The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-08 00:00:00

when I
sserted,

a of I

'ovate of I

ler of that party to which the t

the val

tible difference
vigour. a

Standard a mo:

it has received aconsiderable inc

Of what little value, comparatively speaking, would 1
the eloquent appeals of our leading ministers in behalf

the various societies by whic
truths of the Gospel is so w(

the reports which: appear in your column 4,
are brought before thousands of readers who could nev(
have been hearers. I mention these but as (
the good service which has been rendered b
to the cause which I have so much at

e Standard

tion to which, it appears, you have been subiected
would seem, indeed, as though som(
intellect, or so wilfully pery
breath boast a Free Press
liberty, and in the next

s the palladium of Britis

llify their ablest champion be-
muse he does not prove the abject slave to laud every
petty crotchet of his imperious task-masters. For my
own part, I applaud your spirit of independence in daring
to offer rebuke where rebuke was more deserved than
praise, because I view it_ as an earnest of the right being

uppoited for the sake of the right, and not for the sali7
f pandering to the nreiudices of this or that individual

wears t

are but two newspapers in Liverpool conducted by ME
hers of the Church. An attempt is now made to mis
present the views which you have so ably and temperat

Put forward, by the very men who have just di;

that your Satirday contemporary has a leaning towards
Tractarianism. So the result appears inevitable, that
these few individuals, having rejected their best friend,
and deprived themselves of any claim to further support,
must resort to those dissenting prints which have ever
been the bitterest enemies of the Church, and
which have never joined with us but to serve their
own ends : for it may safely be affirmed that, with
the single exception of a portion of the Wesleyans,
the Dissenters have almost to a man supported
Radicals and Romanists. If this is to be the upshot of
all that the Standard has done in defence of the pure
principles of Protestantism, I tremble for the pecuniary
support which will in future be given to the various
societies to which I, in common with many of my friends,
have hitherto contributed. I allude to the Scripture-
readers' Fund, the Pastoral Aid Society, the Church Mis-

I for my own part shall continue my subscriptions from
conscientious conviction that it is my duty to lend my aR
as far as I have it in my power ; but there are many 01
my friends, and I have no doubt others, who will pause
before the tenance the 4' -te men whc

2e Ley count, Jew intempera
have joined in this movement, and who, with many pro.
fessions of peace, seem only too anxious to be throwing
the apple of discord where all should be unity. Christian
liberty is one of the proud boasts of the true Protestant;
but it is making the chains of slavery more galling
than the fetters of Rome, if an old and tried friend
cannot express an honest opinion, in sober sincerity
and temperate language, without being subject to
such an absurd accusation as that of leaning towards
Tractarianism. It perhaps ought hardly to excite surprise,

since our blessed Saviour was subject to much worse treat-
ment of a similar character by the self-righteous
Pharisees, who took counsel together how they might
entangle him in His talk. We read of the lawyers asking
Him a question, tempting him ;of His rebuke, Why tempt
ye me ?" and the result, that from that day forth no man
durst ask Him any more questions. These men of extreme
opinions and no moderation are not confined to this town,
as I observe, by a report of a public meeting of the Jews'
Society at Salisbury, that one of them was not only
publicly rebuked by the chairman for his intemperate
language and offensive epithets, but the latter threatened
to leave the meeting. Blindly wedded to their own narrow
views and selfish prejudices, they cannot brook contradic-
tion, and take offence at a manly expression of honest
independence for which I give you credit, though I may
not agree with all your views. If this, however, is to be
the end. of long and faithful service, then farewell to our
boasted British freedom ; but I am rather inclined to
think that such wilful misrepresentations can only come
from a few whose intellects are too confined for reason to
have the slightest influence upon them.—l am, Sir, &c.,

pi4v3c:
r.rs.—l enclose you my card, and you have full liberty
to make what use you please of this letter.

