The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-28 00:00:00

neath the dignity of the object sought to be advanced,
has too often degenerated into coarse and ribald vitu-

peration.
An instance of this intemperate and nnjustiAable
malignity of advocacy has just been displayed by the
London Times, which has of late brought the somewhat
doubtful aid of its very questionable Character in the
world of journalism to the cause of the Tractarian
party. It may have been noticed, by those who glance
through the records of our criminal courts—indeed,
the case was briefly reported in our own columns'
that at the recent Staffordshire Assizes, an individual
of the, name of GROVE was tried and found guilty of
a crime which is somewhat difficult of description, but
which involved in the guilty person great distortion of
moral principle. The individual in question was stated
to occupy the situation of a " lay assistant" to a
clergyman of the Church of England at Burslem, and
to have been maintained in that position by the funds
of the Pastoral Aid Society—a society of whose use'
fulness, in Liverpool, at least, we need not speak.
This society, however, is not favoured with the love of
the Tractarian party ; nay, its members and committee
are suspected of the unpardonable sin of disapproving
of the views and principles of that party ; and, " upon
this hint " the Times proceeded, on Friday last, to
expend its bitterness upon the head of the offending
body.

After attributing to the Pastoral Aid Society the
introduction into the church of " a new description of
nondescript hangers-on called lay assistants," and im-
pugning the constitution and practice of the Society,
(in furnishing funds for the removal of spiritual desti-
tution. and satisfying themselves:of the character and
attainments of the men to whom those funds are to be
accorded, and who are thus to be maintained in the
spiritual office), as "practically superseding and throw'
ing contempt upon the Episcopal office, fettering Chris-
tian liberty, encroaching upon the standards of doctrine
and discipline established by the Church of England'
setting up a dangerous inquisition into the consciences
of the clergy (!) and holding out, however unintention-
ally, a premium to cant and hypocrisy (! !)" This
pure and excellent friend of the church and of re-
ligion remarks that " some light may be thrown upon
the question (as to the merits of the Pastoral Aid
Society) by the circumstances of the offence of this
man, Grove, which he characterizes, very properly, as
revolting. Now, without going any further, may we
not ask, is this the kind of attack by which the "learned
and pious men" of Oxford seek to advance their views,
or is it to be regarded as the attack, merely, of the
unprincipled Swiss who has taken service in their
cause ? What sincere friend of the church or of reli-
gion would use an argument so suicidal as that the
declension of that man, or any individual, is damnatorY
of the principles or practice of the Pastoral Aid Society?
The Socialist, or the Infidel, might argue, from the
recent crime of the Rev. Dr. Bailey, or some other
unworthy occupant of the clerical office, the inefficacy
of episcopacy to purify the church, or of religion itself
to guard from crime ; but assuredly no man whose
religious convictions were not inferior in degree to his
reckless partizanship—no man, whose productions
were designed for any better purpose than to gratify
the diseased palates of the church-hating occupants of
a Whitechapel or Spitalfields dram-shop—would put
forward a doctrine so inconclusive. The language in
question is the language of the Times ; the spirit is
that of the infidel Despatch!
But the Times is not satisfied with the fact that one
who has been in connexion with the society so ob-
noxious to Tractarianism has fallen. The mere gloat:
ting over a circumstance so ordinary in this world 01
ours is not sufficient for the malignity of " the leading
journal." It must be shewn that the society has not
only been deceived—its tests not only failed—but that
its committee have winked at crime The defenceset UP
for the unhappy man was that of insanity. It was
proved, or at least. sworn to by his father that, from
boyhood, he had been possessed of an ambition to
shine in the church ; and that at length he went as a
lay agent to a gentleman at Christ Church. "From
that gentleman," says the Times," he got testimonials,
which he enclosed to the whole bench of bishops, end
hundreds of beneficed clergymen :" and (when he
found that the bishops and beneficed clergymen would
have nothing to do with him) he " applied for an in'
troduction into the Roman Catholic church." As a,
last resource, he betook himself to the Pastoral Ala
Society, and found no difficulty in convincing
that body of his doctrinal orthodoxy, his 8131-
rituality, and decided piety, and was by them appoint-
ed to minister, in a semi-clerical capacity, to the
spiritual destitution of the people of Binning'
ham." After having vented a few sneering re-
marks upon these facts, the Times goes on to state
in the same evidence, that " the society continua!,
to patronise him, after, on more than one trial, he had
been found wanting." Dismissed from a situation at
Birmingham (in which he had been supported for three
months by the society) we are told—on the authority
of the father which the Times unhesitatingly, and with:
out inquiry, adopts, in his zeal to damage the Pastore'
Aid Committee—he " obtained another similar sitati:
tion at Bristol. He was there nearly three months. It
is about twelve months since he went to Burslern."
But was he at Bristol and at Burslem—after his Wis'
conduct at Birmingham—still patronized by the so-
ciety ? The evidence itself upon which the Times relies
r
says no such thing. It says he occupied a "
situation," and it says no more. The conclusion'
therefore, is that of the unscrupulous journalist. Let
us see, however, what are the facts of the whole case;.
The Times founds his case upon the fact that thib
criminal was at Burslem—at the time of committint
his crime—a "lay assistant, in the pay of the Church
Pastoral Aid Society."
The secretary of the society, Mr. Champneys, in a
letter addressed to the 'limes—and we take the liberty
of believing the secretary—says, "IT IS NOT TRUg that
the society had anything to do with Mr. Grove's entPl
meat at Burslem He was there in no way connected
with the society ! The clergymau engaged him with n 0
aid from our funds! The society knew nothing of the
transaction !"
What, then, becomes of the whole case of the Pa;
nalist,—if,
indeed, he ever had a case at all?
crime of M`Naughten was just as pertinent an objec-
tion
to the principle of the Pastoral Aid Society as t
crime of this man Grove
The lint too,
Tunes asserts—upon his own authority, as
we have shewn—that " the society continued to pa
tronize him" after proved instances of misconduct. The
0
secretary says .‘IT IS NOT TRUE" that the society;
continued to patronize him, or had anything to do wit
him since the year 1840, when he left Birmingh°°'
Can the Times blush ?
Our journalist says that the society "introduced:
new description of hangers-on of the church called 'Jail'
assistants.'r " The society
did nothing of the kind,strhe
"lay assistants" existing in the church long before of
Pastoral Aid Society was formed! The Times talks
the society " appointing." The society, as all the World
knows, never appoints at all .1 Need we go further,
exposure of this shameless and dishonest attack'
Surely we have said sufficient to vindicate such a body
from the scurrilities of such a writer. Well may they
welcome his enmity, rather than pray for the Milieuoo
of his support !