The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-10 00:00:00

SEFTON CHURCH RATES,

We extract the followiug paragraph from the Mercury of
Friday last:—

"Stilwn Church Rates.—On the 30th ult. the parishioners of
Sefton presented Mr:Roger. Parker, of Little Crosby, with a
handsome piece of plate fur 'his persevering and successful
uppusipon to the chili clr-rates in the_ said. parish. Mr. Parker
tVai the first to resist the payment of this galling tax. At first
he s;pod almOst alone, and thus had a double evil to.overcome
—the'apathy of many catholics, and dissenters, and an abuse of
long standing. He has now, howe‘er, the satisfaction to see
almost the entire parish united in a determined opposition to
this odious impost. Perhaps no other parish -in England has
better grounds for resisting the payuput of church-rates than
Sefton. The majority 'of the rate-payers ate catholics,—as
regards' Great Crosby they are about in the proportion of three
to one,—as regards Ince and Little Crosby tile population is
almost exclusively catholic, and yet thei rector of Sefton draws
above i:2.00 a year hum' Little Crosby alone, though he never
puts foot into the township to baptize a chill, visit the sick, or
perform :rtiv clerical duty whatsoever. How long will Eng-
lishmen suffer such flagrant injustice."

Having given our contemporary's remarks, we have to
request our readers, before they p iss judgment upon " such
flagrant injustice," to hear the accused:—

To THE EDITOR OP THE LIVERPOOL ST.LIVDARD.

SIR,—On perusing the Liverpool Mercury of last S:lturday I
perceived a paragraph headed ",Sefton Church Rates," which,
on reading, I found to be quite destitute of truth as regards our
township, and shall feel greatly obliged to you to contradict
such a false and flagrant statement. The passage (in the iler-
cury) alluded to I quote as follows :—" The majority of rate-
payers are catholics; in Great Crosby they ate in proportion
of nearly three to one." Now, fur the sake of truth, the love of
justice, and the refutation of such a giaring falsehood, I request
You will insert the following statement taken from the rate-
book ending the 23th ult. In Great Crosby the amount of
rates paid for the poor, Sefton church, and the constable's ac-
count, by the Protestants was E 19,3 135., and by the catholics
for the same purposes, £lO7 l6s ; the number of protestant
rate-payers Was Rai, and the number of catholic rate-payers &),
consequently, you will see the larger amount paid, and the
number of rate-payers to be with the protestants. Let me con-
clude by quoting another passage from the said false and
equally unjust paragraph:—" Row long will Englishmen „m' pt"
themselves to be duped by "such flagrant," oujust. and Case
statements.—l remain, sir, your most humble and obedient
servant, A GKEAT CROSBY OVERSEER.
Great Crosby, April 7,1835.

The stateinedts of our correspondent are correct to the letter,
and therefore on this subject we have oot another word to offer.
Our contemporary is either gulled hiatself or attempting to gull
his readers.

Another correspondent, upon whose respectability and vera-
city we can rely, states that a Mr. Roger Parker, heaven fore-
fend! that it .should he the Mr. Roger Parker who "has been
presented with a handsome piece of plate for his persevering.
and successful opposition to church-rates," was. on or about
the 4th of this present month of April, removed and conveyed
to a place of security for outrageous, but no doubt very patriotic
conduct at the Mitre Inn, Dale-street. Our informant inti-
mates that handcuffs were titcessiiry to restrain the exeberance
of the gentleinan's patriotism. Occurring at the Mitre allow-
ances ought to belnade. An opposer of church-rates could not
be expected to remain silent at tile Mitre.