The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-22 00:00:00

THE REV. MR. MARSH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST.
Sir,—l cannot but think that Mr. Marsh has been
somewhat hardly dealt with. Ido nut desire to ex-
tenuate the immorality of which he has been confessedly
guilty; but a', deeper, degree of culpability has been
imputed to him, and, as it appears to me, on insufficient
grounds.
What has been established against Mr. Marsh, with
respect to the unhappy woman, the subject of the late
trial, in a short immoral connexion, more than four
years ago, with a very brief renewal of it, not sought by
him, but forced upon him, through the power :she had
acquired from his dread of exposure ; and this last
nearly three years ago. None subsequent was even
alleged, and none certainly ever took place.
Whether, under these circumstances, the proceeding to
trial was jedicious, or otherwise, can hardly be judged of
satisfactorily but by those who are acquainted with the
prevalent impressions which it was thus sought to re-
move. The woman had established herself in his village
and neighbourhood, frequented his church, and indus-
triously circulated abominable imputations against him,
amongst others, that of his having administered to her
drugs to procure abortion. He was unwilling to take
steps against her, which would give greater notoriety
to circumstances:of which he had long heartily repented.
But his remaining quiet, coupled with her confident
assertions, and imposing manner and appearance,
at length caused a belief that these charges must
be true. It was in consequence represented to him,
by very respectable persons in the vicinity, that he must
institute some proceedings against her, as the only means
of disabwing the public mind, and putting an end to the
scandal of her presence. He had no allki native, or was
advised that he had none. On this ground lie was in-
duced to abide the issue of a trial; but in no case is it to
be inferred that Mr. Marsh thought lightly of the dis-
grace he should bring upon his profession and himself.
The contrary is strictly true. That Chief-Justice Tin-
dal, who tried this case, considered the prosecution, how-
ever lamentable in its exposures. nether censurable, nor
unnecessary, may fairly be inferred f, om his having,
upon the acquittal of the prisoner, allowed the whole of
the costs applied for on the part of the prosecutor.
It further appeared on the trial, from the el idence of
Mr. Marsh, that about the period of his acquaintance
with the prisoner, he had occasionally visited the house
where he unhappily made her acquaintance. This sad
circumstance lam far from desiring. to extenuate. But
he solemnly denied, upon his oath, that even at that time
it was his habit to frequent that or any other such place.
No immorality whatever was proved, or even insinuated
against Mr. Marsh of any later date.
I cannot help, therefore, expressing my feeling that
the Bishop of Peterborough (if I may trust the report of
his speech in the House of Lords) a little overstepped
the obligation of his part, when he said that Mr. Marsh
was " frequently absent from his residence, unhappily, in
this metropolis and in Paris." (I quote from the tines
newspaper.)
The Bishop was called upon to censure, and to censure
with severity, what has been proved against Mr. Marsh.
But surely it was unkind and uncalled for to heap odium
upon him, by the introduction of an extraneous topic,
and of facts merely presumed.
The Bishop cannot know where Mr. Marsh is when
absent from his home. The fact, moreover, is not as the
Bishop allowed himself to surmise. Mr. Marsh has not
been in Paris during the last four years, and was never
there but twice in his life—in 1837 and in 1839; nor has he,
for the greater part of that time, been in London, unless on
the occasions when compelled by the unhappy woman in
question, to negotiate her payments. Since 1842 he has
scarcely been there at all, until her coming into the
neighbourhood of Barnack, in last September. When
absent from home, it has chiefly been on visits to fami-
lies of the highest respectability, with whom he is on
terms of intimacy.
The truth is, that these vicious indulgences, were re-
gretted and resisted even at the very time referred to,
and he soon determined to keep out of the way of
temptation. To make his nome more attractive to him,
he induced his mother (a lady, of whom I may perhaps
be forgiven for saying, that she is not more venera-
ble for her years and station, than for her
eminent virtues and high intellectual endow-
ments) to take up her abode with him in the country ;
hid' she did, at some sacrifice to herself. This was
not a companion likely to be selected by an abandoned
debauchee. Since that time he has been but little absent,
and then never in Paris, and rarely, and but for short
intervals, in London. One who, without pretending to
account for his every hour, is well acquainted with the
general tenor of his life. vouches for the,e assertion:.
