The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-24 00:00:00

TO THE ADMIRERS OF THE ,FINE

Now Open at No. 8, Soto-sTnEtt,'NF'n'dodis above thd
Palatine 'Club; - -
A SPLENDID EXHIBITION CO PAINTINGS.
BY THE OLD MASTERS,'
Among which will be found oneifrontfthe.Pencil of the in-

comparable
GUIDO,'
Value 2,000 Guineas, representing ,
DIANA ON HER RETURN FROM THE 'CHASE.

[Life Size.] •
..
ripHE PROPRIETOR feels an indescribable pleasure*. .
JIL being the humble instrument of introducing to
tice of a liberal and discriminating public, the inettinthble.':-:
production of departed genius, whose talents, like a meteor
of transcendent light; have reflected glory on the country of
his birth, and shed lustre on civilized Europe, giving impetni
to, and promoting that refinement of taste, veneration far..
and elevation of soul which true greatness alone inspires;;,.
it is, therefore, with conscious pride that he invites-. the at--,
tention, more particularly of those who, take an interest in. .
improving the moral condition of mankind, by upholding •
science, and giving encouragement to the Arts, the true ad-
mirers of which will experience a delicious treat in C,ol4i€lll.
plating the beauties of this specimen, in which the Aritist has
displayed those appropriate and gigantic powers of ceacep--,
tions upon which he has established the immortality la hie
fame; language, however impassioned, furnishes but as par
verty of words to describe, and which can only be properly;
understood through the medium of its own silent eloquence...
Admission, ONE SHILLING each.—Catalogues Gd. each,.
Open from Ten till Dusk.
•. .

rye Eiberpool „tantiarZt.

TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 24, 1838.

The Publication of the STANDARD commenced this
morning. at 5 o'clock.

THE UNITED STATES.—The Garrick has brought., •
New York papers to the 3d instarit but add
very little to the news which have been reCeiVed by • .
the Sirius. The boundary question was attracting'
considerable notice in the States, and was likely to. ,
lead to protracted negotiations. If we had a
govern-
ment at home possessed of anything like firnMeSs,;We
should soon witness the settlement of this very,
.vex;4i"7
ous question. As it is, we suppose that Lord Palmer-
ston will submit to be bearded by Jonathan much in the •
same way that he has been by the Autocrat of Russia
England is truly humbled in the scale of natioes, wa-
der the sway of the pusillanimoits whigs.

