The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-03 00:00:00

THE LlVlati-300E, STANDARO.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"Calistkenes " and " IL C." postponed solely from want of
room.

The rem arks of " Viator" are certainly just, but we doubt the
expediency of alluding to the subject when the mischief is
done.
If the h tter of " A Phlanthropist" ever came to hand, it has
been unfortunately mislaid.
We refer G. 11. P. to an advertisement.
We regret exceedingly that, in consequence of the long reports
which we furnish to day, we cannot find room for the sting-
ing and well-written letter of " Fair Play." Could we have
inserted a tithe of the communications which we have re-
ceived on the subject of the unwarrantable conduct of our
stipendiary, it would afford him some idea of the indignation
which has been aroused in the town by his vituperative lan-
guage. We may observe, ho ever, that meetings are about
to he held in various wards, to express the sentiments of the
town:

Our Contemporary of the Albion is* really shameless, in persist-
ing to impute a disposition for " hole and corner work" to
the Watch Committee at their former meeting, with the full
explanation before him of their proceedings on Saturday, of
the circumstances under which our rep rter was refused ad-
mission. We tell him again, and we believe he knows it to be
a fact, that the Watch Committee would have adm tted re-
porters, had an application ceme before them. .
The character in which Portia appears in court, in the " Mer-
chant of Venice," will he readily understood from a perusal
of the play. Impressed with the difficulties of the cause to be,
tried before him, the Duke has sent for the opinion upon it of
a learned Doctor of Padua, Bellarmo. Portia, by his persua-
sion, appears in Bellarmo's stead, recommended by him, in
the character of a young legal student, as informed of his
views, and possessing besides, valuable lezal knowledge of
his own which may be made available. Portia, therefore;' oc-
cupies merely the position which Bellarmo would have occu-
pied—one by whose opinion, upon a difficult and unpa-alleled
case, the Duke was willing to be guided. He had no jurisdic-
tion indepen.lent of the Duke.

Ql,l)t ?..ttierpooi &tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DEC. 3, 1844

Most firmly are we convinced that the great
struggle of the corning §ession must be for the main-
tenance of the Protestantism of the British Con-
stitution. It is in vain that we seek to hide from
ourselves the fact that an inroad is about to be at-
tempted, by a professedly Protestant and Conserva-
tive Ministry, upon the principles of the Reforma-
tion—that Popery, conciliated, or attempted to be
conciliated, by repeals of the penal laws, by greater
toleration given to her professors, by the yielding up
of revenues left for Protestant purposes to aggres-
sion from every quarter, and even by direct encou-
ragement to the wrong, and obstacles thrown in the
way of the spread of right principles, iA about to
have extended to her the helping hand of the state,
and to become an institution—not a tolerated error,
but an established and protected blot upon the face
of British society. She is no longer to be merely
winked at in her steps—no longer to be merely per-
mitted to darken the faith of millions with the
blighting shadow of her superstitions—but to be
placed erect, and aided in her fell attempts against
the liberties of Englishmen and of the truth which,
above all others, they have fought for and wor-
shipped.
The Church of Rome is to be endowed! The
blackness of her darkness is to be burnished with
British gold. The money of the industrious Pro-
testant British people is to flow into her coffers, to
give splendour to her shrines, to add meretricious
adornment to her idolatrous ceremonies, to feed the
vanity and the rapacity of her domineering priest-
hood. And all this is to be done for conciliation's
sake; for expediency's sake; in the hope of making
that priesthood, what it has never been from the first
hour of its blasphemous apostacy, a loyal and obe-
dient body of men to a Protestant, or a truly Chris-
tian government. Vain hope ! Fatal expectation !
Vain in its very fallaciousness, and fatal—assuredly
fatal—in its calamitous results to the liberties of the
people, by whose rulers it is attempted to be rea-
lised !

But that such an attempt will not be permitted
to be made, without strenuous opposition from all
faithful men, we feel assured, as we do that it will
recoil with fearful effect upon the heads of Sir R.
Peel's ministry. Let us not be despairingly told of
the strength of that ministry to resist all interference
from without I There never, in all previous history,
was a ministry strong enough to outrage with im-
punity the feelings of a majority of the British peo-
ple. There never was a dynasty which succeeded
in such an attempt. We may be sunk in mammon-
worship ; we may be blinded with undue confidence
in our rulers; we may be too much wrapped up in
reliance upon the elastic properties of our institu-
tions : but we are not beyond hope, we shall yet be
aroused when the Protestantism of the realm is
openly assailed. Truckling statesmen may imagine
that we shall "die and snake no sign ;" that we shall
bow unresistingly before aggression from imagined
friends ; that we shill kiss the hand which smites us,
because such hand is one which we have clasped in
fellowship : but truckling statesmen, even though
they may be such men, so valued, so respected, as
are Sir Robert Peel and his Conservative collea-
gues, will discover their error when the day of trial
comes. The attempted outrage upon our Protes-
tant liberties cannot succeed, and will not succeed.
Why are we thus confident ? It is because we
have amongst the clergy of our Church, despite of
recent wooings of Rome and her ceremonies, faith-
ful men who will not hesitate, at all sacrifices save
that of truth, to stand up in the van of the battle,
which we know to be approaching, and to encourage
ih that struggle the laity, which looks up to them
for advice and support. We know that by those
faithful men the apostuelcs of Sir Robert Peel, or
whatever other minister may abet them, will receive
prompt and indignant rebrobation. Nor are we
without present promise of such faithful teaching, or
evidence that it exists throughout the British com-
munity. We have before us a lei ter by the Rev.
W. Tatham, 8.D., the respected minister of a se-
cluded parish (Oswaldwistle, Lancashire), which
proclaims already the spirit in which the projected
attack upon our Protestant privileges will be met,
and contains more than one passage of indignant re-
probation of its unprincipled nature, and more than
one warning of its calamitous effects. The following
extract we cannot resist the temptation of offering
to our readers •

