The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-20 00:00:00

ANTI-CHURCH-EXTENSION MEETING

The success of the meeting held last Friday in support of
church extension, of which we gave a full report in the last
number of the STANDARD, pierced to the quick the political
dissenting voluntaries, end it was considered indispensable to
" get up" a counter demonstration, not the least object of
which might be to strengthen the present administration.
The committee of the " Voluntary Church Society" were
immediately assembled, and it was resolved that a public
meeting should be held on Wednesday, in the Music Hall.
The gathering accordingly took place. The room was filled,
but no one who was present will deny that, had not the
friends of the established church been there to swell the num-

hers, the orators would have had to act their parts before
" a beggarly account of empty benches."
Mr. VINCENT HIGGINS was called to the chair, and he
told the meeting they were assembled. to enter their solemn
protest, by a petition to parliament, against the aggressions
of the established church, in anotherattempt to put its hands
into the public purse. This attempt he did not hesitate to
describe as iniquitous, unjust, and unchristian. It was in-
iquitous, inasmuch us the church possessed such ample
wealth of its own that it had no need to go to the public
purse (!!) It was unjust, that whilst that church had its rich
bishoprics, its large and immense pluralities, for the sake,
ostensibly only, of advocating religion—but, for the sake, he
believed himself, of increasing and extending its power only
as a political party—a party ever opposed to civil and
religious liberty—that this church should come to the
public purse for money subscribed by all the people, by the
people of every denomination, for its own exclusive use and
benefit. And it was unchristian, inasmuch as it was con-
trary to the great and glorious precept of our blessed
master, who said, " As ye would have all men do unto
you, even so do ye unto them likewise." Did not the church
object to the benevolent intentions of her majesty's ministers
last year, when they wished to make a grant of public money
that all denominations might benefit by it ? This the church
resisted and defeated, and therefore he was justified in saying
the present demand of the church was unchristian.
The Rev. Mr. BIRRELL then moved " That in the opinion
of this meeting the connection of the church with the secular
power is opposed to the fundamental principles of Christianity,
at variance with the rights of conscience, injurious to the
cause of religion, and opposed to the well being of society."
It was not without considerable reluctance that for the first

time in his life he took part in a public discussion of this
question, and that reluctance arose partly from a natural
distaste to all public controversy of this kind. At the, same
time whatever force these considerations had upon his mind,
he felt that the specific aggressions now threatened to be
made upon the principles of civil and religious liberty (1) de-
manded an equally explicit protest upon the part of all those
to whom those principles were dear. It would be carrying
silence and neutrality to a criminal extent were they to see
this impending injustice both to man and to God, without
coming forward at whatever risk and cost of disquietude and
pain, to bear their part in attempting to avert the evil CI !).
It was not, however, their object to oppose the extension of
true religion, although thousands maintained that it was, but
to separate truth from error and to spread it over the world.
Neither was it their design to oppose the episcopal church.
They took the liberty of thinking that there was much in the
church badly adapted to human nature, and ill-accordant
with the divine will, but, as far as their present efforts
were regarded, it might flourish till it darkened the whole
earth. Nor was it their object to prevent the erectioi of
churches ! The friends of the church might erect as many
churches as they pleased ; but they (the dissenters) certainly
thought that edifices wherein there were no congregations,
and wherein there was heard no gospel, qf which he deeply
regretted to know there were thousands in the country,were
of very small value, and that to erect more of such edifices
was a very useless expenditure and application of money.
Their real object, simply and shortly, was to express a wish
to be excused from bearing any pecuniary burden in so bril-
liant a speculation ; or, more correctly, lest they should be
enchanted by the romance of such au enterprise, they wished
to retain to themselves the pleasure of freely contributing to
it, and to avoid the ungracious alternative of having their
money wrung from their hands by the government, and em-
barked in the scheme whether they would or not. Ile held

