Page images
PDF
EPUB

further experiments of torture he could devise, until the 14th of August, when, at length, it was sacrificed in the performance of a new experiment!" Similar experiments were tiplied by this distinguished man, and with what upshot? He saall tell it in his own words "The subjects of these died too soon to allow me to draw any clear and definite conclusion."

Another eminent French physiologist, M. Brachet, after inspiring strong aversion in a dog, by plaguing it, and inflicting pain upon it, first put out its eyes, and then destroyed its hearing by piercing the drum of the ear, and filling up the cavity with wax, in order to try whether, blinded and deafened, it would exhibit the same aversion as before to a fellow-brute, when it could neither see nor hear! And when he found it did not, he repeated the experiment, so surprised was he at its result! One does not know which to admire the most, the cruelty or the stupidity of an experiment made to establish the fact that an animal when blinded and deafened is not sensible to sights and sounds!

As another example of unnecessary cruelty, "unwillingly and sorrowfully" inflicted, take the following experiment of Majendie. He cut open a bitch, and while she was lying in exquisite torture, brought her pups to her. The poor animal, in the midst of her agony, immediately fell to licking and foodling them as well as she was able. This, forsooth, was to exhibit and "demonstrate" the affection of animals for their young-a thing no one in his senses ever doubted. The mind that could devise and the hand that could execute an experiment like this, fo what place are they fitted?

Great discoveries are often claimed for Vivisection. What are these discoveries? The three really great discoveries ascribed to it by iguorant "scientists" (for there are such animals)-I mean the discovery of the circulation of the blood, the discovery of the distinction between the nerves of sensation and the nerves of motion, and the use of chloroform as an anesthetic, were all made without any experiments on living animals, except, indeed, in the last case, on the person of Sir James Simpson, the discoverer.

Sir, the practices of which I have given a few samples are intimate'y connected with the new materialistic Atheism, for the propagation of which the meeting of the British Association at Belfast in August, 1874, was so skilfully utilized. The attempt there made to represent it as a tenable or even a plausible opinion that animals are merely machines, which do not actually feel, but only appear to feel, naturally tended to lessen our ignorant and "illiberal" abhorrence of cruelty towards them, and to encourage "scientists" in their researches. If, when dogs writhe and shriek and howl under the knife, the red-hot iron thrust into their brains, the galvanic battery applied to their bared and quivering nerves, they do not really suffer pain any more than a watch or a clock suffer pain when it is taken to pieces or destroyed-if, in other words, every appearance animals present is false, and all nature is one enormous lie, then physiologists may with good courage go on repeating over and over again the most horrible experiments, as they are beginning to do, without any of that "unwillingness and sorrow which are due to mere ignorance. But the very attempt to represent such an absurdity as a plausible, or at least a tenable opinion, is virtually a confession of the guilt of cruelty to animals, if there be such a thing as cruelty at all.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

SIR,-All lovers of animals must feel deeply grateful to you for your admirable article of May 10th, against the sickening and accursed practice of Vivisection. Just after reading that article I came on a report in a local newspaper of a meeting of the South Somerset branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which I think contains a strong commentary on your most true statement that "If all those who deplore the existence in England of this devilish cruelty had combined for the total abolition of the illegal horrors in question, the public would have responded and Parliament would have been forced to act," &c.

Now at the meeting in question, Mrs. Nicholetts, in an excellent speech, having explained the recommendations contained in the report of the Commissioners on Vivisection, proceeded to show that these horrible crimes would now be legalized in every way, and finally she proposed that the Committee of the South Somersetshire branch should lay before the Royal Society its opinion that the cruel practice of Vivisection be altogether prohibited.

A counter resolution inimical to total suppression was then, I regret to say, submitted to the meeting by one clergyman and seconded by another, the latter remarking that " total suppression would be a very serious thing."

Serious indeed! A thing to be most seriously and unfeignedly thankful for. Such would I hope and believe be the sentiment of all my fair country women, and I trust a large majority of my countrymen.

Mrs. Nicholetts' motion for total abolition having been carried by a majority of more than two to one (all honour to her and her supporters -the friends, to use her own words of those who are dumb and cannot plead for themselves)-a resolution was then proposed by the two Rev. Rev. gentlemen I have before alluded to, and passed by the meeting, that it was desirable to ask the clergy of all denominations to preach a sermon setting forth our duty towards the animal creation. An excellent suggestion to which I would add another, that they should previously read the confessions of the Vivisectors as shown in the Report of the Royal Commission-confessions, which should they have occasion in their sermons to advert to the fiends of the next world, would present appalling pictures to the mind, such as Dante imagined, hellish atrocities now, alas! to be perpetrated with impunity in this. A FRIEND.

May 29.

AN UNIAT CHURCH.

