The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-09 00:00:00

SHEFFIELD OUTRAUES.

Yesterday morning, the Archbishop of York laid
the corner stone of the church now in coarse of erection at
Sharrow, in the presence of a number of the clergy of t4e
town and neighbourhood and the principal inhabitants of
the district. The proceedings were commenced with •
hymn and suitable prayers, after which Dr. Sale offered a
few remark.. The architect, Mr. Mitchell Withers, pre-
sented a silver trowel to the Archbishop, who then laid the
stone.

After a few introductory remarks his grace said :—I wish
I could say that things connected with Sheffield admitted
of feelings of unmistakeable satisfaction, but it would be
idle In a company like this to pretend that there is not a
great load of shame, and sorrow, and regret upon every one
of us because of that foul blot and stigma that has been pat
on this great population by the acts, I trust, of a very few
miscreants. No public meeting, I think, should take place.-
no public meeting like this—without our taking the oppor.
tumty by a few words and by a few exclamations, if neces-
Nary, of clearing ourselves of all complicity in those hideous
and abominable tmosections. (Cheers.) Allow me to go
one step further, although it is not for me to advise the
people in this place—you see these times are historical.
Souse crimes may be forgotten, but not these—they are
connected with the history and the development of a
people. It will never, I think, be forgotten that there was a
time in Ragland, and that there was a place in England
where it was possible for men to take the lives of their fel.
low-creatures for some trumpery question of a shilling a
week wages. That will never be forgotten or blotted out j
but ibtre built to bo written by the side of that lime
upon the page of history—there ought to be written the
fact of the population of this place, except those people
who have none the crimes—rising as one man—(cheers)—
and by public meetings, and by every other form in
which men give utterance to the thought that is in them,
they should say, "We have nothing to do with
these, and we will endeavour by every lawful means
to remove altogether the opportunity of doing so for
the future." (Cheers.) It is the feeling of everyone;
and do not for a moment—pardon me if I advise yon—
but do nut for a moment allow any feeling of difficulty
or of doubt or of timidity to stand in the -way of this
public expression, for really society requires it, and
history requires it, at your hands. (Hear, hear.) Still,
my friends, our business, you know, is to do always the
right thing, but it is the privilege of God that when
wrong thugs are done He can bring right and good things
out of them. And now Ido sincerely hope, in the long
run, even good may come out of these things which
we so deeply deplore. I think it not only pm-
Bible, but likely, because we now see at all events
what we have long suspected—that there is a
great rottenness in the core of our social system.
Here in Sheffield we had better acknowleoge it. If the
s Ling is to be improved, let the world know it, and let
us know it ourselves, and then we shall see what the
remedy is that is needed in this place. I think it is
likely to work for good, that men will now see that a great
Illliny things we have taken fur gospel are not gospel at all.
(Hear, hear.) I think there has been growing up in the
winds especially of the industrial classes a suit of idea—
if may venture to put it into words—that the Ruble has
done its work in its day, but that we have got a little
beyond certain of its precepts—pardon use if I put it
so—but I believe this, we think we have got a little
beyond the precepts of the Gospel, and that there is a
certain thing called civilisation which is wiser in this
day than a certain amount of Gospel precept, and with
the help of that we will go along safely and smoothly,
and rise to great national prosperity, the prosperity of
a town and great individual happiness. That system
seems to me to have confessed itself to be utterly hollow
and false, for here you have the waking of these
industrial laws, you have the working of this great
political system enduring here—l won't say in indifference
to the gospel lesson in it, hut in indinerence to the very
ten commandments themselves, which besides being once
written on stone, are engraved on the fleshy table of every
man's; heart and conscience, and which we knew must be
true, although the world should etsurl still, and the
heavenly bodies stagger in their course. (Hear, hear.) So
I say now—l won't say wills a stronger conviction than
before, for that is impossible, but with a greater chance of
being listened to than before--I say that the Bible is not
only the way to happiness for yourselves, but I say it is
also the way to all happiness and safety here upon earth.
After enlarging upon this view, his graceurged that, in order
to counteract the false ideas prevalent, churches should be
Melt will schools beside them. In every district there
should be a place of worship open to men where one day
in seven they might pray fur • blessing upon their industry
of the rest of the week, as only those who have a con-
science pure and bands clean from the blood of their fellow
creatures can pray.