The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

introduction of a thing which they most strongly ob•
jected to. The learned counsel, in conclusion, defied
any person to look at the authorities he had cited
without coming to the conclusion that it was a matter
of the greatest possible doubt whether the 29th
article was or was not in the book to which the
statute of Elizabeth referred.

The court adjourned for a few minutes. On
the return of his grace and the assessors into court,
Dr. BAYFORD replied : The protest blinked the
real question, and made no reference to the fact that
the court had deliberately expressed an opinion that
the archdeacon was guilty of preaching doctrine con-
trary to the 28th article; but if the case were ex•
actly as Dr. Phillimore had argued it, it would only
amount to this—that the archdeacon was guilty of
preaching doctrine contrary to one instead of two
articles. He was consequently undoubtedly amen-
abla to punishment.
Dr. PHILLINORE replied on Wednesday, arguing
that the contravention of the 29th article, unless it
was in the statute, was not punishable by that parti.
cular statute. The argument that if even the 29th
article were omitted the 28th contained all that was
necessary to subject the venerable archdeacon to
punishment, was a reductio ad absurdum, for in that
case where was the use at all of the 29th article?
Dr. Phillimore then proceeded to prove that the alte-
rations and discrepancies which be had pointed out
between the ordinary formula and the little book
printed in Parliament in 1566 without the 29th
article, as well as in the fae-simile of Lamb, were in
reality alterations afterwards agreed to in Convoca-
tion, and with the Queen's sanction subsequently
made in the articles.

Dr. LUSHINOTON then delivered the opinion of the
court, and while carefully avoiding the ingenious
arguments on both sides, proceeded at once to discuss
the point—whether the doctrine propounded by the
archdeacon in his sermons was contrary or not to the
established religion. The conclusion the archbishop
came to was as follows :

The court is of opinion that the Venerable the Arch-
deacon has not made reference to the true issue and the
sole issue in this case ; that issue being, as already re-
peatedly stated, whether the doctrines maintained by the
archdeacon are contrary and repugnant to the articles of
religion taken in their plain, grammatical sense. The
court cannot acknowledge the proposition to be, whether
the doctrines of the archdeacon are consistent with the
articles as said to be expounded by eminent divines; and
this too in quotations briedy extracted from voluminous
works, and often detached from the context, which ought
to have been quoted with them. The court cannot
receive a disclaimer of the words employed when it is
the substance and not the language only, which the court
holds to be contrary to the articles. The court is most
anxious that its judgment should not be misunderstood,
that it should not be supposed to express any opinion, that
the clergy of this realm should be restrained in their just
liberty of fully discussing or interpreting what is really a
subject (to use the words of Lord Stowell) of dubious in-
terpretatiop, or of advocating in such case their own
opinions. What the court condemns is the imposition,
by reference to extraneo•rs sources, of a meaning contrary
and repugnant to that which the plain words of the article
import, which, in fact, is tantamount to the alteration of
the articles themselves. The archdeacon having declined
to make the revocation required of him, and having de-
clared his firm adherence to the substance of that teaching
which the court has declared to be contrary and repug-
nant to the articles, it becomes the duty of the court to
pronounce the sentence required by the statute—the
sentence of deprivation.
The sentence of deprivation was then in due form
pronounced. An appeal was at once assented to,
and the sth of December assigned as the time.

THE INQUIRY into the attempt to poison witnesses
at Worcester has resulted in the committal of the
man Bury, the purchaser of the opium. Tipper was
discharged for want of evidence to convict.
THE NAN WILLETTS, committed last week at Liver-
pool for an attempt to murder his wife, is at present
under suspicion of having lately murdered a woman
he was living with. The body has been exhumed.

LOVE, SEDUCTION, AND SUICIDE were once more ex-
emplified, last week by a maid servant at Edgbaston,
one Elizabeth Barton, who drowned herself in a house
cistern, in a fit of despair at her lover deserting her
to marry another girl. A verdict of" Temporary in-
sanity " was returned.
THE INQUIRY (held before Mr. Baker, on Monday)
into the death of Elizabeth Gaylor, the women who
last week took about an ounce and a half of sulphate
of potass to procure abortion, and died in conse
quence, has resulted in a verdict of " Felo-de se "
upon the woman, and " Wilful murder " against her
husband, who has been fully committed for trial.

