The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

THE'SITN,WIAONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 6, 1860.

Having referred to the present defective mode that prevailed
in reference to procuring vessels for the conveyance of
troops, the hon. member said that the sending
out to India and bringing home of each soldier
cost the country £46 18s. Mr. Wood a gentle-
man of considerable knowledge in respect to his subject,
asserted that the cost could be reduced to £25 per head.
Other competent authorities had stated th . the cost could
be considerably diminished. An organic on that would
effect that object would be of advantage at the present time,
when the number of troops it would be necessary to send to
India would be so much larger than previously. He con-
tended that the most practical means of dealing with the
subject would be to revive the emigration office, which
would discharge their functions so effectually, and the ma-
chinery of which was still in existence. That board might
be presided over by the Minister of War or by the First
Lord of the Admiralty, as might be arranged by Govern-
ment.

Lord C. PAGET said it was not the intention of the
Government to offer any opposition to the motion, but
he thought the hon. member would find difficulties
in the working of the Emigridion board which he proposed
to revise. He believed that at the present time
there was a proper understanding between the War-
office and the Admiralty on the subject, at least he had
heard no complaints at the latter with respect to the for-
mer. He suggested that the 12.0 n. member should leave
out the words from "performed" to the end of the motion.
After a few words from Mr. Baillie, Sir H. Willoughby,
Sir C. Napier, Sir J. Elphinstone, and other hon. members,

Sir J. PAKINGTON said he did not think this was a
proper time to enter on the discussion of this subject. The
only question really before them was whether there
was not ample ground for inquiry into the sub-
ject. As far as he was concerned, he considered
there were the strongest reasons for such inquiry, and that
it would be productive of benefit, as any improvement in
the system of transport would lead to a corresponding im-
provement in the condition of the troops, who sometimes
were exposed to inconvenience and delay.
Mr. LINDSAY consented to the omission proposed by
the noble lord (Lord C. Paget,)
The motion was then agreed to.
CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS.

