Star. — London, England, 1830-03-17 00:00:00

• , r. " • A • 1A43.1. • vt. ) : •• la-a u. TITHES. BY GEORGE COVENTRY. EFFINGHAM WILSON. The book before us treats of the revenues of the , Church of England ; " exhibiting the Rise and Progress i of Ecclesiastical Taxation."—There never, perhaps, ap- , peared a book that has treated the subject in a more satin- , factory manner. To those who receive tithes, it must , be invaluable : it administers to them the consoling fact of the pagan antiquity of their exactions ; and as the au thor observes in his preface—that the forms, customs, ceremonies, ordonnances and emoluments of the heathen priests, have contin:ied to be upheld by the Church, through successive ages, down to the present era. Before entering on the business of his subject, Mr. COVENTRY gives us about thirty texts from learned au thorities, against superstitious rites, and the contamina tion of the tithe system, as unjust, oppressive, and pre judicial to the promotion of Christianity. These are all well selected, and much to the point. We could be tempted to stop at the threshold, and quote some rare and appropriate passages from these learned authorities; but we must limit ourselves to two or three. Lord KAMN rs says that a rule of capital importance, as re gards the interests of a nation, is, " that every tax which tends to impoverish a country, ought to be rejbcted with indignation." Bishop Bu ANETT speaks thus: "There ace a great many abuses which yet continue, and are too much in use among us—such as pluralities, non-resi dences, and other things of that nature : so that it may be said, that some of the manifold corruptions of popery, when they are recommended by the advantages that ac t oinpany them, are not yet thoroughly purged out, not withstanding all the noise we have made about reforma tion, in matters much more disputable, and of far less consequence. That these abuses should still be found among Protestants, and in so reformed a church, is a scandal that may justly make us blush." One more passage from the celebrated lawyer, Sir GEORGE MAC- K F.NZIE, and we are done with the text :—" Churchmen pull up the ladder after they have scaled the walls of pre ferment themselves." We shall now let Mr. COVENTRY speak for himself ; and in giving the following extract from his book, we promise it shall not be the last ; for it is impossible for us to let the work lie idly by, while it contains so much matter, not only to amuse, but to instruct and guide us in the fast approaching day of distribution : In all ages of the world, a race of men have sprung up, who, by artifice and intrigue, have maintained an ascendancy over their fellow creatures. This has been carried to great excess in civil policy, but sinks into oblivion, when contrasted with the influence which priestcraft has usurped over the minds of monarchs and their svh3ects. Thus we find, as early as the reign of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, tl'e priests of the temple stood preeminent in the government of the country. Diodorus says, that the Egyptians held them in the highest honour ; they were the first order in the state, always near the per son of the sovereign, and assisted him with their advice and instruc tion., if such it may be called. The public records and archives sere committed to their custody. They had the inspection of monies, weights and measures, and directed what taxes should be levied upon the people. This testimony is also confirmed by Strabo, /Elton, Clemens Alexandrinus, and other ancient writers. Can we wonder, then, that they should take advantage of their influence to secure liberal grants for themselves ? Accordingly, one-third of the kingdom of Egypt was allotted them for their maintenance,independently of other perquisites which they extorted from the credulity of their devotees. Plato says that it was customary to pay the same offices to the goJ., which men stand in need of; thus sacrifices were the food of the priests, altars their tables, and portions of land were allotted foe their maintenance.—Lib. vi. de Le9ibus. Clemens Alexandrinus observes, that it was the custom to con. secrete the tenths of their land, and the tenths of their spoils to Apollo ; and that over the temple of Delphi there was an inscription to that effect: The tenth part of the produce of a certain field was annually eon secreted to Diana.—Xenophou dc Raped. Cyri, Lib. v. But the richest prize of all, was the claim made to a tenth of certain mines. Pausanias tells us, that the Siiihnians constantly presented a tenth part of their gold mines to Apollo. Dionysius Halicarnassus says,' That the Pelasgi gave their tenth of gain out of sea merchandise to Apollo at Delphi. Camillus vowed the tenth of the spoils to Apollo, in consequence of a favourable omen given to him by the Priests of the Temple...