The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-17 00:00:00

~,~` ~.-~

CHURCH EXTENSION.

A very numerous and highly respectable meeting of the
members and friends of the Liverpool Young Men's Esta-
blished Church Society, was held on the evening of Friday
last, in the Music-hall, Bold-street, for the purpose of taking
into consideration the propriety of petitioning the legislature
in favour of a public grant to extend the usefulness of the
Church of England. Amongst the clergymen present we
noticed the Rev. FieldinOuld, the Rev. B. Marshall, the
Rev. G. Mansfield, the Rev. D. James, the Rev. C. W.
Richards, the Rev. W. Falloon, the Rev. H. S. Joseph, the
Rev. A. M'Conkey, the Rev. F. Barker, &c. &c. ; and of
the laity we observed Robertson Gladstone, Esq., Samuel
Holme, Esq., R. Griffith, Esq., W. Howard, Esq., W.
Rowett, Esq,. &c. A number of ladies were also present.
ROBERTSON GLADSTONE Esq. was unanimously called
upon to preside ; after which prayer was offered by the
Rev. G. MANSFIELD.
The CHAIRMAN then proceeded. He trusted he might be
permitted, before they entered upon the business of the even-
ing, to express his grateful acknowledgments to those gen-
tlemen who, from motives of kindness had placed him in the
honourable position of president of this society. For him-
self, however, he could not but regret that their selection had
not fallen upon one who had stood more prominently forward
than himself in the defence of our Protestant church, and
our Protestant institutions—of whom, he rejoiced to say,
there were already so many in Liverpool. (Applause.) He
was well aware that their claims were much stronger than
his, and that they would have been able to confer upon the
society infinitely greater benefits than be feared would fall to
his lot ; but at the same time lie trusted he was alive to the
advantages to be derived from the formation of the society,
one of the objects of which, in a great degree, was to bind
together, with a perfect cord of union, the rising protestant
youth of the present day—(hear, bear, and applause)—to
bind them together in a spirit of love and veneration towards
our Established Church, and in an ardent desire, not only
to perpetuate but to extend its general sphere of usefulness.
(Cheers.) Nor was it a less important duty, that the mem-
bers of the society should turn their serious attention, their
most devoted exertions, to counteract the unfortunate and
misguided opinions of the present day—opinions for the pro-
mulgation of which it was with the deepest regret that all
those who wished well to our Established Church must have
observed that a society had been formed in this town, under
the name. and upon the principles, of the voluntary system.
(Hear.) The meeting would hear froth those who were about
to address them, matter which he had no doubt they would
find highly interesting upon this subject ; but be could not
refrain from noticing one or two points which deeply concern-
ed us all. Those who were in the habit of perusing the public
press, must know, that the walls of that room might be said to
be still warm with the echo of the opinions of those who had
there assembled to petition parliament to withhold any
- • - fn., the ?Ince of church extension,
thereby holding out, in the mosiiireminani.,..., nigunbt
rcb.ii,i in for the. omulic of infidelity. ((sheer,.) And
'yet,ssibv‘itilist the very men who had figured upon the spot,
perhaps, on which he now stood, were prepared to give an
apparently reasonable reply for the faith that was in them,
we saw them associated with those, who had but the one
common object in view, of destroying the church establish-
ment, and levelling her walls to the dust of the earth,
(Cheers.) It was against the promulgation of such opinions,
and against the dissemination of the evil that those opinions
were likely to create, that this society would, in part, devote
its most serious attention. Certainly, this was a matter that
we could scarcely reconcile with the progress of civilization
on the one hand, and the progress of religious opinion on the
other. We could scarcely believe, that men could be found,
who from an embittered and deeply rooted hatred to the
church establishment, strove, with the dawn of each day, to
find some new mode of attacking its existence, and for pro-
pagating those opinions, which he regretted to say, even
with some of those who called themselves members of our
church, received with open arms. Was it not matter, in-
deed, for surprise, that there should be those in the present
age who could boldly come forward, and advocate, as bad
been done, the cause of opposition to church extension?
Were the advantages confined to the few, or were they not
such as every one was freely invited to partake of—such as
every one had the same opportunity of participating in, and
such as were calculated—the best calculated—as experience
had proved—to secure to every class of society, that happi-
ness—the greatest of all happiness—which sprung from sound
religious principles ? Well then, the objects, he presumed,
of this society, for he regretted not having been present at
the meeting called for its formation, were first of all to coun-
teract, as far as they bad the power, the voluntary system,
which in itself involved the question of a separation of church
and state ;—(cheers)—to support the cause of church ex-
tension—and the duty of the government to provide sound
religious instruction for the people, (cheers) to support a
system of national education, on the principles of the Esta-
blished Church—and with these important objects in view,
he could not but hope, that whilst the society daily increased
in numbers, and whilst it would endeavour to unite within
itself the rising youth of the present day, it would at the
same time, by its good example and by its influence, open
its arms widely to receive all—to receive those, who could
" This fair mountain leave to feed,
To batten on the moor ;"
and that it would, under God's blessing, prove in its sphere
of usefulness, a society, to which the best interests of the in-
habitants of Liverpool might become deeply indebted. With
these remarks, lie called on the gentlemen appointed to move
the resolutions.

The Rev. F. BARKER rose to move the first resolution.
It was the observation of a very learned critic that all reli-
gious dissension had its origin in the ignoranee of verbal cri-
ticism—that if persons only knew rightly now the meaning of
the original terms in which the Word of God was written,
there would be an end of religious discord. He believed that
this observation, with some qualification, was true ; but we
must not keep out of sight that the heart, as well as the head,
was engaged in religious error, and that some would sooner
disbelieve the Word of God altogether than believe certain
truths contained in that Word—that if some of these persons
were to have the alternative presented to'them of believing
or rejectirb, the doctrines of the atonement or the eternity of
punishment, they would rather prefer to disbelieve that por-
tion of the Word of God which set forth such truthsthan,the
doctrines themselves. He thought it admitted of an applica-
tion to the objects of this society, and that it would be found
on most occasions that power was the result of knowledge—
that if persons could only be made clearly to apprehend the
nature of the question at issue, if they could be made to see
the whole truth and not have their minds fixed upon some
half-truth, if they could be made to see the reasons why this
and why every truth was so pOwerful, there would be an
end of dissension. (Hear, hear.) It was in this light that he
desired to regard this society this evening. Its end was a
very lawful and a very scriptural one, for it was to promote
religious truth and religious union. True union could only
be based upon truth, and in order to have the truth there
must be an acquaintance with it. If, then, there should be
any persons there not fully acquainted with the truth of this
question, certainly their wisest plan was to attend such meet-
ings as this, in order to become acquainted with the truth
(hear, hear). He trusted that the proceedings of the society
would ever be conducted in a calm, quiet, and dispassionate
manner; and that whilst they did take a leaf from the pro-
ceedings of their adversaries in one respect, namely, as to
the mode in which they conducted their operations, they
should be aware of following another part of their proceedings,
namely, as to the manner in which they were conducted
(hear)—that they should avoid all personality, seeking only
to know what was the truth, and having once attained to that
knowledge, in all cases and at all hazards, cost what it would,
adhere to it (cheers). The necessity for meetings of this
kind had arisen from a somewhat new feature in men's opi-
nions in the present day. The novelty of those opinions was
expressed in some such terms as these—that now, in this en-
lightened age, men had discovered that it was not by any
means the duty of civil rulers, of the chief magistrate, or the
government, or of the state, to further religious knowledge
among the people by the instrumentality of a Christian mi-
nistry ; that the state was not bound to further its highest
interests by taking into connection with it the Christian
Church. That this was a novelty would be very easily seen,
if he read an extract from the writings of Dr. Owen, one of
the most celebrated Independents during the period of the
long parliament, and subsequently—one who might be termed,
as he certainly was, one of the formost of the fathers among
the Independents, the present somewhat noisy advocates of
voluntaryism. In preaching before the long parliament, ha
said—" If it comes to this, that you shall say you have no-
thing to do with religion as rulers of the nation, God will
quickly manifest that he hath nothing to do with you as rulers
of the nation. The great promise of Christ is that in these
latter days of the world he will lay the nations in a subser-
viency to him : the kingdoms of this world shall become his,
that is, shall act as kingdoms and governors no longer against
him, but for him. Surely those promises will scarcely be ac-
complished in bringing commonwealths of men professing his
name to be of Gallio's frame, to care for none of these things.
Certainly it is incumbent on you to take care that the faith
which you have received, which was once delivered to the
saints. in all the necessary concernments of it may be pro-
tected, preserved, propagated to and among the people which
God hath set over you. Then he (Dr. Owen) sheaved that
the notion of a paternal government was not an absurdity,
for he added—" If a father, as a father, is bound to do what
answers this in his family, unto his children ; a master, as a
master, to his servants ; if you will justify yourselves as fa-
thers or rulers of your country, you will find this to be in-
cumbent on you." (Hear, hear.) Extracts of this kind
might be multiplied from the works of Baxter, Flavel,
Matthew Henry, and others, who represented the Indepen-
dents and the Nonconformists of the early Puritan days. It
was, then, this novelty which we found ourselves constrained
to combat ; and although the arguments brought forward on
the occasion of this meeting could not in the nature of
things have much of novelty in them, yet as all instruc-
tion, for the most part, consisted in the repetition of
sound truth, he did not suppose he should weary them
if he brought before them truths which had the merit at least
of being old, and which might have some specific application
to the times in which we lived. He believed that in this
question, as had been said of Phrenology, " all that was
new was not true, and all that was true was not new." (Hear.)
That which was true had been true from the begining. He
must first set before the meeting the former part of the reso-
lution, that it was the duty of the state to provide for its peo-
ple sound religious instruction ; he conceived this proposi-
tion to be formed on every true idea of what a state was. A
state, considered in its largest sense, was a community of in-
dividuals bound together by certain laws, seeking the highest
good, and the greatest liberty of the greatest number: a
Christian state was one which sought the highest good in
seeking to have the people ruled, in the words of one of the
prayers in our admirable Liturgy, " in wealth, peace, and
godliness." Now the rulers, or the government of the state,
were said to be the representatives or the personality of the
nation, in order to do good for the nation ; they were said to
be so "for good," to the nation—they were the ministers of
God for good. Then, if we knew what was good—and when
we went to the revealed will of God, and asked there what
was good, we found that the knowledge of God, through
Jesus Christ, which issued in the salvation of souls, was the
highest good to men. (Hear.) To put men off with lectures
upon political economy, to give them an education which
fitted them only for skilful workmen, or useful mechanics, or
wise only for this present life—to do this, and to neglect that
which was the true man, the immortal soul, was not to do
tieo
yu l dh highestosuelpda good,rnaotte
tt but the greatest evil. (Hear, hear. He
did not
state
n f hesitate
ignorance,to a ffir mthiatnwtonuglidvabethefamr basestatedruntoatlienanvewhmiennh
should
(Cheers.)hheerfru this,hererulers
entirelyofthen,t fer
wereo n
the a
hhigherghe andt
g.o
dofmen,immortal
ought to seek this highest good of me
it, because they themselves were men well be asked, why
.; country
they
ekyv
viet
oughtm Itet
nomlsioegnehkgt
nwtntould tell the meeting why they
andre
beforetheyt hey
aercea
bmoeu nr dcu
01 aen
arsi, and long after they were rulers;
dot vGi dnudaflos
r, at
e thingsresponsible
do n ebeings,
relation of life which they might
hereafter to give an ac
as accountable in every
flesh, surely they must be considered
the day, if not a father, was not fill. The prime minister of
fa-
ther ; but if he entered into the marriage
to God as a
ae statehed and
to
hbiemca.melna
parent, new and great responsibilitiensaagtet
the same manner, before he became a' minister of state, there
sugici but surely
was no responsibility attached to him a
he was not to go from his own house to hsia o
in irresponsibility as a man, and when he entered iii residence
iii ii
offi-
cial residence and became a minister, then to cease his is
respon-
sibility as a man who was a minister ? If he was tobeac-
countable to God for the things he had done as an individual,
for every thing he had done towards his family, his servants,
and his neighbours, who should say he was not accountable
to God for the things he had done towards his sovereign and
towards his nation ? (Cheers.) • In the same manner he
(Mr. Barker) conceived the state was bound to seek the high-
est good of all within its limits, because the state itself was,
in the sight of found in the holy
attached to a state, as we frequently word
God, as a person, the idea of personality being
of God. " Righteousness," it was said, ",exalteth a nation,
but a people that sin are a reproach to any people ;" and

when God addressed the prophet Jeremiah eoticerning the
sins of Israel, he spoke of that nation as accountable to him
for the things done by their rulers as their representatives.
In the same manner we found, in ordinary converse, that the
faith and honour and state of a nation were continually
spoken of. The nation was said to have faith, and was said
to sin ; unless, indeed, we were in the practice of that state
of things to which some would lead us, when national faith
should be but another word for humbug, which it had been
asserted not long ago these men considered to be the case ;
so that we must acknowledge, and no right thinking man
would doubt, that nations were dealt with as persdns, and as
having a personality in the sight of God. (Hear.) That per-
sonality was combined with responsibility. If an individual
were responsible to God, the whole collective individuals,
having a personality, were also responsible ; and if the indi-
vidual were responsible to God for the right using of the
means God had placed in his power for doing good. in the
same manner must a nationbe considered as responsible before
God for seeking the highest good of all in its limits. (Ap-
plause.) Then he came to the immediate question, how was
this to be done? Was it to be done by a voluntary expres-
sion of feeling upon the part of the few a upon the part of
the majority ? It never could be done in this manner, be-
cause as had been well said by one whose treatise on this
subject had thrown great light upon it—he meant the excel-
lent treatise of the brother of the chairman, William Ewart
Gladstone, Esq.—(Loud cheers.) " The will of a nation, or
the duty of a nation, can never be expressed by the voluntary
desires of a few, or even of a great number, or even of the
whole nation itself as individuals, because the whole nation
can never be pious persons, because the whole nation will
never be doing the will of God, and the act of all the indi-
viduals of a nation can never be the act of the nation till
sanctioned by law, and become part of the constitution of the
land." (Cheers.) Then, could it be done by voluntary ex-
ertion ? Would the voluntary exertions of individuals comply
with the demands stated in this resolution of the duty of the
state to provide the people with sound religious instruction?
He said, then, that voluntary exertions could never accom-
plish this end, because they were insufficient. - Where the
need and destitution were the greatest there the exertion was
the least, and precisely in proportion to the destitution would
he the insufficiency of the means put forward by voluntaryism
to supply that destitution. (Hear, hear.) Very little reflec-
tion and appeal to facts would show this. For nearly the
three first centuries of Christianity, a portion of the people

