The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

was very much amused in reading the letter of your
correspondent " Veritas," which appeared in the columns of
your paper on Tuesday last. He states that he admires the
policy of the Rev. Mr. Pollock, which has instigated him to
retire from the field, ere his defeat becomes more s

in the very same column, just above the amusing production
of" Veritas," appears a letter from Mr. Pollock, affording a
practical proof that he has not given up the field to his oppo-
nent, but he is, on the contrary, ready to write again.
one of his facts have been disputed, or one of his proofs set
aside, or one of his arguments replied to." lam firmly per-
suaded that there are not many members of the Church of
England, in Liverpool, either among the clergy or laity, but
feel truly grateful to the Rev. Mr. Pollock for the very able
manner in which he has exposed the miserable shifts and
disingenuous conduct of the Rev. Mr. Wray, and his very
zealous and modest curate, Mr. Mackenzie Pughe, in their
vain attempt to stigmatise the evangelical clergy of this town
as " Puritans," and as guilty " of wanton indifference to their

" when

ordination vows."
In reading the correspondence between Mr. Pollock and

Mr. Pughe, it is gratifying to observe that, notwithstanding
Mr. Pughe's insinuations against Mr. Pollock, and the use of
language amounting to impertinence, Mr. Pollock has not
suffered himself to be drawn aside to notice personalities, but
has kept the attention of your readers fixed upon the impor-
tant questions involved in this correspondence. None of
your readers will be at all astonished that Mr. Wray has
formally retired from this controversy, or that Mr. Pughe's
last letter should mainly consist of admissions of "uninten-
tional misstatements," and laboured explanations, which no
one would ever have heard of, buffor the fearful exposure
of their Jesuitical proceedings, of circulating privately and
underhand what they did not dare to give to the public, until
its moat offensive and objectionable charges and statements
had been greatly modified or altogether suppressed.
Alluding to this document, Mr. Pughe, writing to you on
the 13th of Jul- " It was certainly neither written nor

those from whom help might be expected, or, at least, sym-
pathy ;" at another time he reminds Mr. Pollock that this

very document "was handed to the Editor of the Mail, and
by him published in full, at the time when the scheme was
first advertised in the local papers." How these two state-

ments can be reconciled, I cannot understand; but Mi
Pughe hopes to escape from this difficulty by acknowledgin

this very ins

letter of Mr. Wray's, which was not

originally intended " for circulation among th

party," Mr. Pug

e does not hesitate unblushingly to

that both contained the " same unpalatable truths," and were
equally "offensive to the Puritans."

I most sincerely pity the individual who could make these
statements, after reading the analysis of the two letters given
by Mr. Pollock in his letter, in which the two letters are

placed in parallel columns; it proves, in a most remarkable
way, bow infatuated men may become by defending a bad

cause; let me request your readers to reperuse the following
passage from Mr. Pollock's letter : " It will be observed at
once, by every attentive reader of these two remarkable
documents, that they are anything but identical. The one
had been privately circulated as a letter among the supposed

sympathisers with the writer, from May, 1652. The other
appeared as a prospectus to the public, only in September,
1853. The latter was, indeed, offensive enough, but yet it

omitted much ; it mitigated and toned down more; it intro-
duced fresh matter, such as seemed convenient. The whole

of the first paragraph of the letter, and the whole of the
seventh, had absolutely disappeared in the pros
a word was now said of 'the rebuilding of the walls of our
Zion,' laid low by sacrilegious Puritanism. Not a word now
of the decayed beauty of our sanctuary ;' not a word now,
by this member of the United Church, of 'the large propor-
tion of clergy,' at whose door was the unpardonable sin

;pectus, Not

that t

grievance would not quit,

have commended itself to

the Churchmen of Liverpool. Not a whisper again was
any longer heard of that charitable' (I) supposition of Mr.
Wray, that the irregularities' of his brethren were the re-
sult not so much of wanton indifference to their ordination

vows as to the present unsatisfactory state of Church disci-
pline, and to the belief, entertained also by many ill-informed
Dissenters, that our venerable Book of Common Prayer con-
tains a large amount of covert Popery.' It was thought as
wise, too, to say nothing now of bracketting' the Prayer-

in, some hard phrases were replaced by softer

synonymes

' conspiracy' to buy up et.

become no more than a legitimate `combination.' And we,

poor Pnritans, be it well observed, were no longer described

bands of those (and I protest they are among us but as
myths to me) who clamour for a revision of the Prayer-

not found in the letter was one remarkable passage which

intimated that the proposed operations were to be carried on
' against Papal pretension on the one hand, and Dissent on

the other.' This was to the public of Liverpool

—a politic

enlightened Churchmanship. But when the writer was ad-
dressing himself to his own party in a policy as deep, these
pretexts were not resorted to, because they would have been
thrown away. The mask, on the other hand, was openly
dung aside, and war was proclaimed only upon one `enemy,'
and that neither Papal nor Die‘enting, but within his own
communion—the so-called Puritanism of his brethren."

Further comment upon these letters is wholly unnecessary.
It is truly interesting to observe the marked difference in the
tone of Mr. Pughe's letters before and after this dreadful
exposure of himself and his incumbent, Mr. Wray. Witness
the self-confidence and the triumphant air in which he
informs the people of Liverpool, through your paper, that he
shall dissect and refute the speeches of Dr. M`Neile, Mr.

Pollock, &c. And, again, at the close of his letter of July
20th—" And now, Sir, I have done with the meeting at St.
James's School-room, and am perfectly ready to comment
upon any future proceedings of the same kind, if the party
please to give me an opportunity," &c. Contrast all this
with his last letter, in which he confesses to have " made
unintentional misstatements," &c., respecting which Mr.
Pollock's kind forbearance prevents him from doing more
than remarking "that Mr. Pughe's confessions and explana-
tions are such as it would be absolutely ungenerous to dwell
upon." " How are the mighty fallen !" I feel certain that
Mr. Pollock will receive from the great body of the clergy and
laity of this town their warmest thanks for the good service
he has done in defending the clergy of Liverpool from the
unfounded charges preferred against them by the clerical
promoters of the intended "Free Church." In saying this,
I do not forget that Mr. Pollock is a clergyman "from Ire-
land." Liverpool has no cause to be ashamed of the Irish
clergymen who minister in her churches. A more noble
body of clergymen I do not believe can be found in England ;
they have filled many of our churches ; and I apprehend that
Mr. Wray's extreme dislike of them is because they are
almost to a man Churchmen. and not Itomanisers ; and that
the laity of the Church of England in Liverpool prefer an
evangelical Irish clergyman to a Tractarian English clergy-
man, will be evident to any one who will attend Divine
service for a couple of Sundays at St. Mark's church and St.
Martin's-in-the-Field, and contrast the attendance on each
occasion.—l remain, Sir, yours,

AN ENGLISH LIVERPOOL CLERGYMAN

Sept. 16, 1854

AN INFANTILE OPIUM-EATER.—An inquest was held
before the borough coroner, on Saturday, on the body of
Anne Kirkbride, aged twenty-two months, who had died
from the effects of eating opium. The child's mother, who
lived in 21 Court, Upper Henderson-street, had been ac-
customed to chew opium, which she had been in the habit
of buying by pennyworths at a time. On Tuesday she left
about one-third of that quantity in a can, and the deceased
got to it. On the fact being discovered, the usual remedies
to cause the ejection of the narcotic were used, but with-
out effect, the dying at the Southern ilopita 4A the
f9ll9lTing dais •