it to have the intrinsic evidence of a maxim, that to take
away the property of another, and apply it to your own pur-
poses, was an act of dishonesty: therefore he maintained
that for any single religious denomination, containing but a
fraction of the population of the country, to apply for the
Money belonging to all the rest of the country, for the pur-
pose of extending their own religious rights, was an act of
injustice which bore upon it its own condemnation. But he
still more strenuously objected to it on account of its bearing
upon the parties themselves. Could any one question that
for a church, the actual revenues of which, according to the
report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, amounted to
4:800,000 sterling per annum—a church the bishops of
which lived in a style that rivalled royalty itself, ought, in-
stead of making use of that enormous wealth, come in the
crouching attitude of a pauper, and pray the parliament for
Pecuniary assistance, to help them to raise other churches ?
When he saw this, he was concerned for the manhood and
for the Christian integrity of the persons composing. the
Church of England. When be saw the respectable minister
of Christ Church holding up to ridicule the conduct of a man
now in prison at the instance of an ecclesiastical court, deny-
ing that his conduct could result from conscientious motives,
because he followed a trade alleged to be mean, and because
the demand upon him amounted to only a few shillings and
a few pence; when he saw this gentleman keeping his audi-
ence in a roar of laughter by playing upon these circumstan-
ces, with grief he acknowledged he could see nothing in his
conduct but either the most unworthy sophistry, or an in-
competency to comprehend the nature of a conscientious ob-
jection. (Great hissing and some cheers.) That ignorance
was produced by the system to which the gentleman was con-
scientiously attached, and therefore he (the speaker) spoke,
whatever he ?Pight feel, more in sorrow than in anger. He
perceived also the same ignorance in a gentleman now lec-
turing upon the right of the Church of England to her own
existence, in Hanover-square Rooms, London. (Cheers.)
In refuting the objections which dissenters brought to the
claims made upon them, he (Mr. M`Neile) despatched the
whole subject in an apothegm to this effect :—" These argu-
ments would be perfectly conclusive in the absence of the
church's divine authority." No question of it : but who
was to be the judge of the divine authority ? Their opinions
(the dissenters') were not to be consulted for a moment.
Did their brethren of the established church know what con-
science was ? The most charitable answer he could give was
that they did not. But let them know that ignorance was
itself a crime; let them know that to assume the right
to determine what other men should think, and what
religious conduct they should pursue, was to leave the
province of the preacher, and to leap into the throne of
God (l ) Even if they (the dissenters) were certain that
the money extracted from them was for no other pur-
pose but to extend saving truth, they should still object
to its being arrested from their hands, but it would be an
immense alleviation of the wrong, if after that property had
been yielded, they should be sure that such a mighty object
would be promoted. Who was to appoint the ministers to
these new churches when they had been erected? Who was
to be answerable for their faith? Who was to assure them
that these edifices should not be used, immediately after their
erection, for the purpose of declaring the saving efficacy of
the sacraments, the validity of priestly absolution, the in-
utility of an atonement, the worthlessness of the cross of
Christ, and of salvation to guilty men? We might be told
that the articles of the church guarded against all such evils ;
but were those articles to do that in future which they had
never done before ? It was acknowledged by a large body of
the clergy themselves, that out of 21,000 clergy, nearly 14,000
preached in defiance of those articles either in letter or in
spirit. (!) (Hisses.) Was it not known to all the world that
the bishops, who ordained to the ministry, were, in many in-
stances, the most bitter opponents of all vital christianity?
Having continued in this style of misrepresentation for sonic
time, and alluded to the statement of the Rev. F. Barker, of
dissenting chapels having Leen removed from a poor to a
comparatively wealthy portion of the town, but without at-
tempting to controvert it, he moved the resolution.
Mr. Trios. BLACKBURN seconded the motion in a speech,
the fluency of which helped materially to conceal its numer-
ous gross fallacies. He contended that injustice was a natu-
ral and essential adjunct of religious establishments ; that an
act of parliament could not render that just which was in it-
self unjust, and that it was an imposition upon Roman Ca-
