The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-01-15 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

It is said that there are now orders in England for between
two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand tons of iron
for the railroads on the Continent, in the United States, and
other. parts of the world. Such an extraordinary demand from
a new so ust make a great difference in the permanent
prospects o engaged in this branch of manufacture; it will
go far towards securing indiscreet advances made by bankers,
the iron masters, and others; and it will alto tend to settle dis-
putes arising out of old leases which had become, from the low
price of iron, too burdensome to be borne by the occupiers of
mineral property.—Birmingham Jouinal.
The Mining Journal of. Saturday states, "That amongst the
important articles of home supply most remarkable for a revi-
val during the last-two years, from a state of extraordinary pre-
vious depression, is iron, the present prices of which, in all de-
partments of the manufacture, especially of the coarser or com-
mencing processes, are uniqrstood to remunerate the persons,
engaged, more particularly at the iron works, where the dis-
tress of 1826 to 1832 has given rise to great economy and im-
provement in the manipulations. In reasoning upon the state
of trade, from time to time, upon production; upon the state of
home and foreign consumption; and upon the connexion er-
roneously supposed by many to exist between an abundant sup-
ply of piper money, arid% prosperous state of trade and prices,
this particular article desrves especial remark. It is now ge-
nerally known and acknowledged, that the great depression
and distress which did exist in this Important, and, indeed, won-
derful branch of trade, but whicq has happily passed off, arose
not not-from a diminution of paper or other currency, but, in
fact, from an excessive supply, generated by too eager invest-
ment of capital in iron-works and furnaces, in 1825 and 1827,
to which Was added a momentary pressure, treated by the ex-
clusion of our iron, in every Case in which it was practicable,
in consequence of the determined and national, but equally
vain efforts of the United States, to raise up manufactures of
all kinds, by a monstrous system of tariffs and legal restrictions.
In recoiling there (as they will eventually do here, and every
where else, upon those who invent and use them,) these tariffs
had nearly caused the separation of the southern and other chief-
ly agricultural states, from their political union with the north
and east. Retaining an amount of duty, such as is tolerated
by the southern states, and by the public opinion, which latter,
by means' of commercial and national losses has become at
length niore• enlightened, the rise of tl* prit4aof iron in Eng-
land is operating in a perfectly natural manner im favour of the
American iron mast' who are again beginning to increase their
operationi under cover of a better remunerating price, which
seems to have followed as-a reward upon the abandonment of
artificiai-measures-of protection."

WORKING OF THE DISSENTING SYSTEM.

It is undeniable that a very considerable proportion of the
dissenting chapels throughout the country are overwhelmed with
. ~ '''4,ebts, and offer no certain prospect even of the regular pay-
.- &Ant of the interest upon the capital, sunk in these concerns.
Within the last twelve months, we have seen some of these
!neetinv,-houses brought to the hammer, and several of them
But have
purchased by the friends of the established church.
the creditors of many of these "unfortunate speculations "
have kot, been so lucky as to find the means of realizing their
money ; and accordingly
we may frequently expect to see their 1
claims before the courts of law, now that the effect of the sys-
a
tem
mare
came 'ilea to shuts themselves. During the last week,
m befor .
builder, prosecuted e the Jury Court, in which the pursuer, a
sion chapel erectedt members of the congregation of a seces-
9s. 8d.,. being the bal.Yo him in Portobello, for the sum of £445
chapel. It appears thZ of his account for building the said
the members of the con the law renders liable for this debt all
formality, in the preseiftretiation; but in consequence of an in-
ranee the pursuer abandoned his
case. We refer to this trin
svhowever, merely to illustrate the
nature and character of the
individuals, it may be from 111-eZ7:O* Here we find that a few
heads that, as there is a want oMih f motives, take it into their
can suppl;it*.neans of religious instruc-
tion in Portobello, they
the voluntary prin-
ciple. Accordingly, they exert theinusrvhe to obtain a sum of"
:titie: gives them and 1
moneys, which they pay over to thfie,rbtihiieldbearis
we He erects the
the embryo congregation credit
idairo.
on
takes
7Teits patiently
chapel ; but the balance is not forthcoming.
a few years—but no one will liquidate his
the parties into court; and we thus find that the
chapel, extracted by force of law, is subscribed not on the of the
vniun.
tary, but ou the compulsory principle! Moreover, it is obviou I
in the power of the creditor to sell the chapel to whomsoevg4
will purchase it, for whatever purpose. Such is the practical
working of the voluntary system; and yet we are gravely asked
to place the supply of religious instruction to all classes of the
people upon so sandy a foundation.—Edinburgh Evening Post.

