The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-27 00:00:00

THE BUSH CHURCH.

An influential meeting, convened by requisition,
was held at Limerick on Wednesday evening, for
the purpose of securing " religious equality amongst
all classes of her Majesty's subjects in Ireland."
The attendance was very large. On the motion of
the Right Rev. Dr. Butler, Catholic Bishop of
Limerick, the Earl of Dunraveii occupied the chair.
Amongst those present were —Colonel Monsell,
M.P., Mr. Synan, M.P., Sergeant Barry, M.P., the
Right Rev. Dr. Butler, Very Rev. Dean O'Brien,
P.P., &c. A good number of Catholic clergymen
were also present. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, one of the
secretaries, read letters of apology from Lord Castle-
rosse, Viscount Southwell, Aubrey De Vere, Major
Gavin, M.P., &c. The Chairman congratulated
those present on the fact that they had not been
summoned there in the defence of any religious
monopoly, or to prop up a Catholic fabric or sec-
tarian ascendancy. They had been summoned in
order to certify and show to the country that they
were determined by all loyal and constitutional
means to come forward and assert that the time had
arrived when Ireland should have full religious
equality. (Cheers.) They felt that the time had
come when the question must be faced, and there
was every reason to hope that it would be quietly
sett'ed. Two of the leading statesmen of England
had come forward at the present time to give them
all the support in their power; and if eloquence of
speech and determination of purpose could effect
anything, those qualities were exerted in the per-
uns of those statesmen in favour of the object that
that meeting was assembled to promote. The
Catholics of the world ought indeed to feel grate-
ful to the greatest orator in the House of Commons
for the words which he had lately use I, and
which had gone through the length and breadth
of the kingdom, , reaching the hearts and
kindling the gratitude of thousands of their
fellow-countrymen, when he said the State Church,
as an establishment, could not exist. It bad been
said by some that the Catholic laity of Ireland did
not feel a deep interest in the question—that to a
vast number of them in this country it would be a
matter of indifference whether the Established
Church was done away with or not. But that great
meeting, and others that would be held all over the
country, would show the falsity of that assertion.
Let the resolutions that would be adopted and the
petitions that would be sent to Parliament—not
from Limerick alone, but from every parish in
the country—show that no ground existed for such
a reproach. No one could have failed to observe
with the deepest pleasure that a remarkable
change had come over the progress of public opi-
nion on this great question in England, and he
might add not only on this but on all questions
relating to Ireland. England boasted of being
a land of justice and a land of fair play; but the
people of this country, and the history of the past,
had not given it an opportunity of judging of those
favourable portions of the English character, and it
would be unjust and ungenerous if they did not
acknowledge that there never was a time since the
connection between the two countries in which
there was such a strong desire on the part of Eng-
land to come forward and atone for the errors of
the past, and to deal with all those grievances of
which the people of this country most justly com-
plained. He hoped that it would be clearly under-
stood that they made a distinction between what
they said with regard to the Established Church as
an establishment, and their feelings with regard to
the Protestant religion. They did not come for-
ward in opposition to their fellow-Christians,
or to denounce any religious tenets in the
land. 'They would leave that to their opponents,
who had never been slow in vilifying the faith of
the vast majority of the people. There was one
effect which education was bringing about. If they
educated the people of Ireland, amongst other
things they must lead them to read the past history
of their own country, and in reading it they could
not help realising the manner in which their clergy
had been treated. His lordship observed that if
the Parliament acceded to the wishes of the majority
of the people in this matter, and passed other mea-
sures for this country, they would have. no more dis-
content, a better day would dawn for Ireland, and
they might expect to see the welfare and prosperity
of the people. Col. Mousell, M.P., who was loudly
cheered, proposed the first resolution—" That while
the ecclesiastical revenues of England were ap-
propriated by the national will to the spiritual
wants of the majority of the English people, the
ecclesiastical revenues of Ireland, against the
national will, were appropriated to the spiritual
wants of less than one-eighth of the Irish people ;
that in the opinion of the meeting this appropriation
was a national wrong, a badge of conquest, and
inconsistent with the first principles of justice."
Alderman gninlivan seconded the resolution, which
was unanimously adopted. Mr. Syuan, M.P.,
moved the next resolution—" That, for the purpose
of laying the foundation of union, prosperity, and
peace in Irelan 1, the disendowment of the Esta-
blished Church is the first step to be taken." The
resolution having been seconded: was also adopted
unanimously. Several other resolutions in fur-
therance of the objects of the meeting having been
proposed and carried, the proceedings terminated.

