The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-12-29 00:00:00

and he suspected had taken something. He immediately ran
back, and called to the policeman to stop the two men, the pri-
'sotters'at the bar. One of them (Doyle) refused to be searched,
and offered considerable resistance to the officer, and Pulled him
to the dock side, where he saw him -throw.somethinz white into
the dock. That morning two packages of Irish linen had been
found floating in the dock; other two were missing which had
probably sunk. The sailor who had seen the men about corro-
borated this statement, and also stated that Rooney sat himself
dOwn on one of the packages, and was the person who took the
linen out: Both prisoners denied knowing anything about it.
They were.conunitted to take their trial at the sessions.
John Fry, Mariner, was committed to take his trial at the ses-
sions for stealinz a watch -the day before, the property of his
maAter, the captain of a Spanish vessel.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ETANDIRD.

Sie,—The doctrines laid down in a contemporary journal,
(the Albion.of Monday last,) with respect to the right of resist-
ance to the payment of tithes in Ireland, appear to be of so
dangerous and novel a character as to call for a reply not only
because the consequences to which these doctrines tend would
terminate in the total subversion of a church establishment in
Ireland, but because, if once admitted, society itself would •be
shaken to its base, and might, not right, ba justified as the ulti-
mate appeal of .the discontented. The questiqu.most immedi-
ately at issue is not whether titheis the best mode in the present
stage of civilization of remunerating the clergy. irt Ireland or in
other countries. There may be many conscientious individuals
who thiok., the system requires change, who believe that the
existing. mode of. levying and of appropriating the tithe is pre-
judicial and unjust, and who, by commutation or other means,
would entirely abolish tithes as a means of payment to the
clergy.. : But these are points for moral and economical consi-
deration at a later period, and, not now the matter in dispute.
This, and it is a solemn question for the rulers of a
.people to
answer,,is, whether the law is to be violated with unpUnity;
whether its majesty is to be ridiculed, and its edicts disregarded;
or whether it is to be vindicated with energy, and, if necessary,
upheld by force. However great may-be the wrong, or how-
:ever flagitious the enactments with respect, to tithes in the eyes
lof the maltOntented, they certainly rest upon the same foundas
tions, and are sanctioned by the same forms of legislation as
those other laws which eprevail is this country, and against
which neither the most wicked nur the most bold have yet dared
to set themselves up in active or passive array. The selfsame
right which conferred property in land, conferred property iu
tithe, and to seek fur the origin of either, beYond the mere law
!of,the land which bestowed both, is to plunge into the mazes
- of, obscure and visionary reasoning. Ohedience, full and, per-
. fact obedience to the law, ii one ()Nile first elements of civilized
life; and if this duty is directly violated without penalty; or
414ftety eluded. and set 'at nought.- at. the eatpriteasf ifinvittaAS
or the of interest, there is at once an end of Overt'',
_snenteand with it of society properly so called. -The right.of
insurrection by a people when writhing under oppression is
adduced to Justify by analUgy the right of resistance to tithes,
and Mr. Jefferson's opinion is called in aid of the justification
of rebellion. Without intending to underrate such an authO--
rity, it wouldperhaps have been better upon thisaubject to have
recurred to a less interested party; and if the writings of the
greatest publicists are consulted, it will there be found that there
is no point so cautiously treated, no subject held to be so deii-
Ilcate (except when the commands of the sovereign aro at vari-
ance with the Divine law) as to decide where submission in.a na-
tion ought to cease, and where it is lawful for resistance to begin.
And if this be true where the power of the prince is absolute,
which is the supposition under which Puffendorf and Wattel
condemn the doctrine of resistance to authority as criminal,
how **eh less can such resistance be approved of when the
people have, by their representatives and other means, a regu-
gular, legitimate, and influential mode of remonstrance. What
might have been justifiable in Athens against the Pisistratithe,
or what was laudable in Corinth on the part of Timoleou; what
was to be commended in Rome when the senate proscribed the
Tarquins, and when Brutus, in his consular office, trade the
people swear never more to submit to kingly authority; or when
again, in another instance, what was praiseful when the people
revolted- against the deeenivir; Amiiiis Claudius, on account of
