The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-04-08 00:00:00

Great sensatior

taught at t
(Hear, hear.) T
which Mr

ence to the compact which

to exist, and in my re-
marks upon that subject I will endeavour to be as brief as
possible. Before, however, entering upon that point,
allow me to make one or two observations with reference
to the speech of the noble member for Liverpool, Lord
Sandon—for I will not say our representative, upon this
subject. (Loud and genernl cheering.) His lordship
assigned two or three reasons in addition to the alleged
compact why this grant should be made. He tells u
" He found tha

had fought the battes o
times of peril ; and cou

rt of boon to those who
and had stood by her in

had been made under

such circumstances, and cent
refused." (Hear, hear.)
I have no doubt that the noble lord, for whom personall,
I have the highest regard and respect—a respect, in
which I will yield to no man, is well versed in the history
both of England and Ireland, and I do not mean to say
that some such statement is not to be found ; but, I con-
fess, it is the first time I ever heard of military service
being rewarded by grants for teaching Roman Catholic
doctrines. (Hear, and much applause.) It is certainly
a most extraordinary way of rewarding military achieve-
ments ; and if the statement had not been made i❑ Eng-
land, I should have said it was an Irish statement alto-
._

d during 50 years, be now

gether, (Loud cheers, and some laughter.) There— is
one other statement which the noble lord makes, which
I am anxious to impress upon this meeting, because we
are not to consider the present as a final measure. (Hear,
hear.) The noble lord said, that—
He had on every occasion voted in favour of Catholic eman-
cipation, and he had also voted with his noble friend the mem-
ber for South Lancashire in favour of an endowment for the
Catholic clergy of Ireland, and he would vote for that proposal
again if it were brought before the house." (Hear.)
This precisely shews us, that this is not to be considered
a final measure ;—(hear, hear)—and I think that what-
ever our personal regard for Lord Sandon may be—and I
repeat, again, I will yield to none in my personal respect
for his lordship's private character, and for his talents as
a cotnmercial representative of Liverpool—yet, I do
think, looking at this subject as christian men, we must
bear in mind that Lord Sandon is prepared to vote again
for the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy of Ire-
land. (Loud cries of hear, hear.) Neither, Sir, will
that be final. (Hesr.) The noble lord made an obser-
vation in the course of his speech, for which, I think,
even Sir Robert Peel and many other gentlemen in the
House of Commons would scarcely be prepared. (Hear.)
He said,—
" He could not forget that the Protestant church had appro-
priated all the ecclesiastical revenues and properties of every
description to Ireland, leaving the people still under the religi.
ous guidance of their Roman Catholic pastors, and making no
provision whatever for their churches or subsistence. (Hear,
hear.) He could not, therefore, look on the question as a sim-
ple one of endowment, but he regarded it more in the light of

restitution." (Hear and cheers')
(General cries of " Oh, oh," and " hear, hear.") If, sir,
we come to the subject of restitution—if a man has taken
what does not belong to him, he must restore the whole
and not a part. (Hear.) And if Lord Sandon's principle
be correct, it is not a paltry grant of £30,000 or £40,000
to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, that must
be made, but, on the principle of restitution, we must
restore all the property both in Ireland and England
which has been wrested from the Roman Catholics.
(Hear, hear.) The other point to which I shall refer is
that with regard to the compact or contract upon which
Lord Sandon has dwelt so fully. I am speaking in'a com-
mercial town, and I speak as a commercial man ; I think,
too, I know something of the nature of a contract, and I
hope, sir, I respect the obligations of a compact. Sir, it
is a common course, if a person says he has a contract, to
ask to see the contract. (Hear, hear.) If it is not pro-
duced, I must either question its existence, or the terms
of it; either it is not in existence at all or the terms are
not such as they are represented to be. (Hear, hear.)
But lam disposed to ask this question—if it is a contract,
why appeal annually to the House of Commons to grant
it? (Loud cries of Hear, hear.) This grant is made an-
nually, and if the contract was in existence at all there
would have been no necessity to apply annually for the
grant. (Hear, hear.) lam disposed, however, to take a
somewhat higher ground than this; and I regret most
sincerely, Mr. Chairman, that upon this ground I feel I
must differ from you. lear.) I respect your opinions
sir, so highly, that it is with great pain and unfeigned re-
gret I venture to express even a single syllable at all at
variance with the tenour of your admirable observations.
But you remarked, I think, that if there was a contract,
let it be fulfilled. Now, sir, in our English courts of law,
if a contract is brought into court, and that contract be
either immoral or illegal is declared void ab initio.
(Hear, hear.) Admitting that this contract is existing,
all I ask is this, that we show the same respect to the laws
of Godlas we do to the laws of the land. (Loud cheers.)
I do not know that it is necessary to go further into the
subject of compact. There is, however, one compact,
which I think there are more parties than one bound to
respect. (Loud and general cries of " hear, hear.") The
Queen of England occupies her throne by a compact.
(Cheers.) Our reverend and much respected friend Mr.
Stewart, read part of the coronation service ; and if our
reverend friend had gone a little further he would have
found a still more important part of it, which, sir, I will
with your permission read
:
"I, Victoria, do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of
God, profess, testify, and declare that I do believe that the invo-
cation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and
the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of
Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous."

