The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-16 00:00:00

THE STEAM SHIP "COLUMBIA."

This vessel was anxiously looked for during the whole of
yesterday, but up to the time of our going to press, no
tidings had been received of her. It will, be observed,
from our shipping intelligence, that the Queen Victoria,
from Neu; Orleans, remained at anchor between the
Floating Light and Ormshead from the 9th to thel4th
instant, and could not get up owing to the fog. It is
not improbable that a slight detention may have been
experienced by the Columbia from a similar cause, or
she may have been kept for a short time at the other
side of the Atlantic, in order to bring some despatches
for the British government. Of course no anxiety is
manifested respecting her, as she cannot yet be con-
sidered overdue. We are ready any moment for a
second edition.

EJit Ethrrpoot &tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 16, 1841

When the Popish member for all Ireland blesses
Heaven for any extraordinary gift, one naturally feels
alarmed as if some evil tidings were to be expected, or as
if some public calamity had happened. It will be recol-
lected that but S few evenings since he gave Heaven
thanks that the doctrines of the Oxford tract school of
theology were " very close to the ancient Catholics,"
and spreading widely in our church. Now if this
statement were true, and also one that sincere members
of the church could have reason to rejoice in, we sup-
pose it will be pretty generally admitted that Mr. Da-
niel O'Connell would never, in reality, " bless Heaven"
for being enabled to make it.
The statement consists of two parts—the first refer-
ring to the nature and character of the doctrines
taught, and the second to the extent to which they
have been disseminated. Were we to examine it mi-
nutely, it would obviously lead us into a theological
discussion in the first instance, and into an inquiry of
fact of considerable difficulty in the second ; but with
neither shall we trouble our readers at present. We
enjoy the pre-eminent and decided advantage, in con •
nection with the Church of England, of having settled
articles, creeds, and formularies, which render it un-
necessary for individual members of her communion,
whose churchmanship has been once settled, to make
themselves uneasy about new teachers, commentators,
and expounders who may start up within her pale. We
do not say that errors in this kind ought not to be
combated in a suitable place and mode; but we main-
tain that the church, settled as it is in doctrine and dis-
cipline, by articles, canons, and prescriptions, affords a
bond of union to her children without exacting perfect
unity of sentiment upon all points ; and that those
who wish for peace within her walls are not called upon
to prove the goodness of their churchmanship by sub-
scribing to the Oxford Tracts, or any other unautho-
rised publications pretending to be expounders of her
doctrines, or indeed to trouble themselves about such
productions at all either in the way of acceptance or
refutation unless under some peculiar circumstances of

provocation

Whether the Oxford Tractarians, in case of meeting
with all that success to which their unknown ambition
may aspire, would leave the church in possession of
her glorious Anglican liberties, and admirable forms, is
a point that certainly does not admit of conclusive de-
termination. Judging by what we have seen of their
writings, we should, for our part, say that they would
not.

There is too evident a leaning on their side to the
Judaising formalities of Romanism for a modest con-
tentment of this sort. Rome is, in their sympathising
view, of near kindred with us—our " elder but erring
sister," as they say ; and, according to their interpre-
tation, we have seen that our church is " not to be
considered as condemning purgatory, image, and relic
worship, invocation of saints, masses, and so on, as
they are taught authoritatively by the Church of Rome,
but only absurd practices, and opinions which intelli-
gent Romanists repudiate as much as we do."
We have heard, and indeed know it to be a fact,
that a learned and pious divine of the Church of Eng-

land undertook the compilation of a work which wag
designed as a full examination and refutation of the
doctrines of the Tractarians; he is a scholar and the-
ologian than whom there is none better qualified for
such an undertaking; but after advancing some way
in his task, he gave it up, with this declaration, which
was the result of long and anxious deliberation—l re-
nounce this labour, because I find that in refuting Pu-
seyism, I am only doing what has been long since done

by our reformers. The same process of reasoning
which refutes Popery refutes Puseyism, and the work
is already done to.my hand—causa finita est.

