The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-11-23 00:00:00

" But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it !"

To be, however, a little more cheerful, upon occasion of this
our first display in public, let us look, so long 4 ye may, upon
what little sunshine the prospect brightens wit; Viand sustain
our minds by the reflection, that all troubles ruifinot come at
once, and that much of the threatening tempest may at least
keep away from us for a time. Faction and the news-
papers are black with the show of storms that, they tell us, are
to bring, without a pause, this dreadful pother o'er our
heads;" but the thunder, more or less, will assuredly, for to-
day, be driven from us, znd only heard to mutter in the dis-
tance. It is commonly amusing, during every recess of Par.
lament, to observe the extravagent assertions and doctrines
which the newspapers invent or repeat ; such tumult as not only

" With fear of change perplexes monarchs,"
but Might well perplex with the same fear, all classes of
their subjects ; ao that, when observing their dispersion at the
first of the Parliamentary sun upon their darkness, we have
often, even before the present lowering occasion, meditated upon
the importance of the adjunct of a free Parliament to a free
Press, as the latter's necessary and natural corrective. 11ow,
under reference to the grand aim of the new revolutionary
movement, namely, that which, with so many different inter-
pretations, is called Church Reform ; we may rest assured,
that even Earl Grey and his colleagues, so long as they can
hold up against the Political Unions, will do but little of all
that which the revolutionists they foster expect and ask of them.
Earl Grey, with all his errors, is at least an English Gentleman ;
he has the education, taste, and feelings of an English Gentle-
man ; he will lend himself to none of the low conceptions, and
sectarian meanness, of the starveling minds that aspire to
mark his path ; nor to any of the vulgar crudities, fanatic or
philosophic, of such as

—" Call half thinking, thinking free :"
in a word, he would rather lose his head, or twenty heads,
than do &thousandth part of what the enemies of the National-
Church require of him. He will probably (should he con,
time in offit e) meddle with Tithes, and with Poor Benefices
perhaps with little advantage in either case; but he will cer-
tainly do tat more He, and his colleagues also, upon the
,ontrary, will do their utmost, inti their way, "t,,, send down, to
~,cry in qtitUtiOn tho cottntry, the, same statif of
popeF'4` •i• which" it has de4c4nded to- aursolues
lot • - - , .

After the merits and incidents of the Dutch War, the
topic of most immediate and pressing public interest is
that of the approaching General Election. It is now said,
thatthe present Parliament will be dissolved upon the 2d
of-December; that the Writs for the EleCtion of Repre:
sentatives in a New Parliament will be in the hands of all
the returning officers in the kingdom on the 4th; and
that the election of Representatives for Liverpool may be
expected to take place either in the second or third week
of the 'month.

No more than three Candidates, as yet, have offered
themselves here; the two first being the present members,
and the third, Mr. Thornely. Among 'several subjects
of threatened Parliamentary discussion, grave as many
of them must appear, the gravest of the whole is that
which concerns the perpetuity, dignity, and exclusive
maintenance of our' Church Establishment, commonly
called the United-Church ofEngland and Ireland; and it
is, therefore,
.for this, as for so many other reasons,
that the professed religious sentiments of the several
Candidates, or, with greater strictness, their sentiments
upon, our civil institutions a religion, here, as in every
other part of the kingdom, demand the deepest atten-
tion of enlightened Electors, in giving their votes -et
the Election. It is not from. the numbers nor, other
strength of our domestic enemies, uaer this aspect, that
we have any thing to fear; bUt everything from our own
ignorance, and want of particular knowledge of the moral
and political value 'of our Church Establishment.

