The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

and opportunity, I promise to attend your lectures, and to
give consecutively a reply to every argument in them. Your
hearers will thus have an opportunity of seeing that the pe-
culiar doctrines of Romanism have no foundation in the holy
word of God.
I have only to request that you will favour me with a no-
tice of the exact time and place of your lectures.
Upon another occasion I shall examine thh other state-
ments of your letter. Permit me, before I conclude, to ask
why you have taken no notice of my other questions to Dr.
Butler? They are not personal : they concern you and every
Romanist. Why do you observe such an ominous silence
upon the worship of the host. sacrifice for the dead, cursing
the man who trusts to Christ ;done for salvation, and other
Romish doctrines? Ah, sir, Christ furnishes the answer—
" He that (Meth evil hateth the light, nt.iiher cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
I can most .ruiy assure you, that I have written all this
without any personal feeling of hostility to you. 1 write it
in the earnest prayer that God may, in mercy, deliver you
from the misery of the eternal condemnation of those who
are teachers of error. If I had the opportunity, I would
gladly show you that, while I hate your errors, 1 love your
person.—l remain, sir, your faithful servant in Christ,
JOSEPH BAYLEE.
Parkfield, Birkenhead, January 2d, 1842.

TO THE CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS OF
LIVERPOOL TOWN COUNCIL.

LETTER IV

GICNTLEMEN,—It is important that in the present crisis
you should be in possession of facts respecting the position
in which the Church of Rome has placed herself, relatively
with the holy scriptures.

1. Every p-riest-of-that church in subscribing their creed,
solemnly pledges himself that he will never " take and inter-
pret them (the scriptures) otherwise, than according

unanimous consent of the Father

The effect of such a pledge upon a conscientious man,
must be to make him very reserved in communicating scrip-
tural knowledge, seeing that he must confine himself to those
points on which the fathers were unanimous, and concerning
which their unanimous consent has been handed down to
their posterity. It requires but a very slight acquaintance
with patristic lore, to perceive that such 'points are few, if
indeed any such exist at all, and that consequently in propor-
tion as a Romish priest, so pledged, is conscientious, he must
refrain from scriptural instruction, and confine himself to
ecclesiastical matters.

2. It is worthy of remark, that Romanism has at this mo-
ment no Bible which she can use or circulate, without incur-
ring a sentence of excommunication from one of her Popes.
Her standard is the Latin Vulgate, as it is called : from this
her last modern translations have been made, and not from
the Latin and Hebrew, which her councils have not sanc-
tioned or recognised at all. But what is this Vulgate ? The
two principal editions of the Vulgate are those of Pope Six-
tus V., and Pope Clement VIII. The former was printed
in 1590. After Pope Sixtus had collected the most ancient
manuscripts and best printed copies, summoned the most
learned men out of all the nations of the Christian world,
and presided over the whole himself. This edition was de-
clared to be corrected in the very best manner possible, and
published with an authoritative excommunication of every
person who should presume ever afterwards to alter the least
particle of the edition thus authentically promulgated by his
Holiness, sitting in that chair, " in quii Petri visit potestas
et excellit (metal-teas." The other edition was published in
1592, by Pope Clement VIII. It was so different from that
of Sixtus, as to contain two thousand variations, some of
whole verses, and many others clearly and designedly con-
tradictory in sense : and yet this edition also is pronounced
authentic, and enforced with the same sentence of excom-
munication as the former.

Where then is the Bible approved of by the Holy See ?
The Sixtine is condemned by the Holy See, in 1592. Any
version differing in the smallest particular from the Sixtine.
(and therefore, of course, the Clementine amongst the rest)
is condemned by the Holy See in 1590. Be it observed,
therefore, that Romanism has no Bible which she can use,
without incurring a sentence of excommunication from one

of her popes

. .
In defiance, however, of the sentence of Pope Sixtus V.,
the Romanists, finding it impossible after the Reformation,
wholly to suppress the Bible, have made translations from
the Clementine edition of the Vulgate
s: I None of thes

have ever been circulated without notes,
though the notes have varied under varying circumstances.
The English version is that which was made—the Old Testa-
ment including the Apocryphal books, at Douay—the New
Testament at Rheims; and which is now commonly called
the Douay version. it was conducted under the superin-
tendence of one Thomas Worthington, and the notorious Dr.
William Allen, who was obliged to fly from this country on
account of his treasonable practices against the government
of Queen Elizabeth. He afterwards exerted all his energies
to stop the Reformation in England, particularly by dividing
protestants. The pupils in the colleges he founded, were
bound by an oath, of which the following is a cony

