The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

Clituarg.

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS DE NEMOURS
d don Tuesday last at Claremont. The accouche-
ment of her Royal Highness took place at Clare-
mont on the 28th ultimo. Her Royal Highness had
gone ou favourably for some days, and the attack
under which the Princess sunk was as sudden as it
was unexpected. The Duke de Nemours, and the
whole of the members of the family, are plunged in
the deepest grief by the visitation. Intelligence of
the sad event was forwarded by express to Windsor
immediately, and the Prince Consort at once pro.
ceeded to Claremont to pay a visit of condolence.

The Duchess de Nemours was a daughter of the
Grand Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,
and was consequently cousin of her Majesty and the
Prince Consort. Her Royal Highness was born in
1822, and married in 1840 the Duke de Nemours, by
whom she has had four children—the Count d'Eu,
the Due d'Alencon, the Princess Marguerite, and,
after an interval of eleven years, the infant whose
birth has preceded by only a few days the untimely
decease of its illustrious mother.
MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAm ROGERS died on Friday
at Highfield. He was youngest son of the late Sir
Frederick Rogers, Bart. The gallant officer entered
the army in June, 1802, and was for many years in
the Queen's Bays, until his retirement on half-pay
in 1826. His commissions bore date as follows:
Cornet, 24th June, 1'402 ; lieutenant, 20th February,
1806; captain, 4th March, 1813; major, 23rd June,
1825 ; lieutenant-colonel, 26th September, 1826 ;
colonel, 22rd November, 1811; and major general,
11th November, 1851.
SIR ARTHUR CLARKE, M.D., brother-in-law of Lady
Morgan, died on Monday afternoon at his residence
in Dublin. Sir Arthur was in the 84th year of his
age. During the many years he resided in Dublin
he had necessarily been brought into relations with
all classes, and his kindly and courteous manner
rendered him a general favourite. He was attacked
a few days since with bronchitis, and from the first
but slight hopes were entertained of his recovery.
SIR JAMES BOSWELL, BART., died last week at
Auchinleek, his seat in Ayrshire. The respected
baronet was well known in sporting circles as
a liberal and honourable patron of the turf. Sir
James was son of the first baronet, and grandson
of the biographer of Dr. Johnson. He was born in
1806, and married in 1830 Miss Jessie Jane, eldest
daughter of Sir James Montgomery Cuninghame,
Bart. On the death of his father, who fell in a duel
arising out of a political dispute, in 1822, the year
after he had been created a baronet of the United
Kingdom, the deceased succeeded to the family
honours and estates. We believe by his demise the
baronetcy becomes extinct.
THE DOWAGER LADY FREMANTLE died at Nice, on
the 2nd inst., at the advanced age of seventy-nine.
She was daughter and co-heir of Richard Wynne, Esq.,
of Falkingham, Lincolnshire, and was mother of the
present Right Hon. Sir T. F. Fremantle, Bart.,
deputy-chairmsn of the Board of Customs. She was
married in 1798 to the late Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas
Francis Fremantle, G.C.8., one of Nelson's most
gallant officers, and a participator in the glories of
Copenhagen and Trafalgar. He was created, in 1816,
a baron of the Austrian empire ; which title his son,
the present baronet, received permission to inherit by
sign manual from King George IV. in 1822.
SIR ROBERT PRICE, BART., wbo for nearly forty
years has held a seat in the House of Commons,
died last week at his residence in Stratton-street,
Piccadilly. He was only son of Sir Uvedale, the first
baronet, by Lady Caroline Carpenter, fourth daughter
of the first Earl of Tyrconnel, and was born in 1.86.
He married, in 1823, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
Robert Price, and on the death of his father in 1829
succeeded to the baronetcy and extensive family
estates in Herefordshire. In 1818 he was returned
to the House of Commons for the county of Hereford,
which he continued to represent up to 1841. In
1845 he was elected for the city of Hereford, and
remained its representative until a few weeks before
the late dissolution.
SIR CLEMENT WOLSELEY, BART., died a few days
since at Brussels. He was born in 1794, and was
only sou of the late Major John R. Wolseley. In
1833 he married the eldest daughter of the late Mr.
P. Homrigh, M.P. for Drogheda. On the demise of
his uncle, the Bev. Sir Richard Wolseley, in 1852, he
succeeded to the baronetcy. The deceased was
formerly in the 80th Foot, in which regiment he
served in India. He was high sheriff of the county
Carlow in 1852, in which county the family have large
estates. He is succeeded in the baronetcy by his
eon, John Richard, born in 1834.

