The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-07 00:00:00

were such things as parliamentary etiquettes, and the hon member for Kilmarnock, Mr. Colquhoun, (cheers,) anxious to remove every impediment out of the way, and to clear the course for the withdrawal of the grant, had prepared a bill, which he had obtained leave this session to introduce into parliament, the proposal of which bill was, that the act in question should be repealed (cheers); that is, that by the authority of parliament the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and certain of the judges should no longer be visitors of the Col lege of Maynooth. (Renewed cheering.) The prayer of this was strengthened by another circumstance. It so happened that in the year 1800, just before the union with Ireland, another act passed the Irish legislature, restraining the powers of the visitors of Maynooth College, preventing them from entering into any inquiry respecting the religious discipline or doctrines taught within the walls ; so that, although by the former act they continued nominal visitors, by the latter act they were prevented from efficiently performing the office of visitors. (Hear.) One act practically neutralised the other, without repealing it directly (hear) ; and the object of Mr. Colquhoun's bill was to repeal both of them (cheers), or at least so much of them as referred to the College of Maynooth. Then there would be an opportunity for the hon. and learned member for Tipperary, or any of his com panions producing even the appearance of an excuse in any actof parliament as a screen for Maynooth College. A petition had been drawn up, then, setting forth, in the first place, the merits—or rather the demerits—of Maynooth College ; and, in the second place, imploring the legislature to pass Mr. Colquhoun's bill. It was for the purpose of signing that petition they had been assembled that evening, after they had received further information upon the subject of the College of Maynooth as a failure, and as to the objects and merits of the bill. (Hear.) He was happy to be sup ported as he was upon that great occasion. He would only say further at present, that we were very often told that our petitions were of no use—that they were treated with contempt in the House of Commons, and that we petitioned in vain. (Hear.) We were told superciliously enough that the House of Commons did nut care for all our petitions. He was not very sure but that was true enough at present, that our petitions were treated in a very cavalier way in the house, but then, although sent to the house they were not confined to the house—(hear, hear,)—they went through the country. Our petitions, our speeches with regard to those petitions, and our protestant agitation for the truth and against error—these were all leavening the mind of the pub lic who would soon have an opportunity of selecting another House of Commons. (Loud cheers.) He did not say this from any private information of his own respecting any in tention upon the part of ministers to resign. (Laughter.) He believed, upon the contrary, that nothing could be fur ther from their intention—( renewed laughter) ; but according to the constitution of these realms no parliament could last longer than seven years, and no parliament had recently been allowed to last so long. (Hear.) It must then die a natural death. The practise had always been to exercise the prero gative of the crown and to dissolve it before it had reached its decrepitude, therefore it could not be long. Independent of beatings in both houses of parliament, independent of exe crations in the country, independent of inconsistencies in themselves, independent of broken faith, broken pledges, broken words, broken honour—independent of all these things, it could not be long, he said, till the people of Eng land would have an opportunity of selecting another House of Commons. (Cheers.) In the mean time what were we doing ? They (the clergy) were not men who interfered per sonally at elections, like popish priests. (Hear, hear.) You never found them at the hustings ; you never found them canvassing for votes—no such thing ; but he would tell the meeting what they did. They interfered not upon the day of election, but they interfered every day, and every day throughout the whole year, and year after year, to qualify the people to act properly at an election. The people got sound instruction from them in order to know how to exercise their privileges. The people had duties of various sorts : they had personal and domestic and relative duties, and from whom were they to receive the proper instruction for the right dis charge of those duties? They had duties which they owed to their families, duties as parents • and from whom should they get instruction as to the discharge of those duties, but from their pastors? They had duties which they owed to the state, and in proportion as they were invested with pri vileges, those duties become responsibilities ; from whom should they get instruction as to the best mode of dis charging those duties but from their pastors ? (Hear, hear, hear.) Was not God the God of the family as well as the God of the man ? Was -be not the God of our duty as the head of a family, as well as the God of our duty as citizens of the state? Was he not the God of the state as well as the God of the family ? and was he not the God of the people's duties as electors, as much as he was the God of their duties as fathers ? (Hear.) If we were responsible to God for the exercise of the privileges we enjoyed, both public and private, who should direct us how to use them? (Hear.) They (the clergy), then, were teaching the people sound scriptural po litics : they wanted the people of England to say, in the voice of a giant that must be heard, that God, and the word of God, should not be banished from the origin of British poli tics. (Hear.) They wanted the people to say, and to make the honourable, and the right honourable, and noble, and learned, who came begging for their " sweet voices" when the time for election came, understand that the Bible had been, and must be, in the ascendancy in the British senate. (Loud cheers.) They wanted the people to tell them they had no notion of having legislators who could say they were Protestants, and act as if they were Papists—(cheers) ;—that they had no notion of men who told them they were members of the Church of England, the anti-popish Church of Eng land, the protesting Church of England, the scriptural Church of England, whose articles denounced all the abomi nations that Romish rubbish had heaped upon the fair face of primitive Christianity, and yet afterwards declaring they would sit in the House of Commons to pay money for the teaching of priests, who were to teach the error of those ar ticles, who were to teach the very contrary to that church, who were to teach that that church was heresy, that all its members were heretics, and that not one belonging to it could escape everlasting damnation. (Hear, hear.) The priests of Rome taught this ; and there were senators who told us they were members of the Church of England, yet who went into the House of Commons, and quietly voted away the people's money to pay those priests of Rome ! (Cries of shame.) Yes, it was a shame; and who was it that taught the people all this? How were they to know it if they were not taught? (Hear, hear.) Who were the right teachers of this but the clergymen of the country ? (Cheers.) What was the reason England had fallen into such forgetfulness of these things, but that the clergy had become too tender, mild, and forbearing ; that they had confined them selves too entirely to spiritual things, and to the personal duties of men as individuals? (Hear.) They had been teach ing their congregations as if the spiritual duties of detached individuals had nothing to do with the things of the state, consequently the members of their congregations, whilst they have had instruction about their personal duties, have been neglected as to their political duties! (Hear, hear) He heard a member of parliament once say that he had been ten years in parliament, and had been to church every Sunday through those successive years except once, when he was kept away by sickness, and that he had never heard from the mouth of a single clergymen, either in town or country, one single word about his duty as a senator ! (Hear.) And why? Be cause the clergy thought it was profane to speak of the duties of senators. What, was it more profane to speak about that than to speak about the duties of fathers, mothers, and neigh bours ! (Hear, hear.) They did not think it impolitic or profane to tell them to be honest towards their neighbours ; was it profane then to tell our senators their duty as neigh bours? (Cheers.) The meeting saw then how they (the clergy) stood ; and that they were instructing the people of England as far as their voices would reach. In conclusion, he congratulated the meeting on the fact of the Protestant agitation having been wonderfully successful. (Loud cheers.) The Rev. J. N. CONNOR briefly moved the first resolu tion, as follows: " That this meeting are satisfied that the College of May nooth, in Ireland, whether considered as a political experi ment, or a seminary for education, moral or religious, has proved a total failure, and worse than a mere failure." The Rev. HUGH STOWELL rose amidst repeated rounds of enthusiastic applause to second the resolution. He had very great delight in seeing his dear friend (the chair man) surrounded by so enthusiastic an army of working Pro testants. (Hear, hear.) Had he seen him surrounded only by our rich merchants, or by our men of wealth, of rank, and influence, he might have feared that our Protestant work would prove at best but a splendid pageant ; but when he saw that our Protestant movement was taking a mighty hold upon the sentiments and the intelligence of the mighty mass of our mechanics and working men, lie believed then, that because its basis was broad and deep, its superstructure would be steadfast and lofty. (Hear, hear.) He believed there was no better test in the long run that a cause was true and righteous, if it were open and above broad, than that it carried with it the mass and multitude of the working classes. (Hear.) We had not forgotten, when our blessed Lord and Master herebelow protested against the vices, and abuses, and errors, and follies of his day, that whilst of the Scribes and Pharisees, and priests, and rulers, but few followed with him, the common people heard him gladly. (Hear.) To the poor the gospel was then preached ; to the poor the gospel is now preached •, and were he a traveller, and chanced to have to pass his sabbath in a town where he was a stranger, he should wish to know where he might hear the sweet silvery notes of the gospel trumpet gloriously giving forth no uncer tain sound ; and he should be disposed to ask, " Where is it that the poor and working classes love to bend their footsteps, where is the sabbath speaking bell, that pleasing messenger which seemed to say to us as to those in olden times, when we were going with our families and friends to church, we were glad when it was said to us, ' let us go to the house of the Lord.' " (Applause.) Aye, where the free sittings were most crowded, you might take it for granted that there the truth of Christ was simply and uncompromisingly preached, that there was no unrelenting reserve, there, there was no dark book of human traditions and human misrepresentations, but there we might look for the plain simple truth, unvar nished, undisguised, and uncompromised. (Hear.) He had no question too, that in proportion as Protestant principles took root among the working classes, Protestant principles must gradually force their way upwards to the heads of the community—(hear) —for after all it could neither be denied nor disguised, that upon the multitude of the people de pended the wealth and happiness and the constitution of any nation (hear) ; and however the nobles and the aristocracy of a country might be flourishing and prosperous, unless we had a well-principled, well-informed, moral, religious, sober, upright, peasantry and body of mechanics, we wanted that which was to give stability to the entire fabric. The foun dation after all was the strength of the structure, and give him the sound foundation, even before the sound head. (Hear.) We could not, indeed, have the one effectually without having the other ; but let us have a firm christian foundation, and then we could not doubt but that in due time we should have a noble, beautiful, and symmetrical super structure arising from that base. (Hear.) He felt, too, cheered to see that our working men here