But if, under,,this view, we look into the several Ad_
dresses of our Candidates, what is it that we find in them
to give us the required satisfaction ? In each, there is a
paragraph, devoted, directly or indirectly; to this great
question of the Church; and the times, as we have de-
scribed them, demand, from Parliamentary Candidates,
upon that question,,the fullest and most precise enunci-
ations. To give this clearness_and precision, there is no
need of many words, nor do we dream of exacting mi-
nute pledges. We want nothing but solemn assurances
of fixed devotion to the interests of the Church of Eng-
land and Ireland, as now by law established. We must
refer, again, in this place, to the words of Earl Grey, at
the Lord Mayor's Dinner. No form of words, of mighty
import, could well be fewer, but they were enough. We
propose them as models for all Candidates at the ensuing
General Election. Let them repeat those words, or words
equivalent, and repeat them without mental reservation,
and we ask no more. Let even those Who profess to
.support the Ministry of Earl Grey, express upon the hus-
tings, only their Sympathy with their master---let-them
say as he has said ;—and we, for our part, shall be entirely
content!

In the Address of the Lord Viscount Sandon, we fincta
paragraph relating to the Church, in whieh, though we
should have liked it to be more plain, we suppose that We
see nothing but the language of a friend. His Lordship
expressly confines himself to the two objects of the sources
of the Church's revenues, and of the apportioning those
revenues within the bosom of the Church

" To measures," says the Noble Candidate, " having for
their object such an alteration in the mode of collecting and
apportioning the revenues of the Church, as, while they
remove defects and avoid occasions of dissention, may improve
her efficiency and insure her stability, I shall lend 'a 'most
favourable attention."

But, in the Address of Mr. Ewart, the passage which
concerns religion is one which, especially when taken, as
it must be, with reference to the rumoured religious opi-
nions and inclinations of that gentleman and his friends,
cannot be read without inviting a disquietude the most
unfavourable to his election-prospects with every loyal
and well-informed elector. Mr. Ewart professes himself
friendly to the "purification
.and disenthralment of reli-
gion!" Now, if the case is not entirely hopeless, it
would greatly oblige ourselves, and, possibly, serve the
interests of Mr. Ewart, if he, or if any of his electioneer-
ing partizans, would turn this passage into common Eng-
lish, and tell us, with distinctness,' What is, intended un-
der the words "purification •of religioni" and what is.
that "enthralment of religion". from
.which it is proposed
to achieve a deliverance?

If the words of Mr. Ewalt; however, are perplexing,
Lose of Mr. Thornely are' Mounding! 'Here is a gen-

tleman who, offering himself as a Candidate to- re-
present a body of his fell6W-subjects in Parliament,
under a Government in Church and State as es-
tablished in 1688, and long before, and under a Crown
which claims to be.kcclesiastical as well as Civil; and who
yet, is actually by his own:declaration, not only is no
"member of the Church. of England," but a member of a
rival and hostile Church—" that great body,. the Dissen-
ters of Great Britain.;"—a great body just as much known
to the Constitution of England, as is the Birmingham
Political Union! Not satisfied, too, with this audacious
avowal, on the lips of a Candidate for a seat in the Impe-
rial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, the
.poor
bewildered gentleman goes on. to•show us, in the, same
breath, the Anti-English fruits of those Anti-English
principles; for he vapours (unhappy man !) about some
imaginary Dissenting virtues, of which it is quite enough
for Englishmen to know, that English law, as broadly as
reasonably, declares them vices! With so much child-
ish and melancholy ignorance, indeed, does Mr. Thornely
strut and mouth it, in his Dissenting garb, while the
world is laughing at its, cat and trimmings,—that, filled
with the god, he actually proclaims, "No hope of public
favour, no fear of public displeasure, shall ever induce
me to 'flinch from that great principle of Protestant Dis-
sent, the right of individual judgment in matters of Reli-
gion!" As if "the great principle of the right of• indi-
vidual judgment in matters of Religion" were in any
manner peculiar to " Protestant Dissent;" as if it were
not the common principle of the whole Protestant world ;
as if it were not the published and practical principle of
the United Church of England and Ireland; or, as if the
adoption and application of that principle could in any
way interfere with a loyal and conscientious attachment
to that Church, as now by law established ! But this ig-
norant calumniator of the institutions of his country, li-
bels. them because he does not understand them; and
performs, agaii.St himself, and beforaiand, the public

duty of demonstrating, in practice along with the-
ory, how totally unfit for a' seat in the Legislature of
the Kingdom, is the man whose edUcation, early 6r late,
parental or self-selected, has been without the pale of the
Kingdom's laws!—Subjoined is the amiable text which
has supplied our commentary. Mr. Thornely, "good,
easy man," actually sets out with a half expression of
Surprise, that, when offering himself for a seat in an Eng-
lish Parliament, it is objected to him that he is " not a
member of the Church of England"—nor of the Church
of Scotland !

