The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-18 00:00:00

n their ~ , eneral . ... • a I 136 TI-IE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. .00 • id [ass, Lh ~ub at 111. e fi • tr e r o al sh it vise nk f a 9 g 'seri e . ent 113 lit • el ba [met ) '1) h e a A c i t v i e C c :d Ls st l l l l. des I 3 lye intt h P 0 . 7 led sec l a an' use at VI will l e d )le. hes ustlwL t'ke t 11 01 1 , 1 ' 1 1 ' ntektit, its ex. hi e e CV • Ir t tt i )ers Btl thel .de S 11 il e til l , kT oo l kti a tu of o' s lie e . ; pr ° \ ti t i j hay p Ebt Aiberpool 4-tanbao. ter hope of their performances. It were better to bear the loss of honour incurred by stopping short in the Dutch aggression, than to persevere in the moral iniquity of its continuance. And, if the authority of Mr. Stanley be worth that of a hundred Powlett Thomsons—that is, if it be worth anything at all—we shall not long have to speak of the Grey Cabinet, remodelled or not, as the blind and reckless instrument of traitors at home and abroad. Catholics in the neighbourhood of Stonyhurst, in Pres ton, and the great towns. According to a return to the House of Commons, ordered to be printed in July, 1830, but which is, probably, very inaccurate, the number of Protestant Dissenters is stated at 56,184.; Methodists, 55,083 ; and Roman Catholics, 144,244; the population of the county being 1,336,854. The Protestant Dissen ters, therefore, are about a 23rd of the whole ; the Ro man Catholics about a 9th ; and the two united, Protes tant Dissenters and Roman Catholic Dissenters, are be tween a 6th and a 7th of the whole, which is, possibly, not very far from the truth. In Liverpool there are enumerated in the Directory 22 Protestant dissenting congregations ; 5 Wesleyan Methodists, 8 other Methodists, and 5 Roman Catholics; and there are 3 of the Scotch church establishment. independently, the obvious inference is—no voting should be adopted, and that the hoi triotic elector should be denied' the open any sertion of his principles,—but that any man, men, who cannot vote honestly in the face of ought not to possess the franchise ; in sh 4 voter who requires the shield of secresy she facto disqualified. We are utterly opposed to the ballot, a 5. cherous,, insidious, and at variance with the racter. Secret voting cannot consist with the moral responsibility of the elector in th his franchise, and the salutary suasion•of exal exemplary reputation. However the pee country may have been, for a season, so far have given their suffrages to very, unworthy tives, yet nur confidence in the patriotic at Englishmen to those invaluable institutions made us pre-eminent amongst nations, leaf apprehension that there ever shall arise a resorting to a mean and cowardly disguise cise of a Briton's birth-right. No. .Th 6 vo may be suited and congenial to the habits an of other nations, but it is alien ,to a people been well 'described:— " Pride in his port, defiance in his eye, I saw the lord of human kind pass . by.' But though the ballot be an instrument of or theoretical good, it is easy to imagine hoi it may be'employed to perpetrate mischief. pose a candidate for a seat in Parliament u tute of any substantive ground of merit, i every relation—public and domestic, hostile rests of the country, holding in contempt tl doctrines of our holy religion, and yet det place himself in the great council of the T what means can he so effectually succeed voting ? To aid publicly the pretensions of su to be regarded as in any way identified witl would subject an elector to deserved obloqt ballot comes to his relief, and cloaks the disl attaches to an infamous disregard of public p It is plain, therefore, that the ballot may hz and these by no means insignificant or unimp the same character is another purpose for w' be made completely available, and this it is, which chiefly recommends the ballot to its ad levels all distinctions in society—not by el humbler classes, but by degrading rank, pr respectability. The candidate who derives from the lowest and least enlightened clas would then stand on nearly equal ground chosen representative of the wealth, loyalty, gence of the community. The late election rough supplies an illustration. If ever the odious ballot be adopted in E hope that the experiment may be tried, not' stituent, but on the representative body: It sionally be attended with some advantage, if Parliament voted secretly, and thereby proti selves from the intimidation of the mob, a gerous than the influence of the aristocracy. Conservatives would openly and secretly—th report and evil report—support the best inte country, there are some who, however they titute their abilities in debate, would yet vc and there are those, too, who, possessing would be relieved from the necessity of pal their votes, to the worst passions of the won the community. Had the ballot been practised in last session of Parliament, we are inclined to think Mr. Ewart's vote on the Manchester inquiry, and ot questions, would have been more becoming a repres tative of Liverpool. FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 18, 1833. THE PACIFIC WARI—We beg our readers to observe the singular infelicity which has attended the arguments of the Ministerial hacks, in reference .to the attack on the citadel of Antwerp. , When, upon the publication of the anti-national and, unnatural convention between France and England, so un equi vocal a manifestation of opinion was made throughout the country, by all those classes, who alone can be expected to forth an opinion on such a subject, it was necessary to set up some defence for ministers. Accordingly it was declared, that they were 'the executive agents' of the Conference in punishing the contumacy of the Dutch King. THE NEW PARLIAMENT.