The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-09-23 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDA,RI).

the i:Jor. Nut so, Mr. Bolton—he would exclude the poor from
the benefll/4of religious instruction, unless a balance in favour
of the corpdration can be realised from the churches. Glorious
liberality Mark this, ye industrious poor of Liverpool, who
have hitherto enjoyed the privilege of sitting unmolested iu our
churches—a privilege secured to you by the munificence of your
former corporation—and remember the men who would, if they
dared, deprive you of your rights.
Mr. Lawrence Ileywortb, as will be seen by our report, (the
fullest and most accurate that has appeared) followed Mr. Bol-
ton. His speech consisted of au enthusiastic eulogy on the
voluntary principle, and a comparison of the claims of the church
in Liverpool with those of the Jews and the Roman Catholics.
We must here ►rrotest against the application of the term ,ect,
by which he contemptuously designated the Church of England.
A sect means a thing cut ff or separated from another thing
agreeably to this defination derived from the original seco, the
dissenters are sects—broken off, or separated from the parent
stock—the church. This gentleman announced the notable dis-
covery that " religion was above all things, to be carried on the
principle offree trade!" It is a great pity that there is no market
for carrying on a free trade in common sense, in which valuable
commodity Mr. Councillor Lawrence Heywurth is woefully
deficient. " Religion never existed but by divine appoint-
ment, and could nut be supported by compulsory measures."
This certainly sounds lilt* a non sequitur. Was not the old
testament dispensation of divine appointment? Did it nut also
flourish, and answer the design of its establishment, although
supported by " compulsory measures'" If Mr. Eleyworth had
been a Jew, (we do not say he is one) and had lived under the
rigour of the Levitical law, would not his instinctive abhorrence
of " compulsory payments" have led him toresist the payment
of tithes? Would he not, by doing so, have resisted the ordi_
mince of God ? But, what care modern radicals for such an-
tiquated authorities as the old testament ?

Mr. Alderman Brown met the resolution by a very temperate
amendment, which merely required the appointment of a com-
mittee for the purpose of considering the whole subject of church
property, and of securing the most desirable management of it,
dne regard being paid to the accommodation of the !..00r bur-
gesses. Flow was this very modest application received by the
conclave of reformers ? We shall see.

Mr. Duncan informed the council, in seconding the amend-
ment, that " he would willingly increase the stipends of the
clergy, instead of diminishing them, as he considered they we're
inadequately paid." This, however, was not the question 'to be
decided, the resolution chiefly affecting the minor expencei of,
the churches. The expression of- liberality towards the clergy
in which Mr. Duncan indulged, called Mr. Councillor Sutor
Blackburn upon his legs. This gentleman's speech, together
with the remainder of the proceedings must be left for discus-
sion until Tuesday, as our remarks are already protracted
beyond our anticipations. But we must have a word or two at
parting with the radical councillors who planned and concurred
in this fresh attack upon the church. Let them remember that
the officers whom they intend discarding from our churches
have relatives and connexions possessed of votes, which will never
again be thrown away upon treacherous voluntaries in religion
and republicans in politics. Let them bear in mind that the great
majority of the people of Liverpool are churchmen; that they ex-
ceed the aggregate number of papists, dissenters,and infidels in
the ratio of 5 to 3; that their sympathies on behalf of our venerable
establishment have been aroused by the assaults of her enemies;
and that they will sacrifice many of their political opinions rather
than suffer her to be demolished... Let them remember that
their proceedings are narrowly scrutinised by a discerning
public—and, above all, let them reflect that the ELECTION IS
APPIWACHING I Conservatives of Liverpool—churchmen of
Liverpool—be active in your exertions, and rest not satisfied
unless you can in three years obtain a preponderating influence
in the town council. You can accomplish this—you will obtain
it, if you continue united and steady in the pursuit of your ob-
jeckfr Then we shall wrest the schools from the hands of the
priests and place them once more under the legitimate controul
of the clergy—then we shall not be ashamed of the ridiculous
proceedings of a mongrel band of councillors, chiefly charac-
terised by their reckless contempt of public opinion, and their
ferocious assaults upon religion.