Mr. COCHRANE moved that, for the future the Civil
Service Commissioners shall publish, with their animal
report, all the examination papers submitted to candidates ;
specifying the proportion in which filo maAIMUm of
marks ...signed to each branch of knowledge is
divided among the questions contained in each paper.
The hon. gentleman contended that the only other country
where competitive examinations prevailed was China, and
he quoted the opinions of Sir John Bowring and Lord
Monteagle against the present system. He quoted some of
the questions which candidates were required to answer in
the examination of persons applying for Government
situations, which excited much amusement.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he
must confess that having examined this motion his col-
leagues and himself considered that there were very grave
objections to it. But if any doubt existed on that subject
it would have been removed by the speech of his hon.
friend which the house would recollect must be taken in
connection with the motion. The animus of that speech
could not be mistaken. His hon. friend gathered what
scraps he could to show that the whole idea of a civil ser-
vice examination was mischievous and absurd. His hon.
friend said next that the examination was retrospective,
but what did his hon. friend mean ? Did he mean that a
person in the civil service was required to submit to an
examination to retain his office ? If he did, such was not the
fact, and if he meant that on migrating to another depart-
ment, an examination was required in that case, he spoke
correctly. When the landing waiter from Barbadoes wished
to transfer himself to the Audit-office, no doubt he had to
submit to an examination, and his hon. friend considered
that monstrous. In his (the Chancellor of the Exchequer's)
opinion, it would be impossible to exaggerate the mischief
that must ensue from the adoption of the plan proposed by
his hon. friend. In point of fact, the question which his
hon. friend wanted to bring to an issue was whether the
system would be altogether maintained or abolished. His
hon. friend who was so much alive to the evils of examining
a landing waiter from Barbadoes, does not remember the
class of evils which the present system was intended to re-
move. He did not bear in mind what a huge jobbing power
had been at work throughout the country, through the
medium of members of the House of Commons. Of course
it was impossible that any member of the House of Com •
mons could knowingly mix himself up in the perpetration
of a job—(a laugh)--but members of great eminence,
and who now took a deep interest in the work-
ing of the examination system, had been them-
selves unwitting instruments in the perpetration
of jobs. These examinations were introduced
in a spirit of hostility to jobbery, and with a
view of obtaining the best men. His hon. friend said that
the public were well served under the old system. True,
in many offices it was so, but there were other offices in
which the contrary had been the case. Many offices he
knew to have been miserably filled, and they would have
continued to be so but for the examinations which had been
instituted a few years since. The motion was so narrow
that he felt almost drip taxied in dcauendins fiom the din,uc-
sion of broad principles to its restricted terms. It might
be right to publish a general idea of the scope of an exami-
tion, but it would be decidedly mischievous to give every
detail. But that kind of particular examination, without
bounds and without limits, which his hon. friend sought to
secure, tended to destroy the efficiency and honesty of the
examination, and to put those young men, not upon seeking
general information and cultivating and furnishing rightly
their minds, but upon all the tricks and stratagems which
might be applied, and sometimes were successfully applied
with fatal effect, for the purpose of vitiating this process of
examination, and evading those tests which it was the ob-
ject of the examination to secure. His hon. friend with
great magnanimity, said he was not at all dispeSed to com-
mit an act of injustice towards the examiners, and he
would by no means quote particular questions, which
might be misunderstood, and having laid down that gene-
ral principle he immediately iroceeded to quote a string of
particular questions which appeared to his hon. friend ex-
tremely ridiculous.
Mr. B. COCHRANE—The questions I quoted all fol-
lowed each other.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had said
a "string" of particular questions. (Hear, hear.) It was
not easy to find a word which would more clearly express
that the questions followed each other. (" Hear, hear,"
and laughter.) He would venture, however, to say this,
that there never was a good examination paper set which
would not give occasion probably to a titter in a mixed
assembly, before gentlemen who were not met for the pur-
pose of undergoing examination, but upon matters quite
different from scholastic examination. (Hear, hear.)
Having listened to these questions he (the Chancellor of
the Exchequer) must say that they appeared to him to be
extremely reasonable and proper questions, very well cal-
culated to test general knowledge and general capacity, and
to do credit to the judgment of those by whom they were
framed and put. (Hear, hear.) His hon. friend said that
the value in number of marks ought to be attached to each
of those questions. The hon. gentleman, unable to defeat
the system, AC as determined to do everything to weaken it,
by bringing the power of cram to bear upon it, and he
wished to have artificial aids given to young men to direct
them to what questions they were to go. So that they
might say, " If I get up this question I only get 3 marks,
but if I get up this I get 12 marks." In the first place, that
would be a degree of detail which it would be absurd and
ridiculous to ask the examiners to enter into, and in the
second place it would be a thing of no manner of use what-
ever, except to encourage these young men to cram for par •
titular questions. (Hear, hear.) The question was
whether the examiners had given to those who wore to be
examined that sort of general information as to the
character of the examination which was fair and just. And
what had the examiners done in their first report ? For
once, they did publish the whole mass of the examination
papers that they had set for the year. For once they did that,
in order that there might be laid out before the candidates
fair means and opportunities of becoming acquainted with
our system. But to pursue that year after year, by pub-
lishing the whole of their examination papers, would, in
the first place, load their reports and the shelves of the
library of that house with a vast quantity of the most use-
less and worthless matter. One of the most important
branches of this examination was arithmetic ; and
what could be more ridiculous than to call upon those
examiners tdprint in detail every sum and problem in arith-
metic which was put before every person, who came forward
to be examined with a view of entering the, civil service of
the country. It would be very mischievous as regarded the
amount of needless expense to which it would put the pub-
lic, and still more mischievous from the tendency it would
have to encourage trick and stratagem in the young men,
instead of leading them to trust to the manly processes of a
sound and well-conducted education. He thought the mo-
tion, framed as it was, laid down rules which were very ex-
ceptionable, but if the opinion of the hon. gentleman and
the general opinion of the house really were that Ihe exa-
miners had not done enough to make those parties acquainted
with the general character of the examinations, such an ex-
pression of opinion, deliberately made by those who had
looked into the reports, and had really considered the ques-
tions, and conveyed to the examiners themselves, would, he
had no doubt, have great weight with them. But he (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) should like to know whether
there was in that house any one man who had considered
carefully the whole of the papers published by the exa-
miners, and, having considered them, had made up his
mind that they were not sufficient to give fair information
to the persons to be examined. Had his hon. friend him-
self (Mr. B. Cochrane) road all the published papers ? He
should like an answer to that question. (Hear, hear.) The
hon. member was very ready to speak just now, when he
had something to say, but he was not es willing to speak
now. (Hear, and laughter.) But if the hon. gentleman
had, and if he considered that sufficient information was not
given, it would be a matter well worthy the attention of the
examiners, and one which he (the Chancelh of the Exche-
quer) felt sure they would take into consideration.
would be no cause for the interference of the house by- nw-
ipotionez,hi:wca.h%,tino stahyonnoatthutinevattzujureeedeb.Zdt:lol7:rtaw:aeusnits;;
questions
press upon the belle, majority—speaking oft-o.
Mar, hear.) The doctrine he would

