The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

Sab3 AO Volta.

THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY WITH, or persuade
to elope, a ward in Chancery, was charged against
the Hon. Mr. Chichester, and his sister, Lady Ferrers.
The young lady in question is named Clara Thorn-
hill, who is entitled to a very large fortune, and
placed under the immediate guardianship of Mr. and
Mrs. Hungerford, who resided at Dingley-park, in
Northamptonshire. This charge finally resolved it-
self into a motion that Mr. Chichester and Lady

Ferrers should be committed to prison for contempt
of court. There was a cross-application on the part
of Mr. Chichester, in the shape of a petition praying
for leave of Chancery to prosecute his addresses to
Miss Thornhill. The case had been argued on either
side at much length before the Lord Chancellor in
his private room, but on Monday last his lordship
pronounced judgment and recapitulated the facts in
open court. The first acquaintance between Mr.
Chichester and Miss Thornhill was, it seems, formed
in May, 1b53, when her guardians and herself paid a
short visit to Lady Ferrers while her brother was
staying in the house. During that visit he paid no
marked attentions, but shortly afterwards the guar-
dians of Miss Thornhill discovered that, under cover
of some apparently harmless correspondence, there
were letters written in sympathetic ink from Lady
Ferrers to Miss Thornhill, designed to induce her to
marry Mr. Chichester, who was avowedly at the time
overwhelmed with embarrassments. This constituted
the gravamen of the charge against Lady Ferrero,
and the Chancellor admitted did not furnish grounds
for any punishment from the court, although con-
fessedly highly culpable in a moral point of view.
Mr. Chichester, however, went much further. He
proceeded under a sort of disguise to Market Har-
borough, which was about a mile from Dingley-park,
and there fixed his abode with three companions for
some time. During this interval he used various arts
to persuade Miss Thornhill to elope with him, and
succeeded in inducing her to hold secret conversa-
tions with him by night from the window of her room ;
and also sent her letters, some from his sister, Lady
Ferrers, promising them an asylum after the elope-
ment, others from himself, some passages of which
the Chancellor read in the course of his r umming up:—

In those letters I rind these passages." Clara, is it just towards
me, this treatment? Am Ito go about, afraid of seeing any one
here, skulking about? There is a great deal of difference be-
tween"—l will not mention the name; ho mentions a gentleman
who is well known in society to have eloped two years ago with
a lady of rank—" There is a great difference between" that gen-
tleman " and G. A. H. C."—that is, George Augustus Hamilton
Chichester. "He married my cousin, and we were all very much
annoyed." What do 1 infer from that? Why, that he had pro-
posed to the young lady to run away from the house of her guar-
dian, but that she had remonstrated, and had pointed out how
ill that lady stood in society, and that he endeavours to get over
scruples by pointing out—there is • great difference between
that person—who was not quite an equal in rank—and "G. A.
H. C," that is to say, the ills that have attended that lady in her
after life from having run away will not attend you, because I am
of high and noble family and be was not. Then there is another
fragment of a letter in which this occurs," To-morrow night what
you ought to do, dearest Clara. is to say cr write 'ready' when
you are—that will be now or to-morrow night, whichever you
like—so. dearest Clara, be mine." Who can doubt, when be was
coming in the middle of the night with two or three men attend-
ing him, that the object was (I should say by violence, if resisted,
but certainly in some way or other) to run off with the young
lady? Then there is a letter in which this passage occurs—" Do
you think, Clara, that I for one moment *ould wish you to leave
your guardians if 1 was not certain, if I had not had the first legal
opiuious on the matter, that everything could be done legally
and for ever binding? Do you suppose my family would"—theu
there is something torn. " The law is that, if a ward in court
marries against the Chancellor's consent, and that she is over
eighteen years of age, her husband can be imprisoned, till she
comes of age, for contempt of court, provided they catch him
within the jurisdiction of the court, which extends to Great Bri
tain." Now, this gentleman's property, or his connections, at
least, are in Ireland. Whether he thought he should escape by
going to Ireland I do not know, but one cannot fail seeing that
he meant to say the jurisdiction of the court only extended to
Great Britain, if it catch the person. " Now, tins is the law ;
and never mind what others have told you to frighten you—this
is the law. Besides, there are plenty of instances; and they have
never imprisoned the husband beyond six or seven months, and
that only in the case of an improper marriage, such as is a ward
running away with a tutor or servant, &c. In our case it would
be quite different; in fact, the world and the Lord Chancellor
would wonder what we ran away for."
The result, as the Lord Chancellor finally observed,
to show—
That Mr. Chichester having described himself as being over
bead and ears in debt, and while living in Loudon on the pro'
ceeda of a place connected with the administration of justice in
Ireland—l am sorry that such' thing shouldbe possible, but so it
seems to be—he seems to Lave supposed that he might induce
thin young lady so far to forget her duty as to run off with him.
lam very happy to say that that has not been the case. It is
extremely painful to drag the name of • ward of the court before
the public, but it is a happiness for me to be able to say to-day
that, having had several private interviews with her, quite away
from her guardians, I am quite convinced that, when Mr. Chi-
chester says she consented to his application for leave to make
proposals, be says that which nothing which she ever said war-
ranted. She did not consent, and I believe she never had the
least wish to consent. She has now put every scrap of paper
into the hands of her guardian. That she acted imprudently no
one can deny ; but she was led oil to it by others who ought to
have known better. I allude particularly to Lady Ferrers and
Mr. Chichester. I trust that, as far as she is concerned, that be-
tween her and her guardian the matter will be eventually over-
looked. Now, although Ido not see my way quite clear to the
conclusion that Lady Ferrel* intended, or was instrumental in
encouraging the young lady to elope, yet that Mr.l'lliehenter.
was is beyond all possible controversy or doubt; and 1 feel it,
therefore, to be my duty, in pursuance of the notice of motion,
now to make an order that for that contempt of the court be be-
committed to the Queen's Prison.

