The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-09-23 00:00:00

CHURCH EXPENDITURE.

The MAYOR said the next subject which came under their
consideration was the subject of church expenditure, on which
subject a motion and amendment had been given notice of at
the last council meeting.
The Town-CLERK said he had a sketch of the supplementary
report to the council, which he might as well read to the
council, though, in order, it ought first to go through the hands
of the finance committee. It was to the effect that counsels'

opinion had been taken on the subject of payments to the
organists, sextons, &c., and that opinion was that the corpora
tiou were not under any legal obligation to make any such pay-
ments. In the cases where it appeared that the original presen-
tation, made under the seal of the corporation, granted.certain'
stipends, the circumstances would require .material considera-
tion whether the lecturers were entitled to claim on the corpo-
ration under the endowment or not.

Mr. Councillor BOLTON now rose to bring forward the mo-
tion of which he had given notice. He begged to call attention
to the consideration of the expenditure of the corporation
churches. In su doing, he would first advert to what ,had oc-
curred in pursuance of this object. Soon after the appointment
of the finance committee in January last, a sub-committee was
appointed for examining into.the past expenditure'. On that
subject they had reported to. the council on the 6th of April,
and with permission he would read a part or that report. Mr.
Bolton then read an extract from the report, showing the amount
of various items of expenditure of the different corporation
chnrches during the preceding years; and which report con-
cluded with—" And your coinmittee recornmand that the future
expenditure on this account be strictly confined to the legal
charges." (Hear.) This had been adopted by the council.
He did not mean to say that What they agreed to should be like
the laws of the Medes and Persians, never change, but when
any alteration of their decision was to be made, very urgent
reasons should be brought forward to justify such alteration.
Immediately after this it became necessary to: ascertain what

