The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOD TIMES..

SlR,—Permit me, through the medium of your valuable
paper, to reply.to the letter from the churchwardens of St.
Michael's Church, which appeared in the Liverpool Courier
of yesterday, in which they state that they will be able "to
furnish proofs exposing the misrepresentations of the
anonymous writer," which appeared in the Standard of
Tuesday last. I would ask them first, did'not Mr. Carpenter
propose that Mr. Morrall should retire from the chaplaincy
of the church ; he, the latter gentleman,. allowing Mr. Car-
penter a sum ont of his stipend for a curate?' And again, I
would ask them if they did not issue placards announcing an
afternoon service, in accordance with the act of parliament;
and an evening' service, to be taken by Mr. Carpenter, as-
sisted by the Rev. Mr. Bardsley, without Mr. Morrell's con-
currence?' They cannot deny this ; if they do, we must ap-
peal to the bishop of the diocese, who decided, not many
months since., that Mr. Carpenter could not exclude Mr. Mor-
rell from taking part in any service held at that church. The
proposition spoken of as having been made by Mr. Carpenter
to separate services was this—that Mr. Carpenter should take
the morning service, Mr. Morrall the afternoon, and Mr.
Bardsley the evening. This, of course, Mr. Morrall imme
dialely declined, and reversed the offer so far as regards the
morning service; that he, Mr. Morrall, should take the
morning service, and Mr. Carpenter the afternoon. Mr.
Carpenter replied that the committee of the schools would
not consent to this; so the matter remained, Mr. Bardsley
doing duty for Mr. Carpenter in the afternoon, and occa-
sionally in the morning. Mr.. Pughe has been called in by
Mr. Morrall to assist him, and it has been at the request of
some members of the congregation that he has been going
through a course of sermons on the Church Liturgy. Mr.
Carpenter has not only done all in his power to divide the
congregation, but he has actually instituted an additions)
sacrament on the first Sunday in the month (thereby making
two Sundays in the month to celebrate this divine ordinance),
that his own followers might be suited, and kept entirely
separate. Mr. Morrall's party has never shown any distinc-
tion towards Mr. Carpenter or his services, although un-
christian and ungentlemanly language has invariably been
poured forth from the• pulpit by that gentleman; such
epithets as Romanista, semi-Romanists, Tractarians,double-
faced Churchmen, have been frequently used. 'get, in
the face of all this, Mr. Morrall's followers have made no
difference, and have borne with this abuse, remembering that,
by making a distinction in the church, it would he not only
showing a disrespect to the man, but to God.
Before I draw to-a close, I have only to add that I wish it to
be publicly known that the churchwardens are men after Mr.
Carpenter's own heart, one being appointed by him, and the
other by the Corporation, upon his recommendation.—l am,
Sir, your obedient servant, J. HARRISON JACKSON.
October 27, 1853.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY.

GENTLEMEN,—We shall be obliged to you if you will allow
us to notice some few statements in the Liverpool Times of
to-day, relative to the unhappy state of things in St. Michael's
Church. For the present, we shall abstain from entering
into full particulars. The editor says that in our letter to the
Courier we did not "express regret at the scandalous scene
of last Sunday;" and alluding to the same occurrence else-
where, he speaks of "creating a disturbance in a public
place of worship."
It is impossible for a large number of persons to retire from
any building without some noise ; but we assert that there
was much less noise than could have been anticipated. The
Standard's account is, as might be expected, incorrect in
that as in other points. In proof of this we appeal to the
Albion, the writer in which was an eye-witness of what oc-
curred. and is we understand, a gentleman connected with
the press who is not a member of St. Michael's Church. His
words are—" The congregation, as quietly as possible, left
the church." If we omitted to say that it was a painful oc-
currence, it is not that we and all the congregation did not
feel it to be so. With such feelings, such a step could not
have been taken except there had been some urgent necessity.
Would men, some of them advancing in years, heads of
families, men of the most respectable character, in different
stations of life, have adopted such a course lightly and without
cause ? It is not likely ; it was after other means had been
ineffectually tried that this course was at last resorted to.
And the objections of the people were not, as erroneously
stated, to a particular view of baptism, about which the best
of men may differ, but because the doctrines generally taught
are not, in the opinion of the congregation, of a protestant
character.
Those who could afford to pay for pews could certainly have
gone elsewhere ; but what are the poor to do, for whom more
than 600 comfortable sittings are provided at the public
expense in St. Michael's, .and who are so ill provided with
accommodation in other churches? As to the interference of
magistrates and police, it seems to us somewhat inconsistent
with the principles of the Liverpool Times to suggest this
mode of preventing persons from peacefully leaving a church
after the prayers are ended, and before the sermon begins.
Does the writer propose to lock the doors and keep .a 14.. in, or
to exact an engagement from every one entering, the ministers
as well as the people, to remain to hear the sermon? Gentle-
men, is there a law in England to authorise all this?
Before we conclude we wish to say a few words about a
letter in the Liverpool Times of to-day, which. professes to be
a reply to ours, and which is signed "J. Harrison
.Jackson."
Of this gentleman we never heard before. There is no such
name in the "Liverpool Directory," nor among the seat
holders 9r free sitters in St. Michael's; a§ Air (i§ eye cap

tain. There are a few persons not belonging to St. Michael's
district who occasionally attend our church, and occasionally
go to St. Martin's; perhaps Mr. Jackson is one of these. In
his letter lie writes that Mr. Pughe began a course ofasennons
" at the request of some members of the congregation." This
is the first time we have heard of such a request. Will
Jackson be good enough to tell us who made the request,
their numbers, and their. names? He speaks, also, of " Mr.
Morrall's party." Whom does it include? Will he name one
seat holder or one free sitter, except it be one of those casual
attendants' already alluded to? We can assare you, gentle-
men, this is no personal quarrel: it is for true Protestant
principles we are contending ; . and the public at large will be
glad to learn there is scarcely a member of St. Michael's con-
gregation tainted with Tractarianism ; but, on the contrary,
they, as well as the inhabitants of the district, are almost to a
man steadfastly attached to the principles that we are ,cleter-
rniaed to maintain.—Yours, &c.,
T. W. Cooxsos, ll Churchwardens
Was. CHRIsTIAN,J Of St. Michael's.
_ .

Liverpool, October 27, 1833.
P.S.—Pernaps the public are not aware that on two previous
occasions, when Mr. Pugh preached, several members of the
congregation successively retired while he was- preaching ;
and notwithstanding all this he was brought again, in direct
opposition to the feelings of the congregation, thus strongly
manifested.