The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-24 00:00:00

DIOCESE OF CHESTER.

THE Lord Bishop of Chester has granted a licence for the
performance of Divine service in a certain building formerly
belonging to, and used and known as a chapel or place of wor-
siliii-for the Wesleyan Reform Association, in Pleasant-street,
Liverpool, but since purchased with the intention of being set
apart as a place for the performance of Divine service, accord-
ing to the rites and usages of the United Church of England
and Ireland.
Nerawxca CHURCH.—A faculty authorising the proposed
alteration and restoration of the Parish Church of Nantwich
was granted by the Consistory Court of Chester, on Thursday
last.
BIDSTON Councif.—A faculty was at the same time decreed'
authorising the pulling down and rebuilding. of the Parish
Church of Bidston.

Tro REV. E. A. LITTON, M.A., Vice-Principal of St. Ed.
mund Hall, and formerly Fellow of Oriel College, a double
first-class man and Bampton lecturer for 1856, proposes, under
the enabling powers of the recent act, to open a hall in Oxford
for the reception of students. After a careful consideration of
the probable expenses, £BO for the academical year, consisting,
practically, of three terms, each containing eight or nine
weeks, has been fixed on as the lowest sum compatible with
prudence. This includes all the student's expenses, or for
degrees. The hall, we understand, will be opened next term.
—Daily News. -
CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY.—The last meeting for this
session was held on Monday, when grants were made towards
building churches at Tye-green, in the parish of Much Had-
ham, Herts ; Tettenhall-wood, Staffordshire ; Wellington, in
the parish of Brancepeth, Durham; Vauxhall, iu the parish
.

of Liverpool;. Newbold, in the parish of Chesterfield ; and St
George's, Southwark. Also towards rebuilding the churches
at Angle, Carmarthenshire; Llanrhyddlad, Anglesey; and
West Littleton, Gloucestershire. And towards enlarging, &c.,
the churches at Roydon, Essex ; Ipsden, Oxfordshire; Barrow-
ford, Lancashire; Redmarley d'Abitot, Worcestershire; Pent-
ridge, Dorset ; and St. Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln.
THE WHOLE OF ST. COLOMB CHOIR, Kensington-park, has
been transmitted to St. Colomb, where they daily perform full
cathedral service in the fine old church of that town, and
which it is proposed, by a report of the Cathedral Commis-
sioners, to convert into a cathedral and bishopric. Nothing
can describe the sensation which is created by the beautiful
singing of these boys. People far and near flock to the
church in order to hear them, and the stillness which reigns
throughout the edifice during the anthems and other parts of
the service fully proves that the Cornish people are not insen-
sible to the beauties of Handel, Mendelssohn, and others.—
Musical Times.
THE Rev. F. H. SEWELL, rector of the parish of Cockeran,
in
Lancashire,
who has lately purchased the tithe of Lindfield
Peculiar for £12,000 intends, it is said, to endow the benefice
with
including
the tithed?, which he will give in trust to a select com-
mittee, a bishop. He also sets forth his earnest
desire to establish and erect a new Rectory-house with a
school and school-house for the teachers, at an estimated' ex-
pense of £7,000, to be raised by subscription, and erected on
his own land, recently purchased, contiguous to the church.
THE Sheffield Times relates a scandalous pew disturbance
in Dronfield Church, on Sunday se'nnight. Mr. Wm. Ward
Barker had repeatedly been requested to yield possession of a
certain pew to the vicar, and had as often refused compliance,
on the ground that it had been purchased by his grandfather
for twelve guineas, and occupied by his ancestors. On Sun-
day last Mr. H. Rangeley, the churchwarden of Unstone, Mr.
E. Lucas, the vicar's churchwarden, and a constable of the
name of Jonathan Vicars, laid hands on Mr. Barker and
removed him by force from the pew and out of the church.
Almost immediately afterwards, acting under the counsel
and advice of Mr. Mason (a Dissenter), the churchwarden
elected by the parishioners, Mr. Barker re-entered the pew,
and Mr. Mason sat behind him to protect him from further
molestation. Mr. Barker publishes the following opinion of
the chancellor of the diocese :—" Pews in a parish church
cannot be bought or sold, so that it does not strengthen your
case that your ancestors gave twelve guineas for the pew you
claim. But if you and your ancestors have occupied the same
pew for three generations that occupation gives you a prior
claim. You state that the vicar has taken your pew previous
to an allotment which has recently been made. The vicar
could have no right to do so. If the church has been repaired
and a pew has been built upon the site of your old one, a good
reason must be given before you can be deprived of it. No
incumbent can take it at his mere will and pleasure. You
should appeal to the churchwardens, and let me know what
they say."