EXTRACTS FROM THE REV. MICHAEL CROTTY'S
LETTER TO DR. MURRAY, TITULAR ARCH-
BISHOP OF DUBLIN.

1 charge thee, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the e

angels, emu thou observe these things, without preferring one before
another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no
man, neither be partaker of other men's sins; keep thyself pure."—
Paul to Timothy, sth chap., 21 and 22. ,

* * * IP*
If, my lord, the advice of the Apostle
Paul had been followed, the church of Rome would not have
denied to her clergy the pure, holy, and sanctified enjoyments
of matrimony, which patriarchs and prophets have used in by-
gone days, which harmonizes the different shades of life, and
calls forth the noblest sentiments of our nature; and the unfor-
tunate priests, Corbet and •Stenson, would in all probability be
at this moment ornamental members of society and fathers of
numerons, happy, and respectable families. If marriage, my
lord, be the dictate of nature, as the institute of Heaven, and if,
according to the doctrine of your church, it be a sacrament, and
Confers grace, why are not your priests allowed to receive it; or
why, in opposition to the laws of Gad and nature, has the un-
christian and anti-social policy of the church of Rome imposed
on her clergy the intolerable yoke of celibacy ? If the clergy
of your church, my lord, were allowed to marry, we should not
behold the unsuspectingconfidence 'of female innocence so often
betrayed, nor the peace and happiness of private families so often
broken, nor the tribunal of confession converted into a snare
and stumbling block for the ruin and destruction of souls. If
the clergy of your church, my lord; were allowed to marry, we
should not see popish convents and monasteries filled with cOnnt-
less swarms of the drones of idleness and the votaries of super-
stition—nor would the world, so often shocked. and terrified by
the monstrous vices that are committed in those receptacles of
lazy piety and indolent devotion.

• *
Have not the great majority of the Roman catholic inhabi-
tants of Birr, who are attached to me and to my cousin from
honest and conscientious convictions of the truth and justice of
our cause—have they not, I say, witnessed the frightful clerical
'abuses that have disgraced the parish of Birr, and made a certain
diocese proverbial for its iniquities ? In vain, my lord, are the
people sought to be impressed with a belief that the chapels of
certain 'priests are holy ground, or to regard their churches as
the temples of the Divinity. To the people they appear as
the temples of idols and false oracles. Are not some of the
priests worse than those of Baal and Moloch ? May they not
I be justly compared to Jewish sepulchres; white without, and full
of rottenness and corruption within ? And has not, therefore,
the fire of the people's Wrath almost consumed them ? The
lightning of offended Heaven has pierced their sanctuaries and
rent the veils of their temples from the top unto the bottom.
Not'xing is sound, nothing is whole—the tables of the law are'
shattered and-splintered—the ark of the covenant is lost, and
passed into the hands of the uncircumcised.
When your lordship shall arrive in Birr,' as it is reported-'you
are about to do, you will have an opportunity of ascertaining
the strength of my congregation. You say I ought to obey the
spiritual authorities of my church; yes, but do you forget the
terms you required of me and of my cousin, as the necessary
and sine qua non condition of a mutual reconciliation between.
us and the titular of Killaloe ? Do you forget that you required
of us to sign our own condemnation, to seal our own death war-
rant, by subscribing a declaration to the following effect—
namely, "that all the marriages we had Solemnized for the last
ten years were invalid; and that all our 'absolutions during that
period were null and void ?" Can it be said, my lord, that such
an infamous declaration as that is to- be expected at the hands of
any man in the nineteenth century professing to be a minister of
Christ ? Did I or my cousin ever make a vow of blind and
passive obedience to any human being upon this earth ? Gra-
cious God ! are we to be expected to revive the exploded and
antiquated doctrine of passive obedience ? Are we to be ex-
pected to renounce the light and blessings of the gospel for the
traditions of corrupt vnd fallible man—the errors and supersti-
tions of popery ?

