The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-07 00:00:00

IRISH All) SOCIETY

The first annual meeting of the Liverpool Irish Aid So-
I ciety was held last night in the Music Hall, Bold-street.
This is a new society, or rather a combination of several
societies under one name, the object of which is the promo-
tion of the religious improvement of Ireland, by aiding with
funds the Irish Society, the Scripture Readers' Society for
Ireland, and the Irish Islands' Society, with the Achill Mis-
sion. The meeting was very numerously attended, the Hall
being full; and among those present we noticed the Rev. R.
J. M`Ghee, the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, the Rev. F. Parry, the
Rev. T. Moriarty, (the Irish Society's Missionary at Dingle,)
the Rev. J. R. Connor, the Rev. W. Falloon, the Rev. T.
Nolan, the Rev. F. Barker, Mr. Adam Hodgson, Dr.
Dickenson, Mr. J. Rigby, Mr. G. Langtry, Mr. C. Bout-
ffower, Mr. J. Sheppard, Mr. J. Howard, Mr. T. B.
Horsfall, Mr. W. Jones, the Rev. C. W. Lawrence, the Rev.
J. Cordeaux, Mr. J. Middleton, and many other clergy and
gentry.

AD.ANI HODGSON, Esq. was called to the chair; and the
Rev. F. PARRY supplicated the divine blessing upon the

proceedings.
The CHAIRMAN rose and said, he was happy to find.
from the presence of those around him, that it was not ne-
cessary for him to tresspass further upon the attention of
those present, than to state the objects they had in view. The
meeting had been called in consequence of a resolution passed
at a recent meeting of gentlemen, to the effect that several
societies, for the promotion of Christian truth in Ireland,
should be united and combined. One reason for such a step
was that it was found impossible that each of these societies
could have a public meeting at which their claim could be
aufficiently set forth, which it was hoped might be done with
mutual advantage by the union through the present society.
There were also other reasons favourable to such a union,
which would, no doubt, be detailed in the report. There
were two dispositions of mind in which men entered and pur-
sued any object—one of despondency, and another of that
hope which was in accordance with the will of God. In the
present case, though they had had difficulties to contend
with, which were calculated to justify some despondency;
yet there were other circumstances of a cheering character,
and they ought not only to exert themselves individually to
promote the object in view, but also give such contributions
towards it as they could. (Hear.) He should call on the
Secretary,
The Rev. Mr. PARRY, to read the report. That document
entered into many details to show the great utility of the
three societies for the aid of which this association was
formed, and pressed upon the public the urgency of the
claims of the united societies upon the liberality of the public.
Mr. RIGBY moved that the statement now read (the re-
port) be adopted, printed, and circulated.
The Rev. J. R. CONNOR seconded the resolution, and it
was carried unanimously.
The Rev. T. MORIARTY then rose to move the second
resolution, which was to the effect, that the three societies
now embodied'into one, whose objects were set forth in the
statement just adopted, were eminently deserving of sympathy
and support, and were commended to the prayers of the
Christian community. The object of all the three institutions
was to proclaim the Gospel of Christ's Salvation ; and, they
weae all of them great arms of the Irish Church, which was
both Christian and Protestant—a beautiful specimen of the
essential unity, with some circumstantial differences, which
would ever exist in the Christian body. Though he appeared
there more especially as the representative of the Irish So-
ciety, he would pave the way for the representatives of the
others, as well as himself, by making a few general observa-
tions upon the religious condition of Ireland. The people for
whom this society was concerned, were the Irish speaking
population, all of whom professed the doctrines of the Ro-
mish—not of the Irish—church. This population amounted
to two millions and a half, who might be divided into three
classes, the first consisting of half a million of souls who
understood no other language than the Irish ; the second
class consisted of a million who spoke English very imper-
fectly, and only on matters of business ; and the third who
spoke English and Irish equally well. It was absolutely
necessary, in order to meet their prejudices, to communicate
