The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-05 00:00:00

parishes

the practice o, .orming unions must have continued in
full activity after the Union. For the Commissioners of
Inquiry, in their Report of 1835, state, that they found
907 benefices consisting of a single parish ; and 478 unions,
two or more. Now if these ur+;--

Limons consisted entirely
or two parishes only, it is clear that there would be 956
parishes, or more than half of the whole, held in union.
Supposing, however, the averaye of these unions of two,
three, four, five, and six parishes to be three, we should
then find 1,434 parishes held in union, while only 937
had a pastor to themselves. Some other lamentable facts
appear in this same Report of 1835, which may as well be
given in this place. The Commissioners report, that they
found 210 parishes without any church. And this was

the settled state of things, to amend which scarcely any
effort was making ! Of a piece with this was the further
fact, that in 157 parishes there was no resident clergyman,
and no service of any kind ! And this was the state of
things in 18''

after a great revival of religion had long
seen going on, and when, beyond all doubt, there must
have been far more vigour and strength in the Church
than at any former period. What, then, must have been
the state of things a century back ? Is it not wonderful,

in existence, after such a system of neglect and
had existed for more than a century ?—Record

corruption

NEW CHURCHES AND DISTRICTS.—A very important
meeting of the incumbents of new churches and districts
was held at the National School, Etruria, Staffordshire,
on Tuesday, for the purpose of considering the present
position of district churche

s, especially as to theinade-
quacy of " the voluntary system" in supplying funds for
the maintenance of divine worship and the repair of the
fabric, and to adopt memorials to his Grace the Archbi-
shop of Canterbury, the Lord Bishop of Lichfield, and
the first Minister of the Crown, humbly praying that
means may be devised to form all Chapelries and Districts
into separate Parishes, and likewise to nominate a depu-
tation to present such memorial. The Rev. H. Wynter,
of Etruria, presided; and on the motion of the Rev. F.
Wade, a memorial to the dignitaries mentioned, was
agreed to, praying for the entire separation of all districts
and chapelries, as regards all rates, fees, and appoint-
ments of church officers. The latter gentleman, in the
course of his speech, alluded to a case "exhibiting the
hardships to which churches erected under Sir Robert
Peel's Act were exposed. The case was that of a church
with which he was well acquainted : it was erected prin-
cipally through the munificence of a benevolent indi-
vidual : a district was assigned, but by being taken out
of a district parish, the inhabitants had two rates to pay
without partaking of any benefit from them. The sti-
pend. of the clergyman was little more than £lOO, of

£5O ,was a grant from the Additional Curates

for repairs and all other expenses, about .f 9 per
annum had been raised, £6 of which was derived from an
nnual collection. Was it, he would ask, reasonable or
ust that the parent churches should be freed from the
2,000 souls, and yet enjoy all the rates

Society

e of upv

_ of the district, in addition to making a claim on all the
fees which were collected in the poorer church ? Or was
it to be expected that the ill-requited clergyman was
continually to have his mind harassed as to how he was
to provide for the support of his church ? He honestly
believed that, at this moment, there were many clergy-
men who contributed largely out of their inadequate sti-
pends to carry on the services of their churches."
THE HON. BAPTIST NOEL.—On Sunday week, St.
John's Chapel, Bedford-row, Louden, was at an early
ded to so great an excess that it was barely pos-
)tain even standing room. A large number of
ere evidently attracted to the chapel by curiosity
the " reasons" assigned by Mr. Noel for his
cession from the Established Church. They
" sent empty Tway," for the rev. gentle.:
se of his long and able discourse, did not
ke the most remote allusion to the subject. The reve-

were, however,

man,. in the o

lemnn'sl'etirernent is, however, Oared beyond

loubt, as he hat
vening, at the u

iniself announced it. On Wednesday
.1 weekly service at St. John's Chapel,

'ere Air
tt

Noel has officiated for the last 26 years, the
rev. gent'eman selected for his text, Rev. i. 5,6, " Unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own
blood, and bath made us kings and priests unto God and
His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever, Anien ;"—and then proceeded as follows :—" My
dear Christian brethren, many of you have beard that, as
the result of opinions deliberately formed, which I know
not how to alter, and the force of conviction which I am

,ot permitteu ,een obliged to announce
my intention of leaving this congregation,' where I have
ministered for so long a period with comfort and satisfac-
tion to myself, if not with profit to others. Since I ad-
dressed von last 1 have spell mv tlinrocon_ and lio nnnc;dora

to resist, I I

an opinion from which I do not dissent
ermine that I shall not remain with you beyond
,hhath. This, therefore, is the last Wednesday

to be his duty

you. But let Ay; not think of little matters; let us indulge
in meditations on the best of all subjects; and I hoie
chosen the words of my text. because they speak of our
best friend, and are calculated very much to console and

animate us." The rev. gentleman then proceeded with
his address, but in no degree further alluded to the pain-
ful subject of quitting his flock.—The chapel of St.
John's is held under a lease from the trustees of Rugby
School, and the term of years, which formerly belonged
Bisl

to tht, —lop of Calcutta, is now vested in his son, the
Rev. Daniel Wilson. The Globe says that it was not
Mr. Noel's intention to leave the church until Midsum-
mer next, in order that due time might have been allcwed
his people to choose a successor and make the necessary
arrangements for carrying on the schools and the various
religious and charitable institutions' maintained by his
congregation ; hut on Tuesday the Bishop of London sent

for the rev. gentleman, and, after ascertaining from him
that the reports of his intention to secede from the church
were true; at once intimated to him that he would be pro-
hibited from preaching again in any church dr chapel
within the diocese of London. Mr. Noel, on receiving

this intimation, said, in the most respectful manner, that
he could not consent to act in accordance with the prohi-
bition, as he had not yet spoken to his congregation in
their collective capacity or) the subject of his intended
secession. The Bishop said he was determined to enforce
the prohibition. It was eventually agreed that Mr. Noel
should be permitted to preach on Sunday in his chapel,
on the understanding that that is to be the last time on

ie is to officiate as a mini
His " Reasons for Seceding from the Church
have been put into the hands of the printer.

parch c

of Englan.

met, when they nnanitnously resolved to present a me-
morial to the rev. gentleman, entreat ing him to reconsider

1118 resoiution to leave the church, and expressing an ardent
hope that the result of such reconsideration would be his
still remaining with them. It was then agreed to nomi-
nate a deputation to wait upon him with t

memorial

who were nominated could not be prevailed upon to un-
dertake the mission, owing to its very delicate nature.