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

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS.

As the Reduction of the Stamp Duty upon Newspapers
comes into operation on the 15th instant, it becomes
necessary for us briefly to state what course we shall
adopt in reference to the price of THE STANDARD.
It was resolved, at a MEETING of the PROPRIETORS of
the LIVERPOOL NEWSPAPERS, held in the Clarendon- i
rooms, July 26, 1836, that the charges for their Jour-
nals should be assimilated with those fixed upon by
the Metropolitan Weekly Press, which we subjoin.
By this arrangement we shall abide, in conformity
with the resolution.
The charge for THE STANDARD will be sd. each number,
instead of 4d. as formerly contemplated.
The charge, if paid in advance, will be 21s. per annum,
10s. 6d. half-yearly, and ss. 3d. per quarter.
The charge, on credit, will be 235. per annum, Us. 6d,
half-yearly, and ss. 9d. per quarter.

Zbe liiinrpool *tanbarti.

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1836

It becomes our pleasing duty to perform one of the
most grateful tasks that could possibly have devolved on
a christian journalist—to record an event which has ad-
ded another bloodless trophy to the already richly worn
band of laurels which encircle the majestic brow of pro-
testant Britain—an event which the christian may con-
template with hope, the moralist without envy, and the
real philosopher without dismay. This duty is rendered
doubly pleasing from the circumstance, that Liverpool
has openly presented her offering at the sacred shrine of
protestant freedom—that she has, in an evil hour, re-
sponded to the call of her pastors—that the worthy of
her sons and of her daughters have come forth from the
apostate society of nominal christians, and registered in
the face of heaven, their modest vow of fidelity to Him
who said—" My church is built upon a rock, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it,"—by laying the
foundation of the first new protestant school.
__ . .

When we reflect that heathen virtue, in all its glory,
neither built an hospital—founded an asylum for the or-
phan, nor endowed an almshouse for the aged or the
destitute, we are led to admire these gems of christian
glory which are the peculiar characteristics of our native
country, and the admiration of strangers; but what se-
curity would remain for their perpetuity or their tiles•

sings, to the less fortunate and the less protected of our
fellow-creatures, were we to destroy the source—to choke
up the pure chrystal spring from whence those blessings
have been derived—the limpid spring of gospel instruc-
tion ?
As there can be no genuine morality which is not sub-
servient to the superior control of religion, so there can
be no security for the perpetuation of moral rule, either
as it regards the political welfare of the state, or the do-
mestic prosperity and safety of private life and social
possessions, if the restraining influence of early impres-
sions is withdrawn from the human mind ; and all history
and all experience goes to prove, that there is no prin-
ciple which_ operates so powerfully, nor so permanently, 1
as the influence of early imbibed notions of religious ob-
ligation.
As this has been an incontrovertible point in
the history and social conduct, even of heathen nations,
and based on false systems—on superstition, and even
idolatry—what must not be the superior influence and
the superior claims of that system which is founded on
the sacred immutability of truth, which even infidels have
admitted was based on superior views of moral intelli-
gence, and knowledge of human nature, whilst denying
its divine authority, and refusing its control ?
The necessity, then, for early christian instruction in
a christian state, founded upon its utility to mankind ge-
generally, can only be disputed by those who are op-
posed to the fundamental principles of christianity itself.
We will first take this view of the question without more
direct reference to the higher claims of religion as con-
nected with the eternal happiness of man, but simply for
the purpose of meeting our moral philosophers on their
own ground—the ground of temporal utility and expe-
diency.
And here let us inquire of the worthy speculators in
" improved systems," what was the condition of Britain,
in either wealth, morality, security, or influence, at the
period when she was without the benefit of early religious
instruction—when her youth were brought up, trained,
as it were, from the cradle, in principles of bigotry or
licentiousness? We call upon them to answer out of the
impartial history of the former free-thinking Mr. Hume,
whose authority we suppose they will not attempt to deny
or dispute, and which may even be worth Mr. Black-
burn's serious consideration before he essays another de-
fence of his Irish " forlorn hope !" What was the end
of that state of society, combined with imperfect know-
ledge of religion in the state, by which men were from
childhood ignorant of the great precepts of christianity,
and dependent chiefly on imperfect notions of moral go-
-1 vernment, and which were so easily broken through ?
Let us notice these points. "There, then, sprung up
amongst us," says Hume, "a set of men who endea-