The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-13 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

enactment i❑ the present session, with a view to some
effective supervision of steam-boats.
After a few words from Mr. Aikin, Mr. G. H. Law-
rence, and Mr. Elarbord, the communications were re-
ferred to the Finance Committee; so also were the Co-
roner's accounts, amounting to £66 10s. 6d.
Mr. BIRKETT then submitted the following motion, of
which he had given notice :—" That the council summons
shall contain, under the head of the Mayor's communi-
cations, all communications that have been received by
the Mayor previous to the summonses being sent out, and
which are intended to be brought by him before the coun-
cil ; and that no communication subsequently receive'', by
the Mayor shall be submitted to the council, unless it
has been placed on a notice paper to be laid on the coun-
cil table not later than half-past ten o'clock of the morn-
ing of the meeting, and then only for the purpos,,, of being
referred to the proper committee.
The motion not having been seconded fell to the ground,
and the council adjourned at ten minutes to four o'clock.

DOCK AND TOWN DUES.

Mr. Turner, on behalf of his house, has addressed the
following important letter to the Finance Committee of
the Town Council :

(COPY.)
TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.

Sia,—The Council having decided that, as respects the
payment of town dues, all packages in wood or canvas
measuring above eight feet, and weighing more than two
hundred weight, shall be considered cases or bales, and
charged with duty accordingly, I beg on behalf of the house
of Sands, Turner, and Co., in which I am a partner, and
of whose business I have the principal management, to
enter my protest against this decision as altogether arbi.
trary,—not supported by custom,--contrary to the prac-
tice of the Town Dues office hither o, and at variance with
instructions which have been repeatedly given by the re-
ceiver of the town dues to exporters for their guidance,
and therefore incapable of being enforced at law. In the
evidence given by Mr. Corrie, the receiver of the town
dues, before a special committee of the Council, appointed
in November last, he stated :
That his attention was called to the subject during the
litigation with Bolton, Ogden, and Co., which terminated
20th June, 1843.
That he spoke to Mr. Blake (the clerk of Sands and Co.)
on the 30th June, 1834, and that the subject was again
mooted by him on the 22d July, 1831, and a few days af-
terwards carried as far as he could carry it.
_ _ _

That the matter was afterwards mentioned to the Town-
dues Committee; he does not recollect the date, but be
says that Sir Thos. Brancker, " who was a member of
the Town-dues Committee at the time, recollects the cir-
cumstance, and will confirm my statement of the result ;"
and Mr. Corrie adds, " With that result I was sickened."
Mr. Come, your own receiver, was then asked : •
Can you dfine the difference between bales and trusses,
and boxes and cases ?—No.

Is there any person in your office who can give a decisive
definition ?—No.

Is there any authurity to which you can appeal for a de-
finition ?—None.

Slave you appealed to the Town clerk in other instances
beside that of Sands and Co. ?—I have spoken to him on
the subject, but the difficulty of defining the difference be-
tween packages has prevented any further proceeding.
Mr. Corrie further stated in his evidence.
" That he had never remonstrated with Sands and Co.
since 1834, having been then set at defiance.
" That he made a complaint against Mongredien and
Co., to the Town-clerk, but it was not proceeded with.
" That he had told Mr. Ripley's clerk that he might
enter packages of 400 lbs. weight as trusses.
" That he had told Messrs. Brownrigg, Stevens, and
Co.'s clerk that he would be doing right if he entered
goods according as they were advised to the firm (it being
quite notorious, I must add, that all wooden packages com-
ing from Belfast or Glasgow are called boxes, whatever
their size or weight may be.)
Mr. Corrie further stated,

" That he had, in company with Mr. Bridge, (the then
Inspector for the Town-dues office) visited the warehouse
of Messrs. Moon and Co., for the purpose of inspecting
some packages (which they were in the habit of shipping
as trusses), which he (the receiver) considered questiona-
ble, and being asked what was the size of the questionable
packages, he stated about twenty-seven cubic feet ; and
being further asked under what denomination these ques-
tionable packages were passed for town dues at his of-
fice, he stated that they were always passed as trusses.
It is thus well known from the evidence of the receiver,
as well as from other sources, that the subject was consi-
dered by the Town-dues Committee so far back as 1834,
and that their attention was at that time specially called
to the circumstance that several of the merchants con-
ceived that the Town-Council could not legally enforce
the payment upon the export of dry goods packed in wood
or canvas, of any higher duty than the box and truss rate,
and that some of the largest exporters had been and were
continuing to act upon that impression. No legal steps
were, however, taken at that time, nor have they subse-
quently been attempted ; thus, in effect, surrendering all
question of legal right by an admitted acquiescence in and
acceptance of the lower rate of duty for the last ten years
at least.
The Council however, now determine that they will
levy hereafter the higher rate of duty upon all packages
henuenads urir
ed n above euipgohnt feew ht,
at agnd rouwnedisghitinisgdmiffiocreultthtaonctowno.
jecture, after the evidence of the receiver, and we have
reason to believe that none of the mercantile asoociations
who were applied to by a sub-committee appointed on the
subject, could, or at least did, give any definition what-
ever, whilst several of them expressly declared that no sa-
tisfactory definition could be given of the difference between
cases and boxes, or bales and trusses.
Although, therefore, considering the small amount of
any payment I can have to make, I do not think the point
worth contesting in a court of law, and it is my intention
to adopt the definition that hem been deoidod upon by the
Council, I think it due to myself and my house to say,
that 1 cannot admit its correctness.—l am, sir, with much
respect, your obedient, humble servant,
Liverpool, Ist February, 1844.

