organize it, and to watch over its accumula- I would be to strike with paralysis the springs tion and transmission, with a view to the of industry, to spread universal terror, and augmentation, and not to the diminution of not only to check the development of soindustry. Ticklish ground this, say our own ciety, but even to thrust it back towards political economists, and truly we are some- barbarism. And yet where some have too thing of that mind. But let us proceed. much, others must have too little. Means Lamennais takes his stand on metaphysical should, therefore, be devised by which the principles, and on the original constitution superfluity of the opulent may be made to of human nature./ On this ground he con- contribute to the support of the poor, not by tends that every man is born into the world way of charity, which would convert the with certain rights, which no arrangements industrious classes into paupers, but by some of society can destroy. Among these is the subtle process of law, operating almost inright to live, which, properly understood, visibly to produce a more equitable distribusignifies the right to labor, or, in other tion of property. One such contrivance is words, to deserve and accumulate the com- that of progressive taxation, which, however mon necessaries of life. This, according to startling at first, may, it is argued, be soon his theory, no man can forfeit, since it is one admitted as reasonable where self-interest of those characteristics which constitute his does not interfere to warp the conclusions of claims to be reckoned among mankind. He the judgment. The philosophical way of offers all his faculties, mental and bodily, to measuring a man's contributions for the society, which, whether it needs his services support of the state is not, it is said, to reor not, owes him in return protection and gard them with reference to his property, maintenance. If society needed his strength, but with reference to the personal sacrifices his courage, his ingenuity, it would, without they call upon him to make. There are consulting him, consider itself entitled to de- thousands whose utmost exertions barely mand of him the exercise of these qualities procure them the means of subsistence, and for its benefit, as every day's experience if we demand from them a state contribution demonstrates. To be just and consistent, of ten per cent., that sum, however small it therefore, says Lamennais, we must follow may be, will be productive of far greater inout the reasoning, and maintain that exactly convenience, and perhaps suffering to them, in proportion to the claims of society upon then fifteen or twenty per cent. would octhe individual, are the claims of the individ- casion to a wealthy man. Indeed, in the ual upon society. It will not do to say that latter case, the sacrifice would be merely the community does not need your existence, imaginary; if such a proportion of his and that the fact of your having been born, wealth were taken away without his being so far from being a blessing, is a curse to it. apprised of the fact, the sum of his enjoyThis is impertinence, not logic. Society ments would remain exactly what it was before your birth had rendered your exist- before. He would neither eat, dress, sleep ence possible; nay, had brought together a jot the less, or the less sumptuously. the elements from the combination of which you could not choose but spring to light. It is, therefore, answerable for your being, and bound, according to the most sacred laws of duty, to provide for the continuance of it. Now property, rightly understood, signifies collectively all those things which are necessary to the conservation of life, to its comfort, to its adornment, to its physical and moral happiness. All men as they spring from the hands of nature have an equal right to live, consequently to the means of livingthat is, to property. But accidental circumstances, which society finds itself unable to regulate, lead to the accumulation of superabundant wealth by certain individuals and families. What is to be done? Are they to be forcibly deprived of what in conventional language is called their own? This Upon these grounds Lamennais and others contend for the establishment of a system of progressive taxation in France. They consider it necessary for the realization of their other political views. Without it, they contend, it will be impossible properly to adjust the burden of taxation, so as to impose upon the poor no more than their just share. By easing them in this way, society would make provision for the moderate accumulation of property in their hands. Every man preserved from this sort of social spoliation would be enabled the better to provide for himself and his children, to diminish the number of candidates for hired labor, to elevate in the same ratio the rate of wages, and to render easier the application of the great fundamental principle of democratic government-the right to labor. To what extent these principles are capa ble of being brought into practice we need not now attempt to determine. It will be sufficient, by this brief exposition, to direct the attention of our readers to them. We scarcely need say that with much that has been written and said in favor of these theories we have no sort of sympathy. But even in such exaggerations we see the not unnatural reaction of the mind against property, as brought about by that policy of nations which has hitherto been so strongly in its favor. Notions of this description would not have taken so much root in Europe, had there not been some show of justice in them; and we think we are doing the right