THE PRESS.

1119

His lordship then ordered the tipstaff of the court to
take Mr. Chichester, who, of course, was nut present,
into custody. His counter-application was, at the
same time, ordered to be dismissed, with costs.
AN APPIICATION ON BEHALF OF ARCHDEACON DE-
NISON was made on Monday to the Court of Queen's
Bench for a rule to show cause why the Archbishop
of Canterbury should not be prohibited from proceed-
ing, as he had taken steps to do, under the Church
Discipline Act, 3rd and 4th of Victoria, c. 136, against
Mr. Denison for preaching erroneous doctrines. The
application was supported by Sir F. Thesiger, who
recapitulated the circumstances, already well known,
under which the Primate had been induced to com-
mence an action in the ecclesiastical courts against
the Archdeacon of Taunton ; and also read some
correspondence, including a long letter from the
late Bishop of Bath and Wells, relating to the same
sermons which formed a ground for the charge of
promulgating heterodox doctrines. The point relied
on to sustain the application for a rule was, that the
late bishop, being Mr. Denison's diocesor, was the
legally-authorised party to take the charge of heresy
laid against any of his parochial clergy into consi-
deration; that ho had so taken the charge against
Mr. Denison; and that his subsequent proceedings
amounted to such a compliance with the provisions
of a prior act of Queen Elizabeth as furnished a full
discussion of a judgment upon the sermons in
question. Mr. Denison, accordingly, having been
"monished" in pursuance of the act, his case became a
tea adjudicata, and his offence could not be revived
in any court with any view to his condemnation and
punishment :
Lord CAMPBELL inquired whether the course adopted by the
late bishop was not rather with a view to consider whether he
should proceed under the Church Discipline Act or not?
Sir F. Titzelozn: It was the intention of the bishop to pro-
ceed in such a way as would prevent the necessity for a public
trial ; and he therefore " conveuted " the archdeacon to answer,
and, on his answering, he proceeded to pronounce judgment,
and " monished" the archdeacon as to the doctrine. he war to
teach in future.
Mr. Justice WIOUTMAN said the archdeacon was to send an
answer to the charges, which were to be sent for adjudication to
the archbishop.
Sir F. Mesmer said, if a clergyman submitted to his bishop,
it was not fur another person who had no iuteiest in the matter
to insist on an investigation taking place under the act.
Lord CAMPBELL: The proceeding under the lath of Elizabeth
was with a view to deprivation, and this court has decided that,
in such a case, the proceeding must be is (arid.
Sir F. THEIMUER said it had not been decided that in every
case of deprivation the bishop must proceed in court, and he
contended that this was a case in which the bishop might ewer-
eine his jurisdiction personally, of which numerous instances had
occurred and could be found in the book..
Judgment was (deferred, after• the hearing, until
yesterday (Friday), when Lord Campbell pronounced
the decision of the judges, refusing the rule applied
for on behalf of Archdeacon Denison.

VICTORIA RIFLES.—This volunteer corps, com-
manded by the Duke of Wellington, will muster for
drill every Thursday evening during the winter
months, at Allen's Riding-school, Seymour-place,
Bryanstone-square, where application to the hono-
rary secretary for enrolment may be addressed.
EDWARD FORBES, the youthful but eminent Pro-
fessor of Natural History in the University of Edin-
burgh, died in that city on Saturday last, from the
effects of a chronic disease, re-excited or aggravated
by severe cold, caught in an autumnal geological ex-
cursion. Professor Forbes was an alumnus of the
Edinburgh University, his studies iu natural history
having been conducted by the venerable Professor
Jameson, who filled the chair of that department for
fifty years, and was succeeded on his demise, last
April, by his celebrated pupil now deceased. Mr.
Forbes for some time lectured in the extra-academical
schools of Edinburgh, and subsequently joined a
Government exploring expedition in Asia Minor, in
the capacity of naturalist. On his return he was ap-
pointed Professor of Botany in King's Collegc,
London, and soon after curator to the Geological
Society, as well as of the Palaeontological department
of the Economic Museum. On the recent, vacancy
in the natural history chair in Edinburgh the Town
Council unanimously recommended him to Govern-
ment as the most tit and deserving to be the suc-
cessor of Jameson, and the appointment was at once
conferred upon him. Having thus attained the often-
expressed object of his ambition, Professor Forbes
opened a numerous class for the short summer
session, and had scarcely resumed his duties for the
winter when he was carried away, after an illness of
ten days. Since his appointment, Professor Forbes
had been ardently engaged, in conjunction with the
ex-Lord Provost, in promoting the great object of a
national museum for Scotland, for which the site has
just been purchased, a parliamentary grant having
been obtained last session for the purpose. The
late Professor also exerted himself to pi omote the
gratuitous opening for part of the week of the present
University Museum, which is to form the nucleus of
the national one, which will shortly be carried into
effect. From Professor Forbes, who was only in his
39th year, a long and distinguished career was
anticipated, and his large acquirements in natural
science will, no doubt, be greatly missed in the
arrangement of the new museum, of which he was to
be curator.