The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-28 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

THE IRISH CORPORATIONS.
(From the Dublin Evening Mall.)
We have been accused of evading or avoiding the
question of Irish corporations; and the accusation has
been put forward by th&e who knew it to be false.
The Mail never avoided or evaded a subject that a
public journalist was bound to discuss; nor are we
aware, Wrat since the day when the bill for Irish muni-
cipal reform was last before Parliament, down to the
present hour, the matter had ever assumed a position
that called for observation at our hands. It is true,
that a paltry cabal—influenced by motives to which it
is unnecessary for us at...this stage to advert—has been
set a-foot, and has kept the question in a state of ob-
scure agitation ; but we emphatically deny, that upon
public grounds anything has occurred which made it
necessary for us, in the exercise of a sound and whole-
some discretion, to obtrude ourselves or our opinions
upon the time or the attention of our readers. It will
be seen, however, by the following announcement,.
which we extract from the -Warder of Saturday last,
that a meeting of the corporation is to be held, at
which we trust and hope the " rumours" and " whis-
perings" which have been so long afloat, will assume
a tangible and substantive form :

" We understand that the Lord Mayor has convened
a meeting of the corporation for next Friday, at the
Assembly-house, William-street, when measures of
great importance not only to the corporation, but the
Protestants of Ireland generally, will be brought for-
ward, and when, it is said, a correspondence that has
passed between certain members of the body.and the
conservative leaders in the sister kingdom, incltiding
the Duke of Wellington, Lord Winchelsea, Sir Robert
Peel, &c. &c. will be laid before the corporation."
These documents will he valuable indeed; and in
particular the letters of the Duke of 'Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel. If the bill brought in last session
contain fatal errors or. equally fatal omissions, all good
men are bound to join in rectifying the one and in
supplying the others ; and our humble aid, such as it
is, shall be given to the extent of our capabilities, in
procuring the best terms under the circumstances
which can be effected. The principle is already de-
cided—a stringent and bona fide franchise, such as will
prevent the Protestant corporations being made over
to their political and religions adversaries :—and this
we hold to be the sine qua non of any future legisla-
tion on the subject. We all along advocated extinc-
tion in preference to transfer. The great body of the
English conservatives will not frear of the former; we
should all unite in preventing the latter.

