The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

CLERICAL NEWS.

R. Fountayne Wilson, Esq., has just given two dona-
tions to the Society for promoting the employment of ad-
ditional curates in populous places, amounting together
to £2,500.

CHURCH EXTENSION.—The following is the report of
the proceedings of the Incorporated Society for Promot-
ing the Enlargement of Churches and Chapels during the
quarter commencing on the Ist of April, 1844 :—The
number of places aided by the society in the first quarter
of its present year is 78, the grants to which will secure
the erection of 34 additional churches, the rebuilding with
enlargement of seven existing churches, and the enlarge-
ment of, or other increase of accommodation in, 37 other
churches. In these parishes containing together a popu-
lation of 912,500 persons, there are now 180 churches and
chapels containing accommodation for 131,155 persons;
but including only 34,370 free seats. The whole church
room now provided is therefore adequate to the accommo-
dation of about one-seventh of the population. In 29 of
the parishes referred to, the inhabitants are chiefly en-
gaged in trade, manufactures or the working of mines, the
population being not less than 786,525 souls, for whom
125 churches and chapels are now provided, containing
accommodation for 107,562 persons; viz., for rather less
than one-seventh of the number, and including 21,795
free seats. In many of these manufacturing parishes,
however, the provision of church room is in far lower
proportion than this average shows. Thus in Blackburn,
Lancashire, the accommodation is for one-seventh in a po-
pulation of nearly 72,000 souls ; in Bolton• le-Moors, the
same, in 74,000; in Oldham, Lancashire, for rather less
than one-tenth in 60,000 ; in Woolwich, for one-eighteenth
in 28,000; in Gosport, for one-eleventh in 8,000; in St.
George, near Bristol, for one-sixteenth in 8,000 ; in
Royton, near Oldham, with 5,730 inhabitants, and in
Ilkestone, Derbyshire, with 5,329, for about one-twelfth.
The total amount of the grants voted by the board during
the quarter just ended being no less than £12,810 of
which sum £3,645 is granted for the erection of fifteen
churches, which are to be endowed under the act of the
last session. The means at the society's disposal are re-
duced to the small sum of £2,881.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT INQUIRY UNDER THE CHURCH.
DISCIPLINE ACT.—On Tuesday last a commission issued
by the Bishop of Exeter, was opened at Totness, against
the Rev. James Shore, for that he being a clerk in holy
orders, did offend against the laws ecclesiastical, by pub-
licly reading prayers and performing the divine offices of
the church, according to the rites and ceremonies of the
Church of England, in an unconsecrated building, con-
trary to, and in spite of, the bishop's injunction or
monition. Mr. Shore alleged that he was not subject to
the jurisdiction of the bishop or the commissioners, for
that before officiating in the chapel, after the receipt of
the bishop's injunction, he had signed the oaths and de-
clarations required by the toleration acts. A long dis-
cussion followed whether Mr. Shore, being a clerk in
holy orders, could avail himself of these acts, and so avail
himself of the jurisdiction of the bishop, when the in-
quiry was adjourned to the 22d instant, to afford time to
take the opinion of the leading authorities on the subject.
The following is a brief outline of the leading facts of the
case:—About the year 1833, the Duke of Somerset
erected a chapel at Bridgetown, Devon, as a chapel of
ease to the parish church. The chapel was licensed by
the bishop for the performance of divine service. Mr.
Shore being also licensed to serve the chapel, on the no-
mination of the then vicar of Pomeroy, Mr. Shore has
continued to officiate there, under such license, until a
very recent period. In 1833, the living of Berry Pomeroy
became vacant, and in the month of August in that year
the present vicar was instituted. It seems that a nomi-
nation by that vicar, and a new license from the bishop,
were necessary, to enable Mr. Shore to continue to serve
the chapel, and Mr. Shore not receiving any such nomi •
nation or license, receives from the bishop a revocation of
the license previously granted, with an admonition not to
continue to officiate in the said chapel. The chapel was
fora time closed, but afterwards opened under the pro-
visions of the act 52 Geo. 111., c. 155, it having been re-
gistered under that act by he agent of the Duke of
Somerset, and Mr. Shore continued to act as minister.
LIVES OF THE SAINTS.—MF. Newman is now pub-
lishing a number of works under this title. We turn to
the biography of St. Bartholomew, one of the choicest of
these saints. His history begins at page 128, and con-
tains, in the words of his biographer, many startling and
even grotesque stories." The biographer thus warns the
reader at the very beginning of his narrative, and very
properly too,—" We may feel startled and disgusted that
such a figure, with an ill-smell of goatskins, should come
betwixt the wind and our nobility, but he is the genuine
product of an age of faith ;" when St. Bartrenzy " was
born, the blessed Virgin looked upon him with a sweet
countenance," and " the figure on the crucifix stretched
out its arms to welcome this new soldier.of the cross."
We are told that " by his prayers a clear stream gushed
from the hard rock." Besides being a saint, no easy
business in " Catholic" estimate, he was " a grazier,
fisherman, labourer, and pilot." In the midst of these
labours, too, " a rough shirt of hair was worn by him
next his skin," and he slept " on a pallet from which the
hardiest of the world's soldiers would have shrunk." The
" seagulls and the eider-ducks" were fond of the saint's
company. One dark morning Satan, we are gravely told,
got into his throat, and nearly choked him. " For some
time he was unable to speak, but at last he shook off the
impediment and called upon Mary. " Against these at-
tacks his only weapons were the sign of the cross and holy
water." The biography cf the saint closes with his burial
in Farne, and it is conjectured by the writer that Grace
Darling some way connected by succession or de-
scent with This monk of the olden time. " The spirit of
these holy men who once lived in Farne seems still to
dwell there. It was on Bartholomew's island that that
Christian maiden lived, who, not many years ago, ventured
her life to save the crew of a shipwrecked vessel." The
writer forgets it was not by beads and holy water and
crucifixes, but by hard rowing and strong-hearted courage,
that Grace Darling did service to the wrecked. Are these
_ _

the productions of illustrious Oxford ? We rejoice to
answer they are not. They are printed in Derby and pub-
lished in London, and drawn up by men who have unhap-
pily associated the name of Oxford with publications
replete with the dogmas of Trent, and they are too palpa-
ble proofs, not that the Church of England has become
Romish, but that Messrs. Newman, Ward, and Pusey should
be in person where they are in principle and predilection,
in the Church of Rome.