The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-28 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

THE IRISH CORPORATIONS.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
We have been accused of evading or avoiding. the
question of Irish corporations; and the accusation has
been put forward by those who knew it to be false.
The Mail never avoided or evaded a subject that a
public journalist was bound to discuss; nor are we
aware, tillat since the day when the bill for Irish muni-
cipal reform was last before Parliament, down to the
present hour, the matter had ever assumed a position
that called for observation at our hands. It is true,
-that a paltry cabal—influenced by motives to which it
is unnecessary for us at'this stage to advert—has been
set a-foot, and has kept the question in a state of ob-
scure agitation ; but we emphatically deny, that upon
public grounds anything has occurred which made it
necessary for us, in the exercise of a sound and whole-
some discretion, to obtrude ourselves or our opinions
upon the time or the attention of our readers. It will
be seen, however, by the following announcement,
which we extract from the Warder of Saturday last,
that a meeting of the corporation is to be held, at
which we trust and hope the " rumours" and " whis-
perings" which have been so long afloat, will assume
a tangible and substantive form :
" We understand that the Lord Mayor has convened
a meeting of the corporation for next Friday, at the
Assembly-house, William-street, when measures of
great importance not only to the corporation, but the
Protestants of. Ireland generally, will be brought for-
ward, and when, it is said, a correspondence that has
passed between certain members of the body and the
conservative leaders in the sister kingdom, including
the Duke of Wellington, Lord Winchelsea, Sir Robert
Peel, &c. &c. will be laid before the corporation."
These documents will he valuable indeed; and in.
particular the letters of the Duke of Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel. If the bill brought in last session
contain fatal errors or equally fatal omissions, all good
men are bound to join in rectifying the one and in
supplying the others; and our humble aid, such as it
is, shall be given to the extent of our capabilities, in
procuring the best terms under the circumstances
which can be effected. The principle is already de-
cided—a stringent and bona fide franchise, such as will
prevent the Protestant corporations being made over
to their political and religious adversaries :—and this
we hold to be the sine qua non of any future legisla-
tion on the subject. We all along advocated extinc-
tion in preference to transfer. The great body of the
English conservatives will not hear of the former; we
should all unite in preventing the latter.

INAUGURATION OF SIR JAMES GRAHAM
AS LORD RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

(From the Glasgow Courier of Saturday.)

