The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE NEW REVELATION.—HARMONIAL
PROGRESS.
SPinrr RAPPING has gone ahead in America. Its
disciples do not yet equal the Mormons in numbers,
but they fully match them in faith; nor is the
material of war wanting. The test of a modern
movement is its power to establish an organ ; and
the Rappers of New York have established one,
largely circulated, respectably written, and sufficiently

intolerant in its denunciations of unbelievers to win

the sympathies of NICHOLAS or WISEMAN. That last

trait of character reconciles us to the rest. We
hear so much about the " age of reason" and the

" reign of love" that—poor benighted Conservatives
as we are—it is pleasant to us to find human nature

remaining unchanged in one feature, even though
that one be not absolutely the most amiable that
exists. The new creed can, at least, be combative.
Its votaries are a Church militant, so far as waging
war on the whole unconverted world can make them

so. Quite natural this : we find no fault with it :
only why assume so lofty an air of superiority over
all the thousand-and-one beliefs, old and new, which
are jostling themselves into notice by the same
means?

We have spoken of "spirit-rapping " and "rappers :"
the words demand an apology. Most sects, political
or theological, have two names—one that by which
they call themselves, the other that by which every-
body else calls them. But our American friends
are strangers here, and it would be ill manners to
introduce a stranger by his nickname. Place then,
for the grand " Harmonial Convention" of Auburn !
for Mr. IRA. Hrrcueoca, its president, and those
ladies and gentlemen whose unwearied lungs and
inexhaustible patience carried them through a
sitting of two days and nights, the results of
which are rather unfairly condensed into three not
very crowded columns of the Spiritual Telegraph.
It is probably from this cause that we fail to per-
ceive any particular connection between the subjects
discussed and the result aimed at. Indeed, the
usual order of proceedings was reversed. First
came the report, or resolutions, the oratory follow-
ing, and being addressed to no particular end or
object. On the same principle we have heard it
recommended that the House of Commons should
divide first, and debate afterwards. On the resolu-
tions, it appears, the meeting agreed unanimously.
They resolved, in half a column of verbose turgidity,
that free arguing is a constitutional prerogative of
the human mind ; that " all forms of theologio
" sectarianism are anti-progressive and anti • 3ligious ;"
that spiritual intercourse between the two worlds
exists ; that spirits are reformers and socialists; that
" individual reform is impossible, except through a
" new social organisation, which shall destroy exist-
" ing antagonisms between producer and consumer,
" between labour and machinery, between interest
" and duty ;" " that the Mosaic dispensation was
" an age of force; that the Christian dispensation
" was an age of love; that the Harmonial dispense-
" Lion is an age of wisdom." We fear this sublime
philosophy suffers in our abridgment; but, if sages
will not be concise, the fault is their own. These
preliminary points settled, the discussion ensued.
The speakers were of two classes—inspired or clair-
voyant, and uninspired. Among the first:—
" Mr. P. B. Randolph, of Utica, N.Y., became clairvoyant,
and said that he did not believe in evil, or a principle of
evil ; that it was a negative principle, and could not be
operative or maintain an existence. That no nega-
tive currents in nature possess the powers of permea-
tion or resolution—ergo, evil being negative can not change
the most minute particle of goodness by analysis, suppura-
tion, abrasion. or resolution, because its principle is desti-
tute of any principle of vitality. That those spirits who
wrote the Rune were those who gave it from the plane or
stand-point on which they were elevated.
If mankind have brains it is their duty to exercise the
faculties embodied in those brains. All have a principle
sitting enthroned in the temple of reason, which smiles
approbation at that which addresses itself to his reason."
Mrs. H. C. BARBER, we are told, "spoke some time
while in the trance state, but was not reported."
Poor Mrs. BARBER ! After the lady came the Presi-
dent, who is no better treated. But we learn the
extent of our loss from the reporter's enthusiastic
comment :
" Mr. Ira Hitchcock, of Oneida, spoke to the second
resolution in a powerful and logical manner. Having
torn the cowl and toga from the ermined head of old
theology, he, with the utmost decorum, placed the mitre on
the brow of young harmony."
Likewise did Mrs. SARAH 11. VANDLRSEN, a medium,
of Wampsville, Madison County, become clairvoyant,
and lift up her voice ; hut, the lady's speech being to
us quite incomprehensible, we fear it might prove
the same to our readers. ne gentleman, Mr. DAvis,
ignored spirits and mediums altogether; and took
the opportunity to inveigh in a very moral strain
against avarice, slavery, the professions of law and
medicine, human nature, and the arrangements of

