The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-12 00:00:00

BISHOP OP LONDON'S PUNT).

Last night a meeting of the young men of the
Oily of London, of whom there were about 300 present,
was held at the Mansion•honse, for the purpose of Interest.
ing those employed in the City and other establiahments
in promoting the Bishop of London's Fund ; the Right
800, the LORD MAYOR in the chair. Amapa those present
were the Bishop of London, the Bon. Archdeacon Barrio,
of Salisbury, Mr. W. Creator.; Mr. Thornton, Mr. Red.
mayne. Rev. Mr. Rowssll, Rev. Mr. &gen, Mr. Fab
toner, fm.
The LORD MAYOR said that the Bishop of London would
so much better lay before the meeting the object for which
were assembled than he could, that he would leave
it to his lordship to address them, and he was sure they
would give him a patient and attentive hearing.

The Bishop of LONDON "aid that, in the first Owns, be
wished to exprem their thanks to the Lord 14yor for
allowing them to meet together la the Mansion-house. The
special object of the meeting was to bring before the
young men in the City warehouses that great movement
which peened by the name of the Bishop of London's fund.
At the lest meeting, in the church of St. Thomas, Charter-
honseequare, the young men kindly assisted the movement
by contributing to the object in view. Some forty young
men also did him the favour of attending one welt-
ing at Folhato and it occurred to them all that
a larger molting was indispensable In order so
give him ea opportunity of explaining the awisteece
which they could give to this greet movement. About
two years ago it occurred to him and some others that the
time had come when a great movement mast be made to
meet the spiritual wants of those amongst the 3,000,000
inhabitants of this metropolis for which no adequate pro-
vision had been made. It appeared from the registrar
general's returns that 40,000 persons were yearly added to
the;population of the metropolis, and unless some effort
was made to meet the lamentable deficiency in the educa-
tion and religions instruction of the people, this great city,
which ought to be the Pint and most enlightened city of
the world, would go from bad to worse. Their
first duty was to know the extent of the evil,
and on inquiry it was found that taking the
church of England and other religion' bodies together,
there wee notan adequate supply in she means of edumtion
and religious instruction and worship for more than two-
I thirds of the population of London i that was to say, that
of the 3,000,000 of persons living in London, 1,000,000
were left without education or religious instruction, or any
adequate means for religious worship. That remained an
unpleasant fact which could not be got rid of. In his
opinion there ought to be a clergyman for every 2,000 of
the population, and, making that the basis of cal-
culation, there remained one-third of the inhabi-
tants whose spiritual wants were utterly overlooked.
From a spiritual point of view it was as if 1,000,000 out of
3,000,000 were without an adequate supply of food. It was
plain that the effort to meet this evil most be great, sod
that as the evil had been growing up for many year., it
would require the efforts of many years to remedy it.
Therefore it was that he wished to enlist the sympathy of
young men in the movement, and that he wee anxious to
have an opportunity of addrensing them that evening,
because on the energies of the rising generation it must
greatly depend whether the movement was a prosperous
one or not. He put it to the consciences of the young men
to help them, and to take their places when it pleased God
to take them away.
Mr. Solite; the secretary to the fond, announced that he
had received letters of apology from Mr. Gooch's, Mr. Ban-
bury, Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Kinnard, and others who were
unable to attend.

Mr. W. Gurronfix (who contributed 50% to the fund)
said that he came forward as a man of bnaiases to state
what he thought it became him and the young men present
to do to meet the state of things which had been plead so
forcibly before them by the Bishop of London. He thought
it should be left to themselves to decide oo the form of
organisation which they should adopt to carry out this great
and important object, and to remove a great scandal from
the metropolis. But he knew they had the means in the
City of assisting in this great movement, and all they had
to do was to join heartily in promoting it. It had been
lately said by a great orator that the powers of evil and of
good were in conflict, but that the good was gaining on the
evil. Let them show as far as they were concerned that
this was true by joining this movement. (Hear, hear.)
The Rev. Mr. Itowsztl. believed, as the last speaker had
said, that the powers of good were gaining on the powers of
evil. He was addressing a meeting of the young men of
London, and although this was considered to be a movement
of the clergy, be bad no hesitation in saying that it wen of
far more importance to the laity than to the clergy. The
laity were deeply interested in meeting the deplorable
state of things which had been disclosed to them by the
Bishop of London, and there was not one amongst them
who could not contribute something to the object in view.
If they wanted definite work to do, here it was for them.
They were living amongst a population for one million of
whom there was no spiritual provision made. Let them
"go about their Father's business" and provide the
means of religious instruction for this mass of people.
It was impossible to go amongst the population of the
metropolis without being struck by the necessity for some
each work as this. Sacred music on the Sunday and lectures
on geology did not come home to the suffering poor, and
when they asked for bread it was vain to offer them a
stone.

Mr. GEORGIC WARRINGTON said that, Si a represents-
tire of she y ouag men present they would do all they
could to promote the object in view. He thought he might
say for them that they would do all they could. Their
shoulders might be weak, but they were many, and they
could in this way urge on the wheel. They would contn-
but* what they could themselves, and also help by encourage
log others to contribute. Hs hoped the young men present
would not think he had promised too much for than.
Che
(ers
Arthd.) eacon HARRIS addressed a few wards to the meet-
ing in furtherance of the object.
Mr. RR:DWAYNE proposed, and the Rev. F. BLONITRLD
seconded, a vote of thanks to the Lord Mayer.
The LORD MAYOR said that when he first heard the wish
expressed that the meeting should be held in the Mansion-
house, he considered it in the light of a command whir* be
felt bound to obey. The young men in the City of London
were a highly intelligent body, and he knew that they bad
It in their power greatly to promote the success of any ob-
ject which their judgment 'proved of. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. l'auxvon, the organising secretory, unwanted that
it was she intention to form a general committee to repre-
sent the principal warehouses, oat of which • smaller work-
ing committee would be chosen, and that the first meeting
of the general committee would take place at **London
Ooffee-bonne on Thursday next.
The Bebop of LONDON bevies gives the banalities,
the maseder permeated.