The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-05-20 00:00:00

'TI'E LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

sion upon the bill, which would last
• night pass,
most prob'ably, through its final stage in the House
of Commons—viz.: the Maynooth Bill. Again,
apd again, during that discussion, supporters of the
measure have risen to deprecate the introduction of
religious arguments or scriptural considerations into
a political question. Human expediency, justice,
consideration for the opinions of our fellow men
who differ from us in religious faith, the imperative
necessity of fulfilling alleged national contracts: all
these have been urged and refuted, night by night,
with all the fervor of parliamentary eloquence and
all the power of parliamentary ability. But the pos-
sibility of acting in defiance of the divine will, and
of drawing down upon the nation the divine dis-
pleasure. has been sedulously scouted as beside the
question—as a matter not placed at issue—a thing
beneath the sublime consideration of statesmen.
Religion, virtually exclaim our senators, is a matter
for the closet ; it has nothing to do withi the affairs
of nations. As individual men we are bound to de-
fer to the will of God, putting our own construction
upon it, and moulding it after our own caprices ; as

Sept. 6

a nation we have nothing to do with religion ! In-

Dur actions

ble to huma

as a nation we are only respot
thority and human circumstance
So ably is this lamentable heresy—this fatal. and

alppbemous lolly—dealt wan in uLG I[4ll/111. Lig,l%.*
sneech of the Rev. Hugh M`Neile, delivered in the
he 7th ult., a copy of which is now
Might to be treasured by every faith-
ful British Protestant, that we shall not attempt to
strengthen the arguments therein advanced—we
might rather weaken their effect, so convincingly and
lucidly are they laid down—by any comment of
our own. We confine ourselves exclusively to the
fact, to, which we have already ad erted, and which
Mr. M‘Neile rightly declares, that upon no occa-
sion
,have.the opponents of the endowment of May-
nooth been met in their opposition upon scriptural
grounds. Upon no occasion has it been attempted
to be shewn that encouragement to Popery is other
than offensive to God. On the contrary this fea-

une 11

klusic-hal

Lure of the question has teen seauiousiy suunnea.
It is felt to be dangerous matter to touch upon;
and the confession is virtually thus made—for there
is ability enough on the ministerial side of the
house to argue it on religious grounds, if it were
tenable on such—that the affirmation of the ques-
ti-n involved in the endowment of Maynooth is a
direct offering up of the religious faith of the na-
tion upon the altar of expediency—the prostration
of the Protestantism of the empire before the feet of
Rome

How can we escape this conclusion ? How can
we throw from us this degradation ? We were a
Protestant nation ; our hierarchy was Protestant ;
our institutions were Protestant ; we were wedded
to a Protestant Established Church. Yet, in the
face of all these ties imposed upon us—in the teeth
of consistency, and of our national convictions of
truth—we have divorced our legislation from Protes-
tantism, and from the Bible itself ! And all this upon
the weak ground of expediency, upon the cowardly
urging of abject and degrading FEAR ! A " small
cloud " was seen rising in the Western horizon; an
insolent threat broke from the lips of the demagogue
president of the slave-holding and repudiating model
republic; and England—once "mighty England"—
frighted from her propriety, forgetful of her mighty
power, threw down the sheet anchor of her liberties
—her Protestantism—and resigned in terror the
noble Tnission for which she seemed to have been
destined by God, and gifted, for the purpose, with
all but universal dominion—the task of spreading to
the ends of the earth and the breadth thereof, the
undiminished and undiluted light of his word ! A
, proud destiny seemed ours yesterday. To-day—
alas—how are i's glories clouded !

1850.
Feb. 4

Far different ought to have been the course of
a Christian nation—of Christian England. How

different, even upon the principles of human ex-
pediency and wisdom! We cannot better express
our convictions upon this point, than by quoting the
following elopent extract from a letter addressed to
one of the members for North Shields, by the Rev.
C Jol ,r of the Secession

Jeo. m Duncan, a ministe
Church of Scotland :

" The history o

this nal

lesson with a voice so command.

ing as to deter any British Statesman from a fatal course
like that on which the Prime Minister of England has
now entered. The signs of the times, in all nations of

Europe, at the present day, might with equal authority
confirm it; The examples you plead—so far from afford-
ing an encouragement to us—ought rather to make us

1 CHRONOLOGY

ADVANCE, OR A LEAF

FROM THE FUTURE.

