The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-22 00:00:00

THE BISHOPRIC OF CORK.

The Venerable William Fitzgerald, Archdeacon
of Kildare and rector of Monkstown, hai been ap-
pointed by the Lord. Lieutenant to the Bishopric
of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross.
The new Bishop, who was private chaplain to
Archbishop Whately, was believed to be a sup-
porter of the national system of education, but
since the Archbishop's secession from the Board it
is reported that Dr. Fitzgerald's views have also
undergone some modification upon the education
question.

THE CASE OF ALICIA RACE.

(From the Times.)

The Court of Queen's Bench has decided in the
case of Alicia Race that in the absence of express
stipulations in the father's will the child must be
delivered up to her mother. We cannot venture
to impugn the decision, although in this case the
rule of law appears to act with extraordinary hard-
ship. There cannot be a moment's doubt that the
intention of the dead father was that his children
should be brought up in the faith which he himself
held. If equity could have been brought in to decide
upon the question, Alicia Race would have been
left in the Protestant school at Hampstead. The
am is told in a few words. A Sergeant of Marines,
a Protestant—Lauman Race by birth—is killed
before Petropaulovski. A few days before his death
he leaves the guardianship of his children to his
wife, who was a Roman Catholic. The Romanist
opinions of the wife must have been of an ex-
tremely moderate kind, since she consented, to
marry a Protestant without any ante-nuptial stipu-
lations as to the form of religious belief in which
the children were to be brought up.. Sergeant
Race, however, being himself a Protestant and a
religious man, as is proved by the letter which
he wrote to his wife a day or two before he
was killed in action, left her guardian of the
two children. During his lifetime he had brought
them up in the Protestant faith—he had taken
them to Protestant places of worship—he had
taught them Protestant prayers ; and to this course
of religious training the Romanist mother had not
offered any objection. Well, the father dies before
Petropaulovski, leaving it as an injunction upon
the mother that his two children should be brought
up in the " fear of the Lord." For eight months
after the news of her husband's death had been re-
ceived in England his widow took the two children
to a Protestant place of worship. That was 'the
manner in which she interpreted the wishes of her
dead husband while the first grief for his loss was
fresh upon her. Time, however, wore on, and as
sorrow oozed out Romanism crept in. The priests
of her own faith got around her, and persuaded
her that it was necessary for the salvation of her
children, and for her own, that first the boy
and then the girl should be removed from
the schools to which they had been sent under the
auspices of the Commissioners of the Patriotic
Fund. She applied for the delivery of her son, a
lad under 12 years of age, and her request was in-
stantly complied with, as the boy himself made no
opposition to the claim. The persons, however,
who had interested themselves in her case informed
the mother that they could do nothing for the boy
unless the little girl too—the child of 10 years of
age—was also removed from the taint of Protes-
tant instruction.

Alicia Race refused to return to her mother to be
educated in the tenets of the Roman Church. This
was the point which was brought before the
Queen's Bench. Lord Campbell has decided that
the law of England in such a case affirms the
guardianship of the surviving parent. There can
be no doubt that Sergeant Race was a Protestant,
that during his lifetime .he had brought up his
children as Protestants, and that his wish was
that after his death his children should be brought
up as Protestants. So far there is no dispute.
The counsel on both sides -are agreed about the
facts. The only question' is whether, upon the
general rule that the guardianship in suchi.a case
reverts to the surviving parent, Alicia Race must
be handed over to the custody of her mother.
We fear it cannot be helped. However hardly
the law may operate in this individual case, it is
necessary for the wellbeing of society that the
widow should have the guardianship of the chil-
dren up to a certain age, saving in cases of gross
immorality or unfitness. Had Sergeant Race left
particular directions that his children should be
brought up as Protestants, no doubt the guardian
would have been bound to follow his injunctions.
This, however, the sergeant neglected to do, and
consequently he has left his unfortunate offspring
exposed to the machinations of the Quirk, Gammon,
and Snap of Rome. We deplore such a result, but,
if the law of the land be as it is laid down by
Lord Campbell, we do not see how its application
can be avoided. Greater inconveniences would
follow from the misapplication of a general rule
than from its unfortunate incidence in a parti-
calar instance. the case of Alicia Race is just the
case of a person who is garotted—of a shopkeeper
who is swindled—of an orphan cheated out of his
inheritance by an informality in a deed. If there
be informality in the indictment, or in the
deed, the criminal must escape, and the orphan
must suffer. The fact is that Sergeant Race
neglected to draw his will properly, and the
Romanist priests have hit the blot. We should
regret to write anything which would weaken the
power of parental authority over the child, and no
doubt, however hardly it may apply in his parti-
cular instance, the child must endure the conse-
quences of the parent's neglect. The rule of Eng-
lish law appears to be, that until the age of 14
years the parent or guardian, not the Roman priest
or Protestant clergyman, must have th• custody,
moral and physical, of the child. The decision of
the Queen's Bench is an anti-Papist decision--
that is, it is in favour of the parent, and against
the priest. The rule, as we trust, will be remem-
bered in all future cases when the parts are as-
signed to different performers. Meanwhile Alicia►
Race is to be handed over to the Roman advisers
of her mother ; and, although we have little con•
fidence in the logical powers and theological learn-
ing of a child of such tender years, it is to be hoped
that affection for the memory of her dead father
may carry the poor child through the four years
of trial which are before her.

DREADFUL AFFRAY WITH POACHERS

AT BYTHE.

- - ---wa,--
A conflict with poachers occurred at Hythe, be-
tween 2 and 3 o'clock on the morning of Sunday
last, in which two men were so injured that their
lives are despaired of. James Dean, a gamekeeper
Cad-
lands, heard the report of a gun in Stanswood
•u the estate of Mr. A. B. Drummond, of Cad-
wonheomof hteheenandheaavdoaulroend,tostarrurgegstle;
copse. Tle iuunediately got up, took a large mastiff
and one
which the latterb
with him, and went to the spot. lie there dis-
asistanwcae
The keeper fell, but had
strength enough left to get to the assistance throughco with
theyver
resisted,e
d the
two
kt
he e p men,elaer n t
side.
dog who had attacked one of the sofshthote
. men and take its
muzzle off. The other poacher immediately made
off, but the doh seized
him by the arm and
shoulder, and dragged him to the ground. The
poacher began to shriek for mercy, calling out that
his name was Blow, and that he would surrender
if Dean would take the dog off.
The keeper,
though exhausted from loss of blood,
crawled to
the rescue, and released
the poacher from his dan-
gerous situation, but the dog burst away again,
bringing the poacher to the ground. Once more
the keeper muzzled the dog, and released the poor
wretch, who by this time was reduced to a worse
state than Dean himself. Assistance very shortly
came, the keeper was taken home, and a surgem
was sent for ; but before his wounds could be
dressed a second summons arrived from the poacher
Blow. Both were in a very precarious state.
Dean was shot completely through the side, and it
was doubtful whether ho would survive. The
poacher Blow was frightfully mangled about the
head, face, and arms—more injured, if possible,
than Dean. A man named Arnold has been
arrested on a charge of aiding Blow.—Southamp-
ton Free _Press.

CHIEF CONSTABLE FOR KENT.—At a special meeting
of the magistrates of the western division of the county
of Kent, Capt. Buxton, of Brenchley, who is also one of
the county magistrates, was elected to the office of chief
constable of the county constabulary, under the act of
Parliament enforcing the establishment of a rural police
throughout the kingdom. if tore were 66 candidates for
the appointment.