SIR,-I suppose no sane Christian can do otherwise than go in heartily and prayerfully for the Re-union of Catholic, duly accredited Christendom, but will you courteously pardon me if I do not quite see my way through your present praiseworthy efforts towards this blessed consummation? Observing parenthetically that I do not advert to individual Re-union possible, as long as Rome -I mean modern, and in a sense, units, however learned or otherwise distinguished, but to this: How is heretical and schismatical Rome-requires, nay, insolently demands, absolute unquestioning submission, not to the Pope as primus inter pares, but as the (Ex Cathedra) Infallible Vicar of the Son of God, Most High? Sympathizing generally with your brave, manly and dogmatic principles and animus, and utterly disclaiming the miserable unreasoning bigotry against Rome, induced by a succession of Hanovarian infidels and vulgarians, I would put it respectfully to yourself and your readers, how Christendom can become embodied unity as long as an "infallible non possumus is egotistically hurled at the pious liegemen of the incumbent, impeccable Christian, whose watchword is, "What was always, everywhere and by all received?" Would to God, the robe of the august Bishop of Heaven and earth were as objectively seamless as, who can doubt it, it is subjectively. But while courteous to all do not let us close our eyes to facts. Where, for instance, has Rome acknowledged, not by the mouth of individuals, but publicly and officially, our Orders? May I say that, in my humble opinion, honesty is generally the best policy, aud quite consistent with the good breeding of the Christian and punctilious gentleman-with noblesse oblige? Methven-street, Perth, N,B.

OXFORD NOTES.

(From our Correspondent.)

K. BRUCE Stuart.

OXFORD, Saturday.

The "Eights" concluded on Ascension Day without any great change in the positions of the boats. Oriel was particularly unfortunate; but I was glad to see that Magdalen, the embodiment of Toryism and sound tradition, made several bumps, two of which occurred in one night. University was obliged to yield the first place to B. N. C.

I was told a few days ago, by a Fellow of a College who, after a long period of non-residence, has been residing now for some years, that he could perceive most plainly an improved state of things among men who have distinguished themselves in the Honour Schools. He took as an instance the Common-Room of his own College, and said that, whereas about five years ago religious matters were never spoken of without a sneer, they were now never broached without respect, even if all present were not agreed in their opinions. This seems to coincide with what I hear from various quarters.

Every one is glad that Dr. Liddon, after so long a silence, is going to preach before the University on Whitsun Day. By-the-bye, I am sorry to see so grave and respectable a paper as the Oxford University Gazette admitting into its columns such a vulgar Yankee modernism as "the Rev. Professor Liddon." The practice of "canonizing," on every possible and impossible occasion, the members of a Cathedral body, is another example of this fulsome fashion of displaying titles and styles. Oxford men are, on the one hand, sometimes sneered at for speaking of "Mr." Keble. It is to be feared that there is less good taste prevalent than there was in the days now, alas! gone by.

To-day, being the first day of Act Term, the University opens, as it does every term, with the Litany, Sermon, and Holy Communion in Latin. It is her most solemn religious act, and was highly regarded by Dr. Laud, Mr. Wesley, and the early Tractarians. Strange to say, their successors in these days almost entirely ignore it, and I have no doubt that even the Lectures of the Divinity Professors, and of course all other lectures, will go on just the same. And yet it is not so very long ago since a Vice-Chancellor, on his way to a Saint's-Day Sermon, meeting an undergraduate going to his tutor, stopped him and asked him why he was absenting himself from the Sermon. On the young man's explaining, the Vice-Chancellor let him go, but bade him give his compliments to the tutor, and express his hope that another time the tutor would come to the Sermon and bring his pupils with him.

I have this morning seen the plans, by Mr. W. T. G. Jackson of Wadham College, for the new Schools. The designs, which are most beautiful and perfect, are in the Jacobean style, which strikes me as being most appropriate to Oxford. They are recommended by the Committee of Convocation, and will, I hope, be ultimately accepted.

At the debate at the Union last Thursday, the subject of which was "Disestablishment," the speeches were not, as a rule, of the first order, excepting that of the Hon. W. St. J. F. Brodrick, whose defence of the Established Church was most able and eloquent. After an amendment had been proposed, the debate was adjourned. The Disestablishment movement, set on foot by Dissenters and Radical Ritualists, does not find much favour in Oxford. People see that Disestablishment cannot make matters better, and probably would make them much worse. If the Church submits to be smothered by Erastianism, the solution of the difficulty must be found, not in Disestablishment, but in a Uniat Church.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Mr. E. W. ALLEN, 11, Ave Maria-lane, Ludgate-hill. Messrs. CURTICE & CO., Catherine-street, Strand. Messrs. DAWSON & SONS, 121, Cannon-street, E.C. Mr. W. HOPKINS, 397, New North-road, Islington. Messrs. KENT & CO., Paternoster-row.

