The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-06 00:00:00

MR. SLEIGH'S THIRD LECTURE AT THE
LIVER THEATRE.

Last evening Mr. Sleigh delivered his third lecture on the
Nature of Republicanistn and Modern Liberality, at the
Liver Theatre, Church-street. The audience was not very
numerous, but highly respectable, and there were a number
of ladies present.
He commenced by stating that his intention of investigat-
ing the nature of republicanism had scarcely been announced,
before he had been denouuced as a gross libeller of the in-
stitutions of America, and condemned without a hearing.
such conduct savoured strongly of what they had heard of
Lynch law, at the other side of the Atlantic. He had taken
particular pains to send complimentary tickets to the Editors
of the Liberal Press in -Liverpool, and he had stated that be
was prepared.ta-defend his. statements at any time and place,
made from the writings of American authors and the Ameri-
can press, as well as his own observation; and yet, without
taking the trouble of appealing to examine—without calling
a council of independent inhabitants of the town, to see whe-
ther the documents he read, in proof of his statements, were
true or not—he had been pronounced as a gross libeller. He
should by and bye have an opportunity of letting them know
how they treated incorrigible editors on the other side of the
Atlantic. If this conduct had b'een pursued by a tyrannical
press—a Tory press—they would not have been surprised;
but emanating from those who were the professed friends of
freedom of discussion, how inconsistent It was, or rather how
consistent, with the principles which they advocated. In his
first lecture, he had made au assertion that there were two
classes of persons in the United States; one, the ruling body,
the great mass of the people, and it was their practices and
conduct which he was giving a description of. The other
was the minority, the few, the intelligent, the virtuous, who
did not interfere with the political concerns of the country,
but looked on with dread at the consequences of arts which
it was utterly impossible for them, by their own exertions, to
stem the torrent of. He thought it right that he should give
them some confirmation of this. The heel urer then proceeded
to quote from page 13 of De Tocqueville's work on America,
to the effect that the wealthy and intelligent men of the corn-
minty abandoned the political arena, from an unwillingness
to contend against the pourer classes of their fellow subjects,
and concentrated all their enjoyments in the privacy of their
houses. They submitted to the dominancy of the majority
as an evil, and were careful to disguise their sentiments re-
specting it. But it was easy to see that the wealthy men
entertained a hearty disdain at the democratic state of their
country : the populace was at once their scorn and their fear.

It was his intention to prove, philosophically and scriptukilly,
that democracy in America, or jacohinisni in France, or radi-
calism in this country, were of pernicious tendency. The
proposition he should prove was that republicanism neces-
sarily, led to tyranny, immorality, misery, and ruin. lie would
not quote from those who might be thought to be inimical to
American society, nor would be make assertions of his own,
as he might be thought to labour under pique or disappoint-
ment with regard to that country ; lie would take their own
proclamations, and quote from 52' public newspapers of all
parties to show the general state of the country. the misery
and brutality, and the pauperism which existed there. tie
would not relate the transactions of individuals, because there
were bad individuals in all communities, nor the out-breaks
of mobs, because in all countries there were such ; but he
would relate to them the transactions of the body of the
people—of the rulers, as it were, of the laud. Before he re-
captulated that evidence, there were one or two things which
it was necesary to adduce; the first was the nature of their
mobs, and the second was, the principles of the lower order
of society. They had heard of mobs, and Lynch law. Perhaps
they were not acquainted with what Lynch law was. If any
individual expressed a sentiment which was thought to be ini-
mical to the interests of the city or place where he was, imme-
diately a number of persons were called together, they sat in
judgment upon him, they had a mock trial, and immediately he
was sentenced to be burnt to death, or dragged through a

pond and half drowned, or to be tarred and feathered; at
another time lie is stripped naked, and fastened down to the
ground, while a tom-cat is held by the tail and dragged down
him with its claws tearing his flesh. That was Lynch law.
In this country we had mobs collected who were suffering from
want, and generally speaking these mobs were collections of
very ignorant and poor men. In America such was not the
fact; all the mobs which had there committed the most dis-
graceful outrages against life, liberty, and law, were mobs
of gentlemen. He quoted Miss Martineau in support of this
assertion. This was the spirit of the higher classes there;
but it was still further carried but. Their duels were deli )e-
-rate, cold-blooded murders, whoa: men went out with rifles
with the certaiuty of killing their adveisaies; and scarcely
a man travelled in that country, who could afford it, who
had not a stiletto or bowie knife concealed abJut him. In
England, it was the spirit of the people not to let two or three
men knock down and trample upon one individual; this was
not the case in America; the satne spirit which made the
gentleman carry a stiletto made the poor man descend to acts
which an Englishman abhorred. If republicanism were so
very good why was it nut carried out in the navy of America?
lie had it on the evidence of men who had served in that
navy, that the system carried out in the navy of the United
States was the most despotic in the whole earth. He had it
on the evidence of a man who had bought his discharge from
one of the vessels, that, in three years there had been no less
that 30,000 lashes given on board, besides what were called
day.floggings, whilst they had their clothes on. Mr. Sleigh
then read quotations from the speeches of various Members
of Congress, stating their belief that such was the working of
the present system of republicanism that it could nut last
long.
. . -

