The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-11-21 00:00:00


N'O. IN.-REJECTED (SYNODICAL) ADDRESSES

IN TIIE Dimas Cr LAITTA.

THE :NFIXENCE (tl' WOKEN CHURCH PSINCIPLLS otl
I:Pr. ti John Sui,t/r.
Y., ore can deny that in this land tie church kiss
exithited Outing the peat few years an activity which
constants very favourably with her utter negligence of
the last ceitury. We see churches springing up in every
direction, and old ones restored and beortdied : great
• ff..,rts made to reclaim offenders against the law.;
mission districts ni%rlied out ill 11/310 Of the lowest
lisunts of vice mid immorality; all kinds of plans
d, sited, various theories suggested for getting at our
" Home Ile.ethen": Dever • Church Congrese is held
but the rice ul druuktur, es, and how to overcome it, is
fully discussed: but one important suhject appears
always to he everlooked—oue class of the people, and
that • very important class, seems to be left to take
earn of itself: and that is, the noble, the rich, and the
great. Jertmish did not forget them Ile says "1 will
cct me to the great men, and will speak unto them:
for they Lye kuown the way of the Lord, and the
julonent of the,r GA ": but what did he find wrong
? Ile tells Sc, .11,11 these have alt.gether broken
the)oke and her-% the bonds.*

--
Our church is singularly well circumstanced for dad.
log with such people: many of our clergy ire connected
with the highest and wealthiest families: our Bishop.,
al Peers of the Realm, are admitted Into tie most
exclusive circles of society, if they pieties t 3 seek for
much admission. What then is the stets of these claws?
We must allow that at first sight the apperthanees are
favourable. An outward regard for religion was always
respectable : now It is fashionable. And while tee
gentlemen aro generally to be seen ones on a Sunday at
church, the ladies for the most part are absolutely
devout: the fashionable church is never open at any
time of the flay, morning or evening, without • goodly
number of titled soil distinguhitied female-wonhippers:
Orphanages and Siaterboods, Asylums, dia, are fieely
and fashionably patronised and there are few or no
noblemen whoge mamas do not appear among the sub-
seen:lento one or more religious institution or society.
But what influence has all this religious work upon
the ordinary habits of thin class? If we may juke
iron the doily papers, extraeaganer., immorality, and
•iosi has or err been so fashionable since the days of
Charles 11. : nobli men, one lifter another, have gambled
away their princely fortnnee in quick succesaion, and
been compel', d to seek refuge in the Bankruptcy
Court : the streets and parks of London exhibit an
amount of splendid wickedness, triumphant immodesty,
which would have made them 'milt places of resort
for our grandmothers and their dauehters ; but now
the monde and the demimonde jostle one another in the
ring and in the row, and stare at one another without
shame. In dress and manners the fashionable "Girl
of the Period" owing to try how near die may Vanillin
to the verge of shame and misery. Can theft externals
be indulged in without • corresponding pollution of
mind and Feeling? Even the new dress, to make it go
&nun, must be called by the name of "Nail Gwynne."
Sail es all this is, it is infinitely more fearful to eon-
template in connection with the Increase of formality in
religion. It evidences the state of Jerusalem jut
before its destruction, when the Jews living in open
Bin attended the serviose of the Temple and said "We
are delivered to do all these abominations." Such a
state of society is well described by Carlyle. "When
Belief and Loyalty have passed away, and only the cant
and fable echo of them remains ; and all solemnity hoe
become Pegeantri, awl the creAnf persons in authority
has become one or two things, an Imbecility or a
Machiavelisin." And how have these two principles of
religion and vice come thus to grow together? Has
the church been feitliful? She has NOT. Which of
our great preaohers, bishops or presbyters, bas ever
had the honest boldness to protest against aristocratic
vice in an aristocratio sesembly ? How many on the
contrary have been willing to accept the money of these
splendid Sinners for church purposes, and whits:eloquent
in their praise of their costly donations, been carefully
silent as to their sins? How is it that we see the
names of racing men and others on the pages of our
religious societies? It ii because the oburch has thought
more of their patronage and money than of their souls,
and so men living in every kind of dissipation and
extravagance are deluded into believing themselves Good
Churchmen. By some, no doubt, it is thought so
excellent evidence of the good influence of Modern
Church Principles that the Jockey Club hes determined
not to have recce in Passion week. There is no doubt
that the old-fsehioned Puritan influence would never
have effected this. But what noble hypocrisy is this?
Does it make any difference whether • man commits
murder, or robs his neighbour, on Sunday or Monday
Is the rascality of the whole raelog system say better
the week after Easter than the week before? But here
we see one little but plain evidence:, of the fact that
Modern Church Principles have lowered and are lower-
ing the truths of Christianity to suit the tastes of the
rich and the great, and not one protesting voice is raised
gesint,t it. Lament over the eimeation of the poor. ye
bb-hnps and great churchmen: weep over the drunken-
ness and vice of St. Giles: provide homes and reforma-
tories for poor dirty Haymarket : but do not say • word
about Belgravia; shut your eyes °irefully as the noble
builder (irons of your churches drives by with some
one, not his wife, by his side, if unfortunately you meet
them in St. John's Wood. Once upon • time a bishop
left a church where he had just confirmed about • hun-
dred young persons, and entered the carriage of a
rich lthded proprietor, at whose house he was about to
stay. One of the confirmed remarked, "Hu lordship
has just been warning us sigainst keeping bid company,
sod now he has gone to be the guest of the biggest
blackguard in the county." N.B.—la that district a
"blackguard" means a men who uses bail language:
This unholy alliance Isetw.en the church and
spferufiel ries: must be broken off, if the
chinch is ever to exercise a beneficial influenoe on
the upper elaavoe of aoetoty, and thereby ',vein the
respect and confidence of the other portions of the Dons-
mutat,. If things continue as they ere, the result is
only a question of time. In France one hundred years
ago, the nobility were steeped in vice, and thereby were
the objects of the hatred and contempt of the middle
and labouring elegies. The churehmen, wealthy,
powerful, and proud, were hand and glove with the
noblest. And when the latter brought down ruin on
their order, did the church escape? The nobility may
Imagine that they can afford to despise public opinion,
I and the church may turn away her eye. and gay "Am
I my brother's keeper r but unless there be • great
I change " lie who ordereth all things in Heaven and in
I Earth," will show that lie will not be mocked; and
wleu that time comes "Judgment will begin at the
Hobo of God." Even now we see the utter want of
fixed principle; the mixture of " Imbecility and
hisehiavolism" in our leading statesmen, most of them
nurtured in Modern Church Principles : let Ul be sure
of this that they will be the instruments in God's
l hands of destroying the system that has withheld from
I them "the Truth," which it was pledged to teach, and
will use their own birthright privileges to deprive their
{ successors of theirs. Been now, if some one of our gnat
churchmen were to stand out boldly and protest against
the vices of the great, and refuse to "hays any fellow.
ship with the workers of iniquity," the whole country
would join in his praises, and ho would find himself
armed at came with a power of influence for good
which few men have enjoyed. But is that reAll to be
tonsil?

