The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-05-06 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY CONGREGATIONAL

UNION.

The annurl meeting of the Congregational Union of
time County of Dorset, was held last week at Weymouth,
and was attended by Ministers of the Congregational
denomination from all parts of the county. The great
theme for discussion here, as indeed it has been through-
out the country amongst the Independents, had refer-
ence to the 2,000 ejected non-conforming Church of
England Clergymen on the 24th August. 1662. The pro-
ceedings of the association were commenced by a public
meeting at the Nicholas-street Chapel, on Tdesday even-
ing, when the Rev. J. Rogers, of Bridport, delivered an
ac'dress, entitled "The Walk of Faith, as illustrated by
the Two Thousand Ministers ejected for Nonconformity,
August 24, 1662." The preacher took for his text
Genesis xii., 1. "Now the Lord said unto Abraham, get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show
thee ;" and Hebrew xi., 8, " By faith Abraham, when
he was celled to go into a place which he should after
receive as an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not
knowing whither he went." Time rev, gentleman
descanted on the nature of faith as illustrated in the
life of Abraham, and afterwards as evinced by the non-
conforming clergy 200 years ago in England. In refer-
ence to the latter part of his subject he remarked that
for the restoration of Charles 11. it was necessary to
secure the co-operation of the clergy. These were loyal
and hopeful. They were willing to believe that the
fate of his father had taught the son wisdom—winning
their aimple hearts by putting on the guise of piety, in
the proilamation he sent over from Breda against de-
bauchery and profaneness. When a deputation was
sent over to invite him back to England, one 'rimm-
ing, while waiting his command in the ante-chamber,
they overheard him at prayer, in which " lie thanked
God that he was a covenanted king, and he hoped that
the Lord would give him a meek, quiet, forgiving spirit,
that he might have forbearance towards his offended
subjects, at he expected forbearance from heaven," upon
which old Mr. Vase, one of the deputation, with uplifted
hands, bleesed'Ood. He had also sent to England a
declaration of " liberty and conscience," promising that
under his future rule, if restored, no man should be dis-
quieted or called in question for differences of religious
opinion, "which do not disturb time peace of the king-
dom ;" and on his triumphal entry into London, he still
further deceived the Presbyterians by receiving from
the handset their aged representative, Arthur Jackson,
a richly embossed bible, declaring as he did no that he
intended to make that blessed hook the role of his con-
duct, and expressing his conviction that he owed his
restoration, under God, to their prayers and endea-
vours. He even appointed some of them, Richard
Baxter among the number, to be his court chaplains.
He also gave his assurance that to net tender consciences
at case, • conference of twenty-one Episcopalians and
twenty-one Presbyterians should be appointed to settle
all questions relating to Divine worship. The Presby-
terians wished for an established church which should
fairly represent the principles of the nation, and not of
a sect, and they were willing to give up much in order
to carry the scheme of comprehension. They had no
conscientious scruples against the use of a liturgy, and
no far sympathised with the Episcopalians as being un-
friendly to "general religious toleration." They urged
the appointment of the promised conference, and the
King, alter much evasion, mlmpointed one, which sat in
old Savoy palace four months without doing any good.
The sole supremacy of scripture, as the rule of faith,
was a fundamental article in the Puritan creed, but the
bishops Inserted in the calendar of lessons, the story of
Bel and the Dragon, the History of Susennah and the
Elders, and other apocryphal chapters. The Puritans ob-
jected to the number of Saints' days, and the bishops added
more. They objected to the system of sponsors in
baptism, as designed to weaken parental responsibility,
and desired that parents might be allowed to stand for
their own children; but the bishops insisted upon three
I godparents for every child. In short, not only were no
concessions made, but Puritanical objections were
I intensified. At length the work of convention camo
I before Parliament, and the House of Commons, by a
majority of six votes, passed the Bill of Uniformity.