WHITE SLAVERY.—THE FACTORY QUESTION.--
The negroes have been completely emancipated :.why '
should not English slaves share the same privilege
Does the reader ask " why ?" We shall inform hint •
of the reason presently. It is because Hume , and
O'Connell, with their respective tails, will the con,.
trary. It is because the Whig-Radicals in office.can-
not afford to lose the votes of the cotton-manufacturers:,
and the other slave-masters of our large towns: ',ltiss
because the charity of the abolitionists does nOt,liegint-1.; .•
"at home." It is because the people of Great Britain
are studiously kept in the dark on the subject of.
" WHITE SLAVERY." We use these words advisedly.-
Let it not surprise our readers to learn that •there:_
exists, at the present moment, within this
boasted liberty, a species of slavery more degrading:
in its character, more fatal in its consequences, than
the bondage Of the swarthy Africans, on behalf of
whom so many appeals have been made to the huma-,
nity of Englishmen. This will excite no
_surprise
whatever, when we inform them that this slavervis
perpetuated by those blatant demagogues who claim
the exclusive title of liberals. Our readers must.be
well aware that this despicable faction, who are always
prating about freedom, are the greatest
,tyrants that,
ever disgraced our common nature. Yes, the sleek,;
the
,lugubrious, the pathetic, the weeping humanity,...
mongers, who have so long preached about the wrongs
and cruelties inflicted upon the negroes, are, orall-
others, the most conspicuous in seeking to fix upon'
the poor operatives of England the indelible stigma
of slavery.
We have said that the negroes are emancipated..
So they are in effect. In a few days the West Indian,
Islands will be the scene of universal rejoicing, in
consequence of the final liberation of the apprentices.
And let our readers remember that the much-maligned,
the insulted, the despoiled planters of the_ West Indies •
have voluntarily performed this act of manumission.
But what do we see and hear in England ? We are
forced to witness the pale and emaciated forms of our
factory slaves, doomed to all the complicated misery;
and suffering which are inseparable from. the prema-
ture.seserity of the toil which they have to undergo.
We,are compelled to listen to the wail of the tortured
infant, tasked beyond its powers by the avarice of the
mill- owner and the necessity of its parents. We are
forced to'ivatch the slow, but unerring, inroads of the
most insidious maladies upon their constitutions, 'super-
induced by the preternatural exertions which they
have to undergo, in order to fill the coffers of their
luxurious masters. We are pained by the constantly
recurring pictures of disfigured frames, distorted.
limbs, and premature decrepitude, attendant upon the.
infamous factory system. All this rises upon our view
whenever we visit what are called the manufacturing
dictricts : and yet the noisy agitators of Exeter Hall
remain silent and quiescent. Surely here is a subject
worthy the talents of a BroughaM, a Sturge, or a:
Thompson. Here they may dilate, with
.all their
accustomed eloquence, upon the sufferings of the slave.
Here they. may draw upon the sympathising feelings
of their countrymen with every advantage: The.stif.,
ferers are near at hand. The crneltieS against Winch
they will have to declaim are perpetrated at their very.
doors. The evidence may be collected without ex
-
pe isive missions across the Atlantic. •
But, no ; they are all silent. O'Connell has re-
ceived his thousand pounds. His tongue is padlocked.
" Justice to England" is a phrase of which he knows
not the meaning. The Ministry are silent, excepting
in the way of promises, which, like pie-crusts, "Are
only made to be broken." It is reserved to Lord
Ashley, and a small but determined band of Censer-
vatives, to advocate the cause of the poor factory
slaves. But we hope. that the exertions of these true,
philanthropists will ultimately be crowned•withstic-...
cess, despite of the apathy of the abolitioniati, the
opposition of the mill-owners, and the trickery of tile:
government.
'l4 4.
These remarks have been elicited in consequence
of the debate which took place on Friday evenirtg.,:
last, in the House of Commons, when Lord Ashley
once more introduced his motion on the factory quei
Lion. The noble lord showed, on this occasion, the
utter uselessness of the present factory regulations..
He dwelt upon the multiplied evasions of the: ?et
which was passed professedly fcr tileprotection of the .
children that are doomed to labour in those Worse
than penal establishments. He forcibly pointed ou t
the absurdity of expecting that justice should be done
to any parties who might have to complain of
andhard-
ships, as long as the mill-owners themselves,
their immediate connections, constituted the only
court of appeal. Amongst the provisions of tchielildrer
Fac-
tory Act, we find one which declares children
under 13 years of age shalt not be worked in factorie
more than eight hours per day (which, by the bye, is
about the amount of labour 'fOrmerly exacted from
full-grown negro); but a regulation has -also bees

passed, enjoining that ‘4 the medical man, who shall
be applied to for a certificate, may, in certain circum-
stances, make himself a party to false statements on
the subject." The act, according to the statements
;made by Lord Ashley, and which were uncontradicted,
'permits the surgeon to certify that a child may be
worked beyond the specified time, provided its phy-
sical development—that is, its mere height in inches—
•comes up to a certain mark, however much it may be
short of 13 years of age. But the subject is one to
which we cannot do justice within the brief space at
our command this day : we shall therefore recur to it
,on Friday.

