The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-20 00:00:00

LAUNCH OF " THE BENTINCK" STEAM-SHIP,

This magnificent vessel (the sister-ship of " The Hin-
dostan," now in India) was yesterday launched from the
building-yard of Messrs. Thomas Wilson and Co., at the
north end of the town. It was not expected that the launch
would take place until next month, although the vessel was
ready to be floated into her destined element some three
months' ago, had that been required; but she was retained
on the stocks, and the finishing of her upper-works, and
other operations, preparatory to receiving her engines, gone
on with in the interim, part of which would otherwise have
deen done in dock. The good news from the East, we pre-
sume, and her consequent requisition on her intended station,
between India and Suez, induced the proprietors to put her
afloat before the period originally fixed, and to hasten her
preparations for sea, as she has necessarily a long voyage be-
fore her ere she can join the Hindostan in the Indian seas.
The notice to the public was, consequently, very short and
partial ; but the delight which had been experienced by those
who witnessed the launch of the Hindostan, and of many of
the finest ships ever built at our port by the same naval
architects, tended to give the first intimation the rapid pub-
licity of a beacon-light on a hill in the old feudal times, and
" the good old town" was instantly on the qui tiive to see
the launch. The builders themselves were, we believe, taken
somewhat unawares ; but their tact and management over-
came every difficulty : all that was required was accomplished
with skill and coolness. Everything was ready at the re-
quired time, and the immense mass of individuals of all
classes who congregated in the spacious yard experienced a
gratification which they universally acknowledged, and will
remember so long as " a pleasant day" in their lives remains
unobliterated from " the tablet of memory."
The Bentinck is in almost every respect the twin-ship of
the Hindostan, and we are therefore spared the task—no
easy one, to do her justice—of a description. She is built,
in fact, from the same moulds, by the same faithful hands,
and is consequently of the same burthen—which is no less
than about 2,020 tons. The only difference is, that in place
of diagonal timber fastenings, she has diagonal timber ceil-
ing—the two modes being equally approved by scientific men,
and both so closely approximating to what is deemed per-
fection as regards strength, that argument in behalf of either
resolves itself into a mere matter of taste, rather than ex-
perience, in their respective merits.
The weather, particularly when the season of the year is
considered, and the late continuous storms, was exceedingly
propitious. The early part of the morning was somewhat
raw and misty, without downfal ; but towards noon it became
bright, and even sunny, and the Cheshire shore—before
invisible, through the fog—was distinctly in view. There
were but light airs of wind, and the Mersey, but for here and
there the ripple of a strong up-coming tide (of nineteen feet),
showed as a mirror.
The preparations for the launch were witnessed by many
hundreds, even before twelve o'clock, and were the more
interesting from the immense height, length, aed bulk of the
vessel. At about that hour the public generally were ad_
mated, and the influx was immense, including many of the
Amosvtasrtespneucmtabbelre of our
men were
ourcitizens and " country neighbours."
employed in removing the
remaining blocks below, and &bores at each side, that had
supported the vessel, and letting her down upon the cradles,
and the whole was accomplished with amazing promptitude—
the vessel being then seen, from either side, in all her fine
proportions from stem to stern. A more beautiful model,
indeed, was never turned out of any yard—not excepting our
own arsenals. With ample bearing below and aloft, the
Beatinck is peculiarly fine both in the bow and the run—a
craft, in fact, in which the builders appear to have accom-
plished the grand desideratum of stability and safety, com-
bined with the quality of speed, which is difficult of attain-
ment. She has a fine figure-head of the distinguished
individual Lord W. Bentinck, whose name she bears, and a
corresponding carved stern with the coat of arms, &c., and
motto, " Craignez Honte."
Towards one o'clock the assemblage became immense in
the yard, in which stages were erected on various sites for
the accommodation of the ladies and those who accompanied
them. Both sides of the yard were, however. almost
equally favourable for ,a view, so that even the humblest
were gratified. Several Glasgow and other steam-boats
slacked their speed in going down the river, to see the
launch ; and river steamers and row-boats, crowded with
spectators, hovered near the spot. A fine ship, in the yard
to the northward, and almost ready for launching, also held
her hundreds, and every eminence on balk, plank, rail or
roof, was crowded. We have no means of forming an esti
mate of the numbers present, but we should think there were
not fewer than from 5,000 to 6,000 persons. A commodious
stage, clipping round the bows of the vessel, was erected for
the ladies and gentlemen who were more immediately inte-
rested in " christening" the vessel. On this we observed
J. C. Shaw, Esq., and his lady, with whom were the lady of
C. W. Williams, Esq., Mr. and Miss Weller, and many
others. Mrs. Williams undertook the duty of ‘• throw-
ing the bottle ;" and all being in readiness, at about
twenty minutes' past one o'clock, Mr. Thomas Wilson
gave the orders successively, of " out chisels"—" down
shores"—" down daggers," and the immense ship, as if im-
patient of delay in embracing her destined fluid, glided grace-
fully and sublimely into the deep waters of the Mersey; all
eyes intently fixed upon her, and every voice uttering, as her
huge bulk glided along, an irrepressible shout of admiration.
We never witnessed a more beautiful launch. She started off
splendidly, without a perceptible creak on her bed (notwith-
standing her weight was nearly equal to her tonnage), but
went on majestically along the ways, increasing in speed,
until she plunged into the deep ; and, released from her ties
to land, bounded lightly, and rushed rapidly from the shore.
The only real crack, indeed, was that of the bottle at her nose
when she received her name. She was at the time under the
command of Captain Christie, of the City of Dublin Com-
pany (formerly first officer of the " Liverpool," afterwards
of the " President," transatlantic steam-ships), who saw her
safely towed into dock.
The immense concourse of persons assembled, after watch-
ing her rapid progress up the river, until she was hid from
view, gradually left the yard, much delighted with the sight,
and generally remarking what a terrible vacuum she had left
in Messrs. Wilson's yard, which now bore quite a naked ap-
pearance. Many, however, lingered behind to look at " the
ways" down which she hag glided, and which, we found,—
including the run beyond the sea-wall supported on frame-
work (a length of about twenty feet)—to be, in all, not less
than 260 to 270 feet. The width of the ways was from eight-
teen to nineteen feet.
The ladies and gentlemen, who were on the stage at the
bows, and the builders and their immediate friends, who
were not pressed for time, partook of wine and buns in the
mould room, and, we need scarcely add, drank success to the
" Bentinck," her spirited owners, and her builder;,
No accident whatever occurred to mar the pleasures of
the day. A boy fell into the river from the sea-wall, owing
to the pressure of the crowd ; but there were numbers of
boats about, and as lie was never in danger, the circum
stance occasioned merely a little merriment amongst
byestanders. '

