The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-13 00:00:00

LYE CONSERVATIVE ASSO-CIATION.

The fortnightly meeting of the:Lye and Wolleseote
Ccnservative Association was held at the house of Mr.
J. Perry, the •Vitie Inn, on Wednesday evening. Mr.
A. W. Perry was in the chair, and Mr. S. Brookes the
vice-chair. There were also present Messrs. Samuel
Mobberley, T. Mobberley, J. M. Comely, G. Rhodes, W.
Wood, D. Yardley, G. H. Collier, Edward Robins, C.
Flambrey, G. H. Rhodes, T. Rhodes, jun., T. Gardiner,
T. Evesoa, J. ,Chance, L. Attwooh, B. Hill, J. Wool-
dridge, jun., Z. Rutter, James Chance, H. Allport, 0.
Pardoe, J. Smith, G. Edwards, J. Hancox. J. Wool-
dridge, sea, E. Brookes, C. Eveson, s Ratter, J.
Robins, J. Taylor, W. Bayliss, J. Taylor, R. Hatton,
&c.

The Chairman said he was pleased to see so many
good Conservatives present. He strongly believed in
the present Government and he believed that notwith-
standing the great clamour outside the House of Parlia•
meat the Government would carry us out if possible
without a war, and called upon Mr. W. H. Brookes, who
read the minutes of the last meeting.
On the motion of Mr. G. Collier it was proposed
that tha minutes read be confirmed
This eras seconded by Mr. Robins.
The Chairman then ref.arred to the banquet
is take p'av at i:riorley Hill. He believed teat
it would be one of the largesit tha had taken place
in the district. The Chairman than read a list of noble-
men, members of Parliament, and others who had
promised to attend, and called upon Mr llport to
address those present. The subject being " Reasons for
not Disestablishiug the Church of England."
Gentleruen,—lt is not because I think any observa-
tions of mine will do ju?tice to—or exhaust the subject
to which I propose to call your atteation to-night that
presume to occupy the position I do, but because I think,
however feeble our effort?, we are bound as a Cooserva-
tive Association to take that subject into our serious
consideration. The. Radical party are making the most
strenuous efforts to instil into the Lairds of the People
the most eroneous impressions, by one-sidled ststements,
by gross perversions of the troth, and by the most
glaring falsifications of I istory and exoerience; with a
view to get up a party cry, and to gratify their malignant
opposition to a church which ins,,ad of being the ohj,et
of their envy ought to receive tioar gratitu le and cup-
port. You are aware that some of the most conspicuons
advocates of the liberationist proaraname are Noncon-
fortuists, both ministers and laymen, who appear to make
evary consideration religious or otherwise subservient
to their political views and aspirations, but let inn say
that if dissent have any regard for their own origin and
traditions they may with perfect consistence nasintaie
the importance of the national establishment of religion.
I say this because there ~re many Co servative dis-
senters, no doubt in one own as wed as other associa-
tions, and we may fairly unite together to support an
inctitatioa, not only because it is so deeply interwoven
with the constitution of this country but because the
founders of Nonconformity to whom their fodowers refer
with pride and veneration were with us in their views as
to the importance of the natioaal establishment.
Mathew Henry, Howe. Owen, Baxter, and Wesley acre
most emphatic in their advocacy of the views we hold
and which are utterly opposea to those of the libera-
tionists. Ana I ask where is the consistency of Noncon-
formists of the present day, in cicithiag themselves with
al the honour they colic: lye to be derived from then
connection with the name. I have mentioned whim the%
so totally dissent from their views and principles. 11
the Puritan fathers (and nutabiy the founder or Metho-
dism) could pay a visit to us tied view the way wants o:
their followers they would revounce their offsariugs.
he object of the political dissenter DOW is to destroy
the church as a national efrablishment, and to con
fiscate its revenues,

