The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-15 00:00:00

(FROM THE STANDARD.)

It will, we apprehend, be said, " Let us have Conser-
vttive Unions, if you please, but no religious distinc-
tions—they are illiberal, fanatical, and foolish." We
shall not stop to question the value of this advice in a
moral view. Not that we could have much difficulty in
dealing with the opinion, that those intellectual sympa-
thies which ought to be the highest in our veneration,
and most powerful in their influence upon human con-
duct, are unfit bonds of moral union, but because the
lower and more practical consideration is quite sufficient
for our purpose.
We suppose ourselves advised to a Conservative Asso-
ciation—Conservative of what ? The phrase is not a
substantive phrase—by itself it is plain nonsense. Con-
servative, then, of what are our associations ? Of the
throne, and of the House of Lords, and the appoint-
ments of the bishops ? Why stop there—why not ex-
tend our Conservative protection to Lord Grey's place,
and Lord Brougham's wig, and the reforming Bishop of
London's nicely plaited stock, Mr. Rothschild's money
and Sir Francis Burdett's acres? Alas, for the everlast-
ing delusion that will stupidly substitute means for ends,
in considering the proper purposes of the conduct of ra-
tional beings. What does the man who writes these
words—what do ninety-nine hundredths of the tens
of thousands who will read them care about a throne,
at a throne—a House of Lords, as a House of Lords---
a Chancellor, bishop, capitalist, or squire, if the care of
their special interests is to be the end of their existence ?
We do not care one farthing about them, except as
means to other ends. We, the majority, endure the ex-
istence of unequal rank, and of a very unequal distri-
bution of property, not from any instinctive humility of
man's nature, or abstract love of poverty, but because
we believe such anomalies to be on the whole beneficial
to that society of which eacla of us is an integral. So,
we support thrones and lionsesof Lords and Commons,

not from the pleasure of pampering kings and senators
—but because we believe, that in connection with a na-
tional code of just laws, and a national church, diffusing
the principles of pure religion, they constitute the frame-
work of the happiest state of society in this world, and
of the best preparatory state for the world beyond this.
Let Kings and legislators, however, cut the laws from
their moorings, and the only remaining restraint, which
can prevent their drifting after them, will be the reli-
gious feeling of the people. If they bring up to that
anchor they will be safe; if they let go that last hold
nothing can save them.
The religious feeling of the country is very strong;
and every day furnishes the means of augmenting it, if
it be not repelled by insulting indifference. Every day
teaches the rich and great that the religious feeling of the
people is a defence for life and property, and public insti-
tutions worth twenty armies ; and no less frequent is the
instruction to the poor, that religion is the only protec-
tion upon which they can at once innocently aud safely
rely, to defend them against the insupportable tyranny
of wealth, which it is the unavoidable tendency, and, in-
deed the declared purpose of worldly society to produce.
Religion abolished the negro slave trade, and is now
struggling, whether prudently or imprudently, to extin-
guish the last traces of slavery in the empire—religion
is now wrestling with the far more detestable slavery of
the British factories—religion is, indeed, the only faith-
ful mediator between wealth and poverty, power and
weakness—religion is essentially Conservative of all
that is good ; let none, therefore, who are conscious of a
good purpose in their Conservative determination, scru-
ple to draw up under the banner of religion.
True, by adopting that banner as our ensign, we shall
lose some who are considered Conservatives, and proba.
bly consider themselves as such; but here is the question
—whether is it better to lose a few adherents, and pre-
serve the only available principle of union, or, for the
sake of two or three additional allies, who, after all, can
be but mock auxiliaries, to sacrifice that only principle?
We suppose that there can be no difficulty in deciding
this question. Let any who hesitates, if any can hesi-
tate, go to inform his mind to the theatre, or to the mar-
ket—lie will in the one place and the Other, see just the
kind of union which some would have formed under the
name of " Conservative Associations." He will see
a number of persons gather- by a common design,
either of pleasure or of gain—but he will See them, as
weariness or caprice, they having made the last penny to
be expected, or the apprehension of a shower admonish,
melting as rapidly as the spring snow, because, though
having a present common design, they have no common
prinezple of permanent influence. Just as valuable for
political uses as the playhouse audience, or the market
crowd, will be found a " Conservative Association" not
founded upon religious principles.