Messrs. KINGSBURY & CO., 7, Racquet-court, Fleetstreet, E.C.

Mr. KNOTT, 26, Brooke-street, Holborn.

Messrs. MOWBRAY, & CO., 25, Warwick-lane, Pater

[blocks in formation]

LADY HOUSEKEEPER, OR COM-PURE BEAUJOLAIS WINE is

PANION to an INVALID LADY. A Clergyman's Widow seeks an appointment as above, having had some years' experience in that capacity. Unexceptionable reference given and required. Apply by letter to "A. B.," care of Mr. BATTY, Pilot Office, 376, Strand.

STREET, CAVENDISH

SQUARE. One of the small houses in this street to be let suitable for a professional man or small family. Immediate possession. Furniture £300. Apply to J. T. BEDFORD and Co., Estate Agents and Valuers, 60, Wigmore-street, W.

[blocks in formation]

HOTEL, WELBECK and QUEEN ANNE STREETS. The Lease and handsome Furniture for immediate disposal at a very reduced price, of the largest house in this position. Furnished in high taste about 3 years since. Splendid reception rooms. Apply to J. T. BEDFORD & CO., Auctioneers, Estate Agents and Valuers, 60, Wigmore-street, W.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Ladies should send 1d. stamp for Patterns, which are neither charged nor requested back. Carriage paid t any part of the United Kingdom on £2 worth. Special Terms for Charitable Institutions.-Address C. WILLIAMSON, Berlin House, Leighton, Beds.

the best CLARET for English Consumption; may now be had direct from the growers, at

GUY PERE ET FILS' DEPOT,

46, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON. Wines tasted. Sample Bottles obtained. LEICESTER SQUARE, 46.

46,

G

ESTABLISHED 1854.

UY PERE ET FILS.

[blocks in formation]

M

AISONNEUVE COGNACS.

SOLE DEPOT.

[blocks in formation]

YLARET GUY.

SOLE DEPOT.

B

URGUNDY GUY.

SOLE DEPOT.

[blocks in formation]

CLARET

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Cushions, -Seat Mattings-Carpets-Hangings, &c. THOS. BROWN and SON, Church Furniture

Manufacturers, 14, Albert-street, Manchester. Communion Cloths, Gowns, Cassocks, Surplices, &c.

WHITSUNTIDE, A. D. 1876.

THOMAS PRATT and SONS have now ready their usual large Stock of CASSOCKS

OURCE DU PARC.

RED OR WHITE.

SOLE DEPOT.

WOODHALL SPA BROMO IODINE.

PARKLING VOUVRAY.

SPAR

[blocks in formation]

SOLE DEPOR.

SOLE DEPOT.

[blocks in formation]

This shape of Surplice was entirely the invention of Messrs. PRATT, and their use has now become universal. Although imitated and advertised by nearly all the clerical firms in England, none fit equal to those supplied by the Original Inventors.

In Black Leather Case, sent on receipt of Post Office Order for 21s., payable at Charing Cross. Extra length, 25s. Upwards of Five Thousand of these Surplices are now in use.

Colonial Shipping Agents.

Catalogues, Estimates, and Designs sent by Post. ALBS FOR ACOLYTES AND THURIFERS, ROCHETS, AND EVERY KIND OF LINEN VESTMENT FOR USE IN THE CHURCH.

[blocks in formation]

We are daily sending to all parts of the Kingdom COSTUMES made from MERINOS, REPS,
SATIN CLOTHS, BALERNOS, CASHMERES, and the RICHEST SILKS.
A perfect-fitting Costume is produced from 28s. 9d.

BLACK SILKS, warranted to wear, 24 inches wide, 3s. 6d. and 4s. 6d. the yard.
COLOURED SILKS, 23 inches wide, 4s. 6d. the yard.
MERINOS, all Colours, 43 inches wide, 2s. the yard.

THE

Black and Striped VELVETEENS, 2s. and 2s. 6d. the yard. Japanese SILKS, excellent quality, under Is. the yard.

MOURNING

DEPARTMENT

Contains every Article requisite for Superior Mourning.

On receipt of letter or telegram, patterns will be sent free.

HARVEY AND CO., WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

W. BARRINGER,

CHEESEMONGER AND ITALIAN PROVISION MERCHANT,

15, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

Established 50 Years.

Choicest Articles only. On Co-operative Principles.

STILTON-GRUYERE-PARMESANGORGONZOLA, and Every Other Kind of English and Foreign Cheese in high perfection. YORK HAMS, WILTSHIRE BACON, &c., &c.

