The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-29 00:00:00

representations of the state of English feeling,—and
those journals which are playing the same game, by
attributing to the Conservatives a line of policy which
the writers know is abhorrent to their principles, and
would be fatal to their hopes.

It is with no ordinary feelings of pride and pleasure
that we present our readers with a full and accurate
report of the proceedings at the great Meeting held in
the Music-hall on Friday. It is impossible to overrate
the zeal and steady earnestness with which the loyal
and

Church-loving people of this great community
regard the cause in which the Young Men's Associa-
tion is engaged, and it is not easy to overvalue the
importance of that high example which Liverpool now
sets to the whole United Empire.

Long before the appointed hour of meeting, the
room was crowded with persons of different ages and
sexes, but chiefly with men in middle age—the strength
of the body politic, and the firm bulwarks of the
Church. And when our distinguished Representative
made his way through the dense mass to the platform
at the higher end of the room, he passed with difficulty
through a multitude whose hearty and expressive
cheers gave evidence at once of the estimation in
which he is personally held amongst them, and of
their fervent sympathy with the principles which
caused him to be chosen to his high post as their
Representative in Parliament, and brought him down
on the present occasion to preside over so numerous
and so influential a portion of his constituents.
It is right and natural for the democratic faction to
direct against the Established Church every secret
device of their sinister and Jesuitical malice, for the
men who fear God will be taught in the same breath
to honour the King also, and they who rally round
the altar will be found among the firmest and Lost
devoted champions of the Throne. But for the Radi-
cals (in Liverpool at least) to make open war against
the Church, is neither more nor less than sheer insa-
nity. Whatever else they might have succeeded in
recommending to the people, common worldly wisdom
should have taught them a better policy than openly
to assault what is nearest and dearest to the hearts of
every class amongst our fellow-townsmen. " It 's all
along o' you
to a Liverpool Clergyman at the close of the last glo-
rious election ; " it's all along o' you parsons :
we never touches you without getting the worst of it."
The sacrilegious blow, levelled against the Church,
recoils upon the author's head.
After the meeting had been opened with prayer by
the Rev. Mr. Falloon, who repeated some of the beau-
tiful and appropriate Collects of our Church, Mr.
Cresswell rose, and, in a speech of admirable perspi-
cuity and clearness, explained to the vast assemblage
before him the objects which the Young Men's Com-
mittee had in view when they called their townsmen
together. His short and succinct statement of the
numerous and discordant sections of the Church's
enemies, his masterly exposure of the secret motives
which arrayed them together in one unholy league,
and his own emphatic declarations of the line which
duty and inclination prescribed to himself in Parlia-
ment, accorded admirably with the double duties
which he was then called upon to discharge, as a
Member standing before his constituents, and as a
Chairman presiding over an assembly. His temperate
exposition of sound principles was grateful alike to
every person of every varying shade of religious and
political sentiment within the Church, because he
reasoned not upon any views or crotchets of his own,
but upon that broad test which the Constitution of his
country, and the blessed experience of centuries, has
provided for the Statesman—the safety of the Esta-
blished Church. We quarrel with no man whose sen-
timents differ from our own, within or without the
Church. But as no general would take the open field
when he had strong intrenchments and a vantage-
ground,—so the true position for the soldier to take
up, who has the real interests of the cause at heart,
is the defence of the Establishment. The Wesleyan
and the Presbyterian—to their honour be it always
spoken—are forward to acknowledge that the battle of
Protestantism must be fought upon the lines of the
Established Church.

When Mr. Cresswell had concluded the meeting wac
subjected to one of those interruptions which are no
infrequent on occasions when it is attempted to as.
semble together the friends of the Established Church
The Music-ball, large enough, we dare say, for its own
legitimate purposes, is far too small for such manifes-
tations of popular feeling as that which we now re-
cord. The pressure at the doors became exceedingly
inconvenient, and such was the effect of numbers
forcing their way into a room already overcrowded,
that an individual in the middle of the room rose and
complained to the Chairman that the pressure, which
had reached to the place which he occupied, was con-
stantly increasing, and would be attended with serious
annoyance and even danger. We know not whether
it is more gratifying to record the overwhelming inte-
rest which the purpose of this meeting had created, or
the exemplary demeanour of the assembled multitude,
which, after a little anxious and jud.cious management
on the part of the Chairman and his supporters, sub-
sided into one of the most orderly and attentive audi-
ences we ever remember to have witnessed.
We shall not impair the effect of the speeches which
were delivered by giving any abstract of them in this
place. Our readers will find them at length in the co-
lumns of this Journal. It is sufficient to observe that
our gifted townsman, Mr. M‘Neile, who moved the
first resolution, and during whose speech the principal
pressure at the doors took place, was enabled, never-
theless, to carry on, amidst every interruption, one of
the clearest, and plainest, and most argumentative ora-
tions of which this serious and most solemn question
will admit. A vulgar demagogue may electrify the
feelings or excite the amusement of the largest audi-
ence; but to address to a very promiscuous assem-
blage, under disadvantageous circumstances, a con-
nected and elaborate argument, fitted to convince the
philosopher or refute the sceptic, and to carry along with
him the collected mind of the assembled multitude, re-
quires no common gifts of grace and eloquence in the
speaker, and no ordinary measure of resolute attention
in the audience. The men, our liberal opponents may
rest assured, who followed Mr. M`Neile step by step
through the whole of that masterly oration, are not
the men whom a little temporary excitement can dis-
turb. They are not borne to and fro by every blast of
doctrine. They mean the things they say, and will be
found watchful at their posts, when the battle of the
Constitution shall be fought in earnest. There they
stood, like a Protestant army, round their chosen
leader; and when he spoke,

Facies non una duabus
Nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum,
We shall not let this question rest.

The air, a chartered libertine, was still,
And the mute wonder hushed in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.
He was followed by Dr. Byrth, who spoke with great
emphasis and energy.
Mr. Whatham, the Secretary of the Association,
and Mr. Moore, one of its members, moved and se-
conded the last resolution in a talented and spirited
manner, and gave abundant proof that the right thing
will be said in the right way, not on the greater occa-
sions only, when great men are especially invited to
attend, but at the ordinary meetings of the Society,
and by its own members. It was remarked by Lord
Bacon that the destinies of a nation may he predicted,
if we know the character and disposition of its young
men. Surely the formation of such men as these into
the " Liverpool Young Men's Established Church
Society," is a pregnant proof of the temper that now
prevails in England, and a happy omen for the days
to come ! Macte virtute, puer,—sic itur ad astra.
We must close our remarks for the present, with
the expression of our heartfelt delight that the great
cause of Church Extension, which has prospered so
signally in Dr. Chalmers' hands amongst our Presby-
terian brethren in the North, has been taken up in
earnest for our own honoured Church of England and
Ireland. We rejoice that Liverpool is now (as always)
in the vanguard of the sacred army. We have rejoiced
heartily in the prosperity of our friends in Scotland :
we should be traitors to the Church of England, if we
did not rejoice yet more heartily in her awakening
energies and increased exertions. May the Presbyte-
rian Church amongst our Presbyterian friends—but
far more may our own Establishment amongst our-
selves—be extended and increased, till the means of
public worship are coextensive with the necessities of
the poor from one end of the empire to the other :