The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

TUESDAY 111ORNING, NOV. 26, 1844.

We remarked briefly, last week, upon the pro-
ceedings of the worshipful, the borough magistrates
of this town, and "the excellent stipendiary,"—as
he delights to be called,—their Magnus Apollo. We
had no disposition to follow up the affair. We
thought the whole proceedings were but on escapade
of the absurd vanity of the " King Log," which
Radicalism uplifted out of his element, and his
native insignificance, to yawn upon the magis-
terial bench, and lord it over this unhappy com-
munity. Reflection, however, tel.s us that we must
not forbear doing full justice to the various matters
in question, and the various assumptions of the
gentleman who has been the prime mover in them.
Mr. Edward Rushton is the chief-magistrate of a
Cmservative community. His fellow-townsmen
know the amount, and the value, of his magisterial
doings. They know that the empty tub rolled
down a hill, whose noise scares her Majesty's lieges,
is but an empty tub,—loud only because of its
emptiness ;—but the world is not so enlightened.
The world does not know Mr. Rushton; and, lest
his late stage-inspired travestie of Cicero should he
taken for the voice of Cicero himself,—lest the weak-
minded world should mistake the mock-heroic bub-
blings of a Solan goose for the philosophic wisdom
of a real Solon,—we must, the subject being a
tedious one, bestow upon the ambitious gentleman
in question, as Shakspeare as it, " a little of our
own tediousness."

May we, in starting, ask of this excellent and
truly modest functionary two question, ? Firstly—
What does he think are the duties of a constable ?
Secondly—What does he think are the duties of a
stipendiary magistrate. Dogberry says—and Dog•
berry was not far out in his say—that the duty of
the former is to " comprehend all vagroms." Un-
fortunately, the same eminent authority has not
laid down the duties of the latter, for the reason, we
presume, that, in his days, briefless Whig barristers
had not often `• the misfortune," as Mr. Rushton
calls it, of being created stipendiary magistrates.
Talent and judgment in Shakspeare's, as in all pre-
vious ages of the world, have been presumed to be
essential to fitness for promotion; but Whiggery
only thought of thus pensioning off worn-out tools,
who were too heavy to rise of themselves, and too
importunate to be got rid of otherwise. Hence we
have no Shakspearian hints to guide us with respect
to Mr. Rushton's duties; and must, therefore, un-
willingly, define them, according to ordinary practice
in localities where such functionaries vegetate and
draw their salaries. With this practice to guide us,
we submit that the duty of Mr. Rushton is to hear
and decide upon all cases which come before him,
according to the law as laid down for him.
Our excellent stipendiary, however, appears to
have a vastly higher notion of his importance and
the extent of his authority. Mr. Rushton imagines
that, by virtue of his office, he sits at the head of a
star chamber,--r-that he can call before him and
censure men, for crimes not cognizable by British
law—that he can take evidence, and frame depo-
sitions of the doings of individuals in their private
capacity as British subjects, and promulgate censures
upon them ex-catliedrd, and as if ex-auctcritate. All
this Mr. Rushton has done; and the result is just
what might have been expected. He has succeeded
in bringing his office into contempt, and in dragging
his brother magistrates into a share of the ridicule
which he has provoked. He has found the oppor-
tunity of discharging his accumulation of bile upon
the heads of his fancied victims; flourished his mock
truncheon; walked off the stage with the tragic
demeanor of the whole race of Bombastes concen-
trated in his own person, and left the audience,
fiddlers, scene-shifters, and all, in convulsive laugh-
ter from the footlights to the back of the gallery !
But let us come to the cause of this laughter—to
the magn'ficent " resolution" with which Mr. Rush-
ton made his flourishing magisterial exit ;—we call
it "his exit" because Mr. Rushton, the magistrate,
here vanished, whilst Mr. Rushton, the virago, only
rema'ned, and we do not wish to dwell upon the
unseemly explosion of fishwife oratory, of which he
subsequently discharged himself, however appro-
priately such explosion explained the motives and
feelings which prompted his course throughout this
proceeding. It was premised that "Mr. Parker, a
member of the Watch Committee, had attempted,
upon two occasions, to interfere with the officers of
police in the discharge of their duty within the ward
of St. Anne's," and, accordingly, " Resolved.—
That if any individual whatever shall, directly or in-
directly, interfere with any superintendent, inspector,
or other dicer of the police force, in the execution of
his duty, every officer shall forthwith communicate
the fact cl such interference to the Commissioner of
Police, who shall lay the same before the worshipful
the Mayor," 6.c. We shall say nothing of the
abortiveness of this laying of informations. We
shall not remind our stipendiary of the stage direc-
tion—" a fo'irish of trumpets, and enter Tom
. Thumb;'—which should in future be the herald of
his approach to similar great feats ; but we will ask
him by what rule such "interference with the police
in the execution of their duty" is to be determined.
If by the course pursued by Mr. Parker, then we
say that he did not so interfere. He offered his ad-
vice to the superintendent of Rose-hill station; but
he could not be said to " interfere " with them, in
the legal significance of the phrase. If the inter-
ference is art illegal interference, then the resolution
is surplusage. Such interference every officer of
the force is bound to resent by the summary appre-
hension of the offender.

