The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-19 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY

AND MUSEUM.

This (Monday) afternoon the doors of the Free Pub-
lic Library and Museum were thrown open to the in-
habitants of Liverpool ; the ceremony of inauguration
having taken place in thi forenoon, at which Thomas
Littledale, Esq., Mayor ; William Brown, Esq, M.P.;
Thomas Thornely, Esq., M.P.; and Charles Turner,
Esq., M.P., were present, and took part in the proceed-
ings.
At eleven o'clock a procession, consisting of the
mayor, alderman, and town councillors, started from the
Town-hall through Castle-street, Lord-street, Church-
street, and Bold-street, to the new library in Slater-
street; on arriving at which, Mr. Councillor Picton
chairman of the library committee, met the civic autho-
rities, and conducted them through the building.
After a brief inspection of the library, reading-
room, and museum, the distinguished company
returned to the large hall of the institution, where
The MAYOR addressed the meeting in a neat speech,
congratulating his fello es-townsmen on the auspicious
epsning of this institn in upon St. Luke's Day—a day
which, in the annals of Liverpool, was rendered memor-
able for the contests which were carried on in the elec-
tion of Chief Magistrate, but which would be rendered
far more glorious in the future annals of the town as the
thy on which a Free Public Library and Museum was
opened to the whole of the inhabitants. (Cheers.)
Mr. PICTON, who was loudly applauded, gave an elo
quent description of the commencement, progress, and
c umpletion of the undertaking. An association had
been formed by the Town Council, with power to raise
funds to be appropriated in the purchase of books.
Fr.tm this association they have received 1,3891. 2s. 10d.
snd the library at present contains 10,000 volumes.
Many valuable books have been presented by the Liver
pool Library, the oldest literary institution in the town;
ar.d the Dramatic Society have devoted the proceeds of
a public performance at the Theatre Royal to the pur-
chase of books. In the course of the present year, the
committee intended to acid 4,000 more volumes to the
library; about 3004 remains in hand, 5,7441. had been
expended; making mere than 6,0001. which had been
contributed to the. funds of the association, of which
Mr. T. B. Horsfall was the chairman. (Cheers.) By
the recent act, the Council had power to levy a rate of a
penny in the pound for the support of the Free Library,
the Derby Museum, and the Zoological Gardens, and he
(Mr. Picton) was sure that if it was found necessary to
levy the rate it would be cheerfully paid. (Applause.)
Let. Manchester, therefore, look to her laurels ; for
Liverpool would yet be at the head of every provincial
town in institutions of this nature. (Protracted
cheering.)
Mr. W. Brown, M.P., next addressed the meeting.
Ho was happy to see the honourable rivalry between
Liverpool and Manchester in institutions of this kind,
and heartily wished success to all such efforts.
Mr. Chas. Turner, M.P., then briefly addressed the
meeting, and was followed by Thomas Thornely, Esq.,
M.P., the Rev. Dr. Hume, Mr. Samuel Holme, Joseph
Pollock, Esq. (Judge of the Liverpool County Court),
and other speakers. After which a vote of thanks was
passed to the Mayor ; also to Mr. Picton and the com-
mittee ; and the initiatory proceedings terminated.
Many hundreds of respectable persons afterwards
visited the Library and Museum, the opening of which
is an era in the history of Liverpool.

CANNON'S IMPRISONMENTS FOR ASSAULTING THE
POLICE.-Since the commital of the sweep Cm non, for the
murderous assault on Dwyer, the police-constable, the offi-
cers at Horsemonger-lane Gaol have ascertained, that he had
been convicted no less than 20 times for assaults,' chiefly on
police-constables. The following is a list of some of his con-
victions :-Assault on police, Nov. 23, 1842, seven days or
10s. ; do., March 20, 1843, ten days or 20s. ; do., Dec. 27,
1843, twenty-one days or 20s. ; do., Jan. 25, 1845, one calen-
dar month ; do., April 21, 1845, one calendar month ; threat-
ening language, Oct. 24, 1845, sureties for one month; do.,
Dec. 1, 1845, sureties for one month ; assault on constable,
Sept. 16, 1846, one calendar month ; bastardy, Aug. 6, 1847,
one month or 17s. ; assault, Nov. 26, 1847, twenty-one days
or 20s. ; assaulting constables, March 7 (Sessions), 1848,
twelve months' hard labour and sureties for twelve months ' •
dc., April 18, 1850, thirty days or 30s. ; do., July 31, 1850,
one calendar month or 50s. ; do., Sept. 30, 1850, five calendar
months ; do., March 1, 1851, two calendar months ; remanded
for arson, May 27, 1851, discharged ; common drunkard,
Jan. 28, 1852, sureties for one month. He has since had
four months at Wandsworth House of Correction has been
also previously three or four times in Kingston Gaol, and
several times at Brixton.

