The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-11 00:00:00

THE LIVER POOT, STANDARD.

When men who make their boast of a love of political
liberfy ate found the zealous foes of that which is its
dearest part, the individual liberty of judgment, we are
naturally led to suspect the kind of liberty which they
would give us: The celebrity of the name selected for
the violation of this principle, whilst it has doubtless in-
creased the virulence of the attack, has magnified the
outrage by its wider diffusion, and since the charge has
been reverberated from the London prints, we have been
induced to make the following quotation, which we are
sorrx'to have met with in one that calls itself the Chris-
tian Advocate;
" Political inconsistency is dishonourable in all men, but
chiefly in professors of religion—still more in Christian minis-
ters. It is, therefore, with extreme regret that we have heard
of the conduct of the Reverend Jabez Bunting, a Wesley.an
Methodist minister, as an elector at Liverpool. After having
stood pledged for many years to the abolition of West India
slavery, both in his, private capacity as one of the Methodist
Conference—after having-but very recently, together with other
Christian ministers in the town of Liverpool, signed a declara-
tion against thy- system of colonial slavery, earnestly entreating
the friends of Christianity, liberty, and peace, to employ their
influence in every constitutional way to obtain the speedy re-
moval of this sinful and injurious system,'—he has actually
turned round, and voted in the teeth of his declared and re-
corded sentiments, thus doing the very opposite of that which
he joined in 'earnestly 'entreating the friends of Christianity,
liberality, and peace,' to He has 'employed the influence'
Which. he possessed as ari elector, in giving a plumper to Lord
Sandon, the son of an' ovVner of West India property, and nob).-
riously opposed to the abolition, of that system which he (Mr.
Bunting) liad declared ought to be abolished with the least pos-
sible decay.' rhe other ministers who joined in this declara-
tion voted for Messrs. Thornely and Ewart, both anti-slavery
eandidates."

Now it is a fact, that not one of the Wesleyan minis-
ters who signed the declaration voted either for Mr.
Ewart or Mr. Thornely. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Stamp
omitted to qualify, and therefore had no votes to give ;
Mr. M'Nicoll and
.Mr. Stephen Son did not vote at all ;
and Mr. Bunting and Mr. fiollingworth " plumped" for
Lord Sandon. . _

Into the propriety of the course which Mr. Bunting
adopted, or the motives by which he was actuated, it
would not be our duty to enter, nor these does it concern
us to know ; as an elector, Mr.. Bunting received his -pri-
vileges subject to no judgment but his own, and we have
to be taught a new method of thinking, before we can
understand that, as a Christian, or even as a minister, he
is to be shut out from that which every Englishman re-
gards as his inheritance, the right of obeying his own con-
science. Is it by slandering indiVidual character, and by
holding up Ministers of the Gospel to public odium and
reproach, that the friends of secret voting wish to prove
the beneficial application of that system? They can,
without difficulty, we dare say, reconcile the sacrifice of
decency in the means to the imperative and inestimable
nature of the object, and for the sake of such a vast pub-
lie good, they have self-denial sufficient to make it a
monument to their own disgrace.
But the weightiest ground of accusation against Mr.
Bunting is, that by voting for Lord Sandon he has falsi-
fied the anti-slavery declaration to which he has affixed
his signature. Were we not convinced of the fact, that
it is tie temper of faction, as well as of bigotry, to harden
itself against all , evidence, we might be surprised that
such a gross delusion should be cherished. But we see
how it serves the, purpose of a certain political party to
proclaim the individual who should give his suffrage to
any candidate professing the principles of Lord Sandon
to be a supporter of slay ery. Lord Sandon and slavery
are thereby identified, and a political end is answered at
the expense of private character. What, however, are
the-real- features of the case, which the calumniators of
Mr. Bunting, had they not been too idle to investigate,
or too blinded to believe, might very easily have become
acquainted with ? The words of the declaration upon
the subject of slavery are recorded above,. let them be
compared with the sentiments avowed in Lord Sandon's
address, and we shall need no more to free Mr. -Minting
froth the wanton imputations which have been cast upon
him.

