The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-02 00:00:00

yet the business has not reached anything like a
fair weekly average, nor is any great amount of
activity expected so long as the war remains in
its present state. Imports for the week, 786 bales :
viz., 363 East India ; 33 Portugal ; 150 Mediter-
ranean Ports ; 187 Buenos Ayres ; 38 Irish ; 6
Scotch ; and 9 Coastwise.—ln Ireland, farmers'
parcels are being bought at 16s. per 161b5., and
Skin 15s. per 161bs. ; but it is not expected the
new clip will open quite so high.
TIMBER.—The market presents but few features
worthy of special comment.—Messrs. HoLME,
SLATER, and Co., in their monthly circular, say :
" The arrivals from British North America into the docks
of the Mersey during the month containing Timber, are
6 vessels, 6,262 tons, against 4 vessels, 3,047 tons, for the
corresponding period last year. The consumptive demand
is as good as can be expected under the present circum-
stances, and it will no doubt increase considerably, espe-
cially in the article of Spring Deals, which are far cheaper
than anything in the shape of logs. The arrivals of
Baltic Timber during the month are, 5 vessels, 1,241 tons,
against 4 vessels, 740 tons, for the corresponding period
last year. There has been rather more inquiry latterly
for this description of wood. The stock of common on the
market is sufficient, but there is a short supply of the
beter qualities."

THE FOREIGN AID SOCIETY: MEET-
ING LAST NIGHT.

LAST night the annual meeting of the Liverpool
auxiliary of this valuable and interesting society was held
at the New Music-hall, in Bold-street. There was a
highly respectable attendance, the beautiful hall, however,
being only about half filled.
The Rev. Dr. M`Neile occupied the chair, and the Rev.
Dr. Burgess, of Chelsea, attended as the deputation from
the parent society. Amongst the other clergymen present,
we observed : —The Rev. W. M. Falloon, D. Anderson, T. C.
Cowan, J. Bardsley, J. B. Lowe, S. Minton, H. Carpenter,
and Leveson.

The Rev. Dr. M'NEILE said, amidst the many and
various objects claiming our attention at the present
time, and so well calculated to engage our sympa-
thies, it was pleasant to perceive that amongst some at least
of our great community the persecuted Protestants on the
Continent of Europe were not forgotten. Mr. Burgess, who
was the secretary of the parent society, visited them, and
came year by year to detail interesting information. We were
happily free from religious persecution in this country. So
far from persecuting, or in any way hindering the religious
worship of those who differ from them in this country, our
authorities encourage, endow, and educate those who are most
vitally opposed to them. This might be the other extreme.
Some thought it was, but that was not the present subject.
Mr. Burgess would, no doubt, fully explain to them the state
of circumstances in respect to their persecuted brethren
which existed in Italy and France. Dr. M'Neile then pro-
ceeded to narrate some of the leading features in the present
position of French Protestants. As the meeting were aware,
they were few in number, and scattered throughout the coun-
try. They desired to meet in small numbers and hold their
spiritual worship. They claimed for liberty to do that--a part
of the constitution granted to the country when Louis Philippe
was king. In opposition to that part of the constitution
which granted liberty of Protestant worship, there existed
a clause er article of the old Code Napoleon, which left
the matter at the option of the local authorities, the
mires or prefects. Many places of worship had lately
been closed in consequence. and au appeal to law had resulted
in a decision confirming this power of the local authorities.
The prefects were almost universally Romanists, and under
the dominance of Romish priests. The effect of such a
power, so vested, might easily be conceived. One important
circumstance had arisen out of this altered state of things.
In one department in the centre of France, the people were
all converted from Catholicism to Protestantism. Upon that
an application was made under the existing law that the
parish church should be given up to them. It was given up.
