The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-04-20 00:00:00

SKETCHES IN THE NIANCHESTER GALLERY.

No.3.—Tne How( FAMlLY.—Parmigiano.
Lo, where the shadowy trees
Are whispering, like the seas
When the fair summer air is low and mild,
Her heart as gently thrilled,
With quiet joy o'erfilled,
The Holy Mother tends the Holy Child !
at To us the Child was horn, to us is given
The wonderful, the mighty God from Heaven !

And by her side the while,
Undecked by boyhood's smile,
Full of the shadi,vring of his future years,
Yet calmly, purely bright.
As with an inner light,.
The Prophet of the Wilderness appears t
That tiny Cross! he feels its mystery
Oh, mother doth it bear no sign to thee ?

There was a prophecy
Uttered in days gone by,
When to the temple thou didst bring thy son ;
'There was a cloud that rolled
O'er thy meek joy its fold,
And was its shade forgotten, soon as gone?
Dost thou not yet with the remembrance start ?
" A sword, oh, mother! yet shall pierce thy heart ?"

Perchance when tempests lower,
That warning voice hash power;
But not when sunshine settles on his brow—
Perchance when in unrest
He murinureth at thy breast;
But not when sleeping tranquilly, as now !
Whence the sword cotneth is a mystery sealed—
blessed art thou—it is not yet revealed !

Yes,—lt is well for thee,
The bitterest agony
Were thine to thin it, that all thy tender ears
Must train that beauteous form
To struggle with the storm,
Anti for a crown of thorns that brow prepare!
Blest be the spirit's hopeful unbelief
That will nut realize the coining grief !

An angel's message clear
Is whispering in thine ear—
Hail, thou art highly favoured—blessed thou!
Thy heart confirms the strain,
The shadow and the pain
• Come not to mar the happy present now—
Thy heart is glad, oh Virgin undefiled!
Framing the future for that Holy Child!
Manchester Courier.

CON TE3fPORAIIY PRESS.

POSTO.FFICE REFORM.
(Proin the Post Circular.)
One of the most cherished watchwords of our intern
gent and prudent countrymen is the " Freedom of the
Press." What is the freedom of the press but the free-
dom of communicating thought? A ready vehicle for the
transmission of knowledge. Let a despot place a look on
every printing office in the country, and proclaim that
not a sheet should be issued unless circulated by him.
self, according to his pleasure, well or ill—fast or slow—
until a tax of 2,3, and 400 per cent had been paid for
his monopoly. Would the grievance be endured for a
single hour? What is letter-writing but the more an-
cient and the infinitely more universal organ for coin
munication of thought than printing ? Men wrote long
. before they printed, and great us are the blessings and
the effects of the press, inconceivably greater have been
those of written communication. The written Bible
taught the knowledge of God, and sowed the seeds of
Christianity thousands of years before the printed Bible
expanded that knowledge. MnO is little better than a
savage without a knowledge of written characters. The
employment of printing is an after stage in his civiliza-
tion. Communication by writing being at least equally
as important as printing, how do the people suffer it to
be dealt with by the government ? Is it not encumbered
with those oppressions, against which, if applied to print-
ing, the people would revolt though they were supported
by all the tyrannies in the world ! Nnt only does the
government monopolise the transmission of written com-
munication, but it lays on a tax so heavy, and executes
the work in a way, that almost amounts to a prohibition
of correspondence. We blame no particular govern-
ment for the present taxes on the transmission of thought,
but we do indeed deplore that the expenses of the late
war should have occasioned such fiscal encroachments on
thi.s—the most essential organ of civilization.
In 1765, the universal postage on letters, transmitted
under fifteen miles, was one penny; above fifteen and
under thirty miles, twopence; above thirty and under
eighty miles, threepence,; and on all abme eighty miles
the postage was only fourpence. Be it remembered in
1765, there were no mail coaches, (the cheapest mode of
transmission,) few direct roads, and those few inferior to
the worst turnpike-road of the present time—small faci-
lities for travelling—great insecurity—and a population
not half the amount of the present. In 1835, with all
possible increased advantage' of travel and transport,
Increased trade, progressive numbers and intelligence,
the postage of one penny has become fourpence ; of two-
pence, sixpence; of threepence, eightpence ; of four-
pence, ninepence, tenpence, and elevenpence, &c. In
1765, the true principle of postage, uniformity of rate,
is carried out, probably as near as the Post office expenses
of that time would allow ' • and the charges were evidently
regulated on the principle mentioned by Lord Lowther,
in his statesman-like report, that " the Postoffice was to
afford advantne•e to trade and commerce," and that "re-
venue to be derived from the Postoffice was not the pri-
mary consideration." Shall we not in this case at least
advert to the " wisdom of our ancestors ?"
Let us not stay to discuss the manifold advantages to
trade and commerce, and money-getting, nor the impetus
to education, nor even the still dearer increase of the
blessings of religious and moral sentiments which a cheap
postage would confer, but let the people raise their voices
for the great principle of Freedom of Speech,—for let-
ter-writing is but speaking at a distance,—and let them
tell the minister in tones not to be mistaken, that their
speech shall not be crippled by fiscal tyranny—let wi-
dowed mothers anxious to reclaim their children erring
at a distance, lay the wishes of their hearts before the
Queen—let meetings be held in every village and ham-
let of the kingdom, and petitions prepared for tie legis-
lature—let deputations of science and commerce haunt
the ministers, and let the whole people shout for the
principle of " Freedom of Speech—with the cheapest
profitable postage, or no government monopoly."

PAPAL USURPATIONS.

" JOHN TUAM" V. THE POPISH RELIEF BILL, AND THE

NATIONAL BOARD.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
Lord Lorton put a question in the House of Lords on
Tuesday evening, which seems to have taken our Pro
testant Prime Minister by surprise—viz., Whether any
steps had been taken by the government to enforce the
penalty, in consequence of a Roman Catholic Prelate
having assumed the title of Archbishop, and affixed the
signature "John Toam" to certain inflammatory letters
addressed to one of her Majesty's Secretaries of State ?
Lord Melbourne "did not know : it was the province
of the Irish government to take up the matter—he
would inquire, and report."
Not to dwell on the Prime Minister's ignorance on a
matter of such importance, which has now been before
the public for several months—we shall take him on his
own grounds; and, admitting the inquiry came properly
vyithin the province of the Irish executive, we seize upon
his concession that the matter was deserving of investi-
gation, and ask, firstly, whether any steps have been ta-
ken on the subject by the Irish law officers of the crown %
And secondly, if not, why not ?
The former question we may boldly answer in the ne-
gative.
The latter will be best explained by observing that the
Trish Government is not a Protestant Government—and
that the Irish Attorney General is a Roman Catholic.
We trust, however, that Lord Lnxton will insist upon
the promised explanation.
• To'characterise the letters or John Tuam to her Ma-
jesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment as "inflammatory" merely is weak; they are
""IrPtrig and contumacious. Not satisfied with arrogat-
ing to himself the title of the Archbishop of Tuam, he
proceeds, in the last epistle, to degrade from his legal