LIVERPOOL MIDSUMMER SESSIONS..

YESTERDAY.

THE Midsummer General Quarter Sessions for the borotxgh
of Liverpool commenced at St. George's Hall, yesterday. The
Recorder (Gilbert Henderson, Esq.,) having been appointed
one of her Majesty's commissioners for inquiring into the con-
duct of the metropolitan police during the recent Sunday riots
in Hyde Park, and being consequently unable to leave Lon-
don, appointed J. K. Blair, Esq., his deputy, and that gentle-
man took his seat at a quarter past ten o'clock. Mr. Blair's
appointment as Deputy Recorder having been read, the fol-
lowing gentlemen were sworn of the

GRAND JURY.
Daniel Powell, merchant, North John-street, foreman.
James Baines, merchant, Cook-street.
Thomas Martyn Blythe, mer chant, Rumford-street.
John Carlisle, merchant, Tower-buildings.
William Leigh Clare, broker, Exchange-buildings.
Jonathan Cooke, drysalter, Bachelor-street.
John Finch, jun., iron merchant, Cook-street..
James Gordon, hide broker, Tithebarn-street..
William Harrison, merchant, Cook-street.
John Jerdein, share-broker, Chatham-p!a6e,

Horace Jee, b-roker, Huskisson-street.
Robert Mason, broker, Tithebarn-street.
Fletcher Rogers, broker, Tithebarn-street.
William Walcott Shand, broker, Exchange-alley North.
Walter Thompson, broker, Exchange-buildings.
The proclamation against vice and immorality having been
read by the Clerk of the Peace,
The DEPUTY-RECORDER said :—Gentlemen of the Grand
Jury, in the absence of the learned Recorder, who is detained,
as you are aware, by public business in London, I am called
on to preside upon the present occasion. I have gone through
the depositions in the various cases which will come before you,
and I see nothing, either in the nature of the charges, or in the
evidence by which they will be supported, which is likely to
give rise to any difficulty, more especially as, I dare say, there
are some gentlemen among you who have been in the habit
of discharging, very often, the same duty which will devolve
upon you at these sessions. That duty is, as you are aware,
to inquire, in each case, whether there is sufficient prima
facie evidence to justify the putting of the prisoner upon his-
trial, and calling upon him, in the court, for his defence.
The business will be immediately brought before you, and I
shall be obliged by your returning a bill as soon as possible,
so that the Court may be in a position to proceed.
The Grand Jury then retired to their room, and the trials
of prisoners were soon after proceeded with.

