The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-23 00:00:00

The case of the Bishop of Natal.

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE AND PRIVY COUNCIL,
(THIS DAY.)

This morning the first proceeding in England, connected
with the deposition of the Right Rev. Dr. 4s. W. Colenso,
Bishop of Natal, from hia see, was commenced before the
Judicial Committee and Privy Council at Whitehall. There
were present the Lord Chancellor. Lord Wreesleydale, Lord
Kingsdown, Lord Cranworth, Lord Chelmsford, Sir Edward
Ryan, and Sir J. T. Coleridge.
The circumstances which have given rise to this petition
to the Judicial Committee of Privy Council (for the pro-
ceedings cannot be regarded in the light of an appeal, inas-
much as the Bishop of Natal denies the power of the Bishop
of Cape Town to depose him) are of such recent date, and
have been so fully discussed that it is not necessary to re-
peat them in detail. Dr Colenso, who was C fellow of St
John's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Forneett St
Mary, Norfolk, was nominated to the bishopric of .Natal in
1853 by the Duke of Newcastle, who was then Sec:etary
of State for the Colonies, and was consecrated by the Archl
bishop of Canterbury. His letters patent bore date Novem-
ber, 1853, and the letters patent to the Bishop of Capo Town
as metropolitan were dated 1853. In the former it is set
out that the Bishop of Natal and his successors shall be
subject and subordinate to the see of Cape Town, and to the
Bishop thereof and his successors, in the same manner as
any bishop of any see within the province of Canterbury
is under the authority of the archiepiscopal see
of that province, and of the archbishop of the same. The
Bishop of Natal denies that the language used conveyed to
the Bishop of Cape Town jurisdiction over his suffering,
and that the nietrop:litan is not by law authorised to sum-
mon before his tribunal any one of his suffragans, or to
exercise jurisdiction over him. Some months ago the
Bishop of Natal came to England and published some works
on the subject of the Pentateuch, the contents of which are
known to ell the world. He was "presented" by the Dean
of Cape Town and other clergy to the Metrepolitan, who
cited him to appear in his court; but Dr Colenso disre-
garded the summons, and the trial proceeded in his absence.
The result was that he was deposed from his bishopric by
the formal decision of the Bishop of Cape Town in his
court.

The I etition before the Court this morning had reference
to this deposition.
Mr James, Q.C., Mr J. Fitzjames Stephen, and Mr J.
Westlake appeared for the Bishop of Natal. The proceed-
ings being ex parte, no counsel appeared for the Bishop of
Cape Town or the prosecutors
The petition, the details of which were stated by Mr
James, prayed that her Majesty would be pleased to declare
the petitioner to be entitled to hold his see until the letters
patent granted to him should be cancelled by due
process of law for some sufficient cause of forfei-
ture, and to declare that the letters patent
granted to the Bishop of Cape Town, in so far as they
purported to create a Court of Criminal Justice within
the colony, and to give to the Archbishop of Canterbury
an appellate jurisdiction, had been unduly obtained from
hor Majesty and did not affect the petitioner's rights. The
petitioner also prayed that the pretended trial and sentence
were void and of no effect, and that an inhibition, as was
usual in ecclesiastical cases, should issue against the pro-
ceedings under the sentence pending the appeal.
The Lord Chancellor, in the name of their lordships,
ordered the petition to stand over until the sittings of the
Judicial Committee of Privy Council in or after Michaelmas
term, with liberty to Dr. Colenso to serve the petition in
the meantime on such persons as he might desire to serve.
Their lordships, he said, declined for the present to enter-
tain the question of inhibition, since to grant it would be to
assume jurisdiction on the part of the Bishop of Cape
Town.
The case was then ordered to stand over until the
Michaelmas sittings.
The Bishop of Natal was present during the proceedings.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day,

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

ROBBING GENTLEMEN IN THE HAYMARRET.—Two
CHARGES AGAINST A FEMALE.—GANG ROBBERIES.—
Elizabeth Wilson, a stylishly dressed female, was charged
before Mr Knox with stealing a watch, of the value of £25,
from the person of Mr Mortimer Collins, a gentleman at
present residing at the British Hotel, Cockspur-street. Sho
was further cht.rged with robbing M. Jean de Belmont, a
French gentleman, residing in Stanhope-street, Regent's-
park, of his watch and chain.

Mr Mortimer Collins stated that he was walking down
the Haymarket about half-past two o'clock this morning
on the way to his hotel, when the prisoner stepped up to
him and put her arms round his waist. He immediately
pushed her away and found his watch chain hanging down,
and on putting his hand into his pocket found that his
watch had been abstracted. The prisoner ran away, but
he followed her, and while doing so a man, who shammed
drunkenness, tried to intercept him. Having pushed the
man away he continued his pursuit of the prisoner, and at
last overtook her and gave her into custody.
In answcr to Mr Knox, the prosecutor :lid he was per-
fectly sober at the time, and never spoke to the prisoner till
he told her to go away. Ho had just before looked at his
watch, which was of the value of £25.
The prisoner, who pretended to cry, stated that she never
saw the prosecutor titl he charged her with robbing him.
Felix M'Mahon, 165 C, said that en the prisoner being
given into his charge she said the gentleman had made a
mistake. The watch was not found.

The prisoner, who shod some forced tears, said, in answer
to the magistrate's question of whether she wished to plead
before him, that it was hard to say she was guilty when
she was innocent.

Mr Knox having been informed that a second gentleman
wished to press a charge,

M. Jean de Belmont, of Stanhope-street, Regent's-park,
said that about half-past 12 last night he was under the
arcade in the Haymarket—the Opera.arcade—when the
prisoner came up to him and felt him about. but knowing
how persons were robbed by reading the reports in the
papers he kept a sharp lookout. Directly after the prisoner
laughed, evidently as a signal, and up walked a young man,
no doubt, to receive what the prisoner had taken. He (M.
De Belmont) noticed his watch and chain in the prisoner's
hand, and took them from her, and she ran away. He then
spoke to and assisted the police for two hours in looking for
the prisoner, and then left the constable for a short time,
after which the constable came up and said he had got the
woman. He considered the conduct of the police very good.
The prisoner, who, as soon as a second charge was pre-
ferred against her, quite altered her tone, assuming a defiant
air, was then committed for trial on both charges.