This interesting solemnity took place within the College
Hall yesterday. The limited dimensions of the Hall ren-
dered it utterly impracticable to gratify the eager desire of
multitudes who wished to be present; but besides the Uni-
versity functionaries and students, it was witnessed by as
many as the space could contain. The doors were partially
opened a little before one o'clock, and at that hour the rapid
rush of the youthful electors into the ground area, presented
an animated scene, in which a buoyant spirit and emulation
for favourable if not distinguished positions, rather predo-
minated—as.thev always, on such occasions, do—over the
love of order. As the Hall filled up, the scarlet gowns of the
students, who were grouped throughout in every possible
variety of arrangement, intermixed with the more sober cos-
tume and sterner aspect rif their seniors, gave an effect at
once graphic and striking. The hour from one 4o two was
occupied in the constant accession of entrants ; and the
youths did not seem disposed to while away the time in-
actively, but amused themselves with proposing for approval
or the reverse, a variety of names, which had the intended
effect.
At two o'clock Sir James entered tbe Hall in his robes of
office, preceded by the mace, and followed by tbe Duke of
Montrose, Chancellor of the University, Principal Macfar-
lan, and the Professors, in their gowns. The Lord Rector
took his seat in the Professors' Bench. In the cortege which
attended on the occasion, we observed the Marquis of Doug-
las, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Muir, Sir C. D. e Mr.
Forbes, of Callender, Mr. Smollet, of Bon-hill, Ferguson. Mr. Kirk-
man Finlay, the Lord Provost, Magistrates, &c.
After prayer by the Principal, and the administration of
the oath of office, the Lord Rector addressed the Professors
and alumni in an oration of nearly an hour in length.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, on rising, was received with deafen-
ing shouts of applause. On the cheers subsiding, he said,
that when he considered the national importance of this uni-
versity—the aspect of the times in which they lived—the
danger of the country—and when he reflected on the honour
which they had been pleased to confer on him—when he esti-
mated its value, and the responsibility of the duties which
that office devolved upon him—when he thought of the com-
petitor to whom be had been preferred, and the immediate
predecessors whom he had the honour to succeed—knowing
their strength, and conscious of his own weakness; and at
this moment, when naturally he was anxious to vindicate the
propriety of their choice, and to express big own sense of
gratitude, he was lost in the sense of his own inferiority.
He should be cold, indeed, if he did not feel that the present
was an occasion worthy of a free people. (Cheers.) Before
him stood the youth of Scotland, who had, according to an-
cient custom, chosen for the time being their Rector—not
dazzled by the glare of royalty—not allured by the blandish-
ments of a court—not crouching. to the name of a prince—
they thought fit to choose as their Rector a country gentle-
man—a country gentleman unknown in person; known to
them only by his attachment to the civil and ecclesiastical
institutions of his country—(cheers)—and by the sacrifices he
had made, and was prepared to renew, in -defence of those
Protestant principles which were the firmest basis of our free-
dom. (Cheers.) Nor was this all. He knew the gracious
prince to whom he bad been preferred ; it had been his good
fortune to receive from him many proofs of condescending
kindness. And such were the advantages of our free institu-
tions—such the respect for public opinion, even in the highest
quarters, that be was sure that gracious prince would regard
without displeasure the frank expression of their sentiments,
and that even he might approach the Duke of Sussex without
the fear of having forfeited any portion of his favour. Had
he followed only the dictates of vanity, or consulted the
natural impulse of his first impressions, he should have
rested satisfied with this cordial, but short expression of his
feelings; and shunning comparisons, in which he must appear
to disadvantage, he should have cut short his address, and
simply returned thanks, avoiding the beaten paths trodden
by his predecessors. But perhaps this silent reserve might
appear inconsistent with the respect he felt and the debt of
gratitude be owed them. (Cheers.) And if, from his per-
sonal experience, he could offer even one suggestion practi-
cally useful to any one of them—if, from the authority
they had conferred upon him in that place, he could inculcate
one solitary truth, or conscious inferiority should deter him
from offering the only return he could give to the best of his
ability. (Cheers.) But novelty for that place was impossi-
ble : the duties to be inculcated were invariable; the studies
to be recommended were the same; the truths to he enforced
were eternal. Should he wish to direct their attention to the
rhetorical art—to the advantages to be derived from the study
of the great masters of antiquity—that was a topic which
from that place Lord Brougham had touched with a master
hand, and with the eloquence which he could so easily wield.
(Cheers.) He had showed that in every age and tongue
pure eloquence consisted in the natural flow of clear thought
and sound reasoning, in the full tide of harmoninous lan-
guage. (Cheers.) Should he wish to inculcate any of the
great principles of ethics, could he forget that a Mackintosh
had been their rector, who poured the full stores of eloquence
and learning on a topic on which he shone with power and
lustre ? (Cheers.) Should he presume to talk to them on
matters of taste and polite literature, to offer any suggestions
on that subject,—Jeffrey was his predecessor—the refined,
the accomplished Jeffrey. (Cheers.) But should he pre-
sume still farther to talk to them of parliamentary excellence,
to speak of those qualities that formed public virtue, the
voice of Peel—(cheers)—the voice of Peel and. Stanley still
vibrated within those walls—uren whom it was an honour to
have identified with the University. (Cheers.) He was re-
strained, however, from mentioning the whole of the great
names which had adorned the place he now filled, and he
would not give a studied panegyric : he would rather tell them
in the exercise of a sound judgment, to remember their pre_
cepts and follow their example. And he felt it the less ne-
cessary to enlarge, when he looked around, and saw himself
surrounded by learned professors, who sustained the credit
and reputation of that University, and who were conversant
in every branch of ancient and modern literature and sci-
ence—on whose stores of acquired knowledge they enjoyed
the inestimable benefit of drawing without stint—who were
anxious to stimalate without effort, to correct them when
wrong, and praise them when they excelled; and, before all,
to guide them in that way which led to virtue and fame.—
(Cheers.) When he looked around him, could he forget the
friend, whose voice was heard no more, who exercised in an
exemplary manner all the qualities which fitted him so admi-
rably for the discharge of the duties he had to perform—one
whoir, the Greek class, though he. was sure his place there
had been well supplied, would ever remember with regret and
affection ? (Cheers.) The right hon. baronet, after passing a
glowing eulogium on the classical attainments of Sir D. K.
Sandford, proceeded to observe that he was far from wishing
to discourage them in their aspirations after present fame and
future knowledge. On the contraray, he would stimulate
them to increased exertion and Well-regulated efforts This,
they might depend upon it, was the day-spring of their future
fortune—the dawn of their future career; and be could tell
them from his own experience, that time wasted at College
would leave behind it that which would prove the bitterest
pang of after life, when it told of moments lost, and of time
misspent. But what a noble prospect was before them in the
great, and free, and happy country which they called their
own! for he would be permitted to express the opinion, that
in no quarter of the globe, and in no period of time, could
men live so happily than in our own country, whether blessed
with the favour of fortune or pressed by the severities of
poverty. (Hear.) If blessed with fortune, one had the most
ample facilities for obtaining in every elegant luxury, and all
the enjoyments that wealth could bestow. If not so blessed
with the gifts of fortune—if he minstered to his wants with
his own hand, and ate sweet bread of industry,. there were so
many avenues to wealth and fame—such promises held out to
genius and enterprise—such compensations for honest labour
—that no man who was sound in judgment and opinion, and
had been blessed with health and strength, could complain
of want without reproaching himself in some degree with neg-
lected opportunities. (Cheers.) Keeping this in view,
and remembering the upward flight of those.who were once
humble students, might he not say that he saw before him
hands that might sway the rod of empires—bear voices that
might shake the senate ? (Cheers.) There was nothing
which subjects might enjoy to which they might not aspire.
(Cheers.) Depend upon it, if they wished to build high, they
must dig deep; if they expected to reap the harvest, the seed
time must not be neglected. The present was the time and
opportunity for the formation of character, and the cultivation
of the understanding; and he would implore them not to
waste it like children, but improve it like men. (Cheers.)
He might perhaps be overstepping the strict bounds of his
duty, and, if he did, he hoped the noble Chancellor would
correct him; but he couid not avoid that opportunity of de-
scending into particulars, and addressing them on a few lead-
ing points. In the first place, he would recommend to them
the study of geometry and mathematics. Here the right ho-
nourable baronet brought in review before his audience the
great names, both in ancient and modern times, whose genius
had thrown a lustre around those departments of study—in
the course of which he enumerated the many eminent men
who had adorned the University of Glasgow. He next recom-
mended the study of the classics. Who, that had ever tithed
the pleasures of classic lore, and appreciated their beauties,
would, under any circumstances, consent to relinquish them?
Their study was not only an admission to all the learning of
the ancients, but an admission to the inmost recesses of the
thoughts of the greatest men—a participation in their noble
and generous sentiments. Our knowledge of their heroic
deeds, our communings with their struggles for freedom, and
love of glory—their passion for the arts—their taste for poe-
try, and their matchless eloquence—all these imparted to the
classic scholar a taste that never cloyed ; and as age advanc-
ed, the habit for it became more and more confirmed. It

