The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-03-01 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 1, 1836.

We have Sydney papers to the 19th September. They
ttre almost wholly occupied with discussions on the merits
of the appropriation act of the legislative council of that
settlement. Several members of the council have en-
tered their protests against the grant of Z 45,000 for the
sear 1836, for the support of the jails and the police of
the colony ; alleging, with some show of reason, that
the mother country ought to bear exclusively the bur-
then of keeping her expatriated patriots under the neces-
sary degree of subjection to the law!.• Mr. LAIDLEY, the
commissary-general, a gentleman highly spoken of, died
on the 29th August. Steeple races, established we pre-
sume to improve the morals of the colonists, appear to
be favourite amusements in New South Wales.

We have Jamaica papers to the 24th January, and
Demerara ones to the 16th of the same month. In the
former colony the utmost tranquillity prevailed, the wea-
ther had been extremely favourable for the coffee pick-
ing, which, however, had proceeded slowly, owing to the
indolence of the apprentices. The sugar crop will be
mote than usually deficient. The Kingston sessions
were to terminate on the clay the packet sailed, and the
number of persons tried tor various crimes exceeded any
ever remembered. Liberty, licentiousness, and crime
seem to walk hand in hand together, and appear to -in-
crease more with the aid of the schoolmaster than without
it, One hundred and seventy Portuguese emigrants had
arrived in one vessel, consigned to one house, who are
l'epresented to be all healthy, well-disposed young men.
Another vessel had the same day arrived with one hun-
dred emigrants to another house—they were all natives
or England.' The House of Assembly had not resumed
its sittings. In one of the papers there is a proposition
for taxing sugar and rum in order to raise a revenue for
Jamaica. We have no room for extracts.
The Demerara papers are more -silent than usual with
respect to domestic ainirs, which we take to be signifi-
c‘mt of prosperity and• contentment. •

We have onto spaCe to call the attention of our readers
to the appointment of Dr. HEURIAN to the important
office of Regius Professor of Theology in the Unitersity
of Oxford, a,nd the proceedings adopted by the convoca-
tion and the heads of colleges. refuse to
admit
.that the 'church, aye, and religion itself, is in
danger? We Aail return to the subject on Friday.

. •
The pressure " from within" is now monstrous we
know not what absurdity or oppression is next to be per-
petrated ; but it is plain enough that the House of Com-
mons has already stretched its usurped and unconstitn-
tional exercise of power to the furthest pitch of endu-
rance. Its members have not yet succeeded in crushing
the House Of Lords ; but, like the revolutionary rump
in the time of CII'ARLES the FIRST, they give to their in-
solent resolutions all the force of an act of parliament,
in defiance of, or, rather, without so much as consulting,
the second estate of the realm.

The power of proscription in a popular body, no mat-
ter whether usurped or conferred, is dangerouS to civil
liberty, and places the life and property of every man at
the capricious mercy, or the more capricious malice, of a
majority of its members; and we all know, by fatal ex-
perience, that the majority of a mob, in all their deci-
sions, are almost invariably wrong. We do not say that
the House of Commons is a mob; but we do fearlessly
contend that a majority of that house, as it is at present
constituted, are the delegates of the rabble of the large
towns of England and Scotland, and of the wretched and