It is plain, therefore, that obstructive interference
is not the interference to be communicated to the
Commissioner of Police, but only such interference
as is not legally liable to be visited with punish-
ment :—such interference, for instance, as was prac-
tised in those good Whig times when members of
market and watch committees could make market
and other constables, in the discharge of their duty,
of course, perform the offices of canvassing agents,
or twopenny postmea. But we never heard in those
days of any extraordinary zeal to interfere with the
duties of the Watch Committee. Oh, no! That
Whig-radical body and the Whig-radical bench never
jarred in those days ; but, instead, they played to-
gether a pleasant duetto, the stipendiary's being the
first fiddle :

" Music was heard with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell."
But the "interference" referred to—what, we
ask again, is it ? Bygones, we presume, are to be
bygones. We are to forget the doings of the high
and palmy days of Liberalism; and, now that we
are a Conservative public, with a Whig-radical
bench, (or, rather, fa Whig-radical majority on that
bench, the majority being either magnetized by its
Magnus Apollo, or hopelesdy dumb,)—we must
carry out strictly its rec: n' olution, and permit
no one, howevei high in authority, to even speak to
an officer on duty.
We have intimated already that it was not our
intention to comment upon the temper and the
arrogance of demeanour manifested by Mr. RUsh-
ton towards his brother magistrate, Mr. David
Hodgson, during these proceedings. It is not
necessary to do so for Mr. Hodgson's vindication ;
and it would be cruel to the stipendiary himself to
dwell upon matters which so palpably shew his utter
unfitness for the office which, to repeat his own
words, it is " his misfortune to hold,"—his mis-
fortune, because the very elevation of the position
in which it places him tends to exhibit mere palpably
to the public his total want of the discretion, the
calmness, and the courtesy which such an office
demands. But, vfhilst in pity we pass over this
portion of our subject, there are one or two remarks
of Mr. Rushton to which we are compelled to direct
his attention and that of his brother magistrates.
Mr. Rushton felt himself aggrieved that any allusion
should have been made " to the Orange matter,"
"had been before disposed of."
which, he said,
Now, we must beg to inform him that the matter in
question is far from being disposed of. It is not
half disposed of. Mr. Rushton may remember
that with the " Orange matter" was coupled a
Ribbon matter. He may remember how sedulously
these two matters were classed together throughout
the proceedings of the magistrates upon the subject.
A reference to those proceedings will remind him
that the order of the magistrates declared that "no
Orangeman, or Ribbonman, should be permitted to

be a member of the police force." Well, so far as I
regards the Orange part of the matter, it has
virtually been carried out. The Orange members
of the force have ceased to belong to the body; but,
we ask, has one step been taken by the bench to
purge the force of Ribbonism ? Has even an in-
clination been shewn to do equal justice ? Has even
an inquiry been instituted ? Mr. Rushton has been
informed, on the best authority, that the societies
calling themselves " the Sons of St. Patrick " and
" Hibernian societies" are composed almost en-
tirely of Ribbonmen. Let him make the inquiry
how many of the present police force have deposited
with the Watch Committee certificates of member-
ship of these societies. If Mr. Rushton will not do
this, where is the impartiality of which he boasts ?

A few weeks ago we had to congratulate our fel-
low-townsmen upon the flattering condition of the
,corporate property, under the able management of
the present Finance Committee ; and the grateful
duty now devolves upon us of remarking upon the
growing prosperity of our noble dock estate.
During the past four months such has been the in-
creased activity of the commerce and shipping of
our port, that the amount of dock rates has ex-
ceeded by twenty thousand pounds their amount in
the corresponding four months of last year; and,
when it is borne in mind that the nett surplus of
ordinary revenue over ordinary expenditure in that
year was seventy-six thousand pounds, we may
safely calcular the surplus this, year at no less than
a hnndred thousand pounds—a sum equal to the
total revenue of nine ports out of ten in the empire,
The question will of course suggest itself to most
men,—to what purpose is such surplus to be
applied ? Upon this subject we are not in a position
to speak authoritatively ; but we rely with implicit
confidence upon the ability and honesty of the gen-
tlemen composing the Dock Committee to direct it
for the best and permanent interests of the port,
and the augmentation and encouragement of its
vast commerce. The demand will, no doubt, be
made in some quarter, and those influential quar-
ters, for an immediate an dgeneral reduction of our
dock rates ; and no long period, we feel assured,
will elapse before at least a revision, if not a great
reduction of such rates must take place. But with
the large works going on north and south of the
present estate, and the urgent necessity for in-
creased dock space, and money to provide it, we
cannot but question the prudence of giving up any
large portion of our revenue at present, whilst we
are borrowing for the uses of the estate which
yields it. The surplus applied to the payment of
a portion of the cost of the new works constructing
will materially decrease the amount necessary to
be taken up under the recent act of Parliament, thus
lessening one permanent bonded debt; and when
these are completed, and in profitable operation,
the Dock Trustees may, without feeling the sacri-
fice, make such reasonable concessions to the rate-
payers as their interests and those of the commerce
of the port demand.
In the mean time, it is gratifying to find that,
already and unprompted, a most valuable concession
has just been annour cA, and will shortly come
into operation, by which the British shipowner will
be materially benefited. Hitherto it has been
competent, from some oversight in our dock acts,
or the regulations of the committee, for vessels
entered inwards from American ports to take
outward cargoes for the East Indies, paying
only a tonnage of one and sixpence, and light
dues, whilst British ships were paying two and
threepence per ton, and light dues, thus holding
out a direct bonus for the employment of American
vessels, and standing directly in the way of British
ships coming from other ports to Liverpcol
for a cargo. This unjust difference is now done
away with, by the reduction of the dock dues on
British ships to eighteen-pence; and, as the result,
we may look for a largely increased number of the
best class of British vessels being sent to Liverpool
for loading. This is one step, at least, in the right
direction ; and, we have no doubt, it will be gradually
and judiciously followed up until Liverpool is made
to rank as the best port, both in accommodation and
cheapness, in the British empire.

