The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-17 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

IMPOSSIBILITY OF OBSERVING THE RUBRICS
STRICTLY.—There are several portions of the rubric of
the communion, service, with which a strict compliance is
impossible. For instance, the rubric before the collects
directs collects to be said after the offertory, when there
is no communion, every such day one or more.' This
rubric was in Edward's first bock ; when, as I have be-
fore stated, the prayer for Christ's church was used only
at the celebration of the Eucharist ; yet neither in the se-
cond hook, nor in 1651, did the revisers make any altera-
tion in this part of the rubric. Compare also the rubric
and the nicene creed—' Then the curate shell declare unto
the people what holy days or fasting days are in the week
following to be observed; and then also (if occasion be)
shall notice be given of the communion.' `Then shall fol-
low.the sermon,' &c., "rhen shall the priest return to the
Lord's Table, &c. When the minister giveth warning
for the celebration of the holy communion (which he shall
always do upon the Sunday or some holyday immediately
preceding), after the sermon or homily ended, he shall
read this exhortation following.' It will be seen that
these several directions cannot he strictly compl.ed with.
I make these extracts for the pirpose of showing that,
from oversight or other cause, the revise s of the liturgy
did not make those alterations in the rubric which the
change of circumstances required; and that in all these
cases of apparent disagreement, the safest guide is, the
practice of the church immediately upon, and continuous-
ly observed in reference to, these alterations. And this
consideration, I confess, presents to my mind an over-
whelming obstacle in the question before me. By a re-
vival of the use of the weekly offertory I cast a grievous
imputation on the whole clergy of this kingdom for up-
wards of two centuries—an imputation that they in several
degrees have violated their consecration and their ordina-
tion views ; have deserted the trust committed to their
charge, and have descended into their graves perjured
bishops and perjured priests. This may be strong lan-
guage, but it is no less true than strung. The most subtle
casuist cannot explain away this imputation.--Treatise on
the Offertory.
THE EVILS THAT AFFLICT IRELAND.—Yes, Ireland
is afflicted by evils, but those evils are created not so
much by the defects of the law, or by the neglect and ty-
ranny of the better classes, as by the total demoralisation
of the lower. The Irish peasant, naturally brave, gene-
rous, and faithful, is by the system under which he is
brought up, rendered cruel, merciless, and deceitful.
There may be, and probably are, hardships inflicted by
some of the landlords ; but they are produced in most in-
stances by criminal and precedent acts on the part of the
people. In no country in the world are the rights of pro-
perty so ill understood or so recklessly violated : the in-
dustrious man fears to surround his cottage with a gar-
den, because his fruit and vegetables would he carried off
by his lazy and dishonest neighbours ; and he is deterred
from growing turnips, which would add to his wealth, from
the certain knowledge that his utmost care cannot pre-
serve them. Amongst no people en the face of the earth
are the obligations of an oath or the discharge of the mo-
ral duties so utterly disregarded : any man, the greatest
culprit, can find persons to prove an alibi ; the most atro-
cious assassin has but to seek protection to obtain it.
Where in the civilised world, but in Ireland, can you find
a " sliding scale" of fees for the perpetration of murder?
And why is this so ? Because the religious instruction of
the people has been totally neglected ; because their
priests have become politicians, and stopping at nothing
to accomplish their objects, they teach the peasantry by
private precept and example to disrespect and disregard
those doctrines which they publicly inculcate ; because
their bishops, pitchforked from the potatoe-basket to the
palace, become drunk with the incense offered to their
vulgar vanity, and the patronage granted in return for their
unprincipled political support, instead of checking the
misconduct of the subordinates, stimulate them to still
further violence, and stop at nothing which can forward
their objects ; because the opinions of the people are
formed on the statements and advice of mendicant agi-
tators who have but one object in view, their own pecu-
niary aggrandizement ; because a rabid and revolutionary
press, concealing its ultimate designs under the praisewor-
thy and proper motive of affording protection to the weak,
seeks to overturn all law and order, and pandering to the
worst passions of an ignorant and ferocious populace,
goads them, by the most unfounded and mischievous
statements, to the commission of crime, and then adduces
the atrocity of their acts as a proof of the injustice of their
treatment. Every murder is palliated, because it arises
from " the occupation of land." Every brutal assassina-
tion is paraded as " a fact" for Lord Devon, and is re-
commended to that nobleman's attention; not that the
helpless and unoffending family of the victim may be af-
forded redress, but that the executioner of their parent
may obtain commiseration. No matter what the conduct
of the.tenant may have been—no matter what arrears of
rent he may have owed—to evict him is a crime, which, in
the eyes of those unprincipled journalists, seems to justify
an immediate recourse to " the wild justice of revenge."
The rights of property are said to be guaranteed by the
law—while the exercise of those rights is rendered impos-
sible by the combination of unprincipled men, and the
force of a morbid public opinion. He who would think
it " monstrous" that a merchant should be debarred from
the right of issuing execution against his creditor, shud-
ders with horror at the idea of a landlord distraining for
his unpaid rent. And the individual who delights in the
metropolitan improvements, and glories in the opening of
St. Giles's, though it drives thousands of " the suffering
poor" at once and unrecompensed from their miserable
abodes, considers the improvement of an Irish estate as
too dearly purchased, if effected by the expulsion of one
ill-conditioned and remunerated ruffian.—Blackwood.