free exercise of their industry, and therefore to amended laws of master and man; to 'a subsistence out of the soil,' and therefore to an effective [we hope, reproductive] poor-law, as the correlative of private property in land. As the relative rights of labor and capital can be ascertained, not by haphazard antagonism, but by equitable and judicious Combination, we shall, without pledging ourselves to any special system of social reform, endeavor to elicit the best means by which those rights, apparently conflicting but really identical, may be reconciled; and we shall encourage all well-directed efforts on the part of individuals, or of societies, for their reconciliation. While insisting on the duty of the state to provide the means of secular education for every individual who may think fit to take advantage of it, we shall do homage to the efforts of every class or sect to extend education in accordance with its own peculiar tenets, if such be made in a spirit of candor and toleration. And we shall more especially notice and forward those endeavors to extend refinement and knowlege which are made by bodies of men united under the titles of Athenæums, Public School Associations, or Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institutions. But in advocating these and other rights, we hope to show that the satisfaction of such rights, and the deliberate anticipation of their peremptory demand, will be conducive to the peace, power, and prosperity of the country. We shall advocate freedom of trade until the example of this country shall be completed in itself, and consummated in the reciprocal acceptance of other countries. Perfect free trade means a federation of the civilized globe in the works of industry. In one class of subjects which overrules every other, in affairs of religion, we shall claim equal freedom of utterance: every persuasion will meet with respect-with the sympathy due to conscience seen in action; but the pure religion, the soul of which is love to God and man, and which is superior to all sects and comprehends them all, will animate the unceasing and strenuous endeavors for its own complete emancipation. Sympathizing with all honest conviction, we shall be free to discuss all forms of religious influence and working-ecclesiastical institutions, clerical laws, social conflicts of faith and practice. In short, we will realize in our intention the old unperformed promise of religious equality.' We shall also advocate the removal of disabilities which press on any class of religionists among our fellow-countrymen (such, for instance, as those of the Hebrew persuasion), and which, by their remaining on the statute-book, recal the periods of intolerance and exclusiveness that gave them birth, and stand out in open opposition to the universal benevolence of the age. In this advocacy we shall persevere, till every British subject, of whatever creed, stands equal in rights, in privileges, in esteem. In foreign politics, while holding every de facto government to be the responsible agent of the state, we shall keep in view the real opinions, interests, and wishes of the people; and we shall have special means for putting our readers in possession of trustworthy information, not only as to political events abroad, but also as to the views and capacities of the peoples. In Colonial affairs we shall advocate the local independence of the Colonies, in order to the union of the whole with the parent country in a great imperial federation; sound colonization re-distributing the powers of the whole empire for their more effective development. THE LEADER will be thoroly a news-paper: the news of the week is the history of the time as it passes before our eyes, informing and illustrating political and social science. The space devoted to news will be so appropriated as to present the fullest accounts of whatever events command the interest of the week. None will be overlooked as alien or inferior to the regard of the true politician: the news should reflect the life of our day as it is; its materials must be accepted from whatsoever source-from parliament or the police office, from the drawing-room or the workhouse. The utmost care of experienced journalists will be used to collect for the reader every striking incident in the eventful story of humanity, and to convey it in such manner as to combine fulness of statement with the avoidance of offence. Free utterance of opinion demands free access to knowlege; free promulgation of opinion demands an organ possessing an interest for every class. On commercial and monetary affairs, the latest information will be procured from undoubted sources. Our Literature will not be confined to reviews of books: those will be as full, distinct, and impartial as we can make them; but the department will also include a current review of the actual state of literature, at home and abroad; the influence of literature, or of eminent works on society; and events bearing upon literature-in short, the cotemporary history of literary affairs. The free utterance of opinion will at least lend its own inherent strength to our review of literature: we shall not be debarred from noticing books, nor obliged to cramp our notice in straightened or ambiguous language, from the fear of offending against established doctrine or veteran prejudice. We shall rely on the desire for out-speaking; we shall trust to sincerity of purpose; we shall repose that faith in our readers which we shall ask of them. The Arts will be treated in a congenial spirit. Art is the work performed by cultivated feeling; its office is to train the very aspirations and wishes of the mind, as distinguished from reason or calculation. It is a great element of social discipline. To be effectively developed, it must be true to itself; to be rendered so, its discussion must be openhearted. We shall endeavor to describe art as