thing; no Scottish peasant, whose heart beat true to his Church's teaching, ever placed the Church first. The first thing is to be in Christ; and the next thing is to be like Him in all manner of conversation.
But then it was our Lord's intention and is part of His revealed will to have in the world a society, having its own peculiar life, and doing its own peculiar work. It was to be constituted, not by force or necessity, but by the influence which Christ's call should prove to have in the minds of men. It was to express itself in its distinctness as a form of force and influence in the world, in addition to the influence of individual Christians. For this purpose an appointed sphere was given to it, of truth to be confessed and taught by the society, and of work to be done; not superseding the confession nor the work of the individual Christian as such, but resting on that, drawing strength from that, lending order and method to that, reinforcing that in turn. In this sphere the society was to act consciously, unitedly, learning its lessons and finding its way to its work, operating with the force and weight of a society, amid
The tension thus created in the Church, and the earnest exercise of mind and heart thence arising, the strenuous application of conscience to all these problems, is the moral preparative for the Church's becoming powerful in her offices. It is the means for creating and securing a force of thought and feeling, a sense of duty, a clear consciousness of the Lord's will, and of the circumstances in which it is to be gone about, which mere sporadic and individual Christianity would be most unlikely to attain.
But now all this is real and useful just in proportion as the society in every part of its peculiar and proper work holds itself free to do it out of faith and conscience. It must hold itself free, that it may feel its constant and direct responsibility, and realise its calling, that it may keep in view its ends, and express its own proper genius and life.
If you ask how we Christians in the Churches have answered this great responsibility, I reply at once that too often we have failed sadly, conspicuously. The evidences of it are too clear. There is plenty of the world in all the Churches and in all the Christians, and the effects have been seen. But he knows little of human nature, and little of the administration of the scheme of grace, who finds in such a confession a proof that it does not greatly matter how this business is arranged. All the more because we are so prone to fail, and do fail, it is imperative that the true conception of the Church's position and work should be ever before us, and the Church's obligations clearly bound upon us; all the more necessary to admit no principle that should allure us to resign ourselves to be governed, as a society, otherwise than by the sense of duty, ripened in the Church by the heed she gives to the Lord's
Now the Scottish minister, or the Scottish peasant, believing that the Church was instituted for such weighty ends as have been stated, took part in the work of it on that ground. He was to contribute his share, to the expression by the society of its own Christian mind and heart, in the appointed sphere. It was an important Christian duty directly arising out of his Lord's revealed will. The very first obligation lying on him as a Christian man was to be in Christ's Church, by profession, adherence, and sacramental seals, and in that Church to lend help according to his place and gifts in carrying out the objects of the society. He felt that the whole meaning and worth of the Church's being and doing hung on its being true to its own ideal. That implied direct responsibility, direct dependence, direct obedience. Therefore, he spoke, and he speaks of the Headship of Christ, by which he means that in duties which have their being for the Christian society simply by the Lord's institution, and by her relation to the Lord, she cannot shift her responsibility nor escape the Judge's eye. These are her work. She must do it. In doing it, as she must trust no other, so she must hear no other. The great use of the Church in the world is that, striving continually to apprehend and give effect to the great and various considerations which her Lord supplies, she should be herself.
An attempt is made, no doubt, by Dean Stanley to escape all such considerations, by alleging that in a Christian country Parliament represents well enough the mass of Christians, and may therefore be accepted as the representative of the Church, especially of the sound lay mind of it. The Church and the State become one. I will not now spend time on this transparent fallacy. If it were granted that Church and State are
I know very well what the Dean will say, one thing at least that he will say, to views like these. He will say this is Hildebrandism—the Popish principle which makes the Church supreme in every matter she chooses to call her own. Or, varying the epithet, he will say, this is Laudianism, in principle identical with the Anglican High Churchism as it has existed both of old and of late—a system that exalts the Church in order to give dominion to the clergy—a system that fences in a sacerdotal domain into which neither common sense nor plain daylight shall be suffered to intrude. When objections take this form, the question that first occurs to me is—Does Dean Stanley suppose that the way to disarm Hildebrandism is to flee into the arms of Erastianism? Will he as a historian maintain that, in the days of Hildebrand himself, a mere Erastian principle reduced to practice throughout Europe would have been safe? Can any one estimate the corruption that would have ensued? Or will the Dean deny that precisely the most spiritual, the most intensely Christian,
As to Hildebrandism, it is enough to say that we recognise the duty of the State to regulate its action in its own sphere according to its own sense of duty, and to accept no authoritative dictation from the Church. The State is to have its own conscience; and the Church is to affect the State's action only as it can, upon the merits of each question, influence the common convictions and intelligence of those who form the State. Therefore the State is not only at liberty, but under obligation, to judge of its own duty for itself: the State ought to endow or disendow, establish or disestablish, concur with the Church or leave the Church to its own responsibilities and resources, as the State shall see good. Further, if the Church presumes to meddle authoritatively with things that belong to the State's wide domain—for instance, with pro-
res non, maintain its own action according to its own convictions. But the State ought to take notice that a society has been set up, by no human authority, in which exist duties, privileges, relations, based solely on the common recognition, in conscience, of a common Lord. In this society what is done takes effect, not by force, but simply by the power that conviction and conscience happen to have in the minds of those concerned. First, then, the State is to take notice that the society, charged with duties in this peculiar sphere (called spiritual, because it takes effect only in the spirits of men by spiritual motives and considerations) will apply its own conscience to them, and will not go against its conscience. Secondly, it is claimed of the State that in regulating the outward incidents of such a society (money, buildings, claims for damages, and the like), the State should give full and equitable effect to the principle that such a society has a right to exist, and to do its own work according to its own conscience. If the State will not, the society will still do its own work, not minding the State, carrying out its decisions in the strength of its own spiritual resources. It will also submit peaceably to the wrong inflicted on it; but it will call that wrong persecution, and take all proper means to fasten the charge of persecution on the conscience of the nation. Thirdly, while the State may not judge that particular societies claiming to be, in their own extent, representative of the Church, do accurately represent in principles or spirit the Church as originally constituted, yet if these societies credibly profess to take up Church responsibilities as their own conscience guides them, then the State ought to respect their conscience. So long as they are dealing with things which it belongs to the Church to deal with, they are to be regarded as having a right to a Church conscience about those things. Fourthly, while the
Then as to Laudianism, I cannot possibly go here into detail. But we differ from Anglican High Churchmen in recognising the right of members of Churches to be satisfied in their own conscience of the propriety of those things which are required of them: we recognise the competency of an appeal to the Lord himself from the decisions of the external Church. And in harmony with these views, we do not unchurch those who break the external unity, if they do so only as professing to be obliged in conscience to do so, that they may follow what appears to them to be the Lord's will, which they cannot perform otherwise. We believe there may be, and often is, sin in such divisions; but we unchurch none merely on that account. Laudianism begins with the hierarchy, and prescribes from without and from above the conditions of accepted Church life. But we begin at the foundation. We still set before us, first, the ground of all Church life, in professing Christians joining together at their Lord's call. We acknowledge the reality of Church life in very low and imperfect degrees of it. We set up the model of what we judge the more perfect system, combining elements that vary in the clearness
It is very convenient for the Dean to treat this principle as something either impossible to understand or impossible to appreciate. And when he comes to the Disruption, it is very convenient to dismiss it with the courteous sneer at the consciences of so many excellent men being wounded by a legal suit unintelligible out of Scotland. Is this unintelligible out of Scotland, that we refuse, as a Church, to take it as part of our duty to form, or profess to form, the pastoral tie between pastor and people, merely on the ground that a civil court bids us; that we refuse in like manner to fulfil or forbear any purely spiritual act on the mere ground of the same authority; that when it turned out that the terms of Establishment, in the view of the State, imported an obligation in point of duty to obey such decrees, the Free Church saved her honesty by renouncing the pay and privileges for which she could not fulfil the terms? Why, the whole world understood it; many parts of the world are feeling the effects of it. But does not Dr. Stanley himself understand it? That he does. Why, is not Erastianism, State supremacy, the very apple of his eye? Has he not contended
See Address at Sion College, republished in "Essays on Church and State."
