The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-19 00:00:00

together

So far as they relate, however, to the classes of our popu-
lation, whose habits and condition they describe, these tables,
if prepared accurately—(and we have no reason to doubt the
fact, although, if they had been unaccompanied with the party
views with which the anti-monopoly people have interlarded
them, they would have been infinitely less liable to suspi-
cion)—are documents which might be turned to valuable and
important uses. It is painful to contemplate the mass of
moral and yhysical evil which they develope, as existing in
the midst of a community such as this ; it is certain that, al-
-1 though perhaps a little exaggerated, something nearly ap-
proaching to the state of things here exhibited does exist; and

it is, indeed, time that it should receive the serious considera-
tion of our local and national legislatures, and, if possible,
that remedial measures should be devised for its removal.
The bulk of the population of the ward, which is shewn to
be thus plunged in degradation and penury, consists of
strangers from various portions of the United Kingdom. Of
4,977 families visited, 3,651 are of this class. 2,243, or nearly
half, are Irish ! Amongst this portion may be found almost
the whole of the suffering noticed, and of the vice by which
it is accompanied ; and it might well become an object of se-
rious consideration by what means the condition of this cfass,
which exists in every large town throughout the empire,—a
nucleus for crime—a fertile source of want and wretchedness,
and from amongst which our prisons, our workhouses, and
our infirmaries are filled to overflowing,—can be alleviated.
It is idle to take such spectacles as here present themselves
as arguments in favour of this or that political theory. It is

folly to lay to the operation of the corn and provision laws
their present existence. The great bulk of the individuals
who constitute them are mere squatters upon the skirts of
civilization and comfort; and we are perfectly satisfied that,
unaided by other measures, the direct effect of the adoption
of the free trade measures contended for by Mr. Finch and
his fellow-anti-monopolists, would be to increase the numbers,

and the consequent wretchedness of the class in question.
On some future occasion we shall probably make use of a
portion of the details here furnished, to aid us in an inquiry
into the real source of the evil, and the course to be pursued
for its mitigation,—which we much fear, however, is too
deeply seated to be reached by any mere legislative effort.
For this purpose, however, the inquiry of Mr. Finch has not
gone so far as it might, with great usefulness, have been
carried, and as it would have been, had the truth and the whole
truth, irrespective of the strength to be imparted by it to a
party outcry, been the object before him. We knew that this
mass of wretchedness existed amongst us although we have
not before been furnished with its details ; but how came it

there? How has it grown there ? These are questions upon
which we are left perfectly in the dark by our statistical in-
quirers. What are the habits—the degree of education-

religion of those whose condition presents so lamentable a
contrast to that which ought to exist in the midst of an
industrious, moral, and intelligent community ? Such
questions ought surely to have entered into the consideration
of persons instituting an enquiry, like this, whose result is
now before us ; yet they are precisely those upon which we
can expect no satisfaction from Mr. John Finch.
So far, however, as they go we must give the society and
Mr. Finch credit for the pains which appears to have been
taken, and the lucid arrangement which bas been pursued in
getting up these tables ; but we cannot give them equal credit
for the ability of the documentary and argumentative matter of
a political nature with which they are aceompanied. More
inconsequential trash than the remarks of John Finch him-
self we never met with, unless it be contained in the preface
of Mr. Charles Edward Rawlins, jun., or in the letters ap-
pended to the pamphlet from the various gentlemen who
have assisted in the enquiry. It would be a waste of time to
attempt dissecting such rubbish ; and we, therefore, heartily
make a present of it to our Radical and Whig contemporaries.

LOCAL NEWS.

Lord Sandon and a deputation from the Chamber of Com-
merce at Plymouth on the subject of " grinding foreign corn
in bond" had an interview with Sir R. Peel on Friday.

Mr. LENTON'S PicrußEs.—We recommend an early visit
to the collection of this clever artist's pictures, now exhi-
biting in the Postoffice-rooms. It is the most interesting

series the public have had an opportunity of inspecting fo
some time.

Miss ADELAIDE KEMBLE.—We hear that Bellini's fa-
vorite opera `' Norma" will be produced in Dublin, in the
course of the next month, with unusual attractions, when the
justly celebrated vocalists, Miss Adelaide Kemble and Miss
Rainforth, will perform in this and other operas. The con-
ductor will be Mr. J. L. Hatton, who has gained a high re-
putation in the metropolis as a pianiste and composer. We
understand that they have engagements at Birmingham and
Manchester.

MR. PoP.icr AGAlN.—Popjoy was noticing a man pre-
paring his material to paint a table. The wag observed that
it put him in mind of a little fat porker ready for roasting.
On being asked why, he said that it was a pig ment to put
on a board.

TEMPLETON!S CONCEILT.-It will be seen, that in conse-
quence of the success attendant upon Mr. Templeton's con-
cert on Wednesday last, that he intends giving another on
Friday next. Our Scotch friends will notice in the programme
that " mony a bonny sang" will be given by this accom-
plished vocalist ; a very great treat may therefore be
expected.—The concert at Birkenhead will take place in the
Albion Hotel.

STEALING A WATCH.—Ann Bennett, a girl of the town,
was yesterday charged at the Police-court with stealing a
watch from the person of Owen M`Malion, who pursued
her and detained her in Albion-street. She was committed
for trial.