- Plutarch: Posthumius, dictstor,gave a tenth of the spoils upon his fortunate victory against the Latins.—Plutarch. Thucydides mentions, that when the Athenians divided Lesbos into 3,000 parts, a tenth was given to the priests belonging to the various temples. Justin states, that the Carthaginians sent the tenth of their Sici lian spoils to Hercules at Tyre. Pliny, (lib. xii. cap. 144 commenting upon the Arabian customs, I says, that every merchant was bound to offer the tenth of his frank. incense to the god Sabis, or rather to ensure the good wishes of the priests, for his success. Cyrus was admonished by Cronus not to allow the goods of the Lybians to be ransacked by the soldiers, until the tenth was appro priated to the priests.//erodotua. Thus we clearly find, that the origin of tithes may be traced to the Pagan priests, who instituted them for their maintenance, and en forced them in the reign of superstition. Precisely the same custom continues in the Reformed Christian Church down to the present day, with this distinction, that they were instituted in the reign of superstition, and continue to be enforced among the enlightened people. &orifices, it is true, are discontinued, but other offerings are freely received, If of any value; such, for instance, as an organ, plate, or other sundry decorations; and with respect to Easter offerings, once voluntary, they are now considered so naturally an appendage to.s clergyman's emolument, that if you omit, to pay them, they unceremoniously prosecute you for contempt of their sup. posed rights. Well might Cicero exclaim, " Neque Hercule guts quam decimam vovit unquaim si sapiens factus fuisset.' That great philanthropist and philosopher Soame Jeayno, AIM taking a survey of ecclesiastical estabrishments, observes— , Pure and genuine Christianity never was, nor ever can be, the national religion of any country upon earth. It is a gold too refined to be worked up with any human institution, without a large portion of alloy ; for no sooner is this small grain of mustard-seed watered with the fertile showers of civil emoluments, than it grows up into &large and spreading tree, under the shelter of whose branches the Irfrde qf prey and plunder will not fall to make for themselves comfortable habitations, and thence deface its beauty, and desuoy its fruits.' This beautiful observation is fully exemplified In the church to this day : corruption has sapped the vital principle, tinkered the root, snd.kft little else bad this the shadow and . the nem& The early Chriethars foresaw this evil, Mirl refusa l to. hive any connection with the. goviuntnene of the country. They =Mid not with those Who ruled, teethe, thew sundering' them good advice ; they were neither temporal bisholts or civil magistrates, b ut men nninembered with worldly affairs, simple in their mode of living, obssitoblo ael l etoor, and watchful over the spiritual welfare of ••••• I.; 'laving shown the deitivialislhg printdple Of *dthes and oaring,— the corm* source from whom they origlnated.—innovatlons which Christianity never enjoined, or cannot in anywise sanction—we shall sent point oat and examine the origin of the present union of etch- siastical affairs with those of the State—a union that has checked the pmgrem of Christianity, and been fatal to the promulgation of its rifle doctrines. As the heathen priests had the regulating of the laws and customs of the country, it became a question of policy to take the monarch into partnership, and constitute him head of their establishment ; otherwise, in an evil hour, he might grow jealous of their power, and deprive them of their ill-earned riches. We accordingly find that many of the early kings enjoyed the priesthood with the so vereignty. This became a dreadful tax upon the people, who were [ not only obliged to contribute their tenths of the land to the priests, but a tenth of their revenues to the king. We have a remarkable instance of this species of tyranny exemplified in Pisistratus, who exacted it from the Athenians. Solon strongly remonstrated against this arbitrary measure, but the tyrant excused himself by reminding the legislator, that the money was not expended in his own private service, but went to the priesthood, to be bid out upon sacrilices.