The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-11-06 00:00:00

ARREST OF THE REV. T. PELHAM
DALE.

On Saturelay evening the Rev. T. Pelham Dale, rector of
St. Vedast, Foster-lane, London, was arrested under a decree
Issued by the Dean of Arches, and lodged in the City Prison
at Holloway.—The Times of Monday gave the following
particulars
The case of the rector of St. Vedast, Foster-lane,
a small church close to the General Post Office, has
been before Lord Penzance on several occasions, no
notice having been taken by Mr. Dale of the suit, its
monitions or suspensions, except by an appeal to the
Court of Queen's Bench nearly three years ago,
when the sentence was quashed on the ground
of an informality. A second suit was instituted
by the churchwardens, and has been steadily
pursued. On Thursday last, the Judge (Lord
Penzance) agreed to issue a siant;fieasit, which was more
speedily acted on than might have been expected, or
on Saturday evening, at seven o'clock, an officer pro-
ceeded to Mr. Dale's residence, No. 6, Ladbroke-
gardens, Notting-hill, and then and there arrested
him. After a somewhat affecting farewell—for Mr.
Dale is a man of over 60 years of age, and the father of
a large family—he was conveyed in a cab to Holloway
Gaol, where all communication with him until Mon-
day morning was forbidden without a special order
from the governor. Mrs. Dale telegraphed to the
Secretary of the Church of England Working Men's
Society and to some members of the choir, and they
proceeded to the gaol to take Mr. Dale's instructions
as to the Sunday services. Access was denied them,
and yesterday morning the Secretary of the City of
London branch of the English Church Union tele-
graphed the news to the president and other leading
members of the High Church party, while a statement
of the facts vras drawn up and taken to Mr. Gladstone's
official residence in Downing-street.
"For more than an hour there was a large s.ssembly
of the choir and usual worshippers outside the church
in Foster-lane, upon the portals of which the fol-
lowing notice had been posted by one of the rector's
friends :

"'ln consequence of the rector of this parish, the Rev. T.
Pelham Dale, being confined in prison for conscience sake
there will be no service in this church until further notice.'
"One of the prosecuting churchwardens arrived,
and stated that there soon would be; but the Arch-
deacon (Bishop Claughton) was surprised when in-
fbrmed on his arrival at St. Paul's yesterday morning
of the speedy process of the writ. It is understood
in legal circles that the legal advisers of the English
Church Union will move for a writ of Habeas Corpus,
and adduce evidence to show that the advertisements
upon which the Ridsdale judgment was based, and, of
course, in pursuance of which Mr. Dale is condemned,
have no legal existence, never having received Parlia-
mentary sanction."

The Times of Tuesday said :—" The Rev. Thomas
Pelham Dale is confined in the right wing of the gaol,
on the ground floor, two rooms being assigned to him,
and a small fire allowed; this and the gas have to be
extinguished at half-past eight o'clock at night, and at
six o'clock in the morning he is expected to rise. His
friends are allowed to supply him with food, but no
spirits or tobacco are permitted within the prison.
He is, however, already on the sick list and under
the doctor's care, as he is suffering from general de-
bility and an abscess in the right hand. On Sunday,
as no communication is permitted with the outside
world, he was compelled to accept prison fare. In the
afternoon of Sunday the Bishop of London's legal
secretary, Mr. Lee, visited the church and saw one of
the churchwardens, but Mr. Dale had carefully
locked up the sacred building. In the evening the
Rev. G. Acland, of the Grammar School, Kensington,
attended to conchict the service, but failed to gain
admission. After an interview with the Bishop
of London on Monday morning he proceeded to the
gaol to see if the prisoner would give him the key or
enter into any arrangement with him as holding
the Bishop's licence for the conduct of the services. Mr.
Alderman Figgins, the visiting justice, has given per-
mission for Mrs. Dale and one member of the family to
see the rector of St. Vedast daily, and Colonel Hardy,
the secretary of the English Church Union, and Mr.
Charles Powell, of the Working Men's Society, are
also permitted to see him on legal business. To every
other caller yesterday a refusal had to be given, and
these numbered over 30 before midday ; but their
cards were sent in to Mr. Dale, and also the pro-
visions and flowers, &c., which many of them
brought."

The Times of Wednesday said :—"Application has
been made to Sir Edmund. Du Cane, of the Prisons
Commission, for leave to other persons than those at
first named to visit the prisoner, and it has been
granted. Mrs. Dale was with her husband for some
time yesterday, and a son in holy orders, who had
come up from the North, has permission to see his
father daily from twelve to four o'clock. The Hon. C. L.
Wood, who had been telegraphed for, arrived in Lon-
don yesterday about five o'clock, and has applied
for permission to see Mor. Dale to-morrow,
to communicate the result of Wednesday's coun-
cil meeting of the English Church Union,
of which he is the President. Mr. Dale's health
is far from satisfactory, but this he attributes to his
general condition of debility prior to his incarceration.
The callers were much more numerous during the day,
and the provisions left are apportioned to the prisoner's
requirements. Not much value is attached in legal
circles to the fact that the signature of the Lord Chief
Justice was appended to his order of commitment,
instead of that of a Chancery Judge or Master. It is
thought that the Judicature Act provides for it. The
proctor for the English Church Union has sent for all
the papers which were served on Mr. Dale since
Thursday last. Some working men who wrote on
Sunday to Canon Liddon at Oxford, apprising him of
Mr. Dale's arrest, have received a letter of thanks con-
taining the following statement. :—` Unless all history
is to be distrusted, persecution is in the long run much
more fatal to the cause of the persecutor than to the
cause of the persecuted. Mr. Dale will not forfeit the
consideration and affection which his life and cha-
racter deservedly command.' The Rev. G. Acland
failed to gain an audience with the rector of St.
Vedast on Monday about the keys of the church, and
it was stated that he declined to enter into any com-
munication with the prosecutors on the subject. A
working man's meeting is being arranged for Monday
or Tuesday at Cannon-street Hotel, and the 220
branches have been invited to bold meetings in their
districts and to send resolutions or delegates to the
meetings which are to be held for the purpose of
petitioning the Crown for the prisoner's release."