STEALING PICTURES.—TWO boys, William M`Neill and
James Turner, were yesterday brought before Mr. Rushton
on a charge of stealing two framed pictures in a public house.
They called for some ale, and one of them went out, taking
one of the pictures. The other was seen in the act of taking
down the other picture from the wall. They were each com-
mitted to gaol for two months.
--

THEFT FROM A TILL.---A. boy, named George Bradley,
was yesterday charged, at the Police-court, with an attempt
to steal a quantity of copper money from the counting-house
of a lime-burner in Toxteth-park. He was seen by the clerk,
dropped the money back into the drawer, and was afterwards
found concealed behind a water-cask, under a stair on the
premises. He was committed for trial.
The Rev. Hugh M`Neile leaves this morning for Paris,
where he will remain until the 10th May. He will after-
wards spend a few days at Jersey. The rev. gentleman will
preach in Paris on Sunday next. We are sure we only speak
the sentiments of all our fellow townsmen, in fervently
praying that the change of scene, and salubrity of climate,
may be the means of restoring the spirits of himself, his
lady, and family.

THEFT FROM A VESSEL.—A lumper named Patrick King,
who was employed in discharging a vessel, was yesterday
charged before Mr. Rushton with having taken 22 lbs.
weight of horse hair, part of the cargo, which was found
upon him by a police-officer. He said it was only the re-
mains of the cargo, and he thought there was no harm in
taking it. Mr. Rushton said the practice must be put down,
and committed him for three months
A LARGE

MANUFACTURING TOWN RUINED BY A RAIL-
WAY, AND BY THE PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL
FRANCHISE I !—The borough of Stockport, above all other
manufacturing places, is at this moment steeped in poverty
and widely -,spread and almost universal distress; and again
and again we have been told that the cause of all this is—the
corn laws ! How stand the facts ? Within the last two
years that borough has been connected with Manchester by
the Manchester and Birmingham Railway ; and, as the re-
sult, a correspondent of the Stockport Advertiser states, on
the authority of a circular issued by the drapers of Man-
chester, that since the opening of the railway it has become
general for the inhabitants of Stockport to make their chief
purchases in Manchester." In fact, this town, containing
90,000 inhabitants, has now become a mere suburb of Man-
chester; and its shopocracy is at present on the brink of
despair. In addition to the operation of this cause, how-
ever, the feuds and bitterness created by the borough and
municipal elections have given rise to a system of exclusive
dealing, which is severely prejudicing the trade of the bo-
rough. Parties prefer going to Manchester to make their
purchases, to dealing with their political opponents. It is
painful to contemplate such results from measures otherwise
of such beneficial tendency, as the opening of a railway and
the acquisition of the elective franchise. We are afraid,
however, that the facts are too true.
GARDNER BOGGS AND CO.-011 Friday, at the Court
of Bankruptcy, London, the bankrupts appeared to pass
their final examination, and, as their accounts were not ob-
jected to, were declared passed. An abstract of the balance-
sheet of the joint estate will at once present their position
with respect to debts and assets. The debtor side of the
sheet shows—sundry creditors at £99,849 6s 3d ; capital in-
troduced by William Taylor, £7,337 ; capital introduced by
William Shand, £5,000 ; making a total of £112,186 6s 3d.
The creditor side shows the debts at £31,406 Ils 8d ; the
good debts being estimated at £13,515 3s 10d ; the doubtful
at .£7329 5s Bd, and the bad at £10,132 12s 9d. By property,
£10,132 12s 9d; Bruce, Shand, and Co., £5,466 18s 4d; by
ship James Scott, £1,000; by charges, £10,791 8s lid ; by
losses including liabilities, &c., £26,992 13s 3 ; drawn out by
Gardner Boggs £8,207 is 3d ; drawn out by William Taylor,
£3,373 18s sd, drawn out by William Shand, £14,71511s 6d ;
making an equivalent total of £112,186 6s 3d. These ac-
counts include the period from the Ist January, 1840, to the
date of the fiat, March, 1842.
SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS.—On Thursday there was a
Court and an Investiture of the Bath. Sir Howard Douglas
was made a Civil Grand Cross of the Bath, and Admirals Sir
John Talbot and Sir Henry Digby were made Military Grand
Crosses

Generals Sir John Wilson and Sir Join: Wood-

ford, and Admirals Sir John White, Sir C. Richardson, and.
Sir Arthur Farquhar, received the insignia of Knights' Com-
manders. The making Lieutenant-General Sir H. Douglas
a Civil Grand Cross, would seem to cast a reflexion on his
military services and character, and is altogether one of those
puzzling circumstances that occasionally occur in high places.
The only way to account for it at all, is that Sir Howard
having been appointed Lord High Commissioner of the
lonian Islands, by the conservative influence, and there hav-
ing been a great outcry against certain acts of his administra-
tion, the present ministry were determined to give him a dis.
tinction which should especially mark the sovereign's appro-
bation of his civil services. The army must, however, not
forget that the Order of the Bath is essentiall military—its
title is the " most honourable Military Order" ; and the in-
troduction of civilians into it is altogether a modern inven-
tion : the army then should watch with some jealousy the
first symptoms of a notion that any superiority can exist in
the Civil Grand Cross over the Military Grand Cross; for
the selection of a General Officer of the Civil dignity instead
of the Military, might be construed into something of the
sort if not explained.—Looker-on. [We know not Sir
Howard's feelings on the subject, and are therefore not aware
whether he has any preference to the military over the civil
badge, but his claims to either are undeniable.—E. L. S.]

