The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-25 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STARDIED

Sts,—l cannot believe that the Churchmen of Liverpool
really understand the church-rate question, or they never
would take it so coolly as they do. If the three farthing
rate is refused, the parish churches will remain unrepaired ;
all the attendants, except the clergy, unpaid ; the organs,
choirs, and bells silenced ; the illuminated clocks darkened;
and the means for the decent maintenance of public wor-
ship withdrawn. Not one sixpence of the twopenny pa-
rochial rate can be applied to the parish churches ; and
do they deliberately and advisedly mean that this should
be done ? The opponents of the church-rate say-that the
congregations at the
.parish churches should furnish the
means. Can they seriously mean what they say ? Half
of St. Peter's Church is occupied by the poor. The whole
of St. Nicholas' is free to all the parishioners ; and the
rectors have given up legal statutable claims to pew rents
which amounted to £6O a year. Is it meant that such
.congregations have the ability, or should be called upon,
to furnish money for such purposes as the repair of the
parish churches, and the maintenance of parochial worship
as it ought to be maintained in a wealthy parish like
Liverpool ? They cannot afford it, if they would.. Again,
the opponents of the church-rate say that the parish
churches and their clergy are of no use to any but those
who belong to the church, and therefore should be sup-
ported by none but churchmen. Is this true? Are the
rectors of no use to any but churchmen? Rector Camp-
bell has, I believe, worked 25 years in the parish, and
done quite as much service to dissenters as he has to
churchmen. Rector Brooks has worked considerably
more than 50 years in his native town, in works of uni-
versal charity and universal utility, in the service of all,
dissenters as well as churchmen ; and do the people of
Liverpool mean deliberately and advisedly to cast these
gentlemen off in their old age, and throw them on the
voluntary principle, and send them, cap in hand, to beg
for alms and oblations to wash their surplices, and pay
for their organs, and choirs, and the repairs of their
churches ? Is this decent ? is this respectful ? is it really
what the people of Liverpool really mean ? I can hardly
think it possible. Again, speaking to churchmen, I would
say, do you mean that the Established Church should re-
main a part and parcel of the British constitution, or do
you not ? If you do, you must support it as such. A
man, personating a cobbler, said in vestry, why should he
pay to the church ? the church was of no use to him. If
he paid the parson for a church he did not use, why should
not the parson pay him for a pair of useless shoes-? This
king of the:cobblers, no doubt, could cobble a fresh con-
stitution after his own fashion, and say, what use to me
is a Queen, with five or six palaces and 3 or £400,000 a
year ? what do I want with a Mayor, with a cocked hat,
and a fine coach, and £2OOO a year, and a set of upstart
town councillors, swilling champagne ? Dissenters who'
advocate a separation of church and state, are only main-
taining their principle in refusing a church-rate. Church-
men, who profess to uphold an established church, desert
their principles if they refuse to vote for it. The church
rate in Liverpool, after all, has been nothing more than a
voluntary rate for many years. Nobody
ranbdreaethhereoffortehethhearmpreosnenyt
thaoptposhiastionpreisvaanileduns;
that could not
afford to pay, or had a really conscientious scruple, has
ever been sued, or had his conscientious scruples dis-
caturbededso;
long between the parochial clergy and the parishioners,
and an unmerited affront to men who have deserved better
at their hands.--your obedient servant,
ANGLICUS.

the
eSlbßeirs grievedlat‘vba:t.ti t.Peter's
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
' ringing
Churches
had been discontinued by order of the churchn-ardens, and
no doubt the clocks, about the most useful in the town,
will aLso cease their usual gyrations. I cannot but think
the recent agitation a piece of great folly, seeing the
churchwardens have not eliforc the rate from dissen-
ters : indeed I Icaow several parties who have not paid it
,tov.rn, who has the slight-
for years. indeed,
movement of Messrs.
wiun oUtrgalulohwarttihisJefffreesryh,
and Co., is another blow at the Church, and doubtless they
will never rest satisfied until Romanism and Dissent reign
slight-
est sattns
urely eto e rnyiithroughoutiohldab t
athhene
tc h.land.nutrhe
attack of its enemies to be successful, nor suffer the merry
bells and clocks of their parish churches, purchased by
the inhabit.a.nts, to be sacrificed to a " Three farthings
wise and pound foolish" act of folly.—l am, Sir, yours, eik•
ARGus.

Liverpool, April 24, 1854,

Dining Rooms, Slater-court,
FISH TABLE D'HOTES will he provided continuously at
on Wednesday (to-niorrow), the Special
Fast Day. First Table d'Hote at one o'clock--will be
continuous till seven o'clock. Charge, Is. 6d, each. Mer-
chants' Dinir.g Rooms, Slater-court, Castle-street.
eMkr,:tleF-seetrZs, Merchants.