"The religion of the established church is the religion
of the reformation or it is not ; if it be the religion of the
reformation, then is protestantism the religion of the
state ; and who that knows the Bible can doubt that pro-
testantism is the religion of God. What is the papacy ?
To call it a religion in any Christian sense, is an abuse of
the term—to call it a church is to give it a title which the
19th article of the established church declares to belong
to a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure
Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ad-
ministered,' not one of which requisites is possessed by
the papacy. It is in reality a political system with an
ecclesiastical mask, and has no pretension to be called a
religion, except so far as its ecclesiastical exterior con-
tains some of the worst corruptions of Christianity, which
it brings to bear with fearful force on the natural weak-
ness of fallen humanity. Its objects are secular under a
spiritual cover. Its kingdom is of this world, and the
weapons of its warfare when and where they could be
safely used, have ever been carnal and cruel ; the sword,
the rack, and the fagot. The path of its triumphs has
ever been marked by persecution and intolerance, and
wherever it has risen in supremacy over the minds of men,
it has invariably revealed itself as the woman drunk with
the blood of the saints.' Wherever she has been able to
embody her principles in acts, she has aimed at a com-
plete ascendancy over the rights and liberties of man ;
for what is the history of Europe but a history of what
the papacy can effect to retard the civilization of the hu-
man race—and how her religious corruptions have curdled
the very life-blood in the heart of Christendom ? Where-
ever it has been planted and grown, everything around,
has withered but itself; like the tree described by Hum-
boldt, in the Andes, that flourishes most, when it has
ruined by its roots, the soil from which it springs. Even
in the distant islands of the Pacific we have at this time
an instance of her aggressive policy,—and we see in the
conflict there, on a small scale, the antagonism of protes-
tant truth and papal error. The history of her missions
is the history of her conquests.—the passion of Romanism
is the passion of proselytism,—in all lands, in all ages she
bas acted on the principle of universal subjugation, and
wherever she has succeeded, she has erected a tremendous
tyranny over mind and conscience, and exacted from her
victims, a blind and implicit obedience to her authority
and her laws." _ _

Such a church, then, it is which Sir Robert Peel
proposes to aggrandise I—a church whose objects
are secular, under an ecclesiastical mask, and which
is, at this moment, only seeking, in humble guise,
the secular aid of government, as the step to tyranny
over that government, and the subjugation of the
British people to its yoke. And it is to propitiate (!)
such a church that we seek—to prdpitiate a rapacity
of power which in all ages of Christendom has shewn
itself inexhaustible ! Absurd folly ! wanton and
indescribable madness !

The attempt is made, however, to justify, or at
least to palliate, the guilt of such aggrandisement.
" Popery, it may be said, has
elianged. In an age like
this it cannot but have received some modificatioi from
the advanced state ' of useful knowledge,'
the increase of
education, and the improvements of science;
may be modified by a little more conciliations; or if n
ndconocte, it
conces-
sion. But popery has not changed, it cannotcail
uanngifn
a: the
very secret of its power, of its existence, is its
ableness : the slightest transformation would its-
struction. It is the apostacy of eighteen hundred years,
and a corruption of this duration cannot be cured in
gradual way. The fallen angel may counterfeit, but he
never can become an angel of light. Lucifer once fallen,
has fallen never to rise. When Rome is to be destroyed,

it will be suddenly, in an instant, as by the fall of a mill-
stone ' her plagues shall come in one day.' We must
either come out of her, or perish with her. Rome, then,
has surrendered none of her pretensions, and of this the
government of the nations stand warned : in spirit and
principle she is as vigorous this moment as at any period
of her history—imperious and intolerant, insisting on as-
cendancy and prohibiting freedom of thought and inquiry ;
and she can as little as ever be governed by a sense of ob-
ligation, for that conscience by which subjects should be
guided in the discharge of their civil duties, is not an
oracle within or a light from heaven, but a decree of the
Popedom ; and, as regards her connexion with secular
governments, as long as Romish bishops swear the bishop's
oath, and Romish priests their assent and consent to the
creed of Pope Pius IV., it is hopeless t► expect that en-
gagements or treaties will be kept longer than there is op-
p:►;tunity or ability to break them.

" Sueh is the system from its very nature and constitu-
tion antagonist to the religion of the reformation, or the
truth of the established and united Church of England
and Ireland. Are their claims compatible? Is it pos-
sible to pacify or conciliate popery without-the subversion
of protestantism, or the church which establishes and
teaches it in the land ? Will Rome be propitiated by any
other sacrifice ? Will the policy of what is called moderate
protestantism appease or satisfy her? Moderate protes-
tantism, or the protestantism of expediency, is a contra-
diction. Protestantism, from its very essence, excludes
all neutrality and compromise; it partakea too much of
the religion of the Great Teacher, who declared, that he
who was not with him was against him, and whose ser-
vice is so exclusive as to know no other master, we must
either hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one
and despise the other.
" Here, then, is on the one band, an established church,
whose truth the state is bound to defend and propagate;
and, on the other hand, a false, idolatrous, and dangerous
system, which it is, by necessary inference, bound, by
every fair and legitiinate means, to discountenance and
weaken. It would be culpable in the state to stand neu-
tral even between .two such antagonist systems. What
must he the guilt of aiding and abetting the enemyagainst
the ally—of supporting and fostering that which is op-
posed to the truth of the established church, as darkness
to light, and especially of patronising and endowing that
college, the nursery of its priesthood, which trains and
educates those who are the chief agents of its propagation,
the teachers of its blasphemous fables—the performers of
the horrible sacrilege of the mass."

The concluding portion of the letter, from which
we have taken the liberty of quoting, contains an
appeal to Sir Robert Peel,- which with such effect
and eloquently conveys our own sentiments, that
we cannot resist giving it, although we have already
trespassed largely. Would that Sir Robert Peel
was to be persuaded to follow such advice, and save
himself from the utter destruction with which his
character for Protest»nt fidelity is menaced!
" Sir, what multitudes who admire your matchless
talents would rejoice to see you take this decided stand
for truth and give a tone of resolution to the thousands
who are wavering under the almost uncontrollable influ-
ence of your example. Boldness and faithfulness like
this would raise up for you a host of the best of friends
and supporters, and give you a position as the chief minis-
ter of this great protestant empire, that could never be
shaken ; and you would have the solace and satisfaction
to your conscience in the view of a coming eternity, and
that judgment at which you must account for your im-
mense responsibilities, that you did not use the opportu-
nities and influence you possessed to the advancement of
a system, opposed to the temporal and spiritual welfare
of your country, and happily through your instrumenta-
lity our national church, threatened as she is by the as-
saults of open foes without, and the treachery of false
friends• within, may yet emerge from the trial and the
danger, with her unchangeable doctrine, and her celestial
voice.