was this ; that those gentlemen ought not to be discouraged,
but encouraged in their difficult task. (Hear, hear.) But

what time had his hon. friend chosen to make this motion ?
He had tried to force them to interfere with this system at the

very moment when they had recently appointed a committee
to examine it—when the committee had nearly concluded its
labours,and was preparing its report, but at a time when they
were entirely ignorant of the nature of its report. Thus, in the
first place they appointed a committee to examine the sub-

jest, and then at the instance of his hon. friend they pro-
ceeded to prejudge a most important matter. (Hear, hear.)
Nothing could be more, he would almost say, irrational on
the part of the house, and nothing certainly less in confor-
mity with its usual mode of proceeding, than to have selected
a body of men in whom they had confidence to look into the
whole matter, and report their opinion as to the nature of
the system, and just at the moment when within a few weeks
or days the house might expect the result of those inquiries,
they should on the speech of his hon. friend proceed to an-
ticipate them, and possibly to cross and contradict what
they would recommend by the adoption of this motion. For
these reasons, and if time were not valuable for many rea-
sons which could be given, he trusted the house would not
agree to the motion of the hon. member, if it were too late
to express a hope that the hon. gentleman himself would
not press his motion to a division.
Sir F. SMITH said that he had been for five years a pub.
lie examiner at Addiscombe, and he quite concurred with
what had fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with
one exception. There was no doubt that if the examination
papers were published continuously it would have the effect
of enabling the cramming schools to prepare the necessary
questions. Nut there was one point on which he differed
with the right hon. gentleman. He saw no harm in putting
on the examination papers of the day the number of marks
to be assigned for each answer. It would enable the candi-
date to complete the number of marks necessary for his
examination and to apply himself to those questions which
would give him the greatest chance of success in the depart-
ment he aimed at. That would guide and properly guide the
candidates. With regard to examinations by competition he
had seen enough to know that they would do great good in
the civil and military services. There was no doubt that
at competitive examinations they could not test the quali-
ties of the candidate, but tkey tested his knowledge and
his power to be useful in some particular branch. They
could not test the courage of the young soldier, but they
could test his mind and his general fitness fur the service.
Ho hopod tho houzo would not aooodo to tho motion of his
hon. friend ; but, at the same time, he trusted they would
concur with him in opinion that the number of marks on
each question should be laid before the candidates at the
time of examination. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. H. BENTINCK said it appeared to him the speech
of the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was quite as remarkable as many other speeches which they
had heard from him in that house. The first thing the
right hon. gentleman complained of was the animus of his
hon. friend (Mr. B. Cochrane) to be discovered in his speech.
That appeared to him (Mr. H. Bentinck) to be a eulogy
rather than the reverse. He had often listened to many
speeches in that house, and the complaint was, that it
would be impossible to understand what was the animus of
those speeches. Now, if what the right hon. gentleman
said were true, he could not see why the system should not
be applied to the Treasury bench—(a laugh)—because its
application to that bench might be most beneficial to the
public service. The right hon. gentleman went on to say
that prior to the establishment of this system many offices
were miserably filled. That seemed to him a sound reason
why the system should be applied to the Treasury bench,
because many offices on the Treasury bench had been mise-
rably and ruinously filled, and if we had the benefit of the
system of competitive examination that might have been
prevented. (Reiewed laughter.) The right hon. gentle-
man asserted that the effect of the system was to establish
the general knowledge of the applicant, but the object of
his hon. friend was to establish the fitness of the candidate
for the particular office which he might have to hold, and
not his general ability. One of the complaints against the
system was that the examination had no reference to the
fitness of a candidate for any particular office. The right
hon. gentleman had mercy on the shelves of the house, and
spoke of the inconvenience of having piles of figures, but it
would be well for some hon. gentlemen if their figures had
no record, and were blotted out from the memory of man.
(Laughter.) The right hon. gentleman had complained that
his hon. friend (Mr. B. Cochrane) had treated the house to
a few scraps from the examination papers. Now he (Mr.
H. Bentinck) had understood his hon. friend to say that he
had in his hand numberless instances of the absurdity of
the questions, but that in deference to the time of the house
he would abstain from quoting many of them. Since the
right hon. gentleman complained of these few scraps he (the
hon. member) would take the liberty of offering him a few
more, and would quote some questions put to candidates for
commissions in the army.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—The civil
service commissioners do not examine for the army. (Hear.)
Mr. H. BENTINCK—It was the system of competitive
examination which he wished to show up. The following
were some of the questions asked, " Make a sketch of a cliff,
a quarry, or a railway cutting, and mark the line of bed-