How we have been put in possession of the following
interesting facts we do not intend to explain, further
than that they are the result of a newly-discovered mes-
meric faculty, called by the discoverer prcevoyance, which
will render the almanac-makers' trade a profitless one,
and.doaway entirely with the necessity of parliamentary

professions.
1846. Her Majesty, in her Speech from the Throne,
Feb. 4. congratulated the house on the improved state of
Ireland and the cessation of agitation; and re
commended further conciliatory measures
April 1

Sir Robert Peel brought in his proposed state
endowment of the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Her Majesty landed at Kingstown, and pro-
ceeded in state to Dublin. Very few of the peo-
ple were present to greet her on her arrival,
owing to a monster meeting being held at Clon-
tarf.

Feb. 6 A new parliament met, and Sir Robert Peel,
to 12. being in a minority on the address, resigned.
March 1. A new ministry formed by a collision between
*e. the. Whigs, the Free-traders, and the Irish Re-

peal party.
March 10. The Three per Cents. down to 60.
June 1. The Corn-laws Repeal Bill received the royal
assent
n au- June 10

June 20

A motion for the repeal of the legislative union
with Ireland, brought in by Lord John Russell,
'defeated, after a long debate, in which Sir Robert
Peel distinguished himself by his able opposition.
Lord John Russell's'administration dissolved.
A new ministry formed. Sir Robert Peel,
Premier; Mr. H. G. Ward, Chancellor of the
Exchequer; M r. Cobden, President of the Board
of Trade ; and Mr. Edwin Chadwick, Home Se-
cretary.

Great agricultural distress at the opening of
this year. The union workhouses throughout
the rural districts put in a state of fortification.
A great export trade in agricultural labourers to
the continent, to be exhibited there as attenuated
specimens of " a bold peasantry—a nation's
pride."
March 1. Sir Robert Peel brought in his bill for the re-
peal of the Union.
June 1. The Repeal Bill received the rdyal assent.
July. Serious disturbances throughout the manufac-
turing districts, caused by the scarcity of em-
ployment, owing to the decline of the home trade.

Wages of spinners and power-loom weavers re-
duced to 3s. Cd..per week. The county militias
and yeomanry reorganised.

Feb. 10. Bill for appropriating the revenues of the Irish
Church to secular uses brought in by Mr. H. G.
Ward. _ _ _

Mach 2.

The financial statement exhibited a deficiency
in the national revenue of 19 millions, which dif-
ficulty the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposel
to meet by converting half of the national debt
into passive stock.
March 10. A serious conflict took place on the Stock Ex-
change between the bulls and bears, and three
policemen were called in to suppress it. Active
Consols were sold at 31i ; Passive 15d.

Aug. 19. His. Holiness the Pope of Rome, attended by
three cardinals and a nuncio, arrived in London
on a visit to her Majesty. The Palace of St.
James's was fitted up for their reception.

The Speech from the Throne directed her Ma-
jesty's two houses to take into consideration the
special disabilities imposed upan the Sovereign
by the Act of Settlement, and, in particular, the
clause which imposes forfeiture of the Crown as
the penalty of professing the Popish religion. In
the debate on the address, Sir Robert Peel an-
nounced the intention of Ministers to bring in a
measure to reveal this unjust and penal interfer-
ence with the royal conscience.
[Our proevoyant was here demesmerized, and we regret
that we cannot state how the announcement in question
was received by the house.l

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE ON THE STATE

OF THE COUNTRY

The Duke of Newcastle has just published another letter
to his " fellow-countrymen," referring to the topics of the
day, and as we have reason to know that the noble Duke's
previous communications have been read with avidity by
our readers, we proceed to give the substance of his
Grace's present epistle. After noticing in terms of the
deepest gratitude the expressions of kindness which have
been sent to his Grace, in consequence of his recent letters
the noble Duke proceeds as follows :

" It must appear to you that the present struggle is made
to be a contest between the Parliament and the people.
The national opinion is one way, the majority in Parlia-
ment is in another. Why is this ? Ought not the repre-
sentation to reflect the opinions of its constituents, especi-
ally so, it may be supposed. since its imagined nnrifiratinn

&Ay we .GIUII.II DILI I" 7ne tact, however, is otherwise.
would not object—neither, I am convinced, would you—
that a man should vote according to his own conscience;
but if he knows that he is so doing in opposition to the
declared sentiments of his constituents, he is bound to
reegn the trust into their hands. This would be honor-
able ? if he failed to do it, you no doubt would take good
care that he should never again be chosen to represent y
But t* • ' '