The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-26 00:00:00

men.

Argue as much as ever you please against
Romish opinions ; argue earnestly, but concede
equal rights; do not bitterly denounce, do not
speak as if your infallibility were undoubted
and unquestionable, do not confound earnestness
with bigotry, but always remember that even
you, the speaker, speak as a man believing him-
self indeed to be right, but still as liable to err,
still as possibly wrong. Such speeches as the
rev. Doctor delights to utter, are very baneful to
young and inexperienced minds. They seem to
us completely opposed to the best spirit of
Christianity. They shed mildew and poison
over the feeling that ought to unite us all as
fellow subjects of our sovereign lady the Queen,
and fellow-believers in religion. We cannot
conceive that such bitter and bigotted utterance
can do good to any human being, or support
any cause that merits support. Their effect, we
believe, i 9 purely maleficent and unbenign. Let
us all be animated by this spirit, and the fires of
Smithfield will be re-kindled, and the rack and
thumb-screw be again invoked to ensure the purity
of the faith. Of course, as earnestness means
bigotry, zeal must he persecution. It is only a
weak and timid mind, a milk and water
Christian, that could hesitate to employ torture
on the body to save the soul. Charity and tole-
ration, and respect for the mental rights of
others, only show that men are not sincere.
If we are sincere, why hesitate to employ the
appropriate means to attain our end, even if
those means should be what our adversaries the
Papists and Presbyterians will call persecution ?
This is the fair working out of Dr. M‘NEILE's
Protestanism, and of his animus towards the
Roman Catholics. We can only hope that his
followers will be few and scanty. Meantime we
would pray, in the language of that Litany which
the Doctor statedly repeats—" from all blindness
" of heart, from pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy
" from envy, hatred, and malice, and all un-
" charitableness—good Lord deliver us !"

MR. CHARLES TURNER appears nightly before
the electors of Liverpool, as if he were the
paragon of perfection as a public man. He has a
deal of that quality which must be termed
effrontery, and is nothing backward to boast of
his supposed merits as a candidate for the repre-
sentation of Liverpool. We like to see a man
who battles for senatorial honours plucky, and
would not withhold from him due praise in pro-
secuting an active and a vigorous canvass to
attain the suffrages of the electors. In doing this,
however, his past career as a public man must
be like CtESAR'S wife,'"above suspicion." It is on
these grounds that we now refer to Mr. TURNER'S
pretensions to become the representative of the
people of Liverpool. Into the question of the
expediency or legitimacy of the present contest

we will not enter. It is sufficient to observe that
if both parties—the Liberals and. Tories—were
satisfied with the conduct and principles of the
late members, Messrs. HORSFALL and EWART,
nothing short of a total desertion of their former
political faith could justify the bustle and excite-
ment, not to speak of the religious bickerings,
the strife and ill-feeling, which the present contest
has fomented. One:of our weekly cotempora-
ries, yesterday, in a laboured article, attempted to
answer the question, "Ought Mr. TURNER to
" have come out ?" The chief ground of the reply
in the affirmative is, that as Mr. TURNER pro-
mised five years ago, when labouring under a
keen sense of disappointed parliamentary ambi-
tion, to ask the electors of Liverpool to send him
back to the House of Commons, he is now bound
to redeem the pledge. Political pledges are too
commonly made to be broken, especially by those
whom we find under the banner of Conservatism.

A promise of the kind made by Mr. TURNER
in 1853, is subject to a great many contingencies
—circumstances that would warrant all the unde-
sirable results of a contest, for the sake of
maintaiaing a principle the practical operation
of which effects, intimately, the civil and reli-
gious freedom, and the social happiness and
prosperity of the inhabitants. As far as the
general political principles of all the candidates
are concerned they are pretty %yell agreed, and
upon Lord PALMERSTON'S issue to the country
there is not a semblance of difference. All uphold
the doings of Sir JOHN BowRING and Mr. Con-
sul PARKES. On this question neither the one nor
the other of the candidates have our sympathy
or support. We could have desired that all the
candidates had different views and sentiments
upon this particular matter; but as it is not so,
we are obliged to accept them with the drawbaA
in question. Now, although our Castle-street
cotemporary.says that Mr. TURNER is justified in
provoking the present contest, we think other-
wise, and shall justify our opinion by a reference
to the great and vital defects which mark the
public career of Mr. TURNER.