After much discussion the Lords concurred, and the
ungrateful and falsehearted king, of whom Macaulay
says,—" honour and shame were scarcely more to him
than light and darkness to the blind," very promptly
gave it his royal assent. The book to which the
clergy had to subscribe was not printed till the 6th of
August, no that it was impossible for the majority of
them, except those living in or near London to know
what they had to subscribe to. Bishop Bernet,
speaking of the subject, says,—" it seemed expected
that the clergy should subscribe implicitly to a book
they had never seen." To render the hardship more
severe, the terms of uniformity were imposed before
Michaelmas, when the payment of the year's tithes
would be clue, and therefore the ejected ministers would
lose a year's income. They were men—husbands
fathers, who had their quiet studies, who sew their
rbildren sporting in garden, or over the glebe, their
families in comfort, and their wives sitting In the snug
parlours of the rectory. Ts leave these tranquil homes,
and ex& ange comfort for abject poverty, was a trial of
faith; espy to talk about, but hard to realise. Time Act
came into operation on the 24th of August, 1662—a
day stained with blood in the massacre of the Huge-
nots of France, just ninety years before—when 2,000 of
the ministers of the Church of England took their
stand in the ranks of nonconformity. They went forth,
like Abraham of old, not knowing whither they went—
without pittance, and without • shelter, firm as a rock,
yet serene as a Aar. Never was a more transcendent
spectacle !
On Wednesday morning a prayer meeting was held
in the same chapel. During the day the business of
the delegates was traneacted. A public dinner took
place at the lecture-hall of the Literary Institute, at
two o'clock. At five a tea meeting was held at Hope
chapel; and afterwards a public meeting in the same
place was convened under the presidency of the Rev.
W. Lewis, the minister of that place of worship. The
meeting was addressed by the Rev. It. T. Verrall, 8.A.,
of Poole, the Rev. U. B. Randall, 8.A., of Wareham,
the Rev. B. Gray and the Rev. J. Fisher, of Blandford,
the Rev, F. Beckley, of Sherborne, and others. The
address of the Rev. R. T. Verrall possessed considerable
local interest. It might be &skeet ' he said, what sight
Imad the people of Dorsetshire to speak of the pro-
ceedings on St. Bartholomew's-day, 1662. The county
of Dorset, he thought they would agree, hid no little
historical share in those proceedings, when they remem-
bered that sixty of the Dorsetshire clergy were on that
day deprived of their livings, and that about one-fourth
of the people of this county were by the Act of
Uniformity deprived of their religious instructors.
Nor were these sixty ministers those which held the
most inconsiderable and less important livings in the
county, as aineng lthem were such places as Bampton,
Bere Regis, Blandford, Bridport, Charminster' Dor-
cheater, Lyme Regis, Poole, Lytchet Matravers,Shroton,
Shaftesbury, She rue, Portland,Weymonth, and Win-
terborno Whit-church. It would thus be seen that the
people living in the principal towns and most important
villages in the county were by this act deprived of the
ministers whom they loved, and to whose ministrations
they were attached. But he would juet refer to two
or three facts in connection with the men who were
then ejected. Among the 60 were the grandfather and
great grandfather of the celebrated John and Charles
Wesley, men whom they must all irevere and esteem for
their exemplary piety and zeal in the salvation of im-
mortal souls. Old Bartholomew Wesley held the
living or Allington, near Bridport, who was • pious and
devoted minister, and mewed to be • sort of easy-
going man, bat his son John, of Winterborne Whit'
church, was evidently one of those men who think for
themselves. He wne possessed of much of that energy
and boldness of speech in which the great founder of
methodism shone BO conspicuously, and possessed a
very strong opinion as to tlme lawfulness of the prayer
instead of " lawful" prayer. He had been several
times cited before the Bishop's Court for his opinions
on the right of believers to use extempore prayer,
and was once or twice an inmate, in consequence of his
avowal of IliA opinions, in Blendford gaol, after that
six month, in Poole gaol, and subsequently for three
niontbs' in the gaol at Dorchester. The Rev. P. Lamb,
ate:.
of Bere Regis, wee- evidently a herd working, sealous
clergyman, who held service in his church, which was
of Dorchester numerously attended, every morning at six, besides
holding week evenings, and his Sunday services.
oTfhatimitee Rev.
Wrisll,l3enhn; ehwegattaentdioen
minister of the Gospel. Besides doing the duties
the prisoners, and obtained for their use the erection
of a chapel, the greater portion of which expense was
borne by himself. There must hay* been groat lamen-
tation in Dorchester when he was silenced in 1662.
