The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-07 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

We believe there can be no truth in the report mentioned by
our correspondent, " A Liberal," that Mr. W. Rathbone
had the smallest hand in the composition of the " betters
of Junius." His juvenility, in the first place, forbids the
supposition ; and the superior elegance of style and powers
of reasoning displayed in a recently-published letter of
Mr. Rathbone, addressed to Mr. George Hall Lawrence,
although " written amidst the interruptions of business,"
most convincingly rebuts the assumption that he could
possibly be Junius.
We cannot find room for the letter of a correspondent, who
signs himself " Ego," upon the school question, and con-
sider his proposed mode of settling it quite inadmissible in
principle and impracticable in detail. The proportion of
the number of Romanists and Dissenters paying taxes to
that of Protestants, has really nothing whatever to do with
the allotment of the funds of the corporation to the pur-
poses of education ; and the admission of the principle of
our correspondent would at once establish the right of
sectarians to claim a similar portion of the funds devoted
at present by the corporation to the payment of the clergy
of the established church within the borough. Upon the
same principle we might be required to contribute to the
payment of Social missionaries, and to the purchase, for
educational purposes, of the New Moral World, as the
intellectual food of the infidels who congregate at the Hall
of Science.

libtrpoot &-tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 7, 1841

The ex-Colonial Secretary was quite safe in intimat-
ing to the Plymouth Deputation that trade would be
set free according to their desire, when the " peaceful
but powerful voice of the people of England and Scot-
land had declared in its favour. When that event
takes place, there can be little difficulty in conceding
to his lordship, that the landlords of the kingdom may
begin to tremble for their rents, and the agriculturists
for a remunerating price for their produce in the mar-
ket. We are not to mistake the voice of hired agita-
tors and well-paid lecturers, nor even the voice of the
factory millionaires in their leagues and connections,
for that of the people of England and Scotland. The
mere class interest of cotton spinners or manufactures
is not the people; nor, much as this class may desire
to impress the public mind with the opinion that the
prosperity of every other is involved in those measures
which they consider of prime importance to them-
selves, have they yet been successful, to any extent
worth speaking of, in producing the required impres-

The noble lord, when speaking in this way—when
telling them, in another sentence, that " if the people
are united, prohibitions and prohibitory duties will
share the fate of civil disabilities on religious grounds"
—in using this language, we say, could only have in-
tended to administer a cordial to the drooping spirits
of agitation. He felt that it was necessary. Nobody
doubts that the little lord is thorough game ; and,
without a revival of agitation of some sort, and of this
as the most feasible at the present moment, how should
he enter the arena as leader of the opposition, in the
approaching session, with that fierce and well-supported
attitude which he feels within himself a spirit so
doughtily predisposed to assume ? The union and
voice of the people of England and Scotland, if the
last general election be any criterion on the subject,
have been exhibited in pretty strong and direct contra-
riety to the views of the anti-corn protection abolition-
ists. " Free Trade" could then call no spirits from
"the vasty deep;" and the substantial flesh and blood Of
the yeomanry, as well as a considerable portion of the
bourgeoise and handicraft population, or, in a word,
of the conservative democracy of the kingdom, de-
clared, in a voice not to be mistaken, that our home-
grown corn must not be sacrificed to the visionary
theories of a class, however importunate or influential.

We make no doubt, however, that the " pack" will
respond to the call of the opposition leader ; the very
crack of his whip is music to their ears ; and the chase
is, in itself, their greatest delight, independently of all
results. It was perhaps in obedience.to this su►mnons
that the gallant Colonel Thompson, " whoever he is,"
made his bow to a Liverpool audience, at the Queen's
Theatre, last week, and delivered himself of the lecture
which we have since read in the Mercury. The com-
mittee of the " Operative Anti-Corn-Law Association "
were, it seems, quite in dudgeon because the eminent
and gifted minister of St. Jude's did not appear to
have any knowledge of the anti-corn law colonel.
" Not to know him," said they, " would argue thyself
unknown." But that ignorance on the subject might
no longer be pleadable, they invited Mr. M‘Neile to
attend at the lecture, and be astonished.