The rottenness of the old Corporations was
notorious. The frauds, corruption—municipal
and political--of which they were the moving
centre, made these ancient local institutions stink
in the nostrils of every good and patriotic citizen.
At length the stern demands of an indignant
people could not be resisted, and the Muni-
cipal Reform Bill was passed. The leading
object of that important measure was to place the
local government in the hands of the people, and
to render local taxation subservient to local
representation. This, however, is a principle
antagonistic to the doctrine of the old Tory
school, consequently, every effort has been
made by that party to evade its practical
operation. In Liverpool alone, the spirit, if not
the letter of the Municipal Reform Act, has been
violated by the Tories. The Ninth of November
last afforded a complete and satisfactory illus-
tration of the accuracy of this statement.
On that occasion the Tories united, and, in utter
disregard of public opinion or decency, " pitch-
" forked " a number of outsiders into the Town
Council as aldermen. These individuals, be it
remembered, obtained seats in our local senate
for six years, without, in a single instance, being
subjected to the votes of the peopl e.
One of the chief ciders and abettors
of this abominable practice was no less than
Mr. CHARLES TURNER, who now so plausibly
seeks to win his way to the Council Chamber of
the nation.

Furthermore, when the petition of the bur-
gesses and ratepayers was presented to the
Council, praying to be relieved from the
dangers and unhealthy inconvenience of the
Pike Water Scheme, did Mr. TURNER, the
aspirant M.P., plead on their behalf? Did he
use his influence and his position, his eloquence
and persuasive powers, to induce our local
authorities to pause in their course with regard
to the Rivington job ? Did he venture a single
assertion that that memorial should be duly con -
sidered, its statements weighed, and seek that
justice in its premises would be fulfilled ? But
another and a more serious act of misconduct on
the part of Mr. CHARLES TURNER, is the part he
played in the £4,000,000 Dock Scheme. Des-
pite of warning, remonstrance, and entreaty,
he persisted in extending our docks northward,
and saddled the estate with an enormous amount
of indebtedness, and all for the purpose of
improving and rendering valuable the waste and
useless marshes of the Bootle sands of my L ord
DERBY

In all these acts we perceive the cloven-foot
of Toryism. In the Council Chamber, and on
the Dock Committee, principles Qf strict mora •
lity are sacrificed tD the elevation of Toryism.
Schemes of jobbery, and plans of peculatio n
are arranged, whereby the enemies of Reform
may enrich themselves ; and it may be Mr.
TURNER himself lays the ground plan for his
elevation to place and power in a Derby Admi-
nistration. Electors of Liverpool, if these things
are so, and we challenge contradiction, " ought
" Mr. CHARLES TURNER to have come out 1'

IF our Conservative friends were to succeed,
by a vote of the new Parliament, in disendowing
Maynooth, it would not be all plain sailing. There
would be the trifling difficulty that Lord DERBY,
the prospective Prime Minister, and other heads
of the party, could not sanction such a move-
ment on the part of their too eager subordinates.
Consistency in a party is worth something, and
union has been usually supposed to confer
'strength. But we desiderate both in the pre-
sent crusade against the Roman Catholic Col-
lege at Maynooth. No Ministry that could rule
England would deem it safe or expedient, in
obedience to the demand of a faction, to with-
draw the national bonus given to encourage the
education of those who are to be the spiritual
guides of six millions of Irishmen. It is easy to
raise a clamour at the hustings, and London
Clubs may issue circulars to stir the waters of
sectarian animosity over the country; but men

in Parliament, and especially men in administra-
tion, have to consider what is practicable, what
is safe, what is fair to all, and conduces to the
general good. The disendowment of Maynooth
would be dangerous to the peace of Ireland, and
at this moment particularly, when we may hope
the sister island has commenced a career of sober
but unexampled improvement, any such disturb-
ance of existing relations would be nothing less
than disastrous. The rank and file of the Con-
servative party may not see this, but the leaders
are not blind to it.

Ireland has been the difficulty of most
British Ministers. Ireland was at one time
the chief difficulty of Sir ROBERT PEEL.
The proposed disendowment of Maynooth would
immensely increase that difficulty, for the
change could be regarded by Roman Catholics
only as a blow aimed at their religion through
the school of their priests. Is it desirable, and is
it justifiable to incur this risk, and throw the
Empire into a ferment for the sake of lessening
the comforts of Roman Catholic professors and
students at Maynooth, and thus, in a roundabout
way, inflict some discouragement on Roman
Catholic opinions? The Maynooth gran was
first conferred by a Protestant Parliament; it was
confirmed by the Imperial Parliament of the
United Kingdom, and it was increased and
placed on a footing of permanency by Sir ROBT.
PEEL. Its withdrawal would be of the nature of
a breach of faith with Ireland. We consider this
grant to be mainly an Educational grant. It
enables the inmates of Maynooth to receive a bet-
ter education, and to ba more comfortably lodged
and fed. No doubt Roman Catholic doctrines
are taught there; and when these shall be volun-
tarily abandoned for a more enlightened faith, we
shall be glad to hear it, and shall still continue
the bonus to education.

