The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 25, 1854. Court aub Her Majesty continues to reside in Windsor Castle, where the course of court life has been lately marked by no incident deserving special mention. The birthday of the Princess Royal was celebrated on Tuesday as usual in London and Windsor. Cabinet Councils have been held on Saturday and Monday last, and again yesterday. Lord and Lady Palmerston arrived in Paris yesterday week, and alighted at the Embassy. Next day they visited the Emperor and Empress of the French, at St. Cloud, and were most graciously received. On Monday they dined with their Ma- jesties, and on the three following days were invited to banquets given by the French Ministers of State and Foreign Affairs. The Home Secretary was expected to return to England in the course of yesterday. Lord Bloomfield, British Ambassador to the Prussian Court, left Dover on Monday for Paris, where be arrived next day en route for Berlin. The youthful Viscount Hood has been appointed to the ensigncy of the Grenadier Guards left vacant by the promotions consequent on the death in action of his uncle, the Hon. Francis Grosvenor Hood. The Earl of Sefton's eldest son, Lord Mulyneux, has just entered the army, as ensign and lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. A matrimonial alliance will shortly take place, between Mr. Wemyss, of Wemyss Castle, and Miss Kennedy Erskine, daughter of Lady Augusta Gordon Hallyburton, and granddaughter of his late Majesty King William IV. Sir Hamilton Seymour, late British Ambassador at the Russian Court, has been invited by the electors of Marylebone to become a candidate for the vacancy in the borough, caused by the death of Lord Dudley Stuart. Baron Brunnow, ci-devant Russian Minister at our Court, was expected to arrive at St. Petersburg on the 17th inst., from Berlin, to have an audience of the Czar, and to hold conferences with Count Von Nesselrode, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. PROMOTION OF LORD RAGLAN.—Thursday's Gazette contains the announcement that the Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint Lord Raglan a Field Marshal in the army, his commission to bear date the sth inst., the day of the last known victory of the allies. Since the death of the Marquis of Anglesey no officer of the British army has enjoyed this high rank as a reward for actual service, our only field marshals having been H. R. H. Prince Albert and his Majesty the King of the Belgians. This also is the first instance in which the new warrant regulating promotions for distinguished merit has been carried into effect. Formerly it would not have been possible to raise Lord Raglan to the highest rank in the army, unless he should outlive all his seniors of the rank of general. Field Marshal Lord Raglan entered the army on the 9th of June, 1804, as cornet of the 4th Light Dragoons. The following are the dates of his succeeding com missions :—Lieutenant, 30th May, 1805, 4th Light Dragoons; captain sth May, 1808, 6th garrison battalion; appointed to 43rd Regiment 18th August, 1808 ; brevet-major, 9th June, 1811; brevet-lieu tenant-colonel, 27th April, 1812; captain and lieu tenant-colonel Ist Foot Guards, 25th July, 1814 ; colonel, 28th August, 1815 ; major-general, 27th May, 1825; appointed military secretary to the commander-in-chief, 20th August, 1827 ; appointed colonel of the 53rd Regiment, 19th November, 1830; lieutenant-general 28th June, 1838 ; appointed Mas ter-General of the Ordnance, 30th September, 1852; local rank of general, 21st February, 1854. Lord Raglan received the gold medal for Fuentes d'Onor, Badikjoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse; silver medal for Roleia, Talavera, 13usaco, Ciudad Rodrigo. Lord Raglan is the ninth son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort, and was born in 1788. His elevation to the peerage and introduction to the Privy Council took place in 1852. THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY has made their first acquisition of land in Lincolnshire, for distri bation amongst the members, being the twentieth estate bought for the society. The property is situ ated at Alford, on the Great Northern Railroad, about half-way between Boston and Hull, and about six miles from the sea. Mn. J. BRIGHT, M.P., was burnt in effigy at Man chester, the borough he represents, on Tuesday even ing, as a testimony to the indignation which his "peace" letter has caused. On the effigy was M scribed, "Bright, the friend of Nicholas." THE METROPOLITAN MORTALITY, shown by the Registrar-General's return, was 1,309 for the week ending Saturday last. This shows an increase on the preceding return, attributable to the sudden arrival of cold weather. As compared with the corrected decennial average, the number of deaths last week exhibits an excess of 183. Twelve deaths are assigned to cholera during the week, and thirty one to diarrhoea, Sab3 AO Volta. THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY WITH, or persuade to elope, a ward in Chancery, was charged against the Hon. Mr. Chichester, and his sister, Lady Ferrers. The young lady in question is named Clara Thorn hill, who is entitled to a very large fortune, and placed under the immediate guardianship of Mr. and Mrs. Hungerford, who resided at Dingley-park, in Northamptonshire. This charge finally resolved it self into a motion that Mr. Chichester and Lady Ferrers should be committed to prison for contempt of court. There was a cross-application on the part of Mr. Chichester, in the shape of a petition praying for leave of Chancery to prosecute his addresses to Miss Thornhill. The case had been argued on either side at much length before the Lord Chancellor in his private room, but on Monday last his lordship pronounced judgment and