The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-09 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

We cannot inform " a true conservative," why the columns
of the Standard only are open for the purpose of refuting
the sophisms of Sir Joshua Walmsley. Our conservative
contemporaries know the best.
The communication from our Dublin correspondent arrived.
too late, as the pressure of our local reports had anticipated
our space. Our friends would oblige us by addressing all,
letters connected with the STANDARD to the firm at the
office.
We have not a copy of the STANDARD of the 19th ult., and
have therefore forwarded the publication of this day to
Wickham.
"An Englishman" shall appear on Friday. •
" Fairplay" gives the lie direct to the title he assumes, by
the unfair insinuation conveyed in his letter. His igno-
rance is the only excuse we can assign for his impudence.
It was impossible on Friday to give insertion to the report
of the case to which he alludes, though it will be found in
our columns to-day.
In our notice of the Theatre-Royal, in our last, some unac-
countable mistakes occurred. For " Bassanio's losses"
read " Antonio's losses" ; for " Mr. Holl's Gratiano"
read " Mr. Holl's Bassanio" • and for " Mr. Gray's
Basianio" read " Mr. Gray's Antonio."

rfir Ribmool. g9tanbarD.

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 9, 1841

Our town-councillors, in their excursive liberality,
have lately added the' Jews to the number of those out-

casts from our creed and constitution, on whom they
are desirous of bestowing privilege and honour. It is
not that the Jews have themselves been very solicitous
of such advancement; they have been apparently ra-
ther indifferent on the subject. It is not that their dis-
qualifications have been discovered to work any injury
to them or to the state; no, nothing of this sort has

led our councillors to make a display of their" zeal
without,knowledge" in behalf of their suffering bre-
thren the Jews. It is a mere overflowing of that milk
of human kindness which runs in such a genial cur-
rent through their veins, and comes forward uncalled
for and unrequired. They have agreed to petition par-
liament in favour of a bill for the admission of Jews

to municipal honours—upon the dictate of that prin-
ciple of Liberalism which is at present unfortunately
dominant in the Council, and from no other cause that
we can immediately discover. Their worships, per-
haps, had some idle time upon their hands, and thought
they might as well employ it in " sporting an opinion"
upon the disabilities of the Jews. Wednesday was a
Aintree steeple-chase was a-foot; and
our civic dignitaries, rather than be idle, just mounted
their Pegasus, and did a few five-bar gates and tum-
bles in honour of the Hebrews, and for the amuse-
ment of their fellow• citizens.

sporting (lay

As to the Liberal interest, we calculate that it would
derive but small accession of strength in the borough
from the representation of wards being thrown open to
Jews. We doubt if a Hebrew would get retnrned for
one of them, if the opportunity were afforded. It is
not natural to suppose that the burgesses would desire
to be represented by Jews; and from what we know
of the Hebrew character, it is most unlikely that any
Jew would waste his monish in trying to get repre-
sented by weight of purse against the natural inclina-
tion of the electors. As to the Evans' and their bro-
ther " sportsmen" of the Council, we can easily sup-
pose that to them it would be all one whether their
companions in solemn assembly met were Jews, Turks,
Infidels, or Heretics ; any thing for them but the
strait-lacing of principle; but it is impossible to con-
ceive that, in point of fact, they could calculate on be-
ing able to add to their small majority, every year
growing smaller and " beautifully less," or to prevent
the diminution of their approaching minority, by ob-
taining admissibility for Jews. No ; the vote of last
Wednesday was a mere gratuitous display of Liberalism
for the honour and glory of the thing—a pure mani-
festation of the doctrine without the slightest regard
to any practical result, immediate or remote.
To the Jews themselves, as a people, we owe nothing
but benevolence ; and we reckon that there is not a
Christian burgess in our borough but would gladly dis-
charge that duty in a suitable manner. But we do not
owe to the Jews, nor to the Liberals, nor to any other
kindred or people, gentle or simple, that we should un-
christianise our state for them. We owe them no
such obligation; but we owe it, on the contrary, to
ourselves, to them, and to the whole world, that we
should retain and preserve our Christian institutions
and national Christianity unimpaired. That is our first
duty.

When propositions such as we have now in view are
submitted to our consideration, it is fair to ask—have

we got tired of our political institutions, and do we
intend to surrender them to be made havoc of by men
who, in calling themselves Liberals, do, in fact, declare
that they have no fixed principles whatever ? If not,
then let us take our stand on the ancient ways, and not
only resist those attempts by which our constitution
must be overturned, but well mark out those who
make them. It is irrational and absurd to suppose
that it can continue long, if we fill the citadel with
Allow all places of honour, trust, and
power to be filled by Jews, Papists, Dissenters, Infi-
dels, and Liberals ; and though the walls may remain
f6r a little while—though the work of demolition may
be deferred for a moment—yet what can the end be
but destruction ? Enemies will not preserve that which
they hate, and when they find themselves in the pleni-
tude of power, assuredly their cry will be, " rase it,
rase it, even to the foundation."

