The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-12 00:00:00

TIE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

The Rev. James Coward has been licensed, by the
Lord Bishop of Chester, to the stipendiary curacy of
Farnworth, in the parish of Prescot, in the county of
Lancaster, on the nomination of the Rev. William Jeff,
the incumbent.
SIGNIFICANT.—In our Senate-house, last Saturday, a
very large body of students were assembled, it beinr de-
gree day, when three groans were given for the Times,
three for the Daily News, and three cheers for Dr. Pusey.
—Cambridge Advertiser.
Mr. Frewen has again introduced his bill against plu-
ralities. He stated that dispensations have been granted
to hold pluralities at the rate of above half a hundred
yearly. In one case a clergyman, with a living of £ll6O,
was allowed a dispensation to hold another worth £lOOO.
THE CONVOCATION.—An address signed by nearly one
thousand clergymen and laymen of the Church of Eng-
land, praying for a revival of the active functions of the
Convocation, having been forwarded to the Queen, the
Home Secretary has replied that her Majesty " did not
signify any commands thereon."
ADDITIONAL CURATES' SOCIETT.—The committee of
this society have passed a resolution placing on record the
committee's judgment, that for a bishop to withhold his
sanction to a grant, on account of the opinions of the
applicant is contrary to the society's intention, and at
variance with its fundamental principles. The rule re-
quiring the bishop's sanction is to remain unaltered.
That is, the bishop's sanction is "required," but he is
on no account to exercise the privilege of " withholding"
it. Truly, this is to make a mere puppet of his lordship.]
ECCLESIASTICAL COURT OF APPEAL.—The Case of
Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter has induced the Bishop
of London to introduce a bill into the House of Lords
for the establishment of a new Court of Appeal, to decide
on cases of doctrinal heresy. The Court proposed by the
Bishop is intended to consist of the following persons :
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York; the three
senior Bishops, according to the date of their consecra-
tion ' • the Lord Chancellor ; the Judge of the Consistory
Court of London ; the Regius and Margaret Professors
of Divinity of Oxford and Cambridge.
The sum of £1,050 three per cent. consols, was on the
31st ultimo transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge, to
found two annual prizes of fifteen guineas each, to be called
the Dealtry Prizes, in commemoration of the high esteem
in which the late William Dealtry, D.D., Archdeacon of
Surrey, and formerly Fellow of Trinity College, was held
by his friends and former pupils. Amongst the contri-
butors to this fund are the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York : the Bishops of London, Winchester, Oxford,
Lichfield, and Gloucester and Bristol; the Lord Chief
Baron of the Exchequer and Baron Parke.
In April, 1849, the Rev. G. Atkinson was presented to
the vicarage of Orton, near Carlisle, by a clear majority
of personal votes over the Rev. Mr. Sisson—the vicarage
being in the hands of the landowners. It has ever been
the custom to elect by personal votes : the public notice
of the trustees required all interested to be present ; and
therefore no one had a shadow of right to suppose that
legal tender could be made of nomination papers from
absentees. Several absentees did, however, tender their
votes, and to avoid a suit at law, the matter was referred
to the bishop, who, strange to say, has decided in favour
of Mr. Sisson.

The London Union on Church Matters have published
a series of papers. The first contains certain resolutions
adopted by the union, to the effect that the church is the
only competent judge of church matters. The second is
a form of petition to the Queen, substantially praying her
to lay down her supremacy, and allow the church in all
things to rule itself. Tho third is a form of petition to
the Archbishop of Canterbury, praying the lord prelate
to move convocation to a consideration of the above ques-
tions ; and the fourth is another form of petition, to be
addressed to the bishops by the clergy of their respective
dioceses, praying them to join the archbishop in carrying
out the matter named in the resolutions to a successful
issue.

THE BI3HOP OF MANCHESTER ON CLERICAL DUTIES.
—At a meeting in aid of the funds of the Society for the
Employment of Additional Curates, the bishop thus ac-
quainted the meeting how he would act in disposing of
the funds of the society :—" Where I find a willing and
ready population' I would gladly relieve them ; where I
find a neglected, abandoned, godless population, still
more gladly would I seek to aid them. I will aid on no
principles of party—on no principles of private or indivi-
dual pique or opinion. But if I find incumbents prefer-
ring the wretched ceremonial of a past time to the vital
essence of Christianity—if I find men dwelling upon a
dress in the church instead of the spirit in which the doc-
trines of that church should be taught, clinging to the
surplice of ministration instead of the word and vital
truths of God, and telling me (for unfortunately I am not
speaking of imaginary cases) that they must cling to those
antiquated follies, unsanctioned alike by the letter and
the spirit of Christ ; telling me, I say, that they must
cling to these antiquated follies, or that they must become
infidels—then on them I will not bestow your bounty ;
and if I find, under the affected plea of catholicism, and
the ancient customs of your church, any claiming to them-
selves the right of withholding baptism and burial from
others—sending children from the church-gates whose
parents are anxiously craving for them to be received into
that church—sending the same child unburied from the
church-gates in consequence of the want of that baptism
which they themselves refuse—on them I will not bestow
your bounty."—Manchester Guardian.