Well, from this point of view it is that Dr. Stanley advocates the cause of Establishments as far as the question now before us is concerned. Standing here, he conveys to us his assurance that in the Established Church the Church has as much liberty as she has any need for. Standing here, he commends her as a Church not likely, happen what may, to sacrifice her position, or to fail to conform herself to whatever the condition of the nation or the indications of the State may seem to require. Standing here, he rejoices in the conviction that no scruples about Church independence will in any case induce that Church to resign the position in which she blesses the simple and the intelligent, and the heretics and the half heretics. Now, I am not to say whether this advocacy is accepted or repudiated. I don't know whether the Establishment welcomes it or no. But I see that things are running all this way in regard to Established Churches generally, The idea of guarding the Church's liberty in such Churches grows less and less practicable—indeed, it was always difficult—but it also apparently grows less and less intelligible. Like Dr. Stanley, men are tempted to try to represent that there really is no such question, that the whole affair is a dream; and they argue in particular, just as he does, that since in all Churches, Established and non-Established, the Courts will dispose of questions of property and actions of damages, that really settles everything, and no tangible distinction remains. That is a most significant token of the mode of view and feeling which men are cherishing. It indicates just a wish to get rid of the subject, to cease to see it, to escape from all trouble about it, and all obligations connected with it.
In that prospect I will not resign the hope that among those who will come forth and fight by our side will be some of those who are at present in the ranks of the Establishment itself. But the prospect is a very serious one in our existing circumstances; it is so for a reason which I will
I Confess that the topics which ought to be disposed of tonight are so weighty and so many that I approach them with hesitation; and I cannot conceal from myself the probability that my lecture will be only too visibly overloaded and overlaid. If, then, the transitions prove sometimes abrupt, and the treatment insufficient, it is due simply to difficulties which I have not been able to overcome. I intimated that in to-night's lecture I would consider the views of the gospel and of Christianity in the light of which the history of our Scottish Churches is to be understood; without a reference to which, therefore, it cannot be estimated.
It appears to me that the life and power of our Scottish Churches have always been dependent on two closely connected conditions. One is their theology; that which they have taught for truth on the relations of the human soul to God, on the way of salvation, and the principles of the administration of grace.
This theology Dean Stanley describes as negative. According to one report, he applies that term to our Confession. If he did so, I shall only deny the propriety of the description. The Confession is negative just in so far as any document containing strong and careful affirmations is apt to be negative, by denying the contrary of what it affirms. This holds also of the Articles of the Church of England, and indeed of most documents that profess to distinguish truths to be confessed from errors that are to be dismissed or denied. But, at
not hold. The Cameronian whom the Dean has found, who left his dying protest against nineteen heresies, besides the twentieth of Toleration, which he dwelt upon more at large, is produced probably as an extreme specimen. But we are to take it that this, though not always in such extremes, is the character of our theology. Probably there must be some foundation of truth in this. If we had leant at all to the other side, the Dean would have pointed out to us, perhaps, that we are not negative enough. Let us suppose, to save discussion, that on the whole, and at some times more especially, we have exceeded somewhat in keeping a very strict eye on what we were not to hold. In return for this concession, will the Dean concede that he is a little too negative on his side also? For we perceive that he disapproves of our theology; we are not to abide by that, but what he would recommend us to take in its room, or how he would have us remodel it we find it very difficult to discern.
But if the Dean believes that our Scottish theology has been only or mainly a thing of negations, he is extremely far out. In conceding, as I did just now, that possibly we have leant overstrongly at times to marking minutely what we did not hold, I conceded nothing of any great importance. The truth is no assertion, no positive faith is worth a farthing that does not contain in it virtual negations. Rash and presumptuous inferences, both positive and negative, have been drawn by theologians of all schools and in all ages; the mistake, in particular, of reasoning on an incomplete enumeration of alternatives, has multiplied needless and unjustifiable anathemas. For all that, unless a man will forbear to think, he must test his positives by negatives, and vice, versa; if he knows what he means, he must know what he does not mean. A man may affect a precision which God has given him no means of attain-
However, what I chiefly wish to say is this. Our Confession, or body of doctrine agreed upon by our ministers and office-bearers, touches certainly a good many points. But the theology on which our Churches live, the theology of our pulpits and our closets, is in reality simple, and grows obviously out of the Scriptures, if these are admitted to teach a few fundamental positions. It is in substance the theology of the Reformation; the Reformation doctrine of man's utterly fallen state; the Reformation doctrine of atonement and justification by faith;, the Reformation doctrine of regeneration, and of the indebtedness of every one who is saved to a sovereign mercy that is unspeakable; and the Reformation doctrine of the free gospel call addressed to every
I said that there were two conditions on which, as I think, the life and power of the Scottish Churches have always been dependent. I have described one; I proceed to the other. It is the common conception prevailing and cherished among us of what conversion is, what the divine life in the soul of man is.
This is closely connected with what I last described; for the conception now referred to is congruous to the fundamental theology which we teach, and is explained and justified on that ground. Yet it deserves to be separately named and separately considered. First, because it carries us from the department of truth to that of devout attainment; secondly, because experience proves that, without conscious insincerity, men may maintain a high standard of doctrinal orthodoxy, in our form of it as well as in other forms, in whom the clement now referred to is not very operative, and even the conception of it is faint and uninfluential. So arises what we may call orthodox Moderatism. But the element now named is a great factor in our Scottish Church life; for immediate energy, for direct result, for inspiring force, at least as great a factor as that I named before. Existing as a common conception, it controls our Church life; it is both a motive power and a flywheel; it is that to which, consciously or unconsciously, other things are continually referred. It is both an influence which we feel and a result to which we tend.
