The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-11-23 00:00:00

iliberpool Atinbarb. Fl?IDAI" MORNING, NOVEMBER 23, H 32. , At the instant of inditing the first lines of our new paper, a single glance will, perhaps, be pardoned to us, at that tremendous crisis in all our national affairs and _ interests, in which it is its lot to commence its course ! That it begins with the beginning of a New Era in Eng lish history, all men, however otherwise disagreeing, will join distinctly to assert; but, as to what is to be the historical character of that New Era,—it is that which, is the secret to be unveiled ! An established, a familiar power in the Government of the Country, of known ef fect, and pending the operation of - which, in the general direction of the public interests, that' Country, in so large a degree, has prospered;—this power has been ob literated, and a new one, either of :wholly unknown effect, or of an effectmore than suspicious, has been intro duced into its place : in other words, the safety of the institutions, and the prosecution of the interests of this great and ancient kingdom, have either been given up to one of the boldest of experiments, or else surrendered to the least scrupulous of factions ! More than this, sacri fices so vast have been made, to appease a popular divinity, whose stomach, after all, they can never fill, and whose an- ger, and whose bolts, may yet remain to be dreaded, when it shall feel its disappointment, and seek vengeance against its deceivers I We have, besides, a band or bands of revolu tionists in Church and State, in England and in Ireland, and those intent upon change in all departments of our nati onal concerns, Domestic, Foreign and Colonial. We have a Ministry whose lives, and whose achievements, while they have alreadyproduced sufficient of actual evil • ive ruinous encouragement by their supposed inclinaf. .49 more, and by the imitation which they invite, and'bk the excite ment-Which they create, warm into action every restless and every malignant spirit, and proclaim a jubilee for every ignorant and every narrow-minded disturber of the public weal. We have a Ministry, which, whether at home or abroad, has already loaded the country with Calamity, and whose names, even by their own indirect acknowledgment, men habitually connect with the pro bability of further suffering, as well as to our interests as to our institutions! • At the late dinner upon Lord Mayor's Day, in London, Earl Grey took occasion, in the most so lemn manner, to protest, that neither himself nor his col leagues had anything so much at heart, as to cultivate fruitfully every national interest, and to send down to posterity every institution of the country, in the same perfection in which it has descended to ourselves ! For our part, we entirely believe the Noble Premier; but the serious questions remain behind,:whether the mea sures of himself and his colleagues are adapted to the end.. which they have in view;-=and, far beyond all this, whe ther those measures are not paving, and have not already paved the way, for the erection of a tyranny, and the arrival of a convulsion, such as neither he, nor his col. leagues, nor any Ministers the successors of either, wili be able to resist or calm ? The protestation of the Nobb. Earl, we take, in the meantime, as an open acknowledg ment, first, that the interests and institutions of the Coun try are actually enpangered; and second, 'that both him self and his colleagues sufficiently, know, that it is them selves, and their continuance in (Alice, which are publicl v pointed at, as the sources of the danger! While these things, too, breathe only dismay into the contemplation of the future, the present itself is rife with evils, and with the immediate means of evils, which are already come. Already the nation is plunged into a warfare, and into an alliance, which hardly anything but revolutionary partialities can explain ; already the Colo nies are desolated with the visionary politics of dema gogues and fanatics ; already a desperate faction dares assail the English Monarchy—the English United Go vernment, Temporal and Spiritual ; and already the Election for a New Parliament is at our door, an event which reason commands us, and our domestic ene mies are loud in telling us; threatens the consummation of everything which an enlightened Englishman can fear and deprecate for his country ! The future, then, is really before us; that future which the Country and the LIV,ERPOOL STANDARD are to traverse; " But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it !" To be, however, a little more cheerful, upon occasion of this our first display in public, let us look, so long 4 ye may, upon what little sunshine the prospect brightens wit; Viand sustain our minds by the reflection, that all troubles ruifinot come at once, and that much of the threatening tempest may at least keep away from us for a time. Faction and the news papers are black with the show of storms that, they tell us, are to bring, without a pause, this dreadful pother o'er our heads;" but the thunder, more or less, will assuredly, for to day, be driven from us, znd only heard to mutter in the dis- tance. It is commonly amusing, during every recess of Par. lament, to observe the extravagent assertions and doctrines which the newspapers invent or repeat ; such tumult as not only " With fear of change perplexes monarchs," but Might well perplex with the same fear, all classes of their subjects ; ao that, when observing their dispersion at the first of the Parliamentary sun upon their darkness, we have often, even before the present lowering occasion, meditated upon the importance of the adjunct of a free Parliament to a free Press, as the latter's necessary and natural corrective. 11ow, under reference to the grand aim of the new revolutionary movement, namely, that which, with so many different inter pretations, is called Church Reform ; we may rest assured, that even Earl Grey and his colleagues, so long as they can hold up against the Political Unions, will do but little of all that which the revolutionists they foster expect and ask of them. Earl Grey, with all his errors, is at least an English Gentleman ; he has the education, taste, and feelings of an English Gentle- man ; he will lend himself to none of the low conceptions, and sectarian meanness, of the starveling minds that aspire to mark his path ; nor to any of the vulgar crudities, fanatic or philosophic, of such as —" Call half thinking, thinking free :" in a word, he would rather lose his head, or twenty heads, than do &thousandth part of what the enemies of the National- Ch u rch require of him. He will probably (should he con, time in offit e) meddle with Tithes, and with Poor Benefices per h a ps with little advantage in either case; but he will cer tainly do tat more He, and his colleagues also, upon the , on t r ary, will do their utmost, inti their way, " t,,, send down, to ~ ,cry in qtitUtiOn tho cottnt r y, the, same statif of popeF' 4 ` • i • w hich" it has de4c4nded to - aursolues lot • - - , . After the merits and incidents of the Dutch War, the topic of most immediate and pressing public interest is that of the approaching General Election. It is now said, thatthe present Parliament will be dissolved upon the 2d of-December; that the Writs for the EleCtion of Repre: sentatives in a New Parliament will be in the hands of all the returning officers in the kingdom on the 4th; and that the election of Representatives for Liverpool may be expected to take place either in the second or third week of the 'month. No more than three Candidates, as yet, have offered themselves here; the two first being the present members, and the third, Mr. Thornely. Among 'several subjects of threatened Parliamentary discussion, grave as many of them must appear, the gravest of the whole is that which concerns the perpetuity, dignity, and exclusive maintenance of our' Church Establishment, commonly called the United-Church ofEngland and Ireland; and it is, therefore, .for this, as for so many other reasons, that the professed religious sentiments of the several Candidates, or, with greater strictness, their sentiments upon, our civil institutions a religion, here, as in every other part of the kingdom, demand the deepest atten tion of enlightened Electors, in giving their votes -et the Election. It is not from. the numbers nor, other strength of our domestic enemies, uaer this aspect, that we have any thing to fear; bUt everything from our own ignorance, and want of particular knowledge of the moral and political value 'of our Church Establishment. But if, under,,this view, we look into the several Ad_ dresses of our Candidates, what is it that we find in them to give us the required satisfaction ? In each, there is a paragraph, devoted, directly or indirectly; to this great question of the Church; and the times, as we have de scribed them, demand, from Parliamentary Candidates, upon that question,,the fullest and most precise enunci ations. To give this clearness_and precision, there is no need of many words, nor do we dream of exacting mi nute