The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

1166 permanently stationed in a locality was felt as a grievous burden, especially by the outlying metro politan districts, and praying that the,Government should adopt some measure to equalise the burden and provide barrack accommodation fur the men. Rittropolitan anb Vrobiudal. A DEPUTATION OF MEDICAL MEN waited on Sir Benjamin Hall on Monday for the purpose of learn ing what were the intentions of Sir B. Hall when he framed the clause respecting the appointment of medical practitioners, and to inquire whether he felt he could with propriety offer some suggestions to the local authorities as to the best mode of securing their fulfilment. Sir Benjamin Hall, in reply to the deputation, stated that he should not consider him self justified in offering any suggestions to the local authorities upon the appointment of medical officers, a 4 the act was framed entirely upon the principle of local self-government. He desired the appointment of men of high position, but he could not suggest that any special course should be purvueti by the local boards. -- - THE ELECTIONS FOR THE METROPOLITAN BOARD or WORKS take place on Wednesday next, when the various vestries will proceed to return their members. The city of London will return three, and the highest number to a single parish is two. Several magis trates are candidates. It is not necessary that a vestryman should be elected. A GENERAL SHORT-TIME MOVEMENT AT OLDHAM commences on Monday next. Some thirty firms, producing an aggregate of about 120,0001 b. of yarn weekly, have signed a declaration to work from breakfast-time till dark for one month, and many other firms who decline to sign say that they will join the movement should it become general. THE EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION have lately issued their report upon the affairs of the company. The committee in this most voluminous document state that the late ac counts of the company are imperfect and delusive, that no norrect balance had ever been struck in the stores department since Mr. Waddington was chairman, that goods untouched have been sold for old stores, and that on occasions when these transactions were taiing place the company were buying fresh goods at frail ten to forty per cent. above the highest market prtes. Illegal additions are represented to have ban made to the capital account of 69,6061. which beonged to the Norfolk Company, while preferential cottracts are' asserted to have been entered into with inavidual firms to carry coals, cattle, &c., at a post- Cu loss to the shareholders, and also to the damage of•egular traders, who were thus shut out from lair corpetition. An immense mass of evidence accom paies the report, which reveals the whole system pusued in the management of the last five years. 'HE MISSING CLERGYMAN who left his bride on the mrning of the intended marriage, has, we believe, ben heard of in America, where, acting under the imulse of an unaccountable illusion, he had gone, in intends to remain. :'HE ELECTION OF A NEW ALDERMAN for the Bread. stet Ward, in room of the late Alderman Lawrence, tees place this day. The contest rests between Mr. Iwrence and Mr. Nicoll, who has promised (should I succeed) to bestow the patronage he may possess i respect of the office upon the citizens of the Ward, ad to become a resident therein. THE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE-SHOW will lake ilace next week, at the Agricultural Implement Bazaar, Baker-street, on the 11th,12th, 13th, and 14th of the month. In addition to the five gold and thirty eight silver medals, the amount of money. prizes this year awarded by the club will amount to 6701., while the number of entries and the names of the contributors indicate that the show will alto. gether exhibit more than an average excellence in the quality as well as breed of animals. THE REFORMATORY SCHOOL MOVEMENT has at length been taken up by the Roman Catholics of London and of the central districts. A large house adjoining the '1 raining College at Brook - green, Hammersmith, has been taken by Lord Edward Howard, the Rev. Dr. Manning, and other private individuals, and is now being adapted to the recep tion of some twen y four inmates, who of course will be mostly poor L .sh Roman Ca holes. The ma nagement of this Reformatory Sc 00l will be in the hands of the "Brothers of Chalky," who direct all these institutions in Belgium, four of whose members, including one English brother, have recently arrived in England for this especial purpose. Another insti tution of a similar kind is about to be established in connection with the monastery of Mount St. Bernard, which was ft u ded in 1840 by the late Lord Shrews bury, in Chi r wool Forest, Leicestershire. One of the fathers I f use abbey sill have the immediate superintend , nee of the institution, which is to be mmenced I, medi itely at the Abb. y Grange, dis tant about tiall a wile trim the preseut monastery. TENDERS FOR THE CAPE MAIL SERVICE have DOI yet been accepted by the Government. It is believed Ilhi. THE PRESS. that a preference, if any, will be given to the General Screw SWAM Shipping Company. THE Two BANKS OF RANSOM AND BOUVERIE, acting upon the recent suggestion that a combination of the smaller establishments would be advantageous both for themselves and the public, have resolved upon an amalgamation, and the business of the two houses will, on and after the Ist of next month, be conducted