The Express.
London, England, 1849-09-27 00:00:00

FAIR PLAY.

(From UM Guardia.)
A daily oOnteinpecary is very Facers upon an ap-
peal which has a-prired in oar columns lately. under the
title of A Cry fa; Help from Skorealtesh." &larding that
parish, with Its immense population and its miserably small
supply of shush room and clerical saperiateadeses, es a
sample of a gessend evil Aron:host the gauntry, es it is, he
draws from the feet this simple inference, that an opulent
clergy ars rapacious sad (loss-anted, and that a poor atte-
nuated indigent laity have been equeesed till at last they
have nothing more to give. Hems our parochial wants, be
aye; bade the fact that the poor cannot and room in
oar churches. It is not the laity's fault, they am tlb cal
enough ; it is the clergy's. A truly edifying lemon, Indeed,
to draw from a piston of distress I To est Gas order &Mast
mother, with a grows bled to one of then to button their
pockets. For one own part we have no mon affection
than our contemporary for a number of sinecure dignities
which sow exist in the church, though we might differ from
bias as to the use to be made of *sm. But this is not a

tile7stionof siuseerea It isaqusetioa as to the general
way id which the subject of chards abuses and church wants
is to be treated; whether the laity are to have it always
diligently and atudiouny impressed upon them that they
are not at all to blame in the matter—that they may make
themselves qafte easy aad comfortable on that Kam, and
entirely free themselves from any respossibility as to what
fails to their share in the supply of remedies; unless, in-
deed, the duty of thinning a fat canonry here and there be
celled a very arduous and weighty one—the only duty which
our contemporary Kt= to allow now to rest upon a lay

oonselencs.
First, are the laity quietly to fold their arm' and say—We
are the generous party ; we give abundantly ; but you clergy
are stingy. What an indifference to notorious fact to mete
suit a eamparima I There could not bee more unfortunate
Oat wpm mid& is institute a comparison between the two
sedum We bate amperisone, but, if others begin them, we
meat be elbswed our oorrectkn. We are not, then, diluting
eh emeseled merit for the clergy ; they may only do Sheering'
their pinkies obliges them because society raped.it of them,
bemuse dame Is nobody else to de it bat them ; but the fact
emelt be gainsaid, that, go where you will over the country,
the deny are the main given; the persons to be depended on
dies the eepport of schools and the charitable assistance of the
Far. Is the parish *drool to be kept ring ? the clergy-
men's purse has to open ; do the nick and the aged require
rap, or wine, or jelly, or arrow-root, or pudding, or any
little dish for their weakly stomach', the clergyman's kitchen
and cellar, and store room, are the resort. Has a clergyman
any more interest than other members of society in the
education of the poor ? Yet, throughout the country
ralthes, east and west, north and south, what is the rule?
The squire, two guineas, or, if he is very generraus indeed,
five ; bell • dozen farmers, five shillings each ; and the
clergyman all the rest! that is to say, very often thirty,
forty, fifty pounds& year, for the support of the parish sehoel.
We are claiming, we my, no particular merit for the
clergy here, nor throwing any particular blame upon the
laity, except that of a melancholy ignorance of their duty.
For ignorant they are on this subject ; that is to say, the idea
has not once yet struck them, that it is the duty of all ri-
sen, to give in proportion to their Incomes. The duty of
giving never can be wholly lost sight of in society; but we
are grieved to say that the duty of proportionate giving is
almost forgotten by the mass of society now; not neglected
only, but positively not known; not known as a duty.
There is melt a thing as society in general labouring under
p,rtictder great mistakes ; and this is a mistake under which
society now labours. A man with two thousand • year, and
• man with two hundred a year both give—their guinea.
Some splendid ezcepti ins do not disprove the rule. For-
souse, however, in its application to society at large, the
duty of proportionate giving is still remembered in its ap-
plication to the clergy, and the clergy are expected, as a
matter of NUM, to give more then others ; and they do
give more. It is the last vestige of the recognition by society
of a certain obsolete standard of charity.
So much for the clergy's share of the charge of stinginess;
so ter as stinginess is a cause of the present inadequacy of
her administrations and of her fabrics for the superintend-
, once and the reception of the poor. Now for another point
If there is one incubus which has pressed more than another
upon the church in this respect, one obstaele which hes
1 operated more than manlier as a regular brick-wall be-
I tween herself and the poor, it has been the pew-system.
Go whore you will, and you will find that wretched sye•
1 tem desolating the areas of our churches, and driving
I all the poor behind pillars and into damp corners and
fragments of room here and there, where they can neither
) see nor hear, and are affected with the most uothinfortable
) seaution of extreme remoteness from the *erne of action—