ignorant serfs who sweep the dust before the feet of the
priests of Ireland. Such 'members are consequently un-
der the influence and control of their constituents, re-
gardless of all consequences affecting their own charac-
ter, provided, they can', secure the approbation of those
who gave them the power but could not give them the
capacity to legislate for the general welfare.
The proceedings of the House of Commons last week,
in reference to'orange societies, cannot fail to he consi-
dered, by all rational and loyal .men, as an exercise of
unconstitutional power, utterly subversive of every prin-
6iple of law and justice. Our modern jacobins have not
yet rushed into the extreme guilt of ROBESPIERE and
the French convention ; hut they have most undeniably
Adopted his principles and acted upon his rules. JOSEPH
YUME, we admit, has not yet app-eared at the bar of the
House of Commons to denounce private or obnoxious
individuals by name—he has not yet dared to point his
finger at the man whom the rabble are instructed to drag
to an infamous death on the scaffold—he has not yet pub,licly _
exclaimed " Down with the ICing I—a la lantern
the bishops !"—no, thank Gon, JOSEPFI Hum, and his
kindred infidels, and his congenial jacobins, have not
ventured openlii to marl( out to popular vengeance those
who stand in the way of his base ambition and his flagi-
4ons designs; but he has had influence enough to in-
duce the House of Commons .to recognise his sanguinary
and diabolical principles, by levelling their first denunci-
ation against the loyal and persecuted protestants who
first sought and continue to seek some protection against
wholesale massacre in the local citadels of the orange in-
stitutions Of Ireland. The convention therefore has been
restored, and ROBESPIERE, unlike the schoolmaster, who
is said to be abroad, is once more at home !
We never were the advocates of orange lodges upon
any. other ground than their necessity. We have la-
mented, in common with many of the best men of the
day, this necessity. We have frequently endeavoured to
suggest some other plan by which the whole moral force
43f the protestants of Ireland might be united and con-
centrated without having recourse to secret clubs, mys-
terious signs, and a redundancy of mummery more like
the rnelo dramatic action of a Mayncioth priest than the
Open, the, hold, the free, the undisguised movements of
honest protestants, who, like JOHN KNOX, NEVER FEAR.
THE FACE OF MAN! Our suggestions, however, have.
teen 'invariably met by the general assitance--"ii.is
impossible—the protestants of Ireland never can forget
'bat they owe to the Prince of ORANGE 1" "True," we
have replied; " but the protestants, considering the
ges which have taken,pl4oe, *honk' not forges What
they owe to themselves."
But, be this as it may, the policy of orange societies
has nothing whatever to do with our argument. What-
ever is illegal the-law has the power to suppress. If we
be living Undei the InfliotiOn.of evils Which the law can-

not cure, then ours is a state of semibarbarism for which
the legislature alone is responsibe. If alleged evils have
received the countenance of ages until they can hardly
be called violations of law, it is the duty of parliament to
provide a remedy. But we conten4 that it is most pre-
posterous and absurd, and as monstrous as it is prepos-
terous, that the House of Commons should arrogate to
itself the prerogative of deciding upon the legality or il-
legality of any society, or institution, or club, or private
meeting, or local or general association whatever. The
House of Commons is only a branch of the Legislative
body—one member only of the three estates of the realm.
It may pass e bill, for instance, having for its object the
suppression of gaming; and, should that bill receive the
assent of the other two estates, it would become the law
cf the land. Gaming would accordingly he suppressed
according to the provisions of the statute. But the
House of Commons has no right to denounce gamblers!
It. oversteps its powers, and it insults the dignity and the
equity of legislation, when it presumes to call upon the
sovereign to discourage or denounce gamblers. In doing
this it is guilty of a greater offence against the state
than the unworthy object of its reprobation. It places
itself in the position of the felonious patriot who robs a
thief for the sake of public morals. The House of Com-
mons, beyond its own walls, has no power to tryor con-
demn parties, no matter how obnoxious they may be to
its opinions or its sense of justice. It is worse than the
execrated Star-chamber when it condemns without rea-
son and denounces without giving to its victim the pri-
vilege of a defence. It usurps the powers of a jury with-
out its responsibility, or the corrective of a constitutional
appeal. It is R ferocious convention, composed of fana-
tics, when it thus usurps the functions of law, and makes
its decrees, sanctioned by sleepy blockheads at midnight,
pass for authorised condemnations, as; if they emanated
from the ordinary tribunals in conformity -with statutory
enactments. ~
- But this monstrous -power the Ribose of Commons—
the ~eformed House of Commons isurped only so lately
as last week. It did that by a re. hition of the house
which it has no power to do but by 1 11. It has given to
this unconstitutional resolution all th force of an act of
parliament. It has, in the style of tl I.l'rench conven-
tion, denounced orange lodges. It ha called upon the
sovereign, in a tone tantamount to a ' nunand, to dis-
courage those societies which hold, ~an .have ever held,
which truly revere and inculcate thri same loyal senti-
ments and principles which, supe4e,ding lineal claims,
were the direct and avowed passpoV of the House of
Brunswick to the British throne. TNey have compelled
our gracious but unfortunate monarch to censure if not
repudiate the noble sentiments of his at estors, and cast
a stigma upon the protestantism by whi 11 alone be and
his august family can legally he recognided as princes in
the confederacy of noble spirits who in truth and since-
rity profess and uphold the reformed religion of our
fathers—the most blessed light that ever shed its beams
upon these isles of the sea.

