The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-06-24 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 24, 1845.

•
The full carrying out of the anti-Protestant policy
of Ministers in Ireland appears to be viewed by the
country as a foregone conclusion. The loudly ex-
pressed repugnance of the people to further conces-
sions to Popery has been treated with obstinate
scorn, and almost derision; and, in return, the peo-
ple seem disposed to sit down in passive quietude,
and look on, without stirring a hand, whilst the
barque of the constitution is wrecked upon the
breakers towards which she is fast hurrying. There
is a kind of philosophy in this course. It may not
be dictated by wisdom ; but it is natural notwith-
standing. The wealthy and noble of the land, the
men of commerce and of acres, sunk in dreams of
money getting, borne along upon the vortex of spe-
culation, will not listen to the voice of warning
raised by their humbler fellow countrymen ; and the
latter have certainly reason on their side when they
say to those who despise their persevering efforts,
"We will no longer fight this battle alone. Go on
in your course of selfish madness until THE CRASH
shall come, and you awake to the consciousness of
your lost liberties and of the utter ruin of those in-
stitutions which Englishmen have ever held dear"!
In our own town—in once " Protestant Liver-
pool"—we fear we must confess to the existence of
this feeling of hopeless lethargy—this want of the
disposition, on the part of loyal and constitutional
men, to embark heartily in a course of resistance to
the designs and encroachments of their opponents.
The principle is there which has inspired our Pro-
testant masses and led them on to victory in times
past.. The heart is still sound and staunch ; hut, we
venture to predict that, they will not readily be in-
duced to stand forward and put out their arms to
win further victories. They are asking themselves
—" what solid advantages have our past efforts won
as ?" They are brooding over the more than sus-
picion that they have been used in the hour of emer-
gency, and thrown aside in the hour of triumph ;
that they have been the step only in the ladder by
which others have climbed to the enjoyment of
power and honour, and have been cast down as
unworthy of a care or a thought the moment the
occasion, for which they were courted and caressed,
had passed by. Press them as- we may to register
or to' organise; and the entreaty falls upon deaf
ears. cal bono? is the meaning of their mute re-
sponse. They will not stir. In the meantime our
oppo'nents and the sworn enemies of established or-
der are elate with. the consciousness of coming
triumph and of the disheartened condition of those
who have so long stood between themselves and the
accomplishment of their fell designs. They are fully
organized and prepared for the struggl whenever it
may come.
We cannot but deplore this lamentable state of
things. It will bring about changes and results
which we scarcely dare to contemplate. Whatever
may be our feelings of disappointment—however
much we may have cause to feel aggrieved by the
coldness of some, and the selfishness of others, in
whom we have confided, for whom we have struggled
—we cannot safely cast away that strength and or-
ganization which are required to enable us to struggle
again when called upon. It may be that by holding
back, we may precipitate a crisis which will arouse
backiliding Conservatism to a sense of its danger
and of its duty ; but we should still retain in our
hands the ability to aid its newly awakened energies
in repairing the consequences of past errors. It
should be ever borne in mind that in the present
day the battle of principle is fought with Consti-
tutional weapons. What will avail, then, the return
of the mass of the British people to a knowledge of
their duty and a resolve to perform it, if the loyal
and true-hearted have thrown from their hands the
only weapons which give the triumph !
We appeal to our fellow townsmen, and to our
fellow Englishmen, to throw off their desponding
and apathetic temper, and to place themselves, by
attention to the registries, in a position to resist
further fatal encroachments upon their Protestant
liberties, or at all events to read a lesson to their
enemies, and to their backsliding friends. Let us
not have our local government once more handed
over to the blighting sway of Whig-Radicalism. Let
us not be doomed to see Liverpool represented in
the British legislature by an abettor of revolution.
Above all, do not let us he voluntarily condemned
to the degradation of confessing, when appealed to
for our suffrages by some good man and true, of
whom there are thousands left in the land, that from
a petty spirit of pique or a cowardly distrust of the
strength which is in the truth, we have disabled our-
selves from being of service to our country in its
extremity !