THE WORKS OF GUSTAVE DORE.—This season
will doubtless witness the most remarkable display of
works of art by one born to ba among the greatest of the
past, the present, and the future. An exhibition on a large
scale of the. young master's latest works is announced ;
meantime, those who have not yet seen Dore's groat paint-
ings at the Egyptian Ball, should hasten to do so before
Unix probable and speedy removal to the Vatted States.

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NEWSPAPER

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'---\ .. ----,-1 ;'-'tigii A singular charge of murder haskei.itipildtte
Brecon Assizes. No fewer than sixty •,;4iikeiti.
subpcenaed for and against the prisonekAa, mil = .l
William Protberee. He was indicted for the wilful
murder of Martha Thomas, at Rhymney, on the 18th of
June, 1807. The deceased- was a single young woman,
residing with her brother, Walter Thomas, at Tavarnau-
bach, a place on the borders of Breconshire, and imme-
diately adjacent to Rhymney, on the high-road from Mer-
thyr to Abergavenny. For a considerable period she had
kept company with the prisoner, who Was also single,
and her senior by a great number of years, and ulti-
mately she had a child by him. This child appears to
have been the cause of contention between them,
both before and after its birth. Before the birth pri•
s,oncr met deceased one day on the mountain between
Rhyinney and Dowlais, and an altereatien took place,
which ended in his counoittinq a desperate assault upon,
lire, fo: w1:7(!11.1.1 wa., 5,r,.,---):-:0,1 !.,(ore +..,,;r;111;r7i,trat,4 at
'.7-..1•-:lyr, r..;1:1 s:srittlic,;.l I o a. tarn of impriset.:nent.

LATRAoRDINARY CHAR

Clo (27.0(1 was born, :tad after

!•i,- • •••• u!!,;:e.os,;";11 eiT,,rtg having 'oeen made
i • i,h,ut arnarriago bet,veen the par.
tile Li7l-11:1.med Protheroe beforl the Merthyr
mag4tratc!s, an,l oLtained an order of at:illation against
him. The prisoner contested the summons, -uut at the con-
clusion of the young woman's case be admitted the pater-
nity. That took place on Vie Saturday previous to Tues-
day, the rth June. On the last-mentioned day,
about seven o'clock in the evening, deceased told her
sister-in-law that she wanted to go down to Rhymney,
but the latter refused to allow her to go. Late in
the evening, about half-past ten, or between that
and eleven o'clock, while her sister-in-law was absent for a
few minutes, deceased left the house, and was never after.
wards seen alive. Search was made for her in every place
around where it was supposed that she might have con-
cealed herself, but with no success. On the Saturday
following some workpeople were at dinner near an
abandoned shaft called Nantllesk Pit (in the county of
Glamorgan), and a girl in passing asked them why they
(lid not go somewhere else to take their food, as there
was a smell of horseflesh at that spot. This remark
induced one of the party to look about, and incidentally
he looked into the old shaft, and saw something at the
bottom, forty-two yards deep, which appeared to be a
human body. His discovery attracted others to the pit,
and a descent having been made in the presence of the
police, the body was discovered to be that of a woman.
It was carefully raised by ropes, and, having been recog-
nised by the clothing as that of the missing Martha
Thomas, was removed to the house of her brother in Bre-
conshire. Her face and head were smashed to pieces, her
arms and legs were also shattered, and the head was
doubled up as though the body had gone down the pit
head foremost. Foul play being suspected, the surgeon
who examined the body was requested to look carefully
for marks of violence, but the only marks which he could
find other than those which he would have expected on a
body which had fallen such a depth upon jagged stones at
the bottom, were two or three marks on the neck, which
appeared something like finger-marks, as though it
had been . fastened in a tremendous grip. The head,
however, had been literally doubled up by the force
of the concussion, and that would leave marks on the
neck. There was no evidence of a struggle at the top of
the pit. Suspicion was at first attached to a gen-
tleman of position at Rhymney, but this having been
proved to be nothing more than a foul slander, the man
Protheroe was then suspected. Protheroe at that time
worked at the Rhymney Ironworks, and frequently walked
over to Cfncoedycymmr, near Merthyr, where he has a
brother residing. Knowing that he was suspected, ho
volunteered a statement to the Glamorganshire police,
which was verified in almost every particular by Mr.
Superintendent Wren, and so satisfied that officer that he
was not near Rhymney at the time the woman was missed,
that he declined to arrest him. The coroner for Brecon.
shire, however, at the second sitting of the inquest, ordered
Protheroe into custody, and the Breconshire police arrested
him, and he was committed for trial. At the trial the
evidence was very conflicting. The summing up by the
judge was very much in favour of the prisoner, and the
jury returned a verdict of not guilty.—Cambria Dail
Leader.

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