thing in placing them before our readers, not as they are caricatured by adversaries, or as carried to extremes by bad men, but as they appear to the more sober class of persons, who, more or less, hold them. Socialism with some men no doubt means spoliation of everything evil; with others it is only another word for equitable reform-reforms of such a nature as are still needed in many things among ourselves. Weak, however, are those political speculators, who, in their humor to find intelligence and virtue wherever they find poverty and filth, expect to see the working classes really happier simply by reason of their being less obliged to work. The disease is more complex than such statedoctors suppose, and lies much deeper. Inoccupancy can be nothing but a curse to the majority of men, apart from the culture necessary to make a right use of it. From what has been said, the reader will, we trust, be able to form a tolerably fair estimate of Monsieur Lamennais' theories and character. Reports, we know, emanating from the French capital, have made the circuit of Europe, which represent him as a turbulent individual, ever intent upon inciting insurrection for the gratification of some private passion or ambition of his own. We will not pretend to say that he views the sufferings of the humbler classes with equanimity. On the contrary, we fear, it must be admitted, that his warm and well-meant sympathies often betray him into the use of exciting language, which, addressed to a highly susceptible people, may at times incline them to adopt unwise measures in the hope of abating their suffering. We are aware of much that may be said in defense of this part of his conduct, but we are not disposed to become in this respect his advocates. Our business with him is chiefly as a man in whom we see many of the contending agencies of our times at work, and in a manner not wholly uninstructive. That he is not more influential than we find him, is to be accounted for from the fact, that the religious sentiment is necessary to give efficacy to his teaching. He does not, and cannot work through scepticism, neither can his voice awaken an echo in the heart in which the religious sentiment has been extinguished. Somewhat like our own Milton, therefore, he must be content to find fit audience, though few; he panders to no mean passion; he addresses no immoral godless rabble; but drawing his weapons from the armory of reason, patriotism, and religion, he has labored, through a long life, to elevate the condition of his countrymen, and render them worthy of the freedom which his writings, as a whole, are calculated to achieve for them. In a literary point of view, his works may be said to be possessed of very high excellence. If there be a fault, it is the want of repose. There is agitation, there is movement, there is warmth, depth, and vitality. But you are always urged along by excitement, until your nervous system becomes jaded, and you at length escape from him in search of tranquillity. This is to be lamented; and still greater matter of regret is it, that almost every other distinguished writer in France--nay, we might perhaps say in Europe, shares, in a greater or less degree, the same fault--we live in a perpetual bustle, which allows us no time for profound meditation. As soon as a thought is born in our minds, we hasten to lay it before the public, even before we have examined of what spirit it is, and determined for ourselves whether good or evil is likely to result from its communication. This, in some measure, accounts for the differences observable in the successive writing of Lamennais. He has always felt strongly, and being conscious of possessing great powers of eloquence, has been easily tempted to believe that the doctrine, of the soundness of which he was for the time convinced, could not fail, on being divulged, to be productive of good to his species. But they who think and reason impetuously, must often be hurried into false conclusions. His style bears some resemblance to that of Jean Jaques Rousseau, though less sustained and severe. Like Burke, he permits himself to draw figures from physical sciences with which the public can never become familiar, and this cannot fail to circumscribe his popularity. For the most part, however, Lamennais' figures of speech are drawn ex medio, The following passage, published some years since, expresses his views as to the break-up awaiting the old institutions of Europe: in obedience to the precept of Cicero. But | the foot of the cross, upon which Christ died, you whatever his figures may be, there is always shall have sworn to die one for another." a fervency in the language which fixes and amalgamates them with the other materials of his style. You feel, moreover, that he is always in earnest, eager to convince, and vehemently resolute to persuade. He does not treat the reader as if he were unworthy of his solicitude; but setting a high value on his suffrage, he seeks, by a frank and manly appeal, to obtain it. Take the following as a specimen of the style in which Lamennais could write while a Louis Philippe was on the throne of France: "Suffer yourselves not to be deceived by vain words. Many will seek to persuade you that you are truly free, because they have written the word liberty on a scrap of paper, and posted it up at all cross-roads! "Liberty is not a proclamation which may be read at the corners of streets. It is a living power which men feel within and around themselves the protecting genius of the domestic hearth, the guaranty of social rights, among which it is itself the principal. "The oppressor, who shelters himself under