The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, N OVEMBEIL 24, 1855.

STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON AND NEWCASTLE
AND CARLISLE UNION RAILWAY.

(Incorporation of Company for making a Railway from the
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, at Stocksfield Statio'n, to
_ .

join the Stockton and Darlington. Railway near Conside
Iron Works, with a Branch therefrom to the private Rail-
way of the Derwent Iron Company, near Crook Hall
Furnaces.)
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that Appli-
cation is intended to be made to Parliament in the
ensuing Session, for leave to bring in -a Bill to incorporate
a Company for constructing and maintaining the Railways
hereinafter mentioned, or some Part or Parts thereof, to-
gether with all proper Stations, Works, and. Conveniences con-
neqted therewith, and approaches thereto (that is to say),
Railway commencing at, and proceeding from, the
Main Line of the Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle Rail-
way, at or near to a Point One Chain East of the Bridge
carrying the road from Old Ridley to Bywoll, over the said
Line of such Railway, in the Parish of Bywell Saint
Peter's, in -the - County of Northumberland ; passing from
thence from, iu, through, or into, or situate within, the seve-
ral Parishes, Townships, and Extra-Parochial Places, or other
Places following, or some of them (that is to say), Bywell
Saint Peter's, Bywell Saint Andrew's, Ovingham, Old
Ridley, New Ridley, Bromley, Stocksfield Hall, Apperley,
Mickley, Whittonstall, Newlands, Hedley; Hedley Woodside,
Hindley, all in the County of Northumberland; and Lanches-
ter, Ebchester, Medomsley, Benfieldside, Consett, and Knits-
ley, Ivestone, or Iv.eston, Shotley, Shotley Bridge, Black
Hill, Berry Edge, Lead Gate,•Ccook Hall, Conside and Con-
set, Rough Sideil and Rowley,-all in the County of Durham,
and terminating by a junction with the Main Line of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, at or near a
Point Twenty-ono Chains North-east of- the Top of the
Hownes Gill Incline of the said Stockton and Darlington
Railway, in the Township of Conside; or Cousett, or Cosset,
and Knitsley, in the Parish of Lanchester, in the County of
Durham, immediately adjoining to a Field belonging to
Thomas Baker, and occupied by John Robinson, and marked
A upon the Plans to be deposited as herein mentioned%
Second—A Railway, or Branch Railw;

y, commencing at,
Itßarlii'strfliere-
inbeThire described, at or about a Distance of Eighteen
Chains from the Junction thereof' with the Stockton and
Darlington Railway hereinbefore described, in the Parish of
Lanchester, in the County of Durham, iu or near a Field
belonging to Thomas Baker, and occupied by John Robinson,
and marked B upon the Plans to be deposited as herein
mentioned, passing from thence from, in, through, or into,
or be situate within the several Parishes, Townships,
.and
Extra-Parochial Places, or other Places following, or some
of them (that is to say), Lanchester, Conside, or Cou-
sett, or Conget and Knitsley, Ivestone, Iveston, Berry
Edge,.Lead Gate, Crook Hall, Roughside, and Rowley, all
in the County of Durham', and terminating at, and by a
Junction with, the private Railway of the Derwent Iron
Company, at or near to Crook Hall Furnaces, and in or near
to a field belonging to Thomas Baker, Esq. , awl occupied by
Thomas Browell, situate in the Parish of Lanchester, and
Township of Ivestone or Iveston, in the said County 'of Dur-
ham, and marked C upon the Plans to be deposited as here-
in mentioned. And it is intended by such Bill to incorpo-
rate a Company for the purpose of carrying the said Under-
taking into effect, and to apply for and take the following
Powers,. or some of them (that is to say), to cross upon
the Level, or under, or over, or to divert, alter, or stop
up, whether temporarily or permanently, all or any Turnpike
Roads, or other Roads, Watercourses, Streams, Rivers, High-
ways, Streets, Railways, Canals, Tramways, Sewers, or
Drains, within the aforesaid Parishes, Townships, Extra Pa-
rochial Places, or other places, or any of them, which may
be required to be crossed, diverted, altered, or stopped
up for the purposes of the said intended Railway and
Branch Railway, and Works. A,so for the Compulsory Pur-
chase of Lands and Houses for the Construction of the
said Railway and Branch Railway, and the Works connected
therewith respectively. Also for Power to purchase Lands
by Agreement, and to take Leases thereof, and to vary or
extinguish all Rights and Privileges in any Manner con-
nected with the Lands,. Houses, Tenements, and Heredi-
taments proposed to be taken, and which would in any
Manner impede or interfere with the Construction, Mainte-
nance, or Use of the said intended Railway and Branch
Railway, or Works, and to acquire Rights of Way by Agree-
ment over the same, and to enable the Owners of any such
Lands to grant such Leases or Rights of Way. And also
to purchase by Agreement, and use, private Railways and
Tramways ; and also to levy Tolls, Rates, and Duties, for or
in respect of the said intended Railway and Branch Rail-
way, and Works, and to confer other Rights and Privileges,
and to alter or vary any existing Tolls, Rates, or Duties,
and to confer, vary, or extinguish Exemptions from Pay-
ment of any Tolls, Rates, and Duties, and to confer, vary,
or extinguish such other Rights and Privileges as may be
expedient, and also to make all necessary Traffic Arrange-
mouth with the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company,
and with the North-Eastern Railway Company, and the
Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, or any of them,
or with any other Company, Corporation, Person, or Per-
sons, whose Line or Lines- of Railway join, or shall commu-
nicate with, the said proposed Railway and Works respec-
tively. And it also intended by the said Act to authorise
lateral Deviations in the Construction of the said intended
Railway and. Works respectively, to the Extent or within the
Limits laid down in the Plans to be deposited as hereinafter
mentioned.

