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The Review of Reviews. 



THE CREED OF THACKERAY. 



In the Dublin Review the Rev. P. J. Gannon 

 discusses the rehgion of Thackeray. He says : — ■ 



I Us creed might be embodied in these few maxims. Hohl, 

 as far as may be — but unobtrusively — to the beliefs of your 

 fathers, and do as much kindness as you can, mindful that we 

 are all sharers in the same p.ithetic iloom and owe one another 

 a tragic loyalty. Dry the tears of childhood and ease the 

 burden of old age. If you meet a good woman, go on your 

 knees in reverence ; if you meet an erring one, don't he in a 

 hurry to cast stones. In general, judge not and you shall not 

 be judged. No one is faultless. The good are not without 

 their weaknesses, if you look closely ; the wicked are seldom 

 wholly graceless, if you peep within. Destiny is a tangled 

 web and life a multi-coloured scene, where the drab hues pre- 

 dominate. Which of us has his heart's desire or having it is 

 satisfied ? But even so drink your wine, and sup your Bouilla- 

 baisse, and be content. No snivelling about Fate, no whining 

 about the world's ingratitude. If there is much wormwood in 

 the cup, tears won't sweeten it, and courage may. 



It is true that in the real life the hero does'not always come 

 in time to rescue the maiden in distress, as on the Adelphi 

 stage. The Dragon does not always meet a St. George : he 

 dies oceasionally in a hoary and evil old age, with his scales 

 decorously whitewashed, and quite persuaded, perhaps, of his 

 own eminent respectability. Vet for all that, honesty is the 

 best, if not necessarily the best-paying policy ; and if virtue is 

 not always triumphant, still less is vice likely to prosper, or 

 if prosperous to make the sleek sinner content. Sir George 

 Warrington may " yawn in Eden, with Eve for ever sweet and 

 tender by his side ; " but most readers will think he has fared 

 better than Barry Lyndon, whose career closes in the Fleet 

 Prison with nothing but the love of an old mother to lighten 

 existence till lidiiium tnmc'is ends the tale. 



The writer says we get as near to the mind of 

 Thackeray on religion as we shall anywhere in his 

 words : — 



O .awful, awful n.inie of God I Light unbearable! Mystery 

 unfathomable ! Vastness immeasurable ! Who are these who 

 come forward to explain the mystery, and gaze unblinking into 

 the depths of the light, and me.asure the immeasurable vastness 

 to a hair ? O name, that God's people of old did fear to utter ! 

 O light, that God's prophet would have perished had he seen ! 

 who are these that are now sofamiliar with it ? Women, truly, 

 for the most part weak women — weak in intellect, weak; 

 mayhap, in spelling and grammar, but marvellously strong in 

 faith. 



ANGLICAN PLEA FOR A CELIBATE PRIESTHOOD. 



Mrs. Huih Jackson makes in the Nimteaith 

 Century for January a strong plea for a celibate 

 clergy in the Church of England. She resents ,the 

 appeals that are made for the support of clergy on 

 the ground that they are married and have families. 

 She says : — 



What happens if a penniless subaltern in a good regiment 

 marries? lie leaves. What happens if a briefless barrister 

 marries ? He starves. What happens if clerks, actors, business 

 men, doctor's, or men in any other profession marry on an 

 insufficient income ? Is there a public appeal to the compassion- 

 ate for money on their behalf? . . . The average clergyman 

 works no harder than other men— and very much less hard than 

 the doctor. There are many, especially country clergymen, or 

 clergymen in fashionable watering-places, who have a very easy 

 time indeed. 



Mrs. Jackson quotes a gifted Frenchman who 

 asked, why an Englishinan always mentions the word 

 "parson" with a shade of contempt? adding, "We 



often hate priests in my country, but we do not 

 despise them." Mrs. Jackson finds the reason in the 

 fact that the Roman priest has for the s.ke of his 

 profession practically renounced all^that to most men 

 makes life worth living. Hence the laity respects 

 him. The ordinary English clergyman " has not 

 given up enough," and hence he is not sent for by 

 his parishioners in trouble. 



PRIESTS VERSUS CLERGYMEN. 



The writer goes on to urge " There are signs in the 

 air that in England the need for priests as opposed to 

 clergymen is more get eral than is popularly sup- 

 posed." To the stock aiguments against celibacy she 

 replies that scandals arise in connection with married 

 clergymen as well as with celibates. Marriage does 

 not make clergymen m.ore human than Roman 

 priests. The wife and family of the clergyman do 

 not always do good work in the parish, but often 

 are the cause of great trouble. The growing need 

 for confession makes a clear line of demarcation 

 between confessor and confessed essential. " It is 

 nauseous to think of a girl relating her siiis to a 

 possible husband." A married clergyman can never 

 be a priest in the fullest sense of the word. He will 

 never have that hold over his flock or that direct 

 communication with God which a priest has. 



Asked why she does not rather go over into the 

 Roman Communion than seek to introduce celibacy 

 into the. Anglican, the writer replies that she believes 

 firmly in the .Anglican branch of the Catholic Church, 

 and in its destiny to reunite Christendom. 



PLEA FOR BOUNTIES ON WHEAT. 



Mr. Hilaire Belloc, writing in the O.\foid and 

 Cambridge Ra'i(u\ urges that the chief requisite at 

 this moment to re-establish wheat-growing upon its 

 true economic basis in England is the security and 

 steadiness of the minimum price. Between the state- 

 ments that wheat pays well at 37s. a quarter and 

 tolerably well at 30s. a quarter he suggests 33s. 6d. 

 If 33s. 6d. could always and regularly be obtained 

 the majority of farmers would begin to produce it 

 permanently and profitably. Taking this 33s. 6d. as 

 the minimum price the State could secure and obtain 

 it by a bounty equal to the difference between the 

 minimum and the actual tiiarket price. In 1906 

 bounties would have cost us 5s. 3d. a quarter, or a 

 total of two million pounds; in 1907 2S. ird. a 

 quarter, or just over the million; in 1908 is. 6d. a 

 quarter, or a good deal less than half a million ; in 

 1909 the tax-payer would not have had to pay at all ; 

 in 1910 the bounty would have been somewhat less 

 than 2s., a total of ^700,000. Mr, Belloc declares 

 "the IS. registration duty on corn, which nobody 

 felt, and which was only taken off as a matter of 

 economic orthodoxy, would very nearly meet the 

 largest of these imposts, and would have much more 

 than met all the others." 



. I. 



