The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-01 00:00:00

pressions of thankfulness as would lead most readily
to another. Then, when the first check was given
to their ambitious proceedings, they turned sud-
denly round, and availed themselves of the vantage
ground already gained to exert all thei▪ r resources
of hostility and annoyance. They verifi▪
ed to the
letter every prediction which had been hazarded by
the opponents of the measures for relief. After
gratefully accepting toleration and freedom for their
religion, they pushed its pretensions higher and
higher, till they are now demanding the reduction
of the Established Church to their own level, and
are but one step, in fact, from the assertion of
supremacy. They have kept the Romanist portions
of the empire in greater agitation than before, have
brought into conspicuous prominence the unna-
tional features of their creed, have revived the most
repulsive doctrines of " Popery" in its worst ac-
ceptation, have openly converted spiritual authority
into secular influence, and have clamorously de-
clared that they will regulate all their political
duties by the interests of an ambitious priesthood.
Mr. Lucas and his friends maintain that this is a
very natural and proper exemplification of their
religion. We have no desire to contradict them ;
on the contrary, we are of the same opinion our-
selves. We very much doubt whether in England,
or, indeed, in any free Protestant country, a true
Papist can be a good subject; but if all this had
been avowed some years ago, the opportunities of
Popery would never have been what they are.—
The Times.

AUSTRIAN AFFAIRS.—A proclamation to the
Hungarian soldiers in Italy, which was published
last week in the name of Kossuth, is now in his
name disowned. We are willing to believe that
the disclaiming Kossuth is the real one. In that
case, Mazzini, as the instigator of the late outbreak
at Milan, stands alone. Within a week of this
miserable riot comes an all but successful attempt
to assassinate the Emperor of Austria. Thus it is
that under a despotism the most iron oppression
never wants a plausible excuse. Severity begets
crime, and crime affords a plea for severity. For
these mad and isolated acts of atrocity the state of
siege will be indefinitely prolonged at Vienna, and
Milan is handcuffed, gagged, and fined, till the
iron enters deeper than ever into the soul of the
people. It is easier to get into the groove than to
get out of it—yet even that is not so difficrilt as
it looks. The Emperor is a young man; let hirn
try for once whether a little mildness will diminish
the stability of his precarious throne.—Guardian.

MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENTS.—The John
Bull says that on Monday last the transformation
of the Foreign Secretary into an officeless leader of
the House of Commons was effected by the transfer
of the seals of the Foreign Office to the Earl of
Clarendon. This completes the extraordinary
arrangement—contemplated, it seems, from the first
formation of Lord Aberdeen's ministry—by which
two members of the cabinet occupy seats, one in
the Upper and another in the Lower House, with-
out any definite employment, and without being
specifically responsible as her Majesty's servants for
any one department of government. We regard
the arrangement, an objectionable one in itself, with
the greater jealousy, because the two noble lords
thus attached as fifth•wheels to the government
waggon happen to he the original promoters and
strenuous advocates of the establishment of an edu-
cational State Department. We cannot help think-
ing of the nursery rhyme, according to which
" Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do."

THE VACANT BISHOPRICS.—The death of two
Bishops in rapid succession,—of the Bishop of
Lincoln on Friday, and of the Bishop of Sidney
early on Sunday,—places two bishoprics at the dis-
posal of her Majesty's Ministers. The manner in
which these appointments will be filled up by the
coalition ministry will be jealously and anxiously
watched for more than one reason. Looking at the
composition of the cabinet, there is abundant cause
of uneasiness in the fact that, to confront the Deism
of Sir W. Molesworth, the Presbyterianism of the
Earl of Aberbeen and the Duke of Argyll;.and the
Latitudinarian Erastianism of Lords Lansdowne and
Russell, there is no Church element, except one
tainted by Tractarian unsoundness and tendency to
separation between Church and State. But the
solicitude of Churchmen is increased by the charac-
ter of the times, which demands, both at home and
in the :colonies, not merely that the appointments
should be unobjectionable, but that the persons
placed in offices of such high trust should,.by their
energy, their courage, their zeal and practical,know-
ledge, be enabled to make provision for the wants
of the Church, and successfully to cope with the
difficulties which beset her, as well as with the
enemies by whom she is surrounded.—John,Bull.