The great importance of the question, deeply affecting the in-
terests and usefulness of the established church, mast plead an
excuse for having pursued our commentary to such length.
We record with shame the humiliating fact that the majesty of
protestantism is obliged to bow to a despicable and degraded
faction, who have gained a temporary triumph by deceit and
falsehood—tbat the religion for which our forefathers fought
and bled, supported in numerous instances by the signal inter-
positions of Providence, and intimately identified with the
liberty, the security, the happiness, and the glory of our
country, should be made the subject of ridicule in a reformed
council chamber and jeered by profane and senseless unitarians.
But we cannot despair. The cause of truth must and will pre-
vail. We are ready and eager for the battle. The conserva_
tivea have hitherto looked quietly on while danger was threaten-
ing; but now they must obey the call of duty and unite iu
defence of their king, their religion, and their country.

The present position of the British Nation, in imme-
diate connexion with its foreign policy, and the attitude
it ought to assume, are, indeed, questions of momentous
interest. At no one period, since that which preceded
the burst of the memorable French revolution of 1792
has the general repose of Europe been so seriously
threatened, as at this moment; and if ever any man,
filling the important post of Foreign Minister to a great
nation, incurred an awful responsibility, that responsi-
bility has been incurred by Lord Palmerston, to and with
the English people, primarily, and towards Europe,
secondarily. His Lordship's position, as the representa-
tive minister of a powerful monarch and a powerful peo-
ple, is, we repeat, one of fearful account to himself, per-
sonally; but it is of still greater moment, in connection
with the further consequences, which are daily develo-
ping themselves. In spite of repeated warnings in Par-
liament, given by men of the most upright bearing in
character and intelligence—men whose personal experi-
ence had enabled them, from their station and opportu-
nities to take a comprehensive view of our foreign
relations—to form an accurate judgMent of the means
which should be employed to preserve the credit of the
English name, and the balance of European power, on
legitimate principles,—the principles of moderation com-
bined with security and freedom from vassalage,—in spite
of the ample demonstration which has been made by the
break-up of six Cabinets in France, and three or four in
Spain, within a very short period, the unavoidable results
of a system of political expediency, time-serving and de-
grading in all its leading features,—in spite of the labo-
rious efforts of a highly talented, and never more
thoroughly independent press at home, has the Chief of
Downing-street brought us into a dilemma from which
we can hardly hope to escape, even by the entire sacrifice
of his own honour, and the irretrievable destruction of
his already bankrupt reputation, as a statesman and a
diplomatist! But, what do appearances indicate Is
there any one redeeming prospect held out to us, where-
by a hope of honourable extrication presents itself?
None whatever at his hands; and we envy not the dis-
cretion of the Statesman, nor the callosity of the man,
who can, to all appearance, remain insensibly dead to the
surrounding danger, nor that perversity of talent and
self-complacency, which has placed us in a condition so
truly lamentable and humiliating, the sport of revolution
on the one: band; and the laughing-stock of Europe on
the other, for our effeminate diplomacy—diplomacy which
would have been a scandal to the libertine and degener-
ate age of the Second Charles. We will simply ask the
question, is this land of independent freedom, renowned
through all the nations of the earth for its independence
and its moral energy, its sterling principle, to be made
the dupe of that ancient sacerdotal hypocrite, in his wily
policy, who, Napoleon most aptly termed "the arch
Cameleon of political intrigue," or the sport of the vain
fantasies of his pet child of a dozen ministries,--of him,
whom Canning would not honour with a seat in his
Cabinet,—whose inconsistencies of political principle
form his greatest, if not his only claim, to confidence—
driven from Cambridge and rejected, spurned by his
own College, in the teeth of all the power and influence
of Lord Grey, and the interest of the Duke o:Devon-
Lshoirrde ?PalDro Palmerston,
personally,ing
question, are the public pretensions of this Nobleman,
such as to give him a rational claim to the national con.
llfeeling
ia of animosity towards
• e again simply ask the
fidence ? If they be so, in mercy's sake, in justice to his
Lordship, and in justice to the Administration of which
he forms so prominent a link let them be defined, that
the Conservative Press of Britain may not unjustly at-
tach a stigma to his name, which will deprive him in all
time to come of the reward of his merit,—this justice to
Lord Palmerston, we ask, at the hands of the thick and
thin defenders of reckless Whiggery.

