The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-12 00:00:00

Standard-office, Two o'clock, a.m.

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
[CONTINUED FROM EIGHTH PAGE.]
Mr. SMITH CHILD considered England was the owner of the
land, and, as such, had a right to dispose of it.
Mr. F. PEEL supported the bill, considering that it was a
question which ought to be left entirely at the disposal of the
local legislature.
Mr. NAPIER argued that the right of the Church ought to be
respected ; and that, as numbers of persons had gone out to
Canada in expectation of finding their religion properly admi.
ministered there, parliament had no right to interfere for the
purpose of taking these resources out of the hands of the
Church. He should oppose the bill.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said the bill was for the benefit of
Canada. Government had •consulted the rights of the colony
in introducing this measure, and it would be in furtherance
of their interests for the house to pass this bill.
Sir J. PAKINGTON considered the proceedings of to-night a
disgrace to British statesmen.. The whole conduct of Govern-
ment in connexion with this bill had been marked by such va-
cillation, and such contradictionsof each other, that he had no
confidence in them. The reserves were intended for the
support of the Canadian Church in perpetuity. The late
Sir Robert Peel had said, and Lord J. Russell and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had but lately expressed an opinion,
that they considered the grant to be a permanent one. He
asked the house what confidence would be placed in public men
if such recantations took place. He considered England
pledged to respect these reserves, and he should, therefore, op-
pose the bill.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL having spoken in favour of the bill, the
house divided, when there appeared for the third reading
283 ; against 208 ; majority, 90.
The house adjourned at twenty minutes past ten.

FOREIGN AID SOCIETY.
PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE AND ITALY.

A public meeting in aid of this society was held last evening,
(Monday,) at the Lecture-hall of the Collegiate Institution, and
was numerously and respectably attended. The Rev. lir.
31'Neile was in the chair; and amongst those on the platform
were tlie Rev. R. Burgess, hon. secretary of the society, Revs.
D. Anderson, J. Harland, 'l'. C. Cowan, T. Robinson, .1.
Wright, Herbert Jones, Thomas Rawson, and S. B. Sutton ;
William Jones, Eaq., Edward Jones, Esq., 11. J. Webster, Esq.,
J. Williams, Esq., Clarkson, Esq., Adam Hodgson, Esq., &c.
The Rev. Csar asiaN, in opening the business of the meeting,
Said—You arealready aware that this meeting is convened by the
friends, and on the behalf of the Foreign Aid Society; but as
that society is not as well known among us as I feel it ought
to be, I may, perhaps, with propriety giye some information
concerning it, before I call upon its distinguished honorary
Secretary to enter into some of its detailed operations.
(Cheers.) It is computed, and with some approximation at
least to accuracy, that the Protestants in France amount to
above two millions. The numbers in Belgium, Switzerland
and Piedmont may be estimated at nearly another million.
(Hear, bear.) Among these, societies have been formed for
the purpose not only of maintaining true religion among
themselves, and transmitting it to their children, but also for
the purpose of extending it among the surrounding members Of
the Church of Rome. The chief societies, so organised,
are five in number. First, the Evangelical Society of
Trance. Second, the Central Protestant Society of
France. Third, the Evangelization Society of Lyons.
Fourth, the Evangelical Society of Geneva; and fifthly, the
Evangelical Society of Belgium. The object of our Foreign
Aid Society is to assist these societies on the continent, not
with men, but with money ; not by sending any additional la-
bourers into the field, whether ministers, or schoolmasters, or
colporteurs, but by enabling these societies, chiefly composed
of poor people, to maintain their own labourers. We have
nothing, therefore, to report of our own doing in this cause,
except the remittances made to the several treasurers of these
struggling institutions. These are apportioned according to
the judgment of the London committee, and are thus entered
on the balance sheet of their accounts for last year,—From
May 1, 1851, till April 30, 1852 :—Evangelical Society of France,
624: Central Protestant Society, 4279 ; Evangelical Society
of Lyons, 4200; Evangelical Society of Geneva, 4444; Evan-
gelical Society of Belgium, 4355. From this it will appear
that, in reporting the operations of those societies, we
are describing the work in aid of which we solicit your
Sympathies, your prayers, and your contributions. (Hear.)
