The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-30 00:00:00

DR. SLEIGH'S LECTURES,

TO THE EDITOR OP THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY:
SIR,—In a low and paltry article which appeared in the
columns of the Mercury of the 26th inst., you, with your ac-
customed maliciousness, attacked an individual who is as
superior to you in talent and ability as he is in principle.
I refer to your editorial article on Dr. Sleigh, headed,
" Gross Libel on the Constitution of the United States."
Now, sir, you acknowledge that "you have not waded through
the report given in the Mail;" and not having attended his
lectures, you are " of course ignorant of the arguments which
he may have adduced in support of his views." Therefore,
I ask where you find the " grOss libel ?" Is it in that over-
heated and diseased imagination of yours, which conceives
that which is patriotic and noble to emanate from a virulent
and party motive,—converts positive truth into a "gross libel,"
and transforms your own intolerant and spiteful feelings into
a generous and high-minded spirit ? Verily it must be so.
You say, " A Doctor Sleigh has been delivering a course
of four lectures at the Music-hall." Here, sir, at the very
commencement you show yourself totally ignorant of the
subject upon which you mite, inasmuch as von tell a direct
and palpable lie, in saying that " Dr. Sleigh has been deli-
vering a course or jinir lectures," while he, to the extreme
regret of his friends and audience who attended on Monday
and Tuesday evenings, was so seriously indisposed on the
Wednesday as to preclude the possibility of his giving the
remaining lectures on that and Thursday evening. Conse-
quently they were postponed. You then give the public
your valuable opinion upon the subject. "It is our own opi-
nion, that the enlightened portion of our townsmen will esti-
mate the meek Doctor's twaddle as they did the inure lively
sallies of the smashing Fergus." Pray, Mr. enlightened
Editor, may I ask upon what your opinion is founded ? You
have not attended the lectures, —you have not read the report
in the Mail.—gnu know nothing whatever of the " Doctor's
arguments." Most profound philosopher, what a talent thou
hast for exaggeration" and " ingenious device," although
"not of the class of politicians to which Dr. Sleigh belongs."
Assuredly I have not met with such a fertile accident-making-
genius for some time past.
But to proceed. You sneeringly remark, "In his pro-
spectus the Doctor modestly announces the discoveries he
has made," and " the Doctor, it seems, has travelled 20,000
miles to acquire an intimate knowledge of the manners," &c.
Surely, sir, your liberality might have carried you a little
further. Why not state that be had " resided nearly nine
years" in America, and that, " with a general view of the
manners, religion, and political statistics," &c., he would re-
late " numerous and interesting events little known here,"
"all tending to prove the pernicious and ruinous consequences
of republicanism, universal suffrage, and cote by ballot, Aye,
—here is the sore place. That an individual who has seen
and watched the working of the system which is " a disgrace
to any civilized nation ;" that he should, in enlightened Li-
verpool, "presume" to expose the trickery and hollowness of
this " child of promise," suckled and nurtured by the editor
of the Mercury, in hopeful watchfulness, anxiously anticipat-
ing the time of maturity, wheti,. by its searching influence, it
shall eradicate and root from England's heart its truth, and,
to use the language of Lord Brougham a few years back,
" convert the nation to a living lie.'

I will here give the extract from the prospectus which you
have quoted. The Doctor says,—
" He will prove that which he is ready to defend at any
time, and in any place, against the combined talent of all the
radical champions of England, namely, first, that republi-
canism necessarily leads to tyranny, and is in direct opposi-
tion to the laws of nature and of nature's God : secondly,
that in proportion as the elective franchise is increased among
the poor, their liberty and happiness are diminished; and,
thirdly, that vote by ballot is not only incapable of preventing
persecution, but is demoralizing in its very nature, and a dis-
grace to any civilized nation "
Here, then, sir, we have indeed a sweeping challenge
What he asserts " he is ready to defend at any time and in
any place." Dare you, sir, take up the gauntlet ? You have
looked, snarled at, and touched it; but " the coward lurks
within," and you dare not grasp it. The Doctor has entered
the list oftener than once, with more powerful enemies to the
truth than yourself, and this you know. Little though the
penetration be which you possess, still you have sufficient to
discover that if you, " with all the talents of the radicals in
England combined," should have the temerity to accept the
challenge, you would be shaken in the iron grasp of truth,
and all your sophisms and falsehoods scattered to the winds,
when brought to the searching influence of that all-powerful
test, " the word of God."

