The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-26 00:00:00

PERFORMANCES AT THE CONCERT HALL.

Mr. Henry Phillip' the distinguished vocalist and
performer, gave one of his entertainments at the Concert-
hall last night in aid of the funds being raised to erect
a public monument to the memory of the late Father
Mathew, the venerable leader of the temperance movement.
The body of the hall was well filled, but the galleries
were less crowded than we should have desired to see.
Among the gentlemen on the platform were Messrs.
William Rathbone, Carter, Richard Shell, Rev. W. H.
Charming, Rev. James Nugent, Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown,
Rev. Professor Gr;ffiths, Rev. S. A. Steinthal, J. C. Cor-
bally, John Yates, jun., &c.
Mr. Phillips' performance and admirable singing warn
received with the enthusiasm which invariably welcomes
him in Liverpool.
In the interval between the first and second parts of the
performance, the chair was taken, amid loud applause, by
William Rathbone, Esq.
The Chairman declared that the audience owed a deep
debt of gratitude to the committee of the hall, for having
given them an opportunity of expressing the gratitude
they all felt to the great Apostle of Temperance, Father
Matthew. (Loud chers.) Father Mathew belonged to
no class and no sect As the personal friend of Father
Mathew, and one whom the late lamented gentleman
honoured when in Liverpool, by staying in his house, he did
not hesitate to comply with the request to take the chair
upon that occasion. He was under deep obligations to
Father Mathew, from whom he had received the most
valuable aid and co-operation in Cork during the famine
of 1847, when he (the chairman) was entrusted with the
distribution of nearly £70,000 worth of food from the
American people, among the starving Irish. Had it not
been for Father Mathew, imperfectly as he (the chairman)
discharged the anxious duties, he could hardly have dis-
charged them at all. Father Mathew' possessed the
conficence of every one ; and that was a time when any- •
thing like sectarian feeling was absorbed in the misery of
such a city of famine and destitueon where the poor were
literally dying in the streets, and death was so common
a sight that people did not 1. ok round to see it. Father
Mathew was from sunrise to sunset, and longer, at the
work of charity; his home was an hospital for the sick,
and all who trusted in him for relief found that they were
relieved. The chairmau expressed a warm hops that
Liverpool would respond to the call now made ; and
although he was somewhat disappointed at the extent of
the audience, he still trusted that those present—among
whom, perhaps, many, had known the blessings of that
reformation Father Mathew had introduced—would show
that they felt gratitude for favours past, and not merely
that kind of thankfulness which was known as gratitude
for favors to come. With an earnest and eloquent tribute
to the memory and exalted character, of Father Mathew,
the chairman concluded amid loud applause.
The Rev. W. Nugent, Rev. H. S. Brown, and Rev. W.
H. Charming, and Mr. Shell, were severally called for,
and successively addressed the audience, each rendering
well-merited honour to the services of the late great
philanthropist, and impressing on the meeting the sense
of the gratitude which is due to him by the world.
The performer of the night then re umed his place at
the piano.