The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-14 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

POSITION OF THE MINISTRY.-LORD JOHN
RUSSELL'S ILLNESS.

On Friday night, Lord John Russell appeared in his
place in.the House of Commons, and took some part in
the proceedings, but we have strong grounds for believing
that his recent sojourn at the seaside has not been pro-
ductive of the benefit which was anticipated from it, and
that his health is still in a very unsatisfactory—not to say
precarious—state. The Herald states that the cares and
anxieties of office are too much for the noble lords
strength, and that a perseverance in the discharge of pub-
lic duties so onerous may even be attended with danger to
his lordship's life.
The Dublin papers state, as their news from London,
that it is everywhere stated that the Premier has deter-
mined on immediate retirement.

Meanwhile, the Times, which has been long known for
a quick discernment of the motions of the wind, writes,
on Friday, thus :
" A government less vigorous, less collected, less forward
than the people, is on the ere of rejection. The living expels
the dead.

" The people ask not revolution in the common sense, but
some decided progress; and if it cannot get that progress from
one minister, it wilt require hint to abdicate, and give place to
another."

No one can doubt the drift of these remarks. The
ministry is falling to pieces. We have not desired it, or
helped forward such a consummation. But if, as is truly
remarked, the present ministry is incompetent to the
work of the moment, we know not what remedy can be
found, save their surrender of their offices to some more
competent persons.

THE LIVERPOOL PHCENIX LOAN COMPANY.

The annual meeting of the shareholders of this Com-
pany was held on Saturday, at the Clarendon-rooms.
The secretary having, a few months ago, gone off with a
large portion of the funds, gave more than usual interest
to the proceedings, and about 30 shareholders were pre-
sent.—Mr. WILLIAM COUPE being called to the chair
said the directors had a short report to submit, and not a
very satisfactory one, but he trusted they would bear
with it as well as they could. In addition to receiving the
report, three directors and two auditors would have to be
elected,

Mr. HODGSON, the new secretary, read the report. It
stated that during the last six months the directors had
met with heavy misfortunes. The late secretary had ab-
sconded in December, and his defalcation (now ascer-
tained) was considerable, but they had a guarantee for
£lOOO of it. The Company had also suffered by the de-
pression of trade, and the suspension of the Liverpool
Banking Company. £3OOO was the Company's liabilities
to its bankers at the time, and as this had to be met, the
directors had to suspend their loans. The amount of
loans made was only £1365, and under the circumstances
stated, the Company had realized sufficient to cover ex-
penses. The accounts of the late secretary had been
checked by the auditors, and the shareholders at their
last meeting had testified their confidence in him, and the
directors could only regret that it had been misplaced.
At the same time several of the frauds were so ingenious
as to defy detection at the time. The balance-sheet then
submitted, showed the defalcations of T. Baskerville, the
late secretary, were £2533 Bs. 4d. which, with the other
expenses added, made a total of £9280. On the other
side the amounts received or to be received, made a total
of £9137 14s. 11d., giving a balance on the wrong side
of the ledger of £l4l 19s. sd.
Mr. EVANS (governor of the Workhouse) complained
of the shareholders not being furnished with the ac-
counts some days before the meeting, so that they might
be tested and examined before the meeting had taken
place. He moved therefore that the consideration of the
accounts should be deferred till a subsequent part of the
meeting. This was seconded by Mr. Horsfall.
Mr. JOHN JONES, solicitor, said the society, if well
managed, might have become a monetary institution use-
ful to tradesmen, but now it was sinking into contempt
and insignificance. He pointed out some gross irregu-
larities in the management, some of which he said were
illegal. He was not satisfied with the accounts this day
submitted. He wished to see an account of the available
assets of the company. One third of the capital had been
lost by the acts of one man, and no doubt £lOOO more in
bad debts. It was, moreover, not certain, after the irre-
gularities committed, that the £lOOO guarantee would be
paid without involving them in a lawsuit. Some of the
directors themselves had not paid up their calls. The ac-
counts of the secretary should have been balanced
monthly ; and they could not have been well balanced or
the defalcation would have been found out before. lie
brought some other charges against the directors.
Mr. GODFREY LEVI said the company had, at previous
meetings, passed the accounts without knowing their con-
tents, which was an error. He moved that two auditors,
not at all connected with the directory, should be ap-
pointed to inspect the accounts, and report to an adjourned