recapitulated the facts in open court. The first acquaintance between Mr. Chichester and Miss Thornhill was, it seems, formed in May, 1b53, when her guardians and herself paid a short visit to Lady Ferrers while her brother was staying in the house. During that visit he paid no marked attentions, but shortly afterwards the guar dians of Miss Thornhill discovered that, under cover of some apparently harmless correspondence, there were letters written in sympathetic ink from Lady Ferrers to Miss Thornhill, designed to induce her to marry Mr. Chichester, who was avowedly at the time overwhelmed with embarrassments. This constituted the gravamen of the charge against Lady Ferrero, and the Chancellor admitted did not furnish grounds for any punishment from the court, although con fessedly highly culpable in a moral point of view. Mr. Chichester, however, went much further. He proceeded under a sort of disguise to Market Har borough, which was about a mile from Dingley-park, and there fixed his abode with three companions for some time. During this interval he used various arts to persuade Miss Thornhill to elope with him, and succeeded in inducing her to hold secret conversa tions with him by night from the window of her room ; and also sent her letters, some from his sister, Lady Ferrers, promising them an asylum after the elope ment, others from himself, some passages of which the Chancellor read in the course of his r umming up:— In those letters I rind these passages." Clara, is it just towards me, this treatment? Am Ito go about, afraid of seeing any one here, skulking about? There is a great deal of difference be tween"—l will not mention the name; ho mentions a gentleman who is well known in society to have eloped two years ago with a lady of rank—" There is a great difference between" that gen tleman " and G. A. H. C."—that is, George Augustus Hamilton Chichester. "He married my cousin, and we were all very much annoyed." What do 1 infer from that? Why, that he had pro posed to the young lady to run away from the house of her guar dian, but that she had remonstrated, and had pointed out how ill that lady stood in society, and that he endeavours to get over scruples by pointing out—there is • great difference between that person—who was not quite an equal in rank—and "G. A. H. C," that is to say, the ills that have attended that lady in her after life from having run away will not attend you, because I am of high and noble family and be was not. Then there is another fragment of a letter in which this occurs," To-morrow night what you ought to do, dearest Clara. is to say cr write 'ready' when you are—that will be now or to-morrow night, whichever you like—so. dearest Clara, be mine." Who can doubt, when be was coming in the middle of the night with two or three men attend ing him, that the object was (I should say by violence, if resisted, but certainly in some way or other) to run off with the young lady? Then there is a letter in which this passage occurs—" Do you think, Clara, that I for one moment *ould wish you to leave your guardians if 1 was not certain, if I had not had the first legal opiuious on the matter, that everything could be done legally and for ever binding? Do you suppose my family would"—theu there is something torn. " The law is that, if a ward in court marries against the Chancellor's consent, and that she is over eighteen years of age, her husband can be imprisoned, till she comes of age, for contempt of court, provided they catch him within the jurisdiction of the court, which extends to Great Bri tain." Now, this gentleman's property, or his connections, at least, are in Ireland. Whether he thought he should escape by going to Ireland I do not know, but one cannot fail seeing that he meant to say the jurisdiction of the court only extended to Great Britain, if it catch the person. " Now, tins is the law ; and never mind what others have told you to frighten you—this is the law. Besides, there are plenty of instances; and they have never imprisoned the husband beyond six or seven months, and that only in the case of an improper marriage, such as is a ward running away with a tutor or servant, &c. In our case it would be quite different; in fact, the world and the Lord Chancellor would wonder what we ran away for." The result, as the Lord Chancellor finally observed, to show— That Mr. Chichester having described himself as being over bead and ears in debt, and while living in Loudon on the pro' ceeda of a place connected with the administration of justice in Ireland—l am sorry that such' thing shouldbe possible, but so it seems to be—he seems to Lave supposed that he might induce thin young lady so far to forget her duty as to run off with him. lam very happy to say that that has not been the case. It is extremely painful to drag the name of • ward of the court before the public, but it is a happiness for me to be able to say to-day that, having had several private interviews with her, quite away from her guardians, I am quite convinced that, when Mr. Chi chester says she consented to his application for leave to make proposals, be says that which nothing which she ever said war ranted. She did not consent, and I believe she never had the least wish to consent. She has now put every scrap of paper into the hands of her guardian. That she acted imprudently no one can deny ; but she was led oil to it by others who ought to have known better. I allude particularly to Lady Ferrers and Mr. Chichester. I trust that, as far as she is concerned, that be tween her and her guardian the matter will be eventually over looked. Now, although Ido not see my way quite clear to the conclusion that Lady Ferrel* intended, or was instrumental in encouraging the young lady to elope, yet that Mr.l'lliehenter. was is beyond all possible controversy or doubt; and 1 feel it, therefore, to be my duty, in pursuance of the notice of motion, now to make an order that for that contempt of the court be be committed to the Queen's Prison. THE PRESS. 