The Evangelical Society of France has been labouring now for
nineteen years to diffuse the blessings of Scriptural Christi•
anity among the French people. In the midst of the several
revolutionary changes which have agitated that country, it
has steadily maintained its ground and pursued its object.
You will be glad to hear that it has also steadily increased in
funds and in labourers. In the year 1836 it had an increase of
about 42000, and was employing thirty-three labourers, of
whom thirteen were ministers. Now, in 1853, it has an in-
crease of 47000, and is employing 117 labourers. The
Central Society has added two new auxiliaries this year,
one for La Rochelle and Rochefort, in East France ; and
another for Berg,erae and Jainte Foix, in the southeast.
(It has now six branches. It has preached the word in
thirty-two different localities. In five of the communes
so visited, places of worship have been erected. Three of
them, at Darnetal, Tarsac, and Fresnoy, have been consecrated
for use. The other two, at Estissac and Neuillac, are, as yet,
prohibited. (Hear.) But I must leave further particulars to
My friend Mr. Burgess. who will tell you, from his own per-
sonal observation, of the faith, the zeal, and the patient suffer-
ings under persecution, of these children of God scattered
abroad in the waste howling wilderness of the great apostacy.
(Cheer s.) Owing to the uncertainty of the laws, old and
new, which may beappealed to for their prosecution, they are
thrown very much at the mercy of the local executive, that is,
Of the mayor of the place. So that where the mayor is a dutiful
son of Rome, bound by all the strength of his sincerity in his
religion, to do the persecuting pleasure of his priest or bishop,
the poor Christian pastor has but slender chance of a fair trial,
nor his little flock of even forbearance with their worship. It
is not supposed that the Emperor has any personal desire to
encourage or countenance these persecutions; but his imperial
majesty is rather awkwardly situate with regard to the Papal
hierarchy. He is emperor by the almost universal suf-
frage of France; but by whose means did he get the
votes? and what does he owe to the priesthood by whom
the voting urns were filled with suffrages for the empire?
This might account for the state of Protestants in France.
lie appealed to their Christian feelings and their Christian
sympathy for aid in the good cause in which they were
engaged, and he was sure that such an appeal would not be
Made in vain. There was a gigantic conspiracy of the powers
Of Papal Rome against the liberties of England ; and, however
Some of their writers might sneer at them for their bigotry,
the facts remained the same, and Rome could not deny it.
Ile thought, however, England had given some reason for the
belief that there was some inclination to receive the errors of
Rome. and it was owing to her own fault. She had not per-
formed her high mission of spreading the knowledge of the
scriptures to all the nations round her; for had she with all her
greatness shown her adherence to the religion of the Bible, it
Was impossible but that foreigners must have attributed the
greatness of England to her Protestantism. What, however,
had they seen? They had seen England in these latter days,
believing in her laws and her constitution that Rome had for-
feited her right to the name of Christian, and yet raising to
high places and offices of importance • members of that apos-
tacy which had been foretold in the :scriptures forbidding
diplomatic intercourse with Rome, and yet being in constant
intercourse ; in every respect showing an utter disregard of
those principles which it was their duty on that occasion to
show still prevailed. He concluded, amidst cheering, by call-
ing on
The Rev. Motto. BURGESS, who, in a lengthened and interest-
ing speech, drew a picture of the state of religion in France,
where at the present moment Rome was crushing with a high
hand the evangelising efforts of the Protestant section of the
people. There were at the present moment 40,000 Popish
priests in France, 80 bishops, more than 3,000 nunneries, and
at least a thousand fraternities of friars and similar institu-
tions ; connected with which there were hundreds and thou-
sands of persons, and which were supported by an enormous
sum of money, amounting to not less than four millions ster-
ling ! The Romish power in France struck at the root of Pro-
testantism through the control of the education of the people.