" If, however, you have already resolved on a rolicy
that must only strengthen the hands of her enemies, while
it cannot give stability to your government, and, as has
been proved by past experience, only give them greater
power in enforcing their demands for further advantages ;
for the true meaning of the present outcry in Ireland, is
not the repeal of the union, but the repeal of the reforma-
tion ; then we may tremble for the ark of God, then in-
deed will her enemies have triumphed over her. But I
fervently hope, if you have taken such a resolve, it may
yet be shaken. 0 let it not be recorded in the page of
history, that in your administration the church was at
last betrayed by the state : that in the administration of
him who passed the fatal bill that blotted'out the great
national protest, was the work of evil irretrievably con-
summated, and, perhaps, by the only man who could have
warded it off, the final blow was given which sealed the
doom and destruction of the established church (I speak
of the church as a national establishment, for the invisible
church is indestructible), but from that period may be
dated her decline and fall, and with the fall of England's
church, the setting of her national glory."

In another part of our paper we give a raport of
the proceedings of the Justices of this borough, at a
meeting held in the Magistrates' Room on Thurs-
day, and the consequent proceedings of the Watch
Committee, at their weekly meeting on Saturday
last, which on that occasion was thrown open to the
reporters for the local press. To both of these we
shall have to call the attention of our readers; and,
as the first in order, we proceed to examine the
proceedings of the worshipful the bench.
The meeting of this body appears to have been
called for the purpose of. receiving its sanction of an
irregularity, which we noticed in our last, committed
by Mr. Rushton, an individual magistrate, in direct-
ing Mr. Dowling, the acting head-constable, to ab-
stain from carrying out that portion of the resolu-
tions of the late meeting of the bench, by which he
was ordered to enter those resolutions amongst the
general orders of the police force ; and also for the
purpose of considering the request of the Watch
Committee, to have handed to them a copy of the
depositions taken by the magistrates in the case of
Mr. Parker. Of the propriety of such a meeting
there can be no doubt. The Bench, in their origi-
nal resolutions, had committed an "inadvertency"
—so it is termed—in directing the performance, by
Mr. Dowling, of an illegal act ; and Mr. Rushton
having been guilty of assumption, in volunteering
his individual interference to stay the execution of
such act, took the only course open to him to pro-
cure the sanction to such interference of the collec-
tive body. The necessity of such sanction being
sought for was an admission, on his part, of error in
taking upon himself undue powers, as the fact of his
interference was an acknowledgment of the unad-
vised haste of the proceedings with which he felt
himself compelled to interfere. The application of
the Watch Committee was so much a matter of
course, and so reasonable in itself, that it could
scarcely have been expected to excite discussion.
Under such circumstances, it is painful to find
that a body of gentlemen, such as those composing
the bench of this borough, could not meet on such
an occasion without having to witness the unseemly
explosions of temper which occurred—without wit-
nessing the manifest predisposition of a portion of
their number for a collision with the members of
the Watch Committee, represented there by its
chairman. We are perfectly ready to admit that,
in the explanation of his conduct which Mr. Rush-
ton felt compelled to make, there was much seeming
desire to conciliate, and even to flatter the Watch
Committee upon the tone with which they had met
the views of the justices. But when, in doing so,
he repeated the claim of superior authority over the
police force put forward by the magistrates and re-
pudiated by the committee—when he claimed a
" pre-eminent right " in the magistrates to issue
orders, amounting to !` regulations," directly to the
police force—when, moreover, he imputed to the
-committee, as evidenced in the " skilful drawing"
of their resolutions, a disposition_ to fence with the
question at issue between the t‘Mbodies—he could
not be surprised that the chairman of the Watch
Committee should •feel himself compelled to lay
fully before the meeting the views of that body
with respect to the whole subject under discussion,
and Mr. Rushton's own proceedings in particular.
We challenge any man to point out in Mr. David
Hodgson's remarks a single instance of unnecessary
asperity, in language or manner, which could call
forth from any gentleman, possessed of that equable
temper which should adorn the judicial bench, the
warmth and violent feeling displayed in reply by
Mr. Rushton. Mr. Hodgson had a perfect right
to condemn the interference of that gentleman with
the execution of the orders of the assembled bench.
It was, to all intents and purposes, such en inter-
ference with an officer in the discharge of his duty
as the magistrates had already condemned. It was
a precedent which could not come from any quarter
with impunity, and which, if it had been set, under
any pretence, by Mr. David Hodgson, in his indi-
vidual capacity as a magistrate, would have drawn
down upon him the severest reprehension of Mr.
Rushton himself! Mr. Hodgson had also a right
to state his impressions of the influences under
which Mr. Dowling had acted in obeying Mr.
Rushton's dictates—impressions which, although
not borne out by the examination of the Commis-
sioner of Police before the magistrates, have been
fully borne out, as warranted, by subsequent in-
quiry before the Watch Committee. There was
nothing, we repeat, in Mr. Hodgson's tone and
manner, in laying his opinions before his fellow-
magistrates, which ought to have excited warmth
of feeling, still less unworthy passion and persona-
lities.

