The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

Whereas the Rev. Richard Temple Vest, a clerk in holy
orders of the United Church of England and Ireland,
and atipendary curate of Boyn Hill, in the county of lierks,
and within our diocese and jurisdiction, is charged by the
Rev. John Shaw, Vicar of Stoke Poges, in the county of
Buckingham, with an offence against the laws ecclesiastical
in having within two years hereof, in the performance of
his ministerial duty on the occasion of visiting a certain
sick person named Nancy Arnold, put improper questions
to her with the view of leading her to make confession to
him, as is more fully charged in a certain requisition or
complaint sent to us, • copy of which is hereunto Rub-
joined, and whereas we, rightly and duly proceeding under
the authority and in conformity with the provieions of a
certain Act of Parliament passed in the session holden in
the third and fourth years of the reign of her present
Majesty, chapter 88, for better enforcing clerical
discipline, did on the 30th day of August last now past,
being fourteen days at least before the issuing of this our
Commission, send notice under our hand to the said
Richard Temple West, that it was our intention to issue
a commission under oar hand and seal to you the five
abiive-mentioned persons for the purpose of making
inquiry as to the grounds of the aforesaid charges.
We therefore, by virtue and in further pursuance of the
said recited Act, do, on the application of the said John
Shaw, issue this our commission to you, the said Robert
John Phillimore, James Randall, James Edward Austen
Leigh, Charles Sawyer, and John Hibbert, for the purpose
of making inquiry as to the grounds of the aforesaid
charge, and we do hereby authorise and empower you to
make such inquiry, and to proceed in the execution of
this commission in the manner directed by the said recited
Act. Given under our hand and seal on the 15th day of
September, in the year of our Lord 1858, and of our con-
Heoration the Lith.
Dr. PHILLINORE stated that the commissioners bad
come to ►he conclusion that they would first hear the
counsel for the accuser—then they would hear the
counsel for Mr. West.
Mr. CRIPPS then proceeded to address the court
on behalf of the Rev. R. T. West, who, he said, had
been accused, under the Church Discipline Act, of a
violation of ecclesiastical rule in reference to confes.
sion, and cited the particular cases in which that rule
had been infringed.
The inquiry was then adjourned.

COTTAGE IMPROVEMENTS.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—l have read your article on the dwellings of
the poor with great interest, and I beg to inclose you
plans, which are only just ready for issue to the
public, which will show that whatever the fate of the
labouring poor in towns, there is a move in the matter
as to the country which may eventually reach back
to the towns.

You are probably aware that hitherto the great
obstacle in the way of cottage improvement has
been its relegation to the realms of philanthropy—
almost of charity. Certainly it is only liberal.
minded men, "whose hearts are in the right place,"
who will build cottages at about 2001. a piece cost
while all the rent that can he squeezed out of a
labourer's earnings is 2s. per week. By the plans of
the Cottage Improvement Society good convenient
cottages, with three bedrooms upstairs, can be built
anywhere in the United Kingdom at 1701. THE
PAIR

This movement is not only at the threshold of all
sanatory improvement, but of rnoral religious pro-
gress. 'there can be neither morality ner religion
when all the decencies and proprieties of life are
outraged, or when, as at Great Norwood, every
cottage was a fever nest.—Yours, faithfully,
CHAS. J. CooKE, Hon. Sec. of the Cottage
Improvement Society.
18, Adam•street, Adelphi, Sept. 23.

THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE ARMY CLOTHING
SYSTEM, recently appointed to inquire into the
manner in which the great military clothing depot at
Weedon is conducted, are now conducting the inquiry
in one of the committee-rooms of the House of
Commons, and continue the investigation which
was formally opened towards the end of July. The
commissioners are Mr. Selfe, the police magistrate,
who is the chairman ; Mr. Aspinall Turner, one of the
members for Manchester; and Colonel French, of
the War office. The scope of their inquiry has
been recently enlarged, so as to embrace not only the
state of the store and clothing depot at Weedon, but
those at Woolwich and the Tower. The public press
is freely admitted to the proceedings. It was stated
on Tuesday, by Sir Benjamin Hawes, Under.
Secretary of State for War, that no accurate account
of stores had been kept at Weedon. The intention
of the present Government is that the establishment
at Weedon as regards the clothing department should
be entirely removed to London, and the whole of the
inspection of the clothing carried on in London
under a new system by a mixed board of officers.
Several cloth manufacturers and army cloth merchants
were examined, but nothing was elicited as to any
bribery or corruption having been practised.