enemies

If Liberals desire to destroy that form of govern-
ment and constitution under which our country has
become the glory of the earth, let them do so; but let
it be our business to resist their designs and disap-
point their malice. It is a sacred duty incumbent
upon us, to transmit to our children, and to our
children's children, that constitution which we
have received as a previous
is_inheritance from our fa-
thers; and, for this end, it indispensably necessary
that we should place its known and trusty friends in
all places of power and dignity, and keep enemies out
of them.. This is what common sense suggests, and it
Is a suggestion which we ought to obey in preference

to all the

aphistr3',' and nonsense that Liberalw- q,an

A Liberal would put the management of our schools
into the hands of Jews or ,Papists ; for what cares he
in what religion the children of our people are brought
up : all religions are alike to him. But the Conserva-
tive, not having his religion to seek, cannot afford to
be quite so undistinguishing. He has found a creed
in the Church of his Fathers, and has taken it as the
chart to steer his earthly voyage by; and it must be,
as it ought to be, an object with him, second only in
importance to that which concerns his own individual
safety, to preserve for others, as well as himself; an in-
stitution to which he owes so- great a blessing. As
part and parcel then of this necessary system of de-

fence, we ought not to permit men who deny the Sa-
viour to be our rulers and legislators. It would be a
voluntary self-debasement—a gratuitous humiliation—
disgraceful to us alike as men and as Christians. We
should thereby dishonour our profession, and be unjust
not only to ourselves, but to those very persons whom
we would seem to honour by such means ; for it is
wrong, decidedly wrong, to place men in a situation
where they must necessarily be in a state of conflict
between their secret feelings and their public pledges.
This is, indeed, Liberal practice; but, we trust, will
never be Conservative.

It is impcssible that any right-minded Englishman
could have read the speeches inserted in our last paper,
relative to the church in North Wales, without feeling
that a destructive bloiv has been aimed thereat by cer-
tain measures, either inchoate or intended. This is a
matter in which the people of Wales are not the only
parties concerned. It is the duty of every conservative
Englishman to make the call his own ; for it is part
and parcel of that system of aggression by which it is
sought to undermine the Church of England, and a
Christian establishment everywhere.

The wrongs of which Wales has to complain are—
first, a reduction in the number of her bishops; and
secondly, the transfer of part of her ecclesiastical reve-
nues from her own poorly-endowed church and coun-
try, to England—one of these measures being already
decreed by act of parliament, and the other being at
present in progress of arrangement. Of both it can
truly be affirmed, that they are " heavy blows and
great discouragetnents" to the people of Wales; and it
is only a matter of astonishment how such monstrous
injustice a'zi they are calculated to effect could have been
thought of.

The church in Wales is episcopal, as in England ;
and yet, as if episcopacy were an injury rather than a
benefit, it is proposed to merge the sees of Bangor and
St. Asaph into one, in imitation of the lopping and
pruning system 80 ruinously practised in Ireland to
gratify the papists of that country. Now the church-
loving people in Wales, and the friends of the Church
of England in general, are at a loss to perceive how
this cutting down of the establishment evinces friend-
ship to it, and earnestly solicit that the sacrificial knife
may be arrested. This is what they ask, and surely
their request is neither immoderate nor extraordinary.
That, on the contrary, it is in every way reasonable,
abundant proofs have been given. The population of
the country has increased, and the pastoral super-
intendence of the church, therefore, needs increase
rather than diminution along with it.

" Look at the importance of North Wales," said the Rev.
Robert Davies, at the meeting alluded to, " look at the posi-
tion of the dioceses of Bangor and St. Asaph ; look at the
mountainous nature of the country, and the difficulty of ac-
cess from one place to another, and then say whether North
Wales did not present a strong case for an increase rather
than a diminution in the number of bishops. Besides the
clergy would be placed generally at a greater distance from
their diocesan, and thus the intended union would obstruct
that pastoral intercourse which ought always to subsist be-
tween a bishop and his clergy."

But it is unnecessary to go into details
can conceive them. It is not those to whom the pri-
vation is threatened who are called upon to plead in
such a case, but those who seek to inflict it upon them.
We do not want to know that taking away overseers
from the flock is an INJURY ; that we take to be a
prima facie case of the injurious kind without proof;
but we might be curious to know what could be said
on the other side—how giving to a large district of
L country one spiritual superintendent instead of two,
should be an advantage to it ? But this is no time for
amusing oneself with paradoxical trifling; and, for our
part, we desire no essays of the kind to feed us with
empty speculation. The short of the matter is, that a
most iniquitous attack has been made upon the church,
and, therefore, on the people of North Wales, and that
no time should be lost in hastening to avert the threa-
tened mischief. However, if there are any who desire
more detailed information on the point, we refer theta
to the speeches reported in our last number, where
they will find it abundantly, satisfactorily, and ably
afforded.

Every one

But the proposed, and already enacted union of the

dioceses, is only a part of the insufferable aggression
made, or intended to be made,, on our fellow-subjects
and brother churchmen in North Wales. There is an
" appropriation clause" yet in reserve which is still
more monstrous, because it is an act of absolute rob-
bery—which our Welsh friends, however, with a deli-
cacy and forbearance unsuited to these days, are in-
dulgent enough to call by the softer name of " ab-