We May have, bye and bye, to expose certain
doings to our opponents, in connexion with this
matter of the registrations, in which the officials of
the newly liberalized Board of Guardians of Toxteth.
park, figure somewhat strangely. For the present,
however, we must refrain and content ourselves
with requesting the friends of the good old cause, in
that staunch district of the borough. to keep their
eyes open and beware of trickery.

The absurdity of the practice of duelling has of late
been tolerably well exemplified. In the case of Col.
Fawcett, a distinguished soldier and an amiable man
was lost to his country in a quarrel which a few
hours' reflection, or a trial before any petty jury,
might have decided; and, in the more recent case of
Lieutenant Seton, a life has been sacrificed, accotd-
ing to " the code of honour," by a man who, ac-
cording to the evidence, had been perfecting him-
self in the art of murder by practice in a shooting
gallery, only a few hours previously to meeting his
unfortunate opponent. Yet the man is held disho-
noured in civilised society who refuses to place his
life at the hazard of a bully's or a maniac's aim.
Good men may applaud such refusal. Here and
there a Roebuck may be found ready to plead "pri-
vilege" as his immunity from the appeal to the pis-
tol ; but as long as men act in the fear of man—
until society reforms its habits of thinking and judg-
ing of the actions of its members—so long will the
law continue to be outraged, and human life be
called upon to be perilled for a rash word or a dis-
courteous action.

We have been not a little surprised during the
past week to see this morbid passion for the Leib:),
as the best an.l only mode of atoning for personal
delinquency, all but vindicated by the highest legal
authority in the empire. In a suit for divorce, be-
fore the Lord Chancellor,in which Capt. Heaviside
was the plaintiff, a witness proved the infliction of
the severe beating which, it will be remembered, the
Captain inflicted upon the seducer of his wife—Dr.
Dionysius Lardner ; and his lordship is reported to
have interjected the remark, intended to he jocular, no
doubt, that the learned doctor appeared to have been
" more of a philosopher than a hero." If this re-
mark 'meant anything at all, it meant that the reci-
pient of the beating in question ought to have fought
the man he had injured. To submit to be bela-

bottred with •-w cudgel was philOsOphic ;1 td have
goie out with Capp.-Heaviside, and run the risk of
aelging the crime of murder to that of seduction,
would have been the conduct of " a hero" r. 9 This
is certainly in the worst of taste. It is bad com-
ing from an old man; of sobered passions, in whom
both his yeara and his habits ought to have infused
better and higher views of human conduct; an I it
is bad especially as coming from the keeper of the
royal conscience, and the highest law officer under
the crown.. His lordship might have remembered
that Dr. Lardner could not have shewn himself " a
hero" without breaking the law and running the
risk of becoming a murderer ; and, moreover, that
it is precisely this flippant way of sneering at men
who do not.rehort to the pistol which tends to per-
petuate the practice.
Apart from all considerations of a religious cha-
racter, the willingness to fight a duel is not a test of
heroism. It is not even a test of courage, in the
best acceptation, or in any proper acceptation of the
term. It may evince a certain stolidity of mind
which is often mistaken for courage. It may spring
from a recklessness of life, which is not courage. It
may be the result of mere impetuosity of temper;
but rarely can it claim the virtues of genuine, in-
nate bravery. Viewed in this light, it ought to be
scouted, along with the torture, the trial by fire and
water, and other inventions of the dark ages; but
on far higher considerations it ought to meet with
the reprobation of all Christian communities. Such,
we are happy to observe, is the growing feeling to-
wards it of the British public, and of the military
authorities, who have wisely regarded its practice
amongst military and naval men as an offence
against the regulations of both services. We must
do more, however, than this. We must endeavour
to bring about in the public mind that. 'ab-
horrence of the practice which will stamp
with infamy not only every man who has " killed his
man," hut, as well, every man who has run the risk
himself, or offered the opportunity to another, of be-
coming a murderer.. In this view of the practice we
are borne out by the following able remarks of the
London Record:—
"Such a man as Colonel Gardiner could despise any
imputation on his courage, for his prowess had again and
again been signalized in the face of contending armies.
Ills extraordinary change of character had al-o attracted
a great degree of wonder, which his remarkable consis-
tency ripened into respect, and when, just a century ago,
he died on the fatal field of Gladsmuir, deserted by his
own regiment, but disdaining to seek safety in flight, he
only acted up to the character which was recognised by
the army and the country. Another, although a younger,
contemporary of Gardiner's, the gallant Colonel Black-
adder, was, in like manner, able to condemn the fashion
of the day, and to decline a challenge. But not only had
his courage been signalized under King William and the
Duke of Marlborough, but in the earlier years of his life,
before he was converted to the true knowledge of God, be
had met, and killed in single combat, an officer who pro-
voked him to fight. The recollection of this calamity
pressed on his mind, and is often mentioned, in his inte-
resting diary, as a source of penitential sorrow, even to
the end of his life. At one period after his conversion,
being asked to fight, he refused to commit so great a sin ;
but Marlborough being about to storm a fort, Blackadder
volunteered to go on the forlorn hope, and invited his
antagonist to accompany him to the post of danger. In
our time, equal courage and determination was shown by
another gallant officer, Colonel Oliver, of the Artillery.
He, too, refused a challenge more than twenty years ago ;
and we blush to say that he did not meet with the support
he ought to have met from the heads of the arrny, although
they acknowledged that in the mitter which occasioned
the challenge he had strictly acted up to his public duty.
Their quarrel was, not with his refusing the challenge,
but with his accompanying the refusal with the declara-
tion, that he would not shelter himself under the mere
military objection that the offence was one arising out of
his official duties, but that he would on no occasion violate
the laws of God as recognised in the Articles of War."

