The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-21 00:00:00

NEW COUNTY MEMBERS.

By schedule C, South Lancashire and West York-
shire are each to be subdivided, and each division
to have three members. Glamorganshire is to
have one member ; and thirty-seven other counties
or divisions of counties, now returning two mem-
bers, are each to have an additional one, thereby
making forty-six new county members. The ap-
portionment of so large a share to county represen-
tation might be deemed incredible liberality and
concession to constitutional principles on the part
of such an extreme Radical as Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL, were it not that by his alteration of the
county franchise, he destroys the whole value of it.
To the Opposition he may say, " See how large a
concession I have made to the great strength of the
Conservative party ;" and when his Radical friends
complain, he quiets them by coolly referring to the
fact, that his alteration of the franchise has de-
stroyed the whole value of the seeming boon.

NEW BOROTJGH MEMBERS.

By schedule D, the nine most populous boroughs,

exclusive of the metropolis, now returning two re-
presentatives, and Salford now returning one, are
each to have an additional member. By schedule
E three boroughs, now unrepresented, containing
more than 20,000 inhabitants, are each to have
one member. These are Birkenhead, Burnley, and
Staley-bridge. Chelsea and Kensington are to be
made into a metropolitan borough, with two mem-
bers. The Inns of Court are to return two mem-
bers ; the London University one ; and Scotland is
to have three additional representatives. It will
be seen that, in this distribution, population is
made the sole test of claim to representation, al-
though nothing can be more fallacious. Take the
instance of Birkenhead, of which the majority of
the population are substantial householders, and
yet it is placed on an equality with Burnley and
Staleybridge, where the inhabitants are chiefly
artisans, earning weekly wages ; and yet to confer
the privilege of representation on masses of the
population, of whom but a small proportion could
obtain even the reduced scale of franchise, repre-
sentatives are taken away from the cities of Lich-
field, Peterborough, Wells, Ripon, and Chichester,
and the county towns of Bodmin, Hunting-don,
Buckingham, Dorchester, and Guildford, in all of
which places more is contributed to the assessed
taxes than in manufacturing towns of three or
four times the population ; where the inhabitants
have not sufficient intelligence to comprehend even
their own petty interests, but join in senseless
strikes at the bidding of some inflated demagogue.
With Lord JoHN RUSSELL it appears to have
been simply a question of numbers, without refe-
rence to quality,—a notion so utterly subversive of
all distinctions in society, that the most rabid
Chartist need not hesitate to claim him as a leader
There is, however, another feature in the bill
which ought not to pass unnoticed. In the addi-
tion to the county members, and also to the nine
boroughs which are to have three representatives,
the electors are not to vote for more than two
candidates, and the third candidate is to be the
choice of the minority, provided he have above
two-fifths of the whole number of votes. There
is something so exquisitely cunning in this
arrangement, that it is worthy of the reputation
of its author for consummate tact. The Conserva-
tive constituencies are not only to be swamped by
a new kind of votes, something worse than
the old potwallopers, but in places where they
may still maintain their influence their triumph is
to be half defeated by their opponent being ad-
mitted as the representative of the minority, and
this with such evident party bias, that, for more
than forty places where a Radical candidate would
thus be admitted, the Conservatives .would only
gain a similar advantage in about half a dozen.
It will help to realise the absurdity to imagine
the Conservative constituency of 'Liverpool com-
pelled to send to Parliament such a politician as
Sir ERSKINE PERRY, a degradation no way com-
pensated by a Conservative being returned for
Manchester through similar means : while in more
than forty counties Radicals would be smuggled
into Parliament after the same fashion. It is a
principle of the Constitution that the House of
Commons represents the opinions of the majority
of the people possessing a known and definite
qualification; but it would be difficult to ascertain
what portion of the people would be represented
under such a system as that proposed, while frauds
and evasions would be so commonly perpetrated
as to make it difficult for a man to be honest
if he would.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF FREEMEN.

