The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-12-31 00:00:00

TII E LIVERPOOL STiU\''.DA

Captain Wood, got hig father to write to Mr.Thornhill to inform
hint that I was,-supporting Captain Wool. Mr.Thorphill wrote
to me, telling me that 'he would not alloW -me to support a
Radical and continue in his service; and I wrote to Mr. Thurn-
hill that I supported Captain Wood, because he was a hearty
supporter of the factory child's cause, and that whatever a
Radical might be, he was better than a Whig who would go
and endeavour to take an honest man's living from himbecause
he was acting according to his judgment. I continued to sup-
port-Captain Wood."

The Halifax Guardian states that the same intimida-
tion is going on now, which, considering what the Whigs
are,' and the intense regard they have for the liberty of
the subject, we can easily believe.

The decision of the VICE CHANCRLLOR, which we
briefly noticed in our last, with respect to trust-property
held by Unitarians, involves considerations of the highest
importance to all who have -any regard for the preserva-
tion, without the pale of the Church, of pure and unadul-
terated Christianity in England. -But for that decision
public opinion on this vital question might have remained
dormant for the next, as it has dune for the last, fifty years.
The spoiler has slowly stolen in—he has almost imper-
ceptibly laid his sacrilegious hands upon one endowment
after another—he has pilfered the holy relics of the pious
and the benevolent—he has marred and mangled the
sacred volume, and he has turned the clearest precepts
and doctrines of the scriptures against the humble and
sincere worshipper, not only profaning the divine oracles,
but making a fanciful infidelity a cover for fraud and ag-
grandizement. The fraud, however, has at length been
,discovered—the decision of the learned judge has un-
masked the jugglers-'-the light is no longer hid under a
bushel—the imposition is made as clear as day, and the
hour of justice and retribution is all but come.

These, we admit, are serious charges to make against
the Unitarians, or any other sect of professing Christians,
especially that sect whose ambition is so lofty—who have,
pompously led the van in the march of reform—who cla-
mour so vehemently against exclusive privileges, and
who make war alike upon the church and all the venerable
institutions of the country. Yes! They are serious
charges, but not more grave than true ; which we shall
prove them to be, to the satisfaction of every honest and
intelligent man, before we have done with them. It shall
be our concern to prove that, whilst these people who call
themselves Unitarians, have been officiously, and for mere
selfish purposes, prying into the affairs of corporations,
detecting abuses in the Church, advocating a spurious and
unchristian system of education, and attempting to re-
model the laws, they have at the same time been worming
theinselves into the property of others—misappropriating
the pious bequests of the honoured dead—paying away
the widow's mite contrary to her expyess and dying com-
mands—and by an ingenious and systematic course of
fraud perverting from their objects and uses those funds
left by our pious and benevolent ancestors for the propa-
gation of their and our fundamental truths of Christianity.
It is not a little singular that .the decision of the VICE-
61ANCELLOR, and the full blush of this important disco-
very, should have come upon us at a juncture when these
very Unitarians were making so conspicuous a figure in
investigating the alleged abuses of corporations. Imma
culate patriots ! they were honestly engaged in pulling
out the mote from their neighbour's eye, apparently quite
unconscious of the beam that was in their own. They
were assisting in the world's regeneration, unmindful of
the monstrous abuses, and the accumulated rottenness,
and the ill-gotten wealth of their own once holy but now
desecrated temples. They were sounding the high note
of reform in the church, in the law, and in the corpora=
tions; but most of them, it is charitable to suppose, little
dreamt of the corruptions and abuses which they as a body
have to answer for—or that the dreaded day had come
when the levelling voice of a just reform, proceeding, as it
were, like an awful sound from the tomb, and calling upon
them to account for their malversations, their perfidies,
their usurpations, and the frauds of the last fifty years !
That clay, however, has come; and we will take care, as
far as our humble means will admit, that it shall be a day
of strict and unsparing reckoning.
The circumstances which first led to the inquiry into
the pious bequests of Lady HEWLEY, and the conduct of
the Unitarians who have, for many years held possession
of the property, and have, contrary to the express objects
Of the trust, been applying it to their own antichristian
purposes, occurred at Manchester, about nine years ago.
A dinner was given in that town by the leading Unita-
rians, to a certain" teacher and preacher"
.of their order,
of the very odd name of
,GRUNDY, who was on the eve
of emigrating to Liverpool, for the very worthy purpose
of extending, if possible, the denying doctrines of his
sect in this town. His admirers in Manchester gave this
man a silver tea-service, and over their joy and wine
they indulged in oratory, proclaimed their mental and
moral superiority over every other class of Christians,
and went so far as to make a most insolent and indecent
attack upon the principles of the Church of England, and
of those sects who, dissenting from her, still revere her
pure and scriptural doctrines.

