The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-03-16 00:00:00

POPERY IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND

THE LIVERPOOL FREE-TRADERS.
THE very fact of Lord DERBY being in office
SrNcE our last publication, Mr. SCOTT MURRAY, has so fluttered the Volscians of the League, that
the High Sheriff of Bucks, has written a long letter they are thrown into an unwonted state of ex-
to the Times, respecting the manner in which Lord , citement, lest any alteration should take place in
the present laws respecting Corn. If the attend-
CA:MTBELL snubbed him lately at the Assizes. I ance of the meeting in the Royal Hotel, on Tues-
He complains that public notice should have been i day, in this town, be any test of local feeling on
taken of the facts, after the private rebuke which he the subject, the public take the matter very coolly,
received the evening before, at the Judges' lodgings, and are not without confidence in the QUEEN'S
in the presence of the other Judge and the Mar- advisers. It is curious to see what one-sided
steals of the Court. He would do well to reflect views men sometimes take of important subjects.
that the offence was public, and some future Roman The imposition of duty on Corn, for example, is
Catholic Sheriff might have followed Mr. SCOTT inseparably connected with duties on other articles
MURRAY'S example, alleging that no objection of food;
yet Mr. JAMES HARVEY, WhO has paid
had ever been made to the course adopted. The great attention to financial matters, and Mr. BROD-
instances which he quotes are three in number
RIBS were not permitted to notice the fact. The
for that of the Sheriffs of London is peculiar and latter took the most sensible view of the subject of
exceptional. In 1837 there was a Roman Catholic any man in the room ; and though there were
Sheriff in Berkshire, and another in Stafford; and those of the party who are more frequently before
in 1-839 in Yorkshire. On these occasions, the the public, there is not one whose reasoning is
remonstrances were not public. There is a capital more cogent. Mr. BLACKBURNE has made the
article in the same number of the Times, replying remarkable discovery that the agriculturists are
to the puerilities of Mr. SCOTT MURRAY'S letter, greatly benefited by the abolition of the Corn-
which it is highly probable was written for him, laws ! Had he said the public in general, we
as it required a week or more for preparation. It should merely tell him that that is a disputed
is not argued for a moment that there is any legal question; but he surely does not suppose that we
right in the case, even on the part of Protestants; will admit his statement to be even within the
limits of veracity. The names of farmers in the
it is known that on other occasions, which the
Sheriff considers much more important than the Gazette do not indicate that they have received
escorting of the Judges, he does not seek to parade military appointments; the sales in the Encum-
his religion before the people ; and in his case the tiered Estates' Court do not prove that there is a
large sum of money to be invested in the funds;
ceremony is a meaningless one. It is part and
parcel, however, of the spirit of aggression that is the agrarian murders in the Sister Island do not
systematically going forward wherever an opportu- show that comfort and satisfaction exist; the exo-
nity is afforded. dus from our shores is not an argument that
Some light has been thrown, lately, upon the people are more happy than formerly in the
religious mysteries of Rugby. Our readers will United Kingdom. But, apart from principles
recollect that a priest there informed the Rev. lir. real or supposed, let us look to practices.
WILBERFORCE that a large number of converts At the great meeting in Manchester there was one
had been made to Popery, and that hundreds of subscription from Liverpool : which surely does not
others were ready to " come over," but that, being demonstrate that our Merchants are enthusiastic
tradesmen, they were afraid of their business being COBDENITES. Nor does the miserable array of
injured by the step. He was taken to task by the subscriptions which they have advertised from our
Rev. Mr. PAGE, and fenced very dexterously in own locality; though it is easy to have the credit
reply; but the statement was neither retracted nor of munificence and patriotism where there is no
could the converts be named. On the 3rd of this expectation of calls for payment. A few years ago,
month Dr. CUMMING was in Rugby, and Mr. some gentlemen who were fond of exhibiting their
PAGE accompanied him to visit one of the hopeful names found them exhibited in a connexion that
three hundred. A poor old man, a member of the they little expected. One was called on for an
Established Church, confined to his garret and his instalment of the subscription which he had put
bed by age and sickness, appears to have been down as a non-intrusionist, but he found that
imposed upOn by the people with whom he lodges. signing a memorial was not the same as signing a
His landlady at the bottom of the stairs declared cheque. "Na, na," he said, " I'll pay nae siller ;
that be had been baptised by a priest, that he had I only put down my name like the rest of you, to
now a " perfect faith," and was " all right." He frighten the Queen." The Knight of NETHERBY,
himself declared that he was a member of the with the stubbornness of a Borderer, stood by the
Church of England, that he never sent for a priest, right, regardless of their demonstration; and if the
and did not know that any one had baptised him ! present system of hectoring when there is no enemy
This, too, is part of a system. In every district of in the field produce any effect at all, it will be to
our own town, where access can be had to the promote the very movement which they declare
bedside of some dying pauper, " the last rites of themselves anxious to prevent.
111M1A511912.....WM.E2.1.11.1.1.111111.111
the church" are in readiness, and if the patient is
insensible, all the better. Anything for a convert ;
ors.
and the name of it by all means, if the reality AT the last meeting of the Town Council, the
cannot be had. The Jesuit missionaries were re- and Museum Committee reported progress ; am'
puted to be the cleverest of their class. One of statement it appears that the books alreaJ
them persuaded a tribe of American Indians to have been arranged and catalogued, sch'
have their faces washed at a neighbouring creek, have been taken for the purchase of a I,
and then wrote home proclaiming the miraculous additional volumes. The treasurer of
and simultaneous conversion of the entire tribe, for procuring books and subscription,over to the Committee about £1,400,
So holy were they, that on his next visit not one all expenses. The thanks of the C
of them had a single sin to confess. They had the members of the Association
only performed the usual amount of scalping, money or books.
torturing of the pale-faces, burning of wigwams, While the temporary building
butchering aged men, squaws, and children; but in order to afford space for th'
these were trifles, as they were now Christians, collections, the Committee
Mr. OAKELY reported to the Times that the suitable accommodation elrespondent sugeested, t'
Rev. Mr. POLLEN, of Oxford, had been received porary, that the Meet/
into the Church of Rome. Mr. POLLEN wrote in to valuable account ;
brief but strong denial, and the Times at once gave appeared during ti
up the name of its informant. Mr. OAKELY on our attention
writes to say, in explanation, that he had proofs feature of the in,
which in his mind amounted to moral certainty, more than real
is not fo•
but he cannot state them lest he should cornpro- classes. T'
mise various friends. It is also undeniable that the buildi
many who were only in doubt, or making reason- lished ;
able inquiry, have been driven from the English school
Church by similar premature declarations of their thou
defection. The lying GAIVTIIORNE traded in
sm''
forgeries of this kind; and, unsettling public con-
fidence in both clergy and laity, turned indecision
into bias, and bias into perversion.