MR. RUSKIN'S "NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT."
In the new number of /ors Clavigera, Mr. Ruskin
discourses to the working-chasm on. "new social move-
meat," which he has in band for their benefit. He re.
marks—" You have heard it said occasionally that I am
Dot a practical person. It may be satisfactory to you
to know, on the contrary, that this whole plan of mine
I, founded on the very practical notion of making you
roiled persons instead of flat. Round aud merry, in-
stead of fiat arid sulky. And my feast-ideal is not
taken iron 'a mechanical point of view,' but is one
already realised. I wee lest summer, in the flesh, as
roiled rend merry • person as ever I desire to see. He
was tidily dreased—not in brown rags, but in green
velveteeu; he wore a jaunty hat, with a feather in it,.
little on one aide ; he was not drunk, but the efferves- ,
calico of his slur* wd goo' humour filled the room all
about blur; and he could sing like a robin. This merry
roiled person was a Tyrolese peasant; and Mold it an
entirely practical proseediug, since I find my ideal of
felicity actually produced In the Tyrol, toast about the
production of it here, on Tyrolese principles; which,
you will find, our inquiry, have not hitherto Implied
the employment of steam, nor submission to the great
universal law of supply and demand, nor even demand
for the local supply of a 'Liberal Government.' But
they do imply labour of all hands on pure earth and
in fresh air. They do imply obedience to government
which endeavours to be just, arid faith in a religion
which indeevours to be moral. And the result Is
strerigth of Samba, clearness of throats, roundness of
waists, and pretty jsokets, and still prettier comets, to
fit them." He proceeds tel expliuu to us the arrange-
ments of his seven acres of garden at Detimark Hill,
and bow they furnish hini with strawberries, c
arid eerie,, of which he says, "1 *at more than is good
for me ;" and lie adds—" Meantime, outside of my I
fenced seven acres, owing to the operati.n ul the great 1
, universal law of supply and demand, numbers of people
are starving; many mete dying of too touch gin; aud
tunny of their children dying of too little milk; and,
as I told you in my first letter, for my own part, I
won't shad this sort of thing any longer." These seven
acres he tells us, are leasehold, and too near London
for wild flowers to grow brightly In; but this is what
he mays to do—" I have bought, itiatesd, twice as
many freehold acres, where wild flowers are growing
now, and shall continue to grow; and there I mean to
live ; and with the tenth part of my available fortune,
I will buy other bite of freehold land, and employ
gardeners on them. I may as well tell you at ones
(het my tithe will he, roughly, about 1.7,000 altogether
(a little less, rather than more). If I get no help, I
can show what I mean, even with this' but if any
One cares to help me with the gif,s of either money or
land, they sill find that what they give is applied
honestly, and *lees • perfectly definite service; they
'night, for aught I know, do more good with it in
other ways; but some good in. this way—and that is
all I assert—they will do certainly, and not experi-
mentally. And the longer they take to think of the
matter, the better I shall like it, for my work at
Oxford is mora than enough for me just now, and I
shall not practically bestir myself In this land scheme
for a year to come, at least; nor then, except ass rest
from my main business; but the mow y and land wmU
Awsys be safe in the heads of your trustees for you. '

FATAL Fomm—At the Long Ashton Petty Sessions,
on Friday, Henry Bryant, • farrier, William Petrie,
and Joseph Reed, were charged with haring feloniously
killed and slain Samuel Andrews, on the 3rd lost., at
Du,lry. A coroner's inippest had already returned a
verdict of manslaughter against the prisoners. The
evidence showed that on the 2nd inst. a quarrel took
place between Bri ant and the decreased, and that they
th. n fought for a few minutes. On the following day
the titir.. pri-onera and Andrews, with F owo other
men, ina in a field, and another fight took place
between Bryant and Aiidrewa, elder lasted about
twerity ;Mont's. when Bryant struck deo:rased behind
tho mr, and rtudtred hint insensible. It wss denied
till% Perna sod Reed were acting as seconds in the
"d""u7 way, or that the fight had boon previously
I arranged. Del-aimed was pui t* a e"' to 6
the hospital, but he died thineway.Allthe p"enrisoner%
had legal 111.111tarICO, and the magistrates!, after hearing
what was urged in thew defence, decided upon uPOA
eimmitting Bryant for trial for mastakeithter, and the
lother prisoners for aiding and abetting, Heavy la
tem takes,