To the Right Honourable and Right Reverend the Lords Spiritual and Tempora l in Parliament assembled ; or, To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The humble Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the Parish of . . . . . . . . . humbly sheweth, that ..., Churchwardens, and in the Diocese of ......... Whereas the dissenters who bought their lands, and took their leases subject to the payment of church-rate, have claimed, by petition to your Lordships, to be released from payment of the same, seeking thereby unjustly to enrich themselves, and to throw a greater burthen upon us : And whereas the dissenters have also claimed the unheard-of right for their Ministers to officiate in the church-yards, which have been consecrated for the exclusive use and ceremonial of the church of England, (though they have in most places, and may have in all, burial-grounds of their own,) which claim, if it be granted, will probably lead to scenes of disorder and riot : And whereas the dissenters have claimed to be admitted to the Universities and Colleges founded for the exclusive use of the church of England, (though they have already numerous colleges of their own, with which we do not, nor do we wish to interfere,) which claim, if it be granted, must destroy those establishments as nurseries for the religious education of our youth, especially such as are intended for holy orders, and make it extremely difficult for them to procure adequate instruction to fit them for their respective stations: Now we, the undersigned, members of the church of England, in the parish aforesaid, believing that we have done nothing to forfeit our claim for protection from the laws of our country, humbly implore the protection of your Lordships, [or, your Honourable House,] as one of the legislative bodies of this nation, that these unreasonable claims of the dissenters may not be granted. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, &c. REPORT. INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. A MEETING of this Society was held at their chambers, in St. Martin's-place, on Monday, the 21st April,-the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in the chair. There were present, the Lord Bishop of Bangor, the Lord Bishop of Chichester, the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, the Right Hon. Sir John Nicholl, the Rev. Archdeacon Cambridge, J. C. Reeve, Esq., and many others of the committee. Among other business transacted, grants, varying in amount according to the exigency of the case, were voted towards enlarging the chapel at Stourport, in the county of Worcester; enlarging the chapel at Burtonwood, in the parish of Warrington, and county of Lancaster; enlarging the chapel at Edington, in the parish of Moorlinch, and county of Somerset; enlarging the church at Southwick, near Brighton; building a gallery in the church of St. Swithin, in the city of Norwich; repairing and increasing the accommodation in the church at Stewkley, in the county of Buckingham; enlarging the church at Dodderhill, in the county of Worcester; building a chapel at Moreton, in the parish of Gnosall, and county of Stafford; building a gallery in and repewing the church at Wolvey, in the county of Warwick; enlarging the church at Bumpstead Helion, in the county of Essex; building a chapel at Anstonley, in the parish of Almondbury, near Huddersfield. The annual court of this Society will be held at St. Martin's-place, on Friday, the 23rd of May, at which his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury will preside; the chair will be taken at one o'clock. DOCUMENTS. A " STATEMENT has appeared in several newspapers, purporting to present a comparative view of public education in the town of Liverpool, between the Church and the Dissenters. It is said to have been given in to the corporation commissioners at their late inquiry; and, in consequence, it has been considered so authentic, as at once to decide the numerical proportion of the two parties throughout the kingdom. It has also been used to asperse the care and bounty of the Church, and has become the basis of much ill-natured illustration. I regret that the "statement " has not attracted the attention of some gentleman in that loyal and charitable town, who, as a man of fact and of business, would have investigated the truth, and set the matter to rights. At this distance, I cannot intend to give you a full account of education in Liverpool, but, having last spring had an opportunity of visiting most of the schools there, I shall be able, from what I then saw, to demonstrate that the "statement" is altogether imperfect, inaccurate, and unfairly calculated. It is as follows, as taken from a Durham newspaper :Connected with the Established Church. Dissenters. Scholars. .3250 .4344 930 4610 50 8524." Thus making the proportion of children in favour of the dissenters to be, in Sunday schools, eight times as many; day schools, one-fourth more; infants, four times as many. Altogether more than twice as many schools, and nearly double the number of scholars. But Had the author of this comparison been pleased to specify the names of the several schools, with the number of children on both sides, he would have given all an opportunity of applauding his industry and accuracy. a general summary defies the detection of individual error. I shall not follow his example, but, by entering into as many particulars as I can, afford him the opportunity, not only of correcting me, but of rectifying his own errors, and apologizing for the injustice which has already been committed, This person states that there are only fourteen day and five Sunday schools connected with the Church in Liverpool. I found no difficulty in personally examining twenty-two day and (as they are all open on Sundays) twenty-two Sunday schools, given below ;* viz., eleven boys' and eleven girls', which contained 3940 children. Now, besides these schools, which I visited, there are several others which I did not see; but I name a few in the note below, from a Report of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which raises the number of children to 4721. How many others may still be omitted, I have no present means of ascertaining. As I did not pay attention to Sunday or Infant schools, beyond a few notices, I am sorry I cannot do the justice to the Church which the truth might demand. But at any rate I must, to the preceding, make some additions: The four separate Sunday schools mentioned above 848 200 320 I find that the Infants' school at Everton had 57 boys and 52 girls = 109, This number, though small, I shall take as the average of the "three" (I don't know how many there are) which the comparer allows :-3 × 57 boys X 52 girls 171 boys and 156 girls = 327. At the same time, I protest against assuming that there are no more than 'five" separate Sunday schools and three Infants', connected with the Church, till a regular inquiry has been made. Let us now refer to the "dissenters;" at least to those who have been so called in this account. I examined the schools given below; in number, 22 day schools, containing 3531 children.