The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-19 00:00:00

CROYDON STEEPLECHASES.

emwequence of the frost on Sunday the second day's events
could not be Immeld off yesterday. hot. weather permitting,
they will ho run Mt thin day Tuesdur, and not on Monday next,
as was prematurely reported. 'Mould thu ground, however.
be still twat for running, the remainder of the programme will
be abandoned.

MARGATE MEETING.
These meet could not take places yesterday, ea amount of the
frost, and have boeu peatputted until today (Meader.

Dears or ♦ COUNTY Corer Joeoe. —The death
of Mr. J. Espinasse, judge of the county court for West
Kent, was armsunced yesterday. Mr. Espinasse bad held
the appointment since the passing of the act for the esti'.
blishment of the courts in 1:417, but for some time past he
has been prevented discharging his duties. which have
been carried out by Mr. R. Fowler, barrister. The appoint-
ment, which is worth 1,5001. a year, is in !begin of the
Lord Chancellor.

THE "CONFESSIONAL UNMASKED" ORDERED TO
RE LURNT.—Yesterdsy in the petty sessions court of Wol-
verhampton, before Mr. B. Hickliug and Mr. F. Walton, a
respectable metal broker named Scott was summoned by
the watch committee of that borough, charged with sell-
ing what, it was maintained for the prosecution, was an
obscene book, under the terms of Lord Campbell's act. I
The book in question was that which has been published
by the Protestant Electoral Union, as " The Confessional
Unmasked : showing the depravity of the Roman priest-
hood, the iniquity of the confessional, and the questions
put to the females in confeadon." The prosecution was'
conducted by the town clerk of Wolverhampton, and the
defence by Mr. Kydd, of the northern circuit, instructed
by Mr. C. Bassett, of Loudon, on behalf of the Pro-
testant Electoral Union. The defendant sold the work
in consequence of his sympathy with the principles of the
union, anal because the lecturer Murphy. when he was in
Wolverhampton, was unable to supply the great demand
which was made for the work. Proof of the sale of the
book was given, and also of the seizure of 252 copies upon
a search warrant granted upon the application of the
watch committee, under the terms of the act quoted.
The work itself wits put in, and it was agreed that it
should afford its own evidence of its alleged obscenity or
otherwise. Foe the defence it was maintained that the
extracts were reprints from Roman catholic standard
works, and that passages quite as objectionable were to be
found not only in French authors and their English trans-
lations, but also in Homer and Virgil, in Allan Ramsay's
"Monk and the Miller's Wife," in Pope's "January
anal May," and in Shakspeare's As You Like /t, and of
which works the watch committee might be supposed to
have power to seize and burn, after which they might be
expected to send a rural policeman to DulwichGalleryand
carry away on Lis shoulders the beautiful picture of the
Loves of I'enus and Apollo. Evidence of the accuracy of
the extracts was given by the production as witnesses of
the Rev. B. McGhee, M.A., incumbent of Holywell, and
Mr. Samuel Hurst, 8.A., Greenwich. The magistrates,
however, determined that it was an obscene work within
the terms of the act, and ordered the books to he burned.
Upon this a case was asked for, but it transpired that,before
the proceedings could find their way into a superior court,
they must first go before the Rewrder in quarter scabies.
Notice of appeal was then given by the defence. A special
meeting of the town council was held the same after-
noon, and it watt intimated that it was likely a public
meeting would be held by the ratepayers to protest against
the independent action of the watch committee, who hail
not coasulted the town council before they took the pro-
ceeding'', which it was added would be condemned by the
majority of the counciL
SECESSION TO ROME.—The Occasional Paper of
St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, No. 102, March 16,
contains the following announcement with reference to
a fact which we mentioned yesterday :—" It has become
our sad lot, in consequence of an occurrence which has
just now happened, to hare to write the most, the only,
painful paragraph which has ever appeared in our pages.
On Saturday evening, the 2nd Mat., nose of the college
authorities having up to that moment had the least inti-
mation of any difficulty or doubt, two of our (second
year) students all at once communicated the news of their
conviction that they 'mold not in their consciences re-
main in the church of England. A few preliminary re-
marks in conversation were all that the circumstances
admitted of at that interview ; but without waiting for
another, having, indeed, had a previous one during the
same afternoon with a Romish priest, they took their de-
parture after breakfast on Sunday morning, leaving be-
hind them a letter to inform us of it. We are wholly in
the dark what external influence reached and disturbed
them. Students do not enter the warden's theological
classes till their third and last year in college. In our ig
norance, and in our distress, we refrain from any comment
except a brief one in the words of Scripture:—' An enemy
hatli done this.' "

RAILWAY AND OTHER BILLS IN PARLIAMENT.—
The committee of the House of Commons upon railway
and other private bills now pending in parliament resumed
their aittirgsyerter.Lay. In group 1, the Great Northern, the
IdetroNlitan, the North London, and the North Western
and Charing-cross Railway Bills were proceeded with, and
adjourned. The Great lisatern Railway (Steamboats) Bill
was further proceeded with in group 4. In group 6, the
comuiittee Proceeded with the London and North Western
(Buxton, Chapel-en-le-Frith, and Sheffield) Railway, and
again adjourned. The West Riding and Grimsby Rail-
way Bill was further heard. In groups 10 and 11, a series
of Soottish sad Irish bills were &deemed a stage.