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

YOUNG MEN'S ESTABLISHED CHURCH
SOCIETY.
(From a Correspondent)

The meeting held at the Music-hall on Friday even-
ing afforded gratifying proof that the interests of the
Established Church are in no danger from want of zeal
on the part of our fellow-townsmen. The room was
crowded to suffocation, and hundreds were turned
away from the doors owing to the utter impossibility
of admitting them. We regret that the Amphitheatre
had not been chosen, in order more fully to demon-
strate the strength of the friends and supporters of the
Church of England in the good town of Liverpool.
It would have been crowded to excess, and the occasion
was well worthy of such a display of numbers and en-
thusiasm. Those who value aright the inestimable
blessings of such an Institution as the National
Church, extending through the length and breadth of
the land, and bringing home to every man who is
willing to hear the great truths of Religion, not by
the convulsive and uncertain efforts of what is called
the Voluntary Principle, but by the steady operation of
a constantly acting and admirably organised machinery
—must rejoice to see such a spirit working amongst
the people as that which animated the crowds at the
Music-hall on Friday evening-. Burke calls nobility
" the chief defence of nations," and surely the same
may be said of a church like that of England. We
will take the lowest ground of argument with her ad-
versaries, and challenge them to show in the history of
the world an institution so adapted to fulfil the great
end of all government—the preservation of social or-
der- and consequent augmentation of national happi-
ness. As merely supplemental to, and in a great mea-
sure superseding the functions of the civil magistrate,
such an establishment is of priceless value, and the
benefits she confers are not confined to'flre members
of her communion—they are essentially national. It
is an undeniable kci that the Dissenters, who are most
hostile to her rights, and in spite of themselves under
the deepest obligations to her—for however much they
may quarrel with her theology, they feel her fostering
care and influence as citizens. She it is that keeps
alive a spirit of religion in the hearts of the people, and
does more for the motels of the multitude than any
theory or scheme which the wit of man has yet been
able to excogitate.
The speech of the Rev. Hugh M`Neile waa most
important. It was a sober appeal to the reason of his
audience, and a most effective argument, as demon-
strating the justice as well as expediency of such an
institution as the Established Church. He laid bare
the sophistry of that hypocritical plea which makes
" scruples of conscience" the ground of resistance to
the payment of taxes, a portion of which goes to the
support of the National Church. This shuffling pre-
text, which avarice lays hold of to cover the base
motives which influence so many of her enemies, is
ably disposed of by Mr. Gladstone, in his recent work,
" The State in its relations with the Church." If we
might venture to add anything to the arguments of
these two distinguished champions of the Establish-
ment, it would be to point out the gross inconsistency
of those who are rrost clamorous in urging it. They
assert that it is a tyranny over conscience to make
people pay anything in support of the Church, from
whose doctrines and ritual they dissent, and in the
same breath they contend that the State ought to
support all the denominations of religion in the
country alike. But in that case precisely the same
hardship would be inflicted upon them. They would
still pay taxes which would be apportioned amongst
creeds which they must consider false ; and, there-
fore, they would then, as much as now, be com-
pelled to support a system of Theology from
whose doctrines they dissent. So much for " scruples
of conscience !" The truth is, that envy is the root
of all the opposition made by Sectarians to Na-
tional taxation. They wish to see the Church
brought down to a level with the Conventicle ; and, if
this were accomplished, their conscience would find
no difficulty in sharing the bounty of the State with
the followers of Mahomet or worshippers of Vishnu.