under the address of Ransom, Bouverie, and Co. i;atu an Volitz. THE GREAT KNIGHTSBRIDGE AND PIMLICO CHURCH CASE, in which " Westerton v. Liddell," and " Beal v. Liddell and others," were the leading parties con cerned, was decided by Dr. Lushington, at the Con sistory Court, on Wednesday last. The arguments of this case, it will be remembered, were heard first on the 17th of January, and secondly on the four days of July last, frt,m the 24th to the 27th. Both suits of Mr. Westerton and Mr. Beal, churchwardens of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and St. Barnabas, Pimlico, had the same object—viz., the removal of the altar and credence-tables, with their crosses, candlesticks, and several coloured coverings, and the provision of a plai.i altar and comtnunion.table, as directed by the 82nd canon. Dr. Lushington argued this question at considerable length and with profound ability, clearly pointing out the distinction between what was ornament and what was not ornament in church furniture. The learned judge, quoting the case of "Faulkner v. Litchfield," decided that stone altars and tables were illegal, and that although with re gard to candlesticks and crosses upon the altar there was considerable difficulty in satisfactorily finding a solution of the question of the legal ornaments of a church, yet that the statute of 2nd Edward VI., and the statute of uniformity, could not be effected by non usuage, that what was not permitted was pro hibited, and that clearly the great object of the Reformation was not only to remove errors of doctrine, but such usages and practices as were judged auxiliary by their abuse to superstition and the maintenance of error : The conclusion (continued the learned judge) I draw from these premises are, that I ought not to hold any practices to be illegal merely because they are in use in the Church of Rome; but I ought to consider every prac tice illegal shich was either expressly forbidden, or by implication clearly disapproved of, at the time of the Re formation, and which has not been avowedly in use since that period. But is the wisdom of men so improved that we can venture upon any departure either from the doctrines or practices of our ancestors with impunity? Have we not, even in our own day, witnessed a sad example of the danger of endeavouring anew to reform that which our reformers left us, and assimilate our system to the Church of Rome? Have we not seen, what never has before, from the days of Cranmer, been seen in this land, — not less, in a very few years, than one hundred clergymen of our Church secede to Rome, and who were, many of them, men of undoubted piety, of great learning, and blameless lives ? See the monuments erected to the memory of the martyrs of our own Church at Oxford ; and read the names of those who took a leading part in that work. How many have seceded from that Church which they sought to preserve by honouring the memory of its first restorers and martyrs ? Ought we not then to pause, —to doubt our own strength and our own judgment — when we seek to mend that which they bequeathed to us, consecrated by their own blood ? Ought we not to hesitate before we admit any one practice, any one thing, not sanc tioned by them, and more especially any one thing which has the remotest leaning to the Church of Rome and her usages, which our reformed faith holds in just abhorrence ? Is it not wiser to keep on the safe side—to omit rather that which may be innocent in itself, even decorous or otna mental—than run the remotest risk of consequences so much to be deplored? We must bear in mind, too, that all these matters ought to be kept wholly distinct from questions of doctrine. Upon those points, also, relating to the question of candles and candlesticks upon the altar, Dr. Lush ington declared the following judgment: — First —I hold that all lighted candles on the communion table are, from the premises 1 have already stated, contrary to law, except when they are lightel for the purpose of giving necessary light; but the exception must be confined to the necessity, and the use of lighted candles on the com munion-table limited to that necessity, when it arises from the defic envy of the requisite light from natural causes, and, it may be, the peculiar structure of the edifice. Secondly,—As to the candlesticks and candles unlighted on or near the communion-table, I acknowledge I have much more doubt. I have none, indeed, that the use of costly massive candlesticks, with enormous candles, is a remnant of popish practices, connected originally with popish associations; but on such merely my own opinion Ido not feel at liberty to act. If they are to be considered ai ornaments merely, I should hold their use not to be re concileable with law. But I cannot deny that it is lawful to have such articles on the communion-table, or near it, fur necessary purposes; and therefore I cannot say, though I 'behove that 'such necessity arises very seldom indeed, SATURDAY, that it is contrary to law to have them so placed ready for use should occasion require. • - • - - - With respect to the coverings of the communion. table, Dr. .Lushington decided in both cases that the practice of using cloths of many colours, decorated and embroidered, "was not justified by the statute, the rubric, or the canon," and concluded his judgment with the following decree As to St. Paul's, that a faculty do issue to the incumbent and both the churchwardens to remove the credence-table and the