He would now proceed to the consideration of " liberty."
There were two species of liberty; one which he should term
natural or true liberty, and the other he should term unna-
tural or spurious liberty. The Creator had endowed his
creatures and all matter with a certain degree of what was
termed " liberty," or "freedom :" any attempt beyond that—
any aiming at a condition beyond that which Omnipotence
had in His infinite wisdom destined for the creature, infalli-
bly produced disorder. Hence they found that the beasts of
the field, the worms of the earth, the fishes of the sea, things
animate and inanimate, were all endowed with a certain
degree of freedom; and however trifling the degree, so far as
it went that was perfect freedom, and was calculated to pro-
duce the greatest degree of happiness for the creature. And
if be might be allowed to form a conjecture from the councils
ff the Almighty, he would say unlimited freedom could tint
be enjoyed by any created thing, without producing disorder
and irregularity. If a fish were capable of reasoning, and
although having perfect liberty to ream at large in its ele-
ment, began to reason in itself that it could not enjoy perfect
freedom unless it could go into another element, every at-
tempt to attain that liberty would of necessity be attended
tPlictiiii et tos
with evil consequences, and if persevered in would inevitably
bring ruin on the creature. Si) all created things in this
world possessed a certain degree of liberty, but nevertheless
they%cree c freedom.
ter
asliu'nlbieje(!ei laws,evet not
course
possessth unrestrainedrough spe!
s
cnaoltl
obtainer[
by
er fle'eLL:te'al enrrseity(-li,ni do
rannt?Nriti. unrestrained en
twihlhefar:e,eshdoootLiiiet men
tiei. Some might say, "We doti't pretend but that there
should be laws—we don't pretend to say that these should
not he a certain restraint on men t" then he would ask them,
Why talk about liberty? why make use of 'a
term so inap-
propriate? If you only mean limited liberty, use not a word
by means of which you do not intend to convey its meaning."
Let them, then, speak of limited liberty,
and the degree of it
obtained by men. This led them necessarily to the conside-
ration of what had been termed the declaration of the inde-
pendence of the United States, signed July 4th, 1796. He
had no hesitation in pronouncing some of its declarations the
most preposterous and unphilosophical ever penned by man.
In the outset it stated, "all men are created equal." That
declaration he pronounced to be not only
unphilosophical
and absurd, but a declaration xgaiost the order of nature,
and against the will of Heaven. And need they be surprised
by this declaration, when the substance of this statute was
first penned by Thomas Paine, as great an infidel atid de-
spiser of the God of heaven as man ever knew ? The decla-
ration set out—"all men are created equal." He asserted
they were not. What said the Bible? What said philoso-
phy? What said matter of fact? The Bible decidedly in-
timated that all men were not created equal;
so did philoso-
phy; and matter of fact demonstrated to them that all men
were not created equal. The term equal" must refer to the
mental, or moral attributes of men. Were all men
created if
physical,equalii physical qualities ? Were all men equally
tall, or equally robust, or nimble ? In physical qualities
then, decidedly all men are oat equal. Were they then all
created mentally equal ? Had all men equal mental powers?
Were all men equally mathematicians? Had all men equal
memories ? Certainly not. Theo as to mental qualities,
all men were not equal. Then as to equal rights. Had all
men equal rights? He•said they had nut; as for instance—
he might be heir-at-law to his father's estate, to which ano-
' timer man was not, therefore, he was not created with equal
rights with other men; or, he might be heir at will—hence
he was not created with rights to which all men were entitled.
Therefore all men were not created equal.-zL-The declaration
then- Said—" all men are entitled to equal right of liberty
and happiness," Was that the way America int.%qpreted it?
It was not. Let them look to her Southern States, with her
million and a half of
_slaves, or to the hundreds of thousands
of free slaves in the North; or to the West, at the red In-
dians driven at the point of the bayonet from their lands,
Was this their definition of " equal right to liberty and hap-
piness?" It would be just as philosophical to say, that all
the beasts of the field were created equal, as to say that all

