The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-18 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO PROTESTANTS

" To endow Popery once more in a land that has been rescued
from its yoke, is a madness little short Of high treason against

Protestant fellow-subjects,—We fire' soon to be called
upon to nylke a further grant of public money for the
support of the religion of the Church of Rome.

Her Majesty's Government, on the first d'iy of the pre-

sprit session of Parliament, spoke in very plain and intel-
ligible language to this effect through the prime minister.
The College of Maynooth, at which students are trained
for the Romish priesthood, is to receive " a liberal" in-
crease of support from the public purse, and there is to
be no investigation of the doctrines inculcated at the col-
lege, or of its discipline and management, lest the
of the boon should thereby be lessened.
No doubt her Majesty's ministers intend by this, and
other proposals with regard to Ireland, to conciliate the
Roman Catholic population there, to put an end to the
cry for the Repeal of the Union, and to remove from the
Romish priesthood and from political agitators, certain
grounds of complaint and alleged injustice. But how
little do they appear to have profited from past experience.
if they are seriously entertaining the expectation that the
steps they now propose to take, will make the Roman
Catholic population of Ireland a peaceable and con-
tented population ! How numerous and solemn were
the promises and assurances given before the passing
of the Roman Catholic Relief Act in 1829, that all
would be peaceable and tranquil, if Roman Catholics
were admitted into Parliament, that this would be the
sure method of rendering the established religion in
Ireland secure, and producing general content and sa-
tisfaction.

grace

The step was taken, and other privileges have since been
granted, and now the Established Church is the " monster
evil" of Ireland, which must be removed; and it is too
plain that no artangements will be satisfactory which do
not leave the Church of Rome supreme and dominant.
The power and influence, which by various provisions
have been couferred on the Roman Catholics, instead of
making them tranquil and grateful subjects of the United
Empire, have been and still are employed, for the ad-
vancement of their further objects, and being emboldened
by what they have already obtained they tell you plainly
they will not be satisfied, if this and that object of their
desires be withheld from them.

Br other Protestants,—Are you acquainted with the cha-
racter of the books which are used at the College of May-
nooth ? We know the tiles of these books, and who
were the authors of them ; for a Parliamentary document
declares them to us ; and the books themselves may be
referred to, for copies of them are deposited in the public
libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. But whatever the
character of them may be, it seems no inquiry is thought
desirable, no investigation of any kind is to be made of
them !

I am acquainted with the contents of some of these
books; and I declare to you that many of the doctrines
inculcated from them into the minds of the students for
the Roman Catholic priesthood, whom you are liberally
to support, are such as all honest and sincere Christians
would shudder at. I affirm to you that under the direc-
tion of such doctrines, if circumstances might allow a
practical appeal to Ihem, our Protestant monarch would
not be safe upon her throne, the liberty, the property, the
lives of our Protestant ftllow-countrymen would not be
secure.

And you are to contribute to the training up of priests
who are to be taught out of these books, and who will
disseminate what they learn through the length and the
breadth of the sister island ! Nay, more, you are to con-
tribute to the training up of men, who, as priests of the
Church of Rome, will have to teach and preach doctrines
which you verily believe to be highly dishonourable to
your Divine Redeemer, the King of kings, and the Lord
of lords, and to be destructive to the souls of men. Such
of you as are members of the established church are to
aid the training of men who are to propagate tenets,
which, according to the articles of your religion, you de-
clare to be " blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits,"
errors " vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty
of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God."
I ask you, will you yield to this without the energetic
and uncompromising use of all legitimate and constitu-
tional means to avert the disgrace, the danger, the sin,
that are threatening to befall your country ? Will you not
pour your petitions into parliament from every city and
borough, from every village and hamlet, from every con-
gregation loving Protestant truth ? Will not such of you
as take any part in the election of members of parliament
assure your particular representatives that they represent
not your feelings and desires if they shall yield to the pro-
posal of the go werument, and thus forward measures which
in your consciences, yo❑ believe to be politically unwise,
because inoperative to effect the end desired, and nation-
ally sinful, provoking the displeasure of the Most High,
and calling down upon your country his righteous judg-
ment ?

As you value his favour, as you deprecate his frown, as
your berths and your altars are dear to you, as you would
retain and enjoy :or yourselves, and transmit to your
children, the blessings and privileges which belong to you
as Protestants, I beseech you to oppose with all zeal and
firmness, with all temperance and calmness, with all loyal
attachment to your Sovereign—with all union among
yourselves—with all charity towards all men—with all
prayer and supplication towards God—this fresh inroad
about to be made upon your consciences,—this new and
deep wound to your highest and holiest feelings.
And I call upon you the more anxiously to do this, be-
cause the measure proposed seems to be not only wrong
in itself, but to be one which, if unopposed, will lead to
greater evils.
What if your efforts may not be successful ? Still, in
making your solemn protest against the intended evil. and
using your earnest endeavours to arrest it, you will have
done your duty, and it will but remain for you to commit
your cause to him who is over all, and t. own the fearful
responsibility of the proposed measure on the quarter to
which it belongs.
Believe me to be,
Your faithful friend and servant,
JOHN PLUMPTRJS.
London, March 10, 18-15.

