TILE LONDON VESTRIES VERSUS 'run CONFESSIONAL.

A largo and influential meeting 0.6semble4 in St. James's Hall on Monday last ; the meeting consisted almost exclusively of Members the Metropolitan vestries, convened by Mr. Charles Westerton, the ;ell! known anti-Puseyite bookseller of Knightsbridge. The recent death of his wife, however, prevented Mr. Westerton from attending. ]Lsco. adjutor, Mr. Beale, stated in the course of his speech, that representatives were present from- " Fulham, Kensington, Hammersmith, Notting Hill, Kensall Green

Highgate, Hampstead, Hackney, Holloway, Ilighbury, w Islington,

land, Balaton, Stoke Newington, Bow, Limehouse, Stepney, Shad we- Wapping, Itotherhithe, Lewisham, Eltbam, Deptford, Woolwich, Green. wick, Sydenham, Penge, Clapham, Brixton, Stockwell, Streatham, Tooth; Wandsworth, Battersea, Putney, and of every Metropolitan parish con. prised within the limits of the Parliamentary boroughs of Westminster- Marylebone, Finsbury, Tower Hamlets, City of London, Southwark h

Lambeth." ,

The chair was taken by Alderman and Sheriff Hale; amongst the gentlemen most conspicuous on the platform, were—the Honourable Colonel Vereker, Mr. James Beal, Mr. Charles Sibley, churchwarden of St. Leonard, Foster Lane, city ; Mr. William F. Rock, Walbrook; Mr, Deputy Low ; Mr. Richard Hiokman churchwarden of Christ Church ; Dr. Gray, Dr. Myers, Reverend R. Herschel, Dr. Bachoffiier, Mr Hodges, Dr. Rutherford, Dr. Stewart, Mr. F. Chinnock, Mr. Goddaito The first speaker was Colonel Vereker, who spoke at some length, but without much variety of theme ; the general purport of his speech ban, an exhortation not to be so cowardly and unworthy as to take a passive part in the face of the gigantic efforts made to un-Protestantize the Church. " The Tractarian party are men with whom compromise is utterly impossible." Quoting the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy: Council on the Knightsbridge case, with special reference to ornaments "to which many persons of great respectability are, from con- scientious motives, strongly attached," which are to others of equal respectability strongly repugnant, while many consider them of "on importance in comparison with Christian charity and concord," Colonel Vereker characterized that paragraph" as " an utter abandonment of principle." " We will no longer submit to have these plague spots left in our Church, or to have our religious edifices turned into cesspools, where filth of all kinds can be cast and every abomination concentrated, We will not allow our sanctuaries to be thus deified, or our gigantic Church revenues to be handed over to these traitors to be used for our own destruction." The only way to stop such innovations, is by re- forming our Prayer-book ; and he called upon the electoral represents- fives of this vast metropolis to take up this question ; to summon meetings in each district and petition Parliament for a redress of wrongs. "Do not be deceived by any claptrap cry of liturgical reform which some may at- tempt to palm upon you, but insist upon a thorough and complete expur- gation of every word that savours of Romanism." He moved the fol- lowing resolution- " That priestly confession and absolution, and other false doctrine and innovations, have been recently taught and practised by many of the clergy of the Church of England, and encouraged by some of its dignitaries and bishops. This meeting, believing such doctrine and innovations to be at variance with the spirit and teaching of the reformed Church of England, but especially, having no warrant or foundation for the same in the Holy Scripture, the only basis on which all Christian doctrine and practice should be raised ; that such teaching and practices having excited the alarm and fired the indignation of the great bulk of the members of the Church of England, and of all true Protestants throughout the empire,—this meeting hereby raises its solemn protest against such teaching and such innovations in the Church of England, and declares its allegiance to the doctrines of the Gospel, to preserve which for our use and guidance the martyrs of the Re- formation suffered. This meeting therefore declares, that if the Church of England is to be truly the Church of the nation, she must not be per- mitted to go back to the darkness and serfdom of the priest-ridden middle ages, but adapt her institutions to the growing wants of the people, and take the great and simple truths of the Gospel only as the foundation for her teaching." Mr. Beal went through a history of the whole agitation, reminding his auditors how he and Mr. Westerton had respectively taken up the agitation against the proceedings in St. Barnabas and St. Paul's ; how they had adopted legal measures ; how they had passed through the Ecclesiastical Courts to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, combating the legal power arrayed against them. The practice of the Confessional is admitted- " It is not for us to go into the impurities and bestiality, of the con- fessional. All who know anything about it as an institution know it to be the fruitful parent of crimes of enormous magnitude and of the deepest dye. I know from a trustworthy friend some of its workings in a district not far distant from where we now are. It may be news to some to know that to such an extent is it carried that the daughters and other female members of their family, who perhaps dare not openly attend the Tractarian churches, or dare not visit the confessional as practised in the private dwelling of the priest, are induced to visit the homes of female friends, and at these homes priests not connected with the district call, and, under the guise and pro- tection of a visit to a friend, the Jesuit confessor appears, and in a private room of many of the mansions of Belgravia the confessions of females are received, without the knowledge of the householder. There are in Bel- gravia other dark rooms than that now notorious at St. Barnabas, and 111 those dark rooms the purest of minds and the most guileless of hearts be- come demoralized and guilty by the insinuations conveyed to them under the form of questions as to thoughts, words, and deeds. Parents in this other fashionable neighbourhoods think that they sufficiently protect their grown-up and growing daughters if they place them under the pro- tection of a manservant or lady companion. The servant innocently enough adjourns to the servants'-hell, little knowing the nature of the visit above stairs."