We may be told that without some such mode of
determining quarrels or resenting injuries society
cannot exist, and the decencies of individual conduct
be preserved; that " physical strength alone would
be feared, and the brute would rule the roast."
The objection is simply absurd. A bully who can
snuff a candle at twelve paces—one of your shooting
gallery heroes—is quite as noxious and intolerable a
character as any other vulgar ruffian. The insolent
and swaggering possessor of physical strength may
knock you down and inflict some trifling injury upon
your person, which a basin of water or a plaster will
remove ; your more polished ruffian, in full pistol
practice, carries your life in the box which holds his
hair triggers, and the honourable (!) portion of
mankind declares that you are dishonoured if you
accept insitt ,at his hands, whilst you can repel it
only at the, almost certainty of death !

A sum, amounting to nearly £lOO,OOO per annum,
is annually lavished upon the miscalled " National
System" of Education in Ireland—a system which,
professing to be for the benefit of religionists of
every kind, is practically administered for the sole
benefit of members of the Romish creed. A fur-
ther sum having been conceded by the present
Government, for exclusively Romish Education—
(the Maynooth Endowment)—it has occurred to
the Hierarchy of the Established Church in Ireland
to make another application for some Government
grant, in aid of the Protestant Schools of that
country, at present left to depend upon voluntary
support ; and a correspondence upon the subject,
between the Pritnate of Ireland and Sir Robert Pee),
has just been made public, in which the latter de-
clines to accede to the just demands made to him
by .the friends of the Established Church. The
pleas put forth by the Primate may he thus recapitu-
lated. First, on the part of the Clergy, it is stated
by his Grace :
" I would now solicit your attention to this important
question; and in doing so. I would also mention, +hat
having recently, in conjunction with a majority of the
Irish prelates, deemed it right to re-state publicly the
grounds of our conscientious objections to the National
system of education, and our reason for endeavouring, to
uphold, as far as is in our power, the schools which are
founded on the principle of making the _poly Scriptures
the basis of instruction, our sentiments have been re-
sponded to by seventeen hundred of the clergy, who have
expressed their concurrence in the views which we put
forward."