Now, when I say all this, let me not be misunderstood. When we ascribe so much to it, let us not be thought to assume that all our people stand actually in this grace—we habitually warn them to take no such thing for granted—nor that all our elders, nor that all our ministers, are in the experience of it, however deplorable it be if they are not. All positive decisions about individuals we decline. Nor are we assuming that it exists among us in a superlative degree, or in a greater degree than among other Churches. We know it is far safer to suspect that we have less than to presume that we have more. We hope in God, indeed, that we have a measure of it among us. But I assert only that this common conception has generally held the convictions of our Churches as a certain reality; whether by some largely realised and experienced, or by some humbly aspired after, or by some felt
Nor let it he thought that this conception is a rigid iron thing, that sits like a fetter on the heart of the Church. It
Now, I will take an illustration of what I mean on this last point from a quotation made by Dean Stanley, but not on his part, as I am disposed to think, thoroughly understood. It is in his notice of Dr. Chalmers. The notice, I may say, is singularly fresh and hearty, worthy of the great old man it depicts, and most honourable to the Dean himself; but it closes with a sudden significant turn, which almost makes one smile, so adroitly does the Dean, if I understand him, seduce Dr. Chalmers to serve for a moment in the ranks of the Dean's own army. A sentence from Chalmers' private writings is made to suggest an inference; and then a conversation which occurred at Oxford between Dr. Chalmers and the Dean is represented as supporting that inference; the truth being that the inference in unfounded, and the conversation at Oxford has nothing to do with it whatever. "Oh that He possessed me with a sense of His holiness and love, as once He possessed me with a sense of His power and His all-pervading agency"—that is the sentence; and the inference is that he looked back to those earlier days, and spoke of them with a regretful feeling—those being "days in which he lived in the great ideas which are at the foundation of all religion." And the conversation at Oxford, being so catholic in its tone, is held further to justify the impression that a certain regress from his last days to his first ought to be recognised, a relenting of middle-life intensities, which brought the end not to the same note perhaps, but to the same key with the beginning.
This is a sheer delusion. There was not a day in Dr. Chalmers' life, from one end to the other, nor a principle ever held by him, that would have hindered his expressing his interest in Oxford, and his admiration of it, and of whatever is great in the Church or literature of England, in the very same terms. It was a habitual feeling with him, and pervaded his life. As to the sentence quoted, I marvel that one who has read the literature of so many Christian schools as the Dean could so mistake it. The clays referred to were referred to just because in Dr. Chalmers' belief they were the days before the awaking of the true religious life. In those days, in Dr. Chalmers' case, as in many another, a glow of earnest sentiment and high enthusiasm gathered around the great ideas of the Divine power and omnipresence. They were true thoughts, and worthy to be realised with such a glow of feeling; and this perception of truth he ascribed to the Author of all good gifts. But it was his deliberate and most assured judgment that this kind of religion, in his own case, was the religion of one who had not returned to God, who had not bowed to God's will, who had never realised his own relation to God, who was not at peace with God. It was his deliberate judgment that this religion had not made him a man of God, and that by and by it proved every way a failure. And that completeness of delighted sentiment, that thorough entrancement in the great thought he spoke of, was possible, just because the feeling never touched the real question between God and him, never revealed to him his true self nor the true God. A change came. The great question of sin arose in its simple reality, the question of salvation. The revelation came of a Saviour, of an atonement, of grace, of the divine, omnipotent love that saves the lost, of holiness that thrilled his heart with a sorrow and a longing he had never known before. Thenceforth he lived in a new world—a far greater world, a far intenser. As the narrow material heavens
Now, I am not saying that either of the two conditions I speak of are peculiar to us, although each is somewhat distinctly different from the conditions which fill a corresponding place in a large section of the Church of England. What I say is, that they are so vital to our history that their vigour
An amusing illustration of what we in Scotland historically ought to be comes to my knowledge as I correct these sheets. A Hungarian student, wishing to study Technology in the University of Edinburgh, writes for information. He does not know much about our institutions, but in order to be sure of his letter arriving at that which represents the main stream of our national life and development, he draws from the depths of his historical consciousness the following address:—"An die Calvinisch-Reformirte Puritanische Universitäts Buchhändlung in Edinburg:"—i. e., To the Calvinistic Reformed Puritanical University Library, Edinburgh.
Now, it fell of course in the Dean's way, in his recent lectures, to point out those forms of religious teaching and religious life which appeared to him most worthy of regard. Besides his direct counsels, his whole lectures were pervaded by silent or half-uttered assumptions with respect to the proper standard on these matters. And yet, though his conclusions went to sway most powerfully our judgment about such prime conditions of our Church life, I find nothing like an examination either of what they were or what they ought to be, or how they may compare with those of other Churches. His own standard does indeed appear plainly enough. But anything like an appreciation or estimate of what that is on which the life and the proper work of Churches depends, what it has depended on among us, what it ought to depend on in time to come—any impression even that this question is momentous—does not appear. Our theology has been "negative;" that is almost all the light we get. His own standard appears most plainly in his appreciation of Moderatism. But what tangible principles does he present? The Moderates, he thinks, were not altogether destitute of some connection with religious earnestness, and they developed a striking activity in general literature. For the rest, he likes the men, he likes their tone; as mental companions he gets on with them, and is at ease with them, therefore he recommends them. Did ever mortal trifle so with life questions? Was it not worth considering whether
Let us take, however, what we can get. The views which pervade the lectures come out, as I have said, most distinctly in Dr. Stanley's exhibition of the Moderate party in the Church of Scotland. You are aware that he dwells on this element of our history with peculiar predilection. Heralded by one or two bright precursors, bright morning stars that rose before the day, the embodied tendency begins to make itself seriously and permanently felt at the close of the seventeenth century. It is introduced as the representative of "one of the most indispensable of Christian duties," as recommended by the Apostle Paul. In depicting the reign of the party, whatever can be claimed for them as a virtue or a praise is brought out in the brightest relief. And the closing counsels with which the lectures were wound up were manifestly determined by the position that Moderatism, on the whole, and making some deductions for the imperfections of every mixed party or institution, had set the true model, had erected the safest guiding lights for Scottish Christianity.
Now, in asking your attention to the topic thus raised—which I will treat simply as a topic of last century, disclaiming all covert allusions to parties whom I do not name—I am under an obvious disadvantage. Most people here will probably not be persuaded that the question is worth discussing. What is the use, they will say, of any man coming down here to praise up the religious services rendered to Scotland by the Moderates?
