The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

A PROTESTANT PARLIAMENT.

AMIDST the many disappointments resulting
from the last general election, in the accession to
office of a Ministry comprising every phase of politics
but Conservative, it is some satisfaction to observe
that all the exertions which were made to secure
a majority in the House of Commons,in defence of
the Protestant Faith; utte not been throw'n. away.
It will be remembered that, in every division which
took place on the motion for inquiry into the
practices in Nunneries and other Conventual
Institutions, the majority was always on the right
aide, notwithstanding the oppositionof our Romanist-
favouring Ministers ; and the measure was only
defeated through the designs of a factious minority
being favoured by the peculiar forms of Parliament,
Obstructive policy is, however, far more efficient in
the ,hands of a majority ; and this was demonstrated
last week in the effectual resistance to the treason-
able _designs of Lord PA.LMERSTON to pay for
Romish Chaplains to gaols. We say treasonable,
for the Constitution expressly declares the Romish
faith to be a damnable heresy, and, therefore, to
devote the money of the State to its propagation is
a direct violation of the Constitution. We may
pass over the maudlin sentimentality and mock
philanthropy with which the vote was defended on
the ground that those who profess the Romish
faith should, in prison, receive consolation from the
ministers of their own religion. It is a surrender
of the question at issue. Just as reasonable would
it be if a criminal professed open and undisguised
infidelity, which, no doubt, many of them do, to
provide him with a teacher of infidelity in order
that he might receive the consolation that suffer-
ing is confined to this life, and that, at the worst
extremity, death by his own hand, or that of others,
- would resolve him into nothing. Such a doctrine
is monstrous, and yet not more really baleful than
the teaching of Rome, of which an instance was
afforded at a recent execution in Ireland where
the Romanist crowd enjoyed the edifying. spectacle
of two men hurried into eternity on the scaffold,
and, under the tuition of Romish priests, expressing
their confident hope in a blessed resurrection for
having murdered a Protestant. There is, however,
another view of the question : the advocates of
Rome, amongst which we include our present
Ministers, who proposed the vote, contend that it
is only common fairness to provide spiritual in-
struction for prisoners upon the principle of
Religious Liberty. If this point be conceded, the
vote should not have been for so small an amount,
but Romish priests should constitute the majority
of our gaol chaplains, as it will not be disputed
that their flocks constitute the majority of the
inmates of our gaols. Tho position, however, is

altogether untenable that error should form a
ground for its perpetuation, and the House of
Commons wisely vindicated its character for con-
sistency by rejecting the vote, and leaving Lord
PALMERSTON and his colleagues to carry out their
Romanist predilections by other_ means than that
of the public purse.

While upon this subject, we may remark, that
the Protestants, as a powerful party, animated by
the best intentions, and sincerely anxious to purify
the land from the foul incubus which presses upon it,
do not justice to themselves nor to their supporters.
It is by all admitted that the Press is by far the
most powerful engine by which to influence popular
opinion ; and yet, instead of giving a hearty sup-
port to those Conservative papers which have ever
been the warmest and most consistent advocates of
Protestant principles against all phases of antago-
nism, there are too many professing Protestants
who, in every form of patronage, favour the organs
of their bitterest opponents, and leave their own
tried champions to fight the battles unassisted, or
cheered only by the reflection that " virtue is its
own reward." This is not as it should be. If the
cause is to be triumphant, nn human means should
be left untried to accomplish its success ; and not
the least important of these is by patronage, in
every shape, to assist those Conservative papers by
whose exertions, throughout the length and breadth
of the land, against every disadvantage,so much has
already been achieved. Radicalism and Romanism
have ever been found acting in, union, while the
cause of Conservatism has ever been identified with
that of the pure faith of our Reformed Church.

SANITARY REQUIREMENTS IN

LIVERPOOL.