appeared to be men who came with intellectual minds, deeply imbued with the importance of the subject : that they seemed to discri minate between what was sound and false in a r gument. They appeared to him as if they carried a great deal of Pro testant light infused into their minds. When he was a s k e d " what are your Protestant ass ociations doing," he pointed to the numbers of workingmen now composingthernhere and in Manchester. All he wanted in Manchester was a room large enough to contain those who were desirous of hearing ; an d if they had a room to contain them, made India rubber, to expand as it filled, he believed i t might beTxpanded more and more till it burst, for they had, as we had, thousands coming to their doors who were reluctantly compelled to return. (Loud cheers.) But this was not all. This move ment was not a mere thing of excitement, from the talking at a public meeting; but thank God, our working men were protestant advocates in their own little way. (Cheers.) If they were shipwrights, they were protestant advocates in the ship-yard ;if they were dyers, they advocated pro testant principles over the dye-v a t, and could point out the black — no, the scarlet dye—(cheers) —as the colour of Rome ; they could point out also the beautiful blue as the colour of the true catholic church of England, without any party colour ; if they were weavers, whilst they were plying their shuttles and weaving the texture of their web, they were often weav ing beautiful protestant arguments, and fresh intellig ence ; if they were joi ners, whilst they plied the saw and cut away into the grain of the wood, they were applying the saw of sound protestant argument, and cutting their way through some of the old rotten timber of the church of Rome. (Loud cheers.) And then they were not content simply with car rying on the holy war f are in their workshops, but they car ried it on in the eveni ng h our by visiting their neighbours, by watching over thei r orotestant acquaintances and friends, that they might not lie lured into the snares of popery, guarding our protestant lambs that none be drawn out of the fold among the ravening wolves of Rome. (Loud cheers.) In this way they were guarding most effectually their neigh bours. In several instances they had gone so far—and al though it was a delicate negotiation, it was one he would give them absolution for, as we held it, namely, that absolution was merely declaratory, —as t o b e - instrumental in more than one instance in breaking off an unholy match that was going to take place between a nominal protestant and a papist —when it was sure the nominal protestapt would have been drawn over into popery, and have changed light for darkness. He was happy to see that our workinc , men were the men suited and adapted for occasions like this, when we had pe titions to get up. If they wanted to know how their pro testant forces had multiplied in Manchester, let him inform them of the number of signatures they had obtained to their petition against Maynooth. Four years ago, their first peti- iion got 17,000 signatures ; last year it received 21,400, which was a great advance ; but their petition this year,_ which he supposed Mr. Colquboun was presenting to the house that night, or, if not, he would some other night this week, ob- tarried nearly 27,000 signatures. (Cheers.) Thus the meet ing saw the Protestant thermometer in Manchester was ris ing at the rate of 5000 a-year! (Cheers.) He thought they would very soon be at fever heat ; but he hoped, at the same time, it would be combined with a collected judgment, so that, whilst they had the greatest energy, they would also have the greatest discretion. (Cheers.) We wanted, in this - - - holy controversy, to imitate Romaniseci, which seemed to be wise as serpents, terrible as lions, but harmless as doves. (Hear.) We wished, in this controversy with Romanists, to render them evil for good ; to have all their wisdom with- out their craft; to have all their art without their artifice and all their zeal and boldness without one drop of their bit; terness, or one atom of their bigotry. (Cheers.) Now, how , far were the working men of Liverpool 'going to let the work ing men of Manchester be ahead of them this year, in the number of their _signatures to this petition ? (Cries of " None.") In Manchester they had got 27,000 signatures within a short time : would they in Liverpool get 30,000 ? Perhaps they could get 35,000 (A voice, " We'll have 50,000," followed by cheers.) He was thankful to see the progress of the cause, and that many of our merchants, gen tlemen of station and influence, were beginning to gather round, and contend for our Protestant movements. Their very last meeting in Manchester had a goodly array of rich merchants, and ladies, and clergy, for men were beginning to believe they who promoted these movements were honour- able men, and bad no party objects in view—that they did not wish to be slaves to conservatism any more than to radi- calism—but that they professed to be Protestant Christians, trembling for the ark of God, and willing to lay down their lives for it. (Cheers.) He was aware that some of the more political conservatives had drawn back from them, and were saying, " Why, you sometimes hit a hard blow every way ; you strike friend as well as foe, in your blind, indiscriminate zeal; sometimes you give Sir Robert Peel a back stroke as well as Lord John Russell ;—what do you mean by this ?" They meant this ;—they loved conservatism, they loved Sir Robert Peel, they loved the Duke of Wellington, but they loved Protestant truth ten thousand times better (Loud cheers.) They said from the bottom of their hearts God speed Sir Robert Peel, God speed the Duke of Welling- ton, that honourable and venerable old man—(great cheers) God speed Lord Stanley—(cheers)—so long as they stood up in defence of the liberty of Protestant truth ; 'but if they, through love of expediency—if they, through political tergiversation—if they, through the fear of man getting the better o -. the fear of God in their hearts, were to tamper with Protestantism, and try to betray her more than she had been betrayed, then they sid, " We know not the Duke of Wel lington, illustrious warrior though he be—we know not Sir Robert Peel, master mind though he is, and splendid as are his bursts of eloquence—we kno% - v not Lord Stanley, fearless and honourable as he is, and in debate irresistible as he is,— when we look at our duty we know nothing else, and we will by no means consent to any compromise of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ and the ark of the living God. (Great cheers.) And he believed that ere long—it might be but a very little while—we should have our honesty put to the test. (Hear, heat.) When our conservative friends came into power, as come into power he believed they must — (cheers)—spite of all the tenacity with which whiggism clung to office more than to honour or almost to life, were we going to dissolve our Protestant Associations? (Loud cries of " No, no.") Were we going, if one end had been answered by getting the conservatives into power, to show that we had been playing the hypocrite merely to accomplish a certain purpose ? God forbid. (Loud cheering.) We should con tinue our exertions the more, for we had need to watch even a conservative administration, seeing we had not forgotten that a friend could do more mischief, and on one occasion had actually done more mischief, than an open enemy. (Hear, hear.) But we had learned this lesson, not to put our trust in man, whose breath was in his nostrils, and that if we had not put our trust in Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington more than in God, we should never have had our beautiful constitution shorn of its right hand, pre senting to the eye the melancholy, though splendid, wreck of its former self. (Hear, hear.) He felt, therefore, that the time was likely to be near at hand, when we should have it in our power to'give to the country, and to our conserva tive friends, the evidence that we were more than conserva tives—that we were Christian conservatives—(hear) :—when we should show that if we loved conservatism, it was because we believed it came the nearest to christi•snity, that if con servatism was what it ought to be, it would be true protes tant, christian, political principle. (Hear.) He would give nothing for your mere party conservative—for the violent, headstrong man who would run into the pit as well as walk on the pure, calm plain of truth, if he only saw his leaders go before him. (Hear.) What he wanted was that conser vatism which took no leader, and called none master save one, the Lord, for he was the only master; what he wanted was, that conservatism which followed only where Christ's gospel lead, and where it led not, though all the world went before, to stand alone and solitary in isolated conspicuous ness and grandeur. (Cheers.) And certain he was, even if the conservative party should come into power they would not long keep that power, unless they kept it upon high christian principle. (Loud cheers.) He believed that this nation was so far awake to its interests, and so far alive to its dangers, that no administration which could not act upon the principle that popery was to be kept in its proper place, and protestant ascendancy to be maintained uncompromised, or rather restored to its former integrity—(cheers),—he be lieved, he said, that no administration which did not act with this in view—he did not say at once carrying all, but gradu- ally restoring our institutions, taking from popery the poli tical power it had been entrusted with, and withdrawing the assistance given to popery in our colonies abroad, and to May - nooth at home, (hear), unless, he said, we had an adminis tration which would thus carry out the protestant principle, for one had little hope that the conservatives would stand long in power, and he doubted if they would speed, to any great extent, our progress. (Hear, hear.) Oh, that we could get one great statesman, to come to the knowledge of this one single fact, that all sound legislation must be begun, continued, and ended in connection with the word of God! (Cheers.) If they would take their bible, and consult it before they determined upon any measure, they would get more assistance from one single page than they would from the whole of their cabinet councils ! How delightful it would be fora set of ministers, when they were about to de liberate upon any great question involving the interests of this country, and through this country, to a certain extent, the interests of the world, to kneel down and ask the God of all wisdom and grace, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, to guide them ! (Applause.) They would then have complied with the requirements of his Word, of the word of God ; they would then be satisfied whether what they were going to do was for the good of the people, and if they found it did not accord with that Word, they would abandon it altogether. (Cheers.) Was this thought to be fanatical and foolish ? Then it was the fanaticism and folly, —he spoke it with all reverence and all awe—of the great Father of all, for did he not give to his people Israel a consti tution that was to be in its essential principle the pattern of all succeeding constitutions ? (Hear, hear). In that consti tution was not God to be acknowledged upon all occasions, and his will set before the people in a manner not to be mis taken ? Was not God placed supreme in all the laws of the land ? (Hear, hear.) Should it be said, that was a theocracy, and therefore it could have no parallel now, he answered that every government and constitution should be as far as possi ble a theocracy. (Hear.) God could not be too distinctly recognized by the nations, or too much regarded in the laws of any country, too much feared in the tribunals of justice or within the walls of the senate house; his word could not be too much carried into the words and acts of all in authority over us. ' (Loud cheers.) If it was by him that princes ruled ( and senators were taught wisdom, if it was by him that our Queen was brought to the throne, and he was pleased to keep the sceptre in her hands ; and if our country sunk or rose in prosperity as we were faithful or faithless, we owed much to God for his mercies, we owed much to the Bible for our laws, and therefore let them ever be acknow ledged by our rulers. (Cheers.) Oh, there was not a more godless and atheistical sentiment than that promulgated in these our days, that religion had nothing to do with politics. (Hear.) It was saying that God had nothing to do with nations, and if he had nothing to do with nations, he had nothing