ding, and the courses by which the layers of rock are di-
villa/1 2" ortah+ol..) Would waxy 1111
Treasury bench who might take it into his head to give up
his seat there and go in a commission in the army be able
to answer that question ? (Laughter.) " What are the prin-
cipal data for determining the geological age of a stratified
rock ?" " What are the colonial possessions of Spain and
Portugal—describe the political constitution of any one of
them ? Point out any permanent traces of Napoleon's con-
quests on the map of Europe, and is the present Emperor
his legal representative ?" (Laughter.) The latter part of
this question was very wisely omitted by the commissioners
in the publication of their report. In an examination which
lasted four hours the candidate was asked to discuss the
most important political questions which had agitated Ire-
land for the last 30 years.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—Is that
question in the report ?
Mr. H. BENTINCK—It was in the paper from which
he read, and which was a correct copy of questions by a very
high authority, who had been called upon to examine into
the system. But the worst feature of all was the utter want
of confidence which the system had created in the mind of
the public. Nothing could induce persons who were not
conversant with the manner in which the system was con-
ducted to believe that whatever amount of jobbery existed
before it was instituted, the jobbery now was not much
greater ; and it would be impossible to do anything effectual
as long as the system of irresponsibility prevailed, and there
was a total want of check upon these gentlemen. He had
heard this feeling expressed only the other day in very
homely but not very classical English ; but it conveyed for-
cibly the general opinion which prevailed on the subject. A
person who laboured under the mistaken impression that
members of the house had no difficulty in getting Govern-
ment situations for applicants came to him, and asked him
to befriend his son. He told him that he must qualify
his son for examination in the subjects specified for candi-
dates for employment in the particular department which
he wished to enter, and that when he had passed his exa-
mination ho would do his best to have his "name put
down," adding that beyond that he could do nothing. The
applicant scratched his head, and hesitating for a mo-
ment, said, It's all very well what you say, but I have
inquired about it, and this is the way. Them as competes,
when they have competed, if they ar' n't no friends they
gets nothing." (Laughter.) He repeated that the one great
insurmountable objection to the system was the irresponsi-
bility of the commissioners, which no Minister, however in-
genious could venture to defend. They were not responsible
to public opinion, nor open to the censure of the house ; and
so long as the public knew that, and justly felt that they
had the control of the entire patronage of the country, what-
ever might be their attainments, their charicter, or their
intentions, se long would there be dissatisfaction, and a re-
opening of the whole question by motions similar to the one
now before the house. (Hear, hear.)
Lord STANLEY could not help thinking that the very
fact of the competitive examinations under the civil service
commissioners being now the subject of debate was a suffi-
cient proof that those commissioners were responsible to the
house and the public, to whom, through the medium of the
house, they presented their annual report.. (Hear.) It was
said that the amount of jobbery under the present system
was greater that that which existed before, but it was a
well-known fact that the system made a candidate inde-
pendent of the power of friends in or eut of that house, and
dependant alone on his own merits. (Hear, hear.) It was
a mistake to suppose that the patronage of the Crown, as
the hon. member (Mr. Bentinck) had stated, was transferred
to irresponsible persons. It would be as consistent to say
that a judge who decided a right of ownership to an estate
possessed patronage with respect to that estate. The civil
service commissioners were simply judges, and nothing
more, as to the fitness of a candidate to fill a certain appoint-
ment. They possessed no power to appoint. (Hear, hear.)
The hon. member would no doubt be happy to hear that
he was also incorrect in stating that the subjects for exa-
mination were proposed by the commissioners, and not
by the heads of departments. (Hear, hear.) It rested
with the heads of departments to furnish the commis-
sioners with a statement of what were the branches of
knowledge in which they required a candidate to be com-
petent, and the commissioners decided which candi-
dates were most competent. Much had also been said
about the supposed over-strictness of the examinations, and
the strange and out-of-the-way questions which were put
to the candidates, but it was not dealing fairly with the
subject to select out of a list of some hundred questions one
which well might be considered strange or out of the way,
and to take it as a sample of the whole. (Hear.) Such a
mode of proceeding involved this fallacy among others—
that it presumed that a candidate was necessarily required
and expected to answer every question. Such was not the
fact. In examining men or lads from all parts of the world,
and who had been educated at different universities and
colleges, it was necessary to make as large an allowance as
the subject would admit of for such diversities of training.
The object was not merely to ascertain the amount of
knowledge possessed by a candidate, but to give him a
chance, if he possessed more information than usual on any
one subject, of displaying his knowledge in that particular.
qo far from candidates being required to answer all the
--used, it was a plain fact that an enormous
-^4 he would say four-fifths of the