" I see,". says his lordship, " a state of society which must
be injurious to 'die moral condition, of the few, while it is de-
grading to that of the many ; a state of society which cannot
and should not long stand.,'" I earnestly hope that we may
see, as the result of those investigations, a serious of mea-
sures ;rounded on a more accurate knowledge of the varying
circumstances of different colonies, (and I would fain hope,
upon a better Understanding with them,) which shall'comprise
within itself the germ of no slow emancipation, together with
security for the continued- industry of the slave, and compen-
sation, where necessary, to the master."
Where, then, was the advocate of slavery, or where
the faithless deserter of his principles, in voting for a
man Nth() ardently desired emancipation as soon as it
would not be followed by a greater evil than the slavery
which it abolished? With a slight difference on this
head, with regard to time, we believe the opinions of
Mr. Bunting were perfectly coincident with those of his
lordship. On what ground, then; was he to deny bis
Suffrage to one'whose political views and whose public
conduct he almost entirely approved? Because, says
the Christian Advocate, (and say many others, as little
deserving of a reply,) he had signed a protest against
slavery with his brethren who voted a contrary way.
They had a right to do so; but there is no proof that they
did it on the constraint of that declaration. If they did,
then we answer, that they would have been as safe in
voting for Lord Sandon,_ whose sentiments were at least
as definite 'as those of Mr. Ewart or Mr. Thornely ; and
if they did not, their private motives could not be sup,
posed binding upon Mr. Bunting, any more than he had
the power to march them in his rear to the bar of Lord
Sandon.

It is of some consequence, too, to know, that the
declaration against slavery was framed and published
whilst there were only two candidates in the field; it
could not, thetefore, be understood to comprehend any
course of conduct respecting Mr. Thornely. After a
previous meeting, it was agreed to, we believe, on the
12th of November, with the express understanding and
agreement of all the ministers present, that this decla-
ration was not made, or intended to be used, directly. or in-
directly, for any political or electioneering purpose what-
ever. And, in proof of this, we are positively assured 3 .
that the re-printing and constantly placarding of the de-
claration,
which was continued up to the very day of the
election, was done without the authority and not at the
expense of those individuals. Having, then, no politi-
cal object, it could have no respect to particular candi-
dates, nor, consequently, intend to lay an embargo upon
the judgment of the declarationists. And if, in Lord
Sandon, Mr. Bunting had found that which satisfied the
prineiples,uponwhich he acceded to the document, what
was-there in the subsequent pretensions of Mr. Thornely
to induce-Min to renounce his decision in-favour of that
gentleman ? Was it a more devoted affection for the es-
tabliShed institutions of the country ? Was it a higher
cast of intellect, knowledge, and comprehension, or a
greater capacity for business ? Or was it a superiority
in statical, wealth, or individual respectability of character.
"And what," says the paper we have already quoted, " was
the ostensible motive for this indecent act of tergiversation ?
As Mr. Bunting accompanies his vote by an emphatic decla-
ration, that ' he, for One, was no enemy to the church,' we may
suppose that.it was his love of the church which overcame his
hatred of slavery." •v•
This is a marvellously clever deduction; though pro-
ceeding upOn the same charitable supposition, that Lord
Sandon and V` hatred of slavery" were lA. ie positive
and negativepoles. But there is also anoth ~,inference,
which bears strongly upon the views of ' e'lesiastical
polity entertained by the candidates-of the liliesl party.
By supposing that a love of the church gained'fo. i3unt-

