Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

5 ~

a penny in the pound in the parish of Liverpool
raised only £BOO a-year, 'or nearly one-fifth of what
it should do. But was that £BOO a year permanent?
He believed that it was not, and that before this time
three years the voluntary rate would nearly disappear,
for year by year one man refused to pay, and then
another refused, and so 'the rate would fall on the
shoulders of the few, so that -a twopenny rate would be
asked, and would be refused by nearly all men ; whilst
if others paid their. share, nearly the whole would pay_
As it was the voluntary rate would ' " vanish like the
baseless fabric of a vision," and leave not a farthing
behind it. The fact was the people who talked so much
in favour of the abolition of Church-rates, and the sub- .
stitution of a voluntary rate, were like Macbeth and the
witches—they kept the promise to the ear, and broke it
to the hope. (Applause.) But they were asked by
'their opponents if they were aware that all large_
towns had refused Church-rates. Now that was true,„
but it .was at the same time an audacious falsehood. ,
Had Liverpool ever declared that it refused to pay
Church-rates ? Never. It had refused a Church-rate,,
but it had never spoken on the • principle. He would
prove it. There were 46,000 assessments on the poor-. ,
rates in the parish of Liverpool,. but allowing for cottage
property the rates upon which were paid by the owßers,
50 per cent., the voters who should come forward to.
vote on the Church-rate question was 23,000. But a
man with a large amount of property had three and
perhaps four votes, and thus the 23,000 voters would
have. 35,000 votes. Now in 1854, when a Church-rate
was refused in Liverpool, only 1,574 persons voted
against it, and 1,037 in • favour ; so that more than
20,000 people never voted at all, and nearly 30,000
votes were not called into operation at all. The
common sense of the matter was that the Church-rate
law
.should be amended, and then the whole thing
would bonnie equitable as well as legal. A calculation
had been made by Mr. Horace Mann, the statistician
who had compiled the ecclesiastical census, and it
appeared from this that 42 per cent. of the whole of
England and Wales worshipped in the churches of the
.Established Church. There r'wershipped in Protestant
Dissenting chapels 29 per cent. of all the people in
England and Wales, and 31 per cent. worshipped ira.
Roman Catholic churches. These figures gave 33 per
cent., or one-third of the, people who were Protestant
-.Dissenters and' Roman Catholics. Of the wholb of the

