The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-04 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

CAN SUCH THINGS BE?
(Prom the Essex Standard.)
Nay, such things are, and thousands upon thousands
of Protestants, as they would be called, are as indiffe-
rent to the fact as if it were unalloyed and unmitigated
and unmitigated fiction. The yearly grant to the So-
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel has been long
since withdrawn by the present government ; and, hear
it, Englishmen,' £70,000 per annum is actually being
paid, by a professedly Protestant Government, for
teaching what, until lately, they were accustomed to
affirm, by oath, to be " damnable doctrines." Yes,
this is the sum which we are actually dealing out, like
Jezebel of old, for the purpose of supporting idol
priests, teachers of Baal, bowers down to images ; and
yet Englishmen will not awaken. Are they waiting
for the re-kindling of the Smithfield fires? Have they
a wish to experience the pleasure of the Inquisition ?
0 let them look to the facts which we will set before
them in a very few lines, and be warned before it is too
late. Here is the parliamentary paper containing an
account of the grants already made by government :

FOR POPERY:

Gibraltar
Cape of Good Hope
Mauritius
Lower Canada
Upper Canada.
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Jamaica
Trinidad
Demerara
Berbice
New South Wales
Van Diemen's Land
And besides all this, there is—
Maynooth
Education Board (which is
almost entirely in the
hands of Romanists)
Board of Works

£3OO a year.
200 „
2,595 „
2,000 „
1,600 „
50
75 „
550 „
3,262 „
1,370 „
532 „
1,830 „
300 „

9,000 „

50,000 „ 1
2,000 „

There, Englishmen, is more than £70,000 which
your government is paying in your name, for the ab-
solute cultivation of the Romish apostacy ! 'Will you
not think it worth your -while to exercise your elective
franchise at the next election, or have you no interest
in a matter so utterly insignificant.—Essex Standard.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
(From the Watchman)
It would seem from the lavish grants of money pro-
posed by ministers for the maintenance of Prince Al-
bert, notwithstanding the Queen's ample income of
L 300,000 per annum to support any conceivable ex-
penses consequent on her approaching marriage, that
as little attention is bestowed on the state of the re-
venue, as on other neglected public interests. Hap-
pily there are those non-official guardians of the com-
monwealth, who, ever and anon, thunder in Lord Mel-
bourne's ear some disagreeable truths to chafe the cur-
rent of his otherwise easy and pleasurable existence.
The Earl of Ripon is one of these wakeful sentinels on
the battlements ; and he has just blown a note of alarm,
not loud but deep, respecting the unsatisfactory state of
the revenue. What public interest, in short, it may be
asked, is in a prosperous condition ? Verily the ma-
terials to sustain Sir J: Y. Buller's vote of censure on
ministers lie scattered thick as hail, and whatever im-
pression they may make on the faction-proof minds of
the present House of Commons, they cannot fail to do
great execution throughout the country at large.
It might seem, indeed, from the results of the late
elections in favour of ministers, as if nothing would
arouse the public to a sense of the dangers which me-
nace our beloved country. Various local circumstan-
ces and other influences, however, might be success-
fully pleaded against any general unfavourable infer-
ence to the cause of Conservatism being drawn from
those elections. But certainly they ought, if anything
can, to arouse every true patriot and Protestant from
the delusive day-dream, that the cause of constitutional
freedom as versus that of the movement, can be won
without efforts commensurate with the energetic influ-
ences combined to secure its overthrow. In a late
number of this journal, we pointed out, at some length,
how completely unrepresented in the House of Com-
mons are " the Protestant people of England." We
anxiously desire, that that appalling fact may lay hold
of the public mind, and put it into a right state of feel-
ing prior to another general election. Alas ! that there
should prevail in the minds of those classes of the
community, who profess a general indifference to reli-
gious truth, so lamentable an instance of what even
they owe to Protestantism, as the fountain of civil, as
well as religious liberty.
But to return to the Earl of Ripon's appalling state-
ments—statements altogether uninfluenced by party
feeling, and reflecting no blame either on the Govern-
ment or on any other parties." Their appeal is to the
interests of posterity, on whom the evil will probably
fall with accumulated weight, more even than to those
of the men of this generation. "Those who were in-
different," said the noble Earl, "to what might possi-
bly happen after their ma times, might not perhaps
feel very anxious about such a question as this." Now
it will be recollected, as was asserted by the Earl of
Ripon, that the Duke of Wellington, when at the head
of the Treasury, " introduced an act, by which all the
then existing laws relative to the Sinking Fund were
abrogated, and which provided that the Sinking Fund
shall only he assisted out of any actual surplus revenue
to a certain extent, and, beyond that, that the surplus
shall be applied to the reduction of taxes. For five
or six years subsequently, with the exception of one
year, there was a regular surplus of income over ex-
penditure, which was applied according to the provi-
sions of the new act. By the noble Duke's policy,
both relief was given to taxation, aid an annual -re-
duction, to some extent, of the National Debt was ef-
fected. But now, for the last three years, so far from
there having been a surplus, there has been a consider-
able deficiency of revenue. This, however, is not
owing to any real falling off of the national resources,
but rather to an increase of an expenditure of the coun-
try, and that too in the time of general peace. Nor, as
Earl Ripon insisted, " does a single reason exist for
hoping for a curtailment of this heavy expenditure,"
which, on the contrary, has too permanent a character,
being partly owing to fresh additions to the National
Debt, and partly resulting from the strong neeessity
which exists to keep our naval and military arrange-
ments in a condition to grapple with the growing spirit
of disaffection at home or in the colonies, and with the
emboldened enemies of the empire. Again we ask, is
this a time for government to play ducks and drakes
with the contents of the national purse? We regret so
extravagant a proposal, under all the circumstances,
for Prince Albert's
pocket-money, for surely he will
need no other establishment than the Queen's. We
regret it as a needless addition to the national burthens,
.bat much more as calculated to widen the breach be-
tween Government and the operative classes, who see
in such palpable proofs of a want of economy, what
they consider unanswerable objections to the present
syatem of administering public affairs.
Whichever way we Ipok, danger stares us full in the
face;---the interests and ascendancy of Protestantism
compromised,—lreland secretly arming for undoubted
rebellious objects,--the peace of English society at the
mercy of a suppressed but not extinct Chartism,—pub-
lic morals undermined by the impious emissaries of
Socialisin,--relig.ious harmony interrupted by the rest-
less spirit of political dissent on the one hand, and a
semi-popish ecclesiastical intolerance on the other,—
the manufacturing and agricultural interests in open
conflict,--colonial -and foreign sources of discord, a
crippled commerce, and expensive wars,—a fluctuating
monetary system,—an oppressed pauper population,—
and, to complete the picture, a relatively DECLINING
ILEVENVE !

jouN pinLyni Cl'ltlt,S.N.—ln Lis laht illness, his physi-
cian having remarkcd ctrl} one morning that he coughed
with much difficulty ; " that is rather surprising," answered
Curran, inlet I have been practising all night."