meeting.
Mr. EVANS seconded the motion.
After Mr. Brotherton had replied to Mr. Jones in behalf
of the directors,
Mr. EvANs again complained of the secret proceedings
of the directors, and moved that Messrs. Jones, Gibb,
and Kelly should be appointed directors for the ensuing
year in the place of the three gentlemen retiring by
rotation.

The motion was seconded, put, and unanimously carried.
In reply to a question from Mr. Evans, the Chairman
said the books were not in the room. Mr. Evans further
elicited, that on one occasion, at least, a director had
taken away with him a sum of money, £l3, one evening
paid in, and the other directors were obliged to be impe-
rative in their demands before he would bring it back.
He urged other charges against the directors, stating that
be feared they had hipn ill-treated by others as cbe
the late secretary. He proposed that henceforth it shall
be competent for five or more shareholders, holding in the
aggregate fifty shares, to inspect all books and papers be-
longing to the company, either by themselves or deputies.
He accused one of the directors of having become a surety,
and said the directors had to seize his property to realise
the amount.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE CHURCH-PARTY SPIRIT:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
the controversies that have distracted the
Church for some years past, and which now seem hushed
into a temporary lull, those who have taken the most
prominent parts, and have rushed, as it were, into the
front of the battle, are men holding extreme opinions,
and wearing the badges of extreme parties. This indeed
accords with the strictest principles of nature, and corro-
borates the commonest maxim of philosophy ; for a man's
advocacy in some sort takes its complexion from the cause
which he advocates, and if his aim be to establish or to
vindicate a novel theory, the very opposition which he
expects to meet with from the world tends to make him
zealous without knowledge and heroic without discrimi-
nation. A man, too, entrusted with such an advocacy as
this, is rarely endowed with that spirit which is calculated
to throw fresh light upon the subject in dispute, and to
yield the way for the full glory of simple truth. Rather
than an impartial investigator and a sincere truth-seeker,
he appears in the character of a passionate defender of a
favourite theory against all attacks, whether of reason or
of prejudice; without busying himself to inquire into the
truth or justice of his cause, he rushes into the field like a
hero who fights because it is for his party or his comrade,
and resolves to slay and conquer by any means, because
they are his reputed enemies whom he attacks. When
once, indeed, this dangerous spirit is imbibed, who shall.
prescribe its influence ?—who limit its effects ? Actuated.
by it, men are carried to such extremes, when they have
advanced a little upon their course, as they themselves,
on setting out, never wished nor never thought to reach ;
both antagonistic parties, contending for arbitrary and
personal opinions, lose sight of that which can alone jus-
tify controversy, make enthusiasm laudable, and give
honour to victory ; the " pearl of great price," for the
purchase or possession of which the good man gives up
house and lands," fame and fortune. is mutually tram-
pled under foot, and the fatuous combatants may be al-
most literally said to fight upon the corpse of truth, till
it remains for subsequent times, when men's passions are
cooled down and their selfish ferocity appeased, to rescue
its mangled remains and resuscitate them into life, to
seek out the gem from amongst the rubbish heaped upon
it, and to regenerate what was once perfect and unalloyed.
We see this exemplified in every age, and, on a smaller
scale, every moment of our lives. We see men com-
mencing with a dim, or perhaps a bright, perception of
an object of controversy ; presently the sparks of per-
sonal animosity kindle, or the note of factious and per-
sonal opposition is sounded, till finally they forget the
original cause of their disagreement, and the contest be-
comes not so much between opinions as between men—
not between truth and falsehood, but between white and
black ; all distinctions of doctrines or fundamentals va-
nish, and men are at last known not so much by their real
sentiments or professions, as by a colour or a motto.
Each partisan looks upon an adversary's opinions and
arguments, not on their intrinsic merits, but simply as