TUE OUTWARD CAPE MAIL—PLYMOUTH, OCT.
'6.--The General Screw Steam Shipping Company's new
mail ship, Calcutta, Captain Vine Hall, sailed yesterday
passage from London easterly
afternoon
Gboeot(wieen four and five o'clock for St. Vincent, the
Cape of
Plymouth Sound at half-past Hope, Mauritius, Calcutta, and the East
the South Foreland toa P'l
engines, which are by Maud any
winds she accomplished her
Plymouth in 34 hours; she was off
at noon on Wednesday, and at
and the bearings are not Sul!)
his entire
Hall'sapval of her lO a. m. on Thursday. Her
of her predecessors, and her
ship and mustered the crew yesterday in th
speed is greater than that
I,aY, are perfect in every respect,
,s
shipect to being heated. Captain
of Captain lmpregnable,
ee
Sound
inspectedeq uip m;
thete hn et
case of fire.
Lowe, of Her Majesty
8 fprelli e .th e lleitclibidurne 33 bags.
gallant officer expressed •
had about
and the
She printed rules for the
being bound to Sat.b
lls full of passengers,
tsamhinrfideoi
tiugas t. hy
ifeoucntt,ahflerecesuipsgtehthcai itpahllialonyso
,roeocoeli
.v
in
nd
Beside the ordinary
. Vincent
t two
intended to be taken by her to the Ca
South Arrican Squadron. The Melbournep ha°
hours start of the Calcutta, both
and the Cape. Their progress will be watched with con-
iderable interest by nautical men.

TIMES.—The Popish agitators of Ireland have
positively adopted what Americans would call the
" platform " of Religious Equality for the approach-
ing season. These sworn and devoted followers of
the M'Hales, the Slatteries, and the Cullens—these
men who prescribe seminaries of education in their
own country, and whose fellow-religionists in Rome
and Florence consign all Dissenters to the dungeon
or the galleys—these very people, known and
branded for intolerant bigots, beyond even the cur-
rent wilfulness of bigotry—are meeting together and
resolving that " religious freedom, equal, impartial,
and universal, shall be extended to all, of whatever
religious denomination, and that all shall share
equally in the ecclesiastical resources of the State,
according to the religion in which they were born, or
which their consciences may lead them to profess ! "
These doctrines, thus laid down and proclaimed, are
really and actually the production of pure and tho-
rough going Papists—of men who remit to perdition
all congregations but their own,
who defend interdicts
against Protestant worship in foreign countries, and
who represented the Queen's University in Ireland as
an institution conducting directly—we use their own
language—" to hell fire and damnation." We are
persuaded, as we remarked before, that Irishmen, and
Irishmen alone, could have ventured on such an au
dacity of self-contradiction, Even Jesuitism could
never have done as much without a smack of the true
Hibernian element. By and by we shall probably
see " Conservative committees" sWing in Dublin and
publishing strong resolutions against all kinds of agi
tation, disturbance, or intrigue.