religious instruction to all of these classes through the me-
dium of the Irish tongue—a point which the rev. gentleman
pressed upon the attention of the auditory with great anima-
tion. He described how the Irish language had been pre-
served, vernacularly, by the mass of the people, who were
greatly attached to it ; and, he was happy to think
that it was an honoured bishop of the Irish church, an
Englishman, indeed, who had been the means of giving the
Bible to the Irish in their native tongue. Before that, Da-
niels, Archbishop of Tuam, had translated the New Testa-
ment. It was these that the Irish Society was engaged in
circulating; and they generally found the peasantry able to
read it, and willing to teach them. The rev, gentleman then
proceeded to give a variety of details respecting the use and
circulation of the Scriptures in Irish, shewing the success
which had followed in the conversion of the people from the
ways of error to the knowledge of the truth. His illustra-
tions in the Irish language were received with much applause;
and the rev. gentleman said he gave them just to shew that
every man was a barbarian to his fellow if he spoke to him
in a language which he did not understrnd. Thus the
necessity for sending the Scriptures to the Irish in their
native tongue, was absolute, if we wished to do them any
spiritual good. In the district of Dingle, there were no less
than four Irish congregations, all Protestants, where, eight
years ago, not one was to be found. This, then, was a
permant effort for our holy church and religion, and by such
efforts being continued, he trusted the union would be re-
pealed between Ireland and the Bishop of Rome. Irish-
speaking ministers were, however, greatly wanted ; for un-
less the Gospel was preached, and the Sacrament administered
as Christ had appointed, by them we could not hope of success.
In the University of Dublin there were now, he was happy to
say, no less than six candidates far the Irish-speaking
ministery. The rev, gentleman concluded by requesting the
prayer of the meeting for the moral and spiritual' welfare of
the Irish speaking poor.
A few Roman Catholics who had gone into the meeting.
one of whom had previously interrupted the speaker, made
an attempt to create confusion in the meeting, at the close
of Mr. M.'s address, by making use of offensive language.
Cries of order continued for some little time, bet the parties
were ejected from the room, or otherwise prevailed upon to
offer no further interruption, and the meeting soon became
silent and attentive.
The Rev. Mr. NOLAN then spoke at considerable length
in behalf of the Island societies, the Achill mission, and of
the Rev. Edward Nangle. who had been most unmeritedly
assailed as a man and a Christian, in his management of the
Mission, by Mr. S. C. Hall, in his work on Ireland. He
read those accusations as printed at length by Mr. Nangle,
and by him replied to in the Achill Herald, from which, and
the correspondence that supervened, as well as the strong
facts stated by the speaker, Mr. Nangle came out trium-
phantly. All the reports defamatory of that excellent man
were proved to be founded in error or in falsehood. Mr.
Nolan concluded by a feeling and impressive appeal on be-
half of the Island schools.
The Rev. R. J. M.GHEE then came forward, as the repre-
sentative of the Scripture Readers' Society for Ireland, and
was received with three most enthusiastic cheers. He was
not in any way connected with the society ; he had not the
honour of sitting upon the committee, for it was a committee
of some of the first men in the country ; but he appeared for
it because he had known the value of it for many years, for
he had had readers from it under his own superintendence,
and at that moment he had one at work in the vicinity of his
own church. He strongly approved of the plan which had
been adopted for embodying together these three societies;
and with regard to the Scripture Readers' Society,.he would
mention its origin and its objects, the mode of appointing the
readers as instruments for carrying out those objects, the
rules by which those readers are regulated, the practical
working of the society, and its practical utility. This society
originated in the year 1822; and he would give the most
authentic information upon the subject, because it was con-
veyed to him in a letter from the individual with whom it
commenced. This letter was not intended for publication ;
it was a private comnannication, therefore he would not men.
