The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-01-26 00:00:00

With one other noble exception, we know not that
any dissenting congregation had stepped forwards to aid
the Irish clergy. And what is the reason ? Hear Mr.
Irons speak :
" It appears to m© the very climax of inconsistency for dis-
senters to keep up a hue and cry about grievances that nobody
feels, and perpetuate a clamour for religious liberty, of which no
one is deprived, while they tolerate doctrines the 71-10. q awfully
blasphemous, and, for discipline in their churches, set op republi-
canism, to be maintained by monthly cabals."

We would not weaken the effects of this graphic de-
scription by one
.comment. It is melancholy, but true.
Dissenting ministers, as well as dissenting bodies, at our
two last elections, almost to a man, (with the noble ex-
ception of the Wesleyans,) voted for the party who are
precipitating the movement, who are " setting up repub-
licanism." And so the independent and the baptist are
joined by the papist and the Socinian, in one united pha-
lanx, to attack the established church of the land ? So
would not WATTS, and DODDRIDGE, and HENRY have
done had they been living at the present day !

The effects of this unnatural fraternization will soon
be felt Let all these sects unite to attack the Church of
England in Ireland—let them succeed in quenching the
light of protestantism in eight hundred Irish parishes
—let them join in demanding that the Irish corpora-
tions shall be opened, or, in other words, surrendered into
the hands of the bigots of Maynooth, and the j oi nts of O'CoN-
NELL'S tail will be increased to double their number.
With sixty Irish papists in the house, what ministry can
move ? None, without acceding to their demands, which
will emanate from the Vatican, and will never be satis-
fied short of absolute sovereignty and the separation of
Ireland from England. But Mr. IRONS goes on to ob-
serve :

" I consider the outrages which are committed in Ireland but
the beginning of that war between papists and protestant* which
must soon reach England, and I fear the time is not far distant
when those who have helped forward popish ascendancy will reap
the results of their liberty (or libertinism) in the forfeiture of
those religious privileges which they now undervalue."

In these opinions we heartily concur. Dissent in the
present day is different from the dissent of Italia century
ago. It is losing its spirituality in its polities. It is se-
cular in its character, republican in its spirit, and it is
" joined to idols." jt has, however, done good. It has
stirred up the indolent and secure in the establishment, it
has brought men of talent and piety into our churches,
and the establishment is becoming more pure and apos-
tolic as dissent is becoming more worllly and secular.
But although truth compels us to make these state-
ments, we know many individuals amongst the body who
do not participate in the existing feeling between dissent
and popery. In fact, we question whether there is one
dissenter who would not rise up and repudiate popery as
much as we do. But they are unconsciously doing its
work, and establishing its influence, anti widening its
connexions.

Popery is like the smooth-tongued adept who can di-
vert your attention, can engage your smiles—can throw
you oil' your guard and iben effect his own purposes. It
would be well for the country at large if dissenters would
PdagfirdiA'aTYtia•tOPPthienLiiiiidttUtriillegiinalNyt
bbuuse
zeal, fur once, overcame his discretion: —" Let us first
settle the church, and then we can easily manage the
dissenters."

It ought to be some source of gratification to the con-
servative party that the radical rump have it nearly all
their own way in our new Town Council. There are,
however, a few honourable exceptions, of men whose
property, respectability, and character are a guarantee
that they at leaSt, whatever their profesSions for the sake
of gaining a seat at the council board may have been,
will hesitate before they go to the extreme point which
the majority of the council seem prepared to go. But
we see the majority of these persons gradually settling
down into a disgraceful submission to a few noisy tyran-
nical demagogues, whose speeches and actions will do
more to strengthen the conservative cause than its most
strenuous friends could possibly effect. We are ready to
make clue allowance for men who have been suddenly
lifted from obscurity ; for men who have exchanged the
cane-bottomed chairs of their own dwellings for the easy,
graceful, and well-stUffed seats of the Council-chamber—
those unfortunate seats which almost drove from the late
member for Ashton the little sense nature had left him
when he lifted up his withered hands in patriotic indig-
nation at the extravagance of the late corporation ; and
we can also make due allowance for men who, for the first
time in their lives, have got into genteel society, and
have bad their little brains somewhat elevated in conse-
quence of this unexpected occurrence. As a cursory
glance at their proceedings now and then will do them
no harm, we promise them that during their future
career they shall be well looked after.
The town-clerk job is palpable enough, consequently
but little need be said on that affair. Mr. Foster is a man
of talen', and therefore yes, and therefore they
thought themselves better without than with him. He
would have been an unpleasant witness of their
squabbles and their blunders; he would have set them
right when they were wrong ; and, as throwing away
the public money is a glorious theme for radicals and
whigs to descant upon when out of office, but when in
office a very trifling matter, it naturally followed that
sixty or seventy thousand pounds was a very paltry con-
sideration, if, by expending that sum, they could eject a
conservative and supply his place by a nondescript.

It is quite possible that the new town-clerk may be a
man of talent. If he be not, GOD help him! We are
persuaded, however, that lie is, and that if he live long
enough it is not impossible that we may see him Sir
RICHARD RADCLIFFE, his Majesty's Attorney-general.
Stranger things than this have happened, gentle reader,
notwithstanding the dimple in your cheek. It is whis-
pered too that the learned.gentleman has become a mem-
ber of the Temperance Society, and now advocates, gra-
tuitously, the claims of that laudable and praiseworthy
institution. 111-natured people say that not many years

ago he used to be proud of walking arm-in-arm with
. _
Mr. IitAKISSON, and, perchance, with Mr. CANNING

rom the Backbone to the Canning club, and from thence

to divers other plac'.:s where loyalty to the King and con-
:et►2pt for whigs and radicals used to be loudly expressed

•
over full bumpers. But the polished gold has become
tarnished, and we now see that once loyal name "Rica-

ARD RADCLIFFE" appended to the corporation documents
as town-clerk of Liverpool—we suppose, pro tem—
elected to that situation by the sweet voices of those very
radicals whom, but a few years since, he loudly repudi-
ated.

Then our very judicious council, still having economy
on their tongues, recommended as a stipendiary magis-
trate Mr. THOMAS JAMES HALL, a West Indian barrister.
In vain did poor Mr. LAZARUS VENABLES, whom our friend

and contemporary the Knight of the Bath used to dub
" Councillor Bully," manifest his attachment to radical.
ism by voting for the "three tailors" in' his ward. It

would not do. Mr. HALL was the particular friend of
some of the friends of the people, and a thousand a year
was but a small salary for a man of his talent, and so we

Presume Mr. HALL will be quiet and easy for the rest of

church, whilst they join affinity with Arians, Socinians, and
other infidels, yea, and with PAPISTS too."

Here Mr. IFtoNs speaks out. He has been " censured"
for sending bread to those ministers of scriptural religion
who arc now standing at the risk of their lives amidst the
bogs and barren mountains of Ireland, separated from hu-
man help, surrounded by an infuriate peasantry, their
children obliged to labour at menial occupations, their
houses barren of furniture and food, their plate and libra-
ries long since sacrificed, .and no insurance office to in-
sure their lives, without an especial clause, excluding
payment in case of assassination ! These men, calum-
niated and vilified as they have been, and insulted as
they were by that vote of the House of Commons which
declared a surplus, while they and their children were
absolutely starving—these men, we say, with a fortitude
which ought to command universal admiration, nobly re-
fuse to quit the field of battle, but still continue to hold
up the lamp of truth in the midst of papal darkness. It
is because their brilliancy brings to light the hideous
character of popery that every engine is set to work to
quench the flame; and it is truly miraculous to what aw-
ful lengths men will go in support of error!