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

THE POLL FOR A CHURCH-RATE.

TIXE poll for a rate of three farthings in the pound, in
order to enable the Churchwardens to maintain the de-
cencies of public worship in the Parish Churches of
Liverpool, is now being proceeded with. The following
were the numbers at the close of each day :

FIRST DAY-THURSDAY

Persons. Votes.
.. 302 852
.. 317
SECOND DAY—FRIDAY.
525 1370
751 1454
THIRD DAY—MONDAY.
For the Rate ......... ...... 816 - 2044
Against it 1286 2365
The poll was yesterday again adjourned to this day
(Tuesday).
On the announcement of the state of the poll yester-
day, and the adjournment being moved, the Rev.
Thactor. CAMPBELL made the following remarks :—" As.

For the Rate
Against it ...

For the Rate
Against it ....

far as lam concerned, I would close the poll now, not
because I am indifferent to the subject, as has been
said, but because I am sorry that the- parishioners
should refuse a rate for the repairs of their pariah churches
and the decent maintenance of public worship, and because
Churchmen seem to show such indifference on the subject,
that I myself would not prolong the contest. But the
continuance of the poll is demanded, and it ought to be
granted, to enable the parishioners to record their delibe-

rate opinions."
It will be a disgrace to the town, if the final result of
the poll should be adverse to this small rate, for a purpose
to which no man with the slightest appreciation of the
blessings of Christianity should take exception. It is ab-
surd to contend that the faintest conscientious scruple is
involved in the objection to the rate, The simple question
is the provision of the means of Divine worship for the
poor, and those who have no other means of Christian
instruction. The Church of England is essentially, really,
and practically the poor man's church. Whatever the
Dissenters may do in providing accommodation for those
who are able and willing to pay for it, they do little for
those who cannot afford to pay. It is a fact, which should
induce the parishioners to vote for the rate by an over-
whelming majority, that there are more free sittings in
the two parish churches of Liverpool (St. Nicholas' and St.
Peter's) than in all the dissenting meeting-houses in the
neighbourhood, numerous as they are. Let it be remem-
bered that the whole of the ground-floor of the parish
churches is free, and then let any conscientious man ask
himself upon what ground he can refuse to tax himself to
the extent'of three farthings in the pound, in order that
so much good may be done at so trifling a cost. We con-
fidently trust that those who have as yet abstained from
voting will hasten to the poll, and rescue Protestant
Liverpool from the indelible disgrace which the rejection
of this rate would inflict upon her reputation.
With reference to the absurd objection attempted to
be raised about the conscientious scruples of Dissenters,
we give the following from an undispUted authority :
"Until within the last ten years," said Mr. Baron GURNEY,
in summing up a case of a church-rate riot, "no man
living had ever heard of conscientious scruples upon this
subject from any class of dissenters. I respect the right
of dissenters, no man more so; but I feel great distress
when I hear made:lce prostituted by a mixture of poli-
tical feeling. If a man purchases a house, he gives a
price subject to all burdens upon it, and he calculates that
he shall' have to pay certain rates and taxes, and in pro-
portion to that, so does he estimate its value ; and I have
never heard that any of these persons has paid over to his
landlord any sum he may have saved in consequence of
the reduction of any tax ; and until any man had done
that, the less he said about his conscience the better. The
church-rate is an ancient rate, payable by law, and it is
the duty of all men to pay it."