Then they added to that the powers of superstition and priest-
hood, which he illustrated--first, in the case of the bishops'
charges, or, as Cardinal Wiseman calls them, Lenten pasto-
rals. One bishop, whom he quoted, laments exceedingly that
he could not obtain froth the civil authorities the exhumation
of the bones of heretics buried in the cemetery, because they
polluted the ground. He says--" Why can these heretics not
be contented with the ground set aside for malefactors and cri-
minals ?" The authorities fortunately had the good taste not
to accede to the request. An Archbishop says, in his charge,
that the railroads have been the instruments of the vengeance
of God upon the innkeepers, who indiscriminately gave meat
in fast days to travellers, although the Journal des Debate
reminded his Grace that the railroads had raised a new class of
innkeepers, who, in consequence of those very railroads, had
the opportunity of giving meat to an increased number of par-
ties, who travelled on fast days. He read the prefect's decree,
by which, to his own knowledge, a little Protestant chapel had,
on the 20th of last February, been prevented from being
opened for worship—a company of yens d'armes having been
sent thither to see that the worshippers did not assemble,
and to order that the words engravers on a bible in the
front of the building should be defaced—these words being
" Search the Scriptures." The bishop who had caused
all this to be done had likewise written a little pastoral, in
which he said—" Arrest these vagabonds who come to infect
our parishes with their obscene works," and to which he ad-
ded— " the reverend rectors will assist you with their attend-
ance, and so you will help to raise in your parish a barrier
against the demoralising Influence of the pastors." He related
Ins personal observations in a town of the department of Cham-
pagne, where some of the inhabitants having sent for a pastor
and founded a Protestant place of worship, they assembled in
peace for a year. But this did not suit the Papal hierarchy ;
the time came for the census, and out of the 2,000 inha-
bitants 900 attached to their names the fact that they
were connected with the " Reformed Church of Christ.'
On the day on which he arrived in that town, two years ago, he
found the Protestants engaged in putting to the roof ; the
chapel was now finished ; but when the pastor went there he
was apprehended, and told by the Mayor that he had no
authority to preach, and that there were no Protesatants fined i. The
pastor and his coadjutors were tried by the law, nd n
16 francs—only 16 francs—because in this case there were ex-
tenuating circumstances—as was always the case in French
criminal courtssta, even in such cases as that ofMadae Lafar
t c e
'where i t wasted there were extenuating circumstances, be-
'where
The
she cut her victim into such very small pieces.es, T
pastor and his colleague appealed to the Chief Court in
Yarns, and the result of the appeal was that Oa decree was
supported, and the punishment of the provincial tribunal con-
firmed. This judgment was given in February last, by which
it is ruled throughout the whole of France that, if they attempt
to spread the Gospel, the Protestants subject themselves to
fines and imprisonment. This was the religious equality which
was supposed, even by some of our own shrewd senators, to
exist in France, and among the rest by Mr. Richard Cobden,
who, in one of his recent pamphlets, affirmed that the most
perfect religious equality existed in France. Were Mr.
Cobden to make himself acquainted with these facts,
he would not dare, in the face of that meeting, to deny
the statement lie made, that France may soon indeed
produce its Nadia', for the circumstances of France were pre-
cisely the same as those of Tuscany. The speaker related
many other interesting and most affecting incidents, from
which it appeared that, under the new Emperor, Protestant
schools and chapels were shut Bp—the pastors and the
People apprehended, imprisoned, and fined—the word of
God suppressed and dishonoured—and the toleration ba-
rometer ruled by the Romish ecclesiastics. His expe-
rience had told him that wherever there was a Romish
cardinal or a Popish bishop, there was no toleration.
it was on the ground more especially of this persecution, that
lie appealed to them on behalf of the institution which he re-
presented. He did not want them to do more than lend their
aid to the people. He felt convinced that it was not well to do
a thing wholly for a people in such circumstances. A double
good arose from merely assisting the work ; for then the
people were still necessitated to depend upon themselves.
After a most interesting delineation of the progress of Pro-
testant truth in Italy ; and a glance at the recent increase of
the ancient Waldensian Church, the reverend gentieman fur-
explanation of the present war
Walled a very interesting