The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-01 00:00:00

i3oetrp.

TILE BREACHING OF KNOX BEFORE THE ,LORDB
OF TH E CONGREGATION—JUNE 10, 1559.
.11o,t respectfully inscribed to Sir I)arid Wilkie.

BY CHARLES SWAIN.

Oh, cross of Christ. first reared 'mid scoff and scorn,
•
Cherished in secret 'gsinst a bad world's bate;
Now, on the neck maiden of beauty worn—
Blazina 'mid arms and banners of the state—
The flags of navies—crowned and consecrate !
Erst, type of persecution, shame, and blood;—
Now the bowed knees of nations on thee wait,
And kings adore where burning martyrs stood,
Like Faith amidst the fl tines—unchanged and unsubilued !
Oh, blest of Heaver', Religion, God-born guide !
Not thine the torture and the bigot-chain,—
Not thine the utraparing creed,—the zealot pride
That would through persecution Christ attain!
Thou hest no heavenly joy in human pain !
But ever com'st by love and mercy led!
Yet wert thou parent called by many a Cain,
Who from the altar struck his brother dead,
And pray'd with gore-stained hands—as if 'twere incense shed!
Caine to our souls and make ui all thine own,
Come with thine eye of truth,—thy lip of grace,—
Thy peace—which is the light of Jesus' throne;—
Thy hope—which beameth like an angel's face;
Oh, come, Religion, all the world embrace!
For all are brothers, and God's home would seek ;
Back to thy breast our erring footsteps trace,
Teach us with Christian charity to speak,
Nor crouch to high estate—nor trample on the weak !
. Swords in the crowded chancel—armed feet
Trampling the solemn aisle—whom serve they here?
Terror is in the3wild and anxious street
Where gleams the holy church with axe and spear!
Where Crichtou, Napier, Rutherford, appear
'Vo list the voice which menaced death defies;—
The intrepid Knox !—who sees not, owns not fear,
But to the gospel lifts his heavenward eyes,
Content to yield his life, if for God's Word he dies?
Fear? He had known captivity untamed;
Had worn the dungeon's fetters undismayed:
Fear? Though the martyr's death had round him flamed,
Or rack inquisitorial been displayed,
His heart—unconquerably firm—had made
A crown of glory from the thorns of hate!
Fear ? 'Twas not man could make his soul afraid.
•
God was his sword—his shield inviolate,
And fenced by these his soul could stand and smile at fate!
But not alone that bounded spot of earth,
His sin-denouncing thunders smote each land
Where Rome's idolatries and crimes had birth;—
Her mitres shook Ineath his indignant hand :
.Though offered titles, sent at Kings' command
To win his silence=still no Judas he
To vend his Saviour for a bribe ; and brand
•
The immortal conquest of a Gospel free,
- For rank ambition craves, and godless bends the knee!
Then vain was Hamilton's remorseless threat,
Thatdarerf be mount the pulpit—even there
Should he by sword and arquebus be met;
Shot like a wolf within its safest lair!
'Amid spake the preacher—" For His sake I dare
Not only thine—tint all sin's champions armed !
Thou of a creetilhaf knows not how to spare,
Shalt learn how Truth can face thee unalarmed,
And prove from bolt and brand this bo At of life is charmed
And forth the lightning of his spirit flew,
Striking the superstitious of his day;
Its relics, images, and saints o'erthrew ; .
Rending the veil which hid corruption's way !
And front that hour the pomp and the array
Of mitred mammon lost their legal pride;
The cross of Christ again assumed its sway ;
God's book to all the world was opened wide,
And nations blest His name who for redemption died !
See! mark you not the dark emotions round?
The brow convulsed, the wild, vindictive eye?
Methinks I hear the stern, deep murmuring sound
Of curbless rage and vengeance sweeping by !
'Tis but the Artist's mind, and genius high,
Yteidiug existence to departed time;
Stinwing► how Christian faith may yet defy
Sirr's serpent feet the pulpit steps climb,
To sell the shrines of heaven, orshake our trust sublime!
' Manchester.