But before entering on this task I really must refer to one or two of the names which the Dean has claimed as precursors of Moderatism in the early and middle part of the seventeenth century. And, first of all, Robert Douglas is made to do duty, on no better ground apparently than that he seems to the Dean to have been a man of commanding character, good sense, and statesmanlike qualities: therefore he was a Moderate. Here the ratio decidendi bears very hard on all but Moderates. But I must say that the conclusion arrived at is very hard usage of poor Robert Douglas himself. He was associated with the Resolutioners, certainly, when our Church was divided into Resolutioners and Protesters, each accusing the other of unfaithfulness to the Covenant; and it fell to his lot to be deceived and outwitted by Sharp in jus divinum Presbyterian, looking on Presbytery as the Lord's ordinance and Prelacy as
But then we have Leighton. Leighton notoriously cared nothing for the questions debated between Presbyterian and Prelatist. If that will make him out a Moderate, the case is proved. But though Leighton attached only a moderate degree of importance to one question debated in his own time, it is mere trifling to assume, on that ground, that he is to be ascribed to the party called Moderate in a succeeding age, or that he had any sympathy with their prevailing and characteristic tendencies. Would God they had manifested some sympathy with his! Many Scotsmen have thought Leighton's ecclesiastical course a mistake, and thought also that he found it so; and for a time, not unnaturally, a man associated by office with the system of the Restoration was regarded with distrust, and spoken of in terms of some depreciation. But the day is very long gone by since any of us have doubted the integrity of his intentions or the holiness of his character. And I suspect it could be shown that those who did most to bring Leighton's works into the repute they have long maintained were Scottish Presbyterians and English Nonconformists. Leighton's character and writings have been habitually cherished by those in Scotland who are most averse to Moderatism, and who recognise in him the very spirit which Moderatism lacked. Among my own very earliest recollections are those of an aged lady, very dear to me, whose life was one continual strain of overflowing piety—a long pilgrimage of faith rising at last into an unbroken Beulah of praise and prayer. It was piety nursed under the purest Scottish and Presbyterian influences.
Carstairs, too, is claimed, with more apparent plausibility. The truth is, Carstairs united in himself the possibilities, so to say, of both the parties who afterwards divided the Church of Scotland. He had sympathies that associated him with both, but his peculiar career distinguished him from both. He was one of those men, formed in times of revolution, who acquire a dexterous adaptiveness of character, and become expert in estimating the precise possibilities and flexibilities of every form of principle, even those professed by the most opposite parties. When such men are personally unprincipled, they become the most thorough and successful intriguers. When, on the contrary, they are men who do adhere to principles which they value, and are not aiming at selfish ends, their peculiar talent appears in effecting adjustments in the most difficult circumstances, by which principles are saved, as it were, by a hairbreadth, or appear perhaps with the loss of a part of their skirts. Carstairs joined this politic bent and adaptive skill to dispositions which led him to do what he thought his best for Presbyterianism. He is not so unlike the Moderates—not so removed from Dr. Stanley's own position as are most of our greater Presbyterian names previous to the eighteenth century. It is unreasonable to class him as a Moderate; but it may well be maintained that measures in which he took part preluded and prepared the actual development and ascendancy of the Moderate party.
But I must hasten on to look at the Dean's account of the Moderates themselves. Postponing the question as to the true genius and bent of the party, let us look for a minute at the account the Dean has given us of those properly religious attainments which may be claimed for the
The Dean's case is of this kind. He tries to show, in some instances, that in the Moderate party a basis of liberal sentiment, of wide and generous tolerance, proved to be not inconsistent on fitting occasion with some devout aspiration and attainment, and with some measure of religious zeal. It was consistent with zeal for the extension of the gospel in the Highlands, and it was consistent with some earnest religious awakenings, and with cordial recognition of earnest religious labourers.
Now, in the first place, I doubt the tolerance itself. I doubt it not in the case of the Scottish Moderates only, but I doubt it in the case of the whole class to which they belong. The personal amiability of some of them is unquestionable. But on the part of men of this class there is apt to be a very ostentatious tolerance towards many forms of opinion, combined with a fixed dislike of certain manifestations of positive religious faith. This dislike, when the class gains the upper hand, has often shown itself in a resolute purpose to keep down what they dislike. The Dean has admitted that the principles of Mackenzie—"the bluidy Mackenzie" —were strictly akin to those of the Moderate party: of his feelings the less we say the better. Certainly Mackenzie's practice is full to the point as an illustration of the remarks I am now making. But the same thing appeared in the conduct of the party itself. A hard disregard of the feelings of conscientious men, and a pleasure in breaking them to the yoke, if possible, characterised the party throughout. It appeared in their mode of dealing with the first Seceders, it appeared in their dealings with Gillespie, it appeared in the repressive system which they carried through, at the cost of alienating the hearts of the very flower of the Scottish people.
Here I may remark that the Dean, viewing as he is pleased to do—I make no assumptions on the subject—the existing Established Church as the successors and representatives of Moderate excellency, panegyrises the liberality they have shown in opening their pulpits to divines of the Church of England. "It has in these latter days set," he says, "a noble example of liberality to all the Churches, by its readiness in welcoming within its churches the ministrations of prelates and prelatists, no less than of its own seceding members." Surely the Dean cannot be aware how drolly this sounds in Scottish ears. The Established Church has not set the example, but followed the example. In
But to return to the Moderates. With their tolerance, be it more or less, they combined some religious activity, be it more or less. And first, the Dean tells us, some zeal was shown in setting up ordinances in the Highlands, in the remoter districts of the Highlands.
I know that from a period very soon after the Revolution particular attention was directed by the Assembly to the settlement of ordinances and of education in the Highlands, and that the Royal bounty, granted early in the eighteenth century,
not Moderates. I do know that the people in the Highlands, speaking generally, never gave their confidence in these matters to any men who were Moderates. I know, indeed, that in the Highlands, more than anywhere else, earnest practical religion and Moderatism were currently and commonly set against one another by the people as natural and born contraries. In my grandfather's own parish, after his death, they used to hold meetings for many years in the open air rather than attend the ministry of a Moderate, while yet they adhered to the Church of Scotland and waited for better times. That happened "under the reign of the Moderates;" but I can assure all whom it may concern that nothing would have been esteemed a bitterer insult by those honest men than to be told that in adhering to the Church they were adhering to the reign of Moderatism, and illustrating the fine fruits of faith and a good conscience which Moderatism was able to produce.
