The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-03 00:00:00

of the orders. I hesitate not to maintain, that such an ar-
rangement would double or treble the number of persons that
usually attend our congresses. I know not whether the
druidical order is still in existence or not. If it be the case
that it has been superseded by the Christian priesthood, then
let the clergy appear in full canonicals. But if it still con-
tinues as an independent order, subservient of course to the
Christian ministry, then, by all means, let the druids appear
in their proper habiliments. From the account I read of the
Liverpool " Gorsend," I infer that the order is not extinct, for
I there find that the Rev. D. James, -of Kirkdale, was or-
dained bard and druid. By the-bye, the same rev. gentle-
man has written a most excellent manual of druidism, wherein
the costume of the bardo-druidic orders is particularly de-
scribed, which will consequently be of great help in the pro-
posed reform. But here conies the question, how are these
dresses to be furnished ? If not by subscription, or from the
fund of the eisteddfod, let it only be published that each druid,
bard, and ovate, must provide himself with his own dress,
and I will answer for the success of the experiment. Before
I conclude, I wish to ask a question of the Rev. E. Evans, Rev.
J. Jones, (Tepid) and John Richards, Esq., bardic druids who
officiated at the late gorsedd, if there was no irregularity in
the ceremony of ordination ? for whilst I read of the candi-
dates uncovering their heads, nothing whatever is said of
their appearing within the circle barefooted according to
ancient custom.—Yours truly,
A. WELSH CLERGYMAN.

AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF
IRELAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF TILE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Su ,—The directors who retained office against the wish of
the majority of the shareholders, having again " declined the
exchange of the notes in Dublin," it is incumbent on the
shareholders now to insist on the dismissal of the directors ;
and I suggest that our interests be placed in the hands of Mr.
Gresham and others (many of them in Belfast), who exposed
and protested against the conduct of their co-directors when
they first " declined the exchange of notes in- Dublin."
With business-like men as directors, the Bank may yet go
on and do well.

A SHAREHOLDER,

PEDESTRIANISM,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—Allow me to correct an inaccuracy in a paragraph
of your paper of yestetday, headed " Pedestrianism." The
distance to Rugby, as walked, was only 12G miles, and this
was done in the same time by two parties, Mr. Bucknell be-
ing the one whose name you have omitted.—l am, Sir, &c.

Liverpool; 27th June, 1840,

FREEMEN AROUSE !

TO THE FREEMEN OF LIVERPOOL

BROTHER FRELMEN,—Seeing from the London papers
that there is a committee of the House of Commons now
sitting for the purpose of considerin how far it is practicable
to restore to the freemen their ancient privileges, and
amongst others, that we used formerly to enjoy, the right of
voting in the election of town councillors, I think we ought
to get up a petition from our town, praying that this right
may be restored to us.

f hope that this may meet the eye of some of my more
wealthy brethren, and that they will call a public meeting as
early as possible to further this object.
1, for one, think it wrong that we should still have a claim
on the corporate property, and, at the same time, not be
allowed a voice in the election of the town councillors, who
are nominally the trustees to manage for our interests :—I

am, brother freemen,
Liverpool, 2Gt h June, 1840.

A FREEMAN

-.—.._..,i00..__-

A TRUE PICTURE OF POPERY, DRAWN BY AN
IMPARTIAL HAND.

TO rim EDITOR OF TILE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
—lt is recorded of the celebrated Hogarth, that being
once employed by a certain nobleman, not remarkable for
either the beauty of his physiognomy or the symmetry of his
person, to paint his portrait, the painter, instead of flattering
his lordship, as he probably expected, executed his task with
so much fidelity, that the picture was suffered to remain,
unpaid for, in the artist's hands. Vexed at this tiece of
negligence, Hogarth at length sent a message to his lordship,
informing him that, if the portrait was not forthwith re-
deemed, a tail and a pair of antlers should be appended to it,
and, with these appropriate ornaments, it should be disposed
of to a showman, as a faithful representation of a newly-
imported wild beast, to attract the gaze of the clodpates at
a country fair ! This threat had the desired effect ; the
likeness was paid for, taken home, and committed to the