living in a professedly Christian country were called Pagans,
the destitute of Christianity, and they received their name
Pagani because they inhabited the villages and rural districts.
The persons inhabiting those districts were so generally, if
not universally, heathens, that the word by which their dwell-
ing places was defined came afterwards to be used to denote
heathens ; the word Pagan came afterwards to be used to
describe heathen men because of the insufficiency of voluntary
exertion to meet the destitution of such persons. And it
was only when the church of Christ had been protected,
cherished, supported, and t.,rengthg.nedtpx_viigrtrariptig
V,Voleatiiolidacgebrei2Em" uviTgtet„tli2 Then he might,
without exciting any improper feeling, and certainly. without
having any, appeal to facts iii our own immediate neighbour-
hood ;—(hear)--and if 'it shotild'be found that a chapel had
been removed from a densely populated part of the town be-
cause it was encumbered with debt, and because it was sur-
rounded by poor people only, and could not pay its way, and
carried up to a part of the town where there were few poor
people, yet where there was 'a sufficient supply of church ac-
commodation, there being no less than three churches—he
alluded to Leeds-street Chapel, which had been carried into
Great Homer-street, for these reasons, what was the inference ?
Why, that they did not contemplate supplying the wants of
the poor. (Hear, hear.) And again, if there should be found
one of those almost necessary consequences of the voluntary
system, a division; and if the building should be placed in a
destitute and poor part of the town, in a place where there
was real destitution, and which at this moment was only
supplied by the Church Building Society ; and if, further,
that chapel were carried to a part of the town within a stone's
throw of one church and a hundred yards of another; if it
was evident, therefore, that this new chapel was built not for
the accommodation of the poor but of the wealthy, what
should we say of such an instance as this ? Why, that they
did not contemplate supplying the wants of the poor. (Ap-
plause.) He would again quote the words of Mr. Gladstone's
pamphlet. Having read the extract, the rev. gentleman pro-
ceeded, In fact, as we read of some who were mad upon
their idols so we must say of these persons, that they were
mad upon their free trade notions; and that they acted upon
those notions, without ever taking into account the disturb-
ing influence of the depravity of human nature. (Cheers.)
In like manner, if you wished to increase the consumption of
ardent spirits, it was an admirable plan to go upon the
free trade system, and let the public-houses and gin-shops
swarm' through the town as they had been lately ; but if you
wished to increase religion you must not leave it to the volun-
tary exertions of individuals—it must be done by a party com-
petent to do it, having the authority and means, Moreover, he
affirmed if you took into account the quality of the religious
instruction given under the voluntary system, it would be
found as insufficient to supply the wants of the people, or to
provide them with sound religious instruction, as it had been
found inefficient if you regarded the quantity of instruction
given. (Hear.) He affirmed then that under the voluntary
system the nation could not be instructed in sound religion
for this reason—welfound that the teachers must frequently be
opposed to the views, feelings, prejudices, and wills of the
taught. As parents they (the meeting) must know that if they
left their children to learn what they would, and how they
would, they would learn xery little, and that little would be
of a very meagre
.quality ; and in the same manner if the
taught were permitted to dictate to the teacher what he should
speak, what he should teach, and how he should teach—if
'if they were to interfere with him in his ministry, there was
a distraction and a continual unworthy precariousness in his
ministry. He could not read the charges given to Jeremiah
or Ezekiel, how they were sent to a stiff-necked people,
'without feeling, that those prophets needed all the authority
that a divine commission could give to them, or they never
would have been able to go on with their work. "I am
weary," said the Lord, " with repenting ;" and he promised
to Jeremiah that if he separated the precious from the vile,
he shduld be as his mouth and would deliver him. And it
was only as he was strengthened by this feeling that he was
enabled to carry on his most ungrateful work of separating
the precious from_the vile. How, it might be asked, would
this be found to apply to the instruction given under the vo-
luntary system? A part of that system was that the taught
should be the persons who paid the teacher. Now it would
not be assuming too much if, knowing what human nature
was, we should suppose that when the instruction communi-
cated by a voluntary teacher was going counter to the feelings
and prejudices of the voluntary hearers, that they who paid,
conceiving they had a right to have an article most pleasing
to them, would request the voluntary teacher to change his
tone. (Hear.) And that this was no imaginary, case, the
testimony of Mr. James in the second edition of his book
upon Church Membership would bear him out; he mentioned
the second edition, because in subsequent editions, when it
was seen what wicked use most wicked churchmen made of
its concessions, there were sundry emendations and altera-
tions made, and a person turning to the subsequent edi-
tions would look in vain for that awful picture which was
to be found in the second edition. (Hear, hear, hear.)
But he would mention a fact which had lately occurred. It
might be in the recollection of many there, that their dear
friend Mr. M'Neile (three cheers were here given for the
rev. gentleman), and Mr. M`Ghee went to Sheffield to form
a Protestant and Reformation Association, which was in-
tended to include all protestants and protestant dissenters,
favourable to the Established Church of England and Ire-
land. Among the persons who presented themselves as can-
didates for admission upon the committee, or who had been
chosen upon it, was a gentleman who seemed to be one of
those rare aves, a genuine descendant of Owen, Baxter, and
Matthew Henry, Mr. Richard Millar, the minister of Queen.
street chapel in that town. He was in the habit of visiting
with some of the clergy ; and upon one occasion he had com-
municated on Good Friday, and hive ille lachrinue. When
it was found that Mr. Millar had joined the association, and
was in communication with such bigots as Mr, M'Neile and
Mr. Al' Ghee,—(loud cheers)—he received an intimation from
his tour deacons that he must tender his resignation as mi-
nister of the chapel. Mr. Millar had taken his own ground,
and as he was wise and independent, in the ordinary sense of
the word, and not in the sense that some one quoted it—who
said, truly sir, though I am an independent, I am the most
dependent man in existence—and having opinions of his own,
told the deacons they were welcome to resign, but he should
continue a member of the Protestant and Reformation So-

ciety. (Hear.) The deacons, however, had no intention to
be put off in that way. They appealed to the church ; the .
church sided with the deacons, and the contest grew so very
warm that—and he (Mr. Barker) mentioned the fact with
very great sorrow—when Mr. Millar celebrated the Lord's
Supper, the only persons who went to receive it out of a
church of two hundred, were, one man and sixteen females !
(Hear.) The remainder of the church sat at the bottom
of the chapel ; and one of them, a leading man, when Mr.
Millar gave out the hymn, said, " Do not rise." (Hear.) The
church did not rise, and an anonymous correspondent in one
of the newspapers—but he (Mr. Barker) must say the fact
was denied—affirmed that he heard hissing upon that occa-
sion. (Hear.) What was the consequence? Mr. Millar
said, " I am here ; I have a right to be here ; but I cannot
retain my present position ; therefore I give notice that upon
the Ist of April I shall give up my church." (Hear, hear,
hear.) This, it might be perhaps said, was a history to be
found only in the columns of one or two provincial newspa-
pers, and which occurred at Sheffield only ; but he asserted
it was the necessary result of the system of voluntary teach-
ing. He believed they would find, if they went no further
than Warrington, instances of one minister being locked out,
of another being starved out, and of another who only saved
himself from being turned out, as he (Mr. Barker) had heard
the history, by marrying the deacon's daughter. (Hear,
hear.) He thought therefore that these statements proved
this important truth, that voluntaryism, whether we consi-
dered the quantity or the quality, was not very likely to im-
part sound religious.instruction. (Hear, hear.) Then, who
was to provide the people with this sound religious instruc-
tion ? Now, he affirmed that the state conld do that which
voluntaryism could not do. (Hear, hear.) When he spoke
of the state, he spoke of the establishment ; and those who
used it in a different sense could not do better than procure
Coleridge's ideas upon the connection of church and state.
The state could do these things—it could divide the whole
country into suitable districts, it could supply the means for
propagating true religion, for building churches, and paying
ministers ; and whatever dissenters and others might say
with regard to money defiling religion, of its defiling the
hands of those who.louchestit, yet they had shewn no un-
willingness to receive the reyium donuts, nor were they un-
willing to get hold, as they were trying at this time, of .the
clergy reserves in Canada. (Hear, hear.) The state could
also give to religion a perpetuity, by associating it with the
law, and giving to it the sanction of public authority. (Hear.)
This, then, was the proper duty of a state, to divide the coun-
try into districts, to supply the means of perpetuating true
religion, and giving it permanence by associating it with the
law, and giving it the sanction of public authority. These
were not spiritual acts : the state, in doing this, did not per-
form the spiritual duties of the church—it merely performed
its own civil acts ; and the statp was paramount in ability to
do so. It had been asked, " What king or number of kings
is able to choose for me a religion ?" Why, if government
was representative of mind and intellect, of authority, and
of the proper legitimate influence of wealth in the country—
if government was this, it was the most suitable power to ad-
vise the people at least ; to say, " this is the form of Christi-
anity which Ni e sanction with our authority, and round which
we entwine the law." But if the state could do this, and he
had shewn the inducements it had to do it, it was necessarily
defective in certain sanctions, which belonged only to the
Church of Christ. The state, for instance, could say to in-
dividuals, " You shall not kill, or if you do, you shall be
hanged ;" but it could not reach to men's souls—it could
not say, " If you do you shall perish everlastingly." It was
therefore necessary to call in the aid of Christianity, and to
give it that kind of support which he had mentioned, in order
that it might receive from Christianity the sanction of future
rewards and punishments. (Hear, hear.) But, moreover,
the state should do this because religion was the great instru-
ment of giving to man his proper station, of enlightening his
mind, of informing his conscience, and of educating him.
Men could not be properly men without religion. More-
over, religion did not give a law of its own, like the laws of
government, which became binding upon the individuals, but
gave the sanction of its laws to the laws of the country. Then,
having this inducement and this power, the great objects of
the state must be to give to these principles a fixclness and
a permanency. Now, setting aside the abstract view of the
question, suppose a statesman were at this moment brought
into this country, and required to choose that form of Chris-
tianity which would give the greatest fixedness and perma-
nency, and perhaps perpetuity, which religion bestowed, where
was he to go ? Would he go to those who had no creed, no ar-
ticles, no sacraments no ministers ? Would he go to the So-
ciety of Friends, who, no
within them a light which caused
the Scriptures to be to every man that which he thought
them to be, he must see in their notions that they no

security for the perpetuity of their principles, finless they
made George Fox their prayer-book, and the writings of
their early founders their articles and their homilies. (Hear,
hear.) They held out to the state no inducement to sanc-
tion their notions, because there was neither fixedness nor
perpetuity in them. (Hear.) Would he go for instruction
to those who might have sacraments, but had neither creed,
articles, nor ministry—whose ministers were speaking lay-
men, one day in the pulpit and another in the counting-
house, or in the senate? Would he go to the Independents,
who could shew no authority for their form of Christianity
nor antiquity ? Should he go to those 'who dated their ori-
gin no higher than 1647, as the Baptists or Independents ;
or would he go to those poor men, whose form of church
government, whether judged by antiquity or by the Scrip-
tures, was false? (Hear, hear.) He must go higher. If
he went to the Church of Scotland or the Presbyterians, he
(Mr. Barker) must say he could not follow them; that, how-
ever they might refer to their form of catechism, they could
not be fixed upon. Where, then, could he go but to the
Church of England? (" Hear," and applause.) If he
wished for a church that offered to him the plainest evidence
that its principles would be permanent—that they would last
so long as the state itself lasted—if he'sought for a church of
this kind, be would find it nowhere else but in the Church
of England. (Cheers.) He would put it in another
light ; if the church was looked upon as an integral portion
of the state, there was no other pody of individuals to whom
a statesman could go who wished to give perpetuity and
permanence to sound religious opinions. It was a narrow
view of the question to regard the state as opposed to the
church, and not regard the church, as an integral portion of
the state. Whether this portion of the church of Christ was
planted in these realms early or not, was a matter of little
importance ; but it was certain that in the second century
there were Christian thishops here, and other proofs that
Christianity was settled here long before the papacy had
assumed the form in which it now appeared. And though,
about the year 600, the monk Austin came over, and, after
sundry distresses, succeeded in destroying the remnant of the
ancient British church, and there was a period of utter darkness
till the Reformation, yet that church being now restored to
its primitive purity, existing as it did an integral part of the
state, and interwoven with the habits and affections of the
people, where would a Christian_ statesman go for an institu-
.

iiori to give perpetuity to sound religious -principle save to
the Established Church ? (Cheers.) Moreover, there were
certain rights connected with the church, as a portion of the
state, which proved that it would be an act of the grossest

,njuitice to go anywhere else. If any one of our dissenting
friends could shear a title of a thousand years for his proper-

ty, would he not conceive it to be wrong and unjust if some
one should attempt to deprive him of it? It was well known
that our Alfred did, in the year 800, with the consent of his

nobles and bishops, and of two of the neighbouring kings,
the Kings of Mercia and of the Angles, set aside one-tenth
of all the property of England for the use of the church ;
`• - ^Lurch ennhi chew such claim as this, what in-
justice could tie more Migrant -than to
perty, or to say the state should not secure to her that pro-
perty which had been so long her own ? (Cheers.) The
rev. gentleman then suggested a verbal alteration in the re-
solution, to the effect that sound religious instruction could
only be administered by the Established Church, and con-
cluded, amidst loud cheers, by moving it.
Mr. JAMES MATTHEWS seconded the resolution in a very
long and able speech, in the course of which he entered upon
a great variety of details.
The resolution was then carried.