:people in England and . Wales, 25 per cent., ,or one-
fourth, worshipped nowhere. The Established Church
•
of
.the country took charge of •these; and was Tespon-- • .
sible for them. It thus appeared that 42 attended
our churches, and 25 niore had the Gospel carried
to their own . homes, • making 67 per cent., or
two-thirds of the people under the care of the Estab.-
lished Church. Mr. Bright, in his speech at'Birminghani,
in October, 1858, , said not one-third of the people -
belonged to the Church of England. He (the speaker)
would not characterise the statement ; for if he did he
would ,apply to it a Saxon word that was short and
expressive, and grated on the ear of a gentleman. There
was only one word that would apply to such a statement.
Mr. Hadfield, repeated' the statement in the House of
CoMmons; and although made there, he must say that
it wasuntrue. in the thought; untrue in the utterance„,
Untrue in the reception, untrue in Tint or orally, when-
ever it came. • ;Now our English population was ,
becoming very, rapidly a town population, and our'
town population was very rapidly beComing a hea.-
then population. Of 17,000,,00,0- of people, in England
9,000,000 belonged to towns or 10,000 people and up-
wards, and 8,000,000 belonged to smaller towns and'
rural districts.. , Probably, before the end of the century
three-fourths of our population would live iri great towns..
Now, what was the condition of our great towns ? It
was positively appalling. In Southwark 68 per cent. •
attended no place of worship .whatever. In other
towns ,611, 63, and so. on appeared. If .they took the
whole of the beautiful county of Surrey there were
sixty-three people in every hundred that never darkened'
the door of the House of God. In Liverpool about
forty .in every hundred .of the people did not attend •
any place of worship ; in Manchester .513, and Oldham
about 60 in every hundred. This was an appalling
state of things; and if Church-rates for the maintenance
• of the fabric and of the. ordinances of religion and keep-
ing open the Church for the poor, were requited in rural
districts, how much more were they necessary in our
large towns ? He would say a hundred-fold more so..
The Rev. Doctor then handed down for inspection a
map showing the analyses of the population in all the
great towns in England and Wales. He concluded by
saying that Church-rates were a great necessity with uS,
I and though it was very right to consider. the con-
/scientious objections of everybody, and thoughwe
should not insist too much upon law when the cumin-.
stances of the time had altered, it was only right that,
if £300,000 a-year were taken away from the Church,.
they should have a fair and equitable compensation given;
them. The proposal was in itself so fair and moderate,
that no reasonable, man would object to it. (Loud ap-
plause.)
The Rev. Thos. MooRE, in, addressing the meet-
ing, :said that, in defending Church-rates, they only
defended endowments for • all religious purposes ; so. -
that, in, fact, this e was a question of spoliation-.
with which 'the) were concerned at that moment..
As an instance of the interest which the Church of.
England. took inther welfare of the nation., he might
mention that it educated 80 per cent. of the whole gf
the people who were educated-. in the 'country, leaving
only 20 per 'cent. for the whole of the other aenomina-
tions.• And. then, as an -example 'of what voluntaryism
would do, there was the fact, that £9,000 a year was all.
that this kingdom could produce on the voluntary princi-
ple for the education of, the people. They would see
from that what would' be the state of our masses if
education were left to mere voluntary effort The
voluntary system always failed where it was most
needed ; and, although in the district in which they
now, stood it might be, successful, it would fail in the
yoor district in which Dr. Hume had to labour. As:
they valued. all 'the privileges -which Englishmen
possessed, they should keep in existence this, system,,
which was necessary for the poor man if not for the.
rich'; which robbed no man, but 'rather was a friend to
whole community ; and which the landed proprietors,.
did not wish to part with. He kad no doubt a very
slight amount of agitation on the part of the Church of.
England would turn this subject, for the majority was
getting less as the matter was more thoroughly under-
stood. The rev, gentleman
gentlemen
tmtlheoeirinengbNieitilnghoe,
adoption of a petition, praying that in any measure for-
the abolition of Church-rates compensation might be
whichgiven.
The to thewas
s A
pu
tuEtms
t4t
oaNb
tl Established
havinge
meeting
Church.thankedan
Mr. HARRIS, churchwarden, seconded the motion,.
only one dissentient. • •
had addressed the meeting, said that-they ought to raise
their voice to prove to the country that there were two-
opinions upon this matter, and that their own for the
legality of the claim was quite as strong as that of
others for its inexpediency.
The audience then proceeded to sign the petition;.
and the benediction having been pronounced, the meet-
ing separated.
_ -
To MOTIIIIRS AND NURSEi.—To supersede the tardy use of
tßre
eohceelretlit.
le,y i
n.toothalnBtse e
do6n:
interdicted
tee
advertisert
du
eudr s nursery,
fora wife,
:onwae
bsr theeount
ii
nn'hsacei
orr
nt andisneg:
Lskoitnio,
npr(epeeeriftimneeda
jriesdna.l,e6edlie.,,aonbdtkuismt.,C;arteetheeslA'antctin.Nt.eArminnti-No'effirMelen:
49, Browidow-hill.
ALIVERTISINO FOR ItirvEs.- The police authorities of
advertisements for wives, on the ground that such things
were a profanation of the sanctity of marriage. A man
euence of the prohibition- ne- newspaper would accept
the advertisement. He accordingly applied to the
Minister-of the Interior, and that functionary has just
answerednotthhaitngasotffh.eenlis.e.no law against such advertise-
ments, the. newspapers may insert them, provided they

Sgarting

LATEST BETTING.
CROYDON STEEPLE CHASE.
•
5 to 1 against Goldsmith.
S to 1 against The Curate. • • • -
10 to 1 against Topsy.
No other named. „
THE DEitl.ll7.
S to 1 against. Umpire

, '(t)
. .
12 to 1 against Buccaneer (t and o)
12 to 1. against Thorrnanby (o)
13 to 1 against The Wizard (t)
25 to I.' against The Drone (t)
30 to 1 against Thunderbolt (t)
40 to 1. against Upperhand. (t)
• 1000 to 20 against Paleface (o) •
1000 to 20 against Sir `William (0)
66 to 1 against Plum 'Pudding (t)

breathing, for £lO or £2O a
vsnlhecaEirtshe little blind bay psny,
harness).
Jubilee-street, Mile'
hands, to trot any 11-
Mr. W. Izzsrd is open to back his pony I,l,llseolumtaeichunedaenr
1)1:
rude2,,n side,dt
c anywaodi
nightfLoounrd, London.--Query
t. sixn.
aunkeleinfil miles
d(l,i
haTußdOrToTnyllvu..
once the property of Mr. Barker ? A‘reply, addicssel to" Fish-
ermEra," office of the Narthcr?l, Daily Vine; will be esteemed
a favour. •