In the course of the agitation sixty or seventy "peers and members of Parliament singled themselves out and supported the banner we had raised. But we found that they gradually withdrew from our ranks, because they

found that there was upon our part a firm determination to call a spade a spade, and to fight the battle tb the last. The conduct of the middle classes was different. They have been true while others have been false to us (A cry of " Shame .e") We moved public opinion, however, and we urged our great anti-popery advocates to turn their eyes within from popery the the flower to popery in the bud—(cheers)—from the open enemy to tn. concealed traitor ; from the foreign foe to the foe at our own household. doors.' We Lwow and felt that there was a smouldering fire at the basis of the social fabric which would gather in its course the full force of the resist- less volcano. Our battles against candles, and crosses, and rood-screens, .wd alters, and meretricious trumpery, then apparently but a war against v.-or& and signs of trivial import, now represent momentous facts." . ,isso were warned, however, that in the Judicial Committee there would be a compromise in which we had not, and could not have, any part. In the gilded saloons of Belgravia, where the interests of so large a portion of the human races are bought and sold in the great political market, it was whispered that it would not do to be too severe upon these men, and that the Church was broad enough to receive and contain them all." elr. Beal called upon the meeting to rally the great body of the middle class against this momentous struggle. He pointed with approval to the bold and unmistakeable language of Lord John Russell and the Arch- bishop of Canterbury. And he called upon the meeting to address the sovereign, "praying her to adopt a course similar to that pursued un- der somewhat parallel circumstances by Queen Flieabeth, and by one Oliver of Huntingdon, the uncrowned Puritan King of England." 1r. Gowland, who stated that he was a vestryman of the hamlet of Ratcliffe, and had received an invitation to attend the meeting from Mr. Tirosterten, came forward to propose an amendment : but it was some time before he could be heard, in consequence of the confusion which his ap- pearance created. When, however, he declared that his object was to "put a stop to the blackguard system of the confessional," and not to interrupt the harmony of the meeting, he was allowed to read his amend- ment, to the following effect-

" That this meeting is of opinion that the practice of confession and ab- solution is inculcated and enforced by the Prayer-book of the Church of England, and therefore pledges itself to use all legitimate means for the re- vision of the said Prayer-book and the expurgation of everything that tends to such practices." The reading of the amendment was followed by a scene of considerable uproar, caused principally by some one crying out that Mr. Gowland was a Dissenter, and wished to make an attack upon the Church, and it was not until the chairman decided that the proposition read by Mr. Gowlaud, not being an amendment upon the original resolution, could not be put, that order was restored. Mr. Gowland was then allowed to speak to the resolution, but he had not proceeded far before he again ex- cited the hostility of the meeting by criticizing part of the ordination service, which he said sanctioned the use of the confessional. Ultimately he was obliged to retire.

The original motion was supported by Mr. C. Sibley, and carried by acclamation; one hand being held up against it. Mr. Taverner moved the second resolution ; which, supported by Mr. Rock of Walbrook, and Mr. Goddard of St. Mary, Lambeth, was agreed to unanimously ; as well as the third resolution, proposed by Mr. Palmer of Southwark, and seconded by Mr. Berry of Pimlico. They run thus—

"That a petition embodying the foregoing resolutions be presented to the Rouse of Commons, praying an address to her Majesty, to issue such di- rections as may accomplish the object of the petitioners, and the following gentlemen be a committee to draw up such petition, and place it in proper hands for presentation."

