The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-07 00:00:00

kept, and on the clerk examining it some few days after-
wards, he found an entry stating that Pratt and Green
had been married on the 3d, and that Charlotte Tate
(also a servant of Dr. Giles') was a witness. The matter
now began to be talked about very widely, and Dr.
Giles made use of some conflicting stories.. He wrote to
the Lord Bishop,. in October, three times. The first
was on the 11th of October, in which he says that th
whichgir
laskheed hcoimnsetuotemd.arrTyhheerletatnedr Pratt;roee eodneidh_e
3d/sieex°
morning I married them between the hours of eight and
ten, in the presence of two invited witnesses (a third
having failed to come), hind with open doors, through
which entered two other persons unknown. When the
ceremony was over, and the books, as they thought,
properly signed, the young man left rather hastily with-
out my noticing that one of the entries was incomplete.
I told the girl to come with him the next morning, or
Thursday. Sho Caine with him about hall-last six, and
I went with them to see the entry complete. A gossip
of the village spree,' the report that they went to be
married. Hence the whole report." The next letter to
his lordship was written on the 24th of October, after
the inquiry before the magistrate had taken _place, in
which he admitted that he .had misrepresented the facts
in the firmer letter ; that he did ma:ry them on the
Thursday mor,iing ; but solemnly dtclnred he did not
know that eight o'clock wai the limit of time fcr
I.eginning a marriage. He admitted. also in the Paine
letter that there was no license, but earnestly in-
treated his lordship to pity his folly. The letter con-
tinued—" I had no fraudulent intention. I had no
benefit whatever from the marriage, and foolishly
thought, if I thought at all, that the parties were answer-
able for the license.' Every one who knows me will'say
it was reckless neglect. In this light, my lord, I hope
you will forgive or excuse the felonious crime, as I now
for the first time know it to be. I crave your pardon,
and that of any other person who may be concerned in
the matter. My prospects are already ruined." The
third letter Vca3 written on the 26th October. It ran
thus :—" My Lord,—Though utterly unworthy ever to
receive a letter from you again, and wholly ungrateful,
as it would appear for the consideration which you have
shown me, I venture again to write, so soon after the
date of my last letter, because everything I can say is
too little to express the agonies of my mind at what has
occurred. The heaviest cause of distress is to me that I
should have suffered myself, even by legal advice, to let
the truth be mis-stated to your lordship. I have no ex-
cuse but that the dreadful prospect of felony, with 14
years' transportation, quite overwhelmed every sentiment
of propriety and every feeling but that of intense horror.
May I plead, my lord, that when I recovered from the
first pang of madness I forbade every one to speak of
misrepresentin o. the facts, and gave an account of the
wholeaff affair
i r to hi m who stated it before the magistrates.
I again solemnly
declare that I never heard of the law
which forbade marriages before 8 o'clock, and imposed
such heavy penaltie:. for that, and also for marrying
without a license. I add my solemn declaration that no
gain or advantage to myself influenced me in this matter.
The sole cause of my so acting was that reckless rash-
ness to which I have_ever been liable in doiugthe first
thing that suggests itself to• me. This -Was mfliniiielse
then. It was notorious to all my family that thisyousg
woman was going to be married to the young man: I was
at the time overwhelmed with'
.hard work from
various causes. Mr. Adams being away I had additional
sermons. I had six pupils preparing for Oxford and the
army, with whom I was occupied six hours a day ; and
thirdly, my dear child belonging to Christ Church
School had been sent home in a fever, and with his
life despaired of ; six nights lead I sat up with my wife,
watching his sufferings. At the end of this time it was
that something was said of our servant's marriage, and
I, in a moment of rashness and folly, said, Shall I
marry you to-morrow morning ?' The offer was eagerly
caught at ; the hour of eight was named, but,.failing to
come, they requested me to name as earlier hour for
two days after. On this point, too, I assented, but this
time not from thoughtlessness, but pure ignorance. They
went away, and spoke of it openly within an hour.
There was no idea of a clandestine marriage, but only
to avoid a number of persons at the ceremony. * * *
Enough, I am aware, remains, my lord, to overwhelm
me utterly, unless you hold out a merciful hand to save
me. Do I dare ask you? Soma one has hinted to me
no ; because I had given your lordship trouble by my
two books on theological subjects. But I will not be-
lieve that you harbour one thought against me on that
account, and I ask
,your lordship to help me in as bitter
a trial as ever befel a clergyman. In this last word.lies
the origin of my misfortunes, During the 23 years that •
I have been in orders I never practised my profession
until the* last few years at Batnpton ; and even there I
have been regarded as a mere help to others, leaving to
them all parochial matters. The cause of this was the
necessity of being ordained in orders to hold a fellow-
ship ; and so I am bitterly expiating the crime (too
common) of making holy orders a qualification for
worldly advantages. Not only have 'I been held to
bail for the early hour in this case ; but in a second,
which took place a year ago, when they say the clock
struck eight immediately after the ceremony was con-
c:uded. It is my firm belief that this charge has been
added merely to add to the weight of the former. lam
held to bail in 500/. for that also. Thirdly, I am told
that a third information awaits me about there being no
license. This is grave, but I meant no fraud. I cannot
account for my folly ; but I supposed it was their affair
to answer that and not mine, for I had never read a
license, having only married five by license all-my HEI
entreat your lordship to withhold this third information :
let me struggle, 'the best I can, with the two former, the
penalty of which is so severe, without any addition to it.
If you will extgnd to me this mercy, I shall have a
chance, after a very long time, of recovering myself. But
I do not even want this mercy for nothing. I will do any
penance for my lolly, in any way you may appoint. I
will discharge to the best of my abilities any talk you
may assign. I will fulfil the duties, and give the full
proceeds to the poor fur any length of time. And lastly,
I will give up all my literary occupations, and endeavour
to study the laws and duties of my profession, so as not
to be a disgrace to it, but if possible a serviceable mem-
ber of it. And lastly, I would make any compensation
if I could to any parties aggrieved by the recent act, but
I understand they and others are in bitter trouble at the
result of proceedings which they took against me, and
thereby that I have already been more than punished for
any injury they may be supposed to have suffered."
It was further proved that Dr. Giles had been the
means of getting Mr. and Mrs. Pratt out of the way,
having sailed to Australia, the doctor having paid their
passage money.
Numerous witnesses were examined, and amongst
them the Lord Bishop of Oxford, who produced the
above letters, and the-case was most clearly 'established.
The defence set up was, that the defendant was over-
whelmed with his literary labours, and through an utter
recklessness had made those fatal mistake's, but not with
the intent of injuring or defrauding any one.
Several clergymen gave the defendant a very good
character.