men were created equal; it was preposterons, and shown to
be absurd in matter of fact. What then was it that gave
man superiority over the brute creation and over his fellow
man? Most unquestionably, rn%nd. What individual would
have command of a horse, it he were not governed and
guided by the intelligence of his rider? In the same way it
was mind which gave man superiority over his fellow man.
Therefore, as God, who has made us, and u A we ourselves,
has thought proper not to endow all men with an equal de-
gree of mental faculties and intelltgeuce, it is therefore
decidedly consistent with his will that, in proportion to the
intelligence given to us we are destined to rale and govern
the great mass of mankind to whom He has not thought
proper to give au equal degree of intelligence. They were
now approaching to the point which he wanted specifically
to prove, how did this spurious liberality or republicanism
lead to demoralization ? lie took h's stand upon this posi-
tion, that any departure from the older of nature, in as much
as the older of nature was established by infinite wisdom,
must necessarily produce disorder, confusion, and ruin. Those
who for wise purposes were not endowed with superior intelli-
gence, were intended by the economy of nature to he go-
verned and ruled by those of superior intelligence and wis-
dom. Bnt republicanism and radicalism went on the very
opposite principle. Instead of saying that the minority that
possessed that intelligence should rule, the majority was to
rule simply because they were a majority; which was equiva,
lent to saying that physical power should rule and not intel-
ligence. They found in the sacred volume different degrees
of rulers recognized, and the relations of master and
servant. Would they call any man master. or any man
servant, at the other side of the atlantic? Republicanism
did not recognize these distinctions, and therefore set aside
the bible. The bible awarded honour to whom honour was
dnc; just in pt °portion to the honour due to you in America,
would you receive the very reverse through the spirit of re-
publicanism and mob brutality, and force was made to over-
whelm superior intelligence !
-He contended that radical, and republican leaders. had
ever been infidels—selfish, tyrannical men at heart, seeking
only to serve their own purposes, and serve their own ends;
to climb the ladder of popularity to power, and when it was
obtained, to kick down the ladder, and treat the people as
slaves. The greatest preachers about liberty, had ever been
the greatest tyrants.
He contended that the Established Church was the best
security for religious freedom; and that there was no more
reason in a dissenter refusing to pay the taxes, than to sup-
port the church. By the payment of the one his life and
property were protected to him; by supporting the other, his
religious freedom was preserved to hint ; and he was support-
ing a church which had handed down to him in its purity, the
unadulterated word of God. Were there was no established
church, there they beheld the silent. but sure march of
Roman Catholicism, and lie did not hesitate to say, that '25
years hence, from the rapid strides in America it was mak-
ing that the Roman Catholic religion would be the esta-
blished religion of that country; and where then would he
their liberty of conscience, and-their unadulerated gospel?
He decried a church disconnected wifh the state, and without
a fixed support; for so long as human nature was what it is,
there would be a smoothing down of the glorious truths of the
gospel, which were calculated to humble the wealthy indi-
viduals of a congregation, on whom the preacher looked for
support. The preachers could not obtain support except
from numbers, and hence they saw the revivals and camp.
meetings in America, at which scenes were enacted which.
made thinking men look on religion as a catch-penny, anti
fearfully spread the doctrines of infidelity. An established
church, too, was the greatest preservative of the purity of the
bible, and the best safeguard against splitting into religious
sects. In this country we had our dozens of sects; but is
America, where there was no established church, there were
hundreds of sects, till religion itself was lost.
He deprecated the national system of education, as one of
Satanic invention, and which the Catholics and Dissenters

were alike fools for supporting. The Protestant pastor
taught his children of the redeeming blood of the Saviour:
the Catholic priest taught his children that something else
was needed; and the Socinian taught his children that our
Saviour was no Saviour at all, but mere man. The result
of this diversified religious teaching in one school would be,

at the children would be led into discussions with one aco-

ther, wo•.tld be confounded and lust amidst conflicting tenets,
and finally turn out neither Protestant, Catholic, nor Dis-
senting men and women, but professed infidels.
Mr. Sleigh announced the continuation of his lectures this
evening, and concluded about half past nine o'clock. He
was frequently, in the course of his lecture, most loudly ap-
plauded.