The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-02 00:00:00

TO Tlil IDITOI 01 TIN 7SPII6aB.

ahould be sorry to think that so respect-
able • journal as the Army and Nary Gazette desired to
foment discord between the two great nations of Anglo-
Saxondom, but the mis-statement and mincpresentetion
contained in its leading article of last Saturday would cer-
tainly lead our American friends to that conclusion. It
starts with the extraordinary assumption that because one
of the vowels composing one of the United States squad-
rons in Europe had anchored in Southampton water,
therefore the admiral in command of the squadron
did not intend to visit England. The answer to
this is, that before the Army and /Vary Oa-
zdte was issued bat Saturday, the flagship of Admiral
Farragut bad anchored off Gravesend, and the admiral, with
his lady and staff, were ensconced in Bond-street, at the
Clarendon Hotel. I believe I may venture to say that
from the moment Admiral Farragut arrived off Sheerness
he has been the recipient of great attention on the part of
the government officials, and that on Friday he will ac-
company the Lords of the Admiralty on their annual tour
of inspection. Thu would of itself be an answer to the
following extraordinary statement :—" Some time ago it
was understood the navy department at Washington sent
orders to all American off oar, to avoid as much es possible
all contact with British officers. So at least it was
reported."
I need not further trespass upon your valuable apses
than to say that not only were such orders never
dreamt of by the American authorities, but that no report
of any such character was e►er heard of by those most
likely to be well posted on American affairs. Admiral
Farragut is now receiving at the hands of Englishmen th►t
attention and kindness which his position at the bead of
the American navy and his own great personal merite so

well entitle him to.—l um, dm,
Henrietta-street, Coventlerden.

F. L. B.

THe SCHOOL FRICIATZ CONWAY.—The annual
meeting of the friends of this useful institution was
held at Liverpool yesterday, Mr. James Beesley in the
chair. The report gave a most gratifying amount of the
progress of the ship, though, owing to the establishment
of a similar vessel in the Thames, the number of pupils
in 1867 had not been so great as in 1866. Bina the estab-
lishment of the Conway, 29 boys had joined the royalnavy
from her, and 382 had entered the mercantile marine.
Before the proceedings terminated, the Secretary flit.
Clarke Aspirual) read an interesting letter from a youth
named Roar, the first Conway pupil who obtained the
Admiralty cadstabi , and who bad mostly disdaralalmod
himself ia New

THE comic!' CONGRESS AT WOLVER-
HAMPTON.

Yesterday the Church Congress of the current
year was inaugurated at Wolverhampton under the most
favourable auspices. The weather was delightfully fine,
end, so fir as judicious management, a nnmerorui attend-
'nee of melesiestlind dignitaries, members of the aristo-
cracy, and others eminent by their surpassing ability, or
other distinguishing qualifications, together with a very
general hospitality on the part of the inhabitants towards
members of the congress and others, could contribute to
success, that desideratum may be considered as already
achieved to an extent considerably beyond that attained
at any previous congress, there being up to Saturday night
last no less than 1,500 tickects disposed of. There are six
English and twenty-four colonial and American bishops
present at the congress, amongst whom are those of Oxford
and London. The congress is held in the Agricultural-hall,
a *packers building, capable of holding nearly two thou-
sand persons seated, and it was fitted up in a manner
admirably adapted to inset the exigencies of the occasion ;
the representatives of the press having special reason to
be thankful for the oceaddesstion bestowed epee their
rionveniencre. Within a very short distance of the Agricul-
tural-hall is St. George's-hall, which is need as a reeeption-
ream, and for the purpose of leaving sleeks end baggage,
• sad posting letters, to. A oinked improvement
esfeefteeliment accesumodalicm provided at previous
comperes is observable at Wolverhampton, where the
Exchange I. devoted to the purpose, under the manage-
ment of Messrs. Spier. and Pond, whereas at other places
visitors were entirely dependent upon various hotels and
pnblielonsee. The bishops, deans, archdeaoons, end
clergy of the deanery of Wolverhampton met at
eleven o'clock in St. Peter's School-room, whence
they proceeded in their robes of office to the
Town-hall, where they were joined by the Mayor (Sir John
Morris) and the municipal authorities. These united
bodies then formed a premed= to the collegiate church
of St. Peter, where a full choral service was performed,
the sacred edifice being Med to inconvenience in every
part. The lessons were read by the Right. Bev. the
Bishops of Lichfield (the President of the Congress) and
London ; the remaining portion of the service being in-
toned by the Bev. T. B. Mundy. The sermon was
preached by the Very Rev. the Dean of Norwich, who
selected for his text Boman', 3rd chap, and 28th verse :
" Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law;' and the 2nd chap. and
24th verse of the Epistle of St. James : " Ye see, then,
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith
only." The rev. dean delivered an able sad eloquent
discourse, in the &wee of which he alluded to the great
questions which are causing so much agitation in the
church at the present day. Referring to the ritualist
=n of the church. he said that the greet megrims which
been made in re igious matters during the last ha"-
century was principally to be attributed so their exertions.
The Menne:es that unhappily existed amongst them were
owing to the different views taken of the same subjects,
and such as existed even among the apostles themselves,
and in any action that might be taken in the matter a
conciliatory policy ought to be pursued. With regard to
the congress, Mine objected by some people that sv
gatherings were presinctive of no good restate in erase-
, gluon of their possessing no infiuenoe. Re considered,
on the contrary, that they possessed very great influence,
and when members met together, as in the case of the
congress, and freely interchanged their views, the oonse-
queseewas that public opinion was formed, and the results
must be felt as in the case of politiaal subjects, where ex-
pressions of public at at meetings persevered in b
their promoters resulted in legislation in accordancewith
that opinion. The sermon was listened to with wrapt
attention throughout. Vast crowds thronged the streets
and approaches to the church before the commencement
and at the termination of the service. _ _ _