So far as the Protestant Clergy of Ireland are con-
cerned therefore, the preponderance of feeling to-
wards the accordance of the aid demanded is mani-
fest ; and when we bear in mind the deference paid
by Government to the Romanist Clergy on every
occasion, it does appear a little significant of an
utter disinclination to support Protestantism in that
country, when we see a prayer so reasonable, and so
strongly supported, treated with contempt..
In addition, however, to this claim put forth on
behalf of the concession—oh that we should have
to use the word, when the party to he conceded to
is the Established Church of the land !—of the
nobility and gentry, the proprietors in fee of nine-
teen-twentieths of the soil of Ireland, are in favour
of the measure proposed. With respect to the peo-
ple—the merchants, traders, manufacturers, farmers,
and yeomanry
" Petitions to the same effect, continues the Plimate.
have been presented to Parliament during the present
session, signed by more than sixty thousand persons. It
is, therefore, in the name of a majority of the prelates, and
more than three thousand of the nobility, gentry, and
clergy of Ireland, and supported by the petitions of sixty
thousand of the people, that I make this appeal to her
Majesty's government."

And what is the prayer of this majority of the
property and intelligence of the country, which a
professing Protestant Government refuses to grant ?
It is that the state, which now cherishes and endows
Romanisn, should support, in part only, ONE THOU-
SAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY SCHOOLS,
affording a scriptural education to 103,883 children
of rlie poor, which are voluntarily, and thankfully,
resorted to by 32,900 Roman Catholics and 13,500
Protestant dissenters--nearly one-half of the scho-
lars therefore not being members of the Establish-
ment ! and yet, whilst this is the case—whilst these
schools are resorted to voluntarily by members of
all religious persuasions, anxious for the blessing of
scriptural education, whilst the miscalled National
schools are almost exclusively Popish, the only argu-
ment of the Premier in favour of this resolve to
confine the favours of Government to the latter is,
that his pet system "interferes with no religious
creed "—an emasculated abortion—a kind of half-
way house between Christianity and Infidelity.
Alas fin- England—once styled the bulwark of the
Christian world ! We are truly fallen upon evil
days, when one of her legislators, and that onethe
chief. of ,her legislators and the adviser of a Chris-
tian and Protestant Sovereign, can pursue a course
so unrighteous and so opposite to the spread of
religious truth.

THE IRON TRADE.—We learn that sales of bar-iron
have been effected at Newport as low as £7 ss. per ton.
The demand from abroad has fallen off, and the price is
looking down—while several of the smaller houses are
forcing sales. The home market is better supported, and
prices maintained. As regards Scotch pigs the " time
bargains " have bad a serious effect, but there is evidently
an improvement, and more legitimate business doing.—
Mining Journal.

TO THE PROTESTANTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Brother. Protestants,—A '• National Club" having
been formed in London "in support of the Protestant
principles of the constitution, and for raising the moral
and social condition of the people," let me moat earnestly
entreat you to lose no time in establishing similar clubs
in every county and every borough town throughout the
United Kingdom. Let our indignant voices be raised on
high against the abandonment of those great religious
principles which, through the blessing of Almighty God,
have made England happy, great, and free. Let their
sound be heard through our Protestant vallies, and let
our hills re-echo the cry, till our land be filled with the
same.

Then let every honest and sincere Protestant pledge
himself upon the altar of our God that he will employ
every constitutional means in his power, between this
time and the dissolution of parliament, to ensure the re-
turn of those members who will make the Bible the
foundation of their legislation.
If we pursue this course and leave our cause in the
hands of the Almighty, he may still be entreated for our
land and England's downfall may be averted.
Let nothing disappoint you of your object. Keep the
end steadily in view. Resolve on attaining it, and you
will do so. Let no difficulties deter, no cold-heartedness
prevail amongst us. Let time rather strengthen than
diminish eur exertions.

From week to week, from month to month, go onward
in your course ; and as each year revolves have your an-
niversary meetings in your respective localities. Let the
day be fixed from year to year, and let everything yield to
your being present at the anniversary festival.
I have, the honour to remain, Biother Protestants, with
every respect, your obedient and devoted servant,
WINCHILSEA and NOTTINGHAM.-
Eastwell Park, June 20, 1845.

PORTRAIT OF THE REV. HUGH MiNEILE,
BY S. HAWKSETT.

