The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

At the annual meeting of the Staffordshire auxiliary of
this society, on Thursday last, the Earl of Harrowby
took the chair and opened the business of the day in the
following clear and succinct address, which was listened to
with the deepest attention :—Ladies and gentlemen, it is
a great gratification to me, I may say contrary to all my
expectations, to meet you again in this place. Although
I am sensible that those faculties are gone which might
have enabled me to make any statement that could afford
you information or satisfaction as to the progress of this
society, yet I hold it to be my duty, from the office which
I sustain, once more to testify in public my unabated at-
tachment to that society to which we belong. (Applause.)
I have been a member of that society during a consider-
able part of a very long life—l believe for about one-half
of its duration, and during that time we have seen it ad-
vance from very small and very unpromising beginnings
to that magnitude and importance which it now possesses.
We have seen it pass through difficulties, overcome many
external obstacles, and triumphant over some and not few
internal dissensions, and I think that under the blessing
of Almighty God we may hope to see it if not enlarging its
sphere, at least continuing:to fill it with hisapprobation, and
to the benefitof mankind. (Cheers.) I say " to the benefit of
mankind," because I know of no society which is
presented
to us by history, or of which we have any personal ob-
servation, to which the term " for the benefit of man-
kind," can so appropriately be applied. (Hear, hear.)
All other societies look to individual cases—at least to
classes of distress; but this society applies itself equally
to the young and the old, to the rich and the poor, to
Christians of different denominations, and to our fellow-
men of every clime. ' (Hear, hear.) It spreads itself over
the whole world. It looks on man as a being to whom it
is bound to afford assistance; and while other societies
provide only temporal assistance in cases of temporal dis-
tress, this society applies its energies to the removal of that
worst, of all distress—the want of religi. nor the possession
of a false one. (Hear, hear.) Let us, therefore, go on,
and we certainly shall have encouragement to go on if we
listen to that report which will be read to you, and which
I call on my reverend neighbour to read, with respect to
the past operations of the society. Ladies and gentle-
men, I can only express once more my Ardent wish for
the success of this society ; and I hope that, it contrary
to expectation, I should again appear before you in my
uresent position, I may you meet in a state of increased
prosperity. (Applause.)
Viscount SANDON, M.P., on rising to move the' adop-
tion of the report, observed that the report must, he was
sure, have given satisfaction to all who were then assem-
bled, showing, as it did. that this county maintained its
position among the contributors to the means of the
Bible society ; and that whatever changes might have
,taken place elsewhere, at any rate the pecuniary resources
which its supporters in this part of the country were able
to afford, were not inferior to those which had been pro-
vided in former years. (Hear, hear.) Nor indeed could it
he very well conceived that their contributions could fall
off. It was, perhaps, rather late in the day to look out
for reasons for supporting the Bible Society. (Hear,
hear.) Those reasons had been so fully, so frequently,
and so ably stated, in every part of the empire, and the
questions which had arisen concerning it had been so fully
dismissed that it appeared to many persons who were called
on to take part in their proceedings, an almost needless task
to go over the same ground again ; but at the same time, in
these days of controversy, every man was called upon to
review his former opinions, to examine the ground upon
which they rested ; and to see whether they were still
sound and solid ; and in consequence of that general ne-
cessity he had felt himself, among others, compelled to
pass his own opinions in review ; and he confessed that he
found himself brought to no other conclusion than that
at which he had hitherto arrived. (Applause.) He could
not conceive why they should be called on almost to give
reasons for supporting the Bible Society ; for it seemed
to him that if they were Chris inns, and if they took the
basis of the Church of England as their guide, he could
hardly conceive why they should have any doubt as to
their duty of supporting this society. If they were
Christians, they were surely desirous to circulate the
preaching of our Lord and his Apostles—if they were Chris-
tians, they surely felt called on to make known the words
addressed by word of mouth ta the first disciples of our
Lord, and by his Apostles, and which they had left behind
them as the inspired oracles of truth. It surely became
the duty of all Christians to circulate those oracles as
widely as possible ; and if they as Churchmen merely
looked to themselves as members of one particular church
of Christ, they must equally feel that duty to be incumbent
upon them. Why, on what basis did the Church of
England profess to be founded ? She professed to teach
them nothing but what could be found in the Bible as
the authorised will of God. (Applause.) Surely, then,
it she wished to do her duty to her own peculiar opinions,
it must be her duty to circulate those oracles on which
she rested, and to which she appealed for the justification
of her opinions. (Hear, hear.) But was the objection
th's—that it was wrong to associate with those who
differed 'with them as Churchmen on some points but who
concurred in supporting the Bible Society ? I confess
(said his Lordship) that my view is this—that it is our
duty as Christians to concur with our fellow Christians
wherever we can concur. (Loud applause.) There are
occasions enough on which we must differ, and on which
our duty calls upon us to separate—to separate however, _
Ihopeas friends and brothers—(Hear, hear, and cheers,)—
who differ upon some points, but who are agreed on this;
and, therefore, when we can find a common ground for
co-operatiou, surely as denizens of the same country,
professing the same faith and entertaining the same hope,
it is our duty to co-operate if we find a common ground
of union. (Hear, hear.) These are the views and opinions
which, looked at again and again, have led me to the same
conclusion, that it is my duty to continue whatever sup-
port I can render to the great object of the Bible Society.
(Applause.) I do not wish to trespass further on the
time of the meeting, as there are other gentlemen present
who will give you details of the highest interest. -I have
merely felt it my duty to state, in as few words as possi-
ble, the simple and general grounds on which I feel my-
self called on, ai a Christian and an attached member of
the Church of England, to continue nay support to the
great objec:s of this society. (Loud applause.)

MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

Well, another of our annual municipal struggles is over ;
and although the boasting swagger of Radicalism has
prophesied the annihilation of constitutional principles,
through the restless movements of Anti-Corn-Law
spouters and the foolish rhapsodies of the disciples of
Anti-Monopoly Associations, Conservatism still lives—
lives ! aye, increases in vigour, and spreads triumphantly.
All the speeches and tracts, and all the promises of de-
ceitful and interested parties—ail the efforts of free-
traders at the registration-courts in the creation of faggot
voters, and in the vexatious opposition to the rightful
claims of their opponents—all these have only

" back on themselves recoiled ;"
and our national and naun'cipal governments, although
elected by machinery created by Reform herself, are
composed of men professing strong attachment to our
apostolic church and to scriptural education, and reso-
lutely opposed to withstand every effort to overturn the
principles on which our commercial and agricultural codes
are placed, and men who are confessedly competent in
every respect to fulfil the duties assigned to them. As
far as our local authorities are concerned, we need not at
present refer to any further proof of their capability to
promote the general welfare of the borough, in conjunction
with the interests of the corporate estate, than the annual
account just presented to the public; the gratifying state
of which, we make bold to say, has been brought about
by the far-seeing intelligence and knowledge of business
possessed by the majority in our present corporation.
But to return to our recent struggle. A short time
since we scarcely ventured to anticipate such a glorious
result as we are about to record. We feared that the
waning activity or Radicalism, combined with the many
—alas, how many !—" heavy blows and great discourage-
ments" dealt out to our Protestant friends by men from
whore they had a right to expect a very different kind of
treatment,—we say we feared that these causes, and more
especially the last, would have so damped the energies of
churchmen, as to induce them, in instances not a few, to
hold back when their votes were wanted ; but, thanks to
their zeal and true-heartedness, they have thrown perso-
nal affronts to the winds, and have stood manfully for-
ward at the right time.
Enough, however, on this subject ; and proceed we
now to register the doings on Friday. and a few remi-
niscences connected with them. Perhaps we cannot do
better than present, first of all, the state of the poll at
the various wards which were contested at the election in
November last year, premising that Mr. James Aikin (R)
was then returned for Castle-street Ward, as was Mr. G.
H. Lawrence (c) for West Derby Ward, unopposed:—
Wards. Majority.
Everton David Hodgson (c)..
Chris. Rawdon (a)
..... Wm. Thornhill (a)..
Thos. Vernon (c)..
-Vauxhall .. Thos. Chalmer (a) , l3l
Thos. Case (c)... . .
St. Paul's
John Deakin (p.) 162.... 17
.... Thos. Sands (c)
George Holt (a) .
St. Peter's J. A. Tinne (c)
Thos. Bolton (a)..
Thos. Toulmin (c)
Robert Benn (a) 173.... 38
John Sothern (c) l5B
Thos. Taylor (a) 64.... 94
Wm. Birkett (c
Wm. Lassell (a)
C. Boutflovrer (c)
D. Neilson (c) 154.... 41
John Kilshaw (c)
Thos. Morecroft (a)
Jos. Hornby (a) .
H. G. Harbord (c) 174.... 36
T. T. Glazebrook (c) ll7
John Platt, (a)
Richard Harbord (c)
Wm. Lockerby (R). 193.... 29

Scotland

Exchange

Pitt-street

Great George.

Rodney• street

Abercromby

Lime-street

St. Anne's .

South Toxteth .

North Tosteth

It will be seen from this statement, that last year
twelve Conservatives were returned to the Council-
chamber, and four Radicals. This year, as we shall
detail more fully just now, we have been successful in
thirteen wards; arid to show that these victories have
not been achieved by any influence acting, as did the
Reform Bill, with something like mesmeric power on the
public mind, it is only necessary to say that for the last
five years the number of Conservatives returned to the
Council at each election has been almost precisely the
same. In 1840 we returned 12 ; in 1841, 13 ; in 1842,
13 ; in 1843, 12 ; and this year, 13 ;—and we may add
that on each of those occasions the Radicals were only
able to return their successful candidates by majorities
miserably small, as compared with the numbers in those
wards which returned Conservatives.

We now subjoin an hourly statement of the poll
contested wards at the election just closed. The
of the Conservatives are in italics :

in the
tames

No. 16.—NOZTEI TOXTETH WARD.

Alderman—Thomas Chilton (c) ...

{William Mann (c)
Councillors Richard Harbord (c) ............ 2
John Sheppard (c)
Taking it for granted that the six retiring Radical al-
dermen will on Saturday be displaced by an equal number
of " good men and true," we shall then have the Council
composed of
Conservatives 54
Radicals ... .

EVERTON IVA 12 D.

The radicals wisely allowed Mr. Thomas Shaw to walk
over the course for this ward. The majority of 98 last
year for Mr. David Hodgson has evidently been a suffi-
cient warning to them that their sweet voices will not be
listened to in this aristocratic district, and they prudently
abstained from putting themselves to the trouble and ex-
pense of a fiuitless contest.