to do with individuals, and if he had nothing to do with individuals, he had nothing to do with the world, and if he had nothing to do with the world, we were poor wretched outcasts, launched upon the cheerless, starless shore of atheism, without God to govern us, or hope to con sole us, and we were at the best but as the beasts that perish for ever. He knew no language too strong, and no indigna tion too severe to launch against that atheistical sentiment. (Hear.) Disguise it as you might, let it come from the lips of the religionist or the infidel, of Romanist or radical, it was a sentiment that, when weighed in the balance of the sanc tuary, was nothi ng e l se t h an c h eer l ess , h ope l ess , a th e i sm ,— (hear, hear)—it was getting rid of God from the world, from nations, from individuals, from all mankind, and we were to live—as he had said before—in a worthless and ruined world, without a God who cared for us. The sentiment thus turned out to be nothing less than hopeless irretrievable atheism. With these views could we not but feel that an administra tion which did not set God before it, could not prosper, and the nation which was so governed how could it prosper ? He was well aware, however, that in reply to this it would be said, this may be perfectly true and sound, but you are not ministers of the state, you are not members of the administration which is to guide, therefore you have been thus declaiming.uselessly. He agreed with his reverend and esteemed brother that the clergy of the national church were the teachers and guides of the national mind in matters of religion—that they were to teach and guide not only the cot tager in his own little circle, but the senator in his loftier station—nay, the queen herself upon the throne was to be taught by the ministers of the gospel. (Cheers.) If the ministers of the Church of England were only faithful to the poor and faithless to the rich, if they dared to tell the truth the working man and dared not tell it to the peer and the prince, where was the fear of God swallowing up their fear of man ? They ought to know not the faces of men, therefore he believed in God if his reverend brother (Mr. M'lsleile) or himself were, through the grace of God, to preach before the queen and her court, they would use no more smooth lan guage, or reserve in divinity, no more keeping back of the truth, but teaching the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, than they would were they preaching among a multitude of unenlightened men. (Cheers.) He trusted, while they would yield to no men in proper and deep respect to the powers that be, that in their hearts there was a feeling of loyalty towards their beloved Queen, and that they would testify that loyalty by shewing they were first loyal to the King of Kings, and then loyal to their Queen whom he had placed over them. (Cheers.)—The reverend gentleman then proceeded to describe Bishop Latimer's faithful preaching before Henry VIII.—May, said he, his unworthy namesakes have grace to tread in his steps ! May they in bearing a martyr's name have somewhat of a martyr's spirit, that whe ther they be called upon to testify for protestant truth in the face of a tumultuous mob, or in the face of the mightiest of the earth, they may take no counsel with flesh and blood, but simply ask—" Lord, what would thou have me to do, speak, for thy servant hears ; what thou speaks I will speak, that thy will may be done !" (Hear.) —Mr. Stowell then considered the church of England as a protestant association, and said that although some attempts had been made to de stroy the meaning of her 39 articles, they would be main. tained and preserved in their integrity, in spite of all the efforts of popery and infidelity. He next briefly glanced at the vapourings of the popish priest Butler, and expressed the gratification he felt at the manner in which Mr. Baylee had had accepted his challenge. But the Doctor was evidently afraid of his antagonist, and if he should go to Manchester he would find parties there capable of dealing with him. He had made these prelimi nary remar k s , w ith th view of justifying his friends and himself in taking part in what, strictly speak ing, might be called a political measure; yet it was rather a politico-religious measure, so far as it was connected with religion. The object was to put an end to the grant to the College of Maynooth. Some might say—why attempt this —why not attack some more gross and glaring evil ? There were several reasons for that. In the first place, the grant to the College of Maynooth, made by .Mr. Pitt, was the first step in the sad career of concession, which had brought us so low. It was the first compromise of Protes tant integrity, the first attack by the unhallowed hands of Rome. Therefore, to stop the grant to Maynooth should be the first step towards a restoration of our Protestant inte grity. (Hear.) In the next place, he believed that the de mand of Romanism to have the power of legislation over us, was for the purpose of overturning the securities of Protes tantism, and therefore to destroy the character of our national government ; but he believed that to support Popery directly by grants of money, was a step in advance. (Hear, hear.) He would not deprive the poor Roman catholic of the, legisla tive franchise, but he could deprive him of the power of send ing men to parliament, who from their principles were not fit to legislate for us. Neither would beltake away the privilege of religious toleration. He would not if he could, take one brick out of any mass-house in England : Ireland, or the world ; he would not touch a hair of the head of the pope, or of any Romish priest, or of any man upon earth, for the sake of his religion, but he would have the true protestant churh of Eng land in the ascendant. The rev. gentleman, whose eloquent address we have been reluctantly obliged toeurtail froni the great demands upon our space, concluded by seconding the resolution, and it was carried with great cheering. Mr. JAMES MATTHEWS, in an eloquent address, moved the second resolution _ _ " That this meeting approve of the petition already adopted at a public meeting in Toxteth-park, in favour of Mr. Colquohoun's bill, and that every exertion be used to obtain signatures to the same." [The petition was inserted in the Standard of the 20th ult.] Mr. W. R. PRESTON cordially seconded the resolution, and on being put it was unanimously carried. The CHAIRMAN then said—You have now pledged your selves to the signing of this petition, and Mr. Stowell has told you how far Manchester have got. The agitation upon this subject is not confined to Manchester. I - want to tell you a very remarkable circumstance that has occurred in the south of England. Sir Henry Smyth, baronet, member of parliament for the town of Colchester, addressed his consti tuents some time ago, and in the course of his address he made use of these words— " At our last meeting I used strong language respecting the College of Maynooth. I think I made use of the words ' - I;ea - sily iloctrines:taught there ;' and I do not recall them A. gentleman of this neighbourhood wrote me a letter on the subject in a newspaper, which I did not answer, because I thought it not written in _such language as one gentleman ought to address to another. Helives within five or six miles from this place, and he will hear of this, because what _ . I say will be reported in the public papers ; and I say I am . . . willing to meet him with any number of friends, and by the class books of Maynooth, I will prove that I was justified in using those words ' beastly doctrines ;" and though it may not satisfy him it will justify me." _ _ _ The person here referred to is a Mr. North, a Romish priest. He was roused by Sir Henry Smyth applying to the doctrines .. . _ taught at Maynooth, the term "beastly," and he thought by writing a letter in such terms as Sir Henry says one gen- tfeman ought not to address to another, he should browbeat the baronet, and claim the Colchester agitation in favour of the priests and the college. He has been disappointed— (hear)—Sir Henry Smyth was not_to be put down so. He addressed his constituents again, and told them he was ready to meet the priest, and from the class-books of Maynooth to justify the application of the term " beastly" to' the doc trines there taught. (Hear.) Well, now, the next point is— the priest refused to meet him—he would not come (hear, hear, hear); but Sir Henry was not so to be silenced, and he invited a meeting of gentlemen of full age, for he had to deal with a subject painful to every gentleman, impractica ble in a mixed assembly, corrupting to youth, utterly inde fensible even for allusion before the female sex. (Hear, hear.) He had to go into the doctrines opened in the class-books of Maynooth, in all manner of disgust ing detail, from which books you would imagine it was ne- cessary for every young confessor in his confession box to be a perfect anatomist, to be a practiced accoucheur, to know every species of congugal detail, while he himself is personally sworn to e:libacy ! ( Hear.) Sir Henry Smyth knew the subject he had to deal with, and he invited only men to hear him. He had a meeting of 150 gentlemen, and I hold in my hand his address to that meeting, wherein he does justify, by the most awful disclosures, the application of the term " beastly" to the doctrines taught at Maynooth. (Hear.) He read this address from a written paperpaperthat he had pre pared for the occasion : he had translated the passages from the class-books of Maynooth,and read them in English to the assembled gentle Men, exciting instinctive cries of disgust and horror. (Rear.) tie has noi printed them in English— he has used this discretion ; he knows the difficulty of ex- posing what is vile, he knows as man is fallen that in the act of exposure he contracts defilement ; that in point of fact it is the excess of the vileness of the Romist confessional which has to this day screened it from the exposure it deserves. (Cheers.) They have made it so detestable that no man who has any regard to his own feelings, no Protestant man, no man who loves his Bible, can ever, except under the pressure of a high public duty, venture to make himself acquainted with those abominations. (Hear, hear.) I solemnly protest, that in the exercise of the duty I have felt myself called upon to discharge, to make myself acquainted with the class-books of Maynooth, that in the privacy of my study my mind has recoiled from them with horror ; that I have been tempted to shut the book, notwithstanding the sense of duty ; and that I have returned to it only under the most painful conviction that a self-denying duty was to be performed, that 1 might speak from what I knew and had read, and might not even upon hearsay libel the Church of Rome. (Hear, hear.) Sir Henry Sinyth expresses himself in the same way : he was wounded to the quick by the necessity of performing this painful duty, but he persevered because he felt it was a duty he owed to his country. He did it; he read these extracts from the class-books; some of them he has given in English in this pamphlet ; but all calculated to disgust in detail be has kept under the shelter of a learned language. Still here is the substance, with the pages and the volumes of the va rious class-books of the college, returned by the professors to the parliamentary commissioners appointed to inquire into Irish education. (Hear.) He refers but to three books, — first, De La Hogue ; second, Bailly ; and third, Cabassutias. , From these books he shows the character of the instructions given to these young priests. Here is a specimen. You need not, my de-r friends, be afraid. lam not going to read anything from it unbecoming either of my own character or of your Christian delicacy. But without doing so I cannot give you an insight into the nature of the detestable details that they are instructed to pry into in the confessional. De La Hogue says— " If a priest is questioned by a magistrate, as to matters which he has learned by confession alone, he ought to reply that he is ignorant of them • nay, he ought to swear to it, which he may do without danger or falsehood. (Hear, and cries of " Shame.") In doing so he neither lies nor equivo cates, since he frames a true reply to the intention of the per son interrogating him, because the magistrate asks him what he knows in his character as a man, not what he knows as God." (Cries of " Oh, oh l")- _ That is from the first volume of De La Hogue, p. 292. This rests upon the dogma that in the confessional the priest stands as God, that what he learns there, he does not learn as man; therefore when he is asked upon it by a magistrate, who asks what he knows "as man," he may say, " I do not know it," he may swear " I do not know it," and he neither lies nor equivocates. (Hear.) Now with regard to the mode in which enquiries are made in the confessional concerning the sins committed by the penitent. You must know that the person who come to confess to one of these Maynooth priests is not left at liberty to make a voluntary confession. (Hear.) The priest is instructed at the college how to extract a con fession—how to put inquiries—to elicita confession, and they have a sort of memoria technica in a Latin line to help them to all the particulars : " (anis, quid, übi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando." (Hear, hear.) You do not understand this yet, but I will teach you the meaning of it : " Q j uis? "—Who is the sinning party, and of what condi dition ? Old or young? Married or single ? Free or un der religious vows ? Quis—enquire all about the person. (Hear, hear.) " Quid ? "—What is the nature of the guilty act ? Whe ther is it a thought or an act ? Or a thought leading to an act with all its circumstances and possible aggravations ? Quid ! (Rear, hear.) " Übi "—Ubi signifies where ? Where was it com - mitted ? At home or abroad ? In a consecrated place or not ? Was it in the chapel ? Was it in the grave yard ? UN? In public or in private ? (Hear, hear.) " Quibus auxiliis ?"