The Bentinck is now in the Trafalgar Dock, where she
will receive her engines, now ready at the celebrated works
of Messrs. Fawcett and Preston. They will be fixed on
board, and the vessel fully equipped for sea, with all the ex-
pedition► that is consistent with good workmanship.

CORRESPONDENCE,

ANGLO CATHOLIC CHURCH,

AND
ROMAN CATHOLIC APOSTACY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—In your paper of yesterday I observe a letter ad-
dressed to one of the churchwardens of this parish, by a
Roman priest resident in the town. The second paragraph
contains these words,—" Though I have not entered the
ministry by making the declaration► required by the rubrics
of the Established Church, permit me, Sir, to inform you
that the rubrics of that church recognise the validity of my
ordination."

In this confident assertion the priest is mistaken. No
rubric of our church recognises the validity of his ordination.
If there be any such rubric, let him produce it; let any of
his friends who set a value upon his veracity produce it.
Sir, it cannot be produced; and the priest's statement be-
trays either ignorance of our rubrics, or recklessness of his
own character.

Some of our bishops have, indeed, received Roman priests
into our church without further ordination; but it was done
on their own responsibility, and without the sanction of any
rubric, or article, or canon of our church. It was done, too,
be it observed, after the priest had publicly renounced the
Roman apostacy as idolatrous; and abjured the authority of
the see of Rome in this realm as an usurpation.
There are other assertions in the priest's letter demanding
animadversion, but let this suffice for the present. Where
is the rubric of our church which recognises the validity of
his ordination? Advisedly, I say no where. Let us wait
for his answer, or the answer of any of his friends. The
question is not one of polemical discussion, but of matter of
fact. Where is the rubric to which he refers? If no answer
be given to this, the public will know to what to ascribe it.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
A MEMBER OF THE ANGLO CATHOLIC CHURCH,

AND
A PROTESTER AGAINST THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC APOSTACY.
Liverpool, January 18, 1843.

" ARE PAPISTS CATHOLICS ?"

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

SlR,—The question between the Churchwarden and Mr.
Wilkinson is a question of principle, and not a strife of
words. The word Catholic, in its primary signification,
means universal; and so the Christian Church was called
Catholic, in distinction from the Jewish Church, which was
confined to a single nation. So, the Catholic Church means
all the churches in the world under their lawful bishops : a
Catholic Church means a branch of that one great society.
But in ecclesiastical history, the word Catholic is made to
signify orthodox ; and a Catholic Christian means an ortho•
dox Christian, as distinguished from heretics, named from
their sectarian heresiarches, such as Arians, Socinians, &c.
Hence the absurdity of calling Papists Catholics. Papists
belong to a peculiar society, who receive the doctrines which
the Council of Trent has added to the Bible; and when we
call them Catholics we call ourselves Heretics, because we
admit them to be orthodox ; and they boast of this foolish
admission of ours, and turn it to our disadvantage. They
have, however, no right whatever to this title. The English
Romanist is a Romish schismatic—a schismatic from the
Anglo-Catholic Church, and not a Catholic in any sense of
the word. I thank the Churchwarden for his vindication of
a principle.—Your obedient servant,