The great majority of the Irish people are
attached to the Church of Rome, and will receive
no religious teachers but such as are members of
that communion. While we desire to encourage
an improved education of the Irish priesthood,
we are constrained to grant it on the only condi-
tions on which it can be accepted. We endow
not for the Romanism, but in spite of it, and for
education, trusting that the introduction of the
better element of knowledge will either expel the
errors of a creed, or at least impart that softening
humanising influence which makes even religious
error less hurtful, by rendering it subordinate to
other and better agencies. Romanism with
education, we must repeat, is better than Roman-
ism without. If Protestantism has superior truth
and evidence on its side, then it is reasonable to
expect that a priesthoid educated into higher
knowledge will better discern the claims of
truth, and be more likely to adopt a simpler,
purer faith. How better can we promote the
spread of all divine truth than by affording
facilities for acquiring knowledge, and then
leaving men to the natural results of education
and enquiry. There may be other modes of
seeking the same object, but there is none so
safe, so humane, and so effectual in the long run.
It is said to wound the conscience of some,
that a single shilling of Protestant money should
go to uphold the soul-deluding system of Roman-
ism. Yet, Roman Catholic money is taken to
support a government and an empire which are
predominantly Protestant. It is almost prepos-
terous to say that far more than thirty
thousand pounds are contributed by Roman
Catholics in support of a Protestant State.
May not this as much torture a Roman con-
science ? Yet here are some of us boggling, and
grumbling, and trying to frighten the island from
its propriety, in order to snatch this pittance
from the education of the gentlemen who are to
be the spiritual counsellors of the peasantry of
Ireland. And this is the proposed line of con-
duct of one of the richest nations in the world
to one of the poorest. England is exhorted and
required to act thus to Ireland, " Look on this
"picture, and on this."

Not thus would consent to act, England's
greatest Conservative statesman of modern times
—the late Sir ROBERT PEEL. It was under the
administration of that safe and moderate states-
man that this grant was increased, and placed
on a footing of permanency. He saw and felt
the evils of every year renewing embittered con-
troversy on a wretched pittance, hardly worthy
of a great nation to offer, or of a poor one to
accept—some five or six thousand a year. And
when he increased the amount, and removed it
from the arena of an irritating annual conflict,
he did so with the consent of the leading men
of all parties in the House ; and not even Lord
DERBY and Mr. DISRAELI, were they in power
to-morrow, would venture to disturb that
arrangement. Yet two of our candidates,
Messrs. HORSFALL and TURNER, are making
political capital out of this ; and many of the
electors of Liverpool, no doubt, innocently sup-
pose that the Conservative chief is on the same
side. Let them ponder the danger and per-
plexity to their own side if they carry this point.
Iri all friendliness we forewarn them that it will
be the great Redan of the contest, and they will
probably be broken up and foiled should they
persevere in such manoeuvres.

MORE EXCLUSIVE NEWS.—Yesterday's NORTHERN
TIMES contained the full details of the news from
the River Plate and the Brazils brought by the
mail steamer Tamar, which arrived at Southamp-
ton on Tuesday. None of our provincial cotem-
poraries contained anything beyond the brief out-
line supplied by the telegraph companies, and
which was received in Liverpool about midday on
Tuesday. This is only another instance, added to
many previous, of the more complete and exten•
sive arrangements for the receipt of news enjoyed
by the NORTHERN TIMES.

THE RECENT ACCIDENT AT THE NEW GRAYING DOCKS
BraKENHEAD.—Charles Stubbs, one of the workmen who
fell into the dock of Messrs. Clayton and M`Giverin, and
fractured his skull, died yesterday morning iu the Birken-
head hospital.
THE ELECTION.—MEETING OF ORANGENIEN.—A meet-
ing of Orangern,,n, favourable to the return of Messrs.
llorsfall and Turner, was held last night in Clayton Hall.
On making enquiry, cue of cur reporters was informed that
the meeting was not open to any one, save the brethren of
the body.

TELEGRAPHIC NEIO

[By the British and Irish Magnetic Telegl'afl'l

THE NEUFCHATEL DIFFICULTY,

The fourth Conference relative to the Netlfpc!
affair was held yesterday, Dr. Kern was Pr";
It is the first occasion iu which all the repres
tives have assembled.