NORTHERN HOSFITAL.—We received at the close of last
week the report of this institution for the past year. We
gather from it that during the last twelve months 1493 patients
have been admitted into the hospital, of which number 1203
have been cured, and only 65 have died. 502 of the patients
were labourers, 437 sailors, and the remainder were me-
chanics, women, and children. The accidents are, as may
be presumed, chiefly of the nature of fractures, of which there
were 185. and wounds and contusions, of which there were
336. 384 of these occurred in various parts of the town, 108
amongst the shipping, and the rest at the various docks,
manufactories, and warehouses, with the exception of 12,
which took place at the canals. We are sorry to see that
there is a balance against the institution of £143 14s. 6d.
But two sermons were preached for the charity in the whole
year, and these only realised £ll 6s. Bd.
ROBBERY FROM THE PERSON.—A young man of unpre-
possessing appearance, named Thomas Berry, was yesterday
charged with having robbed a decent-looking woman, named
Hannah Bennett, in the street. The complainant said, that
on Saturday night the prisoner came up to her in Upper
Parliament-street, and asked her if she wanted a husband.
She told him to go along about his business, and he then,
while a man who was with him stood by, threw her down,
covered her face, and deliberately rifled her pockets of a
shilling, sixpence in copper, two thimbles, a penknife, a to-
bacco-box, and some keys and shells. She pursued him,
and succeeded in giving him into custody in Back Parlia-
ment-street. The articles were found upon him. The pri-
soner told a long story, which was evidently a tissue of false-
hoods, alleging that she had given him the tobacco box, but
not accounting for his possession of the other articles. Mr.
Rushton said the robbery was a cruel and disgraceful one,
and committed him for trial.

ALLEGED ROBBERY OF A CONSIDERABLE SUM OF
MONEY.—A female named Ann Daley was, yesterday,
charged before Mr. Rushton with having robbed a man
named Peter Courtney of a sum of £67.- The complainant,
a rough-looking man, said, he was a cart owner, and that the
prisoner, who had lived with him for twelve years as his
housekeeper, had, the previous day, broken open a chest in
which the money was placed, and carried it off. Part of the
money was found in her pocket when she was apprehended,
and part on her person at the Bridewell. A purse containing
50 sovereigns, which had been in the chest, was also re-
covered from her son. The prisoner did not deny taking the
money, but strongly asserted that it was her own property.
She said she had been an unfortunate woman when she first
knew the prisoner, and that she had given him all the money
she got for years in the streets, he having promised to marry
her as soon as he could live without working a day's work
himself. She added that they had lived together as man and
wife for seventeen years, and that they had eight children in
that time; but that as he had threatened to turn her out of

house and home, and said she was too old for him, and that

he was going to marry another, she had taken the money
which she considered her own, as she had earned it. The
complainant said her statement was totally untrue, and the
prisoner was committed for trial at the sessions.

ROBBERY FROM A SHOP.—Yesterday, John Marratt,
second mate of a ship, and Samuel Johnson Stubbs, a shop-
keeper, were placed at the bar of the Police-court on a
charge of stealing several articles from two different shops.
Mr. Benjamin Dickins, foreman to Messrs. Randles & Co.,
boot and shoe-makers, Castle-street, said that, on Saturday
night, about nine o'clock, the prisoners came together to
the shop. Marratt requested to be fitted with a pair of
shoes, but after trying several pairs, declined to buy any of
them. Meantime the prisoner Stubbs remained in the shop
at some little distance. Mr. Dickins's suspicions were ex-
cited when they were about to leave the shop, and, observ-
ing Stubbs's person to be somewhat bulky, he felt him, and
found one pair of shoes, which had been lying on the coun-
aot eat yd,h uimsn
atdrreorrau
ths
tei srwsja.ase ktHhe
eta;
wasaAll on
dwoeet
thdaei
to
oapdga ioar,aafterwardsbut
afterwards
ttdeorr
wapaaprsedtdos
daoypu
.t;
pmrerh. ecnideemdeashlsal.s
hatA wshitanper
ssotaatthedctahsatlte-hsetrweeats
;eamapdloiymevdiaign
occasion to leave it for a short time on Saturday evening, to
go across the street, he observed the two prisoners enter it,
and kept his eye upon them. On going to them, Stubbs re-
marked to him that they might have robbed the shop in his
absence, and he replied that they could not have done so, as
he was looking at them. Marratt tried some hats, but made
no purchase, and they went away. When Stubbs was after-
wards apprehended at the shoe shop, he had a new cap on of
a peculiar make, similar to a number of caps that were lying
on a frame near the door of the hat shop. The witness,
however, could not positively swear that it was one of the
number. A police-officer said that he could find but one
other shop in the town where such caps were sold. Marratt
was afterwards taken into custody, and in the house where
he lodged, in Queen-street, was found another new cap pre-
cisely similar, which he had given to Mr. Jones, who kept
the house, to take care of for him. The prisoner Stubbs,
when taken, had a similar cap on his bead. He said, in his
defence, that he was very drunk at the time, and did not
take the shoes with an intention to steal them. Marratt
said that he was a stranger in the town, and had gone with
the other, who said he knew the shops, and could help him
to make cheap purchases. He added, that Stubbs had, on
their way to the shoe shop, made him a present of the cap
which was found at his lodgings.
M ANCHESTER AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.--011 Wed-
nesday the directors and principal engineers made an exper-
imental trip over the line from Stockport to Crewe, and
found every thing perfectly satisfactory, preparatory to the
examination of it by Colonel Pasley, the goveynment
inspector of Railways, which we hear will take place in a few
ge
rtyh the
littlelln e
fdraayms .
m‘Na'nec
ihma
:tee notrto ecarredwtheheuxt awe te
ay
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toapaedn mv
remains now to be done; and it is probable that the opening
will take place by or before Chester races.

