The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-11-10 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STILNDAiiii.

mite as Mach arrogance as charity in the proposition ?,
Es Mr. BOLTON accredited by the protestant dissenters of
Liverpool to make this claim upon the corporation ? If
,o, may we beg of him to produce his credentials ? WhO
authorised him to propound midi terms to the corpora-
tion ?- and is he quite satisfied that if the council were
prepared to concede them, the protestant dissenters would
accept them ? In the name of the great body of orthodox
dissenters we assert that they would not, and least of all
would they accept any al provision at the hands, or.
procured for them through the' means, of Mr. Tuomits
BOLTON. When he is legally deputed to represent the
interests and make terms for the dissenters of Liverpool,
it will be time enough to give - his scheme of appropria-
tion the benefit of another half minute's consideration.

But this liberal gentleman is also a voluntary interces:-
sor in behalf of the Roman catholics, for whom he de-
mands only £2,500 a year. Can he be in earnest, or is
this a sort of coarse hoax in the style of American wit ?
There are two things to be considered. Are the Roman
catholic priests willing to accept of salaries from the cor-
poration of Liverpool ? We do not believe they are;
but supposing they were, would the corporation of Liver:
pool, no matter who its members might be, dare to ap-
propriate their funds to the maintenance of doctrines
which the law of the land declares to be idolatrous and
damnable ? We think not. Even the boldest of modern
infidels would hesitate before they lent their sanction to a
scheme which would rouse popular fury into a storm,
and sweep them. into oblivicn. Mr. THOMAS BOLTON is
evidently a very silly person, and we hope we have done
with him.

What is to be done with the priests of Ireland ? That
question has been forced upon the protestants of Eng-
land by the frightful and disgusting disclosures which
have recently been made before.a parliamentary inquiry,
and the same question will speedily be forced upon the
House of COmmons by the indignant and almost infuri-
ated voice of public opinion. That these vile hypocrites
and tyrannical impostors have usurped the power of re-
turning a large portion of the Irish members is a noto-

rious fact. That they have usurped this power by means
wholly unconnected with politics, or within the limits of
fair and constitutional influence, is equally undeniable.

They do not profess to bold property, for they are nearly
all beggars; and bountiful though their competence is,
in most cases, still it will be admitted that much of it is

derived from begging. What they otherwise receive is
gained 'from the poor and the ignorant by extortion or
by fraud, the appliances of priestcraft to superstitious
minds. It is time then to inquire what sort of influence
is theirs.

What sam went to the priests of Carlow on a late oc-
casion bas not been suffered to transpire, and probably
never will. But supposing them to be voluntary agents,
in Carlow as well as other places, in favour of a particu-

lar swindler's nominees, enough has been proved to con-

vict.them of high misdemeanours and foul crimes, of
outrage, impiety, indecency, and wanton oppression, to
render it necessary that in future their power of mischief
should be'curbed, and themselves excluded from the pale
of civilization. The peace of Ireland, the safety of Eng-

land, and the happiness of both countries, demand that
the popish priests of the sister island should be prevented
from interfering, directly or indirectly, in the Irish elec-
tions. If this is not done, a sanguinary rebellion is ine-
vitable. If we cannot frame a law to restrain these
monsters in human shape from trampling upon the rights
the King's subjects, the sword must be drawn, and that
at no distant day. O'CONNELL says that a million of his
countrymen are eager for and urgently ask permission
to fight. This was meant for a threat. We take it as
it was intended, but we are by no means alarmed.—
Twenty thousand protestants would settle the matter in

six weeks.

We have no time, little space, and as little inclination

to enter upon the disclosures which have been made.
The Times has published a large portion of the evidence,
and.that we trust has found its way into the bands of a
great majority of our. countrymen. Suffice it to say that
it is of the`most reprehensible and revolting nature. In
almost every parish in Ireland where there has been a
contested_piedinn the popish priestslave anti,
anathematised, and consigned to eternal perdition, every
elector of their flock who has dared to
_vote contrary to
their dictation. The name of the refractory party has
been read from the altar—he has been branded as a here-
tic and traitor—his neighbours have been forbidden to
deal or hold any intercourse with him—in the face of the
congregation he has been declared accursed, and told
that he would be denied the rites of his religion—that
his child would not be christened—that his wife or mo-
ther would not be visited in their illness or on their
deathbed, and that he himself, deserted by the minister
of GOD, would be allowed to die like a dog and be buried
in a ditch I

Observe, reader, that one and all of these unhallowed
menaces—awful menaces to a poor Roman catholic—have
been proved by the most credible and unquestionable evi-
dence. They are not matters of rumour. They do not
come from a challengeable source. They are vouched
for by living witnesses of undoubted integrity. But the
altar alone has not been the place of priestly persecu-
tion. The holy cheat, having doffed his robes, is found
carrying his threats into execution in the pothouse, in
the avenues to the hustings, and in the heart of the
throng which surrounded them. It has been proved that
priests, innumerous instances, flourishing the crucifix
over their beads, have, by physical force, well backed by
their partizans, dragged their victims to the polling-
booths in a state of inebrity, of which they supplied the
means, and there compelled them to vote contrary to their
solemn promises, against their landlords, contrary to
their inclinations, and in opposition to .their affections,

their feelings of gratitude, and the interests of their fa-
milies. Yes, characteristic though it be of the madness
and intolerance of popery,still, to the shame of England
be it spoken, such enormities have been committed, with-
out any punishment having followed
But it has not been, against the voters alone that these
ruffianly acts have been directed. Their wives, in some
instances, haVe been invited by the priest from the chapel
into the private room or confessional, and there interro-
gated as to the intended votes of their husbinds. In one
case a Roman catholic lady, whose husband was a pro-
testant, was treated in this manner, and reprimanded in
the most indecent and insulting manner by the priest,
because she refused to exert any influence with her bus:-
band in favour of the O'CoNNELL candidate. When she
communicated the nature of the insult to her husband be,
naturally felt indignant enough, and be wrote to the po-7
pish bishop of the diocese on the subject, who answered
in a jesuitical and equivocal way, but refused to inter-
posh. Such proceedings, interfering with, if not inter-.
rupting the most sacred relations .of life—calculated as
they are to embitter domestic peace—make home a hell
and the foetid priest the LUCIFER of that hell, are of con-
stant occurrence. in Ireland, and are enough to make the
blood of every protestant boil. Few Englishmen would
have submitted to the insult so tamely. It is only where
popery predominates, where an unceasing recurrence of
insults
where the courtesies of good manners
and (3,
f prevail,dee
forbearance are neither practised nor licat
un-
derstood, that any hooded monk, gross in his habits and
Vulgar in his tastes, would ,have dared to trench so far
upon the rules of honour or decency. Here, in England,
he would as soon have swallowed the virgin MARY, as
large as life, and a .score of saints made after the same
pattern to correspond, than have committed such an
offence.

• This, hoWeVer, is popety in Ireland; and now comes.
the cure, for it is imperatively necessary that some ef&
bient cure should be applied.
On this subject we regret that we are called upon to
anticipate the acts of the legislature; but if we do not
greatly.mistake the signs of the times, the coertive and
penal measures which we are about to propose will, and
indeed, for the safety of all, must become the law of the
land.

It is an offence against natural law itl ail,* priest to r.s-
some the prerogatives of the Mogi' litutt, and denounce
a layman for exercising the privileges of a subject in a
matter purely secular, and which has no reference what-
ever to religious matters. Curing is impiety and
%%retched fanatitism On the part of a priest. We Ivoull