The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-12 00:00:00

AGITATION MANUFACTURE.

" The Governor of a County Prison " writes to the
Pall Mall Gazette, complaining that certain 'persons who
are now promoting an agitation against the Contagious
Diseases Acts are in the habit of deliberately getting up
fictitious testimony adverse to those measures. It is their
practice to find out a girl who has been committed to
prison for refusing to submit to examination. They ascer-
tain when she is to be discharged from prison, and when
she issues from the gaol they meet her, and thereupon
extort from her if possible the statement that
she refused to be examined from modesty.,
In support of his statement the writer tells the following
remarkable story :—" A few days ago two respectably-
dressed females, who did not give their names, came
to the prison of which I am the governor, and de-
sired to see a female (name unknown to them)
whose imprisonment was to expire on the fol-
lowing morning, and who had been committed from a
certain town (name of town given) on a certain day. Their
object, they said, was to see that the prisoner was `safely
sent home to her friends.' The date of committal, the
name of the town whence she was committed, and the
date of the expiration of her imprisonment being riven, I
easily found the prisoner alluded to, and thinking that
the ladies were philanthropists who wished to do the
girl a real good on her diicharge, but had for-
gotten her name, I asked them to come, to
the prison on the following day. In the meantime I
learned from the girl that she had no friends, but that a
lady in the town from which she was sent had introduced
herself to her, and to all the girls residing in the house
with her, before she went to prison, and told her that she
hoped all the girls in the house would be of one mind, and
not go up any more to be examined. This
lady gave the girl, on her being committed
to prison, the address of a certain person in the town
where this gaol is situated, and told her to go to him on
her discharge from prison. I have very good reason to
believe that the lady who visited the girl before her com-
mitment, the gentleman whose address was given to the
girl, and the ladies who came to meet her are all con-
nected with one another, and with the society who are
desirous of altering the law. The ladies, in fact, ad-
mitted this to be the case. The girl informed me that
she had been examined fortnightly since the law first
came into force, and had never objected until she was
persuaded by the lady to do so. Modesty, therefore, had
nothing to do with the girl's commission of the offence
for which she suffered imprisonment. Surely the work-
ing members of this society will do well to reflect that the
law can punish not only those who break the law, but
those who incite others to do so, and they may rest
assured that false representations ill do no good what-
ever to their cause.'

REFUSAL TO MARRY UNBAPTISED
PERSONS.

A dispute has arisen at Braintree on the question of
marrying unbaptised persons. Mr. Carey Rees, the Rev.
Mr. Cartwright, the vicar of Braintree, and the Bishop
of the diocese of Rochester, are the parties. On New
Year's Day, Mr. Carey Rees sent a letter to the Bishop
of Rochester, of which the following is the main portion :
" A few days ago I called on the Rev. Mr. Cartwright;
vicar of Braintree, to ask him to publish the banns of
matrimony between myself and a lady (a member
of his congregation) residing in Braintree. Mr.
Cartwright, on ascertaining from me that I had never
been baptised, declined to publish the banns. I have
therefore taken the liberty of writing to ask your lordship
whether Mr. Cartwright was acting in accordance with
the laws and usages of "the Church of England in thus
declining to publish the banns." Whereupon the Bishop
returned the following answer, dated January sth :
" Sir,—l believe Mr. Cartwright was acting strictly ac-
cording to law in refusing to publish the banns of a per-
son whom he knew to be unbaptised. I remember the
same case occurring some thirty years ago, when I was at
Oxford, and it was considered that the clergyman was
justified in his refusal. But, while I say this, permit me
to say that I feel the same pain which, I am sure, Mr.
Cartwright feels in placing this obstacle in the way of
your union. Ido most earnestly wish that the hindrance
might be surmounted by your receiving Holy Baptism.
You meditate entering into a state in which the future
happiness of others (if God should bless you with chil•
dren) will depend on your Christian life and example;
and as I used always to exhort those whom I married to
receive the Holy Communion at the first opportunity after
their marriage, so now I do exhort you, if, by God's grace,
you can overcome your scruples, to be baptised in order
to your marriage being celebrated with our holy service.
I shall make further inquiries as to the legal question ; but
I have very little doubt that it is as I say. I cannot tell
you how much I shall be relieved if you could consent to
be baptised.—Yours, &c., ROCHESTER." To this letter
Mr. Carey Rees returned an answer on the following
day. He said that with every veneration for the inspired
writings, he thought that the inspired Apostles treated
baptism and the Lord's Supper as outward institutions
Divinely appointed to symbolise and illustrate certain
important religious truths. And that to force them into
association with marriage was nothing less than profana-
tion. However, the bishop made no reply, and Mr.
Carey Rees now publishes the correspondence, hoping
that the refusals of clergymen to bury and to marry un-
baptised persons will alike receive attention. It appears
that the vicar has acknowledged the illegality of his con-
duct in refusing the banns.