" By attending at the theatre," said they, " you will
learn a few particulars of a steady and consistent op-
ponent to the absurd and cruel corn laws." New we
will not say but that this might be so ; we will not say
so, because we were not present at the lecture ; but
this we will affirm, that, judging from the report in the
Mercury, if a person had gone to the theatre desiring
only to gather a few particulars concerning the ances-
try and personal history of the gallant lecturer, he
would have returned home just as wise as he went.
The colonel neither commenced—" My name is Thomp-
son ;on the Grampian hills," &c.—as he should have
done, to satisfy the expectations held out by the com-
mittee of the Operative Anti-Corn Law Association ;
nor, modest man, did he speak at all of himself in any
part of his address. Mr. Charles Holland, the chair-
man, in introducing him to the meeting, deemed it
quite superfluous to give any account of so well-known
a warrior in the anti-corn law army. It was sufficient,
he said, to name the individual—they all knew him ;
so that on whichever side we turned, there was no such
information to be gained as that so distinctly promised
by the inviting committee. Anything on this subject
was only to be collected from the talk about corn; and

wily in tttt way tilai

committee meant flu

the colonel

,;to optrative

anti Mr, MrNeile

should be made better acquainted. The colonel, they
conceived, would make himself known in a workman-
like way—as a carpenter by his chips, or a good fiddler
by his performance,—and were anxious to direct atten-
tion merely to this point.

Now as we were not present when the colonel
" wiped his mouth and thus began," nor at any part
of the oration, (as we have already intimated,) we shall
speak of his merits only as we are enabled to judge of
them from the efforts of the reporter. And with this
proviso, we must say that whatever laurels the gallant
officer may have gathered on the battle-field, either of
love or war, we are inclined to think that if he has ob-
tained any in the corn-field of political economy, it
must have been less from any extraordinary prowess
of his own than from a singular defect of it in the
enemy, or perhaps from his never having any enemy
to cope withal.

His first argument proceeded upon the pleasant as-
sumption (exceedingly pleasant, to be sure, to the own-
ers of the soil) that when machinery and manufactures
begin to press on the supply of food, the native agri-
culturists must give place to foreigners. If they at-
tempt to defend themselves, and insist upon an equit-
able protection, they are to be denounced as bread-
taxers, Unbends, and monopolists ! " Had they," (viz.,
the agriculturists) asked the colonel, " any patent from
the Almighty for the possession of the upper soil more
than others had to the under soil and the water ?
Did Heaven create them first ?" Yes, most potent
colonel, Heaven did create them first ; did create agri-
culturists before cotton-spinners ; at least it is coin-
monly supposed so. They are in possession before
you; and all the plans of confiscation and robbery are
not the agriculturists' but your own.

His colonelship next speaks most complacently of
our outward-bound vessels returning home with corn,
and all the advantages which would result from the
exchange of our manufactures for the corn of foreign
A pleasant picture, doubtless, so long as
prices are maintained at an amount remunerative to
the domestic agriculturist, and so long as this foreign
trade is free from interruption. So far, all is smooth
water and fair weather; but, on the other hand, de-
press the agriculturist by ruinously low prices, or let
this foreign trade be disturbed by war, or other causes,
and what will then be our position ? We shall be
more dependent upon foreigners; our native self-sup-

countries,

port will be at an end ; we shall be enslaved to enemies
or rivals ; and England will be England no more.
The other arguments of this great gun of the opera-
tive anti-cornists are neither one whit more far-seeing
nor more proVident than the first we have noticed. As
to his opinions on machinery, emigration, and other
topics, they may be vastly profound; but as we are
still unanswered as to who the propounder is, we have
not thought it necessary to examine them at length.
We shall only say, in conclusion, that if all the anti-
corn law meetings which may take place between this
and the meeting of parliament, in pursuance of Lord
John Russell's or any other liberal agitator's sugges-
tion, prove as harmless and inefficient as this small
affair at Liverpool, in which the gallant colonel has
cut so poor a figure, home-fed England may very well
consider herself safe from the hands of the destroyers
for another twelvemonths at least.