We have been favoured with a private inspection of a
portrait of the Rev. Incumbent of St. Jude's, by the
above artist, which we have no hesitation in characte-
rising as the best likeness which has hitherto been painted
of him, and in fact the only one which conveys the spiri-
tualised cast of feature—the mind playing over the coun-
tenance—which is so striking in Mr. M'Neile when en-
gaged in his ministrations. In painting a portrait of
such a man, the expression of whose features varies with
every variation of thought or feeling which moves him,
—as he dwells upon topics suggesting pleasurable emo-
tions, or assumes the solemn and stern office of a moiri-
tor,—the difficulties which beset an artist are most formi-
dable, and are only overcome by genius of a high order.
Mr. Hawksett, in his treatment of the subject, has dis-
played such genius. He has caught the happiest expres-
sion of the rev. gentleman—that which his friends most
love to contemplate. The intellectual smile upon the lips,
imparts to the quick eyes and the expansive forehead a
softness and a charm which are indescribable. The posi-
tion of the figure is well managed, and one almost pecu-
liar to himself; and the details are very finely brought
out. The head, especially, seems to stand out from the
canvas as if instinct with life. The colouring of the face
may be remarked to be somewhat more ruddy than is
generally to be observed in the living original. It may
be explained, however, by stating that the portrait was
taken whilst the rev. gentleman was on a visit last year
in Ireland, from which his friends are aware that he
always returns embrowned with more than his usual
health.

An engraving has just been completed from this paint-
ing, a proof of which we have seen. It is from the burin
of Mr. Lupton, the distinguished London artist, and very
faithfully reflects the representation which Mr. Hawksett
has succeeded in conveying to canvas. Every admirer
of Mr. Wisleile ought to possess himself of a copy. We
may add that the original painting may be seen for a few
days at the office of Mr. El. J. Webster, Rumford-street,
previously to its being hung up in the rev. gentleman's
own residence.

SUGGESTED PLAN OF PERMANENTLY DEEP-
ENING THE BED OF THE MERSEY, ALONG
THE QUAY-WALLS.

We last week briefly noticed a plan for this purpose
suggested to the Dock Committee, in the specification
that accompanied Mr. William Stewart's project for the
landing-slips at George's Pierhead ; and we now furnish
it in his own words, as follows :

" The Dock Committee having, in their programme
for the present competition in landing-stages, invited
competitors to give suggestions for further improvements,
I consider myself authorised to remark, that while almost
all the minor rivers in the kingdom are in progress of
improvement by embankments and otherwise, and al-
though the river-walls, as well as the dock-basins, in
Liverpool, are continually encumbered with sand and
mud, nothing is being done to free them permanently
from that inconvenience.

" In order to effect the permanent scouring and deep-
ening close by the river-walls, I beg. to suggest that a wall
of rough stones be thrown into the river, in a line from
Garston Saltworks to the Harrington Dock-pier, and
formed so as to cause the descending current to sweep
along the whole line of the Liverpool dock-walls, and
thereby remove all the sand, reud, and other loose mate-
rial that may be deposited there. Any obstruction aris-
ing from rock, and such like material, could be in whole
or partially removed at much less expense than that con-
tinually required for clearing the entrance-basins to the
docks, which would be greatly, if not wholly, reduced by
the lowering of the ground, and the increase of the cur-
rent along the river-walls.
" What Ihere suggest is only a partial, but I will ven-
ture t) say, it would be so far an effectual remedy: to
do the work properly would require a general plan, begun
at above Runcorn Cap, and continued down the river as
far as Formby Pc.nt; such a plan well studied and exe-
cuted, would eventually aive a permanent channel up and
down the river, and completely remove many of the shift-
ing sand banks which new infest the channel, and incon-
venience the navigation.

" Inasmuch as these improvements are connected with
the special object of the competition, the clearing away
of the sand and mud banks which encumber the river
along George's pierhead, would enable the steamers of all
classes to approach close to the pier at all times of the
tide, so that one or more inclined plane, parallel to the
course of the river, with a self-acting stage, that is, rising
and descending along the inclined plane by means of a
float, and connecting machinery could be constructed at
a comparatively trifling expense. This would completely
supersede the necessity of works of any kind projecting
into the river. Abundance of room would also by this
means be left for the construction of a suitable basin in-
side the river wall for the ferry steamers to run in and
shelter during stormy weather, thereby securing a passage
in all weathers.