—An analysis of the new Parliament is given as follows : Tories or Conservatiies Reformers Tr; Radicals (English and Scotch) Repealers 4-3 Total 658 This analysis gives, however, by no means an exact idea of the division of parties. We shall endeavour to supply its deficiencies by a few remarks. In the first place, the Tories are understated. In the list of the Times, which was copied into the Liverpool Albion of Monday last, we findenumerated as Reform ers, Mr. Bethell, for Yorkshire; Mr. Wilson Patten, for Lancashire; Mr. Chapman, for Whitby; Mr. Forster, for Walsall; and several others who are decided and avowed Conservatives. It is surprising that the Editor of the Times should not have known, that Mr. Bethell and Mr. Wilson Patten, lost their seats in 1831; for opposition to the Reform Bill—though not at all surprising that the Liverpool Albion should have copied his blunder, even when affecting our own county. • , • A list far more preposterotisly incorrect is given in the Liverpool Chronicle of Saturday last, which agrees nei ther with fact nor with itself. In it many Reformers are stated as COnservatives, and many Conservatives as Re formers. We do not pretend to a very exact acquaint ance • with the . politics of each individual member, in a House ,containing so many, hitherto, unfledged politi cians, but nevertheless, we select the following as among the errors there exhibited, Of the dissenting congregations nine are put down as Baptists; seven as Independents, and only two as Unita rians, who are the least numerous, but far the most en terprising. The Roman Cathglics, of course, are very numerous from thdvicinity pf Ireland, and the ancient remains of old Lancashire families settled here. TO this plea there were at least three answers, each independent of the others, and each sufficient without thw others. 1. They were not the agents of the Conference : for the Conference protested against their acts, by the mouths of a majority of its members. If, then, the number of enrolled Dissenters is so small, their whole numbers (excluding the Methodists) not being one-fourteenth of the population, whence, it may be asked, the amazing influence they exercised at the late elections ? To this the answer is very plain. Their power consisted in union and zeal : the weakness of the church in disunion and indifference. The Dissenters being chiefly collected in the great towns were united with most formidable energy in the pursuit of a common object. The churchmen, as usual, divided and lukewarm. Hence, a member of the least numerous and least popu lar sect in this town obtained a surprisingly unanimous support from the different bodies of Dissenters. Roman Catholics, who abhor the heresy of Socinianism, poured forth to vote for him who denies the divinity of Christ. Quakers, Baptists, and Independents; all maintaining the strictest. Trinitarian orthodoxy, united in the same cause; and one of the most influential dissenting ministers in the town felt himself compelled to go with the stream, and was obliged, at the eleventh hour, to tell Lord San don that he could not fulfil his previously expressed de sire of voting for him. Negro slavery was the alleged plea for part of this unanimity ; but no one, of course, now conceives that it was a well-grounded one. Lord Sandon is pledged to abolition quite as deeply as Mr. Thornely, (whose address only advocates emancipation, with compensation, as .soon as possible,) and will, even tually, prove himself more the negro's friend. It answered an,electioneering purpose to misrepresent Lord Sandon as an opponent of negro emancipation; but no honest man can put his hand upon his heart, and conscientiously affirm that he believes him to be so. 2. Had they been the agents of the Conference, the Conference would not then have directed them to act, for the Dutch King had accepted Lord Grey's suggestion on one of the points in dispute, and had offered to cede his own on the other. • 3. Had they been the agents of the Conference, the Conference could not have directed them thus to act, for its mediation was essentially pacific and, what is some what singular, declared to be such by the ministers of England and France, the two identical powers which have now acted upon it by force of arms.. We challenge our radical brethren of this town, or any other members of the fraternity of disorganization, to disprove these allegations. • • Indeed they were speedily found so formidable that the ministerialists thought proper to shift their ground, with considerable agility. And we must do them the justice to say, that they