—With what assistance ? Who was helping you ? (Hear, hear.) " Cur ?"—That is, why ? With what motives ? For the gratification of which of the propensities of your evil nature? (Hear.) Here is a large field for the young lad to draw out confessions. (Hear, hear.) " Quomodo ? "—That is, how ? How ? Sir Henry Smyth says that is " a little word, but very large in its significa tion. comprehending every possible mode or position in which a vicious act may be committed." (Hear, hear.) " Quatzdo ? "—When ? How often ? By day or by night ? Was it upon a holy day? Oh, oh, oh ! (Hear, hear.) Now I shall supply you from this pamphlet with a short portion of ecclesiastical history with regard to this same private confessional : "There is no doubt that during the first four or five centu ries of Christianity, the practice of confessions was public. This afterwards gave way to one of a more mixed character; the Bishops either receiving disclosures privately, or dele gating some priest to do so, and enjoining the penitent be fore absolution would be granted to declare publicly such special sins as the Priest might choose to prescribe. But in the time of Nectarius, the predecessor of Chrysostoin in the see of Constantinople, an event arose out of this public custom which caused a change in the ordnance." _ That cause led to private confession. A very untoward event occurred, which led to the public confessional being dis continued ; the event was this. A woman was brought to make her confession publicly, and she confessed publicly that she had been guilty of adultery with the Deacon of the Church. (Hear, hear.) Upon this the Bishop commanded that all confessions should afterwards be private. (Hear, hear.) Chrysostom opposed the private confession ; the great Catholic Doctor Chrysostom opposed with all his elo quence the system of private confession, but still the prac tice prevailed throughout all Christendom. " Thus," says Sir Henry Smyth, " this practice, instead of being traceable to any Scriptural authority, was nothing but an unjustifiable resource in a vicious extremity." There is the origin of it ; I have shown you some of the causes of it; and when you know it is systematically taught at Mayooth, that the priests are drilled into it, that they are made to learn the lessons given in this book as to the quis, the quid, the übi, the quibus auxiliis, the cur, the quoenodo, and the quando, (hear, hear,) you will contrast that with the solid, wholesome, kind, delicate treatment which our blessed, Lord is recorded to have manifested when there came persons to him willing to magnify an offence, and dragging into his presence a woman taken in adultery. Jesus Christ stooped down, and wrote with his finger on the ground as though he heard them not. When they perse vered in their charge, instead of gratifying their vile curiosity by entering into an inquiry, lie appealed to their consciences, " he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her." They went out, one by one, convicted in their consciences, and the poor trembling woman was left alone before the Sa viour. What then ? Did he then proceed to examine her as to the particulars of her fault? No. " Where are these thine accusers," he said, " has any man condemned thee ?" She said, " No, Lord." Jesus Christ said, " Neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more." There is the dignity, the solemnity, the gravity, the holiness, the delicacy of the confessional wherein Christ presided ! Oh, contrast it with the dastardly curiosity, the vile, detestable, indelicate, anti-christian abominations of the confessional of Rome, and say, " Is the pope of Rome the vicar of Christ, or the sworn enemy of Christ, upon earth ?" (Hear, hear.) lam thank ful for the solemnity with which this exposure has been re ceived. I hail your silence as a token of the depth of your conviction, and I anticipate much real good from this ex posure of Romish iniquity. (Hear.) Well, you see then that the Protestant agitation has not been confined to Liver pool. (Hear, hear.) I have called your attention to these instructive facts which have taken place in the south of Eng land, at Colchester, and now we come to our own town. Sir Henry Smyth has not been down here calling the doc trines of Maynooth " beastly ; " but several things have been said here which have taken considerable effect, more than they ate willing to acknowledge, upon the minds of Roman catholic priests in this town. There is a very urgent enquiry upon the subject of religion going on among the Roman ca tholic population of Liverpool ; there is an anxiety for en. quiry checked by the painful circumstances of outward ne cessity, arising from the conviction if they be known to enquire, they will lose their situations in which they are at work. They find it difficult to get employment if it be known they are hesitating in their allegiance to Rome. (Hear.) Many in this town are checked by this very thing, but it is felt that such an enquiry is going on. Accordingly one and another of these poor men, facing all the risks to themselves and families arising from possible starvation, consequent upon their want of employment, do come out. They come as Nicodemus came to our Lord and Master, after dark, to en quire from the clergymen of this town, about the Bible, and ask them to tell them the way of salvation. (Hear.) They come at night, poor fellows, when they can creep in and no spy see them to tell the priests of Rome. (Hear.) The thing, I say, has been felt : and it is not by accident that another Roman catholic priest has come here ; things of that , sort do not happen by accident ; priests do not stay eight • or ten days in a town by accident ; they do not deliver I lecture after lecture in towns by accident. (Hear, hear.) They do not have advertisements and laudatory paragraph put into newspapers by accident: they do not get the tem perature of the Mercury elevated by accident. (Cheers and laughter.) Now I heard some time ago that this same priest was brought down here, I say again, not by accident ; but something must be done, for they feel that something is going on in Liverpool that they must try to stop. They have tried it, but they could not ; it was a failure like Maynooth. I heard this priest spoken of, and I paid very little attention to the matter. I suppose at first when I heard his name spo ken, I should scarcely have been able to pronounce it extem poraneously, and I might have gone wrong like Mr. Stowell. However, I saw paragraphs in the newspapers evidently in tended for a purpose, giving out that he was come to answer " the anti-christian discourses delivered in Liverpool by M'Neile and Co." (Hear.) Here was a trap laid to entice unwary protestants to go to St. Anthony's chapel—where I believe they have to pay for their admission. (Hear.) 12 there not to be pay for admission. (Cries of " Yes," and a voice " 2d.") Yes, 2d to the body, and how much to the gallery ? (A voice, " 6d," cheers, during which, a man in the crowd raised some slight uproar.) I saw these para graphs in the newspapers, and at the meeting of our protes tant operatives in Toxteth-park, I thought it very proper to take notice of them. I heard also that this gentleman had invited any of the clergy of the Church of England, who chose to meet him in controversy. (Hear.) There are two modes of carrying on controversy. One is by oral discussion, and the other is by writing, by sermons or lectures, one in answer to another, by letter, or whatever form it may take. One mode in short is by word of mouth, and the other is by the press. It so happens, that this champion of Romanism, who is come down to Liverpool, has met with an offer in each kind, and he may take his choice. (Hear, hear.) If he prefer controvery in the press, I have offered to be at his service —(immense cheers) ;—if he prefer controversy by word of mouth, Mr. Baylee has offered him his services— (renewed cheers),—so Dr. Butler you may take your choice. Utrum horam monis accipe ! Take whichever you like best. (Loud cheers.) If writing is your forte, Mr. M'Neile is your man ; if talking is your forte, Mr. Baylee is your man. (Renewed cheers.) But now Dr. Butler has refused to meet Mr. Baylee until his " Scripture Lectures" are answered ; and I have great pleasure in telling you, that Mr. Baylee has given notice that he will deliver a course of lectures in this room, in answer to Dr. Butler's book. (Loud cheers.) The Ist is to be delivered on Friday week. A VOICE.—What is the entrance? Mr. M`NEILE.—The entrance here must be in order to defray expenses; in a place of worship we charge nothing. (Great cheering.) One step further. Some one who loves controversy, and wishes to see fair play, and who can write short-hand, has gone to St. Anthony's Chapel and has taken down what is called " The substance of a lecture delivered by the Rev. T. Butler, D.D., in answer to the anti-catholic discourses by the Rev. Hugh M`Neile." This has been published, but it is not authenticated by the doctor, and he may shrink from and disown it. His name is upon the title page certainly, but it only comes from a newspaper, and he may say " It is only the substance of my lecture, and it is not what I said ; and every now and then the writer says, " The lecturer said so and so," and " The lecturer said." Now, here is a loop-hole. (Hear, hear.) He may get out of it in any way ; but I want to tell you I am willing to run all the risk of the rev. gentleman denying all this " sub stance"—that I have written a letter in answer to it, which will be printed and within your reach the day after to morrow. (Cheers.) It meets two points which are reported in the " Substance of the Lecture," in which he brings charges against. me. The rev. gentleman then mentioned these points : the first related to the matter of Mr. and Mrs. Galway, of Waterford, and the other to an alleged false translation from St. Bernard. We pass over these parts of his speech, because Mr. M`Neile's reply is published this day. In conclusion, he dwelt with great power upon the love of God to sinners, through Jesus Christ the only mediator. The Doxology—" Praise God from whom all blessings flow" was then sang, the whole of the vast assembly uniting their voices in it, and at half-past ten the meeting separated. ANTI•CORN LAW LEAGUE Last evening a meeting was held in the Music-hall, Bold street, for the purpose of giving certain gentlemen, calling themselves a deputation from the anti-corn law league of Manchester, an opportunity of making speeches on free trade—the corn monopoly—the crisis, arid all that. At seven o'clock, a good many of our old friends of Clay ton-square, had congregated at the upper end of the room — including Sir Joshua Walmsley, Alderman Sheil, Mr. W. Rathbone, Mr. Duffy, Mr. Lawrence Heyworth, &c. &c., and the middle and upper end appeared to be about half-filled, chiefly with artificers, and others of the unwashed. After some delay, sir Joshua Walmsley was called to the chair, and informed the meeting that he was not at all aware of the course of proceedings intended to be aodpted—that they had met merely in compliment to the gentlemen from Manchester, and that their proper business would consist in giving those gentlemen an attentive hearing. THOMAS BASLEY, Esq., one of the deputation, then rose and addressed the meeting at some length. He said