December 19th, at Chelsea, London. Joseph Mallord William Turner, the great English landscape painter, whose works are too well known, and whose fame is too widely spread, to require more particular notice.
CHAPTER LXIV.
VICTORIA. 1852
Home Affairs: General State of Great Britain; Religious Agitations; Death of the Duke of Wellington; The Court; Parliamentary Discussions; Changes of Ministry..... Ireland: Animosities on Account of Religion; Insecurity of Life; Terrible Assassinations..... Colonies: War at the Cape; Gold in California; General Condition of the British Colonies..... Foreign Affairs: Electric Telegraph Between London and Paris; Revival of the French Empire; English Policy in Reference to that Event; Indignant Feeling of the English nation towards Austria and the despotic Princes of Italy; Efforts of the British Navy to put down Piracy and Slavery.
A.D. 1852
The year 1852, like its predecessor, opened in the British Isles with fierce religious controversies. The agitation about the papal aggression had not died away, and events occurred, from day to day, inflaming the spirit of religious difference. Yet this was not an unmixed evil—“The greatest blessings have been achieved by discussions, errors suffer in the ordeal; truth never does; the dross is consumed in the fire; the gold comes out more brilliant, more precious, more pure.” *
* Rev. Dr. Cumming’s “Apocalyptic Sketches,” p. 153
What was generally called the Achilli trial, early in the year, aggravated the existing religious dissensions, and extended the spirit of polemical conflict. Although the trial did not take place until June, the public anticipated it with intense excitement. Dr. Achilli had been a Roman Catholic priest; he left the Church of Rome, and devoted himself to preach against its tenets, and the spirit of persecution which it breathed. He produced a powerful impression both in Great Britain and Ireland. It became exceedingly important to silence him, and the Romish church resorted to its old instrument in such cases, defamation. The Rev. Mr. Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, a convert from the Church of England, who had, as a clergyman of that church, distinguished himself at Oxford by his Jesuitical casuistry in upholding Puseyism, and teaching that, by receiving the Church of England Articles in a “non-natural sense,” clergymen might remain in her communion, and receive her emoluments, while they taught the doctrines peculiar to the Church of Rome, publicly attacked the character of Dr. Achilli, averring that he was unworthy of credit, because he had been expelled from the Church of Rome for dissolute habits. Achilli took an action for libel, which was tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench, when a verdict was given in favour of Dr. Achilli. The case assumed a peculiar aspect from the fact that a number of women had been brought from Italy, by the Roman Catholic priests, who swore that they had participated with Dr. Achilli in criminal intercourse. The doctor solemnly swore that some of these women he had never seen, and that, in respect to others whom he had known, no accusation had ever until then been brought against him. The mode in which these women gave their testimony, and the contradictory character of it, left the jury no alternative but to believe the allegations of Dr. Achilli, that the case was got up against him, by a conspiracy of Roman Catholic priests, for the purpose of destroying his moral reputation, and thereby preventing his effective preaching from injuring their sectarian interests.
Another event still more aggravated the odiumtheologicum which prevailed. In the town of Stockport fierce religious riots broke out between the Irish Roman Catholics and the Protestants of that town. A religious procession of an offensive nature was got up by the Roman Catholic clergy. This was resented by the Protestant population as an insult: the Roman Catholic party persisted in the aggressive movement, and the result was riot and bloodshed for several days. This event produced terrible excitement elsewhere: and in Ireland some of the newspapers in the Roman Catholic interest incited the people to commit violence upon their Protestant neighbours. In addition to the animosity which raged between Protestants and Romanists, the controversy concerning the admission of Jews to parliament divided other sections of the community. The parliamentary debates on this subject in the previous year were remembered, and the remembrance embittered by various incidents. Among these was the trial of Miller versus Salomons. Mr. Salomons having been elected member for Greenwich, presented himself in the House of Commons, and voted. The action was to enforce a penalty of £500 for having voted without taking the oath of abjuration. The case was tried in the Court of Exchequer, before the barons, who were, with the exception of Baron Martin, unanimous in a decision against Mr. Salomons. This trial took place in April, and had the effect of exasperating the wealthy Jewish community of London and exciting the liberal politicians, who desired the emancipation of their Jewish fellow citizens from all civil disabilities on account of their religion.