195

the world generally. It is noticeable that no one
seemed to require, or stepped aside to offer, any
evidence as to the fact of spiritual intercourse. What
need of proofs, where all have faith ? But, though
the convention was silent on this subject, we find in
the Telegraph evidence enough, and to spare. Elec-
tric wires are going out of fashion as agents for the
transmission of news. One gentleman, living in
Baltimore, makes a supernatural appointment to
meet his friends at New York at 8 p.m. of a parti-
cular day. Another sends a long gossiping account
of his journey to Pittsburgh through the same con-
venient agency. The manner of performing the
operation is minutely described :

" The process of receiving these spiritually telegraph
messages is this. A friend in a circle at New York, for
instance, wishes to communicate with a circle in Washing-
ton, on an evening when he knows such circle will be in
session. Upon ascertaining that a spirit is present who
will take the communication which he wishes to send, he
either speaks it aloud or writes it, and the nest moment
the medium in the circle at Washington is taken with a
sudden shaking of the arm, and the fingers are made to
draw upon the table with a clear, regular ticking sound,
very similar to that produced by the instruments em-
ployed in the offices of Morris's telegraph
Soon the message is commenced to be slN3ken through
the medium—slowly, irregularly, and somewhat indis-
tinctly at first, but becoming stronger and clearer in tone
as it proceeds."
The only omission—a strange one for America—
is that no mention appears of the price per message.
Here we are disappointed. We should have liked to
know whether the telegraph is being undersold. In
England, where the rates of charge are so much
heavier, the information might have been turned to
account. But perhaps the dignity, as well as novelty,
of the new method recommends it. Think of HENRY
CLAY'S spirit taking errands from Baltimore to New
York ! Who would grudge an extra dollar to such
a carrier

Our limits force us to stop. We take the liberty
to laugh freely—unrestrained by the slightest sym-
pathy with this Bedlam let loose—at absurdities
such as no civilised community has yet witnessed.
But, while we do this, we protest against being sup-
posed to include either in our ridicule or censure the
great bulk of the American people. They, we may
be assured, laugh as heartily as we do, only with
some admixture of shame for their country's cre-
dulity. The movement may for a while spread
and endure, for great is the vitality of folly ; and
the hard materialism of transatlantic life finds its
compensation in these wild outbreaks of unreason.
But, sooner or later, common sense will return, anti
the Harmonial Convention be remembered by its
authors only as a delirious or drunken dream.

DR. ARNOLD ON THE EASTERN
QUESTION.

WE extract a reflection of Dr. Anxorm for its singular
application to the present conjuncture
" What surer way of keeping the Russians from Con-
stantinople than to bind our alliance with France triply
fast, thus keeping for ever before the eyes of Russia a
control which she dared not to disregard? What Ruasian
soldier would ever set foot across the Balkan if England
and France, indissolubly joined together as the protectors
of the old civilisation of Europe, were ready at an instant
to pour their fleets into the Black Sea, and, without re-
peating the folly of the march to Moscow, to strike at the
life of Russia through her vulnerable heel; to drive her
back behind the froth ; to thrust her away from the shores
of the Euxine ; and, by occupying the Crimea as an im-
pregnable fortress, to seal up the only outlet by which the
evil spirit of Russian ambition can issue forth to trouble
the world? "—Miscellaneous Works, p. 511.

OPENING OF THE FRENCH CHAMBERS.
THE legislative session of the Chambers commenced
on Thursday, with the accustomed pomp. The
Emperor delivered a formal address on the occasion.
After referring to topics of internal administration,
his Majesty adverted to matters of European interest.
He said that, to avoid a collision, he had gene
as far as honour permitted, and, if France now
draws the sword, it is only that she has been com-
pelled to do it. France has no idea of aggrandise-
ment; she wishes to resist dangerous encroach-
ments; the days of conquest have passed, never to
return :

" These, then, are the results of an. unselfish and frank
policy :—We have England, our former rival, forming with
us the bonds of an alliance which becomes from day to
day more intimate, because the opinions which w e defend
are also those of the English people. Germany, which
the remembrance of former wars rendered still distrustful,
and which on that account has given for the last forty
years perhaps too many proofs of her deference for the
policy of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, has already re-
covered her independence of action, and considers freely
on what side her interests lie. _

" Austria, above all, which could not see with intliffer•
ence the events which were in progress will enter into an
alliance, and will thus attest the just siid moral character
of the war which we are undertaking.