The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-10-09 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF Till? LIVERPOOL ST,INDARD.

SIR,-At the present moment, when newspapers are full of the
vulgar slang cf that political gladiator, O'Connell, and in the
absence of any matter of interest, one is apt to glance at his
coarse invectives in order that we may satisfy ourselvec that,
contrary to the old adage, the devil is as black as public opi-
nion stamps him.

It was after a perusal of his proceedings in Scotland I was
induced to take up the Edinburgh Review for July; the first
article, ".Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution,"
being worthy of a careful perusal I think it would or ought to
satisfy any unprejudiced mind that O'Connell is playing the
same part the Jesuits played in those times, and has the same
object in view in the re-establishing the Roman Catholic reli-
gion as the national religion. In pago 307 you will find the
following passage:—
" The game which the jesuits were playing was no new
game. A hundred years before they had preached up political
freedom just as they are even now preaching up religious free-
dom. They had tried to raise the repuolicans against Henry
the 4th and Elizabeth just as they are even now trying to raise
the protestant dissenters against the church establishment. In
the sixteenth century the tools of Philip the Second were con-
stantly insisting on the right of people to cashier kings, and of
every private citizen to plunge his dagger in the heart of a
wicked ruler. In the seventeenth century the persecutors of
the ilueenots were crying out against the tyranny of the esta-
blished'church of England, and vindicating with the utmost
fervour the rightof all man to adore God after their own fashion.
In both cases they were alike insincere. In both cases the fool
who had trusted them would have found himself miserably
duped. A good and wise man would, doubtless, disapprove of
the arbitrary measures of Elizabeth. But would he have really
served the interests of political liberty if he had put faith in the
professions of the Romish casuistsjoined their party, and taken
a share iu Northumberland's revolt, or in Babington's con-
spiracy ? Would he not have been assisting to establish a far
worse and more loathsome tyranny than that which he was try-
ing to put down ? In the same manner a good and wise man
would, doubtless. see very much to condemn in the conduct of
the church of England under the Stuarts. But was he, there-
fore, to join the King and the catholics against that church ?
And was it not plain, that by so doing, he would assist in setting
up a spiritual despotism, compared with which the despotism of
the establishment was as a little finger to the loins—as chas-
tisement with whips to chastisement with scorpions?"
I have sent this extract from being struck with the similarity
of the spirit and proceedings of the past with the present age,
and feel more fully convinced of the truths of the maxim, that
when bad men conspire good men should unite, and to this end
we ought to examine ourselves closely, and in our opinions and
votes we should pray to be guided by reason and net led by
party or passion, and in endeavouring to correct abuses, or
more properly speaking, adapting our laws to the times we live
in, according to the spirit of our glortou's constitution let us
unite iu one body and oppose invincibly phalanx ready at one
blow to arrest the hydra-headed monster O'Connell, the scourge
of Ireland, and the pest of civilized society.—l remain,
_sir,
your obedient servant, JOHN STAUNCH.

O'Connell's object, like that of James the 2d, is to produce
a conflict between the church and the protestant dissenters, and
thus to facilitate the victory of the catholics over both.

THE ECONOMY OF TREES AND PL ANTS.

The eaonomy of trees, plants, and vegetables, is a
curious subject of inquiry, and in all of them we may
trace the hand of a beneficent Creator. The same care
which he has bestowed on his creatures is extended to
plants ; this is remarkably the case with respect to 'lol-
lies; the edges of the leaves arc providad with. strong,
sharp spines, as high up as they are within the reach of
-cattle ; above that height the leaves are generally smooth,
the protecting spines being no longer necessary. Mr.
SOntheV has noticed this circumstance -in the. following
pretty lines:-
0 reader ! bast thou ever stood to see
The holly tree ?
The eya that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves ;
• Ordered by an Intelligence so wise
As might confound an atheist's sophistries.
Below a circling' fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen ;
No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound;
But, as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear.
I was lately shown a plant which puts out a pretty,
modest flower from the lower part of the stem. When
its blossom is over, the stalk on which it grew turns down
to the ground, the end penetrates the earth, and-there
throws out and ripens its seed-pod; but for this propen-
sity of. the plant, the seed would probably be destroyed
by birds and insects. Some plants flourish in one clim-
ate, and others in another, according to the several pur-
poses• for which they were designed by a good Provi-
dence. Some which are generally useful will bear almost
any temperature. This is particularly the case with
grass. Nettles, I believe, are never touched by cattle of
any description, neither will they trample upon diem.
What a secure retreat, therefore, do they afford for birds
to build their nests amongst, and for hares to deposit their
young amidst the shelter they afford. The same remark
applies in a great degree to furze, thistles, and the com-
mon bramble.—Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History.

Burst On'lNG.—" 14y
marm wants to know if your marm will
lend my znarm your znarm's pickaxe to make our hog a hen-
coop?' "Oh, certainly; and when you go home,
just ask
your intither if she'll be kind enough to lend us a keg of that
firkin of butter she bought to-ciao, that's a nice little man; and
just clean us a mess of them pouts'and eels that your father
caught this afternoon, and bring them down with the butter,
my dear, and certainly give you the first bright cent that I
find in the usher." " I guess, on the whole," said the boy,
we shan't want that pickas..e of yourn."—Dedham ,Patriot
(American taper.)