The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-03 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS

(From a Third Edition of the Preston Guardian, of
Saturday.)

To-day T. Eastwood, Esq., of Brindle Lodge, appeared
before the County Magistrates in this town, to prefer a
nherffe of assault noon his lady_ Mrs_ Reetwnnd end son.

Mr. Henry Eastwood, on the previous Sunday, in Brin-
dle Chapel, against Robert Walmsley. Thomas Walmsley,
Thomas Worden, W. Woodruffe, Join Crook, and W.
Atkinson.

Mr. Eastwood deposed as follows :—I occupied the tri-
bune at Brindle Chapel until the first week of October, last
year. The Sunday previous the key had been taken from
the door during high mass. Not finding it the next Sun-
day we were unable toe :-• ; 1-sent my son round by the

side. After leaving the chapel, two men met us, and de-
manded the half-year's rent, which I refused to pay, be-
cause two months of the half-year were unexo'red. Next

the tribune from the interior, found the door boarded up
and the bcoks thrown out. We then took s

s amongst

the poorest people, which we continued to occupy without
interruption until last Sunday week. I had permission
from one of my tenants, Mr. Sherrington, to use his
bench. Last Sunday, on entering the chapel, Robert
Y Walmsley was standing at the left hand aisle, with a very

large pole, as thick as-a
man's arm, and apparently new-
made. When Mrs. Eastwood got up he placed the pole
across the aisle. She said, " Pray let me pass." He said,
" No, you must not." She then tried to enter, but he
pressed her back with the pole. I asked by whose orders
he stopped up the passage ; he said, " by Mr. Smith's"
(the priest). I asked to pass, he refused, and I attempted,
but he pushed me back with the pole. Mr. Eastwood then
related the facts that occurred at aisle No. 2, where
similar obstructions were offered and added, that on
looking down the chapel he saw the vestry door was open,
and Mr. Croft standing in his vestments prepared to say
mass, and another person, whom he took to be Mr. Smith,
both looking on. They then went to the gallery stairs,
where Atkinson pushed back both Mr. Eastwood and his
son ; and then on the opposite stairs, where Worden be-
haved in like manner to Mr. Eastwood rather rudely.
'They then went to the children's platform, which was not
now occupied. it being early mass, and the children attend-
ing only at high mass. On Mrs. E. ascending the plat-
form she was met by Thomas Walmsley, who pushed her
back with a plate with so much violence, that had she not
been supported by witness she would have fallen back on
the flags. Thos. Walmsley and Worden pushed her with
poles. Mr. E. then confirmed what took place further on
the platform, as stated by Mr. Catterall.
In cross-examination, Mr. Eastwood said that Mr.
Heatley had given Mr. Smith £lOO to build the tribune,
and that he did not know whether the benches on which
he afterwards sat were penny benches or not. Heard the
priest give out two Sundays before that persons coming to
the benches at early mass would pay one penny for the
accommodation. The priests had got enough of his mo-
ney without paying pennies.
A long discussion ensued betwixt the attorneys and the
bench, as to whether the Catholic priest possessed the
power of making a charge for sittings in his chapel, and of
excluding from those sittings parties who refuse to pay.
The whole question appeared to resolve itself into this
point, Mr. Noble (defendant's solicitor) declaring that if
the priest had this power—which he maintained he had—
then Mr. E tstwood himself was the aggre-sor in attempt-
ing to remove the obstructions to a gratuitous entrance
which had been legally placed there, and he contended
that in repulsing Mr. and Mrs. Eastwood the defendants
had only acted in the discharge of their duty, and had
commited no assault whatever. Mr. Catterall, (Mr.
Eastwood's solicitor) on the other hand, maintained that
the priest had no such power, and that in violently pre-
venting Mr. Eastwood's access to the chapel accommoda-
tion, they had, in fact, committed a breach of the peace.
The Bench then declared that until this legal question
was made clear they would decline adjudicating in the
case, and would refer it to the next sessions, in the mean
time binding over the defendants to keep the peace. The
two Walmsleys then entered into their ow❑ recognizances
for £2O each, and the Rev. Mr. Smith was accepted surety
for the others in the amount of £lO each.

•••..
[Most of our readers will remember that Mr. East-
wood's name has been often before the public, in connec-
tion with legal disputes affecting property which Mr. E.
alleged several Romish ecclesiastics have become possessed
of, in violation of his (Mr. .'s) just claims.]

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE
PAST QUARTER.

(From the Quarterly Table of Mortality.)

The quarterly returns are obtained from 115 districts,
sub-divided into 576 sub-districts. Thirty-f. ur districts
are placed under the metropolis, and the 'remaining 81
districts comprise, with some agricultural districts, the
principal towns and cities of England. The population
was 6,379,693 in 1841.
The mortality in the last quarter of 1845 was much
lower than is usual, for only 39,178 deaths were regis-
tered, which is less by 14,740 than the number (43,918)
registered in the corresponding quarter of 1844, and
and 2,857 less than the average quarter of seven previous
years, notwithstanding the increase of the population at
the rate of about 1.74 per cent annually.
There had been a great decrease in the mortality; the
December quarter of 1844 giving the numb r of deaths
at 43,918, whilst last quarter there was ( nly 39,178
deaths. The mildness of the season was one cause of di-
minished mortality. This is illustrated by the table of
the deaths, exclusive of those by violence, registered in
the metropolis, and the mean temperature at Greenwich
of the last six weeks of 1844 and 1845. The deaths and
the temperature were the same at first; on the fifth week
the deaths were 1,343 in 1844, and only 933 in 1845; the
temperature in the previous week (the fourth) had fallen to
28 deg. 2 min. in 1844, and only to 39 deg. 2 min. in 1845.
A fall of the mean temperature of the air from 45 deg.
to 4 deg. or 5 deg. below the freezing point (32 deg.) of
water destroys from 306 to 500 lives in the metropolis.
It produces the same results ,on a larger scale all over the
country. Nor is it to be wonderei at that a great change of
the heat of the air which we breathe and live in should
•
have such an effect.
The deaths returned by the registrars for each year are

thus given :—Deaths registered in 115 districts in the year
1838, 162,867; 1839, 162,605; 1840, 171,694; 1841, 160,733;
1842, 161,948 ; 1843, 163,201; 1844, 167.708; 1845, 165,789.
In the first three years there were 497,166 deaths; in
the last three years, 496,698. The population increased
in the districts from which returns have been procured,
about 1 74 (nearly 11) per cent. annually, in the intervals
of the last censuses, and the excess of births over deaths
has continued, so that it may be sa'ely assumed that the
numbers living have gone on increasing at the same rate—
about 9 per cent in the five years, from the middle of
1839.40 to the middle of 1843-5. Now, the deaths, in-
stead of increasing with the population 9 per cent, and
consequently amounting to 541,9(30 in the last three years
were 496,691—1e5s by 45,262 than if the rate of mortality
which prevailed in the three years 1838-40 had been sus-
tained. The improvement may perhaps be partly account-
ed for by other circumstances; but Bs far as can be seen
at pr,sent. it is fairly ascribable to the partial removal of
nuisances from large towns, to some increase of employ-
went, and, we may hope. a consequent amelioration in
the condition of the great body of the people in the dense

. .
town districts of the kingdom. But an epidemic. gene-
rated in this or any neighbouring popul, tion, may speedily
reverse the results of the tables aad carry off the thousands
of lives that appear to have teen spared and saved.