The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-02 00:00:00

THE TRIAL OF SAMUEL COOPER FOIL AN INFAMOUS

CHARGE.
(Continued from The Sun of yesterday.)
John Stewart, another private in the same regiment,
deposed that a day or two after the 9th of January he
was in the barrack room, and had a conversation with
the prisoner on the subject of the charge be had made,
and the prisoner gave a statement of the circumstances
under which he had made the charge. He then described
the property that was taken from the gentleman, and
said that if he had been on the " colours" post, he
would have had the whole lot. The post called the
" colours" was a more retired one than the place where
the prisoner was sentry on this occasion. He added that
he had heard the prisoner, after he came off guard oa
several occasions make statements as to the manner in
which ho bad obtained money and other property which
he saw in his possession.
Mr. BALLANTINE objected to evidence of any state-
ment of this kind being admitted against the
prisoner, as it was only calculated to prejudice him in
the minds of the jury without having anything to do
with the present charge.
The Learned JUDGES, after some argument, ruled
that the evidence was admissible under the circumstances
of the case. No direct demand of money had been
proved, and therefore it was important, with a view to
ascertain what the intention of the prisoner really was,
to see what his own statement as to his conduct had been
on other similar occasions.

The examination of the witness was then proceeded
with, and be stated that in 1835 he saw some money in
the prisoner's hand, and he accounted for the possession
of it by saying that he was on sentry at night, and as a
gentleman was passing he seized him by the collar and
put him into his sentry-box, and either got or took his
money. . _

Cross-examined—Witness did not give any informa-
tion to the commanding officer or to the police that the
prisoner had committed this robbery. Of course he
thought it was a robbery. Witness had been a corpo-
ral, but was degraded to the ranks for not reporting
himself to the commanding officer, and for being absent
from duty.
Joseph Walker, also a private in the same company
as the prisoner, proved that on the night of the 9th of
January he heard him say that be had given a gentle-
man in charge, and that he bad got notes and gold and
silver upon him, and if he had been in the " colour" post
he would have had the lot. He also heard the prisoner
say that if Mr. Sellers had given him a sovereign be
would have let him go. The prisoner bad repeatedly
told him, after he came off guard, that he had got money
from people. He had said this to his knowledge three
times, and witness had seen him with a sovereign in his
hand which he represented he had.so obtained.
Cross-examined—Some of his comrades might have
done the same thing. He did not wish to speak against
his comrades. He never had a watch himself or asked
the prisoner to get rid of it for him.
Thomas Bryant, another soldier belonging to the
prisoner's battalion, also deposed to hearing the prisoner
make use of the expression that if he had got a sovereign
the man might have gone to la—, and if he had been on
the colour post he would have had all he had got.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
Mr. BALLANTINE then addressed the jury on behalf
of the prisoner, but it was evident that the Learned
Counsel felt that the evidence was too cogent for him to
hope to struggle successfully for a verdict. He made
some observations upon what ho described as the extra-
ordinary conduct of the prosecutor,a clergyman, walking
about the streets at night, with a cigar in his mouth, and
also remarked upon his conduct in entering into conver-
sation with private soldiers under such circumstances as
appeared in evidence ; and he urged upon the jury that,
if they were not perfectly satisfied of the falsehood of
the charge that had been made, the prisoner was entitled
to an acquittal.
Mr. Justice CRESSWELL then summed up, and
The jury almost immediately returned a verdict of
Guilty.
His LCRDSUIP, in passing sentence, said, that he quite
concurred in the verdict of the jury ; and notwithstand-
ing the ingenious observations of the Learned Counsel
respecting the thoughtless and inconsiderate conduct of
the prosecutor, in walking about the streets at night as
he had done, he did not see any reason to doubt that the
charge had been made against him by the prisoner
without any foundation. It was an offence of the most
odious kind. The crime which ho had suggested as
haying been attempted w one which every decent mind

shrunk from contemplating, and was of a character to
drive from society any wan suppnst d to be guilty of it.
The false accusation of such a crime was ncxt iu de-
grce to and almost equally disgusting as the crime itself;
and it was the duty of the Court, in all such cases, to
pass a sentence calculated to protect the public from the
repetition of such an offence.

The prisoner was then sentenced to be transported for
fifteen years.

Just before the rising of the Court the grancl jury re-
tu! d four true bills fur manslaughter against Bartholo-
mew Peter Drouct.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Marell 1.

DIVISION OF ECCLESIASTICAL DISTRICTS.

(Continued from our Third Edition of last night.)