The Radical portion of the community, and of
the press, who abet the stipendiary magistrate and
the bench in their recent attacks upon the power
and influence of the Watch Committee over the
borough police force, would fain arrogate for the
former the exclusive possession of the decorum,
courtesy, and manliness of conduct fitted for their
high authority. Thus, asontemporary of yesterday,
after eulogizing the proceedings of the magistrates,
proceeds to represent those of the Watch Committee
on Saturday last in terms which, if warranted by
the facts, would be utterly disgraceful to that body.
" Unlike the magistrates," remarks the Albion,
" who threw open the doors of the Session-house,
and admitted the reporters for the press to record
the whole of their proceedings, the accusations as
well as the defence, if there was any, the Watch
Committee went to work in their usual hole and
corner way, and absolutely refused admission to the
reporter of a tory paper, when he respectfully re-
quested it ;" and, in the absence of any authorita-
tive information, he proceeds to tell his gullible
readers " what had been permitted to ooze out as
part and parcel of these proceedings." " Mr. Rush-
ton and Mr. amling," he says, " were the two
principal gentlemen se'ected for invective." The
former was "soundly rated for the castigation he
inflicted on Mr. David Hodgson, and sundry ex-
pressions were used about want of dignity,' over-
heated language,' and so on ;" whilst, with respect
to Mr. Dowling, the prevailing opinion appeared to
be that he " should not have proceeded to read the
resolution adopted by the magistrates to the police
force, without submitting it first for the considera-
tion and approval of the Watch Committee," with
other stuff of the same flippant description.
We need scarcely intimate to any sensible reader
that the whole of this cunningly dovetailed story is
the raving of some penny-a-liner, as ignorant of
what really did occur in the committee as his own
ink-bottle. It served, however, the purpose of our
contemporary. The assertion that the Watch Com-
mittee wished for any hole and corner work is
utterly without foundation. On the contrary, they
were desirous that their proceedings should be as
public as those of the magistrates ; and, but for the
mistake of a clerk in the office, who consulted Mr.
Dowling instead of the committee, with respect to
his admission, our own reporter would have been
present. The rest of our contemporary's inventions
will best be contradicted by the actual proceedings,
which we shall briefly lay before our readers.
After a patient investigation of the whole facts of
the case between themselves and the magistrates,
the following resolutions, which we copy at length,
were unanimously agreed to :—viz.—
The attention of this Committee having been directed
to the following resolution of the Magistrates, adopted at
a Meeting of the Magistrates, holde❑ on Monday, the
18th Nov., transmitted by the Magistrates' Clerks direct
to the Commisfioners of Police.

" Resolved—That if any individual whatever shall
directly or indirectly interfere with any Superintendent,
inspe3tor, or other officer of the police force, in the
execution of his di ty, every such officer shall communi-
cate the fact of su( h interference to the Commissioner of
Police, who shall Ity the same immediately before the
Wor:hipful the Mayor, and that any officer of police who
.hall be interfered with, and who shall neglect to com-
municate the fact of such interference as aforqpid, shall
be dismissed the 'force and further, that the Commis-
sioner of Police cause a copy of the minutes of this
meeting, and the foregoing resolution, to be entered in
the general order book of the police-force."
" Resolved—That in the opinion of this Committee,
the above resolution amounts to a regulation of the police-
force of the borough, and can only as such legally
emanate from this Committee. _ _

" That this Committee express their anxiety at all
times to co-operate with the Magistrates, in maintaining
the due efficiency of the police-force.
"That this Committee, being of opinion that any im-
proper interference with the police in the discharge of
their duty, is deserving of the strongest reprehension, do
her, by pass the following regulation :
" That if any individual whatever shall so interfere
with any Superintendent, Inspector, or other officer of
the police-force, in the execution of his duty, every such
officer shall immediately communicate the fact of such
interference to the Head Constable, who shall lay the
same before this Committee. _ .

" That the above regulation be communicated to the
police force by the Head-constable.
" Resolved—That the Chairman be requested to
transmit a copy of these proceedings to the Mayor, for
the information of the magistrates.
" Resolved further—That the Chairman be requested
to obtain from the Mayor copies of the examinations of
the officers, taken before the said meeting of magistrates,
in reference to the case of Mr. James Parker, for the use
of this Committee; and that the same be taken into con-
sideration on Saturday next."
Now, we ask of our readers—we ask of the en-
tire Radical community—whether any proceedings
could be more courteous, and yet firm, more digni-
fied and manly than those of the Watch Committee,
or any proceedings much more oppotite in character
—more insulting and overbearing—than those of

the magistrates. The latter, without a word of in-
timation to the Watch Committee, summon a meet-
ing, and upon evidence collected by themselves,
proceed, by the censure of one of its members, for
acts done in his private capacity as a burgess, to
throw discredit upon that body. They go on to
take the authority, with which the law has vested
them, out of the hands of its members. Tley direct
that their officer, without the common courtesy of
first acquainting the Watch Committee of his in-
structions, shall proclaim to the whole police force
their magisterial usurpation of authority ; and they
conclude, as the climax of insult, that he shall record
that usurpation, in all its insult of manner and
language, in "the general order-book of the police
force,"—the record exclusively of the orders of the
Watch Committee, and kept entirely in their own
custody ! Surely, a more unparalleled case of
studied insolence was never devised than this last
requirement. •