CLERICUS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—Although you may be well content to " leave the
public to form their own judgment on the matter" at issue
between Mr. Churchwarden Birkett and Priest Wilkinson,
of the Edmund-street Mass-house, there are still some alle-
gations and assumptions in Mr. Wilkinson's letter (No. 4)
SO glaring, as to force themselves upon a further notice.
To Mr. Birkett our best thanks are due as Protestants anc
Churchmen, for his conduct throughout; his firm but
temperate refusal to acknowledge the usurped claim and
title of the Romish apostacy, while it affirms a vital principle,
appears also in advantageous contrast with the vulgar inso-
lence of Mr. Wilkinson's reply. The difference in tone and
temper, between the letters No. 1 and 4 of the correspondence,
illustrative as it is of the genius of the entire Romish system,
is worthy of remark. The fawning sycophancy of its first
approach, so long as there is an ulterior object in view, is
speedily laid• aside for the savage ferocity of its real nature
when that object is either attained, as in the case of the mis.
called " Catholic Emanciation Bill," or found to be un-
attainable, as with Mr. Wilkinson. 'Tis the same spirit
that actuates the whole
" Agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet,"
from the highest to the lowest ; from Maur Cappelari.
(actuellement Gregoire Seiziene) down even to Priest Wil-
kinson himself. In his first letter he " begs respectfully to
lay before you, 81. c.," while the more congenial epithets of
" impertinent," " presumptuous," " bigotted," " intoler-
ant," and such like abound throughout the second. To Mr.
Birkett we are indebted for this exposé.
Before proceeding to his assertions, (since arguments they
cannot be called,) I must first notice the compliment he
pays himself, at the expense of the Catholic clergy of this
kingdom, when he speaks of " better pay," and unworthy
motives influencing their choice of a profession. He surely
cannot have read Mr. O'Croly's pamphlet on the Ecclesias-
tical Finance of the Romish Church in Ireland; he must be
a stranger also to the proverbial rapacity of the Romish
priesthood in that country, attested by the figures and facts
of that writer, himself a Romish priest, proved this very
month, by a meeting reported in the Castlebar Telegraph,
(a Popish journal,) of two parishes in that neighbourhood,
(within a few miles of the notorious Dr. IM`Hale,) to pro-
test against the further payment of Easter or Christmas
dues to the priests. He can never have examined the evi-
dence whereby it has been ascertained that the whole church
property in England would not afford an income of £3OO a
year to each incumbent, without making any allowance for
the support of curates. These petty details he has doubtless
overlooked in his sublime haste to expose the ministers of a
church, whieh is indebted to the " laws of the realm," for
nothing else than protection and support, a favour which she
gratefully accepts and amply repays. But I pass to his other
assumptions, and first with regard to the validity of his ordi-
nation, as acknowledged by the church catholic within this
empire, and the self complacency with which he affirms the
eagerness with which any of our bishops would " at once
appoint him to a cure."
Dr. O'Sullivan, in his learned work on " The Apostacy
predicted by St. Paul, (p. 235,) admitting the fact of Romist
priests being received as ministers into the Church of Eng.
land without re-ordination, accounts also for the anomaly
" The book of Common Prayer, he says, lays down a rule,
(viz. the words, ` hart formerly episcopal consecration, &c.,
in the preface to the form and manner of ordaining, &c. &c.,)
according to which orders conferred in the Romish church,
should have been held valid in the Church of England. But
this rule was framed before the creed of Pius IV. had been
adopted by Romanism as a substitute for the " CATHOLIC
FAITH."
This point I dwell upon, not simply for its importance,
but also because it is so seldom employed as it ought in ex-
posing the novelties and defeating the claims of the modern
Church of Rome. The publication of this creed is the single
neck from whence the twelve heads of the Hydra shoot forth,
and the blow which history strikes at this cannot be parried,
and must be felt throughout the whole system. Observe
how easily and how fatally Mr. Wilkinson's claim to the
title " Catholic," for himself and Church, is smitten with
the edge of this fact. Previously to the promulgation and
adoption of this new creed, (which took place at Rome on
Sunday, 9th December, 1564,) the Papacy, not having, as
yet, foresworn, or departed from, " the Faith," was, not-
withstanding, the iniquity abounding, and the love of money
waxing cold, within it, still a branch of the Catholic Church,
and her orders, in consequence, were admissible by us ; but,
since that, even on her own showing, she has become apos-
tate, inasmuch as the first canon of the Council of Trent, as
well as Dr. Delahogue, in his " Treatise on the Church,"
(which is a Maynooth class-book,) affirm the sufficiency of
the Nicene creed, as embodying " the Catholic faith." This
creed modern Romanism has effectually superseded by the
substitution of her own new one. Upon this I cannot for-
bear quoting a passage from a visitation sermon preached
before the Lord Primate of Ireland and his clergy, in Sept.,
1838, at Armagh, by the same eminent divine, whose aid I
have called in already. "We are separate (be proceeds, p. 4)
from the altered, the modern Church of Rome. but the cause
of separation is at her side, not with us. It is not in our
articles, in our liturgy, in our discipline. It is in her creed.
We are separate, because, after our reformation, conducted
on Catholic and Scriptural principles, was complete, Roman-
ism propounded a new creed, by which it became separated,
not from us alone, but from the Catholic, and even the Ro-
man Church of all preceding ages. * * * We
would reject the creed of Pius IV., for doctrines such as
these, as well as because of the arrogance of its promulga-
tion ; because, a novelty in itself, it proposes a new rule of
faith, and constitutes the sect which has adopted and pro-
pounded it, even on the principles of Romanism, a new
Church. * * * Whenever it is said that ours is
the Church of Rome reformed, we should claim the honour
thus indirectly accorded to us, of high antiquity : we should
show that, at least, we can have no rival claimant ;—that that
ancient Church, except as it survives in a Protestant com-
munion, is extinct ; and that the modern successor, which
has usurped its name, is essentially distinguished from
it in properties and nature." Such are the facts, as between
Rornanisrn, ourselves, and antiquity ; and all the " travel-
lers," journals, geographers, &c., &c., appealed to by Mr.
Wilkinson, can no more alter them than they can change his
own condition by designating him Bishop of Melipotamus,
or even Archbishop of Canterbury, in place of priest of St.
Mary's, Edmund-street, Liverpool.
I thought these remarks worth offering. I hope you will
think so too, and print them.—l am, Sir, still your's,