been informed that it is objected to me that I am
not a member of the Church of England. It is perfectly true
that I am one of that great Body, the Dissenters of Great
Britain, who build 'their own paces of Worship and pay for
them, who elect their own Ministers and support them,—and
on the'snbjeCt of my own religious opinions, as I have ever
been in reference to others, the warm Friend of Religious
Liberty, and I believe have joined in every Petition that has
been presented from this Town in favour of Catholic Emanci-
pation, so in my own case I give you this assurance, that no
hope of public favour, no fear of public displeasure shall ever
Induce
.me: to•flinch from that great principle of Protestent
Dissent, the right of individual judgment in matters of
Religion." '

And we speak all those things .earnestly, and we speak
them, too, with confidence. The Church—the Monarchy
—is avowedly sought to be made a prey ; the hounds are
in full cry; its enemies are active, and they know what
they are about; its friends are not so much inactive, as
they are uninformed of what would be their loss! The
Rpforrn of Parliament, and the General Election, are
hailed as the means of the destruction sought for; and it is
the Dissenters, Dissenting. Protestants, real or pre-
tended, which make "the great body" thot puts itself
forward to the work. For Dissenting Protestants, real
or pretended, to address themselves to Dissenting'Protes-
tants, also real or pretended, is natural, and may insure a
suitable return ;—but for Churchmen to elect Dissenters
(and in times like these) would be political insanity ! The
People of Englancl-the body of Englishmen who do
not dissent from the religion and religious institutions of
England—these, too, are ‘, a great body," and are hap-
pily of another mould f 'To them is our appeal ; the Elec-
tion is the day of trial; and it is no needless alarm that
we,are seeking to create! The entire country rings with
the danger which we urge upon them :

" The case of Church," says a London Newspaper (the
Atlas) of this week, " grows serious. It is surrounded by
implacable enemies. The Church is falling down, like a sky-
rocket that went up in ablaze, and is likely—to borrow a
thought from a contemporary—to come down an extinguished
firebrand."

But, if this is. really so, it is time for Englishmen to
rally, and no longer to bandy milk-and-water mincings
with Dissenters, or with Jacobins under the Dissenting
name. "To your tents, 0 Lsrael," and " Come out

