The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-05 00:00:00

FRIVOLOUS SUITS' BILL.

On the motion of Lord DENMAN, the frivolous suits' bill
was read a third time and passed. The noble lord also gave
notice of withdrawing the rated inhabitants evidence bill.
The house then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY.
There having been only 27 members present at four o'clock,
he house adjourned till Friday.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY.

After the presentation of several other petitions,
Lord LYNDHURST presented a petitionirom Sligo, praying
that that borough might be taken out Of schedule A, and in-
serted in schedule B of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland)
Bill. His lordship gave notice that in the committee on the
bill he should move that the pruyer he complied with.

COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH NAPLES.

Lord LYNDHURST afterwards inquired whether there
would be any objection to the production of the treaty signed
by Mr. M`Gregor and the Neapolitan Minister, at the close
of last year, and which was to have been ratified on the Ist
of January this year? The provisions of that treaty were
well known to all parties connected with the commerce of
Sicily and Naples, and they were most desirous that it should
be ratified. Connected with this subject his lordship wished
to correct a misunderstanding as to what had taken place,
and what fell from him in March last thereon. The facts
which he then stated were admitted to be correctly stated:
He agreed that there had been an infraction of the commer-
cial treaty between this country and Naples. The noble
viscount stated that complaints had been made to the Nea-
politan Government; that an attempt had been made to ob-
tain redress, but it had not been accomplished. The noble
viscount also intimated that the Neapolitan Government de-
sired that the monopoly should last for six months longer
only. He at that time complained of the delay that had
taken place, and he stated, that if ships of war were sent out,,
the matter would soon be brought to a successful issue. He,
however, never intended to sanction such proceedings as had,
taken place on the part of her Majesty's Government, but
as to which he would now give no opinion.
Lord MELBOURNE answered that it was the intention of
the government to lay on the table of both Houses of Par-
liament all the documents with respect to the subject. The
noble lord had stated with great correctness what had fallen
from him on a former occasion, but whether the inference
he had drawn from it was quite so correct, he would not
say.

-Earl Fitzwilliam having moved for some returns regarding
:he prices of corn in Scotland, &c., a desultory discussion
followed.

After the presentation of some further petitions, and after
he orders had been disposed of, their lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY.

Mr. BALDWIN took the oaths and his seat for Totnes.

Mr. C. VILLIERS, to make way for the motion on the
opium question, deferred his notice on the subject of the
corn laws from the 12th to the 14th inst.

Mr. HualE renewed his dropped notice for a select com-
mittee to inquire into the duties on imports, to ascertain
whether they were protective, or to secure revenue, fixing
the motion for Tuesday next.' He also gave notice that he
should move an address for Dr. Bowling's report regarding
our commercial relations with Egypt, &c. And that on
Monday he would inquire of Lord Palmerston, if he could
get the noble lord into the house, with regard to the inter-
ference of the British government in the affairs of Mehemet
Ali, or for the detention of two vessels as reported in the
newspapers, and whether ministers, or Lord Ponsonby, had
given any directions relative to the affairs of Egypt.
Mr. WARD stated that when the house resolved itself into
committee on the miscellaneous estimates, he should submit
a motion relative to the proceedings of the emigration board.

FORMATION OF A FRoTEST4NT AMBONATION

AT 13IRKENutAD,

On Friday a very crowded public meeting was held in the
Town-hall, Birkenhead, to consider the propriety of forming
a branch of the Liverpool Protestant Association. The Rev.
ANDREW KNOX took the chair. _ _ _

