The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-09-20 00:00:00

or obtaining admission llarp. our chortle... The
sittings left at 'my giveas4lllk vacant' in' pews were
lost for the time; but ip toiirequeeftes pressed
with peculiar weight ups the .poor. Pews netts-
rally fell into the poseessioo of perverts of property,
and became inaccessible I. others; the poor man
could as little thiiik of otcupyiseg the pews of his
employers as of obtrudikg info their parlours.
Hence multitedes breasts 'reduced to the altertia•
tive either of ceasing ha attend public worship at
all, or of attending it in other religious assemblies,
"here, without the aliehtort feeling of di,repect
towards any of our Diiiietiting brethren, edio all
have the same relit with ourselves, by 'the law of
God sod by the laws of the 4alni, to interpret the
Bible arcurdwg to their own judgment,. awl to
arrange their focus of worship by their own views of
chanties., we, the members oef tier Establialinseut,
entriceCielliat is less close conformity to the accuracy
of scripture! doctrine, or aless favourable mode of
promoting Christian edificso ion, is in be foetid than
its our churches. Where this alternative subsists,
the understanding and the wishes of men, Mr. G.
thought, could not hesitate se to the choice which
was to be desired. While he declared drliberalely
and from his heart, that on all the religious points,
so far as he was acquainted with them, on which
other Christians among as differed from the EON-
Wished Church, his own judgment accorded with.
the tenets of that Church; he was equally ready to
declare his decided wishes, that whenever persons
were excluded by wain of room from the cbartheti
of the Establishment, dissenting places of
.worshipi
might be full. . There could be no doubt es to the
preference between some measure of religion anti no
religion ; hemmer) the substance of Christianity
mixed with some error and no Christianity. No
state was more to be deprecated than that of melt
abandoning all public worship, left a prey to every
Wm. opinion, to every. progressive stage of irreligion
and of all practical abominations, and finally to infi-
delity itself. But his own warm desire was, that
ample room might be provid• d in churches of the
Establishment for the population ; and that those
churches might ever hewn full, ceder the grace of
God, through the inculcation of sound doctrine
in the ministration of our pore and scriptural Li-
turgy,
and of sermons not jarring with that Liturgy,
hot in strict correspondence and harmony with it.
Under these impressions he cou,d no but rejoice
with all those around him that they were laying the
foundations of an-edifice on a plan formed on the
general principles which had been stated, and
suited to the worthier the place ; an edifice in which,
while the galleries were to be distributed into pews
for the use of !lemons in the higher and middle
clasp**, Wiwi might wish to oriel themsefves or the as-
conentodatioa, the whole arts of the ground 11 or
'lssLelver• S° argeltilv io•h000pd opas sittings foe the
poor. Iu former ages plivate liberality has repeat-
ed,* accomplished the erection of churches. It not
unfrequently occurs with respect to historical ob-
jects worthy of notice, as it often happens respect-
ing interesting rad picturesque scenes in nature,
that things hear at hand are not also familiar to us.
It might not be known to various persons prevent
that the neighbouring church of Barton-order-
Needwood had been built by a private
and under circumstances of unusual le culiiiiity.
Henry VIL being on a progress througlftliis part
of Staffunishire, whether for the purpose of the
chase on the Forest of Needwood, or with whatever
other ieteut, paused at the village t,f Barton ; and
incidentally learned that the wife mf a poor inhabitant
there had recently and at once increased the family
of her husband by the birth of three sons. Induced
by the sitigielnrity of the-eircurnstance; he took the
rlelest of the boys under his protection, and educated
him in the levelling of the times. In the reign of
Henry VIII. this individual cusitinued to expe-
rience royal patronage, and according to the usage
of the period, when ecelesinsticul and civil divOnc-
tinctione were seen accumulated on the same indivi-
dual, when Wolsey united to the first dignities iu the
church the, office of Lord High Chancellor, he com-
bined with several pieces of teclerinstical preferment
the post of Master of the Rolls; and turning back
his eyes on hits native village, erected the church
which is still subsisting. It Is well to imitate an-
cient examples recommended by their excellence.
This observetinti, in allusion, to the church now to
be constructed at Burton•upon-Trent exclutively°,
from the funds of the Isle Mr. Hawkins of that
place, Mr. G. said that be made without reserve,
because it was impossible that lie, who was merely
the vehicle and the instrument of conveying to the
inhabitant', under the form of an edifice for their
public worship, a portion of their departed totem-
man's munificence, could be suspected of assum-
ing merit to hiniself in the transaction. The stied-
fast attachment of the late Mr. Hawkins to the
Established Church might be sufficiently eotifirm-
cd, were evidence 'seeded, by an instance ire which
Mr. G. had been personally and confide/dimity em-
ployed by hint ; namely, in the business of tram'.
minim; to the chartered Protestant Schoch in Ire-
land ;donation of 40,000/. Until the death of the
duuor Ms mime remained uuknowe except to the
three or four individuals necessarily concerned in
the transfer of the gift ; and other of his good
works may continue. holden until the day when the
secrets of all hearts end of all actions shall be re-
vealed. Mr. G. was satisfied that the application
of a part of Mr. Herwkins's fund to the erection
and completion. of, the church now contemplated,
was in the strictest unison with the principles of,
their deceased benefactor. During twenty yeark it
had been the anxioua desire and study of his est-
league, the late Mr. Hawkins Browne, and of him-
self, to be able to commence the undertaking now .
begun. Of that colleague, who had berm specially
anxious, (rpm an ancient family cosine:ion, for the
welfare of the town of Burton,. who had been so
well known by his public character and his private
virtues, .he would say, that• during the joint dis-

• hTr. C. bas shire • iabed to recognise 114 onligsion, in nut
noting ihfthssOfisocoe duortinnin•de by VIY.' Hawkins's ue-
phew, Joseph Mackin:oi, of 1,000/. to thc Nadi of
the church.