We have no intention of instituting any argument
with the Sackville-street conspirators. In no single
respect do their proceedings deserve any serious at-
tention on the part of the British public. The com-
mittee's advertisement is contemptible as a political
symptom, and even as a bull it will only bear laugh-
ing at once. We know perfectly well, indeed, that
the conspirators themselves attach no real importance
to their project. In the desire to get hold of the
property of others, if such felony could be contrived,
they are no doubt very earnest, but they are not in-
considerate enough, even as Irishmen, to believe that
a Dublin club will be indulged with the harrying of
an ecclesiastical establishment, or that a period when
Papists in Ireland are diminishing, and Protestants
multiplied by hundreds daily, is the most fitting
moment for the abolition of the Irish Church. They
have no expectation of being listened to; but a fresh
subject of agitation was wanted, and this looked the
best. Twelve months ago it was the " Defence As-
sociation ;" but the Defence
Association was crushed
out with a tread, and now it is the destruction of a
Protestant establishment, under the pretext of a
Religious Equality Conference." The new idea,
it was thought, might frighten the Government,
excite the Papist population, and attract some
sympathizers among English Nonconformists ; and,
though it would come to nothing, that was no great
drawback on an Irish experiment.
We are not going to exalt this piece of impudent
folly to the character of a political project by discuss-
ing its justice or propriety. There is no need to ex-
pose a thing
which will die fast enough without any
xp
osure. We offer merely a few plain remarks to these
eorganized agitators on the subject of their agitations
generally. They seem to have been terribly affronted
with what we said the other day, but they may assure
themselves that it was nothing but the truth. We do
not wish to bluster or threaten. It is not the way of
Englishmen. We are not in the habit of proclaiming
aloud that we will see our laws put in force, or thdt
we will keep the peace of the kingdom. But, for the
last five-and-twenty years, Irishmen have been habi-
tuated to productive agitation and to the attainment of
their ends by the threat of making themselves ungo-
vernable if they were refused. The time for this work
is past. Englishmen have acquired two pieces of know-
ledge; first, that these menaces mean nothing at all; and
next, that the concessions they provoke are unscrupu-
lously abused. We granted emancipation for fear of civil
war, and in deference to the maxims of theoretical
wisdom. We now know that " civil war means a
row in a cabbage garden, and that the conclusions of
liberal theories are convicted by the wilfulness of
emancipated Papists. Nothing has followed from
Roman Catholic Emancipation which its advocates
predicted, except the satisfaction produced by acting
rightly, while everything that Lord Winchilsea pro-
phesied has been more than confirmed—we are
driven to confess it—by the madness of the liberated
crew. .

These facts have now furnished traditions of Go-
vernment. We now see our way, and we are not
going to be bullied again. It would be exceedingly
disagreeable to the people of this country to be
forced into any extremities with the Papists of
Ireland, but it would be worse still to permit these
Papists to give the people of England the law. We
should take the less of two evils, not only because
it is the less, but because it would infallibly, when
closely encountered, prove a great deal less still.
If Dr. APHale will compose himself to philoso-
phical serenity as he reeds these remarks, he will
see that the policy thus approved is not the result
of anger or indignation, or the symbol of de-
liberate oppression, but the conclusion of corn-
moo prudence only. As Papists cannot be satisfied
without an absolute totality of licence, we must go-
vern unsatisfied Papists as well as we can. If Irish-
men, as is very possible, must needs unite themselves
in associations and committees for the public prosecu-
tion of some extravagant folly, they will be indulged
in their fancies up to the furthest limit consistent
with the good order of the State, but the attention or
respect of the Legislature will be beyond their reach.
There was a time when it was penal in various de-
grees to profess the doctrines or celebrate the rites of
Popery. We trust these times may never return,
though the 11l'Ilales and Cullens are taking every
step to recal them. Bat Englishmen can very well
distinguish between those attributes of the Romish
religion which it suits the genius of Popery so con-
veniently to confound. They can imagine that Po-
pish congregations want Popish masshouses, and that
Popish clergy want Popish orders, but they are not
to be persuaded that Popish sacraments cannot be
administered unless the bishops enjoy the titles
of a territorial peerage. Undoubtedly it has al-
ways " been the practice " of the Papal See to
insist upon these designations, because it has
always been the , practice of the said see to claim
in every country a dominion introduced as spiri-
tual authority, but convertible at the first op-
portunity into temporal power. We can separate
those accidents which Rome adroitly assimilates to
each other, and neither in this country nor in Ire-
land will anything be permitted to Papists which
raises their profession above that of any private or
independent congregation. We shall not stone
them as idolaters, though they want but the power
to burn us as heretics. We shall confine them to
a sphere where their doings will affect none but
themselves, and, if Dr. 11,PlIale will but look atten-
tively at the signs of the times, he will discover
that the true friends of " religious Melly" may have
enough to do in preserving even this result of their
past and ill-requited labours.