The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

£123 11 7

We leave it to the public to decide whether ihi;
expenditure of £2l 14s. 4d. in a new altar-cloth,
and £93 16s. in terra-cotta bench ends and tiles
for Mr. Wray's new chancel, only £8 Is. 3d. being
expended in widening benches and pews—we pre-
sume to afford better kneeling accommodation for
the parties immediately in the neighbourhood of
such chancel, or in the chancel itself—can be
considered a proper application of a hum of money
granted for the providing of proper kneeling ac-
commodation "throughout the church," on the
terms and according to the model sent in with the
memorial of the minister and churchwardens.
Mr. Wray goes on :
" Fourthly.—l deny that I have defrauded the poor of
their rights by ' curtailing their free sittings.' On the
contrary, I have largely added to the space formerly
occupied by the labouring classes, who have now more
ample accommodation, and this in a better situation than
is afforded in any other church in Liverpool."
To this denial the report of the Surveyor, given
above, must be our reply. Perhaps there may
have been an unauthorised conversion into free
seats of the benches or stalls, now occupying the
site of a portion of the pews removed, in which
case the labouring classes cannot certainly have
" a better situation," whatever may have become
of the revenue previously derived from them by
the Corporation.
" Fifthly.—l deny that the ' alterations were made
without due authority.' On the contrary, we had the
authority of a resolution of the Church Expenditure
Committee, which the chairman subsequently assured us
would sanction the widening of the pews, and the conse-
quent diminution of their number. The surveyor was
not troubled in the matter, simply because the terms of
the resolution placed the superintendence in the church-
wardens."

We are confidently assured that no such
alterations were sanctioned by the Church Ex-
penditure Committee ; that the only resolution,
giving any authorization at all on the subject,
is the resolution of the 11th Sept. above quoted,
which, it will be seen, related to the supply
of kneeling accommodation. A letter was, more-
over, addressed by the Committee to the
minister and wardens, expressly discountenancing
any such alterations. The concluding sentence,
stating that " the Surveyor was not troubled in
the matter, simply because the terms of the reso-
lution placed the superintendence in the church-
wardens," is an evasion of the question. Our
readers have the resolution to refer to, which, it
will be seen, only refers to the construction of the
kneeling benches, &c., prayed for as the founda-
tion of the grant of money sought. But wesmay
go further than this, and remind Mr. Wray of a
fact, which he pretty well knows, that the commit-
tee had not the right to authorise any such altera-
tions as the removal of pews; that to warrant any
interference with the freehold of the church, a faculty
from the Bishop was indispensable ; and that, for
presuming to act without such faculty, all the par-
ties concerned render themselves liable to ecclesi-
astical censure, if not to penalties as well.
" Sixthly.—l deny that it is my custom to preach upon
forms and ceremonies ; or that I preached on this subject
on Sunday week.
" Seventhly.—l deny, also, that the notice given on
the same day had anything to do with alterations in the
services,' as you suppose ; or, again, that the services are
' unacceptable to the congregation'."
We couple these two concluding denials toge-
ther, inasmuch as a few words will dispose of
them. We do not know what is the ordinary
custom of Mr. Wray, in selecting the subjects, of
his sermons ; but we believe we are tolerably cor-
rectly informed, with respect to the character of his
sermon of last week. If a long tissue of com-
plaints of the informal manner in which the
Queen's Letter was drawn up and transmitted to
him, was not a sermon on formalities, we know
not what to call it. We say nothing of the intro-
duction into it of a tirade against the selfishness
of regraters and forestallersisof grain.
If the notice as to " alterations in the services"
really did refer only to a proposed change in the
time of performing " evensong ", as one of Mr.
Wray's apologists states, we owe him thus far an
acknowledgment of error. But that the services
are " unacceptable to the congregation"—or rather
to what would otherwise become the congregation
—is too notorious to be doubted, were it not even
proved that the seat-rents during the past year
were only £ll7, against £174 in the previous year.
The rev. gentleman must account for this fact, or
the figures themselves will confute him. A church
cannot be a very acceptable one to the public, in
which, out of 119 pews, still left undisturbed, there
are only 41 pews and 9 sittings which are let ; and
in which, on ordinary occasions, a large portion of
the congregations are composed of strangers,
attracted by the novelties in practice. In referring
to these novelties, we directed attention to the
introduction of a cross upon the communion table.
Mr. Wray, it will be observed, offers no denial of
this fact ; and we conclude, therefore, that he con-
siders it an authorised practice of the Church.
We beg to refer him, on this point, to a judgment
delivered by the Bishop of Exeter—a prelate who
is not generally regarded as being very far from
the toleration of Tractarian practices—in a case
instituted by him, under the Church Discipline
Act, against the Rev. W. G. Parks Smith, minister
of the Chapel of St. John, in the parish of Tormo-
ham, in his diocese. The charge was " for placing
or causing to -be placed, and suffering to remain,
during the performance of divine service, on Easter
Day of this year, in various parts of the said
chapel, and especially on the communion table,
certain ornaments and other unauthorised things";
and, amongst the rest, a cross about two feet high.
The bishop, in the course of his argument, laid
it down that the 82d canon, which " appoints that
the Communion-table shall be covered in time of
Divine Service with a carpet of silk, or other decent
stuff , and with a fair linen cloth at the time of mi-

