The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-07 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY.

The Mai-pis of Downshire and family arrived yesterday
in Her Majesty's packet Avon, Captain Townly, from
Dublin.
Me. STUART'S BENEFIT.—This gentleman's benefit will
take place on Monday night. With an excellent bid, and
the attraction of his sister, we doubt not he will have a full
house.—We have heard that a number of that gentleman's
private friends have determined to give him a public dinner,
as a testimony of their estimation of his talents.
THE FRENCH BLOCKADING SQUADRON.—The Falmouth
letter of Dec. 2d, filed yeAerday on 'Change, states the ar-
rival at that port of 11. M. P. Swift, Lieut. Welsch, from
Mexico; freight 1,300,000 dollars; and adds, "No news;
except that the French blockading squadron. which lately
sailed from Cadiz, had arrived; that they had altogether about
35 vessels, and that they were cruising off Havannah, until
the sickly season should have passed away. The Prince de
Joinville, with the large vessels of war, was off Havannah."
—ln the Liverpool letter of Tuesday on 'Change, there is a
statement that the French squadron from Toulon had arrived
at Havannah, and had sailed thence on 27th October for
Vera Cruz.

Yesterday, at two o'clock, a meeting, convened by the
rectors of the parish, in accordance with the expressed wishes
of upwards of forty of the clergy of the town, was held in
the large room behind the Queen's Arms hotel, in Cook.
street, for the purpose of forming a society to be called the
" Liverpool Church Building Society ;" the objects of which
are to build churches in those populous parts of the town
where there is now a dearth of them, and to afford cheap
church accomodation for the poor. The meeting was attended
by about two hundred gentlemen, consisting of nearly the
whole of the clergy, and the principal gentry and merchants
of the town. We observed the following gentlemen present:—
Bishop of Chester, Rector Brooks, Rector Campbell, Revs.
C. T. Gladwin, T. Bold, J. H. Stewart, J. C. Bates, S. B.
Monk, R. L. Townsend, R. Leicester. T. Bibby, D. James,
W. Hesketh, J. North, J. H. Stafford, C. Wray, R. P. Bud-
dicom, Sands, W. Badnall, H. Carpenter, J. Jones, ltd-
Appleton, T. S. Bowstead, J. llassall, I'. L. Pain, F. Ould,
S. Spencer, H. M`Neile; Major Brooks, J. Rigby, A.
Swainson, 'l'. Wilson, John Eden, jun., W. R. Preston, C.
Groves, W. Jones, A. Hodgson, J. Langton, J. Queen, J.
Aspinall, R. Gladstone, C. Birchall, J. Pownall, C. S. Par-
ker, Esqrs.
On the motion of the Rev. Rector Brooks, the Right Rev.
the Lord Bishop of Chester was moved into the chair.
The RIGHT REV. PRELATE in opening the meeting, said
he should not occupy their time unnecessarily with regard
to the object of the meeting, and it would be unnecessary if
he were to say anything upon the object of their assembling
together except the expression of gratification which he felt
in- having been summoned on an occasion of this kind to the
town of Liverpool, where he so often had had to offer his
thanks to those who had supported him in the claims he had
made fur other parts of his diocese. He was glad to see that
Liverpool itself was to be supplied with churches; that hav-
ing done much in the supply of other parts of Lancashire, it
had turned its attention to the wants that existed at home,
and that those wants were not likely to continue what
they are at present, with regard to one class of the po-
pulation. It must be in the knowledge of them all that
many churches had been built within the last few years
at Liverpool ; but it was equally in *the knowledge of
them all that those churches had been built by persons
who had their own wants in view, and they were not
altogether suited for that class of the population who ought
to have their wants supplied. They were to provide that
which the law now allowed them to supply with profit—
churches which should accommodate every class of the popu-
lation; receiving the rich, who can afford to pay for their
seats, and also giving accommodation to the poor, if they
would pay a very small proportion, in which they would con-
tribute something fey the support of the ministry. The law
was now in such a state, that it enabled this to be done. It
enabled churches to be built, and to be placed under the pa-
tronage of trustees, who should have the appointment of the
minister, and should have the general armngement of the
affairs of the church. It was with this view that certain re-
solutions had been framed; and he would now request their
valued friend, Rector Brooks, to read them to the meeting.

(Applause.)
