The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-27 00:00:00

(From Wednesday's Time.).

Sir,—The accompanying statement was drawn up yester-
day by the Rev. Mr. Watson, for the purpose of trans-
mission to the Secretary of State. Before, however, it had
left the gaol the respite arrived. I believe that the box in
question was really ordered by him for the purpose he states.
The act is perfectly consistent with all his behaviour antece-
dent to the crime. It is one of a series of methodical acts
culminating in the attempted suicide.
lle is anxious that the impression that the case was de.
signed to contain the body of his wife should be dispelled. I,
too, am desirous that this unhappy clergyman's history
should not be overlaid with unmerited obloquy,

Your obedient servant,
THE CHAPLAIN.

Surrey County Gaol, Jan. 23.

"Surrey County gaol, Jan. 25, 1872.
"Sir-1 beg leave respectfully to submit to you the follow-
ing statement with a view to remove from your mind a
possible misapprehension of the propose for which I
ordered the packing-case, concerning which I have reason
to believe that an entirely erroneous impression exists with
the public.
"..My desire is, if the sentence of the law is carried into
execution, to relieve my memory from the undeserved and
terrible imputation which would otherwise rest upon it, and
If my life is spared, that I may, at least, have had the satis-
faction of clearing whatever seems amVignous in regard to
this matter.

When his lordship asked me after the verdict of the
Jury whether I had anything to say why sentence should not
be pronounced, it did not occur to me, as it ought to Have
occurred, that that was the time at chick I should oak to be
allowed to make some observations on the evidence such as
I had wished to make previously, but was precluded from
making through being defended by counsel.

" It di4 not strike me, at It ought to have struck me, that
that was the only opportunity which I should have ot con-
tranicting or jildifying any inisrepresmitations which I con-
aidered to have been made concerning my cage.

" I said merely, to his lordship, that the defence main-
tained for me had been fair and honest, meaning as to its
general character • but I ought to have added that them
was one great particular as to which it was quite enoneons.
I had antlered all observations regarding the box or
packing-cone which I ordered of Robert Turner to pass
without remark, except privately to my solicitor, to whom I
gores written paper on Wednesday, the 'lest day of the trial,
telling him, as I hod constantly told him at other times,
that the packing case was intended only for the re-
ception of hooks, mannsetpts and letters, but that finding
myself on Tuesday afternoon, the loth of (Jointer, not in a
condition of mind to sort and arrange my manuscripts, and
to make such selection from my letters on I hml purposed,
told Turner, when I called to pay him between it and e
o'clock on that day, that he need act he in miy Tinny to
send the ease, as I should not want It at that time, and that
Indeed he might wait to SOO it till lie should hear from nte
agate ;a persuasion which I. gave him merely for his own
convenieuee. I then did not suppose that anything more
would be heard of the ease by myself, or that it wink! ever
give rise to any public remarks. You will please to under-
stand that the ease was never brought to the honse at all.
" My solicitor tells me that he communicated my obser-
vations, stated on the written paper which I gave him on
the Wednesday, to Serjeaut Parry, hitt that the learned
ow-leant was not influenced by them to alter the nature of
the defence which he had premeditated on this point. .
By a reference to the report of the proceedings at Ken-
nington Police-comt, it will be seen that Turner gave
his evidence there much more fully than he gave it at
the Old Bailey. Be stated at Kenulugton that when I
ordered the packing-case, I told him that it was for haling
papers and he stated truly. He asked me when I ordered
it whether it was to go abroad, or on shipboard, and I
told him that it was not. lie asked me also whether he
should bind the corners with iron, and I Rumored that
In that respect he inight de as he pleased, provided that he
made it strong. I assert now, as I have invariably weeded
to my solieitor, that it was intended for no other purpose
than for holding a few printed bootee, a large quantity of
manuscripts, and a great number of letters, and that
' there is not, and has not been, the least foundation for
representing that it was intended tor any other object. There
svaanothlagdn the size of the packingcase to excite astonish-
! ment. A case Oft. (An. long, Off. 3in. wide, and Mt. eln.
in depth is not one of extraordinary dimensions. If com-
pared with such .packing-eases as may be then by hundreds,
of a far greater size, on wharves or in wham-houses, it will
appear but small. T had it made of such capacity. because
. . .