The Rev. FIELDING OULD rose, amidst reiterated ap-
plause, to move the next resolution. He rose, he said, with
peculiar pleasure to obey the call made upon him to move
the resolution. Among the many associations of this asso-
ciating age, he knew of none that more warmly commended
itself to his feelings, to his judgment, and to his conviction,
for the simplicity and purity of its objects, the character of
its machinery, and the necessity for its existence, than the
Young Men's Established Church Society (hear) ; to which,
therefore, he pledged himself, from this day forward, to give
whatever support, encouragement, and co-operation might
be within his power. (Cheers.) We lived in strange times ;
and among the strangest of the anomalies of these times was
the unnatural confederacy, the unholy alliance, between those
who professed the truth of the Gospel, and the patrons and
disciples of every heresy by which Christianity had been
caricatured and deformed—a confederacy and an alliance for
what object? For the overthrow of a 6urch whose founda-
tions were laid in the holy hills of truth, its enemies them-
selves being judges, and whose only fault and whose cardinal
vice in their eyes was, that it was legally connected with the
state, and supported by national endowments. We read in
God's blessed Word of a solemn warning given to his ancient
people by the mouth of the prophet,—" Woe unto them who
go down into Egypt for help ;" and if the alliance to which
he had alluded were not an exemplification of this going
down into Egypt, he did not know where to find it. Among
the first instances of dissent in the Bible was the separation
of Lot from Abraham. We were told of a circunistance
which sttikingly characterised that separation—that " the
Canaanite and the Perrizite were then in the land." When
Lot parted from Abraham, where did he go ? We were in-
structed that he " pitched his tent towards Sodom ;" and
had we not a melancholy following of this example in the
conduct of the dissenters of the present day, who, in fatal
approximation towards those whom they knew to be the
enemies of the Lord and his truth, were, as plainly and as
perversely as men could be, " pitching their tent towards
Sodom ?" (Hear.) What was the spectacle lately exhibited
in that room in connection with the subject they were then
met to consider? He held in his hand a placard convening
that meeting. The placard stated it was to be a public
meeting ; this appeared in large letters ; but lest any indivi-
dual should presume to go to this public meeting not dis-
posed to concur in.the objects of it, we found the following
very convenient intimation at the bottom of the bill, in small
letters :—" All persons friendly to the objects of the meeting
are invited to attend." (Hear, hear.) One would have
imagined that a public meeting would have comprehended
all shades of public opinion. It was certainly to be pro-
nounced a public meeting, but if any one dissented and went
to move an amendment, lie was told that none but persons
friendly were invited ! (Cheers.) He (Mr. Ould) found,
upon looking at the signatures to the requisition, the follow-
ing classification—three Roman Catholic priests, one Inde-
pendent minister, two Socinian ministers, three Quakers,
sixteen Roman Catholics, sixteen Socinians, twelve Inde-
pendents, and three Baptists. This certainly was a most
heterogeneous mixture. (Hear, hear.) We had, then, these
men, disagreeing among themselves upon every point the most
important and essential to the salvation of the soul, and
agreeing in one point only—the overthrow of the constitution
as established by the Act of Settlement. Having principles
of repulsion more numerous than it would be easy to calcu-
late, they had one attraction of cohesion, and that was the
desired destruction of a Church which, they well knew, if it
were destroyed, would leave .the largest portion of the com-
munity absolutely destitute of all means of religious instruc-
tion (hear, hear). When he looked to the constitution of
that meeting, and saw orthodox dissent represented by an
Independent chairman and an Independent minister, hetero-
dox dissent represented by a Socinian minister and a Socinian
merchant, Popery represented by a Roman Catholic priest
and a Roman Catholic barrister, he seemed to see before him

TRUTH crucified between two thieves ! (Three cheers.) It
was an awful day in Jerusalem when Herod and Pontius
Pilate made up their differences and shook hands together
over the crucified body of the Lord; and just as awful a spec-
tacle was it to see men agreeing with each other upon no pne
point connected with the salvation of the soul, consenting for
a while to forget all their differences, and combining to over-
throw a Church, whose rules of faith is the Bible, and whose
constitution is based upon the principles of God's everlasting
Word ! (Hear.) The resolution entrusted to him was to
this effect :

" That owing to the rapid increase of the population
throughout the country, particularly in the manufacturing
and mining districts, there are many places either entirely
destitute of, or inadequately supplied with, such religious in-
struction ; and that to this may be attributed, in a great
measure, the attempts recently made to disturb the peace of
the nation."

The meeting would at once see the two points for their con-
sideration in this resolution. One was the prevalence of re-
ligious destitution, and the other was the necessary conse-
quence—danger to the public peace. He should apply him-
self, in the few observations he was about to address to them,
to bring forward evidence to sustain these two propositions.
He should, then, first shew the prevalence of religious des-
titution. He quoted from the Rev. Baptist Noel's Letter to the
Bishop of London :
" In London and its suburbs, including the parishes on either
bank of the Thames, there are four parishes containing an
aggregate of 166,000 persons, with church-room for 8200.
Taking halt as the proportion which ought to attend church,
according to the estimate of the Committee of the Metropo-
litan Church Fund, the number of persons provided with the
means of public worship in these four districts, is 16,400,
and 149,600 remain unprovided. Twenty-one others, with
a population of 739,000, afford church-room for 66,153; and,
therefore, on the same supposition as before, leave 606,694
unprovided with the means of public worship. Nine others,
with a population of 532,000, and church-room for 27,327,
leave 177,346 unprovided. And thus thirty-four parishes,
with a population of 1,137,000, and church-room for 101,680,
contain 933,640 unprovided. But from this number of per-
sons represented as without church-room, some deduction
may be made, since about 25,000 may find sittings in pro-
prietary chapels connected with the Establishment. The
whole number, therefore, for which the Establishment has
made no provision whatever, is 883,000, instead of 933,000.
As these 883,000 are unprovided with church-room, so are
they, for the most part, destitute of Christian ministers.
For, the whole number of clergymen in these parishes is 139,
and since no one of these can take effectual charge of more
than 2000 persons, there are only 278,000 persons provided
with ministers, and the other 859,000 persons, who are des-
titute of church-room, are also without Christian ministers
to instruct them."
Another extract—

" In several dioceses, the want of churches is not much
less. In the diocese of Chester, thirty-eight districts, with
816,000 inhabitants, and church-room for 97,000, contain,
therefore, 622,000 unprovided. In the diocese of York,
twenty districts, with a population of 402,000, and church-
room for only 48,000, contain 306,000 unprovided. In the
diocese of Lichfield, sixteen districts, with 235,000, and
church-room for 29,000, contain 177,000 unprovided. Thus
out of a population of only 1,453,000, eleven hundred and
five thousand are left by the Establishment without the pos-
sibility of public worship, and without Christian teachers."
(Hear, hear.)
It was upon such facts as these he based the case he pre-
sented to them. These extracts, which it would be exceed-
ingly easy to multiply, shewed the prevalence of religious
destitution ; but he would read one short extract more :
" In the diocese of York, twenty parishes or districts con-
tain a population of 402,000, with sittings for 96,000, that is
provision for 192,000, and, therefore, 202,000 are destitute
of all instruction. In the diocese of Lichfield, sixteen par-
ishes or districts contain a population of 235,000, with 58,000
sittings, provision for 116,000, and, therefore, 119,000 are
living without instruction. And thus in the whole seventy-
four districts, 749,000 persons are living without instruction.
We have thus come to the painful conclusion, that in 108
districts, containing 2,590,000 persons, there are from
1,383,000 to 1,470,000 persons without public prayer, or
preaching, or Sacraments ; of many of whom it is to be feared
that they are 'also without the Scriptures, without family
prayer, and without any open recognition of God whatso-
ever."

Now in order to meet this melancholy state of things, the
church, after having made voluntary efforts, unparalleled
since the days of primitive Christianity, had come forward,
in the present day, to petition the legislature for help. How
bad this movement been met by many, he did not say by all,
of the dissenters of this country ? (Hear.) He believed
there were many dissenters who were secretly sighing over
the conduct of their brethren, but, being fettered by their
own peculiar habits and discipline, were altogether unable,
though not unwilling, to come forward against the conduct
of which we complained. But he referred to those who
were leagued with the notorious enemies of all religion, in
their conduct upon this question, and he asked them what
was the spirit by which they were influenced whilst they saw
these faithful efforts making to supply this lamentable state
of things? (Hear.) 0 ! what a spectacle it would have been
in primitive times to have seen a believer in our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, united with a blaspheming Jew and an
idolatrous heathen, to petition Constantine against establish-
ing Christianity in his empire, and to forbear the exercise of
his imperial influence for the erection of churches.! (Hear,
hear.) But let him examine now the arguments advanced
by the enemies of church extension. So far as he had been
able to ascertain them they were three. The first was that
it was unjust to tax the public for the benefit of a sect.
Now, lie denied that the Church of England was a sect.
(Applause.) He said it was a great national institution as
fitting to demand and receive national support as the army,
the navy, or the courts of law. (Cheers.) The republican
might just as well object to pay for the support and dignity
of the crown as the dissenter refuse to pay for the support of

