The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-17 00:00:00

_totitbribtle Obserinr

SATL: !WAX, JANUAttY 17th, 1885.

THE CRUSADE AGAINST THEM

CHURCH.

IVE bad almost said the "new" crusade

agamst the Church of England, for until a
fex weeks ago the fact had passed from
most men's memory that there ever existed
a settle.l otganization to destroy the e,oircia
bulwark of religion in this country, and to

te her revenues. Very recently, how-
ever, a ci •ular letter, and a series ofresole-
tiens, reniin:led us that such an assoeialit n
did exist. and was now, at least officially
alive. The passage of the Franchise Bill,
and the virtual settlement of party differ-
ences over the measure for the Redistribu-
tion of Smts having opened up before Par-
liament a cleer pathway to other important
and long-delayed legislation, the "official"
Liberationists and Spohaters rush forward
and desire to place Disestablishment in the
forefront of everything else. For five years,
according to their own admission, they have
allowed the question to lay dormant, but of
course, -where there are liberal sources of in-
come, and wire pullers eminently capable of
spending it, the game of agitation must be
resuscitated periodielLly. , This is the only
construction one canTionestly Fit upon the
present action of the Liberation Society. As
a result of the circular letter referred to, it
was necessary that a conference should he
held. Usually Noncomformists are great
in the matter of conferences.- They are the
assemblies in which the arrogant deacon, or
the ambitious "church member." may air
his dogmas with almost threatening gesture
in Ole face ef the minister by whom he ex-
-13( ets to be obeyed ; and they are also gather-
ins which fl equeatly form the nucleus of
strong local political organisations. When
a conference is summoned the attendance is
always burg, and individually as imporant
as it is large. Theref we, that being the
Me with the Noncomiorming communities
in all oer large towns, one dared scarcely
csimate the magnitude of a national con-
ference convened by the great "Society for
the Liberation of Religion from State Pat-
roeage and Control," or even form 'an
opinion of the mighty personal influence
which would comprise the gathering,
especially too when the locale was one of
the largest halls in the largest city in the
world. Yet this co..ference has come and
gone. It was held in the Memorial Hall,
Farringdon-street, London,and there were
not half-a-dozen men of note in the assembly.
The leading journal alludieg to this feature
of the meeting, says the demonstration
could i not :1)6 described as an ieiposing one.
• "Less than half-a-dozen members of Parlia-
ment, including the chairman, were present
and two or three others appear to have sent
assurances of sympathy with apologies for
non-attendance. But the names thus asso-
ciated with what claims the character of a
national movement, entering vigorously and
hopefully upon the militant stage, are re-
mpectable rather than eminent." There
could be no better evidence than this, that
since the Liberation Society commenced its
hopeless campaign against the Church, the
latter by watchfulness, renewed energy, and
her defence of external attacks, stands firme7
in the affections of the people to-day than at
any previous period of her history. Church-
men may regard the society with a degree
of gratitude. For the first effect of its on-
slaught was to set the Establishment reform-
ing itself by its own agencies, which have
abundantly overcome a considerable amount
of the hostility at first engendered by the
society. However, that organisation is not
satisfied with the existing state of things,
and with a bountiful exchequer their agents
might as well spend it in the dissemination
of their distorted "facts," their unreliable
historical data, and their exaggerated
stories of priestly tyranny and oppression.
That the Liberation Society has determined
to canvas the rural populations, now in-
clnded in the franchise, is a circumstance
which the Council of the -National Defence
League will doubtless consider. The Liber-
ationist is never tired of talking about the
frightful ignorance of Hodge ; but Church-
men may depend upon it, judging him from
the past, that the Liberationist will not
scruple to turn ignorance to account by
pouring int.) the ears of the agricultural
labourers th meat palpable fiction. To
counteract this, it behoves all members of
the clutrch ot 'e,rtglarte to exeercise a per.
soniliufinence over theirneighbours. It is true
that the labourers who are to be benefited
by the vote conferred upon_ them are for the
nveit part mentbers of the Church, or at
leaet attenl their church, and it is moreover
l'ket that in by far the greater majority of
di„teiets they are on the most kindly and
even affeetienate terms with the "parson."
Hut endowed with a new power, impres-
sioned by the first political programme that
may be plausibly put before them, it will
enhance the Conservative cause more if the
party eg trd them as uncertain, and act ac-
cordingly, until they prove themselves our
friends at the nilhig booth,

THE IRON TRADE.
W9lrerliampton, Wednesday.