LECTURES ON THE CREED OF POPE PIUS
THE FOURTH.

The sixth of the course o

Pius the Fouith, was delivered in t

Music-hall, Bold
by the Rev. '1,7G1
4anchester. T.er

street, on the evening of Friday last,
STOWELL, of Christ Church, Salford, iV
was a highly respectable and numerous auditory

C. S. MIDDLETON, Esq
proceedings were opened by prayer
Mr. STOWELL then proceeded to deliver his lecture, wh
was on the sixth article of the creed—" I do firmly belieVt
that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained thud!'
are helped by the prayers of the faithful; " or, as it stand,
in the original Latin—" Constanter teneo purgatorinm esse
animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis juvari." The rev
gentleman said,—My Christian friends, the subject whicl
bespeaks our attention this evening is one which fails verb
appropriately immediately after that solemn and sublime les.
tival of our own reformed Catholic church, the holy si-asoi
of Easter. At that season we justly commemorate the deatl

lied to the Choir, nd the

and glorious resurrection of the Prince
beautiful language of our own church,

f Life, who, hi th
" by his death de

stroyed death, and by his rising to life again restored to us
everlasting life,"—who illumined the dark valley and encir-
cled the gloom of the grave with a rainbow bright wirh pro-
mise and with hope,—or, in the more appropriate, because
inspired, language of the apostle, " who bath abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light through the gos-
pel." The dark shadows that obscured the world to come
he has rolled aside; the thick veil, emblematised by the fill
of the temple, rent at the moment he said " It is finished,"
be has drawn aside; and we can now, with the eye of faith,
look at the things which are not seen, and which are eternal.
Nevertheless, in the disclosures made by the Prince of Life
of the future scene of existence
.for immortal men, there is
enough to support and satisfy the faith; there is nothing,
however, to gratify and excite prurient and presumptive cu-
riosity. Indeed, it is remarkable that the discoveries of that
future world are for the most part general and indefinite,
more especially with regard to that solemn interval which
interposes between the departure of the spirit from its tene-
ment of clay and its final consummation and bliss, when it
shall be reunited to the body, a glorified body like to Christ's
glorified body. Of that solemn interval Scripture says com-
paratively nothing at all. Indeed it is worthy of observa-
tion, that throughout the. New Testament the hope and the
attention of the believer is not fixed upon death, but fixed
upon life,—is not fixed upon putting off his tabernacle, but
putting it on,—is not fixed upon the dark twilight, the dim
I shadows between his death and his resurrection, but upon
the bright rays of that everlasting day, when the Sun of
Righteousness shall appear, and when all his people
appear with him in the fulness and completeness of
nature and of bliss. Hence, however Christians may
differ with regard to the precise import of the coming of
Christ, the precise period, the precise manner, whether
pre-millennial or post-millennial, whether before the final
judgment day or after the final judgment day,—all, in so
far as they are Script Ural in their vieivs, conform in looking
for his coming as the great head of the church, for his coining
as the grand Consummation of his people, as that to which
all events are hastening, as that which awakens the respon-
sive echo from the breast of all his believing people, " even
so, come, Lord Jesus ; come quickly." The Scriptures,
therefore, cast the interval between death and the resurrec-
tion into shadow ; they, as it were, had the eye of faith across
the space, and fasten it upon the bright and blessed.consum-
.mation beyond it. Our own reformed Catholic church in
this as in all her tenets in harmony with the voice of revela-
tion, respecting the silence not less than the voice of the
lively oracles, says little to her children upon the subject of
the intermediate state ; yea, she simply swallows it up in this
petition,—" that it may please thee shortly to accomplish the
number of thine elect, and hasten thy kingdom, that we, with
all those that are departing in the faith and fear of thy holy
name, may have our perfect consummation and blessiqg. both
in body and soul, in thine everlasting glory." But that terra
incognita, that unknown land, which the church of England
following the teachings of holy Scripture thus presumes not
to enter, presumes not to intermeddle with, presumes not to
explore, simply teaching her sons to rest satisfied in the
blessed assurance that God has taken to himself the soul of
our dear departed brother or sister—that terra incognita the
church of Rome fixes upon as, her darling spot, her peculiar
inheritance, her appropriated territory, where she plants her
most powerful machinery in order to wield the conscience
and the fears and the hearts of her dupes and her slaves.
Now, the church of Rome in occupying this intermediate
space between death and the resurrection, with the fiction of
purgatory, has discovered, as she has in so many other re-
spects, the deepest craft of the serpent, alas, how divorced
from the harmlessness of the dove ! She has discovered the
most complete and the most consummate subtlety in the in-
vention of the purgatorial system, because, if she merely
taught her disciples to believe in the two great final states—
heaven for the righteous and hell for the wicked—that no
sooner were men passed from the church militant, than they
were passed from her power and the power of her priesthood,
that she could no longer wield any influence borrowed from their
condition,—a decide state, a final and a fixed state itnincdi-
ately upon death, would not subserve the purposes of Popery
to arm the sacerdotal order with a fearful povier, a dreadful
power, a dim, mysterious, ambiguous, and therefore tremen-
dous power ; for Popery loves to dwell in twilight and amid
shadows. Such a power could be best derived to the priest-
hood by means of the intermediate and uncertain state,
where there was play for change, scope for the interposition
of priestly mediation and priestly operation, and where, con-
sequently, there was scope to wield the fears of the living,
and to mulct and tax the dead through the living. It was,
therefore, such an administration as this that was best fitted
to arm the priesthodd of Rome with power to stretch be-
yond the grave, telling most effectually upon the fears of the
living as it pretended to tell upon the condition and destinies
of the dead. For such a figment as that of purgatory, the
Church of Rome wanted not the type and the notion, because