"The proposed wall between Garston Salt-works and
the II irrington Dock quay would cut a great sand bank
in two halves, (the " Garston Sand,") also the " Devil's
Bank." That half inshore of these banks wonld be avail-
able for agricultural purposes, and Ihe other half on the
river side of the wall, would be carried away by the cur-
rent, and thus render to the river as much space for con-
taining water, as would by reason of the wall be taken
from it between the wall and the shore."

A subscription has been commenced in this town for the
family of the late Thomas Hood. Mr. Clow, of the firm
of Tennants, Clow, and Co., will take charge of any con-
tributions.

Yesterday, a child, nine years old, named Margaret
Langton, fell from a flat in the basin, top of Oldhall-
street, into the canal, and though taken out of the water
alive, she expired before reaching the hospital.
SUDDEN DEATHS.—On Sunday afternoon. John Tho-
mas, a custom-house officer, ou board the brig Matchless,
Icing in the river, fell down on the d, ck of the vessel, and
died almost instantaneously. He was 56 years of age.—
On the same day, Mrs. Bridget Lappen, who had arrived
from Ireland on the previous day, expired very suddenly
in Virgil-street. Both parties died from apoplexy.
FAsnrowAstE Annivaes.—The following have been
among the fashionable arrivals during the past week at
the Imperial Hotel :—Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci, Dean
of Kilmore (Ireland), Hon. F. Stewart, Hon. W. B. De
Montmorency and brother, Capt. Deacon (13th Light
Dragoons), Rev. Dr. Hinds, Dr. L'Estrange, J. Har-
man, Esq., Messrs. Dawson, Phillipson, Bushby, &c.
THE GREAT BRITAIN.—This noble steam-ship (which
is expected to reach this port at the early part of next
week) was at Plymouth onFriday, and made an excur.
sion rood the Eddystone Lighthou.e. On entering the
Sound, while under weigh Captain Husker: had the helm
put hard sport, and turned the immense ship completely
round in about six minutes, and then, by reversing the
screw, had her worked astern, and having stopped her
way, turned her round in a circle, the diameter of which
scarcely exceeded her own length.

HOUSE HORBERY.—Yesterday, at the Police-court, a
loo'e looking youth, named William Walsh, was cliirged
with having entered the house of Mr. Mercer, publican,
Leeds-street, and therein stealing a quantity of money.
A policeman said that about one o'clock that morning he
hew d a noise in the house, and on giving the alarm, by
pulling the bell, Mr. Mercer came down, and the prisoner
was found between the outer and inner door, with a quan-
tity of copper in a handkerchief, a half-crown in his cap,
and other monies, to the amount of £1 I7s. 3d. It ap-
peared he had got in by the skylight. Some of the copper
was identified. He was committed for trial at the sessions.
STREET ACClDENT.—Yesterday, an inquest was held
before Mr. Curry, on view of the body of Michael Gal-
loway, a labouring man, aged 63. Yesterday week, the
deceased was engaged in sweeping the road on the east
side of George's Dock Basin, when two carts came up,
one on each side of him. The foreboard of one of the
carts outside struck the deceased on his chest, and
knocked him down, when a wheel of the other cal t passed
over his left shoulder and chest. Neither of the carts
were going at a quick rate, and both drivers had hold of
their horses' heads. Deceased was taken to the Northern
Hospital, where he died on Thursday. Verdict, " Acci-
dental death."

FATAL ACCIDENTS.—On Thursday, a carter named
Ambrose Fisher, aged about sixty, was in a yard in
Water-street, loading his cart with cotton, when in hook-
ing a bail, the hook slipped, and be fell on the sill of the
warehouse door, and thence into the lower story, head
first. He was picked up insensible with a wound on his
head, and died the same day.—Yesterday morning, a
plumber, named George Sword, went to the head of the
barque Bland, in the Prince's Dock, to mend a pipe,
when his foot slipped on the rail, and in falling his bead
caught the side of a boat lviog in the dock, and he fell
into the water and sank. He was got out in a few mi-
nutes, by means of the grappling-irons, but was quite
dead. He was not very sober at the time.