The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-12-04 00:00:00

Fulham Palace, Nov. 27.
"Sir,— I have been prevented from replying earlier to your
letter of the Bth inst., principally by diocesan business, but
partly from a dcaibt as to whom my reply through you was
to beladctressed.
"The resolutions which you forwarded to me are stated by
you to have been passed at a crowded meeting of "the
religious societies, lay helpers, and congregation of St.
Vedast, Foster-lane," who express "their sorrow and indig- .
nation at being deprived of the valued ministrations of their
rector, the Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale." •
"I am tolerably well acquainted with the parishes of
St. Vedast with St. Michael-le-Querne. The population in
1871 was 295. It is believed to have very much diminished
since. Of poor there are scarcely any; schools there are
none. lwenty choirmen ' or Sunday-school teachers'
appear to have been from time to time enrolled as lay
helpers; but all, including yourself, Sir, live in other
parishes, and have, therefore, their own pastor and their
own church, which they have deserted. What the 'reli-
gious societies' of the parish may be I cannot say. The
congregation, according to returns made to me, which I
am informed can be verified, beginning in February last,
when Mr. Dale recommenced the administration of Holy
Communion (which he had for some months discontinued),
averaged in that month 13 in the morning and 24 in the
evening. In March, during which the inhibition was pub-
lished, it rose to 35 and 41, and in April to 34 and 50. In
the next three months it appears to have fallen again to 19
in the morning and 27 in the evening. The communicants
this year are stated to have averaged at the early celebra-
tion about seven, including the choir; while at the noon
r celebration there were sometimes none, and they seldom
' exceeded five.
" All the communicants, excepting the rector's family,
have been, I understand, non-parishioners. All this put
together appears to furnish slender material for a crowded
meeting.'
"An incumbent, at his institution to a benefice, has
solemnly committed to him the cure of the souls of the
parishioners of the parish. For them he is responsible to
God and the Church; and here his direct responsibility
stops. It is now some years since the parishioners of St.
Vedast complained that they were driven away from their
parish church by the introduction of ritual to which they
were unaccustomed, and which they believed to be illegal;
and their belief has been sustained since by the decision of
one of the strongest Courts, both in number and character,
which has ever sat. We honour the clergyman who, finding
his own parishioners too few to exhaust or employ all his
time and energy, endeavours to extend his usefulness to
others who are not directly under his charge; but it must
be rather a cause of regret when an incumbent who has
dispersed his own flock, for whom he is responsible to God,
endeavours to supply their place with others towards whom
he has no such solemn obligations.
"While ready therefore, to acknowledge your letter and
its enclosnre, I cannot admit them as coming from parish-
ioners of St. Vedast, or from those (excepting, I 11,glieve, the
chairman of the meeting) who have any proper right to call
Mr. Dale their rector.' I reply, however, that I disapprove
and greatly deplore the imprisonment of -Mr. Dale on public
as well as on personal grounds, for his sake as well as that
of the Church.
"Imprisonment is not a due or becoming penalty to in-
flict on a clergyman as the consequence of such an offence
as his, and will always enlist sympathy on the side of one
who 13 believed to err conscientiougly, however erroneous
that concience may be. Imprisonment, indeed, is a result
of proceedings under the Public Worship Act (as I stated
in ray charge last autumn) which was probably not in the
mind of any one who framed that Act, certainly not in the
minds of most who assisted in passing it. It is a penalty
which I could not myself have been a party to imposing,
but one of which I have no power, as you know perfectly
well of procuring the remission.
"It must, however, be borne in mind that if imprison-
ment proves to be a result of proceedings under the Public
Worship Act, it is equally the consequence of the wilful
disobedience of any subject to the sentence of any Court
of Justice in the realm.

" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"Mr. Henry A. Browne." "J. LONDON.

On Monday, Mr. Charles, Q.C., moved in the
Queen's Bench Division, on behalf of the Rev.
Thomas Pelham Dale, now in prison in Holloway
Gaol, for a writ of habeas corpus to be directed to the
governor to bring his prisoner into that court in order
to his being discharged from custody. The learned
counsel argued at considerable length that the pro-
ceedings under which Mr. Dale had been sent to
prison were invalid. The case was adjourned until
Tuesday, when Mr. Charles, continued his argu-
ment in support of his application.
At the close of the /earned counsel's argument, Mr.
Justice Field said this was a very serious and very
important case. Upon -consideration of the ,niatter,
the court thought without expressing any further
opinion the learned counsel had stated grounds which
entitled him to the writ.

The court made the rule returnable on Monday.
Rules were also granted for bringing up the require-
ments of Lord Penzance and the monition and inhibi-
tion, with a view to their being quashed as being bad
on the face of them, also for a prohibition on the
ground that all the proceedings were invalid, and also
to set aside the writ of contumace.

News of the granting of the rule in the case of the
Rev. T. Pelham Dale was at once communicated to
the prisoner. It was also sent by telegram to the
Rev. R. W. Enraght, at Warwick.