whole—failed, not in the more obtuse, but in the mos '
simple branches of education, viz., arithmetic and spelling.
(Hear.) Was it then or not beneficial to the public service
that 400 out of 500 candidates for appointments being unable
to spell or do a sum should be excluded by the civil service
examiners ? (Hear.) No person looking at the subject
dispassionately could possibly give any other but one answer.
He hoped therefore that the house would not consent to the
mothm. He objected to it also for another reason, namely,
that a committee of which he was a member was now sit-
ting upon the whole question of civil service examinations.
They had concluded the evidence, and he hoped that before
long their report would be laid before the house. The result
of their labours, he believed, would throw some light upon
the subject, and although he was not permitted by the
rules of the house to refer to any portion of the evidence,
he might say that, whatever inconvenience and disadvan-
tages might attend the present system, they were light as
compared with the total absence of check on the admission
of unqualified persons to the public service which previously
existed. (Hear.)
Mr. BOWYER objected to the character of the exami-
nations as being inapplicable to the duties of the depart-
ment which the candidates were expected to discharge.
Sir G. LEWIS said the Civil Service Commission had
no authority to make a report to any one but the Crown,
and objected to the motion.

After a few words from Lord R. CECIL and Sir S.
NORTHCOTE,
Mr. COCHRANE consented to withdraw his motion,
but the house negatived it without a division.

trayed some backwardness in joining Prince, but he
ultimately did so towards the close of 1846, accom-
panied by Mrs. Thomas, Prince having sent one of
his emissaries to bring Mr. and Mrs. Thomas to him
at Weymos.th. After Mrs. Thomas had arrived at

