The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-05 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

N iNON'N,I/4

mity of the Brunswick Dock, the very- last ship in the
Port of Liverpool ; therefore free from the observation of
every one who did not make it his express business to
visit her. We found her with her outer planks stripped
off on the starboard side, nearly down to the bends, from
the hawse-hole to the gangway—with the main channels
removed to allow of her being stripped on to the stern.
We found her timbers in many parts so thoroughly rotten
that they yielded like mushrooms to the pressure of the
finger—with a good deal of her lining also in the same
state ; and many parts of it laid open to the weather, ex-
posing the remaining part of the cargo, and the people
on board, to the inconvenience of the gusts and rain with
which we have lately been visited. We found many of
the passengers on board, who are without the means of
obtaining a lodging ashore, chiefly without bedding--
living upon a few potatoes procured by many of them in
the way of charity—without a fire on board to cook even
this miserable food, but compelled to boil their pots on
the quay—and all the poor creatures in a state but a
shade removed from absolute destitution. We learn, on
further inquiry, that the Agents for Lloyd's, in London,
and for this port, have, at length, determined her state
to be such as to render it necessary to discharge the re-
mainder of her cargo, strip off her planks on both
sides down to the bends, and put her into the graving
dock ; from whence she cannot come in a fit state to go
to sea in less than six weeks.

What, we ask, will be the condition of the poor crea-
tures who had taken their passage in her while this is
going forward ? Two of them have already gone to their
long homes ; some have abandoned all hope of redress,
and returned to their former residences ; many of the
remainder are without a single shilling in the world to
save them from starvation—a fate that seems to threaten
the whole number. There is no exaggeration in all this.
If any one doubt the truth of the statement, let him do
as we did—go and make his own observations on board
the vessel.

We could say much more on the conduct of the par-
ties connected with this ship. We think enough has
been said already to lead to some justice being done to
the sufferers, without having recourse to other measures,
which, we can assure those concerned, will be had re-
course to if that justice be withheld. The practices we
have exposed in this respect must be stopped; and the
laws of the country and of humanity must no longer be
outraged. But, in the meantime, the suffering parties
will be destitute; and we, therefore, trust that the appeal
which we last week made to the charitable feelings of the
public on their behalf will not longer go unheeded.

There is an ominous tranquillity at present prevailing
in Ireland. By tranquillity, we do not mean that the
number of murcleis, or of attempts to commit murder,
has diminished, or that there are fewer acts of outrage
and lawless violence than usual. Far from it. The an-
nals of crime are as voluminous now as at any former
period, and midnight assassinations of Protestants, and
the agents of Protestant landowners continue unabated.

But what we mean is that there is something like a
portentous, if not unnatural calm in the political atmos-
phere of Ireland—in that land of storm, and hail, and
hurricane. There can be no question that O'CONNELL
is paying his devoirs to the "base Whigs" on the one
hand, and begging from poor peasants their hard won
pence on the other; and until the last doit is extorted
from his countrymen, and the last favour refused by the
ministry, O'CONNELL will be as chirpless as' a yellow-
hammer at candlemas. Not a note will come from him,
musical or otherwise, until he has shot every arrow in his
quiver in vain, and Lord GREY has peremptorily re-
jected his claims and pretensions. 'Whether he is to be
provided for—whether he is to be made useful—whether
he is to take rank under the "base" people whom he
pretends to despise, will not be known until near the ad-
vent of the next session of Parliament. There are
generally some changes effected about that period—a few
weeks or days before the meeting of the House—and as
it would be folly to throw a chance away, we presume that
the honest agitator will bottle up his spleen, and the
wrongs of the "hereditary bondsmen," and await the

In the mean time his masters—the priests—are not
inactive, but rather preparing themselves to renew the
strife, and revive sedition and treason on their own ac-
count. We perceive, by a letter in the Dublin Free-
man's Journal, that a meeting recently took place in the
town of Galway, on a Sunday, at which, says the letter,
"after a most eloquent, animated, and able discussion of
the question, strong, powerful, and comprehensive reso-
lutions were unanimously adopted " in favour of a repeal
of the union ! The chair at this Sunday meeting was
taken " by one of our most popular and talented Catholic
pastors, the Reverend Mr. RORCII." Another priest of
the name of HUGHES proposed some of the resolutions,
which were seconded by VALENTINE BLAKE, Esquire,
and JACK LAWLESS. The letter concludes by saying,
that " Galway has fired the first shot, to which, no doubt,
all Ireland will respond !"

Is this a trick on the part of O'CONNELL to push for-
ward the priests in order to alarm the Government, and
accomplish some dirty object of his own ? It may be so ;
but we well remember how long and how sturdilyit was
denied that the Catholic priests took any part in agita-
tion, or were at the bottom of all the excitement and
deeds of blood and shame which have for many years
disgraced and degraded Ireland. The murder, however,
is out at last, and here we have a select party of priests,
meeting in open day, and upon the sabbath, too, which
they are bound to keep holy, for the purposes of irrita-
tion, to keep alive disaffection, to excite bad passions,
and to kindle in the hearts of their ignorant followers a
more savage and relentless hatred of the English Govern-
ment and the English people.
Is all warning to be thrown away on the cabinet of Lord
GREY ? Are the priests oflreland to be allowed to scatter
firebrands for ever ? Do the former not see that Ireland
is the only country in Europe where popery aspires to a
complete ascendancy, and where the priests are tolerated
in their intolerance. It makes no difference whether they
preach the undisguised doctrines of the Inquisition, or
whether they veil their machinations under the semblance
of political wrongs. Their object is one and the same.—
They aim at supreme power by means of revolution.

But is this a period at which to endure such priestly
dominanoo an ,Isurping pretensinne ? Look at France—
look at Portugal—look at the disconsolate whining of the
pOor POPE himself :

" Venerable brethren, we expressly proclaim that we ab-
solutely reprobate all the decrees issued by the aforesaid govern-
ment of Lisbon to the great detriment of the church, of its holy
ministers of the ecclesiastical law, and Holy See prerogatives; we,
therefore, declare them to be null and of no effect, and, express-
ing our most serious complaints against the audacious measures
we have referred to, we declare that in exercising the duties of our
office, and, with God's help, we will oppose ourselves as a wall for
the House of Israel, and show ourselves in the combat at
the day of the Lord, as the interests of religion and the
gravity of circumstances may require. For the rest we
place this cause, which is that of God himself, in the hands
of the Lord. Supported by the powerful aid of him who best
loves to manifest his wisdom and his power by drawing good out
of evil, rather than by not permitting any evil at all, we firmly
trust that he will bring back to a better way of thinking those
whose actions cause the church to groan under the weight of
such heavy evils, and that we shall thus avoid the necessity so
painful to our paternal heart of having recourse to those spiritual
arms with which God has invested our apostolic ministry."

The POPE sees plainly enoug,ii that his reign is near
its end, and these expostulations, addressed to Don PEDRO
and his mercenaries, are the dying groans of an hysterical
old woman. Are we therefore to suffer in Ireland what
is no longer tolerated in Portugal ?

Mr. SHEPHERD, instead of meeting manfully the recri-
mination which he provoked, and the argument which he
raised upon the responsibility of literary agents, has shuf_
fled out of the controversy in a way worthy of the man and
his cause. We have therefore no desire to follow him
into his obscurity, or inflict a chastisement that might now
appear to be unnecessary. Mr. SHEPHERD is pleased to
inform us that he is an " old soldier," but had he said a
superannuated one he would have been nearer the mark

Rara fides pietasque viris qui castra-sequuntur.
In tho translation, for " camps," read, scamp,

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