The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

TO EDWARD CARDWELL, ESQ., M.P.

SlR.—Your committee and friends have rung the
changes sufficiently upon the subject of the alleged insin-
cerity of the Conservative party. One day we are Protec-
tionists " in disguise ;" another day we are free traders
"in disguise." One day we are accused of a desire "to
reverse the principles of the past ten years ;" another day
we are twitted with having been compelled to " pay ho-
mage" to those principles. Pray, Sir, if it be not imperti-
nent in an humble individual, like myself, may I be
permitted to ask what are your principles ? What is
the policy determined upon by the Peelite party, to whom
you belong ?

I can well imagine the answer with which you would
like to satisfy the public. You are prepared to " carry
out the policy of the past two administrations ;" or, per-
haps, you would rather confine yourself to carrying out
that of the administration of the late Sir Robert Peel.
The reply, Sir, is too vague. It is, hoar ever 7 characteristic
of the man. You, Mr. Cardwell, and the late Sir Robert
Peel, your idol, never originated any policy ; you always
followed. It was such a statesman as yourself—such a
dealer in second-hand opinions—that the London Times,
some years ago, felicitiously compared to "a duck-legged
drummer boy waddling in the rear of the march of intel-
lect." lam afraid, however, that we must accept your
vague reply, so far as relates to commercial policy. But
there are other matters deeply interesting to Englishmen,
over which you cannot be permitted to throw the veil of
mystery, now that you stand before the electors of Liver-
pool a political " gentleman at large," as you would pro-
bably claim to do if invested with official station. There
is one question in particularrespecting which your opinions
and intentions must be explicitly declared. Need I say
that the question is as to what course you are prepared to
take in the struggle which impends between aggressive
Romanism and the Protestant Church and liberties of this
country?

You, Mr. Cardwell, are the chosen champion of the
Roman Catholic portion of the constituency. Do not
tell us that, so far as they are concerned, you are fighting
the battle of free trade, or of " liberal" principles. These
men, in one of the most numerously and influentially
attended meetings of their body ever held in Liverpool,
distinctly spurned your cheap loaf, and declared their ad-
hesion to you solely on the ground that you had not voted
for the bill to put down papal aggression. There can be no
mistake, and " there shall be no mistake," upon this
point. You opposed the first reading of that bill because,
you said, it was not stringent enough. On the occasion
of the third reading, after increased stringency had been
infused into the bill, you absented yourself from the
division. Your present position as the Romanist candi-
date for Liverpool is incompatible with your vote against
the measure, as not being sufficiently stringent. The fair
inference, in the case of a straightforward man, would be
that you had changed your views as to the necessity of a
stringent measure to check Romish aggression. In that
case you are in your proper position as the selected can-
didate of the Roman Catholic electors ; and no sincere
Protestant can support you. But your friend, Mr. Am-
brose Lace, has recently claimed you as an evangelical
member of the Church of England ' • one of those, too,
who are anxious to promote the spread of true religion by
the circulation of the Bible ; and he adds, that for you to
forward the views of Roman Catholicism in this country
would he " to run counter to your long and deeply•rooted
convictions." If, in sincerity, you arc such a Protestant
churchman, then you are not in your proper position as
the selected candidate of the Roman Catholic electors.

Whichever way we view the matter, this conclusion
forces itself upon us. You must, Mr. Cardwell, deceive
one or other of the parties who are asked to place their
trust in you. This is not my opinion ; it is that of the
public. Your Romanist friends expect you to hand over
the Protestant institutions of the country into their de-
stroying hands. Your Protestant friends—they are few,
Sir !—expect that you will " whistle down to fortune"
your Papist allies,- on the very first opportunity. They
believe you to be insincere and tricky. Time will prove
whether, in so doing, they are wrong or right.
I ask you, Mr. Cardwell, to throw off this dishonest re-
serve. Do not ask the electors of Liverpool to support a
man who, Janus-like, has two faces ; whose one eye looks
to Rome and the other to Geneva Be not one of those
spirits

" Who palter with us in a double sense !"
An open enemy Englishmen respect. The enemy, whose
approach is stealthy, and whu stabs behind their hacks,
and wears a mask,—Englishmen detest and scorn. Throw
off that mask which you wear, Mr. Cardwell ! Let us
know how you propose to earn the approbation of your
Roman Catholic allies, and, at the same time, to defend
from insult and aggression the Protestant Church of this
country. If you remain silent—if you still keep the veil
of mystery drawn closely over your intentions, with re-
spect to this vital question,—the electors of Liverpool
have a just right to regard your pretensions as fraught
with very great suspicion.