from the midst of them," will, for these reasons, be our
own loud and continual cries. No doubt, there is a de-
' mand for " Church Reform" set up by persons within
the Church itself ; but the demand without-doors is for
Church Annihilation ;—annihilation of the Church as
part and parcel of the State ;—and it is in the ignorance
and inconsistency of Churchmen, and not in the bitter-
ness and consistency of their raging enemies, that we are
to discern the real signs 'of danger. We know nothing,
in the mean time, of the Church, but as it is the founda-
tion of the Monarchy, andas that without which the Mo-
narchy could have no further existence; and we know
nothing of Dissenters, or of such as usurp the Dissenting
name, except as they boast themselVes the enemies of
that Spiritual Prerogative of the Crown, without the pos-
session of which the royal wearer of the Crown must
cease, from the very term itself, to bear the, name of Mo-
narch ! In the columns of our newspaper we are no theo-
logians ; neither have we anything to do (at least in poli-
tical controversy) with any man's religious opinions, ex-
cept as the hollers, or pretended holders of those opinions,
think proper to identify that holding with an express
hostility to our Established Government, a government,
by its first principles, not more temporal than it is spirit-
ual, or not less spiritual than it is temporal ;—a Govern-
ment which, if it were not spiritual at the same time, or
even before it is temporal, must, from its very nature, be
among the most frightful of tyrannies. We know no-
thing, in like manner, of the Clergy of the Establishment,
but as they are the servants of the State—the ministers
appointed for the People. We are not bestirring our-
selves about any minor, and, in the worst event, any con-
cluding question, such as would be that of the personal
interests of the existing Clergy; but about the great and
foremost question which concerns the perpetual People,
—the only People—the only People of this realm of
England ;—that is, the faithful subjects of the Crown,—
the loyal and devoted subjects of that Throne, spiritual
and temporal, which has held a Nassau, and upon which is
sitting a Brunswick. It is for the People only—and
for the People's Church, the Church of England and Ire-
land; and for that Church only as it is the foundation of the
Monarchy, and that without which, neither in fact nor in
name, could there be any English nor other Monarchy
whatever ;—it is for this that we bestir ourselves ;—for
this that we call upon the whole People to bestir them-
selves ;—and for this Church it is that we will do our ut-
most, as well to defend it against its external enemies,
as to arouse its sleeping family, and to make (what we
believe much needed) its honest well-wishers, in some
moderate degree, at least, aware of its vast political
value, both as the legitimate source of all just govern-
ment among us, and as the origin and refuge of all our '
liberties, alike civil and religious. Without such warn-
ing, and without such knowledge of the treasure which is
at risk, we may happen to use our Church as we use our
other friends, and as our time :

" We let our friends pass by us, like our time,
Till they are yone,—and then we SEE our crime !"

Neither are we insensible of what it is, that in defence
of our Ecclesiastical Establishment, we are called upon to
confront. Besides the possibility of certain misunder-
standings, temporary or lasting, with the followers of the
Church themselves, we have to brave its avowed enemies,
and to deal, at one moment, with a pert and smirking phi-
losophy, and, at the next, with a grovelling superstition;
vices ofa kindred order of minds, and belonging to kind-

red modicums of learning, however unfriendly the
sors of each toward the other :

" Both claiming truth, and truth disclaiming both."
We shall perform, however, our duty. We are not 6;j
ing wind-mills, neither have sought the contest. The
indeed, is, in every way, save that of duty only, 113c6tio
inently painful to us, but it shall be fulfilled. Viol
senters, or men styling themselves Dissenters,
chosen to form themselves into what they calla
lanx," and to seize upon the "Parliamentary Ref°°l.,
affording the instrument and the time for overthrle,
the Constitution, by an attack upon the spiritual si
its structure. They come furiously and noisily taln,y
field, and promise themselves a certain victory. It e
not be our fault, in the meantime, if, not only the
cape no total defeat, but if they do not retire with thin,
ranks. It shall not be our fault, if thousands of their l;
sent numbers do not quit them in disgust ;—if thou°,
now among them, do not hereafter blush that they eti
called themselves Dissenters! We shall do all, t
ti
in self-defence. It is not the Church which attael`s
Dissenters, but the Dissenters who attack the Ch
cv,
to
In the words of one of the Whigs in the House of
~.41
mons in 1688, spoken in reference to religious e°s
of another denomination, we can securely say, that
1.
do not attack their religion ; we do but defend our
We defend the National Church Establishment; alio
so doing, we_defend the foundations and the supers
ture of the whole Establishment of the State.

In the Address of Lord Sandon, the view pre%
by the Noble writer, of the difficulties which Burroto
West India Slavery Question, bespeak a discrituilla
temper, and habits of calm investigation, such as nlu
always be. among the least dispensable qualificati°
a Parliamentary Representative :