You have charged me with having opposed, when a student
in Maynooth College, the authorities of that house. Yes, I de-
nounced in terms of honest indignation the vicious, narrow,
and ruinous system of education pursued in, that house, which,
is the hot-bed_ of bigotry, intolerance, and superstition, where
hypocrisy is religion, and knavery is morality. Yei, I joined
issue with the Courier newspaper, and publicly and openly de-
elared that the College of Maynooth has never yet produced a
gentleman or a scholar, and that there never was an establish-
ment that stands more iu need of a speedy reformation than
that house, where four hundred popish priests are fed and edu-
cated by the liberality of a protestant government, and who are
let loose upon the world to disseminate the unchristian and anti-
social doOrines and principles of bigotry and intolerance,
which they are taught in that house. To these priests, who are
'the busy and active agents of Mr. O'Connell, may be imputed
the pernicious system of agitation and other numberless cala-
mities that now distract and afflict our unfortunate country.
To these bigots may be imputed the calumnies that are every
day heaped upon the protestant establishment, and to whose
violent and infiamatory language from their altars may be as-
cribed the hatred and the murder of the protestant clergy of Ire-
land! ! You have charged me with having opposed, in Birr,
the spiritual authoriy of my bishop-1 deny the charge, and
state the facts of the case:—
In the year 1826 a contest arose among the Roman Catholics
of the parish of Birr regarding the alledged embezzlement of
the chapel funds by a certain committee in that town. In the
month of May, 1826, a deputation- from the great majority of
the Roman oitholics of the parish of Birr waited on Dr. O'-
Shaughnessy, the then titular of Killaloe, to request him to come
to Birr, to accommodate this difference between the parishioners
and the chapelcommittee. Dr. O'Shaughnessy being. then in
a delicate state of health, deputed his coadjutor, the present ti-
tular of Killaloe, with full power and authority to make up the
unhappy quarrel. The coadjutor bishop accordingly arrived at
Birr, but instead of listening to the voice of the parishioners,
whom he designated a ruffianly mob, and redressing their griev-
ances and complaints regarding the alleged peculation of the
chapel monies by the aforesairl committee. as in all justice he
should have done, he bowed obedience to the arbitrary fiat of
the said committee, and their partizans the priests, condemned
the parishioners without a hearing or trial, and without waiting
the investigation of the chapel accounts, of which be said he
knew nothing, and wished to know nothing. The coadjutor
bishop laid the parish of Birr under an interdict, and with the
plentitude, and with more than the boldness, of the papal de-
posing power in its meridian fervour of the 12th century, put
the whole Roman Catholic population of the town and parish
of Birr, with the exception of the chapel committee and their
adherents, into one sweeping clause of ban and anathema; and
proclaimed them rebels and usurpers by whole circles of latitude
and longitude.

My cousin and I have resisted and withstood the encroach
ment and prerogative; we have, combated in defence of the
people's rights; we have battled in the cause of pure and
genuine christianity ; we have struggled against the inroads of
opulent oppression, and opposed the exercise of popish tyranny
and despotism; we have abolished the worship of saints and
images, and the abominable superstitions of the scapular; we
have put an end to the anti-christian system of the clay money,
which was a gross imposition on the simplicity and credulity of
the multitude—an absurd perversion of religion and common
sense; we have exploded a most nefarious custom, which was
generated by clerical avarice, and perpetuated by the tyranny
and despotism of the priests; we have scourged the clerical abo-
minations of the dioceses of Killaloe upon the vicarious back of
a drivelling and incapable administration ; we have kept our
grofind in Birr during ten years of the most unrelenting perse-
cution that ever was recorded in the annals of either ancient or
modern history against the power and influence of the papal
hierarchy, against the persecution of the whig government ; we
have enlarged the views, liberalised the minds, expanded the
ideas, and elevated the character of the Roman catholics of
the town and parish of Birr, and rescued-them from the dregs
of popery and superstition; we have scouted and put to flight
the damned and antichristian doctrine of exclusive salvation,
which, among her many other usurpations, the church of Rome
has impiously arrogated to herself, and which is refuted in every
page of the gospel of a crucified Redeemer. * * C * *
Th times iu which we live, my lord, are big with portentous
events. There is, my lord, a spirit of inquiry abroad; another
light is bursting upon the land; the march of intellect is pro-
gressive; the priests are beginning to see the errors of popery,
and are heartily tired and sick of the working of the system.
,Let the church of Rome abandon the errors and superstitious
she has ingrafted upon. pure and genuine christianity; let her
cast away from her with a generous scorn and a holy inspira-
tion all those adulterous trinkets which are the pledges of her.
alienation from Christ and his gospel, and the monuments of
her shame; then, and not till then, will she return once more
into the bosom of the catholic church, and to the original purity -
and simplicity of faith which she preached when Paul addressed
his epistle to her; then with all jars, and jealousies, and heart-
burnings cease in this unhappy country; then will all protestants
and Roman catholics be united in the bond of one common
christianity; and then, and not until then, will and can Ire-
land be called

Great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea."
I have the honour to remain, my lord, your most.obedient and
humble servant, MICHAEL CROTTY.
Birr, December, 1835.