his atrocities, and abolished the office, is not to be discussed
here, nor are these cases in point, although continually appealed
to by the dilaffected as sanctifying the cause of rebellion, and
as having their apology in the best feelings of mankind. Eat
these eveats have, in fact, no application to the circumstances of
our own times, and, least of all, to those of odr own country;
and though they may be ambitiously cited as examples of
glowing patriotism to urge on the enthusiast and the fanatic
to acts of overt rebellion, they are after ail only brilliant excep-
tions to the rules upon which society is framed, and their vindiea-
tion depends greatly upon the harbality of the.age in which they
originated. But laying aside all further reflections as to the
defence set up too. frequaeatly in these days in favour of resist-
ance, whether general or particular, to lawful. authority, and
referring once more to the cinestion of tithes, with Out entering
into those.mixed causes of policy and religion from which this
contribution to a certain class of society sprang, it may be de-
sirable to observe that the justification of tithes as au imposthas not, as it is pretended, in any way rested for centuries past,
upon what is termed the division into three or four parts—
namely, one for the repair of religious edificese-anothef for:the
lupport of the poor—and another for the maintenance-of the
clergy, which last, it is said significantly, had the stnallet por-
tion. Notwithstanding that such 'a division as this, or one simi-
lar. to it, excepting that the bishop had also a part; which is an
important fact in showing that the church as a body had not as
stated the smallest part. Charlemagne adopted, when he 'de-
creed the payment of tithes, which, before this lime; though ad-
vocated by the clergy, are stated by Moutetqien not -to- have
been established by positive law: If all this be true with regard
, to-the division of tithes at their origin, or, more strictly speak-
ing, at what may be called their revival, it is also as !rue that
alienations, were subsequently made, and these have been since
either ratified virtually, or expressly, by those same laws which
protect national and individual property, and it hence folhovs
that, unless we would see the rights of property invaded, the
existing clergy are as much entitled to their tithes or to compen-
sattou as the landlord is to his rent. But even if this should be
denied, upon the principle that public and private property do
not rest upon the same basis, tithes, in justice, cannot in any
case, as they now are in Ireland, be retained by the owner or
teaaut of the. seilie If _she.one, rasiets.eand the other eutourages
the resistance, they stand both equally convicted or dishonesty,
and before conscience can be allowed to be an excuse on their
parts, the money now held back forcibly and iniquitously, (for
under ao circumstances can it belong to the party so retaining
it',) should at least he deposited in third hands to await the deem-
s* of the tribunal to whom the case is finally to be referred.
That tribunal would necessarily be the legislature of the coun-
try; who seeing the question at issue to be in truth one of prin-
ciple, would then feel itself more end more imperatively bound
to consider and redress the alleged wrong. That church pro-
perty has been confiscated by the different countries of Europe
in succession, as each has gone through its fiery ordeal of revo-
lution orconquest, is no argument for the justice of such a
proceeding, nor does the authority, though somewhat ostenta-
tiously adduced, of the Emperor Joseph 11., (himself but an
awkward mimic of Frederick the Second,) render it mare
praiseworthy.- " His conduct, says an eminent writer, ought
not to be taken as a rule, fur his reign has been described as eine
continued scene of agitation and disappointment, and his plans
of...reform, however beneficial in many particulars, as exciting
general discontent, and proYeking an opposition which threatened
the very existence of hisempire ; and added to which he is accused
of concealing despotism and ambition under the mask of phi-
losophy and benevolence." In addition to 'this, a foreign
bingtapher also strongly remarks, that • ti.nprincipled ambition.
--a restless degree of innovation —disregard of the rights and
feelings of his subjects, and the perpetual phrsuit of projects
inconsiderately adopted and lightly forsaken rendered his reign
an incessant struggle, ending with the defeat of almost every
plan which lie had formed ftii the public improvement or the
increase of his own authority."
Although church property has not, as it is stated, been held
inviolable in France, Spain, and other countries, there is a
broad.distinction between the legislature of a nation (whether
.it had a right to do so or not is not now to be inquired into,)
alieuating the possessions of the clergy and dectdring them