The individual selected for this attack was a Mr. HAR-
RIS, (whether now dead or alive we know not; but we
wish some of our Manchester friends would favour us
with a few notes upon the persons who figured in the
" Socinian controversy,")—a Mr. HARRIS of Bolton, who
had received a call at a rather late period of life, and who
had given up the drudgery of some comparatively useful
profession in London, in order to become a shining light
among the Unitarians. In order that our readers may
have some idea of the sentiments of these persons, and
the declamation of this HARRIS, which gave offence to
the rest of the Dissenters, we shall here print his own
words :

"I am confident that I am addressing men of liberality and
intelligence ;—men who arc anxious for the improvement, the
freedom, and the happiness of the race of which they form a
part; and, therefore, I am the more desirous of impressing
on your minds the vast and unspeakable importance of Unita-
rianism, as a means of human civilization and instruction.
This is a point of view in which, I think, it has not yet-been
sufficiently considered, even by its friends; but it is one of
which I think it is admirably deserving, and which will appear
the more clearly, if we contrast for alnoment the spirit which
the two opposing systems are calculated to generate. For what
is the spirit of Ortholoxy? Is .it not a slavish spirit ? but the
spirit of Unitarianism is one of rational and enlightened liberty.
The spirit of Orthodoxy is a mean spirit, for it bends before the
dictation of a worm of the earth, and its essence consists, as its
own advocates aver, in the. prostration of the human under-
standing;! but .the spirit:of Unitarianism is open, generous,
liberal. The'one is pardal and capricious, viewing the favour-
ites of Heaven only in a
.selected few, whilst Unitarianism sees
in every man a brother, training up for the glorious importance
which awaits all the family of the Eternal; The spirit of Or-
thodoxy is a cruel and vindictive spirit : witness its excommuni-
cations and its inquisitions ;—the spirit of Unitarianism is
merciful and. benevolent; anxious for man's rights, and detest-
ing revenge. The spirit of Orthodoxy is one of persecution:—
look at the Athanasian Creeds, and Test and Corporation
Acts; see the unbeliever—oh ! shams. and scandal!—even in
the nineteenth century, dragged before 'the tribunal of man, to
answer for his supposed want of faith, and behold judges acting
under the abused name of that Christianity, which, they say, is
part and parcel of the law of the land, inflicting sentences, which
even the worst of crimes would scarcely sanction; but Unitarian-
ism is free as the winds of Heaven, and desires that every human
creature may be so too. Orthodoxy says it encourages inquiry;
it may do so to a certain point; but when a human being ar-
rives at that, it is the language of its deeds, hitherto shalt thou
go, but no further. Unitarianism, however, has no laud-marks
on the shores of knowledge—like the swelling waves of the
ocean, it is spirit and it is life. Orthodoxy would strip a man
of the name of Christian, and would shut him out from all the
rewards of Heaven, unless he can pronounce the shibboleth of
an intolerant party; whilst Unitarianism affirms, that in every
nation, aye, in every sect, he who feareth God, and worketh
righteousness, shall be accepted of him. Orthodoxy is bound
up in creeds and confessions, and articles of faith with int-y blots,
and rotten parchment bonds ;—but Unitarianism, like the word
of the ever-living Jehovah, is not, and cannot be bound. Ortho-
doxy is gloom, and darkness, and desolation. Unitarianism is
light, and liberty and joy. The influence of this system on
human civilization, human liberty, and , human happiness, has
already been tried; it has been tried for ages; and its direful
and demoralizing effects may be read in the history of every nation
under the sun. It has been weighed, sir, and has it not been
found most miserably wanting ? Let the state-craft, and the
priest-craft, and the war and the slavery, by which mankind have
been cursed for ages, answer the question. What then remains;
but that every friend of his species should unite iu trying the
effects of the other system."

This is Unitarianism ! This is what Unitarians think
of the Orthodox principles of the churches of England