had always appeared to him, that a knowledge of the classics
was a knowledge of the noblest sentiments of the human
mind, conveyed in the finest language that the human tongue
could utter. (Cheers.) But they might be the most accom-
plished scholars—they might be the most`profound mathema-

ticians—they might possess all knowledge—be blessed with
the finest understandings—yet all these would avail them
nothing, if they should " gain the whole world, and lose their
own soul." (Cheers.) Depend upon it that learning, un-
less founded on religion, was unsound, and even danger-
ous. (Loud cheers.) Learning without religion, was but as
" sounding brass and tinkling symbal"—a compass without its
polarity—a watch without its regulator—a steam-engine
wit bout a safety-valve. (Cheers.) However important might
be the understanding, it was not the most important faculty
possessed by man. Something more than to improve the
understanding was necessary to the correction of the heart.
Let them look around them on the world, and see 'What would
be the consequence were the understanding alone left to com-
bat with human passions. These passions had taken so deep
a root in human nature. that nothing but the hope of future
reward, or the fear of future punishment, could bring them
under subjection. Paul had preached of righteousness, and
repentance, and judgment to come, before Felix trembled.
Search, then, the Scriptures, for in every page would they find
that which maketh wise unto salvation—that which would bring
the understanding itself under controul. Did he mean to say,
then, that learning and the exercise of reason were unneces-
sary? By no means. Learning was of advantage in dissipat-
ing the obscurity which hung over the dead languages in
which the Scriptures were originally written, while reason dis-
pelled the doubts which might arise as to the authenticity
of the Scriptures themselves. Let the fundamental prin-
ciple, " Thy word is truth," but operate on their lives and
manners, and theirs was the promise of everlasting lite. In
illustration of the importance of religious knowledge, the hon.
baronet referred to the testimonies of its value borne by the
most eminent philosephers. Bacon, at once the pride and
the shame of human nature, possessed of Godlike genius,
yet actuated by the most gnawing avarice, the inventor of
inductive philosophy—this first of philosophers bad said that
none could deny God but such as wished there was no God.
Newton, the great discoverer of the laws on which the motions
of the heavenly spheres depend, had exhorted to search the
Scriptures. Locke, the guide to the human understanding,
had also exhorted to the study of the Scriptures, particularly
Ilia New Testament, which has God for its author, salvation

for its end, and truth, without mixture of error, for its motto.
Herschel', a distinguished follower of Bacon, and Newton,
and Locke, had said it was the character of true philosophy
to reject nothing that was not unreasonable. Such doubt was
absurd ; such scepticism iniquitous. The Lord Rector turned
to Dr. Chalmers, and eulogised in-high terms the Rev. Doctor's
work on the Evidences of Christianity. But it was not only
the best and the greatest men of the past and the present
ages who bad borne testimony to the value of religion. A
like evidence had been tendered also by some of the worst