Compare with the above the proceedings of the
Watch Committee, as given in the resolutions which
we have quoted. The Watch Committee repudiate
the existence of any power in the magistrates to
make "regulations of the police force"; but they
nevertheless, do not factiously set their faces against
the necessity of some such regulations being made.
On the contrary, they proceed to pass a resolution,
on all fours with that of the magistrates, as they
would have done, without prompting, had the whole
facts of the case been originally brought before them,
instead of being brought before Mr. Rushton.
But there are one or two little circumstances con-
nected with the progress of the affair which deserve
to be chronicled. Mr. Edward Rushton was in his
magnificent vein when he dictated the fiat, which
was to extinguish the Watch Committee, and to
immortalize himself. The spirit of Pharaoh or
Cheops, or Nebuchadnezzer, stood in his boots
when he commanded his decrees to be written in
the books of the Watch Committee; hut, like the
latter monarch Mr. Rushton was pulled down next
day from his towering altitude and compelled to
"eat dirt". A hint was whispered him by the
Town-clerk that he could not legally consum-
mate the insult meditated. He could not :be per-
mitted to record his edicts or those of the bench
amongst the orders of the Watch Committee. And
accordingly the chopfallen stipendiary backed out,
and issued his instructions—his instructions—to
override an express order of the assembled bench !
that Mr. Dowling was to omit that portion of the
resolution. Nay, he was even compelled to convey,
by way of apology for the insolence of the resolution
'in question, an intimation to the committee, through
Mr. Hugh Hornby, that the whole had been written
by him very hastily and under circumstances of
great excitement. Alas ! to what humiliations do
mingled vanity and passion sometimes hurry us !
Before we leave this subject, we must say that the
time has now arrived when the question, as to the
conflicting authority of the Watch Committee and
the , bench over the police, must be settled. The
repetition of such proceedings as those of the last
week cannot but weaken the influence of both
bodies, and are calculated seriously to impair the
efficiency of the force about whose regulation they
contending. The sooner we have a formal decision
of the matter, by a court of law, the better for all
parties and for the interests of the town. We may
add, in conclusion, that the Town-clerk agrees un-
hesitatingly with the able authorities already con-
sulted, that the proceedings of the magistrates are
illegal, and that the bench are usurping powers of
which neither according to common sense nor the
provisions of the law are they in possession.

We beg to direct the attention of our readers to
an advertisement which appears in our columns
this day, announcing that the annual sermon in aid
o' the Southern and Toxteth Hospital, will be
preached on Sunday morning next, at St. Barnabas
Church, Parliament-street, by the Rev. Thos. Nolan,
incumbent. We know of no institution which has
greater claims upon the public for support than the
one in question ; and we, in common with others,
cannot but admire the manner in which the com-
mittee have hitherto managed it, under the able pre-
sidency of Jos. Brooks Yates, Esq. All parties
seem working together for good, and it must be ap-
parent to every one who has paid a visit to the insti-
tution, that great benefit must inevitably flow from
such a charity, so admirably conducted. We are
therefore pleased to find that our worthy chief ma-
gistrate (following in the steps of his predecessor,
who established the precedent) has in this particu-
lar instance in the kindest manner consented to be
present, and sure are we that he could not give his
sanction and presence to a better or more useful
institution ; and when we consider by whom the
appeal is to be made, there cannot be a doubt in the
first place of a crowded church, and in the second
that the response will be in every way worthy of a
cause so noble.

THE FUNDS —.SATURDAY NIGHT.—The Funds have
been firmly supported to-day, without particular feature,
and Consols for money and the account left off 1001 to I.
Bank Stock closed 205 to 206 ; India Stock, 286 to 288 ;
Three per cents. Reduced, 991 to ; Three-and •a-Quarter
per Cents. 1028 to 4 ; Long Annuities, II 13-16 ; India
Bonds, 81s. to 83s. premium. In the foreign market very
little has bee done. The speculative stocks are rather
firmer, whicW the only alteration to notice. Spanish
Five Per Cents. were finally quqted 24i to ; the Three
per Cents., 351 to g ; Russian, 1181 to 1191 ; Peruvian,
241 to 251 ; Portuguese, 541 to 551 ; Dutch Five per
Cents, 99 to k ; the Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 62k to 63;
Danish, 89 to 90 ; Colombian, 131 to 14 ; Chilian, 100
to 102 ; Bueros Ayres, 36 to 37 ; Brazilian, 88 to 89 ;
Mexican, 36 to 4-; and the Deferred, 16 to 4.
The Dublin Mail states that if the Conservatives of that
city will rally to the register the party will not suffer any
loss of votes.

THE WEATHER.—After a continuance of wet, damp,
and very foggy weather, we have for the last three days
enjoyed a clearer, drier, and colder, but much more sea-
sonable atmosphere.
The Marquis of Clanricarde has commenced nineteen
actions in the Common Pleas, Ireland, to recover the
presentation to so many church livings, in the diocese of
Clonfert.—Dublin Post.

FATHER MATHEW.—At a meeting, yesterday, at the
Clarendon-rooms, to raise money for this apostle of tem-
perance, a letter was read from Lord Sefton, inclosing
his contribution, wishing the object every success.
Amongst those present were Messrs. Lawrence Hey-
worth, Thomas Avison, R. Sh'el, T. Harvey, C. Rawden,
M. O'Connell, Sir A. Knight, R. All son, and W.
Brown.