We beg to direct the attention of our readers to
the very opposite temper of Mr. Rushton's reply.
We wish we could place before them his infuriated
demeanour. We ask Mr. Rushton himself whether
it was in keeping with the magisterial character to

bully a brother magistrate with threats of personal
chastisement—whether the threat of what he would

have done, as a private individual towards a private
individual in another place, ought in decency to
come from, a man judicially entrusted with the pre-
servati( n of the public peace ? We ask him, fur-
ther, what is the meaning of his passionate inter-
jection addressed.to Mr. Hodgson—" The less you
sit with Mr. Rushton the better, if you please,"
as given by a contemporary of Friday; or, as our
• rep)rter and that of a Saturday's contemporary
have it—" The less you say about Mr. Rushton the
hotter, if you please" ? In either version it is
scandalously improper, unbecoming the place where
uttered, or the party by whom uttered.
Of the subsequent proceedings of the meeting,
and particularly of the indecent manner in which
the attack of Mr. Rushton was seconded by'the
small fry of the Radical faction—the Earles, the
Rathhones, and Boltons, who, although put forth
by the indignant voice of their fellow-townsmen
from all interference in their local concerns, are
still unhappily permitted to perform their antics
upon the magisterial bench—we shall not trust our-
selves to remark. Their convicted imbecility is
their safeguard.
We turn with pleasure from this sad display to
the more calm and dignified proceedings of the
Watch Committee on Saturday; and, first, we shall
briefly glance at the preliminary conversation which
took place with respect to Mr. Parker's case, for the
purpose of correcting an- imputation which we re-
cently brought against Mr. Dowling, of over-offi-
ciousness, and something like truckling to the
magistrates, in that matter. We assumed on that
occasion, as of course we had a right to assume,
that the charge against Mr. Parker of "interference"
with the officers, at the Rose-hill station and at
Allen's house, had come before the magistrates in
the ordinary way, by information from the proper
authority. We were also warranted in this assump-
tion by the expressions used by Mr. Rushton before
the magistrates—" Here is a man " (pointing to
Mr. Commissioner Dowling) " in whom I have
unbounded confidence, who has taken every step
without consulting me "; and again—" If I read
my functions aright, or underkand the law of
England, every man ought to applaud Mr. Dowling."
Certainly a plain-enough intimation this that. the
commissioner had taken some leading part in caus-
ing the whole subject to be brought before the sti-
pendiary !

Now"what are the real circumstances of the case,
as they have transpired 'before the Watch Commit-
tee ? In the first place, it is a remarkable cif cum-
stance that there is not a report in the hooks of the
Rose-hill station-house of any interference of Mr.
Parker with the officers there, or of any other
charge against that gentleman, although those
books record such trifling and minute matters as
the " finding a gate open or a gas-light out."
There was no information of such interference laid
of their own accord by the officers, or by Mr. Dow-
ling, before the magistrates. Finally, as we are
informed by Mr. Hugh Hornby, " a magistrate,
having read the circumstance in a letter inserted in
one of the public prints, asked if anything was
known with regard to it. The stipendiary magis-
trate stated that the information had come to his
knowledge incidentally, and that he had not heard it
front the chief commissioner." And further, " the
magistrates directed the head constable to report."
Plainly, then, Mr. Dowling owes our wrong con-
ception of his conduct in the matter to the fulsome
adulation heaped upon him by Mr. Rushton, by
which the entire onus was strangely—and, we may
add, unfairly, as calculated to injure the commis-
sioner with the Watch Committee—removed from
the shoulders of the former to those of the latter.
If Mr. Hugh Hornby has correctly stated the facts
of the case now, so far as Mr. Dowling's share in it
is concerned, Mr. Rushton mis-stated them before,
The two statements are quite irreconcilable with
each other ; and we leave Mr. Rushton to the task
of explanation. A gentleman so forward in impu-
ting incorrect statements to others, should keep his
own free from th possibility of being doubted.
We pass from this portion of the proceedings,
referring our readers to the manly letter of Mr.
Parker, and the very proper course taken upon it
by the Watch Committee; and now proceed very
briefly to notice the evidence, upon which Mr.
Rushton's charge of falsehood against Mr. David
Hodgson has been rebutted. It is clear from the
whole of this evidence (saving that of Mr. Hugh
Hornby and Mr. Thornhill, the latter of whom was
not present during the whole period of the meetings
of the 20th and 23nd), that Mr. Dowling consi-
dered, and left the impression upon the minds of
those with whom he spoke upon the subject, that
Mr. Rushton's intimation to him of the course to be
pursued in case of his refusing to obey the orders of
the magistrates, was virtually a threat of dismissal.
It is true that, before the board he guarded himself
by saying that " he drew his own inferences," an
expression significant enough; but to Mr. Thomp-
son he distinctly stated, that he regarded the object
of the threatened meeting of the magistrates to he,
" that he might be dismissed." Under these cir-
cumstances we cannot but regret, that before the
assembled bench, the replies of Mr: Dowling were
not more straightforward, and that he should have
appeared more inclined to permit Mr. Rushton to
enjoy a temporary, and after all a pitiful triumph,
than boldly to acknowledge what he considered the
real meaning of the threat held over him.

We have trespassed already so largely upon the
very limited space to-day at our disposal, that we
must waive for the present the consideration of some
matters arising out of these proceedings, of far more
importance to the public, than the proceedings
themselves. We shall return to them.

The report of the proceedings at the last repeal
meeting in the Conciliation-hall supplies us with
materials well worthy of the attention of the magis-
trates of this town, as evidencing the wide spread
of treasonable feeling amongst the Irish portion of
our population. The sum of £lO 15s. was pre-
sented by Mr. M. O'Connell as the weekly contri-
bution of the repealers of Liverpool to the parent
association, when that gentleman took occasion to
state, as an incentive to the people of Dublin, that
whilst that city, the centre of the agitation, contri-
buted only £lO per week, the average amount from
Liverpool was £2O per week. Surely such a fact
should be a lesson to the authorities of our town,
and impress upon them the necessity, whilst so
much anti-English sentiment is silently smoulder-
ing beneath their very feet, to strengthen themselves
by placing around them, as the guardians of their
property and their lives, men of assured loyalty and
tried fidelity to the institutions of their country !
Surely this is not a time for them to turn the cold
shoulder to such men---to make their very loyalty a
disqualification for every office of trust, whilst no
notice is taken of the presence of would-be traitors
in the very force to whose watchfulness and fidelity
are confided the peace of the town and the safe
keeping of the vast masses of property which it
contains. How many of these repealers are mem-
bers of our police force ? -How much of this twenty
pounds per week is either drawn from the funds of
the borough, or from the pockets of those Conser-
vative merchants, who fill their warehouses with
plausible and designing Irish Papists, whilst Pro-
testant Englishmen, natives of their own town,
because not so fawning in manner and- specious in
tongue, may walk our dock quays or our streets,
willing to toil, and yet penniless ? This must be
reformed. The practice is not kindly to our own,
and, moreover, it is not safe !