had, as I have said, a great number of manuseropts slid
'eters to put together, and !thought it better to have them
In ono receptacle than in more than one, as when several
bones are used for such a purpose they may possibly get se-
parated. and one or mere of them be lost.

"Let me add that there was neither word nor act of mine
to connect the ordering of the packing-case on one day with
Anything that! had done on the preceding day. Such con-
nection as has been made has arisen only in the Imaginations
.4 those who have concerned themselves with the affair. As
it seems to me it was not known either to the Judge or the
jury that the packing-ease was not in the house with me.
What I had said to Turner about the case being intended
for papers was, it known to the prosecuting counsel, stu-
diously kept in the background by them.
'1 do u. 4 suppose that anything I could have said in
court would have altered the final determination. liat,it has
...amid me much son-ow and many anxious and idcepless
nights to reflect that I so unhappily failed ti avail myself
of that oppoitunity of saying what (as 1 dbl not tIA. cots.
abler it would not afteryvaW be permissible for any,ne to
say for me.
" My desire in troubling you with this letter is, as I said
at first. to free myself from bearing more to my disadvantage
than! justly ought to bear.
" I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient humble ser-
.vant, "JonN SELBY WATSON.
'The Right Hun. the ,Secretary to the Home
Department."

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE
WORKING CLASSES.
On Monday evening the Bishop of Glocester and
Bristol delivered an address at the Broadmead Rooms,
Bristol. There was a large attendance of working-
men, and the chair was taken by the Mayor of Bristol
(Mr. W. P. Baker), who was supported by a number
of clergy and laity. The proceedings having been
opened with singing and prayer,
The Bishop, who was received with hearty cheers, ex-
pressed the pleasure with which he was present that evening.
lie referred to the Church Aid Fund, in connexion with
which that address was to be given, and said it was to the
receptive sympathy which the working classes manifested
two years ago that that society owed much of its success.
Societies were all very well in their way. Well-managed
societies start very well, but unless there was thorough
sympathy between those who managed the society and those
for whose good the society Waa managed, none could ever
nourish.
Raving dwelt upon the aims and operations of the Charm.
Aid Fund, which has opened nine mission chapels and rooms
and found stipends, either in whole or in part, fur eleven
missionary curates and ten Scripture readers, WEI lordship
went on to say that he wished to speak more particularly of
the Church of England and her relations to the working men.
But in so &Alia he desired to bear, esmcially in Bristol, a
most honour., blo tribute, if he might be permitted to du
so, to the efforts for Christ of those who did not belong to
the Church of England. LAani applause.) Some of the
ministers to whom he was alluding fie had the pleasure of
knowing personally, and he knew them to be as faithful and
true as he hoped he himself was, or any of his brethren.
(Ilear, hear.. They had been doing much for the calm of
religion, and might Doda blessing go onward with them in
their labours for the Lord. (Applause.
Ilia lordship then tproceeded to ask bow did it stand at
the beginning of this stirring year 1672 with the Church of
Ehgland and the working men of England ? To that ques-
tion there wmtld he ninny answers. Sonic would say, "Alas !
for the poor Church of England. She has been too lung in
the backgroued ; she is not moving with the times , she is
losing her hold upon the masses, not very fast, but by
steady degrees." Another would say, "Alan! WA only
for the Church of England, but for society generally, for
the gulf is widening between those who have fold those who
have not. Class interests are showing themselves, churches
and religion cannot do much. The gulf is getting wider."
Others would say, "What are the clergymen doing? Do
they sympathize with popular movements; are they to be
seen on popular platforms? On they care for the working
man? Are they on the side with poverty (as they ought to
lie)?" A fourth would say, "The clergy of the Church of
England, like all ministers at all times, are setting them-
aelvea up as a class. The old story of priestcraft, and plenty
of it."