THE MILITIA AND THE POOR RATE IN LANCASHIRE.—
A. return has been made, on the motion of Mr. H. Russell, of
the number of wives and children of men serving in the mi-
litia, who received out-door relief in the week ended March
24th, with the amount of such relief, from which it appears
that the cost of maintaining this new class of recipients of
parochial relief, amounted to £359 3s. 6d. in the various
Unions of England and Wales. The proportion is larger in
the manufacturing districts than in those whose population is
devoted principally to agriculture, and this irrespective of po-
pulation for Middlesex is on a level with Hants and Cam-
bridgeshire. Lancashire bears the largest share of the bur-
den, having, at the date abovementioned, to support the wives'
of 203 militiamen, with 484 children, who received from the
fund for the relief of the poor the sum'of £33 2s. 2d. In
Cheshire 109 women and 209 children were relieved at the
cost of £l6 19s. The large manufacturing towns have con-
tributed the largest number of men, and have consequently
to bear the heaviest portion of the burden thrown upon the
Unions by the inability of men of the families thus deprived
of the " bread-winner" to maintain themselves by their own
exertions.
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.--It appears from a meeting which
was held in Glasgow a few days ago, the Lord Provost in the
chair, that the local committee are making great exertions to'
give eclat and success to the meeting to be held there in Sep-
tember. The first twenty-three subscriptions to the local
fund amount to nearly £l,OOO, and the Town-Council have
guaranteed £250 more. Upwards of 200 invitations have
been sent to eminent and scientific foreigners, each signed by
the Lord Provost, the Principal of the University, the Presi-
dent of the Philosophical Society, and the local secretaries.
The use of the rooms in the university has been freely
granted ; also the City-hall, the Trades'-hall, the Merchants -
hall, and the Hall of the Philosophical Society. In addition to
the usual attractions, there will be a geological museum, illus-
trative of the palaeontology of the West of Scotland ; a chemical
museum, exhibiting the products of the same area ; a photo.
graphic exhibition; and one of the marine fauna of the
Clyde. The geological museum will contain a model of the
Isle of Annan, and a model of Ailsa Craig. The Maclellan
gallery will receive a large collection of valuable pictures,
chiefly the property of the Earl of Elgin ; and here it is un-
derstood that at least one of the soirees will be held. One of
the excursions will be to the Isle of Annan ; and the beautiful
steamer lona has been placed at the disposal of the Associa-
tion. The local committee agree to return to all subscribers
of £5 or upwards one-fifth of their subscriptions, if required,
in associates' tickets. They have also voted £l5O for the
local museums. Sir Roderick Murchison believes that the
Glasgow meeting will be the most successful that ever has
been held in Great Britain.
HISTORIC SOCIETY, LIVERPOOL.—In March, last year, the
members of the two leading societies of Liverpool agreed to
unite—as our readers know—for the purpose of forming a
large and influential society, and the terms of union were
generally agreed upon. In the course of the summer, how-
ever, delays occurred with one of the societies, supposed to
arise from opposition do the part of its council. The Historic
Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, therefore, with equal spi-
rit and forethought, took the enlarged position for itself. It
extended its objects and operations from local and special to
general,---classified its inquiries under the three general heads
of Archaeology, Literature, and Science, appointing to each of
these a committee of its council,—increased the annual sub•-
scription for resident members,—and gave to the members of
the papers
was engaged in investigating an extraordinary case,
local societies and other selected gentlemen the privilege of
joining, for a limited period, with entrance fee. We are glad
to record the success of these vigorous measures. The first
public act of the enlarged society took place exactly four weeks
after, when its members entertained the whole of the British
enrolled,Association
as fhoorntohrearymembers,
b Advancementtwelve
woelf vSecioefnce thoseet aw
hsoo
had long
been prominently connected with the association. The Faus-
sett collection of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities was publicly exhi-
bited on this occasion for the first time, and a lecture on the -
subject was read by Mr. Thomas Wright, which the Historic
Society are printing with copious illustrations. The Seventh
Session of the Society, or the first since its enlargement, has just
closed, and a very useful and interesting session it has proved.
The meetings, 21 in number, were held in St. George's-hall ;
and 35 papers, of greater or less extent, were read. Of the
meetings, 5 were devoted to archaeology, 6to literature, 6 to
science, and 4to miscellaneous subjects. The members are
now about 420 in number, and_the society is bound to furnish
to each of them
daniiatn4neuna;uanice. account of its proceedings and of
DER MY BOys.—On Friday and Saturday the Borough.
Co
which resulted in a verdict of wilful murder being returned
against two boys, about ten years of age, John Fitzpatrick
a
and Alfred Breen. Their victim was James Fleeson, a lad
seven years of age. A boy named Hawkins said that
the prisoners and the deceased, who lived in the same locality
(Saltney-street), were playing together in some brick-fields,
near the Leeds and Liverpool canal, ou Sunday, when a dis-
pute arose between Fitzpatrick and the deceased. The former
taking up a piece of crick, struck the deceased on the temple
with it and knocked him down. He then struck Fleeson again
while the latter was on the ground. Fleeson's hands and feet
moved convulsively, but he did not resist or cry out, and ap-
peared indeed insensible. Both the prisoners then seized the
deceased, dragged him to the canal, and threw him in. The poor
lad struggled for a few minutes, and then sank. A number of
other boys were present at the time, and witnessed the occur-
rence; among them Hawkins, who said he would tell Fleeson's
mother what had happened, and that he would inform his
own father and mother also. It appears, however, that
although the fact of the murder was known in the street
where the boys lived, there was a sort of combination entered
into to prevent the matter getting to the ears of the police,
and it was with great difficulty the boy Hawkins could be in-
duced to come forward and give evidence. When the
prisoners were taken into custody, the father of Breen threat-
ened one of the police-officers to ' rip him up." The body of
'Fleeson was found on Thursday morning, floating in the
Stanley Dock, with which the canal is connected by locks ;
and when the policeman who discovered it was taking it out,
the father of the boy was passing and recopised the features
of his murdered child. A surgeon gave evidence that the de-
tcielase
eaeduhseadorfecdeeaivtedh
Itvwaso
esveivdeernetlwyosuunffdsomintiotihi efmheamd drowning, but ha t.
This evidence was given on Friday, and on Saturday the only
fresh evidence was that of a woman named Mary Pratt, who
said that she saw the prisoners and the deceased playing to-
getherthe face with a brick ;
she also said
that a man came up and separated them, but this Was denied-
by the boy Hawki The jury returned a verdict of " Wil-
fuland de-
ceased,
murder" against both the prisoners, who were removed tt• •
Kirkdale, where they will be detained till the assizes.