But we stop here. We cannot enter into the spirit of
this argument. Feelings too potent for words, too deep
for tears, impose upon us the obligation of silence. We have
a foreboding how all this is to end—we foresee the strug-
gle that is coming—we anticipate the punishment that is
our nation's due—we see the shattered coronet in the dust,
and the head of the apostate noble on the block, and the
aroused vengeance of ^ great people scattering the chaff
of infidelit, and fraudulent unitarianism before the wind,
purging the nation of its follies, and making the de-
bauched and injured people of Ireland the avengers of
their own wrongs—making female pride the corrector of
confessional impurity—and protestantisin the asylum of
outraged innocence—we see all this in the dim curtain of
futurity, and the figures of the guilty passing before our
eves—but we stop here. What ministers to our convic-
tion in solitude may be a fantasy;. but we judge of the
future by the evidence of the past.
Vire have too much respect for our readers' to require
them to reciprocate with us the strong feelings we enter-.
tarn on these points.; To be enabled to think with us
they nmst have the same materials of thinking, and the
same unobtrusive hours to combine, reason, compare,
and determine. These reflections, however, are inti-
matelrconnected with religion, and this is not the pro-
per place to entertain them with any hope of Et„lneficial
result. The ideas thrown :but are agents or auxiliaries,
of- profounder meditation; and when the reader dips
back into history he will find that what we have sug-
gested, in reference to pass;ng.,evitents,:is well worthy
his 4ioit'setious consideration-, . ; •

I3ut, • returning to polities, lye'likt-ve already Seen that
the ilOnse of ICoMmons haS assumed, or • rather has
usurped the power, of denouncing. certain societies and
individuals. It has denounced orange lodges. The
King has unhesitatingly re-echoed the denunciation of
his faithful commons. We do not here question the fet-
tered constitutional functions of the Sovereign. His
Majesty has no doubt been well advised. AVe are hound
to respect die opinions which influence the King. We
are ready to. respect whatever .flows from the fountain
of authority but, with all -submission and proper defer-
ence, we question if the King has, in parental respect to
his snhject s, considered their rights and privileges in the
same favourable light as lie has done fiat of the
House of Commons. For let us carry die assnmption of
their power into practice as regards other institutions,
and we do so solely to illustrate the.modern doctrine that
the King is hound constitutionally tip respect and recog,
nise by sanctioning- the resolutions of the House
of Commons. This we say is new doctrine. We
believe precisely the reverse. We assert that the
King cannot . know the House of Commons, or coun-
tenance any of its measures which do not appear be-
fore him under the sanction of the House of Lords. This
we hold to he constitutional law. The resolutions of the
Commons, per se, are, or ought to he, of no more
weight with him than the resolutions of a debating club,
or of a coterie of free and easy citizens who discuss the
affairs of nations over a repast-
of gin and the most pun-
gent of vegetable roots. His Majesty, therefore, may
reconcile the insolence 'of his ministers and the knau-
dates of his sovereign duty in the best way he can.

