The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-23 00:00:00

must again put forward their irrefragable ground as Church
of England men. The plain state of the case is, they would
deferentially submit, one of fact. That the course of minis-
trations in the churches of Liverpool is, in many important
points, at variarce with that prescribed in the Book at Com-
mon Prayer, is obvious, and needs no further explanation;
and they must respectfully maintain, that it is not their duty
to presume to discuss with your lordship the intrinsic impor-
tance or insignificance of the particulars in which the prevail.
ing practice falls short. They humbly protest, that it is not
their part, on this occasion, to plead with your lordship the
value of weekly communion, daily public prayer, or the
recurring round of the Church's days of fast and festival.
They do not feel it their duty to explain what need they find
supplied in the full application of the Prayer Book system,
which modern practice fails to satisfy. They are not called
upon to furnish their particular reasons for dissatisfaction
with that order or rather disorder of things, in which, for
instance, portions of the written services, whether prayers or
lessons, are omitted at the will of the minister;—in which it
is treated as a matter of option whether or no the Athanasian
Creed should be said, an option which is vindicated by its
marked omission in more than one church in this town and
in its suburbs ;—in which, sometimes, Ash Wednesday is not
at all observed, and where it is, its special service is usually
omitted; in which no opportunity is given for observing the
prescribed services for Holy Week, except in the single
instance of Good Friday ;—in which the festival ofour blessed
Lord's Ascension is, in several churches, wholly neglected,
and all the other holy days are treated as if there were nothing
in the Prayer Book about them, so that it is not impossible
to mention the instance of a church being ope ed on New
Year's Day, and the forms appointed for the commemoration
of our Lord's circumcision, of which that day is the festival,
being displaced, by a service arbitrarily compounded of some
detached portions of the Prayer Book, and an extempore effu-
sion from the minister;—in which, not to enumerate further.
a spirit alien to the Church of England has been allowed to
compress into the most bare and meagre compass her general
ritual arrangements and provisions. Because, my lord, they
feel that whether your lordship thinks these omissions and
transgressions of importance or not, they have a perfect right
to feel dissatisfied with them, if they like. Because they think
that our spiritual rulers are as much bound to the Prayer
Book aml its directions, without consideration of their fitness,
on which• the opinions of Churchmen are unhappily mach
divided, as they themselves ; and, that though the plea of
custom may be held sufficient to justify these departures
from prescribed order, in a bishops individual estimate of
the particulars involved, yet no one, be lie bishop or priest,
h;,s a right to enforce the authority of usage on others who
prefer the authority of law. My lord, the projectors of this
church think that they have a claim that their prejudices in
favour of the Pryer Book should be respected. Most undoubt-
edly your lordship might legitimately refuse to sanction the
building of a church, where about one-third of the Prayer
Book, as is the custom, was to be treated as a dead letter;
but though it should be admitted that such a refusal would be
a too violent contravention of the " spirit of the age," they
frankly confess, that they cannot view as anything but a s.g-
nal perversion of the law, the authoritative discouragement of
a project, whose characteristic is the honest, unreserved,
faithful observance of every positive precept, and every inten-
tional suggestion of that book.
The committee hope that they may not be considered to lie
open to the charge of making vague accusations, in thus
alluding to some of the irregularities and deficiencies in the
churches of this town. They ventured to assure your lord.
ship in a previous letter that it was not their purpose to
appeal for any correction of prevailing irregularities or defi-
ciencies, but merely for permission to find for themselves a
refuge from the first, anda mode of supplying the latter by a
simple adherence to the rules of the Church of england.
Your lordship's letter, however, seemed to invite•them to the
consideration of this topie..and to intimate why they desire
something beyond prevailing practice. If cal:ed upon, they
desire to state that they are ready to substantiate these
charges.
The committee are at a loss to know what practical answer
can be given to the notification that " there may be now daily
service in every church in Liverpool." but that this would
necessitate the employment-of additional curates; except the.
repetition of their original proposal—viz., to build a church
where-daily prayer is to be said, and where sufficient minis-
terial agency is to be provided for its maintenance. In
making this profession, while accepting your lordship's pro-
testation that you " seek to foster no party spirit, but to pro.
mote moderation and mutual forbearance by the avoidance of
extremes," they must claim to have no other interpretation
pat upon their own designs. On the contrary, they think
adherence to the Prayer-book the only principle which can
save us from party spirit, restrain the unauthorised ebullitions
which interrupt moderation, and prevent that diversity of
practice which gives scope to-fall into extremes. Pardon,
themony lard, if they confess that no spirit seems to them
more the spirit of a party than that which clamours for the
discountenance of more frequent communions and worship,
and is -known by a disregard to distasteful injunctions of the-
church ;.that nothing seems to them a greater evidence of
moderation than the willingnes- to leave others unmolested
in theirviolation of the church's rules, if only permission be
given to those who desire to observe them, and contribute to
promote their observance ; and that, while they do not ques-
tion yourlordship's own intentions, they are unable to appre-
ciate a forbearance, by whichsomeare protected in their laxity,
and somenre forbidden to be obedient.