nistration," must beherdas7lVirTually to exclude
all else except what is used, or may be used, in the
service itself"; and the reverend defendant was ad-
judged to be admonished and to pay the costs of
the proceedings. Mr. Wray must be aware that
as to the exhibition of the cross
tohne
Communion-table, is held by his own Dio.,
cesan.
thesam Ce
We cannot conclude without repeating our sor-

row that Mr. Wray's unwise letter has compelled
us, in self-vindication, to enter into the above de-
tailed explanation. For the sake of the Church
itself, and for the avoidance of such scandal as is
involved in the public discussion, in a newspaper,
of the conduct of a minister of that Church, we
shall not readily be induced to return to the sub-
ject.

THE London Times, a few days ago, taking its
text from a statement made to Ministers by a de-
putation from the operative classes in the manu-
facturing districts, administered to the brokers and
merchants of Liverpool what that journal doubtless
considers a merited and severe castigation, with
respect to the mode in use of transacting the busi-
ness of this port. The deputation complain—and
their complaint is backed by some of our contem-
poraries in the manufacturing districts—that the
brokers and importers of cotton are in the habit of
furnishing to speculators the opportunity of laying
hold of that raw material, and thus intercepting its
transit to the spinner and manufacturer, except at
such enhanced prices as they choose to dictate.
The process is said to be somewhat like the follow-
ing :—A, the importer, or B, the broker, has a
parcel of cotton to dispose of, the present value of
which is, say, £lO,OOO. C, a speculator, steps for-
ward and says, " I will pay you down in cash
£l,OOO, or £2,000, according to the estimated extent
of risk of depreciation to be run, and accept bills
for the balance and in the event of the offer being
accepted, the merchant or the broker holds the
cotton, with power of re-sale, as a security for the
re-payment of the acceptances given. Such a
transaction, the Times maintains, is illegitimate;
and argues, on the part of the commercial commu-
nity of Liverpool, a disposition to foster an un-
bounded spirit of speculation, which ought to be
discountenanced, and, if possible, put down.
Of course we are aware of the animus by which
these occasional flings at the mercantile body in
Liverpool are dictated, so far as regards both the
Times and the organs of the manufacturing interest.
We have never taken the diatribes of the former at
more than their true value—never mingled amongst
the crowd of Jews and jobbers, who prostrate
themselves daily before the feet of the Gamaliel of
Printing-house-square. The animus of the latter
is of a more vulgar character. Manchester grudges
us our freights, our brokerages, our commissions,
and every other source from which the commercial
greatness of Liverpool flows. Her spinners and
manufacturers would have us to be the mere hewers
of wood and drawers of water for their use ; the
humble carriers of their staples and their wares.
The merchants, the shipowners, and the brokers of
this great mart of commerce, are somewhat more
than the characters they would fain have them to
sustain ; apd " hint illce inv."
Let us, however, examine the nature of such a
transaction as that described, which the Times—
with an amount of ignorance of the ordinary na-
ture of commercial affairs which may well shake the
validity of his opinions upon matters recently
treated of by him with such an air of triumphant
cleverness—considers so illegitimate and injurious.
The merchants of Liverpool, amongst other com-
modities, import cotton. The brokers of Liver-
pool are in the position of agents between the im-
porter and the consumer or the capitalist, who may
wish to invest his spare money in some com-
modity, from the sale of which he fancies that he
sees the hope of a profitable return. The mer-
chant wishes to realise, and instructs his broker to
sell; and the opportunity to buy is open of course
to the manufacturer, as well as to any other man—
the speculator for instance. The latter, however,
sees the manufacturer indisposed to buy other than
—to use a well understood phrase—from hand to
mouth. The manufacturer thinks that prices will
come lower. He may be so unreasonable, even, as
to imagine that the article will be held as long as
he likes for his convenience, and sold as low as he
chooses for his profit. The capitalist, however,
unconnected either with the business of importa-
tion or consumption, and hence called the specu-
lator, has made his calculations; has watched the
amount of stocks on hand and the prospect of
crops to come, and instructs his broker to buy at
the priee which the monufacturer has shown him-
self indisposed to give. What has the world to
do with the terms of such purchase, as between the
broker and such a man ? As little as we have to
do with the transactions between the manufacturer
and the banker, or mortgagee, who has assisted
him with funds for the erection of his factory or
machinery. Between the broker and his client, on
the one hand, and the importer, on the other, the
transaction is an every day one; no more peculiar
to the cotton trade, or to Liverpool, than it is to
other branches of trade and to other towns. The
broker of C., the speculator, pays A. or 8., the
importer and his broker, their demand of £lO,OOO.
Were the transaction a bargain made for the con-
sumer, the only difference would be that, instead
of a margin only being paid in cash, and the
broker of C. retaining possession of the commo-
dity on his security for: the remainder, the con-
sumer would pay the whole amount possibly in
bills, and himself remain the holder of the self
same commodity.
It is a piece of consummate absurdity to
suppose that the stock of cotton in. Liverpool,
of which we have, in ordinary years, from 500,000
to 600,000 bales, can remain in original hands,
unsubjected to the ordinary changes of opinion
which induce commercial men to realise or to in-
vest. What other kind of produce is so dealt
with ? If our Manchester friends think that
there is any great amount of profit in importing
the raw material, and then holding it until it is
wanted, bale by bale, we have ourselves, and
few Liverpool merchants have, the slightest ob-
jections to their becoming the sole importers, as
well as the consumers.