____•._____

PRIEST CAHILL AND THE CHURCH OF ROME

THE EDITOR OP THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—On hastily glancing over the letter of the Romish
Priest Cahill, written the week before last, in answer to
the challenge of the Protestant Clergymen of Birkenhead,
I was forcibly struck with one passage in it. He says,—
" We believe no one can infallibly learn Christ's law with-
out our teaching !" I think I noticed in some other part
of the letter, something to the effect that Protestants could
not teach truth, nor Roman Catholics priests error : but

the whole letter strongly illustrates tiirarroganieof the
man, and the unwarrantable assumptions of the Romish
clergy. Nothing will satisfy them, it would appear, until
they have reduced the human intellect and the entire
population, from the highest to the lowest, to subjection
to them, and their teaching ; but surely they can never
succeed in this. The lamentable apathy and indifference
of Protestants, and the open encourairement of some in-
fluential parties, from whom an opposite line of conduct
might be naturally expected, would seem to spur them on
in their nefarious career. But I must again refer to the
extract above quoted. "We believe no one can irtfallibly
learn Christ's law without our teaching!" This is
monstrous. Can any educated Roman Catholic believe
this ? Can he so prostrate his intellect as not to use his
mental faculties in judging for himself upon matters that
concern his eternal welfare, but blindly submit to the
dictum of his fellow mortals ? Has the Almighty re-

linquished His prerogative of ruling and reigning in the
hearts of His obedient children, and showing them Him-
self, by His Holy Spirit, what He requires them to do, and
what He requires them to refrain from doing ? There are
many, very many, I rejoice to say, who can say, from
heartfelt experience, that their Creator has not so re-
linquished His undoubted prerogative, and given over His

beings like themselves. I think Priest Cahill asserts that
the Scriptures are not forbidden to the members of the
Romish Church ; but they must receive them, it is well
known, subject to the interpretation of the priests, and
along with the traditions of their Church, which are held
as of equal efficacy and force with the sacred Scriptures
themselves. Infatuated and debased indeed must be the
intellect of those who will thus prostrate themselves to
their frail fellow-creatures.

I think, if any properly qualified person would keep a
watchful eye on the sayings and doings of Priest Cahill,
and expose his gross errors in the public papers, he would
be doing good service to his country and the cause of true
religion. The priest, feeling, as I hope he does, the weak-
ness of his cause, dare not meet an open discussion with
the Birkenhead clergymen, but writes a long rigmarole
letter to cover his retreat, and this letter is, forsooth,
printed in a cheap form and extensively circulated among
his ignorant dupes, with a view of giving him the appear-
ance of coming off in a triumphant manner, and having

the last word

there, I suppose
Nov. 4, 1853.

A PROTESTANT DISSENTER.

THE MONSTER VICE OF LIVERPOOL, AS DE-

PICTED BY A CLERGYMAN

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STA./MAUD.
SIR,—I have just returned, with sickened heart and de-
pressed spirit, from the densely populated district in which
I labour, grieved and shocked by those fearful exhibitions

of beastly-intoxication so co;

in the town at large. I, therefore, sit down to.' fulfil the
resolve long made of addressing you on this alarming, dis-
graceful, and growing evil. The appalling and frightful
extent to which this most degrading vice is carried has,
for the last twelve months, weighed most heavily and
sorely on my mind, and often have I thought, when my
hurried gaze has been arrested by the large and glaring
Placard proclaiming war to Romish superstitions—that
while the leading champions of Protestantism are arousing
the attention of their fellow-townsmen to the daring ag-
gressions and blighting progress of Papal error,—while
from the hoary battlements and massive turrets of our
beloved Sion they sound the trumpet's shrill alarm and
ring the bugle call for marshalling their troops in bold
defence of sacred truth, and the preservation of a pure
and holy faith—that while within the precincts of the hal-
lowed temple, and without its walls, they exhort with
burning eloquence their fellows to a martyrs courage and
to a martyr's bravery in the cause of Christian truth and
Christian liberty, the sensual and bloated Bacchus is
suffered, unimpeded, unobstructed, and unchecked, to
drive his desolating car, and to scatter unresisted his
demon, yet seducing charms, over the homes and dwellings
of now happy, prosperous, and virtuous--but, alas, ere
long, wretched, forlorn, and vice-ridden families. It is
high time to awake—high time for the preachers and
lovers of domestic and social virtue to arise and arm for
a determined struggle with the foe ; high time to unite
and oppose the devastating onslaught of a foe who
threatens to hold in brutal bondage millions of our
countrymen, to defend the citadel of English. sobriety,

test I mayl;esaluteil by some of your readers with the
salutation once given to St. Paul, " Thou art beside thy-
self," or lest I may be looked upon as one of those who
delight to make the dark. more dark, and give a gloomier
tinge to the picture than reality would warrant, suffer