and gcotland, and of hose of nine-tenths of the Christian
iiissenters ! This speech, and theSe sentiments, were
I-loudly cheered by the phalanx of Manchester Socinians,
rand, as might be expected, it Was the crowning- triumph
of the.night. The marrow of the speech lies in a nut-
shell. It is this. Those'who believe in the divinity of
our Saviour are the worshippers of worms, a race of bigots
and persecutors, mean, vindictive, and illiberal wretches;
whereas those who deny the divinity of the SAVIOUR are
the noblest of human beings, the most gifted of the sons
of men, the only lights sent to illuinine the-earth. This,
we say, is the marrow of this man's (HAartis) speech,
and we dismiss it without saying another word. This,
however, we must say, for it is necessary to our case, that
the sentiments which Mr. HARRIS expressed have never,
to the present hour, been repudiated by any of the per-
sons presentat its delivery, or by any one leading Unita-
rian ! There it stands against us. The slander has
gone forth; the insult has never been atoried for; and
the paltriest, most heartless, most aspiring, most grasp-
ing, and most contemptible sect in Europe have been
permitted to misrepresent, and libel every other order of
sincere, exemplary, and conscientious Christians. But
we leave these points to be settled by those who feel more
interested than we do, or it would become us to acknow-
ledge in an article devoted to more secular objects.

This speech from the " teacher" of Bolton-le• Moors
initiated the controversy which was carried on with almost
matchless talent in the pages of a Manchester paper. We
have waded through the whole of ,it with great delight;
and we must render justice to whom it is due, by saying,
that we have never seen a controversy conducted with
greater forbearance, terseness of language, aptness of in-
duction, conciseness of reasoning, judgment in the selec-
tion of facts, or conclusiveness in the argument, than that
used in defence of orthodox sentiments by the corre-
spondents of the journal in question. We say this in
justice to Manchester; and no man can take up the
boa with6ut admitting, that in that town and its vicinity
mechanics are not the only study. There is a letter
written by a Mr. TURNER, and two, we think, by a Mr,
HADFIELD, of the very first order as literary compositions.
As might be expected, the Unitarians were most severely
punished. They were driven from every position; ex-
posed in every assumed fallacy ; convicted of imposture
and usurpation by their own admissions; charged with
fraud under circumstances which carried with them a strong
moral, if not legal conviction, and so harassed and home-
pushed that, like all frantic liberals, they threatened a
prosecution againSt, what they were pleased to term, the
"personal and invidious liberties of the press." This is
the invariable refuge of all pretended patriots.
The advocates of orthodox opinions contended that the
Unitarians had no legal right to most of the chapels in
which their teachers presided; that they derived their
consequence and influence from usurpation; that the
funds by which a majority of their ministers were support••
ed had been given in trust for objects and uses inversely
connected with their professed sentiments ; and that the
alms and bequests of nonconformists of the Presbyterian
and Independent persuasion had been diverted from the
original intention of the donors, and Applied to the pro-
pagation of doctrines which they personally abhorred.

Lady HEWLEY'S charity was brought in the foreground,
as a prominent Charge of defection and malappropriation.
This exemplary lad?, who had lived in the times of the
two CHARLES'S, was a nonconformist, or in other words a
Presbyterian. She left certain funds for the maintenance
of widows, poor clergymen, and others, of her pal ti-
tular faith. These funds were devoted to religious and
strictly orthodox purposes. She was, during her life and
at her death, a rigid Calvinist, and her tenets were as
much opposed to Socinianism and Unitarianism as light
is from darkness. By the Toleration Act of WILLIAM
TILE THIRD it was decreed, that no person could take any
benefit or privilege under that act who denied the divinity
of CHRIST. Therefore, by this act, independent of the
express limitations of Lady HEWLEY'S will, the Uni-
tarians had no pretext whatever for applying her bequests
to their purposes. They did, however, so apply them.
Socinianism, about the middle of the last century, took
root amongst certain parties ; philosophy in its leading
strings invaded Christianity ; the sons and daughters of
pious divines aspired to a new system of teleology; and
the divinity which was lovely in a cottage, with a sanded
floor, and a twelve o'clock dinner, was soon found to be
irreconcileable with the sentiments of a new deism which
spurned the orthodoxy of a divine sacrifice. The "teach-
ers" of this new doctrine were of the higher middle classes.
Their self-sufficiency gave them an arrogance which they
may have derived from money and limited education, but
which they did not receive from birth or any intercourse
with their superiors. It was with them something like a
fashion to carp at old institutions—to contest established
doctrines—to deny the maxims of orthodoxy—to laugh at
the dogmas of the Church—to sneer at the recognized in-
terpretations of the Bible—to contemn and disbelieve what
in their shallow minds they could not comprehend—and,
in the exercise of their vanity, to rear a new system on
what they called the ruins of the old. Had they done
this by legitimate means therezvould have been no grounds
of grievance. But they did not hesitate to apply their
secular influence as trustees to their heretical and degrad-
ing purposes. They seized upon the property which they
held in trust! Money left for orthodox was applied to
heterodoxical purposes. The alms of the dead, bequeath-
ed to pious persons, believers in the vital truths of Chris-
tianity, for their sole use and benefit, were perverted
to objects contrary to the will and abhorrent to the senti-
ments of the devisors. The trustees acted as if they had
been heirs of entail. They forgot that they were mere
executors, having onerous and responsible but prescribed
duties to perform; and in defiance of their obligations,
deeming theniselves safe in possession, with no human eye
to see them, and no human hand to correct them, they
expelled the righteous and lawful owners fl orn their
houses of prayer—they robbed the poor and simple—they
intimidated the weak—they defrauded the pious—they
plundered the dead—they profaned the temples set apart
for true Christian observances, and they introduced as
ministers the superficial sophists of their own caste to
sully, what they could not honour, and make a wretched
deism a substitute for the truths of the Gospel.

