The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-28 00:00:00

CLERICAL NEWS.

THE WELSH METROPOLITAN CHURCH.—The Bishop
of St. David's preached in the Welsh Metropolitan
Church, Ely-place, Holborn, on Sunday evening week,
in the Welsh language, to a very crowded congregation ;
the prayers were read by the Rev. J. R. Williams. His
lordship took for his text—" The wages of sin is death ;"
and preached in the ancient British language an eloquent
and impressive discourse of an hour's duration, to the
astonishment and delight of all. A breathless silence
pervaded the church, all naturally wondering at the cor-
rectness and fluency with which his lordship spoke a lan-
guage whose pronunciation is supposed to be so difficult
to an Englishman; but his lordship appeared to be quite
at home in it, particularly when he became warmed with
his subject, and appears to be as enamoured with the pe-
culiar and expressive beauties of the language, as he is
reputed to be with the romantic scenery of the country,
to which he cannot fail to be a great benefactor.
CHURCH EXTENSION.—On Tuesday last the annual
general court of the Incorporated Society for Promoting
the Building and Enlargement of Churches and Chapels
was held in London. The report stated that the number
of applications received in the course of the year ending
March 31, 1844, was 201, that being a greater number by
43 than the applications of the preceding %ear. The ntun-
ber of grants made was 119, exceeding by 23 those of the
last year. Of the grants made, there bad been 49 for
building additional churches and chapels, 47 for enlarging
and increasing the accommodation in existing churches
and chapels, and 23 for rebuilding with enlargement. The
number of additional churches towards which grants have
been made exceeded by one that of the preceding year.
The sum voted in grants last year, amounted to £22,020,
being an increase of between £5,000 and £6,000 upon the
expenditure of the year preceding ; and additional accom-
modation had been afforded to 38,020 persons, of whom
32,896 would be provided with free sittings. The report
then having stated that in the dioceses of Chester, Ripon,
and St. David's, and in a populous parish in London,
which was not named, new churches were about to be
built,_ proceeded to observe on the limited means at the
disposal of the society to carry out its great object, and
that a further claim would be made upon its funds by a
recent act of parliament. A great increase of applications
on the funds of the society would also result from the
efforts now making by the National Society towards esta-
blishing schools in the manufacturing and mining dis-
tricts. The report urged the co-operation of the society
in the efforts making by the incorporated National So-
ciety, for promoting the education of the poor in the prin-
ciples of the established church. The financial statement
showed that the collections made under the authority of
the royal letter issued at the close of the year 1842, pro-
duced from 3,840 returns £30,818 up to the 31st March
last. Remittances have been forwarded from various dio-
cesan district societies and committees, amounting to
£1,722. The amount of grants unpaid up to the 31st of
March are £55,015, and the sum in the society's hands to
meet that demand was £62,931 lls. 3d., leasing a
disposable balance of £7,916 Ils. 9d., but of this £7,065
has been pledged in grants voted at the meetings of the
committees in the last and present months. The report
next observed, that during the last ten years 50 new
churches had been built, but that great efforts must still
be made, as there was a great want of church accommo-
dation, there being in Lancashire and Cheshire alone a
deficiency of church room for an aggregate of upwards of
227,000 persons. Mr. N. Connop, the treasurer, at the
conclusion of the reading of the report, laid before the
court a letter he hud received from the Rev. W. Pidcock,
rector of Chertsey, which he read, and in which it was
stated that a Mr. E. D. Somers had bequeathed £5,000,
to be paid within six months after his death, which took
place on the 20th of April, for the benefit of the society,
and that a lady had left £l,OOO to be appropriated to the
Exeter Diocesan Church Building Society.

NATIONAL SCHOOL SOCIETY.—The annual meeting of
the Incorporated National Society for Educating the Poor
in the Principles of the Established t.hurch, was held on
Wednesday at the Sanctuary, Westminster, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury in the chair. After the children
had been examined in classics and music, the secretary,
the Rev. J. W. Kennedy, read the report, that in popu-
lous localities where the inhabitants had not yet enjoyed
the opportunity of learning to appreciate education, the
committee were prepared to vote temporary grants towards
the effieient maintenance of newly established schools,
towards opening on the week days buildings hitherto used
only upon Sundays. To mention a few examples of the
sums expended, the committee have voted in grants for
the building (and partly for the temporary support) of
schools in and about Manchester, £1185; Ashton-under-
Lyne, £463 ; Oldham, 1263 ; Rochdale, £540 ; Whalley,
£1134; Blackburn. £972; Wigan, £400; Stockport, £745;
Macclesfield, £lO9O ; Mottram, £475 ;—to schools in and
about Liverpool, £500; St. Helen's, £350; Warrington,
£520 ; Preston, £2so;—to schools in and about Bradford,
£1692 ; Keighley, £315 ; Leeds, £628 ; Birstall, £3BO ;
Halifax, £920; Huddersfield, £240; Almondbury, £505;
Sheffield, £7lO ;—to schools in and about Birmingham,
£1506 ; Darlaston, £350; Sedgley, £1265; Wolverhamp-
ton, £425 ; Brierley Hill, £350 ; Stroud, £350 ; Trow•
bridge, £400; Newtown (Montgomery), £250 ;—for a
teacher's residence to Llangyfelach, £35 ; for repairs to
Stanwix, £3O; towards freeing from debt, to Whitehaven'
£BO ; Clitheroe, £5O ; for enlarging schools at St. John's,
Sheffield, £100; for adding class-rooms to Moxley (near
Wed nesburY), £2O; towards walling-in school premises
to Wibsey, Low Moor, £2O. The flourishing condition
of the society's Model Factory School, at Bradford, en-
couraged the committee to lay out upon it the additional
sum of £300; and by this expenditure, increased accom-
modation has been provided for 250 scholars. The num-
bers of factory children alone in the Model School were,
on the 22d March last, 429 ; while the parish church
school contained 316 children of the same class. The
money voted out of the special fund amounted, at Christ-
mas last, to £13,677. By this sum accommodation has
been obtained fur 18,516 scholars, 55 schools have received
aid, and 22 Sunday schools have been opened for daily
instruction. Since Christmas very much has been done ;
and the sum total expended out of this fund now amounts
to £32,834. The entire amount of the special fund on
the 16th day of this month was £150,435, of which the
sum £91,134 has been already paid to the treasurer. The
Rev. E. Wyatt Edgell, rector of North Cray, Kent, has
placed the munificent sum of £lOOO in their hands.