But as to what this school of divines would do with
our church, if they had the power, we have an inti-
mation from themselves in the very last number of the
Tracts for the Times, which exhorts us to " let the
church sit still for the present ; let her be content to be
in bondage; let her work in chains; let her go on
teaching with the stammering lips of ambiguous for-
mularies, and inconsistent precedents, and principles
but partially developed." If this mysterious language
does not shroud some meditated revolution, we own
we are. utterly unable to guess its meaning..
But to turn from the theology to the policy of the
question, it does strike us that to any reasonable and
observing mind it must he evident that the great want
of the church at present is EXTENSlON—extension
chiefly among the poorer orders of society—the la-
bouring and manufacturing population. This, for her
political security, and indeed for every reason, is one
of her chief wants, if not the very first; and this be-
ing so, it naturally occurs to one to ask, is the Tracta-
rian school of theology adapted to, and likely to pro-
mote this end ? We should certainly think not. It is,
we may remark,,in the first place, one of a very exclu-
sive order, and has much in it to repel, but little in-
deed to gain over those who have been drawn away
into the ranks of dissent. In the next place, it sets
the laity at an immeasurable distance from the ecclesi-
astical body, and disdains the aid even of the most
worthy towards supplying at any humble distance the
ministrations of the church among the poor; and,
lastly, it combines so much of traditional teaching
with the simple enunciations of Scripture, that it ne-
cessarily adds embarrassment and difficulty to church
instruction, and deprives her services of that free
course which they otherwise might have.
The Church of Rome, we may be reminded, finds it
easy to progress among the poor and ignorant. True;
but the Church of Rome first takes away the light of
holy writ, and then traffics with the ignorance that she
creates. We have not heard that the Tractarians cal-
culated on " putting out the light" in like manner ;
but if they do, they should no longer be regarded as
members of the Church of England, but as a sort of
Romanist separatists from her. The Church of Eng-
land is built upon holy writ : " so that whatsoever is
not read there, nor may be proved thereby," she de-
clares, " is nc,t to be required of any man, that it
should be believed as an article of the faith, or be
thought requisite or necessary to salvation ;" and for
this reason, the more consistent her instructions are
with the divine records, and the more perfectly they
harmonise with the pure, and simple doctrines of the
gospel, the more readily are they likely to find accept-
ance among a Bible-reading and Bible-instructed po-
pulation.

That the introduction of the Poor Law tyranny into
Liverpool has been suggested by some most pitiful
motive, there can be no doubt; but we feel assured
that those who have been accessory to the movement
will hereafter have abundant cause to repent bitterly
•
of it.

Taking it for granted that every man, woman, and
child in the kingdom is now perfectly satisfied that
the commission-administered law is the greatest scourge
ever put into the hands of public functionaries in this
kingdom for the purposes of tyranny, cruelty, and op-
pression, we have only to express our astonishment
that the spirit of party could operate to such an extent
as to prevent some men joining with the great body of
their fellow-citizens who naturally and justly acclaim
against so grievous an imposition. Baneful indeed
must that influence be which can render them insensi-
ble to the approach of so gigantic an evil, and take
from them all desire to avert it,—nay, which leads theme
rather to court its arrival and weigh the petty gratifi-
cation of witnessing for a moment the fancied humilia-
tion of political rivals, against the great and lasting,
mischief which must follow immediately in the train of
so miserable a triumph. We should have expected
that all party feeling would be forgotten where the in-
terests of the poor, and the interests of our common
locality, are so intimately concerned ; but such has not
been the case—and we own, that, low as our ideas of
Whiggery have ever been, this unpartiotic and dis-
graceful defection—(for the defalcation is all on one
side)—has depressed them to a point beyond which,
we suppose, they cannot now descend.
How comes it, let us ask, that every Conservative
is opposed to the commission-tyranny, but that not a
single Whig has the courage openly to contend against
it ? When the question was asked at the meeting of
the special vestry held on Thursday—" For whose be-
nefit it was intended," some mysterious unknown in
the assembly replied " For Sir Joshua Walmsley's ;"
and really that great unknown, who is perhaps more
in the secret than we are, may be right. If we can
conceive so monstrous a nuisance to be for the benefit
of any human being, Sir Joshua Walmsley may as
well be the happy personage as any other that we wot
of. Certainly he has not shown himself the friend of
the poor, or of the inhabitants of Liverpool, by joining
in the remonstrance against it. We have it on the•au-
thority of Mr. EARLE—and a very good authority too
in such a case--that the introduction of the law which

has been so long deferred may be attributed to the
over-much righteousness of the special vestry, and
their scrupulous attention to the interests of the parish
in the matter of the warehouse bill—it is, he gave us
to understand, a punishment upon them for meddling
with the projects of the Town Council—for their " mal-
versatio" of the parish funds in protecting the parish-
oners against the encroachments of the Council. Only
think how attentive the commissioners sitting in So-
merset House, London, have been to the interests of
the people of Liverpool—how anxious they have been,
amid numerous other cases, to save us from misma-

nagement and adjudicate impartially between our Whig

Town Council and our constitutional special vestry.
But whence did they receive their information ? How

came the commissioners so well to understand our
local differences, and to apply with such nice discri-
mination a remedy so exactly suitable to our wants ?
Was it Mr. EARLE himself that put them up to it, or

was it Sir Joshua \Valaisley—an active stirring man
in all public affairs—or who was it ? -Well, no matter ;
at present our only concern is, that the visitation may
be averted; for we do aver that if ever there was a
project calculated to fire the indignation and provoke
the displeasure of a patient people, the abominable pro-
ject in question is the one. Let us briefly review the
facts.