The welfare of our common country demands that this
subjest should be treated firmly, yet dispassionately—the
public and political honour of her narne—.the domestic
and vital interests of her citizens, and the credit of her
arms, are all involved, bound up in the question before
us;—that question we reduce, if possible, to a still more
intelligible basis, namely, shall England, after thirty

years of toil and sacrifice of the blood of thousands, and
tens of thousands of her fairest population, and the ex-
haustion of her treasure for the re-establishment of order
in Europe, and of security in her own iominion, perform
the insane part of ignominiously leaving that position
she has gained ? Shall she become, in the hands of im-
becile leaders, the passive instrument of her own degra-
dation on the one hand, and of aiding the march of level.

ling republicanism through civilized Europe on the other,
under the false covering of the western alliance treaty ?
And, can it be possible that even, 'lord Palmerston is
himself so blind tc the consequences of his own hitherto
reckless career as still to attempt to persist in that line of
temporising, meddling policy which has thrown two of
the finest countries in Europe into the arms of the most
appalling anarchy, and compromised the lekitimate in-
terests, and destroyed the ascendant influence of this
powerful kingdom in both ? There is no longer the
" lull" which precedes the storm with regard to the pre-
sent condition of the entire western continent of Europe
—that storm has already burst on Spain and Portugal in
fearless fury, and what trans have we at command to
arrest its progress, to avert its calamity ? Are nut the
ingredients of further political combustion, in the very
heart of another powerful state still nearer home, on the
eve of explosion, if the very mischief so freely developed
elsewhere has not itself been engendered primarily in her
secret societies, fomented in the fertile bosom of her re-
volutionary crater ? Our generally well-informed con-
temporary of the-London Standard, of Monday evening,
gave intimation of Lord Palinerston's retirement from
office—this would be the natural event to be looked for
at the hands of any man properly alive to his situation,
as out foreign minister ought to be; but we think that'
our shrewd contemporary has, in this instance, under his
own notions of propriety, formed an erroneous judgment
with regard to the object of his commentary, or rather of
his sensibility to the influences of that lofty decorum
which should sway the actions and govern the conduct of
a statesman so circumstanced. No, we fear that there is
a sad deficiency of that Standard quality—that greatness
of soul which piques itself on the virtue of confessing
error, and thus of making the only atonement within its
power for inflicted injury, or breach of duty ! Under this
impression, then, we say, Lord Palmerston will not resign
—such resignation, at this moment, would break up the
Supreme Cabinet of the modern " Talents;" and this
oligarchical conclave, as may be gathered from the very
last manifesto of their Master just out, warm from his
popish steam-engine press, shows that they have yet fur-
ther mischief in contemplation, before they give up the
ghost! And we would ask, of what avail would be the
mere circumstance of Lord Palmerston's retirement,
without that retirement were to be followed by an entire
change in, or a positive rejection of that policy which
has, not only proved itself inadequate to arrest the pro-
gress of national dismemberment, but has been its main-
spring, its accelerator in the hands of wily foreign diplo-
matists, intriguing bankrupt stock-jobbers, end the curse
of every nation, political anarchists ; whilst it has just
enabled the King of the barricades to play with singular
adroitness, the deep game of avoiding all the responsi-
bility, and of evading the displeasure of the Northern
powers by withholding the ultimatum of a direct inter-
vention. We will deal as little as possible with gene-
ralities, and speculation on the climax of this essential
subject of our foreign policy ; but let any man capable of
exercising the faculty of reflection, just take a retro-
spective view of the various measures which have fol-
lowed in succession, from the protocolic reign of diplo-
macy in Belgium, to this time, and survey the posture
in which this nation now stands with all the powers of
Europe, and involve Turkey, as a necessary appendage,
and he will come to the inevitable conclusion, that
nothing save a miracle, short of the immediate controul
of a master-mind, and the assertion of a divided principle
of action, will avert a general appeal to arms. Alas we
know too well the incapabili ties of the present administra-
tion, as a whole, mentally and morally, to cope with the