In his neighbourhood Mr. Marsh's conduct has been
without reproach. Towards the poor under his charge
he has been careful and liberal in ministering to their
wants, and in supplying the means of education to their
children. Accordingly, he is very popular with his
parishioners.

FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
A meeting took place on Wednesday evening at the
Wesleyan Chapel, Sloane-terrace, Chelsea, which was
very respectably attended by the frierds of the Free
Church movement. Mr. Farmer, a gentleman residing
in the neighbourhood, was called to the chair, and was
supported by the 11ev. D. M'Kellar, late Moderator of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ;
the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, of Glasgow ; the Rev. Mr.
Tweedie, late of the Tolbooth Church,: Edinburgh ; the
Rev. George Scott, Wesleyan Minister of Gravesend ;
and other ministers interested in this spiritual mission.
The CHAIRMAN stated that he regretted that justice
should not be done to the mighty cause of truth by one
more efficient than himself. It was indeed a momentous,
a most important movement which was then going on—
a movement which ought to, and did, draw blessings and
reverence upon the heads of those pious and conscientious
men engaged therein. Such blessings had been, and con-
tinued to be poured upon them, not only by those who
had the welfare of the Church of Scotland peculiarly at
heart, but praises were heard from all to whom the soul-
inspiring struggle for conscience sake was of the slightest
import.—(Cheers.)
The Rev. Dr. BUCHANAN explained the character of the
visits of the Scottish Free Church ministers. He said
that to show the extent of the movement to those who
dwelt in England, it might be but necessary to say, that
if such an one had been made in England, the results
in proportion to that in Scotland would have been, that
11 500 ministers would have quitted the Established Church,
and that from six to seven millions of laymen must have
followed, to be in the same ratio as the number of the
people who seceded in Scotland. But he would not say
that numbers at all times constituted the right and
honesty of the cause in which such numbers were en-
gaged. The Rev. Doctor then went fully into the rea-
sons which induced the ministers of Scotland to give up
private emolument and domestic comfort, and to become
voluntary exiles from their land in search of sympathy,
adopting, as it were, the character of sacred mission-
aries, the better to make the grievances under which their
Church laboured, known to their fellow-men. He (the
Rev. Doctor) would urge, that as God was the head of
the Church, his ministers could not bow down or obey
a temporal master. He would strongly contend for the
right of the people to elect their own pastor, and the
interference which had sprung up to meddle
with this wholesome right was a cruel and
oppressive act, wholly at variance with the strict com-
mands of Divine precept, and in direct violation of the
laws as guaranteed to the Church of Scotland. The
people had a right to see that the man who was sent to
look atter the welfare of their souls was not a cold,
worldly mortal, alike careless of the spiritual welfare of
his flock, as of that of his own. They, the people, had
a right to see that such a man was not an irreligious
man, whose intrusion had only for its end the idolatry of
Mammon, and not the worship of God. Yet such a right
was denied them.—(Hear, hear.) The first step in the
revival of the Scottish Church after the Reformation,
was the check which was laid upon the law of patronage.
The patron might nominate an individual to a parish,
but, before he could be received, he must preach at
least four sermons, and, if such accorded with the feel-
ings of the majority of the Church members, the patron's
nominee was elected, but, if otherwise, another must be
provided, and so on until a fit and proper person, whose
character, too, would bear the strongest scrutiny, was
found. This salutary system was exercised for upwards
of a century, and the results were eminently beneficial,
and there came from day to day into the various parishes
a class of ministers whom, for evangelical doctrine, ex-
cellence of heart, and brotherly love, no portion of the
civilised world could surpass, or did ever equal.—(Hear,
hear, and cheers.) This period was very properly called
a revival, but such blessings exci'.ed the envy and dis-
pleasure of the world, and the most insidious opposition
to the progress of good arose. The patron became
jealous, and insisted upon his protege being thrust
upon the people. This the people resisted,
and the wealthy patron flew to the courts of
law, where he unhappily obtained a verdict to
compel the people and ministers to elect his
protege to the parish—a man whom they they so-
lemnly believed—and had the most irrefragible proof—
was wholly unfit to be intrusted with so sacred and re-
sponsible an office.—(Hear, hear.) What did the minis-
ters do ? They refused.—(Cheers.) They said they
could not fly in the face of the laws of God. Their duty
was written in the holy hook—there was their law, and
that law they must obey.—(Cheers.) The patron
goes again to the Courts of Civil Law, and gets a ver-
dict, subjecting the Church to submit to Caesar in
the things which are Christ's.—(Hear, hear.) When the
ministers deposed men for immorality, the Civil Court
interposed to keep them in office, and to this day some of
those men remain.—(Hear, hear.) The Rev. Gentleman
concluded an address, marked with great power, by
stating that he looked upon the present accident in the
Church's history as being one for its good. It had
caused persons of most religious denominations to ex-
tend the hand of fellowship and co-operation to them,
and such a friendship and co-operation might, at a crisis
when he saw infidelity upon the one hand, and Popery
upon the other, coming in like a flood, be of most espe-
cial service to the great cause of enlightenment and of
truth. He was about to leave for Scotland that very
night, and he carried back to the land of his birth a very
strong sense of gratitude for the sympathy which had
everywhere in England been raised on behalf of the
Free Church.—(The Rev. Gentleman then quitted the
platform amidst loud and continued plaudits.)