THE FUNDS : SATURDAY NIGHT. The absence of
business to-day caused a slight depression in the value of
the English securities, and quotations for Consols left off
rather lower than those quoted yesterday, the money
price being 1004 buyers, and for the account 1004 to 101
sellers ; Bank Stock was steady at 287 to 209 ; India
Stock, 287 to 289; Exchequer-bills, 575. to 595. premium;
Three per Cents. Reduced, 994 to 100 ; Three-and-a-
Quarter per Cents., 102.1 to 4; and Long Annuities,
12 1-16. In the foreign house the dealings have been of
the most limited description, but quotations, generally
speaking, exhibit much steadiness. Spanish Five per
Cents. left off 24/ to 4; and Three per Cents., 354 to ;
Russian, 1181 to 1191; Peruvian, 241 to 25/ ; Portuguese,
55 to 56 • Mexican, 36-4. to 4; the Deferred, 164 to ;
Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 62k to 63/ ; the Five
per Cents., the Five per Cents., 99 to 4 ; Danish, 89 to
90; Colombiun, 134 to 14; Chilian,loo to 101 ; Buenos
Ayres, 36 to 37; and Belgian, 101 e to 1024.
CAUTION TO SEAMEN.—Yesterday, at the Police-
court, an American seaman wined INl'Cappin, of the
ship Solons, was charged with smuggling 10Ib. weight of
tobacco. Mr. Brook, of the Customs, conducted the
case, and proved, by several officers, that the article was
found in the prisoner's chest nailed to the side with tacks,
and that the prisoner gave a key which fitted the chest.
The prisoner said he was ignorant of the laws of the
country, and thought he would not be guilty of smuggling,
unless he brought the tobacco on shore, which he had no
intention to do. Mr. Rushton said be was clearly liable,
and adjudged him to pay a fine of £lOO, or be imprisoned,
intimating, however, that the prisoner might memo.
rialize the Lords Commissioners for a mitigation,

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE PROCEEDINGS

OF THE MAGISTRATES

I think that, in the absence of the direct provision of
a place of refuge for those unhappy gentlemen who, though
anxious to display their wisdom in public, have been ig-
nominiously kicked out of the council chamber by their
fellow burgesses, the frequent summoning of the bench
appears capable of being made into a substitute. The
magistrates' room is not certainly so large a place to
figure in as the Town-hall; but a more fitting erection
might easily be provided, and, instead of his worship the
mayor presiding, we might have Mr. Edward Rushton as
" perpetual dictator," with en aristocracy under him,
ranking in authority, according to the number of times
each member had been rejected by his constituents.
These honours (!) might be marked by stripes, or X's
upon their coat collars, or bells upon a pyramidical cap,
which Prince Albert would, perhaps, be willing to design
for their use. William Rathbone, William Earle, and
Thomas Bolton would, from the number of their rejec-
tions rank high amongst the aristocracy. Perhaps the
former, from the number of his honours of the kind, and
his small quantity of coat collar upon which to display
them, might be allowed a kind of belt, or wear an apron
hieroglyphicallyadorned. The new building might be called
" forum, ' in compliment to the classical tastes of Mr.
Rushton ; and the seal of office might bear, 'as motto,
the observation of Bulty Bottom—

" I can roar you as gently a • any sucking Dove."
I think, whatever Mr. Rushton may think, that when
he said to Mr. Dowling, "you are either to obey the or-
ders of the magistrates or not ; if you decline to obey
their orders, the magistrates must be summoned," he
uttered, what most men would interpret into, a threat of
dismissal, unless they could bring themselves to regard
the magistrates, as men who were likely to resemble that
king of France who

. Marched up the hill
With twenty thousand men ,"
and afterwards, nobody but himself knows why,

" Straightway marched down again."
I think Mr. Rushton's expression, " Ring the bell, and
send for Dowling immediately," was scarcely complimen-
tary to tbat gentleman. Mr. Dowling, the stipendiary
might remember, although '• acting as head constable," is
a barrister, and, as such, entitled to be addressed as a
gentleman. I don't know, by the bye, who the prelimi-
nary, " r;ng the bell !" was addressed to, or whether the
mayor, or what other magistrate jumped up to execute
the mandate.

I think when Mr. Rushton asked the " acting head con-
stable" if " he believed that he had any hostile feeling
against him," and the latter authority said " No," both
paities must have forgotten a certain collision which oc-
curred not a hundred years ago in the Police-court, and
was not calculated to leave behind it a conviction that
either of them could rely upon the good feeling towards
him of the other. I think that a gentleman, in whom the
stipendiary expressed such " perfect confidence" on a re-
cent occasion, had little occasion to have held out towards
him a threat of being reported to the magistrates in case
of disobedience to orders.

I think it never was sufficiently explained how Mr.
Dowling is to be whitewashed for not having read to the
police force that part of the proceedings of the magistrates
which reflects upon the character of Mr. Parker. The
matter at present stands thus. A portion of the resolu-
tions of the bench—the concluding order, as to entering
them upon the watch committee's books,—was set aside
by Mr. Rushton's order; another portion, thspreamble,
was omitted reading to the force by the disO%tion exer-
cised by Mr. Dowling. Thus we have three parties con-
tending with the watch committee for authority in matters
relating to the police force • viz. first, the bench of magis-
trates, secondly the stipendiary, and thirdly the " acting
head constable." Which is pre-eminent in authority?
How are we to reconcile their difference of opinion and
superiority in discretion. This puzzles me, and/ think
it will puzzle wiser heads.

On Sunday week the sum of £44 was collected at St.
John Baptist's Church, Toxteth-park, in aid of the
schools attached to that church, after sermons by the
Rev. T. Nolan and the Rev. W. W. Ewbank.
SAILORS' HOME.—It will be seen from an advertise-
ment that subscription books lie at the usual places. We
trust every friend of such an excellent object will, as early
as possible, afford his aid to it.

The 49th Regiment, from Winchester, will succeed the
6th at Chester and Liverpool.
On Thursday night, the office of a merchant in Goree
Piazzas was broken open, and bills and notes to the value
of £BOO, together with some silver spoons and other plate
were stolen.