the opinion or arguments of an adversary ; and as the
beholder through a painted telescope sees everything that
falls upon his vision of the same colour as his glass, so it
is with him who looks at the actions of another through
the perverted and perverting medium of party. In fine,
love is said to be blind, but party is blinder; for the par-
tisan esteems not only his friends infallible and their
sentiments perfection, but looks on all others as worth-
less and wicked, and does both without moderation and
without inquiry.
It is the raging of this spirit within the breasts of men
that has been in every age the fruitful spring of must of
the schisms and heresies which have distracted the Church,
and the factions by which states have been torn and di-
vided. For whilst this spirit is the most antagonistic to
truth, it is the best and most effectual support of all vain
theory and theoretical speculation. After a man has
constructed such a theory, it is this spirit which drives
him to that sacred fountain whence the waters of truth
flow in limpid purity, to extract a cordial for his vain and
puffed-up imagination, and sends him to the word of the
living God, not that by it he may model his practice and
his belief, but that he may, by twisting texts and per-
verting what seem to be partially declared truths, drag it
forth as a champion of that which he has already formed,
going to it not that he may. become " wise unto salva-
tion," and " thoroughly furnished unto all good works,"
but predisposed to his own created system, and fully
determined to cull from it favour and corroboration.
The evidence of that which is too clear to be easily dis-
guised he invalidates by incorrect analogy, and baseless
imputations of figurativeness or the like ; that which to
many appears doubtful he at once claims as his own, and
though at first ne might have wandered in a little uncer-
tainty, at last his feelings impel him to absolute convic-
tion ; and thus all heretics take their religious systems
from the Bible, and thus the madness of the original
Mystic and the delusion of the modern Quaker, the
vanity and disorder of the Puritan and the deceitful vaga-
ries of the Tractarian, the rationalism of Socinus and
the metaphysical subtilties of Swedenborg, profess to be
from thence derived. What, indeed, can we expect when
a man has built to himself a costly theory, the precious
offspring of his own brain, the result of much labour
though of vain imagination, but that he should entertain
for it the feelings of a parent ? When the costly edifice
has grown beautiful to the eye and flattering to the self-
esteem of the fabricator, what, I say, can we expect to
see but that which is invariably the case—that the be-
sotted
author is ready to raise heaven and earth in its
defence ; that no considerations of justice or propriety,
no demands of truth, nay, not even the condemnation of
a world, can induce him to abate one jot of his preten-
sions, to knock down one stone of his revered fabric ; and
when men have arrived at this desperate and dangerous
pith, it is almost hopeless to look for or to wait tor any
recantation on their part—it is vain to attempt to induce
them to yield for the entrance of truth. But the time will
come when the force of opinion, matured by experience,
shall wither the frail and empty system ; when no coun-
tenance, however imposing—no influence, however potent
—no efforts, however vigorous—shall be able to preserve
or defend it. Then, what was begot by presumption,
nursed in darkness, and fostered by ignorance, shall be
scorched up in the beams of meridian day ; the blast of
truth shall at least sweep over it like a hurricane, and,
perishing like the " baseless fabric of a vision," its re-
mains shall exist as a warning to future ages, like the
crumbling remnants of some destroyed fortress, raised by
treason to facilitate rebellion, and as a monument of what
error did and truth overthrew.
That this spirit, sir, should be almost as common as it
is dangerous, and should rule more or less in the breast of
every man, is owing to the extreme subtilty with which it
enters and affects the human heart. The prosecution of
a cause in a party spirit, and the furious denunciations of
others in the same spirit, falls in with and gratifies the
feelings of resentment, which the contemplation of oppos-
ing actions and sentiments engenders in the mind ; and
as whatever falls in with the feelings is always esteemed
by a man infallibly correct, thus it is that men are so ac-