The Rev. Mr. TWEEDIE said that in England the
Reformation commenced with the King, and went
downwards to the people ; in Scotland it commenced
with the people, and went upwards to the King.—
(Hear.) The books of policy in Scotland expressly
stated that " no minister shall be forced into any parish
contrary to the will of the people," and the principle is
embodied in the word of God.—(Cheers.) The people
must either listen to the minister thus forced upon them,
or go some twenty, or it might be thirty, miles to hear
another more consonant to the spirit within them.—
(Hear.) Such men who had been forced upon the peo-
ple were, in - many cases, " experimentalists," such as
got into the Church by subscribing to her doctrines, and
when there, repudiated them—men who went so far as
to state that to visit the heathen, and endeavour to make
him acquainted with the blessed Redeemer, was both
useless and foolish.—(Hear, hear,) Now there was an
Act passed by the Court of Session in General Assembly,
and winch was ultimately eulogised by the Lord Chan-
cellor Brougham from the woolsack, and its validity
recognised by the Attorney-General and Solicitor-
General of
was
frseump supposed dt y byranny these
nf
the
Ge neral of Scotland. This Act protected the people,
great authorities,patrnn; yet toin protect
withvou the
ring tol
ay ca r reyffiiete
rout,
and,the
whilstm i ministers
seekingr s
tn g
icontact
ministers) lost their learn from Bilbo -
people their privileges, they (theWe _ -
a that the priest named Bilbao
own. They (the ministers) would not consent to see who was arrested upon a charge of being involved in a Carlist
their people thus subjected to have a man sent amongst conspiracy, has been tried by a court-martial and condemned
them who was unworthy, and for thin they were dragged to imprisonment with hard labour for eight years.
into the civil courts, and the damages were laid at SOMNAMBULISM.—It will be in the recollection of
16,0001. ! Since that period, in 1836, the ministers had our readers that an account was given of a very serious acci-
not had a day's peace. Actions of damages and penal-
dent which occurred on the evening of the 22d of December
last, to a private of the Royal Sappers and Miners stationed
ties followed rapidly upon each other, and thus, at Brompton Barracks, near Chatham. The poor fellow,
by taking the advice of the law makers, they named Henry Stirratt, had retired to bed at the usual hour
in his sleep, and, opening the room door, proceeded along the
(the ministers) became the law breakers.—(Loud after tattoo roll-call, and in about an hour afterwards got up
laughter.) The Rev. Speaker then contended for
?en thea sill, and fell a distance of between 35 and 40
the spiritual independence of the Church of Christ, prssas to a window; and, having raised the sash, placed
urging that no human being had a right to give laws to n
found drawnl uv n?leknetl3etlmolT
feet to tl
Where he was shortly afterwards
conscience, but the God of e'conscience. They were real,
building, weltering in his blof
071 feet from the wall of the
to the death to submit to civil laws, in matters which
andhe sufferer was imme-
were civil, and they were equally ready to the death, to diately conveyed to the hospital
resist the interference of civil laws in things which were by Dr. Chisholm, of the Ordnance Depaprrotmmeritt,l y
a attended to
C h t
spiritual. The ministers preferred retiring from such
1%10 did everything for him that talent and experience
could
o ake man-
a state of affairs, where they had not the liberty to con- suggest. On examination it was ascertained that the lower
stilt God's word, but were to be compelled to t
jaw was fractured in two places, and all the joints of
dates from a certain Act of Parliament,-had suffered from
which now lies the fall. So frightful his body
was the. appearance
upon the Presbytery table. He (the Rev. Speaker) of the unfortunate sufferer, and so extensive the injuries he
would not take the interpretation of God's word f
an Act of Parliament, while he had the word itself
covered, and was able to come with_
_is ,eompany to which to.—(Loud cheers.) No statute should bind him to
attached from Chatham to Woolich, and now per-
roal sustained, that not the slightest hope was entertained of his
to recovery. To the surprise of all prstriilnes he wonderfully re-
gohe is things spiritual, but the Statute Book of the Almighty,
—(Loud cheering.) Five hundred churches had been formsoar examined as to the cause of the accident.pre,
built during the last five months,-to provide for the lightieb de uti es, but
viou.sly to his being discharged.

