The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-26 00:00:00

cioy, the Lichfidd Church Building Society, and the
London Society tor the Conversion of the Jews—Xloo

each. To the poor fi
poor of Rothley—X2l
of Cossinct.m.

f Batton, the
to each place ; and £lO to the poor

INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE EN-
IRGEMENT. &C. OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.—On

Monday, a meeting of this society was held in London,
the Bishop of Durham in the chair. Orders were issued
to,the treasurer to pay the grants originally awarded in
twelve cases, where the churches have been built or en-
larged with the aid of this society. The returns frotn the
parishes assisted show that for an aggregate population

of 99,942 souls, church accommodation was previously in
existence suitable to only 12,790 persons; of these seats
only 2330 were free ; and that additional church-room has
thus been obtained fur 4040 •persons. including 3101 free'
sittings. New grants were made for the erection of
churches at rortwood, near Southampton, Leek, New-
castle, Burnley, and Oldham, Newets• le, in the parish of
Clun, and the new districts of St. James, Butnley, and
East Compton, in the. parish .of Oldham: These six dis-
tricts, taken together, contain 13,787 souls at the present
time, without any other means of attending Divine wor-
ship in the form prescribed by the Church of England
than such temporary accommodation as may be furnished
by rooms hired for that purpose. The ecclesiastical com-
.

manhay ; St. Luke, Leek ; S!. Jame;:liurnley ; and East
Compton ; incumbent ministers are appointed to each.
Ten other grants are mule for rebuilding, with enl!rge-
ment, the chapel of St. Ann, Bishop Auckland. and the
parish churches of Tretherne, near Dursley, and Briming-
ton, near Chesterfield, likewise for enlarging Jesus Cha.
pel, St. Mary extra, Southampton; and the church at.

near VVelling

nc. D. vi
dington, nt a
k ; and Rad

Swind

popish property. The following very clear remark solves
the question. It is out of a monthly publication that has
had an extensive circulation—" Free Thoughts on Pro-
testant Matters." by the Rev. Tresham Gregg, chaplain
of St. Nicholas Within, a chaplaincy endowed by Roman
Catholics in the reign of Richard 11., as certainly many of
our Church livings wt re. It is as follows recollect
that a Roman Catholic gentleman once attacked me on
this ground: he charged me with takicg money to say
mass, and instead of this, performing for its services,
what the donors would have thought heretical. 1 met
his objection thus:—"Sir," said 1, "you charge me
wrongfully : and if you knew my history, you would see
that your: elf. lam a remarkable character, sir. Though
not very elderly in appearance, I am now in reality about
1,400 years of age." My friend started at this in-
formation. "Be not surprised, sir," raid I, " you shall
hear my story. I was ordained by St. Patrick shortly
after his arrival in this country, and preached the
very same doctrines that I do at present. Things
went on very pleasantly with me for about 700 years, at
which time the English, at the instigation of the Pope,
invaded this our native land ; they did all they could to
seduce me from that simple faith which I had learned
from the great apostle of Ireland ; and, alas! with too
much success ! My mind became corrupted by the su-
perstitions of Popery, and at last I became quite a bigot
in,that.time ' • anal in Those days of my darkness, 1C not
Only myself had a zeal which was not according to know-
ledge, but I thought I was doiog GrAl service, when I
succeeded in persuading the people to devote almost all
their substance to the maintenance of those idolatries
through which 1 was bewitched: In the reign of Richard-
11. I.was appointed chaplain of St. Nicholas Within, and
I took great pains to induce the parishioners to make a
handsome provision for my old age, which, persuaded as
they were of the importance of my Popish principles,
they really did. I e,joyed the provision which they made
for me, blindly practising the errors which I w;..s imbued
with, for above 100 years, until the period of the Reforma-
tion. Then, for the first time, I began to perceive the de-
lusions of which 1 had been the victim—that I had alto-
gether departed from the faith of St. Patrick, arid not only
gone wrong myself, but had been a blind leader of the blind.
floc ever my eyes werenow opened, and a hen they were, I
did not resign my chaplaincy, nor did I give up the pro-
vision which I had raised for it in the days o' my dark-
ness. I applied it to the use for which 1 had pursuaded
the donors to. grant it—although unfortunately at
,that
time neither 1 nor they knew how to accomplish what we
aimed at—the glory of God: And I have ever since hap-
pily continued to practise and to preach through the sup-
port which it has rendered me, the precepts and princi-
ples of the primitiCe Christian Church. "I do riot think
you can say," said I to my friend, " after this full true
le purpose
e different
from that which it was originally intendeil.to accomplish."

nave perverted