The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-05 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

s. i—crioN or COUNTY COURTS. —ln the Court of
c, ees Bench the case Owen v. Jones raised a question
of some practical importance upon the important provision
in le last County Courts Act, for remitting to the county
:ourts cases of trivial actions of tort, improperly brought
in the superior courts. The action was for illegally taking
the plaintiffs goods in Wales. Mr. Justice Willes, at
chambers, not being " satisfied " (within the terms of the
statute) that the case was lit for the superior court,
made an order (the plaintiff not being able to give
security for the costs as required) to send the case for trial
to a Welsh county court. To this order the plaintiff
objected, substantially on the ground that as the goods
were of the value of £2O, and the county court only had
concurrent jurisdiction in cases of tort up to £lO, the case
must necessarily he deemed " fit for trial in the superior
court." The court, in the result, upheld the order to re-
move the case fir trial to a county court, although, for a
special reason, the particular court to which it was sent
was changed. There was nothing in the case, they said,
of such magnitude or importance as to require that it
should be tried in the superior courts.
ILLEGAL SEIZURE OF GOODS.—HEAVY DAMAGES.—In
the Bail Court, before Mr. Justice Mellor, the case of
Harvey v. CrolVder and others was heard. The
plaintiff was a livery stable-keeper at the North-Western
Station, and he brought the action to recover damages
from the defendants for having broken open his stable and
taken possession of goods under a warrant. The facts
were admitted, and the only question raised was as to the
regularity of the judgment which had been set aside, and
this question *as left for the decision of the court above.
The jury now were merely to assess the amount of
damages. The plaintiff had livery stables close adjoining
to the North-Western Railway, where horses coming
-or going by that railway were brought. Valuable
racehorses were loft there, and there was a
large private connection besides. The plaintiff
had been induced by a traveller in the employ
of two of the defendants, who were manufacturers at
Leeds, to purchase a quantity of blankets, which had been
made for the United States at the time of the war. He
paid about £2OO, but another bale was sent to him. 'which
he had not ordered, and for this he refused to pay, and a
writ was served upon him. Plaintiff not liking to go to
an attorney, obtained a friend to enter an appearance
for him. The next thing the plaintiff heard of the
matter was on Saturday afternoon, the 16th of March,
when a person announced himself as Mr. Taylor, a
heriff's officer, and he stated that he had seized
,he horses, &c., which were upon the premises, under an
execution which bad been issued against him at the in-
lance of Messrs. Crowder. A man remained in posses-
,ion until the following Monday, when he left, as it was
liscovered that the judgment was irregular. The matter
vcame known in the neighbourhood, and some horses
were taken away, and persons did not bring horses in con-
sequence of the execution. The plaintiff's credit was
much injured, and he was compelled to give up his busi-
ness altogether. The plaintiff had carried on the business
for twelve years. The jury found a verdict for the plain-
tqf ; damages, £2OO.
ROBBERY AND FORGERY.—At the Central Criminal
Uourt, 'Wiliam Robert Stephenson, a boy 15 years of age,
pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery and stealing a letter
containing a post-office order, and was sentenced to one
month's imprisonment, and afterwards to be sent for three
/ears to a reformatory. At the same court, James Thomas
Lloard, 18, engineer, pleaded guilty to forging and utter-
ing a receipt for payment of money, with intent to
defraud. In this case the prisoner stole a post-
office savings-bank bock, and by means of forging the
name of the owner obtained the money. The accused
was ordered to be imprisoned for eighteen months.

THE CASE OF GOVERNOR EYRE.—At the Bow-street
Police-court the summons against Mr. Eyre, late governor
of Jamaica, which was held adjourned to await the result
of an application to the Court of Queen's Bench for a
mandamus, was again adjourned to the 15th inst., as, the
rule nisi having been granted, it was necessary to await
the result of the arguments in the higher court.

THE POSSESSION OF GREEK FIRE. —At the same court
Edward Barry and Michael O'Keefe were brought up on
remand. before Mr. Vaughan on the charge of having a
quantity of combustible matter in their possession for the
supposed purpose of committing a felony. Mr. Poland,
who appeared for the Treasury, said that since the last
examination the police had been engaged in making in-
quiries as to the circumstances of this case. There could, of
course, be very little doubt that this considerable quantity
of phosphorus, in quite an unusual form, was intended for
an unlawful purpose. Still, it was possible, and even pro-
bable, that on this occasion the prisoners were only re-
moving it from one hiding-place to another, and after the
inquiries already alluded to the police were not in a posi-
tion to bring forward any evidence tending to prove that
any specific act of felony was immediately contemplated.
There was a further charge against the prisoners of having
assaulted the police while resisting apprehension ; but,
considering that they had been nearly a fortnight in. cus-
tody, he would submit to the magistrate that they had
been sufficiently punished for this offence, and should
therefore ask that they might be discharged. Mr. Louis
Lewis, for the defence, said the prisoners had been charged
with a very serious offence, and although that was now
withdrawn for want of proof, they would not be content
to let the proceedings terminate without protesting in the
strongest terms that they were in no way connected
with Fenianism. In support of this assurance he might
mention that they had been confronted with all
the informers—Massey, Corydon, Devany, Mullany, and
others—not one of whom could identify them as having
been in any way mixed up .with the conspiracy. They
were honest working men, and could have good characters
from their employers. Mr. Vaughan said that though
the circumstances under which the prisoners were appre-
hended, the resistance they offered to the police, and
especially the incredible statement which they made at
the time, tended to make further inquiry necessary, he was
glad to find the prisoners so far exonerated that it was his
duty to discharge them from custody.