There is yet another feature in the bill, by no
means the least important, and that is th
prospective disfranchisement of the Freemen o
corporate towns. The ostensible ground for this
political suicide, this retrograde step, in the exten-
sion of the franchise is the alleged corruption of
this class of voters, and the influence of bribery
upon their exercise of the franchise. Such a
charge ,is false and malicious, proved to be false
after the most searching investigation, and only
reiterated by those who are unscrupulous, in their
assertions, and, following the example of one of
their wooden idols, would vote that black is while
in order to keep their party in office. The real
offence is, that the majority .of the Freemen are
Conservatives, and are not to be bribed by Radical
money, nor beguiled by Radical promises.

It is not for being bribed,'tut for being
inacces-
sible to it; not for their truckling to party, but for
their steady adherence to Conservative principles
that the outcry is raised against them; and Lord
JOHN RUSSELL has the daring effrontery, the
miserable servility to party influence, the most
contemptible truckling to the basest spirit of fac-

tion which ever disgraced a legislrtive assembly,
to propose that this, the most independent "of all
classes of voters, shall be deprived of the franchise.
This is no privilege granted through favouritism,
or, like a Radical's vote, purchased with money, but
a freedom acquired by seven years' faithful service,
to the sati,faction of the master—a distinction far
mere honourable, and a training far more advan-
tageous, than any of the means either of deposits

in savings' banks, payment of taxes, or house occu-
pation, by which the Minister seeks to select the
fittest men for the enjoyment of electoral privileges
and, therefore, the proposal to curtail the franchise,
in this respect, while it is extended through so
many equivocal channels, at once stamps the bill
as an emanation from the vilest spirit of political
fanaticism such as, without this evidence, we
should hardly have believed even Lord JOHN
RUSSELL to be capable. It is the crowning capital
of his column of Radical perfidy, and would justify
the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry into
the state of his intellects, at no time very sound,
but latterly betraying the effect of advancing age,
after a life of fussiness and trickery.

IT is so• rarely we can find an' opportunity of
giving the present Ministry credit either for good
intentions or political wisdom, that we gladly seize
the occasion of the proposal made by the Poor-law
Minister to alter the law of settlement. By the
bill which he has introduced into the House of
Commons, it is proposed to equalise the poor-rate
over each union by gradations of ten per cent. each
year during the next ten years, so that the change
shall be felt as slightly as possible. It will, no
doubt, be thought a hardship by those parishes in
which the rates have hitherto been comparatively
light, that they should bear a portion of the bur-
den of other parishes, but a calm consideration of
the subject will serve to demonstrate its justice. It
will be remembered that the maintenance of the
destitute is not only a legal obligation, but a
Christian duty, and that by the present division of
parishes there is much practical inequality, and,
consequently, injustice. One parish has many
wealthy inhabitants, and yet, from having but few
poor, those have the least burden who are the
most able to bear it. Another parish, with but few
wealthy inhabitants, has many poor, and the bur-
den is heavy on those least able to bear it. An
equal distribution of the rate over a whole Union
would remove much of this inequality, and by the
mode proposed the change would be scarcely felt.
Anqther advantage will be, an abolition of the
heavy costs attending disputed settlements, which
would be a positive boon to the ratepayers, and
tend materially to abate much of the misery often
experienced by those who are recipients of relief.
The only tangible objection to the proposed change
is, the approach to a sytem of centralisation, which
is repugnant to English notions of local govern-
ment, but this is an objection more apparent than
real ; nor will it be found that the alteration now
contemplated will be less a system of local govern-
ment than the present mode. There are also
several minor advantages attendant upon the pro-
posed change, which, if party differences are not
allowed to interfere with their development, may
operate to place the system of poor relief upon a
more satisfactory basis than it is at present..

PROTESTANTISM- AND ROMANISM.

