19 NOVEMBER 1859, Page 3

Rittrupnlis.

At a meeting of the Court of Common Council on Thursday, a resolu- tion proposing to give 100 guineas towards the funds of the London Rifle Brigade was -agreed to. . There was no opposition ; but some members thought the sum too small. The representatives of the Bri- gade in the court, however, said they did not want more. The Council also referred to a committee a memorial from the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, praying for an inquiry into a plan of the extension of their line from Beckenham to Farringdon Street, by Penge, Brixton, Newington, and Blackfriars Bridge.

The hundred and sixth session of the Society of Arts was opened on Wednesday. From the speech of the chairman, Sir Thomas Phillips, we learn that it has been determined to take measures for promoting an in- ternational exhibition of works of art and industry in 1862. It is pro- posed to raise a guarantee fund of 250,0001. and to invest it in trustees, and an idea seems to be entertained of erecting permanent buildings in connexion with the exhibition somewhere on the grounds at Kensington, now held by the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851. The Mercantile Marine Association, Mr. W. S. Lindsay in the chair, held a public dinner at the London Tavern on Tuesday. About 150/. was collected. Among the speakers was Captain Engledue, who declared that the repeal of the navigation laws has been the "ruin" of the British commercial marine; a statement received with loud cheers by the en- lightened gentlemen present at the feast.

A large meeting was held at the Mansion-house on Wednesday, to support a mission established for British Columbia. The Bishop of the new diocese, the Bishops of Oxford and London, Mr. Arthur Kinnaird, and Sir George Grey took part in the proceedings. The next day Dr. Hills, the new Bishop, embarked for his diocese.

Archdeacon Mackenzie has been selected to conduct the mission to Central Africa.

The children educated in the parochial schools of Clerkenwell, six

hundred in number, have been hitherto divided for religious instruction among four district churches. The school committee, however, have unanimously resolved—" That the further attendance Of the children at St. Philip's Church, Granville Square could not be permitted, in con- sequence of the Popish practices adopted there, under the ministration of the Reverend W. Wroth."

Fresh "row's" occurred at St. George's-in-the-East on Sunday, but they were of a mitigated character, a result due to a startling novelty in a church—a guard of Police. There were some forty on duty outside and inside the church, and a "reserve" at no great distance. The rector, Mr. Bryan King, did not present himself; and his place was sup- plied by the Reverend Mr. Lowder and the Reverend Mr. Mackonoehie. As the police prevented open rioting, the congregation had recourse to " coughing " on a grand scale. There were some hisses, and the cho- risters were groaned at and abused as they quitted the church. "The crowd in the chancel was not wholly made up of the opponents of the officiating clergy. It was composed of the partisans on both sides, who scowled at each other with a hatred which only religious party zeal could have inflamed, and shouted or sang, according to the side on which they ' the Lord S Prayer and some were the responses in an opposition chorus with hideous profanity. To hear of the sublimest aspirations of the Liturgy, chaunted on the one hand and shouted on the other, by the contending fac- tions bent on tiring each other down, mingled at intervals with ill-restrained laughter, coughing, and jeering, was an outrage on all public decency and decorum, and a scandalous desecration of a place of worship which requires to be felt and witnessed to be fully understood. There were features in the spectacle verging on the ludicrous. For instance, a man sat on the pulpit stairs, close behind Mr. Mackonochie, who conducted the service, and bawled out the responses at the very top of his voice into the reverend gentleman's ear throughout the whole of the prayers. A policeman several times gently attempted to moderate his ardour, but he paid not the slightest heed to the admonition and continued shouting as hard as before, without moving a muscle of his face. At the conclusion of the prayers Mr. Mackonochie as- cended the pulpit and preached an extempore sermon of some length, which was at first so often interrupted by the coughing and stifled laughter of part of the congregation that he was obliged to pause and ask them whether or not they would grant him hearing. To this appeal there were contending cries of 'Yes, yes,' and No, no' from different parts of the church. The 'Ayes' appeared to have it, and the reverend gentleman taking fresh cou- rage from this decision in his favour, proceeded with his discourse, which was simply a fervid exhortation to a blameless life, containing not the remotest allusion to the bitter contention now raging between the clergy and the parishioners. At its termination he turned his back upon the audience and his face to the east, and uttered a short prayer, a circumstance which elicited a hies from a portion of the audience. Turning again towards them, he

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pronound the blessing, and then left the pulpit, from which, with the choristers, he was again escorted by the police to the vestry. The congrega- tion slowly departed, but a number of them lingered outside, as usual, to hoot the clergy and choristers as they passed from the church to the parson- age, and it was some time before the police could clear the adjacent street." Two boys, accused of disorderly conduct outside the church, have been fined by the Thames Street Magistrate. They were Wesleyans.