We have in the first place a system among us that
answers all the purposes of which such a system is ca-
pable, and so administered that no complaint whatever
has been preferred against a management which, from
its peculiar nature, is of all others the most difficult.
Neither tax-payer on the one hand, nor pauper on the
other, is heard to murmur—a circumstance in itself
remarkable and most creditable to the town. We
should think that few instances of a state of things so
singularly felicitous in a matter of so grave a character,
and so deeply important, could be pointed out. And
yet a proposition is made wantonly to destroy and sub-
vert it. Under what pretence, or for whose benefit?

The official answer must of course be, for the benefit of

the inhabitants of Liverpool. But the inhabitants of
Liverpool, all but a clique so numerically insignificant
as not to be worth speaking of—vastly obliged, to be
sure, for such kind intentions—are desirous rather of
remaining just as they are, in their present unreformed
but happy condition. They ask for no new law; they
have no wish to have foreign commissioners put over
their heads; they want no deputy to assist them ; they
only require to be allowed to manage their own affairs.
and are willing to bear those evils that they have rather
than experimentalize with others that they know not

of : in a word, they ask to be let alone. But no—this

may not be. Whig influence must be forced through
every vacant corner of the land; and as neighbouring
towns have been put in the stocks, a good pretence is

furnished for inflicting a similar punishment upon Li-
verpool. Centralization and " uniformity" are stock-
in-trade humbugs of the school.
But if this ground of opposition to the victimizing

ew poor law should be thought insufficient, we have
then only to examine the system itself in all its parts,
when we shall find every imaginable argument fur-
nished us for redoubling the energy of our resistance
in the overwhelming multitude of evils inherent in and
inseparable from it. Towards the poor it is brutal;
towards the rich, or the non-necessitous, it is offensive
without being economical. Turn, overhaul, anatomise
it in what way you will, investigation only increases
abhorrence and strengthens the repulsiveness of every
right feeling against it. We enter into no details ;
they have been already submitted to the public in va-
rious shapes, from the rending asunder of every natu-
ral tie in the workhouse bastile—the separation of pa-
rent and child, husband and wife—the doling out of
sustenance calculated to the very verge of death by in-
anition—the surgery and the medicine by contract—to
the prison death-bed and the felon burial—all these
have been already supplied abundantly, and we need
not dwell upon them. We have only to pray that in
Liverpool we may be spared the tender mercies of so
vile a system, and to urge upon the benevolent inha-
bitents of this great city the strong necessity of using
every legitimate means to avert the calamity. It is the
cause of the poor, and we should feel it a sacred duty
laid upon us not to be lukewarm in it. A deputation
has been appointed by the special vestry to proceed to
London for the purpose of presenting their remon-
strance ; but we shall despair of the success of their
enterprize unless the inhabitants generally strengthen
their hands by taking some further mode of evincing
the deep interest they feel in a matter so exceedingly
momentous. The petition now in course of signature
is an efficient mode of doing FO.
INHABITANTS OF LIVERPOOL, HASTEN TO SIGN
IT! THERE IS NO TIME TO BE LOST.

In order to give the Jews the municipal enfranchise-
ment which is sought for them, it is only necessary to
remove out of their way that declaration which pur-
ports to be made " on the true faith of a Christian."
It is contended that this obstacle ought to be removed
because Daniel Salomans, Esquire, is quite a respec-
table person, and because there are others of his nation
of a like grade, and of equal respectability in society;
and secondly, because the policy acted on of late years
has been one of relaxation and comprehension. On
these positions the argument for the proposed enfran-
chisement is mainly built; but whatever validity it

may seem in the mind of some men to possess, one
thing is certain—that it does not at all meet the prin-
ciple on which the objection to concession is founded.
We are not concerned particularly about Mr. David
Salomans, or his status in English society; we may
allow him to be all that his vouchers say for him ; we
prefer no impeachment against either his moral or po-
litical character, or against that of his kinsmen and
nation residing ►n this country : it is something quite
immaterial to our immediate views. And as to the
other position, all we shall say is, that if parliament
must continue to do wrong ad .iqfiniturn, because it has
done so once, then of course it is useless for us to say
more upon the subject. But these are arguments of a
very lame description indeed, and unworthy of serious
refutation.