CHARLES TURNER.

THE REFORMATION SOCIETY.

Oa Tuesday evening, a meeting of the British Society
for promoting the Religious Principles of the Reforma-
tion was held in the Music-hall, Bold-street. George
Finch, Esq., late M.P. for Stamford, and the Rev. John
Cumming, Secretary for Scotland, attended as a deputa-
tion from the parent society. Every part of the spacious
building was crowded with respectable auditors.

The Rev. H. M.NEILE was unanimously called to the
chair.

Prayer having then been offered up by the Rev F.
Parry,
Th‘i Rev. CHAIRMAN proceeded to explain the princi-
ples and objects of the society in behalf of which they
were assembled. The work, he said, is, the defence and
diffusion—defence against the hostile, and diffusion among
the ignorant—of the religious principles of the Protestant
Reformation. It is not willingly, as a matter of abstract
preference for its own sake, that we are engaged in the
contention inseparable from this work. Peace and ease
are objects of attraction to us as to other men, and if we
had no objects of more powerful attraction because of
more paramount importance, we would rest in peace and
ease. The real cause of our conduct is this, we believe
our Bibles ; and so long as the Bible remains the final and
sufficient standard of Christian truth and Christian duty,
it must continue to be a Christian duty earnestly to con-
tend for the integrity of Christian truth. (Hear.) We
are fully aware of the repugnance, the seemingly amiable,
and charitable, and kind repugnance, to all contention
which we have to meet. We are aware of the prima"
facie advantage which the advocates of peace and har-
mony possess with the public. We are aware of the skill
with which that advantage has been worked. At this time,
and in this country, the policy of Rome is apparent peace,
and consequently her practice is denial of all that would
justify contention. The principles we impute to her are
denied, although announced in the very words of her own
publicly authorised, accredited, and unrescinded formu-
laries. (Hear, bear.) The practices we impute to her
are denied, although transcribed from the pages of authen-
tic history. We know with what consummate talent, and
with what encouraging success, this game was played by
the late learned prelate Dr. Baines, Bishop of Siga, where-
ever that see is situate—(laughter)—and factor for Rome,
at Prior-park, in the city of Bath, and throughout the
southwestern counties of England. We know how, at
the opening of new Roman Catholic chapels, built in a
great measure by contributions from deceived Protestants
—(hear, hear)—and among the rest at the opening of St.
Anthony's, in this town. he managed, under the profes-
sion of expounding the Roman faith, to gloss over, mys-
tify, or deny all the peculiar and distinctive principles of
Romanism—(hear, hear)—so that Protestant gentlemen,
attracted there by curiosity, returned thence quite charmed
with the meekness, urbanity, and winning gentleness of '
the good bishop. We know that similar success is now
attending similar practices, as carried on by Dr. Wise-
man the bishop of Melipotamus, another outlandish see,
—(laughter)—who is doing Rome's work in the midland
counties of England. Full well we know that the denials
of these gentlemen are palatable, because they plead for
peace, and that our associations are unpalatable ,because
they invite to contention. We perceive also, that what is
called, though most improperly, the liberal section of our
population, however widely they may differ from Roman-
ists in anything else, agree with them cordially in their
opposition to the gospel and to us. (Hear.) And as the
Romanists accuse us of obloquy, so these accuse us of
bigotry and uncharitableness. On this side also our op-
ponents seem to plead for peace, while again upon us is
thrown, with skill and effect, the appearance of wilful
contention. (Hear and cheers.) We are not ignorant of,
or insensible to, the many disadvantages of our position.
It is with our eyes open, having counted the cost, and
seriously considered the alternative, that we have occu-
pied, and continue to maintain it. The cost is loss of
reputation for judgement and discretion and moderation
among men whose good opinion we enjoy in other respects,
and value in every respect ; the alternative is, as we firmly
believe, unfaithfulness towards God. Therefore we can-
not hesitate. We believe it is better, far better, for men
to disagree about truth, than to agree in falsehood ; bet-
ter, far better, to disagree about religion and holiness,
than to agree in irreligion and sin. (Much applause.)
As to mis-statements, unfounded calumnies, and all such
charges so freely inculcated against us, our simple answer
is, we do not make any. It is easy to assert without
proof, and a press which boasts its liberty and high prin-
ciple takes the liberty of asserting roundly, not only with-
out proof, but in direct opposition to counter-proof,
which counter-proof is wilfully suppressed by the same
free press. (Hear, hear.) Amongst all the charges of
maligning the Church of Rome, advanced and reiterated
by a large portion of the press of this town, against your
present Chairman, not one instance has been specified ;
and h y ' Simply because not ohe instance has occurred.