Now in the face of that declaration so recently made,
what must we think of the first minister of this land,
who asks the Queen of England to affix her signature to
a bill for endowing and perpetuating the teaching of
those doctrines which she has, in the face of her people
and solemnly in the sight of God, declared to be super-
stitious and idolatrous ?—(Loud cheers.)—Sir, I shall not
further occupy the time of this meeting, but I will just
put the meeting in possession of the opinion of a gentle-
man who has recently seceded from her Majesty's govern-
ment, I mean Mr. Gladstone. (Hear.) It is a very re-
markable opinion. Mr. Gladstone in his work entitled
"The Church in its relations with the State", alludes to
this grant to Maynooth ; and what is his opinion? His
words are:—

"In principle it is wholly vicious, and it will be a thorn in
the side of the state of these countries so long as it is con-
tinued." (Hear, bear.)

Such is the opinion of Mr. Gladstone; and it is with the
solemn conviction of the truth of that statement—and I
am sure it must be a subject of deep regret to every one
in this meeting—that the minister of the crown should
have introduced the bill which he has introduced into the
House of Commons—a bill of which I will only express
the hope, faint as it may be, that the Commons of En-
gland yet will not adopt it—that the Queen of England
will yet never sign it—(tremendous cheering)—(and with
the next point you, my friends, have something to do with
—that the people of England will never sanction it.—
(Immense and long-continued cheers).
The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution and it was
unanimously carried.

Mr. T. T. GLAZEBROOK moved that the petition be
adopted, and sent for presentation to the members for the
borough. (Cries of " No, no.") He said—after the
speeches you have heard I shall not say more than a very
few words. I will, however, say that I rejoice that this
public meeting has been held in Liverpool, for on other
occasions of less importance than this public meetings
have been held. Some years ago a system of education
that was thought to be injurious was introduced, and it
was not thought necessary to get up a great opposition
to the measure provided it were presented in a modified
state ; but every means were used to rouse the sympathy
and energies of the town; and if it were right then it is
right now to take steps to get up such a remonstrance as
is suited to the importance of the occasion. It is stated,
on the high authority of Mr.Colquhoun, that Drs.Troy and
Reilly made a representation to Mr. Pitt on the subject,
and urged that government should take the matter under
their own control—that they should make such salutary
alterations in May nooth as to make it an useful institution ;
but at the same time those very persons were in connexion
with a treasonable committee at Dublin, some of whom
expiated their treason upon the scaffold. After a few
other observations, in the course of which Mr. Glazebrook
disclaimed all feeling of unkindness towards the Roman
Catholic church he sat down amidst loud cheers.

The Rev. HUGH WNEILE then came forward to se-
cond the resolution. The rev. gentleman was very warmly
received. He said, Mr. Chairman ; there is, sir, a large
number of people assembled in this place whom I should
be very sorry to disappoint, or in any way to grieve.
There may be, and I think it very likely there are, a few
persons here whom I should be extremely glad to dis-
appoint. (Hear.) Therefore, sir, conscious of my own
infirmity, I have taken the liberty of writing a scriptural
protest upon this subject, which, with your permission, I
will read before I make a speech. The rev. gentleman
then read, with great impressiveness, the following :
We are assembled here to day, not actuated by any de-
sire to find fault with others, neither by any unwillingness
that those who differ from us in opinion, should possess
every advantage really conducive to their true and perma-
nent happiness ; but by a deep and solemn sense of our
responsibility and duty. The question before us is a re-
ligious question. As such we have felt it ; as such we
have thought, and written, and spoken upon it. But in
the meaning commonly applied to the word religious, it is
not an exclusively religious question. It may indeed be
doubted, whether in the present state of the world, any
practical questions, entirely or exclusively religious, can
arise among men. Man, consisting as he does of body
as well as spirit, and the Christian dispensation consisting
as it does, of outward and visible ordinances, as well as
inward and spiritual principles ; the different branches of
the subject cannot be so radically separated, as some per-
sons think they may be and are. If the commandments
of Almighty God were exclusively addressed to man's
inward feelings, and conveyed by the unseen ministration
of angels, independent of any human instrumentality,
then religion might be wholly separated from the affairs of
this world. But this is not the case—God's command-
ments are addressed to man's outward actions also, and are
conveyed by human instrumentality of divine appoint-
ment : and thus a man's intercourse with God, and obe-
dience to God's law, i. e. his religion specially so called,
is absolutely inseparable from much that belongs to his
intercourse with his fellow man. In every discussicn.