The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-03-23 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

LORD DERBY'S ALLEGED PUSEYISM. FOR some weeks past, there have been paragraphs going the round of the various newspapers, stating in terms more or less strong, that the present chief minister of the crown, so well known in this neighbourhood as an eminent man and a good Conservative, is a follower of Dr. PUSEY at heart. Though such paragraphs must always originate somewhere, one hardly knows where they begin or end ; for they seem to be the common property of the newspapers, as ballad poetry is of the entire population. In many instances, they become part of the ordinary trains of thought with the whole community, and it is impossible to cancel the impressions even when discovered to be erroneous. In the present case, a motive is apparent; for if the confidence of Lord DERBY'S supporters, or a large portion of them, in his Protestantism can only be weakened, or the alliance of others be prevented, it will diminish the strength so essential to sound Protestants at the present moment. But somewhat more than the motive has come to light; the actor  stands revealed. An obscure person in Ormskirk, named STONER, seeks immortality as a newspaper  correspondent. He will not stoop to confer with the members of the press in his own neighbourhood ;- it is not the acquaintance of a provincial journal that he seeks ; he will enlighten the benighted public through the columns of the Morning. Advertiser. Unfortunately for his self-esteem, the prophet of armskirk is not respected in his own country;- and perhaps he thought that nearer home his statements would be taken, at their proper value, or his illustrations of long-bow practice would admit of readier detection.  He assists in the induction of a respected schoolmaster, but finding that he is not so great a man on the school committee as on the board .of guardians, he adopts the plan of Major. TESTY, and "writes to the papers." A poor child, loathsome from neglect, filth, and an aggravated form of hereditary disease, terminates his painful existence; and as it can be proved that the teacher once tried to induce him to sit straight at his copy-book, the man must be indicted for school-boy slaughter, if not for cruel and deliberate murder. The report, which we have taken some pains to give at length elsewhere, showed' that the charge was frivolous and vexatious; the trumpery accuser is a sadder, but we fear not much of a wiser man ; and the assembled population of the neighbourhood testified their joy, in the most lively manner, for the triumph  of injured innocence. The same learned Theban made the remarkable discovery that Lord DERBY is a Puseyite; and, as might he expected, the evidence is of the same kind. The former vicar was tractarian, the DERBY family are the patrons; ergo, according to the laws rof gingerbread sequence, his lordship must be a diluted Papist. Now it so happens that the former vicar was not appointed by Lord DERBY, but by his late father; who succeeded to the earldom in 1834, and nresented in 1846. But if this were not a sufficient reply, there is the additional fact that Mr. HORNBY (the late vicar) was trebly related to the DERBY family, in consequence of three distinct alliances. Nor should it be forgotten that the fact of the evidence coming through Mr. STONER, alone casts suspicion on it; for there is a certain class who cannot claim to be believed, even when they speak the truth.  There is an advantage in the present plan of publishing news ; as a needless and invidious publicity is avoided, by the omission of the writer's name, while at the same time care is understood to be taken that statements of fact are what they pretend to be. But there is a disadvantage also; for a busybody may become the pest of a neighbourhood, while he is either undetected, or parties at a distance cannot be convinced how utterly worthless his statements are. A small portion of the mud thrown generally adheres; the fact of an accusation being made at all, is a sort of presumption that there was some foundation for it; and so the worthless life of many a despicable wretch is without a ray of importance, except that portion of it, when, like a ribbon marksman, he has been plotting or executing mischief.