The Express. — 1864-07-21 (London, England)

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 21.  Jusr as Mrs. HOPLEY had been ordered back to her husband with the compliments of Sir Jamas Wrtnr, another husband of a widely different stamp had "constituted himself," to use his own words, "Judge of the Divorce Court," by committing suicide in Nnnhesd Cemetery upon his mother's grave. This man, J sins W nal •If TRIRTE, had behaved very badly to his wife and child, having first, by his own culpable act, rendered himself unable to provide for them, and then turned them out upon the world. Before destroying his own life he addressed a letter to his "dear wife" full of expressions of affection, of the genuineness of which there is no reason to doubt, so compatible is mere good sentiment with unprincipled conduct. This letter, which we published on Tuesday, is a psycho. logical curiosity. Addressing his wife at a most solemn moment, when the most confirmed affectations might be expected to give way to simplicity and nature, he is the "individual who writes " these lines." Committing suicide is "taking the " liberty of taking a view of the future state of "society." He talks of " first love ripening into " manhood's devotion," and then in the coolest manner devolves the care of his wife and children upon friends, relations—anybody—bringing in also the doctrine of Providence, a revelation vouchsafed to sustain and encourage men in honest exertion, to excuse his cowardice. " I "go to see my mother"—no misgiving as to the best of welcomes awaiting in another world one who was basely deserting his post, and leaving those whom he was by every consideration bound to protect to want and suffering. "You remain "to look after the boy"—the deserter readily appointing the duties of others in the field which he abandons. " GOD will raise up for you what I " wanted—friends :" this from the man who bad' deservedly forfeited a good situation by absenting I himself from its duties, who had been assisted and advised by his wife's friends, although he spent in intemperance the money that ought to have been devoted to the support of his family. Then he vaunts his courage in quitting the world in which he had played so miserable a part, and leaving his wife to fight her own battle. He quotes SHiXESPELHE and Bri.woi, from which, we hope, no writer of able articles will draw inferences unfavourable to those eminent authors, and then in the most complacent manner declares—he too— that he " has followed reason and not vice," and that his faults have been those of the bead, not those of the heart. It is easy to see on what food this man's mind had fed, in what school his views of life and its duties were formed—easy to mark in his letter the facility with which a sophistical and self-deceiving heart draws from literature, philosophy, and religion itself, and wrests and appropriates to its own mean purposes, ideas which, accepted in their true character, might have guided it in the path of honour and safety. But the moral is as old as the world : teach what you will, men will learn what they please.  THE Bishop of OXFORD 'a Bill, relating to Divine Worship in Public Schools, adopted so lightly by the Lords, has failed in the Commons, where it encountered a serious disposition to examine its character and tendency. The Bill was withdrawn yesterday after a short discussion, which, however, was long enough to show that the subject ought not to be legislated on without farther inquiry. Mr. II ARDVESTLE pointed out features in the measure which we cannot conceive the House of Commons as sanctioning except by inadvertence. The Bill has a much larger scope than is generally supposed. It has been recommended chiefly by approving reference to the experience of the great public schools, and to the advantage which the boys have derived from such religious teaching as that of ARNOLD at Rugby and VA VGHEN at Harrow, in the chapels of those foundations. But, in point of fact, the Bill applies, as Mr. HARDCASTLE showed, not to them but to the ordinary grammar schools throughout the country. These schools are attended fur the most part by boys who live with their parents, and who at present worship with them on Sundays in the parish churches or elsewhere. Under the Bill this natural and salutary practice would come to an end, for one of its provisions is that the children shall be taken from under their parents' control on Sundays, and required to attend the school chapel, where their parents would have no right to be present. Sir GroßnE GREY, referricg to this feature of the Bill, observed that it had excited a good deal of " exaggerated " alarm" among Nonconformists, a piece of parliamentary fastidiousness which we do not pretend to understand : but if this Bill should be introduced to the House of Commons next year, Sir GEORGE GREY will find that the objections to it are as strong on the part of Churchmen as on that of Nonconformists. Parents, whether they attend church or chapel, will require to know why their children are to be withdrawn from religious services that are open to public observation, and dealt with apart in private chapels. The Bill appears to have been introduced for no other purpose than to give a more absolute and decidedly ecclesiastical character to schools the usefulness of