A DEATH FROM DESTITUTION occurred at the
Strand Workhouse on Monday. it appeared that
the deceased, one Louisa Regan, formerly a
governess, was found in the streets at nine
o'clock in the morning, in a very feeble state. It
was raining hard, and a policeman, seeing that
she was very ill, carried her to King's College
Hospital. She was taken into the surgery, and
placed upon a table, and about ten o'clock was seen
by Mr. Way, the house physician, and another

1019

medical gentleman, who decided that she was suffer-
ing under consumptive disease, and could not be
admitted into the hospital, as there was no accommo-
dation for consumptive patients. The deceased was
removed from the hospital in a cab to the Strand
Union Workhouse, where she died the same after-
noon. The post-mortem examination showed that
the lungs were much diseased, but there was no ap-
pearance sufficient to account for death. The
coroner, in summing up, said it was a most painful
case :

Here was a poor woman found at nine o'clock in the
morning in a dying state, drenched in rain, seeking in
vain for relief. After the unusual delay at King's College
Hospital, she at last reached the Strand Union Workhouse
at five minutes to twelve. in a state of complete exhaus-
tion. She was conveyed by two men to one of the upper
wards, then removed to the bath room, and back again—
and no refreshment was offered her until the dinner hour,
when the ordinary soup of the house was proffered. She
refused it, and it was not until after four o'clock that she
received from a girl, who had known her elsewhere, a cup
of tea. and in a quarter of an hour she expired, having re-
ceived for so many hours nothing but sympathy. Thus it
was painfully demonstrated that there was a want of that
care and attention which ought to be shown in our public
institutions. Had that poor creature received common at-
tention on her arrival at the workhouse, it was his convic-
tion that she might have lived for months.
The jury, after some consideratiln, returned a verdict
to the effect '° that deceased died from disease and
destitution, and that they were also unanimously of
opinion that there was a great deal of blame
attached to the authorities of the Strand Union
Workhouse and King's College Hospital. for not
showing that attention to deceased which she stood
in need of." The hospital authorities have protested
that every care was shown the poor creature at the
hospital.
A DARING OUTRAGE was committed on Monday
night in Parliament-street, Westminster, at the shop
of Mr. Berry, jeweller. It appears that Mr. Berry
does not attend personally to his business in Par-
liament street, having another establishment at Pim-
lico, which he conducts, and left the former shop to
the care of an assistant, named Cope, and it was
customary for him to remain at the house in Par-
liament-street until about half-past nine o'clock at
night, when he took away to Mr. Berry the more
valuable contents of the shop. Just before the time
for closing, the passers by observed Cope struggling
with a strange man. The man was violently striking
Cope on the head, who crouched down behind the
counter, overcome by the repeated attacks of his
assailant. The man then rushed from the shop,
stooping to pick up, as is thought, a small parcel,
and, pushing by the crowd, ran up Canon-row, across
Bridge-street by the opposite court, into Palace-yard,
where he was seized by a policeman, and taken to
the station in King street. The unfortunate man
Cope was found to be so much injured about the
head, insensible, and paralysed, that he was con-
veyed to the Westminster Hospital. His head was
trepanned, but he died on Thursday night. The
prisoner Jenkins is at present under remand.
THE CASE OF THE ROYAL BRITISH BANK was heard
at the Bankruptcy Court on Monday, and adjourned
till Wednesday, when their honours, Commissioners
Holroyd and Goulburn, gave judgment. Mr. Com-
missioner Holroyd, in a very elaborate judgment, in
which his honour referred to the principal arguments
used in opposition, gave it as his clear opinion that
the company had committed an act of bankruptcy on
the Bth of October, before the appointment of the
official manager, which did not take place until the
13th of that month ; the directors having been served
with a writ of summons at the suit of a creditor, and
not having complied with the Act of the 7th and tith
of Vict., c. 111, which pointed out that if the directors
did not within one month after the service of the
summons, either pay, secure, or compound for the
debt to the satisfaction of the creditor, or make an
affidavit that had a good defence to the action, and
having entered an appearance, it should be deemed
an act of bankruptcy. Proceedings had been taken
by two creditors under the seventh section of the 7th
and Bth Vic., c. 111, but the directors had not com-
plied with the requisitions of the act. He was, on all
the points, clearly of opinion that the adjudication
must be confirmed, and it was to be regretted that
the assignees had not been advised to take the
initiatory steps, which they could have done under
the fourth section of the act, and brought the case
into the court. Mr. Commissioner Goulburn con-
curred, and the adjudication was confirmed.
THE SUICIDE at Manchester of a young gentle-
man, Mr. W. H. Hodgson, aged twenty three, a
son of a late magistrate, occurred last Saturday
evening at the family house, Clara-villa, Burlington-
street, Manchester. Mr. Hodgson blew out his,brains.
A verdict of " Temporary insanity " was returned.
A disappointment in lave is believed to have been th•
Cause.
THE CASE OF FATAL ADMINISTRATION OF COLOSO-
FORM at St. Thomas's Hospital last week has resulted
in the exoneration, by the coroner's jury, of the hos-
pital surgeon.

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1020 THE PRESS. SATURDAY,

THE WEEK.

