The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-20 00:00:00

SPIRITUALISM IN LIVERPOOL.

The annual meeting of the Liverpool Psychological
Society has been held in the Camden-rooms, ( 'amden-
street, Liverpool, on Wednesday in last week. The
proceedings commenced with a tea, at which about
100 persons, including a considerable number of young
ladies, were present. Mr. Wason, the president of
the society, who should have presided, was prevented
from attending by an accident, and in his absence the
chair was taken by Mr. John Lamont.

The proceedings after tea took the form of a se'ance, at
which Mr. J. Morse, a London medium of considerable
repute in spiritualistic circles, was the agent of com-
munication with the invisible world. In his normal
state, Mr. Morse first described the progress which
the " science" was making in the metropolis and the
large towns of the country ; and said it was getting pre-
eminently respectable. The circulation of their maga-
zines and newspapers was also increasing with great
rapidity, and he added as a fact worthy of remark that
most of their subscribers were ministers of the Gospel.
Referring next to a friend of his in Glasgow.he said, that
like himself his friend was a medium, but differently con-
trolled. In the darkest room he could paint pictures
of considerable value, but the strange part of the
affair was that the spirits under whose influence he was
would not allow him to dispose of them. There was,
however, a sale of these productions every four or five
years, on the principle of the Art Union, and as he
had a book of tickets in his pocket for one that was
shortly to take place, at the close of the evening he
should be willing to sell them to those who might feel
interested in the subject, and who were desirous of be-
coming the possessors of these marvellous productions.
Actuated by strong internal emotion, as if seized
with a violent convulsion, the medium then passed
into what is termed "the trance condition," upon tile
conclusion of which he rose from his seat and
offered up a short prayer. In clear and forcible
language, and with a readiness of expression and
fluency of utterance which contrasted somewhat
strangely with the manner of his previous address,
Mr. Morse—or, to adopt the view of the be-
lievers in the science, the spirit and Mr. Morse—expa-
tiated upon the evidences of man's continued exist-
ence beyond this physical world, of the connection
between the material and the spiritual, and of the de-
pendence of the whole upon an'Almighty Creator. The
somewhat florid discourse lasted for about half-an-hour
during the whole of which time the speaker delivered
himself with great volubility, and with an effect which,
to the uninitiated, was somewhat surprising. The
audience seemed to listen with reverent awe; and those
who were capable of believing, as Mr. M orse represented,
that they were in direct communication with the Chinese
philosopher Tien-Sien-Tie who on this occasion was
supposed to be the medium's guide to unknown
regions, were doubtless much impressed. In his con-
cluding sentence, the speaker, whoever or whatever he
might be, intimated that in accordance with the wish
of the committee " they " would be pleased to answer
such questions as it might be desired to put to
"them," but warned the interrogators that they did
not promise that the answer would cover the full ex-
tent of the inquiries. _

The following questions were then asked among
others and answered by the merliurn ynth great ra-
pidity

Q —ls modern spiritualism consistent with the Soriptures ?
A.—Yes ; for is not truth truth, and are not all truths co-
relative one with another?

Q.—May I ask if that reply was from the spirit or from
Mr. Morse himself? hear.)
A.—Methinks the question scarcely needs an answer.
According to the invitation which you have received to at-
tend this meeting, the question ought to be settled in your
own mind.

Q —lt to not quite settled, or I should not have asked the
question.

A.—The position then In this. We, as a spirit, claim to
operate through a physical medium, the body which you see
standing before you.
Q.—Could you not give us the self-same answers you are now
giving if you were not a medium
A.—We would beg you to retain your answer until our
medium is restored to his natural condition.

0.-fl mediums are essential to the spread of spiritualism
how is it we have none in Liverpool
A.—Methinks the members of your own society will best
answer as to whether you have mediums or not.
Q.—llow are we to tell?
A.—lf we investigate we know; if we remain silent spec-
tators we shall have to wait

Q —Have you the power of seeing any mecUums present?
A.—At present no, but we may give a simple rule.

Q.—Give it.

A.—We have always Mural that every individual has some
peculiAr mesmeristic qualifications, and we advise every in-
dividual to try to bring them out.