And Notice is hereby further given, that Duplicate Plans
and Sections, describing the Lines, Situation, and Levels,
of the said intended Railway and Branch Railway, and
other the Works aforesaid, and the Lands through which
the same are intended to pass or be made, with Books of
Reference to such Plans, containing the names of the
Owners, or Reputed Owners, Lessees or Reputed Lessees,
and Occupiers of such Lands, and a published Map, with
the Lines of the said intended Railway and a Branch Rail-
way delineated theron, and a Copy of this Notice, as pub-
lished in the London Gazette, will, on or before the Thirtieth
Day of November instant, be deposited for Public Inspection
with the Clerk of the Peace for the County of Northumber-
land, at his Office at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and with the
Clerk of the Peace for the County of Durham, at his Office
at Durham ; and that Copies of so much of the said Plans,
Sections, and Books of Reference, as relates to each of the
several Parishes and Extra-Parochial Places in or through
which the intended Railway and Branch Railway, and
WorkS, aro proposed to be made, together with a Copy of
the Gazette Notice, will be deposited on or before the said
Thirtieth Day of November instant, with the Parish Clerk
of each such Parish, at his Residence ; and in the Case of any
Extra-Parochial Places, with the Parish Clerk of some Parish
adjoining thereto, at his Residence.
Printed Copies of, such Bill will, on or before the Thirty-
first Day of December next, be deposited in the Private Bill
Office of the House of Commons.

Dated this Fourteenth Day of November, One Thousand
Eight Hundred and Fifty-Five.

ROYAL SWEDISH RAILWAY COMPANY.
ROPING TO HULT.
Notice is hereby given that 01 Shares in this Company, upon
wh'ch the Fin,l Call of 21. per Share became due and payable on the
Ist October, 1855, will, according to the Statutes of the ,'ompany, be
liable to Forfeiture if the Call bent paid on or before the Ist day of
December next.

JOHN' SADLEIR, Chairman.
London, 18, Cannon-street, Nov. 12, 1855.

ESTABLISHED 1837.
BRITANNIA LIFE ASSURANCE COM-
PANY.

Empowered by Special act of Parliament

BRITANNIA VICTUAL LIFE ASSOCIATION,
Empowered by Her Niajesty's Royal Letters Patent.
MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER, Blackheath-park, Chairman.
Every description of Life Assurance business transacted, at the
lowest possible rates consistent with semi ty to the a Isured.
E. R. FOSTER, Resident Direct
ANDREW FRANCIS, Secretary.
1, Princes•street, Bank, London.

STEND RABBITS. —Large arrivals of 50
tons weight this day. Large fat ones, 33.4 d. per stone.;
do. by the case, as. per stone May be had this day at
GEORGE BROOKE and CO.'s, Leadenhall Market.

AF. XIIIBITION OF CRIMEAN
PIM I OCIRAPHS, 5, Pall-mall East.—Evening Exhibition
from Seven till Ten, and from len till Five daily. Admission, Is.
In foggy weather the Gallery is brilliantly lighted with gas.