THE

THE PRINTER OF "THE PILOT" undertakes all kinds of Printing. Pastoral Addresses, Notices of Confirmation, First Communion, Guild and Club Notices, Lists of Choral Services, Parochial Magazines, and Printing generally-in all its branches.

376, STRAND, W.C.

Demy 8vo., cloth extra, with Photographic Portrait and Illustrations, price 128.,

MEMORIALS of the Late Rev. Robert

STEPHEN HAWKER, Vicar of Morwenstow.

By the Rev. F. G. LEE, D.C.L.

"Dr. Lee's Memorials' is a far better record of Mr. Hawker [than the volume by Mr. Raring-Gould] and gives a more reverent and more true idea of the man."-Athenæum.

"A volume of engrossing interest, which depicts the subject of it with taste and sympathy."-Daily Post.

"Dr. Lee has, undoubtedly, shown that recent events, and in particular the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act, had much troubled Mr. Hawker."-Saturday Review.

"A curious and interesting volume."-Weekly Register "I can hardly find words to express to you how much I like your Memorials.' The truthful and most charitable loving-kindness running through the whole book shows the true friend in need to one who rever ought to have been judged like another man."-Rev. R. S. Hawker's Sister to the Author.

CHATTO and WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

BY

TREMADOC

SERMONS.

CHIEFLY ON

BURNS AND OATES. THE SPIRITUAL BODY, THE UNSEEN WORLD, and

NEW WORK BY CARDINAL MANNING.

Glories of the Sacred Heart.

By HENRY EDWARD, Cardinal-Archbishop. Price

6s.

CONTENTS.-1. The Divine Glory of the Sacred Heart. 2. The Sacred Heart, God's Way of Love. 3. Dogma the Source of Devotion. 4. The Science of the Sacred Heart. 5. The Last Will of the Sacred Heart. 6. The Temporal Glory of the Sacred Heart. 7. The Transforming Power of the Sacred Heart. 8. The Sure Way of Likeness to the Sacred Heart. 9. The Signs of the Sacred Heart. 10. The Eternal Glory of the Sacred Heart.

The Sermon on the Mount

-to the end of "The Lord's Prayer (Being the Third Volume of "The Public Life of Our Lord"). By HENRY J. COLERIDGE, SJ. Price 68. 6d.

THE DIVINE HUMANITY.

BY THE REV. H. N. GRIMLEY, M.A.,

Professor of Mathematics in the University College of Wales, and Chaplain of Tremadoc Church.
With a Photograph of the Church as Frontispiece.

Crown 8vo., cloth, price 7s. 6d.

HENRY S. KING and CO., London.

THE PUBLIC WORSHIP ACT AND THE WAY TO MEET IT.
This Day, Price One Shilling, by post 1s. 1d.

"DO THEY WELL TO BE ANGRY?"

A SECOND LETTER ADDRESSED, BY PERMISSION, TO CARDINAL MANNING.
WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE HIGH CHURCH PRESS.

By PRESBYTER ANGLICANUS.

By the same Author, price 1s., by post, 18. 1d.

CHRISTIANITY OR ERASTIANISM?

A LETTER Addressed, BY PERMISSION, TO HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL MANNING,
ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.

CONTENTS.-1. Joy in Persecution. 2. The Salt of the Earth. Note 1. On the early traces of Christian influence on the world. 3. The Light of the World. 4. The Fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. 5. The Gospel Law as to Anger. 6. The Gospel Law as to Lust. 7. The Gospel Law as to Divorce. Note 2. Our Lord's teaching on Marriage and Divorce. 8. The THE

Gospel Law as to Swearing. 9. "Resist not Evil." 10. The Love of Enemies. 11. Imitation of the Perfection of God. 12. Almsgiving. 13. Avoidance of Human Praise. 14. Prayer. 15. The Lord's Prayer. 16. Our Father in Heaven. 17. Hallowing the name of God. 18. The Coming of the Kingdom. 19. The Will of God. 20. Our Daily Bread. 21. Forgiveness of trespasses. 22. Temptation. 23. Deliverance from Evil.

Also the First and Second Vols. of game, viz.:

1. The Ministry of St. John Baptist. Second Edition, 6s. 63.

2. The Preaching of the

Beatitudes. 69. 6d.

Sermons on the Sacraments.

By THOS. WATSON, the last Catholic Bishop of Lincoln and Prisoner for the Faith during twentyfive years under Elizabeth. First printed in 1558 and now reprinted in modera spelling. With a Preface and Biographical Notice of the author. By Rev. T. E. BRIDGETT, C.SS.R. Price 7s. 6d. These Sermons, 30 in number, composed by Bishop WATSON at the desire of the National Council held under Cardinal Pole, were intended for the use of the Clergy. They were published in the last year of Queen Mary, and destroyed under Elizabeth, so that copies are now extremely scarce.