Amongst the other business to be disposed of at the
meeting of the Council to-morrow, is the motion o
which Mr. Bolton has given notice, and which is it
these words :

"That it be an instruction to the Education Committee,
that the children of Roman Catholics shall not, in the Cor-
poration Schools, be required to use or read any book what-
ever against which their parents or guardians may have
conscientious objections."

If this motion should be carried, it would, at the
first blush, be equivalent to a confession of incompe-
tency on, the part of the Council or their Committee,
to frame any determinate, comprehensive, sound, and
unexceptionable plan of education whatever, and would
imply that they ought to cease from attempting a work

which they have neither the capacity to understan

nor the firmness to conduct

If this motion we

carried, some other sect (as the Socialists, for instance)
might require, in the following week, that their chil-
dren " should not he required to use or read any book
whatever against which their parents or guardians may
have conscientious objections ;" and in the following
week some other " denomination" might take up the
position ; and if the Council yielded in one instance,
they would be bound by every tie of common con-
sistency to yield in every other; and the end would be,
that their schools would become a common nuisance—

a disgrace to themselves—and a plague to the corn

munity

Mr. Bolton pays the Council the compliment of
asking it to frame and attest a record of its own inca-
pacity. But this is not the worst feature of the
overture ; for, further, he asks them to set their seal
to this plea of fatuity in a matter, and upon an occa-
sion, and, we may say, by an instrumentality which
involves the highest and most momentous considera-
tions concerning which it is possible for human
judgment to be exercised.

The Council is the appointed guardian of the rights,
and privileges, and interests of Liverpool ; and nu•
merous as are the trusts reposed in its hands, it wil
be admitted that there is none to be compared wits

that of preserving to the people the sacred truths of
religion, and handing down to the rising generation
the invaluable lessons and instruction which we have
ourselves received from our fathers. The Council
is now engaged in the high and honourable task of
repairing breaches which have been made by a resolute
enemy from without, and a treacherous party within—
of renewing the foundations and restoring the buttres-
ses, as well as proprieties of every kind which had
suffered seriously in an evil time; and at this moment
a proposal is made that the Council will halt. in this
work, give up their projects of reparation and amend-
_ .

ment, and abandon those fruits of their long and hard.
fought struggle, which alone made victory valuable
Such a proposition could only come from a deadll
enemy, or a most mistaken and deluded friend. Le
us look more narrowly into the matter.

The conquest which put the schools beyond the
controul of Conservatives, and caused them to be
constructed on their still unsubverted basis, was that
of Popery and Infidelity combined. That untoward
state of things and the fortunes incident to it, how-
ever, has happily passed away, and the Conservative
and religiously Protestant party are now restored to
an ample measure of power and authority. Still,
there is some unaccountable tardiness and hesitation
in their measures. Week after week has rolled on,
and still the schools—modified, controuled, directed,
nay, absolutely constructed by the united wisdom of
Popery and Infidelity—remain untouched ; and Popery
and Infidelity begin to take courage, and have con-
cluded that they never will be touched, or touched to
that vital extent which they in. their weak moments
had anticipated.
The constituents of the new Council are at a loss
to understand this, and grow impatient ; there is a
flame gathering, and it will break out, if the Council
do not hasten in their movements ; the people of Liver-
pool demand their award.
The question is extremely simple, and the choice of
the Council narrowed to this precis e dilemma—the
four Popish priests of Liverpool, or the reverends the
rectors and all the clergy of the Established Church in
a body ? By which of these two bodies will our
Council abide ? That is the question.
The Popish priests protest against children of th eir
communion praying with Protestant or Church of En, {-
land heretics, and against their reading our Scriptures ;
the clergy of England's church will not acknowledge
the Pope-given rights of the ministers of the Pope's
church to put an extinguisher on the Bible, or to si-
lence the voice of prayer, or to dictate to governors or
freemen in this our land, and will not therefore give
their sanction or dedicate any portion of their valuable
time to schools in which such presumptuous, unjusti-
fiable, and mischievous interference is permitted. With
which body then will the Council side ? There is no
middle course left them ; they must declare for Popery
or for Protestantism; we demand their reply.