WE have seldom approached a more grateful
duty than that imposed upon us, in expressing our
conscientious sense of the efficient and urbane
manner in which the high office of mayor of this
important town has been performed by the gen-
tleman who is shortly about to resign the chair of
the Council. Mr. G. H. Lawrence was called to
that office in no ordinary times, and not light has
been the task imposed upon him, A famine in
Ireland has had to be relieved, in part by the be-
nevolence of the British people; and in the move-
ment for this object in this town, few can forget
the zeal displayed by his Worship. Difficulties of
an unexampled character have been felt by all
classes of the commercial community; and it is
but a few weeks since we had to observe with what
readiness, at the sacrifice of his private ease, Mr.
Lawrence placed his influence and his active ser-
vices at the disposal of his fellow-townsmen. In
every detail of his office—to the humble as well
as to the wealthy—he has been easily approachable
and kind ; and we feel that we are not misrepre-
senting the feelings of his fellow-townsmen, when
we say that he will long carry with him into another
station their heartfelt affection, respect, and ad-
miration.

THE glorious results of the Municipal Election,
yesterday, ought to read a striking lesson, not
only to the Conservatives of Liverpool, but to her
Majesty's Whig Government, and the Empire at
large. Upon the former, they ought to impress
the conviction that, with unanimity of purpose
amongst the constituent body, nothing like defeat
can await the cause of Conservatism. Out of the
sixteen wards of the town, we contested fourteen
upon the good old principles of the Constitution;
and in thirteen of those contests we have been tri-
umphant, and secured majorities unexpectedly
overwhelming. Two seats, held by liberals—
Castle-street and Vauxhall—we abstained from
contesting. Their occupants were honourable and
good men, though politically opposed to us, we do
not grudge to see them occupying, not only their de-
servedly high position in the estimation of their
fellow-townsmen, but as well devoting their honest
exertions towards the promotion of the general
welfare. In this respect we differ from our Radical
opponents, who can appreciate and approve no-
thing, however worthy and honoured of all men,
which is not clothed in their own piebald livery.
One contested seat only we have lost. Everton
and Kirkdale ward, for the first time, has returned
a member of the Radical faction, and discarded a
tried and respected representative in the person of
Mr. G. G. Hornby. We beg, however, distinctly
to proclaim to our fellow-townsmen and the world,
that this result is not the triumph of Radical prin-
ciples in this ward. Mr. Walthew sits as the re-
presentative of a strange coalition of Puseyite
Churchmen and Radicalism. The petty " high
Church" (!) faction in that ward has leagued with
the Papist, the Socinian, and the Dissenter, to oust
an honest and sincere Prote,stant. Men have

shaken hands on this occasion, who are in their
heart of hearts at this moment loathing each
other's principles—shutting out each other from
the hope of Christians;—and who can no more
meet amicably on any common arena of public
affairs, than fire can mingle with flame, or oil with
vinegar.

Can we point to any event more directly showing
the active cause which prostrated the Conservative
strength at the past general election than to the
return of a Whig for this ward ? Against the Con-
servative candidate for Everton alone the Trac-
tarian party and their organ directed their venom ;
and, unhappily, they have been successful. Their
fellow-townsmen, however, will all the better know
the rattle of the snake, which is lurking in the
grass ready to sting them. We wish our con-
temporary and his friends joy of their triumph ;
and to Mr. Hornby we offer our assurances that,
though temporarily consigned to a private station,
he is not likely to be less in the esteem of his
fellow-townsmen on account of his defeat yester-
day by such singular instrumentality.