The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-03-29 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S DECLARATION.
(From the Standard.)
Various and contradictory inferences are drawn from
the declaration of Lord John Russell on Friday night.
Some consider that that announcement is to be re-
ceived as a direct threat to resign after the 'recess, and
that the postponement of the execution of the threat
is delayed so long only in expectation of the interven-
tion of quarter-day. Others regard the menace as
merely an effort to rally once more the distracted sec-
tions of the liberals for the exclusion of a conservative
administration, and think that ministers have as little
notion of relinquishing office as at any time since
their accession. Probably, however, the truth is, that
Lord Melbourne has no more comprehensive object
than as usual to get over the time it he can, and trust
for his continuance in office to Court favour and the
chapter of accidents.
Against this last hypothesis it may indeed be urged,
that the crisis is of the noble lord's seeking, and that
therefore he may be supposed anxious to obtain a de-
cision one way or the other. This answer is true in
part, but in part only. The vote of the House of
Lords was very falsely described by the premier as a
vote of censure. It was a vote differing nothing in
substance, and very little in form, from the preceding
vote of the House of Commons upon the motion of
Mr. Frederick Shaw; for between appointing a com-
mittee to examine into the evidence of the state of
Irish crime for four years, and a vote to submit all the
returns illustrative of Irish crime for the same four
years to the notice of parliament, there can be imagined
no difference as regards censure ; nevertheless minis-
ters permitted Mr. Shaw's motion to be carried without
a division in the House of Commons. So far it is
true therefore that Lord Melbourne seemed to go out
of his way to invite a crisis when he treated the vote of
the House of Lords, upon very false pretences, as a
vote of censure—an assumption, we may add, suffici-
ently negatived by the speeches of the noble mover and
of the Duke of Wellington, both of whom distinctly
protested against being understood to impute any re-
proach ; and they, it will be admitted, are the best in-
terpreters of their own meaning. A comparison of the
several effects likely to follow the respective motions of
Mr. Shaw and the Earl of Roden will explain, never-
theless, that though, as votes of censure, they stand
upon exactly the same footing, the one is much less
calculated to alarm Lord Melbourne than the other.
Mr. Shaw's motion for evidence is merely a motion for
the submitting of prepared and officially garbled docu-
ments to a prepared tribunal—to a tribunal in which
ministers suppose they are sure of a majority, though
a small one. Lord Roden's motion, on the other
hand, calls for a full investigation by the light of docu-
mentary and oral testimony. While the one, there-
fore, may be lightly regarded by the guilty, if guilt
there is, the other must be an object of terror. Lord
Melbourne, therefore, merely anticipates, in treating
the vote of Friday as a vote of censure : it is not a vote
of censure, but it will lead to one, and, if the peers of
England are like their fathers, to a vote of strong cen-
sure too. Impeachment must begin with the Com-
mons, but the Peers will have done their duty if they
force upon the representative body a knowledge of the
truth.
The grounds for inquiry laid by the Duke of Wel-
lington are surely adequate, the disproportion between
the punishments for murder and the murders con-
fessedly perpetrated ;
The boasts of tranquillity, contradicted by the offi-
cial returns, even such as these returns are ;
The confessed existence of a treasonable society
bound together by secret oaths, which the executive
has been unable to reach, or, if able to reach, has not
punished.
No attempt has been made to shake either ,of the
first two of his Grace's arguments—the unpunished
murders and the falsely boasted tranquillity ; but a mi-
nisterial journal of Saturday denies- that the existence
of the treasonable society, bound by secret oaths, affords
any ground for inquiry now, because, indeed, the ex-
istence of that society was known 14 years ago. This
is strange reasoning. The very duration and invete-
racy of the greatest curse of a country is surely no