pledges. We want nothing but solemn assurances of fixed devotion to the interests of the Church of Eng land and Ireland, as now by law established. We must refer, again, in this place, to the words of Earl Grey, at the Lord Mayor's Dinner. No form of words, of mighty import, could well be fewer, but they were enough. We propose them as models for all Candidates at the ensuing General Election. Let them repeat those words, or words equivalent, and repeat them without mental reservation, and we ask no more. Let even those Who profess to .support the Ministry of Earl Grey, express upon the hus tings, only their Sympathy with their master- - -let - them say as he has said ;—and we, for our part, shall be entirely content! In the Address of the Lord Viscount Sandon, we fincta paragraph relating to the Church, in whieh, though we should have liked it to be more plain, we suppose that We see nothing but the language of a friend. His Lordship expressly confines himself to the two objects of the sources of the Church's revenues, and of the apportioning those revenues within the bosom of the Church " To measures," says the Noble Candidate, " having for their object such an alteration in the mode of collecting and apportioning the revenues of the Church, as, while they remove defects and avoid occasions of dissention, may improve her efficiency and insure her stability, I shall lend 'a 'most favourable attention." But, in the Address of Mr. Ewart, the passage which concerns religion is one which, especially when taken, as it must be, with reference to the rumoured religious opi nions and inclinations of that gentleman and his friends, cannot be read without inviting a disquietude the most unfavourable to his election-prospects with every loyal and well-informed elector. Mr. Ewart professes himself friendly to the "purification .and disenthralment of reli gion!" Now, if the case is not entirely hopeless, it would greatly oblige ourselves, and, possibly, serve the interests of Mr. Ewart, if he, or if any of his electioneer ing partizans, would turn this passage into common Eng lish, and tell us, with distinctness,' What is, intended un der the words "purification •of religion i " and what is. that "enthralment of religion" . from . which it is proposed to achieve a deliverance? If the words of Mr. Ewalt ; however, are perplexing, Lose of Mr. Thornely are' Mounding! 'Here is a gen- tleman who, offering himself as a Candidate to - re present a body of his fell6W-subjects in Parliament, under a Government in Church and State as es tablished in 1688, and long before, and under a Crown which claims to be.kcclesiastical as well as Civil; and who yet, is actually by his own:declaration, not only is no "member of the Church. of England," but a member of a rival and hostile Church—" that great body,. the Dissen ters of Great Britain.;"—a great body just as much known to the Constitution of England, as is the Birmingham Political Union! Not satisfied, too, with this audacious avowal, on the lips of a Candidate for a seat in the Impe rial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, the .poor bewildered gentleman goes on. to•show us, in the , same breath, the Anti-English fruits of those Anti-English principles; for he vapours (unhappy man !) about some imaginary Dissenting virtues, of which it is quite enough for Englishmen to know, that English law, as broadly as reasonably, declares them vices! With so much child ish and melancholy ignorance, indeed, does Mr. Thornely strut and mouth it, in his Dissenting garb, while the world is laughing at its, cat and trimmings,—that, filled with the god, he actually proclaims, "No hope of public favour, no fear of public displeasure, shall ever induce me to 'flinch from that great principle of Protestant Dis sent, the right of individual judgment in matters of Reli gion!" As if "the great principle of the right of• indi vidual judgment in matters of Religion" were in any manner peculiar to " Protestant Dissent;" as if it were not the common principle of the whole Protestant world ; as if it were not the published and practical principle of the United Church of England and Ireland; or, as if the adoption and application of that principle could in any way interfere with a loyal and conscientious attachment to that Church, as now by law established ! But this ig norant calumniator of the institutions of his country, li bels. them because he does not understand them; and performs, agaii.St himself, and beforaiand, the public duty of demonstrating, in practice along with the ory, how totally unfit for a' seat in the Legislature of the Kingdom, is the man whose edUcation, early 6r late, parental or self-selected, has been without the pale of the Kingdom's laws!