The CHAIRMAN in opening the proceedings, said the ob-
ject of the meeting was to uphold the institutions of the
country as they had been established by our Protestant fore-
fathers, to maintain Protestant truth, to oppose error, and
to preserve the institutions of the land from the insidious at-
tacks of the Papists, who had bestirred themselves into ac-
tivity on account of apathy into which Protestants had
for a time unfortunately fallen.
The Rev. W. M Al HARD, in a suitable address, in the course
of which he showed how thankful we ought to be for the
mercies of God to us, moved the first resolution.
The Rev. FIELDING Oven rose to second the resolution,
and after a few suitable introductory remarks, he proceeded
nearly as follows. My Christian friends. The resolution,
as you have already heard, speak of an express acknowledg-
ment, we are called upon to make, solemnly, to Almighty
God for the large share of his favour which he has hitherto
bestowed upon this nation. It also speaks cf a certain source
to which we are enabled to trace un this measure of divine
favour, and that is said to be the Christian and Protestant
character of this nation ; and it still points out a duty which
devolves upon us, especially at this crisis of public affairs,
namely, that we should rely on God to bless our efforts in
the preservation of these privileges, and for the continuance
of that measure of divine favour for which we are called upon
to express our devout acknowledgments. These are the three
points into which this resolution divides itself, and but a few
observations on each will be necessary in order to convince
you that you may safely pass it. There is a question, how-
ever, which it is desirable to ask, and also desirable to have
satisfactorily answered before we proceed further ; that
question is this—whet is the use of a Protestant Associa-
tion—what are the objects which it contemplates? (Hear,
hear.) Unless we can ask you, upon good and satisfactory
evidence, " is there not a cause," we cannot possibly expect
that you should respond to our invitation to night, and enrol
yourselves members of this proposed Protestant Association.
(Hear hear.) It is said by some that our object in forming
these associations is a political one. I for one beg to dis-
claim altogether such an imputation. If I believed our
present object was one purely political, I for one should not
deem it fitting to be here either as a speaker or as a hearere
but it is because I believe our object is purely a religious
one, that I do deem it right to be here, and to give such
humble assistance in furtherance of the object as it may be
in my power to contribute. We have no sympathy whatever,
nor concern, with the struggles for political party in the
state ; our object is a higher, a holier, and a loftier one ;
that which we seek to accomplish, which we labour to achieve
is, the supremacy of the word of God, (cheers,) not merely
its authority with regard to ourselves individually, or to our
families, or to our respective congregations where its authority
is not denied, but its authority publicly, its authority in the
state, its authority as the ruler of the nation. (Cheers.)
Are we asked " does any one dispute this?" 1 say it isdis-
puted and denied. The flag of Scripthre is no longer to be
found streaming from the mast-head of the good old ship;
if any where, it is found only half-maSt high ; another flag,
even the flag of the man of sin, is elevated into the place of its
dispossessed supremacy. (Hear, hear.) We care not, there-
fore, who are at the helm of power, we care not by what
party denomination they may be called ; our object is, that
the Christian and Protestant flag of England should be elevated
into its proper place, that the word of God should be publicly
honoured, and as the constitution of the country is built
upon the enactments of the Bible, so the policy of the country
should be guided and directed by the same. (Cheers.) We
are, again, told that our objects and intentions are unchari-
table, and that we meet only to call names, and to excite and
stir up a spirit of animosity and of acrimony in the minds of
Protestants towards their Roman Catholic fellow subjects.
We altogether disdain this imputation. (Cheers.) We be-
lieve, nay we are convinced in our consciences, that we are
the true friends of our Roman Catholic fellow subjects—that
we are the true advocates of their rights. Civil rights they
may have ; we cheerfully acknowledge they have civil rights,
and seek not to deprive them of them, but we conceive that
their very first right, that the magna charta of their privi-
leges is the word of God. (Cheers.) And we are only op-
posed to those who would deny them this privilege, who
would keep back from them this great charter, and who, for
their own selfish purposes, would keep them in the condition
of slaves. (Hear, bear.) Was Paul an enemy of the Jews