Mr. HUME denied that the building and planting
of churches in the metropolis or throughout
the country would remove the difficulties which the
Noble Lord deplored, and which he now sought to
remedy. If the Church was in such a lamentable state,
it was the duty of Government to interfere to correct its
abuses. There were plenty of churches. t. hat the
people wdnted was assistance for their physical neces-
sities. What had the ten new churches in Bethnal green
done for the physical wants of the people? Was not the
distress there kreater than ever? The Noble Lord had
begun in error. Fe would, he said, apply the church-
rates to this purpose. Were not church-rates public
property ? How, then, could the Noble Lord say that
he did not intend to touch public property? How did
the House agree to that? Tho Noble Lord had not
mentioned the Dissenters. Why, in most of the popu-
lous parishes the large proportion were Dissenters. A
church for every 4,000 inhabitants, when, perhaps,
almost all of them were Dissenters. Was anything
more absurd? Let every clergyman attend to his own
duties. Abolish pluralities. h would have been better
to consider how these pluralities could be done away
with. That would be the way to make the people
moral and religious, The Dissenters Lad done more to
promote education in the country than the Church
people all together. The Church people did not come
forward in:support of education, or to extend the know-
ledge of religion, except when it was thought necessary
to supersede the efforts of the Dissenters. The Noble
Lord said that there were only 279 parishes that would
be benefited by his motion. Did he mean to say that
the other parishes were properly attended to ? He
feared not. In the populous districts of England it was
the Dissenters who did most for religion. He said this
to dissipate the idea that there was no body but Church
of England people in the country. He moved, as an
amendment, after the word population to insert the words
" belonging to the Church of England," and to add the
words " and to abolish ecclesiastical sinecures and plura-
lities, and to have small parishes in which there was
little to do included in new parochial arrangements."
Mr. HEALD said the object of the motion had his en-
.

tire concurrence. As a Nonconformist, he heartily con-
ceded to the Church that power he claimed for himself.
He preferred the plan proposed by the Noble Lord, be-
cause it was one upon which they could act, and it was
action, not inquiry, that was wanted. He must at the
same time observe that the plan he proposed would be
attended with considerable difficalty in the large manu-
facturing towns. He feared in these towns it would tend
to generate strife and discord between the clergy and the
ministers of congregations. In Stockport, the town which
he represented, for instance, there were two or three
chapels to every church.—(Hear, hear.) In that town,
12,000 children, out of a population of 60,000 souls, at-
tended the Sunday-schools, and of these 10,000 children
were taught by the voluntary contributions of Noncon-
foruaists.—(Hear, hear.) Something similar might be
said of the district in the neighbourhood of Stockport,
and the effect of the education thus voluntarily pro-
vided was strikingly manifested in the extraordinary
outbreak of 1842, when, although the whole left their
work, they scrupulously abstained from the violence
which had marked former events of that kind.—(Hear,
hear.) He hoped the Noble Lord would modify that
part of his plan which referred to those towns ; and,
in conclusion, begged to repeat his cordial acqui-
escence in the general principle and object of the Noble
Lord.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BRIGHT said he forgave the Honourable Mery
bar for Stockport the opinions he had expressed la
the first part of his speech, for the sake of the facts
with which he had concluded it. With respect to the
motion of the Noble Lord, he did not object to it o 0
principle, but to the details. In the interesting
speech with which the motion had been introduced,
the Noble Lord said that he did not ask for any money.
Ho (Mr. Bright) had heard that statement before.
It was not impossible that a Commission might
go from place to place and make up a grievous case
of spiritual destitution, by excluding the efforts of Non'
conformists, and then, upon the faith of the case thus
made out, come to that House and ask for money.i
(Hear, hear.) If ho was a member of the Church 0'
England—which he was very thankful he was not—(A
laugh)—while he would be in favour of the prineiple
of the motion, he could at the same time found marl
plans of a more tangible character. Fur instance, be
lived in a parish of about ten miles square, and with
population of 80,000. They had a vicar who was act
unknown to fame, a sort of semi- bishop, without any
of the responsibilities, and having the appointment o
all the curates; it was complained that he never ap-
pointed an evangelical one. It was complained also by
those wlto lived at the other end of the parish, and who
never attended the mother church, that they had to pal
double rates. Ile thought that should induce them to con-
sider the .f ISln.eone.rraiQta who were famed t°
pay rates, though they did not use the church at all.
Ile was afraid that the Noble Lord was mistaken in his
ideas, as to the possibility of making the clergy of the
Church and the people come together in the spirit he
had spoken of. The education, habits, and position of
the clergy unfitted them for such intercourse with the
people, and he believed that no efforts of the Noble Lard,
or of Parliament, could ever force the mass of the people
back into the Church of England, or into any chapels
either.—(Hear, hear.) Even in that House going t°
church or chapel was not considered of that importance
which it once was. But he would call the attention or
the House to the proportion of the clergy to the popu-
lation, from which it would be seen that, if what he
might call their clergy power—(Great laughter)--we
properly distributed, there was quite sufficient of ,"
He found that there were 10,500 benefices, 5,263 ct
racies, and a number of dignitaries connected wit
cathedrals, which made the total amount to 16,0"
places in the Church of England. Of this number more
than 3,000 places had no duties attached to them, s°
that the holder of each of them might be called tsre,
clergymen.—(Hear.) Taking the whole population 0'
England and Wales at 18,000,000, this gave one Clef;
gyman to 1,182 persons; but it was admitted that the'',
were 3,000,000 persons in connexion with Dissenters e*
various denominations, who might fairly be taken to re);
present four millions and a half of population. TT,
would leave thirteen millions and a half, and giving t"
Church the whole of that number, it would provide one
clergyman to 856 of the whole population. The llort*
Member then proceeded to give a series of statistical fr
turns as to the numbers and relative proportion of MI
senters in the manufacturing districts to the strength •
the Established Church. In the various denerninatio!
of Dissenters, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodist',
Presbyterians, Moravians, &c., there were 7,950 CO
gregations not connected with the Church. When t°
population in the different dioceses was looked all
would be seen to be very unequally divided, one-eightj
of the population had - seven-eights of the clergy, en
seven-eighths of the population had only one
eighth of the clergy power alloted to them,—(lloll
hear.) There were more than 6,000 perisbe;
containing not more than 300 persons, the remainl
parishes were all above 2,800, yet the Noble Lord beg"n
at the wrong end, and proposed to leave the small 1),!,-,
rishes of 300 untouched, while he meddled with t'
larger populations. Taking the manufacturing district;
around Manchester, he found that the Dissenters 101
368 chapels more than the Establishment had churche,."
all of which were erected by voluntary contribationsbe
(Hear, hear)—that they had a majority of 81,000 of
tno
population; they bad 328 more Sunday schools, 18.7";
more Sunday-school teachers, and 42,000 more SundeJ;
school scholars than the Established Church. Insteau.,°,
making out a case of spiritual destitution in these des
tricts, it would be found, that whereas the proportion''le
,
increase of the population in Lancashire and Yorkell
since 1801 had been 48 per cent., the increase of char,.
and school accommodation had been 104 per cent. Uri 0
these circumstances, he hoped that the Commissioned
would not get up a report about spiritual destitution'
,
excluding from it all notice of what had been done :1
Dissenters.—(Hear.) The Hon. Member then proceed
to advocate a redistribution of the Church revenues, el 3,
of the ministers of the Church. Looking upon the,' ~
venues of the Church as State property, and wort,`,/
principal sum of at least 150,000,000/. sterling, he rbe
immense educational and religious benefits that miglpay
realised by its proper application, and he would gill. II
assist in relieving the Church from all the fetters 0