—Subjoined is the amiable text which has supplied our commentary. Mr. Thornely, "good, easy man," actually sets out with a half expression of Surprise, that, when offering himself for a seat in an Eng lish Parliament, it is objected to him that he is " not a member of the Church of England" —nor of the Church of Scotland ! been informed that it is objected to me that I am not a member of the Church of England. It is perfectly true that I am one of that great Body, the Dissenters of Great Britain, who build 'their own paces of Worship and pay for them, who elect their own Ministers and support them,—and on the'snbjeCt of my own religious opinions, as I have ever been in reference to others, the warm Friend of Religious Liberty, and I believe have joined in every Petition that has been presented from this Town in favour of Catholic Emanci pation, so in my own case I give you this assurance, that no hope of public favour, no fear of public displeasure shall ever Induce .me: to•flinch from that great principle of Protestent Dissent, the right of individual judgment in matters of Religion." ' And we speak all those things .earnestly, and we speak them, too, with confidence. The Church—the Monarchy —is avowedly sought to be made a prey ; the hounds are in full cry; its enemies are active, and they know what they are about; its friends are not so much inactive, as they are uninformed of what would be their loss! The Rpforrn of Parliament, and the General Election, are hailed as the means of the destruction sought for; and it is the Dissenters, Dissenting . Protestants, real or pre tended, which make "the great body" thot puts itself forward to the work. For Dissenting Protestants, real or pretended, to address themselves to Dissenting'Protes tants, also real or pretended, is natural, and may insure a suitable return ;—but for Churchmen to elect Dissenters (and in times like these) would be political insanity ! The People of Englancl-the body of Englishmen who do not dissent from the religion and religious institutions of England—these, too, are ‘, a great body," and are hap pily of another mould f 'To them is our appeal ; the Elec tion is the day of trial; and it is no needless alarm that we,are seeking to create! The entire country rings with the danger which we urge upon them : " The case of Church," says a London Newspaper (the Atlas) of this week, " grows serious. It is surrounded by implacable enemies. The Church is falling down, like a sky rocket that went up in ablaze, and is likely —to borrow a thought from a contemporary—to come down an extinguished firebrand." But, if this is. really so, it is time for Englishmen to rally, and no longer to bandy milk-and-water mincings with Dissenters, or with Jacobins under the Dissenting name. "To your tents, 0 Lsrael," and " Come out from the midst of them," will, for these reasons, be our own loud and continual cries. No doubt, there is a de ' mand for " Church Reform" set up by persons within the Church itself ; but the demand without-doors is for Church Annihilation ;—annihilation of the Church as part and parcel of the State ;—and it is in the ignorance and inconsistency of Churchmen, and not in the bitter ness and consistency of their raging enemies, that we are to discern the real signs 'of danger. We know nothing, in the mean time, of the Church, but as it is the founda tion of the Monarchy, andas that without which the Mo narchy could have no further existence; and we know nothing of Dissenters, or of such as usurp the Dissenting name, except as they boast themselVes the enemies of that Spiritual Prerogative of the Crown, without the pos session of which the royal wearer of the Crown must cease, from the very term itself, to bear the, name of Mo narch ! In the columns of our newspaper we are no theo logians ; neither have we anything to do (at least in poli tical controversy) with any man's religious opinions, ex cept as the hollers, or pretended holders of those opinions, think proper to identify that holding with an express hostility to our Established Government, a government, by its first principles, not more temporal than it is spirit ual, or not less spiritual than it is temporal ;—a Govern ment which, if it were not spiritual at the same time, or even before it is temporal, must, from its very nature, be among the most frightful of tyrannies. We know no thing, in like manner, of the Clergy of the