A.RGYLL ROOMS.-LAURENT'S CASINO
NOW OPEN for the winter season. Prin Ipal Comet
a Piston. Del Bouleourt.—Doors open at 8. Admission one Shilling.
Laurent's new Varsoviana every reght. '

To LOVERS OF FISH.-100 GENUINE
YARMOUTH BLOATERS for Gs., package Included.
THESE lIICHLY ESTEEMED DELICACIES AND CHEAP

ARTICLE OF FOOD
forwarded to all parts, on receipt of penny postage stamps or P. 0.0.
(preferred). Send full and plain direction, county, and nearest eta-
Hon.—Address T EIOS. LETTIS, Jun., Fish Curer, Ot. Yarmouth.
" This is the third season Mr. Luttis has supplied us with Yar-
mouth bloater;, and we find the quality excellent—J. Brashowe,
house stewird, Blenheim Palace.—Oct. 20, 1854."
" Mr. Lettis,—As soon as you send out your genuine bloaters, I
shall be glad to have a supply as usual; those I had last year gave
great satisfaction.—A. F. Courroux, Ambassador's Court, St. James's
Palace.—Oct. 1, 1855."

QIR WM. BURNETT'S DISINFECTING
FLUID, for destroying all Offensive Smells and purifying Sick
Rooms, &c. Its cost is less than One Farthing per Gallon when
diluted for use.
Sold by all Chemists, and at 18, Cannon-street, City.
Gallons, 53. Quarts, 2s. Pints, Is. Half-pints, 6d.

JOZEAU'S COPAHINE, or SACCHARATED
CAPSULES, approved of by the French College of Physicians,
successfully administered in the Paris and London Hospitals, and
acknowledged by them to be the best remedy for a certain disorder.
(See " Lancet" of Nov. 6, 1852.) A copy will be forwarded on appli-
cation.—Price per 100, 48.6 d. ; 50, 2s. 9d. To be had of the inventor,
GABRIEL JOZEAU, sole French chemist, 49, Haymarket, London,
and all the principal chemists.

Now ready,
THE CAMPAIGN in the CRIMEA. An
Historical Sketch.
By GEOitGE 13BACIIENBURY,
Late Secretary at Kadikol to the Honorary Agents of the Crimean
Army Fund.
Accomoanied by 40 Plates from Drawings taken on the spot, by
William Simpson. Size, Royal Bvo- Price, elegantly bound, 21s.
Paul and Dominic Culnaghi and Co., 13 and 14, Pall mall East,
Publishers to her Majesty.

Third 'Edition, imperial 4t0., 215.,
PARABLES of OUR LORD.
Iltuttratel by FRANKLIN.
Engraved in the finest style of Lino Engraving.
Suitable for a Christmas Present or a New-Year's Gift.
*** To meet the extended demand for this saperb work, an edi-
Ven is prepare at 1 guinktogatl bound andsilt,
...IJw.reataeittympilit drthe 4t ition, handsomely bound,
27. 2s ; also, an edition in French, bound, IL I is. 6d.
J. Mitchell, Ptiblisher to her Majesty, 33, Old Bond street.

Spirit' of the Public Journals.

(From the Times of this day.)

Builders in these days are apt to begin in the
autumn, on the idea of getting the foundations
well in before summer. Perhaps that fixed the
time for the ceremony in which Prince Albert took
the principal part at Birmingham on Thursday; ;
otherwise, spring is the time for any work that
makes ()Teat demands on One's faith and expecta-
tion. We know what the day was in London—
hardly ever one blacker ; and at Birmingham, we
are told, "a cold and drizzling rain set in early in
the morning and continued tgronghout the day,"
without, however, damping the loyal ardour of the
multitudes. Such an atmosphere adds only new
lustre to the public spirit and perseverance with
which his Royal Highness and the other distin-
guished personages present strove to dispel the
gloom Of the physical, and, we suppose we
must add; the mental atmosphere around them.
Prince Albert showed his usual depth of reflection
and breadth of survey ; Lord Ashburton made an
excellent speech, an 1 there was, indeed, not one
without much truth and common sense. If, how-
ever, we say that the whole day's celebration re-
minds one of the phrase, "along pull, and a strong
pull, and a pull altogether," while we think that
a most creditable and truly English process, we
must say that it also describes the immense labour
of the effort. - It all reads as it were very up-hill
work, and as if chaos itself had now to receive
order and light. The first principles aro evoked
from the very heart of the universe, and the
human mind . probed to its very depths for the
great work now begun. Such a task requires such
a style:

" When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line, too, labours, and the verse moves slow."
The speeches, indeed, abounded in reminiscences
greatly to the credit of the undertaking, but yet
reminding us how much has been done, and'to
how little purpose. We are informed, to begin
with, that Prince Albert had in former years clone
so much for the chief institutions and manufactures
of Birmingham, that the Council had scarcely felt
it a presumption to ask for the renewed honour of
a visit. Then not only are the two Universities
described as still confined, in a great degree, to
their prescriptive specialities of mathematics and
classics, but even the Great Exhibition, now four
years past, is alluded to only to measure our in-
crease of inferiority at Paris this year. Prince
Albert tells us that almost everything is still to be
done ;, Lord Ashburton that we are actually going
backwards. • The Midland Institute, it appears, is
the very first institution that owes its origin in any
way to the great movement of 1851. Even in Lon-
don we are only laying the foundationsof a
rary asylum for some eland scattered colt
tions. Not a point was instanced by the Royal or
noble speakers in which we could be said to have

luip9=
'lee%

improved. Only in some things our deficiency is
more apparent than ever. In fa.lt, the great Bri-
tish nation is beginning at last to be conscious not
only of some natural deficiencies, but even of a
temporary obscuration of its powers. Wo have
some good painters, though even they are finding
their matches abroad, but for the rest—let us see I
We want a .Heaven-sent general. Wewant a poet.
We want a good historian—not a brilliant essayist,
but a man who can write a compendious and classi-
cal history of England, or any other history. We
wantsome endurable sermons. If the pulpitjust now
has no luminaries to mention, on the other hand the
stage is not in its palmiest state. There died lately
in great distress a man who could compose some
original airs ; but at this moment it cannot be pre-

tended that we have a single composer of extraor-
dinary genius. • Going lower, into those homely
regions where Prince Albert loves to succour and
elevate the soul of British art—in furniture, paper-
hangings, ironwork, china, and almost everything
that contributes to the decoration of our houses,
we are still beaten by foreigners. ,Apropos of Bir-
mingham, within these few years two splendid
mansions have been built in Piccadilly by million-
aires, both with costly iron railings—the one, how-
ever, from abroad, the other evidently from some
home foundry. The forign railing
is a, work of art,
the other is an iron railing, and no more. To what
are we to ascribe this general standstill ? There
is no committee of aged generals sitting en per-
manence over the designs of our crockery and
hardware. No system of purchase excludes meri-
torious poverty, no Court favour sends genius to
the wall, no seniority crushes the aspirations of
youth: There is no monopoly here. There must
be free trade in the realms of art. Nevertheless,
British art still provokes the laborious encou-
ragements and splendid condescensions we now
witness at Birmingham. Pelion is still to be
piled upon Ossa to attain oven a respectable
position. Of the promised growth of British art
we must still say, as was said of the greatest fabric
of antiquity,—
" Tant3e molis erat Romanam condere gentem."

---- -
No doubt we shall have to wait for the result,
and when it comes it will probably come in a form,
possibly, also, in a grandeur and comprehensive-
ness, that we do not expect. All experience has
shown that there is no such subdivision in the

domains of genius as iu the workshops of mechanical
art. When the inspiration once comes down it
lights many kindred studies. The Greek once pos-
sessed with the idea of beauty carried it out in
everything. His poetry, his philosophy, his tem-
ples, his statues, his language, his very dress, could
not be beautiful. We might almost venture to say
that there never was that sudden burst of genius
which constitutes what is called au Augustan Era,
without the light penetrating into every corner of
the human mind. Certainly we labour under great
disadvantages. This is a very material and matter-
of-fact age. All classes are toiling hard for subsist-
ence or for'wealth ; and when a man does begin to
rest from his labours he has not much soul left for
the muses and graces. As for the great majority,
theirs is a sad bread-meat-and-bear, clothes and
furniture sort of existence. Then, what are we to
expect from 10,000 spinners and piecers employed
the whole of their lives in watching spindles and
piecing threads ? What from the man who does
the fiftieth part of a pin or a nail, or ono piece in
a watch or a lock ? It must be confessed, too, that
there is no country tu the world with less social
communication between the different classes. The
workpeople of a town never see anything of their
betters, and have no contact with more cultivated
minds, except through the cold, dull medium of
books, in which they neither see nor hear the writor,
and catch neither his looks nor his tones. They who
have mostexplored the " masses" of our great towns
describe them as a Serbonian bog of ignorance,
depression, and general deadness of heart, mind, '
and soul. Certainly their look, as they pass to and
fro, is not encouraging to the philanthropist, and it
argues no small courage for any man to devote
himself to the task of their elevation. Something
more than schools, "institutes," lectures, models,
and apparatus is wanted hero. Something more
even than churches and the sparse ministrations of
a divided clergy. We must be excused if we have
an immense distrust of brick and mortar as a means
of rescuing the poor from the many living in-
fluences of a civilised barbarism. But when our
Heaven-sent poet and statesman and general have
come, we shall then also look for some one to take
the working man by the hand, speak to his iner-
most soul, win his heart, and point—to Heaven, of