me-to present, through the medium of your journal, to
the authorities and influential men of this great town a
few scenes which I sketched in my ministerial diary. I
shall first refer you to the hospital which, as a clergyman
of the district, it is my duty to attend. •
CisE I.—A few months ago I made my usual visit
to the institution, when, upon entering one of the wards,
to my perfect dismay and horror, I found a man who,
although bleeding profusely from frightful wounds in the
head, received while fighting, was raving and frantie from
the effects of excessive drinking—he was as furious as a
chafed lion—he used the most foul and obseme language
and uttered the moat fearful blasphemies—Lis eyes darted

countenance

But he has for once acted wisely for his I 'alone—

history of th
ectable circut

member of a religious body, a kind fathe
husband, a quiet neighbour, and a steady
workman. But in a fatal hour the wi
syren-call of Bacchus caught his ear. an,

3.7 Last week, passing

saw, at mid-day, two men, intoxicated, strippa
waists, fighting, set on and encouraged by a thi
the infatuated and senseless victims of strong d
CASE 4.—A Monday or two ago, in pas.:-
street onl-• "

,cy, before eleven o'clock in the morning, I met
...6TY drunken women, all tumbling and reeling home
to their miserable and affrighted children.
—Last Sunday I visited a house where I found

swollen. 1

inquiry I found the husband a man given to excessive
intemperance. It appears he is often drunk twice or thrice
in a-day ;he spends every penny of the money he earns in
the ale-house, the wife keeping a large family by her own
exertions. Last Saturday he came home in a state of wild
and unmanageable drunkenness; kicked his wife unmerci-
fully with his thick-nailed boots, struck her on the face,
broke three of her teeth, and then, like a brute, went to bed.
Numerous are the families I visit in their chairless
and bedless hovels, surrounded by snualid and filthy

poverty,—a patch of dirty straw coat into the far corner;
a poor, haggard-looking wife and mother, in the midst of
starving and ill-clad children ; and when I ask the cause, my
suspicions are confirmed. The father—the husband—with
his pound, thirty shillings, or two pounds weekly, is
allured, is seduced, is beguiled to the drinking booth,
or the more luxurious and princely "gin-palace," and
there, amid jovial riot and Bacchanalian song, amid wanton
dance, and the sparkling wine-bowl, or the less costly
ale-cup, he drowns the thought of crying children asking
for bread—of broken-hearted wife, wild and mad with sor-
row, as she sees in fancy's eye the cruel monster, who swore
in sight of heaven to love and cherish her, squandering
with prodigal and thoughtless hand the hard, hard earn-
ings of the six-days' toil. My present task is made more
painful when I am forced to say that such cases, so
revolting, are daily brought before my eyes, that they
are multiplying fast, are on a rapid increase, and
that woman, tender-loving woman too, often acts the
tragic part of murderess and destroyer of her children's,
her husband's home and comforts—that woman, winning
wnman Coo, forgetting her pure and lovely nature, and
sinking into the abhorred hag of Bacchus' train, offers
her gentle offspring as worshippers and victims for his
bloody altar. These are facts—facts undeniable—not
the dreams or pencillings of poetic minds—but glaring
and appalling facts. Shall these continue ? Can they ?
indeed they must not—they cannot so continue with im-
punity ; retribution, dire retribution on such as thes
retri

ration in the dreadful form of plague and pestilence ;
country cannot thrive and prosper while a vice, like some
ferocious vulture, feeds upon its vitals. What can a
kingdom be—what will she be—whose vast and multi-
plying masses— whose fast-increasing children of the
workshop, wharf, anvil, and the plough (the strength and
sinew of a people) become the sottish and idle votaries of
intoxicating Bacchus—who steep their senses and benumb

their fine feelings, and destroy their strength of arm and
limb in the maddening and enfeebling vat of horrid
drunkenness ? What can a kingdom be—what can a
nation be—whose rising generation—whose future men
and women--whose children, male and female, are nou-
rished in the midst of vice—who live and move amid the
scenes of vilest sensuality—children listening to the ob-
scene and filthy jest of a besotted father—listening to the
dreadful oath and wanton speeches of a drunken mother
just returned from the neighbouring ale-house? What
can a country be—what will she be with an increasing
multitude of such as these—what—what ?
Public authorities, and men of influence in the town, lend
me your ear, while I entreat you with all earnestness to