The jury retired for ten minutes, and then returned
into court with a verdict of guilty; but recommended the
prisoner to mercy.
Dr. Giles asked permission to address tbi, court, which
was readilYconceded. He said it appeared he bad offended
against Church and State. He admitted that he wp.s an
unworthy member of the former ; but in going into it
he had only tarried out the wishes of his deceased fa.
tiler. It was entirely opposed to his own inclination.
He bad worked for years past very hard, at the rate of
12 hours a day, publishing the ancient records of this
country. One hundred and twenty volumes were the
result of his labours, He had never sought favour from
any one. If any one asked of .bim It favour he hid al-
ways done it. That had beeq his misfortmie. He felt
that, bad he been placed in any other position in life than
the church, he could bave followed a successful career,
and been a useful member of society. He was the eldest
of 16 children. He had never had a penny from his
friends since he was 18 years of age. He took his de-
gree in this university. He felt his head sometimes af-
fected by his great studies. He then stated to his lord-
ship that, in the present case, be had no motive to serve,
and begged earnestly for his lordship to take a merciful
consideration of his case, and not to send him to prison.
If he-was sent to prison, he certainly should not out-
live it.
Lord Campbell, in sentencing the defendlint,-asid that
a -suspicionhad existed that he had been gui!ty of some
immoral act, which hid made him so anxious to get
Jane Green married and out of the way. That suspi-
cion appeared to be entirely without foundation., His
lordship remarked upon the melancholy spectacle of see-
ing a man of his standing in such a lamentable position.
He hoped his future conduct would be characterised with
that atonement which he now professed to feel; and
that he would becomes useful member of society at'some
future period. He was then sentenced to twelve months'
imprisonment without hard labour.
The defendant appeared to feel the sentence most
acutely.

THE SLIP ON THE SOUTH DEVON RAlLWAY.—Notwith-
standing that more than a hundred feet of the sea wall
and line have been literally washed away, the work of
renovation has been so rapidly proceeded with, that the
Tuesday morning passed over the
enarewlylygcooottedstructrai on
ten
d
viaduct, minus the engine, and the
subsequent , trains followed. The carriages and trucks
were driVen by the engine as far as the bridge, when
roPes were' attached to them, and " all hands" assisted
in bringing them safely to the other side. Some of the
passengers retained their seats do in this changerof lo:.
comotive power, but the timidtirsned the old courseh.I
thoe
walking over the. narrow, dirty, temporary p
cliffs. Of course various opinions have been
much of the Erie as is
as to the original construction
ofso
*Onion is that
contiguous to the sea, and the -aetx Tossed
ova;
of stone which
wed fur ordinary
the foundation of the sea wall. leN.
aetion of the wave 9, it
defective. Instead of
itsbiiui
gillhidati:liiging:tetiireciefesebetsu:titiltiel tyi fret,nia:
the
1.
e‘ prevailing
and those were so ItiehrealoiYutside giving way
uneven sad tut-
Rhaped that upon
d 'obi the crevices of the stones, aud
was composed of smalins,to:itiaeFli,:iti
the water penetrate 1 t .
,s
speedily brought destruction to tho adj*
having rouoved the rubbish there t opo,tted, assumed a.
poser which
line and
it parts of the line and dismay upon the luckless share,
chaollders. The rout t 'of such a mistake is generally
homily.— Wedterm 7tiotes.
ROYAL ASYLUM OP ST. ...\...N'S SOCIETY.—The wor-
. ity—
shipfal Compauy of Goldsmiths have presented a tioina,-
thou of 1001. to this
a,t,d4uuch-needecl gift. 'W excellent chare
4Pliorrfeiw of the ,
liei 1G
obi
companies have ever
.contributed.contributed::(pone save the
noble,
smiths). to this, one tf the oldest and best of our.
charitieo,- possessing at thiS 'trine. peColiar c, anus,
si well-beeto:z!routr
the increased ii and the fearfully ex-
tending class of recipients,' the children .
charges. for proviAlli-11.
of those for-
roerlythaes cto:m i totlede.
Oates that an appeal in prosperity. The last
madeorall the G om-
eal has been . to ity643
panies. May each- respond as relpthertalolfy
smiths'.