The statue of the Virgin was taken down, and the Ten Com-
mandments put up. The high altar was taken down, and a
communion table substituted : so that the parish church be-
came Protestant ' • but the inhabitants, being Protestant, had
no right to meet for religious worship without the authority
of the prefect. He had refused his permission, and so the
parish church was closed I The Rev. Dr. M'Neile then pro-
ceeded to show. by historical reference, the debt of gratitude
which the Protestants of this country have owed in past ages
to the French and other foreign Protestants. The Protestants
of France, Germany, and Switzerland, were in frequent cor-
respondence with our Reformers, and to what extent
their influence had moulded and given colour to the
English Reformation it was impossible to say. After
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the estimated number
of French expatiated Protestants who settled in this country
was 80,000. They brought with them their arts, their civili-
zation, and their silk-weaving; they brought literature; they
presently got among men of political station and rank; and
some became merchant princes in London, and the founders
of some of our most noble and distinguished families. It ;
was not generally known, either, that at the memorable Battle
of the Boyne, General Schomberg had under him three regi-
ments of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, composed of
French Protestant refugees, who contributed no little by
their daring impetuosity iu breaking the lines of the enemy
to the fortunes of the day. He claimed a debt of gratitude,
then, on behalf of French Protestants, and he wished those
arguments could be brought to bear upon the whole British
nation. We were engaged now in a critical struggle, in a
harmony with France marvellous in the history of England..l
We were united with France in one arm to uphold the Turk—
France who with the other arm upheld the Pope. We were en- I
gaged in one arm with France against the aggression of Russia,
to maintain the integrity of Turkey, and the balance of
power in Europe. What it might lead to, God knows. What
our leaders intended, he doubted if they themselves knew.
What was this war for ? What was to be done ? We knew
the cause of it, to some extent • but. what was to be the end
of it ? Suppose that our fleets were to abolish the Russian
fleets in the Baltic and Black Sea—suppose that the proud
anticipations of England were realised, and that the whole
Russian Navy was annihilated. what then ? What had we
done? We could not get at him. He had an immense ter-
ritory. He retired into the interior, and aggression into
Russia was impossible for her marshes and snows, and the
vast extent of council. What was to he done? We bom-
barded her towns on the coast, and stopped her tra•le, and
what then ? She might keep us for years at war, and what
then ? As soon as we disbanded our men, and withdrew our
ships, she would come out as before from her fastnesses anti
forests and inaccessible tracts of land. What could
we do ? It was a very serious question. He did not
know how far our diplomatists had forced it forward
in their own minds, or what they anticipated as the result of
a treaty to be forced upon Russia by her adversaries;
but suppose they had not been able to see through that, and
that with an honest enthusiasm they had taken up the cause
of the oppressed against the oppressor, saying we cannot see
what is to be the end of it, but trust in God for the end be- '
cause we have a righteous beginning. Be it so, and the Lord
grant his blessing I But in the meantime don't let us forget
that, while the Emperor of Francewas taking part with us in
the grand struggle, in the great war which now engaged the
attention of the world, he was not in a condition strongly to '
interfere for the Protestants of his own empire. His Majesty
was too much indebted to the priests to be able with safety,
policy, or politeness even, to interfere with their reverences'
desires ; and they were not the men, without pressure
from without, to relax their grasp on the Protestants of
the country. Still in some places the local authorities
gave them power to meet, and nothing would go further to
secure them their liberties than the sympathy and support
of England. The rev. gentleman concluded by reading a
letter from an eye-witness of thepresent state of things in that
country, who said "the authority of the Popish hierarchy
was no longer restrained, even by what were known as the
Galilean liberties. and it was urging the government to renew
the persecutions of Louis the Fourteenth. Journalists and
writers of eminence were not ashamed to defend the massacre
of St. Bartholomew's Day, and refer to the dragonade as a
rigorous, but well concerted scheme, to restore unity to the
Church of France. The bodies of Protestants were exhumed
by orders of the prefects. and the bones of the heretics buried
with malefactors near cross-roads. Religious meetings were
forcibly dispersed by gendarmes and police, and every thing
threatened a renewal of those dark times which were unpa-
raddled for their inhumanity in the history of the human
race." Dr. Al`Neile then resumed his seat amid considerable
applause.
The Rev. Dr. Buitosss, of Chelsea, the deputation from
the Parent Society, was then introduced. He began by re-
turning thanks for the support rendered by Liverpool. The
great danger in the time of war was that the warfare between
religion and Satan would be neglected or forgotten. He was
anxious to give a little information about Italy before he went
on to France. There was one kingdom in Italy that profited
by the convulsions of 1848,—that was Sardinia, which
gained a constitution, by which toleration was granted to
other forms of worship than those of the Romish faith.
In that kingdom, as they were aware, there was an
ancient people that existed in the valleys of Piedmont,
and whose history could be traced to the 12th century.