when he spoke against their superstitions and preached the
everlasting gospel ? No ; his heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel was that it might be saved. When the truth
was concerned, he would have no compromise but he plainly
told them that they lingered round the abolished ceremonies
of the Jewish dispensation. " Behold I Paul say unto you
that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing."
He admitted no compromise of the smallest point ; Christ
must be " all in all," or he would he bold and faithful in
protesting against anything that militated against his high
supremacy. ' Was our Lord Jesus Christ an enemy of the
Jews when he spoke against the ignorance and blindness of
their teachers ? No; He was their true friend ; and if we
think we see in
,Scripture a body of men spoken of presenting
in all their features the most exact resemblance to the church
of Rome in the present day, we look into the Bible and see
how our Lord Jesus Christ, our great exemplar, dealt with
them. So we desire to deal with the members of the church
of Rome. We find our Lord was faithful in denouncing in
the most solemn manner the errors which led them astray
from the truth, at the same time that he was inconceivably
tender in spirit towards the victims of these gross errors. if
we turn to the 23d chapter of the gospel according to St.
Matthew we there find a description the exact counterpart of
modern popery ; that chapter exhibits the Strong language
which Jesus Christ used when reproving the sins of the
Pharisees; from the beginning to the end it resounds " woe,
woe, woe," but closes with an inconceivable expression of
Divine tenderness mingled with sympathy 'to man—" Oh
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and
stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would 1 have
gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wines and ye would not b" This
is the conduct we should follow, and this the spirit in
which we desire to act. (Cheers.) I ask who arc
the people set forth in that chapter presenting to our
minds the exact counterpart of popery ? They are the scribes
and Pharisees. It is particularly striking to observe the
close parallel subsisting between them and the priests of the
Church of Rome in the present day. The Saviour's first
woe we find directed against men who were the sworn ene-
mies of the gospel, men who "shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men, neither going in themselves nor suffering them
that are entering in to go." This. is the first sketch of the
picture our Lord gives of these Pharisees ; and does not the
accusation in that case most strikingly apply to the priests of
the Church of Rome. They will not enter in the kingdom
of heaven themselves,-and those that are going in they pre-
vent. In one sense the word of God is the kingdom of hea
ved, and they not circulate it ; in another, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the kingdom of heaven, but his glory they obscure
by their false inediatorships ; and when the people would
look at this book (the Holy Scriptures) they are subject to
the ban and anathema of the Scribes and Pharisees, who thus
" shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going
in themselves nor suffering them that would go in to enter."
Against what is the next woe? That they make religion a
cloak for hypocrisy, and a stalking-horse for their covetous
desires and practices—" ye devour widows' houses," says
the Lord, " and for a pretence make long prayers." Does
not this describe the conduct of the priests of the Church of
Rome ? They devour widows' houses, they engage men and
women to leave their money that masses may be said for 'their
souls. It may be said of modern Rome as was said once of
ancient Rome, omnia venalia Rouses; all things are to be
had for money at Rome, masses, sacraments, redemptions
from purgatory, absolutions, unctions, and what not. All
these are to be had at Rome for money. (Hear,. hear.)
These men for a pretence make long prayers, and thus
devour widows' houses. (Hear, hear.) What is the next
woe They burn with the earnestness of desire to make
proselytes—" Ye compass sea and land to make one prose-
lyte, and when he is made ye make him two-fold more the
child of hell than yourselves. We know the earnestness of
desire in the Church of Rome to make proselytes, although
they are exceedingly offended when they see the exhibition
of any such desire among us. I am one who have never
concealed from the priests and members of the Church of
Rome my desire to make proselytes from among them. I
glory in that. 'Why should we not proselytise from error to
truth, from darkness to light, from the traditions of men to
the commandments of God? Hear, hear.) Yes ; but oh,
what strange proselytes the Church of Rome makes. I well
recollect an instance which occurred in connection with
my own ministry in Ireland, in which a Protestant
