The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-04-01 00:00:00

COLONIAL CHURCH SOCIETY.

The meeting on Wednesday at the Music-hall, in aid
of this society was very respectably attended.
Mr. Jonas RIGBY (in the absence of Mr. David Hodg.
son, who was unavoidably detained,) was called to the
chair, and, after a few remarks, called upon the Rev. F.
Barker to offer up a prayer.
The Rev. W. W. EWBANK moved the first resolution,
recognising " the duty of all Christians to alleviate the
spiritual wants of our countrymen in the colonies." lie
thought if they had in their hearts the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and felt an anxious desire to benefit the
souls of their fellow-creatures, there was no want of sui-
table societies to carry out their views. Some persons,
however, were afraid that by enlarging the circle of our
exertions and by sending missionaries to ether countries
there was danger of forgetting the poor and destitute at
home. Such was not the case as already had been seen,
for it would be found that in proportion as the zeal of the
people lied been excited in behalf of objects like the pre-
sent, in the same or even in a greater degree had the de-
sire to support all philanthropic institutions at home been
manifested. Af er some observations on the nature of the
society, the good it was doing abroad, the rev. gentleman
concluded by an appeal to the meeting in its behalf.
The Rev. F. BARKER seconded the motion, which was
put from the chair, and unanimously adopted.
The Rev. S. H. MEYRICK, Secretary of the Parent
Society, moved the second resolution, declaring " the
suitability of the Colonial Church Society to promote the
spiritual welfare of our emigrant countrymen." It was
not his intention to occupy the time of the meeting with
any arguments to enforce upon them the duty of engaging
heartily in the missionary cause, nor of engaging in par-
ticular in the cause of Colonial Missionaries. The first
he was persuaded had frequently been put forward by
their pastors, and the second had already been urged
upon their attention by the rev. mover of the first resolu-
tion with considerable force, and would, he had no doubt,
be still further pressed upon their attention by those who
bad to follow him. His simple duty was to detail to them,
as concisely as he could, some facts connected with the
working of the society. It was computed that there were,
in our colonial possessions alone, not less than 3,000,000
of British emigrants, and this number was annually aug-
mented by about 100,000 from Great Britain, and 60,000
from the sister country—lreland. Of the number of
Englishmen settled in foreign countries, it was difficult
to form any estimate ; but they were to be found in every
part of the known world—along the coasts of South Ama.
rica, on the shores of the Levant, and all over the conti-
nent of Europe. In France alone, according to an official
return of the French Minister of the Interior, it appeared
that, on the Ist of January, 1811, there were 66,000
Englishmen domesticated, besides the numbers who
annually visit that country. Yet, notwithstanding these
numbers, comparatively little had been done hitherto
towards supplying their spiritual wants. It had never
been the practice of the home government to send out a
sufficient supply of ministers to the colonies, and conse-
quently all of them were in a lamentable state of destitu-
tion. For many years the people of New South Wales,
although a penal settlement, were left without either
church or school, except what they had formed amongst
themselves ; and some time ago, Sir Edward Parry, on
going through the country, had found a place occupied
by 600 Englishmen, who had been settled there for eight
years without ever having seen either a missionary
or a clergyman. Indeed such was the state of the
emigrants in some parts of the world that many had
actually joined themselves to the heathen. (Hear, hear.)
He considered much more ought to have been done by the
government than they had yet effected. In most cases,
where they established a colony, they sent out a chaplain
or perhaps two, but made no provision whatever for the

increase of population or the addition of other emigrants.
Little more had been done by voluntary efforts to remedy
' the evil. The rev. gentleman then entered into an expla-
nation of the origin of the society and the mode of its
government. The society was formed in accordance with
scriptural authority, and in strict connection with the
Church of England. It was enjoined by the apostle that
everything should be done decently and in order, and in
the spirit of love. These were the principles which it
sought most fully to carry out. Its officers, too, were
purely evangelical, and the clergy sent out were first li-
censed by their diocesan, and the catechists were those who
had been under the control and were approved by their
pastors. The reverend speaker then proceeded to detail
the operation of the society in our colonies and in various
other places abroad. In North America only catechists
were employed, in consequence of the scattered mode in
which the emigrants lived. Owing to this circumstance,
a settled clergyman was not so much required as men of
robust frames, who could walk long distances through the
woods and swamps to visit the various villages and settle-
ments—men with habits of hardy self-denial, who were
willing to leave their homes for a long period—who would
be content to partake of the coarsest fare, and to sleep
under the roof of the lowliest cot or the humblest hut.
These men had travelled long distances to teach the word
of Life, and to distribute books; and, as he proved from
various extracts, which he reed from some of their journ-
als, had been welcomed, not only by members of the
Church of England, but by Dissenters and poor Irish
papists. After giving some other interesting details re-
specting the operation of the society at the Cape of Good
Hope, in Western Australia, Malta, and various other
places, the reverend gentlemen concluded with a reference
to the state in which British residents in France were,
more particularly in the large manufacturing city of Lyons,
where he had been informed that out of every twenty per-
sons charged on the Monday mornings with drunkenness
and disorderly conduct every nineteen were Englishmen.
The Rev. Mr. Marzials, French Protestant pastor at
Lille, had also informed him of the following facts, which
would excite them to exertion in behalf of their coun-
trymen. He said :—" I asked one of them i❑ our town
to send his children to my Sunday school. He said, what
for ? I answered, why to do them good : to teach them
to read, and, if they know how to read, to teach them
something about the Lord Jesus Christ." Ido not want
that, he said. When I left England, I left there my God
and my Bible, and I do not mean to drag them over to the
Continent.

The motion, being seconded by the Rev. El. Hampton,
was unanimously adopted.
The Rev. Hugh Stowell moved a resolution in favour of
the formation in Liverpool of an auxilsry to the Society,
and appointing officers. The reverend gentlemen made an
eloquent and spirited appeal in behalf of the society, and
in glowing terms showed the benefits of Christianity when
practised either by nations or individuals, and called upon
the meeting to exert themselves in behalf of the spread of
Christianity in the Colonies. (Cheers.)
The Rev. Mr. Hunt seconded the motion, which was
also carried unanimously.
The proceedings concluded by the assembly singing the
Doxology.

SHOP FRONTS.—No portion of the buildings of Liver-
, pool has, within the last few years, undergone a greater
' revolution than shop fronts. Go where you will, altera-
tions are daily making, and those that were once splendid
are rendered insignificant by the ingenious devices of able
architects, who vie with each other in producing plans
that contain all previous inigrovements with some addi-
tional attraction, some superior accommodation, or some
novel feature to arrest the attention of the public. The
amount of capital expended in this line is almost incredi-
ble. There is scarcely a shop i❑ any fashionable street
that has not, within a very short period, been entirely
remodelled ; and if we may venture to predict the result
of the abolition of the duty on glass, we may look in vain
for the climax : there will be no shop without its stupen-
dous windows, its magnificent mirrors, and ornamental
entrance. We are led to these remarks by the numerous
improvements now in progress and completed. Lord-
street, one side of which a few years ago presented the
finest row of shops in town, is gradually becoming more
modernised. To Bold-street the same will apply : Mrs.
Collins, Mr. Clay, Mr. Scurfield, and Mr. Lacey, have
recently entered splendid premises. The latter, which
were opened yesterday in the print and fancy stationery
business, are most advantageously situated, having two
fronts, the exterior appearance of which seem to eclipse
all that has preceded them, and have been universally
admired.