flames !
What may be the fate of the following picture, I cannot
exactly predict ; but the portrait is so faithful a resemblance
of the original, that it does not require the addition of either
tail or horns to identify it with the Apocalyptical beast,
which St. John saw " rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and
upon his heads the name of blasphemy"! (Rev. xiii. 1.)
It is, in fact, sir, a most faithful portrait of the " religion"
of Popery, as it is exhibited in a country where it prevails
as the predominant and uncontrolled guide of the devotions
of its besotted dupes, uncontaminated by that " heresy"
denominated " PROTESTANTISM " and by its heretical le-
gends collected in that anti-papi;tical volume called " THE
BIBLE" !

This portrait made its deblit in Liverpool in a supplement
to the Albion newspaper of that town, on the 22nd of June
instant ; the editor of which paper has not only had the te-
merity to give it publicity in his journal, but has also ven-
tured, in the same number of it, to hazard a hint that even
the existence of so mortal an enemy to Popery, and so zeal-
ous au advocate of Christianity, as the Rev. Hugh. M'Neile,
may be tolerated in Liverpool, provided he can acquit him-
self of Jezebelising ." our most gracious Queen," instead of
" the MOTHER OP HARLOTS !" How the editor of the Al-
bion will escape the lashes of his brother editor not quite a
hundred miles from Lord-streets for these unpardonable
crimes, remains to be seen. Eternally implacable and ma-
lignant hostility against so decided an enemy to the horrors
of Popery as Mr. M`Neile is, can hardly keep its malevolent
fangs out of the eyes of any editor who dares to say a word
by way of softening the asperity of. the incessant persecution
which his fearless integrity has brdught upon him. Leaving,
however, both those gentlemen to tight their own battles, I
proceed to observe,-that, suffering the blinded or bribed ad-
vocates of Popery to reap the fruits of their degrading ser-
vility, if there exists in the bosom of any British Protestant
one spark of Christian Ehilanthtopy, issuing in the sympa-
thetic deprecation of such an infernal system of awful delu-
sion as, under the desecrated name of " Christianity," can
plunge a whole nation into such universal and horrible idola-
try as the following picture developes, as the natural fruit of
Popery in Spain,—let that spark be kindled into a flame of
holy zeal and Christian compassion, that shall never be ex-
tinguished until it has consumed the last vestige of that ac-
cursed system, and banished for ever both its name and its
nature from the polluted shores of our insulted country !
As it is impossible to separate the displeasure of heaven,
and the judgments of heaven's offended KING, from the in-
roads of such a system of delusion and impiety, which, under
the disgraced name of " religion," inflicts such a reproach
and injury upon the character of Christianity ; so it is also
impossible for a patriot and philanthropist, who feels the
power of Bible Christianity, and who glories in its prosperity
and success, to view without a mixture of horror and dismay
the alarming progress which Popery is making in our beloved
yet distracted country, and without the most fearful appre-
hensions that ere long its- Protestant bosom may once more
become the polluted seat of what we are now called to con-
template as—
" RELIGION IN SPAIN.—In Spain the Christian [Popish !]
religion has sunk to that point at which Paganism had ar-
rived among the Romans. With the major part of the Spa-
nish people, a saint, a Virgin of gold and silver, is the object
of adoration. The devotee kneels before the image, sees but
that, and conceives no higher thought. Remove the statue,
and all is gone : if you set up another, it will have no effi-
cacy. The old one wrought miracles ; and till its successor
has performed a dozen, it will- be thought nothing of. The
Spaniards have confined [their edition of] Christianity to
ceremonies : they think they have done all that can be done
when they have fasted, worn the scapulary, and read mecha-
nically so many pages of a book. According to their notions
religion cannot exist without monks and processions : they
must have relics and miracles, and ecclesiastics in grotesque
dresses; and convents where every one may find prayers
and. soup. They have a respect for God, but they show a
much greater for the saints : each village has its patron,
whom they invoke, and to whom alone they pray. The
Virgin, however, shares the honours paid to the saints of
