The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-28 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL NEWS,

The Earl of Ellesmere has been unanimously re-elected
Lord Rector of Aberdeen University.

The Rev. Robert K. Sconce, 8.A., of Brasenose College,
Oxford, has conformed to the Church of Rome. A
The office of Regius Professor of Greek in thefeublin
University, has been conferred on the Rev. Thomas
Luby.

It is very generally reported that Oxford is about to fol-
low the example of Cambridge, and that its governing
body has prepared a scheme of educational reform which
will before long be submitted to convocation.
The following is a comparative list of the number of
residents in the University of Oxford, during the last and
present years :-1847, in college, 1,184 ; in lodgings, 767 ;
total resident, 1,951. 1848, in college, 1,181 ;in lodg-
ings, 761 ; total resident, 1,942.
The Rev. J, C. Makinson, 8.A., late of St. John's
College, Cambridge, has conformed to the Church
of Rome. Mr. Makinson was formerly curate at Man-
chester for two years, and left this country in 1837 on an
appointment in the diocese of Sydney, New South Wales,
as a Government chaplain.
CHURCH EXTENSION.—The Marquis of Westminster
has granted the handsome sum of £5,000 toward the erec-
tion of the new church of St. Gabriel, Pimlico ; in addition
to which, Mr. Cubitt, his Lordship's lessee, has given up
his interest upon the land, valued, for building purposes,
at upwards of £2,000. The Rev. I. B. Marsden is to be
the first incumbent of the church.

The Rev. Theyre Smith, M.A., who was for upwards
of ten years assistant preacher at the Temple Church, has
just been presented by the Lord Bishop of Ely to the
valuable rectory of Wymondham, in Norfolk. The rev.
gentleman's profound and eloquent discourses at the
Temple Church, occasioned his being appointed Hulsean
Lecturer. at Cambridge for two years consecutively, at a
time when the present Bishop of Ely, (Dr. Turton), was
one of the heads of Houses at Cambridge ; and we are
enabled to say that the preferment of Mr. Smith was
entirely unexpected and unsolicited, and confers equal
honours upon him and the bishop.
We fear there is no doubt of the fact, that that amiable
and excellent person, the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W.
Noel, has signified his intention of seceding from the
Church. It is a subject of much greater regret than of
surprise. Mr. Noel does not intend to join any other body
of Christians, but gives as his reason the connection of the
Church with the State, and her consequent `• bondage"
to secular power. The rev. gentleman has long been
known for his ardent advocacy of the Free Church of
Scotland, a secession founded on similar views to his own,
and it is this which has probably ripened his desire to
imitate their system —the leading principle of which is to
maintain the doctrines of the mother church, but to assume
a position not merely independent of, but superior to, the
State.—Record. _ _

-.--.
ANOTHER SUGGESTION.—The Rev. C. Girdlestone, in
a letter to the Primate, says,—" On reading the letter ad-
dressed to your grace by the Bishop of Gibraltar, recom-
mending the celebration of a Tercentenary next year, I
could not but strongly feel, and now take the liberty of
humbly suggesting, how highly desirable it would be, if
anything be done, that it should be done primarily for the
benefit of those thousands and millions in our own coun-
try who are strangers alike to the Prayer Book and the
Bible; and whose worse than heathen ignorance and
wickedness, made notorious as it is by the demeanour of
such of them as go abroad, is the most glaring hindrance
to the effectual propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts.
Scripture readers have now been tried, and are generally
approved. If they were called ' Catechists,' and empow-
ered to chatechise as well as read the Bible, these masses
of the heathen at home might be largely wrought upon.
And should a Tercentenary be commemorated by a collec-
tion of Church funds, I am persuaded that much more
would be contributed, and much more good would be
done by the contributions, if they were devoted to found-
ing and endowing an order of Catechists, than if devoted
to foreign objects as proposed."
PASTORAL LETTER.—The Bishop of Chester has ad-
dressed a letter to his clergy on the subject of the cholera.
His Lordship says,—" Domiciliary visitation among the
labouring classes is, no doubt, part of your ordinary
habits. The present cause of apprehension may both
give greater force to your persuasions in recommending
increased cleanliness to the poor, and may also procure
from the rich a more liberal contribution of pecuniary as-
sistance towards carrying those recommendations into
effect. In that case, permanent good will have arisen out
of apprehended evil. A hope may reasonably be enter-
tained that, under the Divine blessing, increased cleanli-
ness in the dwellings of the poor will diminish the fre-
quency, or mitigate the virulence, of disease in general.
It may also tend to produce among the poor a higher sense
of decency and propriety ; an improved tone of moral
feeling ; a greater disposition to receive and to value, reli-
gious instruction. And there can scarcely fail to be some
sentiment of gratitude excited in their minds when they
thus find themselves objects of benevolent solicitude to
their wealthier neighbours who send them needful help,
and to their pastor, whose visits are always ministrations
of kindness and comfort. I fully rely on your disposition
to further generally, by your co-operation, the objects
recommended by the Board
iof Health. Your own dis-
cretion will be your guide n adopting such particular
measures with this view as from local, or other, circum-
stances, you may deem most suitable."
ANOTHER CHURCH COMMISSION.—Mr. Horsman's
late motion for the better management of Church lease-
holds has " eventuated," as they say across the Atlantic,
in—another Church Commission. The " composition
i and management" of the present " Ecclesiastical Com-
-1
mission for England and Wales" was, in the eyes of that
class of reformers which is represented by Mr. Horsman,
the root of much, if not all, evil. Episcopal residences