The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-15 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL CHES7ERRELDISM:

MERCANTILE MANNERS.
Yesterday there was a very unusual crowd of merchants
of different classes collected in the Police Court, in order to
bear the details of a case that came before Messrs. Aikin
.and J. Bolton. There was, not an available spot in the
Co Art that was not crowded to excess, and the deepest
interest prevailed amongst the friends of the parties con-
cerned at both sides. It was a charge preferred by

Ma. ALFRED FIRTH AGAINST MR. ROBERT MORRISON.
for an assault by shaking his fist and holding his hand
Within two feet of his face in a threatening manner, &c.,
an the 121 h January. Mr. Collier appeared for the com-
Phinant, and Mr. Almond for the defendant. The facts of
this case, which are somewhat strange, will be found in the
following statement and evidence :
Mr. Collier said the complainant was Mr. Alfred Firth,
of the firm of Messrs. Fletcher and Firtb, fruit merchants
and brokers, 4, Temple court ; and the defendant, Mr.
Robert Morrison, senr., was a merchant largely engaged in
the American provision trade.
Mr. Firth said Mr. Collier complained of an assault which
was accompanied with great indignity on the part of the
defendant. The complainant and his partner were the
le'sees of the buildings, No. 4, Temple court, and they
sublet a portion to Mr. Morrison for his offices, and he was
,the under tenant to the firm. No doubt both parties were
highly respectable, and held important positions in
the mercantile world. Now, before the case proceeded
further, he (Mr. Collier) would make a proposition to
the other side, and it was this :—There was, no doubt,
an assault had been committed by the defendant on the
complainant, and under very aggravated circumstances, but
he Was willing to drop the matter on behalf of his cient on
the following conditions. The assault and indignity took
Place in the presence of the public and a great number of
mercantile persons in the open street, and if the defendant
its that public and open court made a public and open
aPolosT, and expressed his regret for what he had done,
°'-'31.11d agree to pay a certain sum of money —whatever sum
their worships might agree upon—to a charity, and enter
into recognizances to keep the peace, then there would be
an end of the matter, as the complaint would be withdrawn.
Mr. Almond: Go on with your case, Mr. Collier; your
terms are rather too humiliating, and Mr. Morrison will
Lot accept them.
Mr. Collier : Very well, then I shall go on with the facts
of the case. Mr. Firth carries on business with his partner
at 4, Temple court, and they set off the lower floor to Mr.
Morrison for his office and business, keeping the upper part
to themselves for stores, &c. Five or six weeks ago some
difference arose between them, and they had not spoken
Since. About three o'clock on Monday afternoon Mr. Firth
Was standing at the office door (which is common to both
°flees) giving directions, and hurrying some of his men,
Who were loading some oranges into carts froni the top
Warehouse. At this time Mr. Morrison appeared coming
from the lower end of Temple Court, and as Mr. Firth
stood at the door, Mr. Morrison hustled him about and drove
him violently against the wall, at the same time using some
strong language. He then went into his own place, but
returned eery soon and assailed Mr. Firth with gross and
"arse abuse, at the same time shaking his fist in his face,
crying out. "you d—d thief—you're a d—d scoun-
drel—a d—d rogue, and I will smash your brains out."
Ile then went back to his office, but after a short time
returned and repeated the same scene, wi h equally coarse
language.
Again he went to his office, and again returned
the third time, when Mr. Firth was standing at the door
With his bands in his pockets, and on this occasion he received
a Push from the defendant, who at the same time exclaimed,
" you d----d coward, and by J— I'll knock your
brains out."
Mr. Aikin : I think it would be desirable to arrange
this case. There was a proposition made at the commence-
went of the case, and it was objected to, but perhaps that
proposition might be modified so as to meet the feelings of
both parties, for perhaps the most that could be done would
be to ask him to bind the defendant to keep the peace; and
if Mr. Morrison expressed his regret, which no doubt every
gentleman felt if be imagined he had acted hastily or
ItVrOcv..,
g and this in open court, and make a promise to keep
b e peace, he thought it would be sufficient, and answer all
parties.
Mr. Collier said : The transaction took place at three
o'clock in the day, in Temple court; and they all knew the
Crowds of merchants, respectable persons, and the public
generally, that passed through at that hour.
Mr. Aikin : But will you be content with what I say ?
Mr. Collier : Well, if he does so, I will consult my
client.

Mr. Morrison : I will do anything the magistrates
s'ggest• I may state, that I have no bad feeling towards
the gentleman, and as a reason, I may state that the last
time I was in this court, I came to bail Mr. Firth out of
gaol.

