The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-06-26 00:00:00

relic, or kissing a piece, of wood, or bowing to an image,
or crossing the breast, or in counting beads, or saying
prayers by tale, or being clad with the robe of St.
FRANCIS, or walking barefoot, or in being all night im-
mured in a cloister, or in fasting by eating fish, or in the
lighting of tapers and making processions, and a thou-
sand other apish and fantastical ceremonies. Nay, more
—they fear, and with reason, that they may even come
to the knowledge of the fact that the pope is not CHRIST'S
vicar, and that his holiness is not infallible, and, what is
more, that there is no such place as purgatory, and, by
natural consequence, no need of prayers for the dead nor
of MONEY to purchase those prayers. Here is the true
meaning of the anxiety of the tail to legislate on matters
connected with the protestant church. The violation of
an oath i§ nothing to them compared with the horror
they have lest the priest-ridden and agitation-shorn pea-
santry of the green isle should embrace protestantism.
Well may-the ministers of the church in Ireland ex-
claim, with St. Augustine, "Infelix eccksice feticitas,"
for the outward peace and prosperity of the church might ,
be one of her greatest curses, as that which would rob
her of much of her best interest.

But this will not in the least extenuate the crying guilt
of those who are the instruments of those persecutions
which make the sister island like unto an aceldama. No,
surely, for if the fire of persecution be permitted to try
the gold, other flames shall burn up the dross. If the
green tree that bath both sap and fruit may occasionally
be roughly shaken with the violence of the storm, what
shall be done in the dry ? If the saints must drink of
the cup of affliction, surely their unjust tormentors may
expect a cup of the wine of astonishment—a cup com-
pounded of the bitter dregs of wrath and retribution.
It has been often objected in the statements of the con-
temners of popery that they draw a fouler-picture of her
than reality and justice demand. On the contrary, were
we but to search the records of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries we should find that it is impossible to
exaggerate her. cruelties.
Let us•for an instant carry ourselves to those times,
and we shall have no occasion to trace their blood-
shedding footsteps in foreign countries,—in their mur-
ders among the poor Waldenses whom they so fiercely
pursued for many years together with fire and sword.
We wait not to enumerate the many thousands who have
been swallowed up in that gulph of .cruelty—:that hell
upon earth—the INQUISITION. We need not dwell
upon the awful massacres from which the protestants
have suffered in Germany, Paris, Lyons, and Piedmont,
and numerous other scenes of the then popish proscrip-
tion. We need not lead you through the Red Sea of
those days of foreign blood and cruelty, the awful tra-
gedies acted, and desolations threatened ; in our own
land are enough to expose the base ends and designs o
the malignant crew.
No sooner had King HENRY VIII. allowed the bible
to be-read in English, and enjoined the instruction of the
people in the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, and
the articles of faith, in the English language, than, as
though these things had been the agents of sorcery for
the raising of evil spirits, the monks blew the trumpet to
rebellion.

In the feign of EDWARD Vl.—the religious Josiah of
our Israel— this country had good cause of quarrel
with the papists, for the long distress of siege and famine
superinduced by ARTINDEL and others.
The reign of Queen MARY was one continuous bon-
fire of protestants. For in her short reign, (the shortest
of any since WILLIAM the Conqueror and RICHARD the
Tyrant) no less than two hundred and thirty seven suf-
fered martyrtiom.

In the reign of Queen ELIZABETH, the papacy was
unifor-m in its conspiracy against her sacred person.
In the reign of King JAMES, the gunpowder plot is
enough to brand the accursed principles of these men
with everlasting odium and infamy.
In the reign of King CHARLES the First, who but this
miscreant popish brood contrived and acted the massacre
in Ireland, when about 300,000 were nearly starved or
Murdered ? But we dare not trust ourselves to speak of
this reign, nor will the fcror which the contemplation of
these scenes has aroused allow us to say much more at
present of the papacy.

We conclude with solemnly warning Messrs. SIIEIL
and O'CONNELL, and their crew to BEWARE!

• The rash and unjustifiable interference of ministers in
the domestic quarrels of Spain is, we believe, likely to
lead to results which it is possible they never dreamt of.
It is quite notorious that the suspension of the foreign
enlistment bill in favour of ISABELLA has no other ob-

ject so much in view as to give the stock-jobbers of the
Exchange and of the public offices a chance of retrieving
the severe losses they have sustained within the last two
months. The war against Don CARLos, therefore, is a
stock-jobbing war. Some people cannot afford to lose

forty or fifty thousand pounds, and consequently it is
higly expedient, for the honour of England, that Colo-
nel EVANS and as many ragamuffins as he can enlist
should run the hazard of being shot, stabbed, or other-
wise murdered, in the cause of CHRISTINE and the
gamblers of London.

The cause is worthy of its supporters, and we sincerely
wish them all the success they deserve. But is the go-
vernment of Mr. DANIEL O'CONNELL aware that this
sinister interference has created a reaction on the other
side ? Perhaps not, and therefore it is right that we
should inform them. In the first place we beg to acquaint
Mr. First Lord O'CONNELL, through Mr. Subordinate
Lord PALMERSTON, that in consequence of their partial
and unjust interference, some of the leading and wealthy
merchants of Liverpool have entered into a subscription
in favour of Don CARLOS. We are unable to tell to
what lengths they are disposed to carry it, or whether it
is to be made public ; but we can state positively that
such a subscription has actually commenced, and that no
inconsiderable sum is expected to be realized before the
evening of tomorrow.
It will probably be asked—what interest can the mer-
chants of Liverpool take in the fortunes of Don CARLos ?
W‘e answer for them, that they would have taken no in-
terest in him whatever—that it never would have oc-
curred to them to interfere directly or indirectly ; but that
seeing the manner in which the goVernment has inter-
fered—seeing the dishonest object of their interference
—and moreover, seeing that the arms, the money and the
valour of England are to be wasted and disgraced for the
purpose of promoting the schemes of certain Stock
Exchange jobbers in London, they have determined to
oppose the guilty project by all the means in their power.
They feel and act as Englishmen. All that they wished
in the contest was to see fair play. But it is the reverse
of fair play to see the government of this country lend-
ing its countenance to private invasion, promoting rob-
bery and all its attendant crimes, encouraging thieves
and swindlers to practise professionally in a foreign
state, and putting into their hands the instruments of
outrage and plunder. It is these considerations, so dis-
graceful to the honour and dignity of England, and
which blur its fair fame in so revolting a manner, that
have induced the merchants of Liverpool to aid as far as

they can the sinews of war on the adverse side. We have
no dottht, from the feeling we have witnessed, that a very
large subscription will be raised in a few days. We could
disclose much more, but are not authorised to do so.

On Wednesday evening last, we believe, four men,
electors of the borough of Ipswich, were to have been
graciously removed from the prison of Newgate to the
House of Commons, not exactly as Sir JOHN CAM HOB-
HOUSE was, there to hear the reasons which are supposed
to justify their incarceration, and show cause against pu-
nishment of an alleged offbnce without trial.

The case of these men, we make bold to say, is the
hardest and the most cruel that ever occurred in Eng-
land in the worst of times. They are accused of having
practised bribery and corruption at the last election but
one for Ipswich. By whom are they thus accused ? By
a select-select, in more cases than one, committee of the
House of Commons, and upon this verbal accusation the
house authorised its speaker to sign a-warrant for their
committal to gaol.

This, we hesitate not to maintain, is tyranny of the
worst kind. What evidence had the House of Commons