LIVERPOOL
MUNICIPAL LEGAL APPOINTMENTS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

Stu,—lt is rumoured that the situation of chief clerk to
the Town-clerk, and the other subordinate legal officers, the
appointment of whom has been recently conferred upon the
Town-clerk, subject to the approval of the Council, are to be
filled by London men. If this be true it is really too bad !
To say nothing of the unmerited insult which it flings upon
the younger branches of the profession here, who may fear-
lessly brave a comparison with the talent of any other part of
the kingdom, it holds out no encouragement to them to per-
sevare in their efforts to become masters of their profession,
and to conduct themselves with integrity and respectability.
A steady adherence to such a course, and the circumstances
of their having been born and bred in the town, known to
most of the inhabitants, and of their having contributed, not
merely to the general burthens of the place, but to increase
the income of the Corporation, in the shape of Borough
Court fees, &c., might reasonably lead them to hope that,
whenever any local advantages were to be conferred, they
would not be altogether lost sight of in the distribution. To
many, the appointments in question would scarcely be worth
acceptance. To others, less fortunate, they would be de-
sirable, as holding out not merely a certainty in these days of
innovation, but a prospect of promotion. To all it cannot
but be most offensive that the chances of competition should
be withdrawn altogether from the town, stigmatising them,
as it unjustly does, with incompetency. But is it for the
public advantage that men, accustomed to and acquainted
with the local courts and usages, and with the peculiarities of
the business of the place, (so different to those of London,)
should be shoved aside, to make room for persons who will
have all these matters to learn before they can become effi-
cient servants of the public ? The question carries its own
answer. Away, then, with this sickly penchant for strangers,
which too much pervades our public bodies and private
establishments, to the discouragement of native merit. As
far as our Corporation is concerned, it will only be necessary,
to prove this, to advert to the appointments of Treasurer and
I-lead Constable, which, together with numbers in the Town-
clerk's office, and a host of other subordinate officers in va-
rious departments, including a great proportion of the police
force, are filled by strangers, who can scarcely be supposed
to be actuated by the same desire for the welfare of the town
as they to whom she has given birth,with whose earliest asso-
ciations she is connected, who have stood by her through
good report and evil report, and to many of whose progeni-
tors tors she owes much of her present proud position. These
things used not to be acted in the good old days when we had
a Statham or a Foster at the head of affairs ; but ' I
has come o'er the spirit of our dream." " Temporaa t7c2U.1.61,
are
tur, et nos mutamur in illis." We have bad th? " MunicTwe
al
as we
we
Bill," God help us ! and, poor " Dickey Sam.'
ought to bo:truly grateful for being suffered to learn that