The New York herald., 1870-06-05
The Great Agitations OF the Day-Quesfions
ReIixiaus. Political, SOcinl.

age of unusual activity The progress OF
scientific discovery, the accumulation OF
thought and experience, the multiplied and
rapidly multiplying applications of science to
purposes of practical utility have placed the
human family under conditions that are en-
tirely new. 1t is not to-day nor yesterday that
men have begun to feel the antagonism be-
tween the staid conditions Of the past and
the imperious requirements Of the present and
this antagonism sharpens aud becomes more
intense. All over tue world at the present
moment men feel the force of the conflict, and
the conviction becomes more and more gene
raj that crisis is at hand. All old things
have mot yet passed away, nor have all things
become new; but the new fights successfully
with the old. During the six thousand odd
years of its existence the world has survived
many testing ordeals. 1t has survived the
flood and the Babel confusion and the
fall of Rome and the disruption Of the Papal
Power and the French Revolution. Another
periodic and radical revolution seems close at
hand. When it comes it will affect not Sec
ton, but the whole of the human family. But
by all the past, so will it survive and be bene-
fited by this coming convulsion, no matter how
searching and destructive it may prove.
Let us look at the present state of things.
In the religious world the elements are in q
state of fierce ferment. From the magnificent
Church of Rome down to the humblest dissent
ing body it is felt that things are not as they
should beat least are not at rest. Rome
feels that the world is leaving her high and
dry as one Of the grand monuments Of the
past. But Rome thinks she is right and that
the new forces and requirements are wrong.
Therefore she resists and therefore the Ecu
menical Council, and therefore the insane pas
sion for an infallble Pope, or, if the reader
gible. 1t is not better in the proud Protestant
Church Of England and the churches scattered
over the earth that follow her lead.
Ritualism, or more sensuous worship,
is to the Protestant Episcopal Church
what infallibiity is to the Catholic or Roman
Church. Logical Presbyterians in ScotIond
and America yield to the same motive
impulses, and union for the first time in their
history has become passion and fact PAN
Presbyterianism cannot any longer be spoken
OF as an impossibility. Among the Methodlsts
and Baptists and Independents the spirit of
revolution is equally active. OF the old grooves
all are sick; but while the past is all but uni
versally despised and while the forward
impulse is yielded to, men axiously ask,
Whittier? On one Or two great leading
points the majority begin to agree. The alli-
ance between Church and State is considered.
md religion must he left to the individual
In social life we see the same tendencies.
The code of Justinian and the laws of the
Church are equally regarded as obsolete.
How popular is the word ''rights!" 1t is
new word. It is so new and
30 foreign to the spirit that has governed the
past that even Mr.. Disraeli, when pushing
through his Reform bill two years ago, could
'nly speak of the franchise as a privilege.
How long is it since the colored man had
lights in this free republic? Now, however,
he word is in everybody's mouth. What a
egiment of ''rights" we have We
ave peoples rights and workmen's |
lights and women's rights and other rights in
Socially, every man and woman |
trives to be law to himself and herself. The |
I'D law that gave authority is in general dis
avor, and the rights of the past are in univer-
'al disesteem. The subject will have no soy
'reign; the servant will have no master; the
wife will not be obedient to her husband.
Socially, even more than relgiously, the world
s in state of chaos. Politically, things are
IS confused and as unsatisfactory as they well
IAN be. The ple5iscite in France, the latest
md in some respects the greatest political ex-
,eriment in modern times, while it has salts
led some has filed the minds of others with
lespair. Some look at it in the light of a re- |
others regard it as the burial, of !
he popular cause. Neither view is, perhaps, |
orrect; but the difference is noteworthy as |
Indicating the peculiar condition of political |
ointment. Inside all the nations political |
Luestions exercise a disturbing and dividing |
influence. But the great political questions |
which affect the immediate future are more in |
ernational than national. The prosperity of |
his great republic and its proud independence |
f barrier lines have commanded the serious |
ttehtion of the peoples of Europe. The |
atural result is that they have become |
inpatient of the state of things which |
makes them the slaves of q court |
r cabinet or miserable national
lea. They long for more freedom, for |
larger field of effort for less restricted |
rotherhood. German union, scandinavian
Mon, Iberian union, the union of the Latin
aces, although as yet unsettled questions, all
oint in one direction and reveal the ten
ency of the times Meanwhile much jealousy
nd bad feeling exist among the peoples; and