AFFECTING EVENT.—We have received intelligence of
the almost sudden thmi:e of Mr. William Hetherington,
a fine promising young gentleman of 18 years of age,
son of the late W. Hetherington, Esq., of Birkenhead,
and recently appointed a second Lieutenant in the 60th
Rifles. Last summer he had been engaged in a rowing
match, and, from the exertion at the oar, his hands be-
coming blistered, he incautiously, whilst in a state of
perspiration, dipped them into the cold water. Eruption
and gathering ensued, causing much pain and annoyance,
and this continuing for a considerable time, he went to
London, and it is apprehended took unskilful advice, by
which, though he appeared to be cured, the disease was
probably thrown into the system, by the too rapid drying
up of the sores. He returned home to his family appa-
rently quite recovered, and, after remaining a short time,
resolved to return to the military college at Brussels,
where be had before studied, to make the best use of his
time in professional acquirements. On his arrival there
he was congratulated by his former companions, to whom
he was much endeared ; but, alas ! on Wednesday week,
when he sat down to dinner with them, he suddenly re-
marked that he felt extraordinary sensations, and could
eit nothing. Being observed to be ill and afterwards to
faint he was immediately carried to bed, and received
every possible attention, but to the grief of all around
him, he expired early the following morning. We need
scarcely say that his relatives in this country are plunged
into the deepest affliction by the mournful intelligence.
IMPORTANT TO PAWNBROKERS.—At the Worship-
street police-office, on Thursday last, Mr. Attenborough,
the pawnbroker of Crown-street, Finsbury, attended
before Mr. Bingham to show cause why he refused to de-
liver up a coat, of the value of 205., which had been
pledged at his shop, and the principal and legal interest
on which had been duly tendered. Anne Barrett, a poor
Irishwoman, proved pledging the article on the 4th inst.,
and that on going to redeem it, the defendant refused to
restore it, on the ground that he had already delivered it
over to another person. The defendant produced the
usual printed form of " declaration," filled up in the
name of William Barrett, which is that of the woman's
husband, deposing to his having lost the duplicate, and
said that the pledge had been delivered to the person pre-
senting it. He maintained that he had thus exonerated
himself from all liability. The complainant declared that
neither she nor her husband had either made the declara-
tion themselves, nor authorized any person to make it for
them. She had pledged the coat herself, her name was
upon the duplicate, and all the defendant's shopmen
knew her intimately, for her being constantly obliged to
pledge articles there. Mr. Bingham said, he was strongly
inclined to think that the defendant was answerable for
the property or its value, and that he was in a correlative
position to that of a banker and his customer. The de-
fendant pointed out the extreme hardship of such a lia-
bility upon pawnbrokers, as it would place them entirely
at the mercy of any unprincipled person who thought fit
to commit a fraud upon them. They were imperatively
required by the act of Parliament to give the necessary
forms of declaration to be filled up, not merely to the ow-
ner of the property pledged, but even to any on.; repre-
senting himself as the owner. In compliance with Mr.
Bingham's suggestions, the pawnbroker said he would
obtain further professional advice with the view of having
the matter more fully discussed in a fortnight.

THE MENACED MINISTERIAL INROADS
UPON PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND.

" The coming events cast their shadows before." .
LocuißL's WARNING.

We live in an age of expediency—an age of treacherous
tampering with high and holy principles, and of cowardly
submission to the dictation of factious demagogues. Such
an age, all history warns us, has ever been followed in all
established states of society, by the violent breaking up of
the elements of which they are constituted—by the wreck
of valued institutions, and the triumph, for a time, of
fierce passion and anarchy. Happily, in this land, such
periods have hitherto been productive of good rather than
evil. The stern and sober genius of the British character,
temporarily obscured r hurried aside from the even tenor
of its way into bursts of wild frenzy, has passed through
the fire not only unscathed, but even purged of the im-
purities with vhich years of apathetic rest had sullied its
brightness. Like a stately tree which the tempest has
bowed well nigh to earth, it has thrown off in the struggle
the parasite plants which had wound round its trunk and
branches, crushed the foul reptiles which had been gnaw-
ing at his roots, and risen again, renovated, freshened,
and invigorated, to shadow with its verdure the herbage
and the fiuwers. We fear not, therefore, the coming
struggle. We fear not for any permanent damage to arise
from it to Great Britain, her time hallowed institutions,
or her liberties. But we must be prepared to vindicate
them. We must be up and resolved to bear them unsullied
and uninjured through the host of enemies by which they
are surrounded.

Happily, we are not left to speculate in uncertainty
with respect to the quarter from which the danger is to
approach us, to the hand which uplifts the weapon, or to
the battle field in which the struggle is to be fought to an
issue. The assault comes—alas that we should have to
set down an admission so lamentable !—from the Conser=
vative ministers of a Protestant Queen; and the objects
of attack--the first objects, for who knows how far apos-
tacy will plunge into the slough of degradation when it
has once planted there its foot ?—are the established Pro-
testant Church and the Protestant University in Ireland.
The doom of these venerable establishments has already
been resolved upon. The handwriting is upon the wall;
and if the mind and the steady resolve of England come
not at once to the rescue, another session of Parliament
will see the breach which has so long been insidiously
mined, at length carried, and the united forces of Popery,
Socinianism, and Infidelity howling in triumph over their
prostrate battlements.
We warned our readers, at the close of the last session
of Parliament, that the first step in this inroad upon the
Protestantism in Ireland was in preparation, and that it
would assume the shape of an attempted conciliation of
Popery and its allies, by the introduction of the infidel
principle of the system of the Irish Education Board into
the Protestant University of Trinity College, Dublin. And
now, we tell them, without reserve, that the disastrous
measure will be presented to the acceptance of the legis-
lature in the session which is approaching. And to what
hands is its preparation entrusted? To the arch Jesuit,
who governs that Education Board—to the sworn ally of
Popery and Socinianism, Mr. WYSE ! We need say little
more of its character or its anti-Protestant tendencies,
when we state that it is sanctioned, if not suggested,
by Sir Robert Peel, and licked into shape by Mr. Wyse.
Already the mission of the latter gentleman, to prepare
the people of the sister eountry for the measure, has been.
opened. At a recent meeting of the "liberal" and po-
pish parties, held In Cork, its terms were propounded by
him, vaguely indeed, yet with sufficieat clearness, as to its
general character, to rouse the enthusiasm of the anti—
English mass of the meeting in its behalf, whilst the pro-
test against it of the Protestants present was clamour-
ously cried down. A natural result of this first overt
step has been an indignant cry of reprobation from the
Conservative press of Ireland,—amongst whom it is not
a little significant, with respect to the amount of Irish
opposition which he will have to encounter, that Sir
Robert's anti-Protestant policy does not meet with a
single supporter,—whilst the Popish and Repeal faction
in that country is loud in gratulation over their approach-
ing triumph, and the consummation which they see in the
distance, viz c the ultimate downfall of the Protestant
church, and the submission of Ireland to the close em-
brace and the undivided authority of the see of Rome.
As a sample, and a very mild one, of the feeling of the
Protestant press upon the subject of he proposed outrage
upon Trinity College, we extract the following remarks
from the leading journal of Ireland—the Dublin Evening
Mail :