they had come to Liverpool, not with the intention of dictating to the people, but rather with a view to ask their assistance and advice in the glorious struggle which was being made to find food for tht hungry, and clothing for the naked. Manchester had long felt the privation consequent upon the inequality of our fiscal regulations, but especially from that barbarous law which prevents the labourer from receiving a sufficiency of the staff of life. (Cheers.) Liverpool enjoyed more of the comforts of life than Manchester; but let her not deceive herself ; her evil day would certainly come, if she now re fused to join the struggle to procure equal and just laws for the:people. We have been to every part of the country to obtain help ; we are missionaries in the cause, for we feel that a great crisis is at hand. Our trade was like a felon in chains, but now wlis the time to emancipate it. (Chsers.) JOHN BRIGHT, Esq., of Rochdale, manufacturer, next addressed the meeting. He came forward, he said, in behalf of the bread-eating people of England against a giant and bread-taxing monopoly. The tax was passed to keep prices high, and that was the only object in maintaining it. To keep prices high, the article must be kept scarcely, and therefore the objeet of this tax was to keep corn out of the country—to reduce the quantity, and makeit scarce. (Cheers.) It was a cursed and inhuman law. (Cheers.) Having en larged on this head and in this strain for some time, this speaker concluded by exhorting the meeting to join the league in using every exertion for the total abolition of the corn duties. JOHN BROOKES, Esq., followed, with a very long and discursive speech. He said they must agitate, agi tate, and petition, petition unceasingly. For his part he despised politics, and cared for nothing but free trade in corn. It was the only salvation for the country; it was a matter of life and death. As to the landowners, they were " drones," and " crabs ;" they cared not for the calamities of the people, and would grind them down to the dust; they were as the Scotchman said, w orse than the devil, if any thing could be wor se . (Ch ee rs.) Richard Cobden, Esq., calico-printer, followed, and, beginning at the beginning, spoke a tolerably long pamphlet on the question, for which, however, we have unfortunately no room. SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. CHESTER RACES.-TUESDAY HER MAJESTY'S PLATE of 100 guineas. Thrice round, more than three miles. Mr. Graydon's Roscius A SWEEPSTAKES of 25 sovs. each. Half-a-mile Mr. F. R. Price's Marion .. Mr. Worthington's br f by Muley Mcloch SIXTY GUINEAS (clear,) the gift of the Members for the City. Heats, once round and a distance. Mr. M. Jones' Portrait . Lord Westminster's Dr. Jenner WEDNESDAY. The DEE STAKES of 50 sovs., to start at the Castle-pole, once round, a n d fi n i sh at the C om i ng -i n -Ch air . Lord Westminster's br c Satirist Walker.. 1 The STAND Cur, value 150 sovs. in specie, the gift of the Stand Proprietors, added to a Sweepstakes of 15 soya each. Twice round and a distance. Mr. Orde's b m Bee's- w i ng , age d FREE HANDICAP STAKES of 20 sovs. each, 10 sovs. forfeit, with 50 sovs. added by t h e G ran d St an d Proprietors, for all ages. Heats, once round and a distance. Mr. A. Bower's ch f Lady Grove, 4 yrs : Sir C. Monk's bin Garland, 6 yrs • THURSDAY. The MARQUIS of WESTMINSTER'S PLATE, value 100sovs. in specie, added to a Handicap Sweepstakes of 20 sovs. each, h. ft. 8 0 Lord Eglington's bln Bellona, Gyrs (Lye) 1 6 9 Mr. Mr. Graydon's ch II Clinker, srs. . 7 7 Sir R. Bulkeley's b Spring-heel'dJack, 4yr5.... • • 3 The BEESTON CASTLE STAKES of lOsovs. each, with 50 sovs. added by the G ent l emen of Cheshire and the Princi pality : one mile and a half. Three to start, or no race. 7 3 Mr. Loy's br h Ararat, syrs.. .. 8 3 Lord Eglington's b g The Potentate, aged . The WIRRAL STAKES of lOsovs. each, with 50sovs. added by the Gentlemen of Wirral, for two and three years old. Mr. Price's br f Marion, 2yrs (Stagg) 1 Mr. M. Jones's gr c Portrait, 3vrs . 2 THE SELLING STAKES of 5 sovs. each, with 30 sovs. added by the Citizens ; heats. Mr. Osborn 's ch g The Emperor, 3 yrs .... (Francis) 0 1 1 Mr. Saunders 's b g Frank, b y P r i am, 5 yrs Lord Miltown's ch f Semiranaide, by Economist, 3 yrs 0 2 0 Mr. Speed's ch h Aimwell, 6 years First heat won bi a neck. It is reported that Sir Henry Pottinger, now in Upper India, is to proceed to China. The nature of the mission has not yet transpired, but it is supposed that he is to supercede Captain Elliot. LYCEUM NEWS Room.—The annual meeting of the pro prietors of this institution took place on Tuesday evening last. The motion for closing the room on Sundays was ne gatived by a considerable majority, and ata subsequent period of the evening a resolution was passed which prohibited any alteration,in the hours of opening or closing the room unless two thirds of the proprietary are agreeable thereto. The discussion of the former motion produced very gre a t sensa tion among the members present, who were more numerous than on any former occasion. CURTAILMENT OF TRH HOURS OF BUSINESS.—A pub lic meeting of the tradesmens assistants, engaged in all branches of business, was held last evening at the Claren don-rooms, for the purpose of considering measures for a curtailment of the hours of business—which, considering the difficulty the assistants labour under of attending a meeting, even at the late hour at which this was convened (half-past a ttended ; and th e speeches del i vered eight), was very well on the occasion, (of which we regret our inability, from the crowded state of our columns, to insert more than a bare no tice,) displayed an enthusiasm, tempered by respectful con sideration of the interests of their employers and the public, which augurs well for the ultimate success of the under taking. Mr. Flower having been nominated to the chair, stated the objects of the meeting, and called upon Mr. W. B. Jones to move the first resolution (for which, and the two following, see advertisement). Mr. Jones warmly ex pressed his thankfulness to the lay and clerical gentlemen who had so ably advocated their cause at the Sessions House.—Mr. Smith , in seconding the resoluti on , sa id t h at the conduct of those gentlemen should be deeply felt and ap preciated by all assistants, as the first means of their being considered in the light in which they had an undoubted right to stand; they had raised them from the depth in which they had hitherto been considered to lie, and brought them before the public as men desirous of becoming better than they were, and of employing their leisure hours to advantage. He felt confident that their employers were as anxious as themselves to further their views, not only for their own ad vantage, but from a more parental feeling—the desire of bet tering the condition of their assistants. Mr. Charles Wilimer moved the second resolution in an able speech. He denied that the assistants wished to coerce their employers. The public had taken the subject into con s id era ti on , an d had decided that ten hours a-day were sufficient for the public requirements ; and if so, what necessity wa i there for keepithe assistants toiling fo r 13, 14, 15, an d ng 16 hours a-day ?He concluded by saying that their em ployers only required to be convinced that 10 hours a-day were sufficient.—Mr. W. Connor seconded the resolution. He was not an assistant himself, but felt an interest in the success of the undertaking. He contended that the assistants only sought to be placed in their natural position, as free members of society. Men of talent and interest, together with the organs of. the press, h a d come forward—the STANDARD and the Mercury had gone together —to advocate the good cause. He denied that the assistants came forward to coerce the employers; for by a resp ec tf u l con d uct t h ey would disarm the masters of and obtain the sympathy of the public.—Several other gentlemen then spoke, after which the meeting separated. LIVERPOOL PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. FORMATION OF A BRANCH FOR EVERTON AND KIRKDALE. On Monday last a numerous and highly respectable meet ing of the inhabitants of Everton and Kirkdale, was held in the church school-room, Everton-valley, for the purpose 9f considering the propriety of forming a Branch Association in connection with the Liverpool Protestant Association. The Rev. W. W. EWBANK, incumbent of St. Georges, Eyertou, took the chair. The proceedings having opened with a prayer for the divine blessing upon them, the chairman in a very able address of considerable length, ex plained and enforced the duty of members of the church of England, to resist error of every description. They were specially called upon to expose and resist those of the church of Rome, and meetings for that purpose, like the present, were strictly in conformity with the revealed will of God. How were they to act ? They must present a bold front against every sort of error. And what was the sort of error which now especially seemed to oppose the light of truth in this land ? It could not be denied that it was principally. at this moment, the errors of the papal church. (Hear.) One great reason of this was, that the religion of popery seemed to be a religion—if we might call it by that word—altogether suited not to the wants and necessities of man, but to allay his fears of a future judgment : and to administer an opiate to his conscience. (Hear, hear.) Fallen man must have something of this sort, he must either have true religion, or . . he must make a religio'n for himself. This was the secret of all false religions whatever shape they might assume : whe ther they were departures from the faith of the gospel, or from the primitive traditions which were even before the gospel, and being derived from a knowledge of the Old Testament and the Jews, and which were a source of many of the ancient idolatries of the world. They all rested upon one point—the attempt to administer an opiate to the conscience of man, who, knowing he was a guilty being in the sight of God, was glad of something to make him feel comfortable in this world, and which would justify him, as he thcught, before God in the next. This was the great se cret of Popery. (Hear.) This secret seemed to arise from not holding the one great article of justification by faith, as revealed to us in the word of God, with purity and simplicity. He should insist upon this, rather than bring before the meeting any of the particular doctrines of Popery. Luther said well when he declared that it was this article which, with regard to its receipt or rejection, constituted a standing or a falling church. So long as it was held, the church was safe, in spite of some errors, because she had always some thing to fall back upon. The error which lay at the root of the whole Rounish system, lay in not putting faith in its right place. Mr. Ewbank clearly established this position, and gave a masterly exposure of the subtlety of the Popish reli gion with regard to it. The Rev. Dr. TATTERSALL, in a short speech, moved the first resolution, which was to the effect that " the meeting, considering the influence of true religion the best security for individual rights, and the surest basis of national prosperity, earnestly called upon all who venerated the word of God, and valued the British institutions, to co-operate in pointing out to the people the peculiar dangers of the present time, and in taking measures to inspire them with a just sense of the benefits and blessings of the Protestant religion, under our Protestant constitution." Mr. EWBANIC seconded the resolution, and after a few words from the CHAIRMAN, it was carried. The Rev. D. JAMES, incumbent of St. Mary's, Kirkdale, moved the next resolution, which was to the effect that the meeting, considering Protestant Associations the most effec tual means of carrying out the principles of the reformation, do form an association for this district, to be called " The Everton and Kirkdale Branch of the Liverpool Protestant Association." (Applause.) He perceived, from this reso lution, that the attention of the meeting was called to the principles of the reformation, to the necessity of advocating those principles in the present day, and that it pledged them to undertake by such associations, a branch of which they intended to form in this district, to carry out those principles among the people around them. The chairman had already entered upon an explanation of one of the most vital of the principles of the reformation. It was a question proposed at one time, whether the Church of Rome was more self-righ teous, or superstitious, or idolatrous ; and the answer, after