Then there was Thomas Role, of Lytchett Matravers,
Amos Short. of Lyme Regis, Samuel Hardy, of Poole,
William Allen, of Blandford, Francis Bamfield, of
Shreton, among the number of those who were silenced
by the Act of Uniformity. It must have been a grave
necessity, if necessity existed, that called forth an act
for the silencing so many pions and devoted clergymen,
and if no necessity did exist, then it must have been a
grave sin in the promoters of the scheme. The rev.
gentleman then gave a brief history of the circumstances
which led to the Act of Uniformity in England. The
Act of Uniformity originally intended, and which
was promised by Charles II at Breda, contemplated the
unity of the various religious bodies into one national
church ; but notwithstanding the promises of time
Monarch the act that was pseud made compulsory, the
reordination of every Church of England minister—a
solemn renunieation of the league of covenant—and a
public declaration of unfeigned anent and consent to
everything contained in the book of coininon prayer.
The rev, gentleman disavowed any hostility on the
fart of his own body in holding these bicentenary
services against those who did and could conscientiously
conform, but simply as in commemoration of th.‘t great
event when teen holding non-conforming views, as they
themselven did, had the boldness to giro up all in
support of principle. Collections were made at the
several public [services.
ABBOTSBURY.—Chrietopher Claxton and
Charles Boatewain were sommoned before the
Dorchester County Beno:i on Saturday, on the charge
of assaulting Mr. Thomas Burden. The defendants
were grazing their horses by the side of the pariah
road, and when complainant ordered them off, they
abused him and threatened him with" a thorough
good hiding," and when he took the horses to im-
pound them, they took them away. It appeared
that the complaipant, was hayward for the manor.
The defendants could not understand what bum
ess
Mr. Burden bad to interfere with them. They
were on the pariah road, and that belonged to the
Queen, and therefore it was quite evident, according
to their idea, that they could do what they pleased -
there. The Bench told them they bad no right to
their horses on the road, as the herbage on each aide
belonged to the parties renting the land.—The
defendant's couldn't see how that could be, whin it
was a pariah road, nor could- they be brought tio
acquiesce in the justness of a fine of ba, each for
oolortios lOW 4b7 copoiderod tbo righto gud

liberties of the subject. —The Bench, however, told
them that if they offended again, they would be
punished more severely.
PORTLAND. —ROYAL VIM' TO PORYLAIIO
CASTLE. —On Monday, the 28th of April, Bar
Majesty's steamer " Vivid " arrived in Portland
Roads, having on board His Royal Highness Priem
Arthur; and on the following day the youthful
Prince honoured Captain Manning with a tint at
Portland Castle, attended by Major Elphinstone
V.C., and the Rev. J. W. Jolly. Mr., Met., anit
Miss Coeds were of the party, and also Mrs.
Sutherland, and Kenneth Sutherland, Esq., RA,
of the Royal Yacht "Victoria and Albert." His
Royal Highness expressed himself much pleased with
his visit, and on the following day Captain Manning
had the honour of receiving • photographic portrait
of His Royal Highness, by whose desire it was
forwarded to Captain Manning by Major Elphin-
storie, of the Royal Engineers, accompanied by •
letter, expressing the gratifying circumstances under
which it was presented.
CIIARMINSTER.—Sarah Forea was charged before
the county magistrates at Dorchester on Saturday,
with having on Sunday, the 27th April, been guilty
of drunkenness in the high road. The case watt
proved by P. C. Fisher, who said that about one
o'clock on the morning in question he saw the de.
fendant and another female hallooing and swearing.
She was very drunk, but he did not take her into
custody, as she was in front of her own house. lo
cross-examination by Mr. Weston, who appeared for
defendant, witness said he first saw her going
down the street. She asked him to call her het.
band up, but he told her he did not interfere be.
tween man and wife. She knocked the door,
smashed in the window of her house, and used very
vile language. The house stands within the garden,
but part of the row was committed in the Iva
Mr. Weston submitted there was no case against
the defendant, as the noise she made was for a legiftt
mate purpose in her own garden.— The Bench over.
ruled the objection. —Mr. Weston then held that
even supposing she was a little excited, yet that
being capable of walking from Dorchester to Char.
minster without assistance, her case did not come
within the meaning of the Act under which this in.
formation was laid. Ile then called Sarah Harlin,
of Fordington, who said that she had 80016 aid/ to
make for defendant's husband. She came about
half-put 11 on Saturday night„ and left about keit
past 12. She was not drunk, nor did she seem in
the least excited by liquor. They were at sapper
on beer and onions, and asked defendant to join
with them, but she would not partake of anything.