Mr. Aikin : I think it would be much better, and for the
_ credit of both parties, that the case should rot be proceeded
with further, but that the suggestion should be adopted. In
a moment of passion and excitement, a gentleman may use
expressions which, in a cooler moment he would deeply
regret. If Mr. Morrison makes a promise not to break the
Poe?, I think it will answer all the purposes.
Mr. 0: Hier : My client would embrace the offer at once,
but or the last most shameful, scandalous, and wicked
°l)S:r for
of Mr. Morrison.
Mr. Aikin : But if he promises to keep the peace, will
it not be sufficient ?
, Mr. Firth : I would at once leave the whole affair in the
natals of the magistrates, but after the wicked and un-
e!,aritable remarks made by Mr. Morrison, I will go on,
and Yon will please hear the case.
Mr. Morrison : The ream why I stated that I attended
bore to bail him out of gaol, was to show that I had no ill
ling towards him, but rather of kindness and friendship;
and ram perfectly willing to make any reparation in my
Power, which the magistrates may suggest.
‘
Mr. Firth : I would have been too happy to have adopted
the puggestioa• but I cannot now, after what he has said.
Mr. Aikin again suggested an arrangement, but Mr.
Collier said he would go on with the case.
Mr. Morrison : I now repeat that I used the expressions
in order to shqw my friendship for him, and not my hostility.
Mr. Firth was then sworn, and said : Some six weeks or
l"., months ago, I had a difference with the defendant, and
bad Lot spoken to him from that time. On the day in
(Pe'tion, he acted very violently, and shook his band in
nIY face; he called me a d—d thief, a d—d rogue and
acoundrel, and swore by J he would dash my brains out
on the parapet. He repeated this a second time, and then
came out of his office a third time, and brought a porter
with him. I was, at that time, shaking hands with
walsmley, of Castle street, when the defendant came out
again and used most abusive language, and pushed me,
repeating the same language. I said, " for God sake, Mr.
Morrison, go away," and then he shook his hand in my face,
and called me a d—d coward. I submitted to all this for
Peace sake. There was a vast number of respectable people
Passing all the time, and his voice could be heard much
further off than the other side of Temple con t.
Mr. Collier : Do you know if he were sober at
the time ?' I do not know, but I never saw him other-
wise than sober.
Cross_examined by Mr. Almond : Is it a fact that he
assisted you in a little matter of bail, to get out of a scrape ?
yes, it's a fact that he went bail for me.
Mr. Almond : Had you a dispute with him some six
weeks or two months ago, as you say, about proceedings
which he has taken against you in Chancery ? I know
pothiug of any proceedings in Chancery.
Mr. Almond : Did you not hear of a threat of proceedings
in Chancery ? No, I did not: There was a dispute
between us about a transaction in apples. I bad my hands
14 my pockets, and did not cross the door way. There was
no difficulty in his passing into the office. I did not put
out tn.y knee to prevent his entering the office;
Mr. Morrison : Oh, oh.
The witness went 'on in answer to Mr. Almond, and
said : The defendant swore by 3 he would knock my
..i.:)rains out. I did not bring two porters out to meet him:
I was quiet the whole time.
Mr. Almond : Do you understand the noble art of self
defence ? Yes, a little ; and when other people are aware of
it frequently makes them keep their temper. (Laughter.)
Ido not know what age Mr. Morrison ie. I can't tell ii
he is near sixty.
Mr. Almond : Did you not snap your fingers at him,
and insult him ? No, I did not.
Mr. Almond : Did you not say that you would take the
Chancery suit wit of him in blows ? No.
Mr. Almond : Did you ever tell Mr. Houghton so ? No ;
and I tell you I do not know that he has a Chancery suit.
Mr. Houghton came to me some time ago, and said Morri-
son will be pitching into you.
Mr. Aikin said it might be very agreeable to some
Persons to know what happened a long time since, but be
did not think this relevant to the present case.
The witness, in reply to Mr. Collier, said the matter of
bail referred to, was a charge brought against me by the
um:ltems.
Mr. Collier : Did the Customs abandon that charge
against you ? They did.
John Atherton, a porter, was next examined, and said he
was at the warehouse of Fletcher and Firth on Monday after-
noon taking oranges, and saw the transaction. Mr. Morrison
Came up and struck complainant, and called him a d-41
I.,eoundrel and rascal. He said he would smash his jaw, and
"ash his brains out, in the street. He came a second time,
and said the same thing, He came a third time st.d shoved
him out, and used the same language. There were a great
many.
vme gentlemen and others passing, and looking on all the

