Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1881-07-02 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

MOUS CERIMONY AT  NLWOASTLE.  The interesting ceremony ef bsptizieg bell was performed on Wednesday at St. Domitie's Roman Ceti' ho Church, Red Barnes, Newcastle. It is 400 years since a like ceremony was performed in Newcastle. The Roman Catholic Bishop (-f the diocese of Heaharn and Newcastle ofilciateo. The Rev. Father Procter, who preached, said in the ceremony the hell was signed by the holy chrism, in the same manner as at the dedication of a church. Frankincense, thyme, and myrrh were put into the thurible, which was a symbol of a prayer asidug that as the fumes el these sweet spices ascended before man, so the tones of the bell might ascend to the throne of God. The ceremony seemed strange, but its strangeness arose only from its novelty. It was not strange for the Church to bless inanimate creatures used in the services of God. The priest's hands consecrated everything to the service of God. The sound of the bell was the voice of God to them, and therefore they gave the greatest blessing the Cenrch could bestow. It spoke to them in a voice of wisdom, and would speak to them in the voice of Christ in a few days. He trusted that the iutroduetion of the tell would bring forth fruit, and that the people of the parish would listen to its tones and bend their knees before God on the altar. The ceremony of blessing the bell was then proceeded with. The Bishop, vested in a white cape, with mitre and pastoral staff, approached the hell, aud,beiug seated, recited, with the attending ministers, Psalms 53, 56, 66, 69, 85, and 129, at the conclusion of which he rose and blessed salt and water, laying aside his crozier and mitre to bless the salt, but replacing them to bless the water, after which he placed salt in the water in the form of a cross, at the same time calling upon God to sanctify them. The Bishop then replaced his mitre, and washed the bell with the water thus blessed, which was continued by the assistant ministers, the Bishop and attendants in the mear.while chanting Psalms 145, 146, 147, 143, 149, and 150. At the conclusion of the psalms the Bishop rose with his mitre on, and with the thumb of his right hand made the sign of the cross on the 'outside of the bell with holy oil, which he wiped off with a clean cloth. The Autiphon was then sung, dnriug the rendering of which the Bishop made seven crosses with holy oil on the outside of the bell, and four with chrism inside. After certain prayers had been said, he sat down and placed in the thin ible thyme, frankincense, and myrrh, which were placed underneath the bell, in order that the smoke might ascend into it. Other prayers were then said, and the ceremony was concluded by the Bishop kissing the Book of Gospels and making the sign of the cross on the bell. A procession was then formed down the aisles of the church, during which the hell WdS loudly tolled. The hell was christened "Dominic," Don 11. de Colarte, the Spanish Consel, and Malame Colarte standing as sponsors, the former being dressed in his Censul'e uniform.  The Durham County 2agistrates on Thursday agreed by a large majority to grit. t 2,5,000 for the purchase of 57 acres of Loud as a site for a Cmuty Industrial School. At the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday morning Lord Coleridge delivered sentence in the case of llerr Most, proprietor and editor of a paper called the Freilwrt, Who, at the last session., was found guilty of ie::iting to murder. His Lordship, in passing sentence of sixteen months imprisonment with hard labour, characterised the offence as a detestable and cowardly one. Had it I not been that the jury recommended the ' prisoner to mercy be would have intliMed a sentence of penal servitude.