The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-04-20 00:00:00

SKETCHES IN THE MANCHESTER GALLERY.

N 0.3 —TiE Hor.v Faartty.-7Parmisjiano.
Lo, where the shadowy trees
Are whispering, like the seas
When the fair summer air is turmoil mild,
Her heart as gently thriller'
With quiet joy Wertilled,
The Holy Mother tends the Holy Child !
To us the Child was born, to 119 is given
The wonderful, the mighty Gud front Heaven!

And by her side the while,
Undecked by boyhood's smile,
Pull of the shadowing. of his future years,
Yet calmly, purely bright,
' As with an inner light,
The Prophet cif the \Vilderness appears !
That tiny Crool- he feels its mystery—
Oh, mother doth it bear 110 tiigu to thee ?

.There was a prophecy
Uttered in days gl.re bv,
When to the temple thou didst bring thy son ;
There was a cloud that rolled
O'er thy meek joy its fold,
And was its shade forgotten, soon as gone?
Dost thou not yet with the remembrance start ?--
" A sword, oh, mother! yet shall pierce thy heart ?"

Perchance when tempetits lower,
'rhat- warning voice bath power;
But not when sunshine settles on his brow—
Perchance when in unrest
-Ile murtinAerh at thy breast;
But not when sleeping tranquilly, as now !
Whence the sWoril cumeth ie a mystery seuled—
Blessed art thou-iris not yet revealed!

Yes,—lt is well for thee,
The bitterest agony
Were thine to think, that all thy tender care
Must train that beauteous form
To struggle with the storm,
And'for a crown of thorns that brow prepare!
Blest be the spirit's hopeful unbelief
That will nut realize the coming grief!

• An angel's message clear
Is whispering in thine ear—
Hail, thou art highly favoureff—blessed thou !
Thr-hiert- confirms the strain,
The shadow and the pain
Come not to mar the happy present now—
. Thy heart isglad; oh Virgin undefiled;
Framing the future for that'Holy Child!
Manchester Courier.

CON7'I,',IIYORAIIP PRESS.

POSTOFFICE REFORM.
Pfont the Poet Circular.)
One of the most cherished watchwords of our intelli-
gent and prudent country men. is the " Freedom of the
'Press." What is.the freedom of 'the press but the free-
dom of commaricating- thought? A ready vehicle fOrthe
transmission of knowledge.. Let a despot placea lookon
:every printing office in the country, and proclaim that
`not a sheet should be issued unless circulated by him
self, according to his pleasure, 'well or ill—fast or slow—
Until a tax of 2,3, and 400 pet' cent had been paid for
his monopoly. Would the grievance be endured for a
single hour? What is letter-writing but, the more-an-
'cient and the infinitely more universal organ for com
munication of thought than printing ? Men wrote long
before they printed, and great as are the blessings and
the effects of the press, inconceivably greater.have been
those of written communication. The written Bible
taught the knowledge of God, and sowed.the seeds of
Christianity thousands of years before the printed Bible
:expanded that knowledge. Man is little better than a
savage Without a knoWledge of written charaCters. The
employment of printing is an after stage in his civiliza-
tion. Communication by writing being at least equally
as important as printing, how, do the people suffer it to
,be dealt with by the government ? [sit not encumbered
with those oppressions, against which, if applied to print-
ing, the people would revolt though they were supported,
by all the tyrannies in the world I -Not only does. the
'government monopolise the transmission of written corn-.
munication, but it lays on a tax so heavy, and executes
,the work in a way, that ahnoskamounts to a prohibition
'of. correspondence. .We blame nu particular govern=
ment for the present taxes on the transmission of thoright,
but we dn indeed deplore that the expenses of the fate
war should have occasioned such fiseal.enooachments on
thi,—rile. Most essential organ of civilization..
Id 1735; the universal postage on letters, transmitted
under fifteen miles, was one penny ; above fifteen and
,under.tbirty miles, twopence; above thirty and under
eighty miles, threepence; and on all An% e eighty milegl
the postage was only. fourpence. Be it remembe'red in
1765, there were'no mail coaches, (the cheapest mode of
4ransmission,) fevi direct roads, and those few inferior to
the' worst turnpike-road of the present time—smallfaci-
lities for travelling—great inseeutity—and a population
not half the amount of. the present. In .1835, with ,all
possible increased advantages of travel and transport,.
increased- trade, progressive numbers and intelligence,
the postage of one penny has become fourpence; of tWo-
pence, sixpence; of threepence, eig;htnenee ; of fnur-
pence, ninepence, tenpence, and elevenpence, &c.. In
1765, the true principle of postage, uniformity of rate,
is carried out, probably as near as the Pustralice expenses
of that time would allow ;- and the charges were evidently
regulated on the principle mentioned by Lord Lumber,
in his statesman-like report, that " the Postoffice was, to
afford advantage to trade and commerce," and that ".re-
venue to he derived from the Postoffice was not the pri-
mary consideration." Shall we not in this case at least
advert to the " wisdom of our ancestors ?"
Let us not stay to discuss the manifold advantages. to
trade and commerce, and money-getting, nor the impetus
to education, nor even the still dearer increase of the
blessings of religious and moral sentiments which a cheap
postage would confer, but let the people raise their voices
for the great principle of. Freedom of Speech,—for let-
ter-writing is but speaking at a. distance,—and let them
tell the minister in tones r.ot to he mistaken, that their
speech shall not be crippled- by -fiscal tyranny—let wi-
dowed mothers anxious to reclaim their children erring
at a distance, lay the wishes of their hearts before the
Queen—let meetings be held in every village and ham-
let of the kingdom, and petitions prepared for the legis-
lature—let deputations of science and commerce haunt
the ministers, and
:let the' whole people Oont for the
principle of "Freedom of Speech=with the cheapest
profitable postage, or no government monopoly."

PAPAL USURPATIONS.

"ICHN TUAM" V. THE POPISII RELIEF BILL, AND THE

NATIONAL BOARD.
(From the Dal,lirt Evetquy itfail. )
Lord-Lorton put a question in the House of Lords on
Tuesday evening, which seems to have taken our Pro
te.stant Prime Minister by surprise—viz.,.Whether any
steps had been taken by the government An enforce the
penalty, in consequence of a Roman Catholic. Prelate
having assumed the title of Archbishop, and affixed the
signature " John, Tuam" to certain inflammatory letters
addressed 'to one of her Majesty's Secretaries, of State ?
Lord Melbourne "did not know : it was the province
of the Irish Government to fake up the matter—he
would inquire, and report."
Not to dwell. on. the PriMe Minister's ignorance on a
mat* of such importance, which has now.been before
the public fur several. months—we shall take him on his
own grounds; and, admitting the inquiry came properly
within the'province 'of the Irish executire,-tve-seize Upon,
his concession that the matter was deserving of investi-
gAtion, and ask,. firstly, whether any steps have been ta-
ken on the subject by the Irish law officers of the crown ?
And secondly, if nor, why not ?
The former question.we may boldly answer in the ne-
gative.
The-latter will he best explained by observing that the
high Government is not a Protstant Government—and
that the Irish Attorney- General .is a-Roman Catholic.
We trust, however, that Lord Lorton will insist upon
the promised explanation.
•r To characterise the letters of John Tuam to her Ma-
jesty's. Principal Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment as "-inflammatory" merely is teak ; they are
usnrpitrig, and con turnaci Not satisfied with arrogat-
log thitimself 'the title of the Archbishop of Tuam, lie
Proceeds, in the last epistle, to. degrade frOm his legal

rank the Archbishop of Dublin, denotn;natipg him—in
contradistinction froin..The,-geirmitie;Arehbishop in the
Papal acceptation —" the Protestant Archbishop of Dub-
lin." Nay, the eon; uniaevi of the man is Inch, that he
does nut scrupl 'to 'inform her Majesty's Governtneut
that

It it to him a matter of indifference, what may be the opini-
ons of a body eo.uposed of a majority of the. rankest enemies of
his faitb, as long as he speaks the recorded sentiments of the
bishops and. the Pope. Whilst I can put," says he, " what I
have written in juxta-position with the: resolutions of the one,
and the reseripts of the other, I can welLafford to .be put under
.the.p:ilitical ban ()fans- government commissioners,. who on the
cone of a Nolestant Lord Lieutenant alone; proceed to make
fundarnental.ctlauges in the religious portion of a code of educa-
tion."

Such are the liege subjects which Popery affords and
Maynooth furnishes.