The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-03-04 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OP THE LIPERPOOL ST.INDARD.

have for sometime thought that no pains should be
spared at this critical period by all who are sincerely attached
to our venerable establishment to be active and doing; no or,
dinary dangers threaten her, and it will not require us to look
beyond our own town to see—nay, the most cool observer must
acknowledge that the materiel of which our town council is cow:
posed, is sufficient to rouse a well grounded alarm—that irni;
nent danger threatens her. Ido riot think, indeed, in Candour
I must admit to the contrary, that thereis any deficiency of ac 7
commodation in our churches, for at leait one-third more than
at present are willing to make use of them; but,. at :the same
time, I contend. tbat had those who have had the care of them
been what they ought to have been, there would not only not
have been room for all, but there would have been twice the
number required. 1 donut stop at present to inquire whether
or not the existing state of the law of patronage might not have
contributed to this state of things, leaving that subject for fu-
ture consideration, but I shall'pass on to the review of the pre-.
sent condition of our churches, and throw out some hints fur
their futnre government; and I shall have, in' the honest dis-
charge of my duty, in pointing out existing evils, occasion to
speak in a strain that may seem to reflect upon the conduct of
individuals; and I am aware that in endeavduring to do my
duty impartially, in taking up this momentous subject„l shall
be blamed for not, in some instances, sparing friends; hut, as
the evils complained of have, in some instances, arisen from the
neglect of some who may have been considered our friends, I.
should he in a measure shirking the question if I softened down
matters, or explained away. my meaning in such a manner that
it would be necessary for me td do to exonerate all; Whether
they be called friends or foes. _

One of the greatest evils existing amongst us is the non-resi-
dence of many of the clergy. How few, if any, of those who
have the'care of chuYches in the more thickly populated parts
of the town, reside in .the vicinity of those chutches. ' 1 knOw,
how unpleasant, and in souse instances unhealthy, it will be for
persons who have always been in the habit of breathing pure air,
and living in a genteel neighbourhood, to take up their resi-
dence near to .St: Paul's, St. Matthias's. St. Matthew's, St.
Thomas's, St. George's, and St. Peter's ; but in times like
these, when no efforts should he spared by any one to prop up—,,
I must speak out—our venerable though falling establishment,
this sacrifice of comfort, and even of health. must be made. Let
our clergy, in this instance, take-example from the Roman Ca-
tholic clergy; they invariably reside near to their chapels, and
we find their chapel house always, if not attached, adjacent to
the chapel.
Without a residence upon the spot it is almost impossible for
a minister to have an acquaintance with those who belong to
his congregation, (generally persons live in the neighbourhood
of the church at which they attend,) and it is quite impossible
for him to have that of those who do not. One grand means of
keeping together a congregation is by personal visits; a cler-
gyman should know every individual in his congregation,—
should know their persons,—should, above all, Iftiow their
;minds. Further, he should have a knowledge of every one in
his district, whether high or low; should invite and even entreat
those who belong to other communities, and those who bclorig
to none, to come to his church ; whether he is sent for or not, he
should visit all the sick in the neighbehrhood, independently of
its being a duty; there is nothing that wins so much :Upon' a
man as kindness and attention shown to him when he is laid
upon a sick bed ; as well it makes a-great impression upon his
friends, for all persons are very susceptible of anything -done„
for their relatives in suffering.
There should, above all things, be ti school attached to every
chnrch under the superintendence of the minister. This at one
time was not so much required, as there was' at each end of the
town a large school supported by the corporation. Doubtless
these schools will be continued; but will they be continued,
upon the same footing as they were before ? Will the children
be sent to church on the sabbath ? Will they be permitted to
read the bible in them? Judging from the sentiments of those
who now will have the control of them, I should say not. It is,
therefore imperative that a school should be established in con-
nexion with every church in the town. By becoming resident
in a neighbourhood a clergyman would know the poor, and
would be able to give a proper direction-to those sums of money
which are distributed by the benevolent in most neighbourhoods,
and Which often, from a want of some one knowing the really
deserving, get into the hands of those who make a bad use of
them.

Sunday evening lectures, and, where it is practicable, lec-
tures on some evening during the week, should be established;
and, as there is more than one clergyman attached to most
churches, I cannot see that there would be any difficulty on that
head. I know of no cause that has led to the desertion of our
churches more than that the meeting-house is almost invariably
open on the Sunday evenings, and oftentimes on some evening
during the week ; and many persons, from not knowing in what
way to pass their time—for happily as yet in this country we
are not allowed to desecrate the sabbath by having places of
public amusement • open on that holy day—and many persons
otherwise attached to the church, go to the chapel because the
church shut up, and thereby have that attachment, if not
altogether destroyed, much weakened.
It would be productive of much good to have established,
attached to each school, a lending library of good and useful
books, which the poor might have access to at a very trifling ex-
pense, or perhaps at no expense at all. The necessity of some-
thing of this sort must be apparent when we reflect that there
are numerous libraries established by our enemies in various
part of the town under the names of •‘ Mechanics' Libraries,"
" Apprentices' Libraries," and many others, in which books, if
not of bad, at least of a questionable tendency, are introduced;
and 1 speak from a knowledge of the fact, that the major part
of the theological books in those places are of the Socinian
school. .