crisis it has brought on its own head—its utter inability to
withstand the shock of a foreign war,—this is an awful ex-
igency, assuredly, to provide against, after all our
vaunted pacific dispositions, and the compromise of our
national credit. The Times has termed in its discussion
of this grave topic, within the last few days, a thorough-
y searching and comprehensive conclusion. with regard
to the position of the Ministry, upon the facts in detail,
and we fearlessly risk issue thereupon, and upon the
opinions we now express. And although we might even
feel disposed to accord Lord Holland a greater share of tact
than falls to the lot of the ensemble of his Whig associates, the
most likely by his experience to parry the consequences
of that concatenation of evil they have produced, even his
sprightly wit will not avail here, although his "ne plus
ultra" of a constitution, in which the majority of citizens
may, with impunity, be suffered to take off the heads of
the minority, should even be put before us! No, Lord
Holland, not even you, for whose judgment we have some
respect, arising from opportunities for forming an accu-
rate opinion on that quality, and founded on the judg-
ment of one dear to our memory, who was lung intimate
with your career as a statesman, and your closet powers
—we say, that even you, my lord, unless you change
your views, and follow in the conversion of your intimate
friend, M. Guizot, shall not alter our opinion. As this
able man has failed in his attempts to govern France,
upon principles which are incompatible with reason and
sound philosophy, as the revolution in Spain has proved,
and France herself too sadly experienced in the denoue.
ment of the tragedy before her eyes, your less able col-
leagues, though protected by your genius, shall not be
permitted to seal with irretrievable ruin the destiny of
this country, as one of them has been permitted to seal
the destiny of Spain. There is yet time for an honour-
able retreat, or an ignominious downfal, which awaits
that association, we will not honour by the name of
party ! All that is honourable and virtuous in the ranks of
the old whigs, with one or two exceptions, have disclaimed
the compact; and O'Connell's insolence respecting Sir
James Graham and the recent election for East Cumber-
land, will have little weight indeed. • That contemptible
convention and chart of imbecility, the quadruple treaty,
has been the ruin of Christina, through the quality of
its principle in the first place, and in the next, through
the total inefficiency of the means adopted for its sup-
port; whilst the additional ruin of thousands of British
families, engulphed in the mire of the stock-jobbing
speculations and loans it has led to, are its immediate re-
sults at home. What, then, is the duty of a ministry
towards themselves and a people so circumstanced ?
That ministry will not, it seems, either nobly or justly,
answer this question, or meet it manfully before the Bri-
tish nation, although suffijently stultified by its own
acts, and its doom settled; but, if that nation knows and
feels what is due to its interest, on every footing of dig-
nity and honour, nay of self-preservation, it will speedily
answer for itself in a voice of thunder, not to be mistaken.

If any noble individual of the present day more than
another, fills a proudly elevated position in the conserva-
tive ranks of Englishmen, that noble individual is the
present Earl of Wilton. When we look back upon the
momentous catalogue of events, under which the great
community of our social family, as a people, has been
agitated during the last four or five yeats, we cannot but
have abundant reason for rejoicing at the altered condi-
tion and present auspicious aspect of our domestic poli-
tics
contend and
our cri, which w
civil prospects; cts; although we havelyet much
to shall assuredly not obtain, with-
out persevering energy and devotion of purpose. Yet,
a short period gone by, and constitutional principles had
become, as it were, a bye-word amongst all classes of the
people, and the whole framework of our great national
society appeared on the eve of being broken up, under
the false enthusiasm of their maddened reforming career.
The " raging of the sea" and the "madness of the peo-
ple" has been aptly compared in Holy Writ, and the
simile was appropriately apposite to our national position
—this fever has happily subsided. What, then, must
not be the gratification of feeling experienced by the
Earl of Wilton, as a constitutionally conservative peer,
on now finding himself supported by the thinking part
of the community, returned to a state of sober reflection,
and sustained by the wealth, talent, respectability, and
industry of one of the most populous counties in Britain,
comprehending its southern division, and re-echoing

those sentiments which have now happily become gene-
ral through the land, and rallying all classes of persons
around him as their landlord, friend, and leader in the

great and glorious cause of protestantisin and civil
liberty ?

And here we would inquire, what is the actual result
of the boasted reformation which has been extended to
the English people ? The reform bill which was to have
performed such wonders—to have lessened our taxes—to
have given a new spring to our national industry, and to
have produced a more equable distribution of property—
and to have given increased temper to the spring of pub-
lic credit and public confidence—what has it done ? At
one fell swoop, like the furious surge rising over the
heavily laden vessel, it has swept away most of her best
bulwarks—all the peculiar and well known privileges of
the manufacturing and the intelligent classes—all the
ancient rights and freedom of corporate bodies, allied
with the constitutional principle of the British monarchy
—all the rights of service and apprenticeship—all the
franchises and immunities connected with personal pur-
chase and local interests, simply to introduce a deluge of
new principles centring in one compound of irrational
legislation—the Municipal Bill. With Ireland, follow-
ing the measure of catholic emancipation, and where it
was to have worked wonders—to have put down agita-
tion—to have reconciled the conflicting interests batween
protestants and catholics—to have lessened crime, and to
have increased the authority of the law, and thereby es-
sentially promoted the general prosperity of the country,
by giving increased confidence to capitalists—what has
reform done there v Increased all the evils it was vainly
designed to remove, four-fold ; and, in addition, brought
into absolute jeopardy the very existence of the protest-
ant church—the established reformed religion of the land,
and the permanency of the legislative union. It has
then, as regards both England and Ireland, ended in DIS-
APPOINTMENT !

There is yet, however, a greater evil to be apprehended
—the entire desecration of the staple principle on which
the British monarchy is founded—namely, its protestant
christianity, This has been partially affected under the
latitudinarian policy of our present conventional rulers;
and, as the whole series of evils before referred to, may
be properly attributed to the departure from the grand
principle of state protestantism, so the more aggravated,
and assuredly fatal consequences will follow our increased
declension from that sterling principle. Let every man
capable of Sober reflection ponder the inevitable results
of our tamely suffering ourselves to be dragged forward
by such a system of policy, as that fearlessly depicted by
Lord Wilton, under his responsibility, as a moral British
peer, a gentleman, and a christian, in the face of Heaven,
and of a thousand of his assembled countrymen, to bear
him witness in his solemn abjuration of the immorality—
the dishonour—the injustice—and the irreligion of that
compact which hinds the existing government, and directs
its rule over a land of moral freemen ! Here, verily, is
a memento for our deliberation, the counterpart of which
we may look for in vain in British history. There ex-
ists no parallel case on record; but Lord Wilton's denun-
ciation will, indeed, be a record—" in perpetuam rei me-
moriam "—not of virtue—not of good faith—not of
ablility—not of integrity—but the very opposite, in the
adoption of that baser machiarellian policy, embracing
the desertion of all these vital qualities, and rendered
doubly vicious, proportionately, with its category of
measures levelled against the remaining securities of
English liberty.