EDUCATIONAL MEETING.—A public meeting was held
on Thursday at Willis's Rooms, London, to consider the
present state and prospects of national education. The
principal speakers were the Hon. C. Talbot, Q.C. (chair.
man,) J. Napier, M.P., Bishop of Glasgow, Bishopi of
Chichester, Rev. D- Biber, Rev. G. A. Denison. Fair
as may oe tne souna of many or tne resolutions, tney are
brought forward without the sanction of the archbishops
and bishops of the church, and in opposition to the re-
peated warnings and advice of the most distinguished lay
members of the establishment. Th 9 only resolution for
which the agitation is really maintained is one which, as it
was well explained by the Earl of Harrowby at the Na-
tional Society annual meeting in May last, would exclude
the church laity from all management of many church
schools supported by public money, and weaken the hold
of the church on the affectionate co-operation of the
people of England, by placing the control of the schools
wholly in the hands of the clergyman of the parish and
the bishop of the diocese. This is the seventh in the list
of resolutions moved: it is ambiguously and cunningly
framed, but effectually for the purpose—which is, ulti-
mately, a disruption of that bond which, at present, pre-
vents that approximation and ultimate union of the Church
of England with the corrupt Roman communion : and
that bond is, the connection of the church and the
state in these realms. We must, before concluding, no.
tice a matter in connexion with this meeting which re-
minds us of Mr. Shiel's famous speech at Penenden Heath,
which was fully reported, but which was never spoken.
A tractarian paper on Thursday gave a full report of Mr.
Denison's harangue—including, of course, a tolerably long
passage on Mr. Gorham's case and the question of bap-
tismal regeneration. The fact is, however, that the for-
mer rev. gentleman had no sooner turned from the sub-
ject on which he was commissioned to speak, to that in
connexion with Mr. Gorham, than the displeasure of his
audience was so loudly and unmistakeably manifested that
he at once desisted and resumed the thread of his dis-
course. Nothing of this is noticed in the report in ques-
tion. If there be a class of people who ought to have
good memories, there is also another class which should
not venture a description unless made by clairvoyance.—
Church and State Gazette.

THE VICAR OF LEIGH AND THE BURIAL QUESTION.
We have recently, from time to time, had occasion to
notice, (and with regret), the extraordinary conduct of the
vicar of Leigh, in refusing to christen children, and inter
deceased parties, on some plea of the parties not having
exactly accorded with his views as regarded church disci-
pline. The rev. gentleman is now being proceeded
against, in the ecclesiastic court at York, for refusing to
christen a child. Since this became known it appears that
the rev. gentleman has launched out in no very measured
terms against all who happened to differ from his opinions
on matters of church government. It appears, too that
one great point of dispute between him and his parish-
ioners has been with respect to the burial of the dead, and
that many parties bereft of their relatives have felt them-
selves much aggrieved. On the 31st ultimo, the wife of
Philip Bridloake died. She had been a regular attendant
at the church until ill health prevented her from more
regular attention to public worship. Her husband had
served the office of churchwarden, and during the time had
resisted some of the vicar's practices, and had consequently
been served with notice that he would be proceeded
against in the ecclesiastical courts. Mrs. Bridecake had
also been rejected as a sponsor for a child of one of her
friends. The arrangements for the funeral were given to
Mr. Jones, an undertaker, and that gentleman wrote to
the vicar on the Ist instant requesting the passing bell to
be tolled, and that it vrao 116 intcutiou to inter tho body
on the following Tuesday at noon. The vicar sent the
following extraordinary reply :—" As Philip Brideoake
neglected the clearly expressed requirements of the church,
and his duty as a husband to his dying wife, in not ap-
prizing the vicar of her illness, and requesting him to visit
her, he can expect nothing in regard to the interment but
that which can be enforced by law. The deceased was not
in the communion of the church, and in stricness can
have rio title to her offices,—there is no evidence that she
died even professing faith in Christ; and either she must
have h ad no wish for spiritual direction (which she much
needed), or her husband must have cruelly refused her
request to see her pastor.—Leigh, February 2d, 1850."
The vicar refused to bury the body (by subsequent notice,')
until three o'clock; but those who were to attend the
funeral—many of them from a distance—could not remain
until that hour, and the body of the deceased was taken
to the grave at noon, and deposited in the grave, no mi-
nister being present, aad no funeral bell being allowed to
toll.—Manchester Guardian.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
The French government, with a view of improving its
breed of horses, have purchased Shylock, by Simoom, of
Mr. B. Green.
THE EGYPTIAN CHALLENGE.—The stewards of the
Jockey Club have declined the match proposed by the
Pacha of Egypt.
THE CESAREWITCH STAKES.—An intimation has been
received from the Russian Consul-General, that the an-
nual donation of his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
Cesarewitch will henceforth be discontinued. It is the in-
tion of the stewards to recommend to the Jockey Club
that the Cesarewitch Stakes shall be run as usual, with the
addition of 300 soya. ; the entrance being raised to two
sous. _