(Hear and cheers.) If such an instance ha l occurred it
would have been specified long since. I itiv.te it now. I
invite one and all of them to specify the instance if they
can, of any charge falsely advanced against the Chirch
of Rome. A.bu,e in general terms i, easy, so easy to write,
that it is very easy to bear. (Laughter.) Let them lay
it aside, and specify a❑ instance. (Hear.) If the thing
has occurred so often as to ju.tify this charge, there can
be no difficulty in pointing out some one time and place
and assertion. Watch now and see what they will do.
(Laughter and cheering.) See whether any one of them
will meet this as a man with truth on his side would and
could easily meet it. I fully anticipate that our friends
who have come among us, and from whose statements I
will no longer delay you, will meet with the same descrip-
tion of treatment that I have met with. (Laughter.) I
believe they are quite used to it: and I have no doubt
they will thrive under it quite as well as I have
done. (Much laughter and cheers.) The reverend gen-
tleman concluded by calling upon George Finch, Esq., to
address the meeting.

—Mr. FINCH said he conceived they ought to esteem the
obloquy to which they had been exposed a high privilege.
They were only in that respect partakers with our Lord
and his Apostles. In the days of Nero, the Christians
were accused of setting fire to Rome. He did not agree
with the Chairman that they would incur as much odium
as himself, and for this reason. that they had not done as
much to deserve it. (Hear and cheers.) Since the last
time he was in Liverpool, during the discussion between
Mr. Dalton and Mr. Falvey, the society had been making
great progress. The society was called the British Refor-
mation Society. Its principles were those which are con-
tained in the Book of God. They were to be found in
the standards of the various reformed churches. He
felt that some apology was required for their abstinence
from politics, intimately connected as these were and
must be with religion. They professed not to be a great
national society, but a home missionary society: they
came forward to take up the irregular work which was
rendered necessary by the irregular proceedings of the
Roman Catholics,—to meet and counteract the manifold
and desultory efforts of the emissaries of Rome amongst
the population. For this purpose the absence from poli-
tics had many advantages. He referred to the thirty
years' war in Germany and to the religious wars in France,
as well as to what had taken place in our own country
under Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth, to show the spirit
which religious controversies in connexion with politics
engendered. On this account, unless there was something
of paramount importance forcing them into politics, they
had, he thought, a manifest advantage in keeping away
from them. The religious prejudices in the minds of
Romanists were too strong to make it expedient to add
to them the many prejudices of a political kind which
weighed upon the minds of that class of the population
of this country. He thought this character of the society
would rather raise it in the estimation of Christians, how-
ever it might lower it in the opinion of worldly men.
Mr. Finch went on to show from the nature of the super-
stitions and delusions of Romanism, the importance of
the work in which the Reformation Society was employed.
The object of the society was two-fold : to warn Protes-
tants against the errors of Romanism. and to endeavour
to win Romanists to the embracing of the truth. There
was no place where this work ought to be carried on upon
a more effective scale than in Liverpool, chiefly on account
of the great number of Roman Catholics residing in and
passing through the town. Much might be done in this
way to the evangelising of Ireland. The feelings with
which this work should be engaged in were those of hu-
mility, patience, meekness, and forbearance. In addition
to these, there should be a correct knowledge of Protes-
tantism ; in order to obtain which, those who undertook
to act as missionaries in connection with it should get
themselves indoetrined by their respective pastors. The
seminal principle of the Romish error ise believed to be,
that the Church of Rome made a distinction between sins
before and sins after baptism. For the former there was
forgiveness by the merits of Christ al .ne; against the
latter he was represented as being angry : and here the
intercession of the Virgin and the saints was called in.
On this point Protestants must be clearly informed, or.
they would never succeed against Roman Catholics
(Hear.) Mr. Finch then pointed out the advantages this
country possessed for the encouragement of missionary
enterprises, and the responsibilities arising therefrom ;
and concluded by an urgent exhortation to zeal and per-
severance in the cause.