The Rev. Rector BROOKS then came forwards. He
said, if his Lordship bad thought it right to express the
gratification which he felt in being called to Liverpool
on such an occasion as the present, that gratification must
be felt ten-fold by the ministry of Liverpool, in seeing his
lordship taking the head on an occasion in which the inte-
rests of the great body of the parishioners were so greatly
concerned. They must not forget that it was to his lordship
they owed it; be had no hesitation in saying that it was to
his lordship's labours that it was to be mainly attributed, that
since his lordship came into that diocese no less than 50 new
churches had been built in it. (Cheers.) It had been im-
pressed on them for some time that a strong necessity existed
for such a class of churches, of which they had very few.
That had been so strongly experienced that it had been for
some time in consideration to appeal to the parishioners for
their assistance to meet the want, and supply a remedy for
this deficiency; and as they might appear to have a consi-
derable number of churches in this town, it was as well to look
into two things connected with them, which he thought would
shew, that though they had many churches, they had none at all
in comparison with what they ought to have for the particu-
lar object for which they were assembled. In so doing he
would look first to the distribution of the churches, and then
to the character of the churches. He was speaking to gen-
tlemen who knew the geography of Liverpool very well, and
he would, therefore, beg to take a line and cut through the
town. In a line drawn to the north of Scotland-road,
through Byrom-street, through the Haymarket, along Ren-
shaw-street, Great George's-street to the High Park.- That
would divide the town into two parts ; but it would leave to
the west of the line two-thirds of a very dense population :
for it included the whole of Harrington and that thick popu-
lation. Now, when they came to look how our churches
were distributed, they would find they had only ten churches
in that line to the west of those streets; and those by no
means churches able to contain the largest numbers in com-
parison with the others of the town. If they took a line from
St. John's Church to Vauxhall-road, which he might fairly
estimate as a mile and a quarter, there was not a single
church ; within that space there was scarcely a place of public
worship. There was a small chapel in Coekspur-street,
of what denomination'of Christians he knew not, and a small
Methodist chapel in another street, which were the whole of
the places of worship in that district. He would take a line
front the bottom of Pool-lane, the present Custom-house, and
run it up to St. James's Church, and they had but St. James's
Church. On the west of that they had an exceedingly dense
population, and not a church was to be found. In both
these divisions, then, he thought it could hardly be said that
they were not in want of the description of churches they
were now endeavouring to obtain. Then, if they looked at
the description of churches at the other side of that line, he
found at the north that they had, beginning at All Saints',
within 200 yards St. Anne's, and in the same street Trinity
Church; within 200 yards of that Christ Church, and about
the same distance from that St. John's, and not far from
that was St. Stephen's, and near to that St. Mary's ;
so that they had no less than seven churches which lay in is
cluster to the north. They would go to the south again ; and
there they found, beginning St. Andrew's, St. Philip's, very
near, near to that St. Luke's, and St. Mark's just below, all
collected together: and if they took a very small radius they
would find close to them St. David's, near St. Andrew's, St.
Catherine's, near St. Philip's,. and St. Bride's, near St.'
Mark's ; therefore here were two clusters of churches. This
might not be of much moment to those who could come to
church as they liked, under cover, but it was a great incon-
venience to those who had to walk a mile or two before they
could reach them. It appeared to him that the great object
of a national establishment was in the bringing of religious
instruction and the ordinances of Christianity as near to the
doors of the great mass of the people as possible. (Hear.)
Having disposed of the distribution of the churches, he would
go to the character of them. The expense of taking seats in
those churches was far beyond the means of that class of so-
ciety to which they particularly now looked. It was only
the other day that a friend of his told him that he had
paid £l9 a year for his own and servants' seats in St.
Catherine's; this was quite out of the reach of the mid-
tiling and lower ranks. it was quite obvious that accom-
modation could only be purchased by the classes who
could afford, to give it; for
soillyr was the rent
for a good dwellinhouse. In eof those churches
„-
there were a number of free seats; but that again from their
situation was unprofitable; and yet if filled, they were by no
means adequate to the wants of the people around them; and
there were no churches with the exception of one, in which
there was a graduated scale of small annual payments for
the sittings of the second class of tradesmen of the town. in
one church there was a graduated scale of charges fur sittings
from is. to is. Gd. a quarter; but in the rest of the churches
there was nothing of that kind for that class, for whom they
were bound, more than for any other class, to provide, for
they were not able to provide for themselves. He trusted
they had not unnecessarily called on the parishioners to
come to their assistance, with regard to furnishing the means
of religious instruction and superintendence. He was not
now going to detain the meeting by entering minutely into
the abstract question, to whom the object really belonged of
making this provision : that was a question which might in-
volve great time, and bring them to no practical conclusion.