Those were four rough answers that were made to the ques-
thaw they were now considering. Was any one of those
answers true? No, he could prove every 0110 01 theta to Ise
false answers. (Cheers.) He denied that the Church of
England waslosing her hold upon the working men, for that
meeting proved to the contrary. As to the second answer,
that the gulf was widening I ietween the classes, there might
he some letter truth lying therein. Possibly in the quick-mov-
ing of this century in which they lived, and in this part of it,
there might be a tendency of the rich to become richer and the
poor to become poorer; but he would ask them in their neces-
sities and their need—let them be fair one to another—who was
it that was always ready to aid them in sickness and suffering ?
Whose was the ready haul to be clasped iu theirs when they
were lying on the sick bed, and ready to find for them such
charitable alms as often come out of a very scanty pocket, or
the contributions of faithful friends? Who had got a warns
word to say to them when lie islet them at the corner of the
street? Let those in the room look open the platform nod
see if they did not recognise a great many faces of those
whom many of them had known to be friends in the sorest
need—the ministers of the Gospel who were round him.
Applause.) If the gulf was widening, than knew the
clergymen of the Church of England, and especially the
clergy of Bristol, were doing their very best to fill it up
with sympathies and charities, and they would fill it up.
(Applause.)
Coming to the third answer,—were the clergy indifferent
I, the social needs of the working classes? lie would say
for them plainly that they were not. The working mer.
must not expect that in all the movements between capital
and labour—those complicated movements which it Lakes
half a lifetime to understand—ministers of the Slospel could
be found. Demand and 'supply, capital and labour, those
things insist be adjusted by those who were concerned in
thou, and what the clergy and the ministers of the Gospel
had to do was to see that, by their counsels, their example,
their words, and their missive, they prevented so far as in
them lay oppression and hard stealing by one mass upon the
ti-v'll,•nr, hear.) That, be would venture to say, they
faithfully did.
Then it 11,111 said there Was a tendency in the clergy towards
priesteraft There might be in some quarters an amount of
melancholy truth in that remark. There might be —alas !he
feared there were—in the Church of Engl."' some who were
not loyal to the principles of that which so long as he lived
he,would call the blessed Reformation. 'Loud and prolonged
applause). There naght be a few—he owned it in sorrow
—hut he was bound to say that among such he slid see—
let them judge fairly—lus jug work fur the working men.
He would to God that that work came front those who
were otherwise animate,' in spirit but yet, even in those
quarters where such terms as "priestcraft " might be sup-
posed to apply, there was a zeal and an earnestness which
they, the sons of the Reformation, avormhsi dss well and wisely
to imitate. ;Hear.) So that he thought he might say of the
fur current answers Lithe great question of—How does tte
Church of England stand with the working classes 7—that
there might be some few grains of trtith, some melancholy
reasons—for society was very complex—for such statements,
but on the sehme the Church of England stands well with all
classes of this country, and stands especially well with the
working Ines. (Applause.) It might be quite true that the
Church sif England was nut doing no much as she ought to
do, but it might be also true that there were fault's on both
sides. There might be reluctance, indifference, a turning
from the message faithfully given, that well deserved their
serious consideration, as well as any faults that might be
supposed to lie with the Church sof England.
Let them consider the shortcomings which were alleged
against the Church of England. What should they say of
the past, always a melancholy subject to an earnest roast?
lie was compelled with pain to say that the last 40 years
of the last century and the first 5s years of this were lost
to the Church of Estgland. There was at that time a
dead, apathy. It was then that skilled labour was begin-
ning to manifest itself, and that was the time when the
Church of England should have been especially forward,
when masses were gathering to the great cities, and the