the national church. (Hear, hear.) If there was to be a
state religion at all, all must be made to pay for its support,
unless we were to hold out a premium for dissent, and enable
infidels to save their pockets, and to cheat the state by pro-
fessing to be dissenters. (Cheers.) Therefore, to petition
as dissenters did against church extension and against church
rates, was to pray for the overthrow of the church altogether.
(Cheers.) But then, they said it was unjust to tax dissenters.
He answered, we did not tax them or seek to tax them as
dissenters, but as members of the state. (Applause.) We
did not oblige them to dissent, but left them at perfect liberty ;
and it was rather too hard that in return for our complete
and thorough toleration they should seek to deprive us,
ungratefully, of the privileges we enjoy. (Hear.) But
then it was unjust ! Well ; he earnestly desired they would
carry out their own principle to its legitimate extent. (Hear,
hear.) He would ask was it just to pass the marriage and
registration acts for the benefit of dissenters, which cost the
country £70,000 a-year ? (Hear.) Churchmen did not
complain of being taxed for that. (Hear.) Again ; was it
just that we should be taxed to pay a regium donum of
£30,000 a-year to the dissenters of Ireland? (Hear, hear.)
Was it just we should be called upon to pay £9,000 a-year
for the support of that sink of -depravity, that moral pesti-
lence, Maynooth college—(loud cheers)—whose disci-
ples were trained in the polluted doctrines of Dens, in
hatred of the pure doctrines of God's blessed word ?
(Renewed cheers.) But he could not avoid showing that
many dissenters really did not so much object to the emolu-
ments of the church, as to their not having any share in
those emoluments themselves. (Hear, hear.) Of this we
had had abundant proof. We all knew the strenuous efforts,
the persevering, active, and zealous measures they took, in
order to obtain possession of Lady Hewley's charity. (Hear.)
That lady left a considerable sum for the endowment of
" poor ministers of Christ's holy gospel," chiefly among the
Presbyterian body. In lapse of time those Presbyterian
churches fell into the hands of Socinians, and Socinian mi-
nisters were found to retain possession of the endowments.
An effort was made by those to whom they rightly belonged
to have them set aside, according to the original bequest, for
the " preachers of Christ's Holy Gospel ;" and what was the
conduct of the Socinians, of the m.m who professed to tell us
of the unscriptural character of endowments ? (Hear.) Why,
they took advice and chased the matter through the Court of
Queen's Bench, through the Court of Chancery, and even
into the House of Lords itself; and it was not until all these
tribunals had given their decisions against them, that they
forebore their efforts to retain an illegal and unrighteous
possession ! (Hear.) He asked again, if it was not a fact
that dissenters had exerted themselves to obtain grants of
money and land both at home and abroad.? (Hear, hear.)
If the Roman Catholics came here and said they were volun-
taries, and were opposed to endowments, he would ask them
if they had not, in various of our colonies, sought and ob-
tained endowments of land and grants of money ? In New-
foundland and Australia had they not received, rich endow-
ments for their bishops and clergy, and were not dissenters
reserves in en
t.
clp.mouring loudly for a share of the clergy
Caada fleat.l
+hat.
large sums of money had been given by the Board of Works
in Ireland, for the repairs, enlargement, and rebuilding of
the Roman Catholic chapels in that country ? (Hear, hear.:)
These facts were not to be gainsaid, and they justified hi
conclusion, that it was not to the principle of endowment s
they objected, but that their sole uneasiness arose from th e
fact, that they did not participate in these endowments then I-
helves. (Hear.) Their next argument was a very comic al
prie—the principle of endowment imposed a restraint upon
conscience—(Hear.) Oh, the tenderness of a voluntary co n-
science ! He always suspected the healthy tone of a cons
ence, that buttoned up and closed the purse in the pod :et
against the demand of religion and law ; he always doubted
the conclusiveness of the logic which employed the argum en-
tum ad crumenam. What said our Lord and Saviour upon this
point of conscience ? He was applied to on one occasion to pay
tribute, to whom? Why to Cesar, an idolatrous king, who
sustained an idolatrous worship ! (Hear.) Did the S n of
God plead " conscience" as an excuse for refusing to I ,ay ?
Was not his answer " render under Caesar the thing that
are Caesar's," and was not his act the working of a miracle
to find money to pay the tribute? (Hear, hear.) Did not
the same Lord inspire the apostle when he gave direr dons
to his followers, " that they must needs be subject not only
for wrath but also for conscience sake? (Hear.) N.ow to
a truly Christian conscience the
.difficulty would be how to
avoid the force of such a plain command. He deni,ed that
the church sought to coerce the conscience of any a lan. It
left the conscience perfectly free, but if any man 4:hose to
dissent, let him not expect to do it at the expere3e of the
church or state. (Hear.) If this plea of conscience were
carried out to the full legitimate extent, it would bring the
country to a state of anarchy and confusion. The Quaker
objected to the principle of war, but if he object4.al to pay a
war tax in time of war, would he be tolerated his refusal?
The republican might plead that he objected t,,) the principle
of monarchy, and refuse therefore the tax w hich supported
the dignity of the crown, but was he to be t dlowed to plead
conscience in the matter ? No ; therefore ti ,e dissenter had
no right to bring forward any such plea—a, Ad when he did,
it could only cover him with the ridicule q f all rational and
reflecting men. (Cheers.) But there was : mother argument
urged by the dissenters on this subject. They said it was
impolitic and unnecessary to extend the c hurch because the
existing churches were not sufficiently fi ill to warrant any
public grant of money for that purpose. I low, if they would
petition for working ministers to fill eir partially filled
churches, we would willingly join them, and tell them too
that if every church in Liverpool was as f all as it could hold,
there would be accommodation provided •for only 40,000, out
of a population of 200,000. Wherever there were working
ministers there would be full churches. (Cheers.) Churches
were moral hospitals ; and let there only be sent into these
hospitals wise, faithful, and well-skilled physicians, and there
would crowd the lame, the maimed, the hilt, and the blind,
to receive spiritual cure. Churches were moral lighthouses ;
let only the sacred fires be kept trimmed and bright, by ex-
perienced watchmen, and numerous souls would he preserved
from the perils of moral shipwreck, according to the beauti-
ful exhortation of St. Paul—" Be blameless and harmless,
the sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world—
holding forth the words of light." (Hear.) Now he had
another notion upon this subject. He greatly feared that it
was not because the churches were imperfectly filled, but
because they were too well filled that the complaint arose.
(Hear, hear.) It was not the inactivity but the activity
of the church that galled them. (Hear, hear.) It was
well known that the Church of. England never was in so
efficient a state, that its churc'nes were never so well sup-
plied with active and zealous pastors, as in the present day.
(Cheers.) In days gone by, -when there was a larger measure
of inactivity and supineness upon the part of the established
ministry, the dissenters were perfectly quiet. Just so in Ire-
land ; when a degree of deadness prevailed in the church,
tithes were well paid, and popery was quiet. But the mo-
ment the clergy started up as one man into a attitude of faith-
ful testimony againut the heresy of the man of sin, then up
started the enemy 'to denomfee 'and persecute them, to call
for the overthrow of the church ! (Hear.) - Precisely such
had been the conduct of many of the. dissenters in England ;
whilst we were asleep, they nodded too—(cheers)--but the
very moment we awoke they awoke also—(renewed cheers,)—
and it was because we were active, and because our churches
were too well filled, and because dissent was at a discount,
that the noisy and disgraceful clamour against church exten-
sion had arisen. The rev. gentleman here related an anec-
dote, or rather gave a detailed statement of facts which had
occurred in a certain place, exactly corroborating this view
of the question. This, he thought, accounted for a great deal
of the prevailing opposition to church extension. But let
him ask, what there was in dissent, that it should commend
itself so warmly to our feelings and judgment, and why we
should allow it to overthrow the establishment, in order that
the voluntary system should take its place? He must tres-
pass upon the patience of the meeting, whilst he gave them
a little picture of dissent. . The artist was one that knew his
subject well ; he was himself a respectable dissenting minister,
and thus he described the system which he and they would
force upon us.—He quoted from Mr. James's " Church Mem -
ber's Guide :"
" Distraction and division frequently result from theelec-
tion of ministers." " Secret canvassing," " cabals, in-
trigues," and " the most disgusting exercise of the most
disgusting tyranny," take place. " A defective education
not unfrequently prepares a minister to be the cause of much
uneasiness." " One half of our church quarrels which take
place, originate in lazy, loitering ministers." It used to be
,
that the church had only had lazy, loitering ministers "
but Mr. James found them among the dissenters. What
followed ?—" Many ministers spend one half their time in
running about the country to attend public meetings, and the
other in gossipping at the houses of their friends ; the na-
tural consequence is, that their sermons are poverty itself."
" Some ministers plunge themselves in debt, or involve them-
selves in politics,"—oh, he (Mr. Ould) thought church
ministers had been the only political parsons, " or marry
unsuitable persons ;" " others are of a bad temper,"—
" so that a fire of contention is soon kindled, and
the whole church is enveloped in flames." " Others are
immoral," " yet attaching themselves to a party, they intro-
duce the greatest disorder and confusion." " It does not un-
frequently happen, where two or more churches of the same
denomination exist in a town, that a most unhappy, unscrip-
tural, disgraceful temper is manifested towards each other."
" The affairs of religious societies have been carried into chan-
cery ; and strife, ill will, confusion, and every evil work, have
sprng up in the church." " Some deacons make kindness
and assistance a cloak for their own tyranny, or a silken web
to wind round the fetters they are preparing for their pastor."
" W hat is the deacon of some of our dissenting communities ?
The patron of the living, the bible of the minister, and the
wolf of the flock; who, upon the least symptom of opposi
tion to his will, frowns like a tyrant upon the spirit of rising
rebellion upon his slaves." " It is not unusual for the pulpit
to be converted into a source of the most disgusting adula-
tion." The members of dissenting churches " are frequently
hasty in the choice of a pastor, and soon grow tired of the
man they choose." " They love their minister dearly with
their lips, but hate him as cordially with their pockets."
Oh, the liberality of the voluntary system ! How we should
be in love with it! He recollected an Independent minister
also in speaking of this subject, said, " if a minister is inde-
pendent of his people in purse or talent, or in both, he may
get on well, but it he be dependent in purse or talent, God
have mercy upon him for the most dependent of human beings
is that minister." (Hear.) But to proceed with the picture—
" They trait him like wild beasts, who are kept humble by
being kept poor." " In many of our churches the pastor is
depressed far below his level." " He may flatter like a sy-
cophant, beg like a servant, or woo like a lover, but he is
not permitted to enjoin like a ruler." f` His opinion is re-
ceived with no deference his person is treated with no re_
spect, and in the presence ;If some of his lay tyrants, he is only
permitted to peep and mutter in the dust." " The relaxa-
tion of discipline may be mentioned as another source of evil.
For the sake of its glittering exterior, many a dissenting
church has taken a serpent to ,its bosom." "Many pro-
fessors do not scruple to devote a part of the sabbath to tn.,
yelling." " Some betray their Master for a less sum than
Judas set upon his blood." " Alas ! alas ! how many of our
churches present at this moment the sad spectacle of a house
divided against itself!" " Church meetings have exhibited
scenes of confusion little recommendatory of the democratic
form of church government." " Opposition commences ;
a church is divided into factions ; the minister becomes ire
fivonlivshedes in the
enthscedeisp,, "Lamentable
ladmisetnrtaacbtlie staonftoellows ; and division
GOD IT RARELY OCCURRED ! !" of things! WOULD
Now, in contrast to this, what was the position of a minister
of the Church of England? No man who aspired to be a re-
ligious teacher was so truly independent as he. He stood
before the people with the commission of God his Saviour to
teach " the truth as it is in Jesus," and he was in no respect
dependent upon the people as regarded the doctrines that he
preached. (Hear.) He was accountable to his Saviour for
preaching the doctrine of His gospel ; he was accountable to
his bishop for preaching the doctrines of his church ; but
when he stood before the people he was in no respect ac-
countable to them, or placed under their controul, or in-
fluenced by their approval or disapproval ; so that he was
then neither "wooing like a lover er flattering like a syco-
phant," to announce the high message of salvation and to
preach the precious gospel to their souls. (Cheers.) It was
a beautiful sentiment of Baxter. which, indeed, it would be
well for our dissenting brethren to remember---" the state
cannot stand secure without the church, nor the church
without unity, nor unity without uniformity." Upon this
point, in order to corroborate what he had said, he would
read a short extract, showing the value of the church ; for
the church not only preserved the truth, but it excluded error,
it not only, by a judicious discipline, repressed disorder, but
it secured independence. If any minister of the church began
to embrace heresy he must at once leave the church ; but
among dissenters what security, had the people against error ?
(Hear.) They had no creeds, no articles,. no liturgy, no for-
mularies; every thing was left to the minister ; he might
be true and sound and faithful, and the people might have
the privilege of being well taught ; but if he should forsake
the truth, fall into error, and pass over those portions of
the Bible which taught the truth, what protection had

the people ? (Sear, hear, hear.) What had staten place ?
" We need not travel beyond our own town td,find an in-
structive illustzations of the practical working of such an
ecclesiastical system. The present Socinian chapel, in Crosss
street, was originally Presbyterian; in which Christ's Gos-
pel was faithfuls, preached. Whence came this change, so -
diametric and so fearful ? It was the merging of the Pres-
byterian into the Congregational system, that broke down
the securities for purity of faith and wholesomeness of disci-
pline. In shirt, the cancer of Democracy set in, and in
two centuries the whole system has nearly disappeared. It
wanted neither learning, wealth, nor power, but it wanted
_Apostolicity, and, therefore, permanence. It is stated that
the one hundred and seventy-six chapels which, in this coun-
try, belonged to the Puritans, have fallen into the hands of
Socinians. The pulpits of Baxter, Owen, and Matthew
Henry, are now the strongholds of Heresy."—Burton's Let-
ter, p. 13. Yes ! it •was a fact that the chapel, in which
Matthew F enry preached at Chester was at this moment and
had been long time, a Socinian meeting-house ! (Loud
cries of hers, hear.) He now came to the second point in the
resolution—the danger to the peace of the nation from a
state of jeligious destitution. The wild delusions of the
chartists, and the awful blasphemies of the socialists, had
arisen chiefly from the want of religious instruction in the
mining rind manufacturing districts. Hear a statement, how-
ever—
" We have, particularly in the manufacturing districts,
very large masses of people who have growu.alp in a state of
society, which it is both lamentable and appalling to contem-
plate. They have not grown up amidst the usual concomi-
tants of an ordinary state of society, under the hand of early
instruction ; with places of worship to attend; with their
opinions of property moulded by seeing it devoted to social
and c'naritable objects : and with it a fair and gradual sub-
ordination of ranks. But it is, in many cases, a society
necessarily composed of the working classes, with a few per-
sons to employ their labour, but with whom they have little
or no connection ;—and, unhappily, neither receiving in
schools nor in places of worship, that religious and moral
instruction, which is necessary to knit together the inhabi-
tants and classes of a great country.
I,Vho said this? Why no less a person than the Right
Hon. Lord John Russell, in the month of August last, whilst
moving for an increase of the army. How was this destitu-
tion to be supplied ? It was not possible that it could be
cdnstitutionally supplied in any other way than through the
arency of the Church of England. (Cheers.) He had al-
luded to socialism. He held in his hand one of the most
•a wful publications he had ever seen issued by those infidels ;
it was called " The Holy Scriptures Analysed." It was a
liook replete with awful blasphemy, and he had brought it
in order to read the motto which they had selected for the
title page—" The Bible contains details of ATROCITY at
which human nature shudders. Parts of the holy writings
consist of history, and of the narration of facts of a kind that
can not be mentioned in the presence of a virtuous woman
Iwithout exciting horror. Should a woman be pernittted to
read in her chamber what she would tremble to hear at her
asssaatie board ; could she con over and revolve what she
had rather at. than utter ?" Now whose sentiment was
this? It was the recorded oninion of the right honourable
the vice-president of the board of trade, Richas.d Lalor Shiel.
(Hear, and marks of surprise.) Here was a man who talked
of the atrocity and horror of parts of the Bible; who had
said he would not allow his wife and daughters to read them ;
but he would let them read his own tragedies, and especially
his Evadne, the most disgusting and obscene dramatic pro-
duction he had ever read ! (Hear.) This book [" The Holy
Scriptures Analysed,") was largely circulated in the mining
and manufacturing districts ; lie had procured his copy in
Manchester, and it would be found that wherever the popu-
lation was the most poor and .ignorant, books like this, of
the most awful character, did the most mischief. And what
must these poor people think when they heard such senti-
ments ns this issue from a privy icillor of the empire,
and from a man placed in the sit of a minister of the
crown? (Cries of shame.) It w plain to him that the
connection between cause and effect was never more clearly
exhibited than between the religious destitution complained
of, and the disaffection and discontent of the manufacturing
districts. Let him, therefore, again read from the statement
of a minister of the established church in one of these dis-
tricts,. where church extension was most required :
" THE MORAL CONDITION OF TIIE PEOPLE IS PnEetiELY
WHAT MIGHT BE ANTICIPATED. A mass of human depra-
vity has been suffered to accumulate, and vices of every kind
luxuriate amidst the stagnant waters of corruption. Intem-
perance is the master of sin ; but I fear that even St. Paul's
catalogue of the vices of the heathen might find, in our po-
pulation, many to appropriate its particular sins. I will not,
sir, enter upon the painful detail of facts, which, as a minis-
ter of religion, have come under my own observation. I
will not even hint at scenes of which my eyes have been
reluctant witnesses, and which have offended the light
of heaven. Suffice it to say, that early contamination,
from the association of the sexes ; an intemperate We
of malt liquor; a disregard to the social tie; and
consequent desertion of wives and families, are fearfully
common, and, to adopt the words of the noble Lord already
qt • :ed, exhibit a " state of society, which it is both lamentable
and appalling to contemplate." Who can wonder that, in
such a soil. the seeds of every error, moral and political, ger-
minate, and attain a vigorous growth ? Can it be surprising,
that the profane doctrines and licentious practices of the So-
cialists, so congenial to the animal appetites of the ignorant,
find numerous abettors ?—lt is quite natural to suppose, that
in such a population, the demagogue and political firebrand
will find abundant materials for sedition, treason, and re-
bellion. And alas ! supposition has given place to certainty.
There is indisputable evidence, that the ramifications of the
late Chartist conspiracy were deep and numerous, in this
district. Two, at least, of the class-meetings of those unhapPY
and infuriated men were statedly held within its precincts.
Nor, has a month elapsed, since blood was shed, by armed
rebels, within little snore than a bow-shot from my own he'
bitation ; and the town, as in the case of Newport, was onlY
saved from the horrors of pillage and conflagration, by the
interposition ofa gracious Providence. The outbreak lies bee's
mercifully suppressed ; but the feelings, passions, and opinions.
which caused it, still ex.st, in active though concealed, ope'
ration, awaiting a favourable opportunity, for a more tre-
mendous explosion. What may be the issue, is known only t 0
the great Author of Events ; but to me it appears certain, that
the present state of society cannot long exist. If there he
not a powerful reclaiming influence speedily exerted, the
downward progression, towards anarchy and civil disorgain'
nation, will be rapid and irresistible. In these statements
I ant not a willing alarmist. I describe with reluctance
state of society which I know to exist around me, in my own
sphere of ministerial labour. And I fear it is but an average
sample of the general condition of the operative classes, i"
populous manufacturing towns."
There was a state of things ! The voluntary gentlemel
neither would nor could supply this deficiency. If they coal",
not, why did they prevent us flora doing it; and if they coul"
do it, why was it not done? (Loud cheers.) They lino°
this state of things existed ; they saw it ; they heard it ;
was around them on all sides ; and when we came forward,'
after having made voluntary efforts to meet it unparalleled,
he repeated, since the first days of Christianity, these gentle.
men met in most unholy league, to petition government t°
refuse a single shilling of the public money for the eatensin°
of the church in the destitute districts ! (Hear, hear.)—The
length of our report, together with a pressure of other 110,;
ter, compels us reluctantly to give only a summary of the
concluding portion of Mr. Ould's admirable address.
rev. gentleman next referred to the resolutions adopted
at
the meeting against church extension, and exposed the falls,"
cies of the principles upon which they professed to be fount,
ed. The speeches of several orators on that occasion uncle'
went the same process, the true nature of the shoemaker
Thorogood's voluntary " martyrdom" being shewn to the
meeting. Mr. Ould also spewed, in answer to Mr. Tholl''
from the Rev. Mr. James's able letter, published in the lei!:
verpool Standard of Friday, and from other sources, that the
charity of the dissenters bore no comparison whatever to the
A
benevolence of churchmen, and he concluded his able 801'
interesting address amidst loud cheers.
Mr. S. HOLME being called upon to second the resolii"
tion was greeted with general cheering. He said—Not being
aware until I entered the room a few minutes before my reve;
rend friend commenced his address, that I should be callsl
on to take any part in the proceedings of the evening,
must confess myself in a great degree unprepared to do
as I have only been able to pencil a few scattered ideas amid,,;
the delightful interruptions I have had from his splend";
speech, and I shall best suit the convenience of the mee,tllll
at this late hour by being brief, so as not to weaken the 06'
already produced. When a French bishop once asked a Pe,,s-
sant how he liked his sermons, the man replied,—They ai;
very good but too long, and your lordship might recollect
:
that we peasants are like our own wine vats, when once filled'
it is of no use pouring more in, for it would be spilled, 7y,
though it was the best liquor in the world. (Laughter.) 1:s/a
reverend friend has just told us of a Romish priest who stu'd
on this platform a few weeks ago, as the advocate of civil al!„
religious liberty. Is there liberty, either civil or religions, 1-
that country where his master the Pope is the temporal go'
vernor ? No ! And lam enabled to testify, by my own e3v
perience and observation, that whilst the Romish hierarchy
is living in princely splendour and ostentatious masnificence4
the mass of the priesthood in Italy is ignorant, and manY;,
them semi-infidel, and the people sunk, both intellectuln";
and spiritually, to the lowest grade. Talk of civil and religinu
liberty indeed ! Why who can find in the Pope's dominions 1;
berallaws, or seminaries for popular public instruction ?
are the scientific societies, the mechanics' institutions, the
s
societies for expanding the human mind, spreading kiln"'
ledge, and improving the condition of man? Not in WO;
where the Pope reigns—not in Spain or Portugal where 111
influence is paramount, but in protestant Scotland—(cheer'
—in protestant England—in protestant Germany. (Chee,„lte,
Protestantism is favourable to liberty, Popery is not. 'll-
one flourishes in the soil of liberty, the other fades. It is,tl,
absurdity and hypocrisy then for a Romish priest so to tis
for where the Pope is Sovereign there is only the
of the slave. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But, sir, we oug%
to be thankful that we yet live under a better system, a
s,,
let us rejoice that by the wisdom and piety of kings and se,n4;
tors a purer church than that of Rome was establishees'e
this kingdom long before the monk Augustine introduced t's/
dogmas of papal Rome into Britain; and whatever may ntlys
be said on the subject, it is a matter of history that pePe';
is a foreigner in England—that it is a novelty, and that
pure and Gospel church existed in ourlandlong before fat
gustine set his foot on our soil. (Cheers.) And had it I],i;e
been for the piety of our forefathers, who endowed 'O,
Church of England, hundreds of parishes would at this Or,
meat have been destitute of religious instruction, (I-les
hear.) Far be it from me to decry the voluntary systeol
an auxiliary. I can admire the principle which actuated °I
still actuates many pious dissenters to make pecuniary pt
crifices that the Gospel of Christ may be preached through°o
the land : bitt after all their praiseworthy exertions, I 81t
compelled to ask what has the voluntary system done? ss
has left 80,000 persons in Manchester destitute of chill...ill
and chapel accommodation—in Leeds above 40,00:,-10
Birmingham.6o,ooo—in Huddersfield and other large top.
a proportionate number—in the metropolis above a ruillioo )
and in the town of Liverpool about 60,000. (Hear,
In Glasgow, where the voluntary system has had fair Ic,;,s
the most appalling spiritual destitution exists; and such "AK
been its effects on the morals of the people, that Ms. Shes,-
Alison has stated before a committee of the House of esc's",-;
mons that every tenth house in that city is a spirit si_l;i:
(Hear, hear.) If, therefore, I understand aright the ark,
ments of those orators who spoke in this room on the °essil-e
sion to which my reverend friend has alluded, and
has facetiously termed the voluntarious soiree, it is UP-the
necessity
cuees,
s itthyo unsoawn d
systems
existing—true, areis puenr perishing for
ofoasruttphhpeol bread of life—true; the
voluntary
supply the dsemoulasndarealittille
passing into eternity in Great Britain alone—true, thB"strf
majority of the dissenting chapels are plunged in pentll3;sst
difficulties, and steeped in mortgages ; but it is better `ll,l
these thousands should perish, than that we sbcl'ise
lose the opportunities which this subject affords, of strikibe
heavy blows against the church, which we secretly feel tli),11-
a valuable national institution, and which is the strong bich
wark ofthose constitutional and monarchical principles ".tiog
we hate and detest. (Vehement cheering.) At that meet
sir, they were all opposers, but none of them werepenP°ool
(Laughter.) They opposed the church, but they Pr?P-as'
nothing in lieu of her, unless indeed it be that theoretic 'or,
tem which has so utterly failed. Let them do their 11°,,;(11
the Church of England is rising—she is the casket 7';',03
contains the invaluable gem of our Protestant faith. (r,O
cheering.) She is the citadel in which scriptural triltacio;
been securely lodged and handed down in safety till this
and let us preserve that citadel from destruction, that
may hand down to our posterity, unextinguished, the serlsat
ral light which has been bequeathed to us by our Prat' tbe
ancestors. (Cheering.) I admit not the charge that of-
Church of England is unfavourable to the spread of knorl
ledge. I, for one, am desirous of seeing knowledge to-
science extended far and wide ; and' I can rejoice in the stY
umphs of our mechanical skill, Fih 41x Ig a H conquer the Wigoso
ocean, can give wings to our vessels, and make those 010
our neighbours from which Oceansepinketis• (Hear.)tol.
in common with that .church :Which:we are met to de'