its name, is the worst of oppressors. He unites falsehood with tyranny, and to injustice adds profanation; for the name of liberty is holy. "Beware, therefore, of those who cry, Liberty, liberty and yet ruin it by their works. Is it you that make choice of those who rule over you, who command you to do this and abstain from that, who tax your property, your industry, your labor? "And if it be not you, how are you free? "Are you able to dispose of your children according to your own will, to confide to whom you please the task of instructing them, and forming their manner? And if you have not this power, how are you free? "Even the birds of the air, and the insects of the field, assemble together to accomplish in common what they are unable to do alone. Can you meet together to consult respecting your interests, to defend your rights, to obtain some mitigation of your misfortunes? And if not, how are you free? "Such, over the whole earth, is the present condition of the human race. There is no religion which does not totter, no empire which is not mouldering to decay. Shaken, reduced to ruins, the institutions of past ages no longer offer anywhere to mankind a dwelling in which they may live. And if some nations, imagining they were building for eternity, have in haste constructed frail shelters for themselves, beneath which they might rest from their labors, it has perpetually been found necessary to prop up or rebuild these miserable hovels, which the smallest stream may undermine, or the first storm overthrow. "There prevails everywhere at present so painful a consciousness of the instability of human affairs, that it deprives of all real force those powers which, for their own interest, would prolong the existing order of things. Besides, this worn-out system, this vain shadow, maintains no longer any hold on the minds or consciences of men. It no longer represents right as conceived by the intellect, but, on the contrary, is its most flagrant violation. Now, the idea of duration being inseparable from the idea of right, or that which ought to exist-that is, from the idea of a whole, co-ordinated according to the essential laws of power-men discover in this merely fas tidious arrangement, contrary in all respects to those laws, signs certain and indubitable of approaching destruction. "The enfeebling of duty, an inevitable consequence of the weaknesses of faith, contributes also to strengthen the feeling now become general of the instability of things. For it is duty that unites; without it, every man stands apart; there is no longer a support for any one; the consciousness becomes universal of incurable debility--of an overwhelming incapacity for prolonged exist ence. "Nevertheless, in the very confusion and disorder which prevail, we discern signs of a dawning faith, which will reorganize the world, as well as of a tendency towards one vast union, in which the numerous portions of the human race, now distinct and divided, will naturally take their proper place. The old religions, together with the civilizations which spring from them, are rapidly dissolving, in as far as their elements were transitory. And thus are lowered those fatal barriers which divided nations; and the movement of the same nations, perpetually drawn together more and more by increasing facility of communication, by commerce, and even by war, gradually produce their amalgamation, and prepare their fusion at a future period, distant, no doubt, but every day becoming less problematical." Among ourselves, socialism has been asso parted. Moreover, we like to know not only of the dead but of the living; and those whom space divides from an object have often no reluctance to see through the eyes of another. Thus, and to these, we offer a passing note of George Dawson. From its very slightness it may pass review, like Slender in Falstaff's muster. AMONG the new lights of the Christian | ultimate picture of the biographer of the deministry, a star has arisen in the spiritual firmament over Birmingham, which has much occupied, with speculations as to the nature and extent of its orbit, our mental astronomers. Mental astronomy, so to speak, has been a sort of science, critically condemned by many, until its lustrous objects have set in the darkness of the grave. The stars of the stage form, undoubtedly, an exception to this apparently paradoxical canon. They, at least, are judged while living; and loud plaudits arise while even the feet of the famous danseuse are twinkling upon the boards of the theatre. Nor otherwise do we deem it inappropriate, that the pit of the world should form some judgment of the actor in the pulpit or in the editorial chair, while yet they breathe and move and have their being upon this theatre of the earth. Post-mortem criticism may be more elaborate, more finished, more coldly correct, more complete in detail; and, of course, more fully comprehensive of the life of man: but the living sketch-the note of the momentalthough but the portrait of a certain age, assuredly gives the glow of the glance then; its fiery flash lighted up at that instant, the depth of its lustre, the bearing of its brow, such as can never be conceived from the complexion of a corpse; and, in fact, furnishes features more true for the time than would otherwise occur to the eye, in the George Dawson was born in 1821, in St. Pancras parish, London. His father was the master of one of the largest and oldest private academies in the metropolis. In this school he received his early education; and, as the son of a schoolmaster, he no doubt met with an attentive, if not a severe training, as all schoolboys know who