skilled artisan was everywhere in request. That Was the
time for movement, and movement there was none. In that
time there was a very Mean estimate of the sacred pro-
fession. Holy orders in those slays were only too often
thought a sort of gentlemanly profession, and not, as it was
deemed now, an incumbent pressure on the whole of a life,
In season and out of season, to bring the bit see .1 message of
the Gospel everywhere to spend and lie spent for the Mas-
ter's cause. There was a neglect of a vital principle, which
he might say was not yet sufficiently recognised—namely,
1 that livings, as they were called, were not freeholds, but
I solcom trusts. 'Hear, hear) lie was afraid that in bygone
times there was a want of perception of this great truth that
in the professions and ditties of a clergyman there must be
two things,— there was notonly his pastors' work, which was
for those that were gathered istto the fold, but outside
that pastoral work there was a great field for home mis-
sionary effort, to go into the streets and alleys of the
city and compel men to come in. There were eloquent ser-
mons, thoughtful addresses, visiting those who were known
' to his members of the congregation, but there was no deep
sympathizing searching out for the poor and outcast. and
loving them for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ile had
spoken openly of the things that belonged to the errors of
the post to show them he was a frank speaker, but he was
bound to say that not one of the points to which he had
alluded could be considered applicable to the Church of
England in the year 1872. Hear, hear.) Vet there might
be things that could be amended now.
But what faults had they to find against the Church of
England Law? It had been said l'y working men that the
church suns closed against them because they bad not a
shilling to spare to give to the pew-opener, and that the
church doors were closed, except on Sundays. Those things,
said his lordship, were true, but they were gradually he-
coming better. As far as the Church Aid Society was con-
cernesl, the working men would always find a place and
a welcome ltt their churches ; anon more and more was
the vital necessity recognized of having the churches open
for private prayer. (Hear, hear.) Sometimes it was said
that the services were cold, hut perhaf se the heart came there
was cold as snow, too. If the heart moved towards prayer
there would be no such complaint. (Hear, hear.) It must
lie admitted that the services in acme of the churches were
coil, taut in this respect, too, they were fast improvieg.
Congregation-11 singing was everywhere making great
advanees. (Hear, hear.
Then it was complained by some that they MITI. SAW the
minister. and had ses opportunity of talking to him. He (the
Bishop) knew there was a kind of nervousness upon that
subject on the par‘pf the ministers. There seas such a fear
of the false system, the confessional, that ministers did not
properly encourage the communing and the going for eons-
satiation aust advice, and they did not do it lest they
should be suspected of encouraging a practice which he,
for one, believes' tube rotten to the core. (Applause.) Thank
(It'd, they were overcoming that now, ansl he thought that
objection was fast disappearing, for the ministers of the
Gospel were opening up opportunities for closer spiritual
oomsnunion.
Ills lordship then went on to refer to the working classes,
and alluded to their shortcomings. Ile said Ite feared that
indifference on the subject of religion was slowly stealing in
ameng them. He notices' also a tendency towards Mate-
rialism; anti then there was that sin which closed the heart
altogether, that made the message of the Gospel utterly un-
heard, Unit rained the soul of the hapless person, arch went
far to ruin the souls of others—he meant the sin of in-
temperance. What could the minister of the Gospel do
there 0 (Hear, hear.) In concluding Ili, long and aisle
mistress, the Bishop touchingly appealed to the working-
men to ensue forwent and aid the Slinisters in the work of
evangelization ; and, speaking of the power of player,
pointed to the recovery of the Prince of Wales front an
Illness that seemed past the result of human aid as an
answer to the prayers offered up by the nations 'an his behalf.
(Applause.)
A hearty vote of thanks WAS passed to the Mayor
for presiding, and to the Bishop for his addri•ss, and
the ineetingeoneluded with the singing of the National
Anthem.