cross on or near to the communion • table ; to take away all cloths at present used in the church for covering tha communion-table during Divine service, and to substi tute one only covering for such purpose of silk or other decent stuff. With respect to St. Barnabas, that a moni tion do issue to the churchwardens to remove the present structure of stone used as a communion table, and to sub stitute therefore a moveable table of wood. To remove the credence-table. To remove the cross on the chancel screen, and that on or near the present structure used as a com munion-table. To take away all the cloths at present used in the church for covering the structure used as a commu nion-table during Divine service, and to substitute only one covering for such purpose, of silk or other decent stuff; and further, to remove any cover used at the time of the ministration of the Sacrament, worked or embroidered with lace or otherwise ornamented, and to substitute a fair white linen cloth, without lace or embroidery or other ornament, to cover the communion-table at the time of the nnuistra non of the Sacrament, and to cause the Ten Command. ments to be set up on the east end of the church in com pliance with toe terms of the canon. A DISTRESSING CASE of the sufferings to which the wives and children of labourer4 engaged by Go vernment in the Crimea are subject to, came before Mr. Elliott at Lambeth on Wednesday. Ann Phinn, with a child of five months' old in her arms, made the following statement In the month of December, last year, her husband, who was a labourer, had engaged with Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts to go out to the Crimea, and permission was given to her, with a free passage, to accompany him. Before leaving they had placed their three children, the one eight, the other six, and the third three years of age, with her father and mother at East Barnet, and, they being but poor working people, her husband had arranged that fourteen shillings a week from his pay should be allowed them for their support. On the 14th of February they landed at Balaklava, and on the 12th of June she (the applicant) was confined of the infant she had in her arms ; on the 2Sth of the same month her husband was seized with a violent attack of cholera, and in ten hours was dead and buried. The loss of her husband in her then weak state brought a fit of illness on herself, so that she was obliged to be' taken to a hospital, and there remained for some time. When she recovered she was unable to take the situation of nurse, or, in fact, undertake any other duty on account of her infant ; and, having been offered a free passage home, she accepted the offer, sailed from Balaklava on the 18th of August, and arrived in Eng land on the 16th of September lasi. Since her arrival she had applied at the office of Messrs. Peto and Co., in Chelsea, to ascertain if she could get anything in the way of a pension or gratuity for herself and her four fatherless children, and was told that nothing had as yet been decided on, but as soon as any arrangement was come to Mr. Woodman, one of the gentlemen in the office, would write to her. She next applied for assistance to tike board of guardians for East Bernet, and was told by those gentlemen that all they could do was to afford temporary relief and pass her to Lambeth parish, which was that in which her husband had gained a settlement. Not wishing to undergo the ordeal of passing, and thinking that if the parish of L .mbeth only allowed her a trifle for her children she might manage to struggle on with her parents at East Barnet, she made up her mind to see the officers of Lam beth parish, and came to town for the purpose. On that day she saw Mr. Cope, one of the relieving-officers, to whom she made her statement, and he told her that she I ad no settlement in Lambeth, as she had not acquired one through her husband, and that her maiden pariah was that to which she was legally chargeable. He, however, added that he had no objection to take her and her children into the workhouse until such time as he could make out the place of her legal settlement, and should then pass them in the regular way to it. The poor woman, who was deeply affected, said her repugnance to go into a workhouse was so great, that she would rather wear her nails to the quick than go there, and that a much less sum than that which it would cost to keep her in the workhouse would enable her to maintain herself and children in the country. Mr. Elliott, who observed tha he could compel the parish officers to do nothing but admit her to the workhouse, gave her five shillings from the poor-box, and the applicant left tie court. A CASE OF BRUTAL ILL TREATMENT of a wife was brought before Mr. Hammill, at Worship-street, on Tuesday last. It appeared from the evidence of the wife that her husband, James Elliott, a bricklayer, of Spitalfields, had for the last seven years been in the habit of cruelly ill-treating her, and that on one previous occasion she had been in hospital for seven weeks from the defendant having cut her head open with a stick : On Monday morning last she arose between three and four o'clock to prepare her husband's breakfast before he went to work ; but he suddenly jumped up , and, placing a large box against the door to barricade it, struck her a violent blow at the back of her neck, which he cut, swear ing that he would " cut her throat from ear to ear;" and she believed that be must have had a knife in his hand