Establishment, but as they are the servants of the State—the ministers appointed for the People. We are not bestirring our selves about any minor, and, in the worst event, any con cluding question, such as would be that of the personal interests of the existing Clergy; but about the great and foremost question which concerns the perpetual People, —the only People—the only People of this realm of England ;—that is, the faithful subjects of the Crown, — the loyal and devoted subjects of that Throne, spiritual and temporal, which has held a Nassau, and upon which is sitting a Brunswick. It is for the People only—and for the People's Church, the Church of England and Ire land; and for that Church only as it is the foundation of the Monarchy, and that without which, neither in fact nor in name, could there be any English nor other Monarchy whatever ;—it is for this that we bestir ourselves ;—for this that we call upon the whole People to bestir them selves ;—and for this Church it is that we will do our ut most, as well to defend it against its external enemies, as to arouse its sleeping family, and to make (what we believe much needed) its honest well-wishers, in some moderate degree, at least, aware of its vast political value, both as the legitimate source of all just govern ment among us, and as the origin and refuge of all our ' liberties, alike civil and religious. Without such warn ing, and without such knowledge of the treasure which is at risk, we may happen to use our Church as we use our other friends, and as our time : " We let our friends pass by us, like our time, Till they are yone,—and then we SEE our crim e !" Neither are we insensible of what it is, that in defence of our Ecclesiastical Establishment, we are called upon to confront. Besides the possibility of certain misunder standings, temporary or lasting, with the followers of the Church themselves, we have to brave its avowed enemies, and to deal, at one moment, with a pert and smi r ki ng phi losophy, and, at the next, with a grovelling superstition ; vices ofa kindred order of minds, and belonging to kind- red modicums of learning, however unfriendly the sors of each toward the other : " Both claiming truth, and truth disclaiming both." We shall perform, however, our duty. W e are not 6 ;j ing wind-mills, neither have sought the contest. Th e indeed, is, in every way, save that of duty only, 113c6t io inently painful to u s , b u t i t s h a ll be fulfilled. Viol senters, or men styling themselves Dissenters , chosen to form themselves into what they calla lanx," and to seize upon the "Parliamentary Ref°°l., affording the instru men t an d t h e time for overthrle, the Constitution, by an a tt ac k upon the spiritual si its structure. They come furiously and noisily ta ln ,y field, and promise themselves a certain victory. I t e not be our fault, in the meantime, if, not only the cape no total d e f ea t, b ut if t h ey d o not retire wit h thin , ranks. It shall not be our fault, if thousands of their l; sent numbers do not quit them in disgust ;—if thou°, now among the m , d o not h erea f ter blush that they eti called themselves Di ssen t ers ! W e shall d o all, t ti in self-defence. It is not the Church which attael` s Dissenters, but th e Dissenters wh o a tt ac k the Ch c v , to In the words of one o f th e Whi gs i n the House of ~.41 mons in 1688, sp o k en i n re f erence to relig i ous e°s of another denomination, we can securely s ay, that 1. do not attack their religion ; we do but defend our We defend the National Church Establishment; a li o so doing, we_defend the foundations and the supers ture of the whole Establishment of the State. In the Address of Lord Sandon, the view pre% by the Noble writer, of the difficulties which Burroto West India Slavery Question, bespeak a discrituilla temper, and habits of calm investigation, such as nlu always be. among the least dispensable qualificati ° a Parliamentary Representative : " To the subject of Colonial Slavery" (says his Lordslli, " I look with pain and sorrow of heart. I see a state of which must be injurious to the moral condition of th e e while it is degrading to that of th e many; a state of #hoilti which cannot an d s h ou ld not l ong stand, yet out of vfrtl when taken with all its accompanyi ng , b u t essential, ciretil stances, we have no,experience -to guide us to the Ina" safely and advantageously escaping. " I see involved in this experiment, on the one hand t o 0 1, and fortunes of th ousan d s of my fellow-subjects; the 2_111::40 religious, and tempor a l i mprovement, or