It is perfectly useless to argue the question any fur-
ther; we are in a cleft stick, and shall find ourselves
only more tightly coerced by the alternatives which
press us, the further we advance.

It only remains to inquire what should be the
grounds, if any exist, of the reluctance of any Con-
servative member of the Council to give in his adhe-

110 vitg

of tho r

to discover them. There ia
nothing of the sort to be found in the declaration made
by each member of the Council at his initiation, but,
on the contrary, much that seems directly to bind

them to it. The declaration is as follows :
DECLARATION UNDER GEO. IV. CAP. 17. re
I. A. B do solemnly and sincerely in the psence of
God, profess and declare, upon the true faith of a Christian,
that I will never exercise any power, authority, or influence,
which I may possess by virtue of the office of alderman (or
common councillor) of the borough of Liverpool, to injure
or weaken the Protestant Church, as it is by law established
in England, or to disturb the said church, or the bishops and
clergy of the said church in the possession of any rights or
privileges to which such church, or the said bishops, and
clergy, are, or may be by law established.
Here is a declaration against doing any act "to
injure or weaken" the Protestant Established Church;
and we put it to any honest and candid member of the
council to say, what is the tendency, or, rather, what is
absolutely the nature and character of that act which
would give to Popery a footing within our public
schools—would recognise the authority of popish
priests—sanction their bad acts—confirm their evil
tyranny—and, finally, banish the established clergy
and a host of Protestant children from these institu-
tions ? Would the doing of such an act be consistent
with a declaration "never to exercise any power, au-
thority, or influence required by the office of councillor
or alderman to injure or weaken the Protestant
Church" ? It would be manifestly otherwise ; it would
be a gross and pernicious violation of it.
Popery is the grand enemy, in these days, of our
religious institutions,—and now we shall know by their
decision of the pending question, whether the municipal
council of Liverpool is on its side—on the side of our
most deadly foe, or otherwise.
, Liverpool is the Therrnopyle of religious truth ; the
council are appointed to defend the pass ; and it is 110
hyperbole on our part to say, that the entire nation
feels a deep interest in the stand they make at such a

But again we ask, what is the difficulty in the waY
)f the council to act a faithful, a manly and decided
)art ? Are they surprised to find that Popery and
Protestantism cannot concur—that if they choose the

Clergy they cannot have popish priests, or if they
choose popish priests they cannot have the clergy—
that light and darkness—the systems of God and
Belial, cannot be made to blend They would be glad
not to exclude either, or any party,—but we will not
allow ourselves to suppose that they entertain ideas so
chimerical or absurd. We are not now discussing a

secular or temporal question ; we have got into a
higher, and, it must be confessed, a more stormy re-
gion. If we were merely debating some point of
general education, our difficulties would be trifling, or,
perhaps, none at all : they arise because we are grap'
piing with questions of religion. We have determined
that the education in our schools shall not be Socinian,

Popish, or latitudinarian ; we have determined that
shall be based upon true religion ; and hence the

controversy

Now, we ask the conservative members of the
council are they still inquiring with Pilate, " What is
truth" ? or have they made up their minds on the sub-
ject ? If they have, then let them be confident, and
give to others the benefit of that instruction which they
have received themselves. In the schools they must,
under existing circumstances, have either no religion
at all, or the religion of the Church of England. What
room is there for hesitation ?

Gentlemen of the council permit us earnestly to re-
commend it to you, to close at once with the views of
your excellent associate Mr. David Hodgson ; they

meet with the full approbation of the vast majority of
your constituents ; his straightforward, manly, and
uncompromising conduct on this question has won
him golden opinions of all sorts of men. Be assured
of it that in following his example, and coinciding with
his plans, you will be pursuing the path—the only
path alike of duty and of honour. With regard to the
self-stultifying, self-condemning, suicidal motion of
Mr, ex-Mayor Bolton, we presume you will have little
difficulty in disposing of it.