I
i
I cannot consent to place intellectual acquirements above amicable arrangement appear consistent with the main- I the Bombay army, whicn could he spared from the of the Session-house? One gentleman, in putting the on its being opened, as at that period the North Midland,
religious education. I cannot degrade the latter to secure
newly acquired provinces, were on the return to paper out of his hands, could not avoid exclaiming— York and North Midland, Hull and Selby, and Great North
tenance of our national honour.
the former : and I ask, is secular education so valuable to an
of England Railways, will be in full working ; and a cond.
Immortal as well as an intellectual being, that we can afford It is said that several English ships had been trading Bombay. " Humph ! this smells very strongly of the mahogany
nuous railway communication will thus be• formed between
o throw overboard or cast into the shade, the knowledge of at The
Canton under Dutch colours. Thomas Coutts
Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being, and_ . table." We do not profess to understand the allusion,
who directs every pulsation of our uncertain frame ? (Cheers.) had been permitted to discharge her cargo. Much We have received a copy of the St. John's (N. B.) and we should not have said anything on the subject, if Manchester and the port of Hull on the eastward, and
Let me direct your attention to an extract from a dissenting
northward to the town of Darlington.
publication which a rev. gentleman has just handed me,
business had been done through the medium of neutral Chronicle of the 31st of January. It brings us a full our contemporary had not commenced the attack, and
artial i The p openng to Littleborough had always been
and you will then see whether the charge may not be retorted ships. Matters are said to have been approaching a report of the address of his Excellency the Governor provoked this rejoinder. viewed by the directors as a valuable means of having an
end
Pacific effi-
upll dissent. (ere Mr.olme rea an article fom the Eclectic p when Captain Elliot issued a specific order, on the opening of the legislature, which took place on ........-..... RevO iew complaining that all the upd per classes.r all learned andcient establishment for conducting the business of the com-
scientific bodies,and nearly all professional men, had or were se- forbidding the British shipping to enter the port. the 28th of January. This document is of consider- We have this day furnished a full and accurate re- pany, but they had not looked for any material profit to be
ceding from the ranks of dissent, that dissenting publications The Canton Press of Nov, 30 says that there was able length, and possesses a more than ordinary share port of the proceedings at the meeting held at the derived from it. It is gratifying, however, to them to an-
were languishing for want ofsupport,and with difficulty existed)
Mr. Ould has spoken of the Unitarian creed not being cal- very little hope, indeed, of an amicable arrangement of of interest, on account of the protracted dispute con- Music-hall on Friday evening last, on the all-important nounce, that the receipts up to the 31st December exceeded
the cost of working. that portion by the sum of £9,239 7s. Bd.,
culated for the poor man. Some years ago, when passing the existing differences, and furnishes a translation of cerning the Maine boundary. After congratulating subject of church extension. The several speeches will
through Kidderminster, I ;vas anxious to see laxter's pulpit,
and that looking to the gross receipts, or to the cost of work-
not only because of its antiquity, but because of the associa- Governor Lin's proclamation as the ground upon.which the legislature on their anxious desire and firm deter- be read with great interest : they afford a full and con- ing, which is under 50 per cent, the results may be advan_
!ions which were identified with it. I found, on inquiry, that it rests its apprehensions. It then demands how the urination to remain in indissoluble connexion with elusive answer to the frivolous and groundless objet- tageously compared with the experience of other companies
it had been removed to the vestry of what was called the
new chapel, and, having been gratified by the sight of it, I Chinese Government could enforce the cessation of the " that glorious country, their parent state," under the tions of the Voluntary Church Association agitators, under aimilar circumstances. The conveyance of goods upon
asked my conductor, the sexton, whether the chapel had a trade as long as the merchants of Canton are so deeply shadow of whose protecting power they felt themselves Each of the speakers on Friday last based the cause of the line was only commenced upon the secondof this month,
good congregation ? " Pretty good, sir," was his reply ; and
with much naivete, added, "It is very respectable, sir; very, indebted to the English ? The debts owing by insol- "in the enjoyment of a degree of rational liberty which church extension on the incontrovertible evidence of and it is the intention of the company to throw that branch
indeed. We have hardly any poor people at all." Oh, then ! vent Hong merchants are said to amount to four and has probably never been attained under any other than facts and statistical details ; and from this rock that of their traffic open to public competition, and not them-
I this is a Unitarian chapel I suppose ? His reply was selves to undertake the duties of general carriers.
in the affirmative. (Hear.) So that the descendants of a half millions of dollars—the value of the opium sur- than British institutions," he proceeds to enumerate sacred cause cannot be removed by all the malignant
The directors have satisfaction in repeating their convic-
Baxter's congregation have slidden down into Unitarianism,
rendered is said to be equal to ten millions—and the those questions which would be submitted to their rage, gross misrepresentations, and shallow sophistries tion, that the total cost of the mail
:line, including stations,
and few poor people are found in it. But some dissenting
congregations make a better move. When the late Dr. losses for demurrage, &c., may amount to a few mil- consideration. He speaks most favourably of the ac- of the triple band of Papists, Infidels, and political engines, carriages, waggons, &c., will not exceed the esti-
M'All, a name I desire to pronounce with the highest respect, lions more; so that the Chinese, before they can claim tual condition of the province, and states that "its trade, Dissenters. mates furnished at the last half-yearly meeting, and at the
for Dr. WAR would have been an ornament to any church,
when he was removed to Manchester, such was the difficulty the very questionable right of exclusion, which they and, consequently, its revenues and financial affairs, It was our intention to have offered some extended same time assuring the proprietors, that strict attention to
Of Procuring a successor to that elegant and cultivated mind, have attempted to put in force, must satisfy English are flourishing beyond any former period." The una- remarks on the topics discussed at the meeting of Fri-
economy, so far as is consistent with solidity of construction,
one that could give satisfaction to all parties in Macclesfield,
would characterize their future proceedings.
demands for seventeen or eighteen millions of dollars, voidable increase in the expenditure of the past year, day last, but we find that our limited space will not,
tween
where he had ministered, that to put an end to the existing
Theeen directors regret that a misunderstandinghas arisen be-
differences of opinion, and to allay the jealousies that unfor- without reckoning the expense which they will be put owing to the proceedings of a neighbouring state, had permit us to do so. The question of church extension themselves and the Liverpool and Manchester Corn-
tunately prevailed, it was at last proposed that the chapel should .
happily been met by a corresponding increase in the however, is one on which we shall frequently have to pany, which has impeded the progress of the junction line to
be converted into a church, and the nomination of a minister to in enforcing payinent.
gene vested in the bishop of the diocese. This was accordingly The Bengal Hurhara of Jan. 18 states that Captain revenue, and every demand upon the provincial trea- dilate prior to the introduction of Sir R. Inglis's mo- be formed by the two
companies, and for which a joint act of
leeted; ,
amongst the and the minismemberter apposiofntethe ed by
stablishis lorhme ntdship ,
sas mu coon colh-
Elliot had issued an order to the senior officer of her sury, arising from the emergency, had been fully met tion. parliament has been already obtained. The latter company
- (it appeared from minutes of their board which were read to
taoney, or nearly so, as paid off the debt which hung over Majesty's ships to obstruct the further entrance of Bri- by the surplus revenue of the year. The product of
the chapel, and it is now belonging to the establishment, and the meeting) are dissatisfied with the estimates of traffic fur-
itsl • •within the B Ties if necessary, by the harvest had been extremely satisfactory, and left
tills s tipping
pulpit is filled by an able active minister of the church.
nished them by the Manchester and Leeds Company, and
I allude to the present St. George's Church, in Macclesfield. force. This order is dated Nov. 20. the agricultural interest without any ground of corn- •
are now disposed to retract from their share in forming this
• (Loud cheering.) And I was yesterday told, at St. Helen's, GREAT NORTH OF ENGLAND RAILWAY.
The Canton. Press of December 14 says that a great plaint.
communication, preferring to make a junction, which shall
that there is in that town a large dissenting chapel almost HALF-YEARLY GENERAL MEETING.
deserted by the congregation, because the minister will not number of junks had been ordered from Fuhkeen to The Governor then proceeds to recommend the early The half-yearly general meeting of this company was held include the Manchester and Birmingham, and Manchester
give up his pulpit in compliance with their wishes, and they strengthen the Chinese naval force at the Bogue, and attention of the legislature to the improvement of the and Sheffield Lines, upon the southern side of Manclester.
are thus attempting to starve him out. (Cheers and laugh- at the company's offices at Darlington, on Tuesday the 3rd
Acting upon the faith of their original understanding with
ter.) I mention these things to show that crying abuses possibly to commit aggressions on the Tungkoo fleet. great roads in the province—to the extension of the instant ; Thomas Meynell, jun., Esq., in the chair. There
exist amongst dissenters, and that many of their most the Liverpool Company, the directors had proceeded to pun-
Sir, shipping had not yet been molested, though some coast and harbour fisheries—to the construction of a_ wastar
tart')
numerous attendancee()porift proprietors.
respectable members acknowledge and lament it. (Hear.)
The report (which was read by Capt. O'Brien, the secre- chase a considerable portion of the land required for the con-
Sir, the Church of England must awake from its lethargy, mandarins had destroyed the grog-shops erected by the canal to connect the Bay of Fundy with the Gulph of
templated junction at Hant's Bank. The advantages of this
and be no longer deterred -from carrying, the war into our tors on the improving appear-
Chinese on shore : mandarin boats had also chased the St. Lawrence—to the improvement of the prisons of line have lately been increased by a resolution of the Mersey
opponent's camp. She must become aggressive against the ance of the share list. The energetic resolutions passed at principles of dissent and Popery now so strangely united— bumb-boats, without, however, capturing any, they the province—and to the encouragement of the agri- the last half-yearly general meeting, and at the special gene- and Irwell Navigation Company to make the latter river na-
g such heterogeneous mixtures as we lately saw in this taking shelter in the midst of the English fleet. cultural interest, upon which, he says, " the ultimate ral meeting, had been carried out with firmness and modera- vigable to Hant's Bank, and the directors do not, under these
ro If she remains much longer quiescent, she will, as ,
circumstances, feel disposed to allow their present powers to
an establishment, fall. (Hear, hear.) I hope, however, that The same journal says that an alarm had been spread, prosperity of New Brunswick appears to depend, in a tion, and the directors were enabled to slim as their result a
the legislature will be compelled to provide for the spiritual on the previous Monday, that a number of Chinese far higher degree than either upon its timber or its mi- considerable diminution in the number of shares in arrear. expire unex ercised, but will endeavour to lay before the pro-
destitution that exists : and seeing before me so many of theprietors at a general meeting such reasons as will justify them
working classes, and knowing well the privations to which so troops had landed in different parts of the inner har- neral treasures, valuable and apparently exhaustless as They had allowed time to meet the calls on all occasions
many of them are exposed by the fluctuations of trade, I bour from Tsinshan, and it was said that they came to are the latter." In connection with the subject of where it appeared that enforcing the whole payment at once in pursuing their present scheme, even independently of the
Liverpool Company, should they conclude to abandon the
must say that those who would deprive the working man of . . would produce serious inconvenience ; but against those who
junction altogether.
the comforts which religion gives, cannot be his friends. drive off Captain Elliot and Smith, who had that mo- agriculture, he requests the attention of the legislature
had set the company at defiance the necessary legal proceed-
is
joeooceTnfoioleimorter
nyfmfeac,nr directorstthhee
reliefe
oannt announce
contribution
Eeni the ho
sickef
a smallformation
disabledsu m o fby as
tehrevacnoservants,
benevolentpandan y
(Hear.) The brightest jewel in the monarch's crown is the ing landed there. The firm opposition of the authors- to a communication which had been addressed to him ings to enforce payment were then being taken. :In the
Established Church, based as it is on Protestant principles
t. sof Macao had the desired effect, and the Chinese by the North American Colonial Association of Ire-ie meantime they congratulated the company upon the exten-
-(eheers)—and I hope ere long to see its base extended in
Proportion to the spiritual destitution that exists, till not a troops left the town again the same evening. Her land " (and of London), who professed themselves sive demand for the shares, and their steady advance in
three guaranteeof t
their
rfund.
board, Tvhi
viz.,
theirhave tol
nt
er enghrne
chairman,
tinhaenr,e
Jamessigna-
nook in the land shall be without its church : with a pious, . , .
Majesty s ships Volage and Hyacinth remained quietly desirous of acquiring land in the province, and of co- price.
The report proceeded to state that the most material works
eEsvqie.,;JsarciHbe;ildtcridi .Jnoiliintill3eurttpoiLEinsnqr:f.,tsidz
active, resident minister, who shall live amongst his people,
and participate in their joys, as he shall comfort them in at anchor at Tungkoo. operating with its legislature and its government in the
their, sorrows. (Loud cheering.) I hope the blessing of between Darlington and York were nearly executed. Some
"'oil may rest ou the association now formed by the young Advises from Canton represent the market for im- introduction into it of a valuable class of settlers, under
delay on three of the contracts had occurred, owing to the fill:011'h
men of this town to defend our church ; and I recommend ports as being in a languid state. Exchange on Lon- fixed and well considered regulations, and upon receiv- inability of the contractors to complete their engagements ; travelling. The places of these gentlemen had been filled by
them to study well her history, particularly Milner, that they
but these works were now being carried on under the super- Mr. Entwistle, the present deputy chairman, John Har-
maydon was quoted at 4s. 11d. for bills under credit, and ing from the province such reasonable aid and encou-
be able to rebut the arguments brought against esta-
greaves, Esq., and James Hatton, Esq.
blishments. And to the clergy I would say :in your hands, 4s. 10d., with local endorsements, though in barter 4s. ragement as it may be disposed to offer in promotion intendence of the engineer, and the lost time was expected
humanly speaking, the destinies of England are placed.
od. was still given. of this most important object. He states, that he to be to a considerable extent recovered. We regret that we cannot give even an outline of the
bet your faces as flints against the infidel opinion that all
Under these circumstances, the directors were enabled to • en report. We may, however, refer to it in our
creeds are alike; and that the legislature, in its official ca- Accounts brought by the Red Rover (to Bombay, " cannot too strongly recommend this proposition, and
express their confidence that the line would be opened be- next, as well as to a very valuable table of the traffic which
' pacity, may alike endow truth and error. You will be sup-
we presume) state that the Emperor had deprived the the subject of immigration generally, to the serious
has been furnished with the report.
ported by the Tait tremendous cheers)—and you will save
tween Darlington and York—a distance of 45 miles—in the
our
Country. To the working classes, I say, join this good High Commissioner Lin of two steps of official rank, and favourable consideration of the legislature, feeling From the statement of receipts and expenditure it ap-
month of October next. Previously to this period the ypreserve your church establishment, so that we may
as a mark of displeasure for not having sooner settled that by no other measure can the prosperity of the pro- ways south of York would be in full operation, and there Feared that the total receipts for the half year were
rail-
exhibit one unbroken front, and that Liverpool may still, as
she has often done, give a tone to the country which shall be the difference with the English; and that a new High vince be more certainly and rapidly advanced, than by would then be an unbroken railway communication between. £77,082 Bs. 6d. ; and the disbursements (including
felt by those who have the power to remedy the mischief they £21,537 ls. sd. paid for land and building for the junction
Commissioner had been appointed to inquire into his the judicious outlay of capital in the introduction of a London and York, the traffic of which would be ready at
have already caused. Mr. Holme retired amidst the loudest -
line) £534,134 12s. 6d. ; leaving a balance unexpended on
applause. proceedings. respectable class of emigrants." once to come upon this line to Darlington. The supply of
the 31st December last of £42,947 16s. By the revenue
The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, and it was una- It is stated that cotton was transhipped at Hongkong The Governor then adverts to the training of five coals from the county of Durham to the North and East
ainiously carried. Ridings of Yorkshire Was estimated at 200,000 tons per account from the opening of the line, July 4to December
The Rev. A. M`ColoctE moved the adoption of the peta- to Canton in American vessels, at the enormous freight thousand of the frontier militia, as a preparation against
31, 1839, it appeared that the total receipts of the six months,
annum, and a large influx of passengers might also be ex-
tion, which he read at length ; and the motion having been of 7i dollars per bale. From this it is pretty evident any emergency that might eventually arise, and con- . . from passengers, parcels, &c., were £17,908 Ils. ld. ; and
seconded by Mr. W. P. LEETE, it was carried unanimously. pected at the point of junction with the Stockton and Dar-
lington Railway, upon which it was stated that 1400 passen- that the disbursements were £8,669 s. sd. •, leaving a ba-
A vote of thanks to the CHAIRMAN was then carried on that Brother Jonathan is likely to reap a rich harvest eludes by expressing a hope that the boundary ques-
tion may be speedily, amicably, and finally adjusted. gers per day had been carried in the month of August last.
lie motion of Mr. J. GRIFFITHS, seconded by the Rev. D. from the present dispute. lance in hand on the 31st December last of £9,239 7s. Bd.
`'"ss and the meeting separated about a quarter to 11 .
A private letter, dated Tungkoo Bay, Dec. 14, says There is no other news of importance in the paper Bearing in mind the straightness of the line from Darling- The meeting was addressed by the chairman in a long and
o'clock.
able speech explaining
the views of the directors on the
that " every circumstance combined to give credibility before us. Several fires had recently occurred at St,
period
from
onr
iwmoht odicwh hiYork,tenw
io.
congratulatingi t
would
sl
gdf rabevaewh oearbkleedg
advantagesr a
thedi
proprietorse
would
n directorsotsuu, l
pda onbnde thetmh couldea
nmanifested.
approach
snrmoderatetooeatdc.h refrain
or af t
ae
merits of the proposed junction line, and after re-electing the
to the current report of the Chinese authorities being in John's, and great complaints are made of tile insuffi-
T THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL.
retiring directors and passing the necessary resolution,
the highest degree disquieted and perplexed, and that ciency of the police. The Chronicle says, " Almost
- It had been the object of the directors to complete in the
THE Public is respectfully informed, that this ESTA-separated.
BLISHMENT WILL OPEN FOR THE SEASON, they would, no doubt, be too happy could they devise nightly we are informed of misdemeanours. being com-
WEEKLY RETURNS OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC.
On MONDAY NEXT, MARCH 23d, 1840, (From the Railway Magazine.)
Y, first instance the line between Darlington and York, but the
some mode of settlement that would merely save ap- mitted in our streets against either persons or propert
Y
P.riiileiP.mile Passeng.
and that
But matters had become so embroiled that and yet no effectual check is applied to those disgrace- still contemplated proceeding with the line northwards so Passen-
pr.wk. p. day. per day.
Miss ELLEN TREE, pearances.
NAME. gers.
Of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden, who is engaged soon as their finances would permit.
FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OF NIGHTS, an early accommodation was by no means probable." ful proceedings."
The directors concluded by stating that the whole of their £. £. X.
Cash.
will make her appearance on that Evening, when will be per- materials, and a sufficient number of passenger and men- Birmingham — 11016 98 14
formed, for the first time here, the highly-successful Play, The Bombay Courier of Jan. 25 states that the dis-
pute etween tile British and chandize locomotive engines South Western — 2263 39 51
written by James Sheridan Knowles, Esq., calle b ' Chinese governments had It is an undeniable fact that our West India Colo-
had been contracted for, and
"n India in con- nies which are among the most valuable appendages Great Western - 10
L 0 V E
line.
The Play will be produced with New Scene , Dresses, and sequence of the Governor-General (Lord Auckland) to the British crown, are rapidly declining in prospe-
Newcastle &Carlisle 1625 27 4
mg gg g 0319- 31.4.
Decorations. The Scenery by Mr. Johns() and Assistants from these colonies are
Greenwichaiieste r & Leeds
The Dresses by Mr. Coombe, Mrs. t , and Assistants.having received from her Majesty's Ministers full pow- rity,—that the staple exports From the general statement of the company's receipts and
The Mechanical department under the d ection of Mr. '
Wil- ens to carry on war or negotiations with the Chinese, decreasing annually in amount,—and that there is every expenditure to 31st Dec. 1839, it appeared that the total re- Croydon
76"1
5
more. The Properties by Mr. 9I Crum. in the ceipts were
best require. The prospect of ultimate ruin staring the planters . .1.:372,233 5 2 York &N. Midland 1498 317 22 3 214 The Duke of Corinthia, Mr. Gray • Prince F • as the advantages of India may
Midland Counties.. 3259 303 191 3 466
Lynne;
Ulric, Mr. Chaplin• .
Sir
y , Frederick, Mr. Liabilities outstanding 68,659 16 8
"articles had appeared in diffe- face; and yet Lord John Russell and his associates
Conrad Mr. W. II , Rupert, Mr. W. Howard ; Courier also says that
Eastern Counties.. 4732 ' 676
t 1_ .H. Bland ; Huon, Mr. Stuart;The Cozen- lino. China. Some seem determined to withhold from the West Indies the Total
ess of Eppenstein, (as qiiginally performed ' this rent journals on the mode of assai o
by her, sea- .
son, at the Theatre-Royil, Covent-Garden, Miss Ellen T • it would be useful to attack it first by land, only remedy which can be applied to the present state That the disbursements to the same period amounted
Tree ; opine that
Catherine, Mrs. Tellet ; Christina, Miss Barrett.immigration. It - to.
To conclude with the Farce, written by J. B. Buckstone by, marching 1, 00 000 from Hindoostan through Ca• of things—the privilege of free ap
Leaving a balance in hand of 6,992 9 8 eleven o'clock, will be launched from the yard of Messrs.
Esq., called ' boul, and across the desert, towards that part of the pears, from our parliamentary report, that there is no
£410,893 1- 10 Humble and Milcrest, in Trentham-street, west side of
SECOND THOUGHTS. Great Wall which is within 100 miles of Pekin ; or, hope held out by Government that the immigration or- Salthouse-dock, a splendid ship of 600 tons burthen to be
A discussion then ensued upon a motion introduced by• ~ '
Mr. Sudden, Mr. Baker; Jabber, Mr. W. Howard ; Cecil
, secondly, by land and sea simultaneously, by sending dinances for British Guiana will be conceded. Under Mr. France, a London shareholder, respecting the proceed- called the "Martha Ridgway. She belongs to John
Ridgway, Esq., of this town, and is intended for the East
Mr. W. H. Bland ; Mrs. Trapper, Mrs. Clarke ; Celestine,
Miss Cleaver ; Isidore, Mrs. W. H. Bland ; Matilda, Mrs. 50,000 men and a large fleet from Europe. Both these circumstances we trust that some independent ings adopted to compel payment of calls in arrear. It ap- India
.tradF. She has been built under the inspection of
Tellet. I ' introduce the sub- peered that Mr. France, along with others, had been induced Captain Finlay Cooke, and for beauty of model and work-
those measures are impracticable, on account of the member of Parliament will shorty
manshi cannot be surpassed. We would recommend an
Lower •Boxes, -48. ; -Upper_ lioxes,_.3s. _6(1; Pit, 2s. 61 ; of Commons in the shape of a- to -take shares -in the undertaking, -and to sign the parlia- P - handsome
la 're rise We 4 beforethe House
Gallery, ls. Doors to be opened at Half-past Six, and the enormous expense to which-they would gi • ject
substantive motion. Surely, the salvation from utter mentary deeds of the company, but had sold his shares pre-
h., to commence at Seven. seek redress—not conquest." ACCIDENT.—On Friday morning, at a quarter before four
'Ph- n..... ..,....- -.:n T.- -- r.- Tf‘,..,.-...‘- w.,-,...,;,,,,, +b-o,za - - -