[blocks in formation]

out of more than Forty Treatises written by the late Ven. Fr. F. AUGUSTIN BAKER, a Monk of the English Congregation of the Holy Order of St. Benedict; and methodically digested by the R. F. SERENUS CRESSY, of the same Order and Congregation. And printed at the charges of his Convent of St. Gregories in Doway. Vol. I. Vol. II. at Doway, by JOHN PATTE and THOMAS FIEVET. Anno D. MDCLVII. Now edited by the Very Rev. DOM NORBERT SWEENEY, D.D., of the same Order and Congregation. Price 10s. 6d.

The Voice of Creation as a

Witness to the Mind of its Divine Author. Five
Lectures by FREDERICK CANON OAKELEY, M.A.
Price 1s. 6d.

CONTENTS.-1. The Love of God in Creation. 2. The
Ways of God in Creation. 3. Vestiges of the Fall.
4. Types of the Gospel in Creation. 5. The Subject
Reviewed.

London: BURNS AND OATES, 17 and 18, Portman Street, W., and 63, Paternoster Row, E.C.

London: JOHN H. BATTY, 376, Strand, W.C.

PEOPLE'S

MASS

BOOK.

Our

Second and Enlarged Edition. Fourth Thousand. Imperial 16mo., Limp Cloth, Gilt Cross, with Red Edges, price 6d., by post 7d.

SUPERIOR EDITION, Cloth extra, bevelled, gilt Red Edges, and Cross, price ls., free by post, 18. ld Service or Mass-service, which is now circulating by thousands among people who still profess to belong to the Church of England. When the young Victoria ascended the throne of England were there even so many as a score of churches open every Sunday morning for early Mass'? At the present moment are there not nearer a thousand?"-The Record.

"Already in its Fourth Thousand'.
Reformers purified the Mass Book of Rome
and here comes a man who will acknowledge himself
to be a Ritualist, who thinks it a good work to put all
the idolatry back again. And his reason is that he
finds it in the Ancient Liturgy of the Western
Church'
Prayers rejected by our Refor-
mers but now reinstated as part of the Communion
London: JOHN H. BATTY, 376, Strand, W.C.

[blocks in formation]

In the Press, and Shortly will be Published

The Communion of Saints :

THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE SET FORTH FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS AND
ANCIENT BISHOPS OF THE UNDIVIDED CHURCH.

By WILLIAM GRANT,

Author of "The Catholic Doctrine of the Christian Sacrifice and the First Principles of Ritual," &c.
London: JOHN H. BATTY, 376, Strand, W.C

[blocks in formation]

3. SERMONS (XLVI.) for LENT to PASSIONTIDE.
8vo., cloth, 6s.

4. SERMONS (LVII.) for HOLY WEEK. 8vo.,
cloth, 68.

5. SERMONS (XLVIII.) for EASTER to ASCEN-
SION-DAY. 8vo., cloth, 68.
[Ready.

6. SERMONS (XLI.) for ASCENSION-DAY to
TRINITY SUNDAY. 8vo., cloth, 6s. [Ready.
SERMONS for the WHOLE YEAR are
being
Selected, making Ten or Eleven Volumes, by the same
Writer.

JAMES PARKER and CO., Oxford: and 377, Strand,
London.

VIVISECTION.

Now ready, Svo., price 2s. 6d., cloth,

ANIMAL TORTURE- Now

8vo., price 2s. 6d, cloth, UNABRIDGED EVIDENCE given before the ROYAL COMMISSION 01 VIVISECTION, on the 1st and 6th November, and 20th December, 1875. By GEORGE R. JESSE, Author of "Researches into the History of the British Dog," &c. Basil Montagu Pickering, Publisher, 196, Piccadilly, Loudon.-N.B. The Blue-bock Report, issued by the Royal Commission, presents the above evidence in a mutilated condition only.

Just out, Second Edition, price 3s.,
THE SPIRITUAL BODY.

[blocks in formation]

in Prose and Verse. By JOHN CHARLES EARLE, B.A. "A wonderful book Mr. Earle has done a definite service both to common-sense and to religion. Of the poetical portion of the book our praise might sound almost extravagant, were we to express our full opinion."-Warrington Guardian, February 19th, 1876.

"Its first perusal fixed and rivetted our attention; and we are much mistaken if it does not leave a permanent impress upon modern theological thought." -Pilot, March 15, 1876.

London: J. W. KOLCKMANN 2, Langham-place.

NABRIDGED EVIDENCE given RE

To
10 CLERGYMEN and the READING UN

PUBLIC.-A Quarterly Magazine, to be called "The CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST," will be started on July 1. Its object will be to discuss all matters connected with Religion from a Christian point of view. Science, Philosophy, and all literature bearing directly or indirectly on Christianity will have a place and be discussed in this Magazine. Subscription, 4s. a year, by post, 4s. 6d. single numbers, 1s. Persons wishing to subscribe are requested to send their names to the Publishers.