reason for neglecting it. The Irish conspiracy is not
older than the boroughs in schedule A, and it is at
least as great an evil ; yet the boroughs in schedule A
were not allowed the plea of prescription to prolong
their existence. The fact, however, is, that the Irish
Romanist conspiracy has been now, for the first time,
confessed by Lord Melbourne's party as existing de
presenti ; hitherto it has been always denied, or spoken
of in the past tense. Such a style of speaking was,
we know, false and mischievous ; but it might and did
deceive so many in this country, as to render it perhaps
impolitic to move the subject in parliament. For our-
selves, aware that the private sentinel has duties more
simple and improvident, so to speak, than those which
attach to leaders, we never shrunk from telling the
truth, and now we have our reward. We must, how-
ever, go back to the crisis.
The suggestion that ministers have suffered any vote
of censure is false ; but that a vote of censure upon
their Irish policy, if not an impeachment, inevitably
awaits them from the vote of Friday, is true. Look-
ing at their foreign and colonial policy, and even at
their invasions of the rights of the people at home,
they may see the germs of many ,companion votes :
they are, therefore, naturally anxious to fortify them-
selves, if they can, by a vote of the House of Com-
mons, while they still command their miserable majo-
rity in that assembly ; in other words, they, invite the
House of Commons to take upon itself the responsi-
bility of all their delinquencies, known and unknown—
to pass, as it were, an act of indemnity in the dark.
We do not think that the house will submit to such
degradation, and commit so grave a public crime. In-
deed, how the house that agreed to Mr. Shaw's mo-
tion can come to a decision, pronouncing its vote upon
that occasion impertinent and superfluous, we are un-
able to understand. To common minds the asking the
house to come to such a decision must look like a very
serious insult. Meanwhile the people ought to be
neither unattentive nor inactive. The villany practised
impartially against all parties in getting up, or rather
attempting to get up, the anti-corn-law agitation in
order to escape the general confusion, must prepare us
for any degree of craft and profligacy in the men now
holding office. We shall not be at all surprised if the
interval between the present time and Lord John Rus-
sell's selected day of trial shall be employed in nego-
tiating " a compact" like that of Lichfield House"
with the Chartists. Let the friends of the country and
of order not lose that interval, and that they may em-
ploy it to the best advantage we take leave to borrow
from our excellent contemporary, the John Bull, the
following advice :
" Lord John Russell's threat of retiring from office in case
of a defeat upon the Irish question, is likely to produce an
effect, for which perhaps he is not quite prepared.
" Public meetings will be forthwith held in all the counties
of England, for the purpose of preparing addresses to the
House of Commons, praying it to make the ' STAND' now,
against the proposed proceedings of the ministry, and termi-
nate a career which, disgraceful as it has hitherto been to the
country, promises even worse results in its further progress.
" This is the moment for the Conservative lovers of the
country to be stirring—let no question of personal conveni-
ence, no consideration of political difficulty stand in the way
of the united cry of the people. The people, as we have else-
where said to-day, have given ample evidence of the increase
and spread of Conservative feeling, by returning to parlia-
ment, in all later cases of county elections, men of undoubted
loyalty and constitutional principles—let them now call on
those representatives to display that loyalty, and work out
those principles, by loading the table of the House of Com-
mons with the petitions which will be entrusted to their care,
and thus awaken, if possible, the Sovereign to a sense of the
dangers to the constitution, already too evident to the people.
" Not an hour should be lost. Lord John Russel will try
his experiment, in all probability, on the Bth or 9th of next
month, and we fervently hope that before that period the cry
of the Conservative electors of Great Britain will have been
heard, not only in parliament, but in the halls of the Palace
itself."