At the Middlesex Sessions one Newman, a savage looking fellow, was in- dicted for tying the legs of a boy, gagging him, and robbing him of 2id. The outrage occurred in a public-house where there were fifteen men pre- sent. The Jury acquitted the prisoner. The Assistant-Judge—" Juries should really pay due regard to evidence. Unless that poor boy has made a false charge altogether, this case was proved, and he gave his evidence in an intelligent manner." The Foreman—" He was not corroborated." The Assistant-Judge—" Not corroborated! If it were necessary for a witness to be corroborated in every case, any one of you might be attacked, knocked down and robbed on the public highway by a desperate ruffian, who then is

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to be let loo again because your evidence is without corroboration, though you are sure of the man, and no one but your assailant and yourself wore present when the crime was committed. I believe the boy." The Foreman —" lie might have complained to the landlord at the time, but did not, it Assistant-Judge—" Ile might have done so, but how can appears." The A we tell what state of mind that child was in after he had had this outrage com- mitted upon him in the presence of fifteen men, not one of whom interfered on his behalf? The first time he saw the prisoner afterwards he gave him in charge, and the prisoner admits he was there, and not one of the fifteen men came to say he did not do it. But it was for you to decide, gentlemen." A list of ten convictions was then put in. A Constable—" In 1853, on one of those convictions, the prisoner was sentenced to ten years' transportation,

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and be now on ticket-of-leave. Four years of his term are unexpired, and he is the constant associate of burglars." The Assistant-Judge- "Then I shall order him to be detained, in order that he may have his license revoked, and be remitted to serve out the remainder of that sentence."

At the same Court also, Rosins Dyer was convicted, on irresistible evidence, of having, at the Servants' Home, robbed a servant girl of all her savings. She, however, persisted in declaring her innocence, whereupon the Assistant-Judge, having warned her in vain, ordered her to be tried on a second indictment for robbing a lady at whose house she had presented herself as an applicant for the situation of lady's-maid. She was found guilty of this also, and again declared her innocence. Mr. Bodkin then pro- duced a letter, whereby Dyer had gained admission to the Servants' Home. It purported to have been written by Mrs. Cotterell, the wife of a Magis- trate then on the bench, and was an arrant forgery. The Judge, comment- ing on the dangerous influence of such persons as Dyer, sentenced her to three years' penal servitude.

George Thompson, ill in health and poorly clad, was charged before the Clerkenwell Magistrate with breaking the windows of St. Pancras Work- house. It seems that the master of the workhouse, on Saturday night, ad- mitted-the women and children, but refused-to admit theilleir.-- Thcaapson belonged to the parish, and thinking he had a right to beTarbbittad, Itoke the windows when refused. Mr. Corrie sent for the nuistei, anti when le came the following instructive scene occurred. Mr. Currie—Palle defendant says he belongs to the parish. Did you inquire. of him if he did so ? " The Master—" No, I did not." Mr. Corrie---" Oertainlyithert cannot be a general order not to inquire into the cases that come beim you." The Master—" No, there is not a general order. I went tdathe gate, but I did not give any orders that persons were not to be admitted)! Mr. Corrie—" I understood the porter distinctly to say that he had orders not to admit the defendant." The Porter—" Our orders were not to take in any men." The Master—" Yes, able-bodied men." Mr. Corrie—"I