WILLIAMS and NORGATE, Henrietta Street, Covent
Garden, W.C.

before the ROYAL COMMISSION on VIVI-
SECTION, on the 1st and 6th November, and 20th
December, 1875.

BY GEORGE R. JESSE,
Author of "Researches into the History of the
British Dog," &c.

N.B. The Blue Book Report, issued by the Royal
Commission, presents the above Evidence in a muti-
ated condition only.

BASIL MONTAGU PICKERING, Publisher, 196,
Piccadilly, London.

EAD "THE ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC REVIEW" (Trübner and Co., Ludgatehill). Back Volumes can be had. Vol. I. contains (inter alia) "The Position of the Orthodox Church opposite Roman Catholicism ""Petition for a Western Uniate Church" (submitted to and approved by the Russian Holy Governing Synod)- Extracts from the Encyclical of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to the Faithful everywhere; being a Reply to the Epistle of Pius IX. to the Easterns."

Printed and Published by JOHN H. BATTY, 376,
Strand. June 7, 1876.
[Registered for Transmission Abroad,

A Journal of Religion, Politics, Literature

No. 8.-VOL. I.]

THE

and Art.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1876.

THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH.

HE question which has been raised in connection with Lord Salisbury's University Bill, on the Endowment of Research, is one of real interest both on general and on practical grounds. What is the best means of promoting scientific or other intellectual labour of a kind not productive of immediate results-or, in other words, of adding to the world's stock of knowledge which is not in the narrow and technical sense of the word "useful". —can never be regarded by any thoughtful man as a matter of indifference; and it was very sure to challenge inquiry when the Report on the Revenues of Oxford and Cambridge came to be practically discussed. Indeed suggestions on this point hold a prominent place in the elaborate scheme of "Academical Organization" propounded some years ago by the present Rector of Lincoln College. Nor can it be said that the idea of well-endowed offices with few or no active duties attached to them, and which are therefore presumably intended to be made serviceable in other ways to the public good, is an altogether novel one in this country. Whatever may have been the original intention of such foundations, it has long been supposed that this was at least one main reason for preserving what are sometimes called the great prizes of the Church. We are indeed far from meaning to imply that deans and canons may not find, as some of them are now beginning to find, ample scope for their energies in cathedral or diocesan work; but still it is true that until very lately this had never been thought of since the Reformation, and unless their dignified leisure was devoted to theological study, the Church to which they were so largely indebted in temporal matters can hardly be said to have profited by their services at all. But if deaneries and canonries supply, in one particular department of knowledge, a sort of precedent for the endowment of studious labour, the precedent may be said not to be a very encouraging one. With some partial and perhaps a few brilliant exceptions, it can hardly be said that these dignitaries have contributed much to the extension of our theological knowledge hitherto; and thus we are confronted at once with what is in fact the great difficulty about what looks at first sight a sufficiently plausible proposal. Still, we do not look upon the argument from the sinecurism of former generations as our strongest; if it were, it might touch a good many more things. Few reasonable persons would doubt that it is a desirable thing in the abstract to stimulate the cultivation of those branches of intellectual labour which, not being directly remunerative, are apt to languish for want of artificial support. Students, however zealous and competent, who have to live by the sweat of their brow-and those who are independent of any such necessity must always be a minority -cannot be expected to sacrifice their personal interests, not to say their bread and butter, for the intellectual advancement of their race. If we could devise some means of selecting and securing the services of those who are really fittest for this kind of work, it would be an unquestionable advantage. But here as in many other cases, how "to bell the cat" is the perplexing question. We have first to choose our man, and then to see that he discharges the task for which he is chosen; and it is much easier to show the difficulty of doing either the one or the other than to solve it.

The objections, then, to the proposals for endowing a select body of enquirers, who are to be engaged not in educational work, but in making discoveries that will extend the boundaries of knowledge are not met, as its advocates seem to imagine, by establishing "the economic soundness" of the principle, but are very much like the objections to the Platonic theory that the State should be ruled absolutely by the wise and

[PRICE THREEPENCE.

