Mr. Drury, the Rector of Claydon, Suffolk, has been fined
51., with the alternative of two months' imprisonment. This eccentric individual, who patronizes Brother Ignatius and other buttresses of the Church of Rome—buttresses, because while they support it they always keep outside—was, it appears, on the 7th November praying in church with four monks, having twenty candles upon the altar. A labouring man entered the church, and when ordered out refused to go, whereupon Mr. Drury drew a red-hot poker out of the fire and struck him upon the forehead, making the blood flow. The complainant drew his knife, but Brother Ignatius, S.O.B., so far forgot his published ideas about non-resistance as to interpose a bench. The magistrates found the assault proved, and inflicted the sentence stated, with a reprimand, which Mr. Drury will laugh at as proceeding only from laymen. We wonder if a labourer had hit another with a red-hot poker, "making the blood come," whether he would have had the option of fine.
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