INAUGURATION OF SIR JAMES GRAHAM

AS LORD RECTOR OF THE UN LVERSI l'Y OF GLASGOW,

ticians—they might possess all knowledge—be blessed with
the finest understandings—yet all these would avail theta
nothing, if they should " gain the whole world, and lose their
own soul." (Cheers.) Depend upon it that learning, un-
less founded on religion, was unsound, and even danger-
ous. . (Loud cheers.) Learning without religion, was but as
" sounding brass and tinkling sywbal"—a compass without its
polarity—a watch without its regulator—a steam-engine
without a safety-valve. (Cheers.) However important might
be the understanding, it was not the most important faculty
possessed by man. Something more than to improve the
understanding was necessary to the correction of the heart.
Let them look around them on the world, and see what would
be the consequence were the understanding alone left to com-
bat with human passions. Tbese passions bad taken so deep
a root in human nature, that nothing but the hope of future
reward, or the fear of future punishment, could bring them
under subjection. Paul had preached of righteousness, and
repentance, and judgment to conic, before Felix trembled.
Search, then, the Scriptures, for in every page would they find
that which maketh wise unto salvation—that which would bring
the understanding itself under Controul. Did he mean to say,'
then. that learning and the exercise of reason were unneces-
sary? By no means. Learning was of advantage in dissipat-
ing the obscurity which hung over the dead languages in
which the Scriptures were or:ginally written, while reason dis-
pelled the doubts which might arise as to the authenticity
of the Scriptures themselves. Let the fundamental prin-
ciple, " Thy word is truth," but operate on their lives and
manners, and theirs was the promise of everlasting life. In
illustration of the importance of religious knowledge, the hon.
baronet referred to the testimonies of its value borne by the
most eminent philosephers. Bacon, at once the pride and
the shame of human nature, possessed of Godlike genius,
yet actuated by the most gnawing avarice, the inventor of
inductive philosophy—this first of philosophers had said that
none could deny God but such as wished there was no God.
Newton, the great discoverer of the laws on which the motions
of the heavenly spheres depend, had exhorted to search the
Scriptures. Locke, the guide to the human understanding,
had also exhorted to the study of the Scriptures, particularly
the New Testament, which has God for its author, salvation
for its end, and truth, without mixtute of error, for its motto.
Herschel', a distinguished follower of Bacon, and Newton,
and Locke, had said it was the character of true philosophy
to reject nothing that was not unreasonable. Such doubt was
absurd; such scepticism iniquitous. The Lord Rector turned
to Dr. Chalmers, and eulogised in high terms the Rev. Doctor's
work on the Evidences of Christianity. But it was not only
the best and the greatest men of the past and the present
ages who bad borne testimony to the value of religion. A
' like evidence had been tendered also by some of the worst
—aniqug others, by a leader of the firs: French revolution,
when the Goddess of Reason was set up in France as an
object of worship. Robespierre had seen Ithe madness of
this attempt to reduce a people to Atheism, and bad remon-
strated against it. The idea of a powerful, a just and a
holy Being, to reward and to punish, he viewed as inse-
parable from the human mind, spurned at by none but the
rich and the criminal, cherished by all the honest and the
destitute. The Protestant religion which we cherish, conti-
nued the hon. gentleman, has for its object to debase hu-
man pride and to exalt human nature, that of scepticism is
to exalt human pride and to debase human nature. Our
. religion is the religion of freedom ; freedom of judgment,
freedom of interpretation, freedom of conscience. It
elevated the mind, and was thus favourable to the protection
of civil right. It was moreover the religion of reason. As
yet they saw but as through a glass darkly; but by a proper
use of the understanding they might reach the most sublime
heights. It was the religion of hope: they had the promise
which now is and of that which is to come. It was the reli-
gion of peace. Had 'he ever harboured a doubt of its
Heavenly origin, this consideration would of itself have con-
vinced him. Be ye kind, is said, to one another: tender-
hearted and forgiving one to another; even as God for Christ's
sake forgave you. It was the religion of their forefathers
(cheers), and when he said so he could not but recollect that
he was speaking in Glasgow—that he was addressing the de-
scendants of men who valued property, and life, and wog Idly
reputation, as nothing in the balance when compared with a
clear conscience, and the knowledge of the truth. He could
but recollect that he was addressing the youth of Scotland,
the immediate descendants of a happier generation, who had
been enabled to cultivate their native land in peace—who
had found it a howling wilderness, and had left it a garden.
But alas, the present was a day of darkness and of danger—
there was a fear of change perplexing nations—men's hearts
failing them for fear. But in the midst of all this let them
take their stand on the Rock of Ages, and to fear not for the
religion of their fathers. Scotland had secured from Eng-
land at the union a national judicature and a national church.
These were the trophies of her patriots—the last great me-
morials of her independence. Scotland has said to England,
you may take away our crown, you may abolish our parlia-
ment, you may impose on us your taxes, and you may make
us forget in other respects that we once were a nation; but
i you shall not take from us our court of session or our kirk
(cheers.) We shall retain these as proof that we are not
slaves. The court had it in charge to defend the kirk, and
he hoped never to see the day when the two shall come into
collision. What mutal concessions had they not a right to
expect in such a time of danger as this ? And he fervently
prayed both' might flourish to the latest posterity, the Kirk
in alliance with' the state—[Here the honourable gentleman
was assailed by a storm of hisses, groans, &c., which, how-
ever, was speedily met by a shout of overpowering and en-
thusiastic applause.] On the noise subsiding, Sir James re-
marked, that had they waited till the sentence he was utter-
ing when he was interrupted had been concluded, perhaps
the expression of disapprobation by some present would have
been less strong. He would now give them the remainder
of the sentence—the Kirk in alliance with the State, by a
bold yet prudent assertion of their right (applause and dis-
approbation.) He was satisfied from what he beard to-day
concerning tne part those before him would take. The hon,
gentleman then referred to the progress of the Romans in
Britain, under the reign of Agricola. Having vanquished
the southerns, and reduced the lowlands of Scotland so sub-
missions, if not to obedience, the Roman armies had at last
crossed the Forth, and carried their victorious eagles to the
foot of the Grampians.. But in the fastnesses of these hills,
still dear to Sciitsmen, the clans mustered their forces under
Galgacchus—having buried in oblivion their mutual feuds.
They rushed 'down upon the foe, nothing daunted by his
numbers, his discipline, or his valour, but animated by the
frt out
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iheeti their
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words of their heroic chief, who addressed them in language
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their posterity, and Scotland would yet rest in safety under
their care. The hon. genlewan concluded his address amid
general applause.
After a few remarks from the Principal, the Assembly
broke up at about half-past three o'clock.