. - I remain, Sir, your obedien'Z'tT l ANS.
Liverpool May 15,1852.

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD AT OXFORD.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—Whilst perusing the report of the celebrated
controversial discussion, held at Hammersmith, in May,
1839, between the Rev. Dr. Cumming and Daniel French,
Esq., barrister-at-law, on the differences between Pro-
testantism and Popery, I was much startled by a fact
connected with the University of Oxford, then stated by
the Roman Catholic opponent ; and as a new edition of
the report of this discussion has just been issued, and is
now in the hands of so many friends and foes, I beg
earnestly a small space for the extract in your valuable
Protestant journal, that it may either be denied in toto
or carefully investigated.
I quote from the authenticated edition of 1848. the
faithfulness and correctness of which is certified by both
of the above-named gentlemen. Speaking in behalf of
the Romish doctrine of Purgatory, Mr. French. in page
385, states as follows :—" At Oriel College, Oxford, they
PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL OF ITS FOUNDER;
and why .? Because otherwise the College, with its ap-
purtenances—the summum bonum of celestial Protestant
felicity—would be forfeited, according to the condition
of the original deed of grant. It is a fact which cannot
be denied, that year after year, in order to keep the
filthy lucre, they do so at Oriel College, Oxford: and it
is done in other parts of England. At Oxford it is, and
it cannot be denied by tny learned friend."
In this statement, Sir, we are accused of fostering in a
Protestant University two unreasonable, yea damnable
errors, viz., " PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD," and " PUR-
GATORY"—delusions of Satan, carried out into all Chris-
tendom by his Prime Minister, who sits in MAHOMET's
(not Peter's) chair in the " City of the Seven Hills." Is
it possible that such enormities, totally repugnant to the
Word of God and to the Articles of the Church of Eng-
land, are practised by any society professing to be a Pro-
testant society for the education of ministers for a Pro-
testant community ? I trow not ; but as the accusation
has been made, I do trust, as a satisfaction to the Protes-
tants of the present day, you will not hesitate to insert
this letter; for in this our day we must not be seen to
wink at such things, but faithfully to wash our hands
from all such vile impurities ; for though we have many
unfaithful sons creeping into our beloved Church. who
are introducing the very quintessence of Popish mumme-
ries, to the partial if not total exclusion of the simple
Gospel of Jesus Christ, (of which sect, with some honest
apostates to Rome, Oriel College claims not a few,)—
still, believe me, we are not all Oriel men. No ; thanks
be to God that England's Church has within her pale
many faithful champions for the simple truth as it is in
Jesus, to the preaching of which all England's unrivalled
Glory is to be attributed.
Hoping that some one connected with this Tractarian
seminary will step forward boldly and unflinchingly to
acknowledge or deny the .fact, as the case may be. (I
repeat unflinchingly, for away with all half-hearted Pro-
testantism !) that we may be cleansed of all such conta-
minating stains,
I am, Sir, in behalf of the Church of England,
Your obedient servant,
A PROTESTANT CLERGYMAN.
Kirkdale, Liverpool, May 13th, 1832.

DIOCESE OF CHESTER.

PREFERMENT.—The Rev. Joseph Oakden, to the Per-
petual Curacy or District of St. Stephen. Congleton, in
the parish of Astbury, in the county of Chester (void by
resignation of Rev. John Scott), on the nomination of the
Lord Bishop of Chester, patron fur this turn. Value, £l3O.
ORDINATION.—The Lord Bishop of Chester intends to
hold an Ordination on Tuesday, the 19th September next,
at Chester, candidates for which must send all their
papers to Charles T. W. Parry, Esq., his Lordship's Se-
cretary, at least six weeks before that day.