The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-08-02 00:00:00

Irish Corporations than pass such -a Bill as that lately
pressed upon parliament by Mr. O'Connell's Ministers.
In a word, Mr. Hodgson is a sound. and :fearlesS Con-
servative, and will stand by the insiittitionS of, the coun-
try, though most ready to reform all real abuses where-.
ever he may find them. At Newcastle, the...election was
decided expressly upon the ground of opposition to his
Majesty's Ministers ; and the electors were strongly
appealed to by Mr. Doubleday, a Whig-radical of talent
,
and a member of the New Corporatinn, to reject Mr,,
Hodgson, because his return for a Borough like New-
castle would be a death-blow to the Melbeurne Cabinet,
inasmuch as it would break the charm of their supposed
invincibility in the Boroughs under the Whig Corpora-
tion system. Doubleday added that if such an example
were set, it would be followed in other places. He was
right. It will be followed. And we again congratulate
Lord Melbourne on the confirmation his belief receives
that he has a majority of the country in his favour as
well as a majority of the House of Commons.

The little knot of Manchester Unitarians, led by
Potter, Wood, and Co., and kept in countenance by
Poulett Thomson, have had to send the subjoined peti-
tion to the House of Commons:—

"To the Honourable tho House of Commons in Parliament
assembled,

"The petition of the Standing Committee of United Dis-
senters of Manchester, appointed at a public meeting in
March, 18.34,

" Humbly sheweth,—That it has been the glory of the town
of Manchester to be freed and exempt from all corrupt corpora-
tions; civil and ecclesiastical (except the Collegiate Corpora•
Unt), and that your petitioners have heard with deep regret of
the introduction into your Honourable House of a Bill, founded
on the recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,
Which provides for the institution of a new bishop of Manchester,
with a political character to sustain as a Member of the House
of Lords.

" That the parish of Manchester comprises a poptilation of not
less than 300,000 persons, and that the county of Lancaster
contains considerably more than 1,500,000 inhabitants, the
great majority: of Which are Dissenters and seceders from the
Church as by'lai.established, who support their- oWn'religious
institutions by volnntary contributions.
" That in the county of Lancaster there are 292 churches,
and 581 Dissenting. and other chapels, being a majority of
nearly two to one in favour of the Dissenters.

"That although there are about twenty churches in this large
parish of Manchester, they are principally maintained by their
respective congregations, like all Dissenting chapels, and few
of the resident clergy receive any adequate emolument or bene-
fit whatever out of or from the parconage-houses, glebes, tithes,
baptismal, burial or wedding fees, except the Warden, Fellows,
Chaplains, Scc. of the existing Collegiate Church, all of whom
are ministrants in this one church, and three of them pluralists.
That your petitioners conscientiously believe that no religious
advantage can by possibility accrue to the inhabitants of Man-
chester, by inflicting on them the residence of a Bishop, Dean,
and Chapter.

" That this monstrous misapplication of the Church property
in Manchester is legalized by two old charters, the first of which
was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the population o
the parish of Manchester was below 10,000, and there was only
one church, and no Dissenting chapel whatever in the parish.
"That all experience has shown that wherever the influence
of an Established Clergy prevails most, the real interests of
religion wither or are stunted: to increase, therefore, the power
of the law-church in this neighbourhood would be, in the
opinion of your petitioners, not less injurious to the Christian
religion, than it would be unjust to the majority of professing
Christians of every other denomination.
" That it is in evidence, during the long existence of the
Collegiate Body, the members thereof have uniformly entered
into all the political opinions and convulsions of the day. That
during the reigns of George I. and 11. the Fellows and Chap-
lains were proved jacobites, and active promoters of the two
rebellions in 1715 and 1745. In the reign of George 111. the
members of the College were abettors of the ruinous American
and French, wars, and decided enemies of reform. and religious
liberty: and in our own times, as formerly, they have been
opposed to all liberal measures proposed by Government, and
active:partisans in all political feuds.

"That whilst the industry, wealth, intelligence, and liberal
opinions of Manchester have a special claim on the favour of
an enlightened administration, your petitioners cannot withhold
from an expression of their most lively fears that to plant a
'bishop, dean, and chapter in this important populous district
would not only endanger its peace and prosperity, but tend
greatly to alienate the affections of the people from his Majesty's
government, to uphold which many of your petitioners have
cheerfully given much of their time, vigorous efforts, and no
small proporticin of their prdperty.

" That the augmeniation and concentration of the political
power of the clergy of this district under a bishop will have no
beneficial influence whatever on the religious and moral we'.
fare of people not attendant on their ministrations; but, on the
contrary, cat' tend only to' revive the feuds of former times, and
to sow the seeds of-future'strifes, and interrupt the trade and
commerce of the town; thus, by rallying about the new dig_
nitary to be created alt the worst influences of religious ran-
cour and political animosity, will be endangered the now hap-
pily increasing harmony.which exists among all classes of the
people.

"That the Dissenters of Manchester have always been the
best and constant friends of liberty and the House of Hanover;
and the Collegiate body have, on their part, been the enemies
of both. Your petitioners deem it unjust, therefore, to increase
the power of a party which has ever been hostile to religious
freedom, and equally so to those principles which placed the
reigning family on the throne of these realms.
" That in the event of any subsequent commotions similar to
those which have existed in the manufacturing districts hereto-
fore, the presence of a bishop and his assistant would tend great-
ly to aggravate the danger contingent on any check given to the
peace and prosperity of this densely populous town and neigh-
bourhood

"That as the members of the Collegiate corporation, except
the warden, are self-elected, and having the patronage and
right of presentation to nearly all the churches in the parish;
and are in no wise under popular control, being bound together
by oaths not to reveal the secrets of the Chapter-house, your
petitioners humbly suggest that all self-elected and irresponsible
corporations, but more especially such as are professedly eccle-
siastical (although almost if not exclusively political), are of
antiquated origin, unadapted to the circumstances of the times
in which we live, incompatible with the progress of religious
and moral improvement, injurious to trade and commerce, and
subversive of civil liberty, and that all such monopolies ought
to he dissolved.

" Your petitioners, therefore, taking into consideration the
above premises, humbly pray that there may be no new creation
of a bishop for Manchester; but, on the contrary, that the Col-
legiate corporation of Manchester may, by acts similar to those
which created it, be for ever dissolved ; and your petitioners will
ever pray.

"Signed, by order and on behalf of the United Dissenters'
Committee, at a meeting specially convened and held this 18th
day of July, 18.3 G,
THOMAS II AHBOTTLE, Chairman."

This document makes a tremendous inroad upon our
space, yet it is too important to be lost, because it ex-
emplifies in the liveliest colours the surpassing impudence
of modern faction.

If there is one thing more than another to which
these people object, it is to what they term the interfer-
ence of one sect with the internal arrangements of
another sect; yet here we have this mere sect presuming
to interfere with the internal arrangement of the Esta-
blished Church, no~w•ithstanding that the new see will
not take one farthing of money out of their pockets.

But the impudence of this petition is not its gravest
fault ; it is literally stuffed with falsehood and libel from
beginning to end. The Manchester dissenters, forsooth,
were always the firmest friends of the House of Hanover,
whereas the Collegiate Clergy were jacobites in 1715
and 1745; the inference being, of course, that the ex-
isting Clergy are in their hearts jacobites also. Prove
to us that they are no better friends to the House of
Hanover than the Standing Committee of these " United
Dissenters of Manchester," and we shall be ready to ad-
mit that King William the Fourth ought to keep them
at arm's length !

Their fiction as to the superiority of their numbers
over those of the Establishment is effectually disposed of
by the statistics of a Manchester contemporary :

"The petitioners assert that there are in Lancashire 292
churches and 381 dissenting chapels. Everybody knows that
no comparison can be instituted between the extent of sittings
in churches and chapels; the Collegiate Church of this town,
for example, would furnish sittings for more people than half-a-
dozen of the largest dissenting chapels in the town. But we wil
go a step further, first premising that the Wesleyan Methodists,
who are always, in these calculations, taken as dissenters, are
in fact not so, but a faithful branch of the church. Either they
must be counted as actual churchmen, or for the present purpose
they ought to he taken as neutrals; the latter probably is the
fairer course. We find, then, according to an actual survey
made three or four years ago, that there are, in Manchester and
Salfoni, ,i!tin,,:s in the churches I'm. about 30,000 (exclusive of
the Scotch church) persons; in the methodist chapels for up
wards of 9000;
and in the dissenting chapels for about 21,0001
including therein nearly 1:l0t) Roman, Catholic chapel sittings,