The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-11 00:00:00

pointing dirt`etly to it. There are fen new Ro n'i-Ari Ca-
tholic chapels, he says, either in course of erection or
in embryo for Liverpool and its neighbourhood, be-
sides a convent and some other sanctified retreat for
the devout and the needy of his communion; and
" St. Domingo House," lately taken by the body, is
about to be converted into a Roman Catholic college
for children .of the wealthier classes. These various
undertakings will involve an expense of ;_c,780,000 ; but

no matter, says Cala)hots ; the priests who have de-
nounced the new or restored system of the Corpora-

tion Schools must be consistent—must act up to their
denunciations; and, cost what it may, the Catholics

must subscribe and maintain schools for themselves in
place of those from which they shall have been ex-
cluded. Now what we would observe with regard to
all these splendid projects and tokens of growing
greatness is this,—if the Romanists have become so
many and so powerful in Liverpool, it ass tiredly is time .
for us to look to all the defences of Prote itantism, and,
by every legitimate means, to protect our church and
people against the encroachments of a system from
which we have everything to apprehend. We shall be
far better pleased indeed to find that all :hese magnifi-
cent schemes are but the dreams of a restless ambi-
tion, or the vauntings of some individual a little over-
zealous for the coming glory and exa Itation of his
church ; but if the describer should be right, and we
should be wrong—if the Romanists of Liverpool can
indeed realise all these fine plans, and provide substi-
tutes for the Corporation Schools in addlition to all—
then we repeat that the more we hear oi' strictly and
exclusively Protestant institutions, and Church of Eng-
land institutions, and the less we are told of radical,
liberal, or mixed ones, the better.
If the Romanist children continue to attend the
Corporation Schools as formerly, we should suppose
that no enlightened Protestant will regret the vast im-
provement in the quality of the instruction which they
will henceforth receive therein; the Change effected
must be a matter of congratulation to all wbo are any_
thing more than merely nominal Protestaw:s. On the
other hand, if the Romanists can accomp'tish all they
now speak of; if they are able from their own re-
sources to provide substitutes for the free institutions
of the municipality, and their rising power, wealth,
and influence be really such as their organs describe,
we have cause to rejoice in the wisdom and prudence
which have led the Council to act in their public capa-
city on principles of religion in harmony with those of
the Established Church. With regard to the threat
held out by some, that the children of Roman Catho-
lics would be turned upon the streets in the event of
the new system being carried, there is nothing in it.
However willing the priests might be that such a re-
sult should take place, they could not effect it; paren-
tal affection would prove stronger than priestly autho-
rity ; there is no cause for apprehension on this

We have sincere pleasure in directing the attention
of our readers to the report, in another column, of a
meeting called by the conservative aldermen and coun-
cillors of Lime-street Ward, for the purpose of taking
steps for the alleviation of the distress existing a.mongst
the poor of the ward, during the present inclement
season. The division of the town, under the munici-
pal act, into districts, of which each possesses an alder-
man and three councillors as its representatives,
provides excellent machinery for the judicious distri-
bution of relief amongst the really necessitous at this
or any other similar season; and we trust that the ex-
cellent example set by the representatives of Lime-
street, and so cordially responded to by their consti-
tuents, without distinction of party, will not be lost
upon the other wards of the town.

A liberal contemporary in Manchester has made a
discovery, or alleges that he has done so, (for we know
not how the fact may be,) to the effect that some of

the members of the Factory Deputation of the West

Riding are disciples of the well known Mr. Robert
Owen, and upon that plea urges that their memorial is
unworthy of the smallest attention. Now, we put it to
our contemporary, if this be not a very ii-liberal mode
of treating the argument gravely and respectfully put
forth—an argument, moreover, which has no relation
to any one of the visionary speculations, or peculiar
_ _

doctrines, moral or immoral, of the sect of the Owen.

ites ? It is a liberal dogma, at least, that all men,
whatever their station in life, or their private opinions
may be, who are not disqualified by any legal or social
prescription, have a right to express their opinions on
public affairs without being subject to a scrutiny as to
what opinions they may entertain on other subjects ;

and we know no reason why such indulgence shout
be denied to the individuals who composed the Fac,

tory Operatives Deputation, even if it were true that
Mr. G. A. Fleming were a Socialist missionary, Mr.
Joshua Hobson, publisher of the Northern Star, Mr.
Mark Crabtree, a beer-seller, and Messrs. Brook and
Leeche of occupations unknown to the Manchester
Guardian. We have a lively recollection how very
welcome to the Anti-Corn-Law League are ministers
of " all denominations," from Unitarians to Papists,
provided these discordant elements can be made to
produce any degree of concord, however small, in'
favour of their own monopoly, and in opposition to
that which they are in the habit of denouncing as the
appendage only of the landlords ; and we therefore
must take the liberty of considering the deputation as
not undeserving of a voice in court notwithstanding
the designations of trade or sect which the official
organ of the league has attached to their names.
The publication of their report has now been brought
to a close, and it will not be denied, that save in a sin-
gle point, and that one to which but little importance
can be attached—the body of deputies have met with
all the success in the discharge of the mission which
they could reasonably have expected. The excepted
point to which we allude, is that of referring the ques-
tion to any committee of parliament—a mode of pro-
ceeding to which Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Stanley
especially, objected in decided terms. Parliamentary
committees, said his lordship, have of late become a
by-word, and to refer a question of public interest to
a committee, is but another name for shelving it, or
getting rid of the responsibility of dealing with it. On
all other points the deputies received replies, or elicited
remarks which prove that their efforts were not in
vain, and that the question of abolishing all protection
to the agriculturists, and of distress in the manufactu-
ring districts, will not be finally disposed of without

at least an attentive consideration being given to the
views which they have suggested.
It is a plain and broad, but unquestionably a most
momentous question, whether the adjustment of ex-
isting derangements is to be looked for by seeking new
vents for our manufactures, or by se:ting some limit to
the amount of production. It is admitted on all hands
that the distress now existing arises from the supply
being greater than the demand. "Of the causes of
the suffering of the past year," says the united broker's
circular, " that. which is nearest the surface is the mis-
chievous facility for raising money afforded by joint-
stock banks, by which mills and machinery, to a vast
extent, have been prematurely called into existence,
and the production of every species of manufacture
stimulated in a most extravagant manner." In fact,
there is little 'difference of opinion as to the general
cause or causes of the depression ; and for all conse-
quential reasoning, it may be said, that there is a per-
fect agreement on this head ; the discord arises when
we approach to the more immediate and more interest-
ing question of remedies.
Follow the prescription of the Liverpool Anti-Mo-
nopoly Association, and all and every other branch of
the great central trunk of the factory metropolis, and
foreign-raised provisions constitute the only cure for
the evil. On the other hand, it is contended by more
than the Operative's Deputation, that no such exten-
sion of markets would arise from this source as to give
full work to our factories, and absorb all the at-present
unemployed in this or any other species of industry.
The only difference between this latter class of reme-
dialists and others who have deserted from the doc-
trine of the league is, that the Yorkshire deputies speak
with a degree of boldness and decision on this point
which others have not used. The condition of the
operatives, say they, has been one of steady decline,
and it has not been owing so much to decreasing
'demand for our manufactures, as to the introduction
of machinery -for their production. We do not enter
into the question of the corn-laws or free-trade at all ;
we look to the condition of the operative, and what we
know to be the productive power of machinery,—and