The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-31 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL 3 TANDARD.

CORRESPONDENCE

THE IRISH CLERGY AND THEIR:A2SA/LANTS,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Permit one who has regarded with sorrow the
denunciations that have issued from the editors and cor-
respondents of• a portion of the Liverpool press,.against
the Irish clergy.; during the last week, to interpose a word
in their behalf. _ _

I may as well state, in limine, that I am no way con-
nected with Liverpool, and that to many of the Liverpool
clergy lam personally unknown. I have had no part in
the proceedings of the meeting which gave rise to the un-
fortunate controversy now pending : nor do I belong to
any party in the Church :

_
Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri.
I may, therefore, claim a hearing as an impartial observer.
It is not my purpose to prove the Irish clergy faultless, of

Dr. MThsTeile. in partictilar infallible. But May I not,.on
their behalf, repudiate the aspersions with which they
have been so unsparingly assailed during the last week;
and, as it appears to me from the evidence I have been
able to gather in reference to the Jewish meeting, most
unfairly ? Ido not enter into the question whether Mr.
Ewbank had or had not a right to disturb the proceedings
of the meeting, or whether Dr. M'Neile was right in re-
sisting his attempt to disturb it. Be that as it may, is it
fair, is it just, to brand the whole body of Irish clergy in
England with epithets scarcely fit to be applied to the
vilest characters ?•

It appears to me that the attempt to loosen the bonds
between the ministers of the united Church is worthy of
the gravest censure. Upon their cordial union and co-

operation the highest interests depend. And if, instead
of uniting, as hitherto, in every good work, an ecclesiasti-
cal arena is to be set up in Liverpool, upon which the
English-born and Irish-born clergy are encouraged to ex-
hibit as pugilists, what, I ask, is to become of true religion
in the place ?
But what is the remedy against such a melancholy con-
tingency ? " Send the Irish home—banish them from
our shores—lreland for the Irish."
.No one can gravely

entertain so insane a proposition. What then The
Irish-born clergy must remain—nay more, our people
would not part with them ; they are popular—their
churches are crowded, and that by English men and Eng-
lish women. Would it not be more in accordance with
common sense and a Christian spirit to practise forbear-
ance—to put a kind and charitable construction on acts

which may well adroit of it, and thus " to keep tl

e unity

of the Spirit in the bond of peace" ?
But is it just, in point of evidence and fact, to describe
the Irish clergy as hungry colonists invading our shores
and taking from their English brethren the bread which
oueht to belong to them ?—for thus it is often stated. If

ut %vita one
especially who gave them every encouraiement to enter
his diocese : it is scarcely necessary to add that I allude to
the present venerated Archbishop of Canterbury. Was it
because he found the Irish clergy to be such as they have
been lately described that he received them in such num-
bers into his diocese ? Was it not rather because he found
them full of zeal and energy, and ready to carry out their
mission in places offering few attractions to men of more
sober views perhaps. but of less zeal? The good Arch-
bishop has pronounced, in the most emphatic way, his
approval of the Irish clergy ; some of the Liverpool jour-
..l. h.pked by a section of the nublic, denounce them.

blame rest

rish clergy

!ompet

ent with

A the Irish c
what is the

And with reference to the charge
interfere with " the loaves and fishe
At this moment, if my information-be correct, Witt
two exceptions there is not an Irish clergyman holding a
living in this diocese whose income does not more or less
depend on the voluntary principle ! In other words, th
Irish clergy do receive payment for their services, bu

payment voluntarily awarded them by purely English con-
gregations. Their churches are well attended ; but the
worshippers assemble from this side the Channel. I con-
fess, therefore, I cannot comprehend the oft-alleged
grievance, that the Irish clergy are found to occupy some
English churches. English churches they do occupy, and
in considerable numbers; English livings, well endowed,
and independent of the voluntary principle, they do not
occupy. In Ireland the case is just reversed ; for from
the archbishop down to the vicar, Irish preferments ac-
knowledge English possessors ; whilst, with a rec
not Irish in this case, the Irish clergy have ph
not pensions, in England : these places the gift
English patrons. Whence, then, the ground of t

reiterated grievance ?

It 'is said again that the Irish clergy are. po.
fond of strife. I confess my own experience
had 16 years experience in the ministry) leads ILL,. _
hat English spirits are as accessible to exciting causes as
the Irish One - anly speak of what hn. -

,nucal and
ind I have

are Jn. can
der personal observation ; and I must say
known Irish clergymen as mild and patient, to the full,
those whose more favoured birth has made them English,
That there are exceptions, and many of them, is doubt-
less true. But surely the circumstances of an Irish cler-
gyman's education, and its necessary associations, ought
to be taken into account before a wholesale and sweeping
condemnation is pronounced against him. Would Eng-

lisiimen under the same circumstances exhibit greater

possessing these opposite qualities. Let English calmness
and prudence be brought to temper the less-disciplined
zeal of the Irish character; let the zeal of the Irish bro-
ther stimulate the sometimes too-calculating temper of
the English; and the union will exhibit true harmony,

which, as in music, consists in the
I remain, Sir,'you"r obedient servant,
A LANCASHIRE INCUMBENT.
P.S.—T should have appended my name to the above,
if, by so doing, I could hope to give any weight to what
it contains. I enclose it for your private information.
[We wish our reverend correspondent had allowed us to
attach his name to this letter, as it would have added no
ordinary weight to the arguments which he has used with
such wise discrimination.]

