The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-07 00:00:00

March 6th, 1858.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
*if* The letter of our correspondent respecting the French
Captain and the Dock-master, with an engraving of the flag,
will be found in the next page.
LITTLEMTILLI—We have been obliged to defer theimsertion
of his communication until next week.
W. A. asks us to publish, either by communication from some
of our numerous correspondents or onr own researches,
the rate of interest charged by the Bank of England, say,
daring the present century; and also the fluctuations in the
Funds. The information on the first-named point is not
easily obtained ; and, if even it were accessible, we doubt
whether it would prove of the advantage which our corres-
pondent seems to anticipate.

Eiberpool tzttibarb+

TUESDAY MORNING-, .MARCH 7, 1854.

THE question of Nunneiies and Conventual
Establishments was, on Tuesday last, brought
'before the House of Commons, .on a motion for a
select committee of inquiry. It was only last week
we reiterated the assertion that Lord JOHN Iturs-
SELL—notwithstanding his professions to the
contrary, and the sentiments expressed in his cele-
brated letter to the Bishop of Dunn-km—was the
bitterest enemy to the Protestant religion, and on
Tuesday he again showed himself in his true
colours. He went over -the same -absurd attempts
at reasoning as he did last year-about the feelings
of Romanist ladies, their unwillingness to leave
their prisons, and his unwillingness to believe that
Romanist gentlemen would •allow their daughters
to be ill-used in these convents—as though-both
parents and daughters were not -the-veriest dupes
of their spiritual tyrants—and he concluded by
giving his hearty and decided negative :to the
motion. It is gratifying to observe that, notwith-
standing the full force of Ministerial opposition,
the motion was carried by a large majority, and
the welcome truth was evident that the Coalition
Cabinet possess no influence in the House . of
Commons, where their opinions run counter to
those of their quondam supporters. Some objec-
tion to the inquiry was raised, on the ground that
many of these institutions were not what they were
represented to be, but simply private boarding-
houses for pious females who devote'd themselves
to works of charity and mercy. This may be true
to a certain extent, as no doubt many have been
founded on a very small scale and with humble
means for the economy of living, and in order to
induce a belief . that Romish superstition was
increasing in this country to a greater extent than
it is in reality. In the course of the discussion, a
Romanist member stated that he had visited a
certain convent, and had been allowed an interview
with two of the inmates without the presence of
any other person. Of course he was, considering
.his own predilections, -his position, and the use
which was to be made -of the interview. But
-would an English clergyman or a Protestant
parent have been allowed the same privilege, unless,
indeed, the minds of the poor dupes had been so
thoroughly perverted as -to be insensible to all
Appeals to reason or conscience, beyond the injunc-
tions of slavish superstition, debasing alike to soul
and -body ? It was stated -that the inmates are
under no restraint, but, having full liberty to leave,
remain through their own choice. This maw
Also be partly true ; but it must be remembered,
that the undue influence practised is upon the •
mind and the holiest affections, which, having been
subdued'by such arts as Romish priests are profi-
cient in, these is no longer any exercise of the will
by the dupes of superstition. It is well known
that in the majority of cases the great object is to
obtain the worldly possessions -of those who can be
cajoled at the most critical period of life to indulge
a passion for piety, which is, perhaps, the worst
species of religious dissipation, and then to find
their whole future fife influenced by vows under-
taken when they were least able to judge of their
meaning or consequences. If, therefore, all were
untrue that has been asserted and believed of such
places being the scenes ofgross profligacy, life-long
imprisonment, or transportation by the aid of
similar institutions on the Continent, they are still
open to the objection of being the means of
entrapping young females into superstitious oVii-
gations, the surrender of their property, and the
prostration of their mental and bodily faculties
into a state of slavish subjection to priestly control,
repugnant to all notions of British freedom, or the
oft-vaunted principles of civil and religious liberty.
The defence of convents has, however, rested upon
the most favourable cases, those which are not
open so strongly to the objections raised to their
existence. ir hi s is not, however, a legitimate
argument, nor a tenable objection to the inquiry
which has been granted by the House of Commons.
It is not what some of them are, but what they
may be, when beyond the control of English laws,
which virtually they are, and under the sole direc-
tion of Romish priests who practise the infamous
doctrine that the end justifies the means. There
is nothing in the conduct of these men which
entitles them to the slightest confidence, particu-
larly in the guardianship of young females and the
preservation of their moral purity. We could
*point to instances even in our own neighbourhood
where a Romish priest professing great piety, and
ad • *stering the ordinances of his religion to
oung females, is notorious for infamous
many y
profligacy,—consorting with the most abandoned
chafactert3, and with hardly tho decency to conceal

his atrocious conduct. Yet such are the men,—
whose infamy is justified by their compulsory
celibacy,—to whom is entrusted the guidance of
young and experienced females ; and it is, there-
fore, by no means surprising that nunneries should
•be, as they have been represented to be, not only a
mockery of religion, but a disgrace to civilisation
and common decency. For their immunity, how-
ever, from all inquiry and supervision, Lord JoHN
RUSSELL is the willing champion, for the simple
reason that, with all his professions of Protes-
tantism, he is the tool of the Church of Rome, to
the designs of which he has ever lent himself
during his ministerial career. The proposed
inquiry will be, after all, but an inefficient remedy.
Monastic institutions were forbidden by the Eman-
cipation Act of 1829, and nunneries ought to be
included in the prohibition, while all bequests to
Romish ecclesiastics for whatever purpose ought
to be declared null and void.