the most mature consideration, was that she was more self righteous than either idolatrous or superstitious. The man ner in which the chairman had explained the great article of a standing or a falling church, would also support that an swer, inasmuch as the greatest prominence was given in it to the doctrine of justification by faith, so as to remove the ground of self-righteousness ; and it was advocated, above all, by the great reformer Luther. (Cheers.) Looking at the character of Popery, we must consider many of its prac tices as constituting the self-righteousness of the Papists, and looking at the rites and ceremonies enjoined by the priests, and practised by the people, that the Papists are superstitious and also idolatrous. (Hear.) The principles of the reformation, therefore, were in direct opposition to those practices of the Papacy ; so that, instead of relying upon anything done by man for acceptance before God, the people should be led to rely upon Christ, and upon Christ alone. Instead of teaching the importance of rites and cere monies, in the highest degree frivolous, and foolish, and vain, as of importance in the sight of God, our reformers led the people to the simplicity of the gospel, and to the practice of those duties enjoined by the pure word of God, confining themselves to the two sacraments of baptism and the supper of the Lord, as the only ones instituted in the Christian church. Instead of falling down before idols and images, or paying adoration to the virgin and to relics, the people were called upon to worship the one living and true God through Jesus Christ, as the only mediator ; so that the superstition, the idolatry, and the self-righteousness of the church of Rome were overthrown by our reformers, and the principles which they advocated went to exclude them from the Christian church for ever. (Hear, hear.) These were the principles to which the attention of the meeting was called by the resolution. Whilst it was admitted that in the present day these principles were loudly called for, and that the character of the times was such as to make it imperative upon us to return to consider of those principles, and to ad vocate them, because there were attempts making on the part of the papists to introduce the old corruptions, and to make them spread widely through the land, in order to obsciare and overthrow that faith which had saved this country and been the means of conferring upon it the highest distinc tion in the scale of nations. (Cheers.) In order to check the aggressions of popery in the present day, it was necessary to apprise our friends of that insinuating spirit which it had put on and employed with a great measure of success in va rious towns and districts in England and Wales. The jesuitry of the papists so entirely escaped the notice of the public and the mass of the population, that unless we closely pursued the path which it took, and examined every step of the way, we could not at all discover the object which these men had in view until the mischief was done. So far as he had been able to give attention to this subject, it was his conviction, and had been for several years, that there were jesuits in this .country wearing the mask of protestantism, and under that mask entering into the church established by law, and into our universities, so as to frame men as it were from the cradle towards their opinions, their ideas, and their sentiments, and make them spread widely through the country, in order to dispose especially the rising generation to a favourable consi deration of the church of Rome in future times. (Hear. hear.) Nor would arty one persuade him that among the ranks of the dissenting ministers, who had so violently at tacked the established church for the last ten years, there were not jesuits who had been preachers, preaching the prin ciples of dissent in connection with their respective denomi nations, but exercising the influence which they had acquired by their station and popular preaching to undermine the foundations of the protestant church of this realm. (Cheers.) He would also mention his suspicion of the Plymouth Bre thren or Derbyites, who were apparently possessed of most zealous hearts and most pious minds, as going forth to expose the " corruptions" of the church of England, and calling upon the people to separate from her com munion, with the ostensible object of establishing a still purer church and a more spiritually-minded community. He could not otherwise than believe that the Jesuits had been the first moving springs of the alienation of this large party from the church of England, in order to weaken her strength and multiply her opponents, so as at last to overcome our country bringing us again into the slivery from which we emerged at the Reformation. (Hear, hear.) Whereever we saw any denomination of Christians, by whatever name they called themselves, or were called, from circumstances giving them names, if we saw in them a disposition to attack the established church—the citadel and bulwark of Protestintism, we might make up our minds that there were some hypocriti cal spirits working underneath and undiscovered, laying a mine by which it was intended so completely to convulse the country as to bury the church in the general ruin. (Hear.) When he saw any denomination of separatists opposing the es tablished church of these realms he immediately asked him self this question—" What is the real object of this party or denomination, whilst plausibly advocating the principles of truth and protesting against come corruptions in the church ? —for we did not insist that the church was free from faults, as what human institution could be—but, he said, he always asked himself the question—how can they, who pretend to be so free from error, and so opposed to corruption, reconcile to their own minds the wilful inconsistency of standing up in companionship with Infidels, Socinians, ,Sceptics, and Pa pists, to attack the Reformed Church of England and advo cate the claims of the corrupt Church of Rome? (Loud cheers.) Looking, therefore. at such movements as these, we could nOt but suspect that the papacy deserved at our hands the largest share of credit for them. We heard, for instance, of some pious brethren coming to England, with the appearance of mortifying themselves, and of living upon a mere pittance, that they might establish schools to teach the children of the poor, but at last we found out that it was only the offshoot of the popish spirit in Ireland. Indeed, if we traced all the different movements of the day, which em barrassed many Protestants, and seemed to throw confusion into the camp of the church, we should find they had the same origin ; and under whatever form they presented them selves, and however plausible they appeared, we might de pend they were desiged to oppose the Protestant church which God had established in these realms, and which, under the sway of the sceptre of England, had flourished and communicated scripture knowledge to the people. (Loud cries of " hear, hear.") And whatever might be the spirit of the combination against her we were called upon to present a bola front in opposition. (Loud cheers.) It was our duty in advocating the extension of these associa tions, to understand how far we should go and where we should stop ; because, if the enemy was advancing, it would not be sufficient to act upon the defensive—we must also act upon the offensive. The great mistake of the Popish church was to stop short. When the light of truth had spread throughout England and the Principality, she only got a little corner of Ireland, and the consequence was that Ire land had been to us what the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were to the children of Israel, who did not obey the commands of the Lord respecting them, a thorn in our sides. Popery was spreading in the Principality, he regretted to say, for its priests were learning Welsh, which her own bishops had not done, and without which it could never make any progress. And whilst Popery was making these and other advances, we ourselves ought to carry the Protes tant movement to Rome itself—to bleed the beast in its own lair. (Great cheering.) What, England the mistress of the world, afraid to march to Rome and tell the Pope he must part with Popery! Why, th e thi ng was as possible as it was for the rich inhabitants of Everton to erect a new school in their own district, and make a present of that in which the meeting was assembled to the poor church in hirkdale. (Cheers and laughter.) The rev. gentleman then proceeded to address some energetic observations upon the practica bility, and the benefit which would result from it, of extend ing the Protestant agitation to Rome, Spain, and Portugal. He concluded amidst loud cheers by moving the resolution. Mr. AnsußAD seconded the resolution in an appropriate address, and it was unanimously carried. One or two others afterwards addressed the meeting, and the proceedings terminated shortly before ten o'clock. A Letter from the Rev. Hugh 31`Neile to Dr. Butler. Liverpool : Lace and Addison. We beg to call the special attention of the Protestant pub lic to a pamphlet which has just issued from the press, bear ing the above title, and which is of peculiar interest at the present moment. Dr. Butler has not hesitated to charge his opponent with falsehood, and has ventured to impugn the authority of several quotations which were brought forward by Mr. M`Neile, in proof of the charges advanced against the Church of Rome in his sermon entitled " Antichrist." To corroborate the authenticity and correctness of the quo tations, Mr. M'Neile has had recourse to the letter before us, and whilst he substantiates clearly the positions which he had previonsly laid down, he demolishes most pointedly and succinctly the appearance of argument which Dr. But ler has made use of. We recommend an early application for this letter, as the price will induce most persons to become possessed of it. TO THE iIEV. DR. BUTLER SlR,—Tbe apostle Peter tells us that the blessed iestis left us an example that we should follow his steps, that when he was reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not. A true minister of that Holy Saviour, sur rounded by hundreds of immortal souls, would have his thoughts and his words occupied with some holier theme than the ridicule of one opponent, and the slander of another. He would remember, that although for a time he might secure the laugh of the thoughtless, the careless, and the profane, yet when he would have to render up an account of those souls at the judgment seat of Christ, the laugh of a moment would be a poor compensation for the eternal frown of Him who will not be mocked, and who cannot be escaped. _ _ As a Minister of Christ I feel it my solemn duty thus publicly to rebuke the desecration of his holy day of which you have been guilty. I can truly say I do so in the spirit of earnest, fervent prayer, that God may give you repent ance to the acknowledgement of the truth, and give grace to the immortal souls who were addressed by you on Sunday evening, to seek more suitable teaching. We both, Sir, now occupy a most solemn an:l responsible position. It is not the passing politics of a day which has brought our names before the public, it is the eternal inter ests of millions, it is God's truth, the Saviour's glory, the sinner's hope, the saint's reward. . . We stand in a position one towards another calculated to draw out the worst feelings of the human heart, so much so that " odium theologicum" has become a proverb. And may I ask, Sir, at such a moment, what ought to be our state of mind? If ever a true Christian needs holy watchfulness, deep prayerfulness, and earnest waiting upon God, it is when the eves of thousands are fixed upon him; the partizans at one side to applaud, and those on the other to watch for his halting; when the interests of truth are in no small degree entrusted to Him, and the eternal destinies of many souls are, humanly speaking, depending on his demeanour and reasoning. Ah, Sir, had those been your feelings on Sunday evening, the audience of St. Anthony's would have heard something more suited to the professed purpose for which they were assembled than the printed report of your sermon exhibits. The Liverpool Mercury is said to have announced that you were to state your reasons for not meeting me in oral discussion. You much mistake an English audience, com posed though it might be of persons as yet but a short time resident in this happy country, if you think the reasons alleged will satisfy any reflecting persons amongst them. I shall examine your supposed proofs of my incompetency to enable them to form a better judgment of them. They are these : 1. Mr. Baylee's " face indicated that he had been in many a battle." He " had absolutely held a controversy with a socialist.'; When Dr. Butler's lectures were answered, he would the man who answered them in an oral discussion. Mr. Baylee is a little man. He is unable to write ten lines of good English. He is ignorant of Latin. 