showed no deficiency of circumspection or of wisdom—as wisdom is estimated among them—in choosing; the new position they were to take up. They ihouglit with themselves, "this is a commercial nation: if we can show that we are making war for a British object, if we can institute an effectual appeal to the pocket, the cry of justice and honour will be deemed a mere chimera, and we may let it take its own way t" Accordingly we were told, that the Dutch war had nothing to do with Belgium—nothing to do with the Conference—nothing to do with " the dignity and interests of France :"—Mr. Stanley—we blush for his sake to say it—Mr. Stanley asked at Lancaster : • CONSERVATIVES MARRED AS REFORMERS. Sir H. B. Neale,l for L • n Hon. W. S. Bernard, forßandon. Mr. Stewart, J yiniglon* Mr. Welby, for Grantham. Sir E. Knatchbnll, for Kent. Mr. Ewing, for Glasgow. • Mr. Foley, for Herefordshire. Gen. Arbtithna, for Kincardine- Mr. Lane Fox, fur lltlston. • shire. Mr. Egerton, for North Cheshire. Again, Sir G. Skipwith, for Warwickshire, and Mr. M. A. Taylor, for Sudbury, are marked as Tories, though Reformers. Furthermore, after marking 153 members as Conser vatives in the list, the Editor of the Chronicle calls them in his summary'only 144. The real number of decided Conservatives will be found to be, we conceive, 160 or 165. There is also a small party placed between 'the Conservatives and - the Ministers, consisting chiefly of men who have been To ries : such are' Mr. E. Denison, Sir A: Agnew, Sir Eard ley Wilmot, Sir C. Coote, Mr. Beilby Thompson, Mr. Sergeant Spankie, Mr. Philpotts, Mr. Hodson, and others. " What? Ought we not to endeavour to establish a free mac igati on of the Scheldt, and the admission of Bri tish manufactures into the heart of Germany ?" It might have been hoped that Catholic emancipation, and the repeal of the corporation and test acts, would have tended to conciliate the Dissenters, but it has not done so ; and the result of concession, though it cannot justify needless restrictions, does, in some measure, fulfil the prophetic anticipations of those who affirmed, that all former appeals for religious liberty were, in point of fact, nothing but restless appetencies for political power. Now let us consider the weight and value of this argu ment, and we appeal to no other tribunal, than the know ledge and judgement of the merchants of Liverpool. 1. We are a commercial nation; but not, it is to be hoped, a mercenary one, to such an extent as to wrest from Holland the freedom of the Scheldt,—a privilege whiclishe purchased from Austria at a high price, and the seizure of which therefore would be an act of rapine, —of absolute, unblushing, unmitigated rapine. 2. To the.most atrocious violence, we should, in this way, have been adding the meanest hypocrisy : for we should have maintained the pretence that we were acting on behalf of the rights of Belgium, while in fact we were • pursuing underhand our own nefarious, purposes. 3. Can Mr. Stanley say, if we do take the Scheldt by violence from - Holland, and so induce her to close the Rhine, we shall be one jot better provided than we are at present, with an inlet into Germany for British manu factures? Again, the Irish Reformers who are counted at 37, ought to be divided into Tithe Extinguishers, Condi tional Repealers, and Ministerialists. . The tatter class does not comprise above ten or twelve members, at the outside. We believe the true number of Conservatives for Ireland to be 28, and of those who will probably sup port repeal there are near 50. Will any moderate man contemplate the elements of rude and jarring strife now about to be thrown together in the House of Commons, without remembering at the same time the important truth, that Revolutions are ge nerally brought about by active though small minorities —and then look forward to the coming years without a shudder ? The remedy for this evil state of things must be found in the union of Churchmen. The weapons of their warfare must be those of their antagonists,—unanimity and zeal. The government must purify the church from those blemishes which, though they have been assimi lated to spots upon the sun, are still sufficient to mar its ,beauty. Discipline must be restored ; pluralities restricted—poverty relieved—superfluity curtailed as far as it can be consistently with the rights of private pro perty. But, above all, patronage must be conscientiously exercised by the laity, the Government, and the Bishops. Corporations must not confine their favours to sons, and brothers, and nephews, and cousins of the fourth degree —merit must have something to do with all church ap pointments ; and then, if the clergy will clothe themselves with zeal, and consider themselves, 'as they ought, the religious instructors, or, if we may venture to use the term, schoolmasters of the people, all will be well. The . church will not only deserve but command success. Con scientipus dissenters from her communion will have no just cause to complain, and her unconscientious ene mies must be resisted and subdued. All Protestants must unite in preventing the debasing restoration of Popish ascendancy, and every man Who values the