I shall consider first, very briefly, of course, the
question of d se-tablishment. The advantages of the
Natipnal Church, in my estimation, are the benefits i.
c.erfers on the state and the country. It is a great argu-
ment with Nonconformists that. the great triumphs of
were eahieved in the first ages of Christianity
when it was not associated with the secular power, but
those acquainted with ec,tlesiasticat history must know
fruit those triumphs were confined chiefly to the grea;
c ties of the Lomat' empire. Whikt ths myriads in.
.bit the ccuntry, who we7e callA Pagans, rein .ins fir
the most pin in he ithen darkness tilt the crvil poffler. .
homing Christian, covered the territory under it-
domit.ion with an .erganized system of
ei,n, and there by assetninated thtlpriLcipies of Christian-
ity far and wide '.l.'his was wrong in the estirnatiooci
those who oppose a state church, but to this error it
error it was do we o,ye the spread •.f Criristian:ty over
the world and the estsblisiement f it in our Own country.
The voluntary system may be sut;:tes,ful, now, to a gro tt
extent in large towns, but it is quite Jiff-rent in count y
places, where but for the chute, , the people would to le
great extent he without the tneae:s of r--,Liqua worshi.2.
Mr. Forster is a great man with the ti. r.:l party. Wle,,t
dose he say on this epee l ?He says :—".l elt,uld feel
that tie 0-Airch were disestablished and di,endoAcd,
a great engine of good wet2l4 be removed. I eoebiaer
that engine of good to be the parochial system. I
beii4ve the fact of having a man in each parish, whose
business it is to look aPer the welfare of his parishioners
is an enormous advantaje." Lord Alacatiay is another
aatuority which the Liberals some times treat with
guest respect and defereuce. What does he say on the
subject. t.'..peaking in the Houselof Commons April 23,
1815, ou the Irish Church Quetvion he glves expressioa
to the foliowing sentiments in reference to the Snglisli
Citueli
:
" If I would keep up the Established Church of
England, it is not for the sake of lords and
baronets, and county gentlemen of five thousand
a year and rich bankers in the city. I know
that such people will always have churches, aye,
and cathedrals and organs and rich communion
plate. The person about whom lam uneaby is the
working man, the man who would find it difficult
to pay even five shillings or ten shillings a year
out of his earnings for the ministrations of
religion. What is to become of him under the
voluntary system ? Is he to go without religious
instruction altogether? That we should all think
a great evil to himself and a great evil to society.
Is he to pay for it out of his slender means?
That would be a heavy tax.. Is he to lie dependent
on the liberality of others? That is a somewhat
precarious and a somewhat humiliating depen-
dence. I prefer, I own, that system, under which,
there is, in the rudest and most secluded district,
a'house of God where public worship is performed
after a fashion acceptable to the great majority
I of the community and where the honest may par-
take of the ordinances of religion not as an alms,
. . .

but as a right." Such is— the view of Lord
Macaulay and I think it ought to commend itself
to our common sense as well as to our patriotism.
No people know better than the Nonconformists
themselves the inadequacy of the voluntary
system to meet the wants and requirements of
the people or to approach to anything like the
efficiency for good of th Nati.,nal Church of
England. I have no wili to say h trd things
about the working of t:te voluntary system
among Nonconformists. 'l';)3, hqv no Junk
done a good work, and for fl-e sake of vr:01-
went I refer to the evils of the sy.3tetn 1 t. it !Jot,
be thought that I cast any p rcfl otio.s on
the Nonconforrni ,ts thomi e t I is prop )s.ed to
substitute for the establi 41:m imL li vo!tuttary

system. Now we must ex tete, th a si,ttm to see
whether we are jit.;titied in pp ring or c
ti-
doming it. When I say the volu• tey System Ido
not mean to inply t tat the hu c h a not dor:•
more by voluntary etfort than all !he Noncon-
formist organizations put together, but the velen-
tary system as practised by themselves, which
they think worthy to supers !,ie the establishment.
Now I could punish the ino it unequivocal evi•
dence from my own experience and observation to
prove the failure of that system. There is a body
of Nonconformists not far from here, and I take
them as a sample of the whole. Their constitu-
tion and policy of all the Nonconformist bodies
the most in . accordance with lileral views as to
representative government and might on that
account be expected to claim great support from
the Liberal or Radical section of the community.
In the district to which I refer there are eight or
nine chapels and societies. A few years ago they
found it the most difficult thing to support one
minister. The voluntary contributions from the
whole of the places had to be supplemented by
begging from house to house sixmme.3 from here
and sixpence there in order to raise money suffi-
cient to pay the salary of one minister, who would
receive not more than £l5O per annum, and the
voluntary principle was so successful in supplying
the wants of their ministers that on one occasion I
they had to borrow from the bank the sum of £6O
on the personal security of several of its members
to save their ministers from leaving the district
without te salary. As to how the voluntary
system op ates on the floor I will give you a case
which ocenrred a short time ago in this neigh-
bourhood. The circu:nstances were communi-
cated to me by the parties themselves. A scheme
was proposed at a certain chapel to get up a sub-
scription to rid the society of some of the burden
which pressed upon it. A working man who
attended the same chapel, who I'll guarantee was
not in receipt of more. than a pound a week the
year through, .and who had a wife and family to
keep, was assessed by the minister to be able to
contribute 503 towards the proposed subscription.
He protested that he was unable to given much.
The minister recommended him. if he had not the
money to borrow it of his employer whom he felt
sure would, lent it him. The minister tlben had
an interview with the man's employer and re-
quested him to lend his workman the money, and
suggesting that he should pay himself back by
keeping a sum par week out of his wages. Now
the system under which the things are constantly
occurring, and which must occur from the•nature
of the case we are called upon to substitute for the
church which has its paid ministerr in every parith
free from the domination of bigots, independent in
their teaching sad in 'pit* of Joseph Arch doing