7. He made a mistake respecting the existing eastern bishops Mr. Baylee holds the doctrine of the real presence 9. He confounds oblation with sacrifice. 10. He had thrown Martin Luther overboard. These, sir, are all the disqualifications alleged by you according to the published report of your sermon. A simple perusal of them is sufficient to shew the character of the person who alleged them. A few observations upon them, however, will not be out of place. To some of them I plead guilty. It is true that I have been in many a battle, and that my face indicates it. It is true that my opponents in those battles were a Ro man Catholic Archbishop and seventeen priests. It is also true that that archbishop succeeded in having my life at tacked, that he described me and my faithful companions as `• venemous fanatics," that one of his attendant priests ad vised the people to beat us off with stones, and that the arch bishop promised to save the people the trouble of fishing boats, for that, by his episcopal blessing, he would bring the fish up on the shores, provided they would drive me out of the island. Yes, sir, it is an awful fact that, upon the re commendation of a Romish Archbishop, I was a prisoner for two days in a little island, and saved my life (under God) only by descending a steep cliff of ::bout 400 feet, and escaping in a boat. It is also true that another priest in the same diocese sent two men after me, who nearly deprived me of life ; and that the same priest was not ashamed to avow before a bench of magistrates that he had ordered the people " to put me out of their houses with pitchforks." It is true that another priest excited the inhabitants of another island to seize me, and that I was rescued by an armed force, or I should have lost my life. That same priest pleaded the cause of those men, and offered to pay the fine inflicted upon them. Upon another occasion, sir, I received a severe stroke, from a stone, in my head for asserting that the consecrated host is not God. On ten different occasions has my life been assailed by the direct agency of Romish priests. The only crime alleged against me was that I was " a proselytizing adventurer." I confess, sir, I was not prepared to find a chamberlain of the pope*" in one of the most enlightened cities of pro testant England, making a jest of persecutions which one would suppose policy would have led him to deny. But you say " Whether they had been well fought battles was another question." That is a question to be decided before another tribunal. Sure I am that when I meet my Saviour, and shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is, He will have for ever blotted out all of human infirmity that had mingled with those scenes, and accept the service which, through his grace, the stone and the pitch-fork did not deter me from rendering to Him. Our weapons, sir, did not allow an ill-fought battle. They are enumerated in that chapter which so fearfully describes the fall of Rome—they were the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and loving not our lives unto the death."—Rev. 12,11. Those scenes often enabled us to say with the apostle " We both hunger and thirst, and are naked and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place—being reviled we bless ; being persecuted we suffer it ; being de famed, we intreat ; we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the off-scouring of all things."—l Cor. 4, 11-13. Hard as such service might appear in the eyes of the world, it was indeed a happy one ; the remembrance of it is still sweet. I write not this, sir, to obtain the poor applause of men, . , but because I believe the occasion demands it. I trust that then and now our hearts' desires have been " Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." _ if we may judge of a well-fought contest by results, I can tell you, sir, that a protesting catholic congregation, wor shipping God in their native language (Irish,) has been per manently fixed in those quarters, that a faithful minister of Christ is their pastor, and that more than 200 children are now receiving a Christian education who would otherwise have been as Romanists, worshipping the works of their own hands, and giving that service and homage to the creature which is due to the Creator. 2. Your second objection is that I had held a controversy with a Socialist. On this ground St. Paul would have been incompetent to meet Dr. Butler, for he disputed in a court house with every atheist and idolater who opposed him:. 3. As I am about to answer your lectures Ishall be able to remove your third objection. 4. I did not at first understand the meaning of a person's being a little man making him an incompetent theological disputant. However, when I connected this with the former one about the scarred face, it reminded me that physical force, not metaphysical, is what Rome most values. You probably forgot that you were not then delivering a lecture at St. Clement's College, Rome ; but at St. Anthony's Liverpool. 5,6, 9. Your sth, 6th, and 9th objections I may meet in this way. If we meet in oral controversy, I pledge myself to bring no prepared translation of any passage quoted by me ; but produce the author's writings, and to read them into " good English." Of this, sir, I am persuaded ;if your education has been a Maynooth one, you will not do the same. On this score, then, we shall hear no more of incompetency. 7. I re-assert that there are throughout the east, at this day, episcopal churches descended from the apostles, and holding no communion with Rome. 8. I do not understand, how, holding the doctrine of the real presence could be a proof of incompetency. Dr. Butler asserts that the scriptures teach it. Ido believe, and rejoice in believing, that Christ really and substantially, although not materially, but, after a spiritual and heavenly manner, communicates himself to the soul of the devout believer, at his holy table. Every Church of England clergyman has sworn to his belief of it. _ _ . 10. Mr. Baylee never threw Martin Luther overboard. He simply asserted that Luther never set foot in England, never founded our church, nor framed one of our doctrines. Luther was indeed a glorious servant of God ; yet, I am as far from making myself responsible for all his statements, as Dr. Butler is from holding himself accountable for every thing written by St. Jerome or St. Augustine. I have now, sir, examined all your allegations of incompe tency, and, for the present, conclude by assuring you, that while I cannot respect the exhibition of character you have shown since your coming to Liverpool, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that you may be saved, that the souls now led by you, and by those who think with you, to eternal ruin, may be taught of God, and that in any future communica tion we may both act as men, who remember, that for every idle word we shall give account at the day of judgment. That the Great Giver of all Good may fill us with his Holy Spirit, make us accordant witnesses for his heavenly truth, and instruments in his hands of giving to many souls " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," is, sir, the earnest prayer of your obedient servant, JOSEPH BAYLEE. Parkfield, May 5, HD. * Dr. Butler designates himself as a Chamberlain to the Pope, and formerly President and Professor of Divinity in St. Clement's College, Rome. Tic DoLouttoux.—We feel gratified in hearing that Mr. Cronin has been successful in completely relieving this most agonising of all nervous affections. Most of our contempo raries have favorably noticed this gentleman's treatise or this and other painful nervous affections ; the rapid sale of which, is the best proof how the public estimate his treat. ment.—See advt. PORTRAIT OF WM. COMER, ESQ.—We understand that a portrait of this gentleman, by T. H. Illidge, Esq., is nearly completed. The services of Mr. Illidge have been employed by the committee and friends of the deaf and dumb institution, in this town, of which Mr. Comer is well known as a long tried and zealous friend. The likeness is admirable. VOTES OF LANCASHIRE MEMBERS.—In the division lists upon the amendment proposed by Lord Hock in the franchise clause of the government Irish voters bill, we find the names of the members connected with this county in the following order :—For the amendment, Lord Stanley, Mr. Patten, Lord F. Egerton, the Hon. B. Wilbraham, Lord Sandon, Mr. Townley Parker, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Black burne, Mr. Bolling, Mr. Cresswell, Mr. Feilden, Mr. Greene, and Mr. Martin, in all, 13. For the original clause, Sir H. Fleetwood, Mr. Brotherton, Mr. Ewart, Mr. Fenton, Mr. Fielden, Mr. Fort, Mr. Greg, Mr. Hindley, Mr. Mark Philips, Mr. Standish, and Mr. Walker, in all, 11. The names of Gen. Johnson and Mr. Turner are in the list of absentees. If, therefore, we give the two absent members to the minority, (and in all probability they would have voted for the original clause) it would appear that the votes of the members connected with this county would have been eqnally balanced on the question. TIIE CHESHIRE HOUNDS.-Mr. Smith Barry's bunters are to be sold off to-morrow by Mr. Lucas, at the kennels at Sandiway-bead, in Cheshire. This will be a rare opportunity for those gentlemen who are interested in the sports of the field and the chase to supply themselves with a capital ani mal. Mr. S. Barry's stud has been long celebrated for its blood, bone, and speed. Mr. Lucas will sell also two other lots after the sale of the stud, in both of which some first rate nags will be offered up to public competition. Consider able interest is excited in the sporting world by this sale, and much regret is felt upon the occasion of Mr. Smith Barry's resignation of a post he has filled with so m uc h h onour to himself, and satisfaction to his neighbours, a many years. CONCERTS AT THE AMPHITH EATRE. — The splendid band now performing at the Amphith ea t re, i s exciting the utmost admiration and delight amongst th e mus i cal amateurs • over tures, quadrilles and waltzes are pl a y e d w i t h the most brilliant efforts, excellence and spirit. There has been nothing heard like this band since Strauss was here ; it consists of 20 perfor mers, all of whom are celebrated as solo instrumentalists. Mr. Frisch on the flute reminds us of Drouit, and Herr Muller of Harper, but Mr. Prospere on the ophicleide stands alone. He produces the most astonishing effects from this instru ment. Mr. Laurent upon the cornet a piston is very clever : his tones are clear and his execution brilliant. Mr. Julien on the piccolo d e li g h ts a ll who h ear hi m on thi s nove l a nd bird-like inst rument . I t i s a grea t treat to hea r thet hishne band—everythi ng i s p l aye d w ith such spirit, th at even ing is over before it seems half commenced. I FEW THOUGHTS ON VIE CONTEMPLATED REDUCTION OF THE FOREIGN SUGAR DU TIES. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT. I believe it will scarcely be denied, by any unprejudiced person who has studied the subject, that our West India colonies, already brought to the brink of ruin by the destruc tive policy pursued towards them by our liberal government during the last few years, but particularly by the thwarting of all the measures adopted by the colonists for pr free labourers to cultivate their soil, are now do - ruin, if the proposition made by the C. chequer, to reduce the duty on foreig into effect. It may be proved as clearly as figs that the actual cost, in labour alone, of producing dredweight of sugar, under the present defective system in the West Indies, is more than double the whole cost of pr.( ducing an equal quantity in a slave country. What, thei is the use of a protecting duty of 50 per cent. as propose by government? It would be just as well for the West I dian that they were equalised at once, as he can no E compete with the planter of Brazil or Cuba on the t( proposed, than he can without the aid of any prc whatever ,ugars, government The immediate reasons assigned by tl proposing so sweeping a measure, at present, I. The very high prices paid for the article of late, and the consequent burden on the country in so important an element of consumption. 