they found it ready to their haicds hi the fictions of the
Rabbinical writers. Among the Jews there was the notion

of an intermediate state where all Israelites (for they believe
that all must ultimately go to the kingdom of God) were
purified and pardoned, and 'at last admitted into heaven.
Rome borrowed, filched this fond notion from the Rabbinical

writers, as one most dear to her notions. Romaniso* is
nothing else but Christianity half paganised, half judaised,
and almost wholly unchristianised. (Loud cheers.) It were
a very interesting study, and it is one in part done by some
ingenious writers, to trace up to Judaism, upon the one hand,
all that Rome borrowed from her, and to Paganism, upon
the other hand, all that Rome borrowed from her. If, then;
we were to ask what she had borrowed from Chritianity, we

should find the amount coMparatively small indeed. The
great firndamental truths that she does hold in coMmou'wi; h
ourselves—such as the Trinity in Unity and the satisfaction
offered by Christ—she does so overlay and bury by the ac-
cumulation of some Judaical and some Pagan superstitions,
that the pearl is almost unknown and lost. As some writer
has well observed, she " has folded the head of the babe in the
arms of Mary, and buried his atonement in his sepulchre,
and rolled a great stone to the door."
My Christian-friends, we have thus, then, introductorily,
traced the origin of the doctrine of purgatory in the Church
of Rome. We have seen what facility was afforded for its
introduction; we have sees how this unscriptural;

