The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-21 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

tend that if plun3er is to be the order of the day, the fair
lands,'.not obtained vecy fairly,"of -.Wobarn,,Tavistock,
and Ponvent :Oarden should be subjected to the first
ordeal of division and spoliation. We quite agree with
the people. Give us the abbey, monastic, and convent
lands, and the poor rates would be reduced fifty per cent.
—a consummation most devoutly to be wished. Give
back. to the poor the property lavished upon panders,
quaaks, services, and loose persons—give us back the
dishonestly acquired lands of the Whig nobilityand gentry
—give 113 back the corn fields of the monks, the tithings
of the abeyant priests—the broad acres of the souls in
purgatory--the le acies of the pious devised to profligates.
—the.charities litncled by the orthodox and now appro-
priated to-infidel purposes—give us back from the-grasp
of rapacity, dishonesty, and profanation all that we have
a right to claim, and all that justice would award, .and
there would be little to seek at the hands of the overseer
and churchwarden.

We ask in vain. We knock fruitlessly at the door of
justice, No redress is to be obtained, in the whig su-
preme court. Nothing will be yielded by the patriots
who hold the largest share of the stolen or mal•appropri-
ated property to the poor of England. No; if that were
surrendered we should then have an' wholesome revolu--
lution. But, as we cannot compel them to make restitu-
tion, we mast do our best to prevent them from doing
further mischief, by stopping their career of meditated
•and avowed spoliation. The formation of the new.
cabinet has unavoidably given the people a right of
interference with O'CoNt,TELL'a ministerial subalterns.
There 'are near a score of them who must, before they can
re-enter parliament, run the gauntlet of a popular elec.
tion. Lord PALmEnsTow, it is true, (lucky chance for
him,) is to be saved the scandal of a second defeat by
being hayforked up into the lords. 'Mr. CHARLES
GRANT is to be spared and elevated in the same manner.
But in Manchester, Devonshire, Penryn, Cambridge,
Edintiurg,h, Leith, Stirling, Northumberland, and many
other places, contests must take place, and there the first
battle must be fought.
We Wait the-result with some interest.

The new minister for the Home Department, Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, has addressed himself to the electors of
South Devonshire, and in that important county, before
many days, the question will be tried, namely, Is THE
Cuunell OF ENGLAND TO STAND on FALL

It will be observed by those who take the trouble to
read the document, that Lord JoHN particularly, if not
exclusively, addresses himself to the dissenters. He
does not condescend to acknowledge that there are any
other class of christians in that portion of the country
who are entitled to his respect. His promises to the
dissenters are large and liberal. He is to give a charter
to the joint-stock school called the London University.
He is to amend the bill brought in by Sir ROBERT PEEL,
in reference to dissenters' marriages.' He is to remove
all the "well-founded grievances" of the dissenters ; and
he is to establish a "civil register of births and deaths"
for the benefit of the dissenters.

All this civility-and fawning towards one portion of the
King's subjects has a meaning; but what erect it will
hav-e upon the constituency of Devonshire remains to be
seen. What interest they take in a London school, ma=
naged by jobbing unitarians, we cannot conjecture_; but
we mistake much if they do not, at this crisis, look to mat-
ters nearer home, and to that church to which the majo-
rity of them are affectionately attached, and which is now,
by Lord JOHN RUSSELL and certain popish conspirators,
threatened with destruction. On this subject we have
reason to know that the inhabitants of the county of De-
vOn feel keenly. They manfully opposed the popish bill
of 1829 ; Mr. BASTARD•was retnrned by the electors on
pure protestant principles; Lord EBRINGTON was de-
feated by the same parties on the same grounds ; Sir
THOMAS ACLAND lost his influence because he was
known to be favourable to
.the popish claims; and we
deceive ourselves greatly if that old spirit be not revived
on the present occasion and made to bear most powerfully
against the pretensions of Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
At any rate the noble lord has plainly avowed his
principles and his intentions. The appropriation clause
bf the House' of- Commons-440 .be .4:14 rried effect

by the new administration. The revenues of the.pro-
testant church in Ireland, are to be taken from the church
and expended in the education of the Roman catholics.
The first step in the march of spoliation is to be made in
Ireland. The principle of church robbery is defended
for the first time by a minister of the crown—by a ser-
vant of that gracious prince who has sworn to maintain
inviolate the protestant church as established by law in
these realms. The son of the good king, GEORGE 111.,
has been compelled, by a most unnatural alliance, to re-
ceive as his advisers a set of men who assert the right
to appropriate the revenues of the church in any way
they please, thereby condemning the principles of our
holy religion, and saying to the spirit of protestantism,
THUS FAR •SHALT THOU GO AND NO FARTHER

The object of the minister is to restore the Romish
religion in Ireland, and extirpate that which was esta-
blished at the reformation. Lord JOHN RUSSELL says
that where there is no protestant congregation there
should be no church and no endowed pastor. The mean-

ing of this is—there shall for the future be no pro-1
testants in that particular place. The very name of our
religion is to be blotted out. The ensigns of our church
are to be torn down; the emblems of our faith obliterated;
the records of our protestant fathers destroyed, and the
house of prayer converted into a gin-palace, a mass...
house for mummery, or a den for thieves. This is the
meaning of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S appropriation clause,
It is in effect a sweeping and unhallowed PROSCRIPTION
of the protestant religion in Ireland. What right has
Lord Jowl, or any other man, to assume, that because
There are at present but a few protestants in a particula
district, there never will be any increase of their number'?
He not only passes judgment on the existing generation,
but be also dives into futurity, and condemns the unborn,

preventing those who may live hereafter from partici-
pating in the blessings of our reformed religion. The
Church was established for all generations.. It was
founded for the worship of those who now live, or may
live after we of the present day are in our graves. The
appropriation clause, however, robs those who have not
yet come into the. world. It deprives our children, and
our children's children, of their rightful inheritance, and
it gives popery a power and a cradling place whiCh it
had not before.
We `. have said that Lord JOHN RUSSELL restricts the
'operation of his spoliation experiment to Ireland. 'Why
to Ireland ? Simply because any scheme of fraud prac-
tised against her is less loudly condemned than it would
be if committed in England. But the minister's princi-
ple is as applicable to England as it is to Ireland---to
Devon as to Down. The clergy and the. electors of De-
vonshire must think of this. The children of unitarians,
independents, anabaptists, and other sectarians in De-
vonshire, are as much entitled to be educated at the ex-
pense of the church of England as the children of Roman
Catholics and similar dissenters are in Ireland. It Would

not be robbery more in the one case than the otherii And
to this it will come, from one end of England to, the
other, and from one end of Scotland to the other like-
wise, if Lord JOIPT RUSSELL'S administration (for it is
absurd to call it Lord MELBOURNE'S) are suffered to re-
main many months in office.
We throw out these hints as hard nuts for the elector's
of Devonshire to crack at their leisure. If they return
Lord JOHN RUSSELL they will strike a blow at the church
of England, the-effects of which will be felt when perhaps
they bitterly regret it. We say the same to the electors
of Cambridge. If they support the plundering principle
in the person of Mr. SPRING RICE, they will commit foul
murder on themselves. The universities cannot survive
the downfall of the church. The revenues of the col-
leges would be a rich bone for some future poodle of the
house of Bedford. Once rob the university and 'what
would become of the town of Cambridge? The ruined
tailor would be in its gaol ; the broken down cobbler in
his last shoes; the once jolly landlord would be a lean
man, living upon the parish and his recollections ; in
short it would be a town with empty shops and uninha-
bited houses. If the electors, therefore, have any pot-