—among others, by a leader of the first-French revolution,
when the Goddess of 'Reason was set up in France as an
object of worship. Robespierre had seen 'the madness of
this attempt to reduce a people to Atheism, and had remon-
strated against it. The idea of a powerful, a just and a
holy Being, to reward and to punish, he viewed as inse-
parable from the human mind, spurned at by none but the
rich and the criminal, cherished by all the honest and the
destitute. The Protestant religion which we cherish, conti-
nued the hon. gentleman, has for its object to debase hu-
man pride and to exalt human nature, that of,scepticism is
to exalt human pride and to debase human nature. Our
religion is the religion of freedom ; freedom of judgment,
freedom of interpretation, freedom of conscience. It
elevated the mind, and was thus favourable to the protection
of civil right. It was moreover the religion of reason. As
yet they saw but as through a glass darkly; but by a proper
use of the understanding they might reach the most sublime
heights. It was the religion of hope: they had the promise
which now is and of that which is to come. It was the reli-
gion of peace. Had he ever harboured a doubt ,of its
Heavenly origin, this consideration would of itself have con-
vinced him. .Be ye kind, is said, to one another: tender-
hearted and forgiving one to another; even as God for Christ's
sake forgave you. It was the religion of their forefathers
(cheers), and when he said so he could not but recollect that
he was speaking in Glasgow—that he was addressing the de-
scendants of men who valued property; and life, and worldly
reputation, as nothing in the balance when compared with a
clear conscience, and the knowledge of the truth. He could
but recollect that be was addressing the youth of Scotland,
the immediate descendants of a happier generation, who had
been enabled to cultivate their native land in peace—who
had found it a howling wilderness, and had left it a garden.
But alas, the present was a day of darkness and of danger—
there was a fear of change perplexing nations—men's hearts
failing them for fear. But in the midst of all this let them
take their stand on the Rock of Ages, and to fear not for the
religion of their fibers. Scotland bad secured from Eng-
land at the union a national judicature and a national church.
These were the trophies of her patriots—the last great me-
morials of her independence. Scotland has said to England,
you may take away our crown, you may abolish our parlia-
ment, you may impose on us your taxes, and you may make
us forget in other respects that we once were a nation; but
you shall not take from us our court of session or our kirk
(cheers.) We shall retain these as proof that we are not
slaves. The court had it in charge to defend the kirk, and
he hoped never to see the day when the two shall come into
collision. What mutal concessions had they not a right to
expect in such a time of danger as this ? And he fervently
prayed both might flourish to the latest posterity, the Kirk
in alliance with the state—[Here the honourable gentleman
was assailed by a storm of hisses, groans, &c., which, how-
ever, was speedily met by a shout of overpowering and en-
thusiastic applause.] On the noise subsiding, Sir James re-
marked, that had they waited till the sentence he was utter-
ing when he was interrupted had been concluded, perhaps
the expression of disapprobation by some present would have
been less strong. He would now give them the remainder
of the sentence—the Kirk in alliance with the State, by a
bold yet prudent assertion of their right (applause and dis-
approbation.) He was satisfied from what he heard to-day
concerning the part those before him would take. The hon,
gentleman then referred to the progress of the Romans in
Britain, under the reign of Agricola. Having vanquished
the southerns, and reduced the lowlands of Scotland so sub-
missions, if not to obedience, the Roman armies had at last
crossed the Forth, and carried their victorious eagles to the
foot of the Grampians. But in the fastnesses of these hills,
still dear to Scotsmen, the clans mustered their forces under
Galgacchus—having buried in oblivion their mutual feuds.
They rushed down upon the foe, nothing daunted by his
numbers, his discipline, or his valour, but animated by the
words of their heroic chief, who addressed them in,lAnguage,
which he would now bold to those before him in their present
circumstances—let them rush forward in their might to the
conflict, let them think of their ancestors, let them think of

their posterity, and Scotland would yet rest in safety under
their care. The hon. genleman concluded his address amid
general applause.
After a few remarks from the Principal, th, Ag.embly
broke up at about half-past three o'clock.