The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-11-11 00:00:00

REPORT.

After reciting the two principal resolutions that were -passed at the
meetin4 in October, last year, the report proceeded as followsl—
Such is the origin of our association, and your committee, in the
review of the year which has since elapsed, desire humbly and cor-
dially to thank God, and to take courage. They desire, also, to pre-
sent to their constituents, and to the nation, a brief vindication of their
design, snd'description Of their oprations.
The living and true God, the ntlieT.of heaven and earth, has re-
vealed to men his will concerning men. The Bible contains that re-
velation. No man is excepted, whatever be-his-station—high or low.
All are commanded to love and speak the'truth ; to confess Jesus
Christ the Lord ; to let their light shine before men; and whatsoever
they do, in word or deed, to do all to the glory of God. As touching
eternity, all are proclaimed on a level. There is no difference, for
all have sinned. ' As touching human society in this world, the
greatest differences are described. The powers that he are ordained
of -God. ,By Him kings reign, and princes decree justice. By him
they are reminded whose ministers fhe'y are. By Him they are com-
manded to tide in his fear, and for the temporal and eternal benefit
Of his people, subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
esteeming loyalty a Christian duty, not only for wrath, but also for
conscience sake.

Upon these high. truths,. as they progressively became practically
undeistood, and nationally recognised, the British constitution was
erected, and made progress towards perfection ; and whatever minor
measures of alteration in detail may from time to time be found &du.'
tart',—witff the national recognition of these great truths thatconsti-
tution must stand or- fall. The great principle is—that the will of
God, as-revealed in the Bible, is the o ty sure and- safe standard of
right arid wrong. and therefore constitutes the fundamental basis of
all (lbritttian legislation. No rulers, acting on this' principle, can
arraign their own charter, by propagating falsehood, or exercising
tyraowy. Anil no people, acting on this principle, can fail to possess
and inKicy p oth rah anti liberty. ,
By this theory, all most dear as christians and as English-
, men is assailed: and it is in uncompromising hostliity to this theory
that our protestant asSuciation is formed. it is called into existence
by imperative self-defence. Its declaration, deliberate arid determin-
' ed, is this :—That the authority of Gud must not be set aside; that
there is revealed truth; that both rulers and people may and ought to
know it; that both rulers and people are hound to give it practical
preference in the council cha Other, iii the senate-house, in the school,
in the 6tmilv, as well es in the closet; that if any of our fellow-
country men fie ignorant of this high principle, and he duties conse-
quent thereon, they should be'instructed; if any have forgotten, they
should he reminded; if any be hesitating, they should be decided;
if any be timid, they should be encouraged ; if any be supine, they
should be stimulated; so that our rulers may know, and the nation
may know, and the whole civilized world may know, that England
and the Bible are so linked together that no. infidel philosophy, no
unnatural coalitionbetween the disciples of liberality and the disciples
of intolerance can dissolve the indissoluble bond ; and that when
liberalism shall have succeeded in extinguishing the voice of con-
science—when popery shall have succeeded in enthroning the dog-
mas of her apostacy in the chair of unquestioned infallbility—w hen
infidelity shall have succeded in burning up the last copy of the Bible
as a scroll—when atheism shall have succeeded in expelling the living
God from his own creation, then, but not before, shall England be de-
prived of her constitution, the palladium of civil and religious liberty
amongst mankind.
The object. then, of our protestant association is not to misrepre-
sent, not to calumniate, as we are slanderously reported, and as some
affirm that we do, but to give needful publicity to fundamental truth.
In furtherance of this object, 7,614 tracts, controversial and others,
have been put into circulation. Of these, 4,614 have been sold. Also
a course of controversial sermons was preached in St. Andrew's
Church, and of these 10,444 copies have been sold. Your committee
have much satisfaction in calling the attention of their constituents
and friends to the circumstance ot so very large a proportion of their
publications having been purchased.
This supplies a strong indication of the desire of the people to pro-
cure sound instruction. And if any stronger indication were required,
it is abundantly supplied in a fact tor which your committee desire to
express thankfulness to Almighty God, and cordial congratulations to
their fellow-citizens—the fact held !Urn to the encouragement of the
friends of genuine protestantism, and to the admiration and imitation
of the United Kingdom, in the history of the. Liverpool Church of
England Sellouts. Protestant parents among the .poor•have felt the
Justice Of the appeal of their clerical instructors, and have refused to