The Rev. JOHN CUMMING recommended the persons
connected with the press in Liverpool, to whom allusion
had been made, to inform themselves of some of the prin-
ciples of Romanism. He would advise them to read the
encyclical letter of Gregory the XVI, which had been be-
fore the world since 1832; by which they would see, that
if Rome had her way, the thumb-screw would soon be
upon their hands. How did Pope Gregory speak of that
boasted liberty of the press in which these persons gloried
so much ? This was his language. " The never to be
sufficiently execrated and detested liberty of the press."
(Hear and loud cheers.) If those members of the press
of Liverpool, then, really cared for the liberty of the
press, how deply.rooted in their minds ought to be the
sentiment "No peace with Rome ! " The Church of
Rome was no less inimical to liberty of conscience than
to the liberty of the press. Of this charge Mr. Cumming
likewise offered proofs, as well as of its idolatry and
blasphemy, in the worship which it paid to the Virgin
Mary. He believed that until every clergyman followed
the example of their excellent chairman, they would never
succeed in spreading the Gospel throughout old and happy
England. There were some who wished to see the rose
without any thorns, the atmosphere without any storms,
and the millennium coming to-morrow in all its peace and
uninterrupted beauty; but thorns are needful to defend
the rose, storms to purify the atmosphere, and there never
would be a millennium of peace until a millennium of
truth and righteouness should have been established over
all the earth. (Applause.) It had been argued as an
apology for Rome, that there were truths in that church.
This was the fact. There were truths in Hindooism and
many of the other infidel systems of the day. Satan's
policy, with rcgard to Rona°, woo to gild tho bill.
The Rev. Mr. M`NEILE here expressed his regret at
being obliged to leave the meeting. The chair was
taken, amid loud applause, by the Rev. Fielding Ould.
Mr. CUMMING then proceeded to remark upon the
various expedients of the Church of Rome to circulate its
influence throughout the world. He confessed that when
be saw men drawing from the wardrobe of Aaron, with a
view of decorating the church, he began to think that
there was something which they wished to conceal. " The
king's daughter was all glorious within," not without,
and her beauty was a moral beauty. He wished the opera-
tive classes to be able to meet the salient points advanced
in support of Popery in a short compass. The readiest
mode of proving the existence of error was to contrast it
with what had been written by the Apostles. The ques-
tion had nothing to do with chronology, out with the
law and the testimony. In one sense, Roman Catholic-
ism was old ; for its members would appear before God
in a robe of their own righteousness, too short and too
narrow to cover them. He believed Cain was the first
Romish priest, and Abel the first Protestant martyr. It
was the height of effrontery for the Church of Rome to
ask where the Protestant Church was before the Refor-
mation, when she knew well that her own persecutions
had been the means of driving it out of almost all coun-
tries. Prior to the period of the Reformation, the Pro-
testant Church was in the cold iron death-grasp of a per-
secuting church ; and it was only when Cranmer, Latimer,
Ridley, and other martyrs rescued it from that grasp, that
it shot up and bloomed into those churches which are at
once the gory, the bulwarks, and the ornaments of all
lands. (Cheers.) The Roman Catholics were building
gingerbread cathedrals at present, thereby showing that
they had given up the claim to the Protestant cathedrals.
He then proceeded to combat the doctrine of infallibility,
and to eulogise the character of the Church of England.
He said, the stones of the latter church were living stones,
her cement living cement, her foundations the rock of
ages, on the top of which there was a glory which was
met by the blending beams of righteousness and truth.
She bad not only a true priest, and a true altar, but she
had a true sacrifice also ; whereas the Church of Rome
was the mistress of iniquity, Babylon the great, drunk
with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.
The points which separated the Churches of England and
Scotland were microscopic, for the articles of the one and
the confession of faith of the other were everlasting as the
attributes of God, enduring and immutable as eternity.
The rev. gentleman sat down amidst great applause, after
which a collection was made.

The CHAIRMAN called upon the meeting to return
thanks by acclamation to the two gentlemen who had
given the meeting such a feast of truth. He hoped the
deputation would soon return again to Liverpool, where
there were Protestants who loved the Reformation and
did not denounce John Knox. He hoped also, that all
who held the head would unite—that there would be unity
at least, if there was not conformity. He contended that
it was the duty of all Protestants to join in such a work
as the present, at such a time as this. Popery was active
in the United Kingdom ; she had her tracts and her sisters
of mercy, or, as he would call them, her pitiful sisters ;
and, at such a time, should Protestants be slothful, because
of the ribaldry of an infidel press? (Loud applause.)
The meeting concluded with the singing of the dox-
ology.