" To the subject of Colonial Slavery" (says his Lordslli,
" I look with pain and sorrow of heart. I see a state of
which must be injurious to the moral condition of the
e
while it is degrading to that of the many; a state of #hoilti
which cannot and should not long stand, yet out of vfrtl
when taken with all its accompanying, but essential, ciretil
stances, we have no,experience -to guide us to the Ina"
safely and advantageously escaping.
" I see involved in this experiment, on the one hand to 01,
and fortunes of thousands of my fellow-subjects; the
2_111::40
religious, and temporal improvement, or return to baru:j.io
and indolence, of a still greater number, on the other. I
peril at home the industry of many thousands, whose 01°0
u ring and commercial occupations hang upon the prosPe ry
f our Colonies ; a revenue, largely depending on colonial p,o
duce, and already in a state not to bear farther defaleatjo,
without general embarrassment and ruin. I see this 1)01)1e:ill
so difficult in its own nature, yet so necessary to be solved,
further complicated by too indiscriminate resistance and '
gious persecution on the one hand; by intemperate and Or
rious dictation on the other. _

" or'
" Under these circumstances, anxious as I have been fty
solution of this difficulty, I confess I have seen it neither in it
imperfect and ill-digested legislation of the Orders in CouPco,
nor in the immediate Emancipation now demanded by the Let
don Anti-Slavery Society. Extensive inquiries into this 8
tibt
'subject in all its bearings have been instituted, and n° utee
will be resumed by both Houses of Parliament. The C01:°1/2-iir•
of the Houge of Com Mons more especially, as moved by
bed
Buxton, and amended, at my suggestion, by Lord AlthorPt
the
for its object the investigation of the best means of effecting
abolition of Slavery, at as early a period as is compatible
the safety of all classes in the Colonies, and in conformity iO,
the Resolutions of 1823; and, until the conclusion of those
tll,
quiries, so moved and supported, I should deem it Pre'ufstl/
ous to form a decided opinion upon the subject. I ear,-deo,s
hope that we may see, as the result of those investigat'' of
series of measures, grounded on a more accurate knowleu'uld
the varying circumstances of different Colonies, (and, I 4011
fain hope, upon a better understanding with them,) which 00,
comprise within itself the germ of no slow EmanciP:lti
together with security for the continued industry of the
and compensation, where necessary, to the Master."

t°
Our readers will rejoice to know, that a Pet— iti° to
His Majesty. against the Dutch War, forwarded
the Duke of Wellington, for presentation, signed °Twill);
wards of 700 of the most influential Bankers arid
chants of this town..

sl
With kindred feelings, also, of pre-eminent EtaLi e 1,49
tion, our readers will learn, that a similar Petition '—f
already been agreed upon by our loyal neighbour
Warrington, and is numerously and most respect°o
signed.

It is often asked (and with a deceitful appearance
mri
reason,) what tl3e people are to gain by Parliamea;r,
Reform; but the example of a neighbouring borough ',ea
nishes a rational answer to the inquiry. At the last arte"
tion in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the highest price of v°sre
was thirty pounds a diece ; but at this moment they
ery
selling, wholesale, at five-and-thirty pounds, and ere
prospect of a rise; so, that here, under the happy. 10
spices of Parliamentary Reform, is a clear and obvi-ndi
gain of five pounds der annum. By the way, how
light does it not throw upon the hardship undergouder
those electors who are anywhere obliged to vote
influence, and thus robbed, in open day, of the whyle-a 0d
which their free votes would sell for in the market;
what confusion, further, would not a system of Rai° god
troduce, in these cases, between buyer and seller;
ie
how little would the interests of Newcastle-under34es,
and its fellows be consulted, by the adoption of that
sure ! Even the soup, which, at the cost of £l5O, was fet
dributed, by tickets, among the Newcastle voters. 0;
days since, would never smoke under the Ballot sYs,
for who would doubt the effect of the inevitable roal
" No vote, no soup?"

A
eivNedo.
in London
LnAnnsdonnn-sbitreet.
Messrs.Ordrs a
LIVERPOOL ;—Printed in Union Court, Castle-street, and ,••gh-street, Exchange, by SAMUEL F RANCEYS, ot!
at No. 7, HiBJsQ
of
e
etNEInVTdOANd,
Newgate-street ; an.d, Mr. BARKER, 33, Fleet-street. •
v&erctisne..ravienatsrsvaireti...,, .

L,

7