send their children to schools front whose hours of authoritative teach-
ing the uninutilated Word of God is excluded. The children of Ro-
nan Catholic parents have naturally enough stepped in to occupy the
deserted forms. The enlightened and wealthy friends of Scriptural
education have nobly responded to the same appeal. Donations
amounting to £lOlOO, and annual subscriptions exceeding £5OO, pro-
claim
conclusion, hot la) negleeted.
the encouraging assurance that the l'rotestant poor are not for-
gotten; aril shallLp
your committee have real pleasure in recording their
conviction, that the RI/3tilV 1 • prevailed among the friends
of our Christian institotiiMswislif'as' g and a fixed determina-
tion inanifesting throughout the country to distinguish wisely
toat' rdeOt'atiii(dAri It3P ,11.4teennerriOtrliTnaetiirs oafnita destniction, and resolutely
pal tyi auny and intolerance.
A U said he hoped it would
riortill'i,hwei sh
just ssi
have been his pleasing
duty to introduce Mr. Mliiree to the meeting, but he grieved
li,s;ty that he had received a letter 'from that gentleman, an-
erious indisposition, [The Chaitman read the
letter, in which INl‘Ghee stated " that he was unable to
speak or swan". from cluinsY in his throat, and should, there-
rgtimer O'Sullivan to the
on' Tuesday."] The
be
When silence was sufficiently restored,
the
ilmati
o',sut.t IVA N then stood forward, and was greeted
u Itihaebnlei nttoroclut teeeitlidt to'
Clue:
guilt or innocence
lay often be learned more th( •
of an accused party >toughly from
meet the strength of an accusation
hweitiltVol%teretile:(7l ags cheers,loll :—AlChairman, rho
tire testimon 11V -1644 i he. charges against him are supported.
:c‘atu,
dai(dlll6.c,autied eboldly ilsl toa voucher fur, at least, the hOnesty of
is not thought
counsel' who evades the strength and s charge, and
piirpase in- which the defence is undeurit}satkaennc,ettoutdail,llll.llorU,gh the
6 he is vet universally
,to.haVe necessarily betrayed his cause, replies only to matteis incidental or indifferent,
es-
teemed as one not over careful. for his client's reputation--
twine c lent a
tided to his•protection. His first care was to pr
(Cheers:). That reputation however, may not have been con,-
' his
ous duty, he is
ineompatible with due regard l'or the more imperi_.
acquittal, and if to free honour also from. stispi.cion wasfound
void-of blame, because, when assailed by.contraclictury c
bound to'acknowledg,e. The indulgence yielded as of right to
he gave his chief attention to those whiCh he was especially
the udydcate in a court of justice is not granted to trial who
defends a cause arraigned before public opinion. At that tri-
bunal reputation is•ttio award, and good fame was never 'won
where the arts and efforts which sought' it were proved to be
disingenuous. (Cheers.) Let an individual who seeks his own
renown be convicted of any equivocalidn, and he is held ,per-
sonally dishonoured. Who will believe that an unscrupulous.
advocate can promote. the interests of what he terms a holy
cause by adopting practices which would be held unworthy and
unbecoming, it' considered only in reference to himself, and
which receive a character of deeper criminality when minister-
ing to the advancement of what is termed religion? (Loud
cheers.) No. It is not the devices Of mammon by which the
cause of righteousness can be served. (Hear, hear.) No sane
man who thought his cause good could have recourse to them.
In the controversy. then, which has of late years been conducted
on the part of the Church of Home, and those who complained
against her, it seems of moment to examine the arguments by
which she has sought to defend herself, not only for the purpose
of exposing their inconclusiveness, but also with a view to ex-
hibit in the principle of their selection the character of the cause
artifices which it has led to his'adopting—to
they protect—to trace out the secret .cunzciousness.of the advo-
vocate throueh the
.show that he has turned aside from the charges which were
~raveht and most direct—that he • has., eagerly explored and
shaped out some matter of trivial moment through which to ef-
fect a brief and unprofitable diversion, and thus to suggest the
natural inference that he would not hate descended to such
unworthy arts, if soy hope remaiued of defending his cause in.
sincerity, ( Loud cheers.). -The letter„sir, which you have just
now read, and which 'has been. heard by Ibis great assembly
with feelings of regret still more suitable than of the disappoint-
ment- which the communication naturally caused, will have sug-
gested abundant proofs that these remarks aro not irrelevant to
the occasion on which we are, assembled. When we name
Robert McGhee, we name one who has brought forward'charges
of the gravest character against the Church of Borne, who has
sustained them by irrefragable ,evidence,..atrd enforced them
with an eloquence which has compelled even a heedless gene-
ratiOn to give them attentive audience. (Cheers.) We name
one who summoned to the controversy with that church her
own acknowledged instruments—her formnlariel of worship—
the -decrees of het-councils—the decisions or,her popes—her ;
annotations ors Holy Scripture—her approved summaries of
doctrine and morals, and who in .everrinstancc so couviuc-