Cross examined by Mr. Almond : The whole affair lasted
about a quarter of an hour. Mr. Morrison was running in
and out to plague the complainant ; ho struck the com•
Plainant on the shoulder, to push him out of the way, and
called him a d-d thief. He said he would break his

jaws, an d knock his brains out. He did not ask Mr. Firth
to stand out of the door; all Mr. Firth said was to tell Mr.
Morrison to go into his office, and not act so foolish.
William Harper, a carter, was examined, and corrobo-
rated the evidence already given.
In reply to Mr. Almond, the witness said he did not see
the complainant put out his knee to prevent defendant
going in, but he did not see the first of it.
Mr. Thomas Walmslev, of Castle street, was called, and
this gentleman fully sustained the statement already given,
from the time be was shaking hands with the complain•
ant.
In reply to Mr. Almond, he said defendant did not ask
COMO in nt to leave the door.
To the bench: Mr. Firth did not use any observation
first to Mr. Morrison. .

Mr. Almond then addressed the bench, and said in
regard to the circumstance of the bail about the customs,
Perhaps, on the subject of the customs having abandoned
it so generously, there might be more said on the point.
Mr. Collier objected to this allusion, as it had nothing
to do with the present case, nor the evidence.
Mr. Almond said he mentioned the matter in order to
show at that time there was a good feeling on the part of
Mr. Morrison towards Mr. Firth. The learned genticroan
then went on to review and comment on the evidence given
for the prosecution. He• contended that Mr. Firth had
given great provocation, and had annoyed Mr. Morrison
very much by stopping up the door way. IT: said one of
the witnesses proved too much, for he swore that
Mr. Morrison had struck the complainant, although
Mr. Firth bad not attempted to swear that himself.
He argued that he was prevented having access to his
office. He then called

Mr, Houghton, fruit broker, who said—M: premises are
in Temple Colrt. I was not present, but about ten days
before there was a dispute about apples.
Mr. Collier objected.
Mr. Aikin said one of the parties had sated that there
was a blow or a shove given to the complainant on the
shoulder, and after a short conversational discussion between
the bench and the learned gentlemen on both sides, their
worships consulted with Mr. Wybergh for some time, when
Mr. Aikin said he very much regretted that the case had
not been settled at first. He then went over the c se, and
his opinion was to have inflicted a fine for the assault, as
well as binding the defendant to keep the peace, but Mr.
Wybergh had informed them that they could not do so,
and therefore they gave the benefis of the doubt to the
defendant. They would hind him in his own recognizance
in £lOO, to keep the peace fer twelve months.
Mr. Bolton said, his opinion was to have fined the
defendant £5, as well as binding him to keep the peace, but
as there was a doubt about it, they adopted the course
pointed out.
Mr. Morrison then entered into reccgnizances and was
discharged, when the large crowd left the court.

INFALLIBILITY OF THE BIBLE.

Last night, the Rev. A. Macdonald, M.A., Minister of
the Free Church, delivered a lecture, in St. G3orge's
Lecture Room, Lime street, on the Infallibility of the
Bible, in reply to the address of the Rev. H. M'Neile,
ED to the Young Men's Christian Association, on the
31st December.

It is in no light and irreverent spirit that we would
approach the subject of this evening. We would never
treat contemptuously the earnest religious beliefs of any
man, however they may differ from our own We would
speak in complete remembrance of our own liability to
err. Unaware of any source of infallibility upon earth,
we would not assume our own. But we seize this

opportunity of respectfully expressing dissent, and of
offering some corrective, to opinions stated, with no
small measure of oracular assumption, by the Rev. Dr.
M'Neile, to the Young Men's Christian Association.
In this heterogeneous and illogical composition there
is an ill timed and ill sustained attack on Unitarians,

and the end of the speech ignores the beginning; for,
while, in the beginning the Bible is the infallible book,
the heavenly oracle given by divine dictation, which is
to be accepted entire, or rejected entire. At the close
it is handsomely admitted that errors of tr lnslation and
transcription have got into the oracle. Is it possible
the rev. speaker could have remembered his commencing
observations? or does he scorn consistency ? or does

he not see that he has ruined hie own argument by

his concession ? Why, if there be any errors, even 6(
copyists, or on minor matters, where is the oracle ?
where is the infallible book, containing the unmodified

and immaculate ideas of God ? Whether the errors are

confined to minor points may be made a question ; but,
in any case, we have got the admission of errors in the
Bible. The thing is on record, and cannot lit.; withdrawn.
We have nothing for it, then, but to use our reason aril
such powers as we have, to separate the unessential