No nation or people, in the history of the world, ever
rose to power, or flourished in prosperity, without setting
out with a leading principle in its governing polity—
retrace back all the archives of ancient history, and this
important fact presents itself to view ; and whether that
leading principle rested on superstition—fanaticism—
despotism—monarchy—or republicanism—we find the
nation or people adopting it to have flourished or de-
clined, in proportion to its retention or its desertion.
The leading principle of Britain, infinitely superior to
all or any of these, was founded in christianity, and it
ended in the establishment of a perfectly free constitution,
dedicating, in the emphatic words of Mr. Wilkins, in his
eloquent speech, at Newton, its noblest apartment to
the worship of our God! This, then, has been our case
as a people—we adopted a leading principle for our polar
star—a principle the most pure the world ever knew,
founded on the sacred immutability of truth, and, accord-
ingly, as we cherished it in our governing system wer
rose to prosperity and to power—it was the cementing
bond of all our actions—the connecting link of all our
social affections—and the main-spring of our energies.
To the general desertion of that principle, in favour of a
false philosophy—to this grave error in potitics, may pro-
perly be assigned the popular turmoil and the agitation
which has, for the last few years, in the midst of profound
peace, shook the state to its very foundation—it has been
the prolific source of all the impure legislation which has
taken place, pari passe, with the inflamed judgment of
the people, in the hands of crafty and ambitious men,
and it had nearly left that people although proud, intelli-
gent, and enterprising, without a rallying point. As the
greater delusion has passed away, and the excitement of
popular prejudice, in a great measure, subsided, what is
now the paramount duty of that hitherto deluded and de-
ceived people ? Simply to perform the conservative part
of bringing back the government of this christian coun-
try to the vitally fundamental principle we have shown to
be the key-stone of its stability and the propelling en-
gine of its power—and this is what the great body, form-
ing the English people, insulted in its judgment, and its
majesty, (for we exclude the mob altogether) can do, and
is doing daily and hourly, as the proceedings at the hust-
ings and our constitutional associations proudly testify.
It has been well observed that " national protestantism is
the only title of the House of Hanover to the throne of
these realms." The struggle has been, and still is on the
part of the present government, and its supporters, upon
Lord Melbourne', own showing, to subvert this princi-
ple—to give, confessedly, a " great discouragement " to
it; and thus to pave the way to the abrogation of the
act of settlement itself. Will Englishmen, with their
eyes open, submit to this ? Impossible ! "To save this
country," however, in the impressively concluding lan-
guage of Lord Wilton, "from the rule of an irresponsible
oligarchy, at this very moment striving to coerce the
wills of the peers and the people, it is absolutely neces-
sary to rally round the standard of our association—to
remember, that each, in his individual capacity, forms
a link of that great social chain, by which the institutions
of this country are held together; and which, if broken,
either by internal dissension or by the pressure from
without, this great country will be thrown down from
that proud pedestal amongst surrounding nations upon
which her constitution has placed her." And who is
there amongst us who will not respond, cordially respond,
to such sentiments as those expressed by the Earl of Wil-
ton on this occasion—sentiments which alike: do honour
to his heart as an Englishman, and to his understanding
as a man and a patriot. He has accepted the trust, and
may say for himself, without egotism, that he has nobly
fulfilled it, in suppor t and vindication of the acts of that
illustrious assembly, of which he forms so prominent an
ornament. Talk not of your liberal peers—your pro-
pounders of fallacies—of them, who confessedly, and
avowedly declare, that they cannot distinguish the differ-
ence between good and evil—that one system of religion
is as good as another in their estimation—that it would
be better for our protestant church to be poor, debased,
and degraded, than affluent, useful, learned, independent,
and protective—that religion ought to be subservient to
politics, and not politics subservient to the control of re-
ligion—and that Ireland, ignorant, fanatic, priestly, des-
petic, and revolutionary, should, in all things be placed
upon a par with protestant England, under the degraded,
the polluted term JUSTICE! Such sentiments—such prin-
ciples might have passed current with the revolutionary
democrats of infidel France, in the day of her lowest de
basement—heathenism we have shown would not have
suffered them, and when made known they cannot pos-
sibly be tolerated in a christian age, by either a moral
or christian community.
It now becomes our duty to consider what this moral
government, as stamped by Lord Wilton, is prepared to
do towards that high estate of the realm comprehended
in the liereditaly British peerage. And here we find our
key-text in the upright and manly exps.s.% of that truly