Departing for a moment from their plea of Prayer-book
conformity, they cannot see why a regard for those classes of
the people who are indifferent to this principle, who are less
sensible to the fitnesses and beauties of the church's ritual.
should hinder the provision of more accordant and ornate
services and' accessories for that increasing class by whom
these are appreciated—which many of our cathedrals are with
increasing anxiety now supplying—which seem to be called
for by a want natural to the mind—which are provided by
many Protestant bodies on the continent—and by provision
of which. a rising sect in this country. they allude to the
Irvingites, will, it is to be feared, succeed in drawing away
many from their spiritual mother.
But they forbear to place this matteron any such footing on
the present occasion. They have come before your lordship
in the very ordinary guise of applicants for your formal con-
sent to a very ordinary application—namely, that for building
a church in your lordship's diocese; and they cannot with-
draw from this correspondence without most solemnly pro-
testing, on behalf of the church at large, and as a witness to
the momentous principle at stake ; .without protesting, with
feelings of the-utmost courtesy and deference to your lordship..
individually, against this startling. and unprecedented exer-
cise of prerogative. They protest, because your lordship has
not alleged any illegality in their proceedings ; because on no
principle, ecclesiastical or moral, can the most rigid confor-
mity to the Book of Common Prayer be made the ground of
objection to the building of a place for Prayer-book worship;;
because it practically amounts to the setting of a veto upon
that desire for more frequent eucharists and prayers which.
the church seeks moat ardently to awaken and foster ; because
it is a recognition„ on on the part of authority, of the popular
sentiment that-the Prayer-book, so far as it transcends the
tone of prevailing usage, is impracticable or effete, and should
at the earliest opportunity be mutilated to suit what is called
the pure Protestant spirit of simplicity; because it is a pro-
hibition that voluntary effort in church extension shall be
directed in any channel but that which has been found un-
able to bring the church's system to bear upon the masses
of the people of this country, though, and even because, the
characteristic of the channel proposed, is its running in the
way of the church more directly than the one for. which
custom secures toleration, and popularity wins patronage;
because, in short, it is an act professedly based upon no inter-
pretation of the church's law, or principle of regard for the
church's spirit,.or disputed question about the church's in-
tention, but on a mere opinion or private sentiment; which is
put forward with no claim of authority from consideration of
the person who holds it, and has no attribute of permanence
beyond the will or the prejudice of the holder himself.
I have to state; my lord, that the committee think it neces-
sary that this-correspondence be forthwith circulated among
the subscribers;; and, on their behalf, I beg to subscribe
myself your lordship's most obedient humble servant,
The Lord,Bishopof Chester. DANint. RADFORD.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

PREFERMENTS AND APPOINTMENTS.

Rev. IL W. Bacon, M.A.,Fellow of King's College, Cam-
bridge, to the Rectory of whurst, Sussex.
Rev. W. R. L. Bennett, 8.A., to the Incumbency of Holy
Trinity Church, Dover.

Rev.. R. Boys. M.A., Perpetual Curate of St. Mary's, Platt,
Wrotharn, to the Incumbency of Loose; near Maidstone.
Rev. E. T. Cardale, late Vicar of Podington, otherwise
Pnddington,. Beds, to the Incumbency of Flax Bourton,
Somersetshire.

Rev. A. L. Courtenay, D.D , Domestic Chaplain to the Earl
of Hardwicke, to the Incumbency of the District Chapel of
St. James, Pentonville, London, by order of the Queen in
Council.

Rev. T. Donkin, 8.A., to be Chaplain to H.M. Gaol, Syd-
ney, N.S.W.
Rev. F. Fitzpatrick, M.A., to the Rectory of Painstown.
Rev. A. Gedge, M.A., to the Rectory of Ludborough, Lin-
colnshire.