the clergymen, the reeding•dck, the altar, the pulpit. I
We say nothing of the chances of theumati►m, which must
thicken considerably in the firsts, damp, sad mouldy odds
and ends of village church room. The pew-system is t►e
mange of the church, operating very much on the fabric as
that diseue does on the backs of clogs, leaving large bare
places, where, as the skin is only seen in the one case, the
woods only seen in the other. Now, what is it which
keeps up the pew-system, against every principle of
natural equity and expediency ? It is the prejudices of
the higher and middle cl uses of society. In nine cases
out of ten the clergyman is prevented from asserting for
the poor their fair share of the sheath's area by his
knowledge of the violent outbreak of °Wiest' selfish
paation which such an assertion would produce on
the part of its usurp.n. He knows, as well as he
knows anything, that the knot of small men of substance
who own those pews will fight to the death far every inch
of them, though t►ey have ten times as one's room a. they
ever occupy. He knows that that large pew, quite in the
middle of the church, which would hold twelve people, and
has one person in will, on the least report of den-
ger, bring out its proprietor foaming at the mouth. He
knows that its very emptiness is an enhancement of the po-
semion in his eyes, for its want of utility only exhibits it
more clearly in its er pea of an honour and a distinction.
Ho is a man decori ; he has not an order at his button-hole,
but he has a large pew in church : that pew is a co►t of
arms ; it establishes the distinction bete', en himself and his
inferior neighbours; he carries the invisible emblem upon
his waistcoat and his seal.
What keeps up this di.greceful a'su•e, we ask, but the
pride,and stiffen., and touchiness, of the middle classes in this
country ; that love of petty excise:venom which, descending
in regular succession from the first circle of hellion to the
society of the large and small fanner, and the market town
draper, grocer, and innkeeper, at last finds in the church-pew
the material of its distinctiveness, and the subject of its perti•
nations defence ? We have no wish to flatter the clergy,
then ; hat we must protest against that adulatory fawning
upon the middle clam a of this country which goes on, day
after day, in some portions of the press; that ceaseless attri-
bution to them of perfection and wisdom, of obsolete justice
and moderation, and virtue. We are w aried of this eternal,
shameless, cuckoo note of flattery and falsehood. When
will the middle classes of this country, if they are not by this
time incapacitated by their fiattners from believing it, be
told the truth, that they have faults, and those very consider-
able ones ; that they obstinately keep up some of the grommet
and most invidious abuses that exist among us; and that,
among other things, they are largely gaily of depreciation
et the poor, and largely responsible for their escluaion from
ear churches and separation from our clergy.