WirrN once the human mind has voluntarily wandered
from the right path, it is difficult to say what extent of
absurdity it may reach, or to what depth of intellectual
prostra.i•n it may fall. This was painfully evident in the
display which the apostate clergyman, Mr. ANDERDOW,
made on Monday last week, in the Concert-bail. The
subject of his lecture was ostensibly an attack on Protes-
tantism, of which he was unsparing in his abuse, but it
was evidently intended to apply to the Church of England.
It will be seen that, however his strictures may apply to
some of thee extravagant fanatics who falsely assume the
name of Protestants, nothing can be farther from the
truth when applied to our Church. He characterised Pro-
testantism as an act of intellectual and moral rebellion,
which made an individual or a section rise up against the
authority vested in the great whole, disbelieved its mis-
sion to teach and govern, and so rejected its creeds or its
precepts. This is exactly his own position. He has him-
self rejected the creeds and precepts which he had sworn
to teach, and, in doing so, committed in its most flagrant
enormity the sin of which he accuses all Protestants. He
confounded Protestants with Infidels, as both rejecting
what was really Divine and, authentic, and calling it
human and fictitious, which is again an exact reflex .of
his own conduct. He has left the Church which founds its
creeds and its articles on the pure authority of Holy Scrip-
ture, and adopted a monster fable, of which the creeds
are human inventions, and the miracles fictitious. Re
accused the Protestants of taking only such part of Divine
Revelation as suited their purpose, and denying the
authority of the rest, whereas the Church which he has
left accepts the Scriptures as a whole, and teaches them
as a whole, without alteration or addition ; while Rome
notoriously perverts the text to suit her own dogmas, and
denies the perusal of the Scriptures to her dupes, for
the simple reason that they would make palpable
to the plainest understanding her own enormous
falsehoods. The only difference, he asserted, between
the Protestant and the Romanist was, that the
former was taking a human instead of a Divine
tradition for the rule of his faith,—an assertion so
monstrous, that, if he believed himself, the extent of his
credulity must be unfathomable. There is no fact more
notorious than the repugnance of Protestants to all tradi-
tion, and their exclusive faith in the Bible, the whole
Bible, and nothing but the Bible. A prominent article
of the Church declares that " lloly Scripture containeth
all. things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is
not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be
required of any man, that it should be believed as an
article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary
to salvation." On the other hand, the whole teaching of
Rome is founded upon human tradition, its articles of
faith in Purgatory, the invocation of saints, the real
presence in the Eucharist, the adoration of the Virgin
Mary, the worship of images, and other prominent tent:!,
being not only not warranted by Scripture, but diametri-
cally opposed to the whole tenour of its doctrine. As a
man in a state of drunkenness fancies every one so but

himself; Mr. AND2EDON drew a picture of his own me-
lancholy condition, and, with the perverseness which
ordinarily accompanies mental weakness, applied to the
Church he had left the very charges which so aptly suited
the delusion he had adopted. He said that men were
furious because Rome would not change. Such an asser-
tion is amusing from its utter absurdity. It is the ridicu-
lous claim to infallibility, to which Rome never had the
shadow of a title. From the first assumption of supre-
macy, in the sixth or seventh century, down to the present
time, Rome has altered her creeds, adopted and rejected
articles of faith as it suited the paltry views of worldly
expediency, and has never been consistent in any one
point but her love of gain and temporal power, Her pre-
tence to Divine authority is the will of the reigning Pope,
who is impiously styled the Vicegerent of Heaven, and
her pretended Christianity is practical Deism, a Miserable
imposture, founded upon the grossest superstition, and
maintained through the debasing ignorance in which her
tools have laboured unceasingly to keep her wretched
dupes. They are objects of pity, but far more Pitiable
must be the condition of Mr. ANDERDOIC)
volun-
tarily embraced a heresy from which every one; 'homes
Ab
fp:Illioli-'sedan..
Let
his
once read the Scriptures, must tnrn with horror. has
xample
Th) rOff the
Church of England, on the other
hand, s'l•°°2l restored
soul-debasing errors of Rome at the Refc:rina haher teaching, as far as possible,
voarecl. to main.
Christians, and since that time.has en ea -
pre, rvi.ng the Holy
to th.de, of thet primitive
taro the faith in its pristine purity beg the ha the only correct
'Scriptures in their
i:eiteagrly at3;'allBliteimes tea the fidelity of
respecther she has far more title to
infalliMr. A` DeUDOIs so igninosrantantelyclaimse,
is lamentable to witness such a perversion from truth
thanstan
d
ome. that which
erroror
R
It
to
dteaching,perhaps sbytitwlalteahnoliceed: tiwu:lhhreteich Mr.
s which he has given form the best
but
gproain:etsthisantism and noniani,;tn be weighed in
tia'hnittittbdiraloetaieolfcae of human conscience, and tested Ly the book
to which every Christian must appeal, and it will be found
that every shaft which he has levelled against the faith
which be has deserted inflicts a wound upon himself and
thwe with whom he is associated.