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

TACTICS OF THE CONSERVATIVE LEADERS
( From the Times.) •
It is not the first time by many that we have concurrec
with other friends of constitutional conservatism in
doubting whether the Duke of Wellington and Sir Ro-
bert Peel did not carry to an excess, ill justified by the
nature of the enemy they had to deal with, the spirit of
frankness, forbearance, and reconciliation. The illus-
trious duke has on more than one occasion flung over the
minis!ers his cloak of asbestos, which no spark of public
indignation could scorch or penetrate. On the, Canada
question his grace protected them from ruinitby express-
ing hirnself in terms of unfortunate ambiguity, which
some time afterwards he cleared up in a manner imply-
ing full as much of actual blame to the government as
would have been affixed to them by the whole world had
he originally held his tongue. Sir Robert Peel, though
imbued with a tendency to conciliation quite equal to
that of the illustrious duke, has not hitherto indulged his
dispositibn with such want of wariness or such bad for-
tune as would enable the tricky ministers to found upon
his statements any plausible system of misrepresenta-
tion. Indeed, the right hon. baronet must perceive what
little..eneouragement is afforded him by the'Qneen's go
vermnent and their creatures to exhibit any other than a
stern and uncompromising character in his political coin.
municationS with them, even when in the discharge of
his public duty, and in the official expression of his sen-
timents or intentions across the floor of the House of
Commons. So ill qualified are those whom he addresses
to appreciate the proceedings of an upright and straight-
forward man, that the return which they made to the
leaJer of the conservatives for his pacific overtures of
Wednesday last, with regard to the settlement of the
three great Irish questions, was nothing better, in Thurs-
day's Downing-street prints, than a series of captious and
offensive insinuations against the candour of Sir R. Peel
and the good faith of his proposals to the government.
The meaning and purpose of Sir R. Peel's intimation
as to the course he would pursue on these questions were
simply to assure ministers, that whatever measures he
might feel it incumbent on him to recommend in com-
mittee on the corporation bill, or afterwards on the tithe
bill, would be in strict subservience to a conscientious
desire for the settlement—the final settlement—of the
disputed Irish questions.
The game played by ministers seems to be that of pro-
voking the conservatives into some intemperate or extra-
vagant -propositions, whiCh may be sent forth and de-
scribed to the, country as so many, perverse obstacles
thrown in the way of an adjustment, on which the mi-
nistry may found some pretexts for further procrastina-
tion. . A fair and wise remedy for the inconveniences
now coMplained of, and cure for the wants really felt
throughout Ireland—namely, that of a tithe commuta-
tion, and of a relief bill for the poor—are far, we be-
lieve, from the thoughts or desires of the ministry. That
those defects in the political state of 'lreland should long
remain unprovided for, but still fostered as subjects for
factious agitation, and for fictitious murmurings against
the supposed repugnance of the conservatives to every
species of reform; suits exactly the views, and principles,
and enslaved. position of. the whigs in office. It is na-
tural, therefore, that any assurance conveyed to parlia-.
ment of Sir Robert Peel's anxiety to close the above
sources of disturbance should be wormwood to the Mel-
bourne ministers, and should draw down upon the right
bon:bat-dna whole vollies of spiteful abuse.
Likewise, respecting the corporation bill, which we
have never numbered among the real wants of the peo-
ple of Ireland; who care not a straw about the matter;
Sir Robert Peel showed on Tuesday a sincere willing.
ness to go as far as the safety of the Protestant chUrch
and state would admit in effecting some satisfactory com-
promise upon that absurd and dangerous, though much
clamoured for, innovation. His reward here, also, has
been the grossest insolence front the yelping curs of
Downing-street.
Now, we trust that Sir Robert Peel will not he " shaken
from his propriety" by such menaces. It is our earnest
hope that the right honourable baronet will turn the ta-
bles on the whigs, and in the exposition of his Irish po-
licy lay before the country such a case, that, if the mi-
nisters refuse-to adopt his proposals, the people of the
united kingdom will cry out against their factious and
sinister obstinacy ; while if, for shame or fear, the go-
vernment dare not resist the justice of the conservative
amendments, the sting will be drawn from this noxious
cabinet—the peace of the country, for a time at least, be
secured—and that which has constituted the sole princi-
ple of cohesion between the whigs, the radicalsi and Pa-
pists be dissolved at once and for ever.
But while it is to be expected that Sir R. Peel
not shrink from any honest and wholesome concession,
calculated for the fair adjustment of long-subsisting quar•
.rels—it is above all things the right, and must be the
care, of Englishmen, to demand that lie makes no parti-
cle nor shadow of approximation to the proposed measures
of the Queen's ministers, by which any risk .of even
transient wrong can be entailed upon the sacred institu-
tions of the monarchy. It may be expedient to give up
something, for the sake of lasting peace ; but it is of pa-
ramount duty to retain all that can be regarded as es-
sential to our permanent, happiness and safety.

THE LATE SPANISH LEGION.
(From the Newry Telegraph.)
The unfortunate men who were entrapped into join-
ing the buccaneering expedition under Sir G. D. L.
Evans, and have escaped being butchered in Spain, can
testify that the tender mercies of liberalism are cruel.
The present liberal ministers held out every inducement
in their power to the people of the united kingdom to
encourage them to join Evans and how have they now
treated those who were silly enough to be seduced from
their homes ? They have rewarded Evans with British
110oours for runninz.away when tired of being defeated,
, ut wixat have tftv .doue for the .unfortunates whom he
r tett
Aker contending with the troops of Carlos, and a still
more powerful enemy, Want, and shedding their blood
in the service of the Queen. of Spain, hundreds of our