FIFTY-TWO.

THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

An extraordinary trial has just taken place at the
present assizes for the county Mayo. The Rev.
HAMILTON TOWNSEND is the rector of Ballycovey,
and in his parish, on the 23d of November, a monk,
called JOHN ST.JOIIN BRIDGMAN or Father JOHN,
burned publicly, in the open air, and in the presence
of several spectators, a copy of the authorised ver-
sion of the New Testament. The extraordinary
reformation which is going on in the west of Ire-
land has of course caused a great:excitement in the
minds of all the people, Protestant and Roman
Catholic. Each party states his principles boldly,
the one declaring that Popery is " damnable" and
" idolatrous," and the other asserting with equal
force " that the authorised version" of the Scrip-
tures "is not the 'Word of God but the word of the
devil—Luther's Bible, or your heretical Bible."
Mr. TOWNSEND and his scripture reader had
spoken of Popery in the usual terms, and Father
JOHN of Partree showed that his views were prac-
tical, and not mere words. At the time of his
burning the book, he declared that the Douay ver-
sion of the Scriptures was the Word of God, and
that he would burn his own body sooner than
injure it. If these be his real sentiments, he evi-
dently does not know the relation in which two
translations stand to the original. At the trial the
court-house was surrounded with soldiers; and the
court was filled with Roman Catholics, who were
in peals of laughter at every witticism of the counsel
for the defence; but a thrilling sensation ran
through the court, especially when Mr. TOWNSEND
declared that he, the bishop of the diocese, and the
QUEEN had all sworn that Popery was "damnable
and idolatrous." The jury, consisting of ten Pro-
testants and two Roman Catholics, convicted the
prisoner in five minutes; but they thought with
the judge that he had been greatly and unneces-
sarily, or unwisely, provoked. The counsel for the
crown then appealed on behalf of the prisoner, and
Baron LEFROY ordered him to be discharged on
giving bail to keep the peace.

MR. BRAMLEY-]MORE AND THE REPRESENTATION
OP HULL.—The Conservative electors of Hull have una-
nimously agreed at a public meeting, to request our own
townsman, Mr. Bramley-Moore, to offer himself as a can-
didate for the representation of that borough ; and a
requisition numerously signed has been forwarded to him.
We beg to congratulate the electors on the choice of a
man. Mr. Moore stands deservedly high in this town
where he is well known, and where the community have
had the advantage of his public services for many years.
He was long the chairman of our Dock Committee ; and
during the year in which he occnpied the civic chair, he
won golden opinions from all. He has been the patron
of literature, the friend of our public charities, and the
consistent advocate in every good cause. His familiarity
with mercantile subjects will enable him to promote the
best interests of the important port of Kull ; and his
principles as a Conservative and a Churchalan
will inspire
public confidence. The electors do not, wish to bring
forward a second Conservative candidatr,, but they will be
cf., of their opponent 4,
governed in some respects by the tacti