It is impossible to go wrong in pursuing the course
here proposed. Whatever ministers may determine
upon, however the House of Commons may decide, it
is necessary that all who are anxious for the safety of
the country and the monarchy should be awake and at
their posts.

PROGRESS OF POPERY.
(From the Scottish Guardian.)
Our readers will recollect that we have of late re-
peatedly directed their attention to the progress of
Popery, and to the steps which the Church of Rome is
taking for farther advancement. We have seen the
progress at home and in the colonies ; but these are
not the only quarters. The same spirit of evil is at
work on the continent. The public may remember a
conflict between the King of Prussia and the Arch-
bishop of Cologne, which terminated in the banish-
ment of the latter. Mr. O'Connell, of course, severely
denounced the Monarch. Many, perhaps, imagine
that the whole was a mere personal squabble between
men in high places. But far different is the truth.
We could not hope to make the case intelligible
to the general reader, except at an expense of ex-
planation which we would grudge ; but this we may
safely say, that the origin of the whole was a most base
attempt, on the part of the Popish ecclesiastic, to re-
vive the most rigid and intolerant practice of the
Church of Rome in regard to mixed marriages—that
is, marriages between Roman Catholics and Protes-
tants ; and that, in the course of this attempt, the most
disgraceful jesuitry and bad faith were everywhere con-
spicuous in the conduct both of the Archbishop and of
the Court of Rome, which was a party also 'to the pro-
ceedings. We must refer the reader to two interesting
and able articles on the subject in the latest numbers
of the Quarterly, and Foreign Quarterly Reviews—
they are full of information, and well worthy of gene-
ral perusal. One point is apparent, and that is, that
the step at Cologne is but a step to similar usur-
pations all over the continent, where there is any scope
for them, so that one of the Reviews justly entitles the
article treating of them " Papal Conspiracy." Without
reading these Reviews, we hope the following letters
from Michaelis, the chaplain and private secretary of
the archbishop, will be so far intelligible to the reader
as to show forth the active exertions of the Jesuits in
Prussia at the present day. By law the Jesuits are
strictly excluded from Prussia. The letters will prove
how the priests of Rome keep their oath to observe the
law ! It may be added that the letters were seized by
the police when in quest of other things, and that Mi-
chaelis acknowledges them to be his, of which, indeed,
from other circumstances, there was no doubt. Thus
he writes a friend :
'• To his Reverence, M. Pastor Binterim, D.D., Knight of
the Papal Order of the Golden Spur, Bilk, near Dusseldorf.
" Cologne, April 7, 1837.
" Reverend and Honoured Sir,—The business of Father
Schulten I have attended to, and shall shortly answer your
most pleasing letter. For the present two requests :-1.
Could you furnish me with a short characteristic of the deans
of our diocese—a, how they are disposed towards Rome ; b
towards celibacy and omnem habitum clericalem ; c their
literary attainments, and their talents? 2. It is of the great-
est moment to draw some superior men to Cologne. Mr.
Laufent, it is to be hoped, will come ; it is only a pity that
no parish is yet vacant for him. Can you tell me of any
young men promising in those three respects, particularly
from Belgium? It would be a matter of great joy to us (sed
tantum inter nos) to smuggle in some Jesuits. Do you know
any who speak German fluently ? From Switzerland or Rome
would excite too much attention. Talk over this matter pri-
vately with Father Schulten. As soon as some are found,
we must consider how the ulterior steps are to be taken. If
you know Mr. Laurent, in the diocese of Liege, pray write
a line to him to persuade him to accept the rifling offer
which has been made to him. It is at present only a curacy,
at St. Columba, which is open ; the farther promotion will
come in good time. Pray keep this obscure letter secret.
Commending myself to your prayers, I remain your most
devoted friend, " EDWARD M.
" In haste—O. a. M. D. G.—PAID !"
To the Same.
" Cologne, May 2, 1837.
" REVEREND SIR, MOST HONOURED FRIEND.—Your
respected letter 9f the 25th ult. gave me the greatest plea-
sure. The hour is fully come, every means must now be
energetically employed. First hear how far matters have ad-
vanced. The archbishop gives his blessing to everything ;
but for the present shuts his eyes to the whole affair, so that
the undertaking is only a private undertaking. I shall
in a little time provide [contrive to introduce] for four J.*
in Cologne, and then for one at Bonn. They will, doubtless,
obtain here a sphere of labour. lam educating some clever
boys entirely for this purpose, and in Bonn there are several
of the most talented theologians, who are willing to enter
into the order. With these I intend to erect a covenant of
faith, and shall then bring them into connection with the J.
in this place. From Rome two J. are expected. The two
Prussians at Nivelle are well known to me; they lived in our
house at Miin.ster. For the present, I wish that the young-
est, Joseph von Ham, should be sent hither as soon as possi-
ble; only let him be addressed to me—l will take care of the
rest. For the sake of security he may bring with him a medi-
cal certificate, ordering him to take up his abode on the
Rhine. In Burtscheidt and Aix-la-Chapelle the Missionary
Society is starting into existence ; here the difficulty is greater,
but all in good time.
" One thing more : the archbishop wishes much that all
the pilgrimagest should be restored. In reply to an inquiry
respecting a pilgrimage which is to last several days, the
archbishop said, that he grants the ecclesiastical permission,
only they should take care that the civil authority have no
objection to it. Pray work and agitate, that everything
that has been abolished may be restored. The gentlemen at
Bonn have been forbidden by the Ministry-1, to name the
name of Hermes ; 2, to use any of his works, especially the
philosophical introduction ; 3, to advance any of his doctrines ;
4, Hilger's lecture upon dogmatic theology has been for-
bidden. Whoever refused to subscribe was suspended. All
have subscribed ! The archbishop has interdicted Riber and
Leutze from delivering any lectures.
'With respect to the inclosed letter, I should have liked
to add a full account of the state of things in Bonn, if time
permitted, and I had not had a similar commission from
Blenkert.T. Pray refer the gentlemen to the article which is
to appear in this journal. With all respect, your most de-
voted, E. M.
"O. a. M. D. G.§—FOR THE SAKE OF SECURITY NOT
PAID ; DO YOU DO THE SAME."
Let it be remembered that these letters are so recent
as the year before last, and yet there are men calling
themselves Protestant, so ignorant and silly as to
imagine that Popery is changed ! What honest Papist
would accept of the compliment ? and why, then, should
Protestants stultify themselves to render it ? Fire and
water may change ; Christ and Antichrist cannot.

