The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-23 00:00:00

The.CHIAI{INI FAMILY on the TIGHT ROPE.

The whole of the above most splendid productions will conclude
with the. brilliant Equestrian Pageant and. Entree, which has
Lee❑ for months in preparation, and now produced for the first
time, with entire new and wirgeous Dresses. Equipments, Pro-
perties, Banners, Music, Decorations, &c. &c. The viho!e ar-
xanued and produced under the direction of Mr. Buckley, and
entitled

ENGLAND'S

QUEEN.

In which Mr. Ryan's extensive Stud and brilliant Company
of Equestrian Artists will display some rapid Evolutions and
groupings of clasical grandeur and effect.
Proprietor, Mr. BATES.
Stage Manager, Mr. NEVIV.E.

MR. BROWN'S CONCERT.
MR. BROWN begs to announce to his tends and
-LV.ll_ the Public that his CONCERT will take place on
the 13th MAucti.

Vie kiberpool ,itanbarb.

FRIDAY ,41ORNING, FEBRUARY 23, 1838.

The Publication of the S.raN DA It D commenced this morn-
.

ing at 5 o'clock.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION:—The zeal manifested by
the learned editor of the Mercury, in undertaking the
defence of the Papists, or rather of Popery, is as violent
as it is unaccountable. His distant readers must labour
under a conviction that he is himself a Papist—so ener-
getic is his advocacy of Popery. On the supposition
that the remarks on the Rev. H. 111'Neile's pamphlet
were penned by a Roman Catholic we recognise no in-
consistency or discrepancy whatever in the articles on
which we commented in our preceding numbers. But
ushered into the world as these articles are with the
-sign manual of the editor of the Mercury, we feel sur-
prised at the enthusiasm which he betrays in favour of
Popery. He has been long known as the strenuous sup-
porter of what are termed liberal principles—as the elo:
went denouncer of slavery ant oppression in every.
shape—as the bitter enemy of what is designated
" priestly influence"—and as the opponent of every spe-
cies of superstition. That such a man should fall in
love with a.system so illiberal, so oppressive, and so
Childishly superstitious, as that of the Church of Rome,
may well excite our astonishment.
But the Mercury flatly denies- that Popery is such a
tyrannical system as we have described it to be. Nay,
he even asserts that it is a liberal system. How does lie
prove this assertion ? We quote his proofs for the sake
of their novelty. In reference to the charge of oppres-
sion laid against the priests the Mercury says :
"It will out do (says the Rev.' Pamphleteer) to plead that
the priests interfere only in spiritual things, because the whole
working, of the system is such as to reader au ecclesiastical
interdict an effectual engine of temporal oppression. In the
Popish system sincere faith and abject oppression are insepa-
rable." Again at page 12 of the same pamphlet, he thus re-
iterates his charge that the catholic is a passive slave to his spi-
ritual rulers, to whose bidding far el nefas he is bound to

succumb :

"' He (the catholic is under the absolute control of a fellow-
man, directly, for all that appertains to his preparation for eter-
nity, and indirectly, and of consequence, for all that appertains
to his temporal liberty. In the tinnier (and hum she nature of
his own case; this involves the,whole) he cannot appeal to law;
-the will 'and Word of his priest are absolute. He must submit.
He dates not plead his rights either as a candidate for eternity
or as a member of sociely.'
We shall test the truth of these sweeping assertions by re-
ference to a few facts which cannot be controverted, and %%filch
prove, that even, in the dark ages, when Popery had a stronger
hold on men's minds that) it now has, Catholics, so far from
yielding implicit obedienCe- to their spiritual guides, opposed
their mandates and ecclesiastical interdicts,' both by force of
argument and the argument of force. •