itig7s vote for Lord Sandon and slavery, they, in fact, tell
us, that such a hatred of slavery as would have secured it
for them, would have been "overcoming a love of the
church." Yet, without caring to conceal this fact, their
loud abuses are heaped without measure or decency upon
one who is professedly a friend to the church, for de-
clining to join with them against it! • The charge it-
self, however, is as false as the motive is unpardona-
ble. Instead of the reverend gentleman, as has been
grossly represented, flourishing up to the hustings with
the vaunting parade that "he was no enemy to the
church," the case is simply this : on presenting himself
at the bar, a question was put to him, relating merely
to the registry of his name in the poll-book, "You are a
dissenting minister, I presume ?" "That is not," he repli-
ed, "the designation which I should perhaps give myself.
I should prefer to be called a Wesleyan minister : I am
a dissenter in The eye of the law, but I am not hostile to
the principle of a religious establishment, if connected
with perfect liberty to all other sects." Thus we see that
the whole of the serious charge that has been laid at his
door resolves itself to this pitiful shape, that instead of
making an idle and voluntary bluster about the love of
the church, in a style better suited to a half crazy seaman,
the whole crime of which he has been guilty is that of
having returned a direct and pertinent answer to a ques-
tion respectfully put to him. This may be relied upon as
the true state of the case, and surely never were truth
and statement more at variance, even in the journals
where these distorted and ungenerous statements are
found. Mr. Bunting, we understand, had not intended
to vote at all, unless in the event of a great emergency,
and, consistently with this feeling, he did not vote until
near the close of the poll, when he considered the crisis
Of principle had arrived.
The last offence with which the reverend gentleman is
made chargeable, is that of having favoured, in Lord
Sandon, " the son of an owner of West India proper-
ty !" a character in the estimation of many of the mo-
dern school, inseparably united with all that is unprinci-
pled and inhuman. With all to whom that venerable
nobleman is personally known, and wherever the vittues
of his upright mind have• reached, the temerity which
could hazard such an assertion as this, will meet that fate
it has so justly provoked; and where this may not be the
case, there can need no better refutation than the un-
doubted fact, that Lord Harrowby absolutely holds not
the slightest connexion, in one shape or another, with
colonial property.
Ili the view which we have taken of this question we
wish it to be correctly understood, that we have been
prompted by no motive but that of doing an act of justice
to an individual who, if the sanctity of his office could
not shield him from the shafts of party, or from the in-
sults of the low, might at least demand, as a citizen, the
benefit of an lioneSt and candid construction, in commit-
ting a:great political trust into those hands in which he
deemed it might be exercised most efficiently for the
good of his country, and the promotion of sound and
virtuous principles.

I Zit Vr X L' IGENCE.

FRANCE,

The Paris papers of Sunday bring the debates of the previous
day in both Chambers. The Peers were occupied by a report
relative to the etat de siege. ._A new law on the subject was pro-
posed, which limits the right of declaring any town in a state of
siege to fortified places or military positions, in case of rebel-
lion or invasion. No other place can be exposed to military
law, unless by virtue of a special order from the Council of Mi-
nisters, which must be communicated to the Chambers. There
was no discussion on the report, in consequence of the absence
of Marshal Hoult, who is obliged to accompany the King ou his
visit to the north. His Majesty left Paris with his sons on Sa-
turday evening.
The debate in the Deputies referred to the case of the Duchess
of Berri, • Innumerable petitions in favour of this injured lady
.poured into the Chamber, and the reporter made a longer mi-
nute analysis of them all. He of course declared that they
were unworthy of attention ; but they prove one fact, at least,
that the party of the Duchess in France is much stronger than
the friends of Louis Philippe wish to persuade us. The Duke
of Broglie was obliged to admit in his speech that the enemies
of the existing government were not to be counted by hundreds
or thousands, but by hundreds of thousands. A precious ad-
mission, said M. Mauguin, for foreign Cabinets. M. Thiers
declared that he could not venture to bring up the Duchess from
Blaye, without a force of from 60,000 to 80,1)00 men dispersed
along the road. He, as well as the Duc de Broglie insisted that
the ministers were not bound to disclose their intentions with
respect to the Duchess, and moved the order of the, day, which
was carried by a great majority.