* Jesuits

These pilgrimages had been prohibited by the preceding
archbishops, as tending only to superstition and immorality.
Editor of the WUrtzburgh Journal. " The Friend of
Religion and the Church, for Catholics."
§ We believe these cabalistical letters signify, " Oremus
ad Matrem Dei Gloriosam."

LORD FORTESCUE-THE LIEUTENANCY OF

IRELAND.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
Though recent events have rendered it problemati-
cal whether Lord Ebrington will ever assume the reins
of 'viceregal authority in this country, we deem it a
duty, until the question shall have been finally settled,
to keep his public acts and professions alive in the pub-
lic mind. In our publication of Friday last we noticed
the anticipations of his friends, with a view to restrain
the over-sanguine, and to warn the too credulous ;
and, at the same time, to record our own dispo-
sition to do justice to the merits, should they ever
be made to appear, upon which a confidence (now
premature) is demanded. We professed to be solely
guided by the public manifestation of his lordship's
principles; and we called upon the conservative inte-
rests in this country to take the same rule for their
guide. Nothing has since occurred to give our opi-
nion a more favourable turn, nor to divert the aristo-
cracy and gentry from that"course towards his lordship
which we know it is their intention to pursue. On the
contrary, the public indications of his lordship's prin-
ciples, which have subsequently occurred, are of a na-
ture to confirm our prepossessions ; and, if the maxim
noscitur a sociis be true, to warn the nobility, gentry,
and clergy of Ireland, that, in the person of Lord Eb-
rington there is no fit companionship for them. If
our readers will examine our subsequent columns, they
will find his lordship publicly associating at dinner
with a radical society, over whose festivities presided,
as chairman, the notorious Mr. Alderman Wood. At
this entertainment Lord Ebrington and Mr. Daniel
O'Connell were the principal speakers ; and we find
them respectively engaged—the former in giving in his
unqualified adhesion to the system of Irish govern-
ment pursued of late ; and the latter lecturing his lord-
ship on the necessity of following that course which,
under the base submission of the last chief governor,
placed Ireland under the control of the Romish priest-
hood, working through the agency of popular agita-
tion. What Mr. O'Connell's view of the government,
as conducted by Lord Ebrington, is, may best be col-
lected from under his own hand; and with this im-
pression, we here record the following letter, dated
London, March 22, as the precis of the new adminis-
tration :

" London, 22d March, 1839.
" MY DEAR RAY—The people of Ireland will see with sa-
tisfaction the decided and manly part which the ministry
have resolved to adopt. They bring forward, on or before the
15th of April, the question before the House of Commons,
shall Ireland continue to be governed on the wise, humane,
and impartial principles acted on since 1835, by Lord Mel-
bourne's government—or shall she be handed over to the
truculent, the furious, and the sanguinary Orange faction ?
This question the House of Commons is to answer ; the
House of Lords have, consistently enough, chosen the worst
part, and under the guidance of that harsh and ungenerous
old man, Wellington, declared for the Orange faction. There
was a time when you would have been surprised to read the
newspaper speech of Lord Brougham, yelping in with the
vilest of the Orange rabble—but no one now is surprised at
anything so unprincipled a statesman writes or sings, says or
yelps.
" Well, then, the tug of war is to come on on the 15th of
April. I intend to go to-morrow to Liverpool : and on Sun-
day night, unless it blows a whole gale, to go to Dublin ; if
not on Sunday night then, on that of Monday. Reckon on
me for Tuesday at the latest.
" The fate of Ireland depends on Lord John's motion, con-
ciliation or oppression. There is time, however, for the Irish
nation to speak out—loud, long, and unanimous. I mean to
move on Tuesday an address to the Irish people, calling on
them to rally at once against the diabolical Orange faction, a
faction enriched by the spoils, and red with the blood of the
Irish nation ; let us peaceably, tranquilly, but at once, meet,
petition, and remonstrate ; let me present three hundred
thousand petitioners at the bar of the House of Commons,
calling by their respectful but firm petitions on the British
legislature to avert from our lovely green land the horrors of
civil war and bloodshed ; and to continue to us at the least a
just, merciful, and impartial administration until they grant
us the equalization of civil rights and religious freedom, which
cannot be as long as the majority of the Irish people support
the church of the minority.
" Hurrah for this peaceful conflict. I like the straight-
forward boldness of this blow of the ministry ; it is what we
desired—collision between the two houses on a great, a vital,
and all-important principle—the principle on which Ireland
is to be governed, either for a faction, or for the people. Hur-
rah for the Irish people ! It makes me young again to en-
gage in this conflict. All Ireland will, I trust, at once become
Precursors. It is the name of peace, in which we will fight
our bloodless battle. Hurrah for old Ireland !
" Circulate these tidings. I will be with you to enforce
these sentiments.—Faithfully, yours,.
" DANIEL O'CONNELL.
" T. M. Ray, Esq."
But even this letter, strong as it is, falls short of the

