The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-13 00:00:00

leges— Now this may be all very true and proper
when each proposition is considered abstractedly by
itself, and, under certain limitations, we might our-
selves be perfectly willing to admit its truth ; but what
is the effect upon the mind of the disciple ? He is
told that from that vast body of which he forms a unit,
springs all power ; he hears the good sense and intel-
ligence of the masses continually made the theme of
panegyric ; he is, told of republican forms of govern-
ment across the seas, where provisions are cheap and
labour always finds a market; he exercises his short-
sighted reason upon the subject of the• absurdity of an
hereditary legislature; he looks around him, and he
sees his family in want, while some rich profligate is
squandering thousands upon selfish frivolities ; he is
told that by his own right arm he must help himself,
and the din of the much-abused lines,

" Hereditary bondsmen ! know ye not,
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ?"

is sounded in his ears. We ask, is not such a man a
ready instrument for the hands of the demagogue ?
and, when the demagogue has the courage to aspire to
the dignity of traitor, are not f• u h the men who will
fall the first victims of his guilty ambition and their
own credulity ? The case is too clear for argument.
Secular knowledge will not give moral principle, and,
without the latter, the poor man will be ever ready to
make war upon the rich as his natural enemy; and, as
in the case of the Chartists in South Wales, will be
ripe for rebellion so soon as he believes that there is a
reasonable ground for expectation that his traitorous
attempts will be crowned with success.

We have been favoured with various extracts from
the columns of several of our Radical contemporaries,
for the purpose of enabling us to expose the inconsis-
tency of their conduct with respect to the Corporation
Schools and the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, and
to place in juxta-position their recent praises of a sec-
Lion of the Clergy, and the unmeasured epithets with
which they were formerly delighted to honour them.
Such a step would, however, only be to invest the
newspapers from which they have been taken with a
degree of importance which they do not deserve,—
seeing that the opinions of their editors, upon all mat-
ters having the slightest relation to religion, have long
since ceased to be regarded with respect by the virtu-
ous portion of the community. Indeed, we cannot
but regard with feelings, of the deepest satisfaction the
unceasing opposition which the Collegiate Institution
continues to receive from those of our contemporaries
to whom we allude; inasmuch as it furnishes a self-
evident proof of the importance which they attach to
it, and exposes the alarm with which they contemplate
the introduction of a sound Scriptural education
amongst the children of the middle classes. They
are no doubt perfectly aware that the system of edu-
cation which is to be adopted in the new Institution
has received the public sanction, and been promised
the cordial support of the respected Pastors of the
Wesleyan Connexion and Scottish Church, in addition
to that of a great majority of the local Clergy ; and
they must have been informed, from the same clerical
source (and we would not be understood as alluding
to Mr. Wray or any of his followers, whom .we believe

incapable of resorting tO such an unworthy expedient),
that the resolution of the Clergy, upon which it is
based, was drawn up and moved by the Rev. Mr. Jones;
and, moreover, that it received the unconditional sup-
port of the Rev. Mr. Buddicom, whose exertions upon
the Provisional Committee in behalf of the Institution
have, we are happy to learn, been highly beneficial.

Nothing is so apparent as the dread which they enter-
tain of the working of the system which they affect to
condemn. They are well convinced of the immense
advantages which this Institution will afford to the
friends of the Established Church, as well as of the
strength with which it will arm the sacred cause of
religion. The ill effects which have resulted to their
party since the agitation of the School Question, cause
them to entertain the direst forebodings as to the
ultimate fate of that party when the Collegiate Institu-
tion comes into full operation ; for they have long felt
that its political ascendancy is mainly dependent upon
the spread of Socinian and infidel opinions throughout
the country. Under these circumstances, they may
well fear the establishment of an Institution in which
the pupils will not be told that "religion is based on
morality ;" or led to suppose, from the force of ex-
ample, that either conjugal -infidelity is excusable in
tie conductor of a newspaper, or incontinency-- in =-
Unitarian Minister ; or that the legitimate path to
Church distinction lies through an editor's room; or
that the highest qualifications for such distinction con-
sist in ability to perpetrate anonymous newspaper
slander against their more talented and respected
brethren ;—but in which, on the contrary, the chief
aim of its Professors will be to depict virtue and vice
in their true colours, and to arrest the further. progress
of latitudinarianism and infidelity in the town of Li-
verpool. Conscious that their own principles are
based on deception and fraud, certain editors are ever
suspicious of the motives and principles of other men,
judging, from a review of their own feelings, that no
one can be active in the promotion of a praiseworthy
ebject, without being actuated by the most selfish and
interested views. Hence the malignant attacks which
have lately appeared in their co!umns upon Mr. Saml.
Holme. The mean insinuations which they contain
have, however, been so triumphantly repelled by our
neighbour the Courier, that we are almost inclined to
thank them for the favourable opportunity which they
have so unwittingly afforded for displaying to the
utmost advantage the strict integrity and high princi-
ples of moral rectitude, which govern the actions of a
gentleman whom they are constrained to acknowledge
as one of the ablest supporters and brightest ornaments
of the Conservative party in Liverpool, and of whom
that party are justly proud.
Convinced, from past experience, that nothing is so
dangerous to the success of any enterprise as disunion
amongst its promoters, the conductors of the Radical
press have indefatigably laboured to sow its seeds
amongst the friends of the Collegiate Institution.
We are unfeignedly glad to learn that this unmanly,
indeed dastardly, conduct has not only most decidedly
failed, but has still more strongly confirmed the Com-
mittee in the conviction that the path which they are
pursuing is the one most eminently calculated to lead
to success ; and that it has, moreover, infused a degree
of energy into their counsels, which might otherwise
have been wanting. In vain have the grossest per-
sonal attacks been resorted to, and the most artful
misrepresentations been employed, to divert the atten-
tion of the public from a calm consideration of the
true bearings of the Collegiate Institution, and a just
appreciation of the many benefits which such a sound
and comprehensive system of education as it will con-
vey must confer upon all within the sphere of its in-
fluence. Truth (as it ever will) has m this instance
signally prevailed ; and the: subscription list, proudly
displaying the names of numerous individuals distin-
guished amongst their fellow-men for piety, integrity,
and every species of moral worth, furnishes a valuable
commentary upon the unavailing efforts of those who
are attempting to depreciate the merits of an Institu-
tion which they lack the ability to injure. Notwith-
standing the attempts which have been so diligently
made in various quarters to oppose the efforts of the
Committee, and (what has been infinitely more ad-
verse) the extreme urgency of the times, which, in
point of commercial distress, have had no parallel
since 1810, the subscriptions have already (without
the aid of a public meeting, of a single advertisement,
or of any of those adventitious resources which are
usually recurred to in affairs of this nature) exceeded
the handsome sum of £7,ooo—a circumstance unpa-
ralleled in the history of any institution yet established
in Liverpool. The daily augmentations and promises
of support which continue to be received are to such
an extent,as to leave no doubt upon the minds of the
Committee that they will he able to commence active
operations in a much shorter time than was originally
anticipated. .
The prospects of the Institution are now extremely
bright, 'and the speedy termination of the labours of
its prdmoters all but certain. It cannot fail to receive
the cordial support of every lover of hiS country and
her venerable institutions ; and the time will 'come,
when those who have assisted in rearing the noble pile
which we shortly hope to see erected for the purposes
of the Institution, will be universally ranked by their
fellow-men amongst the most enlightened benefactors
of the human race. Our earnest desire is to see it
prosper, and, so far as our huMble efforts may be
useful, they , shall not be wanting to promote its sue-
CCM'