Your next liberal observation is truly worthy of notice.
You sagely remark, " It may be doubted whether any man
ought to be allowed to go about libelling the constitution,
and lampooning the institutions of a great and free nation."
Oh ! thou consistent politician, and advocate of free discus-
sion. Let but an individual, be his character ever so base
and treacherous, abuse and vilify the best and noblest insti-
tutions of our country ;—let him slander religion, and advo-
cate that which every true Christian, upon the authority of
his Bible, pronounces accursed,— Popery in the shape of
liberal education, or grants to Maynooth ;—let hiaa traduce
the character of the best and greatest in the land,—and he
shall be applauded to " the very echo" by the consistent
editor of the Mercury. But further, sir:-1 think it well for
the Doctor and so must you, that the free and glorious con-
stitution of America is not at the present time flourishing in
England, and you in " magisterial power' for doubting whe-
ther any man ought to be allowed to go about lampooning the
institutions of the country. You would most certainly con-
ceive it your duty to visit such an aggressor with the utmost
severity that justice could inflict.
In proceeding, you give an extract from a work by "M.
Achille Murat. who has borne triumphant testimony
to the good effects of the system" which Dr. Sleigh condemns.
As to the extract itself, it bears not upon the subject. It
would, indeed, be an extraordinary thing if, amongst such a
population as America can boast, there were not " a great
number of religious societies existing," societies " for the
distribution of the Bible," &c.; but it is the height of fitly
and stupidity to imagine that these good institutions are the
result of republican government. I shall here avail myself
of the privilege of giving an extract or two from a work of
no mean authority, •‘ Journal of a Residence and Tour in
the United States,
Cambridge," which will tend to illustrate the enlightened
"There is not, by E. S. Abdy, fellow of Jesus College,
state of this great and flee nation. Mr. Abdy remarks,
I believe, one trade in New York in which
its coloured inhabitants are allowed to work with the whites."
Page 358.—Again, at page 374, " If I were to tell my friends
in England that one of the most enlightened and estimable
men with whom I became acquainted in America, declared
to me that he really did not think he could eat his dinner
were a coloured man sitting at the same table with him, I
should he accused of exceeding the limits of a traveller's pri-
vilege."—And in concluding, he remarks, " I can say with
the utmost sincerity that I left England with a wish to do
justice to America. I thought her character had been mis-
represented, and I was anxious to collect facts that I might
adduce in her vindication on my return. I soon found, how-
ever, that 1 must throw up my brief :—the libel hail become
a criminal indictment, and the former plaintiff was the de-
fendant. What are the insults the Americans complain of
having received from strangers, compared with the injuries
thev have heaped upon their own countrymen." Page 391.
—These extracts alone, sir, speak volumes, and require no
comment. In " taking your leave of the Doctor," your re-
marks are truly characteristic of your priuciple,,—spiteful
and insinuating. In taking my leave of you, "it would be
unfair to omit stating" that your subscribing "to his con-
demnation of the horrible system of slavery in the United
States," is a remark worthy of a better character: but " in-
terdum stuUus bene &guitar " Your's, &c.
Liverpool, 29th October, 1838. H. J, S.
P. S.—l pray you observe, sir, that while Dr. Sleigh is
condemning the government of free America and happy
France, it is. not from personal interest that he does so. He
is not stimulated by the same grovelling party Spirit as your-
self. His object is solely the good of his country, and while
pointing out to the community the curses of republicanism
and republican measures, to encourage them with
" Hearts resolved and hands prepared,
The blessings they enjoy to guard."

DRAPERS' ASSISTANTS' MEETING.

TO THP, EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—I beg to correct an error in the report given in your
paper 4f Friday last, of the meeting of the 'Drapers' As-
sistants, 'wherein you mention me as Mr. Tripp (of London).
Instead of whieb,—l have the honor to be, Sir, your humble
servant, JAM ES S. TRIPP,
26th October, 1838. Of Lour) STREET.