The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-28 00:00:00

come.

But whatever may be the 'defects in the ecclesiastical
government of the church of England, we deny, in the
strongest terms that language can afford, that the people
of England, the members of the church, are the com-
plaining parties. But supposing that they were, com-
mon sense would teach the intelligent people of this
country that a lesser evil has the preference over a
greater. The alternative is now presented to them.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL gives the preference to popery in
Ireland. He proposes to despoil the protestant church
for the purpose of applying certain of its revenues t
the education of the people of Ireland—the popish po-
pulation in particular—they forming the majority. The
government of the noble lord is founded upon this propo-
sition. The King has consented that Lord MELBOURNE
should form a ministry based upon the policy intimated
by Lord Jons's motion.
We therefore ask—WILL THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND
STAND THIS ? Will they consent that any portion of the
revenues of tile protestant church in Ireland shall be
appropriated to popish purposes ? The infamous pro-
position has relation to the beginning of a great end.
It embraces this question—is tile reformation a fraud ?
—are our doctrines spurious ?—is our faith false ?
With the infidel it is now a question whether popery is
more conducive to civil and religious liberty, human
happiness, and national independence, than the prin-
ciples and the polity of protestantism ?
We leave the answer to the nation. We leave it to
the chiselled words on our fathers' tombstones. We
leave it to him who visits at the lune hour the graves
of his ancestors. We leave it to him who reads history.
We leave it to him in whose veins runs the blood that
was spilled in accomplishing our religious emancipation,
and who has marked upon his shield of arms the sainted
crosses of him who sleeps in the grave, from whom he is
descended, and whose honoured name he bears—we
leave it to him to say whether he will dishonour those
sacred ashes, bring down upon a once free country the
hated despotism of monks, give up his wife and daughter
to voluptuous father-confessors, and stamp himself a
slave by yielding to the decrees of licentiousness and
idolatry ?
These, my countrymen ! are the questions you are re-
quired to answer by Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S appeal to the
electors of Devonshire. Answer it as you please ; but
we ask you to answer it under the responsibility of your
allegiance, and your still more awful responsibility as
members of the Church of England. We now speak to
the churchmen—particularly to the religious people—
the conscientious' people—the devout and honest peo-
ple—who are protestants in Devonshire. They have a
duty to perform, and that involves their peace here and
their happiness hereafter. It is not a contest confined to
tile conflicting claims of party or faction. It has no
hearing upon trade or commerce—upon rates or taxes—
upon the price of corn, or the rations to be given to the
poor. It is a plain question, and as important as it is
plain, inasmuch as it is to decide the fate of the church
of England—pass sentence upon the deliberate judgment
of our forefathers, and condemn the principles we pro-
fess by our own decrees. If the people are dissatisfied
with the church and the doctrines of the reformation,
that is one tiling ; if they have become enamoured of
popery, that is another tiling; if they be favourable to
infidelity and republicanism, that differs essentially from
either. But by their votes on this occasion they will sup-
port one or other of these three propositions. The papist
and the infidel will vote for Lord JOHN RUSSELL, tile
protestant will support Mr. MONTAGUE PARKER in De-
vonshire ; or to come nearer home, the one will take tile
side of Mr. POULETT TnomsoN, and the other that of
Mr. BRAIDLEY, in Manchester.
Let it be remembered that the sacrifice to be offered,
if the electors approve of it, is to be offered, in order,
as its advocates assert, to conciliate Ireland. Pray,
how many sacrifices of this kind have we not already
made in vain ?,. In the reign of GEORGE 111. the re-
peal of the penal statutes was to conciliate Ireland. In
the same reign, the act which conferred the elective fran-
chise upon the Roman Catholics was passed to conciliate
Ireland. The endowment of the Jesuit's college of May-
nooth was to conciliate the priests. The enormous sums
of money granted to make roads, build bridges, erect
quays, docks, harbours, and custom houses, were given
to conciliate Ireland. She has been a favoured island,
and more money has been spent upon her than would
have sufficed to bring Jamaica as near to England. It
has all been expended in vain. She has been exempted
from British taxation to an extent which is unpardonable.
Her exported produce is the ruin of the :British farmer.
Her exported paupers drive our own labourers into the
poor house. Two-thirds of the rates levied in this town
are spent upon Irish mendicants. Irish papists infest our
streets, worm themselves into our local establishments,
sit at our civic boards, and deprive Englishmen of em-
ployment. All this we have done—all this we have
submitted to—and what is the result ? Why, this, that
the people of England are now called upon to annihilate
the protestant religion, and establish popery in Ireland.
It is now time that we should open our eyes to these facts.
We cannot now deceive ourselves as to the conse-
quences of the last boon conferred upon the Roman Ca-
tholics of Ireland. We must see the effects of the eman-
cipation bill. According to Mr. Secretary LITTLETON it
has produced TWO MURDERS A DAY in that frightful
country. Life and property are alike insecure. No
man who does not kneel before a fetid priest has more
than a month's purchase of his existence in Ireland.
Every thing is unhinged, every thing is insecure, every
thing is uncertain, since the passing of that unfortunate
and pernicious measure. And last of all, they demand
the confiscation of the property belonging to the protest.
ant church !
What next? No matter; we make our stand here ;
and we say, once for all, in plain terms, and in well-con-
sidered words, that rather than yield this point, or sub-
mit to such an inroad upon our religious feelings, we
will consent to the REPEAL OF THE UNION! Rather than
insult heaven we are prepared to make a bolder sacri-
fice. If there be no alternative between sacrilege and
open resistance let us cut the painter at once. Rather
than rob one party for the advantage of another, let us
cease to be arbiters between the protestants and Roman
In-justire to-both Itt-rtileiielieranA to her-
,self. If WILLIAM IV. would only recal his lieutenant
andsdeclare hiniself the sovereign protector of Ireland,
we should then enable the contending parties to settle
the right of supremacy among themselves. All that we
should have to do would be to prevent any foreign in-
terference. This could be done by a few ships of war.
WT could easily place the whole island in a state of
blockade, and enforce a most rigid non-interference.
Leave the protestants, we say, to defend themselves.
We have no fears as to the result. We knoW on which
side is the right, or if they will, we have no objections
to leave it to the might.

Our readers, we doubt not, will readily bear witness
that we have been extremely liberal in our animadver-
sions upon the people and the free institutions of the
United Stales of America. A certain book is said to be
its own interpreter, and we may say the same of the re-
public. The system supplies the materials which enable
us to form a tolerably correct estimate of its merits. We
have allowed America and Anr.:rican writers to speak
for themselves, and explain in the American language
the nature of the liberty they enjoy and the equality
they recognise. Not one opinion has gone forth from
us which we did not borrow from some respectable and
creditable citizen, and we have only differed from the
native historian in not taking all his statements to be
facts. We have had a regard for tender consciences and
thin skins, thinking it better to administer the medicine
sparingly at first, in order to prepare the patient fur the
full dose.

We have bad before us for some time a very valuable
work, published in America, and extremely creditable to
the literature of that country, called the New England
Magazine. The numbers we particularly beg leave to
call attention to are those for January and December