--Diogenes Laertius. Thus the monarch and the priests connived together to oppress the people, and to triumph over their credulity ; hence the origin of that connexion between the priests and king, which in after-times became so congenial as to render Church and State inseparable. When the Jews expressed a desire to have a king, they were remonstrated with by Samuel in the following manner:—(l Sam. chap. viii.) ' And he will take your fields and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his ser vants; and he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vine yards, and give them to his eunuchs, and to his servants : he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants.' I n comparatively modern times, it became an act of policy in the Court of Rome to give Henry the Eighth the tide of Defender of the Faith, hoping he would protect the church under his parental care ; but it suited his purpose better to dissolve partnership, and take pos session of some of the ill-gotten property. Fearful, however, of carrying things too far, his superstition did not allow him to enact laws for the better maintenance of the priest hood, considering that, if he infringed further, the gates of Paradise would he shut against him. Then was the glorious opportunity of _ _ removing those obnoxious customs which had disgraced our code of laws since the days of Ethclwolf, and which have since remained an endless source of contention between the vicar and his parishioners, to the great prejudice of Christianity. THE JESUITS. The following extract is from the tenth number of the Foreign Review just published. It is part of a very in teresting article entitled, " La vie de Saint lc) T Act, Fondateur de la Compagnie de JEsus." In giving it, we are bound to observe that the number of the Foreign Review now before us abounds in papers possessing more than an ordinary degree of interest. Among others we would direct attention to "Runu A RT'S Life of Sir Thomas More," and the article on the " Ecclesiastical Power in France." To return to the subject matter which our title indicates, the reviewer, speaking of IGNATIUS LOYOLA, says : " To follow the remainder of Loyola's life would be to relate the history of his order during those years. He lived to see the spiritual dominion which he had erected extended into the twelve provinces of Portugal, Castile, Andalusia, Aragon, Italy, Naples, Sicily, High Ger many, Low Germany, France, Brazil, and India. Nearly an hundred Colleges or Houses were founded for, or transferred to it, in these countries ; and, when he died, at the age of sixty-fire, thirty-five years after his own conversion, and sixteen after the establislunent of his order, the extent which that order had obtained, the influence which it exercised, the ambitious projects which it had formed, and the power which it was exerting for evil and for good, might have made him look to the ca nonization he expected as his due. No scheme of policy ever more effectually answered the purpose for which it was designed ; that purpose was to support the papal church, and, therefore, from that church, Loyola well deserved all the honours it could bestow. But, even with regard to the papacy, the conduct of the Jesuits was Jesuitical. If a pope was unfriendly to the order, his life was deemed to be in danger from their practices; and whatever truth there may be in the accusations which, by persons of their own church, have been brought against them on that score, it is certain that, when their order was abolished, their vow of special obe dience appeared to have been taken with a mental re servation, saving always the interests of the Society ; for as a ociety, in defiance of a Pope's authority, the Jesuits continued to exist : and as a Society they were found existing when the papal church, upon a better view of its own policy, thought proper to revive them. Hence we may estimate the efficacy of the enactment concerning them in the late Relief Bill; an enactment which, like the other notable securities in that Bill, is worth—about as much as it was meant to be. " What consequences may be likely to arise from the restoration of the Jesuits might afford a wide theme for speculation. It has, indeed, been asserted by one of the diurnal directors of public opinion, that as a monastic institution, they hare no more influence than the gypsies.' Yet gypsies do not exercise more influence over serving men and maids, than Jesuits have exercised over-kings and queens, princes and princesses, statesmen, and their wives and daughters, and their mistresses, who have sometimes more ascendancy over them than either : the young, whom they manage by their vices ; the old, whom they govern by their fears ; and the machiavelists of middle life, for whom they have a code of morals which provides a loop-hole for every expedient crime. This influence they have exercised, not only in the courts and cabinets of the Bourbon, and Austrian, and Bra ganzan families, but in the court and cabinet of Great Britain. Men may delude themselves and others by haranguing upon the change of times and the march of intellect; but human nature is now what it was at the Revolution, and those persons must be easily deceived who can believe, that there is at this tine more stability of principle in our statesmen, more fidelity in our dig nitaries of the church and of the law, more