But "under the reign of the Moderates" there were other signs of life in the Church. Yes, for under the reign of Moderatism there was a number of ministers, and a great number of people, who believed themselves to stand on the genuine constitution of their Church, and its doctrine, in opposing the Moderates. I don't say that no one who voted on the Moderate side, especially in the first half of the century, showed
Dr. Stanley has referred to the case of Whitefield: he was taken up by the Establishment, and decried by the Secession. There is no doubt of it. But the circumstances should be understood. Whitefield proposed to come down, as the Seceders understood, prepared to negotiate terms on which they might co-operate. Some negotiation was needed, for the Seceders, as I mentioned in a former lecture, had entangled themselves in a form of testimony which embarrassed their own action in an unusual case like this. Ultimately, Whitefield declined to enter on any special terms with them; and he held himself free, besides, to preach for all who would take him as he was. The Seceders felt it trying, for reasons easily assigned. They were in the very fire and glow of their Secession, for it was a year or two after the Act that had finally cut them off. Their ecclesiastical programme, with all its views of existing facts and parties, was still bran-new, and had to be maintained to their people and to all the world. They were conscious, and honestly conscious, that zeal for evangelical truth was the moving spring of their own action, and was the occasion at least of a great part of the opposition they experienced. They believed and maintained that the cause of evangelical truth was to be supported by doing what they had done, by leaving the Established Church; and it concerned them much, as they believed, to maintain that impression in the minds of their own people. Further, they were still a very small body, and subject to the influences which affect such bodies. The arrival of Whitefield, with his great reputation, to confound all the dividing lines, to be a kind of incarnate defiance of testimonies, and to exhibit the cause of evangelical truth as perfectly dissociated from existing divisions,
The Seceders, at first few in number, but rapidly increasing as the century advanced, maintained in Scotland the same
But now, how are we to represent this Moderatism? What was it. I will say what I think of it. In doing so I cannot offer to you the artistic touches which never fail in any of the Dean's sketches. But I feel very confident that mine is the truer reading.
The rise of a party, not disposed to feel strongly on the points which Scottish Churchmanship has usually put forward, is often traced to certain elements which found a place in the Church at and shortly after the Revolution Settlement—viz., the ministers who had previously accepted the indulgence (though these, I think, are rather hardly used by some of our historians), and still more, the "curates" —those who, having held cures under the Episcopacy, came in and submitted to the Presbyterian regime. Then, since many of the curates were not very good to begin with, and since, presumably, it was not the best of them who were so ready to conform, and since the very process itself must have been rather damaging and demoralising in the case of those who had previously professed high Episcopalian principles, it can be explained that this party was not merely cold in reference to the principles of their Church, but also at the same time low in tone, morally and spiritually. This explanation is obviously grounded in facts and reason. There were such classes of men, and the statement correctly describes the influence which their history and circumstances might be expected to exert upon them. Materials of this kind, reproducing themselves from generation to generation, unquestionably existed. Such materials formed an element in the Moderate party which bulked largely in the rank and file, and communicated to the whole party much of the temper and the temperature which afterwards distinguished it. Such materials also lay ready to the hands of all who were inclined to work the Church to State ends or to private interests.
At the same time, I am not content to rest in this account of the Moderate party as sufficient. Another source of influence must be considered in order to account for the impulse which gave momentum to the leading minds, and reacted from them on their party and on the whole Church. No remote processes of inference are needed in order to exhibit what it was and how it wrought.
Placed in circumstances of great disadvantage by the commotions of the past, the Scottish Church (and the same was true of the country generally) had lost ground. Culture, development of literature, development of taste, deliberate adaptation of means to ends, had been wofully checked and marred. The peaceful processes by which those who teach and those who learn find out one another's meaning, the processes by which mind, in each generation, is laid under contribution for new and various services, had been sadly interrupted. One of the matters often mentioned in this connection, and which may serve for an instance, is the style of preaching. A man who preached as he could and when he could, in a house or on a hillside, was not likely to take much care of his style. And the habit of the pulpit had retained, in point of fact, much of the old dialect, and much of the old way of dividing and arranging topics; it did so at a time when in general literature the most rapid improvement was taking place in these very particulars—an improvement which that age was rather disposed to overvalue. That is only one instance. After the settlement of affairs, when the prospect of quiet times seemed to be confirmed, men turned eagerly to recover the lost ground, and to place themselves as soon as possible on the level of their age.
Men of all tendencies in the Scottish Church set about this work. They did so with increasing eagerness, as they became more fully aware how much leeway they had to make up. Now their enterprise fell at a remarkable time in the mental history of Europe. It was one of those times when new impulses set in, moving men strongly into new paths, or when impulses generated before begin strongly to affect the general mind. Philosophy, politics, science, education, all felt the breath of a change beginning or proceeding—a change not of doctrine only, but of method, and in all departments men believed themselves coming into clearer light and on more
in religion, partly from it. I say partly from it; for men said—"Let us be done with these discussions; let us cultivate manners, letters, material interests; good sense and good taste will furnish us with all the religious views we need, and will breed a milder temper than the old dogmatism did." Partly in it; and the tendency was to rationalise all doctrines, and lower the peculiarities of the Christian system, to Socinianise, in short. Such seemed to be the spirit of the age, of its foremost and choicest men. A specific influence more or less connected with these tendencies came across the Border. The preaching most in repute there was of the school of Tillotson. That amiable and high-minded man was the head of a school which eminently studied to speak to the age. For that purpose it inclined to reason with men on their own principles, and to be sparing in the assertion of things that might be controverted. It strove to speak in a tone undeniably sensible and practical, laying the stress on the moral elements in Christianity, on Christian virtue and its advantages. This was the new, the cultivated, the reflective style of preaching, this the fresh working of Christian thought, this the defensible mode of Christianity.
In all such times there is a kind of enchantment in the air. The new way of it advances with such an imposing mien, with such ample hopes, especially with such promise of fresh life or new reality, that people are gained at once. To resist the mental fascination is too painful. The eighteenth century indeed was not to turn out in the long run to be a very great affair, for reasons which are well known, and which I must not stay to describe. Still it had its own real gains and acquisitions to offer; and it had its own attractions at the outset. Those attractions were not connected with any views
This was the age. We rather look down upon it now, but it did by no means look down upon itself, and we must grant it to have been in point of fact the opening of a period of great advance in some particular directions. Such as it was—with its treasures and its hopes, its achievements, and its pursuits, its temptations and its benefits—the hopeful men of our Scottish Church were to throw themselves upon it and make the most of it.