Following the q-tarterly meetings held last week,
the gath,ring ot membos of the iron trade this
afternoon as not large, and the business trans.
acted was of a limittd character. Some of the ne-
g,,titstions which were held over from last week
wore further proceeded with, and in a few instances
were closed. Specific .tions were forthcoming for
the otupletion of old orders, and a moderate lot of
in,puries were reported in several branches of the
tioi,hed iron trade. Prices were on the whole
maintained, and there does not appear to be any
prospect of their being further weakened. Some
of the common bar and sheet manufacturers are
r,ther brisk, and the only unsatisfactory portion
of their business is the unprofitable prices they are
p•irl for tht jr mateml. 'loops for export met with
lane beaer cl,mand, anti girier plates were sought
for in stnalb,quvatities, but other deecripions wer.
t-kg,leeted. „slimy of th principl salEs of bars
csirct3 of iha claas gif me,-..1 lited in the oree-rto
Iron ware nc divunesa to
IMMO iltuch busia
aa eausidereble Quality

of iion has changed Irmi-s during the past fort-
night, and as many of the makers are sold up for
the r ext three months. There is no disposition to
Zurt ler negotiate except for small parcels. Current
rates will be thinly adhered to for some time. The
local makers of medium qualities seem to have the
largt at contracts in their books. Derbyslire iron
was firmer at 43s to 455. In minerals a large
trade has-been done of late. In coal there is a
great deal of unnecessary underselling taking
place considering the large contracts which are be-
ing given out at the present time.

BIRMINGHAM, THURSDAY

At the iroa market this afternoon thcre was not
much business stirring, transactions being con-
fined mainly to specifications in respect of orders
negotiated at the quarterly meeting last week,
Still, ironmasters as a rule reported that they were
better off for orders than at the beginning of the
year, and were more regularly occupied than in the
first week of January. Few firms, however, are in
possession of a reserve of orders that enables them
to lcok cheerfully ahead, and they are dependent
, upon the specifications received from day to day.
In the easrs of some establishments the men work a
full week end play the greeter part or the whole of
the succeeding week. The decision of the chafe-
holders of the Chillington Iron Company Limited
to go into liquidation was much commented upon
on 'Change, and while regret was generally felt at
the misfortunes of this old South Staffordshire con-
cern, it was reco,2nised that the closing of the forges
and mills of that company would afford very con-
sidet able relief in regard to the comvition in the
local trade. Whether a reconstruction of the com-
pany is possible on any ba-is that will offer a
chance of successful working was discussed, and
opinions were, of course, divergent. Inquiries were
a little more numerous for specialities of bars and
plates, and the manufacturers of good second-class
iron could base done a fair amount of business at
slight concess'ons on current rates, but they de-
clined to yield to the pressure of buyers, no altera-
tion being mad.) in quotations upon those ruling at
quarter-day. Corun on sheets met with a moderate
requ2st at .R 7 a ton for singles at the works or de-
livered in the immediate district, the quotations for
doubles i eing .27 10:s and latten4 £8 10s. Steel
sheets sold freely, and also Scotch steel bars, but
in other respects tree* was extremely quiet. In pig
Iron the quotations *ere practically unch‘nged.
Staffordshire part-mine realised from 47s 6d to 55s
tccordi,l2 to quality, all mine £3 and XI for h, t-
t)last and cold-blw t respectively. D, r4shire 435
to 445. and Northampton 425. The coal trade %, as
.gain adv,rsely affected by the sudden change from
i ost to rain.