The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

tion, says—

" Much as we regret any of these large combinations on
either side, we cannot be surprised, we cannot blame employ-
ers, if they also unite to quell. at all hazards, even by throw-
ing a whole trade out of employ, an authority which, if al-
lowed fairly to get head, threatens to destroy the possibility
of carrying on business at all. Nay, we shall be even asto-
nished at their apathy, if some such vigorous measures against
strikes. And those who support them, are not forthcoming.
It cannot be supposed that they will resign themselves to
having their private arrangements with their workmen regu-
lated by a council, or committee, or union, drawn from those
very workmen with whom their variances arise. * * * *
organization not thought of on
What we are now opposing, and what would make it impos-
sible for the public to enter upon the right and wrong of the
particuolafrwqourakrirnegl,
nieneve (an n were it dubious, s—an organi-
zationthe master's side) in order to seize on an authority destruc-
tive of our present industrial and even political framework,
and acting by these ' strikes' as their ordinary weapon. This
is such a revolution as not one, or two, or three cases of in-
dividual wrong, but only general and flagrant and hopeless
oppression can excuse. And it is from their acknowledged
connexion with this organization that ' strikes' are consi-
dered as they are--the seditious movements of a seditious
party."

And again :

" If workmen will combine against •their employers, their

employers mu.,t combine against If men roscribe
masters, masters must proscribe men—common :ause on
one side involves common cause on the other. Itealcula-
hly mischievous as such a feud would he, it is yetthe least
of two misehicfg."

We quote these passages because they seemto argue
that the ad libitum law may remain just as t is, and
that no court of appeal, no authoritative arbration is

necessar

in such cases ;

but such doctine trill

scarcely hold good in a civilised state of societ•. ()pe-

rative combinations are extremely injurious, nd it is

no excuse for the ruler's non-interference to say, that

masters may follow the same course in theirown de-
fence; it is Ms duty to provide a remedy, eithr by re-
storing the ancient law and making combincions un-
lawful, or by instituting a court for decidng such
causes, or by some other means. In the prsent state
of things the operatives make laws for thei employ-
ers, and, in their attempts to enforce them; entail a❑
incalculable amount of mischief on themelves and
others; and this is unquestionably a statfof things
which ought not to be suffered to continue.

" The church has done it"—cries old * George
Williams"—the church has done it ; it ias openly
identified itself with toryism ; and this novement of
the church must be considered by the frends of im-
provement and reform as a declaration of tar, and"—
hear this ye tories, and tremble—shale on your
Olympus, and let all Thessalia quake—' I (George
Williams) will not fail to RESENT IT!" But now
query—Good Sir, is it the church that las identified
itself with toryism, or toryism that has identified itself
with the church ? Pause for a moment sir, before
your resentment lights up into a blaze and do not
confound the innocent with the guilty. liad you been
in the neighbourhood of the Town-hall, Or St. Poter's
Church on Sunday morning last, you would have seen
a sight that might well have raised tbis question in
your mind. You would have seen a marvellous revival
of the olden time; the insignia of authority brought
forth from their hiding place—the decent ensigns of

rank and office, which the rampancy of a levelling,
vulgarising faction would sweep entirely away, restored
to their rightful possessors—the mayor and corpora-
tion of Liverpool proceeding in ,their official capacity
to the Parish Church, attended by such a cortege of
the wealth, rank, and respectability of the town, as no
ordinary occasion could have collected, and greeted
on their way by a countless multitude of the inhabi-

tants, in holy-day attire, anxious at once to gratify
themselves with a sight now unwonted to their eyes,
and do honour to men about to discharge a duty in
which they deeply sympathised, and of which they
entirely approved—had you, we say, Mr. Williams,
been a witness to this interesting spectacle, you might
well have doubted whether there was not just as much
truth in the converse of your proposition as in the
proposition itself. But we have no fancy for splitting
hairs ; we shall freely concede that the church—the