THE Public is respectfully informed, that this ESTA-
BLISHMENT WILL OPEN FOR THE SEASON,
On MONDAY NEXT, MARCH 23d, 1840,
and that
Miss ELLEN TREE,
Of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden, who is engaged
FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OP NIGHTS,
will make her appearance on that Evening, when will be per-
formed, for the first time here, the highly-successful Play.
written by James Sheridan Knowles, Esq., calle
LOVE.
The Play will be produced with New Scene , Dresses, and
Decorations. The Scenery by Mr. Johns° and Assistants.
The Dresses by Mr. Coombe, Mrs. 2 , and Assistants.
The Mechanical department under the d ection of Mr. Wil-
more. The Properties by Mr. Al`Crum.
The Duke of Corinthia, Mr. Gray ; Prince Frederick, Mr.
Lynne ; Ulric, Mr. Chaplin ; Sir Rupert, Mr. W. Howard ;
Conrad, Mr. W. H. Bland ; Huon, Mr. Stuart ; The Coun-
tess of Eppenstein, (as qiiginally performed by her, this sea-
son, at the Theatre-Royil, Covent-Garden, Miss Ellen Tree ;
Catherine, Mrs. Tellet ; Christina, Miss Barratt.
To conclude with the Farce, written by J. B. Buckstone,
• Esq., called
SECOND THOUGHTS.
Mr. Sudden, Mr. Baker; Jabber, Mr. W. Howard; Cecil,
Mr. W. H. Bland ; Mrs. Trapper, Mrs. Clarke ; Celestina,
Miss Cleaver ; Isidora,.Mrs. W. H. Bland ; Matilda, Mrs.
Tellet.
Lower .80xe5,,,i5...;_ -Upper_ Boxes._.lis-Ld.; Pit, 2s. 6d. ;
Gallery, ls. Doors to be opened at Half-past Six, and the
Performance to commence at Seven.
The Box-office will be open on MONDAY morning, the 23d
instant, \Alen Places in the Lower Boxes may be taken, from
Ten until Three o'Clock.
A limited number of Subscription Tickets for the Season,
not transferable nor admissible at Benefits, to be Sold. Ap-
plication to be made at the Box-office.

