The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-21 00:00:00

rOHN BROODILN'S GOLD CHAIN&

'OBIT BILOGDZWB GOLD GL ARD CAJUNS.

------
*OHN BROGDEN'S 0 OLD ALBERT CHAINS.

VHNEROGDEN'S GOLD BROM B C RAINS.

MESSRS. WATHERSTON and SON,
Goldsmiths and Jewellers.
Have Heady for Inspection a Greet Variety of JEWELLERY,
of the Latest Designs, suitable foe
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
all and NEW-YEAR'S GIFTS.
RE Pallm East, S.W.

lIVERCOATS.-HAMILTON and KIMPTON
V can especial attention to the NEW WINTER 000D8 tor
OVERCOATS, and invite m early inspectional the maim N.B.
Specimen garments always on hand.
No. 106. Strand, opposite Exeter Ball.

LONDON mint have • SUPPER and MUSIC
LOON tor Gonaismen. —ltersomber, we wait for you at
v. IVAN'S," attar the Covent-paen Opera, and the Theatres,

Vte erpretsts.

TO COILILLSTONDitITIL
nandLemont+ intended for " Ito Ripens • London Lynam'
. meet be et the Oehee. 104 Boarwiworroot, by Two
rtrk on ino dal of oannosina.

HAYMARKET.
Tnrs Evangel, THE OVEELAND WITTIG Meurs. Bnow-
ook-
stone C. Mathews. and Compton ; Mesdames Mathews, S
don. 11.16 and wright—llSED CY. Mr. C. Mathswa—And MY
MUSD Di GDOS.T.—Commenee at 7.

PRINCESS'S.
TM, Mama, QUIET LODGINGS.—After which IT IS
PliV/LR TOO LATE 1 BLEND. Mews. Vining. G. MeMlle,
T. head, D. Murray, b. Wham. F. VlMoen J. G. Shore, G. Mur-
ray, and R. Cathml . hisses L. Moore and K. Rodgers.

HIGH WATIR AT LONDON-AZIDOL
TO DAT Manias, Ta. 61m.....Atiernoon, 4b. 10s.
To-Kouww-• Mango& 4b. MillilbOOSl, 414. 6045.

LONDON. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 21.

THE case "Re NEWBERY," which came before
Vice-Chancellor STUART on Tuesday, presents one
feature which calls for a passing remark. The facts
are in the main of a type which has become of late
years by no means uncommon. A father dies,
leaving his children to the care of their mother.
After his death the latter changes her religion and
proceeds to educate her children in her new faith.
By-and-bye some of the father's relations—in this
instance the joint testamentary guardian—object
to the change, and the matter is brought before
the Court of Chancery. During the interval, how-
ever, the mother has used her influence to some
purpose, and the children are, or profess to be,
converts to her way of thinking. Is the Court to
carry out the intentions, expressed or inferred, of
the father, at the risk of interfering with the
infant's conscientious convictions ? Or is it to re-
gard the present welfare of the child, at the
sacrifice, if need be, of the father's known inten-
tions 1 Whichever way these questions are an-
swered, there are some difficulties to be encoun-
tered. If the general rule of English law is
observed, and the absolute authority of the father
over the child maintained as far as possible even
after his death, the sudden revulsion which is pro-
duced in the child's mind may bring about a com-
plete and disastrous unsettlement of his rel!gious
and moral convictions. To secure this result it is
not even necessary that these convictions should
have a satisfactory intellectual basis. A child who
has been led to believe firmly that such a religious
act or such a religious tenet is right or wrong,
true or false, may be quite unable to give any
intelligent reason for his belief, and yet
have his whole theory of conduct upset by
an attempt on the part of those in authority over
him to put him back into his former religious
position. "It was urged at the Bar," said Lord
Justice TURNER, in the case of " Stourton v.
Stourton," " that the opinions of a child cannot
" be fixed, and that the impressions which he has
" received may be removed by a different course
"of instruction and different associations. It may
"be so ; but, ou the other hand, may it not
"be that the impressions which have been
" formed may lead to the instruction which
" would be given being received with carelessness
" or indifference, or, which would certainly not
"be less dangerous or less destructive to the
" character, with affected acquiescence 1"
Of course, there are objections to this view.
It seems, for one thing, very much like offering
a premium to the proselytising zeal of
the persona who have the child under
their care in the first instance. They
have only to secure so much start as
will suffice to make an impression on a child's un-
informed conscience, to secure having their efforts
sanctioned, and their success, so far as may be,
guaranteed by the authority of the High Court of
Chancery. Nor is it at all inconceivable that an
unscrupulous child might be induced, by a desire
to live with relations whom he liked better than
his actual guardians, to feign a conversion to the
religious creed professed by them. Still, notwith-
standing these possibilities, the tendency of the
Court has been to adopt the former course, and to
test, if need be, for itself the strength of an in-
fant's theological impressions. On the whole, we
think that the judges have exercised a wise discre-
tion in taking this view of their duty ; but to make
the operation of the rule perfectly satisfactory, its
application must be perfectly impartial, and in
this respect Vice-Chancellor STI ART'S judgment
en Tuesday seems to be open to some criticism.
The late Mr. NEWBERY was a clergyman of the
Church of England, and he appointed his wife and
a brother clergyman joint guardians of his children.
Not long since the widow joined the sect of Dis-
senters called the Plymouth Brethren, and there-
upon a difference arose between her and the other
guardian as to the religious bringing up of the
infants. The eldest child, a boy of fifteen, made
an affidavit that he had attended the religious
services of the Plymouth Brethren, and
conscientiously approved of their opinions,
but the Vice- Chancellor, without, so far
as appears by the report of the case,
testing the truth of this allegation by a private
conference with the boy, decided that both he and
his sister must be brought up in the religion of
their father.

Now if this were a cue of first instance we
should not be inclined to quarrel with the result.
But looking at the general tenor of the decisions on
similar questions, it certainly seems as though cir-
cumstances had unfortunately combined to give
them a perhaps undeserved colour of unfairness. In
the cue before quoted of " Stourton and Stourton,"
and in the parallel case of "Alicia Race,"the fattier,
were Roman Catholics and the mothers Protestants.
In both these cases, though the children were of
very tender years, the court ruled that their re-
cent religious impressions must not be disturbed,
that their fathers' creed must be left out of consi-
deration, and the children brought up in the
creed of their mothers. In a later cue,
however, in which the positions were reversed, and
the living mother was a Roman Catholic, and the
dead father a Protestant, the infant was educated
in the latter faith. And now we have another