tion names. The simple history of the Scripture
Readers'
Society was as follows. Mr. M`Ghee then read this letter,
which commenced by stating, that in 1822 the writer went, for
the first time, as a judge of assize upon the Munster circuit ;
and he saw then the appalling religious destitution of the peo-
ple—that the authorized ministers of religion were shut out
from the great mass of the people, and it occurred to him
that great good might he done by appointing Scripture
readers to go from house to house; and that in order to
stimulate such a proceeding upon a large scale, he would
give £l,OOO towards the promotion of such society. About
£4,000 were immediately raised; and as the Lord had put
it into the heart of man to begin the work, he had also put
it into the hearts of people to carry it on. This person,
though not then upon the bench, was, he was happy to say,
placed in that high position. One member of the commit-
tee, he would mention, was the present Lord Chief Justice
of the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland ; and several other
individuals of equal piety and well known character were
also upon it. The meeting, indeed, would feel at once that
no men were more fitted to be placed in the solemn posi-
tion of administering the law in criminal cases than those
men who had at heart the principle of preventing crime—who
felt it was better to prevent than to punish it—and who knew
that the only mode of preventing it was by the diffusion
of true religion among the people. (Hear, hear.) The rev.
gentleman here related an affecting anecdote of a criminal
named Grant, who had been sentenced to death for most
atrocious crimes. In the condemned cell a Bible was
brought to him, which he read, and by its instrumentality
he was brought to a knowledge of his wretched condition,
and eventually to sincere repentance. " Sir," he said to the
clergyman who gave him that blessed book, " if 1 had ever
read that book before, I should not have been here this day.
You know not how many poor wretches you may save, by
sending the word of the living God to them who have never
heard of it." (Hear, hear.) Now this was proposed to be
done through the instrumentality of the Scripture Readers'
Society, the object of which was simply, therefore, the dif-
fusion of the Gospel of Christ (hear) : it was simply the
salvation of man, the employing humble, pious men, as
the writer of the letter which he had just read stated,
to visit the cottages of the poor, to read the Bible,
and to explain its truths to them. (Applause.) This
was more fully developed in the rules of the Readers' So-
ciety—several of which the rev, gentleman read. They were
called upon to go round their several districts, to read the
Scriptures to the poor, and to point out to them the way of
securingappointed.
salvation, through the Lord Jesus Christ. For the purpose
of ec ur i g
were this, h
he
wouldTmheenytimonustt, all of them, be pioushe mode in which these
readers
men. There was this difference between the Scripture Read-
ers' Society and the Irish Society—but he spoke under cor-
rection, and he hoped some of his rev. brethren would cor-
rect him if he did not state the facts exactly as they were.—
The Irish Society employed pot men who were pious, or who
knew the Gospel of Christ, but in many instances men of
good character only—even Roman Catholics who loved the
Irish language—to go about to read the Scriptures, and teach
them to the people in the Irish language; but those Roman
Catholics themselves, by a mere reading of the Scriptures,
were brought out from the darkness and ignorance of the
Church of Rome—they felt their own way out of popery by
the light of God's eternal truth. Many of them were at this
moment, he rejoiced to say, devoted and faithful servants of
the living God, brought out of popery without any aid what-
eaer but their own reading of the word of God in teaching
poor people to read the Bible in their own language. (Cheers.)
The rev. speaker then produced a list, and read some of the
queries demanded from all persons who were candidates for
the appointments of scripture reader, from which it was evi-
dent that the men selected must not only be irreproachable
in character, but have a disposition for the work, and be
mighty in the word of God. The Scripture Readers' Soci-
ety, then, did not interfere, but co-operated with the Irish
Society. He had himself seen the blessings of the Scrip-
tures being circulated in the Irish language, and the blessings
also which had attended the labours of the Irish Scripture
readers. When he was half across the water on his voyage
from Ireland, he " remembered that he had forgot" to
bring with him some of the books issued by the abominable
National Board of Education in Ireland as substitutes for
the Bible ; but he would mention that at the annual meeting
of the Scripture Readers' Society, which was held on the
17th March, in the Rotunda, Dublin, a number of the Irish
readers were present as a deputation to petition against the
new system of Irish education. They petitioned that the
Scriptures might not be shut up from the poor Roman Ca-
tholics of Ireland. (Hear, hear.) Among that deputation
was a woman—the widow of a poor reader whose tongue had
been cut from his mouth, and who had been murdered for
going round to read the Bible to the people. (Hear.) She
was determined to stand there as a witness for her Lord and
master—she knew that her Lord and her husband was only
Christ, and therefore she took her Station upon the plat-