11. The pressing exigencies of the revenues of the coun try, which must be recruited from some source. And 111. The benefits to our manufacturing interest, which. it is asserted, would result from an application of the principles of free trade to foreign sugar-growing coun tries. Let us examine the bearing detail. of these points a little in I. The first, though certainly a serious evil, particularly to the poorer inhabitants of this country, is not one of unmiti gated severity to its general interests, as it is solely by its influence that the existence of our West India colonies, as productive dependencies of the British crown, has of late been preserved, in the face of the tremendous falling off in the production of their staple commodities, consequent on the want of labour; and the very enhanced rate at which that diminished quantity has been produced. But this evil, already in process of being remedied by the enlarged imports from our East India possessions, may be entirely removed without the enormous sacrifice which the adoption of the Chancellor's plan involves, by simply encouraging the resort from various quarters, but particularly from Africa, of a class of labourers adapted to the soil and climate of those Colonies. The cause why such prohibitory restrictions have been laid on the stream of emigration that promised at one time to pour into so excellent a labour market, was the outcry against what they called a revival of the slave trade, raised by individuals of that very party who are now loudest in their exclaina- Lions for the virtual encouragement of slavery and the slave trade, which would inevitably follow the adoption of the pro posed measure. To such contradictory results are we led by a blind adherence to the principles of (so called) expedien cies. We see then that government, after having by the policy it has pursued of late years, produced an evil now ac knowledged to exist, instead of endeavouring to apply such a remedy as would form some, though but a tardy reparation to the interests most aggrieved, attempt to neutralize its ef fects by a plan, which will certainly give the death-blow to those they have already so deeply injured, and utterly rejects a principle of their own, which has been ever one of their rallying cries, and the maintenance of which they have consi dered cheaply purchased at the price of £20,000,000 o' money, an annual expenditure of many thousands ofponnds and the sacrifice of the lives of hundreds of our fellow-sub. jects. It is indeed time that this principle of expediency is legislation should be numbered with the things tl at were, arid that our legislators should learn that when a - great leading principle is once affirmed, it should not be wantonly rejected, whenever " the pressure from without," or any other tempo rary excitement, assails it. Unless the country has some gua- rantee that such are the views of those in bi b that in their hands the great bulwarks of pro_ from the turbulent waves of popular commotion, society will lose its stability ; and when its foundations are once sapped, and the superstructure " nods to its fall," all the nostrums of political economists and legislative charlatans will be in sufficient to prevent its speedy and tremendous downfall. 11. Let us next examine the second reason assigned for this change in the sugar duties, viz., peal , arc The pressing exigencies of the revenue, which shows a very serious deficit, and must be recruited from some quarter. I will not enter here on the vexata queeslio of what has caused this deficiency, further than to mention that the principal ones assigned are the increased expenditure on the navy and army, particularly the former, in consequence of the warlike aspect of affairs during the past year, and the actual hostili ties carried on in two quarters of the globe {-and which, in one case at least, cannot yet be dispensed with), and the de ficiency arising from the new post-office regulations. Now, we put it to the sense of justice of the country, whether a debt, incurred for the support of measures considered necessary for the preservation of the peace of Eu rope, for the placing of our commercial relations with the Celestial Empire on a more favourable footing, or for the obtaining such a great national boon as the penny postage has undoubtedly proved, should be defrayed by ruin ing the prospects of our West Indian fellow-subjects, who have derived no benefit from the operation of either of the causes which have led to the present unfavourable aspect of our financial relations. I see no very wide difference between such a proceeding, and that of the man, who, feeling convenience of an empty exchequer, sallies forth down the first unprotected person he meets ears heavier than his Means of protecting it twe r pOw l. 11. Let us now just glance at the third division which I been made of this subject, viz. the expected benefits which it is asserted will result to our manufacturing interests, from an extension of the principles of free trade to foreign sugar- •owing countries In dilating on this subject, its supporters do n ave taken into their calculations the immediate fallin,, od ultimate annihilation of our exports to t which, in proportion to the number of inhal Sore of our manufactures than any other part of the xcept our Australian colonies), and the serious reduction of itants, consume those to our sugar-growing possessions would inevitably follow, on the introduction of the pro posed alteration in the tariff—a diminution which would infinitely more than counterbalance any increase, a large portion of which too is for export, to the unhappy slaves of in the East, which For itinust be re -1 cs has now Africa, to be bartered for hunian beings membered that the free labourer of the West In become a large consumer of the manufactures of this coun try, and is rapidly acquiring a taste for the comforts of life, which, with a prosperous state of that country, would go on increasing; which the poor slave who labours on in hope his bondage, for the aggrandizement of his master, partakes not , of the - benefits for which he toils, but still plods on his weary round, in no respect differing from the beasts of burden, who are his fellow-slaves, save in the possession of those higher hopes and aspirations which must only add to the bit terness of his state of degradation.! !Let not, therefore, the manufacturer delude himself by the idea that he is opening new and extended vents from his inerchandize, when he is seconding the efforts of those who seek for selfish ends, to bring about this change—rather let him throw the wtiO;t of his influence into the opposite scale, where with — his own truest interests, he will find associated the efforts of the phi lanthropist, and the fervent wishes of all who wish their country well. Although our government has ever appeared very forward in asserting the rights of the negro population of the West Indies, and have shown quite as little scruples in discarding the claims of the planters, they do not seem to have sufficiently taken into consideration, when planning their recent attack on the West India interests, the consequences which will result, from its success, to that very population. What is to prevent their returning to the same state of wild and savage nature—to which undoubtedly the soil now smiling under the influence of civilization, and so capable of indeed becoming " a land overflowing with milk and honey," will speedily return—when the European,with his skill and capital, is driven to take refuge in some other clime, - is interests have the advantage of some more fostering pro tection. This is no idle theory ; the state of St. Domingo, now rapidly returning to that state of primeval nature in which it was before Columbus landed on its fruitful shores. where 11 is a melancholy evidence of what the negro population wi do when the master spirit of the European has fled and I them to themselves. Let us remember that by the ruin of the West In , '" will show practically to the world, that all our noble interested efforts for the amelioration of the have proved abortive ; impression will be continue,. they are unfitted for any higher purposes than to be on hewers of wood and drawers of water ; the shackles of th captive throughout the world will be rivetted beyond the pus IS egro rac ibility of beiiig severed, and the last ray of hope for his el ion iu the scale of humanity be quenched for ever. REPRESENTATION OF SANDWICH.—We have reason to believe that Mr. H. H. Lindesey, a staunch Conservative, will start for Sandwich, in the room of Sir Rufane Donitin, eceased A SHROPSHIRE PATRIARCH.—Died on Sunday week, aged 106 years, Francis Wilding, of Shepton Fields, in the full possession of all his mental and great part of his corpo real faculties. Mr. Wilding, throughout the extended period during which he existed, was mostly occupied in farming and sheep-rearing, on a farm he held under lease from an ances tor of the present Hon. Mr. Powys, of Berwick, in which family he held a situation as upper servant SO years ago. After he had turned his SOth year, he began again to conduct the farm of which he held the lease, his - relatives havii ken one of greater extent : and when calling on the n men of the town to order the necessary articles, he laugi; entreated them to deal tenderly with him, he being a 3 beginner ! Up to the third year before his death 11( forinly attended in the harvest field, and presided at the on his own sheep shearing festival.—Shropshire papei SUICIDE.-Mr. Richard Minshall, a facetious, s;irewd, and clever man, long known in the neighbourhood of O sive s. try for his convivial powers, and his sarcastic d ro ll ery, h as become a victim to sunken spirits and altered habits. All his family, he said, had died in the 49th year, and he, being just that age, could not break the . charm. O n S aturday last, during the temporary absence of his wife, a n d w hil st several persons were in the house with him, he was observed by a child to come into his parlour and gaze aroun d the room as if registering in his mind its contents, and then went up stairs towards his bed-room. Some one having called in the shop, on business of importance, the child called out for Mr. M in shall, and receiving no answer, became alarmed, and applied to a neighbour to see what had become of him, and on prk)- ceeding up stairs, they were horrified at finding the bode suspended from a nail in the wall, by a very slight cord, ‘vith which he had contrived to deprive himself of life, his body was on the ground. All attempts to restot Con were fruitless, the jerk he had received on his f having destroyed him. — Shropshire paper. FREEMASONRY.—There cannot be a doubt but much of the prosperity of the order has been owing to the Freema sons' Quarterly Review ; which, by offering a vehicle fur re cording its proceedings in every part of the globe, has intro duced a spirit of emulation amongst the lodges, to compete with each other in promoting the holy feelings of brotherly love and charity. This invaluable record displays moral worth and active diligence wherever it is found to exist, and while any remissness in the masonic authorities receives its proper stimulus, a steady and regular discharge of duty pro duces appla use . H ence the craft is high l y i n d e b te d t o this periodical, fo r th e b ene fi ts i t h as con f erre d on th e institution and its prolonged existence forms a striking feature in the history of freemason r y a t the present periodmoinentotis Dr. Oliver's History of Freemasonry, 1829 to 1 840. UNFORTUNATE OCCURRENCE. —On Saturday evening a n unhappy occurrence took place on the road between this city and the village of Calnbus 1 a n g . It ei, ba a de p t p bw c ej a ex r nt s at t et l n i c a aa t nin a db c ue collier t‘ l i ; named John Dunn, and his wife, who live at Eastend, where otlniebfaosrimpresrs,isaeamd prileoryeelgirii.ggliheiolm', o'clock, when they were overtaken by two individuals, b o th of whom move in a respectable sphere of life, and who were passing walking upon into the t h scity. footpath, Some a altercationnd unfortunately collisiont w t e n the parties, in consequence of a jostling which occurred in ended in violence. One of the gentlemen, itviaepwpeoafrlsv.rehsattiina4 hesirts'ick, and, in the struggle,o)pon stick in his possession, and lifted it for the paurpose of striking grasp.when theTh The stick, latter sei i z t ed appears,it ai t h was what they call opponent, i c t ol i l er alleged,un‘vi tti t n h z e l:.: u aitti n sfe s rp h oce e la a lrl t i h e d the weapon. His plunged the spear into the right side of the poor collier, who received a dreadful wound, of which it is problematical whe ther he may recover or not, part of his intesti nes h av i ng , under very dangerous o ; itsi i tu rcu t m o s c troes, protruded from the wound.-- Glasgow