Weym-outh, Prince, who was stopping at the same
house with her, remonstrated with her on the subject
of having dissuaded her husband from obeyitg his
(Prince's) commands, and said " If ever you dare at-
tempt to influence your husband again in acting
contrary to my commands, God will crush you out
of the way," accompanying these words by extend-
ing his clenched fist towards her. In November,
1845, Mrs. Thomas learned that Prince was corre-

sponding with her sister Louisa Jane, to induce her
also to come and reside at Weymouth, and was
writing a letter to her to dissuade her from
doing so, when one of the so-called brethren, who
was staying in the house, looked over her shoulder
and read what she had written, and then, snatching
it away, took it to Prince ; and that evening, when
she was proceeding to the bedroom usually occupied
by her and her husband, the latter forbade her to
go, saying, " In wr:ting that letter you have deeply
sinned against God's Holy Spirit. I therefore
care nothing about you, nor what becomes of
you. The room adjoining this is empty. You can
go there if you please, so that you may not be near
nee," and from that day, which was a Friday, until
the Wednesday following, Thomas slept in a diffe-
rent room from his wife. In February, 1846, Prince
became aware of Mrs. Thomas being pregnant, and
he thereupon, and in consequence thereof, expressed
great anger with her. Thomas was then at Bridge-
water, away from his wife with Prince, and ad-
dresed to her the following letter :

"My best beloved,—l herewith enclose you a small por-
tion, eat, drink, yea. drink abundantly; and let your soul
delight in fatness ; let the will of God be your home and
resting-place. Out of His will there can be no happiness,
but in His will there is life, and joy, and peace. "The ser-
vant of the Lord' told me that you would not be in your
present state unless you had rebelled months ago ' • and thus
you will suffer for it, in not being able to go about with her
as you otherwise would ; but when I see you I will tell you
all about it."