•
Bdo acknowledge the ecclesiastical and political
power of his Holiness and the mother church of Rome, as the
chief head and matron above all pretended churches through
the whole earth : and that my zeal shall be for St. Peter and
his successor, as the founder of the true and ancient catholic
faith, against all heretical kings, princes, states, or powers
repugnant to the same. And, although 1, A B may pretend
in case of persecution, or otherwise, to be heretically dis-
posed, yet in soul and conscience, I shall keep, aid, and suc-
cour the mother church."—Strype's Annals, ii. part 9, page

The original notes were as in

tolerant in politics, as they

were erroneous in theology. For a time they escaped public
notice in this country, their intolerance being rendered harm-
less by the laws then in existence, for the protection of the
repeal of those

state against papal aggression
laws was seriously anticipated by men in authority, a reprint
of the Rhemish new Testament with its notes, " corrected,
revised, and approved" by Dr. Troy, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop in Dublin, attracted no small deg
attention. It met with a severe castiz

But when t

of Intense
on in the British

critic (N. S.) vol. iii. pl
Public indignation was raised in England, (lama_
done to the emancipation cause; and then Dr. Troy pub-
lished a disclaimer of the intolerant notes. Subsequent edi-
tions, for use in this country have been expurgated in a great
degree. Still the notes are highly offensive, as embodying
all the anti-scriptural novelties of popish doctrine. Pray
have patience to read a few specimens.
Refer to the following texts—St. Matt. iii. 2, and xii. 32,
and xxvi. 26; Gal. ii. 11 ; James v. 14 and 16; and 2 Mac-
cabees xii. 46 ;—and you will find notes maintaining in plain
terms the doctrines of punishing past sins by fasting—pur-
gatory—transubstantiation— Peter's supremacy—extreme
unction auricular confession priestly absolution— and
praying for the dead.
Surely, gentlemen, you will not be induced by the solemn,
but in this instance misplaced, plea of justice, to sanction
by your authority the teaching of such a compilation as this
to any of the children of our poor neighbours.

Is it not wrong to teach falsehood? Do you not know it
to be so? And how can it be just in you to do what you
know to be wrong? How can it be just in you to yield your
own convictions to other men's prejudices ?
Surely it is just and right in you to exercise the authority
with which you are providentially invested, in doing what
you know and feel to be right. If this interfere with the
constientious scruples of others, you may and will regret it
as men of kindness ; but you cannot yield to it as men of
honour.

The government, like the painter, who attempts to please
everybody, will end by pleasing nobody, and ruining itself.
Carry out then, in this matter of education, your own con-
victions as in the presence of the searcher of all hearts, and
so do the best for your country upon the whole that you can
do. Other men %ben in power may honestly act otherwise,
but you cannot. The town confiding in this principle have
placed you in power, and if you act upon it they will keep
you there.

-
But should it be otherwise, surely it is better to lose your
places for acting conscientiously, than to retain them for a
season by consenting to propagate what you yourselves believe
to he falsehood.

The decline and fall of the late government stands as a
beacon before you. Had they acted conscientiously as whigs,
they might, indeed, in due course have given way before a
small tory majority ; hnt when they violated their own con-
victions in compliance with their Popish advisers, and on the
plea of justice to Ireland, they sunk to an irrecoverable depth
under the rising indignation of an affronted community.
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your faithful servant,
FIDUS ACHATES.

