The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-07 00:00:00

OF OXFORD

May it please your Lordship,
We, the undersigned clergymen of the Church of England,
resident in Liverpool and its vicinity, venture most respect-
fully to address your lordship on a subject which we hum-
bly conceive to affect most materially the interests of that
church, to the doctrines and discipline of which we are sin-
cerely and conscientiously attached.
We have now for a considerable period regarded with the
most lively and anxious feelings of alarm the continued pub-
lication of certain tracts, entitled " Tracts for the Times,"
written by " Members of the University of Oxford," in
your lordship's diocese.
Whilst we are willing to allow that, in consequence of the
imperfection of the human understanding, a certain degree
of diversity of opinion must ever be expected to exist among
so large a body of men as the clergy of the Church of Eng-
land, not only respecting questions of doctrine generally,
but also respecting the meaning of some particular expres-
sions in the formularies of our church, which, not being
inconsistent with ecclesiastical unity, may not be thought
justly deserving of censure, we are at the same time of opinion
that many of the statements contained in these " Tracts "
do not fall within the limits of any reasonable latitude of
interpretation.
We, therefore, cordially rejoice to see, from the charge
delivered by your lordship three years ago, that those state-
ments had attracted your special attention ; at the same
time we have regretted to observe. that the characteristic
mildness of your lordship's language, instead of producing
the effect which might have been so justly anticipated from
it, appears to have emboldened the authors of them to
assume that they were not, in your lordship's judgment,
held guilty of any departure from the doctrines of the
church. Publications have therefore been continued, the
general spirit and tendency of which have been so opposed,
in our judgment, td the received faith of the church, as
seriously to perplex the minds of many of its lay members,
and not only so, but also to turn aside several of our younger
brethren in the ministry from the " old path" of that scrip-
tural course which, by their ordination vow, they solemnly
engaged to pursue.
We learn however, with unfeigned satisfaction, that No.
90 in the said series of Tracts, lately published, and entitled
" Remarks on certain Passages in the Thirty-nine Articles,"
has been deemed by your lordship so calculated to disturb
the peace of the church, that your episcopal influence has
been exerted for the suppression of the evil. And it is not
in any officious spirit that we take the liberty of presenting
our respectful thanks to your lordship, but because, being
alive to the deep concern which it must have occasioned to
your lordship's paternal feelings to be obliged to issue such
an admonition to any of your clergy, we desire to assure
your lordship, that in the discharge of this painful but
necessary duty you have the sincere sympathy and fervent
prayers of many attached clergymen who are personally
unknown to your lordship ; and because we are penetrated
with a sense of the duty which we ourselves- owe to' the
church, thus publicly to avow our conviction of the unscrip-
tural and schismatical character of the publications in
question, and the consequent necessity for authoritative
interference if anything deserving the name of euclesiastical
uniformity is to be maintained in the realm.
We have the honour to be, my lord,
With unfeigned respect,
Your lordship's most obedient and faithful servants,
T. Tattershall, D.D., Minister of St. Augustine's, and late
Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge.
Thomas Byrth, D.D.' Rector of Wallasey.
Fielding Ould, 8.A., incumbent of Christ Church. •
Wm. Withers Ewbank, 8.A., Minister of St. George's,
Everton.
Hugh M'Neile, M.A., Incumbent of St. Jude's.
David James, Minister of St. Mary's, Kirkdale.
Henry Carpenter, A. 8., Minister of St. Michael's.
Frederick Barker, M.A., Incumbent of St. Mary's, Edge-
hill.
George Mansfield, B.A. Curate of Christ Church.
Thomas S. Coles, M.A., Curate of St. Mary's, Edge-hill.
Robert Davies, M.A., Minister of the Welsh Church of St.
David.
A. M'Conkey, M.A., Minister of All Saints.
William Rawson, M.A., Minister of St. Thomas's, Seaforth.
Edmund Bobler Chalrner, A. 8., Incumbent of Great Crosby.
J. Ellison Bates, M.A., Minister of Christ Church, Crosby.
Charles W. Lawrence, M.A., Chaplain of St. Luke's.
Jno. Leighton Figgins, 8.A., Curate of St. Matthew's.
Joseph Baylee, A. 8., Incumbent of Holy Trinity Church,
Woodside.
Andrew Knox, A. 8., Incumbent of St. Mary's Church,
Birkenhead.
John Newton Peill, A.M., Curate of St. Paul's, Liverpool,
and Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge.
William Falloon, A. 8., Curate of St. Jude's.
Charles James Hamilton, A. 8., Curate of Birkenhead.
P. Browne, 8.A., Curate of Christ Church District.
A. E. Obias, M.A., Birkenhead.
George Stokes, Minister of St. Saviour's.
Thomas Dwyer, M.A., Chaplain of the West Derby Union.
Prince Crawford, A.M., Minister of St. Saviour's.
B. L. Witt:;, 8.A., Curate of St. George's, Everton.
B. A. Marshall, 8.A., Curate of St. Mark's.
Alexander Orme, B.A. Curate of All Saints.
Jno. Minister of St. Simon's.

J. Picton, A.M., Incumbent of St. Stephen's.
G. R. Moncrieff, 8.A., Curate of Wallasey.
James S. Dodd, 8.A., Curate of St. Augustine's.
Charles Maginniss, 8.A., Curate of Holy Trinity Church,
Woodside.
R. P. Jones, 8.A., Curate of St. David's.
James Brierley, 8.A., Incumbent of St. Anne's, Rainhill.
Wm. J. Purdon, A.M., Incumbent of St. Anne's, Aigburth.
Jeffrey Davies, Welsh Curate of St. Paul's Church, Liver-
pool.