have ever been educated with the son of their preceptors. His father was a sincere Non-conformist of the Baptist persuasion-and therefore Glasgow, and not Cambridge or Oxford, had the honor of completing his education. At the Glasgow college, which imposes no creed, and therefore requires no compromise of principle from its students, he went through the regular courses of instruction, which ended by his obtaining his degree of master of arts. Intended for a preacher, he then waited for some while at home until a vacancy in the ministry for which he was designed should occur. Birmingham was the place destined for his labors. In 1844, George Dawson was first settled | in Birmingham, as the minister of the Mount Zion chapel, belonging to the Baptist denomination. A year and some months afterwards we were wandering with a friend through the streets of that town of iron, upon one Wednesday evening, when our attention was struck by an unwonted number of persons for a week-day evening hurrying into the gates of a chapel. We followed the crowd; and entered a large, dim, and, we believe, octagon edifice. The congregation already assembled was numerous and respectable. Presently appeared, in a little, low pulpit, a slim, dark, and rather Jewishlooking young man. It was Mount Zion chapel and George Dawson. A hymn was sung, a prayer offered, and some scripture read. During the time thus occupied, we could but scrutinize the appearance of the chief ministrant. There was a something in his personality very unlike that of the presentations offered by other ministers, in all the other pulpits we had visited. Although dark, his look was extremely youthful; he seemed to the sight, from the pew to the desk, to be certainly not more than twenty. His dark hair and features probably caused us to conceive that there was a considerable cast of the Hebrew lineaments, of D'Israeli's pure Caucasian, in his countenance. Moreover, his appearance was decidedly unministerial in the ordinary idea of such, in outward presentment. His dark hair was curly, and peculiarly parted-more poet than priest-like. He wore a black coat, it is true -unlike Coleridge, who in his erratic ministry determinedly sported one of blue, with bright, gilt buttons-but he had no white muslin around his throat, but a black neckerchief, with a shirt collar slightly turned over. Nor did these little things fail to indicate something of the character of him before us. Besides, there was his free glance -the mellowness of his manner- -the natural air and ease with which he read, so different from the toned tone to which one becomes accustomed in the pulpit, all which marked to us a mind which was unconventional, unsophisticated, original. Nor were we mistaken in our man, youth as he appeared. The devotional portion of the service ended, the instructional commenced. Quietly and calmly our young minister arose from his seat, leaned over his desk, and at once, without text or other formality, began discoursing-not talking, but discoursing on high subjects-momentous to the mind and hallowed to the heart, as we hold converse with the best of our bosom friends, on the soul and on things spiritual, when the sky above us seems solemn, and a deep awe broods within each breast. He discoursed how Mary had waited for the promise of God; how that we also should wait. Commoving all the fibres of filial affection, he endeared her to us, not only as the mother of Jesus, but likewise as the mother of Christians. It was the music of the mind that he poured forth, but it was mellowed from the fountains of the heart. The strain was solemn as it was simple, calm as it was clear. It was no ebb and tide, but an even swell of soul. It was not now hush, and now storm; but an air soft and sweet as a breath of perfume, which was his inspiration. No chord of thunder, it is true, vibrated in tempest tones beneath a demiurgic hand; no lightning flash of Jove scorched the spirit of the sinner; but a harp of silver sound sung to the soul of salvation, clear in tune, equable in execution, and hallowed by harmonies to the heart. The speaker ceased as he had begun-fluently, easily, as if he had more to say, but deferred it for another time. There was no formal peroration, no winsome way of winding up; for all the discourse had point, from the first to the last sentence. We afterwards found that it was one of a course of lectures on the women of the Scriptures. We heard others. They were like this, each equally silvery, sweet and beautiful. His peculiarities of preaching, rather than any absolute doctrinal difference, at length, however, induced a portion of the proprietary of Mount Zion chapel to moot a separation between themselves and their minister. These peculiarities are no others than we have named, if we except a certain literary tendency of style and subject, wider scope of illustration, and a further field of information than is usual to the pulpit, with the exception of the instance of the member for Oldham, the Fox of Finsbury chapel; of Theodore Parker of America, and of a few others. The subject of disagreement was not as to difference of doctrine, but was a question as to tendency of taste. Notwithstanding his large audiences, and the increasing popularity of George Dawson, not only as a preacher, but also as a public man in Birmingham, a separation was agreed upon. The majority of the congregation, however, sympathized and seceded with their minister. A subscription, amply sufficient, was raised for building him a new chapel; and on the 8th of August, 1847, "The Church of the Saviour," as the new edifice is designated, was opened by Mr. Dawson. It is capable |