The dinner to Sir Henry Pottinger wal take place on
Tuesday, the 17th instant. Several distinguished charac-
ters have already accepted invitations, and there is no
doubt that this will be one of the most splendid enter-
tainments ever given in the Town-hall.

GunNo.—The arrivals of African are numerous, both
here and at the outports. The demand is exceedingly
limited, at £5 10s. on the spot ; at somet:ling under this
rate there are large buyers. For forward delivery there
is rather more inquiry, but very little business doing.
Peruvian is without change.
ARMY MOVEM EN TS.—The following removals of troops
are ordered to take place :—The 56th Foot from Ireland
to England, the depot of the 14th Foot from Ireland to
England, and the 67th Foot from England to Ireland.
The 72d Foot embarked at Cork for Gibraltar, on the
27th ult. •

SIR HENRY POTTINGER.—The gallant General, with
his aide-camp, Captain Fane, paid a visit to Chester Gar-
rison on Friday last. The veteran hero was received with
military honours by the Royal Artillery and the 6th Regi-
ment of Foot. Sir Henry left for Newton, near Chester,
the residence of Major-General Sir W. Warre, whose
guest the gallant officer was.

On Saturday last an inquest was held before the borough
coroner on the body of Mrs. Standing, of Devonshire-
place, Everton. The deceased was in her usual good
health on Wednesday night, and on the following morning
was found dead in bed. A post mortem examination of
the body was made by Mr. Jonathan Greenwood, surgeon,
Kirkdale, who found the cause of death to be enlargement
and ossification of the heart.

HAND BOOK OF BIRKENHEAD.—We last week paid a
well-deserved compliment to the typographical plan of
the Lancashire and Cheshire Railways, kindly lent us by
the proprietors of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD. Since
then our attention has been called to a pamphlet with the
above title, to which is prefixed a "plan," issued with
the same newspaper, and composed entirely of moveable
types. It is more than double the size of last week's
plan, and executed with equal care and clearness. It is
certainly a great curiosity.—Railway Record.

On Sunday last, the largest and most respectable fune-
tal that has yet visited St. Mary's Cemetery, Kirkdale,
followed the remains of Mr. Joseph Onions, late foreman
to Messrs. Wilson, iron ship-builders of this town. He
was universally esteemed by all who knew him ; he was
beloved and respected by the men who worked under him,
for his kindness and humanity, which was plainly proved
on Sunday, by between 400 and 500 men of various cal-
lings in the iron and foundry business paying the last re-
spect in their power to his remains.
DEMAND FOR WAGES.—On Friday, at the Police-
court, Captain Treadfoot, of the ship Sir John Beresford,
appeared to answer the summons of Peter M`Lellan, one
of his crew for refusing to pay him £9, alleged to be due
for wages. The captain showed that during the voyage
the claimant had not only shown ignorance of seamanship,
but had disobeyed orders, and had, in conjunction with
the mate, been insolent and insubordinate, putting him
(the captain) on one occasion in fear of his life. Mr.
Rushton reduced his claim by ss. per month, anal said he
should also proportionately reduce the wages of the mate.

POST-OFFICE ROBBERY.—Some ingenious thief has
managed to commit a robbery upon the Ely post-office.
A packet, containing £350 in country notes, was posted,
it appears, at March, in Cambridgeshire, some time since,
and addressed to a banking-house in London, the postage
having been duly paid as upon an ordinary letter. The
packet was missed from the office previously to the making
up of the hag, and was not heard of for five days after-
wards, when, strange to say, £290 reached the house in
London ; the thief having only taken £6O in Bank of
England notes.
THE QUEEN v. MURPHY.—The Irish judges decided
on Thursday, by a large majority, that the conviction of
Mr. Henry Murphy, the attorney, at the last commission,
for wilfully destroying documents relating to a cause in
Chancery, of which he had the conduct for a Captain
Richardson, was wrong, inasmuch as the document proved
to have been destroyed by the defendant was merely a re-
ceipt for rent—an exhibit proved at the hearing of the
cause, and that it was not such " an original document"
as was contemplated by the legislature when passing the
9th George IV., c. 55, under the 21st section of which
the prisoner was indicted. The result, of courst., will be
the discharge of Mr. Murphy.

PROPOSED NEW CANAL.—It is now pretty generally
understood that a canal is about to be cut from Sankey
to Warrington, in order to connect the Sankey canal with
the river Mersey, the point of junction being near the
Warrington Bridge. By this arrangement vessels from
Liverpool will tie able to come up to the town at all tides,
which they are now unable to do, by entering the canal
at Runcorn Gap. It will also directly connect St. Helens
and the coal district with Warrington and Manchester.
The necessary surveys have been completed some time,
and the plan proposed has, it is said, been sanctioned by
moat of the landowners on its line of progress.— Chester
Courant of to-day.
CHESHIRE WINTER ASSIZES.—The Commission was
opened yesterday (Monday) at Chester Castle, before Mr.
Baron Gurney. We hear that Mr. Jervis, Q.C. is specially
retained to defend Mr. Winterbottom ; and that Mr. C.
Wilkins, of the Northern Circuit, will appear for Mr.
Port, the Cancer Doctor." At half-past two yesterday,
the High Sheriff, Geo;Wilbraham, Esq., proceeded from
the Royal Hotel, with his carriage and the usual retinue
of officers and javelin men on horseback, to meet the
learned judge, Sir John Gurney, who arrived from London
by the Grand Junction Railway Company. The elm-
mission was then opened with the accustomed formalities ;
and the business of the assizes will commence this
morning.

SINGULAR OCCURRENCE.—About a fortnight ago one
of the dogs, named Libertine, belonging to the Lanark-
shire fox-hounds, disappeared when hunting at Jervieston,
and notwithstanding every search, was not discovered
until 11 days afterwards, when the pack were in the same
locality, and some of the dogs stopped suddenly at the
mouth of a coal waste, and would not leave it. The
huntsman, in looking down the pit, discovered a dog
which he supposed to be Libertine; and having got ropes
and sent down a man, the missing dog was brought up so
little the worse for having dropped down twenty fathoms,
or 120 feet, and been starved for eleven days, that he was
able, after geting some warm milk, to walk to the kennel,
and he is again in good bunting trim.