1119 His lordship then ordered the tipstaff of the court to take Mr. Chichester, who, of course, was nut present, into custody. His counter-application was, at the same time, ordered to be dismissed, with costs. AN APPIICATION ON BEHALF OF ARCHDEACON DE NISON was made on Monday to the Court of Queen's Bench for a rule to show cause why the Archbishop of Canterbury should not be prohibited from proceed ing, as he had taken steps to do, under the Church Discipline Act, 3rd and 4th of Victoria, c. 136, against Mr. Denison for preaching erroneous doctrines. The application was supported by Sir F. Thesiger, who recapitulated the circumstances, already well known, under which the Primate had been induced to com mence an action in the ecclesiastical courts against the Archdeacon of Taunton ; and also read some correspondence, including a long letter from the late Bishop of Bath and Wells, relating to the same sermons which formed a ground for the charge of promulgating heterodox doctrines. The point relied on to sustain the application for a rule was, that the late bishop, being Mr. Denison's diocesor, was the legally-authorised party to take the charge of heresy laid against any of his parochial clergy into consi deration; that ho had so taken the charge against Mr. Denison; and that his subsequent proceedings amounted to such a compliance with the provisions of a prior act of Queen Elizabeth as furnished a full discussion of a judgment upon the sermons in question. Mr. Denison, accordingly, having been "monished" in pursuance of the act, his case became a tea adjudicata, and his offence could not be revived in any court with any view to his condemnation and punishment : Lord CAMPBELL inquired whether the course adopted by the late bishop was not rather with a view to consider whether he should proceed under the Church Discipline Act or not? Sir F. Titzelozn: It was the intention of the bishop to pro ceed in such a way as would prevent the necessity for a public trial ; and he therefore " conveuted " the archdeacon to answer, and, on his answering, he proceeded to pronounce judgment, and " monished" the archdeacon as to the doctrine. he war to teach in future. Mr. Justice WIOUTMAN said the archdeacon was to send an answer to the charges, which were to be sent for adjudication to the archbishop. Sir F. Mesmer said, if a clergyman submitted to his bishop, it was not fur another person who had no iuteiest in the matter to insist on an investigation taking place under the act. Lord CAMPBELL: The proceeding under the lath of Elizabeth was with a view to deprivation, and this court has decided that, in such a case, the proceeding must be is (arid. Sir F. THEIMUER said it had not been decided that in every case of deprivation the bishop must proceed in court, and he contended that this was a case in which the bishop might ewer eine his jurisdiction personally, of which numerous instances had occurred and could be found in the book.. Judgment was (deferred, after• the hearing, until yesterday (Friday), when Lord Campbell pronounced the decision of the judges, refusing the rule applied for on behalf of Archdeacon Denison. VICTORIA RIFLES.—This volunteer corps, com manded by the Duke of Wellington, will muster for drill every Thursday evening during the winter months, at Allen's Riding-school, Seymour-place, Bryanstone-square, where application to the hono rary secretary for enrolment may be addressed. EDWARD FORBES, the youthful but eminent Pro fessor of Natural History in the University of Edin burgh, died in that city on Saturday last, from the effects of a chronic disease, re-excited or aggravated by severe cold, caught in an autumnal geological ex cursion. Professor Forbes was an alumnus of the Edinburgh University, his studies iu natural history having been conducted by the venerable Professor Jameson, who filled the chair of that department for fifty years, and was succeeded on his demise, last April, by his celebrated pupil now deceased. Mr. Forbes for some time lectured in the extra-academical schools of Edinburgh, and subsequently joined a Government exploring expedition in Asia Minor, in the capacity of naturalist. On his return he was ap pointed Professor of Botany in King's Collegc, London, and soon after curator to the Geological Society, as well as of the Palaeontological department of the Economic Museum. On the recent, vacancy in the natural history chair in Edinburgh the Town Council unanimously recommended him to Govern ment as the most tit and deserving to be the suc cessor of Jameson, and the appointment was at once conferred upon him. Having thus attained the often expressed object of his ambition, Professor Forbes opened a numerous class for the short summer session, and had scarcely resumed his duties for the winter when he was carried away, after an illness of ten days. Since his appointment, Professor Forbes had been ardently engaged, in conjunction with the ex-Lord Provost, in promoting the great object of a national museum for Scotland, for which the site has just been purchased, a parliamentary grant having been obtained last session for the purpose. The late Professor also exerted himself to pi omote the gratuitous opening for part of the week of the present University Museum, which is to form the nucleus of the national one, which will shortly be carried into effect. From Professor Forbes, who was only in his 39th year, a long and distinguished career was anticipated, and his large acquirements in natural science will, no doubt, be greatly missed in the arrangement of the new museum, of which he was to be curator. I