- Soon after this scandal arose, he placed himself in the
hands of a clergyman, much his senior, an intimate aad
confidential friend of the Bishop, undertaking to follow
his suggestions, and to abide by any wish the Bishop
might entertain; though he was aware, or at least firmly
believed, that, by lapse of time, no formal penalty could
be imposed by him.
When the trial was over, he determined to write to
the Bishop, in the persuasion that, as no steps could be
taken against him, his sincerity was not liable to be
called in question. His intention was to express his deep
sorrow at the disgrace he had brought on his profession
and himself, his remorse at the sinfulness of the conduct
which had entailed it, and his wish to abstain for a
lengthened time from the exercise of his functions, and
to withdraw from his residence. The unexpected notice
taken of the affair made him withhold the letter ; but it
was seen by friends, and the intention to send it known.
One circumstance, which has brought censure upon
NEI.. Marsh, is yet unnoticed. When asked, on the trial,
if he had received any communication from the Bishop,
he replied,—" Only mediately." A comparison of this
expression with the Bishop's letter to the Times news-
paper, has caused Mr. Marsh to be taxed with prevari-
cation.

The truth is, he might with perfect sincerity have an-
swered " none whatever." But as the friend alluded to
had advised him to continue what he had already begun
of his own accord, namely, to abstain from any pro.-
ressional duties, he thought it probable that he was in
possession of the Bishop's wishes, though he had not an-
nounced them ; and, therefore, with proper caution, he
replied as he did ; but surely in a spirit the very opposite
to that imputed to him.
The Bishop has, no doubt, expressed his feelings, in
confidence, to the gentleman in question, and has felt
persuaded that advice would be given and acted upon in
accordance with them. This was enough for him. Bat
it is hard that he should so have expressed himself, as
to cast an unnecessary slur upon Mr. Marsh.
So far from his having the direct knowledge of an in-
terdict from the Bishop, it happened that, when this
same friend urged his return to Barnack to silence the
suspicions before alluded to, he stated also, that as it was
understood the Bishop had not interfered, Mr. Marsh's
abstaining from his sacred functions when on the spot,
would be regarded as an act of self-condemnation and
self-abasement, and be becoming and useful.
There is much, very much, to lament and to condemn
in the conduct of which Mr. Marsh had been confessedly
guilty; but is there anything in it for which a man is to
be hunted out of society? Is it a case to call for new
laws, or for stretching the existing ones, to visit it? Are
the Bishops now accustomed to deal with cases of 'equal
or greater enormity, when recent, and properly put
before them, with extreme severity? If not, is it right
to yield to a clamour, partly, at least, grounded on erro-
neous impressions?
Here has been no aggravating circumstance of seduc-
tion or adultery. Ido not, for one, regard Church pre-
ferment as a freehold. There is a cure of souls attached
to it, which justly imposes a strictness of moral con-
duct: at the same time it should be borne in mind that
a clergyman, deprived of his preferment, is debarred by
his orders from every other source of livelihood. This
is a motive, certainly, for increased circumspection in
him, but also for some unwillingness to proceed to
extremity, except where the offence is heinous, or the
character of the party is irreclaimable. I submit that
neither condition is established against Mr. Marsh.
lam his brother. I venture to hope that, from one in
my position, this statement will not be considered unbe-

__ ...._
coming or uncalled for. It is long, but I have found it
difficult to curtail it, without taking from it its proper
efficacy. Space has not been grudged in other quarters
for censure : I trust to your generosity and sense of jus-
tice to admit this attempt to remove so much of it as
seems unmerited.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE HENRY MARSH.
7, Suffolk-street, Pall-mall East, March 20, 1844.