good. No better method of government could be devised for any ideal State, but one is compelled to ask what unfailing criterion of wisdom and goodness is to be applied, and, when once our rulers are chosen, what security we have against the possibly deteriorating effects of absolute power on their moral and intellectual qualifications. In the same way we are quite prepared to admit what may be called the major premiss of the argument for endowing the cultivation of science. There can be no doubt that all enlargement of the area of human knowledge, whether scientific or other, and however little productive in the vulgar sense of the termfor, in fact, to cite Mr. Mill's words, "no limit can be set to the importance, even in a purely productive point of view, of mere thought "-is a benefit to the State and to mankind. And it is unfortunately no less certain that many men who are possessed of admirable natural aptitude for such a task are sure, in the absence of any special endowment, to turn their attention to some more remunerative sphere of labour. It is remarkable that the few Englishmen who in our own day have attained high distinction in this line have either, been men of rare intellectual organization and capacity for work, like the late Mr. Mill, or men of independent means like Mr. Grote, and not professors or even members of either our great Universities. A College such as Mr. Patteson suggested, with its Fellowships dedicated not to educational objects but to the abstract investigation of truth in various branches, would be in itself a most excellent and beneficial institution. How far it might be desirable to appropriate any part of the existing revenues of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge to such a purpose, or what in a given case are the relative claims of educational and purely scientific labour on pecuniary support, are quite distinct questions. But of the advantages à priori of such a scientific college as we have described there can hardly be two opinions among men of culture. The difficulties which arise are à posteriori, but they pierce to the root of the matter.

For it is not simply a question of granting a State Pension to a few scholars of proved scientific eminence, who might otherwise be unable to prosecute their labours in the same field; that would be an easy matter enough. What is proposed is to create and endow a class of original investigators, in various departments of science, whose lives are to be devoted to the work, and who therefore must begin it early, and of course before they have had any opportunity of establishing their reputation. And the first and greatest difficulty is to settle how they are to be elected. The most obvious method, because in this day it has come to be considered an infallible test for nearly all offices except that of a Cabinet Minister, would be to elect by competitive examination. But that is a test very apt to break down if it is pushed too far at either end of the line, and it might be expected to prove as inadequate for discovering a scientific investigator as Mr. Ayrton found it for the selection of an under-gardener at Kew. Examinations supply a tolerably complete test of acquired knowledge in certain specified subjects; we say tolerably complete, because even here the test is after all but a rough and ready one. Some men, and still more some boys, as the phrase goes, never do themselves justice in an examination.". But as a measure of original power, an examination is far less to be depended on; and for testing the rare and peculiar group of qualities, partly mental and partly moral, required for success in original scientific investigation, it is almost worthless. Thus, to instance one point only, Sir Isaac Newton used to say that any one could have made the discoveries he had made who would only attend; and the observation however exaggerated in form contains an important truth. But no examination would help us to ascertain this mental habit of attention, which may be said to constitute the meeting

[ocr errors]

point of the intellectual and moral faculties. And yet, if the candidates for scientific endowment are not to be sifted by examination, it is very hard to see how the selection is to be made. And the practical difficulties of the scheme are not over when it is made. For even when the right man is put into the right place, we have no guarantee that he will do the right work after he gets there. It may be quite true, as has been urged, that educated men, and especially Englishmen, when they are paid for doing specific duties, are, as a rule, scrupulously conscientious in discharging them; but that does not meet the real difficulty. The general rule may hold good, but as the old proverb runs, dolus latet in generalibus, or we might almost say in this case dolus patet. We referred just now to the example of ecclesiastical sinecures, where the fruits of learned leisure must at least be allowed to be inedequate. It may of course be replied that such dignities are bestowed without any stipulation, direct or indirect, and may be accepted as the reward of past services rather than as a provision for labours in the future; and we admit that the cases are not strictly parallel. But it must be remembered that in any endowment of the kind proposed there can be no precise stipulations about the work to be done. It is a payment in advance for services which comparatively few are capable of estimating, and which cannot be accurately defined. A professor may be paid for giving so many lectures a term, as a master in a school is paid for instructing the boys who are committed to his charge; and experience justifies us in assuming that he will discharge his task conscientiously to the best of his ability. But in all such cases there are specific duties to be performed, and those who neglect their work, or get through it in a perfunctory manner, do so with their eyes open, and with the eyes of others open upon them also. A student who is paid for devoting his time to the investigation of the truths of history or natural science has no such definite work assigned to him; his success must in any case be limited by contingencies which cannot be calculated beforehand; and be may easily deceive not only others but himself as to the fitness of his methods for attaining the desired end. He might be very negligent, or, which is much more likely, he might be unconsciously misapplying his energies, or he might be actually incompetent without being aware of it, and yet for years there would be no means of detecting his mistakes or incompetence, for it would be impossible to predict that the labour of silent years would not be justified by the ultimate results. To require, as has sometimes been suggested, the periodical production of a scientific work, is at best a very rude method of supervision, and would tell most oppressively and most injuriously on those who least needed such a stimulus, and whose labours are of the highest value. The main objection, in short, to the endowment of philosophical inquiry as such-that is, to establishing and subsidizing a class of students devoted to the extension as distinct from the communication of knowledge-lies in the want on the one hand of any adequate process for sifting the aspirants to such an office, and the difficulty on the other of applying any adequate test to their discharge of their duties when they are chosen.