RISLEY CHAPEL.—IMPORTANT CHANGE OF TRUST.
--We wish particularly to direct the attention of our
:readers to a very interesting communication in ano-
aller column, respecting the transfer of Risley Chapel,
in the parish of Winwick, from the hands of the Uni-
tarians to trustees selected from the members of the
:Established Church of Scotland. Our respected cor-
respondent briefly furnishes the particulars connected
with this most important change. We rejoice to find
'that this restitution of the trust into the hands of a
body professing those orthodox doctrines for the pro-
mulgation.of which this place of worship was founded,
, has been mainly effected through the instrumentality
•of members of the Church of England. We hail this as
a pleasing indication of• that good feeling which ought
ever to exist between the'members of the Established
Churches of England and Scotland.. We are informed
that many among the poor peasantry of the district in
which Risley Chapel is situated urged their gold and
silver upon the acceptance of-the committee a ointed
for the purpose of wresting this place of vvorsipirp-from
the hands of the Unitarian usurpers. As usual in
cases of a parallel character, the Unitarians refused to
produce the original title deeds; and when a bill was
filed in Chancery to compel them to show by what
right they held possession of the chapel with the pro-
perty attached to it, they voluntarily resigned their
trust, no doubt under a consciousness that the produc- '
-tion of the title deeds would hive served to show the
gross injustice of which they had been guilty, in re-
taining hold of an endowment, which was designed
by the pious founders to afford a maintenance for an
orthodox minister of the gospel.
We look upon this fresh triumph of orthodox prin-
ro;iples as one of the most important events which has
rrecently happened in the religious world, especially as
iit affords an example which we hope to find .extensively
:followed in other parts of the kingdom. It is a well-
iknown fact that most of the chapels which are now
;held by the Unitarians in different parts of England
:and Wales, together with many other rich endowments
inow in their possession, originally belonged to an or-
'thodox body of Presbyterians—a body which has al-
.most become extinct as far as the distinguishing tenets
'which they professed are concerned. Most of the
Presbyterian congregations in the country have lapsed
into Unitarians, in whose hands the chapels which
formerly belonged to the Presbyterians have, in most
instances, been suffered to remain. We shall not stop
to investigate minutely the causes which led to the la-
mentable and almost universal decadence of the Eng-
lish Presbyterians. There can be no doubt that the
Principal cause of this untoward change has been the
vaunted voluntary principle. Had the English Pres-
byterians been attached to the Church of Scotland—
had they adopted its constitution—acknowledged its
authority in ecclesiastical matters—and bound them-
selves by its established profession of faith—we should
not have had the mortification of witnessing those pul-
Os, which were formerly occupied by such men as the
pious and learned Matthew Henry, now in the posses-
sion of men who deny the glorious doctrine of the
atonement, and who impugn the divinity of our Sa-
viour.
But it does not follow that the Unitarians, as such,
have the slightest right to the possession of the old
Presbyterian chapels, which are now chiefly in their
'hands; nor have they, strictly speaking, any legal
'claim to the numerous rich endowments which they
have derived from the same source. The case of Lady
Hewley's Charity affords strong presumptive evidence
of the contrary. The funds belonging to that Charity
Were bequeathed for the education and support of
" gospel' preachers," under which terms we certainly
cannot class the teachers of the Unitarian dogmas.
Indeed, the highest legal authorities have decided that
the support given to Unitarianism out of the funds of
the Charity in question was totally incompatible with
the evident intention of the munificent founder, and,
accordingly, after appropriating nearly half a million
of money out of the fund, the Unitarian usurpers have
been deprived of all controu'. over its further distribu-
tion.
The recent change in the trusteeship of Risley Cha-
pel is another case in point, illustrating the futility of
the claims of the Unitarians to the property which
originally belonged to the orthodox Presbyterians.
There
can be no doubt that the provisions in the title
deeds of other places of worship are of an equally
stringent character with those of this chapel, and that
the like satisfactory result would follow a similar in-
vestigation into the alleged rights of the present hold-
ers of such property. We sincerely hope that the tri-
umph achieved by our friends of the Established Church
at Winwick will be the prelude to a general and
searching inquiry into the validity of the titles by
which the Unitarians hold so many of
the richly en-
dowed dissenting chapels in the community. We par-
ticularly call upon churchmen generally to aid in the
recovery of such property from the hands of the most
inveterate enemies of the Established Church. The
noble example set by the parishioners of Winwick
Ought to be emulated by churchmen in other parts of
the kingdom. We feel assured -that success would
crown their efforts while seeking to do away with so
monstrous an abuse of trust as that of which the Uni-
tarians are guilty. We would also strongly urge the
necessity of similar movements on the part of the or•
thodox Dissenters—to whose feelings the promulgation
of Socinian•heresies, we should suppose, must be as
repugnant as to those of Churchmen.
giving While this advice, we are, of course, pre-
Pa led to encounter the most virulent abuse of the ra-
dical press, which is almost universally under the con-
trl of the Unitarians. But we shall not be deterred
from the discharge of what we
imperative dot conceive to be our
Yby all the abuse in the world. In an-
ticipation, however, oftlie torrent of vituperation
towards which will be directed us :
in the ears of our Socinian opp , we would whisper
onents that they did
pot hesitate to urge upon the people of this country
the investigation of trusts placed precisely in the same
predicament as those in the hands of the Unitarians.
We al* to the Parliamentary inquiry into the funds
of public charities, endowed schools, &c The corn-
Missioners appointed for this purpose have been sig-
aally instrumental in recovering very considerable
fend
s Which had been long diverted from the original
ihjeetacontemplated by the legatees. Let equal jus-
ice, then, be done to the Unitarians, who have not
only diverted the funds now in their hands from those
objects for the promotion of which they were be-
queathed, but have continued to employ them for
the Purpose of promulgating doctrines of a diametri-
c4llY opposite character to those contemplated by the
founders of their chapels, which must be considered as
a shameful aggravation of their dishonesty.
Several cases have•been mentioned to us, as likely
to be shortly subjected to a legal investigation, in
.which the same result is anticipated as that which has
been witnessed in the parish of Winwick. Amongst
Others we may notice the chapel at Gateacre, and the
Chi i
Per at Chester, the walls of which formerly re-
sounded to the eloquence of Matthew Henry, the
dis-
tinguished_.a biblical scholar and commentator. We do
"t feel at liberty to say anything whict have the effect of prejudging these cases ; buth wemi certainly
would
advise Dr. Shepherd to " ut his house in
order." lest he s p
hould 'find himself speedily deprived
I oft
_the broad acres over which he has now the liberty
this subject without once more ad-
-- verltVine cannot
over ,r
distinguished '
~, ritlteclisltiitperiority of an Established Church
the voluntary system. As is well remarked by a
Inguislied clergyman in reference to the case of
Risley ....nape!, "If any
heeded as to the
trustees for dissentingadditional conviction were
be advantage of establishments, it would
' found on the present occasion, when, to secure
a chapel, on orthodox princi-
ples, none caul
couldd be found, amongpermanency
whom
be attained, except among members of an
established church." Amongst dissenters there is no
security
Whatever against declension in doctrine or
lUitY in
iscipline. They are not only liable but apt
,