ichurch by her influences, or the church by herself has
done it—that is to say, restored the ascendancy of
toryism; yes, we shall concede this even at the risk of
drawing down upon us the bolts of so awful a thun-
derer as old George Williams. And the tories, we are
happy to say, are grateful; it is one of their first acts,
in this town, to give honour to whom honour is due,
and at the " Protestant altar" in the church of their
fathers, to make their acknowledgments to the Most
High. The radical scribe might have been a hearer
of the interesting discourse delivered from the pulpit
on the occasion, or he may otherwise be enabled to
collect its purpose—and we beg him to remark that he
will find therein no apology to any fellow mortal for
giving all the praise to Almighty God. Apologies of
this sort belong to another system, and are among the
fruits of another regime ; we allude to an occurrence
now prettily well known, but so well worth remember-
ing, that we shall make no apology for briefly setting
it forth in this place. Be it recollected, then, that the
notorious Mr. Daniel O'Connell is the first Popish
Lord Mayor of Dublin under a reform act of parlia-
ment, and that on Sunday week last, being the first
Sabbath after his election, he proceeded in his red
cloak, cocked hat, and state coach of office, with all
the eclat and notoriety which a prodigious mob could
give him,, to attend mass at a Popish house of
worship, in open violation of the act of parliament
in virtue of which he was constituted mayor ; that
his dutiful church received him with special honors,
and undiminished ardour, whilst he was thus engaged
in doing obeisance to her, and despite to the laws of
the realm ; that a priest named Miley preached a
sermon on the occasion, full of the most exasperating
allusions against the Protestants, and, exulting in the
triumph which his church witnessed that day in the
presence of a devout son, who enjoyed the high office
of Lord Mayor of the city, said, that he felt so trans-
ported with delight, that even at the risk of offending
that eminent individual, and seeming to detract from
his merit, he must ascribe the accomplishment of so
great a work to Omnipotence alone !

The absolute deification therefore of this bold, bad

man is, it appears, postponed to another opportunity,
and in the meanwhile the ecclesiastical trumpeter apo-
logizes for not putting him quite on a level with the
Supreme Being ! Such, Radicalism, be thy fruits ;
there are no such blasphemies to be heard in the train
of her now triumphant antagonist. We do not refuse
to ascribe honour to individuals ; such honour as their
faithful services deserve, we cheerfully accord them

but we ascribe all with due submission and deference
to a higher power, and we bear in mind that when
making our acknowledgments to the most deserving
individuals, there is a reserve to be made on the score
of that influence which the church and our principles,
when rightly used, place at their command. The
Radical scribe then is welcome to proclaim that " the
church has done it," as long as he pleases; we thank
him for the acknohledgment ; his testimony is valuable;
we shall compound on cheap terms for all his resent-
ments.

But there is a wide difference between that which is
achieved by what we may call a principle, and that
which is wrought merely by men. We are not, as
others,. thank God, the slaves of a spiritual despotism.
\\That our church achieves, she achieves by the influ-
ence of reason—by the intervention of a written law,
which all alike are bound to obey; she subjects none
to the caprice of a living, varying, and variable autho-

rity. Her influence is the influence of freedom, and
our love and obedience to her, are those of willing
freemen. Therefore our enemies think to taunt us in

vain. We care not how often they repeat " the church
has done it;" yes, the church has done it, and round
the church we rally. She has taught us to conquer,
and we are neither so foolish, nor so ungrateful as to
desert her banner.

* See his letter i❑ the Mercury of Friday,

The proceedings of the Council Meeting, yesterday
will be found at length in another part of our papers
and we have no doubt will be read with general satis-
factiion. Although naturally of an exciting character,
on account of the importance of the subjects to be dis-
cussed, yet on the whole they were marked with con-
siderable temper; and notwithstanding the continual
endeavours of Mr. William Earle to embroil its deli-
berations, by those interferences in which he delights,
and which, coming from any other and less distinguish-
ed individual, might be deemed impertinent,—we are
confident that, after a few explosions, the business of
the Council will be permitted to progress smoothly and
decorously.