THE Neapolitan question is disposed of by the note in the Moniteur.
It was impossible for the Western Powers, after their formal requisi-
tion to the King of the Two SICILIES, and his absolute rejection of it,
to avoid taking some step to signify their displeasure. This step has
been taken in the mildest form that the diplomatic situation would
admit of, and rather acknowledges that the two Powers had taken up a
false position, and were anxious to escape from it as quietly as possi•
ble, than visit the Neapolitan Government with consequences of their
just indignation. If the legations are withdrawn, and the allied fleets
keep at a distance, the King will, of course, be at full liberty to rule
according to his own notions, and Austria will, in a diplomatic sense,
have the field to herself. How different is the course taken from that
which our Liberal journals led us to expect. There is something
positively atrocious in the bad faith of our Liberal politicians towards
Italy. Only two or three weeks since one of our journals, to
whose announcements an official importance is usually attached,
authoritatively declared that the allied fleets would enter the Bay of
Naples, and held out encouragement to the Neapolitan Liberals that
the time was at hand when an insurrectionary movement would be
favoured by the Western Powers. How different is the language of
the same journal now—" We have no wish to call in to our aid such
" questionable allies as discontent and revolution. We have no wish to
" render the throne of the Two Sicilies and the reign of the Bourbon
" one whit less secure. England and France would rather
" bequeath to future times an event that would bring great disorders
" and difficulties." Then why the language of weeks past, in which
it was declared that interference was imperatively called for, and that
the King of N'APLEM must be read a sharp lesson ? The Daily News was
much more violent. Nothing less than a strait-waistcoat for the King
would suit its scribes and their sybil. Must not the readers of these
journals be afflicted with a sense of humiliation at finding that these
rank diatribes have come to nothing, and that, after so much bullying
and bouncing, the Western Powers have not the slighest intention of
interfering with the King's Government, and, moreover, that the very
journals which were foremost in clamouring for his downfall, and in
their exhortations to the Neapolitan Liberals to prepare for the good
time coining, have no wish—now that France has spoken—to render his
throne or reign one whit less secure ? The national character is out-
raged by this mingled bravado and pusillanimity. It resembles the
abuse of fish-fags when a policeman is standing by. There are
epithets and gesticulation in plenty, but nothing more. Who can
wonder that we are objects of derision in the streets of N aples, that
after the boastiags of our newspapers, two fleets are placarded as
missing or lost, and that it should be reported the authorities ate
quite prepared to beat back the English—when they come ? This new
humiliation following closely on the dismissal of our M inister by the
United States' Government, and on the complete overthrow of British
influence in Spain, must tend to give foreign Courts a poor opinion
of our spirit, though, to be sure, if they see our Ministerial journals
they must acknowledge that we abundantly make up by boasting for
our lack of action. The last grand boast of Lord PALMERSTON'S organ,
the Post, is that our withjrawal from Naples is—what does the reader
suppose? why, " A stab in the heart of Austria." By such false,
swaggering nonsense it is attempted to impose on the sense of our
people. In all that relates to foreign politics, our new spapers are
falling below the level of the American press.

that transportation is in abeyance it is as absolutely necessary to do
something for the unfortunate man who is turned out of prison on the
wild world without a single human being to befriend him as it is for the
youthful vagrant who is deserted in the streets. Formerly, when
removed to a totally new country with a wide tield of labour before
him, the convict had a reasonably fair chance of becoming a reformed
character. In England, when his sentence is completed, theft or
starvation are the only alternatives. At the same time, it. cannot be
too often repeated that means MUST be found to keep down the condi-
tion of the criminal below that of the honest population. We have
said this till we are almost tired of saying it; but, considering the
ignorance and prejudices of the lower orders, and how apt they are to
believe themselves unfairly treated, the necessity of attending to the
pmsible danger cannot be too often enforced. Let a refuge be pro-
vided—coarse food and lodging, and hard work just something to put
them beyond the reach of their former associates. They need not be
treated harshly; but they must nut receive any exclusive advantages.
The stigma attaching to a man once convicted is sufficient to render
any great anxiety about making his future life uncomfortable need-
less. But crime must not be permitted to bring with it solid or per-
manent advantages.

An amiable Italian exile, AURELIO SAFFI, has favoured the public
this week with his views of Italian politics. He does not say that the
dagger is the only true regenerator. But he does with great honesty
declare that no good ever will or can arise from such interference with
Italian politics as our English Liberals dream of :

Let English politicians and English friends of Italy depend on this—the real, the
true Italian question is not one of partial rearrangements, of homoeopathic administra-
tive reforms, of forcing the King of Naples or the Pope to grant and swear to•dsy what.
they will forswear and withdraw to-morrow, as they ever have done, through the con-
nivance and preponderance of Austrian politics in the peninsula. . . . The very
concessions that might be extorted from the meaner tyrants of the country would but
feed with new fuel the sacred flame now scarcely compressed in the soul of the nation,
even under the weight of two foreign armies.