scribed middle state between death and judgment presented
itself as the proper sphere and field for Rome to occupy in
order to subserve her own purposes. We have seen, that to
subserve those purposes nothing was more necessary than
that her priesthood should be armed with a certain indefinite
power over the future destinies of mankind, and that this
power should not extend, indeed, to the directly final states,
because Rome herself had not the unblushing presumption,
in the face of Scripture, to pretend that men can ever be
lost from heaven and rescued from hell; but an intermedi-
ate state saved her from this dilemma, and enabled her
and offered to her a very fit occasion and opportunity to in-
troduce that monstrous fiction purgatory which we shall find,
as we proceed, to trace it out, one of the most monstrous
and mighty powers with which the Church of Rome arms
herself. Indeed if you take away purgaiory from the Romish
system, you take away the very mainspring of her machinery ;
you disarm the Romish priesthood of their power if you strip
from them the fond notions of purgatory. Let us then allow
the Church of Rome to speak for herself, and ascertain what
are her own views of the intermediate state of purgatory.
We shall first of all appeal to her own authorized and ac-
credited standard ; afterwards we shall have recourse to some
her standard writers in order to have further light thrown
upon this, at the best, dim and obscure subject; for she has
felt it her interest to aid you, as far as possible, through the
misty obscurity. In the creed of Pope Pius the Fourth,
which is made, very fitiy, the platforms for a series of lectures,
of which the present is one, the sons are taught, each one
for himself,—" I do firmly believe that there is a purgatory,
and that the souls detained therein are helped by the player
of the faithful." We have here, indeed, a bare naked state-
ment of fact, that there is a purgatory, but where that
purgatory is, where located, and of what description it is,
we are not told. We are also told that the suffrages of the
faithful avail for those in that place, purgatory ; but what
those suffrages are we are not told, and in what manner they
avail we are not informed. We shall now have recourse to
the Council of Trent, and see what further light is thrown
upon the subject by that notorious council.—The reverend
gentlemen then quoted a decree enacted at the 25th (and
last) session of the Council of Trent, which states that
masses, prayers, and alms are to be continually offered up for
the relief of the souls detained in purgatory, and that all
bishops and priests are to preach this " wholsome doctrine."
Here, proceeded the reverend gentlemen, we find some slight
light thrown upon the subject, though after all it is a very
cloudy light ; we are taught that there is not only pl
ace
called pla e
called purgatory, but that the suffrages of the faithful
which avail for the relief of those confined in purgatory,
are masses, prayers, and alms, and other works of piety,
which the faithful have been accustomed to perform for
the departed believers. We are referred here to the
bishops who are to inculcate this wholesome doctrine;
and we find in the catechism of the Council of Trent
which is of equal authority with the enactments of the council
itself, somewhat more respecting purgatory. Mr. Stowell
then read passages from the Catechism of the Council of
Trent, the catechism for children, and the Douay catechism,
in which it was alleged that purgatory is a doctrine founded
upon the scripture& and upon the traditions of the fathers ;
and that it is a prison for the purification of departed spirits.
We have here (the rev. gentleman continued) some little
more light reflected upon this dim and uncertain subject, for
we find purgatory designated a prison, therefore it is a place
which has " a local habitation and a name." We find, too,
somewhat respecting those that are confined in purgatory—
that they are persons who either have been guilty of venial
sins which have not been expiated, or persons who having
committed mortal sins, and having been forgiven those mor-
tal sins, in so far as everlasting punishment is concerned,
yet have not rendered that satisfaction for sin which the
Church of Rome requires even in the case of mortal sin,
although the venial guilt has been pardoned. Such are the
persons she reports as going into purgatory, in order to ren-
der that additional satisfaction which is required by the jus-
tice of God before they can enter into heaven. But let us
refer to her most celebrated doctor, Cardinal Bellarmine,
and ascertain what further light he may throw upon the sub-
ject. Bellarmine was then quoted ; and he defined purga-
tory to be a certain place, where as in a prison, souls de-
parted from this life were purified, because without such
purification they could not enter into heaven that the pains
of purgatory were most horrible, the greatest sufferings on
earth bore no comparison to them ; and that if men knew
what they were they would never go there, but would rather
go into the torments of the eternal fire of hell. Now Car-
dinal Bellarmine has thrown his additional light upon the
mysterious subject we are investigating, and he distinctly
tells us not only who they are who enter into purgatory, but
what is the measure of suffering they endure. He tells us it
is most horrible, horrible beyond all comparison ; so that no
sufferings upon earth are to be compared with it. A
fearful and a wretched stage indeed for a child of God to
have to pass through to the finallandotfweenh
treesteyaendefglfoariyth!
What a fearful cloud is purgatory between
and that pure and bright abode which God has prepared for
them that love him ! The ;Church of Rome, however, not
content with thus giving us general notions upon the subject
of purgatory has furnished us in the case of some of her ca-
nonised saints with fuller information : some, of them have
returned from that world from which, we would imagine,
ag itle u o
traveller was ever allowed to come back again. find it
in the case of St. Christina, and she thus relates what she
witnessed in purgatory. The rev. gentleman then read St.
Christina's report of what she had seen and heard, from. ,
which it appeared that she held a conversation with the Al-
mighty, and interceded with him on behalf of some friend of
hers. We here find (Mr. Stowell continued) an individual
coming back from the purgatorial state and describing its
nature, nevertheless the description of information furnished
by St. Christina is very superficial and unsatisfactory. We
find, however, something more upon the subject of purgatory
revealed to us in the case of—who do you.o suppose ? No less
a personage than one of the Popes of me, no less than In-
nocent 111., who held the Lateran Council ! This pope is
represented as being in purgatory, and in purgatiop too, to

he last day ! But you shall hear his own description of his
tate. Mr. Stowell then (looted from the life of St. Lud-
of St. Christina,

Ardis, written by tE
n account of t 1 vi:

tory, to whom the

,opl: stated he miist be confined there WI the day of judg-
aent, and that intercession with the Ahnighty for hitn was