each particular place or district. The Spaniards think no-
thing of God ; they very seldom mention his name. A pea-
sant one day said in my presence, ' At Matapasuelos there is
a saint who has as much power as God.' And a great deal
more,' added another. You cannot invent a story so absiard,
so silly, so stupid, as that a Spanish monk shall not be able
to make his countrymen believe it. Such a saint has shed
tears : such a Virgin has moved her arms, her foot, her head:
everybody believes it, because a man in black [query, had
he not a cloven foot I told them so. Presently every one
affirms that he has seen it: how is it possible afterwards to
doubt a thing which the whole town maintains to be true?"
—Supplement to the Albion of Monday, June 22d, 1840.
Assuming this statement to be founded in fact, what an
awful scene of moral degradation, the result of ecclesiastical
knavery and corruption, does it present to our view ! And
what a character do these lamentable facts impart to the
direful system of delusion, which, assuming the desecrated
name of " RELIGION," (?) inflicts that degradation upon
that distracted country ! And it was in support of this dia-
bolical system of iniqUity, hypocrisy, and fraud, that the
infernal tribunal of the HOLY INQUISITION" (! !!) was
erected in Spain, in the hell-born fires of which the first
glimmerings of Bible Christianity, at the period of the Re-
formation, were consumed with the martyred bodies of its
faithful witnesses ! It is no wonder, sir, that the judgments
of a- just and holy God are poured out in streams of blood
upon a nation which has for so many ages extinguished his
truth, and cherished the lies of Popery in its stead. And,
sir, what blind and barbarous infatuation must that be,
which, in our own enlightened country, dignifies with the
titles of " liberality" and " patriotism" the atrocious at-
tempts that are now making, by professed Protestants, once
more to subjugate us to the degrading dominion of that
Popery, which adds to its impious assumption of " infalli-
bility" the concomitant attribute of " immutability,"—a
quality which, while it avowedly perpetuates the villany of
the system, precludes the possibility of its reformation. De-
struction is the only cure for its most atrocious wickedness ;
and it only waits the opportunity of its actual recover.), of
that ecclesiastical domination to which it is rapidly approxi-
mating in the British Islands, to pounce upon the political
supremacy also. Nor will its deceived or treacherous advo-
cates ever cease from their reckless exertions in its behalf,
until they have once more seated it upon the throne of these
realms, filled the cabinet and both houses of parliament with
its votaries, and placed them in every post of honour, wealth,
and power, in the civil, military, and naval departments of
the United Kingdom.
That this is the aim of its indefatigable exertions in quest
of power and influence, the insatiable ambition of its pro-
fessors loudly proclaims to a nation, deceived and stupefied
by its plausible tales of its own immaculate innocence and
salutary institutions. But, thanks be to God, sir, we are
not all the subjects of that awful and dangerous delusion :
and I would now conclude by sayings—Let every Bible
Christian, every genuine patriot, and every generous philan-
thropist, of every sect and party in the kingdom, despising
the senseless and rabid ribaldry with which they may be as-
sailed, through a venal and prostituted press, and laying aside
their trifling dissensions, rally round different altars; but
ONE BIBLE ; and, uniting heart and hand in the common
cause of Christianity, labour to crush the common enemy of
aII—THE DETESTABLE VIPER or' Pops:lry ! And, to cheer
them on in their glorious career, let them remember that the
promise of a " God who cannot he hath assured them that
" the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head" !
I remain, sir, your humble servant,
A BIBLE CHRISTIAN.
Sutton, near St. Helen's, 28th June, 1840.

A married man in Aberdeen, who was severely tried by a
Xantippe of a wife, had an application for charity from an
old " blue gown." " Can ye help a poor widow-man ?"
said the petitioner. " A widow-man, did ye say ? Gae wa
wi' ye to the Heist door, you're no to be pitied ; I wish I
could say the same thing.'
Lord Charles Wellesley, son of the Duke of Wellington,
has arrived at Apsley House from Canada, where his lord-
ship has been doing duty with his regiment, the 15th. His
lordship landed, with a portion of his regiment, at Portsmouth,
on Saturday last.