The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-08 00:00:00

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TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 1853.

THE WEEK.

LITTLE has occurred this week to vary the ordinary
routine, and therefore we may be the more brief
in our review. Great preparations have been made
for the due celebration of the Centenary of Roscoe,
which takes place this day with a public breakfast
at the Philharmonic-ball, and a soiree at the Town-
hall, to which the Worshipful the Mayor has been
most liberal in his invitations ; and the most lively
anticipations are entertained of the gratification to
be derived from the various sources of interest which
shall mark this day as one to be remembered in
Liverpool. The Town Council held their usual
meeting on Wednesday, but so great was the
counter-attraction of the Steeple-chase at Aintree,
that the Councillors left the Mayor almost "alone
in his glory," and the rule for " business first, pleasure
afterwards," was reversed. On Thursday the agricul-
turists of Cheshire had a grand field-day at Hooton,
where horses, pigs, and poultry occupied a prominent
position, and concluded the day by a treat at Rock
Ferry. Last night, the Rev. Tresham D. Gregg,
D.D., of Dublin, delivered a lecture at the
Concert-hall, before one of the largest audiences
ever assembled within its walls, on the "Heroism of
the Sacred Character, as contradistinguished from
the Profane ; illustrated by the life of Jacob," of
which a full report will be found in another part of
our paper. The weather has been of a varied
character. On Saturday night, a thick fog over-
spread the river, and the bells on the steamers, and
on the shore, were kept ringing. On the landing
stage was a machine vigorously worked, the sound
from which resembled the expiring squeals of a pig
with weak lungs. It was intended, we presume,
for an alarm signal. Yesterday was one of the
loveliest sunny days witnessed for many months,
and the townspeople came out in numbers to enjoy
it. A few such days, and we shall have smiling
spring very shortly. The Theatres have continued
their attractions, and French plays are announced
for the latter end of the month. Mr. Thomas's
Concerts were brought to a close on Saturday, with
a triumphant finale

THE FREE TRADE COALITION GOVERNMENT
came out in a somewhat comical character on Thurs-
day, in opposition to Mr. HumE's motion, affirm-
ing the principle of a gradual abolition of all pro-
tective duties on manufactured goods. After all
the noise that has been made about the acceptance
of the policy of Free Trade by the Earl of DERBY
and NE.. DISRAELI, it is rather startling to find the
concoctors of Mr. VILLIERS'S motion making a
deliberate stand for protective duties. What ! Sir
JAMES GRAHAM turned Protectionist ! And Mr.
GLADSTONE WO " Why not ?" asks the Right
Honourable Gentleman with amazing gravity, "am
"I not CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQER now, and
" don 't you perceive that that makes all the differ-
ence ?"—John Bull.

THE MAYNOOTH GRANT.—The smallness of
the majority on Mr. Spooner's motion is a cause
for thankfulness and hope. It ought to shame
those Protestants who require to see the harvest
before they will sow the corn; and instead of doing
what they can, look round them to find excuses for
sitting still and doing nothing. With such faint
hearts, excuses for inaction are never wanting. All
our past efforts, they say, have failed, and how can
we reasonably hope for anything better in future ?
If the Popish endowment was carried, in spite of
the most earnest opposition, and our leading states-
men have all committed themselves in its favour,
how can we think that we shall ever undo what we
could not prevent from being done ? So they sit
down with folded hands, while their country per-
severes in its league with idolatry, and feeds and
nurses the most dangerous and active enemy of our
liberties and our religion.—Record.

THE CANADA CLERGY RESERVES.--The short
debate in the Upper House on the Clergy Reserves
Bill illustrates the truth of the observation with
which we first approached the subject—that it is an
open question among conscientious and religious
men. Bishop Wilberforce supports the Bill ; yet
his argument does not, we think, mend the case,
unless by compressing it into a smaller compass.
He simply re-states the proposition that an adult
colony has an absolute right to the management of
its own affairs—and gallops off upon it over every
imaginable obstacle. Now, we beg to repeat what
we said last week—that the concession of the power
of self-government to each particular colony has
always been, and must always be, a question of
time and circumstance. Whenever, from the inter-
mixture of races or from any other cause, there has
been reason to apprehend that the colonial majority
would use its power to commit some great oppres-
sion or wrong, there the mother country has always
recognised in herself the right and duty to pause
before making that concession—to delay or even
refuse it—perhaps to retain a partial power of con-
trol, possibly to incorporate and stereotype the
restraints in the very institutions she bestows.
Why are the West Indian Legislatures, as regards
the management of negro immigrants, tied hand
and foot ? Why have we so long hesitated to give
a free constitution to New Zealand ? On what
principle are we about to fix the franchise at the
Cape of Good Hope ? The question is not quite so
simple as the Bishop puts it ; nor can we quite
share his confidence in the generosity of the Cana-
dian Legislature. Fiat justitia, exclaims the
Bishop—fet injuria, says the defenceless Colonial
Church.—Guardian.