evils (liecontin

wretched pope suf-

re left to imagine for ourselves; but this is only
..,any self-contradictions of which the Church of
~ is perpetually guilty. Here then we have this strange
and striking feature with regard to Popery, that one of the
most eminent popes—he that held the, Lateran Council—
should be himself consigned to purgatory, and consigned to
it even till the judgment of the last day.
We have, then, my dear hearers, examined as far as the
Church of Rome vouchsafes light to us upon: the subject,
her views of the purgatorial fire. It appears that the locality
of purgatory she has not fixed. The state of purgatory she
places between death and the resurrection. The pains of
purgatory she sometimes speaks of as tire, but how tire can
be applied to spirit it is impossible for us to conceive, and
we must leave it to her to explain ; and though she has seen
fit to speak of the fires of purgatory, she never enters into
minute detail of the nature of the torments inflicted there,
but she describes them as most horrible, immeasurably be-
yond anything ever suffered on earth. She further tells us,
that those who are in prison there are not the wicked
who shall finally perish, but the righteous, whose satisfaction
for sins upon earth has been imperfect, or who, having been
guilty of venial sins, have had no opportunity of making sa-
tisfaction at all. She teaches, therefore, as you perceive,
the distinction between mortal and venial sins—sins of a
darker dye and sins of a lighter shade. She teaches also that
there is a distinction between pardon and punishment, inso-
much as though a man may be pardoned in so far as hell is
concerned, he may yet not be pardoned in so far as the
endurance of temporal punishment goes ; so that a man while
delivered from final and everlasting torment is not exempted
from self-inflicted penances at his own hands, or from sore
suffering and visitation at the hands of God on account of his
sins, and from the powerful fear of purgatory after death, un-
less he has made satisfaction, in temporal punishment, for
his sins on this side the grave.
Take, then, the whole view ; and here you have what the
Church of Rome holds with regard to the existence of pur-
gatory, with regard to the nature of penance in purgatory,
and with reg.ard to the persons who are engaged in that pe-
nance. Now, upon what evidence does the Church of Rome
found this strange and monstrous fabric? What authority
has she in the Word of God to declare that there be such a
place as purgatory, or to describe purgatory as being thus
peopled by individuals whose sins are forgiven them ? The
. passages which the Church of Rome fixes upon in Scripture
are sundry ; but for the most part they are so utterly imper-
tinent and so utterly inapplicable that even one of her own
advocates, and he one who died a martyr for the church,
flings aside as untenable. The rev. gentleman then
quote, from Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who said, that
with regard to all the passages of Scripture usually adduced
in defence of the doctrine of purgatory, with the exception
of three, they are of little avail and of little applicability. The
three to which he refers (resumed Mr. Stowell) are those to
which I shall allude. The first passage is from the book of
Maccabees, in which Judas and those who taught with
him are represented as giving sacrifice and prayer for the
dead who had been killed in the battle, because certain
idolatrous charms were found beneath their garments after
death. Upon this passage Ido not intend to touch, because
we cast the book of Macabees and the whole Apocrypha al-
together aside. We do not recognise that book, though, with
the church, we regard it as useful for instruction in mo-
rals, and for example in life ; but we do not for one moment,
directly or indirectly, countenance the idea that it has any
right or place whatsoever in the canon of holy Scripture. We
conceive there never was a period since the canon of holy
Scripture was completed, when it became all scriptural mi-
nisters to take heed how they in any way allow either tradi-
tion, or the writings of the fathers in the Apocrypha, to be
brought into contact with the word of God. They should let
the word of God stand aloft in the firmament of the church,
like the sun in the sky, and not allow the damp, offensive
matter that arises from the marshes, if read at all, approach
to, or mingle its dusky light with the sun of its pure splen-
dour. I conceive; therefore, I should be lending some slight
indirect sanction to the notion that the apocryphal writings
are to be regarded as authority, if I were to condescend to
waste your time by attempting to analyse a passage which,
whatever may be its import or its bearing upon the subject,
we hold as of no more authority than we hold the ipse diait
either of Dr. Wiseman, Dr. Murray, or Dr. Doyle. We
hold the Writings of the Apocrypha in no other light than as
the records of former nations, and therefore venerable. As
moral writings, or historical records, we take them for what
they are worth. What is true in them we do receive ' • but
we test their truth as the truth of all, or any writings, by the
writings, by the only touchstone—the infallible word of the

