The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-30 00:00:00

that which our constitution dec

stition and idolatry

It is not a questic

of rival creeds, but a positive distinction
between Christianity and its direct opposite ; nor
are we called upon to show, in any way, the
peculiar errors of that distinctive teaching which
Rome falsely declares to be Catholic, for our very
existence as a nation is dependent upon our denial
and rejection of it. The Reformation settled the

Heratior

question of theological controversy ; the t.
of the STUART dynasty from the male to the
female line followed an attempt to revive it ; our
own Sovereign holds her right to the throne upon
the solemn undertaking to abjure all Romish
heresy,—and while, therefore, the compact is vir-
tually infringed by the endowment of Maynooth,
which is defended upon the miserable plea of
political expediency, it is absurd folly to import
into the question any arguments founded upon a
defence of Romish doctrines. Some good result
was at one time anticipated from an official inquiry,
but it would be idle to expect it from the constitu-
tion of the present Commission.

THE commencement of a Parliamentary recess
is usually the dullest time of the year for the dis-
cussion of any political subject. The members of
the Legislature have separated, the QUEEN has
taken her departure for the Dublin Exhibition en
route to her Highland home, the Ministers have
devolved their respective duties to one of their
body, the Turkish question furnishes but the frag-
ments of a political controversy, and everybody is
tired of the doings of last Session, and ill inclined
to enter, just yet, into agitation on new questions
for the next. There is, therefore, a political lull,
well suited to the lassitude of mind and body
which ordinarily prevails at this season of the year,
owing to the increase of temperature, of which,
however, we have this year experienced but little,
notwithstanding the appearance of a bright comet
in the sky. There are subjects, however, which it
is well to bear in mind, and not the least important
of these is the maintenance of unity in the Conser-
vative party, if we would preserve our National
Institutions and the moral greatness of our coun-
try. It was the bane of ancient Rome, that national

prosperity induced a forgetfulness of the means by
which she reached the pinnacle of power. One by
one, the stern principles which had served her so
well as she rose were lost sight of when she had
risen, and the inevitable consequence was her over-
throw by the barbarians of the North. Great
Britain has had greater advantages than ever were
enjoyed by ancient Rome ; but, unless we profit by
the warning of her fate, our fall, as we have been
raised so much higher, will be the greater. We
have not only enjoyed to as full an extent the ad-
vantages of triumphant conquests by sea and land,
subduing all foes by the terrors of our arms, and
binding them to us by the ties of national honour
and the arts of peace, but we have had the pure
light of Revelation—a blessing which Rome never
possessed either in her ancient Empire or her mo-
dern Papal State. And how are we making use
of the advantages vouchsafed to us, in order to
show ourselves deserving of the high mission with
which we are entrusted as the centre of Chris-
tianity, the promoter of civilisation, the fountain-
head of commerce, and the arbiter of the destinies
of the nations of the world ? From the time of
ELIZABETH and the glorious era of the Reforma-
tion, our commercial and financial policy has been
that of Protection to native industry, native capital,
and native enterprise. Under that system we pro-
gressed with a rapidity beyond that of any other
nation, either of ancient or modern times, and, at
the close of the last long war, had reached a pitch
of greatness unparalleled. During all this time
Great Britain preserved the purity of the faith
which had obtained her so many blessings, and
even hazarded a revolution to prevent a return to
her ancient superstition. She admitted no en-
croachments of Rome, whether by force or craft,
and allowed none who professed the exploded
heresy to have any share in her Government,
either national or local. How have we profited by
the wisdom of our ancestors, which were blessed
with such happy results ? We have thrown the
experience of ages to the winds, in order to adopt
the theories of political economists, whose gold is
their God, whose ledgers are their Bibles, and whose
faith is in the price of Consols. It was for the
profit of the manufacturers that the duty on foreign

corn was repealed, in order that, on the pretence
of cheap bread, they might reduce the wages of I
their factory slaves. The cry of Free-trade was
assumed as a political dogma, to realise which every
interest in the country was thrown open to com-
petition with untaxed foreigners ; and when prices
had been so reduced that every merchant, importer,
and shipowner was losing by his commercial ope-
rations, and the country was fast hastening to a
general panic, our political agitators sounded the
note of Free-trade success, and the consumers, who
knew little at whose expense the cheapness had
been produced, readily joined in the cry. Provi-
dence, in its mercy, has reversed the decree, and,
by enormous supplies of the circulating medium,
raised the prices of almost every commodity, and
augmented the wages of labour ; and yet the same
cuckoo-cry is repeated about Free-trade prosperity,
as though our rulers and politicians had pre-deter-
mined to adhere to their theory, whether right or

wrong.
In religion a similar course has been pursued.
The safeguards which the wisdom of our ancestors
had placed round the national faith, have one by
one been displaced upon the false plea of religious
liberty. Romanists have not only been admitted
to places of trust, and to the responsible duties of
legislators, but into the still more responsible
offices of advisers to the Crown ; not simply for
their abilities, passing over the incident of their
being Romanists, but ostensibly and really for the
latter cause—which ought to have been a disquali-
fication—in order that the votes of their adherents
majority for the
may swell a Parliamentary