The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

forth the only Church of God. On the theory, there-
fore, that the Church is nothing but a teacher, the
administration of her system is hopeless. Unless she
is acknowledged as the medium and development of a
fellowship—unless Christianity be accepted as an
actual communion set up amongst men, we shall
find her, as a missionary, just as ineffectiVe as we
find the various communities of mere intellec-
tual dissent. We need never expect to see any
great anxiety to invite the poor into her fellowship ;
to see churches built with the true notion of establish-
ing a machinery, by which the outcasts from religion
may be taken into Christian communion, and so in-
troduced within the range of. Evangelical blessings ;
to see them left free for universal use, as being the
stage on which this communion is developed, and the
means by which it is participated. On the contrary,
we must expect to see the Pew system, and its abomi-
nations. Churches being the manifestations of the
individual principle, as distinct from that of fellow-
ship, we must expect to see them built by individuals
for themselves, and for those who can pay for them ;
and, when they are built, our notions of Church com-
munion outraged by the assumption of an individual
exclusiveness, and of mere intellectual distinctions. If
Christian communion be a wholly invisible thing,
to be realised by the individual himself (I
confess my inability to state it without a
solecism), so that the closet is as fit for the
work of prayer as the public congregation, and
Christian assemblies are for the mainpurpose of hearing
a preacher, I know not how you will secure the con-
stant attendance at your churches of the classes whose
absence you deplore ; nor how you will induce the rich
to provide for the poor the expensive luxury of a po-
pular preacher. Let the Church be duly esteemed as
a communion into which men must be gathered; let
the poor not be merely taught and then left to seek
or form a communion, but the communion in the first
instance be presented to them as a part of the message
itself, and on the one hand, with the help of God, you
will find the rich not backward to contribute towards
the material organisation of this communion among
their poorer brethren, and, on the other, the poor not
backward to accept the Church's invitation to enter
the brotherhood of Christ.—l am, Sir, your faithfill
servant, L. D..

[We had intended tohave continued our remarks on
the above subject. But the insertion of the letter of
our correspondent, and the general pressure upon our
space, compel us to defer them to another oppor-
tunity.—ED. L. S.]

PROVISION FOR THE POORER

CLERGY',

THE position in which we stand with regard to the Church

the confidence reposed in us by many of its most eminent

members, and the undeviating advocacy we have voluntarily
offered on all occasions in behalf of the humbler orders of the
clergy, all render it a duty incumbent upon us, again and
again, to call' public attention to one of the most valua-
ble and efficient institutions connected with the- Establish-
ment. The Society we especially refer to on this occasion is
that which was established in 1840 for the relief of distressed
clergymen, and the- widows and unmarried orphan daughters
of clergymen ; and also for granting aid to enableelergymen,
with limited incomes,. to provide for their families by assuring
their lives at reduced premiums. One of the most distin-
guished features of this institution is the " Clergy Fund,"
which is formed by setting apart one clear tenth of the entire
profits of the proprietors-far the purposes which we have just
specified. During the past six or seven years, we find, that
considerable sums were set apart towards these objects and
the directors have now resolved that an equal portion ehall
be annually distributed among such applicants for aid as-may
be recommended as proper and deserving objects.
It is obvious, however, that the tenth part of the entire
profits must be inadequate to• the purpose, and confined to a
comparative few, if the institution is not extensively sup-
ported; and it therefore behoves the wealthier portion of the
clergy to afford their valuable aid and patronage to an esta-
blishment peculiarly adapted for the relief of so meritorious a
class of the community as the poorer members of a profession-
in which all are so deeply interested. The result of the an.;
nual investigations instituted by the directors, appointed fore
the purpose of distributing the fund, has been to impress
upon their minds a conviction, not only of the great advan—
tage, but of the necessity, for such, a fund, and for increasing:.
it by every means in their power. It appears that the com—
mittee were compelled, on each occasion of a distribution, to-
pass over many highly-deserving cases in order to select the--
most urgent of the numerous applications ; while the grateful
acknowledgments which have been received from all parties-
to whom relief has been extended induce a most painful con-
viction of the extreme distress to which numerous meritorious
clergymen must have been exposed,. in order to render the
limited. assistance afforded of such..important and essential
service to them.