It will not be necessary for us to indulge in any
lengthened remarks upon the debate, if we may be
permitted to apply to the Council in its present state
of discipline a term so formal. 'We cannot, however,
entirely pass over the effort of Mr. Bright to establish
for himself a fame, more permanent than, we fear, the
possession of the Gibraltar of St. Peter's Ward is likely
to be to him. Like many other "liberal" luminaries,
Mr. Bright appears to be afflicted with the most pro-
found ignorance of the state of the party :0 which he
belongs, as well as of the subject upon which Jae
essayed to be at once eloquent and argumentative,
The repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts—the
passing of the Municipal Reform Bill, and other
measures of the "liberal" kind, have nothing earthly
to do, we can assure him, with the system of education
to be pursued in the Corporation Schools. It is quite
true, that it was the design of the framers of the Muni-
cipal Act, to place the management of our Corporation
Schools, and every other corporate establishment, in
the hands of such philosophers as Mr. Bright himself.
But unfortunately, that act was based upon the prin-
eiple of representuion. The community at large, to

whom those schools belong, were the power who were
to determine the system upon which they were to be
managed; and the community has spoken out upon

the subject, with a distinctness which renders it im-

possible to mistake the nature of its determination, and

against whose power not even " Gibraltar" itself has

been proof

'file people of Liverpool will not be hound down,
even by acts of parliament, upon this question. It
entertains an utter disrespect for the march of. " liber-
alism ;" and will Mr. Bright, an admirer of the principle
of self-government in local 'affairs, maintain that the

community has not a perfect right to set up its own
will against even so great an authority as Mr. Bright's
philosophy ? We trust not.-

Well,—the meeting of the Council is over; the
Education Committee has been chosen; and the Con-
servative body in the Council has not fallen in pieces,
but is still in possession of an unbroken front and a
resolved and united mind. The representatives of the
Conservative and Protestant people of this great town
have neither allowed themselves to be hurried into
ultra measures upon this important question—as has
been sanguinely anticipated by one portion of their
Radical opponents—nor deterred by the sarcasms and
the sneers which have been levelled at them by another
portion into a course of truckling and dangerous com-
promise. The system of education provided for the
children of the poor in our Corporation Schools will,
for the future, be one based strictly upon the unadul-
terated religion of the Bible; and whilst we cannot but
contemplate, with unaffected satisfaction, this important
boon to the public, we have an ample guarantee in the
constitution of the committee itself, that the change
will he effected without unnecessarily grating upon
the feelings or offending the prejudices of any sect or
party.

We never anticipated for a moment that there could
he any compromise of principle, on the part of the
Conservative majority in the Council, in the settlement
of this important question ; and we do not now fear,
with the materials of the committee before us, that the
plan of education to be provided for will be other than
satisfactory to the great bulk of our fellow-townsmen.
To some Conservatives, perhaps, the names of a few
of the gentlemen appointed may, in the first instance,
be a little distasteful; and the impression may exist
that conciliation has been carried too far in submitting
to their appointment. But these impressions, we are
satisfied, will vanish when the details of the system in
contemplation come to be discussed, and their bearing
and principles to be explained ; and we trust we need
not do more than request of our fellow-townsmen to
approach their consideration in a dispassionate spirit,
and to weigh well the whole circumstances before
forming a judgment as to their propriety and justice.
We may repeat, that upon no plea can we admit of
the sacrifice of a principle by the Conservative body
in the Council, in the settlement of this question. The
direction taken with respect to it by the mind of the
community is too distinctly marked and powerful to
allow it to be evaded. The system of education to be
provided must be essentially and entirely Protestant
and Scriptural. We must have no delusion—no milk-
and-water admixture—no extracts—no halting between
semi-infidelity and the full and free admission of the
Christianity of the Bible into our schools.
With respect to the particular mode by which this
result is to be pursued, we shall not at present venture
to obtrude any sugestions of our own upon the com-
mittee. The principle we have already pointed to ; and
it has been, in addition, commented upon in our
columns by abler. pens than our own, prompted by
minds more fitted to deal with so momentous a sub-
ject. Would that the committee, or at all events the
Conservative portion of it, would take counsel with
respect to its details from those whose avocations and
course of mental discipline have rendered the con-
sideration of such subjects more familiar !

" Despair! Who talks of despair to the Reformers of,
Liverpool? We have been defeated this time, but we will
struggle on until Victory shall again side with us, and For-
tune, after her fickle desertion of the righteous cause, once
more smile upon it. Although, for a season,

" Our legs are smitten off, we'll fight upon our stumps " !

Vvlorous exceedingly, most profound Albion !
Ex-
cellently well pumped forth out of the deep into which
Whiggery has fallen ! We question whether Barnaby
Rudge's raven could have done it better. " Who
talks of despair to the Reformers of Liverpool I"