To allude to the " true faith of a Christian," is, we
have seen, an occasion of laughter, and a matter of
ridicule, in the House of Commons. The Irish tail
always attend well drilled and prepared on this point.
Their secreta monita are, to laugh down everything
serious. They cheer and applaud every sentiment
that favours the dishonour, and the erasure from the
statute-book, of the very name of our national Chris-
tianity ; and seldom does it happen that they do not
punctually obey, or even better, their instructions.
Were any one to speak of " the true faith of a PA-
pisT," the mockers would instantly become grave as
Trappists, and serious as fasting eremites. The reli-
gion of-the Roman pontifex maxims absorbs all their
reverence, and commands all their affections ; but not
so with Christianity: they bate the very name (unless
in company with the Pope), and more particularly that
of our national church. And what is the consequence
of this anti-Christian, devilish system and practice
Why, that few have the moral courage to encounter
it—that it scares away many of the Conservative
Party—and, consequently, that when heads come to
be reckoned on questions of the deepest moment, the
numbers stand too often in the proportion that we find
them on this Jews' question, when the expunging of
the declaration " on the true faith of a Christian" was
carried by a majority of 137 to 24. Such is the dis-
advantage that our national Christianity labours under,
in consequence of the admission of Papists into parlia-
ment ; and yet the precedent is held up to us as a good
One, and even insisted upon as a sufficient reason for
extending the same measure of mistaken liberality to

the Jews !
The position taken by Sir Robert Inglis is the true
one, and, we need not say, was wholly unaffected by
the " farrago of cant" given utterance to by the Colo-
nial Secretary in his attempt at reply. 6' You have
put the question," said his lordship, " on a theological
ground : are you aware that that is a mode of proceed-
ing quite unusual here, and which was not so done
when the Catholic claims were advocated ?" And the
more the pity, say we ; for the " theological ground,"
as his lordship calls it, is just the ground that, had it
been properly defended, would have presented an in-
superable barrier to those pretensions. Theological
references, we observe, are dreadfully annoying to
your Liberal ; and be would persuade himself that
they never can be a propos,—no, not even when a Jew
seeks admission to the privileges of a Christian state !
The Colonial Secretary alleges that it is intolerant
in the state to ask a man about his religion, in order
to ascertain his qualification for office or preferment.
But if so, it must be intolerant to ask him what sort
of house he resides in, or what property he possesses,
in order to test his fitness for voting for a member of
parliament, or for sitting himself in that house. The
one sort of test is just as much symptomatic of into-
lerance as the other ; and until society fall back again
to first principles, and return to primitive barbarity,
some such " intolerance" we must ever have.
To make Mr. David Salomans an alderman may
seem to some to be a mere bagatelle ; but if Mr. Salo-
mans cannot have that honour conferred upon him
without an act that goes a great way towards unchris-
tianizing the state, then this bagatelle becomes a very
grave affair ; and we are intolerant enough to think
that it would be far better to leave the Hebrew gentle-
man plain Mr. Salomans to the end of his days than to
perpetrate a deed of such evident national apostacy and
sacrilege. Papists and liberals may laugh, and it is
only natural they should, especially when they seem in
a fair way to tin; but Papists and liberals have no
desire to preserve our constitution in church and state,
or, we believe, in either, and are glad therefore to asso-
ciate with them all those who, if true to their own prin-
ciples, must be its bitterest foes. On the other hand,
every departure of the state from its position as Pro-
testant and Christian is a matter of serious grief and
deep regret to those who consider its christianity to be
intimately connected with its highest interests, its li-
berty and welfare in every possible relation and aspect.

Our Whig cotemporary, the Albion, has kindly essayed
to involve us in a quarrel, and argues that because we
dissented last week from the proceedings in the Town
Council on this question, we have therefore put all the
conservative members in the same category with the
Whigs and liberals. We are sure that our conservative
friends did not so understand us. When we speak of
the Council in general, we speak of it as a whig body,
existing as such by the grace of a small majority, which
is alone accountable for its measures ; and if some of
our conservative friends have agreed with the majority
On this question, it is a casualty that we may have re-
gretted, but which certainly did not enter into our con-
templation at the time we wrote the observations re-
ferred to. Of the importance of that " union which
is strength" we are as fully sensible as our whig co-
temporary, who shows how highly he appreciates it by
seeking to sow dissention in our camp ; but much as
we value it we would not wish to attain or preserve it
by requiring others to dissemble their opinions, or by
shrinking, when the occasion required it, from a can-
did avowal of our own ; and this, we think, is good
conservative practice, which our friends will likely
agree with us in, and applaud rather than censure us
for pursuing. The " ingenious device" of the Albion
on this occasion—in which, by the by, there is a strong
spice of the malicious—will, we venture to say, be dis-
appointed of its object.