The object of this new Association, as expressed in
its printed address to the public, is " to disseminate
amongst our young men information upon the prin-
ciple of National Establishments for religion, and thus
make them intelligent defenders of, as well as devoted
believers in, the faith they profess to hold." These
are high and worthy aims, and most cordially do we
congratulate our townsmen upon the manifestation of
such a spirit amongst the young. When the veteran
champions of the good cause are gathered to the tomb,
they will rejoice to think that their mantle has fallen
upon a rising generation. The old oaks of the forest
may decay, but they will not leave a naked wilderness
behind. In coming forward to enrol themselves as a
Society, in opposition to that band of conspirators
against the Church who are the advocates of the Vo-
luntary Principle, the young men of Liverpool have
acted upon the advice of England's most philosophic
Statesman, when he said, " When bad men combine
the good must unite, that they may not fall one by one
an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

position that they were not working without a guarantee that
the foundations of their labour should not be cut from under
their feet ; he would turn to those whose families naturally
looked up to them for support, and whose trade would be
naturally injured, should the measure pass, and he would
ask whether they were ready at once, and without a murmur,
to bend their necks beneath this monopoly—a monopoly
agitated and put forward by a great majority of those who, on
all other occasions, hadbeen the loudest in opposing monopoly
in every shape and in every form. (Cheers.) The speaker
then read the resolution (which, with the others, will be
found in our advertising columns), and sat down amidst much
applause.
Mr. ROBERTS seconded the motion, in doing which he ob-
served that, after the eloquent speech which had just been
delivered, it would be quite unnecessary for him to say a
great deal. He gave an indignant denial to the charge of
pilfetege, and said that, for twenty years in which he had
been engaged in the porterage business, he had not only never
had to appear before a magistrate on a charge of pilferage,
but no person had ever preferred a complaint to him of hav-
ing suffered through him or any man he had ever employed.
A great deal, too, had been said about despatch ; but in his
opinion, if the despatch had not in some instances come up
to the expectations of certain persons, or to even what might
have been expected by all, the blame rested wholly with the
importers. If they (the importers) were to send down their
porters, coopers, and carters, when the goods were landed,
or when they might be landed, there would be an end at
once to the want of despatch complained of ; but when the
ship was converted into a warehouse, how was it likely that
there could be despatch. (Hear, hear.) There was one
thing which he would wish to impress strongly upon the meet-
ing ; it was this, that if the monopoly were carried and esta-
blished, the result would be that one-fifth of the labouring
men employed about the docks would be thrown out of work.
In the present system, too, the master coopers, porters, &c.,
employed old men ; but would that be the case with the dock
trustees ? He hoped so ' • but he much doubted whether
such would be the case. (Loud cheers.) It was more likely
that the young, the healthy, and the strong, would alone be
employed ; and in that case, the elderly men, who had been
for years engaged in his peculiar avocation, would have to
lean his cold shoulder on a cold wall, and ask in vain who
was to employ him. The dock trust would answer his ques-
tion by saying, " Go to the master who had the benefit of
your services in your young days," and his reply would be,
" We have no master now, for his trade has been annihi-
lated by you." The corporation project, in fact, was worse
than a monopoly; it was an oppression. He learnt from the
public newspapers that latterly there had been a great acces-
sion to the number of persons entitled to claim parochial
relief—many of which claimants had been made within the
last few weeks—and the great majority of them were men
employed about the docks. The number of persons alluded
to amounted, he understood, to about 700. Now, if the
trade of the master porters, coopers, and carters was so
much injured as that they would be unable to employ those
men, they would, of course, throw the burthen of their
maintenance, and that of their families, upon the parish ;
and he should like to know whether this, as a matter of
pounds, shillings, and pence, was not interesting to every
householder in the town. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put, and carried unanimously. '
Mr. WHARTON, in moving the second resolution, said that
he had never before addressed a public meeting in his life ;
but, as he conceived that the question of dock warehouses
was one which affected the interests of the master porters, as
well as of other tradesmen, he thought himself justified in
coming forward and saying a few words. He had been for
sixteen years the assistant of Mr. Roberts, to whose business
he had succeeded, and he would defy any man to bring a
charge of pilferage against him, or to substantiate the whole-
sale accusation which had been brought. He knew that
those accusations were unfounded, and when he said that he
spoke from personal knowledge and experience, an advantage
not possessed by. the editor of the Mercury, who had in that
day's paper brought strong allegations against them. It was
his opinion that if the dock committee had turned their efforts
to the erection of transit-sheds, they might have been thanked
for their labours, and would have done everything that was
necessary. There might be obstruction to the quick dis-
charging of vessels ; but those obstructions arose from cir-
cumstances to which they did not seem to be attributed.