FLORICULTURAL SHOW AT BIRMINOHAM.—The
annual grand central dahlia show trick piece at Birmingham
yesterday. The specimens exhibited are said to have been
not quite so numerous, but to have greatly surpassed in splen-
dour those of former years. The followieg is a list of the
prises awarded : For the beet stands of 24 Dahlias—Bweep-
stakes of 100 guineas and society! Si. prise: let prize, Mr.
Tamer, of filvuek ; tad per, Mr. Harrison, of Richmond;
3rd pries, Mr. Bragg of Slough ; 4th prise, Mr. Drusassond,
of Bath ; 6th prise,Mr. BUMS. of &owner/et. Amateur
Prises for the best 24 Dahlias.-1. Mr. Howard, of Burn-
ham; 2. Mr. Praetor, of Bermondsey; 3. Mr. Burlsmy, of
Coventry; 4 Mr. Hopkins, of Brantford; 5. Mr. Fisher, of
Bath ; 6. Mr. Beaman, of Birmingham ; 7. Mr. Grundy, of
Park Hall; 8. Mr. Whittaker, of Pinhole ; 9. Mr. More,
of Birmingham Open Clue, Fancy Flowers, 24 varieties.
—l. Mr. Turner. of Slough ; 2. Mr. Bread, ditto; 3. Mr.
Branum:od, of Bath ; 4. Mr. Sisley, of Bristol; 6. Mr.
Barnes, of Btowmarket; 6. Mr. Lodge, of Manchester,
First Clan Certificates of Merit for New Flowers —To Mr.
Turner, fee Mrs. Seldom, dahlias ; to Mr. Keynes, foe Sir F.
Bathurst, Magnificent and Saowliska ditto; to Kr.Preetor,
of Bermondsey, for Elisabeth ditto; to Melisagg, of Enough,
fr.r Lad Grenville ditto; to Mr. Turner, lea new Verbena
Mrs. Mills.

TEE ALLEGED POISOEDIOS AT CHELTENBAII.
The iavestisation into the cause of death of Elisabeth and
Samuel Groin was resumed at 11 o'clock yesterday MOTS-
lug before 11. Mayer, Bow., coroner. Kr. Brookes, surgeon,
stated the result of &pose morrow exuniaatiou which he had
made of the body of IBlisstoth Gregory. H. made the ex-
anainatioa sixteen hours after her decease. He Mad the
body presented externally • healthy appanage, bat the
brain wee congested. The stem& matained about
12 ounces of fluid, and the suocies seas ware mash blamed
in two patches. He described the conflitien ef ether parts
of the body, sad said that with the empties it the imams-
madam on the coats of the stomach Mere were me Meese of
poison, bat this was not at all unusual fa ernes ef
by arsenic. Caroline Gregory, sister to the deseesed,Pad=
that when the deesseed, Bung Gesgery, ems
to dinner, he said he did not like cucumber alb and
Mimes, on which Barnett said to his mother,ve kin a
dumpling, and take one yourself." Amordiagly Mrs. Gre-
gory gave the poor boy a dumpling, and he ate part of it,
when be became ill. This whams also Mated that when the
dumplings an* mede by her deemed sister some of the
flour brought by Barnett was pat Leto • tamp ma reserved.
When the surgeon came he asked far the remaining dum-
pling or some of the Saar, and on going to the clapboard for
it, wises diseovered that it had beta takes away. Did not
know who pat it away. Barents and witawe's inter had
had some slight quarrels. Baraett's mem was kept looted
by him whoa he
he was at work. —lt wm expected that the pea
reeding, would brought to a elope last woe.

- -
SOCIETY OF ANTIQI7ARTEB OF SCOTIARA—The
Society of Antiquaries have just received valuable oddi-
ties to their extensive collection by a gift of assay forty
different specimens of Danish antiquities, uses ken
the Royal Society of Northers Antiquaries of
Tbey include a cations variety of same Isaremse°ePise,llllCi
knives, spears, dawn, axes. dm., lase et them of ea se-
usually large lies. 'There are also several rue pommel orna-
ments of great Wks( y, such as Unties, or raked keno
collars, bronze armi,fte or braceles, alseutiful large bream
brooch, copper hetet, of very similar form, a bream lease
head, &a. The Scottish Society presented some time sines
to the Royal Society of Copenhagen a wised= of the depli-
cat3 article in the Edinburgh -Museum, and the Desists
antiquaries have testified their estimation of the gift by this
valuable return.—Balinburyh Cowan*.