explicitness of Lord Ebrington's own declaration upon
this occasion. We find him, in the course of his
speech, renewing his engagements to walk in the foot-
steps of his predecessor, and adopting towards the
landed interests of Ireland that unjust and unjustifiable
policy which was the worst and most offensive feature
of Lord Mulgrave's government. It was the policy of
the latter nobleman to hold up the landlords of Ire-
land to odium and to ruin, by representing them as the
true, though remote causes, of all the crime which
stains the character of the country. Lord Ebrington
follows in the same strain ; but—as if
" Anxious to wound and yet afraid to strike"—

he insinuates, rather than asserts, his opinion of their
culpability. This he does by a side-wind--by a con-
trast instituted between the landed proprietors resident
in Ireland, and the members of a radical company in
London, (the Irish Society,) which possesses extensive
estates in Ulster ; and whose management thereof he
commends, with a view of disparaging that of Irish
independent gentry.. " Gentlemen," says he, " if all
the proprietors of land in Ireland were like you, if all
had the same benevolent intentions," &c. We so-
lemnly protest we , never read a more dangerous and
unjust insinuation than these words convey ; and we
trust that ere they put their confidence is the speaker,
the gentry will require such an explanation as may
.set
them right with the public. His lordship eulogises
this society for the well-built houses, the well-cultivated
lands, the well-looking and respectable tenantry which
adorn the estates, and for the peace and prosperity of
the district. 'These his lordship has witnessed with
pleasure ; and that pleasure the greater, because these
estates form an exception, we suppose, to the general
rule. Are such things not to be seen and felt on the
estates of any of the resident Irish gentry ? Are such
things not the result of the civilization, prudence, and
humanity of Irish proprietors ? We tell his lordship
the contrary; and that everything agreeable he has
witnessed on the estates in question is not the result of
the Irish Society's benevolence and management, but
of the manageMent, benevolence, and intelligence of a
class of tenants upon those estates, who, fortunately
for the interests of the country, are perfectly independ-
ent of the society, and who, from leases in perpetuity,
have a better interest in the land than the griping ab-
sentee, and radical proprietors of the fee simple. These
gentlemen are the resident gentry of the spot—the lo-
cal magistrates who preserve the peace—the friends and
-protectors of the poor—the improvers of husbandry—
the teachers and ensamples of good morals and loyalty.
The society have little or nothing to do with the ma-
nagement of the estates, save to receive their head
rents and renewal fines : the prosperity and conduct of
the population is the work of a resident gentry.
. Good houses, forsooth, adorn the estate ! They do ;
but little thanks is due, therefore to the benevolence or
integrity of the Irish Society. They are incorporated
under a charter which requires them to divide with
other London proprietary companies, at certain periods,
the surplus (after an ascertained amount of the profits)
arising out of those estates. For many years, as we
are credibly informed, the managers of the. Irish So-
ciety contrived the matter so, that no division was
made, nor any account rendered of the surplus. What
became of it is a question we don't pretend to answer.
But this we know, that when the other companies in-
stituted suits in equity for the recovery of their rights,
the Irish Society began most zealously to expend the
surplus—so that none might remain—on the erection
of houses, &c., and have thus been extremely liberal to
their tenants, and have very much enhanced the value
of their own lands, at the expense of those to whom
the surplus funds should, of right, have belonged.
This enforced liberality is truly a subject of commen-
dation for a radical society, because it is the only one,
perhaps, for which even the appearance of a merit could
be claimed. It is not, however, with such benevolent
and prudential management that the Irish landlords
benefit their estates. We wish the society much joy of
so felicitous an eulogist as the Baron Fortescue.