Where a vessel was consigned to one merchant, it could be
unloaded sooner in Liverpool than in London; but where
there was a mixed cargo of goods, belonging in part, probably,
to a London house, the case was very different. Instructions
had then to be sent down for entering the goods,a proceeding
which occupied three or four days, and the goods belonging
to that house might perhaps be on the top of the cargo. He
appealed to any one present whether this was not correct.
(Cheers.) The Mercury had asserted, that by the erection
of a few warehouses on the dock quays, the master carters
would have more business •, but for his own part he could not
understand how, by building warehouses, which rendered
cartage unnecessary, there could be any increase of business
to carters. That paper has also laid great stress on the names
of Mr. Charles Horsfall and Mr. Sandbach, the former of
whom was said to have voted in committee for the measure,
and the latter to be in favour of it. He did not know on
what authority the name of Mr. Sandbach had been mentioned.
Mr. DOVER.—I can state most distinctly that Mr. Sand-
bach is opposed to the measure.
Mr. WH ARTON.—WeII, if the Mercury were wrong in one
instance, perhaps he had a right to conclude that it was wrong
in both. His recommendation was that the land on the
margin of the docks should be disposed of, as land in other
parts of the town had been, for the erection of warehouses,
and then there would be nothing but free competition. At
present, he might mention, labour was at a discount in town,
and even in busy times there was more labour than employ-
ment. Such being the case, with what feelings ought the
working men, employed about the docks, to contemplate a
scheme which would materially reduce the amount of em-
ployment? He was strongly of opinion that the motive
which led to the project was a desire on the part of the cor-
poration to obtain the representation of the borough. They
knew that a great proportion of the coopers, &c., were free-
men—the very men who had elected Lord Sandon and Mr.
Cresswell—and they imagined that, by bringing this class of
men under their control, they could secure the return of their
own candidates. (Great cheering.) So far, indeed, from the
project having nothing of a political character, he believed
that from its beginning to its end it was nothing but politics.
(Cheers.)
Mr. M'KNIGHT seconded the resolution.
Mr. POOLE moved the third resolution. He said that he
had heard with great pleasure the remarks made by the gen-
tlem. n who had opened the proceedings of the meeting. He
thought that there could be no question as to the injurious
effect of the proposed measure on the interests of the great
majority of the entire meeting ; and from the opinion which
lie had formed of the disposition and character of the party
bringing forward and urging this question, he should despair
of opposing them with any effect, by merely offering obser-
vations applied to their kind feelings, generosity, or compas-
sion. He founded his opposition to the iniquitous measure
on what, he was satisfied, would be more forcible than the
mere appeal to generosity. He distinctly denied the right
of the corporation to appropriate the public funds to the car-
rying out of any such scheme; and he must say, at the same
time, that he could not reconcile it to his own feelings, how
any merchant or importer of goods could conscientiously re-
ceive a personal benefit, by the application of corporate funds,
so improperly applied. Again, as tradesmen, they were inte-
rested in the welfare of Liverpool ; and there was nothing to
preclude them from expressing their opinions on the way in
which the dock trust was managed ; and he was satisfied
that a large proportion of the meeting had had practical
proof that a more vicious and defective system of manage-
ment could not possibly exist. If asked to assign a reason
for this defective management, he should point to the con-
stitution of the dock trust, which was a close, rigid mono-
poly of the worst kind. The advocates of the measure
often referred to the London docks ; but a more unfortunate
allusion could not well be made. Those docks were mana-
ged by joint-stock companies, for the benefit of those who
had invested their funds in the undertakings ; and it required
very little knowledge of human nature to see that, where
such was the case, the convenience of trade must in every
way be consulted. (Hear, hear.) Competition in the metro-
polis was so great that, on the receipt of intelligence from
agents employed abroad, that a vessel was about to sail for
London, the companies ascertained the name of the owners
of the vessel, and solicited for their custom and patronage.
Contrast this with the Liverpool management, with the tardy,
supine, and defective management of Liverpool, which
was a disgrace to the town ; and if this port did not possess
local advantages not possessed by any other in the known
world, that defective, vicious system would have put a stop
to all increase of business, and have prevented the town from
obtaining to anything like the state it had now arrived at. It
was a very easy thing for the dock trust to refer to the acces-
sion of trade which had actually taken place, as if they, for-
sooth, had had any hand in increasing or fostering that trade.