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think it is a very improper instruction. It is the duty of the master to in- quire." The Master—" I had forty able-bodied men in the house the other evening." Mr. Corrie—" I do not care if you had 400. You should in- quire. I cannot listen to the number 4 or 400. Inquiries should be made into every case. The law says the poor shall be provided for, and shelter given them. The defendant says he was starving and lame." The Defendant—" I am starving, sir; and I am lame in consequence of walking about without shoes, looking for work. I was starving, and could hardly move when I was refused admission, and then I broke the windows." Mr. Corrie, to the master—" You can't call that miserable wretch, who appears half starved and lame, able-bodied. If you had seen him would you have taken him in ? " The Master—" Yes; I should have admitted them all if it had been a rainy night." Mr. Corrie—" I recollect that it was a very cold night, and the man being refused admission, and his case not inquired into, WRS enough to make him desperate, and if I had been placed m the same circumstances I, no doubt, should have been desperate myself. If the man had been admitted he could have been made to work for what he reoeived." The Master—" Parties come in on the Saturday nights and stop until the Monday morning." Mr. Corrie--" Well, and they could be made to work for what they bad received. It could not be allowed that a number of men should be lying about the streets all night." The Master—" The police- men are about, and the station in near, and they can remove them." Mr. Corrie (emphatically)—" No. The police are not to do your duty. Sup- pose this man had died after he had been refused, you and those connected with the matter would have been brought before me, which would have been a very serious matter. The poor fellow must be taken to the work- house, and the sooner the regulation is rescinded the better."

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Mr. William Henry Jay, income-tax collector, is in custody on various charges of having obtained money,. as a collector, by fraudulent charges. According to the evidence, Jay was in the habit of raising the assessment and pocketing the difference. In one ease he obtained 30/. when he should have only demanded 20/. • in another 201. where the charge was 151.; in a third 15/. where the charge was 101.; in a fourth 31. and upwards from a person who had not been assessed at all. Bail was refused. Two more privates of the Guards, in this instance men of the 1st battalion of Coldstreams, have been sent to prison, one for three months, and another for six months. They first committed a brutal attack upon a passer-by; then resisted the police and assaulted them; and then one lied in his de- fence. The Thames Street Magistrate has fined George Reynolds, a shoemaker, Si. for assaulting a young man during the latest row near the church of St. George's-in-the-East. Reynolds was not a parishioner, and he WAS prominent in the mob.

Dr. Smethurst was, on Saturday, brought up on a writ of habeas corpus, before the Southwark Magistrate, to answer a charge of bigamy preferred on behalf of the Government. Smethurst appeared to be in good health, but unnaturally flushed. The evidence tendered established the facts, that Thomas Smethurst was married to Mary Dunham in St. Mark's Church, Kennington, on the 10th of March 1828; that the said Mary Dunham, now Mrs. Smethurst, is still alive; and that on the 9th of December 1858, Thomas Smethurst was married to Isabella Bankes at Battersea Church. These facts having been proved, Mr. Robinson, on behalf of the prisoner, said that Dr. Smethurst would reserve his defence, and applied that he might be admitted to bail. Mr. Combs said that Smethurst was in the cus- tody of the gaoler of Horaemonger Lane Gaol, and could not be bailed. Mr. Robinson rejoined that he supposed a pardon would have been granted. Mr. Combe said it would be time enough to make the application when the pardon is granted. The prisoner was committed for trial. A free pardon under the great seal was received by Mr. Keene, the Go- vernor of Horsemonger Lane Gaol, on Tuesday, for Dr. Smethurst, con- victed of the wilful murder of Isabella Bankes. When the announcement was made to him, he did not seem at all surprised, but treated it as a matter of course Dr. Smethurst is now, therefore merely in the position of a prisoner under committal upon a charge of felony, and he is, of course, re- lieved from all the restrictions to which he was liable, under the gaol regu- lations, as a convict under sentence of death. He will remain in Horse- monger Lane Prison until within a few days of the next session of the Cen- tral Criminal Court, when he will be removed to Newgate, and take his trial in due course for the offence of bigamy. The utmost punishment that can be awarded for this crime is penal servitude for four years. The Magistrate has refused an application for bail. The bail offered was "A brother of the prisoner and an ex-M.P." Charles Annois, the Portuguese seaman, convicted of murdering the master of a ship, and who was to have been executed on Monday, has been respited in order that further inquiries may be made into the allegation that Annois was at the time of the murder insane.

London was afflicted with a thick fog on Monday. Ocean steamers aid not arrive; river steamers ceased to ply; several vessels that ventured to move ran against others or ran ashore. Traffic on our railways and in the streets was impeded. The worst effect of the fog was the large number of severe accidents it occasioned, many persons having been knocked down and otherwise injured. It is remarkable that there was no fog either in the Blackheath district or around the Crystal Palace. just outside London people enjoyed a "beautiful day."