return to baru:j.io and indolence, of a still greater number, on the other. I peril at home the industry of many thousands, whose 0 1 °0 u ring and commercial occup a ti ons hang upon the pro sPe ry f our Colonies ; a revenue, largely depending on colonial p,o duce, and already in a state not to bear farther defale atj o , without general embarras sment an d ruin. I see this 1)01)1e:ill so difficult i n it s ow n nat ure , yet so necessary to be so l v ed, further complicated by too indiscriminate resistance an d ' gious persecution on the one hand; by intemperate and Or rious dictation on the other. _ " or' " Under these circumstances, anxious a s I have bee n f t y solution of this difficulty, I confess I have seen it neither in i t imperfect and ill-digested legi s l a ti on of the O r d ers i n Cou Pc o , nor in the immediate Emancipation now demanded by th e Let don Anti-Slavery Society. E xtens i ve i nqu i r i es i nto this 8 tibt 'subject in all its bearings h ave b een instituted, and n° u te e will be resumed by both H ouses o f P ar li ament. The C01:°1/2-iir• of the Houge of Com Mons more especially, as moved by be d Buxton, and amended, a t my suggest i on, by Lord A l t horPt th e for its object the investigation of the best means of effecting abolition of Slavery, at as early a period as is compatible the safety of all classes in the Colonies, and in conformity iO , the Resolutions of 1823 ; an d, unt il t h e conclusion o f thos e tll , quiries, so moved and supported, I should deem it Pr e ' u fstl/ ous to form a decided opini on upon t h e su bj ect. I ear,-deo,s hope that we may see, a s th e resu l t o f t h ose i nves tigat'' of series of measures, grounded on a more accurate knowle u ' u ld the varying circumstances of different Colonies, (and , I 40 11 fain hope, upon a better understanding with them,) whi ch 0 0, comprise within its e lf th e germ o f no slow EmanciP:lti together with security f or th e cont i nued industry o f the and compensation, where necessary, to the Master." t° Our readers will rejoi ce t o k now, that a Pet— iti° to His Majesty . against the Dutch War, forwarded the Duke of Wellington, for presentation, signed ° T w ill) ; wards of 700 of the m os t i n fl uen ti a l B an k er s arid chants of this town.. sl With kindred feelings, a l so , o f pre - em i n ent Eta Li e 1, 4 9 tion, our readers will learn, that a similar Petition ' — f already been agreed upon by our loyal n eighbou r Warrington, and is nume rous ly an d mos t respe ct° o signed. It is often asked (and with a d ece itf u l appeara n c e mr i reason,) what tl3e people a r e t o ga i n by Parliame a ; r , Reform; but the exampl e of a neighbouring borough ',ea nishes a rational answer to th e i nqu i r y. At the last a r te " tion in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the highest price o f v ° sre was thirty pounds a diece ; but at this moment they er y selling, wholesale, at five-and-thi r ty pounds, and er e prospect of a rise; so, that here, under the happy. 1 0 spices of Parliamentary Refo r m, i s a c l ear and ob vi-n di gain of five pounds der annum. By the way, how light does it not throw upon the hardship undergo u de r those electors who are anywhere o bli ge d to vote influence, and thus robbed, in open day, of the whyl e- a 0 d which their free votes would sell for in the marke t ; what confusion, further, would not a system of Ra i° go d troduce, in these cases, between buyer and seller; ie how little would the interests of Newcastle-unde r34 e s , and its fellows be consulted, by the adoption of tha t sure ! Even the soup, which, at the cost of £l5 O, was fet dributed, by tickets, among the Newcastle voters. 0 ; days since, would never smoke under the Ballot sY s , for who would doubt the effect of the inevitable r oal " No vote, no soup?" A eivNedo. in London LnAnnsdonnn-sbitreet. Messrs. Ordrs a LIVERPOOL ;—Printed in Union Court, Castle-street , and ,•• gh-street, Exchange , by SAMUEL F RAN CEYS, ot! at No. 7, HiB JsQ of e et NEI n VT d O A N d , Newgate-street ; an.d, Mr. BARKER, 33, Fleet - stree t. • v&erctisne..ravienatsrsvaireti...,, . L, 7 FIRE AT LISCARD, IN CIIESHIRE.—About twe lve o'el lo last night, Rockliffe's Magazine Hotel was discovered W be k flames, and so complete was the ascendency which the tained ere the danger was perceived, that the sleeping ' 9 '104 on being aroused to a sense of their perilous situation, ot barely time to escape with such clothing as was ne ares t / hand, and ere the day appeared the building was couVidli.f destroyed. OT. STANDARD. 1 /