At the afternoon meetting of the congress, held at 2
o'clock, in the Agrioul -hall, the proceedings nom.
method with pre . After an introductory address from
the Right Rem Fr dent, papers were read upon " The
State and Progreso of the Church in Staffordshire," by the
Vera. Archdescoullloore and Mr. Rupert Kettle, judge of
the Woreedeteldre district of county courts. Mr. Kettle
said that no correct opinion could be formed of the state
and program of the church without knowing the position of
the parochial clergy, and the condition under which they
were called upon. to discharge their poem:Fel duties. In-
cumbents of parishes in the great mining and =nem>
tui:ng districts required, in the execution of their divine
mission to the poor to the ignorant, and to the aMicted,
moth of both moral and material support from the rich
and *duetted laity. He proposed to show how little of
such support was available to them in that part of Staf-
fordshire of which Wolverhampton was the 00MTDOTC{P1
centre—e district respecting which he could not deny that
there was some moral, as there was abundant physical
reason for Axing upon it the stigma of the
" Black Country." For the purposes of his paper he
selected, as pes of the district, four parishes and two
large townships (Bilden, Wedoesbory, Dariastos, Tipton,
WMenhall, and Weetbromiwich) ; and the town of Wol-
verhampton, with its grand old mother church and its
eight district parishes, He knew of no district which had
benefited more by the renovated energy of the church
during the last thirty years than that of which he was
treating. The seven old parishes were now divided into
thirty-one, each with its church and incumbent, and
whereas in the time of their immediate predecessors a
curate wee practically a substitute for, and not an assistant
of, the rector or dear, they bad now—he wished
he could say in all these parishes—at least
one curate working with the resident incumbent.
The churches in those parishes now provided accommo-
dation for public worship to about 34,000 persons, to about
14,000 of whom the seats were free. This gave, after
deductions according to the national average, for the
young, the infirm, and the absent, sittings for about one-
fourth of the parishioners. Whore there were either ten
or eleven clergymen there were now 35, or one to every
4200, souls. Insufficient ea these provisions still were,
they could contemplate with some satisfaction, sad he
trusted with great thankfulness, the fact that since the
time when the church aroused herself from the lethargy of
the Georgian spook, the accommodation for public worship
bad increased in a ratio nearly three times as great as the
population, and the thermos in tlie number of the clergy
in these seven old parishes bad been fourfold that
of the laity. Building a church and furnish-
ing subsistence for the incumbent did no. alone
constitute a perish ; it was also necessary to provide the
Incumbent with the means of bestowin twat care upon
his flock. The great difficulty in estabilshiug an efficient
=organisation in the mining and manufacturing
lay in the separation of the rich and educated
from the poor and ignorant. Hs meant not only separa-
tion in sentiment hut actual separation in locality. The
rick live in one place end the poor in another. Hs had
prepared some tables showing the extent to which this
evil which, for want of a better phrase, he would. call
" Absenteeism." prevailed in the seven old parishes
which he had chosen, and which would be published,
complete, in an appendix to the official report. After in-
stancing Weather.= wick, Bilston, Tipton, and Wednesbury,
Mr. Kettle proceeded to show the system and its affects
as existing in Wolverhampton. It would appear that
there were three of the poorer parishes there, in which
there were 26 assessroenta at and above 2001. a year with.
out a single resident amongst them. In the assessments
of less value a similar stets of things existed, the only
exception being in the parish of St. Mark, which was the
" West-end" parish of Wolverhampton. There the
absentees were compsratively few, for of fivejrathe at and
above 2001. only two were absent, and so on in a some-
what similar ratio down to theu rated under 301. The
totals for the nine parishes showed the following general
results:-Out of 68 of the largest ratepayers, only 12,
or rather more than one-sixth, resided in Wolverhamp-
ton. Of the next group, consisting of those
rated at more than 1001. and less than 2001.,
64 out of 159, or rather less than onehalf, were residents.
There were, of the next group, 254 out of 382, or exactly
two-thirds, resident; and of those rated at more than 201.,
and under 301., between one-seventh and one-eighth were
non-resident. The pecuniary effects of absenteeism were
most felt in the ordinary working parish expenses. For
special objects owners of works would respond pretty
freely. They were not acquainted with the wants of the
parish from which they derived their incomes ; and if
asked for contributions they would excuse themselves by
saying that they subscribed in the parish in which they
resided. Ho had formed the opinion from what he be-
lieved were correct data, that those who contributed most
of this world's goods in aid of the ministry in the
mining and manufacturing districts—and that not
relatively but positively—were the clergy themselves.
conolnsion Mr. Kettle submitted two propositions to the
congress, vie., " That the time had oome when the
&arch should ber relieved of the duty of collecting alms
for the putposes of education, and that the area and the
geographical divides' of parishes should be extended—a
course rendered necessary in consequence of absenteeism."
The learned gentleman resumed his seat amidst general
aptreudss..
as
were then delivered upon the subject by the
Earl of Harrowby and the Rev. J. H. Iles, the proceed-
ins being brought to sakes by a dianthus, in which Mr.
A. J. B. Beeedard Hops, the Rev. Dr. Fraser, vicar of
Alton, Mr. Wunder, Q.C., of Linooln's-inst, and ethers
took
AnExhibition of leclesisatieal Arts, conaistinprinci-
pally of chided vestments, alter lights, he., isbe~ag
in the Government School of Art, but this is en
oesseeted with the Church Cower.