cessible to its approaches, and so enslaved when under its
influence. It leads them to substitute personal feelings,
which possibly have been led only into a certain course
by education and custom, for those sacred motives of duty
and those lofty sentiments of right and wrong, which
having God directly for their author have the welfare of
His religion wholly for their end, which burn as brightly
and as fervently whatever may be the particular character
of outward opposition, and which receive their continual
aliment not from the virulence of personal feeling, but
from the Source of all wisdom and all zeal ; whose life-
giving animation has spurred the mightiest warriors of the
truth to their transcendent triumphs, which led our glo-
rious reformers from victory to victory over idolatry and
superstition, and to the noblest achievements in the cause
of God's religion, and by which those who have been
placed in the hottest contentions, and harassed by the
most fiery opposition, have not only nobly shone as lights
of the everlasting Truth, but have stood forth as evidences
of the divine and gracious influence of their religion, who
are held up to a world's admiration not only as the zealous
defenders of the faith and as mighty warriors in the
Church, but as living examples of the holiness and purity
of their doctrine, and mirrors through which to behold
the gracious aspect of that peace " hich pas.,etli know-
ledge."
Seeing that this is so, that this spirit nut only is in the
highest degree dangerous and destructive, but also by
reason of its subtilty holds a large dominion over the
hearts of men, and that too as much in the political as in
the religious world, I will not for a moment think that
this subject or these remarks can be considered as too di-
dactic for the character of a newspaper. When we con-
template the nature of the warfare now waged by all sects
and parties in the Church and in the State, religiously and
politically, the magnitude and complication of the inte-
rests involved, and the still more terrible warfare which
this perhaps only incipient contest may portend and su-
perinduce ' • and also when we reflect upon the lesson
which the histories of England and of Europe, and which
the present state of many countries teach, viz. that our
civil and our political liberties, our national welfare and
happiness, are all contained and involved in our religious,
our Protestant, and our ecclesiastical existence ; any sub-
ject which may bear upon this important contest, and re-
late to these mighty interests, may well claim a place for
consideration on the platform where the struggle is prin-
cipally carried on.
To see heresy stalking through our revered Church like
a lion seeking whom it may devour, and ever and anon
fastening its malignant fangs upon those whom we were
accustomed to look upon as elevated lights of the Truth
and polished corners of the temple—to see its progress
unchecked, and its ravages practically unheeded—is well
calculated to make sluggishness and despair take posses-
sion of the most vigorous and sanguine. But it is anpos-
Bible to conceive a position, however discouraging and
gloomy, in which there does not exist for the breast of man a
noble incentive to duty. Nay, seeing thr.i without doubt
there is above a Providence to guide aid a Power to pro-
tect, not only may we say that despair is sinful, but that
excess of lamentation itself is unauthorised and impro-
per. When, like the prophet of old, we may be tempted
to hang down our hands in helplessness, and to bury
our courage and resolution in hopeless grief, let us reflect
that Heaven itself is at our side, and that the still, small
voice is near to whisper encouragement and hope, if we
are but willing to open our ears to its animating tones.
* * * * *
[The conclusion of this letter, which is signed " Nigel,"
bill be given next week.]

SALARIES OF POST-OFFICE CLERKS,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Stn,—You have my most cordial thanks for your able
advocacy of the rights of the poor ill-requited Post-office
Clerk. It is high time the truth became universally
known, and I trust that your remarks will prove effica-
cious, and rouse the public to demand a fair remunera-
tion for their services ; a faithful discharge of which
interests every individual. Their hours are longer—
their duties more monotonous—than any other class of
persons, They are deprived of all Sabbath privileges,
excluded from. Institutions', NA Ow genial influence of.