The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-06-26 00:00:00

THY,

ibtrpool trinbarb.

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1855

LORD SHAFTESBURY'S BILL.

AM, ,N.-; the, many things which we hare to be thankful
for, we may certainly include the House of Lords ;
otherwise, Lori SIIA.FTESB URY'S Bill would have-been-
by this time law ; and a more mischievous law we
can scarcely conceive. We owe it to Lord DERBY,—
and we take a pleasure in recording the this
bill has been arrested in its course. Smuggled through
the House of Commons in a most marvellously silent
and secret manner,—the divisions being taken after
twelve o'clock at night,—and introduced with as few
words as possible into the Lords, Lord SHAFTESBURY
thought to get it quietly and silently made law. That
the bill means a great deal more than lies on the face
of it, no one who watched the noble Earl's nervous
and excited manner, his dread of investigation, can
doubt for a moment. Concealment was his prime ob-
iectL-exposure his terror. This looked suspicious ;
but his speech confirmed the suspicion. One set of
facts completely contradicted the. other ; but both he
contrived to make to serve his purpose. One time he
aid that this bill would not give a layman any more
power than he now had ; another, that it was neces-
sary, in, order to enable a pious layman to read and
expouild the Scriptures to his friends. One time he
said it was necessary, in order to legalise the meetings
of the. City Mission ; at another, he said that the City
Mission held its meetings without hindrance from the
existing law. Evidently none of these were the true
reasons : there were some behind that he durst not
make public. 'We shall tell our readers what they are.
As the law stands at present, no one can call together
more than twenty persons, besides his own household,
for prayer or preaching ; at least, if he does, he is liable
to indictment. This has proved a very awkward
restraint on some of Lord SHA.FTESBURY'S "pious
laymen"—that 'is, persons who have manifested their
piety by quarrelling with their clergyman, either on
personal or doctrinal grounds. A country squire, who
owns almost the whole parish, quarrels with the parish
priest ; he goes, perhaps, to another church, but his
tenants still go to their own church. A manufacturer
objects to the doctrine of the Incumbent of his dis-
trict; he, too, goes to another church, but his factory
people still attend on the ministrations of their proper
pastor. This is disagreeable : they want to put down
the clergyman, and make him come to their terms.
It will not do to open a dissenting meeting-house,
because these men profess zeal and attachment to the
Church ; and they know their people are Churchmen.
If they could only open a room near the church, a
work-room in the factory, an empty barn in the farm-
yard, where they could make their foreman or butler
read the Church service and a lecture, then they
could plead attachment to the Church, and show inde-
pendence of their Church's minister at the same time.
The urgency for some such scheme is pressing at this
time ; for, in spite of all his efforts, in these last
few years Lord SHAFTESBURY has found that
Church doctrines have been making steady and un-
doubted progress. Clergymen have managed to sur-
vive agitation, and to surmount prejudice; people are
better Churchmen, more attached to-the Church than
ever. This is diametrically opposite to what his
Lordship expected. Another favourite scheme has

also in a great measure failed, viz., that of effect-
ing a powerful union between a certain class of disaf-

fected Clergy and Dissenters. He sag• something
must be done. This bill, if it passed, might do a

great deal.

Thus, any influential layman, landowner,

or manufacturer, could hold this bill in terrorent over

the clergyman's head. "If you don't preach as /
please, or conduct the services as Iliac, I will open a
meetingrhouse, and read the Ch.# Service, and

make my people attend ; then, what will von do ?"
Again, many Dissenters admire the Church Service,

and, indeed, very much prefer it to the extempore

effusions of their own ministers ; but they dislike the

sacerdotal character of the clergyman, and the autho-

ritative position of the Church.

If they could have a