It is reported that Sir Charles Wetherell. the learned and
respected recorder of Bristol, is about to resign that office.
TuE EXPLOSION BY GUNPOWDER.—TWO other sufferers
from this calamity have expired one of them, Henry Williams,
the blacksmith, has, after two days of excruciating torture,
sunk under his wounds. On Wednesday, at 4 o'clock in the
afternoon, is case appeared to be not one of absolute danger,
and hopes were even entertained of his recovery ; but soon
after that time he got rapidly worse, and died about six o'clock
on that evening. Another sufferer, George Collins, died at
the Infirmary yesterday, and an inquest was held, when the
same evidence was given, and the like verdict was returned.
The deceased was burnt about the hands and feet ; he had

also a wound in the head, and a severe contusion of the left
thigh, with a large lacerated wound in the left ham. This
poor man bad been doing well until Wednesday night, when
he complained of great increase of pain in the left thigh,
which continued to progress to a most distressing degree,
until! 12 o'clock on Thursday night, at which hour death
terminated his dreadful sufferings. The lower half part of
the body is one black mass of mortitication.—Bristol Journal
of Saturday.

- - -
MESMERISM NOT WHOLLY Usui.Ess.—The followng de-
scription of a case, in which it would appear that the state of
insensibility into which the adepts in this much-controverted
science profess to throw their patients, has been turned to
useful account, has been addressed by Mr. Gardiner, of
Roche Court, Hants, to the editor o fthe Hampshire Stan-
dard. We make no comment on the circumstances, but con-
tent ourselves with transcribing what the writer declares to
be a simple narrative of facts :—" Having been interrupted
in the course of certain mesmeric experiments by a
violent
toothache in one of the patients (whom I had exhibited to
Drs. Elliotson and Engledue), it occurred to me that 'the in-
sensibility which is an invariable concomitant of the true
sleep-walking state would afford me an admirable opportu-
nity of benefiting the sufferer, and of extending the iilica-
' tion of mesmerism. My friend Dr. Engledue obtained the
assistance of Mr. Martin, a gentlemen who knew little and
asa_g.r operation.e d H e
believed less about mesmerism, and who decidedly
upon
ques-
tioned the practicability of the p
came. In two minutes the patient (a young lady) wa, in
Martin seized the tooth (a molar or Jawh tooth) with the
the perfect mesmeric trance, and therefore insensible. Mr.
roposedin(
forceps, purposely prolonged the wrench
with Dr. Engledue, prior to his visit, in oFcler to test
thoroughly the insensibility of the ptaotrnl
ot/,, and drew forth
the tooth. Not a pang or a "toPI r rt
Suffering 1 In a
short time I restored the pa tiell'itl that'tehenta ural state in the
usual manner. Upon being.
Clol feel it ?" tooth had been ex-
tracted, she exclaimed, '
'li
then a had
greeting
to a dentist's ears ! Mr.
, Martind
the proceeded to examine
her mouth, I
"in- sugg—te removal of 'another tooth.
The patient laughingly.
consented,entrin i and sat again. In one
entranced
minute and a half I again
before c her, and she became, of
course, insensible as
,v.l . The tooth, being in an ad-
vanced' stage or deca);,cs crushed under the instrument,
and the remnants were with much trouble extracted. During
thistnt.
the whole oftrying
Shortly
operation, not a groan or complaint
escaped the
patient.
emturned
upon which s
lost to
the glass to ascertain whether or
not title had really the second tooth ' Itwould be &ft'
determine which part evinced . cult to
.y the greater degree of
ht and astonishment
,—the
astounding , the one having witnessed a novel
1
unconsciously, almost phenomenon ; the other having been
magically, freed from her tormentors."
SINGULAR ATTEMPT AT HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On
Sunday night last, as Mr, Richard Nicholson, woolsorter,
High-street, Bradford, '
was returning from Bingley, he was
accosted by aman about half a mile from the village, who
inquired how far he was going, and he told him to Bradford ;
he replied that he was going thither himself. and would, if he
bear pleased, him company. Nicholson agreed to this, and
they walked.
on very comfortably till they came to Cottingley
Bridge ; the polite stranger then abruptly said, " I believe
I could throw you over this bridge." Nicholson replied that
he thought he could not, but the man still persisted that he
could, and having arrived at the extremity of the bridge, he
made a sudden attempt to put him on the top of the battle-
ment. At this instant another man ran up, and they pro-
ceeded to rifle his pockets. It being moonlight, Nicholson
thought he saw somebody approaching, and he bawled out as
lustily as he could, and two lads coming up, the thieves ran
away disappointed of their booty.--Leeda Intelligencer.