Her visit Was both on business and as an acquaint-
ance. Another person was with her.—John Hine
said be was with Mrs. Forse at Mrs. Martin's on
Saturday night. Ho went home with her and ohs
never had anything to drink from the time she left
Mrs. Martin's till she arrived at her own hoes,.
They had been to the Mariners and had a pint ct
beer together. He first met her coming from her
mother's. Ile left her for about half-ori-honr at the
Mariners, while he went away to wash and diem
himself. He first met her about 9 o'clock.-- The
Bench said that although there had been some con-
flicting evidence, they saw no reason for diebelistieg
the policeman, who had given his evidence very
clear and straightforward, and she would therefore
be fined 55., and 9s. costa.--Jobs Hine, one
of Mrs. Forse's witnesses was then charged
with drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
The police constable gave similar evidence
against him as be had against Mrs. Form
whom he accompanied. He said he was very
drunk and noisy, and used profane oaths for about
three quarters of an hour. There were no other
persona present. The neighbours looked oat of
their bedroom windows, to'see what WAS the matter.
The noise was chiefly made to get into the Inns.
Forge refused to let his wife in at that time
in the morning, and told her she was to go back from
whence she came. He told the policeman to take
her into custody, and she told him to take her
husband into custody for keeping her out there.
After the door was opened, there was a tremendous
row in the house till 4 o'clock, when witness came
away. The defendant was very drunk.— In behalf
of Hine, Mr. Weston called Charles Forme, the
husband of the woman, who said he did not expect
his wife home that night. He accordingly went to
bed, and when he first heard the knocking, he took
no notice of it, as he thought some people were
there knocking for drink, the house having been
formerly a licensed house. When he found out who
was there, he got up and let them in. There was •
hit of a row after "the missis" got in, as she did'at
like being kept out so long. He did not know it
was his wife's voice. He never heard them cares
end swear. Hine was now lodging at the house, to
help him garden. —Fined 55., and costs Bs.
WINTERBORNE STEEPLETON.—Mary An
Damon was on Saturday laid charged before the
county magistrates at Dorchester, with having stoles
some peas from a pea rick belonging to her employer,
Mr. Shiftier, of Steepleton Farm. It appeared that
the prisoner was a labourer on Mr. Shittler's farm,
working in the fields for 7d. a day, and that this
small pittance was all she had wherewith to bey
food and clothing for herself and child, a girl eight
years old,pay rent; and, indeed,to procure anything
and everything that the two required. Neverthe-
less she and her girl were neatly dressed. She had
got somewhat behind—perbaps had lived too luxu-
riously for her means—and consequently she and
her child had but one small loaf of bread to live on
from Saturday night till the following Wednesday
night. According to her statement, she bad worked
all Wednesday without food, and in the evening, as
she was passing her master's pea rick on leaving
work, she pulled some peas from it in order to take
home to boil, to satisfy the cravings of hunger.—
Her master said the prisoner was very badly off,
but property must be respected, and the Bench com-
mitted her for fourteen days' bard labour. —The
prisoner hoped the Bench would take oars of her
child while she was undergoing her sentence.—
Major Frampton, the chairman, told her that had
she learned to keep her hands to herself, she need
not have been separated from her obild.----Shewas
then charged with stealing • lapfall of wood, which
she took for the purpose of making a lire to boil the
peas, but on the reeommendation of the magistrates
Mr. Shiftier eonsented to withdraw the charge.
MAIDEN NEWTON.—The license of the King's
Anus was on Saturday last tranderred from Robert
Baacornhe to John Read.

RAMPLSEIAM.--att the Dorchester County Petty
Sessions on Saturday, the license of thi Tiger's
Head was transferred from Robert Mayo to George
James.

BRIDPORT. —NATIONAL Bcnoot.—The mistress
of 'this school having joined the Ply mouth Brethren
and allowed a member of that denomination to
address the children under her charge, has been
replaced by Miss Foot, of Dorchester recently
mistrese of the school at Netberbury. —The rector, in
his sermon on Sunday, made special allusion to the
circumstance.