That is not our business. If the House of Brunswick
chooses to treat lightly the•grand principles which paved
the way to its accession, why should we complain ?
But, we sink these facts in order to arrive at the conse-
quences of the usurped measures adopted by the House
of Commons and sanctioned by the King.
The commons denounce orange .lodges! What is to
prevent them from denouncing clubs ? What is to pre-
vent Chem from denoitnci,z'g 'conservative societies ? What
is to prevent them from denouncing private meetings of
tories in taverns.?. What is to prevent them from de-
nouncins,r newspapers? What is to prevent them from
denouncing masonic lodges What is to prevent them
from denouncing all meetings or gentlemen in any pub-
lic or private place assembled to address his Majesty, or
originate petitions to the houses of parliament ? What
is to prevent them from denouncing the church, its
bishops and its priests or the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge? All this they have as much right to do as
to denounce orange lodges. The convocation of Oxford
are aboutto remonstrate against the appointment of Dr.
HAMPDEN, on the ground that he teaches or has taught
spurious and unorthodox .doctrines, and they have re-
solved to render his appointment:ineffectual in propagat-
ing socinianism in the university. But Dr. HAMPDEN
received his appointment from Lord m --ELiOURNE, and it
would not surprise us to, see the House of Commons
calling upon the King to discourage the proceedings of
the. convocation of OXford. In short, this pradtice once
begun; no' man can' tell where or when it will end: This
extraordinary Conduct on die part of the reformed house
is one of the worst features in the revolutionary tithes in
which we, live.

Dit,t *Oat will the orangemen of Ireland do ? It will
be mtaiu ky ap ,extract in another place, from the Dublin
Paeke,t o:S4turday, that the grand lodge has met, and
has passed resolutions calling upon their brethren NOT
TO SURRENDER,—not to regard or Obey the resoliitions
of the House of Commons 1 If they answer unanimously
-to the call, as there is every reason to believe they will,
we much fear there* will be serious Work in Ireland—
more serious indeed. than any we have had to encounter
for the last fifty years.
We 1-rdsli, 14Wever,t dirt 11,1'7346 jiiett4tAtiti of

land, 'viten they learn what their illUstrious and noble
eaders have deemed it their duty to do on the present
occasion, will forbear from any irritating proceedings,
and quickly adopt measures for pitting their societies
into, at least, temporary abeyance. Perhaps they will
also consider whether they could not form conservative
associations in every county and town of Ireland, such as
we have in England, where protestants of every shade
of creed might unite in defence of the chnrch and our
blessed religion. We throw this out as a hint. What sig-
nify forms when principles are at stake •
•

Those of our readers who have any time to avbie to
amusement will find an overflowing store of it in the de-
bates of our Liverpool congress—we mean the new town
council—an accurate report of which we have the honour
to supply. Five motions and as many amendments, all
on hand at the same time, is hard as well as curious work.
It appears to us that *some of these reformed municipals
do not undeistand what their colleagues or what even
themselves say. They ,have resolved, however, to have
the whole control over the dock estate in their own hands,
if they can, and they have determined to spend the mo-
ney of the burgesses in contesting their assumed right in
parliament. We may therefore set down some four or
five thousand pounds for this sport. A large sum, we are
assured, has already been spent in adopting legal pro-
ceedings for the purpose of setting aside the late endow-
ment. This, we beg to tell them, is fighting with a
is time, labour, and money,spent Fn:vain ! • •
Mr. HARVEY has withdrawn hiS cla'im for compenSa.,:
Lion! What claim had Mr. .'HARVEY tapott the:Corpora....
tion ? But the most serious part of the jolce t:4e" asset
tion of Mr. WM. RATHBONE, that with 'the exception 'DC
Mr. RADCLIFFE there is not a praessiOnat ma din Llvei'..;:
pool competent to discharge the duties of town clerk.,
Of course Mr. RATHBONE is speaking of those 'prcifes`
sional gentlemen with whom he is acquainted—that is to
say, the lawyers olyn party. What a batch of
dunces they must all be ! but will they thank Mr. Rini.:
BONE for exposing them in this manner.
It is resolved that the town-clerk shall have a salary of
£2,300, and his deputy, Mr. HARVEY aforesaid, we guess,
is to have a £lOOO a year. This is a rich business. The
late town-clerk's emoluments never would have amounted
to this sum but for the litigation of Mr. THOMAS BOLTON
and his fellow radicals. We wish Mr. RADCLIFFE and
Master Deputy all the joy imaginable.