blessings of a constitutional monarchy must lift up his arm to defend it against the insatiate ambition of a small, but determined, _republican faction, that is evidently re solved, per fas aut nefas, to subvert both the altar and the throne. THE following statistical remarks upon the subject of non-conformity, from the British Magazine, may not be uninteresting to our readers at the present time. The Wesleyan Methoaists; who do not consider them selves dissenters, and who profess only to supply the manifest inadequacy of the established church to supply the poor with religious instruction, .had, according to the minutes of Conference in. 1831, 246,157 members in England and Wales. The . other Methodists are stated in the circular at 53,060 ; and the minor sects may amount to 7000. But, as Many.Of these latter societies live in Ireland and Scotland; the whole number of mem bers belonging to the Methodist societies in England and Wales may be fairly estimated at about 300,000. Ac cording to the statements of an Independent, the author of "The Church Establishment founded in Errour," the number of Methodist chapels in England and Wales is 3,911. The same writer calculates the number of cha pels of the three denominations of Presbyterians, Inde pendents, and Baptists at 2,807, to which if we add 397 chapels of Quakers, and 169 of Unitarians, we have 3,373, as the whole number of dissenting congregations. . The chapels of the Methodists, therefore, are to those of the Dissenters as 13 to 11, and as there are 300,000 Methodist members, there will be, by the rule of three, 258,000 dissenting members of congregations. The whole of these are adults, and calculating the males at one-fourth of the congregation, we may fairly reckon the whole dissenting population, men, women, and child ren, at 480,000, and the Methodists at 550,000, which rather exceeds the'calculation lately made in .a Liverpool paper by a Dissenter—estimating Dissenters and Me thodists at 490,000 each. The Roman Catholics having increased very much lately by the influx of Irish may be computed at 400,000, and have 388 chapels. Now, to compare present with past times, and to show that the number of actual enrolled Dissenters lias4ot in creased in proportion to the increase of poptiWn, we may observe, that in the reign of King William the con formists were estimated at 2,477,254, the non-conformists (excluding Roman Catholics) at 103,676, so that the for . mer were above twenty-two times as numerous as the latter. The population of England is now 14,000,000, and if we calculate the Methodists at 1,100,000, and the Dissenters and Roman Catholics at 900,000, we shall have 12,000,000 non-dissenters, which is just twenty- Jive times the number of the non-conformists. • The proportions in Lancashire, as might be 'expected, appear to be greater, from the predominance of Roman 4: Now mark, reader I we may waive all these pleas ; we may give them full credit for all.th.ey can claim ; we may admit the full scope of their argument; or, at least, we may refrain from exposing its monstrous and glaring injustice; we may examine it on the score of their own vaunted and beloved expediency alone,—and how do they stand The King of Holland required; perhaps, two florins a ton—we would not even discuss his proposition ; we have destroyed his citadel ; we have just lighted up a "little" war—we have almost pounced upon one 'British object'—we exult in the near contemplation of one florin a ton L—when lo ! the Scheldt is closed, and, what is yet more unfortunate, no man can dispute the king of Hol land's right to close the Scheldt. Such is the consum mation which a righteous P‘rovidence has awarded to our crooked, dishonest, and tyrannical policy. And how is the Scheldt to be opened ? By another two years of imbecillity and protocols,. or. by another two months of bullying and Conventions ?—of blockades, without war; of embargoes, without war ; of "prisoners of war," four or five thousand, without war Truly the movement men of this country may consistently main tain the possibility of sieges, captures, bombardments, and bloodshed, without war ; for they have already proved and exemplified the melancholy counterpart of that pro position in this distracted country, arid in the sister island :• namely, that we may have riots, agitation, lawless and rebellious combinations, wholesale schemes of murder and incendiarism, destruction of Confidence, stagnation of industry, contraction of consumption and revenue, and yet, be at peace. We have got a peace which is no peace : why should we not have a war which is no war ? We have got a peace in name, which is no peace in reality : can we doubt their ability to crown their work, by giving us a war in reality which shall be no 'war in name ? In the meantime, the question is, shall we now have another Walcheren expedition to open the Scheldt ? or shall we sit down surrounded by infamy and protocols? STATE OF IRELAND.