The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-19 00:00:00

VANITY FAIR.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.—Eeelee
“VANITAS VANITATUM " has rune; in the ears
Of trentle and simple for thousands of years;
The wail is still heard, yet its notes never scare
Or simple or gentle from Vanity Fair.

This fair has allurements alike to engage
The dimples of youth and the wrinkles of age;
Tho' mirth may be feigning, no' sheen may be glare,
The gingerbread's gilded in Vanity Fair.
Old Dives there rolls in his chariot of state,
There Jack takes his Joan, at a lowlier rate,
St. James's, from alley and square,
es plenty to Vanity Fair.

St. Giles

That goal would be vain where the guerdon was dross,
2y may they must come by a 103 s;
as enticing—its branches are bare,
for the promise of Vanity Fair.

e whence th

Heigh-ho
My son, t
Beware of

Contempt
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--.41.-

for sixteen shillings, within six hours. All honour be to
Stevenson, or whoever he was, that first started the bright
idea of making steam available for dry land travel.

STAGE COACHES.

When the day-coach for Mullingar was launched about
the year 1810, it was considered a prodigy. The country-
people used to leave their work at the sound of the horn,
and run across the fields to look at it as it swept past, at

the rate, which it -required-the evidence of sight to
realise, of five miles an hour. Limerick, which is
ninety-two miles from Dubli❑ (about the same distance
that Birmingham is from London), was first reached by
a one-day coach in the year 1525. Before that date the
light post-coach plying between those te-, rested
from its labour at the end of the first day at Mountrath.

The remaining articles are " Parallels, by a Pil-
grim;" a lengthy poem entitled "The Taking of
Jerusalem ;" the conclusion of a paper on Clan-
macnoise, Clare, and Arran ; and the last flying-
shot at the United States, by Fitzgunne, who ably

SUMS up

THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEW WORLD.
In the ecclesiastical establishments of America, we
may discern the same all-powerful democratic spirit. The
constitution may be said to ignore religion, for it is the
great maxim of the people that religion and government
are mutually independent. Undoubtedly, this is the
worst feature of democratic government. To separate
government and religion, is to separate man and wife.
Religion should refine government, and government
should support religion. It is folly to suppose that either
can with safety be independent of the other. Even the
heathen nations of antiquity were aware of this, and they
accordingly maintained a religion of the state. The
amount of injury done by this erection of popular will
above more elevated standards, can scarcely be estimated.
The Church and the State alike feel the evil influence ;
while a selfish, worldly, and unstable spirit pervades the
laws, religion is turned into a trade by the establishment
of a voluntary system. The clergy are elected by, and
are made responsible to, the people. The natural result
of this is, that the clergy are deprived of their proper in-
, dependence. In vain do the advocates of the system
point to apostolic times, and claim, as a precedent, the
example of the first preachers of the Gospel. The in-
spired disciple, speaking tongues which he had never
learnt, and astounding the heathen world by raising their
very dead to life, cannot properly be placed on a level
with the modern pastor. The former might accept alms ,
without detriment to himself or to the donor, while the
latter, whose mission is less clearly divine, incurs the
risk—when placed in similar indigent circumstances—of
sacrificing his integrity, and of being obliged to follow
where he cannot lead. Another consequence of subject-
ing the clergy to the law of popular election is, that the
relations which ought to subsist between the clergy and
their flocks are utterly destroyed. In the United States
the former are bound to the latter only by civil contract.
The cure of souls is seldom confided to the same man for
I more than a few years. The pastor does his work for
stipulated wages, and when his lease expires goes about
his business. No provision is made for his old age and
when his time is up he is no longer thought of. It is,
perhaps, on this account that the adopting and renoun-
cing of holy orders is so common in America. Men who
had previously been engaged in trade often suddenly adopt
the gown, and as suddenly relinquish it for the garb of
the layman. But the worst result of the voluntary system
is that it opens the door for designing men who, by lead-
ing the evil passions or practising upon the fears of their
flocks are prepared to sacrifice every consideration of
duty to that of interest. It offers a premium for specula-
tive discovery, and stimulates sectarian rivalry. Men
are encouraged to broach the wildest theories, in the hope
of rivetting the attention of the public by the sheer ex-
travagance of what they propound, for, in the chaos of
opinion which is engendered, boldness of assertion at- I
taches to itself an unreal importance, while truth, more
sober and retiring, passes comparatively unnoticed.