They had !always been subject to persecution, and were
prohibited from having any place of worship out of their val.
lies. The revolution of 1848 removed that restriction, and a
magnificent Church had been erected at Turin. 1,500 persons
' were present on the day of opening, and in one winter 200 young
men of Turin bad joined the Waldensian Church. and many
of them were becoming missionaries. A church was also
being erected at Pignerol. At Genoa there were Protestants
who desired a like privilege, and an old building was pur-
chased for £2,600, which had once been dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, but had been latterly used as a warehouse. A
Romish archbishop (Carvas) had interposed to prevent them
taking possession of the building, and had appealed to the
king; but to his credit that monarch bad never departed one
iota from the constitution to which he swore in 1848 i he
therefore said that he could do no more than use persuasion.
They were going on with the building, and he hoped when
lie came next year he would be able to congratulate them on
there being a Protestant church capable of holding 1,000 per-
sons in the flourishing town of Genoa. (Applause.) One who
had formerly been a Capuchin friar was now Protestant
schoolmaster at Avail. In the year 1853 there had been
4,600 copies of the Scriptures sold in Turin and circulated
in various parts of Piedmont. This was a great event, and
had excjted of course great opposition. The Romish bishops
of
andS v
kionygaonnd
, ,Piedmontrkepropahgaajid drawn up uip,roatnesatdateisies
rteosyt senateTi,e
charged the Protestants with " using the seduction of money."
This seduction of money was an old story. In Piedmont,
France, and Ireland, evangelists were accused of buying
converts. Now, if the evangelists were the purchasers,
who brought them to the market? Who brought these
souls into the public market? They were all Roman
Catholics. If any man were so base, the system which
brought a man into that state of degradation was to blame.
He saw bright spots in Italy. There were hopes for it, and
he could not but think that God had preserved that people
for centuries through fire and sword, to light the Gospel on
-tbe Alps, so that it might shine over the plain of Marengo,
and even illuminate the very gates of Rome. (Applause.)
The people were beginning to see that there could be no
liberty but what was based upon the Gospel. They began to
see that the priests were not only the enemies of their souls,
but of freedom and social order, and that there could be no
such thing as constitutional freedom
Burgessreedom en
priests
referred
astsacteendoaf evangelizationney. (Applause.
in )France, and said he had good reason
to know that the present ruler did not persecute the Protestants,
ft-r ued° tion the
though that he neglected the matter was possible. Several
Baptist chapels were closed in the department of the Aisne,
and one of their pastors sought an interview with the
Emperor at Compeigne. When the Emperor heard the facts
of the case, he said, " Certainly I like liberty of worship."
(Applause.) It was the old spirit of persecution which bad
come up in France, and from which the Church of Rome,
by its very nature, could never cease. To ask the Church
of Rome why she did not cease to persecute, would be to
ask the wolf to cease to make the lamb te bleed. It
was only the circumstance of their being restrained- by
moment t
This
wFarsanace,
dreadfulwhere
laws which prevented us from being in the same
position.ini
He could enumerate eighteen places of
thing, and he hoped the power to persecute would be taken
from them. Either we must conquer the priests, or they will
t
conquer us. In some instances, when the ecclesiastical and
tke Protestantcku rch e
ownonrds het
peel
werethis
civil authorities are at variance, Protestants are allowed by
the latter to meet and preach when they please. On the prin-
ciple that the people cannot be made worse, our missionaries
are allowed to work. In Lyons and around it 139 agents in
all are at work. and these, added to students and scripture
readers, amount to 380 in full employment; but this requires
much maintenance.. A deficiency has been experienced in the
to the amount of more
nherineighbourhood there are
mostlyadgestilk weavers, and nearly all
eightmthconverts from Popery. These men contributed nearly £BOO
last year to the general fund.
.In what part of our country
to this ?
could we give a parallel If France knew where her
oann e 001 :1,000gmaintaining
re.g atlno n s o ts h i
as n
strength lay, then might we feel confidence in those armies
which has gone forth in aid of our own. The time, he trusted,
was not distant when the Gospel shall be preached over the
continent. Then we shall have a peace such as Christ came
I to disseminate over the nati ons. I t h rough the cataract awe'',
we can see the iris of peace rising over the spray wisich towers