restrained it from making that application. bY
Mr. W. P. WOOD said he would not be seduceui. „,
the discursive speech of the Hon. Member for 31ta
chester into the discussion of any of the numerous Pcn,
mooted in it, but confine himself strictly to the questf„i•
It was admitted that there was an awful amount of 'rt
ritual destitution, and the Noble Lord proposed a distievo
and specific plan to remedy that evil. It was bloc
means desirable that there should be more than -"er
individuals, not 4,000, as the Honourable
for Manchester had stated, under the charge of euof
clergyman. The question, however, was not one tti
numbers, but of numbers as well as space, and b,?„if
should be taken into consideration in discus6'"ei
the question then before the House. He diree,.o
the attention of the House to the case of the,iire
parishes in which they were then situated, St. ":AatiS
garet's and St. John's. When he first became 9, resw-if
of those parishes, twenty-two years ago, there we°o s$
two parish churches, four clergymen, and the chalieo.
Broadway, and the state of things with regard to "duty,
Lion might be judged of from the fact that only til: roe
seven children attended the schools connected vi“"a hi
church. A course somewhat similar to that pursue Of
the Noble Lord the Member for Bath had been Wu the
pursued in these parishes. The first step taken viu6 ear
appropriation of two stalls, which produced I,2OOL!Los
each, to the payment of additional clergymen, and the
was the stimulus given by that measure, that, D„b,
aid of voluntary contributions and the munificent
scriptioes of individuals, instead of two churches _7l,
one chapel, with four clergymen, they now had rO,OOO
ditional churches, nine additional clergymen, sod " the
f
children attending the schools. The sub-division of
parishes led to these happy results, and the worloiu."o,
the clergymen
produced the greatest possible 04,cr0
tages. Mill,however, out of the 60,000 inbabitant7,loo
were to be found from 30,000 to 34,000 who attended for
place of worship, and bad not the slightest regal; the
the Deity, a circumstance which in itself showeun.or,
necessity for increased spiritual supervision. (,1-1,,030
hear.) Having alluded in highly commendatory ‘c