Our modern unitarians, finding that they cannot propagate
their heresy through the medium of preaching and the other
ordinary modes employed in the dissemination of truth, (their
predecessors having tried those means unsuccessfully,) are en-
deavouring to dO so, with a zeal that would•do honour to a better
cause, through more covert means; and this is one of their fa-
voUrite channels. In the libraries in question are to be found
" Priestley's Sermons," " Fox's Lectures," Martineau's, and
many other sermons of the smaller fry.
Now, none of these important plans can be carried into exe-
cution without the residence of the clergy, and I appeal to them,
—and as they will require the co-operation of the laity—l ap-
peal to all, when the enemies of our common faith are so active,
when the high places in the land, and even in our own town,
are occupied either by the professed opponents of truth or (per-
haps still more dangerous allies) its moderate friends, whether
they should not be ready to make great sacrifice for that reli-
gion which the God of heaven, to establish, left his throne of
glory and dwelt upon our earth !—for that form of faith that
holy men, in this land, sealed their attachment to by their blood!
A fearful responsibility attaches itself to the clergy of the pre-
sent day. The laity, among whom there has arisen a spirit of
inquiry and a strong desire for an immense supply of spiritual
knowledge, are looking up to their legitimate teachers for in-
struction, and if they find it not, they will seek it amongst other
communities, and in their search it cannot surprise us if they
should be led to drink in the poison which is administered for
food in almost every district in the town. Many of our people
have too long been allowed thus to stray, and can it be wondered
at that some become not only cold friends but even warm enemies
of our church.

I have almost unintentionally been led at a great length upon
this subject, but I deeply feel its importance; and if some
of your readers should think that I have somewhat strayed out
of my path in making a newspaper the medium of bringing
matters, mainly theological, before the public, I would remind
them that in this (once I had almost said) happy country reli-
gion and politics are so blended that it is almost impossible to
say where the one begins or where•the other ends.-1 am, &c.,
A LAYMAN.

NINA LASSA VE.—Therewas a great crowd on Tuesday night,
at the Cart"; de la Renaissance, to see Nina Lassave, who is en-
gaged at a high salary to preside at the bar. Two soldiers of
the line and a.municipal guard have been stationed at the door
to keep in order the multitude of curious, who threatened to lay
siege to the Coffee-house. The eager spectators fustier' in misses
round the bar behind which Nina was seated. Thisyo'iing
woman appeared extremely confused, and was assailed with the
most cruel taunts.• Some one having reproached her for daring
to show herself in. public four days after Fieschi's enecution,
she fainted, and was carried out of the room. Half-an-hour
afterwards she again resumed her seat, and entreated the people
to spare her feelings and have pity on her misfortunes.

THE GYPSIES IN SPAIN.--The Basque country has long
been completely overrun with innumerable bands of gypsies,
whozo longer confine themselves to their old system of begging
and fraud upon the credulous; to petty depredations upon hen
roosts and rabbit hutches, with occasional inroads upon the
sheep folds, but have extended their means of supplying their
orgies to more violent acts of robbery, attended sometimes even
with murder, watching the farmers on their return from market,
in order to take from them the money they had received for the
sale of their cattle and other produce. From their keeping
themselves upon the frontier, they no sooner render themselves
liable to the vengeance of the laws of France than they cross
the frontier, and shelter themselves in Spain ; returning again
as soon as by their lawless conduct they make themselves ob-
noxious to the authorities of that country. Orders have been
given to arrest all the gypsies; and the gendarmes, zealously
assisted by the inhabitants, have already taken and confined in
the prison of Saint Palais about 30 of these dark-complexioned
marauders. The Memorial des Pyrinies, from which we extract
the above details, observes, " Still the capture and imprisonment
for a few months of fifty or even a hundred of these vagabonds
will be of little avail, since they can never be made to acquire
fixed habits of industry, but will return to their evil courses the
moment they are released. Besides, they are scattered about,
in differents parts of these provinces, at least 2000 of this wan-
dering tribe, who have no means of subsistence but fraud, rob-
bery, and murder. The only mode, therefore, of relieving the
cu"trY from what has become a positive scourge, is by making
a
general seizure of tho whole of these wretches, and transport-
ing thetathat , masse beyond sea. The answer to any objections
may be made to such a measure, '
as arbitrary and illegal; is
that
much a tse g
les cannot be considered as Frenchmen, inns:
hes
they
Y'avree outcasts from all society, self-aliens to the
law. They
never inscribe their children upon the registers of
the country which
towards the ex e they are barn—they contribute not a sou
nsee of the State, nor furnish a single man for
its defence; in fact, the,
are altogether strangers in the land
to which they are a burofe
ANTIQUAItY.—Too often a col ctor of valuables that are
worth nothing, and a recollectoro:feall that time had been glad
to forget. His choice specimens
preserving;
eerbveicuome rarities, simply
because they were never worth
in exact propot!tionantd
present importance to them
theirhe attaches
former
aas once insignificance. A worthy of this unworthy class
various remote periods,
edi-
fying the French Academy .with most unmerciful detail of the
comparaLve prices of commodities at
Our friend k
when La Fontaine obserye,-, "news the value of
--I asst
every thing,—except time.'