The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.

(Sittings in Banco, before Lord Campbell, Mr. Justice
Wightman, and Mr. Justice Crompton.)

THE QUEEN V. CLARKE.-ALLEGED PROSELYTISM OF
CATHOLIC CHILDREN.

In this case an habeas corpus had been obtained t)
bring up Alicia Race, a child 10 years of age, under the
following circumstances :—lt appeared that the father
of Alicia Race was a serjeant of Marines, and was killed
in the late attack on Petropaulovski, but previous to
that, when on board H.M.S. Peak, he wrote a letter
addressed to his wife, i❑ which he expressed a presenti.
went of death, and recommended bis children, a boy and

daughter, to the care of their mother. The deceased
was a Protestant, and his widow a Catholic, and the
children after the death of the father were placed—the
boy at the Sailors' Boys' School, Chardstock, Dorset-
shire, and the girl at the Sailors' Female Orphan Home
at Hampstead, of which latter asylum the Rev. E.
Bickersteth, incumbent of Christ Church, Hampstead,
was the chaplain. Both the asylums were supported
out of the funds arising from the Royal Patriotic Fund,
of which Capt. Fishbourne was the secretary. In Oct.
last the boy was removed from the school at Chardstock
and given up to the mother, at her request, Captain
Fishbourne, the secretary, admitting the right of the
mother to have the child given up to her. A
similar application was made for the female child,
but it was refused, on the ground first,
that the child had no wish to leave the school and adopt
the Roman Catholic faith, because that during her
father's life she but rarely attended the Roman Catholic
Church ; and secondly, that the Royal Commissioners of
the Patriotic Fund stood in loco parentis to the chill,
and that they declined to give her up. Oa the other
hand it was contended that the husband when living
allowed his daughter to be instructed in the Cath.tlic
religion, and often joined his wile and child in their
prayers, and that by the deceased husband's will, dated
previous to his leaving England, he made his wife his
executrix, with power and command over his childr n.
In support of the application and refusal, a variety of
affidavits were put in and read ; and the affidavits
grounded the refusal to give up the child on the circum•
stance of the child's repugnance to the Roman Catholic
religion ; and a number of the affidavits were from ladies
and gentlemen of rank connected with the school, who
stated that they had examined the child privately, and
had informed her that she might leave the school and join
her mother, but that she invariably and peremptorily re-
fused to leave the school, and also that she had embodied
her feelings in a letter, in which she said she loved her
mother, but Jesus more so, and that she refused to dis-
obey Jesus and embrace an idolatrous worship ; and ex-
pressed her regret that when she wan at home at the
Christmas holidays she was taken by her mother to the
Roman Catholic church, and that she then objected, in
answer to a question from the Roman Catholic priest, to
enter a Roman Catholic school.

The question was evidently a struggle between the
representatives of the two Churches to get possession
of the child, to bring her up in their own peculiar

creed.

Mr. Sergeant Shee, on the part of the mother, ap-
plied that the child should be given up to the mother,
who was her testamentary guardian by law.
Mr. O'Malley, for the institution, denied the right of
the mother to the guardianship of the child, and that the
child refused to leave the institution.

Mr. Bovill also argued that the Royal Commissioners
of the Patriotic Fund stood in the place of the father,
and called upon the Court to use its discretion, arid,
under the circumstances, order that the child should be
redelivered to the guardianship of the Royal Commis-
sioners.
Mr. Sergeant Shee having been heard in reply,
The Court said they would take time to consider
their judgment, and deliver it on Monday first, as to
the absolute right of the mother to the custody of the
child. _ _

They, however, would hear the learned counsel, on
the mother being an unfit perso❑ to have the custody of
the child.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

THAMES.

DARING STREET ROBBERY.—John Thomas, a well-
known thief, and a member of that inexhaustible gang
the swell mob, was brought before Mr. Selfe, on remand,
charged with stealing a silver watch, the property of
Mr. Grant.

Mr. John Grant stated that he and his brother were
on Gould's-hill, Shadwell, looking at a fire which was
then raging on the premises of a ship chandler, when in
a moment he saw his brother's watch on the ground,
and the prisoner about to pick it up. His brother,
however, snatched the watch from the prisoner, who
ran away. Immediate pursuit was made, and the pri-
soner was overtaken and given into custody.
Mr. Selfe—l recollect the prisoner being here twice
before. Once he was brought from a chapel where Mr.
Spurgeon was preaching. Although young, he is being
trained to be a regular thief. I sentence him to three
months' imprisonment and hard labour.