Q.—Can you give the name of your controlling spirit?

A.—At the close of our remarks.
Q.—lf spiritualism Is to great a moral and social regene-
rator, can you explain why it has not been revealed to man-
kind until a comparatively recent period?
A.- Clearly. Spiritnalism is not a new thing ; it is as old
as the human race, because spirits are of the human race.
Mr. Morse returned to his" natural state" in a few
minutes by panning through emotions similar to those
which accompanied the commencement of his trance :
and immediately afterwards the control was assumed
by the Strolling Player "—a spirit of considerable
humour and vivacity.

The arbitrator in the Albert Arbitration has just
directed the issue of notices of the payments of dividends in
connection with this arbitration. In the Family Endowment
Society a first dividend of Its. in the pound in respect of an-
nuity contracts and arrears of annuities to 24th of November,
ISOM, the date of the winding-up order, will be paid at 7..
Waterloo-place, London, on Tuesday, January 23. A similar
dividend on endowment contracts will be paid at the same
time. In the Bank of London and National Provincial Asso-
ciation • dividend of like amount will be paid on the 24th of
January. In the Western Life Assurance Society the an-
nuitants have already received (in chancery) 21. 64. in the
pound, and balance, malcing 20s. In the pound, will be paid
on the lith of January.

TRADES UNIONS AND THE EDUCA-
TION ACT.

At the Trades Congress held at Nottingham, Mr.
Bailey presented a paper of great length on the above
: topic, treating of the manner in which recent educa-
tion legislation had affected the interests of the work-
ing classes, and how far they shouhl be content with
" what had been erroneously called the compromise
or settlement of 1870." Admitting that thee was a
compromise between the sects or religions parties in
the House of Commons, there was none agreed to by
the working classes, and there was no one in the
House authorised to make any compromise on their
behalf. What the working classes desire to have—and,
notwithstanding the political blunder tif 1870. known
as Mr. Forster's Act.; they believed they would
eventually obtain—was a national system of educa-
tion, as opposed to the present denominational and
sectarian system. The first operation of the Elemen-
tary Education Act, in its relation to the working
classes, was to increase the rates and taxes for the
purpose of propagating the doctrines of the English
and Roman Catholic Churches. Nor must they for-
get to notice, either, the £'600,000 voted for building
grants. While the homes of many of their fellow-
workers were poor and squalid, and their children ill-
fed and ill-clothed, they were called upon to contribute
to the national taxation for the purpose of erecting
buildings in which, largely at their cost hereafter, the
business of proselytism wonld be carried on. They
were being rated, therefore, to make bulwarks for
the Church of England in her straggles with the
advancing Liberal thought of the time. Yet up to
the present time not a Board school had been
established, not a child was being educated in a
school under the direction and management of the
representatives of the ratepayers ; ic some places
whilst large additional sums were being paid out of
the public purse for school fees, there were fewer chil-
dren attending school than there were before the Act
came into operation. The method of dealing with
free education under the Act was an insult to the
intelligence of the working classes. They contributed
largely to the national taxation. Enormous national
endowments were devoted to the education of the
upper and middle classes, and yet, under the
Act, before • working man could obtain, even
for six months, free education for his child, he was
compelled to go before a School Board and declare
that he was a pauper, and submit to examination
and cross-examination as to his means of paying school
fees. The Act not only created a wider gulf than
bsfore existed between the working class and the
middle class, but it created new distinctions amongst
the working classes themselves. Two men, working
in the same shop and living in the same street, might
be put upon a wholly different footing as to the
payment of fees. The difference in the circum-
stances of families, as to health and number
of children, would often create those distinctions
where there was no real difference of class. Trades
unions themselves, causing, as they often did, tem-
porary loss of work, would become under the Act
instruments for the pauperisation of their members.
Worse than all, the Act was in that respect one for
encouraging a spirit of hypocrisy, servility, mendi-
cancy, and subserviency. It was impossible to lay
down any rule except the one rule that education
should be a national right, free to all and supported by
all, and that compulsion should not be used for the pur-
pose of Hine,' sectarian schools and propagating
sectarian doctrines.