It was something like education—the question whether
the people were to be educated, was settled long ago.
The question was, how? whether by a sound religious'know.
ledge in the establishment of the country, or whether they
were to be left to the 'chance of getting it where they might?.
That was the state of education. It was not the propriety of
being sent to religious worship, but how the people were to
be sent. It should not be their fault if they were not sent to
the Church of England. (Applause.) tie would, before
reading the resolutions, call the attention of the meeting to
the exertions of other towns. He would point out the town
of Manchester as having expended between 20 and £30,000
in building churches. In Birmingham, where they were go-
ing to raise a subscription for building ten new churches,
with an endowment of £lOOO for each, they- had in a few days
succeeded in getting £lO,OOO towards that amount. He would
point to their dissenting brethren. Let them look to what
they were doing at their centenary, in order to relieve their
chapels from debt. They did not think of collecting less
than £lOO,OOO. He would advert to another class of their
dissenting brethren—the Roman Catholics. Half a cen-
tury ago they had not more than thirty chapels in the
whole of the 'United Kingdom. There were now and build-
ing 476. His friend Mr. Campbell, had very properly
told him that he bad omitted a very important branch
of the representation: they had raised £38,000 in Glasgow
for additional churches there for their population. Now, he
would ask the wealthy inhabitants of Liverpool, whether Li-
verpool was to be the only first class place in England in
which the members of the Church of England would not
come forward to support their own principles. He trusted
that would not be the case: because he knew when the men
of Liverpool had a fair case made out, they were never back-
ward in providing means for any excellent purpose. He had
had a long experience of forty years in the town; and it was
a great satisfaction to him to say, that he had always lived
among a set of persons who had always shown a feeling of
liberality, both for religious purposes and for purposes of
temporal charity. As the clergy had been the means o'
calling the meeting together, they would naturally look _
them for some definite proposition. The clergy had met, and
some forty of them bad prepared the resolutions which he
should lay on his Lordship's table for the consideration of the
meeting. They had treated this meeting as a preli-
minary meeting, as one preparatory to the establish-
inent of the church building society in the municipal
boundary. With that view they had purposely kept off pi o-
posing any code of regulations, considering whenever any
one gave in their support to a society of this sort they would
be the fittest persons to signify what the code of regulations
should be; therefore these resolutions were principally decla-
ratory, the two first entirely so; the 3rd related to the con-
vening of another meeting; and the 4th to a point which it
was of great importance to those persons who were inclined
to support a society of this sort, to consider well in establish-
ing it. The act of parliament required that property of this
description should be vested in five trustees. All, therefore,
the clergy had ventured to arrange was, what should entitle
a person to a vote for these trustees. Any modifications of
the plan proposed they would be glad to hear. They had no
object of their own to serve; they were merely establishing
the principle without in any way interfering with the manner
in which it shall be carried out by the subscribers.
(The Reverend Rector then read the resolutions, which
wilt be found in our advertising columns.)
These were resolutions passed unanimously at a large
meeting of the clergy; and as they considered that they
would be called on at the present meeting to give some ex-
planation of what was wanted, these resolutions he would
now leave in his lordship's hands; and he doubted not but
that the same unanimity would prevail in the future meetings
which prevailed on that occasion. (Loud applause.)
His LoanstnlPsaid it would seem to be unnecessary to take
up the time of the meeting by reading again resolutions so
clear as those laid before them by their friend the rector, or
by making any remarks upon them. The only one that
could he considered as of material importance upon which
there could be any difference of opinion was that which re-
lated to the appointment of trustees ; because the trustees
were the patrons, so to speak, of the churches. Each
church must, by law, be endowed by £lOOO, and that
placed the endowment not in the hands in which it would
naturally by the general law be placed ; but in the hands of
the trustees of the church, and therefore it must he seen by
all that that was an important part of the plan; and he was
happy to see that any difficulty as to the appointment of
trustees had been happily suet by the arrangement proposed,
because those persons who felt the importance of the appoint.
ment of trustees would have the opportunity of securing it to
themselves, for it was given to those who would bid the
highest for it. Every £2.5. subscribed would give a vote
towards the appointment of trustees. Any person who felt
five times as fit on gl y as his neighbour, bad only to give five