course, ultimately—but, meanwhile, to moral dig-
nity and intellectual refinement.

(From the Times of aiis
,day.)
These are
was ofss co
enewdayslefor the British
in histishso ldier.
Time
was when General's
despatch than a gun or a mortar, and it would
have been considered preposterous to mention his
name 1 • s
name among the killed and wounded. Time was
when the people would no more have thought of
knitting hose and nightcaps for them, dosing them
with champagne when sick, and sending out deli-
cate women to soothe their pain and cheer their
languor, ' than they now think of performing the
same services for the regimental horses. Time was
when it could excite no wonder and little regret to
hear of a drunken army and to imagine every sol-
dier a bottle imp. The bottle, in fact, formed part
of the national idea of a soldier as much as his
bayonet and his musket. He was the type of a .
good fellow that would stand not only fire but
fire-water, until he fell on that inglorious field of
battle—under the table. The sergeant drank,
and the, young recruit took the King's shilling in
the glorious fellowship of the alehouse. His
health was drunk twenty times a-day by ad-
miring comrades ; the farmer's wife quenched his
thirst, as he passed her cottage, with a draught of
homebrewed ; gin he enjoyed, his ambition was
cognac, and lie was as happy as a king when he sat
nightly in the bar of the Swan-with-Two-Necks, a
pipe in one hand, a pot in the other, and his
mouth full of smoke, mild ale, and blarney. Every
song-writer asked the question, why should he not
-drink? -soldier's a man, life's but a span,
why, then let a soldier drink. if he went to the
' picture gallery he saw a pretty vivandiere 'serving
out liquor to the defenders of her country. If he
went to, the play he saw the model soldier tippling;
like a fish, and every man, woman, and child be-
longing to that lath and canvass village thinking
it an honour to bring him brimmer on brimmer.
He road a novel, and either some Major Galbraith
was found throughout the volume hiccoughing
" God' save the King," or the first chapter re-
quired a drunken quarrel of redcoats to set the
story agoing. Who ever heard of sober soldiers ?
Cromwell'slronsides were not soldiers ; they were
merely Militant parsons, who could not drink be-
cause they were always holding forth—because the
devil of talk had cast out the devil of drink.

All *now. changed ; or, rather, the facts still
remain' what they were, but our ideas of what
ought to: have been considerably modified. It is
no longer a point of honour with gentlemen to drink
so many bottles of wine per diem. The modern
reader is rather startled to find Boswell, After an-
nouncing that his physician has put him on the
shortest possible allowance of wine, taking great
credit to himself that for six weeks he actually has
not exceeded one bottle of sherry at dinner. Without
any Maine Liquor Law or teetotal pledges the edu-
cated classes of society have became extremely tem-
perate, and it may almost be said that drunkenness
is unknown among them. We do not despair of
soon seeing this good example influence all classes
of the community, and without the aid of those
physical restraints which the more violent advo-
cates of temperance in this country and in Ame-
rica seek to legalize ; but it cannot be denied that
in the masses, and in that section of them from.
which our army is recruited, the vice is as preva-
lent as ever, and appears, indeed, to be worse be-
cause we of a different class have become better.
Let it not be supposed • for one moment that we
have any desire to palliate irregularities in the
British army which, with shame and sorrow, it has
been our duty to record. There is the sad fact
still staring us in the face that in our Crimean
army sobriety' is the exception, intoxication the
rule ; and, that a remedy may be applied, we wish
to ascertain clearly how the case stands, and where
the blame lies. Let us therefore say, in passing,
that we are measuring the British soldier by a
standard not one hairrs breadth higher than it
ought to be, but considerably higher than he is
accustomed to. The blue jackets get drunk the
moment they get on shore. The redcoats spend in
drink every fraction they can spare. The French
are a whit better ; the Zouaves are as hard drinkers
as any of our Highland or Irish regiments. Our
soldiers are doing what has been the immemorial
usage of soldiers, and we conceive that the blame
lies far less with them than with the authorities.