It has already been proved that such acts of flagitious
malversation, and malappropriation have been commit-
ted by the Unitarian trustees under Lady HEWLEY'9 will.
Property, estimated at more than two hundred thousand
pounds, and yielding a revenue of between four and five
thousand pounds per annum, has, in the manner above
described, fallen into the hands of Unitarians, and has
been appropriated by them to Unitarian purposes, con•
trary to the express injunctions of the benevolentfounder.
This point, indeed, has been settled by the VICE-CHAN-
CELLOR, and, therefore, any further notice . of it here
would be superfluous. But are there not other trusts,
other endowinents, other chapels, •other almshouseS,
nearer home, in this county, in.the very vicinity of Li-
verpool, at present in the possession of Unitarians which
do not belong to them, and from. which they should be
ejected in due course-of law ? Most unquestionably there
are, and it shall not be our fault if the subject be not pro-
perly and rigidly investigated.. It is a melancholy fact,
that there are upwards of two hundred Unitarian chapels
in England, one hundred and seventy of which were built,
and most of them endowed, and dedicated to the true
worship of GOD by orthodox Christians. If we can spare
the room we shall publish a list of these chapels in Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire on Friday. The exemplary and
pious 'congregations which once filled these chapels now
sleep with their humble fathers outside of those walls now
profaned. We cannot call them from their graves to
bear witness against their usurpers. Peace to their
ashes ! they will be avenged. We have living witnesses
and tangible documents, able advocates and upright
judges, to sustain the cause of truth and justice. There
must be an ample restitution of the property. The trus-
tees will have to render a strict account, and those funds
devoted to religious purposes must be wrested from the
possession of men who make a mockery of the intentions
of the donors. These chapels must be reclaimed; the
fraudulent translation of the scriptures must be ejected
from the venerable place in Chester where MATTHEW
HENRY preached ; the withering pestilence of infidelity
must be checked; the old forms of worship must be re
vived ; new 'congregations must be collected, and the
money-changers, the jobbers, and the demagogues must
be driven from the temple. But more of this hereafter.

LONDON LATEST NEWS.

Saturday Evening, half-past Seven o'clock.

There has beenssome fluctuation in our Consol market since
we last wrote. Tile price this morning has been as high as 90
for the Account, but the market became very much agitate
towards the afternoon, and the price closed at 89i 90. Exche-
quer Bills are 45 to 46, and India Bonds 22 to 21.
In our Foreign market the Northern Bonds became flat at the
decline of Consols. Russian closed at 1035 104; Dutch 25 per
Cents. at 504 ; Danish at 735 ; and Belgian at 965. Portu-
guese Stock _has also become very fiat; Old Bonds are 565 5,
and the Regency 565 5. Brazilian Bonds closed at Gil„,--trad
Spanish at X 315.
The advices from Washington furnish the following niatifica-
tion from the Treasury Department on the subject of blankets,
which is of some interest to the importers of that article
'sr-
" The expression in the act of 14th July, 1832, in relation to
blankets, being general, and _although on that account the act
may be considered defective, still I have my doubts whether
any 'rreasury regulation, defining a rule defining what sizes this
particular kind of goods shall be of to 'constitute a blanket
within the meaning and intention of the law, could be sustained,
I therefore deem it the most desirable course to authorize the
admission or such goods to entry as blankets, provided their
sizes be such as that t hey can fairly, and according to mercan-
tile usage and custom, fie considered blankets suitable for the
general purposes of blankets.
" In carrying this instruction into effect, it is desirable that
the different importers of the article be placed, as nearly as
possible, upon au equality.
(Signed) " JOSEPH ANDERSON, Comptroller."
Mr. Alderman Thompson, as we predicted, has finally retired
from the chair at Lloyd's; and his lace in the committee, and
in point of fact in the chair, will be balloted for on the 22d
proximo. We have two candidates; Mr. Robinson, M.P. for
Worcester, and Mr. Maxwell, M.P. The former gentleman
seems to be the favourite.