lelp in stemming the torrent of drunkenness that threatens
todemoralise and wasteyour country's people—entreat your
energy and zeal in checking and onnosing the bold and

dauntless march of desolating intemperance. I suppli-
cate your co-operation with the clergy of the town in
endeavouring to devise some plan whereby the lower
classes may be sheltered, may be screened from the fas-
cinating temptations that beset them. I entreat you, if it
be possible, to cease adding to the frightful number of
licensed " spirit-houses ;" cease from sanctioning at every
corner, and at every turn of our over-crowded districts,

buildings, which, by their extent and external decoration
and grandeur, and by their internal adornment of sculp-
ture, painting and the charms of mirth, music, and in-
toxicating drinks, shall entice the unwary passer-by to
enter those doors which too often prove to be the gate
"that inclineth to death." I entreat you to exert your
authority and influence in closing entirely all public-
houses on the Lord's day. 0, ye see not, and ye know
not, as I do, of scenes of sensual riot that pollute the

evening of that holy day. Deliver us from the withering
curse of open "drinking palaces" on the Sabbath evening.
We ministers of the Church may wear ourselves
away; we may visit the chamber of poverty and vice from
morn to eve ; we may point the outcast and the vile to the

" fountain open for sill and uncleanness ;" we may plead,
reason, and exhort the drunkard to forsake the path of
premature death, and the horrors of eternal despair; we
may spend our strength ; we may sacrifice our days to
works of ministerial love and charity ; and our hearts may
throb, and our pulse beat high, and our bowels yearn to
-t

aria the vile, buL
-alone as we are— single-handed in the conflict, and
,rse than alone, while those professing the Gospel of
purity and sobriety, and virtue, are getting gain, are
extending their domain, and accumulating fortunes
by the multiplying of those haunts of drunkenness
—alone in a densely populated district, what are we—
what can we do P We exert ourselves beyond our strength
—we feel already sinking in the fight. As lovers of your
country—as Britons proud of her unsullied flag—proud of
British valour, and British virtue, and British blessings—
as Christians—as Churchmen who venerate and love the
holy temple of your fathers, and who desire to preserve

loving and obedient children, help—aid to banish the
curse—to eradicate the disease that, like a plague-spot,
widens, enlarges, and mars the otherwise glorious beauty
of your fatherland ; help to drive the pestilential evil from
your town—a sin that fills your jails, crowds your work-
Jiouses, throngs your hospitals, depopulates your country,
carries to an untimely grave the healthy and robust among
the labouring classes—a sin that multiplies your destitute
widows and famishing orphans—a sin that profanes and
desecrates God's holy day.

Abstain from such rapid licensing as heretofore, and
close these houses on the Lord's-day.

I am, Sir
Liverpool, Nov. 3, 1853.

CLERICUS

THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF POLITICAL

PARTIES IN LIVERPOOL

TO Trim EDITOR OP VIE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

Sin,—lt is a most extraordinary fact, that although the
Liverpool Liberals have almost unvarying success in the
Revision Courts, still they are as invariably defeated at the
hustings. It is worth the time of these Liberals to find
out how such results ensue, and for the Tories to consider
what is the cause of their constant failure in registration
business. At the parliamentary revision which was held
between Mackenzie and Turner's, and Liddell and Hors-
fall's election, the Reformers had a gain of some 300 or 400
votes ; still, at the election which took place on the register
so revised, Mr. Horsfall's majority was, as near as possible,
the same as Mr. Turner's ! Again, at the municipal re-
vision, which was held a few weeks since, the Radicals
knocked off 86 voters in West Derby Ward; yet, Mr.
Wm. Earle,—who last year polled only 156 votes, and was
beaten by 48,—after having this year polled 241 votes
(nearly 100 more than last year), was again beaten, though
only by a small majority. No one would—or could—say,
that Mr. Horsfall used any influences different to Mr.
Turner, or Mr. Clint to Mr. Henderson. This, I say, is
worth the attention of all Reformers, for no one can brook
defeat worse than your modern Radical. I never knew a
Radical to be defeated, who did not console himself by at-
tributing his opponent's success to improper or illegal
agencies.

But how is it that the Tories are so unsuccessful in re-
gistration? Because they don't go to the expense which
is indispensable for success. There is plenty of material
to reverse the result,: there are in Liverpool now, at least
500 men who are qualified to be on the Don n:lee re-