to be led away by "every wind of doctrine." They
have no fixed canon of interpretation to which they
can appeal in every controversy—no constitution to
which they are bound to conform—no system of eccle-
siastical polity to regulate all their proceedings. The
only security which a dissenter of any denomination
possesses, that the chapel in which he now worships may
not fall into the hands of a sect whose doctrines he re-
pudiates, is a perishable piece of parchment in the
shape of a title deed—a security which has been found
insufficient to prevent a large proportion of the chapels
which once belonged to the orthodox dissenters from
falling into the hands of Unitarians. But how differ-
ently circumstanced are the members of an established
church, with an acknowledged ritual, embodying a
course of scriptural instruction—with a constitution
based upon the soundest and wisest policy— with arti-
cles of faith imposing a universal obligation upon its
ministers—and with endowments which can never be
appropriated to the maintenance of heterodox teaching !
It is impossible to contemplate these advantages with-
out feeling an increased attachment to the established
churches of Great Britain and Ireland, which have so
long stood as effectual barriers against the encroach-
ments of Popery—which have so long secured us
against the inroads of infidelity—and which have so
long preserved, unmutilated and uncorrupted, that
sacred deposite, the infallible Word of God. Who
would not exclaim, in reference to the established
church of England, •' Esto perpetua ?"
,Perhaps we shall not be deemed guilty of presump-
tion if we should invite our contemporaries, both me-
tropolitan and provincial, to give the subject of this
article their consideration. They may be influential
in bringing similar cases to that of Risley Chapel be-
fore the notice of the public.

ST. GEORGE'S HALL.—We are glad to find that the
proprietors of this spirited undertaking are deter-
mined to carry their plans into immediate execution.
They have already made ecall of £5 per share, which
will enable them at once to proceed with the work.
We trust that this call will be promptly and cordially
responded to, and that Liverpool will soon have a
public edifice worthy of her rank as the second com-
mercial city in the kingdom. We feel assured that
the stigma, which the absence of such a building has
so long cast upon the town, will be very speedily
removed. Nothing, we are convinced, has been
wanting to remove this stigma but an adequate im-
pulse to the public spirit of the inhabitants; and this
impulse has happily been supplied by the committee
for the erection of St. George's Hall.