"That the chairman do forward to the Court of Aldermen, the Court of Common Council, and the various Metropolitan vestries and district boards a copy of the resolution passed this day, inviting them to adopt petitions with the like object to the House of Commons."

After a vote of thanks for the chairman, the meeting broke up, with "three cheers for Mr. Westerton."

A sub-committee of the St. Paul's Cathedral fund have made arrange- ments for warming the vast space of the cathedral, with a view to the special Sunday services.

The managers of the Crystal Palace, seeking an attraction for the mil- lion at the close of what has proved a very brilliant season, have decided upon giving a military fete on Monday next, the anniversary of the battle of Balaklava, when all the troops now in London who have re- ceived the Crimean medal or Victoria Cross are invited to attend, and the services of the bands of the Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Fusi- lier Guards have been secured to aid the musical arrangements.

It was finally agreed, on Tuesday, with the consent of four-fifths of the shareholders of the Great Eastern Steam-ship Company, there being only three dissentients, that the original company should be dissolved and a new company formed, it being also agreed that the cost of build- ing and launching the Leviathan (640,0001.) should in the new company be reduced one-half.

The Report of the London General Omnibus Company, read at the meeting in Paris on the 13th instant, was published in London on Wed- nesday. The total receipts during the past half-year were 291,604/., and the expenses 282,5231., showing, in the former case, a decrease, as compared with the corresponding period of 1857, of 16,807/., and in the latter an increase of 5,6151., the result of the existing opposition. From this cause the earnings on one of the lines have diminished fully one- half, but on others the loss has not been in an equal ratio. It is alleged that the opponents of the Company have secured a considerable share of patronage, by the cry that the Company is a " foreign monopoly" ; and recent events, it is remarked, have contributed to embitter this sentiment of dislike. The cab-proprietors of London also have considered them- selves injured by the correspondence system ; but this plan is so far from being generally appreciated, that it has become a serious question whether A should not be abandoned. The horse stock is stated to be in excellent condition, although by a contagious disease in the beginning of the year seventy-five out of five hundred horses at the Highbury stables were lost. During the year, seventy-four new and twenty-two improved omnibuses have been put into circulation. From the disadvantages at- tending upon the position of the Company as a French undertaking, it has been determined to register under the English law of limited liability, the conversion to date from the 1st of January 1859.

Notice has been issued at Trafalgar Square that the National Gallery and Vernon Collection, at Marlborough House, Pall Mall, would be reopened to the public on Monday next, the 25th instant. The days for public admis- sion are changed to Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; Thursdays and Fridays being set apart for the admission of students only.

The Commercial Dock Company have issued a report preparatory to giving the full particulars of frauds committed by their secretary, Mr. H. K. %idlers junior, and their accountant, Mr. William Cox. From an in- vestigation conducted by Messrs. Quilter, Ball, and Co. it appears that the total was 26,369/. and that the defalcations have extended over a period of at least twenty-one years. Smithers was the primary offender, but he I could not have succeeded without collusion on the part of the accountant. The greater portion of the embezzlement (18,4261.) was achieved by keep- ing back payments received from the customers of the company, and as these consequently never appeared iu the earnings they have not now to be made up as losses. The profits of the business have in tact been periodically understated. The actual amount that will have to be deducted from the balance of reserved profits is only 7,942/. Smithers, it also appears, con- trived a frsdulent transfer of 1000/. stock, after the manner of Robson and Redpath, which the company have made good out of a sum of 36S61. in their possession. In conclusion, the Directors explain that the old system of accounts adopted by the company at its commencement nearly half a cen- tury back has, in consequence of these discoveries, been discontinued, in order to introduce a new plan, with thoroughly efficient cheeks. Smithers has been sentenced to six years' penal servitude, and Cox, who had been more than thirty years in the company's service, to twelve mouths' im- prisonment.

In the Court of Aldermen on Tuesday, judgment was given on a petition from Mr. Edward Booth Hewitt, of Mincing Lane, a broker, who complain- ed, that in a large sale of damaged rice belonging to the Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China on the 28th of July 1858, Mr. Thomas Price, of the firm of Price, Gifford, and Hickman, brokers, employed by the Bank, announced that a certain portion of the rice bought in at 68. 6d. would be sold at that price; but that he afterwards refused as a purchaser Mr. Hewitt, at that price, claiming 68. 9d. for the pile ; which was afterwards purchased by another dealer at 68. 41d. The reply of Messrs, Price, Gifford, and Hickman, was that about 560 lots of rice were sold in twenty minutes; there was great confusion at the time ; Mr. l'rice was not aware that any offer had been made to him ; and he was corroborated by other witnesses, whose testimony appeared to place the question beyond a doubt. The ac- cused firm did not retort against Mr. Hewitt any charge of wilful falsehood, supposing him to have beeh deceived by some misunderstanding in the con- fusion ; but they indignantly repelled the coarse find illiberal suggestion that the firm were prepared to sacrifice their standing and their principals to obtain an illicit brokerage of 48s. The petition was dismissed.