" Within the last few years six new professorships and ten addi-
tional fellowships have increased the efficiency of its literary staff.
The entire curriculum of studies, scientific, classical, and theologi-
cal, has been, within the same period, reformed and advanced; and
the best proof of its present efficient condition is to be found in the
examination papers of the several classes and subjects of education.
In practical science a great desideratum has been in like manner
supplied by the establishment of a school of engineering. Its divinity
school bears as high a character as any in the world, and not only
supplies a learned and efficient clergy for the Established Church of
Ireland, but has for some years (and this is a matter of the utmost
importance) powerfully assisted in giving an active, zealous, and
wed-informed clergy to the west of England.
" Is such an establishment as this to be tampered with—are the
benefits, religious, moral, scientific, and social, which it diffuses
through the country to be sacrificed, or even risked, for idle theories
and crude e7tperiments, either of a vain sciolist, or of a conceding
administration?

" The whole country will say NO to the ruinous proposition.

We mean not, however, to say that the contemplated
tampering with the Protestant character of Trinity Col-
lege will be proceeded with, without some preliminary ac-
tion upon the public mind, to prepare it for acquiescence,
by an attemdt at justification. Oh, no ! Sir Robert Peel
takes few steps so direct and bold as would be a straight
forward attack upon that or any other institution. The
epithet " tortuous" is the distinguishing one of his pre-
sent policy, as it has been that of his entire political ca-
reer. Accordingly we are to have a preliminary " en-
quiry ;" we are to have astute instruments employed, of
whom, no doubt, Mr. Wyse be one, to depriciate the
character and usefulness of Trinity College, as at present
constituted and regulated, and to ferret out pleas for its
conversion into an Infidel University. We shall have
the old sectarian arguments against education in the doc-
trines of the Established Church set up by titular bishops
and backsliding Protestants. Such a process is, in fact,
now going on; and of the mode in which it is being con-
ducted and its objects,. let British Protestants judge
from the following passage in the Dubin Monitor:—

" An inquiry is at this moment in progress, and the question of
academic, collegiate, and University education for Ireland is well
nigh settled No minister can any longer retard the question of a
free, liberal, perfect, and permanent system of education for Ire •
land. We anxiously await the coming session."
And what is the opinion of the well-informed Protes-
tants of Ireland, with respect to the intent and issue of
such " enquiry ?" The following passage from a late
number of the Dublin Warder will afford an ample so-
lution of the enquiry :

" While on this subject we may mention that we have received an
able letter from a scholar and divinity student of Trinity College,
which is too long for insertion its our present number, but contains
an important statement we cannot keep back. It seems that Dr.
Elrington, the Regius Professor of Divinity, in his opening prelec-
tion this term, mentioned to his class the possibility that this might
be the last year in which he world be privileged to address them
as an officer of " A PROTESTANT'. University. This from such
quarter is emphatic. The same correspondent informs us that the
divinity students of Trinity College intend to meet publicly next
week in the Rotunda, to protest against any interference of Sir R.
Peel with the University, and that the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee will be
requested to take the chair. We see also that a pamphlet on the
crisis of the Church of Ireland, from the pen of the Venerable Dr.
Millar, of Armagh, has been published yesterday by Curry and Co.,
making a powerful appeal on behalf of the Church against the trai-
tor premier. Once more we say, let us be up and doing ; for, in the
words of Dr. Millar, the struggle is for the existence' of Protes:
tantism in Ireland."

Alas that we should have to record such doings, and
such opinions of the faithlessness, of a professedly Pro-
testant and Conservative cabinet !
But it is not sufficient for such a cabinet that the Pro-
tsstant character of one of the most valued institutions of
our country is to be sacrificed to the demands of Popery
—that the University of Dublin is to be prostrated and
degraded before the aggressive foot of Rome—but MAY-
NOOTH also, the hot bed of sedition, from whose impure
recesses crawl abroad, through the length and breadth of
the empire, the spawn of the filthy teachings of Peter
Dens and his fellows in bestial and murderous suggestion ;
-MAYNOOTH is to be aggrandised, and her sacerdotal
propagators of treason and outrage multiplied by the
same apostate hands which are preparing to desecrate the
revered halls of old Trinity. The Popish seminary is to
receive an increased grant—a largely increased grant—
from the treasury of Great Britain; and with respect to
the terms of such erant the Dublin Freeman informs us
that—
" On Saturday a deputation from the assembled prelates, consist-
ing of the four archbishops, waited on the Lord Lieutenant with in-
structions explicitly to declare, on behalf of that learned body, that
were an increase of the grant to Maynooth College determined on
by government, it should not be accompanied by any change in the
constitution and fundamental laws by which the college is at pre-
sent governed ; and that if accompanied by any condition, they
would feel it their duty not to accept of the profferred increase. The
deputation had a long interview, i.t which Lord Eliot was present.
The answer of his excellency was by no means sati,f victory, he hav-
ing totally avoided giving any promise that no change in the consti-
tution of the institution would be attempted."