Wr are not about to weary our readers with any i
of the arguments which have been so often
repeated on the absolute necessity of better
draining, better ventilation, a more ample supply
of water, greater cleanliness, and the various
means insisted upon by Medical Inspectors and
Boards of Health for the improvement of the
health of the population. We are content, at least
for the present, to leave all these aids to the sani-
tary condition of our fellow-creatures to the care
and attention which, we have no doubt, are
bestowed on them by the proper officers, and the
success of which is 'apparent in the diminished
rate of mortality and our hitherto comparative
exemption from those frightful epidemic disorders
to which a busy seaport, with its many strange
visitants, is more especially liable. Our object on
the present occasion is to call the attention of the
local authorities to the necessity of a sanitary
improvement of another kind, but by no means of
inferior importance. If the health of the body be
of sufficient consequence to require the especial
interference of the legislature, and a practical
violation of the cherished adage, that "every
man's house is his castle," the health of the soul
is surely, in a Christian country, of equal, if not
greater consequence. How little, however, is it .
cared for, when in this great town of Liverpool,
which prides itself on its zeal for the pure faith of
the Reformed Church, many of the well-frequented
thoroughfares are the scenes of open and undis-
guised
profligacy at all hours of the day and night.
We shall not disgust our readers with any attempt
at description, but there can be no mistake as to
the evils to which we refer, 'when we point to
Paradise-street and Whitechapel which but for
this abomination might farm a desirable line of
thoroughfare between the utile and duke of
`Liverpool—the Custom House ,and St. George's
Hall. Of what use is the powerful police force
which Liverpool maintains at such vast expense,
and Captain GREIG labours to maintain with such
efficiency, if murder and robbery are the only
I crimes 'to be repressed,—sand drunkenness, blas-
phemy, and infamy may openly revel, uncontrolled
iand unabashed P Take 'the single instance of
Paradise-street, and no respectable tradesman
can make It a residence for his family, because
I both their eyes and ears would be constantly
•shocked with sights and sounds revolting to
humanity. In many of the shops, which ought
long since to have been cleared away to widen and
improve the street, the unwary are cheated with
fraudulent 'lotteries, unehecked by any interference
with such illegal practices ; and all this is allowed
to go on from:day to day, as 'if the authorities were
participators in the gains. It should be k-nown,
and the knowledge should be acted upon, that the
law allows no immunity for the outrages upon
humanity which are every hour committed in the
A treets of Liverpool, and that no consideration ;
should induce 'those who are in authority to act ,
as though they were powerless to restrain them.
It would seem, indeed, that there was a popular 1
ittiosyncracy to rush into extremes, for we hear
one day of a meeting to petition the Legislature
for the adoption of the Maine Liquor Law, by
which the sale of all intoxicating liquors would be
rigorously forbidden, and we hear every day of
drunkenness in the open streets, and the many
other vices to which this one inevitably leads. So
frightful has the evil become, not only in the
streets we have mentioned, but in Scotland-road,
Dale-street„ Park-lane, and many others well
known to the police, that the timid may be apt to
think it irremediable. It requires, however, but
moral courage and a determination to use the
means which are available for all this abomination
to be effectually suppressed. Some time since we
read an account of the police in London, or some
other large town, sallying forth at a late hour and
clearing the streets of every person who could not
give a satisfactory reason for his being abroad, and
this, a few times repeated, soon purged the neigh-
bourhood of suspicious characters. We want in
Liverpool far more energy in street purification
from moral nuisances, and the police to be put to
some more practical service than merely sauntering
along the pavement, with no eyes but for cases of
felony. Every man in a state of intoxication
should be at once apprehended, fined five shillings
for the first offence, and for the second imprisoned
until he can find sureties for his future sobriety—
a course sanctioned by the law and acted upon
with good effect in another town we could name.
Every instance of blasphemous or obscene language
in the streets should be submitted to magisterial
decision upon the extent of its enormity, and the
appearance of abandoned characters in the public
thoroughfares should be treated as cases of suspi-
cion to be decided upon by the same tribunal. The
illegal lotteries, wheels of fortune, and similar
frauds should be at' once suppressed ; while cheap
concerts, singing saloons, and penny theatres
might be rendered less injurious by police super-
vision. If these suggestions were acted upon
with persevering determination, we might antici-
pate a sanitary improvement far more beneficial in
its effects than has been accomplished by the
Board of Health, in sewerage, fresh air, and clean
water.