NEW SUGAR DUTIES

TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

Dear Sir,—l have had the honour to receive your note
of yesterday's date. Whilst I lament my inability to pro-
duce any change in your determinations, I feel the more
desirous to record betore you the opinions I entertain,
with the facts on which they rest, that the test of expe-
rience may hereafter be applied to them.
_ .

The fey; friends the West. Indians have in Parliament
have made a public and unavailing effurt to stem the tide
that so strongly sets against, them there, and those who
advocate the cause of the sugar-growers in our eastern
possessions have retired from the contest satisfied with
the effort they have made, but without having gained any
concession or advantage from you, that I am able to dis-
cover.

In the last session it was agreed to admit foreign sugar
generally to this market at a differential duty of lOs per
hundredweight. I then remonstrated against clayeds
being included, and assioied my reasons why they ought
to be subject to an additional rate. You have now adopted
th4t principle to a very limited, if not illusory extent, by
charging foreign white clayed sugars, and such as are of a
similar quality, with I4s differential duty, reducing that
cn all ottu rs to 9s 4d, at the same time adding 2s 4d to
the duty payable on British that are of a quality equal to
white clayeds, or in other words, as the West Indians have
no effective means for claying their sugars, the few fine
Muscovatt,s they are able to make of a quality which gives
them a preference for the scale, whilst too weak for the
pan, probably be chargeable with this additional duty.
. .

. .
I will endeavour to show the fallacy or delusion of the
system you have adopted, with the injurious effects it is
likely to inflict upon the British planters, by the manner
in which I expect it will work in this market, attended
with the only hope I have, that its results will hereafter be
the exensio❑ of the differential duty on white clayeds to
all foreign sugars made by that or any similar process.
I am of opinion that whilst foreign clayed sugars of all
descriptions, white excepted, are admitted at the differen-
tial duty of 9s. 4d., it is not for their interest to send
white clayeds here (whilst I name white clayeds, I mean
to include ail of similar quality) whilst subjected to an
additional duty of 4s. Bd. per hundredweight. During
the present year a few thousand tons may come from
Java, shipped whilst they are ignorant of the measures we
have adopted; but as the difference in price they will
bring is not sufficient to protect or remunerate them for
this duty, they will send no more white sugars subject to
pay it, but they will mix them with the strong d,
but browner description of clayeds, until these bring them
all to be of a class that will pass them, as nut being of a
quality equal to white clayeds, and, therefore, admissible
at the lower tuty of 9s. 4d., in place of I.ls. This sys-
tem will be much mote heneticiil to the toteigner, whilst
our refiners, in consequence of the increased quantity of
sacchariue matter they contain, will give them a decided
preference at higher prices over our Muscovados.

It is thus evidently for the interest of the foreign
growers, w'th the advantages they possess in most abun-
dant and cheap labour, to clay all their sugars and to make
them all of good quality, whilst they wilt keep them of a
class below the quality of white-clayeds ; they will pro-
duce to our refiner fully 161 b. per cwt. more of refined
sugar than he can obtain for British Muscovados, which
will be worth to him about 4d. per lb. more than he can
obtain for the molasses and bastards of the Muscovados,
or ss. 4d. per cwt.; thus, of your additional duty of 9s.
4d., the foreign grower will receive ss. 4d., the remaining
4s. being ail that will be lest for the protection of the
British planter or the increase of the revenue. I believe
that in making this statement I am rather under than
over the facts of the case.

With such inducements the foreigners will prefer this
market to those of the continent, unless prevented by a
considerable advance in prices there, which may be the
case for a time, as the sugars to be sent here, having
hitherto necessarily gone to those markets, will cause
some deficiency there ; but it will only stimulate to in-
creased production on their part, and increased supply to
the markets tf Europe, with consequent 1 wee prices.
Such a state of things will not be difficult to arrive at,
or be long delayed ; in the present year, horn favourable
seasons in the west, with increased powers of labour in
the Mauritius and the extension going on in our eastern
possessions, our crop is expected to exceed the last by
about 40,000 tons; the la.t was above the consumption
and left a surplus, the foreign growths being at present
fully to the consumption of the continent. By these
causes the prices everywhere, ere long, are likely to be
forced down to the lowest point at which sugar can be
anywhere produced, to leave angthing for remuneratusn
to the growers. With this state the foreigners ails
struggle, for they can only occupy themselves in pro-
ducing sugar; and in our East India possessions too.
where they have similar advantages from abundant arid
cheap labour, they may also keep their heads above water
and submit to reduced prices, the fruits of competition ;