The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-29 00:00:00

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

SEACOMBE FERRY.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Sxn,—l have before me a circular, dated Ist February,
1853, addressed to me as a contractor, from Mr. J. Penny,
who says he is for the proprietor of the above ferry, wherein
he observes that much inconvenience has been experienced
by all persons using the ferry, but that he hopes very
shortly to make such arrangements as will secure its effi-
cient working. Now I would first ask my neighbours
when this short time is to commence, for, setting aside the
numerous delays and difficulties experienced by us since
the date of that circular, I will just mention, that the five
o'clock boat from Seacombe, on Friday, did not land her
passengers at the Landing-stage at Liverpool until about
five minutes to six o'clock, and the half-past five boat from
Liverpool did not laud her passengers at Seacombe until
after six o'clock; and you know, as well as I, that delays of
this kind are very frequent, and the fact is the two boats
now employed to carry Her Majesty's lieges across the river
are inefficient for the purpose, and not only so, but one or
other is very frequently taken off for repairs. How far
Mr. Penny may have been prevented by circumstances to
secure the efficient working of the ferry, I know not ; but
that the inhabitants should be so neglected, and conse-
quently suffer, by such mismanagement of some one, ells
for the immediate interference of all those whose property
is deteriorated by at least IS per cent. ; and last, though
not least, of those parents who have sons in offices in
Liverpool, who are not able to be punctual to their business
in town. I, therefore, would advise that three or four
active men come forward and call a meeting of the inhabi-
tants, to devise upon the best method of extricating our-
selves from this abominable system, as at present carried
ou ; and that a stroll., remonstrance be sent to the depart-
ment of government immediately concerned, praying that
a strict inquiry may be instituted into the abuses carried
on with the working of the ferry, and that the outrage on
the public feeling of this district, so long perpetrated, meet
with its deserved censure.—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant, AN OLD RESIDENT.
Seacombe, November 28, 1853. •

THE REV. E. GIRDLESTONE AND THE
AGENT OF THE. NATIONAL SOCIETY.
Deane Vicarage, Nov. 24, 1853.
TIIE Rev. E. Girdlestone presents his compliments to
the Editor of the Liverpool Standard, and requests the
favour of his inserting the subjoined correspondence.

Deane Vicarage, Boltou-le-Moors,
October 27th, 1853.
Sln,—ln a second printed letter addressed by you to
Mr. Pollock, a copy of which you have not had the
courtesy to send to me, though you have made free use of
my name in it, I find the following statements :
At p. 10, " That one speaker, Mr. Girdlestone, should
have denounced as Romish mummers' the whole con-
gregation worshipping at St. Mark's Chapel, and, by im-
plication, many hundred others in the land." I myself,
some weeks ago, furnished you, at your own request, with
a corrected report of my speech at Liverpool, to which you
refer in the above words. • Will you be kind enough to
point out to me the exact words in that report on which
the above charge is founded ?
At p. 5 of the same letter, I find the following state-
ment :—" I need not trouble my readers with more de-
tails, but I have authority for saying that, during the past
ten years, from £40,000 to £50,000 per annum has been
the average amount received and expended by the Na-
tional Society, and this quite independent of trust-money
and Government grants.'
In a note at the bottom of the same page, I find you
state. the " general fund for 1852 to have been £8,782
16s. Od. ; and for 1853, £12,577 13s. 6d." Will you be
kind enough to refer me to the page, in any one of the
published annual reports of the Society, which I have
searched in vain, in which authority for the first of the
above statements can be found ? And will you likewise be
kind enough to reconcile your second statement in the
note above referred to with the annual report of the So-
ciety for 1853, in Appendix No. 3 of which I find the fol-
lowing item :—" To nett amount of subscriptions and
donations to the 12th of May, £8.235 2s. 10d."
In your letter to Mr. Pollock, you dispute only two of
the facts stated by me. With reference to the first,
namely, the &ming of the students, you adduce no evi-
dence to disprove it. I need, therefore, merely say, that
my informant, a beneficed clergyman well known all over
England, himself witnessed that example of levity on the
part of the students, immediately after Sunday morning
service. With respect to the cricket, I beg leave to refer
the Principal of St. Mark's—who, you say, denies the
charge—to my authority, namely, p. 8 of a pamphlet,
" Romanising Character of National School Society.
Nisbet and Co. 1851," which has had a wide circula-
tion, and has never, to my knowledge, been answered.--
Your obedient servant, E GIRDLEsToNs.
F. S. Warren, Esq.

Durham, 29th October, 1853.
REV. Sin,—My.friend in Liverpool, who has managed
the publishing of my letters to ➢ir. Pollock, ought to
have sent a copy to you a fortnight ago. There has been
an oversight on his part, for which I am sorry. I dis-
claim any the slightest intention of discourtesy towards you.
I have written to London for the book you name as
published by Nisbet. When I have seen it, and also had
time to make one or two more inquiries in detail on the
point of income, I will have the pleasure of fully answering
your note.—Your obedient servant,
Rev. E. Girdlestone. FIIEDCK. S. WAMBER.

National Society's Office, Sanctuary, Westminster,
Nov. 18th, 1853.
REV. SlR,—Having succeeded in obtaining a copy of
the pamphlet, headed " Romanizing Character," and
also having had an opportunity of going through the old
reports of the Society, I am able to answer your letter of
the 27th of last month.

Firstly,—You ask me to refer you to the words in your
speech at Liverpool, on which I ground my charge
against you of having denounced as "Romish mummers"
the congregation worshipping at St. Mark's Collegiate
Chapel. I find at page 19 of the authorised report, which
contains your speech, the following words spoken by you :
" These Romish mummeries of music were carried on
through the whole service." Now, the service at St.
Mark's is essentially congregational, and I see no dif-
ference between telling a number of persons that they
habitually take part in " Romish mummeries," and that
they are Romish mummers."
Secondly,—You ask my authority—in contradiction to
the oft-repeated statement of yourself and others that
the income of the Society stopped at £9,ooo—for saying
that the average income had, for the last 10 or 15 years,
been £4.0,000 to £50,000. I make good my statement, by
saying that the Society has received, in round figures, on
account of, annually,

General Fund
£lO,OOO
Queen's Letter Fund, £27,000 triennially, or
Special Fund, £130,000 to £150,000, say
Welsh Education Fund, £lO,OOO in donations or 1,000
Ditto, Annual Income 2,000
St. Mark's, Whiteland's, and Battersea Colleges,

about £30,000, or - 3,000
Westminster Training School, £20,000, 0r......... 2,000

E 40,000
The Society has also, from time to time, received various
sums to devote to special objects; I give one instance—
Bethnall-Green School Fund. 1 think, at least, I have
shown that £9,000, the fighre which constantly appears
in the report of your speeches, is a very unfair representa-
tion of the Society's actual income.
Your next question has reference to the amount of the
general fund in 1832-3. It is a simple sum in arithmetic.
If you will be good enough to take the balance-sheet,
deduct from the sum total the government grants and
trust-money funds, you will find the balance as I gave it,
£12,577 13s. 2d.
I now approach a painful and distasteful task—your two
charges against St. Mark's.
First,—As to the alleged " basing" of the students.
Most certainly I cannot take upon myself to deny, for
there is no way of disproving it, that some one out of 70
or 80 young men, gathered from all parts of the country,
may have, on some occasion, during the Sunday, imitated
the cry of the sheep which feed in a neighbouring meadow.
But are you serious in bringing this forward against an
educational establishment, and founding on it a grave
charge of breach of the Fourth Commandment ? When
asked a year ago for proof of the insinuations against this
College contained in your memorial, why did you not lay
bare this astounding fact ; or why, when with Mr.
Colquhoun you had an interview with the Primate and
the Bishop of London, did you then ignore this dreadful
story, and reserve it for a platform speech at Liverpool ?
' But your charge of "cricket-playing" is of a different
description, for a game of that kind could not be played
without the knowledge and sanction of the authorities.
The principal says, " Your well-known fact is simply and
merely a falsehood. " Upon which you refer him and me
to page 8 of a certain pamphlet ; that pamphlet is now
before me. Will it be credited, that neither at page 8, or
at all in the book, is even the slightest mention made of
the game of cricket. I will not add a word of comment.
But of the miserable pamphlet itself, printed, as I was told
the other day by Nisbet, at the office of the Record, I will
say this : a sadder exhibition of perverted facts and pitiful
inuendoes could not have been made. A spirit of levity,
when speaking of holy things and places, so gross as to
-degenerate into blasphemy, pervades the whole. The
anonymous writer dares to go into the presence of
Almighty God, to pretend to join in worshipping Him, and
then goes home, with notes taken on the spot, to turn
what he has seen and heard into burlesque. And to such
a polluted source does the Vicar of Deane go for "well-
known facts" on which to build his attacks on the
National Society. I should scarcely know how to restrain
my language, were comment necessary, within the
bounds which charity requires.—l remain, Rev. Sir, your
obedient servant, FILBDERIC S. WARBRIf.
Rev. E. Girdlestone.
P.S.—As you have appealed to the Liverpool newspaper,
I reserve to myself the right to publish this.

Deane Vicarage, Nov. 21, 1853.

Srn,—l received on November 19th your reply to my
letter of October 27th. I decline to take any notice, as
being irrelevant to the matter in hand, of any expression
of opinion concerning myself or others contained in that
letter. But the ingenuity with which you still continue
to disguise facts and mutilate quotations must be exposed.
Firstly,— There is the widest possible difference between
denouncing practices and persons. In the words which
you have quoted from my speech, it is true, I denounced
mummeries; but I called no man " a mummer." Much
less did I denounce as Romish mummers " the whole con-
gregation worshipping at St. Mark's Chapel, and by
implication many hundred others in the land." By no
perversion of language, however ingenious, can such a
charge be founded on my words.
Secondly,—My second request to you was, to "refer me
to the page in any one of the published annual reports of
the Society, in which authority" for your statistics could
be found. You have not referred me to any report, but
to an ipse dixit of your own, which is of no authority
whatever. Granting, however, for the sake of argument,
that your saying is of authority, there is nothing in it, after
all, which contradicts my owu statement and that of my
friends, namely, that the income of the National fociety,
derived from donations and annual subscriptions, is, in
round numbers, not more than X 9,000. The various