The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

it, and Iwould have been prou

it were still unfurled (loud eh

warmly (cheer:)—

—perhaps

—but to' be supposed to be 0

one—l am no such thing.
Sir R. PEEL again made an observation, but in too low
a tone to reach the gallery.
Mr. Sewn' had used the word counsel by way of illus-
trating his argument only, but a direct charge had been
brought against himself ; but probably he had been mis.
taken, and was s..rry for the warmth into which be had
been betrayed. (Cheers.) He conceived the measures
would have a most mischievous effect upon all classes,
but more particularly the labouring c

s, beeau.e they

would be reduced to something like an equality in con-
sumption with their fellow-labourers on tine Continent.
The measure proposed was nothing less in his estimation
than a breach of the constitution. ( Hear.) They had
heard at one time from that side of the house of " free
trade in the abstract;" and in another house a noble duke
(the Duke of Wellington) had asked " what was the mean-
ing of a free trade government ?" They hed all heard
much of " free trade in the abstract." Many travellers,
from Mentor and Telemachus down to the present day, were
in favour of " free trade in the abstract." (Laughter.)
Why he himself was in favour of free trade in the ab-
stract. (Laughter.) But when hon. gentlemen insisted
upon speaking of free trade in the abstract, he should
like them also to speak of this•country in the abstract.
(Hear.) If it were common sense to speak of this em-
pire, or of the world, in the abstract, !hen they were at
liberty to indulge themselves in eulogies upon free trade
in the abstract; but, on the other hand, when their rela-
tions with foreign nations were so complicated as they
were, he defied any man to entertain the notion of apply-
ing free trade to them. Free trade, as he understood,
meant the abolition of all custom duties. Were they then
prepared to abandon their custom duties, and give up
£22,000,000 per annum ; or if they were so resolved upon
free trade, would \ they give up £13.000,000 of excise;
for the continuance of the excise was an anomaly in
free trade country. (Hear, and cheers.) Let them con
sider the amount of taxes that must be collected every
year; and then take away £22,000,000, and £13.000,000

. „
and how were they to make up the deficiency ? Was it by
a capitation tax, or by a property tax of 30 per cent?
They had imposed upon them a debt of £800,000,600, and
they must pay the in•erest upon that debt every year.
How were they to do so? or, having to do so, how were
they to compete with other nations, which were free from
such an encumbrance ? Were they to plsce in the same
lists, as champions equally rna.ched, the man who had a
hundred weight upon his back, and the man who was free,
unencumbered, and unetnbarrassed ? It was unfair, un-
wise, and, he would add, impolitic, to enter both men into
the same lists, to require from each the same task, and
not to give to him on whom t hey placed a large burden
, any counterpoise.

*
The observation. as given in the Daily New:, w
whom are you counsel now ?"

A STATEMENT OF REASONS, AND A
PUZZLING QUESTION.

On Friday night, in the House of Commons, on the
motion that the debate be adjourned,
Lord NORTHLAND rose amid cries of "divid
"adjourn." he said that he felt it his imperati
in consequence of certain observations which had been
made in the course of the debate, to take the present op-
portunity of staring the reasons which inflaer.ced him in
the course which he intended to adopt ii ith respect to the
measure before them. his opinion with respect to that
measure remained unchanged. But he agreed with the
noble lord the member for Live. pool, and the hon. gentle-
man the member for the city of Inverness, that they ought
to legislate with some regard for the future. Ile thought
that it must be evident to the house and to the country,
that the present corn-laws were doomed (hear, hear). The
fatal day might be forestalled, but he feared the agricul-
tural interest would not he able at a future period to make
so satisfactory an adjustment (oh,oh). The crisis had ar-
rived, and he fe:t that it was for the benefit of the farmers
of England (ironical cheers and laughter), for the interest
of the landlords of tengland (renewed cheers and laughter),
that this momentous question should be finally settled. He
repeated that his opinions remained unchanged (roars of
laughter). It had come to this, either the right hon.
baronet the First Minister of the Crown, or the noble
'ord the member for the city of London, must settle this
question. He said it with the greatest respect, but he had
no confidence in that noble lord (laughter). He had great
confidence in the right hon. baronet the First Minister of
the Crown, (renewed merriment). The right hon. baro-
net in proposing these measures was ac'uated, he knew,
by a conscientious conviction of the necessities of the
country (ironical cheers). Taking all these circumstances
into consideration (hear, hear), and seeing that the ques-
tion must be settled, he would rather it would be settled
by the right hon. baronet. (The noble lord resumed his
seat amid great laughter.)
- - _

e," and
ye duty,

Mr. FERRAND.----I should like to hear what confidence
the noble lord had in the right hon. barouct when he was
dragged out of the Coal-hole to vote for him on a late
occasion. (Roars c f laughter.)
Lord NORTHLAND rose, from
without making any observation

his seat, but resumed it

AN INDEPENDENT CHURCH

We last week noticed the proceedings now going on in
the Swiss Canton of Vaud, arising out of an attempt of -a
large number of the ministers of the Evangelical Church,
there constitutionally established, to render that institu-
tion independent of the State. From one of the numerous
documents, in French, handed to us, and from which we
derived our information, we translate the f Towing pas-
sages on the necessity of an Established Church, con-
tained in replies from M. Druey, the President of the
Council of State, to letters from certain of the clergy who
had withdrawn from the State Church, or contemplated
co to do, and refused to c,)mply with its behests. • The
a member of a body which styles
count ad-

argument

coming fro

itself a " derriocrlic republic," is on the
ditionally valuable.
After stating that religious liberty is permitted to all
denominations in the Canton, M. Drney proceeds :
" But religious liberty is not more unconditional than the
other liberties of man ; the interests of society, and those
of religious liberty itself, impose upon it inevitable limits

is is shown in every country, in every age, and under
every system of government. Urilimittd liberty no more
exists in places of ww-ship called " free " or "indepen-

dent,'" than in c
State. Lest every one be left to act as be pleases,
which would bring about complete, anarchy, and, by re-
action, the most dreadful despotism, there has always been
an organisation—a ruling power—composed cf men on
whom devolved the framing of laws, and the issuing of
orders arid prescriptions." And again,—
" If the Church were rendered independent of the
State, would her ministers be in reality more free than at
present ? Would they even be so free? The superior
authority of such a church, composed of laymen and
clergy, or of o e or other of these classes, would not be
less a human authority. Their laws, their regulations,
and their other decisions, would Itt conic bindirg on the
minority and the ministers, even where they a ere opposed
to them, and that, too, conscientiously. There was no-
thing to prevent such laws from becoming arbitrary—nay,
tyrannical,—of w hich the history of the Christian Church,
and that of the Protestant Church in particular, furnished
examples. In order to escape from this despotism, there
would be no other resource but new abruptions, separa-
tions without end, or a return to the protective authority
of the State. The province of the State is not, therefore,
to sanction ptopositions which, especially in the actual
condition of souls, could only further embarrass or render
worse the state of affirs, and precipitate the church into
a crisis whit h would not permit its ministers to perform
in peace their important functions. The hua liberty of
the Evangelical minister corsia's less in certain adminis-
ttaive forms of the church than in the free preaching
and free exercise of his pastoral functions within the
church—a liberty fully enj.,yed by the clergy of the
national church. Christian life tray flourish in the
churches regulated and pr t(lrted by the State as well as
in those that are separated front it, in the same manner
the lattec as
r the position

,ordinHtion to t

as atheism and imuier
much as the former
of ecincs. therefoic, to b- ut ahc%
hirms."

Tht- ma

( f ibis wheat—We

whose

; from
), it is highly

Lan once