(Applause.) The case is entirely the reverse. It seemed a
very strange thing to him that men who had at one time so
strenvously opposed all monopolies should now give the lie
to all their former statements, and shamelessly and fearlessly
avow themselves the advocates of a most odious public mono-
poly. (Great cheering.) He had, by some means, which
he did not consider it necessary to detail, obtained a sketch
of the bill about to be applied for by the dock trust. He did
not, be it remembered, say that the sketch was in the exact
words of the bill ; but he did say that the spirit and meaning
of the intended dock bill were precisely such as he should
represent them in the copy he was about to read. The title
was rather startling. It was as follows :—" A bill to enable
merchandize to be warehoused, and working performed on
the same, in the port of Liverpool, at less than' prime cost."
(Laughter.) That was the heading of the bill. It then pro-
ceeded to say—" Whereas there are certain tradesmen at the
port of Liverpool, who not having the good of the town suf-
ficiently in view, have for a long time past charged, and are
still in the habit of charging, profits on the warehousing of,
aid work done, on merchandize imported therein; and whereas
there exists in the said port of Liverpool a large public esta-
blishment possessing funds in which no person has any pe-
cuniary interest—(hear, hear)—and that establishment is
precluded from deriving any emolument from the employ-
ment of its funds, now be it enacted that any sum or sums of
money required for the erection of warehouses to store goods
that may be imported, and for the performance of the work
done by the wicked tradesmen aforesaid, shall be taken from
the funds before-mentioned, and applied without any gain or
emolument whatever." (Cheers and laughter.) Now, he
gave public notice, in order that no one might be taken by
surprise, that it was their intention to move that an addition
should be made to the biil as then read, because in its present
state it seemed to be deficient. The proposed addition would
be as follows :—" And whereas there are certain wealthy
merchants in the practice of deriving profit from the impor-
tation of merchandise, and the selling of the same to the pub-
lic ; now, in order to ensure to the public a supply of such
articles without the merchants' profit, be it enacted, that a
portion of the aforementioned public funds shall be employed
in the importing and selling of such merchandise, free of
profit." (Much laughter and cheering.) Either the pro-
posers of the measure must be insincere, or they must advo-
cate it on these grounds.
Mr. DAVID THOMAS seconded the resolution.
Several other gentlemen afterwards addressed the meeting.
in moving the remaining resolutions. A pressure of other
business compels us, however, to cut the termination of the
meeting short with this brief notice.

PITT-STREET WARD.—A numerous meeting of the Bur-
gesses of this ward was held last night, at Mr. Cowburn's,
Park Lane, when Mr. Bibby and several other gentlemen
addressed the meeting with great animation and effect. We
are glad to perceive the conservatives on the alert as very
little time now remains for their energies to effect any ma-
terial advantage.
SOIREES AT THE LIVERPOOL ROYAL INSTITUTION.--
Yesterday evening the first Soiree of the season took place at
the Rooms of the Institution, in Colquitt-street. The at-
tendance was numerous and fashionable, including many of
the most respectable families and individuals in the town.
Jas. Aspinall, Esq. the president of the institution, ably filled
the chair, and introduced to the company, which amounted to
about 450, the several speakers who addressed them in the
Lecture-room. Mr. Brett of the Apothecaries'-hall, read
a most interesting lecture on chemical action, and its association
with electric currents. Mr. Spencer gave a most gratifying ex-
position of his mode of working metals by voltaic action, some
account of which has been already appeared in the public papers.
Dr. Carpenter afterwards gave some beautiful illustrations,
by microscopic views, of several subjects in natural history.
After leaving the theatre, the company promenaded the
beautiful rooms and galleries of the institution, all of which
are replete with the most valuable specimens of whatever is
curious in preservation in the animal, vegetable, or mineral
kingdcms. Tea and coffee were served in the refection room,
and the company appeared to be highly pleased with the in-
tellectual entertainments of the evening.
The demise of the Earl of Kingston makes a vacancy in
the Irish representative peerage. Lord Musketry will be a
candidate for the honour of representing his peers in parka-
mot—Dublin Mail.