The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-10 00:00:00

ST. MARTIN'S YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY.

On Thursday evening a tea party, in connection with
this useful association, was held in the large upper room
of St. Martin's School Buildings, New Blenheim-street.
The attendance on the occasion was numerous, there
being upwards of 200 persons present; and the place of
assembling, which was decorated and festooned with
very great taste for the occasion, was closely filled.
There were six tea tables extending the entire length of
the hall, which were each presided over by a lady; and
there was also another table on the platform at the
south side of the room, at which sat several ladies and
those clergymen and other friends of the society who had
been invited to address the meeting ; amongst whom we
noticed the Rev. Neville Gream, M.A. (her Majesty's
Inspector of Schools for the Liverpool district), the Rev.
H. Lomas, M.A. (incumbent of Walton Breck), the
Rev. B. Maddock, M.A. (of St. George's), George
Dumble, Esq., and other gentlemen. On the re-
moval of the tea-tables, the chair was taken by the
Rev. C. Wray, M.A., incumbent of St. Martin's,
who, in some earnest opening observations, expressed
his great satisfaction at witnessing so large an assemblage
as that before him ; his thankfulness to those of his young
friends who had suggested the meeting, for theirexertions;
and his gratification at finding himself surrounded by
those of his clerical friends who were present. He also
warmly thanked those young men and young ladies of
his congregation who had been so good to give the
society and its frilkds the aid of their great musical
talents on the occasion. After some allusions to the
important nature of the pastoral relation which subsisted
between the clergy and their flock, and especially the
younger members of them; to the attempts which had re-
cently been made in several quarters to have alterations
made in the Book of Common Prayer, which he (the
chairman) strongly deprecated, the inestimable blessings
which the youthful members of the Church of England
derived from the free access which they had to the Holy
Scriptures, and to :the help which the Prayer-book
afforded to a right study of their contents, the rev.
gentleman concluded, amid much applause, by request-
ing his musical young friends to take their places beside
him on the platform, and sing the first series of the
madrigals and glees which the programme assigned to
them. This they accordingly did in a very admirable
manner. The Rev. H. Lomas then came forward and
addressed the meeting in an excellent and suitable
speech, which was extremely well received. He
enlarged on the vast advantages of reunions such as
the present, which he said were more than ever neces-
sary in the present day, when everything was going
a-head at railway speed. Such associations as the pre-
sent were also, he said, eminently calculated to remove
prejudices and misunderstanding among-people, and so
to promote brotherly love and charity. The rev.
gentleman vindicated in warm terms the order of the
clergy from the charge which was frequently ignorantly
and falsely brought against them—that they set their
faces against all amusements and recreations ; he
asserted that the contrary was notoriously the fact,
but that of course they were always most anxious,
as became them, that those objects should not
have the first or exclusive place in the minds of the
Young. He made especial reference to the volunteer
movement, as baying met with universal support from
the clergy. The rev, gentleman, on resuming his
seat, was greatly cheered.—At this period of the pro-
ceedings, the rev. chairman took the opportunity of
presenting to Miss Fanny Richards a handsor.-.e
Church Service, which had been subscribed for by her
pupil teachers on her relinquishing the charge of the St.
Martin's Girls' Schools, accompanying the presentation
with some highly gratifying compliments to that young
lady, and adding, that St. Martin's Schools were never
in so flourishing a condition as at present, nor so full of
children. He also read an extract from the report of
her Majesty's inspector, in which the management and
tuition in the schools were spoken of in very warm
terms, the maximum allowance of £lBO having been, in
consequence, placed at the disposal of the managers.
I After another musical interlude, the Rev. K. M. Pughe
came forward, and, in a short but very appropriate