† Now as to their Sunday schools. Most of the above are open on that day, the same as the Church schools; and, though they may go under the name of Sunday schools, they are attended by no other children than they who come during the week. But the comparison maker seems to me to have added the full complements of the day and Sunday scholars, as if they had been entirely different children. He has done this with regard to the dissentersat least I charge him with doing so-in order to swell their numbers; but he has not computed the Church schools according to the same rule. He 1832. 376 Unitarians. 345 Bap. or Dippers. Supported 446 chiefly by Quakers: see below. No peculiar 220 denomination: 3531 see below. This school I did not see, but the number of scholars is taken from the printed Report of ought to have included those only as additional who attend on Sundays, and are not reckoned as attending any day and Sunday school of the same religious profession during the week. I ask again, therefore, for the separate names of all the schools, both day and Sunday, which contribute to form the aggregate amount of pupils he has published as belonging to the "dissenters." But I must enter a little more into particulars. I find, from the Report of the Methodist schools, that they have Sunday schools in situations locally different from their day schools. I therefore, with pleasure, extract the following: But a great majority of these, it is more than probable, attend the other week-day schools. For the Methodists require, on pain of expulsion, that all their week-day children shall attend some one of their Sabbath schools; and, in their printed Report, we notice, that in the Jordan and Leed-street schools, there are little more than half in attendance on the Sunday there, and there is no mention of a Sabbath school at "Brunswick." In their own Report, they state their day scholars to be 1559, and Sunday, 1449; but they are not so dishonest as to add these together, and to boast of the amount. They would be very glad if their Sabbath pupils equalled in number their day scholars. I am willing, however, to suppose that one-half of 498 may be additional on Sundays. Then 1123+249=1372. But I cannot allow the Methodists of Liverpool to be reckoned as “dissenters." They are, in general, a very pious, well-disposed body of people, and have such regard to the Church, that they not only conduct their schools on the national system, and use many of the books read in national schools, even such catechetical instruction as "the Chief Truths," &c., but in their chapels they read the Liturgy of the Church of England. I cannot, therefore, yield to the "dissenters" the right of augmenting their numbers and credit, by including the Methodists amongst them, but shall deduct them. From 3531-1123-2408. Neither do I think that we ought necessarily to include Roman catholics under this title of "dissenters." The author of the "statement ought to have specified every sect and denomination fully and clearly. As he has not done so, nor has told us who are the "dissenters" reckoned in his calculations, I shall make free to deduct the Roman catholics also from the amount. From 2408-1021-1387. The Duncan-street school, I was told, was chiefly supported by Quakers, for all denominations. I did not see a single Quaker child. With very few exceptions, the scholars belong to the Church, or to the Methodists-say to the former 250, and to the latter 150, (i. e. 400,) out of 446 then on the books. The Harrington-street school is also for all denominations. The chief management, I understood, was in the hands of Unitarians; but the school was not so publicly connected with them as to be reckoned with their other acknowledged seminaries. Of 255 children in 1832, the printed Report states, that 146 were of the Established Church, and 63 Methodists; all other sects amounting to 46. Now, of 220 when, I was there, we will suppose the number of the Established Church to be 135, Methodists 55, and all others 30. It is a matter of regret, that, with such an approximation to conformity, the Methodists should ever act or appear as separated from our communion. The St. Patrick's schools contain a considerable number of Protestants; but, as I have no means of arriving at any proportion, I shall merely record the fact. I come now to the infant schools of the dissenters. I visited four or five, but did not see others. In want of other information, I will take the number to be "eight," according to the "statement." Of these, the Methodists claim 3" 373" pupils; the Catholics, I think, 2 = (say) 20; Duncan Street, 1200; Harrington Street, 1=132; Circus Street, 1=131; total 1056.* The proportion of these belonging to the Church of England is difficult to determine. As there are said to be so few infant schools connected with the Church, it will not be thought unreasonable to imagine, that these infantile assemblies are congregated promiscuously from the surrounding population. I cannot, therefore, but consider that two-thirds of the number belong to the Established Church; and when it is borne in mind how eager all denominations are to get hold of such children for these primary and initiatory schools, that proportion will not seem more than it might be fair to assume. But I will limit the claim to half of the 1056 infants; viz. say, 208 from the Methodists; 70 from Roman Catholics, and 250 from other sects-total, 528. We will now try to draw up a summary from the information I collected in my visit; what may be wanting on both sides will, I hope, be supplied by some person on the spot. I do not wish any inference to be made which may not be perfectly fair; and, if subsequent intelligence should affect my conclusions, I shall be ready to offer any proper acknowledgment. But, so far as I am able to judge, the following proportion is much nearer the true state of the facts than the dissenting calculation, which has obtained such unmerited confidence. First, then, as to Church Schools, strictly so called :— Boys. Girls. Total. In ("3," according to "statement") Infant Schools 327 One-half of "8" other Infant schools ............ Thus, on this moderate and imperfect computation, we have a total of 7329, instead of 4610, strictly connected with the Church. To them I propose to add the Methodists: 3. Dissenters, properly so called. Girls. 4 Unitarians' Day and (4) Sunday schools......... 196... 180 Total. 376 345 ... ... ... The "statement" reckons the total of these infant schools to be only 930. From the printed Reports, and the notices I made, this amount appears to me to be underrated. I have, therefore, made an addition of 126 to the "dissenters" infant scholars. The "dissenters" day schools he also numbers at fourteen; whereas I visited, as above, twenty. |