iscords

SUPPLY OF WATER

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—If you should deem the following remarks worthy
of a place in your next journal, on the important subject
of the best means of supplying my native town plentifully
with water, I shall be glad if you insert them.
It is not my intention to write as a partisan, or to bias
the judgment of the inhabitants as to the propriety or
non-propriety of the proposed supply from Rivington
Pike, or to question the policy or otherwise of receiving
or rejecting candidates without regard to the measure of
their personal qualifications, decidd by their opinions on
this question alone ; but merely to record my opinions as
to what appears to me to be the imperative duty of the
authorities, namely, to ascertain what the people of Liver-
pool have immediately under their feet.
While the geological formations have been proved in
almost all parts of the country, to depths which give sa-
tisfactory evidences that it is unnecessary to proceed lower,
a district lying between the Yorkshire hills in the north-
east and the Welsh mountains on the south-west, has
been only to a certain degree partially examined.
Having had occasion to study the subject in Gloucester-
shire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Derbyshire, I have
found that by following the indications pointed out by na-
ture herself the results have usually followed which the
scientific enquirer had reason to expect ; and in those
fields of scientific observation an almost perfect map of
each district has been' made, and only by some of those
violent irruptions which attend all recent formations will
any party be disappointed in particular spots.
I therefore submit that, following the directions of na-
ture, we see first on the north-east of Liverpool the great
coal-field of Lancashire, in the neighbourhood of Wigan,
and a higher strata nearer to the town at St. Helen's, and
as close as the Old Swan. In the south-west we see the
coal strata breaking out at Neston in Cheshire, and be-
yond that again in Flintshire, until not only the coals but
every other formation breaking out are closed, as it were,
by the primitive rocks of which the Welsh mountains
consist. As another and later evidence of nature's work,
if the neighbourhood of Leasowe Castle is visited, we see
the remains of a great forest descending down beyond low
water mark, in the direction of the north-east; and at a
corresponding point at Formby we see apparently the
same forest rising as it were out of the water, pointing out
the fact that at some former period the whole was united,
while the intermediate space is now covered by vast sand
banks, which may ultimately become the sand-stone rock
like that on which Liverpool rests.
How necessary does it appear then that the formation
under the town should be fully and completely ascer-
tained

It appears that the lowest depths the water companies
have reached has been six hundred feet, a depth not
one-half of that which M. Arago had to reach before he
obtained the supply of water his scientific knowledge sa-
tisfied him was to be found • therefore not 'to be consi-
dered at all satisfactory as determining a question of so
much moment to the whole of the people of Liverpool.
It is my conviction that if a sum of money of trifling
amount compared with the object, was set apart to prove
the strata which exists under the town, not only would a
vast supply of water be obtained, but the coal-fields in
these lowest depths would be discovered, so that Liver-
pool would have available at the lowest price, both for do-
mestic and manufacturing purposes, an inexhaustible sup-
ply of that necessary material. This alone would repay,
ten thousand times over, all the expense, and do more for
the prosperity of the town than any other thing, let the
kind be what it would. But as the want of water is great,
and the town increasing year by year, and men of science
have determined that the Rivington Pike is the place
from whence to obtain it, the inhabitants must not be too
soon frightened at the large cost, provided indeed no bet-
ter means can be found ; for at what expense is Lisbon
supplied with water, a place far inferior in importance to
Liverpool ? Why at a cost of upwards of 2millions
sterling. One aqueduct alone had to be extended no less
than 21 miles in length to compass the object ; therefore
for so important a necessity an enormous outlay becomes
justifiable.
I think I have written enough to gain attention to my
suggestions, and if only the authorities would apply the
Artesian principle near to the town itself, by calling in
competent parties to execute the work, it is not possible
to extenuate the benefit that would arise from it. The
depths now reached are far within the requirements of a
trial. Only a short time ago I had occasion to survey a
colliery in Derbyshire, 275 yards deep, out of two pits of
which 300 tons of coal per day are raised, and this is no-
thing to those near to Newcastle ; therefore, it is not un-
reasonable, nor unusual in the present advance of science,
to go far deeper than has been done in Liverpool, to draw
from the earth its hidden riches with safety and success.--
I am, yours respectfully,
THOS. MURRAY GLADSTONE,
Associate Institute Civil Engineers.
3, Sidmouth-street, London, 27th Oct., 1848.

REV. W. W. EWBANK AND DR. M•NEILE

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL COURIER.

DEAR SIR.—In the Liverpool Standard of this morn-
ing, I have observed and read- several documents referring
to the disgraceful scene which took place at the late meet-
ing of the Jews' Society, in the Collegiate Institution. It
is clearly my duty to notice them, and I will do so briefly
and in order, requesting your kind insertion of my re-
marks in your next paper.*
Firstly.—Dr. M`Neile, the chairman, has written a let-
ter on the subject to the secretaries of the Liverpool
Auxiliary. This letter I notice first, and I shall be sur-
prised if the following plain additional statements are not
considered by all who have fairly and calmly read both
sides of the question to be a full and sufficient answer.
I.—Dr. M`Neile thinks that I ought to have expressed
my sentiments in committee previously to my attempting
to move an amendment. I was not summoned to that
committee.. I did not know when it was held. The se-
cretary, who has had the charge of sending out the
notices, has acknowledged in committee that I was not
summoned. Under these circumstances I have done all
that I could do. I have frequently spoken most strongly
on the subject to both the secretaries; and I wrote on
the same subject to Mr. Boutflower, one of the secretaries,
at least a fortnight before the late meeting, No notice
was taken of that letter. It was not laid before the com-
mittee, either in form or in substance ; and I am informe,'
that it was only at the committee meeting,