Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-10 00:00:00

now, he was way to say.,

shiner had

zht to

) church

paTts of tile kingdom it was nc
principally by gentlemen lama

far extent, not

to be dome,

rs, who had

treated the.po9r as they

.been. (Ilea; hear:) In large towns like Liverpool
such an agitation had sprung:ap amongst these persons
that with the exception of three or four • churches in
ithe centre of the town, the others were maintained by
the congregation, and in addition they were called upon
to pay their proportion of church-rates. This party
thought this preposterous; they said they had to sup-
port their own churches as well as to support parish
churches. Some persons might think this a hardship,
that they should pay churek-rates for the sup-
port of a parish ,church they never _entered;
but the church in itself was a public benefit,
even to those that never entered it: by the ..schools
attached to them to educate their children, and the
working of the clergy, to distribute Christianity by
visiting their houses. Therefore, he said that those who
never -entered a church, received a blessing from it; and
therefore they should he ,maintained ,for the good.of the
public.at large.
The CIIAIRM4N then .intimated thzt he was sorry
their friend Mr. Warr would be unable to be here, but
Dr. Hume, -whom he would now introduce, was a hPst
in hinigolf

Dr. Huns, who was very warmly reeeived, referred
to his own connection with this movement, which, lie
said, was rather curious, having at first arisen from pur-
chasing a snap published by Messrs. Phillips and Son, of
South Castle-street, which he divided into ecclesiastical
districts, each marked by a different colour, and
he thus became possessed ,of what was, in some
degree, a moral and social map of Liverpool. The
established church in this country held a very
peculiar position, which many did not understand. If
:people came to ,church they were glad to see them, if
they did not they went to them.; the Church thus holds
a two-fold position, and this was what was calkd hav-
ing the cure of souls. The duty of every incumbent is
to carry the gospel throughout his district. Dr. Fume
then entered at considerable length into the origin of
parish churches, tithes, and rates. He said that a mea-
sure for the abolition of church-rates, cold only be
looked upon in the same light as a proposal, which
might possibly be made some hundreds of years hence,
in a Liverpool Town Council, to get rid of
the burden imposed upon them by their ances-
tors, of keeping the library, the magnificent gift of
Mr. William Brown, in order, on the ground that
they, were not now a reading people, and scarcely ever
entered within its walls. The churches in this cotmtry
were, of two kinds, open and exclusive. He
did not
want a rate where they were exclusive, but where every
seat was free, and the church was only for the poor man,
a rate was absolutely necessary. It was impossible to
get the poor to come, if they had to pay seat rents ; and
when they reflected that the population of the countr
was becoming very rapidly a town population, and as s+'
tics showed that 40 out of every 100 were
qtending ao place of worship, the nec-

ity of having.

.•
led that voluntary an -