expenses were legal, and what were not; The subject since
then had been very much under the care of the town-clerk, and
the result had been a very ample and conclusive report on all
the matters abopt to be brought under consideration, and for
which they were very much indebted to his legal ability. That
part of the expenditure which related to the payments to the
clergy he considered it was not now necessary to discuss, it being
mixed up with and dependent upon the result of the endowment
question which was now before the Court of Chancery, and
therefore it would be unnecessary to say further than that a full
provision would be made for the payment of the stipends of the
clergy during their lives, to the full amount they had been ac-
customed to receive. (Hear.) He was not opposed to that;
but to the endowment in perpetuity he was now and ever would
be decidedly opposed. (Hear.) For he would maintain that
the funds of the corporatiCrn belonged to every sect and party,
and that it was an act of injustice to pay out of that fund any-
thiug for the promotion or advancement of any one denomina-
tion whatever, be they catholics or churchmen, or dissenters.
He maintained this on the ground of principle. lie was quite
aware that, placed as they now were, there were acts of parlia-
ment which, gave exclusive privileges to various churches, not
only for ministers but for Organists, clerks, and various other
matters. Whilst these laws were in force it was his duty, And
the duty of every subject to obey them cheerfully. It night be
their duty if they were unjust to endeavour to. amend them.
The next parts of the report of the expenditure on which might
arise any discussion, were those parts which related to the organ-
ists. It was previded by law that payments should be made to
some of them, and to the sextons and clerks, and various other
disbursements, With regard to these he would only remark
that these payments ought to be made with a due regard to
economy; they should be fair but not extravagant, and these
expenses should be kept down to a moderate amount. Con-
nected with this part of the expenditure it was painful to con-
trast the different results which had taken place in the manage-
ment of other churches as compared with those supported by the
corporation. Whilst the corporation churches were sources of
great expenditure, the churches of Edge-hill, St. Andrew's, St.
Philip's, and several other churches which supported them.
selves, not only furnished the means of
.paying their own mi-
nisters, but also furnished to their proprietors a very handsome
remuneration.. (Hear.) That brought hint to that part of the
expenditure which perhaps might be called the debatable part,
as there was a difference of opinion as to the propriety of con-
tinuing it. According to his knowledge of this item of expen-
diture he was happy. to say that it was exceedingly pure now
to what it had been. With regard to the church of St. Mi-
chael's, the first church he should bring under their notice,
the only expense he should object to was the expense of
£63 a year paid to the singers ; the organist was provided
by law. The next church he should notice was St. Luke's.
Sixty-three pounds was, allowed for the same purpose in that
church, and in addition there were £67. Is. paid fir bell-
ringers, which expense-he held to be illigal and not obligatory.
The next thing was an expense of £93. 15s. in St. Martin's
Church, which was allowed for. the cheir for one year and a
quarter. It began in 1831, when £63 was allowed, and then
£8.3 was allowed per.annum, for what reason lie -could not tell.
The next item brought him to the expenditure of St. George's
Church, iu which there was' more variety and a larger amount
allowed- than to any of the other churches; The first item of
expenditure was £63 for an organist, then £4 for an organ-
blower, £129. 3s. for chorister.' £4, 4s. for tuning the organ,
£32 for music, making altogether a total of £232. 75., for which
there was no legal provision. The next matter was perhaps
unimportant : it was a sum of £77. 17s. 6d. for organist, clerk,
and sexton for St. Paul's Church, which charge was not obliga-
tory or warrantable under the municipal act. The next were
various charges on account of St. Thomas's ChurCh. The
expenses per annum were £lO6. 19s. 7d.; of which sum only £39
was legal, which made the excess of expenditure over what was
legal £7l. 19s. 7d. They had heard the report, and they would
determine on what they would do. These were the items to
which he objected, amouuting in the four corporation churches
to £6OB. ss. Id. per annum. They would seem to bear hard on
St. George's" Church, for whilst in the other churches there was
provision made for many of these expenses, there was mine in
that; but when they considered the wealth and fashion which
adorned that church;abd saw the splendid equipages which sur-
rounded its door, he thought the congregation would not object
to pay out of their own pockets for what was to administer to
their own gratification. He was told that it was intended to
contend for the continuance of all these charges on a ground
which he was surprised to hear-that if the music was with-
drawn from the churches, they would soon be empty. Really
the religion of the establishment must be at a very low ebb, if
the withdiawal of the music would take away the congregations.
It' the subject was to be viewed as a mercantile question, let
them look at it as such. He had taken the expenditure of the
last five years for St. George's Church, and he fotind it to be
£7,942. 18s. 241.: there . had been received for seat rents
£3,167. 18s., 7d. For St.MiChael's Church, for the same .pe-
riod, there had been expended £4,674. 2s. ltd., and there had
been received £2,712. 2s. 6d.; for St. Martin's there had been
paid £5,010. 14s, 9d., and received £1,254. ss. 411.; for St.
Luke's there had been paid £3,769. Bs. Od.,
and received
£1,926;17e. 7d. For these 'four churches there had been paid
du,ripg ,the last five years a sum of .f.:21,397. 3v. Ild., and re-
ceived £9,060. 145., leaving a loss on these four churches of
.£12,336. 9s. lid., or on an average £246. 7s. 2d. per annum for
each church, not accounting for the loss of interest. In addi-
tion to which might be fairly added £2lO annuity paid to Mr.
Case.' That had not very touch to do with the subject, but still
it was a part of the sum which was paid out of the corporation
or common property. From this fund in the preceding seven
years there had been expended £39,070 for building St. Mar-
tin's, St. Luke's, and doing something at the steeple of St.
George's, which was a total outlay per annum for building
churches of £5,581. 10s. In connexion wills this subject, he
believed it might be considered that what was paid to the or-
ganists would be termed a church-rate, and levied accordingly.
The town-clerk had opened a report prepared by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London on this subject,
and in it the question of church-rates was very fairly and cre-
ditably.treated. That report stated that church-rates ought to
be made in vestry. It stated also that if in a vestry meeting
the rate was imposed, there was little difficulty in levying it.
It stated further, that the salary of the organist was not legal to
be included in the rate, and that, therefore, this expense must
be abandoned. But it' says if the vestry refuse this expence, it
may be referred to the churchwardens, who have the power of
imposing ri rate, which may be Made a legal charge by the
sanction of the majority
competent in an riz:hiuner •
of the vestrv,4ad when given it not ,
to object to it. When this subjeo.
had been 'meet discussion in the House ()remit-ions, it was kilted
by Lord Althorp that he bad divided time subject of church-
rates into two points, one of which he called neCestaries;iind