FIRE AT WORSLEI HALL.
Yesterday morning a fire broke ont in the above
hall. It began in the senantie chamber, and gpreg4
below. The damage done was considerable.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM MOVEMENF.

A MEETISU, attended by, among others, Mr. Roe-
buck, 31. P.; Sir John Shelley, M.P.; Mr. W.
Williams, M.P. ; Mr. Donald Nicoll, M.P.; Mr.
Ayrton, M.P.; Mr. Samuel Morley, and Mr. Edward
Miall, was held a few evenings ago at the Guildhall
Coffee-house, Gresham-street, in reference to the
subject of parliamentary reform. It appears that for
some time past efforts have been made, and are still
being made, by certain gentlemen in the metropolis,
of whom it is believed the above-named are among
theinurnber, to ascertain by means of correspondence
the extent to which " advanced " parliamentary
reformers throughout the kingdom can be induced to
agree to the general outline of a measure for the
amendment of our representative system. The mode
of doing that has been, or is, to submit to the known
reformers in all parts of the country a draught plan
or programme of reform, to invite and collate their
opinions upon it, and then to modify or remould the
scheme in the hope of securing for it the largest
amount of concurrence and support. Having in
this way found a common basis of operations,
the intention is to make known the result
in such a shape as may carry with it the
united authority of the party. It does not appear
to be in contemplation to bring this before Parlia-
ment as a substantive measure, in opposition to or in
the absence of any bill emanating from the Govern-
ment, but rather to unfurl it as "the banner"—to
use the language of an organ of the party, or one in
sympathy with the movement—" under which indi-
viduals of differing shades of opinion would be willing
to enlist." In the event of Lord Palmerston intro-
ducing a scheme of reform next session, they hope
thus to bring the great body of reformers
as much as possible into agreement on the general
question. Their apologists, in reply to certain
strictures in a part of the weekly metropolitan press
on the mode in which they are moving in this
matter, " deny that they are constructing any national
organisation, contemplating any noisy agitation, or
laying the plans for the accumulation of political
influence." The meeting at the Guildhall Coffee-
house was strictly private, so that nothing is yet
publicly known of the plan of reform the party is
about to propound ; but a weekly contemporary,
which professes to be in the secret, states that it
proposes to confer a large extension of the suffrage
on the owners and occupants, in part or whole, of
premises rated for the relief of the poor; establishes
the principle of secret voting on the Australian plan,
and of triennial Parliaments ; abolishes the property
qualification of members ; and redistributes the con-
stituencies so as to give a majority of representatives
to a majority of electors.

THE CLERGY AND THE DIVORCE ACT.
AN address to the Qtreen is now in course of sig-
nature among the clergy in various parts of the
provinces, representing the painful position in which
they are placed by the Divorce and Matrimonial
Causes Act, and the restraint it imposes on their
consciences. They state that the act contains pro-
visions in direct conflict with the Act of Uniformity,
and that there is no word, either in the form of
solemnisation of matrimony prescribed by the Book
of Common Prayer, or iu any other of the formularies
of the Church of England, to show or suggest that
it has been at any time the judgment of the Church
that marriage, once lawfully contracted, is dissolvable
except by death. They add that the Act of Unifor-
mity binds every benificed clergyman to " declare,
openly and publicly before the congregation, his
unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things
contained and prescribed in the Book of Common
Prayer, and to use the morning prayer, evening
prayer, celebration and administration of both the
sacraments, and all other the public and common
prayer in such order and form as is mentioned in the
said book." They contend, therefore, that the
Divorce Act has indirectly repealed a material portion
of the Act of Uniformity, which is the legal and con-
stitutional basis of the public ministrations of the
Church of England. This preJedent, they say, is
most alarming, inasmuch as it is manifest that
if the principle of repealing any material portion
of the Act of Uniformity indirectly and by
implication be once admitted, the plain meaning
of the Prayer Book may be nullified, and its
express directions imperceptibly abrogated, in so far
as the statutable obligation of these is concerned,
and that fundamental alterations may be thereby
effected in the relations of the Church to the State
without the attention of the laity or clergy having
been awakened to the legislative process by which
such alterations shall have been made. They state,
moreover, that the indirect repeal of the material
portion in question of the Act of Uniformity by ti.e
Divorce Act is accompanied by a circumstance with-
out parallel, as they conceive, in the giglation
which has hitherto affected the United Church of
England and Ireland—namely, the exemption of one
portion of that United Church from the operation of