" In the reign of John, in consequence of some disputes be-
tween that monarch and Pope Innocent, the latter placed the
kiug's.dominions under an interdict, excommunicated the won-
archi,..absolved all his vassals from their oaths of fealty, and ex-
bolted all christian princes and batons to unite in dcthrouing
-un imperious - king and substituting another more worthy, by
the authority of the apostolic..see. Innocent afterwards offered
the kingdom to Phillip, king of France, who summoned a nu-
Inerous force for the purpose of invading England. John's
subjects, however, notwithstanding the numerous aggressions
end despotic character of their ntouarch, in despite of the pope's
iuterdiet, and although his holiness had formally absolved them
from their allegiance, rallied round their proscribed king, and
an army of sixty thousand men was formed, (sufficient, says
the historian, to have defied all the powers of Europe.) With
this force the English, iustead of waiting fur the invader, sailed
Across the channel, captured a squadron at the mouth of the
Seine, destroyed the ships in the harbour of Fechamp, and burn-
ed the town of Dieppe.
" This is ,one instance out of many that we could adduce to
Show, that the catholics, so far from being the passive slaves of
their clergy, actually defied the very head of the Romish church
when he pragmatically interfered with their temporal concerns.
" In the reign of Edward I. the imputed absolute power of
the Pope over the English Roman Catholics was again put to
'the test, and with a similar result.
Buniface (says Lingard) began by asserting what he pre-
tended the King must know, that Scotland bebinged from an-
cient tunes, and did. still belong, to the Roman See.
In answer to the letter of Boniface (continues Lingard)
4 Parliament was summoned to meet at Lincoln. After some
debate a reply was farmed, which was signed and sealed by one
',hundred amid Earls and Barons in the name of the.com-
!,ionaltv of England, and which deserves to be transcribed, as
it shows how accurately our ancestors could distinguish between
the SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL authority of the pontiff. After
expressing their astonishment at the tenor of the Papal rescripL
and asserting that Scotland never belonged in temporals to the
See of Rome, they declare that ' our afotesaid Lord the King
shall not plead before you (the Pope,) nor submit in any man.,
tier li, your judgment, nor suffer his right to he brought into
question by any inquiry. nor send agents or procurators fir that
.Purpose to your court.' I'his memorable document concludes
in the following terms :--• Neither do we, nor will we, permit,
its neithei can nor ought, our aforesaid Lord the King to do,
or attempt to do, even if he wished it, any of the things afore- I
said ;—thnigs which were never heard of, or claimed before,
and which are so prejudicial to this realm:— Lingard, Eiru. rot.
p. 317.

" If '44-e had the reiloisiie space, we would adduce many mo-
dern instances to show that Catholics ale not such abject slaves
to their priests as the ltev. Mr. M•Neile has represented them
to be. We might. remind him that the revolted Canadians are

generally Catholics, although it has been stated from otEcia

-notholity that the Catholic 'Bishop of Montreal and the Catho.
lie clergy have decidedly discountenanced aqd deprecated the
insurrection.'"

In reference to this mode of proving that Popery is
not tyrannical,in its policy, we may well exclaim " that
-some statements are ',so obviously absurd, that it is a
-zcaste of time tiTgiVe them attention, and follow them
44p by inquiry." Indeed, we feel it incumbent upon us
to apologise to our:readers for trespassing so largely on
their patience in 'noticing the miserable verbiage of the
Afercury.
In the historical instances which the Mercury has ad-
Ihreed fur the purpose of proving his position we can dis-
tern nothing but a proof of the contrary—a proof of the
'intolerable despotism of the Church of Rome and of the
vassalage of its lay members. The very act of resisting
the power and disobeying the mandates of the Pope
Proves the truth of the Rev. H. MtNeile's charges. The
*P"Pe would never have ventured to interfere with the
temporal concerns of :Roman Catholic governments, un-
t% he expected to be obeyed : nor would the people
have been pro oked to resistance, unless that interfer-
ference had :been of a tyrannical and oppressive charac-
-4". • e wi7uld ask the editor of the Mercury whether
ti!'e revolt of the holes proved the tolerance and libera-
ItY of the Rrissian Autocrat ? Would an insurrection
i"toong the slates of the United States against their was-
;l's prove the kindness and meekness of the latter ?
I'se. cases are exactly parallel With those cited by the
ft 7.5• said that the Roman Catholic clergy Of Mon.
"`'l " decidedly discountenanced and deprecated ihe in-
, (ore „
°too in Canada. They may have osier/sib& act rd
,th "Yal part, but our beliefis that they secretly fornented
rebellion. Their exhortations to their flo,k:s, in all
"44'04, were ,Corisiiued in the saute Sense as many