At the same time we may admit at once, and with this admission our present remarks must be brought to an end, that the popular notion of combining philosophical and professorial functions is too often based on a delusion. Teaching and philosophical investigation are distinct kinds of work, demanding distinct capacities which are not necessarily or even usually found united in the same person. And the single-minded prosecution of either task acts so far as a positive disqualification for the other. Great thinkers, as a rule, are too intent on their subject to tolerate constant interruptions, and, like Pythagoras and Plato in ancient times, or Friar Bacon and Newton in a later age, shun publicity. Porson gave no lectures, and Elmsley preferred the seclusion of country life. Alternations of study and teaching may be a healthy discipline for the mind itself, and those who are constantly occupied in dispensing knowledge must of course find some time for acquiring it. But unless one or the other is made the chief object and pursuit of life, no high excellence can be looked for in either line. Great preachers are rarely great theologians, and Universities, which are formed primarily for the diffusion of knowledge, represent a different idea from Academies, which contemplate primarily its advancement.

WR

CAN THE ESTABLISHMENT BE DEFENDED? HATEVER may be said to the contrary, it is clear to those who watch events, and scrutinizingly mark what is taking place, that the question of Disestablishment will soon become the loudest cry of the Liberals. The political Dissenters will be very soon actively enlisted in the scheme of legalized thieving. Already their agents are lecturing, distributing papers, and exciting prejudice against the Established Church by all kinds of black falsehoods, gross misrepresentations and one-sided statements. The reports in The Liberator, their organ, show a great amount of activity; but mischief is being done which does not appear in its pages. No person can say with truth, "They are doing nothing in my neighbourhood." The efforts of these people would have been at once puerile and futile, had not the tactics and new Bills and enactments of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Suffragans served to alienate thousands of the truest and heartiest Churchmen from the side of antiquity, wisdom, and order. His Grace's ignorance, one-sided bigotry, and political incapacity are now working untold mischief, as the Morning Post allows. Having become the tool of the Church Association clique, he has served to alienate all sound Churchmen. No Archbishop of Canterbury has ever done so much mischief. Men of repute, experience, and credit, now begin to shake their heads and say, (as we heard one say last week) "I begin to doubt whether, on the Archbishop's terms and platform, a State Church can be upheld and maintained." "In truth, such a change has of late come over the dream of many, that changes never even contemplated as possible until quite recently, seem to us at last highly probable. People cannot be enthusiastic about the hateful Broad Church "view" of a National Church. An Institution like in kind to the Board of Works or the Phoenix Gas Company-which appears to be Dr. Tait's and Dean Stanley's beau ideal of a National Communion, is not likely to gather round it, either the young, the high-principled, or the zealous. Zeal for such an ideal would die as soon as it was born-a ghastly and unclean abortion. While the Archbishop's contemptible tactics of trying to separate the old-fashioned High Churchmen from the more extreme and consistent men of the advanced party has been a singular and delightful failure. Men like the late Dean Hook, Dean Burgon, Mr. Wayland Joyce, Mr. Gresley, and Mr. F. E. Paget are not likely to be caught by the transparent trick of His Grace the Most Reverend Frimateknowing as that exalted and wide-awake Scot may be. Let such men desert their natural allies at a crisis, and they themselves in turn will soon be found in another crisis unaided, deserted, and alone.

One dark and dismal consequence of the Archbishop's rash and unconstitutional P.W.R. Act is just this: that he has thrown two to three thousand of the younger Clergy into a position, from which, to many of them, the question of Disestablishment crops up in the following form:-" Is it better to have an Establishment without the Catholic Faith, or the Catholic Faith without an Establishment?" Thousands are putting this crucial question to themselves-laity as well as Clergy. And thousands, having chosen sides, are deliberately standing aloof from the struggle in which all their energies might have been exerted on behalf of a principle, in itself both good and true, had it not been for the mistaken policy of an ambitious and restless alien-the nominee of Mr. Disraeli, the leader of the Tories.

His Grace's position and policy, however, do not alter our purpose, nor cause us to swerve from enunciating those true principles which both the Eastern and Western Churches have always adopted and applied, and on which the great Church of Rome has ever placed the seal of her august authority. Those, therefore, who permit themselves to speak and think lightly of Disestablishment and Disendowment have not estimated accurately and fully the results of these measures. Disestablishment, be it noted, is a formal renunciation by the State (that is, the nation in its corporate capacity) of its Christianity: a thing by no means to be contemplated with equanimity by those who believe that there is a "God Who ruleth unto the ends of the world." But Disestablishment would not necessarily put an end to interference, on the part of the State, with the affairs of the Church. The Church might lose dignity, but would not be

« PreviousContinue »