I have said that men of various schools and tendencies did so; no doubt, with various degrees of wisdom, fidelity, piety, or the reverse. You cannot do much in the way of discriminating them at first. Gradually you see them settling into two tendencies. The first and larger party are composed of men, some of them most able and highly cultivated, others rather pretentious than able, whom the spirit of the age has mastered. I am describing a party, not every particular member of it. The spirit of the age is what they live in, believe in. The objects which it recommends, the benefits it proposes to confer, the methods on which it relies, have won them. These things have become with them first and uppermost—so real, so reliable, so resistless do they appear. These influences determine and mould the view they take of Christian religion, and the way in which they propose to regulate its administration. Confident many of them, most of them, that Christian religion is well capable of being victoriously defended, and that it is to be resolutely maintained, their views of it are still regulated and controlled rather by an extrinsic standard than by an intrinsic and native one. Opposed to them is a smaller party, always numbering among it men who are well abreast of the acquirements of their time, distinguished by maintaining views and principles which to the other side seem both antiquated and unenlightened. The former are the leaders and lights of the Moderate
The impulse to which I have ascribed the highest element in Moderatism, that which led it for a time, is an impulse, as you will observe, which does not so much bias men in theology, but rather biases them from, it. Nevertheless, a very distinct theological tone arises as the product of it. It is a tendency to assuage or to obscure doctrinal distinctions, to shun clear assertions, to reduce Christianity, as nearly as may be, to a form of natural religion touched with historic associations and warmed with the faint glow of an old but dying enthusiasm. And the reason is plain: life must be harmonised to some fundamental note or key. When it is to be harmonised to culture instead of to decisive Christian convictions, then the Christianity that is retained (reverently retained, I do not question) must be modified. It must be made to speak more softly, and to accommodate itself to the exigencies or suggestions of another interest. This, men then persuade themselves, is its best estate—the true, the finished, the meek, the perfect Christianity. The development of all this in the Church of Scotland may be marked by a series of stages. First, you have a generally latitudinarian tendency, with a disposition to dwell only slightly on what is peculiar to Christianity as a supernatural revelation. Still, a certain marked devoutness is retained, and a dignified Christian demeanour cultivated and cherished—the idea being entertained that a more true and perfect type of Christian teaching and life is thus presented.
Setting culture before truth and life, the secondary interest before the primary, Moderatism became inevitably the antagonist of our Scottish religious life. It opposed itself both to the theology, and to the conception of conversion and life towards God, which I dwelt on at the outset. The theology sank into insignificance, lost its meaning, and in many cases became hateful, though some of the party always adhered, even stringently, to its formal positions. The conception of conversion was still more speedily
The history of Moderatism, what it began with and what it ended in, the pretensions of its rise, and the undisguised baseness of its latter end, is a great historical commentary on the
Looking from this point of view, it is very easy indeed to understand the Dean's sympathy with Moderatism. For he also dreads this one thing, a religion that mars the harmony of life by refusing to adapt itself to the spirit of the age, and to ally itself with the widest variety of opinions and of tendencies. I do not allege that the Dean desires to obliterate from any mind those affirmations which constitute the Confession of Christ's Church, and of the Protestant Churches in particular. But then he is most anxious that, in whatever forms embodied, religious faith should own fellowship with the widest variety of human beliefs and of human impressions. It is for religion itself he fears, if it should commit itself to assert broadly the unconditional necessity of faith, and the peculiarity of grace, and of its fruits and working in this world. "Surely," he seems to say," the current will prove too strong, the effort to hold the ground will prove abortive, condemned by the result. Be wise in time! "Therefore everything, in every sphere of life, which can in any sense have ascribed to it moral worth, must be viewed as, pro tanto, true Christian religion. So, on the other side, Christian religion has its character best and most wisely fixed when it is mainly identified—not absolutely, but mainly—with those forms of
I cannot but regard it as confirmation of what I impute— not of all the inferences which I draw for myself—when I find Dean Stanley preaching the other day on the mystery of the Trinity, and explaining the "three names" to the effect that the Father is God in creation, the Son is God in history, the Spirit is God in conscience; and that we have fellowship with the Father in nature, with the Son not only in Christ (who of course is reverently named), but. also in all elevating passages of human character and history, with the Spirit in conscience. Still more do I regard it as confirmation when I find him commending to Scottish Christians, in lecturing on the Scottish Churches, the truly Christian character of David Hume. No one was asking him to pass judgment on Hume; no one would hinder him from acknowledging Hume's uprightness and amiability; but it is strange indeed to find Hume commended in such circumstances as a truly Christian character. This is no mere excess of charity towards an individual—if it were I should pass it. Nay, it is a recommendation of a mode of judging to be applied to principles and to facts. As such it is to be met distinctly. And not concerning myself here with what David Hume was or was not, what be found or failed to find, I say that without the faith of Christ there is no true Christian character. I will add, in the lan-
Quite the same impression is conveyed by some of the notices interwoven into the sketch of distinguished Scotchmen in the Dean's last lecture. Some of these are most beautiful; but I am in the judgment of those who heard or read, whether the idea is not conveyed that where genius touches upon life, especially if it recognises God and duty at all, there we are to own a teacher of the Christian religion.
I think it right and incumbent to speak of one of these cases. I mean his reference to one for whose memory we all cherish very deep and peculiar feelings—Robert Burns.
But before I advert to anything the Dean said, I will ask— Can no one stop the din that profanes the grave of Robert Burns? Has no one the heart to hear the "inhabitant below," or to understand his voice? Of all perverse destinies with which earth could perplex his fame, did it ever visit his imagination that crowds of rhetorical men would go about in never-ending floods of eloquence to prove his life a great moral victory and triumph? Did he ever foresee that every after-dinner orator, who wished to show what a flexible thing advanced Christianity can be, would harp upon the passages that saddened his own thoughtful hours, as proofs of what may comport with high moral and Christian excellency? Shame upon them that are so destitute of love for Burns, that have so little sympathy with the pathos of his own view of his own life, as not to understand they are to let that alone! Why can they not let it alone? Let them celebrate his genius, if it needs to be celebrated; let them celebrate his honest manhood—a great deal too straightforward, I will be bold to say,
"A curse upon the clown and knave Who will not let his ashes rest."
This by the way. Now as to Dean Stanley. We object to Robert Burns as a religious teacher, because he does not take his ground as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as one who desired to follow Him. We are not judging whether, at any time of his life, he became such. Neither are we standing on any question of more or less orthodoxy. Neither are we questioning the beauty of the admiring tribute which he paid to Christian doctrine in "The Cottar's Saturday Night." Neither are we blind to the force and pathos of the "Advice to a Young Man," admirable as far as it goes. But, I repeat, he does not take his ground and speak his rede as a believer in the Lord Jesus, and as one who desired to follow Him; as I suppose, because he was not prepared to take that responsibility, and was too honest a man to go farther in that matter than his actual convictions warranted. This does not require us to deprive ourselves of the benefit of anything good or true that is in Robert Burns. But it is one reason for refusing to recognise him as a wise religious teacher. Further, we see that when Robert Burns broke with the ancient habit or tradition of Scottish piety, whether that was his own fault or the fault of the Church, or of both, that breach brought with it a deplorable consequence. He continued from time to time to pour out exquisite strains of occasional devotion. But while he scourged that which he saw around him, savouring as he judged of hypocrisy and religious hollowness, where is the indication of his finding out or working out a conception of
See Appendix, B.
