The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-02-19 00:00:00

UNITARIAN CONTROVERSY—LIBERALISM.—The

liberal (!) press of this town has been, for the last few
weeks, pouring forth a torrent of abuse on the head of
the Rev. Mr. Ould, (incumbent of Christ Church,) for
his having ventured ,;contrary to the spirit of the times,
to promote a public investigation of the doctrines of
Unitarianism. Thus has he been denounced by liberals
for advancing that very thing which they themselves
profess to admire, viz., free and open discussion. How
consistent ! But the very nature of the subject—the
character and will of the living God—which this gentle-
man, and his brethren, announced themselves prepared
to defend, is quite sufficient to arouse the animosity and
vengeance of liberals. Their conduct, on this occasion,
is only in perfect unison with their principles, and af-
fords a trifling corroboration of the truth of what we
said in another column, viz., that just in proportion as
any man boasts of being liberal, will he be found illi-
beral. While we abhor such illiberal proceedings,
nevertheless we do not' regret them ; for we are con-
vinced nothing will be more calculated to open the eyes
of real Christians, and of the deluded part of the com-
munity. We would ask any lover of truth, what,
but an opposition to the unadulterated truth of God
constitutes the bond of union that now exists between
Infidels, Liberals, Papists, and secular Dissenters ? Can
that man value any one religion, or have, at heart, any
religious principles, who thinks equally favourably of
all religions and of no religion ? Utterlly impossible.
We pity the intellect of the individual who can be so
far duped as to entertain such an opinion. We never
hear from the liberal press one sentence condemnatory
of the public exhibitions held weekly in our town by
notorious infidels ! nor any abhorrence expressed at the
challenges of professed infidel preachers who are now

itinerating through the land ! No, no ! But if any
one, valuing the character of the living God, and the
eternal interests of his fellow-creatures, presumes to
stand forth in defence of THE TRUTH, and in so doing,
exposes the various forgeries of the Gospel current at
the present day, he is forthwith held up to public odium
and contempt, and stigmatised as an incendiary, a gla-
diator, a pest to society.
Had the divine Author of Christianity been what is
now called a liberal, he never would have received the
treatment he did while on this earth ; had the prophets
and apostles been liberals, they never would have been
despised and persecuted even unto death ; and had the
first Christians been liberals, they would never•have beeit
denounced•by the Roman historian (Tacitus) as " haters
of mankind." For want of liberalism, all those suffered;
and for want of liberalism, will all the disciples of Christ
suffer, to the end of time, just in proportion as they faith-
fully and boldly maintain the cause of TRUTH.
We rejoice to find that Mr. Perris, of Church-street,
has just published the sermon preached by the Rev. Mr.
Ould against Unitarianism, on Wednesday the 6th inst.
It is an invaluable production ; we heard it delivered,

and confess we have seldom heard from the pulpit such
a mass of divine, incontrovertible, truth, embodied in
one discourse. Every Christian ought to possess a
copy of it. Hell and earth may be defied to invalidate
the truths therein contained. We shall, in our next,
publish the substance of the arguments advanced by the
Rev. Mr. Ould against, and the Rev. Mr. Thom in de-
fence of, Unitarianism, place them vis a vis, and com-
ment thereon.

TOWN COUNCIL.—A warm and spirited debate took
place in this body, at the adjourned meeting on Wednes-
day last, relative to the propriety of granting to the
Liverpool Infirmary the enormous sum of forty pounds
per annum, for its Chaplain. On perceiving the length
of the debate, we supposed the reporter must have
committed some blunder, and put down 40 instead of
400 ! But, on inquiry, we found the report was cor-
rect—no mistake had occurred—forty pounds was the
mighty sum about which so much was said. Several
members of the Council expressed their decided objec-
tion to allow any sum, under any pretence, or in any
form, for any such purpose. Conscientious creatures !
Some thought that ministers of all denominations ought

to have free access, and perform the duties in turn.
Hence it is evident that, with such persons, truth and
falsehood, darkness and light, spiritual food and spi-
ritual poison, are all alike ! However, the majority of
the Town Council of Liverpool have refused to grant,
out of their coffers, the paltry stipend of forty pounds
a year, two shillings and two-pence farthing a day, to a
clergyman of the Established Church—to one who, with
the book of God in his hand, conveys to the sick and
to the dying, the words of eternal life ! So that the
sum which is allowed for the performance of the most
menial services, is denied to a.gentleman of education
—to a harbinger of mercy from on high. We blush
for Protestant England when we hear of such transac-
tions. Oh tempora !oh mores ! It is certain that the
amount of the sum was not the cause of its having been
refused ; and those who imagine that a hatred to the
Established Church, abstractedly considered, was the
cause, are much mistaken. The real cause has a much
deeper origin—it arises from a hatred to that divine
truth, which is so unequivocally and conspicuously set
forth in the Articles of that church ; even that truth,
which rendered its divine Author despised, and which
will ever be despised and hated by men' of this world.

We venture to assert that had the same sum, or a
much larger sum, been proposed as a salary for a Popish
priest or an Unitarian minister, not one word of opposi-
tion to it would have been raised by those gentlemen
who opposed the grant of the above stipend to a clergy-
man of the Established Church.

MR. WRlGHT.—Nothing more exhibits a little-
ness of mind, and a shallowness of understanding,
than a disposition to ridicule the manners of our
neighbours. The man never yet existed, possessing
a great mind, and having a solid education, who
indulged in' such conduct. We are induced to make

these remarks from the illiberal attack made last
week, in the Mercury, on the pronunciation of Mr.
WRIGHT, a member of our Town Council. But it
speaks. volumes ! Were we disposed to retaliate on the
friends of the Mercury, which we trust we shall always
have too much respect for ourselves to do, Liverpool
could scarcely hold the mass of matter that might be
published. The well-known integrity and industry of
this gentleman, the fruits of which he is now so justly
enjoying, are quite sufficient to shield him from all.such
little assaults; and his good sense will, we doubt not,
lead him to the conclusion, that such conduct invariably
militates much more forcibly against those from whom
it emanates, than it affects the individual at whom it
was directed. All men, whose opinions are worth one
farthing, respect the latter, while they despise the
former.