This is plain speaking. The Italian Liberals expect nothing from
foreign interference. They speak of France as one of the nations
which oppress the Italian peninsula, and they look with scorn on the
hnbtub which is now raised about Naples. In a word, the Italian
Liberals ground their hopes on the probability of another revolution.
in France, as, in the words of SAM, " they have nothing to expect from
the reaction of the despotic powers of Europe, and the indecision of free
countries." The commentary of the Times on this letter is characteristic.
It lectures Italy on the crime of insurrection, and hints that she can do
no better than submit to her inevitable fate. In particular, England
and France entirely disclaim the intention of exciti lig any revolutionary
movement in Italy by the withdrawal of their Ambassadors from
Naples. And this is the end of hopes which have been so sedulously
raised and cherished !

The accident at the Surrey-gardens is one of a c lass for which
nobody but the people themselves are strictly responsible. Whenever
great multitudes are assembled there must be danger to limb and life.
Several people were crushed to death in the crowd collected to see the
lying-in-state of the Great Duke in Chelsea College, and on the occa-
sion of the late fireworks there were several accidents, and some of
them fatal. No arrangement can be made to render panics impossible,
and no edifices can be built to prevent people from being crushed if
they will all rush out of one door. When every precaution has been
taken, we must still rely on the good sense of the multitude to prevent
dreadful accidents. There is however one obvious precaution that
should be taken in every building intended to hold a groat number of
persons. The moans of egress should be direct and ample Doors
should be wide and numerous, and passages broad and straight. It
is shocking to reflect on the consequences of a panic when Exeter-hall
is crowded ; and a panic, or something worse, a real fire, is far from
impossible. The Directors of the Surrey-gardens do not on this occa-
sion seem free from responsibility in letting out their Music Hall for
this Sunday evening exhibition. From what we hear of Mr. SPURGEoN,
his popularity seems to rest on much the same basis as that of JOE
Smrrit, the Mormon prophet. If it be true that he took the opportunity
of this awful calamity to compare the solicitude of mankind for their
bodies with the unconcern that they exhibit for their souls. we only
trust that for the future his popularity will not be such as to afford him
another like opportunity of "improving the occasion."

The question of agricultural statistics has been thoroughly dis-
cussed at the rural gatherings lately held. The conclusion from the
speeches delivered is, that while among the country party there is
a feeling favorable to the collection of correct information as to the
produce of. the kingdom, no inquisitorial process is to be thought of,
or tolerated. This feeling is natural. All trades and professions aro
jealous of too curious an inquiry into their dealings and profits, and
why should we expect the farmer to be an exception to the rule .2 The
Right Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire points to the materials
which already exist for forming an estimate of agricultural produce.
More than an approximation to the truth never could be gained,
and perhaps, for all practical purposes, the means of arriving at such
an approximation are already at hand. The use of an exact inquiry
would be very doubtful. Now the corn trade is completely open, the
harvests of America, of Russia, of the Danubian provinces, and of
other continental countries, form elements as important for arriving
at a conclusion on the prices likely to prevail as the harvest at
home. With the world at peace, and trade in corn unrestricted, the
amount of grain grown in England can no more be received as the
ground-work of a calculation on comparative abundance and scarcity,
than the growth of Sussex could be taken as an estimate of the
produce of Northumberland. There is force in the warning phrase,
" statistical imposture." The census books show the absurd extreme to
which it has been carried. If a system of agricultural statistics wero
established, it is doubtful whether information would he received
until the need for it was past; and, at best, the judgment formed
from it might he quite as uncertain as that which persons interested
in the subject have it already in their power to form for themselves.
The notion of compelling a farmer to supply all the details of his
produce annually, or of authorising agents to scrutinise his fields and
homestead, is such an invasion of individual liberty us no specious
pretext of useful statistics can be allowed to justify.

The great Mr. Lofty has again condescended this week to become
cognisant of the existence of a Conservative party, or at least that
such a party is talked of. This mighty gentleman is pleased to repre-
sent himself in much the sort of style that Jove is portrayed in tho
mythological burlesque of the stage. He is disturbed in the enjoy-
ment of a doze, when reposing in an easy chair, with his feet on a
Turkey carpet, a blazing fire before him, and a row of decanters on his
table. " Is it a noise that has disturbed him, or is it only a singing in
"his ears? It must be a noise. Who can dare to disturb his repose?
" If he were not a little gouty, he would got up and see what was the

Tho Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society seems to be exactly the
kind of inst itution required to make the reformatory movement com-
plete. So mething is to be done for the adult as well as for the boy
offender, and the evil is at last to be encountered at both ends. Now