It is necessary at the same time to state that the "Clergy
Fund" is-altogether unaided by donations or subscriptions of
any kind ;: and we again desire to repeat that it consists solely
of one-tenth of the Company's profits-:. in fact, it appears that
the directors have no power whatever to• extend or limit the
amount of the " Clergy Fund," which must entirely depend
upon the profits realised from the business transactions of the
institution. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the
clergy, as•a'body, should earnestly devote themselves to the
encouragement and support of this -company, to the fullest
extent of their power, by whatever assurances they or their
friends maykave occasion to effect. We•consider that the in-
terests of the more independent portion of the clergy are iden-
tical with those of their poorer brethren;. and we now trust
that we have assigned ample reasons• for placing before our
readers the.-" Clergy Fund" of the Church of England Life
and Fire Assurance Company, with adesire to secure to that
institution the extended patronage ands support to which it is
eminently entitled.
In conclusion, we must not omit to •state that, at the divi-
sion in i 854, special grants were made- to sixteen clergymen,,
sixteen widows, and sixteen orphan daughters of clergymen—
in all amounting to forty-eight ; and fifty-two grants were
made in aid of premiums on life policies to clergymen with
limited incomes. We have likewise• to• observe that, accord-
ing to a change recently effected in• the•eonstitution of the•
company, no deduction is made, on account of the " Clergy-
Fund," from the profits of the miztual.branch of assurance—
the entire amount of this especial`••fund being now supplied~.
out of the profits of the proprietary branch. When the many
great advantages resulting from life assurance are seriously
considered,. and its tendency to promote the religious and
moral. advancement of mankind, it • will be readily admitted.,
that an institution, constituted as- this. one is, bestows on it.
the
_strongest claims to the support, of all the clergy, without,
any exception; and we cannot help,therenewed expression. of;
the• conviction we entertain that this-beneficial object will be,
fostered, as it deserves to be, by the wealthier members, of,
that -body ;: and that their assistance will not be wanting in
granting so great a boon to their poorer brethren. At the-
same time,. we may be permitted.to observe that clergymen of
inore limited incomes ought cheorfully to co-operate towandc
the support of a fund upon which they themselves may become.- i.
claimants.—Ckurch and State. Gazette,

SHOCKING TER24INATION TO A-2
MARRIAGB:IN FRANCE.

It-V,I3:I,SHTFITI, ease of hydrophobia is described in the. Lyons
journals. A young farmer, named Peyron, about twenty-five
years of age, in the department of the Rhine, was married a
few weeks ago to a neighbour's. daughter. The young couple
had-been long attached to each, other, but the parents of the
bride bad refused their consent on account of the strangeness
of conduct occasionally observed in the young man, who
otherwise was a most eligible match, his parents being com-
paratively well off, andltheson himself generally of exemplary
conduct. His passion.for the girl became at length so violent
that he declared he could not exist without her, and his
mother, fearing from- his manner that he meditated suicide,
went to the parents of the young woman, and, after some
entreaty, prevailed;upon them to agree to the-match. Young
Peyron at once recovered his spirits, the young woman was
delighted, and the marriage was celebrated with all the rustic
pomp and ceremony common in that part of the provinces, con-
cluding with a grand dinner and the inevitable ball. The gaieties
were kept up until daylight, when the company separated.
The new married couple were lodged in one wing of the.
house, separated from the main building,. but, in a short time-
after they had retired, cries were heard from the nuptual
chamber. At first they were unnoticed; but at length they
increased, to fearful shrieks, and the father and mother,
alarmed, hastened to the room, followed by the farm servants.
The cries were by the time they arrived changed to scarcely
audible groans from the poor girl ;, and on breaking open the
door she was found in the agoniea of death—her bosom torn
open and lacerated in the most horrible manner,, and the
wretched husband in a fit of raving madness and covered with
blood, having actually devoured a portion of the unfortunate
girl's breast. A cry of horror burst from all present, and
be was dragged from the noel after a most violent resistance,
it taking no less than six men to hold him down. Aid
was instantly sent for, and before the doctor could reach the
spot the unhappy victim was no more. Young Peyron was
put under treatment, and a strait waistcoat was attempted
to be put upon him ; but his struggles. and screams were
such that the doctor, apprehensive that he would expire in,
the assistants' hands, ordered them to desist. The unfortu-
nate man had by this time become so, weak that he was easily
conveyed to beds and died at four o'clock in the afternoon of
the same day without having for one moment recovered his
consciousness, It was then recollected, in answer to. search-
ing questions by a physician, that somewhere about five
years previously he had been bitten by a strange deg, and
taken the usual precautions against hydrophobia ; but,
although the dog was killed, it had never been satisfactorily
shown that it was really mad ; and, no ill consequences
resulting from the bite, his friends concluded that it would
come to nothing, and the incident had been altoge-
forgotten. It was considered by the doctor that
the circumstances preceding the marriage, and the excitement
of the occasion itself, had roused the latent virus which had
so long lain dormant in the blood, and led to the terrible out-
break of frenzy which had ended so tragically. On the me-
dical report being laid before the authorities, the extraordi-
nary nature of the case naturally excited much attention and
considerable controversy—the opinions of the heads of the
profession being, after full inquiry, that there was no hydro-
phobia whatever in the case, but rooted insanity, and that it
was shown to exist by the occasional aberrations of the unfor-
tunate young man as before-mentioned, and that his diseased
temperament and too violent passions, powerfully acted on by
the circumstances, led to the fatal consequences narrated
above. This sad catastrophe has given rise to a fierce medical
controversy in some of the professional journals on the nature
of hydrophobia, from which it would appear that, although
instances of remarkable cures of this frightful malady are
often described in the journals, no authenticated account of its
favourable termination is yet known in France.—Paris Paper.