Upon the principles he has stated, the Dean appears as the advocate of Established Churches. In Establishments, and in those alone, in his view, can the end be secured. For, first, Establishments in theory are absolutely ruled by the State, which easily can remove every restriction; and, second, Establishments naturally tend, in his judgment, to be conformed to the type which he desiderates. They are to be expressions, then, of the religious sentiment of the community; they are to be brought as far as circumstances admit to the point of having a blank shield, of bearing no device to which any appreciable part of the community objects. They are thus to be the scene in which the alliance of the Christian sentiment with every form of opinion which happens to arise may go uninterruptedly on from age to age. Nonconformist bodies meanwhile, besides securing safety-valves for peculiar and unreasonable people, can be useful for "keeping alive the fire of devotion and love, which in Established Churches is sometimes apt to die out in the light of reason and breadth of inquiry." Performing these humble offices—and most particularly, I suppose, sheltering the fire of devotion from the light of reason—they may remain in their own subordinate place, while the Establishments pursue their career in the regions of illuminism which have been described. Now, observe that there is no difference between the Dean and us with respect to the position that the Church should labour to understand the age, and should be ever ready, not only to teach what the age will receive, but herself to receive the new lessons or new lights which are ascertained to
Very well: we all know that a powerful tide is running in influential quarters in favour of a general relaxation of belief, and that is in favour of the Dean's design. Besides that, in another way, the existing forces tend in the same direction. For the more that divisions of opinion multiply, the more temptation there is to men who value an Establishment to widen the base indefinitely, as the natural policy for strengthening the institution. So that we can see how the Dean's view of what Establishments ought to be and are, might receive conclusive and unanswerable verification. I am bound, however, to
The Dean came down here, doubtless, to gratify many friends and admirers, as well as to testify the interest which our history has awakened in a mind which has inquired into many histories. In the course of doing so, his own convictions led him to adorn with the attractions of his cultivated mind the cause of Broad Churchism and of Establishments, represented as one cause, and to depreciate, as he can do so well, what we call evangelical religion, and dissent. I have little doubt that his intention was, in compliance with his own honest convictions, to strengthen the cause of the Established Church in our community at the cost of all the others. I will raise no debate here and now as
In closing these lectures, let me remember that there are matters of more importance. I have had to speak for the independence of the Church. Dean Stanley is mistaken if he thinks either that we take it up as a mere tradition, or that we wish to use it for the maintenance of any mere tradition. This I have desired to show in the present lecture. We wish to be free to bring the present faith and life of the Church to bear on present duties, present trials, present questions. We think it indeed a wise use of freedom to recognise the constitutional basis, which supports our action and tends to its strength and continuity, in the past history of the way by which God has led us. We think it a wise use of freedom
Can I speak of this, and not add also, that if any will say to us, in any of our Churches, "You are far below such work as this," we have no reply except to listen, and to confess that indeed we are far below it? The more we feel how far below, the better for us and for the work itself. For the worst enemies of the Church's liberties have been ever those who vaunted those liberties, but failed to use them well. Therefore I implore you to remember, if you have agreed with me in any of my statements, as I would be myself reminded, that the independence of the Church means nothing unless it crowns a true and various Christianity that goes before. Let us take heed what it is to mean with us—with us during the few years we are to remain members of the Church on earth. O that liberty might mean in all our Churches intense devotedness and unsparing service! If it shall mean that—if it shall
In the Lecture as originally delivered, reference was made to the circumstance that Mr. Comper's book bore to be published by the desire of Dr. Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews in the Scottish Episcopal Church, to whom it was dedicated. This reference is now withdrawn, as Bishop Wordsworth has explained that he desires his sentiments to be gathered from what he has himself written within the last twelve years, and that he and Mr. Comper are not now to be regarded as wholly agreeing on these matters. Lest it should be thought, however, that Mr. Comper's standing in his Church is not such as to warrant my taking him as representative of any considerable section of it, I may refer to the proceedings which took place in
In connection with this subject I may add a few sentences. It does not surprise us that persons persuaded in their own minds in favour of Episcopacy should represent it as a duty to be in fellowship with a or the Bishop, and should represent the non-performance of that duty as involving, ordinarily, some degree of sin. For, besides invincible ignorance, there is ignorance which, though real, and in an important sense honest, is culpable. When a Prelatist charges such ignorance, and therefore some sin, on me, or I on him, it need scandalise neither of us. Every Christian, I suppose, remains culpably ignorant of something he ought to know, great or small, in doctrine or duty. For the forgiveness of such sins we pray daily, while we pray also for the more single eye and the humbler heart to which all things will become more clear. But what does surprise us is, that an honest difference of judgment regarding the number and relation of office-
It does not greatly alter the feelings of surprise on our part, though it softens the phraseology on the other side, when it is represented in this way, viz., that those who do not adhere to a bishop may be recognised as members of the one Church in a state of schism, more or less culpable according to circumstances; but that their Churches are not true Churches, have not promised grace in the ordinances they administer, are null, in short. Let it be considered how much importance those who hold this theory attach to true Church ministration; and then let it be considered that, according to them, all this most needful grace has been by Christ our Lord suspended on an empirical arrangement, so doubtful in its evidence that the Scripture proof of it is given up as hopeless by many even of the Episcopalians! We on our side are withheld from erecting any of our "points" into corresponding importance, not by any doubt about their authenticity, but by the view we take of our Lord's way of dealing with men in matters of salvation. We own personal grace wherever persons are inwardly believing to Christ and adhering to Him. We own true Churches wherever societies of professing believers, claiming and exercising a Church state in professed subjection to Christ, are holding forth the main fundamentals of the faith, and doing the main things which He has commanded to be done in and by Churches. We admit that there may be doubtful cases both of persons and Churches. And we hold that different degrees of sin attach to the mistakes, defects, and omissions both of the one and of the other.
So in particular of unity, which is greatly relied on as a characteristic of Christ's Church, and so as necessitating the conclusions at which our High Church friends arrive. We acknowledge that the visible Church ought to be one. We acknowledge that breaches which interrupt fellowship imply sin somewhere. We acknowledge that in proportion as they are recklessly or wantonly made, or maintained under manifestly carnal influences, in the same proportion the guilt of schism is incurred or enhanced But we refuse to see unity only in unity of constitution. We maintain that not all unity, not all visible unity, has failed, even when breaches have taken place which imply sin, and are attended with evil. We maintain that the
we proceeded, on the ground of their mistake and peaceable withdrawal, to charge them with a fatal breach of unity, to unchurch them, and to deny the validity of the ordinances they had procured to be administered, while they acknowledged the validity of ours, then in that case we should be the true schismatics, the real and effective breakers of a unity which the others had only somewhat defaced and obscured. We should be so although, by supposition, scriptural and right in our order. For always in Christ's kingdom the fundamental and vital precedes in importance the external and politic.
