The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-08-27 00:00:00

THE IRISH SOCIETY.

The anniversary of the above society was held last
„
;evening in the theatre of the Collegiate'lnstitution. The
audience was most respectable and very numerous. The
Rev. D. Foley of Clonmel, Rev. Win. Wllwaine of
Belfast, Rev. M. Rainsford of Dublin, attended as the
deputation from the parent society. Of the local clergy
there were present, the Rev. H. M`Neile, D.D., Revs. W.
Duncan Long, F. Parry, William Rawson, H. Car-
penter, Ch. W. Lawrence, G. W. Warr, D. Anderson, J.
Green (Knotty Ash), W. Hughes, D. T. Barry, W.
Butler, Th. Clarke (Southport), D. D. Stewart, L. Barry,
T. C. Cowan, J. Groom, J. J. Butler, Thomas
Moore, F. Parry, jun.,- H.Marlen, T. Robinson, H. M.
Mosse, J. B. Lowe, Sutton, Halbert, J. R.
Conor, R. W. Wolseley. W. Maynard, Mr. Power, Mr.
Brien, and J. H, Stafford. There were also present,
Adam Hodgson, Win. Jones. Charles Cotesworth, John
Rounthwaite, J. Pilcher, Pick, C. Inman, and J. H.
Webster, Esqs. ' • &c. &c.
The Rev. D. M'NEiLit was called to the chair. He
called upon the Rev. Mr. Carpenter, secretary of the
society to ask a blessing upon the proceedings by offering
a prayer, after which the Rev. Chairman addressed the
meeting. He said the Irish Society was no stranger to
them ; for nearly thirty years it had been before the
world by its agents and its active operations, and at
least during half that period it had been favoured by
the regard and kindly support of many of the Chris-
tians of Liverpool. (Hear.) He might therefore refrain
from all introductory remarks, and call at once upon the
gentlemen who had kindly come among them to show
them the transactions of the society • but he would make
a few observations on the principal Characteristics of their
association, one peculiar feature of which was to teach
the Irish through the medium of their own language. It
was absurd to attempt to- teach people in a language
which they did not understand. He (the rev. doctor)
would be considered a perfect barbarian were he to treat
them so. He would just give them a specimen. Dr.
M`Neile here recited a passage from Tasso's Jerusalem
Delivered, in the original Italian. He would not sup-
pose that he was not understood, but he thought it might
illustrate the difficulty of conveying instruction by the
medium of a foreign tongue. But though there was a
great diversity of language in the world, our species all
over the world see alike •, green is green all the world
over : mankind taste alike ; they hear alike : cannon
makes the same sound everywhere. How came it, then,
if man everywhere saw alike, and felt alike, that they did
not speak alike. The reason was, the " confusion
of tongues ;" the curse connected with the tower
of Babel. It pleased God to adopt a simple me-
thod of confusing the language of man at that time ;
so that one fine morning the bricklayer could not under-
stand the hodman, nor the hodman the joiner. In this
state of things an attempt was made at partially
conveying each other's thoughts as best they could,
so that those who could understand each other went
together, and this was carried out until the whole were
scattered into many different parties. Now it pleased
the Almighty, by a miracle, to reverse this curse,
not by enabling all people to understand every- lan-
guage, but by enabling:the apostles to speak to each in
his own tongue. That curse was a reproof to anti-christian
and apostate Rome, which pretended to establish a uni-
versal language, and thought that all the world were to
glory in the words ora pro nobis. The trial to make all.
people use the same language had failed ; but Gad's me-
thod was that his creatures should use different languages,
and that was their (the society's) method. (Hear, hear.)
He would have given them a little Irish, which perhaps
would not be considered quite so euphonious as the Ita-
lian ; but he must confess that in his youth he had not
been taught his native tongue. (Laughter.) He hoped,
however, that some of the gentlemen who had come from
that country would favour them with a " genuine
specimen." The Irish Society professed to teach
the native Irish language through the medium of
the bible, and their operations had been widely success-
ful. When the pupil became acquainted with the truths
of that volume he was surprised to find nothing in it
about the
and h
mass,e a
snkoetdh
himselfng aboutf theta tlwri rags
then word of God ;
, nothing about
relics
satisfied that it was divine, he discovered the errors of the
religion of Rome. The reverend gentleman proceeded
to the other objects of the society, in the course
;
of which he shewed the persecuting character of
the Church of Rome; if they (the Romanists) found
themselves beaten in argument, they had recourse to
blows, it had always been so ; it was so with the Jews
in the Temple. The convert in Ireland incurred the en-
mity of the priest, who was instrumental in injuring the
man's horse, or his cow, or his children in order to terrify
him into believing that which he could not prove true.
He asked how it was that the Roman Catholics could
walk in procession on St. Patrick's day without the occur-
rence of any disturbance, and yet that a similar result did
not ensue when the Orangemen walked on the 12th of
July. It was because the former were violent in their
enmity of Protestantism; and when a law should be made
by the municipal authorities for preventing Orange pro-
cessions, but not Roman Catholic, they would pay a com-
pliment to the former, inasmuch as they would virtually
be saying to the Roman Catholics, " We can permit you
to walk, because we know there is nothing to fear from
the Protestants." (Hear, hear.) The reverend gentle-
man resumed his seat amid great applause.