IF the Reform Bill were intended, as it was
professed, to form the principal sheaf of the Par-
liamentary harvest, its fate, it is hoped, is signi-
ficant of that of its promoters, as its reception was
as contemptible as the position of its author. It
is, indeed, difficult to find language to convey a
correct impression of the absurdities, inconsisten-
cies, and revolutionising tendencies of this long-
promised measure, which even failed to excite
serious opposition, so slight was the opinion of its
chance of success or the sincerity of its promoters.
In Blackwood's Magazine of this month is an
ably-written article on the subject, exposing some
of the follies—to use the mildest term—of Minis-
terial incapacity and dishonesty. Referring to the
time at which the measure has been brought for-
ward—when England is engaged in preparation
for what may prove a serious struggle, the writer

says :
"We have been told, in ridiculously pompous
language, that Great Britain will present a magni-
ficent spectacle to the world, if, while engaging in
a deadly struggle with the most colossal power of
Europe, she applies herself at the same time to
the remodelment of her own constitution. With
all deference to the speaker, we never listened to
more atrocious nonsense. What should we think
of the sanity of the man who, at 'the very moment
when his house was attacked from without, should
set fire to it within, for the purpose of exhibiting
'file sublime spectacle of simultaneous external de-
Ifence and internal extinguishment ? Of course,
we should consider him as mad, clap a blister on
his head, and have him instantly conveyed to
bedlam. And yet that is, just now, the precise
language of Ministers. We really are surprised
that any of them should have the audacity to
hazard such an argument ; if, indeed, that can be
called an argument which is no better' Than a pre-
posterous hyperbole."
It is hardly worth while to enter into any
lengthened comment upon the heterogeneous mix-
ture of qualifications which is proposed for the
right of franchise. Any father of a numerous
family may qualify all lis sons by deposits of £5O
each in a savings' bank ; any person who wears
hair-powder, keeps a 'terrier, and las a crest en-
graved on his seal, for which 'he pays £2 Bs. Bd.
assessed taxes, is to enjoy the priVilege ; and every
common carrier who pays £2 6s. Bd. yearly for his
van, though he may have no other residence, is to
be as politically powerftil as the acred squire, or
the manufacturer who gives employment to thou-
sands—every horse-dealer, dog:breaker, and tavern-
keeper, may vote in virtue of 'the assessed taxes.
The crowning joke, However, of this monstrous
absurdity is the pretended prinCiple of the minority
being represented in counties and boroughs return-
i ing three representatives. Upon this point the
writer we have referred to observes :
" Supposing that a minority member dies
during a session of Parliament, or accepts the
Chiltern Hundreds, how is Ihis place to be sup-
plied ? Is there to be an election with three
candidates in the field, andis the lowest to be pro-
claimed the victor ? If not, what becomes of Lord
Joint RUSSELL'S ' principle 7 * * We seriously
aver that we do not remember to have ever heard
of a proposal more singulafly Silly or more utterly
absurd ; and if this really be, as we are told, the
keystone of the New Reform 'BA we may be allowed
to express a hope that Lord JOHN RUSSELL will, for
the future, desist from all -architectural experi-

meets."

We might even go further,.and suppose a case
in which the majority for two candidates being
seenre, some popular Radical, who will do anything
for-money, is paid to be the third candidate, with
thecondition that after his return he is to vacate
his scat, in order to allow a candidate of the ma-
jority to supply his place, thereby defeating the
ostensible object of the minority principle. We
could mention an instance which -occurred some
years Since, in which a well-known Radical was to
have been paid £l,OOO for starting as a candidate
at a borough election, the object being, by splitting
the Radical interest, which slightly preponderated,
to allow two Tories to be returned. Among popular
demagogue,s can always be found men ready and
willing to undertake any dirty work for personal
gain, and-the minority principle would afford ample
scope for their ingenuity.
It will be seen, by our Parliamentary Report,
that on Friday Lord JOHN RUSSELL postponed
the second reading of the Bill from the 13th of
March to the 27th of April. He prefactedihis an-
nouncement with some scarcely intelligible remarks
about the preparations for war, and the necessity
.cif waiting for an answer from the CZAR to the
demand made on him for the evacuation ;of the
Danubian Principalities. The real meaning is that
the Reform project }s a wretched failure, a mere
abortion from the muddled intellects of its author,
and-that no party in the country will accept it as ra
whale, -while none but a truckling. PEELITE of the
ABERDZEN school, or a trimmer like Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, would ever have consented to its being
brought for ward.

SOME time since we suggested the desirability
of forming a kind of Conservative League, in order
that there might be a nucleus for the united action
of the great Conservative party, and a means for
the dissemination of those political truths which
are essential to the welfare of the community, and
the safety of the State. The necessity for such an
arrangement is every day becoming more apparent,
and it is to be hoped that the men who assume to
4e the leading Conservatives of Liverpool will take
the easy steps which alone are requisite to com-
mence so advantageous a movement. It is a fact
which ought not long to remain so, that while the
Conservatives form by far the most numerous party
both in and out of Parliament, they are the least
efficient for any practical purpose. This is mainly
owing to the want of efficient leaders, who may
enjoy the confidence of the whole body, for their
firmness and consistency of principle, as well as for
their ability and prudence. It would appear as
though able generalship and persevering energy
are exercised in inverse ratio to the goodness of the
cause, for while the battles of Whiggery, Radical-
ism, and every phase of political charlatancy have
been fought with a determination and heroism
which has often insured success, the principles of
Conservatism, which can alone secure national
prosperity, have been struggled for under every
disadvantage, in the pure spirit of chivalry, with
no encouragement but the conscientious conviction
that virtue is its own reward. It is true that, in
the Roue of Lords, there is the Earl of NEB;