The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-27 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1836.

THE TRADESMEN'S CONSERVATIVE ' AS'OCIATION.—
F W
at the Large Itulm, King's A nn,, when we understand
upwards of 140 new tnetnt:ets were enrolled. We are
glad to find that the hea!thy reaction in favour of con-
stitutional principles is still in pi ogress in this loyal
town. We invite the attention Lf our readers to the ad-
mirable address of the society, which appears in our pre-
sent number.

The public press has, already, commented will just
severity upon the libertine spirit introduced into the
Chirter of the Univers;ty of Loudon. We are arrived,
it seerns, at an age so cons !Inmate in wisdom, that we no
longer IA ant that old he p, and antiquate" directory of
our forefathers, the Bible, or even a religion founded
upon the 13thle. Reas in has su;;planted revelation, and
man knows better than h's Creator what is best suited
for the economy of mat ; a Id ; et we should be glad to be
told, where the obligation of one moral law is to be found,
when the authority of the divine legislator is rejected—
human convention—tempo'-al interest—and the dread
of human retribution, may, some•imes, " make man mild
and sociable to man ;" but we ask, what bond can restrain
the hand even of the mut-0c er, who despises the prin
pie, and, by well converted stratagem, hopes to evade the
.penalty of human laws ? If the death of a fellow-crea
tore promised to put him in possession of something he
desires, what motive can check the arm of violence?
Will conscience ? Will reason, the Unitarian's boast ?
What is conscience ? We answer, a creature of educa-
tion—a rule of action as capricious as the complexion—
as variable as climate. Locke has sufficiently proved,
that there is "no innate practical principle in man," and,
in confirmation of this conclos.on, we quote the natural,
the conscientious, and reasonable answer, if you please,
of the G to a question propounded to them, and per.
tinent to our present consideration—" Quodnam id jut
esset, agrum a passessoribus peteri ant minari arms 10"
Replied—"SE IN AkMIS SUS PERIM, ET oMNIA F&)RTIUM
VIROEUM ESSE." We defy the Deist, the Unitarian, or
the subtlest reasoner of any other sect of Infidels, to find
one moral law enforced in nature, or deducible from rea-
son; which carries any obligation with it, beyond the
penalties to be humanly inflicted upon its violation. As
the notorious Lord Walpole said, politically, in his
days, so the progress of irreligion enables us to say, both
politically and morally in our days, "every man has his
price." Take away the security of the Bible, and you
qualify man for the perpetration of every.crime. Eritrea.
tion, not founded upon it, is but furnishing a cloak, and
giving a refinement to moral delinquency—removing the
smell from the gas of vice, which advertises us of its
danger.

We hare been induced to make these few preliminary
observations, because there appears a systematic design
pervading the country to establish what our enlightened
and unholy Town Council call "secular education"—
education which another of our moral-philosophy men
wished to be conducted upon such relaxed principles, that
every kind and denomination of believr and unbeliever
should, under one roof, receive simultaneous instruction!
and, approaching to which, a committee of our Corpora-
tian have brought the discipline of our national schools.
But we leave, for the present, the question of religious, or
rather irreligious, education, whether as now patronised
in a Metropolitan College, or under the direction of a
Municipal Corporation, and only call attention to that
levellin principle, which confounds all creeds, and
sweeps away all religious distinctions; and which we
find in equal operation in. civil and political life " every
where speaking evil of digoities," and degrading per-
sons—ibolishing the honourable rewards of mental la
bour, and even hatching, or, as might inure appropriately
be said, crucifying the shield of nobiity. •
One mouth of the hydra-headed ministry proposed, in
his plan of reform of the House of Lards, to allow the
Peers to retain their titles, but to take from them all po-
litical power—a well-aimed blow of a dexterous leveller !
—and why is this hostility manifested against the union
of power and title ? Why should a line of men, sprung
from such honourable sources as those which Blackstor.e
enumerates—" Piety, ,valour," be excluded
rem their loug constitutional inheritancii a share is the