The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-07 00:00:00

OCIALISM AND ITS JUVENILE INFIDELS

We have been told by conservatives, and good conserva-
tives too, that the impious doctrines and projects of social-
ism are, from their own weakness and the insignificance of
the parties by whom they are propounded, unworthy of the
serious notice of the conservative press or the conservative
public. We cannot, however, admit the soundness of this
view, and are convinced that it can only proceed from an
entire ignorance of the character of those doctrines, and of
the seductive means adopted to effect their propagation.
The open and undoubted atheism which is the root and
heart of the system, is calculated indeed to shock rather
than to attract the minds of the great body of the commu-
nity ;—the avowals, on the part of the hired itinerants and
their duped and defrauded disciples, of utter unbelief of
Scripture—the ribald abuse of every ordinance of religion,
which form the staple of the nightly or weekly lectures of
their " halls of science—the mockery of ail which we have
been accustomed to hold sacred, are so revolting to the
Christian portion of the people of England, that they cannot
believe that a system of which such profanities constitute
the essence can do any material injury to the cause of reli-
gion and order, and are ready to maintain that, unopposed
and unnoticed, it will ultimately expire of inanition, or be
crushed beneath the indignation of its defrauded dupes.
But they must be unaware, in connection with these dis-
gusting profanities, and to induce the unthinking to embrace
them, what enticing lures are held out—what specious pro-
fessions put forth—what attractive shows devised—to lead
step by step the young and the giddy from the path of truth
into mere contact, at first, with the noxious thing, until they
are engulfed at length in all the abomination of its immo-
rality and blaspheming infidelity. They cannot be aware of
the fact, that not only by the temptations offered in the form
of social balls and concerts, are the young of both sexes
drawn into the vortex of irreligion, but that even the infant
mind is laid hold of by these arch-apostles of atheism and
impurity, and sedulously trained up in the belief of their
infamous blasphemies.
We have been induced to call the attention of our fellow-
townsmen to the proceedings of this body, by an exhibition
to which the public were invited on Sunday afternoon, in the
Social Hall, in Lord Nelson-street, and of the doings at
which we are in possession of information. What does the
reader think of the public examination, in a Christian town,
in Christian England, in the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury, of upwards of fifty juvenile—almost INFANT—INFI-
DELS ! And yet by no milder language can we describe the
outrage upon decency, and upon the feelings of a Christian
community, which was perpetrated within the walls of this
den of infamy in the afternoon of the Sabbath ! Upwards
of fifty poor children avowedly trained up to believe religion
a fable—the Bible a book of lies and immorality—the exist-
ence of a future state, and the possession of an immortal
soul, delusions ; and their infant lips taught to lisp blasphe-
mous hymns to the God of Nature, and to scoff at and de-
ride the God of Truth ! Can we safely shut our eyes to such
a monstrous profanity ?
" We do not, in educating these poor children," explained
a social expounder of the social system of education, " teach
them any thing about David and Goliath, if ever such men
existed, or about Sampson carrying off the gates of a city,
if ever such a man as Sampson existed. We throw away
the Bible and teach them useful knowledge." A nice system
this we should think for not a few of the liberals of our
council ! The kind of useful knowledge provided was made
known by the examination of the juveniles themselves, who
went through a description of the anatomical structure of the
human body ;—explained the nature and form of nerves,
arteries, sinews, muscles, &c., with all the gravity of a
college of surgeons ; displayed a profound knowledge of
botany, its classes, orders, species, &c., and there can be no
doubt could have equally enlightened the auditory upon
other branches of philosophy. In real fact, farcical as
obviously is the attempt to drill such subjects as these into
the memories of complete children, and little calculated for
such a task as the diffusion of a correct knowledge of them,
as are the half crazy and half rascally pretenders who under-
take it, the object must be plain—viz., to pervert the young
minds,—to lay the foundation for the rejection in future life
of scriptural knowledge, and the erection in its stead of a
superstructure of materialism and its consequent or ac-
companying infidelity. And yet all this is done under the
superintendence of females (!)—mothers of families—and is
paid for with the money exacted from the curious, the idle,
and the giddy, who are drawn nightly and weekly within the
walls of this temple of infidelity, from a morbid desire to
listen to the blasphemies which are uttered purposely to
attract such visits.

We will not, by noticing any of these proceedings, excite
further curiosity towards them; but really we do think that
it is a duty on the part of the magistrates of Liverpool to
endeavour, at the least, to restrain them within the bounds
of outward decency. On Sunday week last, we are informed,
that the atrocities uttered were beyond measure disgusting ;
and notwithstanding all our toleration towards mere error in
religious teaching we cannot think that toleration ought to
extend to these ribald exhibitions.

HORRIBLE MURDER NEAR ST. HELENS

(From our own Correspondent.)

ST. HELENS, SUNDAY MORNING.—It becomes our pain-
ful duty to record the facts of a most diabolical:and barbarous
murder which has been committed on a highly respectable
farmer residing at Rainford, about two miles from St. Helens,
whose name was Mr. Henry Grayson.

.
The unfortunate gentleman was in the habit of visiting St.
Helens several times during the week ; and on Saturday last,
being market day, he had been at that town on his ordinary
business. Having property there, he had received some
rentals during the day, and therefore had a considerable sum
of money on his person before he set out for home.
Mr. Grayson, it is known, was in St. Helens after mid-
night, because he was applying for admittance at the King's
Head public-house between twelve and one o'clock, but being
refused it he went away from there. We have not yet heard
that he was afterwards seen until found at a place called Den-
ton's Green, which is about a mile from the town, and the
direct road to his own house.

About five o'clock on Sunday morning a man, employed
as ostler by the Denton Green Brewery Company, was pro-
ceeding to his stables, when he discovered the body of a man
lying in the centre of the highway, and his suspicion was that
he was drunk and asleep. He, however, raised him up, and
finding him incapable of either speaking or helping himself,
carried him into a barn immediately adjoining, and which
belongs to Mr. C. Blades,:of the Gerard's Arms, Denton's
Green. There the man left him, supposing he was still asleep,
but returned some time after with a lantern, when he fonnd
that he had been dreadfully wounded on his head and other
parts of his body, and if not then dead, was utterly insensible.
He immediately gave an alarm, and medical assistance was
procured, but the unfortunate gentleman was dead before it
could be of any avail.

The body is now lying at the Gerard Arms, public-house,
where hundreds have been this day to view it. It is shock-
ingly disfigured, so that his late most intimate friends could
scarcely recognise it. There are several severe wounds on
the skull, which, it may be surmised, have been inflicted by
a hammer or some such instrument. The ribs are nearly all
broken, and the face is covered with bruises, and very much
swollen. No money was found on the person of the decea-
sed, and the right-hand. trouser pocket is cut out.
The police, under the direction of Mr. Superintendent
Storey, have been very vigilant and dexterous, and four par-
ties are in custody on suspicion. The names of these are
Thomas Meadowcroft, Robert 'Wood, Charles Wood, and
Isaac Jacques. These men are well known to the authorities
as desperate characters, who have long infested the neigh-
bourhood, and been imprisoned for various terms very re-
peatedly. As yet we cannot detail the principal grounds of
evidence which will come out against them on the coroner's
inquest ; but the imprint of one of the prisoner's shoes,
which is remarkably formed, corresponds with some foot-
marks near the spot where the fatal deed was realized.
clasp knife, besmeared with blood, was found in the posses-
sion of one of these suspected characters, and a spot of blood
has also been detected on his trousers.

The_ excitement produced by the untoward event in the
neighbourhood is, of course, very intense ; and this is en-
hanced by the deceased gentleman being one who was well
known and highly respected.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 4 o'CLocK.—Another party has
just been taken by the police, but no justification of the cause
for his imprisonment has yet transpired.