The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-14 00:00:00

CELEBRATION OF ANNIVERSARIES

i On Wednesday, in opening the commission at Armagh,
Mr. Justice Clampton made the following observations
r,lative to commemorations being obs,,ryed by processions
or any public display calculated to produce ill-feeling and
strife :

"There is on the calendars," observed his Lordship,
"one case upon which I think it right to offer you some
observations. It has occurred during the course of the
past month. It is a case of riot, in which a considerable
number of persons are implicated. It is a riot which, I
fear, has grown out of party spirit, and, indeed, perhaps I
might sac. out of what is often called religious differences ;
although I must say that 1 much doubt the propriety of
the application, and that I think they would be more ap-
propriately termed anti-Christiandisputes, because I believe

it is not, it cannot be, from the root of religion that such
bitter fi nits arise. It is not in the nature of things that such
should be the case. The spirit of the Christian religion.
which we all in common profess, would, on the other
hand, inculcate peace and brotherly love in all and to-

I wards all. We may, no doubt, in dis
offices which come in our

harping the good
ay, prefer those who are

members of our own household of faith, and to whom we
are bound by sympathy; but we should recollect, also,
the precept of Him whom we all acknowledge as our Head

they should do unto us ;' and that this spit it is within us
it should be our aim to demonstrate as much as possible.
We should strive to restrain ourselves, and others, from
all demonstrations of a different spiri,. The species of
party demonstrations, to which I have referred. are es-

sentially selfish. They are entirely selfish, inasmuch as
they do not spring from love, they do not lead to love,
they are of the spirit of evil; they tend only to op-
position, and to the creation of dissen,ion, to strife,
to bloodshed, and to murder. 1 do sincerely trust,
that the peasantry of this country, and the artisans, may
feel the propriety of acting on the advice of those gentle-
men who should exercise the leadership over them, who
reside among them, and wbo ever prove themselves their

nest menus and protectors, and that they will open their
eyes to the absurdity as well as the sinfulness of such
preposterous practices. I trust they will abstrCn from
every species of party processions, or displays calculated
to excite opposition. If there be past events, either of
a reliuions or of a It Prtlinr nu t mrta t►,a anni.s..ren riact

tion, in the way of joy and merriment, let them be
celebrated as it becomes loyal subjects and as it be-
comes Christian men men desirous to observe and

which all of us profess to fAow and to obey

they should ab,f ain u

any public or irritating display of their particular opinions,
doctrines, and sentiments, calculated to excite animosity,
or to lead to breaches of the peace. I would call upon

•
all to abstain from every manner of provoking or insulting
language to their neighbours, and from the exhibition of all
party symbols and party badges of every description; to put
forward nothing having the name of party attached to it,
and to make it their rule of life to give offence to none. I
am convinced that, if the people of this country knew their
own interests. and consulted them, they would attend to
these admonitions. given in the spirit of peace, by the
humble individual who now offers them ; and that if they
adhered to their loyalty, and respected the law of the land,
and the Christian law, it would do more to preserve the
peace of the country, to promote its happiness and its pro-
sperity, than would numerous regiments of se' 'er-

the most stringent laws which could be devit;e7.""letrsin mayor
be that these observations are not in place, as far as re-
gards the case to which I just now referred ; but, whether
or not, it may not be amiss to impress on the magistrates,
the gentry, the peasantry, and upon all classes, their im-
portance. I say this, because I have heard o threaten-
ings having been made of getting up some manifestations
of the kind ; and I will only sac, to such as threaten to
join in them, that they should not do so, that they are
unbecoming, that they are unmanly ; it is not for me to
say now that they are illegal, but they are unconstitutional
in spirit, and also unchristian. On the other band, the
ma i must, indeed, act absurdly, he must be weak, he
must be mad, who could b- tempted to join in them. after
all the lessons which have been written, in blood, in the
history of the country. But, absurd and foolish as such
a man must be, there is equal folly, and madness, and
wickedness &splayed by any one who would attempt to
offer hint opposition."