The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-15 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

EXPERIMENTAL OPENING OF THE CHESTER AND BIR-
KENHEAD RAILWAY—We had prepared an account of the
trial trips which took place on this line on Thursday and
Saturday last, hnt are compelled to postpone it in conse-
quence of the length of the report of the interesting pro-
ceedings at the Amphitheatre last night.

Ebt Etberpool &tanbatt.

TUESDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1840.

On Wednesday evening last the Papist Alderman
Sheil presided over the annual meeting of the Liver-
pool Tradesmen's Reform Association. The report of
the Mercury states that he was called to the chair with
acclamation. We find in this circumstance, trifling as
it is in itself, a fresh evidence of the strong compact
which exists between the liberals and the Papists. The
nondescript association to which we allude is chiefly
composed of political Dissenters, Socialists, Infidels,
and Papists, together with a sprinkling of renegade
churchmen. What the feelings of the latter must have
been when Mr. Sheil was called to the chair we cannot
divine. All we can say is, that they richly deserved
the deliberate insult oared to their church by such a
2 I proceeding.

After Alderman Sheil had been duly installed in the
chair, he proceeded, in his usual magniloquent style,
to deliver himself of the absurdities which he had
conned for the occasion. Among these absurdities one
of the most laughable was the assertion that the whig-
radical faction " professed principles which tended to
promote and extend the interests of the great mass of
the community to the exclusion of none." The whole
career of the whig party, since their accession to office,
has afforded a beautiful and instructive commentary on
this boast. Whose interests have these hypocrites
promoted.? They have certainly taken care of their
own ; but we venture to say that there is no great class
in the community, agricultural, commercial, or manu-
facturing, whose interests they have not basely and
scandalously sacrificed.

After Mr. Sheil had sufficiently amused the meeting
by his rant. and fustian, Mr. Councillor Gravestone
Bolton got up to express a hope that the electors of
Lime-street 'Ward would again return Mr. Blackburn
as their representative to the Town Council. Of Mr.
Blackburn personally we have at present no wish to
say anything, labouring as he is under a domestic ca-

lamity which has naturally called forth the universal
sympathy of all parties : but this we feel confident of—
that a staunch conservative will be chosen at the next
municipal election, to represent the ward in question.
" John Rosson, Esq.," the Popish barrister, (how
prominent these Papists are at all the reform gather-
ings !) next addressed the meeting. This gentleman
indulged in his usual style of abuse towards the Pro-
testant clergy of the town, and insinuated that the
Rev. Hugh M'Neile uttered an untruth when he said
that " the Saviour came to spread, not peace, but war
upon the earth !" If Mr. Rosson had as much know-
ledge of Scripture as an ordinary charity school boy,
he would have known that the language which he de-
signated as "an abominable tirade" proceeded out of
the lips of the Divine Redeemer. His allusion to the
late trial of Hearne v. Stowell was equally unfortunate.
He charged our contemporary the Courier (who will,
no doubt, answer for himself) with " uttering a string
of the most detestable libels that any Christian—he
might almost say any anti-Christian had ever uttered
against his fellow-man." In one sense the comments
of the Courier were certainly libellous—they were dis-
agreeable and damning truths, calculated to bring the
character of the Romish priesthood into merited dis-
repute. The more generally such unpalatable truths
are brought before the public the better. The de-
grading practises of Popery cannot be too frequently
or too forcibly exposed.

The next important proceeding at the congress of
the Liverpool loco focos was, the election of a presi-
dent for the ensuing year. This important trust has
been delegated to Mr. James Brancker, whose chief
qualification for the office is, that he has bled freely on
many former occasions.
We do not know what to think of the declaration of
Mr. Rathbone that he had " grown both blind and
gray in the service of the reformers." We can better
understand his boast that he did not belong to the
aristocracy of the reform party, as " his father was a
man that worked in his own sawpit." Mr. Rathbone
has no ambition to be thought one of the elite of his
party : he is simply content with the distinction of
being top-sawyer among them.

If there had been any previous doubt on the sul)ject
of the recent accessions to the registry for this borough,
Mr. Rathbone has completely removed it, by declaring
most unequivocally that the " aristocratic" reformers
had done their duty by " coming forward to assist
those who could not pay their taxes." We now know
positively whom to thank for the future additions which
will be made to the burden of our local taxation.

However, the game which the reformers have been
playing through the agency of the Protector Associa-
tion has only served to stimulate the Conservatives to
increased zeal and more strenuous exertions, the effect
of which has been signally successful. Mr. Rathbone
acknowledges that the Conservatives have " stolen a
march" upon the reformers " which it would require

their greatest discretion and their greatest energy to
Alter all, it is not unlikely that the
money expended upon this Protector Society has been

counteract."

Sir Joshua is not one

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY
AMONG THE JEWS.

The celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Li-
verpool Auxiliary Society for Promoting Christianity among
the Jews commenced on Sunday last, and will terminate to-
morrow evening. On Sunday sermons were preached ap-
propriate to the occasion, and collections made, in St. An-
drew's, by the Rev. W. Pym, M.A., rector of Welwyn ; in
St. Augustine's, by the Rev. F. S. Grimshaw, M.A., vicar
of Biddenham ; in St. Bride's, by the Rev. H. Raikes, M.A.,
Chancellor of the diocese; in St. Mark's, by the Rev. D.
.James, incumbent of St. Mary's, Kirkdale ; in All Saints',
by the Rev. J. H. Stewart, M.A., incumbent of St. Bride's ;
in St. Luke's, by the Rev. T. Byrd), D.D., F.A.S., rector
of Wallasey ; in St. Simon's, by the Rev. J. Newton Peill,
M.A., Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge ; in Christ
Church, by the Rev. F. Ould, A. 8., incumbent ; in the
Mariners' Church, by the Rev. B. A. Marshall, A. 8., curate
of St. Mark's ' • in St. Bride's, by the Rev. T. S. Grimshaw,
; in All Saints', by the Rev. W. Pym, M.A. ; in St.
David's, by the Rev. A. McConkey, M.A.. minister of All
Saints'; in St. Jude's, by the Rev. Hugh M`Neile, M.A.,
incumbent ; in St. Simon's, by the Rev. J. R. Connor,
•M.A., minister; in West Derby Chapel, by the Rev. R.
Davies, M.A., incumbent of St. David's ; at Edge-hill, by
the Rev. W. Pym, M.A. ; at Seaforth, by the Rev. W.
Rawson, M.A., incumbent ; at Prescot, by the Rev. T.
Tattershall, D.ll. incumbent of St. Augustine's • and at
Runcorn, by the Rev. H. S. Joseph, chaplain to the Liver-
pool Workhouse.

MEETING

ANNIVERSARY
Last evening the anniversary meeting of the society wa
held in the Royal Amphitheatre. The whole of the spacious
edifice was filled in every part. and a glorious spectacle it
presented. Amongst the clergy and gentry upon the plat-

form, we observes—Sir Deane, of Cork ;
Salusbury ; J. Rigby, Joshua Edwards,

Sir J. S. P.
T. Greenall,

Pemberton,

Keeling (Runcorn)

Edwards