The Rev. H. CARPENTER, the society's local secretary,
proceeded to read the report. It set out with an expres-
sion of regret for the loss the society had sustained in
the death of Mr. George Langtry, the late treasurer, and
at the same time paid a high eulogium to the public cha-
racter and private worth of the deceased : in other
respects the report contained no very prominent feature
of interest.

The Rev. M. RAINSFORD moved the first resolution :
the adoption of the report, and the appointment of the
committee for theensuing year. The rev. gentleman stated
at some length the purpose and operations of the society :
he depicted in glowing colours the present deplorable state
of
and degrading
which he attributed mainly to the debasing
tendency of Popery; he contrasted this
anrdeelagnradding
sad picture with the more promising one of Ireland in
primitive times before she had submitted to the yoke of
papacy. At the reformation, nearly the whole body of
bishop and clergy in Ireland were prepared to receive
the protestant religion ; but this failed, from the fact of
law being enacted by which the English language was
required to be the one used universally. Mr. Rains-
ford proceeded to explain the working of the national
system of education in Ireland, from which it appeared
that Protestant clergymen must either submit to
sanction the errors of Papacy, or at once give up
all hope of obtaining a living in that country. The rev.
gentleman exposed the policy of the Roman Catholic
priests ; they denounced the poor landlord, bet whoever
heard of their denouncing the assassin or the white boy
—(hear, hear,)—if that were done there would be no need
of coercion laws. Ireland presented the anomalous
feature of Christians being persecuted in a professedly
Christian country.
The Rev. W. M'ILWAINE seconded the resolution.
He spoke at great length, and referred to the recent doings
at Dingle.

The key. D. FOLEY, of Clonmel, moved the second
resolution, which was as follows :—" That the abundant
fruit which has sesulted from the labours of this society,
notwithstand the difficulties that have arisen, and the ob-
structions that have been presented to its projects and
growth demands our most grateful acknowledgments to
God, who alone can give the increase."
The resolution was seconded by Rev. A, Dallis, but
time prevents any further notice.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.—Last evening a net.
of performances commenced at these gardens, consistinf,
of the splendid comic singing of Mr. George Ford, and
the attractive ballad singing of Mrs. Wilson, with the
performance of Mr. Wilson upon the melodiutn and piano-
forte. The former instrument is a beautiful one, upon
which Mr. Wilson is an excellent player. On Friday
evening a grand• extra night will occur. beine for the

course

benefit of M. Cautelo and SignOr Gomez, of tlis,

archery

cups WI!

Dr as t

prizes of archery. The gardens are now in the height of
perfection; and we are warranted in announcing to the
public that this is one of the last nights of leading in-
terest to the public during the present season.
DISCOVERY OF SALT IN CALIFORNIA.—We have just
been favoured with the view of a specimen of crystallized
salt, from a salt spring about fifteen miles west of Sanoza.
and near the Toulomne river. The salt spring is del
scribed to us as furnishing abundance of water which is
extremely strong and pure. It is upon the side of a small
hill, and at a short distance.from where the water issues
from the rock is a circular basin, some two hundred feet
in circumference and four or five feet deep, into which the
salt water from the spring flows. The bottom and sides
of this basin are of solid rock, forming a most desirable
receptacle, from which the water can be taken when a
manufactory for salt is established here. We are also in-
formed that the land about the spring is well wooded, and
we doubt not that in a short time there will be manufac-
tured at this point sufficient salt for our own consump-
trtehmiselynewl
tion at much less rates than we can now procure
it for. In the same strata of rocks from whence
the salt spring issues, silver ore appears, and from repre-
sbheousuldrpprriosevde
extremely
repre-
sentations and the specimens we have seen, we should not
eve of organization for the manufacturing of salt at this
y discovered
productive.
spring,_ and working the silver mines.—Pacific News.n all
A HINT TO THE TRACTARIANS.— The Church
1.1 II
ages had had refused to brand as heresy the opinione
Church
red Church
red to, and it had always been repugnant to ttlm
ted to
Aeomminpuernayl depositte
to declare with such niceness, as had been
.at e p
A right
make her do, on the doctrine of infant baptism.ullowed by the
is on h
of private judgment had always been
Church, and to refuse this liberty
some of the best
tise a large body of men, comprisingue
precisionh of doc-
and wisest divines of all ages. S
d on this question, and
trine had never been displayed on
a measure HOW.
there was nothing to call for so
need thrust out from
There was nothing now
which
e sod labori-
the Church some of them
titerb of their services when
ous servants in her, and solrolwouldbe be to anathema-
Whilst they were
enemy.
her against the commonof doctrine, infidelity was advan-
cingwrangling on points
its strongholds, and taking pos-
nearer and nearer
ol the people. The state of the popu-
session of the mind
such as to warrant them in wasting their
lation was not
subjects that were left undecided instead of
she had so much need of all ler supporters to defend
energies on
themselvesghbourhood in particular being one that
point to this; ei
e u on them the necessity of not
must strongy urg
upon
their real duty of saving the
directing their attention d .
I f the sinner. It was angerous to tri ewi
fl *th their
sou 0
applying to their proper work. He must
ought to save : i.
t was dangerous to give the dying man a
and withhold from him the means o sa f 'ration.—
dogma,
holy calling, and so neglect and endanger the souls they
Bishop of Winchester's Chew: