The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-01 00:00:00

Within the last few years, foi the formation of the vari.
ous lines of railway throughout the kingdom have been
chiefly furnished by these classes; and within the next
twelve months, in the midst of depression and loss,
further millions are required, and will be readily and
even cheerfully contributed.
'We are well aware of the existence of one strong

conducing cause for this unusually sulmiissive temper
on the part of the suffering interests. Our commercial
brethren, we know, hope nothing and expect nothing
from the present government; but even this is not suf-
ficient to account for the apparent indisposition of our

manufacturers and merchants to assist themselves.
We no longer see that restless desire to explore new

markets, and increase consumption to the extent of
production, which used to be the characteristic of Bri-
tish commerce. On the contrary, we have seen, within
the last few years, some of the most important foreign
markets closed against them altogether ; and where we
should have formerly experienced a storm of dissatis-
faction against the government which has brought upon
them the deprivation, we have now scarcely a murmur
of disapprobation ; and we are strongly tempted to ask

ourselves the question, '6 Can it be that the commer-
cial greatness which this country has hitherto enjoyed
is now admitted, even by those engaged in it, to have
reached its summit, and to be no more worth a struggle
to retain ?"

We suspect that some such feeling has existence in
the minds of the trading classes. A feeling of the in-'
security of commercial capital has grown up, and new
and promising speculations are resorted to in the hope
that more solidity will attend them. This feeling, how-
ever, we trust, will before long pass away.
The recent failure in the metropoils, with the extra-
ordinary exposures by which it has been accompanied,
has naturally turned the attention of thinking men to
this subject. The commercial world are beginning to
feel that merchants and manufacturers are equally as
liable as bankers to be betrayed by the ignes fatui,
which speculation presents to them on every side; and
when it is known and notorious that for the last two
years a great portion of our trading and manufacturing
operations have been, not only unattended with profit,
but in many cases have been carried on at a positive
loss to the parties engaged in them; it is far from
pleasing to witness the cold and listless feeling with
which this state of things is submitted to. The occur-
rence of a day or an hour may plunge us into the hor-
rors of a continental war; and with a deficient and
declining revenue, a disaffected population at home,
and insecurity and even danger menacing our colonial
possessions, it is far from being evidence of a healthy
State of feeling or of circumstances, when the com-
merce of the country, which has ever been its right
arm in times of difficulty, is allowed without a murmur
to remain sunk in hopeless dilapidation.
We shall return to this subjeet on a future occasion,
and endeavour to point out a few of the claims which
the mercantile and manufacturing interests have a right
to urge upon the government of the country.

We have given insertion to Mr. Briarly Browne's re-
Ply to the remarks which we felt it to be our duty to
offer upon the recent ungenerous attacks upon the
Pastoral Aid Society. We might content ourselves
With a bare reference to Mr. Browne's letter, as con-
taining a full justification of the course which we pur-
sued in reference to his case. He professes to take
grave offence at the designation of " Puseyite," which,
from an isolated passage in the correspondence with
the secretary of the Pastoral Aid Society, we ventured
to apply to him. We have already explained that we
selected the appellation because it is popularly applied
to the disciples of the Oxford Tract writers. We find
to Mr. Browne's letter intrinsic evidence quite sufficient
to justify us in identifying him as one of the ad-
mirers of that school of divines. In doing so we

never meant to accuse him of entertaining sectarian
dews. We are well aware that such views are
by none more strongly disclaimed than by Dr. Pusey
and the rest of the Tractarians. At the same time we
are prepared to maintain that the doctrines put forth
in those tracts, and in the larger and more elaborate
tomes published under the same auspices, are utterly
inconsistent with the articles, homilies, and rituals of
the Church of England, as expounded and illustrated
in the writings of the fathers and col essors of the RE-
FORMED and PROTESTANT faith. Nay, further, and
what is of far greater importance, we are prepared to
prove that the dogmas of the Tractarians are utterly
repugnant to the sense of the Holy Scriptures, as set
forth and interpreted in the formularies of the esta-
blished church. To go fully into the proof of these
positions would require more space than we have at
present at our command ; but the subject is one of too
touch importance to the lasting interests of the church
to permit us to shrink from its discussion.
Mr. Browne asks whether we have ever read the
" far-famed" Oxford Tracts ? We answer in the
affirmative. We have read them usque ad nauseam.
We have also read Froude's Remains, Palmer's
Works on Ecclesiastical History, Newman on Justifi-
cation, and several others of the same character ; and
feel, therefore, tolerably competent to enter upon this
field of polemical divinity. We should hold it both
unjust and disingenuous to stigmatise works which we
had neither seen nor read. In reply to the third pa-
ragraph of Mr. Browne's letter, we have merely to
remark that, according to his own confession, we can-
not have "stronger grounds of attack" than those
Which we at present possess.
When Mr. Browne remarks, that " if we have read
the Oxford Tracts, we are almost singular amongst the
number of their opponents," he must surely forget the
fearful onslaught made upon them by the present
Bishop of Chichester, and the dignified and seasonable
rebukes of the Bishops of Chester and Oxford, not to
mention the powerful exposure of their Romish ten-
dency by the pious and excellent Bishop of Calcutta,
and by the learned Bishop of Ohio. He must also
forget the numerous articles which have appeared in the
London Standard, in the Morning Herald, in the Times,
and in a great majority of the provincial journals.
Neither can he be aware, in making such a sweeping
assertion, that the doctrines promulgated in the Oxford
Tracts have been boldly and repeatedly opposed from
the pulpit, in hearing of several of the largest congre-
gations in Liverpool. It would be too much to assume
that the bishops and clergy who have thus opposed the
Pxford Tracts have never read those tracts.
We have now, we presume, sufficiently explained
ourselves on the subject of Mr. Browne's complaint.
We never intended to " nickname" him by calling him
a Puseyite. We merely wished to intimate that he en-
tertained views which we conceive to be inconsistent
With the doctrines of. the Church. of England. His
own letter fully corroborates our original impressions.
In our next we shall enter upon our proofs, availing
ourselves of his own references to the canons and for-
mularies of the church, as the principal grounds of our
defence against the charge of unfairness which his
letter conveys.