man married at an advanced period of life, a Roman Ca-
tholic wife. He became childish, and his Roman Catholic
wife introduced him to her priest. The man was sud-
denly converted, although he had not only been a Protestant
all his life, but had been what was called an Orange-
man. This man at 70 years of age was baptised by a priest
of the Church of Rome ; and I shall never forget the extra-
ordinary parade of his funeral, which was fixed on the Sun-
day, in order that there might be a large attendance. In
this instance, although great pains were taken to prevent
such a proceeding, they showed their willingness to compass
sea and land to make if it were but one proselyte ; and
greatly fear, especially in large towns like Liverpool, where
it is not easy to watch the proselyting.practice of these gen-
tlemen, there are more Protestant death beds disturbed by
their mummery than we are aware of. (Hear.) We find
also it was the character of Pharisaism in our Lord's day to
tamper with oaths—" Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which
say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it isi nothing ; hut
whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a
debtor." We have in this verse a strieing and remarkable
feature of the Church of Rome. Our Lord, we find, called
those tamperers with oaths " fools and blind ;" we know of
a certain oath which was recently prescribed to be taken by
Roman Catholic legislators in these words :
" I do swear that 1 will defend to the utmost of my power
the settlement of property within this realm, as established
by law ; and I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly
abjure any intention to subvert the present Church esta-
blishment, as settled by law within this rein.,, and I do
solemnly swear that I will never exercise any privilege te
which I am or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken
the Protestant religion or Protestant government in the
United Kingdom.'
This is an oath, mark ye, which British Roman Catholic
legislators consented to take, but which the Roman Catho-
lic Bishop of' Malta, acting under the express directions of
the Pope; refused to take, as inconsistent with his duty to
the church. (Hear.) It was, however, swallowed by these
popish legislators, and then find them voting for the sup-
pression of ten bishoprics in Ireland, which the present first
minieter of the crown called " a heavy blow and a great dis-
couragement to Protestantism." (Hear.) We next find
them voting for the celebrated Appropriation clause, and
constituting the exact majority of 25 in the House of Com-
mons, in favour of the English Church-rates bill. (Hear,
hear.) These are facts which speak for themselves. (Hear.)
It would be easy for me to follow out these parallels between
Popery and Pharisaism, but I forbear at present, and will
now direct your thoughts more expressly to the subject
matter of this resolution, which speaks of the instances of
divine favour, which this country has enjoyed in times past
through the blessing of Almighty God. What are these
blessings ? The Reformation was one ; and if the Refor-
mation was worth effecting, it is worth maintaining. (Cheers.)
A translated Bible was another; and if it Was worth our
while to contend, as our Protestant Reformers did, even to
the death, in order to obtain a translated Bible, it is worth
our while still to continue to fight for it. (Cheers.) Our
Protestant Church establishment is another of these bles-
sings. Was it worth the while of a Cranmer, a Latimer,
and a Ridley to go to the stake to accomplish this great
blessing for outeountry ? Then it is worth our while to
contend for it still. (Hear.) It has acted as a break-water
for popery in this country ; and it is an incontrovertible fact,
that in every country where a Protestant Church has been
legaliy established, Popery has never made any way. Why
has it not made way in Sweden? Because Gustavus Vasa
established Protestantism there. Why has it not made way
in Scotland? Because the Regent Murray established
Protestantism there. Why not in Holland? Because
of Prince Orange. Why in Germany? Because the
elector of Saxony established protestantism there. In Eng-
land! Because Henry the Eighth established protestantism
here. You see then the importance of making a determined
stand in defence of the church establishment; for when it
falls, not only does the constitution of England fall, not only
is Ichabod written upon the walls of the country, but popery
hi that hour becomes predominant. (Hear, hear.) Then
another great blessing is the civil and religious liberty which
this country has enjoyed in a larger measure, than any other
country upon the face of the earth.. We may, perhaps, in
making this boast, be reminded of America. What? Is
there the same measure of well regulated liberty there as
here, when, at the commencement of the present session of
congiest, a resoltitiou was passed atsoluttly tensing to re.