The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-02 00:00:00

' he says, • to lift up my voice against so injurious a compro-

luty,
rise !' "

. . _
" I agree with this learned prelate," said Mr. Brooks, " that it
would be most unwise, on religious subjects,to enter into any com-
promise,—(cheers,)—nay, more, as a Christian minister, I dare not
do it. (Tremendous cheering.)

You perceive, gentlemen, that the compromise so spoken
of by his Grace the Primate, and by your own respected
Rector, is precisely the compromise, now under considera-
tion, viz., that secular instruction letters, ciphers, and morals,
should be given to some of the children, and religion left to
the care of the parent or pastor.

At the same great meeting, the Rev. Hugh M`Neile, after
shewing how religious instruction should mingle with every
lesson in geography, history, astronomy, arithmetic, said,—

" If religion be dislocated from all these branches of knowledge ;
if the strength and power, and pith of every day's tuitio►► be given to
what is called general education, we say, to sanction such a system,
is to sanction a hot bed of atheism. This arises from a fact. in

which some of our modern philosophers require to be instructed, the
fact of the fall of matt. Knowledge is the name given to the sym-
bol of man's ruin ; awl while in a state of transgression without the

sanctifying power of religious principle, to cultivate the man, is t
cultivate poison. To cultivate a creature whose powers are tunic
away from his God, is to approximate him to hilt that tempted his
Knowledge without religion, approximates a man to Beelzebub.
(Prolonged applause.)

After arguing this view of the subject still further, the
reverend gentleman quoted in corroboration of his senti-
ments, the language of a noble and learned lord upon the
bench, who, in a charge to the grand jury of the county of
Leicester, said,—

" Ile certainly would never discourage educating the lower
classes of society ; but he would boldly affirm, that if the education

was not founded upon a moral and religious principle, instead of
becoming a blessing to the poor, it would in the end, turn out a
curse. Education, without religious instruction, could not control
the strong passions of the human race, and he had only again to re-
peat, that the various calendars throughout the circuit, had plainly
convinced him,that it would be far better to leave the poorer classes
of the community in ignorance, than to educate them, withoul
having for the groundwork our blessed revealed religion."

Statements of a similar character might be quoted from
other speakers, at that, and subsequent meetings, upon this
subject, from the Rev. Mr. Campbell, Mr. A. Hodgson, Mr.
Sands, Mr. Thomas Horsfall, Mr. Samuel Holme : but my
letter swells to au inconvenient size.

Were such sentiments as these sound, conservative, seri

tural, six years ago ; and are they now to be practically
disregarded and forgotten? Be assured, gentlemen, that,
however they may be so treated by some members of the
council, they are not, and will not be forgotten or disregarded
in the town. The elections for West Derby and Great
George Wards, on the first day of last month, supply signifi-
cant proof, that this is no idle threat. No, no, the speakers
of these sentiments in 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839, are not men
" given to change ;" and they are men who have moved, and
in such a cause can again move the constituencies, both mu-
nicipal and parliamentary, of this great Protestant borough.
I said in sucia a cause. For talented and eloquent as they
are, their real strength lies in neither the one nor the other;
bat in the truth of God for which they contend, and the
grace of God on which they rely.
Should any of you be of opinion that, after all, secular in-
struction must be better than none, as civilization is bette