The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-06 00:00:00

THE SUN,. LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 6, 1860.

ST. GEORGE-IN-TEE-EAST.

Yesterday Mr. Gill, clerk to Mr. Stone, a soli-
citor, served a formal notice of appeal on Mr.
Joseph Smith, solicitor, of Arbour-street, East
Stepney, against a conviction of Mr. Elliott, who
fined a man, named Robert Rosier, £3, on the 19th
of July last, for brawling in the parish church of
St. George-in-the-East. The conviction was the
first under the new act, the 23d and 24th of Vic-
toria, cap. 32. The second conviction under the
same act took place at the Thames Police-court on
Thursday, when Mr. Selfe sentenced a dock
labourer, named Joseph Rowe, to three weeks' im-
prisonment for riotous, violent, and indecent beha-
viour in St. George's Church. on the 23d ultimo.
Rowe's sentence has not yet been appealed against,
and it is believed that the Anti-Puseyite League
established in the parish of St. George will, in this
instance, allow the law to take its course unques-
tioned. It has been recently stated at a public
meeting by Mr. Stephens, a tradesman in Rateliff-
highway, and a vestryman of St. George, that the
Rev. Mr. Hansard, appointed to officiate during the
absence of the Rev. Bryan King, had determined to
resign ; as he was bound by the agreement he had
entered into with the Rev. Mr. King to carry on the
services of the Church in such a manner as to hurt

the feelings of the parishioners. Mr. Stephens also
stated that the Rev. Mr. Hansard had said, that in
three weeks or a month a new minister would supply
his place. The parishioners of St. George were in
hopes that when the rector, the Rev. Dove Dove,
and the Rev. Mr. Lowder departed from the parish
there would be an entire change in the Tractarian
services, so distasteful to the parishioners. and the
occasion of ma much litigation and There
has, however, been little alteration in the mode of
conducting the services since the departure of the
rector; the tumult in the church last Sunday was
very great, and some of the choristers were hooted
and hissed through the streets after they lett the
church. The Rev. Mr. Hansard, though deservedly
respected, and who has not carried out High
Church practices so zealously as the unpopular rec-
tor, has failed to allay the angry feelings of the
parishioners. It has been intimated that the police
will not be allowed to assemble in large bodies in
the church again, or to interfere at all, unless called
upon by the churchwardens to put down some seri-
ous breach of the peace, or protect the fabric from
injury. In the present temper of the people of St.
George's, there are only two alternatives, the entire
closing of the parish church, or a return to the
mode of conducting divine worship which existed
before the appointment of the Rev. Bryan King to
the rectory. Mr. Neal, the secretary of the Anti-
Puseyite League, has demanded the following
changes in the mode of conducting the services in
the parish church. The Psalms to be read, not
sung; the dismissal of the surpliced choristers; the
discontinuance of the Popish hymnal ; the black
gown to be worn in the morning and evening ; no
offertory, and the removal of the super altar and
decorations. In fact, the ratepayers desire that the
services in their parish church, which was built at
the expense of the nation, in the reign of a Protes-
tant King, should be conducted precisely in the
same manner as they are solemnised at the three
district churches in the parish.
The appeal against Mr. Elliott's conviction will
be tried at the Middlesex Sessions on or about the
25th Oct., and a great many witnesses will be called
on both sides. Mr. Metcalfe has been retained by
Mr. Smi+h to sustain the magistrate's conviction.
The Rev. Bryan King and the Rev. Dove Dove, who
gave evidence at the Thames Police Court, are at pre-
sent on the Continent.