one of the I
Rome

Casting aside that quotation, the next upon which they
found their doctrine is the 12th chapter of Matthew, and 3rd
verse, where it pleased our blessed Redeemer to say, " who-
soever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be
forgiven but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nar in the
world to come." Now, even supposing Christ had inti-
mated there was forgiveness in a future world, this does not
suggest, nor does it directly sanction, the idea of purgatory.
Further, that Christ should have taught forgiveness at all
in a future world, is utterly inconceivable, for it would
have been in the face of all he himself had previously de-
clared, in that he said, " The night conieth wherein no
man can work ; and again, by his apostle, " now is the ac-
cepted time, now is the day of salvation." But if we take
the parallel passages in the gospel of St. Mark and St. Luke,
we find this expression rendered more faithfully by the words
" hath never forgiveness," and " shall not be forgiven ;" and
therefore it is clear our blessed Redeemer used a common
mode of expression among the Jews, as there is ample evi-
dence of it, in order, in the strongest manner, to asseverate
that the sin agoinst the Holy Ghost was an unpardonable sin,
and never to be pardoned here, and therefore not for ever.
So much, then, for the passage upon which the Church of
Rome rests, as upon a pillar, the monstrous fabric of purga-
tory. We find it has no relation or bearing upon the point ;
that It was a declaration, common to the Jews, of a thing
impossible for ever.
The next passage upon which she founds this doctrine is in
the first of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, from the
13th to the 15th verse. This is the passage where the apostle
guards the christian builders against building upon any other
foundation than on Christ, and with any other than sound
and substantial materials ; that they should not build " wood,
hay, stubble," but gold, silver, and precious stones ;" and
reminds them that a day shall come which shall revea their
work, when every man's work should be tried of what sort
it was, and that if any man's work stands he should receive
a reward, but if it were consumed he should suffer loss, yet
he himself should be saved "soas by fire." Let any person
read that passage and he will at once see that it is metapho-
rical, and therefore a plain man may find some difficulty in
coming to a determination, but he will never be led by it to
suppose there is a future intermediate state in which fire is
applied to test the souls of men. First of all he finds that it
is not the souls of men that are to be tested, but the works
of men that are to be tested ; it is the man's works that are
to be tried, but it is not to try the man's soul ; therefore
since the Romanist holds that the soul is to be tortured in
purgatory, it is clear the passage can have no bearing what-
ever upon any such state. Further, it is the view of the
Church of Rome that the soul in purgatory is to be purified
by fire, but here it is the works of the man which are to be
tried by fire ; it is not the soul purified, but the works tried—
it is the works which are to be purified, tested, and tried,
and brought to the ordeal. Further, the Church of Rome
teaches that only the souls of those who have died under
eternal punishment not expiated, or who have been guilty of
venial sin, are those who go into the purgatorial flame •,
but this passage declares that fire shall try the works of all
men, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. Further, we are told
here that if the works be destroyed, the man himself shall
suffer loss—the builder shall suffer loss—but he himself shall
be saved, "soas by fire." The Church of Rome says, "by
means of the fire of purgatory ;" the apostle says, " so as by
fire," meaning, "as if it were by fire,' an expression of fre-
quent use in those times, and in ours. We are told by the
Prophet Zechariah, that " Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the angel : and he answered and
spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away
those filthy garments from him ; and unto him he said, be-
hold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I
will clothe thee with just raiment." Here are parallel ex-
pressions. It is clear then that the whole passage is meta-
phorical ; therefore it is equally clear that to apply one part
of it metaphorically, and the other part literally, is utterly
contradictory of the rules of sound interpretation, and makes
the apostle appear ignorant of what he was writing. The
Romanists themselves will admit that the foundation must
be metaphorical ; they will admit that the " gold, silver, and
precious stones," and the " wood, hay, stubble," must be
metaphorical. hy then, if the preceding part of the figure
be all metaphorical, are we to take the other as if it were not
metaphorical ? Is it not clear that the passage, though in-
volved in some obscurity, either means that men are to
beware what subordinate doctrines they build upon, or that
the ground of the doctrines of christianity creates the hope
of the sinner's soul, the only basis of a sinner's acceptance ;
that if they build upon erroneous doctrines, not vitally erro-
neous, but circumstantially erroneous, instead of upon that
true foundation, that in the final trial of the last great
day the falsity of their views shall be revealed, and their
views shall be, as it were, consumed. Nevertheless, be-
cause they built upon the true foundation themselves, though
they built •' wood, hay, stubble" upon that foundation that
loss shall be suffered ; as to the measure of reward and en-
durance of their work they themselves shall be saved yet
hardly, scarcely, as it were by fire. Or to take another in-
terpretation which I confess commends itself to my judg-
ment, that the " wood, hay, subble" built upon the founda-
tion are not the doctrines but the professors of christianity ;
that ministers of religion are warned against too readily ad-
mitting into the church, and acknowledging as brethren in
the fellowship of Christ all who take hastily and in consider-
ately its professions, lest haply they build upon the true
foundation what they imagine to be " gold, silver, precious
stones," yet which are in reality " wood, hay, stubble."
This appears to me to be the nearest and the simplest inter-
pretation of a confessedly somewhat mysterious passage ;
but whatever the mystery which may adhere to it, it affords
no curtain or shelter whatever for the monstrous figments of
purgatory. I would defy any man that had not a purpose to
serve, or an end to gain, to have ever conceived how he could
torture and twist that passage of St. Paul into an argument
for purgatory. The last passage which the Romanists, the
sober and sound reasoners among the Romanists themselves,
venture to retain in proof of purgatory is that also confes-
sedly dark passage in the Ist St. Peter, 3d ch. verses 18, 19,
and 20. where our blessed Redeemer is said to: have " once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison ; which some time were disobedient, when
once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight, souls
were saved by water.' The Church of Rome says, " here
are spirits in prison : the Saviour goes to preach to those
spirits, and therefore here is purgatory ; here are spirits in
prison capable of being preached to by Christ," and the in-
ference is, delivered by Christ. It will be sufficient to an-
swer to this, that the individuals in purgatory, as the Church
of Rome has it here, who are delivered by Christ, are
individuals cut off by the overwhelming wrath of God, in the
midst of their sins, unrepented, unconfessed, and unabsolved.
If there were sinners cast into hell, they must have been cut
off without room or opportunity for repentance. The
Church of Rome holds that those who die in mortal sin
can never be forgiven, they do not therefore go into purga-
tory, but at once to a place of torment ; consequently, upon
her own showing, this passage can avail nothing for them.
The Church of Rome, therefore, driven from Scriptural evi-
dence falls back upon the usual alternative, tradition and the
fathers. Now, as for tradition. it is such a meteor of the
part,e
form, una eI t o
willg et theirhave
marsh, flitting every where and tangible nowhere, dancing
h°a"p'll e
up and down, thatt,aefgoirme my s
traditions in any tangible
nothing whatever to do with it. I do not know where
the tradition of the Church of Rome is to be found. I
do not know what good is to be derived from it; and I
do not know any point upon which I should like to ask
a priest some questions upon than this—" Will you have the
kindness, rev. sir, to give me those traditions of yours? let
us handle and feel these " airy phantoms" you are conti-
nuallyand mocking us with, leading your vo aries
we do not know whence they come, where
th
they are, or what they must be ; it is everything or anything,
itdaeeludthinegt
just as suits your purpose, and we Protestants must regard
it as one of the objects which used to disturb our childhood."
But with regard to the fathers, then it will be said there ar
tangible tones, large, and venerable, and dusty. I grant
they are so large, and so venerable, and so dusty many of
them, that if we are to depend for our faith upon the inter-
pretation, of the fathers, and much more upon their unani-
mous interpretation may God have mercy upon us—there is