Rev. J. Graves, M.A., to the Vicarage• of Kelmacar, diocese
of Ossory and Ferns.
Rev. F. T. Gregory, M.A., to the Incumbency of St. Mary's
Platt, Wrotham, Kent.
Rev. Dr. K. C. Hawtrey, Provost of Eton College, to the
Rectory of Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire.
Rev. R. J. Hodgkinson, M.A., to. the Curacy of Washing-
borough Lincoln.
Rev. J. P. Lightfoot, M.A., to the Rectory of Kiddington.
Oxfordshire. Patrons, Exeter College, Oxford.

Rev. J. M'Clintock, 8.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, to
the Curacy of Derriagliy.
Rev. H. Margetts, M.A., to the Officiality of the Arch-
deaconry of Huntingdon, in the diocese of Ely.
Rev. H. Morgan, 8.A., to the Incumbency of Henfenen,
near Lampeter.

Rev. W: L. Newham, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College,
Cambridge, to the Vicarage of Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicester-
shire.

Rev. J. Park, to the Living of St. Andrew's.
Rev. G. H. A. Perry, 8.A., to the Curacy of Lane.end,
Longton, St. John,. near Newcastle:nnder-Lyne.
_

Rev. J. L. Popham, M.A., Prebendary Of Salisbury, and
Rural Dean and Rector of Chilton FoMott, near Hungerford,
to be a Chaplain to the Bishop Elect of Salisbury.
Rev. W. N. St. Leger, M.A., Incumbent of St. Mary-at-
Tower, Ipswich, to the Chaplaincy of Her Majesty's troops
at Corfu.

Rev. Dr. S., L. Townsend, late Rectal. of Painstown, to the
Rectory and Vicarage of Louth.
Rev. J. Woodhouse, 8.A., to the Curacy of Goosnargli,
near Preston.

DIOCESE OF CHESTER.

CONEIECRATION.—The Church of St. Saviour, Falkner-
square, Liverpool, is to be consecrated by the Bishop of
Chester, to-morrow (Wedesday), the 24th instant, at eleven
o'clock. It has been open by license for several years past.
PREFERMENT.—The Rev. Charles Thomas Quirk has
been presented to the rectory of St. Thomas's, Golbcume,
in the county of Lancaster, void by the death of the Rev.
Alan Greenwell. Patron, the Earl of Derby.
NoN-nssinnltcz.—The Bishop of Chester has renewed
the license of non-residence of the Rev. William Waller,
incumbent of St. John's Church, Dukinlleld. Cheshire,
until the 31st December, 1855, on account of continued
ill-health.

Ve.cANcr.—The perpetual curacy of Holy Trinity
Church, Castle Northwich, in the county of Chester, by
resignation of the Rev. John Maxwell Wilde. Patron
the Bishop of Chester. Value, £l5O with a house.

TEE NEW BISHOP.—The expectation is, that this time
we shall have, not a Tractarian, but a " Liberal" bishop—
one of the Edinburgh Review school. The names most
rife are those of Lord Auckland, the present Bishop of
Sodor and Man, and of Mr. Dawes, the present Dean of
Hereford.—Morning Herald.

RESIGNATION OF ARCHDEACON DENIsoN.--Theßridge-
water Times states that the annual archidiaconal visita-
tion was held in that town on Wednesday, but that the
Venerable George Anthony Denison, the archdeacon, did
not attend to deliver a charge to the clergy, the rev.
gentleman having resigned his office.

- CHURCH PASTORAL AID SOClETY.—On Sunday week,
two sermons were preached at Lancaster, on behalf of the
above society, by the Rev. Joseph Baylee, D.D., principal
of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead—in the morning at the
Parish Church, and in the evening at St. Thomas's Church.
DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.—We
regret to announce the demise of the venerable Bishop of
Bath and Wells, which took place yesterday week, at
Brighton, after an illness of considerable duration. The
deceased, the Hon. and Right Rev. Richard Bagot, third
son of the first Lord Bagot, was born in 1782, and married
in 1806 Lady Harriet Villiers, daughter of the Earl of
Jersey, by whom he leaves a numerous family. The late
bishop was educated at Rugby school ; thence he pro-
ceeded to Christ Church, Oxford ; was elected Fellow of
All Souls' College in 1804 ; consecrated Bishop of Oxford
in 1829 ; and translated to Bath and Wells in 1845. By
his death the Bishop of Salisbury is at once raised to a
seat iu the House of Lords.