The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-01 00:00:00

" THE FIRST ASSAILANTS."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Srn,—The Rev. Mr. Pughe disputes my assertion that,
in the controversy which has arisen with regard to the
proposed Free Church, its promoters were "the first
assailants." For this lam somewhat obliged to him. It
presents me with a fitting opportunity for laying before
the public in full the evidence on which that assertion of
mine was based. And it is time that the people of Liver-
pool should be in a position to judge for themselves of the
true character of a movement which has given rise to so
much discussion, and which professes to represent among
us, as it were, in its highest exercise, the very spirit of true
religion and gracious charity.
The subjoined letter of the Rev. Cecil Wray is con-
fessedly the original prospectus of the proposed church.
It was intended, no doubt, for circulation only among the
faithful. But having fallen, in the fortunes of war, into
the hands of those whom, in common with Mr. Pughe, it
denominates " THE ENEMY," Mr. Wray can scarcely com-
plain if it be dealt with as a prize of war accordingly.
On this extraordinary and instructive document, I had
meant to dwell somewhat largely in detail. But I cannot
trust myself to do so. I will but bespeak for it from the
Churchmen of Liverpool a mature and full consideration.
Some good-natured people have been led, by the statements
of Mr. Wray and his friends, to believe that they are but
men of a more earnest and loving spirit, whose single aim
it has been to add their contingent in our common war-
fare upon irreligion, ignorance, and sin, and to provide for
a swarminc, population, lately so largely in their argu-
ments, a full and free supply of the ministrations of the
sanctuary. If, Sir, this were indeed so, and the avowed
objects of these gentlemen were their true objects—if,
indeed, they were simply bent on the erection of a Free
Church, with daily service and weekly Communion, I for
one, in that ease, would never utter one word against
them. But, with this prospectus before us, such impres-
sions of the movement in question are at once done
away. We learn that its leader has one language
for the public generally, and another for those of his
own sect to whom he ventures to unbosom himself.
And when to them he confides his project, it is as one
which is the very creature of antagonism, and which he
himself describes as being distinctly and urgently called
for by the strategical exigencies of party. His spirit is
stirred within him for the condition of Liverpool, yet not
for its multitudes that perish for lack of knowledge—it is
because " unhappily the prevailing religious tone is deci-
dedly puritanical." This feeling betrays itself through.
out. It is in the spread of Puritanism that Mr. Wray
sees all the desolations of " our Zion." In the instincts of
a holy jealousy, he detects the existence of a dark " con.
spiracy" for the propagation of this grievous plague, and
to arrest the growing evil, he can discover but one suffi-
cient remedy—the erection, namely, of a " Model Church,"
in which there shall be permitted no "puritanical customs
or innovations." And thus, while his brethren the clergy,
to the number of some sixty, are, inferentially at least,
denounced to a man as being all more or less guilty of
" wanton indifference to their ordination vows," while
sentiments are ascribed to them, or some of them, which
they would all utterly ignore, as, for instance, that " any
approach to a choral service or decent ceremonial " is
" Popish," and " that our venerable Book of Common
Prayer contains a large amount of covert Popery ;" while,
with characteristic modesty, Mr. Wray informs his friends
that for Liverpool, with its 4.00,000, there is " in fact only
one Church" where things are done with common
decency. His complaint is finally summed up in this,
that here is a " stronghold of Puritanism" still, as it
were, " untouched"—a chief town of the provinces left in
the hands of the enemy." And it is,be it well observed, "on
this ground," and not on any other, lower or more com-
mon-place, " that the appeal is made, and assistance asked
for." What, then, comes, I ask, of the motives which
have been set before us, as having led to the promotion of
the new Church, at once the highest and the holiest ?
What comes now of the care of neglected thousands, and
of the sacred interests of the poor ? Nay, these things
will not endure to be considered for a moment, in the pre-
sence of this prospectus and its important revelations. I
do not know whether it ever found its way into the hands
of our excellent Bishop ; but if so, it is little wonder that
he declined to sanction a scheme so stupid in bitterness,
and one which I have now proved to have been expressly
directed against the peace of the Church in this place.
And it is still less surprising that, in alluding to this letter
of Mr. Wray, good Mr. Pughe should have said with
admirable naivete, " One fault Mr. Wray has certainly
committed; he has evinced a want of the wisdom of the
serpent; he has been far too candid." I, too, I must
confess, am quite disposed to think so.

But -to draw to a close. It is true that upon a late
occasion, in a speech wholly unpremeditated, and elicited
by the events of the meeting, I referred to one passage of
Mr. Wray's letter, which I have now again alluded to,
saying, that I had not seen it for some eighteen months,
but that it was to the effect (this was my phrase), that
" Puritanism had got possession of Liverpool," and that
" the enemy must be driven out." I leave it to the public
to decide whether, in this version of Mr. Wray's language,
I very seriously misrepresented him, and whether, as Mr.
Pughe says, " there was nothing in his letter to justify
the latter" part of my statement. And as to Mr. Pughe's
further charge of misquotation, if any one is sufficiently
interested in the matter to look into my letter in the
Mercury of June 29th, he will see how much I "retracted"
of my " account of statements made by a clergyman upon
the sacrament (sic Mr. Pughe) of matrimony," and how
far in any point of the least importance to my position I
had " misquoted" the recital of my friend, of whom I may
say in passing, that she quite repudiates the account of
their conversation which is given by " the clergyman."
In my letter it will be further seen that the whole grava-
men of my charge was admitted by "the clergyman"