Instead of these projects of invasion, the Courier
suggests the blockade of the coast of China, and the
seizure of some of the adjacent islands. At the same
time, it strongly deprecates the idea of a " little war,"
which, however momentarily successful, might do
incalculable mischief, by teaching the art of modern
warfare to the most populous nation on the face of the
earth, and instructing them how to beat ourselves. In
the present circumstances it is, therefore, our interest
as well as our duty to make a sudden, strong, and lasting

impression.
The Bombay Gazette of January 29 nays that the
" reports in Calcutta and elsewhere about the in-
tentions of the Governor-General had been confirmed."
It adds that Lord Auckland had determined that a
large amount of shipping should be immediately taken
up for the conveyance of troops to China, and that, in
addition to the land forces about to be transported to
the Celestial Empire, the co-operation of all the vessels
of war in the Eastern seas should be given towards
the reduction of the pride of the Chinese. These
vessels were—the Volage, 28 guns—the llaycinth, 18
guns—the Cruiser, 18 guns—the Wellesley, 74 guns—
the Conway, 23 guns—the Alligator, 28 guns—the
Childers, 18 guns—the Larne, 18 guns—the Algerine,
10 guns—and the Druid, 44 guns, the last of which,
commanded by Lord Churchill, was under orders to
proceed to China direct. This is rather a respectable
force, and one perfectly well qualified, it is said, with
the addition of seven other vessels expected from
England, to put a quietus to the annoying interference
of the Chinese.

The Bombay Gazette mentions the island of Sapata
as about to be taken possession of by our troops. It
is situated about 100 miles from the coast of Cochin
China, and is admirably adapted for the purposes of a
maritime depot, from which troops can be conveyed to
any point upon which their services may be required.
_ _ .

command of the naval force, it is stated by the
same paper, will devolve upon Capt. Sir J. J. Bremer
Gordon, K.C.8., of her Majesty's ship Alligator. Three
regiments were to leave Calcutta, two Queen's and one
native ; but a larger force was to leave Madras.

The Bombay Courier of Jan. 31 mentions among the
rumours which were prevalent, respecting the pro-
ceedings of Lord Auckland, that hielordship was going
in person to China. Another says that eight regiments
were to be sent, as the 14,000 tons of shipping would
allow—four from Bengal, two from Madras, and two from
Bombay. The same journal remarks that the Governor-
General had issued orders that no ships were to be
cleared out for China. This measure was construed
into a declaration of war.

The Bombay Times states that the Chinese are making
vigorous preparations for a contest. The last accounts
from Macao say that the Governor of Macao, at the
head of a number of troops, had inspected the forts,
and ordered a double supply of ammunition to be sent
to each. Numbers of Chinese troops had landed at
Macao.

The position and prospects of commercial affairs at
Bombay are described as exceedingly unfavourable.
It was quite impossible to effect any sales of English
merchandise, unless at a ruinous sacrifice. The cause
of this distressing state of affairs was the existing
scarcity of money, owing partly to the diminished
supplies of the precious metals from China, but
principally to the withdrawal from circulation of the
large sums which were lying unproductive in the
Government treasury.

The Bombay Courier of January 28 states that recent
accounts from Caboul conveyed the information that her
Majesty's 13th Regiment of light infantry was suffering
greatly from ill health, owing to the men's own im-
prudence in the abuse of spirituous liquors. The
rumours of the advance of the Russians on Khiva were
still rife at Cabal. Sir John Keane (now Lord Keane)
had arrived at Lahore, at which place he only remained
three days. The newly-conquered country was per-
fectly tranquil. It is larger in extent than France and
Belgium together. Lord Keane was on his return, by
the Indus river, to Bombay. The Bengal army was
going back to that Presidency, and those regiments of

It is an undeniable fact that our West India Colo-
nies, which are among the most valuable appendages
to the British crown, are rapidly declining in prospe-
rity,—that the staple exports from these colonies are
decreasing annually in amount,—and that there is every
prospect of ultimate ruin staring the planters in the
face; and yet Lord John Russell and his associates
seem determined to withhold from the West Indies the
only remedy which can be applied to the present state
of things—the privilege of free immigration. It ap-
pears, from our parliamentary report, that there is no
hope held out by Government that the immigration or-
dinances for British Guiana will be conceded. Under
these circumstances we trust that some independent
member of Parliament will shortly introduce the sub-
ject before the House of Commons in the shape of a
substantive motion. Surely, the salvation from utter
ruin of our West India colonies is of far greater im-
portance than the multitude of paltry and frivolous
questions which have hitherto engaged the attention of
the House since the commencement of the session.

" Our attention has been directed" to some remarks
which appeared in " a contemporary print" of Saturday,
and which would " seem to convey an imputation"
against the LIVERPOOL STANDARD, that we " acted
unfairly" towards " the Worshipful the Mayor" in
commenting upon the proceedings at the Sessions-
house on Thursday last, when "the Conservative body
assembled to record their dissatisfaction with the pro-
posed measure of Government respecting the Irish
Municipal Corporations." Our contemporary accuses
us of having (by implication at least) charged the
Mayor with partiality. We did no such thing. We
cordially respond to our contemporary's declaration
" that his Worship's demeanour from the commence-
ment of the meeting to the close, was perfectly in-
dependent and impartial, and entirely free (the tautology
is not our own) from any symptoms of partisanship."
His Worship's conduct might merit this encomium,
and still have us at liberty " to find fault with his
decision." We presume that " the contemporary
print" of Saturday last is not prepared to maintain
that the Nlayor is infallible, and therefore incapable of
committing an error of judgment. A few Conservatives
who were present at the meeting may believe the
Mayor's decision " to have been just and proper;"
but we feel assured that the great majority will agree
with us in thinking otherwise. Our belief must not,
however, be construed into a charge of partisanship
against the Mayor. We believe that he acted fairly to
the best of his judgment. We did not hold his
Worship " responsible for the composition of the
meeting," nor for " the introduction of parties to the
meeting by the private entrance," as our contemporary
would seem to insinuate. Still less do we hold his
Worship responsible for the turbulent and scandalous
proceedings of the rabble Irish who took posession of
the further part of the room. To a gentleman of Mr.
Walmsley's refined feelings such conduct as that which
we animadverted upon on Friday must have been
annoying in the extreme. He must have felt heartily
ashamed of his party. It must have been anything
but a source of satisfaction to him to reflect that his
promotion to the civic chair had been, in any degree,
owing to the assistance of the ruffians in whose favour
he was compelled to decide.
Having thus exonerated ourselves from the very
grave charge brought against us, we may well disregard
the sneering remark that we " paid but a poor com-
pliment to the judgment and integrity of the gentlemen
who moved, seconded, and supported the vote of thanks
to the Mayor." We entertain for those gentlemen the
highest possible respect. We believe them to be
staunch and uncompromising enemies to Popish en-
croachments in every shape, and sterling friends to the
glorious constitution of our country. Their conduct
on Thursday showed them to be above the mean
jealousies of party spirit.
_ _

A discussion then ensued upon a motion introduced by
Mr. France, a London shareholder, respecting the proceed-
ings adopted to compel payment of calls in arrear. It ap-
peared that Mr. France, along with others, had been induced
to take shares in the- undertaking, -and to sign the parlia-
mentary deeds of the company, but had sold his shares pre-
vious to the passing of the Act. When the scrip was re-
quired to be exchanged for the sealed certificates, a notice
was issued by the law clerk of the company, requesting
holders of scrip to send in their names for registration, in de-
fault of which they were informed that the original share-
holders would be registered as the proprietors of such shares
In reply to this notice, a communication was made by Mr.
France to the secretary, stating that he had sold his shares,
and renouncing his title to them, in favour of any other per-
son who might present the scrip for registration, to which
communication no reply was made, and for two years, although
several calls for money hau been made, Mr. France never
received circulars (according to the general practice of rail-
way companies) of such calls having been made, and con-
cluded that his shares had been duly registered in the name
of some other party. He therefore moved a resolution, that
himself and other individuals similarly situated should be
absolved from liability, by their shares being forfeited, ac-
cording to the original views of the directors.

It was urged by Mr. Oxley, one of the directors, in reply,
that the directors had strictly followed the act of parliament
and consulted the interests of the undertaking in the course
they had pursued. He assured the meeting that call circulars
had been issued to every shareholder. Mr. France, however,
denied having received one. In addition this mode of intima-
ting to the shareholders their continued liability, Mr. Ox-
ley explained to the meeting that in Jauuary, 1838, a circular
was issued to every shareholder, containing a list of all the
shareholders, including those original holders whose shares,
not having been legally transferred, were still held liable to
the company. This circular, it was contended, must at any
rate, have convinced Mr. France and his friends that their
liability still remained, and yet no notice had at the time
been taken of it. Immediately, however, that the directors
found it necessary to press the original shareholders for
calls, they were beset with letters from the Stock Exchange
urging them to forego pressing their claims, and they, there-
fore, resorted to the alternative of forfeiting the shares, sub-
ject to the approbation of a general meeting of the proprietors.
This declaration of forfeiture was not, however, confirmed,
and the directors were compelled again to adopt compulsory
means to enforce payment.

An amendment was moved in favour of the course pur-
sued by the directors, and carried,—only two hands being
held up against it.

The retiring directors were then re-elected, and after voting
thanks to the chairman, the meeting separated.