integrity in what are called public men, than at that great crisis of our civil and religious liberties. The Jesuits of this day are the faithful successors of those who then by their intrigues endangered both : they are governed by the same institutions ; they teach and practice the was casuistry ; they take the same vow of special obedience to the head of the Romish church, and to their own general, locum Dei tenenti ! They have the same clear, definite, intelligible object in view ; zeal and abi lity have never been wanting among them ; and funds will always be forthcoming to any extent that they , isay require, for they draw upon a Bank of Faith ' which never stops payment. will produce evidence,' says Mr. O'Connell, show that literature', that science, that everything that is graceful in classic learning, has been increased man, by the Jesuits, than by any other glass of men. I win show' that more heithens and pagans have been con- 1 verted to Christianity by the Jesuits, than by . any others ; and that more of their blood, as martyrs, has been shed, than of any other class of Ch r i s tia n s.' i n the latter part of this estimate, abating' - f rom its amount, a Romanist is bound those relations which have obtained, the highest sanction of his infallible church, and in others its unqualified approbation. They rendered the most im portant services to that church in the time of its greatest danger ; and had it not been for the Jesuits, the Ro manist; would not have been more considerable at this day in Great Britain and miserable Ireland, than they are in Denmark and Sweden. The sincere Papist cannot regard tkem with too much gratitude, the Protestant with too much distrust. The Protestant, however, who is well versed in their history, will render them justice ; and it is giving them no equivocal commendation to say, that when the story of their American missions is divested of all false colouring, and all fable, what remains might entitle the memory of their missionaries in those parts to any honours short of idolatry. There they did nothing but good ; but in Europe their efforts have been so per versely directed, that the best men among them have laid down their lives with true devotion, in furtherance of what, in itself and its consequences, was evil. The reader who desires thoroughly to understand the principles of this famous Society, should peruse the Lettres Provinciales ; but let him boar in mind, that in that work, the most finished and most successful of its kind, Pascal has dealt as unfairly with the Jesuits, as if he had been trained in their own school. For the doctrines and practices which he exposes are charged upon them, as if they alone were guilty of so teaching and so acting ; , whereas the other Regulars held the same opinions, and went on in the same course of action ; and it is not upon the Jesuits that the condemnation should fall, nor upon any other order, black, white, or grey ; but upon that Romish church, in the service of which they were all equally engaged, which adopted their legends, applauded their crimes, and encouraged them to support its cause, by any means per fas et nefas. ase COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL. A Common Council was held yesterday at Guildhall, in consequence of a requisition to consider of reducing the allowances to the Lord Mayor, and the several Committees, and the salaries of the officers of the Corporation, which have been raised since the year 1797, and whose duties and services have not been increased in proportion to the appreciation of the currency in which they are r am. Sir James Shaw acted as locum teleens for the Lord Mayor. After some Reports from the London Bridge Committee for seal ing deeds for the conveyance of property required for the approaches to the New Bridge, and, some petitions for leases, The Court proceeded upon the business of the requisition, which was introduced by Mr. C. Pearson, in a very long speech, who con cluded by moving a detailed resolution, embracing his views on the subject. A discussion then ensued, upon the propriety of a Committee of the Court, in the first instance, investigating the matter, and re porting thereon, previous to any decision being come to, and several members having expressed their sentiments in favour of this propo sition Mr. Pearson withdrew his original motion, and the Cour t re . solved unanimously that it should be referred to a Committee to consider whether it was just and expedient to make deductions from the allowances to the Lord Mayor and the Committees, and from the salaries of the Officers of the Corporation ; and If so, what they should be ; and a Committee was appointed. Mr. James was duly elected Secondary of the Giltspur.street Compter. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. GUILDHALL. EXTENSIVE ROEDER; OF SILK iiD ATTEMPTED SUlCinr. Yesterday Sarah Norris: and John Jones were brought up for re examination before Mr. Alderman SCHOLEY, on a charge of rob. bing the warehouse of Messrs. Pallister, Wilkinson, and Pearce, silk.warehousemen, 29, St. Paul's ChUrch-yard, to the amount of between eight and nine hundred pounds. The prisoner Norriss, who has been for two years a servant in the house of Mr. Pearce. has carried on an extensive system of plunder. It was the custom for the key of the shop to be kept by Mr. Pearce In his bed-room till the clerk came in the morning, and when the milkwoman arrived (which was half an hour before the clerk), Nor ris. usually fetched the key, and took the opportunity of abstracting pieces of silk from the shop, which she gave to the prisoner Jones. who was waiting to carry them off. Friday and Saturday, the bah abd 6th inst. several pieces of silk having been missed, Martin, a constable, was employed, and he found out that the prisoner Jones, who lived in Baldwin's.gardens, was in the habit of visiting Norris. frequently about seven o'clock in the morning, and he took the latter into custody, and,told her that he had discovered all. She instantly disclosed the system of rob bery, and said the property was generally disposed of to the Jews.— Jones, on being taken, admitted his guilt. Three of the pieces taken on Friday morning, he said, he sold to a Jew named Ben. jamin, in Golden-lane, for five pounds, (worth, according to Mr. Pearce,_ at least forty pounds.) The Jew's . premises were searched, and nothing found on them. in Nomss's box twenty-five sovereigns were found, and in Jones's house twenty. eight sovereigns were found, which they admitted were the pro ceeds of the plunder. The officer was induced to take Susannah Harwood, sister to the female prisoner, into custody. Some silk dresses were found upon her, which were part of that abstracted from the warehouse. She was sent to the Compter on Saturday, to be brought up with the other, but she cut her throat on Monday morning, and is in so weak a state that she could not be removed. The prisoners were fully committed for trial for the capital offence. AN UNNATURAL MOTHER. As a proof of the strange and unnatural apathy on the part of a mother towards her child, the following touch ing scene took place at Fullindushie whilst I was in the town : " A travelling slave-dealer passing through the place, had pur. chased several of their children, of both sexes, from the inhabitants : and amongst others, a middle-aged woman had an only daughter, whom she parted with for a necklace of beads. The unhappy girl, who might have been about thirteen or fourteen years of age, on being dragged away from the threshold of her parents' hut, clung distractedly, like *shipwrecked mariner toa floating mast, round the knees of her unfeeling mother, and looking up wistfully in her countenance, burst into a flood of tears, exclaiming with vehemence and passion :—" 0 mother ! do not sell me ; what will become of me ? what will become of yourself in your old age, if you suffer me to desert you P Who will fetch your corn and milk ? Who will pity you when you die ? Have I been unkind to you ? Oh mother I do not sell your only daughter. I will take you in my arms when you are feeble, and carry you under the shade of trees. As the hen watches over her chicken, so will I watch over you, my dear mother. I will repay the kindness you chewed me in my infant years. When you are weary, I will fan you to sleep; and whilst you are sleeping, I will drive away flies fru* you. I will attend on you when you are in pain ; and when you die I will shed riven of sorrow over your grave. 0 mother I my dear mother I do not push me away from you ; do not sell your only daughter to be the slave of a stranger !" Useless tears ! vain re monstrance ! The unnatural, relentless parent, shaking the beads in the face of her only child, thrust her from her embraces • and the slave-deekr drove the agonized girl from the place of her na tivity, which she was to behold no more."—Lander's African Records. The petition respecting the ancient Scotch titles of Lennox and Darnley, presented to the House of Lords by the Duke of Buckingham on the sth instant, was from Count Nugent, jointly with his Countess, who is Duchess of Riario Sforza, and a descendant of the elder branch of the Stuart family. It does not claim the ho nours of theDuhedom, but maintains that the title of Stuart Duke of Lennox having been to heirs male, can not be descendible to the Earl of Darnley, who claims it, but is extinct ; and it therefore counter-claims for Countess Nugent and her issue the dormant female titles of Earl of Lennox and Baron Darnley, maintaining that, if those titles are to be disposed of to any one, she has the preferable claim. A very full pedigree accompanies the