The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

the bottom of both these
much as possible concealed. Let the measures,
however, be carried, and the principle would
soon make itself felt.

WAS AS

For instance, if both Houses of Parliament
were to pass the Oaths Bill in the shape in
which it will probably leave the Commons,
it would soon become impossible for those
Houses to refuse to extinguish Church-rates.
Blot out the Christian faith from the public
profession of members of Parliament,—the
maintenance of an Established Christian
Church becomes anomalous and absurd. But
you will not long have extinguished Church-
rates, before you will be asked how you can be
guilty of the inconsistency of continuing tithe.
The truth is, that one principle, the duty of a
State to maintain the worship of Goo, lies at
the basis of all these questions. If that prin-
ciple is to be given up—if it be discovered that
the whole Christian world has been mistaken
on this point for fifteen centuries—then we
shall soon find that we have a large work
before us. Such au edifice as the Established
Church has deep and wide foundations, and
its removal will not be the work of a day.
A misgiving, too, will sometimes arise,
whether we can adopt one part of the American
system without adopting the whole. We would
not lay too much stress upon King JAMES'S
maxim, "No bishop, no king !" but there can
be no doubt that the tone and temper of mind
which would gladly sweep away our prelates
and our cathedrals is not one friendly to
thrones and palaces. The men who would
vote to-morrow for the exclusion of the Bishops
from the House of Lords, are the men who
would as readily vote, a week after, that the
House of Lords itself was an institution of at
least questionable value.
That we have those among us who prefer
the American institutions to those of Old
England, has recently been avowed ; and fore
most among them is one who is named as an
apostle of the new and truly popular party.
And is it not a fair inference, that one who
advises, as Mr. BRIGHT does advise, his
countrymen to flee to the more genial institu-
tions of America, would bring those institu-
tions into England itself, if he had but the
power to do so ? We feel, then, at least a
doubt whether we can take a part of the
American system without taking the whole
And what is really the tenor and general
character of that system ?
Its distinguishing feature is, that which
naturally recommends it to such minds as
those of Messrs. BRIGHT and COBDEN—its
great simplicity. It is simple when compared
with the English, just as a bulldog or a bear is
simple when compared with a man. Simple
in aim, in motives, in likes and dislikes. We
do not insult the Americans by this simile; for
we borrow it from the well-known Kentucky
orator, who, when defending a client charged
with half-murdering a man, exclaimed. "Say he
" is rough—so are our bears ; say he is rude—
" so are our buffaloes!" The Englishman is more
complex in his tastes, habits, feelings, and sym-
pathies. He is more swayed by things without
and things above. Dr. JOHNSON said—" What-
" ever makes the past, the distant, or the future
a. predominate over the present, exalts us in
the scale of thinking beings." The English-
man acknowledges such feelings as loyalty,
veneration, a regard for antiquity. Windsor
Castle is something to him, and so is Canter-
bury Cathedral, and so ia Oxford, and so is
lona. An American knows little of these
feelings, or, as Jens BRIGHT would call them,
these " stupid prejudices." One simple idea
excludes and supersedes them all—" the
almighty dollar." But this simplicity pro•
duces wonderful effects. It pervades the
entire system. The whole people—their
government and individuals—all act much as
the aforesaid bear and buffalo would act—i e.,
with similar directness and unscrupulosity.
The people, as far as we can gather their
expressed opinions, would take whatever they
covet—as Canada, or Cuba, for instance—but
for fear of the consequences. Among them-
selves, South against North, they act the
buffalo. In their Senate, a slave-state orator,
Mr. PRESTON, said, " Let an Abolitionist come
"within the borders of South Carolina, and if
we catch him, we will try him; and, notwith-
-0 standing all the interferences of all the