In saying this we do not so much allude to the
fact that the Commanders in the Crimea have it
very much in their power to put a stop to the sale
of
-which
as
the
pay ofr soldiers
theto motarrangemeant thetofseat of mar
the schemew
• by
has been increased. The pay has been increased,
but what facilities have been given to the private
to dispose of this otherwise than on the spot ? There
the drinking booths are continually open, and if he
cannot get spirits from the English canteens, ho
can from the French. But what opportunities
,have been given him to send his money home or to
save it ? Who is to take it from him ? Who is to
take all. the extra trouble of keeping separate
accounts of . savings and remittances ? Who is to
take the extra responsibility of hoarding money
not his own in specie ? The thing can only be
managed by favour. It is true that many more
soldiers than the public are aware of do send re-
mittances home ; and it will be seen from a letter
which appeared in our columns yesterday that if a
man will but keep sober he can contribute mate-
rially to the relief of his family ; but we are sure
that this bright example would be more generally
followed, and the soldier would control his thirst,
if proper means were taken to facilitate in every
way the accumulation and the remittance of his
money.. As it is, the extra pay is simply wasted,
and worse than wasted, for it is employed in demo-
ralising the individual and in degrading the national
character. We hope that the authorities will con-
sider this. And is it not possible to provide inno-
cent amusement for our soldiers during those
months when the army must be comparatively idle?
We have heard something of a scheme to establish
a circulating library, and hope that it will not be
allowed to fall to the ground. Lord Panmure has
in his day done much for the education and im-
provement of the soldier, and we trust he will see
to it that the moral character of the British army
be.raised, and not lowered, by a winter in Sebas-
topol.

(Prom the Daily News of this alai.)
The question of Church Rates is again coming
into the law courts. On Thursday, we find by our
report, Mr. Sergeant Shea moved, on behalf of
certain parishioners of St. Clement Danes, for a
mandamus requiring the churchwardens to convene
a meeting, under the provisions of Sir Benjamin
Hall's Act, for the election of vestrymen and audi-
tors. A rule nisi was granted, and the matter will
probably be disposed of at the next hearing. As
we believe the principle involved to be scarcely less
important in its kind than that which was settled
by the long litigation of the Braintree Case, we
make no apology for at once bringing it before our
readers.

It will be recollected that the Attorney and So-
licitor-General have lately given an opinion that,
under the 16th clause of the act in question, pa-
rishioners would not be entitled to take part in an
election unless they had paid their church rates
previously to their voting or being nominated. In
the parish of St. Clement Danes there has long
been the now usual amount of opposition to these
imposts ; and the churchwardens have been fain to
acquiesce in the accumulation of considerable ar-
rears. It was a course, doubtless, which appears
the reverse of impartial, and calculated to produce
very considerable confusion in the parish accounts;
but we cannot say that they were not wise in their
generation. If they summoned the recusants be-
fore the justices, they were met by a simple, but
generally a rather too well founded, denial of the
validity of their rate ; and the jurisdiction of the
bench being thereby ousted, the costs—the only
produce'of the proceeding—fell upon themselves.
If after this they adventured into the Ecclesiastical I
Courts, the whole expense, and that not of the
lightest, fell again upon themselves in the first in-
stance, while they would be dependent for reim-
bursement upon the goodwill of parishioners
against whom they had for years been waging an
internecine war upon this very question. Even
the fruits of success in their own courts might bo
snatched from them at the last moment by a pro-
hibition, should there be a flaw in the manner or
in the fact of the ecclesiastical decree. They would
doubtless have reaped the earliest instalment of the
fate in store for all churchwardens, but that the
fast ripening knowledge of their legal rights as
vestrymen by the inhabitants of even the rural pa-
rishes will be anticipated by the immediate passing
of Sir W. Clay's bill.
But within the limits of the metropolis
o
Hall's Act, as construed by the law-officers,
been thought to promise at least a temporary solu-
tionlicig er Sirs has
of the difficulty. Although the rate was inca-
pable of legal enforcement, yet, ifo then
it
s payment,exercise of
vestry privileges were dependent
the most refractory parishioner would quickly be
reduced to submission. So thought, it appears,
the churchwardens of St. Clement Danes. When
the meeting was convened for the choice of vestry-
• men under the new law, certain gentlemen were