petition. It will come under the consideration of the Committee expected soon to sit for examining Lord Darnley's claim to the Dukedom. In the Prerogative Court a case has been decided of considerable interest to the parties, and of rather unusual occurrence in some of its circumstances. The suit was instituted to determine the validity of a codicil to the will of Frances Hall, of Manchester, made on the day of her death, in the 83d year of her age, by which she revoked the residue of her estate, amounting to 48,0001. to four Charitable Institutions at Manchester. The whole pro- Iperty of which she died possessed amounted to 80,000/. personal estate, and 16,0001. real estate, the whole of which was le ft in specific bequests to her relatives. There was strong evidence to prove that her affection for her relatives continued to her death; but there was equally strong evidence, that when she made the codicil she was of sound and disposing mind. Sir John Nichol, there fore, felt himself bound to decide for the validity of the codicil. A French Paper contains a curious account of the skeleton of a man found in the hollow of a tree, with its head downwards. There was nothing about it to show whether a murder had been committed, or whether some fantastical suicide had taken this extraordinary means of destruction. On Wednesday, witnesses were examined at the bar of the House of Lords on Shakeriey's Divorce Bill, and the evidence has been " ordered to be printed :" en Tuesday, witnesses were examined at the bar of the said House (in the presence, of the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Bexley, Lord Holland, &c.) on " Lord Ellenbo. rough's Divorce Bill," and the evidence has not been or. lured to be printed. The Committee of Drury-lane Theatre, the chairman of which is Mr. Calcraft, intend to conduct the establish ment until the end of the present season, when the theatre will be let to the highest bidder. Mr. Wallach retains his station. named John Falkner . was killed on Sa- I r esti - m m a;, — abatin - gl;;;;thirmis A watchman - , tam . ed John Falkner, was killed on Sa- of Ataptlillt, liadtartiabire. tis bound to agree, if he believe turday morning, by the sadden falling of some ruinous Wang: 'Mated aed rebbsbast by jONN mATss, at as Saas• lave obtained, in some instances, houses in Rosemary-lane. Omen Dtw 1, Plekett-plaineTegarls Bar. 110 W-STREET. Yesterday two gentlemen applied to Mr. AITNSIIIILL on behalf of Mr. Hensley the, printer, late of Bolt-court, Flect-street, the lessee of certain land at Finchlcy, of which Mr. Henry Phillips (the gentleman who a short time ago so frequently appeared before the public In consequence of a domestic calamity) is a yearly tenant, to put in operation an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of George the Second.—The Gentlemen stated that the land in question had not been cultivated for a long period, and in fact it had been de serted for above six months. Mr. Hensley could not find Mr. Phil. lips to serve a notice upon him ; they therefore requested the Ma. gistrate to put up a notice on the ground, in the form the Act of Parliament pointed out, and at the end of fourteen days Mr. Hensley could take possession of the land. Mr. Mitten ma. asked the gentlemen what they meant by stating that Mr. Phillips could not be found—did they mean to say he had absconded, or what did they mean ? The gentlemen replied that they had taken pains to find him to serve him with the notice, and tie was not to be found. • Mr. Mt:46lmm. having referred to the Act of Parliament, ac ceded to the application. LA MBETH.STREET. Ann Thompson was charged with assaulting Richard Heavens, a baker, on London.bridge, on Monday night, and stealing from hi. trowsers' pocket three 10/. Bank of England notes and fourteen so vereigns; and John Thompson, her husband, was charged with re ceiving two of the notes. The prosecutor said that the female pri soner took the property by violence, and he tried to seize her; he caught hold of her shawl, but it slipped off her shoulders, and she escaped. She was afterwards stopped at a pawnbroker's shop, when offering one of the notes in payment. The other two notes were found on her husband, when he was taken.—They were both remanded. WORSHIP.STREET. THE NEW POLICE.