Colonel Waugh's stepson, Mr. Benjamin Francis Hollowell Carew, has, in the due course of family events, made his appearance in the Bankruptcy Court, with trade debts, besides liabilities on account of Colonel Waugh to the amount of 58,640/. Colonel Waugh married the mother of Mr. Carew, and all through the time of his " prosperity " allowed his step-son 2000/, a year, which, however, appears to have been an inadequate provision for the young gentleman. After the great smash at Cal-melee House and Brauksea Castle, Mr. Carew found himself, not actually reduced to want, but, as his counsel said, to the lowest necessity, and he set about finding sonic course of industry by which he might improve his position and also the prospects of his creditors. It was thought by a friend, that his career as a cavalry officer fitted him for entering upon the trade of cab owner, and he became a cab proprietor accordingly. By some of the creditors it was suggested that the little venture in cabs was undertaken simply for the purpose of facili- tating measures for bringing Mr. Carew properly before the Bankruptcy Court as a bond fide trader "within the meaning of the act," but Mr. Fon- blanque, his counsel, repudiated the suggestion. Mr. Carew traded as a cab-proprietor under the more modest title of "Henry Carew." The chief opposing creditors were Messrs. Wilkinson, saddlers, of Oxford Street, of whom Mr. Carew had purchased a couple of sets of brougham harness for 44/. 158. 64., as they supposed for his use as a gentleman and a cavalry offi- cer, but in reality, as they had the mortification to discover, their harness was used as the outfit of a couple of street-cabs. Between the lit and 9th of February, Mr. Carew made his purchase at Messrs. Wilkinson's, and on the 17th of the same mouth, he executed a bill of sale to a Mr. Barnet, over his cabs and other property, for a debt of 4601. Messrs. Wilkinson and Co. entered an action against Mr. Carew, who pleaded "never indebted," ran Messrs. Wilkinson to much expense, and finally, was brought before the Bankruptcy Court at the suit of his tailor, whom the counsel for the op- posing creditors assumed to be friendly. There is not, at present, a farthing for the creditors, but prospectively, there is a contingent interest in some estates owned by the bankrupt's father, who died in 1848, with other property expected to yield 208. in the pound. The Commissioner wound up the case by saying that it was one that ought not to have been brought into the Bankruptcy Court : he therefore ordered it to be adjourned for twelve months, with protection meanwhile, to give Mr. Carew an opportunity of superseding the bankruptcy by paying 20s. in the pound to his bona fide creditors—he " did not expect hire to pay 58,0001."

In the same Court, on Tuesday, Robert Hills bankrupt of Gravesend and and Dartford, came up for his certificate. " The bankrupt passed his last examination on a statement, accounting for a sum of 16,000/. by alleging that he had advanced that amount to Henry Gibson, a returned convict and absconding and uncertificated bankrupt. Gibson has since been found, and was now in attendance to deny the truth of the bankrupt's allegation. The assignees as well as the bankrupt concurred, under the circumstances, in desiring an adjournment. The Court, after a warm and angry discussion seldom equalled in a court of justice, acceeded to the application by ordering an adjournment to the 15th of February. In the meantime Gibson will be examined under his bankruptcy."

The verdict of the Jury assembled to inquire into the deaths by fire in the house of Mr. Roper at Greenwich, was delivered on Thursday, to the follow- ing effect-

" We rind that Isabella Caroline Roper, on the 12th day of September 185S, was burnt to death in the house, No. 8, Royal Hill, Greenwich, which house was burnt down by fire, but how or by what means the said fire originated there is not suffi- cient evidence before the Jun- to prove. The Jury cannot return their verdict without expressing their decided conviction that the origin of the fire is involved in great doubts and mystery, and that grave suspicion exists in their minds that the fire did not result from accidental circumstances, and it is only from a want of strictly legal evidence as to proof that the Jury feel compelled to come to this open verdict. The Jury are also of opinion that Police-constable llayeraft, 381, 11, and Smart, the fireman, were not so prompt in the execution of their duty as they ought to have been, and that the conduct of Smart, the fireman, ought to be investigated by the parochial authorities."