to be the property of the state, and a section of a state •setang
itself up in opposition to all law, and 'consigning to its own
use that which, if it does not belong of eight to the clergy,
assuredly is not the , property of the party holding it back.
But it cannot be too -often repeated, that until the law is
changed, the tithe is unquestionably legally vested in the
clergy,. and it would be as unfair because the law of primogenie
tire may be a bad one, to divide an entail by forte as it would
be to alter the distribution of the tithe, unless the sequestration
were sanctioned by the legislature, and compensation were.
Hgranted for the injury done. The greatest perhaps; amongst
the many great speeches of Grattan was that which he made in
1787 upon tithe. He traced its rise and progress from the
earliest times of .Jewish theocracy to the present day. He de-
precated many of its effects, and lamented over its results, but
he breathed nut a word which could be construed into a justi-
fication of resistance to its payment, and only advocated ino-
deration in its collection, and an improved method of fixing its
amount. It was reserved for these latter times to see resistance
systematized, and that resistance, if not justified, at least mere
than palliated, and it is much to be feared; such is the short-
sightedness of immediate self-interest, that even some proses-
aa.nis in Ireland are not very adverse to the progress of that
,spirit.against the payment of tithe which 'inew so dangerously
sprevails, forgetting that the days may soon come arisen the
right obtained through conquest by the Sassenach to the Soil
may be equally questioned with the protestant clergyman's
claim to the tithes. The picture of Ireland is. melancholy to
look upon in every point of view, 'amid they-who see in it more a
question of. religion than at'y other, oYerloakthe histerVof those -
dark periods when ruled by its own kings, and goVernee by its
own-laws, it was stiThurtilent. disquieted, and factions. ,
To enforce the.paymmatof lithe "at thepsaint of-the bayonet"
may he au unfortunate hecause it seems a harsh eitnressiOn, but
eitrelv it is only.lo'he ainderstood as having been used rheto-
rically, and the fignie'of speech ought not to be objected •to by
those who, though they may not intend to set down "aught. in
inalice," state Without reservation, that archbishops in succession
have left £U/SW t0.,£500,000 to their families, and that the:cler-
gy es a body
_in Ireland have shown theruselveslo be worldly and
immoral. Statem6hts such as these are, nittst be coloured, how-
ever unconsciously by prejudice, for nithout in any way milling
.to detract from the virtues of the catholic Clergy, of which there
are many shining proofs, yet viewed as 'a 'body of moral teach-
ifs, the general testimony of Europe 'has been undeniably in
favour of their protestant fellow laboarere. But this'is not the
paint' in contention, nor as it bus before been urged, are n-e now
to ilecitle upon the wisdom or ehefolly of the existing laws re-
specting the Claims of the clergy upon the land, but it is to be
. aletermined, and that seriously,—whether those claims shall be
tix(ljusted by legislative interfence, or whether they shall be
',fraudulently evaded to; those from whom they are due—whether
in fine the law shall be vindicated in all its dignity, or
whether it Shall continue to be Contemned and despised— whet her
those who. resist shall still go on enjoying their immunity, or be
reduced fly force, if required, into obedience and eubmission ;
considering with the eathor of the Enquiry respecting Political
. Justice, that abuses even when. proved should be corrected by
the.silent hostility of opinion instead of... She active direct oppo-
sition of rebellion. VINDEX.
December 24:11.

DO TILE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST.IND,IRD.

Top of the "iintrn hall, 28th Pec; 183.

Mr DEAR EDlTOR,—Ahhouh I'd Ont suppose you will have
any very great influence with my new masters, yet 1 trust you
will not refuse to render me your 'assistance in the situation in
which I fear I am now placed; and. which, I can assure you, is
a matter which perplexes me not a little.
The fact is, that a " Bird of the Air'' hath, with great consi-
deration for my personal feelings, carried unto me a report
which ha accidentally heard, viz., that one of the first acts of
the flew council will be of course without any consultation of
my feelings on the subject), to clothe my 'hitherto admired
foi.rn, (I say this without vanity,) in the ungainly, and to me
useless trappings of a " cork jacket."
Oh save me, Mr. Editom, from this indignity, and I shall
ever afterwards be—Your obliged,

"BRITANNIA."

My feathered informant also stat4d4 that he suspected a plan
was on foot for demolishing the •' apposit;uo Baths" on the
Pier-head, but this I fancy would be too glaring an illustt a-
tion.of the levelling principle for these worthies- to venture on
just at present. -