—On Monday a considerable portion of Mr. BROUGHTON'S time was devoted to the examination of a cir cumstance that took place on last Friday night, or early ant Satur day morning, in the City-road, in which the pardon interested were a Mr. Lancaster, a clerk in the city, with his Wend a Mr. Ford, a commission-broker, on the one side, while the other consisted of a sergeant and three rank and file of those noctural guardians yeleped the new police. It appeared that Mr. Lancaster was a little in. toxicated, and on his rapping at a public-house for admittance he was prevented by the police, when a scuffle ensued, in which the coat and waistcoat were dragged from his person, and in the pocket of the latter there was a canvass bag containing ten sovereigns. which, with the waistcoat, he has not since seen. Mr. Lancaster was attended by a professional gentleman. Mr. Ford restated his former testimony. Sergeant Wilke, of letter N, said, that on the night mentioned he found them rapping at the Star public house, City-road, and upon his recommending them to go home Mr. Lancaster called them a b— b-- police. He (witness) then took him by the arm and walked him across the road, when Mr. Lancaster made a blow at him, but which missed him, when he fell. He (witness) then called letter 0 to his assistance, and in their endeavours to raise him up. for the purpose of bringing him to the police station, the coat and waistcoat came off him, which were given to his friend Mr. Ford. Solicitor—ls it necessary you should drag the coat and waistcoat off his back to enable you to bring him to the watchhouse ? Sergeant—No ; but it was necessary we should take them off in owlet to prevent him being strangled. Mr. Lancaster solemnly denied having used any Improper lan guage to the officer, and said that he had ten sovereigns in his wain coat pocket, and that the policeman's statement was altogether at invention. Mr. Ford, with equal solemnity, denied having received the waist. coat into his we, although he admitted that he received the coat ; in proof of which (pointing to an officer), after they got to the police station, he sent that pale-faced looking man to search for the waist. coat. Mr. BROUGHTON said, the most important part of the case was to inquire after the waistcoat and the soverigns. If there were evi dence sufficient before him he would certainly feel himself bound to commit the officers for the felony, for if Mr. Lancaster's statement was true the conduct of the officers was of the grossest kind ; but when he did not see the road clearly before him he would endeavour not to injure. A supernumerary police officer said, he was on duty in Feather. stone-street, and hearing the noise he went to the spot, and assisted in taking Mr. Lancaster to the watch-house. His coat, waistcoat. and hat were given to Mr. Ford, and he saw the waistcoat arms, Mr. Ford's arms. Two other police officers corroborated the statement of the last witness. Mr. Greening, the impector, said when the parties Mille to the watchhouse Mr. Ford had Mr. ncaster's coat, but not his a aistcost. Mr. BROUGHTON said he would dismiss the officers from ary blame whatever, and would therefore leave Mr. Lancaster to 1-, remedy rgainst his friend Mr. Ford. The names of the officers were then given to the solicitor, and the parties left the office. Mr. Arnold, it is said, has nearly arranged with the shareholders connected with the late English Opera-house, and to the mutual satisfaction of all the parties. No other impediment. will remain to the commencement of building a new theatre, when the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in conjunction with the Marquis of Exeter, the Duke of Bedford, and other proprietors of the ground through which it is intended to carry the new street from Waterloo-bridge to the Great North-road, shall have agreed upon a bargain and sale. BIRTHS. In the Begent's-park, the lady of Thema' Peel, of the Swan Ri ver. of a son. In Attehter Home, Fotfarshire, a seat of the Earl of Airlie, the Right Hon. Lady Helen Ww:derbum, of a daughter. DIARRIED. ..... At Richmond, Surrey, E. Clutterbuck, Esq. of Arming, Olou. cestershirc, to Mrs. Davies, of Richmond. Frederick Towsey, Etq. of Henley-upon-Thames. to Lliabeth Mary, eldest daughter of the late Rev. Benjamin Oibbon, of Pe• Pendwokeshha. At St. Pancras church, Captain N. R. l i omplins, 35th regiment of Foot, to Kate, only daughter of the late H. t 4 mart, EM. of Po. ling, near Arundel. GIRD. Yesterday, et his hews so Richmond-terrace, Whitehall, after a feu days' severe illness, Mr Robert Townsend Farquhart, Bart. M.P. many years Governor of the Mauritius and its dependencies. Homy Bake*ll, Leg. of Brunsuick.place, Regenes.park. Friday, et.Newlanthrek, Yorkshire, Susanna, wile of yr Ed- ward Wawa*, Bad.. Lately, at Relghtem. aged seven years, Themes, the eldest son. and on the 12th, estatilsesrpeeas, Henrietta, second daughter of T. Wadley, 111* feselealy etßlackheuthAllL Sanday, atidWaneen, teower.strect, Bedford.square, Colonel W. Duncan. egsalaL Mi.. Philsdnipldalenyth, widow of the late Capt. C. Sorb- Sunday, at.his beam at Rem Moulmy, Adminligr Edmund Nom, K. CAL ors at the Grosses of his Majesty's Bed Chamber, in ail nil yew of hie age. At Chimera, of a braisferer4 the Ker. Aedrew F. Belcher, NU a( Andrew Belcher, Esq. of Roehampton, and recently curate of Anipthill, Bedfordshire.