—The following is an extract ; a letter from a Clergyman in the county of Kilkeniv to a friend in this town:— " The Clergy cannot now obtain one shilling tithe fr ) , the Roman Catholics, without law, and that I have never i ; t sorted to, but endeavoured in the strength of the Lord, to t'' , l ; , patiently, if I could not joyfully,. the spoiling of my gt"` ; ! I'heProtcstant payers of tithes in tins quarter are very fewls even many of them arc quite afraid to pay. This count '"•s a truly awful state, life and property alike insecure, thC of the Clergy in imminent danger; burglaries or intirp;; Committed almost every day. Ail the houses of the g 0 „1 barricaded, and some deserted by the owners. 3lagiste i q power and authority actually despised, and in fact the la s , " the land a downright nullity. How any government e' suffer a country to arrive at such an seine of wickefill e , while it possessed the power of preventing it, I cannot ace° for. 01! Only for the remnant which is left, we might expect that whole country would be given up to s w ift and sure destructio SLAVERY.—We understand that the attention of the refo l Parliament is likely to be much occupied with petitions the West Indies, praying for the abolition of alavery itz English factories.—lt is an extraordinary fact that the 11e8 Marshall, of Leeds, whose liberal and philanthropic views b gained for them two seats iu the first reformed Parliao should profess themselves strenuous advocates for the a holil of slavery, three or four thousand miles from home, and sho at the same time, sanction the atrocities which have beets years perpetrated under their very noses, and in their owoi tories. There is, however, one thing more extraordinary than this, and that is, the amazing gullibility of John Bull. THE outcry which the radical press, backed by such men as Messrs. Poulett Thomson, Ewart, and Co., is making for the ballot, cannot be regarded otherwise than as grossly insulting to , Englishmen, and especially to that portion of the constituency created by the late Parlia ment. It has always been the practice of the liberals to laud and court the people whenever they could be made instrumental or subservient to some purpose of selfish ness or party aggrandizement ; but when, as now, the same purpose is to be effected by different means, the people are stigmatised as base, servile, and dependent. • What was the main argument upon which reform was attempted to be justified? Was it not that the middle and lower classes were competent to exercise, and, there fore, entitled to possess, the franchise ? But no sooner is this principle conceded by the enactment of the reform bill, and the great body of the people (exclusive of the lowest orders) constituted electors, than the long-eared gentlemen cf the press loudly bray:—" Oh the people are too venal, degraded, and dependent,—too accessible to corruption to be entrusted with the public exercise of the elective right." Without troubling ourselves to expose further the glaring inconsistency of the advocftes of the ballot,—without objecting in limine to the argument founded on the falsely assumed imputation with which they would brand our fellow-countrymen—we would re mind these sapient reasoners that their deduction is just as unwarranted and illogical as their premises are un true. If -it be the fact, as they allege, that a great por tion of the electors are incapable of voting virtuously and took ßri a c gh aorriagen, Toesd ai a y.—Th oe Shore King, ham. accomThepanie b Ladv 8 1 3 ring Princest Aug accompanied} Lady Mary Taylor, took a carriage airing t ' et of wards walked on the promenades. There was a It dinner and evening party, in celebration of the birthday of 1; Royal Highness the Duke of (Loucester, who this day 71. Rioted his fifty-seventh year —The state rooms in St. JailV Palace have been entirely renovated, preparatory to the c", mencement of the next town season. His 'Majesty's first le .will take place the first or second week of February. Up to this point, indeed, the measures of our ministry, have done the work of the Men of the movement, with rare exceptions, and consequently .they have been sup ported by the men of the movement; with rare excep tions. For the past, we cannot accuse them of having done all with their eyes open to consequences: but we lament their weakness, and their deadness-to any loftier principles than those of base-born expediency. For the future, we have better trust iu their. intentions, and bet- CORRESPONDENTS. VIRGO'S remarks with regard to the atmosphere are incorrect We thank AN IRISHMAN for his note, and purpose eering remarks on the subject of intimidation in our next. •i 4°' The memorandum of E. R. relatire to an occurrence at a P 0 • party is not a fit subject for a newspaper. The article on the Hydrostatic Bed, has already appeared 10 011 rat papers. or R. N., A TOWNSMAN, X. Y., and A CUSTOMHOUSE lis• MER, have been received. The hint of A FRIEND TO THE STANDARD will not though we deem it advisable nut to notice it publicly in mar. plicit terms at presev'. PLAUTUS and THE BALLOT came to hand too late. E. A. is under consideration. - • LIVERPOOL ;—Prillted Fritopi, iu U tOO:i 13:thaPV John Street, and Published at No. 7 , Ili ;h-street, Excha l , 'SAMUEL FRAM EYE, Stationer , of No. 7 , Anson-street. Advertisements are also received in London by Messrs. Warwick-square, ; and Mr. DA• 3l ' l.-3 Flvet-street.