The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-04-18


LEGISLATORS, PARSONS, LAWYERS, AID DOCTORS.
What with. United States laws, and separate
State laws, and municipal laws, for preserving our
liberty and improving our morals by placing
thousand feversh restraints on our smusemsnts,
indugences, and occupations, we, the people Of
the United States, are beginning to be rather
burdened with our freedom. In the eyes of our
modern Solons, the pulpit is no longer the proper
school for moral aud religious instruction and,
instead Of sermon, we have act Of the legis-
ature to teach the way we should go, not by
example, Blu. penalty and punishment. Little, if
anything, 10 lef to our clergy In the exercise of
their astoral duties; and being thus superseded
by legislative wisdom and piety in the perform
Of their proper functions, they have the more
time TO interfere with those of others, and attend
TO the affairs Of the entire human in all parts
Of the world, except at home. The shepherd is
now seldom found among his flock. He is trav-
cling in railroad cars and steam boats from Dan
to Beersheba, at the expense of other people, at
tending anniversary meetings orall sorts of socie
ties, for the reformation of all sorts Of evils such
as can in fact only be cured or alleviated by
Jealous and patient application Of the precepts of
religion and morality enforced by example. The
miscellaneous habit Of meddling with the concerns
Of those for whose conduct we are N no ways re-
sponsible, has drawn too many of the clergy from
their proper and peculiar duties, the performances
Of which is far more important to the morals and
happiness of mankind, than comprising and
land to make one convert" to faith which he
nd nd tha nvtc NJ hich do,
not in the least accord with his social state, or his
intellectual capacity. 1t would, l think, be well
for both pastor and flock, if the former were to
look little more at home, and see to their own
folds, instead of roaming about the vast wilderness
of the world to catch stray sheep, which, when
caught, are Incapable of being trained to walk in
the path for which both nature and habit have
rendered them totally untitled.
The truth is, we have too many shepherds with
out focks among US. The church, as well as all
the other liberal professions, overstocs The
lawyers are numerous, that one half of them
cannot get an honest living, and are obliged to re-
sort to the most disreputabe means to escape
starvation. Physicians reduced to the neces-
sity of STOPPING to practices unworthy of the dig
nfed and important science they profess; secretly
undermining the reputation of rival practitioners;
appealing to the follies and weaknesses Of their
fellow creatures in various ways, or inventing
quack medicines to impose on human creduty.
large portion of our clergy are without parish
es, and without a home. They wander from place
to place, and are strangers everywhere. They
form no domestic ties, or social intmacies, which
are among the most powerful restraints on human
vices and follies and escape that great inquest Of
society to which all men with settled home
amenable, and which all men are the better for
being subjected to in all situations and circum-
stances. Too much of good thing is good for
nothing, all the world over; and too much legisa-
ton, as well too many parsons, lawyers, and
doctors, are almost as bad as none at all. They
would be much more useful as honest mechanics,
or Industrious day -laborers. There are upwards
of %, 900 lawyers in the United States. How
many hundred miles Of railroad could they make
| in year?
EARNING AND SAVING.
| Many of the English writer's complain of the
want of industry and economy, among the labor
| ing classes of England. People seldom labor
with zeal or energy, without the hope Of improv-
| ing their condition, and those who have nothing
to save, never think Of saving
THE PLAID.
A Highlander to prove the superior antiquity of
the plaid, affirmed it was derived from Joseph's
coat Of many colors.
WESTWARD, Ho
1t was an old opinion that the farther men went
| towards the West, the more firm, courageous and
adventurous they become. This is perfectly nat
| ural. Their progress has ever been from East to
West, and the pioneers Of nations are always the
most hardy and intrepid of their race.
RELIGIOUS rEuDs.
These are always the most deep seated and vo-
lent--for conscience is perfect tiger when pro-
voked-and Of all others most dangerous to the
public tranquility. They generally at the bot
tom of great revolutions, and the peace of England
was probably never, since the time Of the Stuars,
in greater danger than at the present moment, on
account of what is called the "Papal aggression,
that is, the appointment Of cardinals and other
church dgntaries, residing in and taking their IT,
ties from places already under the jurisdiction Of
Protestant bishops. The BIRTHS h government has
sent bishop to Shanghai and the five cities of
China, whose ports were opened to foreigners by
the late treaty, and see no reason why the Pope
should not send bishops to England, or the Chi
nese Emperor learned Bona, with an English
title to initiate them into the doctrines Of Confu-
cius. No great harm good would probably
suit from either; and if his holiness were to APP
point Archbishop Hughes and dozen others,
American cardinals, it would probably occasion
little dissatisfaction here. But religious feuds too
often originate in triAes. The Sonnites and Mo-
tonalis, two small mountain tribes Of Syria, have
been in deadly hostility from an early period of
the Mahometan era, and perpetrated succession
of msssacres on each other, because one begins
its addition at the elbow, the other at the ends of
the fingers.