A DISHONEST SOLICITOR.—In the Court of Queen's
Bench, Mr. Murray moved on behalf of the Incorporated
Law Society for a rule nisi calling upon an attorney to
answer to matters of an affidavit with a view to his being
struck off the rolls. It appeared that the attorney in
question, after he was admitted, entered the employment
of a firm of attorneys as their managing clerk. lie had
since left them and had commenced on his own account 1,
Suffolk, and it had been discovered that he had rt,cei
two snms of money, £B5 and £B, during the time he v.
in their service, which he bad not accounted for, and ha,
appropriated to his own yurpos!s.7-11.ul? vauted.

THE "IMPROPERIA."

(I'rom the Church Times)

A letter in the Guardian, April 15, signed F.
W. Fowle, contains an attack on the beautiful
service known as the "Reproaches," now happily
used in so many of our churches on Good Friday.
Our readers need scarcely be reminded that the
" Reproaches " are a translation of that of the very
remarkable Missa Prxsanctificatorum called Impro-
peria, sung during the kissing of the cross on Good
Friday, a touching and significant ceremony, which
it is much to be regretted has been lost to us for
so many years. This Missa is a very remarkable
service throughout, and perhaps its symbolical
meaning may be scarcely understood at the present
day. It is doubtless a very ancient service, as
would seem to be shown by the introduction of the
untranslated Greek hymn of the Trisagion from
the Divine Liturgy of St. James. But, whatever
its antiquity may be, we may at least be sure that,
if the Missa Prxsanc4ficatorunt with the Improperia
was not exactly the Good Friday service of the
early Church, that day was certainly marked by
something more edifying and more appropriate to
its solemn thoughts and awful memories than
"Dearly Beloved" and Table Prayers.
Mr. Fowle says, " We complain that religion
does not attract intelligent minds, especially among
the professional and artizan classes." The "we "
must be taken to be emphatic. No doubt the
complaint is common and perfectly true iu churches
where such beautiful services as the Improperia are
viewed,
as by Mr. Fowle, " with profound repug-
nance." Has Mr. Fowle ever attended St. Matthias'
or St. Alban's on Good Friday, and found religion
unattractive to the professional and artizan classes ?
If not, we could refer him to the newspaper reports
of the attendance at the Good Friday services this
year in churches where the Improperia are valued
as something better than " offensive doggrel."
" But," says Mr. Fowle, " this service introduces
the dramatic element, utterly foreign as it is to the
English Service Book, and to all true conceptions
of spiritual worship." We certainly thought that
this was an argument which had been so completely
disposed of that no man in his senses would think
of reviving it again ; and we are almost inclined to
think that the letter containing such utter nonsense
must have been intended for the Record or the
Rock, and has somehow got inserted into the
Guardian by mistake. Catholic worship must be
dramatic. No one can study the ritual and calendar
of the Church, whether of England, Greece,
or Rome, without being convinced that its whole
aim is to be dramatic. It is not the mere reciter
of events which happened centuries ago, nor their
expounder, nor, as the Puritans would say, their
improver. It sets them forth before the eyes of
man as if they were happening now ; as if they
were scenes in which we ourselves were taking a
part ; as if they were events occurring in our own
times, and in which we bore a living interest.
Catholic worship must be dramatic. It is a repre-
sentation of what goes on in Heaven, as witness
the Sacrifice of the Mass. We might go further
than this, and say that every Christian man is by
profession dramatic ; he ought to be acting out the
Incarnate life of his Lord and Saviour in his own
person. The imitation of Christ is an obligation
upon every Christian. And what is this but the
highest realization of the dramatic element ?
Sbake.peare's idea of all the world being a stage,
and all the men and women being players, is thus
in the Catholic sense much more true and unmis-
takable. Christians who do not regard themselves
as imitators of Christ—priests who do not believe
that they have received the power to bind and to
loose, or to make the Body and Blood of Christ,
but merely assume so much only of the functions
of the priesthood as they like—all these, of course,
do not comprehend the dramatic results of Christ-
ianity, and look upon the Church's holiest services
when fittingly rendered, where all things are done
decently and in order, as " a mere peg to hang
luscious music and theatrical effects."

Mr. Fowle says that he has "no intention of
calling the legality of these services in question."
Neither have we. Their legality may be another
question ; but, alive to the beauty, solemnity, and
awe-inspiring character of the Missa Prmsancqfica-
torunz and its Improperia in the Roman Church,
and (in its degree) of the "Reproaches" in our own,
we cannot let such an attack pass without bearing
our witness to its untruthfulness. We can afford
to acknowledge how much of beauty and solemnity
and true devotion exists iu services that are un-
happily lost to us, or to be recovered only through
much tribulation.