Cool enough the assumption of their reverences ! In-
solent enough the ettempt to dictate to the Governtrent
the terms upon which they shall be permitted to violate,
in favor of Popery, the Protestant principles of the British
constitution. But a far better, because a more independ-
ent, authority, the Dublin Monitor, which, although a
Popish and Repeal authority, has never fallen down pub-
licly to lick the feet of O'Connell and his ruffian priest-
hood, assures us that no such gingerly scruples animate
Sir Robert Peel, in his projected sacrifice of principle to
the aggressive demands of faction. Hear the Monitor in
comment upon the above paragraph : •
" We are informed that the above represenkion as to the nature
of the interview with his excellency and Lord Eliot is factious in
the extreme, and wholly unwarranted by the facts. The last sen-
tence is, indeed, worthy of the discomfited champion of the exploded
protest.'
" Although no definite promise was given to increase the May-
nooth grant—because his Excellency could not give one, the increase
not resting with him—it was well understood that his Excellency is
favourable to an increase, while it ntrer was contemplated that
such an increase should be accompanied by any change in the
fundamental laws of the institution '

We believe implicitly the independent authority. We
reject that of the slavish organ of Popery, which only
seeks, in concert with the minister, to blind the people of
England to the full baseness and folly of his designs.
That Sir Robert Peel is not acting without some con-
cert with a portion, at least, of the Popish and Repeal
party in Ireland, a recent occurrence will serve to testify.
Our readers will, doubtless, remember the strenuous op-
position which was offered, during the last session of par-
liament, to the " Charitable Bequests Bill." It was
denounced, in parliament and out of doors, as an insult to
the Roman Catholics of that country ; and it was espe-
cially and indignantly declared that the Romish hierarchy
could never consent to take their seats at the new board,
or to interfere with its operation. An announcement,
however, has just been made, in the columns of the
Evening Freeman, which proves that a portion of tgit
hierarchy have renounced their past enmities, and, doubt-
less, for a consideration, are willing to embrace the

thing they loathed. Dr. Crolly, Roman Catholic Arch-
bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, Dr. Murray,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Kennedy,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, with the Right Hon.
Anthony Richard Blake and John Richard Corballis,
Esq., laymen, have consented to take their seats at the
board. The quarrel is patched up ; and the Whig section
of the Romanists of Ireland are about to pull lovingly to-
gether with a Conservative administration, in the grateful
woi k of inflicting more " heavy blows and great discou-
ragements" upon Protestantism In Ireland !
Can British loyalists and Protestants—can the friends
of British connexion in Ireland—forget the lamentable
results of similar alliances in past time ? We cannot.
They are written in letters of fire upon our hearts. They
are proclaimed aloud, in the exulting shouts of triumphant
Popery•, throughout the land—in the clang of convent
bells startling, morning and evening, the ear of slumber-
ing Protestantism—in the proud seats of superstition
rising around us, mocking with their lavish magnificence
the humble and unadorned elections of our church and
straining to vie even with our proudest cathedrals—in the
swarms of vulgar emissaries of Rome, whose furtive and
scowling looks meet us in every thoroughfare, as they ply
unceasingly their mission of evil, and prowl about from
victim to victim. Oh ! what a fearful amount of evil has
Sir Robert Peel already to answer for, as the result of his
insidious and fatal concessions ; and how vastly will it be
increased, unless the further progress of those concessions
be arrested by the indignant voice of an aroused Protestant
people !
We invite our fellow townsmen who love their religion,
who love their country and its liberties, to ponder well
over these signs of the times in which we live. We tell
them emphatically that now is the time, if ever there was
a time, when every lover of his Church, beset as she is on
every side, deserted as she is by those who are bound to
protect her,—attacked, as are her pure doctrines, by
masked enemies within her pale, and open enemies with-
out,—poisoned by a false liberalism, as are too many of
her professing friends, and perverted as are the hearts of
more by the mammon-worship of the age,—to buckle on
the armour of the Truth, to throw political and even per-
sonal friendship to the winds, and to rally together with
the intelligible and resolved motto, deeply graven on their
hearts—NO SURRENDER !

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE RECENT MA-
GISTERIAL PROCEEDINGS, BY A MAN OF
THOUGHT.

I.—l do not think that I shall pay due honor to Mr.
Edward Rushton if I do not make his speech—his " elo-
quent speech," as the Mercury calls it—the subject of
my first thoughts.
2.—1 think it was not discreet in Mr. Rushton to re-
mark that " his firmest endeavours had been, ever since
he became police magistrate in Liverpool, to prevent
every man connected with the administration of justice
meddling, either for or against, in any political or local
squabble whatever." People are apt to remember past
' interferences " of this very same dignitary ; and some
are even illnatured enough to hint that his present course
is somewhat like " meddling in a political or local
squabble," and that his eyes have been most conveni-
ently blind to such "meddling" when his own political
party were in the ascendant.
3.—1 think it was superfluous in Mr. Rushton to tell
us that he entertains " strong opinions upon local and
political matters," when he must know that all the
world thinks that he owes his elevation to the office of
stipendiary, far more to his "strong opinions upon po-
litical matters," than to the possession of any super-
abundant fitness for that office.

4.—1 think I could laugh at Mr. Rushton's allusion
to " the noble science of self-defence." I always thought
that Jem Ward and John Langan were the greatest pro-
fessors of that art in Liverpool, but Mr. liushton's
practice is very unlike theirs, which was hard-hitting,
whilst his is only old-womanly scolding. " Noble
science," forsooth ! Why, every frequenter of Billings-
gate can practise it quite as well as a stipendiary magis-
trate.