errors from the essential truths. We must be critics

over the Holy Ghost, and judge for ourselves where
human mistake blends with divine infallibility. This
is the very principle of eclectisin, of rationalism, of
Germanism, of Neology, and of all the " isms " and
" ologies" that are to be eschewed on peril of damnation.
Is Saul also among the prophets? Is the rev. incumbent
of St. Paul's also amorg the rationalisers ? If he is, he
incurs the severest censures of Dr M Neile, for the whole
Bible is to be unhesitatingly received, else denounced as
an imposture, a bad book, and a blasphemous assumption
The rev. speaker sees, at first, only a perfect honk. He
then begins to discern a few small errors. If he would
give himself the trouble to look azain, more impartially,
and if he could put off the spectacles of St. Aihanasius,
he might, peradventure, begin to descry, looming in the
distance, some errors in the infallible word not unim-
portant. He refutes himself. We are first told that "the
Bible is an infallible chart and compass, an oracle with
out mistake, given, not by inspiration only, but by
dictation of God—not the idea only, but the very words
being dictated by God ;" and then we are informed that
"small errors have crept in by translation and transcrip-
tion." This is affirming and denying the very same
thing. Infallibility admits of no errors, great or small.

A book without errors, we opine, is an errorless book ; a
book containing small errors is an erring book, or, at the
very least, an error containing book. We have it in

admission that the Bible is not without errors. It is
then a fallible book. We may differ from Dr. M‘Neile
as to the number and magnitude of the errors, but we
quite agree with him as to the fact of error in the Bible.
Some of the errors may really be of small moment.
Many of the vari•us readings of Scripture, for example,
are the differences ofa vowel, an e for an 1, or differences
in the tense of a verb or the gender of an adjective.
Some of the facts, too, may be trifling : as, whether
Paul's companions herd, or heard no', the voice that
talked with Paul. Acts ix., 7, says the one ; Acts xxii.,
9, says the other. Whether Solomon had 4,000 or
40,000 stalls : 1 Kings, iv.. '26, says the one • 2 Chron.,
ix., 25, says the other. Whether he had the command
of a thousand ladies, or whether as some wicked ones
have suspected, there may not be a superfluous cipher,
or even two. The name of Jeremy, the prophet,
inserted, by mistake, in Matthew xxvii., 9, for Zechariah
the prophet. In any case the words quoted by St.
Matthew have no existence in Jeremy, as we read it
now. Besides the words are misapplied, as well as
misquoted, The oracle is at fault . Peter's second
denial being made, according to St. Matthew, to a maid ;
according to St. Luke, to a man ; according to St. John,
to the servants and officers that stood near the fire,
warming themselves : the inscription on the cross being
delivered four different ways by the four evangelists.
But if, in courtesy, we call these " small errors," still
they viciate the claim of the Bible to be a book
dbsolutely infallible. If these were absent, the Bible
would be more infallible; and if the Omniscient Spirit
dictated the oracle, he has not insured its faithful trans.
mission to us. There are, in the Bible, errors which,
by no courtesy or truth, can be termed small. What a
countless number of errors must be implied in the nar-
rative of the universal deluge, if every living substance
on the face of the whole earth was destroyed ; and we
are expected to believe that, in an ark, or chest, 450 feet
long, 75 wide, and 45 high, pairs of all living creatures
were preserved to re-people the earth. There was but
one window, of eighteen inches, for all this freight
of animated nature, including eight human beings.
Food, then, for a whole year, including, of course,
animal food for the carnivore, and vegetable food
of all kinds, was stowed away for the innumerable
tribes that inherit our earth ; and the difficulty of
assembling them all in one spot, and in one climate, was
got over; and then there was the tendance of them
all by only these eight human beings ; with a small
eighteen inch window. The window, indeed, is small
—not so the error. To uphold the credit of this one
miraculous narrative, we must suppose a million, or
so, of miracles to have been wrought. Credat Tudaas
opella. Yet there can hardly be a mistake as to the
meaning. The Book of Genesis affirms an universal
deluge. Is it a small error in morals that the Bible
represents the Divine Being as directing the Hebrews to
borrow of the Egyptians with no intent to pay back ?
God repealing his own eighth command in the
Deealogue ?—or setting forth David as the model of a
king and a man, even a man after God's own heart ?
Why, if we could produce nothing else against David
than his atrocious dying charge to his son Solomon, as
reeerded in Ist Kings, ii., 8, it would damn him to
everlasting infamy
" And behold, thou bast with thee
Shimei, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day
when I went to Mahonaina ; but he came down to meet
me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I
will not put thee to death with the sword. Now,
therefore, hold thou him not guiltless, for thou art a
wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto