The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

tfIE 'CHURCH PASTORAL AID SOCIETY.

We rejoice to he that an adjourned Meeting of the
Friends of the Pastoral Aid Society will be held on Fri..
day evening next, in the Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-
street. The Rev. H. M'Neile in the chair. We have
been asked to direct attention to the Advertisement in
our columns this day, we can do no better than by stat-
ing that the grants made for the support of Curates and
Scripture Readers in Liverpool, amount to £l,lOO per
annum, and inserting the following deeply interesting
extract, from one of the occasional papers published by
the Society, showing what it has been the honoured in-
strument of effecting in the parish of Whalley, near
Blackburn The parish is about twenty miles by thirty
in extent, and containing, seven years' ago, when the
Auxiliary to that Society was formed in that parish,
110,000 inhabitants :
" At the time of the Reformation, the population of
the parish of Whalley could not exceed 6,000. Therg
was then a church for every 400 inhabitants ; i. e., 15 in
all. In 1801 the population had increased to 49,000.
During this long interval one ruinated church had been
restored by the father of the present vicar, and one addi-
tional church built in 1788. Thus the year 1835 saw 17
churches for 100,000 inhabitants, or one church on the
average to every 6,000. The close of the year 1835
enumerates 33 churches, and six newly constituted eccle-
siastical districts, in which churches are about to be built."
" In each of these' places there is at least one public ser-
vice on each Lord's day, where formerly they could not
' hear,' for they were ' without a preacher ; and none
could ' preach,' because none could be ' sent.' School-
room services and Pastoral-aid grants may fairly lay
claim to seven of the 16 new churches ; for without
them as originators and pioneers, it is doubtful if one of
them had at this moment, in the present decade, raised
its heaven-directing spire."
" The present staff of clergy in this parish is 53, in
active duty."
" The next subject of inquiry that suggests itself is,
how are all these additional clergy, so recently brought
together in this one locality, maintained ? The profes-
sional income of the clergy of this parish in 1835 was, as
nearly as can be ascertained from official returns, £3,059
per annum ; in 1845 it is at least £7,231, exhibiting an
increase of £4,172, or 136 per cent."
" Of all the charitable sources of professional aid and
income, the Church Pastoral-Aid Society stands pre-
eminent, and calls forth our most grateful acknowledge-
ments. In 1841 its grants to this parish were 14 in num-
ber, and its pecuniary aid £986. In the year 1845 it still
enumerates 11 grants, at an expenditure of £990. From
this source alone, therefore, the parish derives one-fourth
part of its increased clerical income ; and the fact is eli-
cited, that this Society, supported by voluntary contribu-
tions, brings to the spiritual aid of this extensive district,
through its eleemosynary channel £290 per annum,
more than the whole arrangements of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have effected for it under the head of aug-
mentation of benefices, and £l9O a year more than the
important Act of Sir Robert Peel does in constituting
new parishes, or ecclesiastical districts. Comparing the
amount of the Society's grants with the aggregate amount
of clerical income, we arrive at the additional fact
that the Church Pastoral-Aid Society furnishes nearly a
Seventh part of the whole income of the Established Church
in this locality. Nor ought it to be overlooked that this pa-
rish, since it became connected with this Society, has drawn
from its funds no less a sum than £6,200 ; only a sixth of
which has the Whalley Branch Association been able to
return in testimony of its gratitude.

CHARITY OF THE IRISH IN FOREIGN COUN-
TRIES TO THEIR DISTRESSED. FELLOW-
COUNTRYMEN AT HOME.

It is an amiable feature in the Irish character, that in
comparative prosperity the claims of their less affluent
relations are rarely forgotten. In the Times of last week
the following statement is given bearing upon this subject;,
" It has generally been understood that the Irish emi-
grants to the United States have always remitted very
fully of their hard earnings to their relatives at home, but
most persons will be surprised to hear the extent of this
liberality. A few days since,' says our correspondent,
' I called upon the different houses in New York who are
in the daily practice of giving small draughts on Ireland,
from
,five dollars upwards, and requested from them an
accurate statement of the amount they had thus remitted
for Irish labourers, male and female, within the last 60
days, and also for the entire year of 1846. Here is the
result Total amount received in New York from Irish
labourers, male and female, during the months of Novem-
ber and December, 1846, 5'175,000, or equal to £35,000
sterling; ditto for the year 1846, 4'808,000, or £161,600
sterling. These remittances are understood to average
£3 to £4 each draught, and they are sent to all parts of
Ireland, and by every packet.' " From year to year,"
adds our correspondent, " they go on increasing with the
increase of emigration, and they prove most conclusively
that when Irishmen are afforded the opportunity of mak-
ing and saving money, they are industrious and thrifty.
I wish these facts could be given to the world, to show
the rich what the poor have done for suffering Ireland,
and especially that the Irish landlords might be made
aware of what their former tenants are doing for their
present ones.' "
Any one, who has occasionally been in the habit of
visiting the money order office in Liverpool, cannot fail
to have been struck with the number of Irish labourers
and others applying for orders for their friends at home;
and it is a well authenticated fact, which perhaps does eot
speak much in favor of the character of the swarms of Irish
now infesting Qui streets, and subsisting upon the rates
from industrious tradesmen, and still less in proof of their
real destitution, that this very class are daily remitting
money home, through this channel, for investment in the
saving banks, or to their companions in mendicancy.

ST. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH.
The appointment to the incumbency of this church is
at length made, in the selection, by the trustees, of the
Rev. Herbert Jones, curate of St. Church, Andrew's , and
fourth son of the Rev. John Jones, the respected
in-
cumbent. We, with others, should have been pleased to
have heard of the appointment of an older clergyman to
succeed Dr. Tattershall, but bearing in mind the small
amount of the stipend, we do not wonder that such a one
has not been obtained. The trustees have had an arduous
and delinte task to perform, and when we reflect upon their
matured judgment and respectability, we feel persuaded
that they have made the best appointment that was with-
in their reach; aud, viewing the case in this light, we are
sorry to hear complaints from the congregation of the
course the trustees have taken. Under existing circum-
strnces, the appointment being made, surely it will be
better to abide patiently, and hope for the best. Though
several members of the congregation expressed themselves
willing to contribute towards increasing the stipend, we
are not aware that the subject was brought before the
trustees in any tangible shape. -The,position for the Rev.
Herbert Jones will, of course, be a new one, and no
doubt he will feel his great responsibility in having the
sole charge of the flock ; he will, therefore, need every
encouragement and support, and much may depend upon
the congregation, under God, how far his spiritual labomai
among them may turn to good account. We hear he NMI!
not leave St. Andrew's Church without being deeply re-
gretted by the congregation to whom, in various ways, he
has so much attached himself. He is a young gentleman
devoted to the " work of the ministry," and is possessed
of very promising talents. Many of our readers may re-
member, from our announcement a few weeks since, that
he bore away the Narissian prize at Cambridge ;—the
subject of the essay (which we have heard pronounced, as
it must necessarily have been, a very able one,) being
" If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will
they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."