All this is somewhat away from the subject of my Lectures, for Dean Stanley, notoriously, has no sympathy with the High Church views which I am characterising. But I think it worth while to say so much for this reason. All men who attach importance to Church duties will be found at times feeling and speaking strongly on what they regard as inexcusable or disgraceful failures, perhaps treacheries, in connection with them. In particular circumstances they will think themselves justified in strongly charging sin, and calling on men to have no fellowship with those sins. Presbyterians have often done so. But it is one thing to charge sin, even in this strong and peremptory manner; it is another thing to deny standing in the visible Church merely because Church duties have not been rightly apprehended or performed. When, in such cases, the language has become very strong and sweeping, it has generally been because it was felt that a dereliction of duty, a moral baseness, could be
The expression in the text may seem strong, but it is deliberately chosen. It applies, of course, only to some individuals, not by any means to a whole party. There are facts, known on perfectly good authority, though they appear in no life of Burns, connected with one or two periods in his history when his mind seemed open to the influence of earnest religious convictions, which would justify much harsher epithets. If all that could be charged against the Moderate ministers concerned, were merely that they sought to determine him in favour of some opinions divergent from my own, I should use no epithets. But what is to be charged against them is sheer treason to their trust as ministers of Christ.
My assertion in p. 86, line 9 and following, has been questioned on the ground of statements contained in Burns' letters. In the face of those statements (and remembering some others) I abide by the assertion in the text.
Lorimer and Gillies, Printers, Clyde Street, Edinburgh.
Since the last edition of my Lectures appeared, Dean Stanley has published his. The text bears the marks of a good deal of minute adjustment, intended, apparently, to fortify the Lectures against the criticisms which have proceeded from various quarters. Some of the points to which I have adverted have become less salient, or are stated more cautiously, in the Dean's printed version of them. The angles, generally, have been somewhat rounded off. In substance, however, the points I touched on are still maintained by the Dean. I have, therefore, not felt called upon to make alterations upon any of my own statements in the present edition, but have left them as they were. In one instance only, I have gathered from the Dean's volume, that a statement in his Lectures, erroneously reported in the newspapers, had led me into remarks which were irrelevant. I have therefore deleted the passage. It stood near the beginning of my Third Lecture, and referred to the negative character of the Confession. The Dean's remarks, as it appears, were not meant to apply to our Confession, commonly so called, but to the National Covenant, sometimes called the "Negative Confession," because it contains a detailed protest against a series of Romish errors. I will not waste time in debating the merits of "negatives," which simply represented the attitude of the Scottish Church and State as on their defence against Romanism. All that I could say on the subject has been anticipated by Mr. Taylor Innes, in an article in the March number of the Contemporary Review.
I do not think it necessary to burden these Lectures with a fresh specification of all the points in which I think the Dean has been misled as regards the view to be taken of particular facts or features of our history. I may say, however, that I have been struck, even more than before, with the method of implied argument, by which he leads up to his panegyric on Moderatism. He finds in many eminent men moderation, that is, the disposition to a considerate and large-minded estimate of things, and a calm and kindly temper. Such cases are treated as the prophecies and precursors of Moderatism, and the men who manifested this disposition are ranked as the spiritual progenitors of the Moderates. Now, every truly eminent man has in him (in a greater degree or a less) a notable power of appreciating persons from whom he differs, and doing justice to tendencies with
The only passage in Dr. Stanley's published Lectures in which (though without naming me) he adverts explicitly to a statement of mine, is in page 140. Here he sets against my account of the Moderates the testimony, as he says, of "the venerable biographer of the leader of the popular party of that age," viz., Sir Henry Moncreiff Wellwood, in his Life of Erskine; "the cordial and generous tribute of one whose very name is a guarantee for strictness of life and faith." He cites as follows:—"The names of such men as Cuming and Wishart, and Walker and Dick, and Robertson and Blair, are embalmed, with the name of Erskine, in the hearts of all who have learned in any measure how to value whatever has been most respectable in our Zion. God grant that while their memory is yet fresh in the mind, the men who fill their places in the world may catch a portion of their spirit! God grant that while they, like Elijah of old, may be dropping their mantle on the earth, their spirit also, like that of the prophet, may yet remain to bless the children of men."
Here is enough, one would think, to extinguish Dr. Rainy! After all, however, it is only the Dean's concluding misfortune. These are not the words of Sir Henry Moncreiff at all. They are part of a sermon, by Dr. Inglis—that is to say, by a very decided Moderate. See passage as cited from Life of Erskine, p. 481, and compare p. 396.
I may add, however, that I should be sorry to dispute the claim of many Moderates to figure, in Dr. Inglis' language, among "the respectabilities of Zion."
Lorimer and Gillies, Printers, Clyde Street, Edinburgr.
[Dedicated to the learned Author of the Poems so styled in 'Kilmahoe,' to whose unwearied researches in the literature and manners of the Celts, during his visits to their firesides, I am so much indebted, in attempting, as ho has most elegantly expressed it, to make the world of spirits visible to the bodily ear.']
[Here the de'il, in anticipation of what was to come, makes a most desperate struggle, and eventually breaks the spell.
Strayed, from their stalls in the church, sundry Professors, who cannot be found in the other churches of St. Andrews. Any information, as to how they are engaged on Sunday forenoons, will be thankfully received by the Hebdomadars appointed by the Fourth Year Students.
In connection with the above, we understand that the following Code of Regulations is to be brought before the University Court for approval:—
One stall.
[Written expressly for the Directors, or rather Director, of the College Hall: giving a little insight into 'all his doings in connection with it. It might be entitled, 'A Haul over the Coals,' for the Hall young men(?). Miss Kennedy, the Authoress, rather expects they will holler when they peruse it.]
[Note.—The above is said to be an extract from a (possibly) forth-coming work, by the author of 'The Recreations of a Country Parson,' to be entitled, 'Scenes of Clerical Life.' The extract is supposed to embody a juvenile reminiscence of the author.]
New Work in course of Publication, entitled: 'Scanning made Easy.' Virgil, Horace, & Co., Publishers.
This highly interesting work contains an account of the new method of scanning, which the author seems desirous of establishing. The ground-work of the system is, that one short quantity in every line may be pronounced long, provided that in the same line two long quantities be pronounced short.
We believe that this system has already been adopted by one of the Scotch Universities. We earnestly recommend our readers to a perusal of this work.
[No connection with Prin. S——p, or any other Learned Body.]