Two or three weeks afterwards Mrs. Thomas had
directions to leave Weymouth, and she accordingly
did so, being at the same time forbidden to join her
husband at Bridgewater. She then went to reside,
first with her mother-in-law, and afterwards with
her mother, and in 1859 an attempt had been made
by her husband to take the child, which was born
to her in June, 1846, away from her; but this at-
tempt was defeated by an application, in 1850, to
Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce, who appointed Mrs.
Thomas and her mother guardians of that child.
In December, 1845, Miss Louisa Jane Nottidge, who
was then about 41 years of age, went to reside in
the neighbourhood of Weymouth, in order to be
near Prince, and under whose influence she then
placed herself. After some difficulty her brother
and brother-in-law succeeded in taking her to her
mother's, and, as she appeared to her friends to be-
tray symptoms of insanity, they called in medical
aid, and the result was, that in November, 1846,
she was, upon the usual medical certificates, placed
in confinement. She remained in confinement
until the 15th of May, 1848, when she was released
by order of the Lunacy Commissioners, those
gentlemen being of opinion that, although she
laboured under extraordinary and irrational notions
on the subject of religion, she had exhibited no
other indications of insanity, and that her bodily
health would suffer by her confinement being pro-
longed. In the meantime—viz., in 1847, Prince
and his followers had taken up their abode at the
Agapemone, at Spaxton, near Bridgewater. On
the day of Miss L. J. Nottidge's release she was
met by Thomas, who brought and took her on the
same or the following day to Prince's broker, with
a view of making a transfer to Prince of the stock
then standing in her name, about £5,728 Three per
Cent. Annuities. Not knowing the amount of
stock standing in her name she was then unable to
make the proposed transfer, and went with Thomas
to the Agapemone on the 16th or 17th of May,
1848. About a fortnight after she made the
transfer of the above amount to Prince, having
in the meantime ascertained the amount of stock
to which she was entitled. In July, 1858, she
died intestate. The defendant, in his answer,
said that he was not the founder, but that,
Mr. William Cobbe and the Rev. George Robin-
son Thomas were the founders of the institu-
tion or establishment called the Agapemone, and
that its members professed certain religious tenets,
being those of the Chinch of England, with certain
further opinions to the following effect :
" The object of all God's dealings with man, even from
the beginning, has been the development of His Lame to
make himself known. This is His glory. The way in
which God in His wisdom has chosen to make himself
gradually more and more known to man, as well as to
develope his opening counsel and purpose concerning Him,
has been by raising up from time to time from among men
certain individuals prepared and appointed by Him for the
special end he has in view. These have been His wit-
nesses, inasmuch as they have borne witness, or testified to
the true character, the name of. God, or to the particular
mind or purpose of God, which they were appointed to
develope. Moreover, they have been living witnesses—that
is, what they lived, not merely what they said, made mani-
fest the character or mind of God. It is plain from the
Scripture history of God's dealings with mankind that He
has from time to time entered anew into covenant with man,
and that on such occasions He has had one way of de-
veloping and carrying out His counsels and purpose, and
that that way has been to select and appoint 'one man as
His witness thereto. The first time God entered into a
covenant with man was at the creation of mankind. Then
Adam was his witness. The second time when God is
recorded to have entered into covenant with man was at
the destruction of mankind by the deluge. Then Noah
was His witness. The third time when God is recorded to
have entered into covenant with man was after the disper-
sion of mankind at the time of the building of the tower
Babel, when he left them to their idolatry. Then Abra •
ham was His witness. The fourth time was at the redemp-
tion of mankind by the Gospel. Then Jesus Christ was
His witness. God, in Jesus Christ, has again entered
into covenant with man at the resurrection of mankind.
This is the first resurrection, and now I am His witness.
This one man, myself, has Jesus Christ selected and ap-
pointed his witness to his counsel and purpose, to conclude
the day of grace, and to introduce the dayof judgment to
close the dispensations of the spirit—the Gospel, and to
enter into covenant with flesh ln each in-
stance where God entered anew into covenant with man
it has been in connection with the falling away from God
of the children of the former covenant, that is, of the pro-
fessing people of God, and also of their being left or for-
saken of God lt is a most remarkable fact
in the Scripture history of mankind that in every dispensa-
tion, so soon as any one has been found dispensationally
perfect, that dispensation has closed, and made way for
another The dispensation under which the
immediate descendants of Adam lived closed as soon as
there was one found perfect therein, perfect in his gene-
ration—Noah. The dispensation under which the imme-
diate descendants of Noah lived closed so soon as one was
found perfect therein—Abraham. The dispensation under
which the descendants or seed of Abraham throng& Isaac
and Jacob lived, that is the law, closed so soon as one
was found perfect therein—the Lord Jesus Christ; and in
like manner the dispensation under which the spiritual
seed of Jesus Christ lived, that is the Gospel, closed so soon
as one was found perfect therein—Brother Prince. As it
has been God's way in the history of mankind to open a
new dispensation by means of him as His witness, in whom
He had made perfect the former one, so now He has intro-
duced the day or dispensation of judgment and the first
resurrection throughßrother Prince as His witness, in whom
he had by His spirit fulfilled the dispensation of the Gos-
pel, and so closed it."
With reference to the Agapemone itself, the in-
mates of which were between 50 and 60 in number,
the evidence of the defendant described it as fol-
lows :
" The establishment of the said Agapemone consists of a
large mansion-house, having attached thereto extensive
gardens, conservatories, hothouses, pleasure grounds, and
a farm, of which the defendant is the proprietor in fee
simple, consisting of about 200 acres of land, occupied by
a person who cultivates and manages the same for the bene-
fit of the members of the Agapemone. The produce of the
garden, hothouses, and farm are applied to the purposes of
maintaining the table, and other occasions of the members
of the Agapemone, and the residents in the establishment
enjoy every kind of comfort which such establishment can
afford. In addition thereto carriages and horses are kept.
There are numerous horses of great value, both for driving
and riding, kept for the use of those resident at the Aga-
pemone, and they occasionally ride out in a carriage
drawn by four horses."
Other persons besides Miss Nottidge had given
the defendant large sums 'of money. Starkey
said he had given Prince £l,OOO, and his
wife had given him an annual income of £BO.
Price and his wife had given £6,000 to the de-
fendant, and Mr. and Mrs. Cobbe the same amount,
and Mr. Hotham Maber and his four sisters had
given Prince £lO,OOO. The learned counsel said he
had gone into the circumstances connected with Mrs.
Thomas's marriage and her treatment, in order to
show the ascendancy which Prince had acquired
over his people, and he contended it was clear that
at the date of the gift Miss L. J. Nottidge was
under the spiritual ascendancy of the defendant,
and that she laboured under gross delusions respect-
ing him.
Mr. Bacon (with whom was Mr. Smale) com-
menced his address for the defendant shortly before
the Court rose.

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