The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-23 00:00:00

7E .3fEE2TNI

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlE,—Knowing that your columns are always open fits
the cause of truth, I have ventured to address a few words
to you on the Anti-Church Rate Meeting, which took
place last Tuesday evening, in the Concert-hall, LiverpooL
The meeting was held for the purpose of "petitioning
Parliament for the entire abolition of Church Rates ;" and,
as a matter of course, the Voluntary principle was lauded,„
and the compulsory condemned.
Mr. Eyre Evans, who was called to the chair, in con-
trasting the working of the two sytems, referred tcs
America in proof of the (alleged) success of the Voluntary
principle. Mr. Evans. having adduced no facts in support
of his assertions, one or two might, in my humble opinion,
throw a little additional light on the subject ; and, with
all deference to Mr. Evans's opinions, I would bring the
following observations before his and the public notice :
In several parts of the United States, the maintenance
of an established religion was compulsory, as in our own
country ; and we find that, wherever this principle has
given way to the Voluntary one, religion has rapidly
declined.
Dr. Dwight, whose authority stands very high with
Dissenters, in his " Travels in New England and Nevi
York," explains the nature of the Ecclesiastical Establish-
ment which existed in Connecticut, (it has since been
destroyed,) and contrasts the condition of religion in that
province with its condition in the more southern provinces,
where there was no Establishment at all. And what was
the result ? In a State, in which Christianity was estab-
lished by law, the Presbyterian Ministers—(for they were
the great body of the clergy) - supported and settled, were-
in the proportion of one to every one thousand three hun-
dred and twenty-eight inhabitants,—whilst in the States,
where the Voluntary system prevailed, the proportion was
one minister to every sixteen thousand six hundred and
sixty-eight souls Still further—for it is right to give the
enemies of the Establishment the full benefit of their
favourite examples —whilst in the fore-mentioned State,
(Connecticut,) out of 209 congregations, for so many it
counted, there were twenty vacancies, i.e., about one-tenth
without ministers : in the latter State, out of 430 congre-
gations, which was their whole number, there were 160,
i.e., considerably more than one-third vacant, the inhabi-
tants being. to this extent either too poor or too indiffer-
ent to support a minister.
The cities of America may be well filled with churches ;
but it is the agricultnral districts which suffer so muck
fro& want of an established religion, and it is here we see

the failure of Voluntaryism.
Dr. Chalmers, in his work on "Endowment," quotes an
account given by an American minister, the Rev. Samuel
Mills, who thus describes what he had seen with his own
eyes :—" Never will the impression be erased from our
hearts by beholding those scenes of wide-spreading de-
solation. The whole country, from Lake Erie to the
Gulf of Mexico, is as the valley of the shadow of death.'
Darkness rests upon it : only here and there a few rays of
Gospel light pierce through the awful gloom. This vast
country contains more than a million of inhabitants ; their
number is every year increased by a mighty flood of immi-
gration ; soon will they be as the sands on the sea-shore
for multitude;' yet there are at present only a little more
than 100 Protestant or congregational ministers in it. Were
these ministers equally distributed throughout the coun-
try, there would be only one to every 10,000 people ; but
now there are districts of country containing from twenty
to fifty thousand inhabitants entirely destitute, and `how
shall they hear without a preacher ?' "
This picture was drawn about the year 1834. Since
that period a never-ceasing tide of immigration has poured
its vast streams of pauper wanderers upon the shores of
America ; therefore, with the natural increase of the
population, these districts cannot be in a much better state
now with regard to religious provision than they were
twenty years ago ; and most probably the agricultural
districts, where the emigrants chiefly seek their new
homes, are in a much more extended state of darkness.
This, Sir, is the boasted success of the Voluntary sys-
tem ! This is the country to which Dissenters are conti-
nually pointing in proof of the good working of that
system ! No comment of my own is required : facts
speak for themselves. But Mr. Evans tells us that "in
England the Voluntary principle is supremely successful."
The Church of England has provided a house of God in
every parish ; may I ask if Voluntaryism has done the
same ? Are there not many agricultural districts too poor
to provide themselves with a pastor, which would, like the
aforesaid districts in America, be destitute of Scriptural
instruction, were it not for the friendly aid of the State ?
Space precluding my noticing the remarks of the other
speakers, I would just answer Mr. Bonar's almost ridicu-
lous question, whether any of those who paid Church-
rates loved them, by asking the " rev. gentleman" whether
any one ever loved taxes as such ? And if people do not
love taxes, is there any reason why they should not pay
them ? From the whole tenor of Mr. Bonar's, and in fact
all the speeches, one might naturally arrive at the conclu-
sion, that it was the love of money which actuated the
refusal of the late rejected rate, rather than the boasted
qualnis of conscience.
I cannot, Sir, conclude these few observations without
bringing before your notice the personalities in which
Mr. Bonar indulged, and asking you whether they are
becoming in one who styles himself " reverend ?" The
parties alluded to having merely raised a cheer at the
mention of Dr. M`Neile's name, and expressed by their
votes and disapprobation their dissent from the proposed
resolutions.—l am, Sir, yours obediently,
Birkenhead, May 22d, 1854. RTSTITIL.

ST. MATTHEW'S, SCOTLAND-ROAD.