it is, and to keep in view the eternal principles which lead to perfection. Our notice of the Drama will be descriptive as well as critical; in Music we shall wed science to natural feeling; in Painting and the sister arts, while checking error, we shall strive to foster every indication of growing power. The progress and incidents of Science and Natural History will be reported as they happen, with the freest exposition, so as to make their bearing popularly understood. Original composition, in prose or verse, will complete the round. Essays on literary or social topics, verses animated by the living interests of the day, fiction expressing what of life eludes mere newspaper intelligence, political or literary discussion, will lend their help to our main purpose-the restoration of heart-feeling to the business of life. We will not enforce on others the exclusiveness we deprecate in ourselves; a public department will be reserved in our paper, open to the expression of any opinions, independently of our own, on the sole condition that the contributions accord in length with the exigences of our space, in language with the decorum of tone and spirit that we shall enforce thröout our columns. We thus offer a free port to all nations and all faiths, satisfied that the peaceful conflicts of opinion can only perfect the emancipation of Truth. Our sketch of the paper as we mean it to be, is brief, and therefore imperfect. We intend it for a direct reflex of life as it exists-in its triumphs and its trials, in its errors and in its achieved truths, in its relicts of the past, its enduring influences, and its eternal hopes. The boldness of our out-speaking we justify by a reverential spirit, and by a hopeful faith which trusts less to the contrivances of man than to the immortal influences whose freest action we shall seek to promote." The People's Land and an easy way to recover it. Three Letters to the Editor of 'The Nation,' showing how famine may be prevented in Ireland; and how, in Great Britain and Ireland, taxation may be diminished, and the distresses of the Agriculturist, the Mechanic, and the Tradesman, effectually relieved. By W. J. LINTON. London, J. Watson, Paternoster Row. The Plans, Objects, and mode of Working, of the Freehold Land Societies explained. London, Gilpin. p. 12. Freehold Land Societies injurious to the welfare of the People. By a Working Man. London, G. Vickers. p. 12. MISCELLANEOUS. A Biblical Reading Book and Life of Christ. By the author of the 'People's Dictionary of the Bible.' London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1849. pp. xx. 292. We have been highly pleased with this delightful compilation, which is at once full of narrative interest and of the highest criticism. The work is conceived and executed in the best taste, and ought to receive a warm welcome from every liberal section of the Christian Church. It is, next to the Gospels themselves, the Life of Christ, and sheds much light on various parts of their narrative. It contains a great deal of geographical and historical illustration of the scriptures generally, and forms a popular, yet reliable, Introduction to the study of the New Testament in particular. The Knight of the Faith. No. 1 to 4. Art. Catholic Tradition and Scripture, showing Scripture not to be the sole Rule of Faith.' Richardson and Son, Derby, Religious Ignorance, its Cause and its Cure. A Tract for the Times: by A. Q. G. CRAUFURD, M.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge. London: J. Chapman, Strand. p. 22. Here are the bane and antidote,-authority and reason contrasted in their conclusions. The first article is an ingenious attempt to put Reason into a dilemma by proving that it is not God, in order that it may be frightened into accepting the voice of the Church (that is, of certain men) as equivalent to the voice of God. The Christian Reformer. August 1849, to February 1850. London: E. T. Whitfield, 2, Essex Street. We have perused this periodical with pleasure and profit. It is conducted in a true spirit of Toleration. Besides a great number of clever discriminating reviews, and much religious intelligence, there are many papers of great interest and importance. We may particularize those on the state of Religion in Italy-Lyell's Travels-Dr. Chalmer's LifeBarling on the Atonement—and Wesleyan Methodism and Religious Liberty. The Christian Philanthropist: comprising Memoirs of Oberlin and Neff; Life of Dr. Lant Carpenter; and Memoir of Dr. Tuckerman. Chapman, London. A neat, and very cheap little volume; beautifully written, and admirably adapted for circulation by the benevolent friends of social Reform. Crime: its Causes and Cure. By DAVID MAGINNIS. Henderson, Belfast. 1850. A lecture containing many good thoughts, and worthy of being 'Imprinted.' THE JUBILEE OF TRADE: A VISION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. DEI GRATIA, 'Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell.' As I lay in the shadow of Slavery, Watching the shrieking Moments flee From the grasp of the cold Night, damp and drear, Like flame from a reeking sepulchre (Ever the shrieking Moments fled, Each with its agony burdened, Heavily laden, so that they Ever went stumbling on their way)—— As I lay on a waif of the mighty sea, Thro the drizzly fog and the wilder'd crowd Into the heart of the land I went I Thro the desert of grim Death: Lord of pity! let me flee :- Ever where it lured me on Rotting human hearts were strown In their foulness monstrous worms- Wrecks of men, long travail-wasted, Tore out their own hearts and hasted To supply the hellish rage Of those worms; nor might assuage Their own famine,-tasting nought Other some, more decent-guised, At due seasons christianized, Fed on living children :—they Coax'd their murderers' knees alway. Children, fair and promise-full, Their own parents blind and dull Little children-such as Christ |