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

TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 11, 1842

The recent decision of the Municipal Council on
the question of education, is so highly important, that
we shall make no apology to our readers for reverting
to it, and noticing, as briefly as we can, one or two
points brought forward by gentlemen who voted in
the minority, and by them enlarged and dwelt upon as
if they possessed much intrinsic weight and conse-
quence.

In the view of one of the adverse aldermen, the
Council have passed a decree which is fully equivalent
to an incipient reconstruction of the abrogated penal
laws against Popery; and visions of ropes, screws,
and hatchets danced through his mind in gallopes and
sarabands of varied confusion. It was somewhere
about the time when this worthy alderman was horn,
(we take his own word for the statement,) that still no
living professor of the Roman Catholic religion might
be lawful owner of one rood of his mother earth, and
that a busy informer might even unhorse him from the
horse he bestrode to fair or market, as one whom our
stern and cruel laws deemed altogether unworthy of
equestrian elevation. Oppression like this it was pain-
ful to think of in these days when profession of every
sort was so free; but it was irresistibly recalled to his
mind by the fact of the municipality of Liverpool be-
ing instantly engaged in remodelling their schools on
a strictly Protestant and scriptural basis. To do this
upon an unreserved, non-excepting, and exclusive
plan, he regarded as an absolute revival of penalties
and the intolerant principle, and he imagined it as the
most painful retrogression on the march of intellect
which it was possible to conceive, Now as our nerves
happen not to be quite so delicate in their texture as
those of the liberal alderman, we confess that we are
not terrified by this bugbear of penalism and persecu-
tion against Popery which he would conjure up to
frighten us from cur propriety. To intolerance, in a
rightful construction of the term, we are as much op-
posed as the alderman himself; we are no advocates
for any, even the smallest invasion of the rights of
conscience; but we contend that the Corporation of
Liverpool are pure from that offence, and that, in the
course they have taken in remodelling their schools,
they have strictly adhered to the path of principle and
duty, and have violated no rule of toleration in its
most enlarged and liberal, but, at the same time, its
just and correct sense.
Alderman Evans—for it is to him we allude—would
not say that any penal law is an unjust law ; if this
were the case, how should virtue and honesty be de-
fended in a world where vice and dishonesty so largely
abound ? Penal laws are necessary for the preserva-
tion of civilised society; they cannot be dispensed
with ; but, beyond all question, no punishment, pri-
vation, or loss of any kind ought to attach to the do-
ing of that which is in itself right, truthful, and de-
serving of praise. An exclusive system of scripturally
religious education is, we will admit, penal ; but penal
on whom, or on what ? Why penal on the irreligious,
penal on unbelievers in the Christian dispensation, or
penal on those who would mix up with truth some-
thing which is not true, and thereby corrupt and de-
file the truth itself. On all such a strictly Protestant
system of education is certainly penal; but it is not
for this reason objectionable. Here we take issue with
the objector, and we affirm that it is he who is in er-
ror, and not 147 e .

The question may he lilt in another form, thus_
shall error inflict its penal laws upon us, or shall we
pass a penal law against it ? We submit that this is
exactly the question, and that, according to th' plain
dictates of that first law of nature, self-protection, we
have no choice in the business, but are enjoined, by
the highest and strongest obligations, to take care that
we do not palter away- a valuable—a sacred deposit
committed immediately to our trust. It is one thing
to tolerate dissenters in the utmost latitude of free
will and free action in what concerns themselves; it is
another to allow them to obstruct and hinder us in the
exercise and enjoyment of the same justly valued pri-
vileges. Romanists may establish schools for them-
selves ; there is no prevention offered them ; but they
have no right to come forward and dictate to Protes-
tants what system they shall adopt in their institutions,
and convert the toleration which they receive at our
hands into a right of obstruction and persecution as
against us; for such is what, in effect, they claim. If
a system of education which is right and sound in it-
self operate as an exclusion, and so far penally, against
Romanists, we cannot help that ; that is their fault,
and not ours. Are we to corrupt our system because
they will not receive what is true ? We do not compel
them to accept what we submit for their adoption ; but
we maintain and defend it because we believe it to be
true in itself, and best for all who will avail themselves
of it. On this ground we are ready to meet all gain-
sayers; we stand, as it were, upon a rock, and cannot
be moved.

So much as to the penal character of the resolution
taken by the Council ; with regard to its actual opera-
tion, in this point of view we confess that our presci-
ence is a little at fault. We do not know whether the
priests of the Church of Rome will be able to expel
the Romanist children from the schools or not; we
hope they will not; we are conscious that children who
stand so pre-eminently in need of it, should have the
full benefit of the essentially valuable instruction which
shall hereafter be afforded in these schools ; but what-
ever course the priests may take, and whatever success
may attend their exertions, we shall find nothing either
in the defeat or triumph of their efforts to make us in
the least regret the decision of the Council. This we
say upon deliberate consideration.

Let us suppose the ecclesiastics of Romanism to
succeed in their pious anathemas, and Romanist chil-
dren withdrawn from the schools ; they will, in this
case, have been able to provide other schools for them.
This we take as an inevitable consequent; the project
is, we believe, already a-foot ; at least we read a letter
signed Catholicize in the Liverpool Journal of Saturday

pointing directly to it. There are ten new Itoman 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 "louse," lately taken by the body, is

about to be converted into a Roman Cathol

for children of the wealthier classes. These various
"); but

undertakings will involve an expense of £Bo,ot

no matter, says Catholiens ; 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 assuredly is time
for us to look to all the defences of Protestantism, 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 these magnifi-
cent schemes are but the dreams cf a restless ambi-
tion, or the vauntings of some individual a little over-
zealous for the coming glory and exaltation 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 addition to all—
then we repeat that the more we hear of 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 who are any_
thing more than merely nominal Protestants. On the
other hand, if the Romanists can accomplish 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 ❑ot 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 amongst
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 bow 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 il-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 should
be denied to the individuals who composed the 17

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 he 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 tc be the productive power of machinery,—and