The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-21 00:00:00

to it."

Daily occurrences serve to convince us more and
more of the healthy tone of feeling which predominates
among the Protestant democracy of this great empire.
We confess that it is to this source that we look with
any degree of confidence for a salutary change in the
administration of public affairs. Among the great and
rich—among peers as well as commoners of high station
—there is so much latitudinarianism of principle—so
much deference paid to the law of expediency—so
much indifference to those truths upon the reception of
which the prosperity of nations depends—that we
cannot expect any beneficial movement to originate
among the upper ranks of society. No ! It is to the
great class of the operatives, together with the inter-
mediate grades of tradesmen, that we are to look for
the salvation of the country from the dangers by which
it is surrounded, and from the ruin which is impending
Among these classes do we find the most
untiring zeal in the defence of our national institutions,
the most pure and disinterested patriotism, and the
richest display of public and domestic virtues. We
have long watched with satisfaction the growth of
sound religious principles among these classes. We
have also witnessed with unatfected pleasure their un-
flinching adherence to those Protestant truths which
are so intimately blended with the very existence of the
British constitution.

over it

Among the healthy and inspiriting indications of the
state of feeling which prevails among the industrious
classes of this country, we have seldom witnessed any-
thing which has encouraged us to entertain brighter
hopes respecting the fate of the nation than the great
meeting which took place on Wednesday evening at
the Amphitheatre, to listen to an exposition of Protes-
tant truth from the lips of one of the most eminent and
successful champions of our national faith. The whole
of the immense building was filled. There could not
have been less than five thousand individuals present—
most of whom were working men. The greatest en-
thusiasm prevailed throughout the evening, and a ready,
spontaneous, and unequivocal sanction was given by
the vast assembly to the truths which Mr. Gregg so
clearly and forcibly elucidated.

Of Mr. Gregg's address on Wednesday evening it
is scarcely necessary for us to say much. The report
of it, which appears in our columns this day, will speak
for itself. The position which this eloquent and de-
voted champion of Protestantism has taken, is one
from which no subtlety of reasoning can move him.
He takes his stand upon the " Rock of Ages," and
may, therefore, defy the opposition of all the confede-
rate " powers of darkness." He appears before the
Protestant operatives of Liverpool with the Bible in
his hand, and he points to that sacred volume as the
foundation on which the fabric of our glorious consti-
tution has been reared. In that book he finds the ex-
emplars for all the most important of our legislative
enactments, and from it he would derive those lessons
of political wisdom which can alone render us virtuous,
happy, and prosperous as a nation.

The whole of Mr. Gregg's address was a practical
commentary on•that emphatical text—" Righteousness
exalteth a nation." He exemplified the truth of this
saying of the " wisest of men " by an appeal to the
history of this country—an appeal which, we trust, will
have a salutary effect upon the public mind.
The truths so prominently set forth by Mr. Gregg
cannot be too frequently or too forcibly impressed upon
the minds of the Protestants of Great Britain. Instruc-
tion in these truths is highly necessary at the present
crisis, when so many efforts are being made to alienate
the affections of the people from that church which is
the safeguard of our national prosperity, and the palla-
dium of our civil liberties. Let us only be true to our
national faith—true to our national privileges—true to
those immutable principles upon which our laws and
our constitution are" based—and then we may bid de-
fiance to all our enemies, external and internal. They
may rage and threaten ; but their efforts will be as im-
potent as the lashing of the surge against the founda-
tions of the " eternal hills."