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS RAILWAY.—HALF-
YEARLY MEETING.
The half-yearly meeting of the above company was held
at the offices, Clowes's-buildings, Hunt's Bank, on Thurs-
day last at noon, and was numerously attended by the pro-
prietors. Henry Houldsworth, Esq., the chairman of the
board, presided.
The report, which was read by the deputy chairman, Win.
Entwistle, Esq., congratulated the proprietors upon the for-
ward state of the works. The majority of the contracts,
notwithstanding the wetness of the season, were in a satis-
factory state, and will be completed before the close of the
present year, and relying upon the engineers' report, the
directors were enabled to announce that the expectations
which they had formerly held out " of opening the entire
line to the public in all 1840," is placed beyond all reasona-
ble doubt. The Summit tunnel was expected to be com-
pleted by the end of November.
The expenditure during the half year, ended 31st Dec., had
been £534 12s 6d, which had been met by money received
on account of calls, by loans on mortgage of tolls, and by
loans accepted by the directors in anticipation of calls, for
the repayment of which a sufficient portion of the calls
remaining to be invade, is specifically appropriated ; so that
whatever may be the amount of loans so accepted on the
directors' bonds, an equal amount will always remain uncalled
for, upon the shares held by the proprietors, and only be
eventually called up, when such bonds shall become due.
These loans are accepted for periods of two to five years, to
the amount of £195,000 ; and should the proprietors concur
in the views of the directors, they will continue to receive
money on similar terms, the effect of which will be to disperse
future calls over a lengthened period, leaving however to the
proprietors the option of paying such calls in advatice, and
receiving interest at 5 per cent.
By pursuing the course which they have adopted, the di-
rectors have been enabled to fulfil the :expectations held out
in their last report of " not making any calls before the
month of February or March." They consider it right,
however, to announce to make, before the opening of the
entire line, three further calls of £5 each, upon both the old
and new shares, the amount of which, together with the
loans which they expect to receive during the present year,
" they fully believe will enable them to complete the present
contracts, and to provide a sufficient stock of engines, car-
riages, and waggons, for working the whole line." This
appears to them an object of great importance, considering
the extent of business which will at once come upon the line

SHIP LAUNCH.—On Thursday next, the 19th inst., at
eleven o'clock, will be launched from the yard of Messrs.
Humble and Milcrest, in Trentham-street, west side of
Salthouse-dock, a splendid ship of 600 tons burthen, to be
called the " Martha Ridgway." She belongs to John
Ridgway, Esq., of this town, and is intended for the East
India trade. She has been built under the inspection of
Captain Finlay Cooke, and for beauty of model and work-
manship cannot be surpassed. We would recommend an
early visit to her by those who wall to see a handsome
ACCIDENT.—On Friday morning, at a quarter before four
o'clock, a seaman named William Hall, of the ship Scotland,
lying in the Prince's-dock, who was in liquor, accidently fell
from the stage into the water, while crossing to his vessel.
Police-officer No. 499 (Shaban) heard the plunge, and, after
giving the alarm, ran to the spot with the grapnel and rope.
On the grapnel being thrown to the man he seized it and
was supported on the surface of the water until custom-house
officer riffin was lowered with a rope. Griffin succeeded
in bringing the seaman almost to the margin of the quay,
but being unable to retain his hold, was obliged to let go.
After again falling into the water, the man seized the rope
attached to the grapnel, and was ultimately hauled upon the
quay, and conveyed to the British Queen receiving-house,
and a hot bath applied. He is now quite out of danger.
PASTORAL AID SOCIETY.—A monthly meeting of the
committee of the Church Pastoral Aid Society was held on
the sth of March, when 12 additional grants were voted. The
society now aids 260 incumbents, having an aggregate popu-
lation of 1,943,753 souls, or each on an average 7475 souls,
while the average amount of their incomes is only £164. 126
of these incumbents are without parsonage houses. The
grants are to provide stipends for 274 clergymen and 36 lay
assistants, at a charge to the society, when all the appoint-
ments shall be made by the incumbents, of £24,244 per
annum. 179 clerymen and 31 lay assistants are now at their
important labours, supported by the society of a charge of
£15,639 per annum.
TIIE ASSlZES.—Although Mr. Justice Erskine sat in the
Crown Court at York from eight o'clock in the morning till
a late hour at night, on four of the seven days that the as-
sizes have been held, and although he had been assisted on
one day by Mr. Starkie, Q. C., up to yesterday only 44 pri-
soners had been disposed of out of 123 in the calendar and
32 out on bail. It is, therefore, morally certain that the
business cannot be got through before Thursday next, the
Commission day at Lancaster; and there is, in consequence,
some expectation that the Lancaster Assizes will be post-
poned till after those at Liverpool, but nothing certain was
known at York last night.—Leeds Intelligencer.
GARNETT v. SOWLER.—Mr. Garnett, of the Manchester
Guardian, has applied to one of the judges, but whether
successfully has not transpired, to remove the venue in this
case from Liverpool to Lancaster, on the ground that, in the
opinion of the plaintiff, the public mind in this district is too
much prejudiced to have the case decided with impartiality.

PROPOSED NEW MARKET.—We find that an address to
the Common Council, relative to the building of a market on
the site of the old Custowhhouse. instead of altering the
present market in Cleveland-square, is in course of signature,
and has been very numerously signed by the most respectable
part of the inhabitants of that neighbourhood.
LIVERPOOL WATCH RATE BILL.—BREVIATE OF TIIE
BILL.—The object of this bill is to enable the municipal cor-
poration of Liverpool to make good the deficiency of the pre-
sent watch rate out of the borough fund. The watch rate
which, under the municipal corporation act (6 Will. IV.,
c. 76, sec. 2) the town council are empowered to levy, is
stated in the preamble to be greatly insufficient to defray the
expenses of the maintenance and establishment of the day
and night police of the borough ; and the borough fund, after
the demands upon it, is stated to be fully sufficient to make
good the deficiency. The bill accordingly empowers the
council, if they in their discretion think fit, but not other-
wise, to apply any part of the surplus of the borough fund,
after answering the purposes to which it is made liable by the
municipal corporation act, in payment of such part of the
expense of maintaining a day and night police as the the watch
rate authorized by the municipal act may be sufficient to
satisfy. And it authorises the council to abstain, so long as
they:think fit, from levying a rate under the powers of the act
of last session, for more equally assessing watch rates (2 and
3 Viet., c. 28.)

THE BLUE COAT HOSPITAL.—From the annual report of
the Blue Coat Hospital we learn, that the income of the
year has been sufficient to meet the expenditure, notwith-
standing that the expenses exceed any former year, owing to
the high price of provisions and the extra repairs required in
consequence of the injury the building sustained from the
storm in the early part of last year. There are 350 children
in the schools, boarded and educated at an expense of from
£lO to £lB per child. We cannot sufficiently extol the
management of this institution, nor estimate too highly the
benefits it confers upon the objects of its care : and we sin-
cerely trust, its friends will not relax in their efforts to per-
petuate its efficiency. For one hundred and thirty-two
years it has, silently and unostentatiously, been diffusing
the blessings of a sound religious and moral education to a
class of children, chiefly orphans, but all especially objects of
public bounty ; and its fruits are before the public in in-
numerable instances of individuals becoming eminent in the
various walks of society. The charity appeals with resist-
less force to the feelings of every father of a family : for in
a community where the fluctuations of trade and commerce
change the position of the people so frequently, and some-
times so unexpectedly, who can tell how soon his helpless
and innocent offspring may not be grateful for protection in
this asylum of religion and virtue?

There is one more remark in the article which has
drawn forth these observations which we cannot pass
by in silence. The " contemporary print" of Satur-
day says—" It is by such inconsiderate, unwise, and
improper advocacy of the Conservative cause that the
worst injuries have been inflicted upon the party who
are most anxious, earnest, and energetic in their en-
deavours to promote its success." As far as we can
make any sense of this passage it " seems to convey"
an imputation that we indulged in language too strong
for the occasion, while denouncing the atrocious pro-
ceedings of the Popish party in the Sessions-house.
Such an accusation is somewhat out of place in the
columns of our contemporary, than whom few are
greater proficients in the " vulgar tongue?' May we
be permitted to say that the namby-pamby, compli-
mentary style in which our contemporary has alluded
to the proceedings of Thursday has sadly disappointed
his admirers, who made up their mind to enjoy, on
Saturday morning, a slashing article against the whole
kit of Papists and Reformers who figured at both end

INSOLVENT COURT AT LANCASTER.—This court was
opened at Lancaster on Tuesday last, before Thomas Barton
Bowen, Esq., at which court 167 insolvents applied for their
discharge, of which number 34 had received notice of oppo-
sition, and six discharged from plaintiffs prior to their hear-
ing. Counsel present—Messrs. Venables, Bateman, Mor-
land, James, Monk, and Sturgeon. Nothing particultir has
occurred, and the court is likely to terminate, it' not on
Theturday evening, certainly in good time on Alonday.
following are the most interesting particulars
been disclosed during the sitting :—ln the case of James
Gent, which have
Gent, the learned commissioner censured
the conduct of an attorney residing in Cschihonarrlsiv,e(rlv:hhoo had
forwarded forwarded to the gaoler this insolvent'si
y discharge
trine previous
very poor man with a large family)
concluded
his to the man being brought before ttahhe%e•eclw.ouhrotl
his observations by stigmatising .e
transaction scaocnt
Manchester, and had disposed
worth, who was a publican in
exceedingly harsh and disgraceful. The case of John Ash-
exceeding £3OO, was heard on
before his arrest, for a su
of his stock-in-trade andm household furniture a few months
this large .
' the whole of sum m gambling
Thursday, and he was remanded for sixteen calendar months,
having expended
and horse-racing.—.Freston Pilot.

The start took place at about half-past nine o'clock. The
ground, (part of a large field that had been in grass,) was
nearly level, and the soil was one of the best, considering its
condition, which could possibly have been chosen. It was
of a light, peaty nature, and so compacted by the recent
moisture that it was easily cut up, by a well driven plough,
and showed the work done to advantage. The scene during
the heat of the trial, and indeed until its close, was exceed-
ingly animated, and never was a poor field so tortured and
cut up by simultaneous teams,—alheit the peculiar neatness
and precision of the cutting instruments atoned for the
cruelty. The almost green sward was immediately resolved
into the black loam, but in such beautiful, straight, and uni-
form ridges, that the transition conveyed a pleasing impression
of improvement. The plots ploughed reminded us of the
upturning of a long-neglected garden again formed into onion
beds. _ _

The arrival of compao during the day brought an acces-
sion of venders of all sorts of " field" commodities, in the
shape of gingerbread, ginge-beer, Orrnskirk gingerbread,
oranges, segars, &c. Covered carts and other conveyances
were also on the ground, the huts of which supplied the
thirsty.lieges with draughts of " the nut-brown ale."
After the ploughing, some difficulty arose in clearing the
field of the collected multitude, so as to admit the judges to
view the ploughed land without interruption. Mr. Cannell,
by strenuous and polite exertions, at length succeeded in ob-
taining a clear field, and the assembled hundreds held their
way towards the hotel. The greatest pains and anxiety ap-
peared to be taken by the judges, in investigating the respec-
tive claims of the candidates, and many of the company as-
sembled at the inn had, their homes being distant, dined be-
fore their return.

The dinner, provided by Mr. Forshaw, of the Sefton
Arms Hotel, was all that could be wished—consisting ap-
propriately of the best animal and vegetable productions of
our own soil—than which none are more savoury or nu-
tricious.

JOHN FORMBY, Esq. ably occupied the chair. On the
removal rof the cloth, after about seventy gentlemen had
partaken of the substantials, the Chairman proposed suc-
cessively " The Queen and her Royal Consort Prince
Albert"—" The Queen Dowager and the rest of the Royal
Family"—and The Army and Navy," all of which were
heartily received.
During the intervals, between the toasts, the Chairman
called for the several successful ploughmen of the day, and
distributed to each his respective prize. The fine manly ap-
pearance and homely remarks of these sturdy English
yeomen, excited great interest amongst the company. The
Prizes were awarded as follows :-
Ist, No. 12, Earl of Derby
2d, 17, Mr. J. Garner
3d, 19, C. Scarisbrick, Esq.
4th, 16, William Webster, jun., Esq.
sth, 3, Mrs. Tyrer.
(For the names of the ploughmen, &c., see the foregoing
table.

The next toast was " The Earl of Derby," which was re-
ceived with great applause.
The CH AIRMAN remarked, that his lordship's health had
so much improved, that he contemplated a journey to Lon-
don. Drunk with three times three. _

Lord Stanley's health was next drunk with equal honours.
The CHAIRMAN passed a high eulogium on his lordship's
character, as a man and as a peculiar friend of the society.
both pecuniary and otherwise. They could not, indeed, do
without him. (Great applause.)
The health of the Earl of Sefton (on whose ground the
match took place) was then drunk with enthusiasm.
Mr. Hall responded to the toast,—remarking, in eloquent
terms, on his lordship's devotion to the interests of agricul-
ture, and his good wishes to the Liverpool Agricultural So-
ciety. The principle pursued by that nobleman was, and
ever would be, " live and let live." (Cheers.)
_

Amongst the subsequent toasts were " 'the Liverpool
Agricultural Society, and prosperity to it,"—ably responded
to by Mr. Ashcroft ; and " The Three Judges,"—responded
to by Mr. Baxter, who proposed " God speed the plough."
(Great cheering.) " The successful competitors" was most
ably responded to by Mr. Garner. The health of Mr. Led-
ger, the active and intelligent Secretary of the Society, was
drunk with great applause. Mr. L. returned thanks in a
very eloquent and feeling manner.
Dr. Siller, of Rainford, ably replied on his health being
given. " The Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool were
not forgotten ; the company separated highly pleased with
the proceedings of the day.
In conclusion, the ploughing, with one or two exceptions,
showed a decided improvement upon what has been exhibited
in former years in this county. The ploughs, with the ex-
ception of two, were all iron, or Scotch ploughs; and the
system of our northern neighbours was proved to be supe-
rior. The result cannot fail to be highly and nationally
beneficial, and every one who witnessed the contest would
exclaim with us, " Success to the Liverpool Agricultural
Association."

MODEL OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.—This extra-
ordinary and beautiful work of art is now on view at the Ly-
cmum Lecture Room, Bold-street. It gives a faithful repre-
sentation of the exact position occupied by every regiment on
the field of Waterloo, on the memorable 18th of June, when
Wellington consummated his brilliant career of victories by
the overthrow of Napoleon. The face of the country, with
all the objects, buildings, trees, roads, together with the
troops, horse and foot, artillery, &c. are faithfully represent-
ed. The whole is seen to great advantage by the aid of the
Catoptric Light. We understand that this model is on sale.
—See Advt.
- - - -

--
THEFT—
BY A SERVANT.—Yesterday John Irving and
Henry Brown were placed at the bar of the Police-court,
under the following circumstances :—lnspector Poole stated,
that about seven o'clock on Satuirnda4uekveen.sitnrgeeht
,e in 7as sent
for to the house of Dr. conse-
quence Marshall, of some silver title-spoons having been stolen. He
found that Brown had been engaged as errand-boy there,
but had left the service suddenly on Wednesday, and that
on Thursday two spoons were missed. He went to the house
of the prisoners sister in Cropper-street, and there found
him. On charging him with. the felony, his sister said to
him, I know you are guilty, because you were out late on
Thursday night. The prisoner then confessed he had taken
them, and sold them at a shop in Paradise-street, kept by a
person named M`Greg, for 18s. Inspector Poole went there,
and, with.some trouble, obtained an entrance, when he found
the two spoons. It appeared that the other prisoner had
bought them from Brown, but had made no entry of the
transaction. On Sunday Dr. Marshall sent for Poole again,
and stated that a silver tea-spoon and a book had been
missed. He went again to M`Greg's shop, and found the
spoon in the window; M`Greg refused to tell what he had
given for it, but said he should smart for what he had done
on Saturday night.—Mr. Yates, who appeared for Irving,
said he was a very illiterate man—that when he bought the
spoon he had asked the lad whether he had come by
. it ho-
nestly, and looked over a file to see if they had any informa-
tion of such property having been stolen. He called a wit-
ness, who made a statement to this effect. —After some re-
marks from Mr. Rushton relative to M`Greg's part in the
transaction, Irving was discharged, and Brown committed
for trial at the next sessions.