5.—1 think it is a pity that Mr. Rushton should have
" the-misfortune to remain in the office he holds" when
he is so enamoured of the " noble science of self-
defence," and so many of our heavy weights want
customers.

6.—1 think, to conclude with Mr. Rushton, that, in
his contest with Mr. Hodgson, he made a sorry Goliath.
Although a " man of war from his youth upwards,"
versed in the " noble science of self-defence," and "a
Colossus," to boot, the sling and stone of David told a
tale.

7.—1 think, as a postscript to Mr. Rushton, that in
the next insurance effected upon the furniture of the
Sessions-house, a clause ought to be inserted to provide
against the demolition of the desks and tables by the fists
of magisterial dignity in a passion.
B.—l think, as a postscript to Mr. Rushton, No. 2,
that, as a subject for the next Exhibition of Paintings,
the " Colossal" form of the stipendiary in a stupendous
rage, as he appeared at the Sessions-house on this occa-
sion, might form an excellent study for " the madness of
Hercules."

9.—1 think it was a pity that Mr. David Hodgson " did
not see" Mr. Wm. Earle. He should carry a micro-
scope, rather than lose sight of so charming an object.
10.—I think I wonder—no, on second thoughts, I
don't—that Wm. Earle could be present and take part in
the magisterial attempt to avenge his defeat in St. Anne's
Ward upon poor Mr. Parker. William has always been,
in my humble thoughts, a little-minded being. I never
thought, however, he had in his composition so small a
portion of the man, and so much of the wild cat. Poor
William! thou art a most cantankerous piece of miscalled
humanity.
11.—I think it was rather good of William to forget
" the placard " referred to by Mr. Hodgson, and yet to
remember that it was circulated " during his mayoralty."
I think, however, I admired more to hear him boast that
"he did not bear those rancorous feelings that some
others generally did." (!) I don't think, but " some
others" think, that William is made up of "rancorous
feelings." I think I don't know any more amiable feeling
which enters into his composition.
12.—1 think, upon the whole, that the proceedings of
their worships were very contemptible throughout. and
excellently adapted to bring the discretion of the bench
into disrepute.

13, and last.-1 think I have thought too much, and
so has the community, about so paltry and factious an
affair.

THE STANDARD RAILWAY MAP.

We extract from our provincial contemporaries the fol-
lowing gratifying notices of the Railway Map which we
furnished in the STANDARD last week. In compliance
with a request from the Railway Record, we forwarded
the plan to London, and it appeared in the columns of
that paper on Saturday :
(From the Railway Record.)..

We are indebted to the courtesy of the editor and pro-
prietors of the Livrpool Standard, for the loan of the
very excellent plan (on the opposite page) of the railways
in that and the surrounding most important districts.
The " plan " appears at first sight to be a wood-cut, but
it is in reality entirely typographical. We have never
before seen anything of the kind attempted on so large a
scale, and certainly the execution does great credit to the
Standard establishment. We are indebted also for the
following masterly description to the same journal, one of
the very best of the many good journals emanating from
Liverpool, and which is particularly deserving of com-
mendation in respect of its railway intelligence. [Our
contemporary then gives the lengthened description of
the railways, which appeared in the STANDARD on Tues-
day last.]
(From the Shrewsbury Conservative.)
NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE.—The spirited proprietors
of the Liverpool Standard, on Tuesday last, furnished
their readers with a beautifully-executed map of the ex-
isting and projected railways, accompanied by a lucidly-
drawn-up explanatory description. It shews, in a strik-
ing manner, the advantages about to be conferred on
Shropshire by its rescue from its present state of isola-
tion, through the proposed Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton,
and Birmingham, and Shrewsbury and Chester lines.
We perceive that the conductors of the same paper (which
is published on Tuesday) now communicate to their read-
ers the Mark-lane and Smithfield markets, and the Lon-
don share-list of the previous day, together with whatever
intelligence may reach the metropolis by seven o'clock on
Monday night. The train conveying this information
arrives at Liverpool at ten minutes after five a.m.; cur
contemporary issues his broadsheet at six, and his readers
have thus on their breakfast tables, on Tuesday morning,
all that has transpired in London up to the night before.
(From the Preston Chronicle.)
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE RAILWAYS.—TheLiVer-
pooI Standard, of Tuesday last, has given a detailed ac-
count of all the railways completed and projected in the
above counties, illustrated .by an exceedingly ingenious
typographical plan or chart, which exhibits their respective
lengths, and relative bearings and positions, together with
all their branches and ramifications, from the termini of
the L-incaster, and Fleetwood and Wyre, at Preston, to
I,2vr rie extremity of the Grand Junction, and the pro-
posed Newton and Shrewsbury lines, at Wolverhampton.
The towns comprised in the plan are Preston, Blackburn,
Burnley, Todmorden, Haslingden, Rochdale, Oldham,
Bury, Bolton, 'Wigan, Southport, Formby, Ormskirk,
Leigh, Ashton, Stockport, Manchester, Newton, St.
Helens, Prescot, Huyton, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Sutton,
Hale, Runcorn, Warrington. Altringham, Brook, Emits-
ford, Northwich, Middlewich, Crewe, Newcastle, Stoke,
Stafford, Wellington, Shrewsbury, Wem, Ellesmere,
Wrexham, Mold, Holywell, and Chester, the whole of
which important places are connected with a net-work
of railways, the aggregate length of which must be several
hundreds or miles. The total number of projected lines
shown on this map is about thirty, and of those already
finished about twenty.