justifies this supposition.
On the proposed repeal of the Catholic Relief Bill
the Mercury observes :
" Although, with the exception of the Administrations of
Earl Grey .and Lord Melboutne, the policy of the British
Government towards Ireland has been virtually a premium on
insurrection or rebellion, no measure was ever devised by the
Orange-Tory faction so certain to lead to a civil war or gene-
ral rebellion as to the measure which the Rev. U. M'Neile has
more than once had the hardihood to propose at the public
meetingS held at the Amphitheatre and elsewhere. The pro-
ject of repeating the Catholic Relief Bill, which never entered
into the conception of any except a few political and religious
Quixotes, is so extravagant that we should not waste the time
of our readers by entering into any argument with its pro-
pounder. It is sufficiently irritating to withhold from men their
natural or political rights, but the attempt to deprive thers of
such privileges after they have been wrung from the oppressor
is infinitely more perilous. Frantic and hopeless as the propo-
sition is, it appears, however, that a few petitions for the repeal
of the Catholic Emancipation bill have been intruded on the
patience of Parliament."
The Mercury then proceeds to describe the mariner in
which the petition recently presented by Mr. Plumptre
was received in the House of Commons. This petition
was signed by upwards of 3000 Protestants, and prayed
for the exclusion of Roman Catholics from Parliament.
The facts complained of are thus stated :
"1. That, upon the admission of Roman Catholics to Parlia,
ment, a certain security was intended to be provided by the Le-
gislature for the Church Establishment. 2. That the security
has proved wholly inefficacious. Under these circumstances,
the petitioners humbly submit to the House, that it is absolutely
necessary to devise some more effectual safeguard for our na-
tional establishments ; that scriptural authority, and the princi-
ples of the British constitution, as well as experience, call for
the total exclusion of Roman Catholics from the legislature;
and the petitioners hninbly implore the House to take such
steps as may be deemed advisable for the accomplishment of
this essential object."
We call upon the editor of the Mercury to prove the
injustice or the oppression of excluding from Parliament
men upon whose solemn oaths no reliance can be placed.
He may rely upon it that the Protestant people of Eng-
land will soon discover the expediency of resorting to

this " extravagant project."
On the prayer of the petition to which we have re-
ferred our exceilent contemporary, the Dublin Record,
has the following remarks :
"This is either true, or it is false. If it be false, let it be
proved to be so. If, on the contrary, the alleged fact cannot be
disproved, we do fearlessly assert, that the Protestants of the
United Kingdom have been swindled out of their protective
constitution, under false pretences, and that they have the most
perfect right imaginable, and are called upon by the strongest
moral duty likewise, to teclaith either that constitution in all its
integiity, or else to insist upon the fulfilment of the security so
unequivocally pressed upon them as a palladium against what
they justly dreaded. But now they are told, that they are not
so mach as to murmur against the swindling transaction, o r to
remonstrate with the notorious violators of the soleMn contract!

Is this to be endured? We know well how the parliament o
1688 would have treated such a species of conduct in any n
their members. And we know also that there is Protestantisn

enough in the United Kingdom to wake itself respected in the
House of Commons, if it would but awake from its sacrilegious
slumber.

"'We do not believe there is a single person of even ordinary
understanding who can doubt the truth of the allegations in the
Protestant petition; so that we are now called upon to establish
by any train of reasoning, that the votes of "certain members"

ate obviously in direct -opposition to the purport and intent
the oath imposed on Rowan Catholics by the bill of 1829, with
the avowed object of preserving the established churches from

innovation. That the conduct of Roman Catholic members iu
acting in opposition to that oath was, in theirown apprehension,
"perjury," is what we can by no means admit. No: by the
most indubitable declarations of their church, to keep oaths
taken fur the maintenance of a church deemed by them "he-
retical," would be perjury; while to violate such oaths would
be an imperative, nay a sacred duly.
"Whenever Doctor Dens Alurray calls upon us for proof of
this formidable assertion, proof he shall have, even to satiety.',
" Here, then, we relieve Roman Catholics from the charge
of any perjury at all—that is, of any thing they imagine to be
perjury: but we do so at the entire expense of their compe-
tency to give any valid security whatever to a Protestant state,
except their total exclusic n flout legislative power.
"'The Roman Catholic; members took the prudent course of
not opposing the petition, but of begging rather that it should
be quietly received. The less noise made about it, they thought,
the better. And so they imagine the affair has ended. But so
it must not end:. he time has arrived, when Protestants must
either speak out or surrender unconditionally. Tne example
has been set by three thousand men. Let it be followed by
many millions, and we will undertake that their petitions will
ultimately succeed."