KIRKDALE CHURCH.—The following collections were
made after the sermons preached on the occasion of re-
opening this church :—On Thursday evening, after a
sermon by the Rev. Hugh Stowell, £l9 Os. 101 d. On
Sunday morning, afer a sermon by the Rev. D. James,
incumbent, £43 10s. 61d. ; and on Sunday evening, after
a sermon by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, £37 12s. Id.,
making a total of £lOO 3s. 6d.
LIVERPOOL, ORMSKIRK, AND PRESTON RAILWAY.—
Of the many railway schemes now in progress, and in
embryo, there are few that have stronger claims on tho
attention of the public, more particularly of the inhabi-
tants of Liverpool, than this line, forming as it will the
most direct communication between Liverpool, Preston,
the North of England, and Scotland. We have, there-
fore, learned with pleasure that the arrangements for car-
rying the bill through Parliament are proceeding with
every prospect of success, the requisite plans and docu-
ments having been lodged within the prescribed period.
MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.—At the monthly meeting
of the Town Council, to-morrow, the proceedings of the
Finance Committee will comprise a recommendation for
the purcbase of Mr. Logan's premises in Oldball-street,
and a recommendation for the sale of the reversion of a
piece of land, in Upper Islington, for the erection of an
Irish Presbyterian chapel. The Mayor's communica-
tions amongst other things will comprise a letter from
Mr. Alderman Horsfall, resigning his seat as a member
of the Dock Counilittee ; and a memorial of the Directors
of the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, praying for a
grant in aid of that institution.
THE CANADIAN REBELS.—The American line of
packet Switzerland, which left the St. Katharine's Docks
on Friday afternoon, for New York, had on board, in ad-
dition to a full cargo of British manufactured goods, a
large number of cabin 'and steerage passengers, among
which latter were upwards of 30 persons who were con-
cerned in the riots in Canada about four years ago, and
were in consequence taken prisoners by the British au-
thorities and transported to New South Wales. 'I hey
have recently received an amnesty for the offence in con-
sideration of having undergone a portion of their sentence,
and having arrived a few days since from Sydney in a ves-
sel lying in the London Docks, are now on their way back
again to their native country.

SERIOUS EXPLOSION AT ROCK FERRY.—At an early
hour on Friday morning, an alarming explosion of gun-
powder took place in Limekiln-lane, Rock Ferry, on the
premises of Mr. Carrington, customhouse broker. Mr.
C. had a son who had returned from sea as mate of the
ship Fairfield. which arrived in the river from Ichaboe on
Thursday. The magazine boat, not having, as is custo-
mary, gone alongside to remove the gunpowder on board
that depository, the powder, consisting of one barrel, and
paper, containing in all about 321 b. of the combustible,
was deposited in an outhouse, as the ship could not go
into dock with any powder on board. The immediate
cause of the explosion is not precisely known, but it is
stated that a younger son found his way into the place,
and was handling the paper when the explosion took
place, and narrowly escaped with his life. The outhouse
was levelled with the ground, and the windows of the ad-
joining house destroyed. The boy and a servant girl were
severely but not dangerously injured.

THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGA-
TION COMPANY.—The proprietors of this company held
their annual meeting in London on Friday last. The
report noticed the contract made with the Govercment
for the extension of the mail service to and from India.
The financial arrangements for carrying the object out
have been made by the directors, and the proprietors have
paid the first instalment of £5 per share on the 4,000
new shares of £5O each. The directors have entered
into contracts for four new ships of 1,300 tons each, and
one vessel of 700 tons, to be ready for sea next year. It
is expected that the new monthly line of communication
to Calcutta, Madras, and Ceylon will commence in Janu-
ary next, and the communication to China will be opened
as soon as the new ships can.be placed on the line. The
company have at length purchased the Precursor steam-
ship for £45,000, and £5,000 contingent upon a mail con-
tract being obtained. Her original cost was about
£BO,OOO. An additional sum of £B,OOO has been ex.
pended in increasing the accommodation of the vessel.
Some arguments were used at the meeting in favour of a
railway from Alexandria to Suez, but the chairman (Sir
J. Campbell) explained that the company was chartered
for the purposes of navigation only, and could take no steps
in the improvement of the passage across the isthmus.
The profits of the last year (ending 30th September)
were stated to be £140,042 which, with the undivided
profits of the preceeding year, makes a total of £199,897.
The usual dividend of 31 per cent, was declared for the
six months ending Ist October, and the undivided profits
after deducting this and the April dividend, were stated
at £72,020. To reduce the insurance the investment of
£lO,OOO was voted towards the formation of an insurance
fund.

On Sunday last, according to announcement, his
Worship the Mayor, accompanied by several members of
the Council and a large number of influential gentlemen,
attended divine service at St. Barnabas' Church, Parlia-
ment-street, where a sermon was preached by the
Rev Thomas Nolan, in aid of the Southern and
Toxteth Hospital. Among the gentlemen present we
noticed the following—viz., W. Shuttleworth, Esq., Town
Clerk ; P. Wright, Esq., Clerk of the Peace ; Aldermen
Chilton, Houghton, Griffith ; J. N. Wood, It. Rigby,
T. Royden, G. G. Hornby, J. Aiken, R. L. Jones,
J. B. Yates, J. Platt, Duncan Gibb, J. Wilkinson, Dr.
Dickinson, T. Robinson, T. Rimmer, J. Rimmer, A.
Browne, S. Martin, J. Ingram, D. Clarke, G. Barnsley,
A. Robertson, E. Whitelegg, J. Cooper, Kendall,
Jobn Lawrence, W. Wagstaff, T. Wagstaff, Richards,
&c., &c. At half-past ten the procession left the Town-
hall, preceded by the officials of the Corporation, the
Revds. T. Nolan and C. A. Graham walking with the
Mayor. Upon arrival at the church, the Mayor, Town
Clerk, and Clerk of the Peace, were shown into a pew
very handsomely fitted up for the occasion, over the
entrance of which was erected a neat arch, with a beau-
tiful carved Liver on the top, for the purpose of holding
the civic regalia. The remainder of the gentlemen were
accommodated with seats adjoining the Mayor. After
the prayers had been read, in a most impressive manner,
by the Rev. C. A. Graham, the Rev. T. Nolan ascended
the pulpit, and took for his text the 13th and 14th verses
of the 9th chapter of St. Matthew—" Tbey that be whole
need not a physician, but they that be sick," &c. The
subject was discussed in the most eloquent, touching, and
energetic manner, well calculated to make a lasting im-
pression upon those who were privileged to hear it. We
cannot refrain from expressing our delight at the manner
in which the service was conducted throughout, and par-
ticularly the musical portion of it which, we understand,
was performed by the choir belonging to the church. At
the conclusion of the service the handsome sum of £62
was collected.