tholics to be taxed to support a form of religion which they
deemed heretical ; and to Unitarians, Independents, Baptists,
and all denominations of Dissenters in like manner. He con-
cluded by designating the crusade against the establiShed
church as aim effort to obtain a second reformation, for the
accomplishment of objects which the first reformation had
left unattained.
The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution. Many hands
were held up for it, but there appeared toms, and to the re-
porter for one of the liberal papers. a decided majority against
it. Loud cheers were given, and afterwards three others
for the Rev. H. M'Neile. When silence was restored, the
CHAIRMAN rose and said, "This resolution is carried by a
large majority !"
The Rev. Mr. BEVON moved the next resolution, declaring
the essential injustice of compelling dissenters to pay for
church extension. There was nothing remarkable in this
gentleman's address. It was a mere wiredrawn reiteration of
the allegations of the resolution, unrelieved by a single sen-
tence of any value.
Alderman JONES seconded the resolution, observing that
he could add nothing to the eloquent and convincing speeches
already delivered.
The CHAIRMAN put the resolution, and it was carried
certainly, but by a majority that was but just visible. Some
uproar followed, in which-threats of using the police force
were liberally distributed.
The Rev. JOHN KELLY moved the following resolution,
declaring additional churches uncalled for and unnecessary.
Mr. Kelly's address was taken up with observations intended
to be very caustic, in reply to several speeches at the Church
Extension Meeting. He congratulated himself upon having
been not only_witt himself, but the cause of wit in others.
Some of his violent anti-church sentiments excited marks of
occasional displeasure, but eventually he closed his speech
by asserting the following four propositions, as the grounds
on which he opposed any additional grant to the church :-
Ist, because lie believed the pure spirit of Christianity was
degraded and destroyed by the connection of the church with
the secular power,.and that it was one of the greatest inju-
ries which could possibly be inflicted upon the Gospel ; 2d,
because when he inquired what we were to do with .these
churches, the very best he could expect was, that we should
put in men who, having obtained their money, would turn
round and abuse them : now he did not like abuse at any time,
and least of all did he like to pay for it ; 3d, because he did
not think additional churches necessary ; and 4th, because
he thought churchmen would far more wisely and far more
efficiently employ their own money in building churches,
than in employing the money of the public for that purpose.
When a person had a large sum of money not his own, he did
not feel interested in its disposal. He knew a district where
there were five dissenting meeting-houses, where a church had
been put, which was without a congregation after six years'
experiment. (Cries of " Name !") He knew another in
Yorkshire—(Continued cries of " Name, name !") Was
this fair ? Was this right ? (Renewed cries of " Name !")
He was not the craven to—(Reiterated calls for the name
drowned the remainder of the sentence.)
The CHAIRMAN.—It is unnecessary (!) (Great uproar.)
Mr. KELLY.—Upon these grounds I think it is better the
church should erect these additional churches out of her own
money which she may do without the slightest interruption
or the slightest hindrance. (Continued uproar, and cries of
" Name, name !")
The CHAIRMAN reminded the meeting that they had
pledged themselves by the admission card to obey the autho-
rity of the chair ; now, if any one in future attempted to
disturb the proceedings, he would give positive orders for the
police to take the offenders into custody.
Mr. KELLY then concluded his address, but he neither
gave the name of the alleged empty church, nor related his
Yorkshire story.
Mr. SAMUEL STITT seconded the resolution, and the
CHAIRMAN pronounced it carried.
The Rev. H. CRIGHTON, Mr. SAMUEL BLACKBURNE,
the Rev. Mr. CARRUTHERS, and Mr. RICHARD JOHNSON,
next addressed the meeting, principally urging the rights of
conscience.
A vote of thanks was then carried to Mr. Higgins, for his
conduct in the chair ; and about ten o'clock this liberal meet-
ing separated.

ONCIDIUM PAPILO, OR, BUTTERFLY PLANT.—A very
splendid specimen of this rare and beautiful plant may now
be seen in bloom at the conservatory of Mr. Skirving, in
Walton-road. The specimen in Mr. Skirving's possession
is a very superior variety from Mexico. Those who are cu-
rious in floricultural productions, may be gratified with a
sight of this elegant production of nature, by application at
the nursery, where they will at the same time have an oppor-
tunity of inspecting, many other curious and superb specimens
of Mr. Skirking's botanical taste and skill.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-WEDNESDAY.