ELECTION PETITIONS.—Since our last, several of the
election committees have decided on the merits of the
petitions submitted to them. It is a remarkable fact
that, in every case when the majority of the committee
were radicals, the decision has been 'uniformly given
against the conservatives. '

In the case of the Ipswich petition, Mr. Kelly and Mr.
Tutrnell are even on the poll, whilst Mr. Gibson con-
tinues to maintain his superiority. We confidently an-
ticipate a gain of one vote to the conservative interest
by the rejection of Mr. Tuffnell. \As to poor Rigby
Wason, we believe he has not the shadow of a chance.
The Belfast election committee have decided that Mr.
Gibson's qualification was insufficient, and at the termi-
nation of the proceedings on Wednesday there were six
votes struck off,Lord Belfast's poll, so that we may in
this case calculate upon two additional votes on the con-
servative side of the house.

Sir Samuel Whalley has very prudently retired from
the representation of Marylebone, at the suggestion of
his counsel, who candidly informed him that he had nut
the necessary qualification. A fresh election of course
takes place, when we hope the 'conservatives will muster
all their strength. We should not feel surprised to hear
that the disconsolate William Ewart will be placed in
nomination by the radicals. The metropolis shares with
Ireland the unenviable distinction of being a refuse fur
the discaided politicians of the day.

LIE DISTRESSED POOR.—We have received several
communications relative to the destitute state of the
poor in several of the most • populous districts of the
town. Notwithstanding the unparalleled exertions of the
various committees connected with the different public
charities, the greatest distress yet exists, in sonic dis-
tricts to an extent almost incredible. In the neighbour-,
hood of Vauxhall-road, and especially in the streets to
the westward of that line, there are hundreds of families
actually starving for want of food. We have conversed
with a gentleman who has visited munch in this district,
and from-his statement we learn, that in several of these
families every article of furniture and wearing apparel
Las been pledged in order to purchase food. Several
small sums of money have been contributed by their
more fortunate neighbours, and relief administered un-
der the direction of the Rev. J. H. Stafford, Minister of
St. Paul's Church, whose zeal on behalf of these poor
people is most praiseworthy. But private benevolence
is quite inadequate to supply the necessities of all who
stand in need of assistance. An appeal is therefore
made to the public on behalf of these distressed people,
who are now enduring the pangs of hunger, and almost'
without clothing to protect them front the severity of the
weather. Some idea may be formed.of the extent of
distress now prevalent, from the fact, that the Rev. J. H.
Stafford has been eccupied several days, from ten to
•twelve, in simply taking down the names of those in-
dividuals praying for - relief. The inhabitants of St.
Paul's ward have liberally contributed the sum of £125,'
but the distribution of the sum is strictly confined to the
inhabitants of their own ward. No local association has
been formed in the district of Vauxhall-road, and hutadreds
have therefore been left to the casual and almost un-
cet lain relief afforded by then pblic soup establishments.
It is suggested that a number of the soup tickets be dis-
tributed amongst the poor of this district, under the di-
rection of Mr. Stafford, which would go far ttirelie,ve
itionVdiate necessities. Subscriptions on behalf of the
poor of this neighbourhood, will he most thankfully re-
cek ed by Mr. Stafford, at his residence, 28, Islington ;
19, Earle-street, and at the Newspaper
obllvie. Mr. Junes,
es.

TRIBUTF. TO MR. EGERTON SMITH.--II wi lbe seen, that the
books in winch the names of subscribers to this tesiintonial
recorded will be finally closed on the first of Mardi next• In
the mean time, those who feel desiions of promoting the object
of colunlktve.y, on vele! cure to the advertiseinew; find
haitiea of to itihuiii suhsciil,iiuhs inay be paid;

of O'Conriell's speeches," and were only operative as in-
centives to violence. The habitual deceit of the priests