IRISH SOCIETY.—SPLENDID DONATION.—The ad-
vocates of this institution made out so satisfactory a case
last week in this town, that the society is likely to derive
very substantial benefits from it. The Rev. Hugh
M`Neile presented, in an intelligible shape, the masses of
the Irish people, for whose especial benefit the society
was formed. He described them as consisting of three
classes. First, such as are altogether ignorant of the
English language; secondly, such as are acquainted with
a few common-place phrases in English, but unable to
read, or understand the reading of an English book ;
and, thirdly, such as are so far acquainted with the English
language as to be able to read it a little, and to carry on
their traffic with the neighbouring market town by means
of it ; but who still think in Irish, and converse with one
another in Irish, and are wholly incapable of receiving
any moral or religious instruction, except through the
medium of the Irish language. The first class he esti-
mated, from some documentary evidence, at above
600,000 ; the second and third classes at about 2,000,000.
For the instruction of this large body, impervious as it is
by the English language, nothing has been done, except
by the Irish soceity. All the public money voted for
education in Ireland has been expended through the
medium of the English language. Thus nearly three
millions of our fellow-subjects have been left uncultivated.
After discussing the higher branches of the subject con-
nected with the salvation of the immortal souls of these
people ; after showing and urging the duty of giving
them, and teaching them to read, the Holy Scriptures in
their own language; and after answering, in a concise but
convincing manner, the objections commonly urged
against the perpetuating of a barbarous tongue, Mr.
M`Neile truly said that the people in question, being so
numerous and so neglected, could not fail to become
dangerous, giving physical weight to the will, however
arbitrary, of the priesthood—to the agitation, however
pernicious, of the demagogue.—We advert to this now
because we are requested by Mr. M‘Neile to state that,
as a fruit of the case so made out, he has received for the
society, from a gentleman who desires, in very decided
terms, that his name may not be mentioned, a donation
of ONE THOUSAND POUNDS.

CHARGES OF PASSING BASE COIN, &C. —At the
Police-court, yesterday, a man named Peter Bower, and
a boy named John Hampson, were charged—the former
with having in his possession implements used for coin-
ing, and the latter for uttering base sixpences. Mrs.
Francis, publican, Milk-street, Tithebarn-street, said
that on the 26th of last month the jounger prisoner came
to her house, and gave her, in payment for a glass, a six-
pence, which, after giving him the change, she put into
a drawer in which were no other sixpences. After he
had gone she discovered that it was a bad one, and re-
solved to observe him if he came again. On Saturday
last he went to the house, and offered another bad six-
pence,. when he was given into custody. On being
searched, there was found in his pocket a letter addressed
to himself at a house in Enerdale-street, and thither the
Inspector went, in expectation of finding some further
evidence in the case. The house was tenanted by the
elder prisoner, and be found in it, up the chimney, a
mould for making sixpences, a small quantity of plaster
of Paris drying in the oven, a peculiar knife, a file, some
lead amongst the ashes, &c. Bower's wife and family
lived with him in the house, and he was a mat-maker.
The younger prisoner said he had received the sixpence
from a young man, named Jones, who lodged there with
him, and from whom he had borrowed it—he having
always plenty of money. The elder prisoner said he cer-
tainly kept the house, but knew nothing of coining. The
other prisoner and Jones (alluded to). lodged there, and
always paid. He made mats for a and went out
part of the day selling them, Both prisoners were re-
manded.—A man named M‘Leary was next charged with
uttering two base shillings. Mary Ann Moran, publican,
in Wapping, said that some days ago the prisoner came
in and tendered her a bad shilling, which she detected,
and told him of it. He said that it was not bad to his
knowledge, adding that if she would give it back to him,
he would go and get a good one for it. She was persuaded
by him to return it. On Sunday night last he came
again, with another man, and '
gave in payment another
bad shilling, which she immediately noticed, and bent it.
The prisoner veryimpertinently asked her to return it,
but she refused, and detained him. The other man made
off; prisoner attempted to escape, but was secured. He
was fully identified, and was committed for trial.

Dec. 3, 1844.

A BIT OF MERCURIAL BATHOS.

Our contemporary of Lord-street certainly gets more
amusing in her dotage. In a leading article—or, moo
properly, a leaden article—on Friday, she informs US °,
the following striking fact, with respect to the recent
presidential election in the United States. Mr. Polk, it
seems; is a free trader, and, withal, an advocate for the
annexation of Texas, the seizure of the Oregon territorf!
and other fire-eating projects of Brother Jonathan. OF
good old lady, however, maintains that Mr. Polk is likely
to put aside his free trade, or anti-tariff leanings, and.
base his policy upon the encouragements of the fire-eanag
projects in question. "If this should prove true, red
marks the Mercury, and if the democratic party shoo'
leave the tariff untouched, we shall have gained" (.7)"bl
the election of Mr. Polk, simply the imminent probabilirt
of a rupture with America instead of that realization 91
free trade and its glorious consequences which our en;
vent townsman, Mr. William Brown, so ably advocate
in his letters to Mr. Wilson Patten, and so •forciblY e
d:
scribed in his speech at the Rochdale meeting of the
Corn-Law League." Stupendous !! What a pity it 13
that we could not bring our dullness sufficiently to aPP,re'
ciate the ability si
of Mr. William Brown's " Letters to JY'F'
Wilson Patten," or his " forcible description" in -
speech at the Rochdale meeting of the Anti-Corn-Lan
League." When poor John Bull shall become the
fortunate victim of " a ruptur3 with America," we ebie
have to write over his grave, died of a non-perusal of !be
Letters of our eminent townsman, Mr. William Brown'
and his speech at the Rochdalemeeting of
the Anti-Co
Law League ! ol'