Tonintial.

Once more "the Confessional" is the subject of sharp controversy and painful excitement. In June last a "Protestant" sent to the Windsor .Express the statement of a conversation that took place between a poor woman of Boyn's Hill, near Maidenhead, then daily expecting to be con- fined, and Mr. West, one of Mr. Gresley's curates. It was as follows— the "lady" who opens the dialogue is a visitor at the cottage.

Lady—" What is the matter ? Why are you crying so much ? are you worse ?"

Woman—" No ma'am ; but the gentleman—Mr. Greeley's curate—has been here, and has asked me such questions !"

Lady—" Well, what did he say ?"

Woman—" He asked me about the 1st commandment, and explained it. 2d, also. 3d, I told him I had broken that. 4th, Yes, I had ; many times. 5th, Yes ; I had broken that with my father : but my mother died when I was very young, and perhaps I should never have done as I have, only I had no one to tell me. 6th, No, that I am sure I never murdered anybody. 7th, "Did you ever commit adultery ?—No, Sir, I was married too young for that.

Curate—"Yes, but recollect; did you not, before or after you were mar- ried, look on a man and lust after him or for him ?"

Woman—" And this upset me, ma'am; for he said, Now, you are lying there, and hope to be delivered and live ; therefore you should confess your sins to me.' " Curate—" Have you ever been confirmed?" Woman—" No, Sir." Curate—" Then, remember, if you die you can never enter the kingdom of Heaven- if you live, you must receive the holy sacrament." Woman—"No, Sir, I can't do that ; I think that requires a great deal of preparation."

Curate—" Then you cannot go to Heaven."

Lady—" Now, listen to me. That man is not a fit person for you to see in your present situation. As you value—or' I hope, will value—your own soul, do not confess to him ; confess to God alone, and you will, through Christ, be saved, and through him alone. But you must endeavour to live a better life for the future, &e."

Woman—" He said I was to be sure and not tell my husband, and I wouldn't tell him for the world ; so, don't you ma'am." N.B. She was afterwards called upon by a lady calling herself "Sister Ellen," and upbraided for repeating the conversation, and again advised not to tell her husband.

The Protestant states, that "neither Mr. Greeley nor his curate, on seeing this lady afterwards, denied the conversation, but upheld the con- fessional, and said they considered it correct." Mr. John Shaw, vicar of Stoke, next took up the matter,. and wrote to the journal. Then a memorial stating tho facts, and asking for a full inguiry, was drawn up, signed by Mr. Shaw, Colonel Howard Vyse, and other persons, and forwarded to the Bishop of Oxford.

Dr. Wilberforce replied on the 31st July. He Somewhat reproved Mr. Shaw for not communicating to him in confidence, and for not applying to Mr. Greeley for information. He has, however inquired minutely into the case, and he ranges the charges into five heads. 'These five, then, are the charges ; and, as to these, the incumbent as-

sures me, from his inquiries at the time, that for the second, namely, that the curate urged on the woman the duty of confession—there is no founda- tion in fact ; that for the third, namely, that he taught her that confirma- tion was necessary for her salvation—there is no foundation in fact ; that for the fourth, namely, that he urged her not to tell her husband (in which. is the sting of the whole charge)—there is no foundation in fact ; that for the fifth, namely, that the woman was 'upset ' by his treatment—there is no foundation in fact ; but that, on the contrary, she expressed special gra- titude for his treatment of her case, and that at the time it appeared to be, through God's grace, His blessed instrument leading her to repentance." The only charge for which there was any foundation was the first—that the curate put to a woman about to be confined " most improper questions, es- pecially with regard to the seventh commandment,"—but this is so mis- stated as to become a falsehood—" for I am told that the curate, Ending the woman in dangerous sickness, proceeded, under the directions of the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, to examine whether she repented her truly for her sins, and required her to examine herself and her estate towards God and man.' rhe special need of such exhortations I am told that her life absolutely enforced, and that, in making them, he went through the Commandments, putting them into the form of interrogatories for her more convenient use of them, but not pressing for answers to him on any of them, nor dwelling upon one commandment more than another, nor putting im- proper questions upon any." The Bishop sees in this conduct nothing to. condemn, but he has directed Mr. West in future not to put the command- ments into the form of interrogatories. He therefore dismisses, as un- worthy of credit, the charges brought in the memorial.

The remainder of the Bishop's letter is a vindication of special confes- sion, as authorized by the Church of England in extreme cases. Of en- forced auricular confession he has the deepest horror. "Nor is there, in acting in this matter, faithfully on the rules of our own Church, any real approach to the corruptions of Rome, for there is here between Rome and England a difference, not of degree, but of kind. The Church of Rome enjoins on all private confession to a priest. She would make her priesthood (living, greatly for that object, in enforced celibacy) the depository of every personal and every family secret. She thus breaks up the confidence of family life, and erects a vast system of priestly domina- tion over the soul with its innumerable consequent evils spiritual, domestic, and political. The Church of England, with the primitive Church on the contrary, leaves everyman free in the matter, clearly intimating that, in her judgment, confession to God alone should be the ordinary rule for Chris- tian people ; but retaining, for burdened consciences, as their right, the opportunity of confessing special sins to the minister of God's word if they themselves desire it. Thus she marks out the line of our ministerial duty. We may not require confession of any: we do wrong if we endeavour to lead our people to desire it as an ordinary practice. Jay, if we act faith- fully in her spirit, we must discourage such a temper if we see it rising among those committed to our charge."

Mr. Shaw rejoins, and defends the course he pursued. He thought that the Bishop must have heard of the case, and that all that VMS re- quired was to bring it officially before him. Mr. Shaw could not apply to Mr. Gresley, because Mr. Clark had told him that Mr. Gresley did not deny the statements published in the papers. In the private examination which your lordship has instituted, it ap- pears that Mr. Greeley and Mr. West the curate deny most of the charges. On the other side, Mr. Clark and the lady are ready to prove them. In this unhappy dilemma an open inquiry alone could have elicited the truth. The- evidence would not have been weakened by the lapse of a few months, as the lady who visited the poor woman immediately after the departure of the Reverend Mr. West is ready to reassert, on oath, her statement ; and the evidence of the woman, at the suggestion of an experienced magistrate, has been taken down before a witness, and is ready to be produced."

In his turn Mr. Shaw expresses his views on the practice of confession, and contrasts what the Church permits with what is the fashion.

"Our Church admits of confession in certain extraordinary cases,. for ex- treme and special cases of sickness she has provided a special form of absolu- tion, and the most active and conscientious clergymen have been but rarely called upon to use it ; but now it is in vogue to give confession an undue prominence and make it necessary to salvation, and thus risk the introduc- tion of all those evils your Lordship has depicted I have been in. holy orders thirty-two years, and not unobservant of the changes of opinion in the Church during that period. But hitherto the differences of opinion have never been vital, never so great as for the bonds of charity to be too weak tohold us together. But now all is altering. The character of our Church is undergoing a gradual and silent change, and not for the better ; but is stealthily verging towards Rome, drawn thither as it would seem by some powerful attraction, some latent charms in our ever-watchful adver- sary. And the danger is from within. The Church of England has in some places, become very like the Church of Rome. The doctrine of Timm- substantiation is held, or something is held so slightly varying from that doctrine that even educated men can scarcely trace the difference ; the Holy Eucharist is considered to be a propitiatory sacrifice, renewed at every fresh celebration ; a doctrine of confession, foreign to the spirit and usage of our Church, is freely advocated, and Rome furnishes the model of absolution ; a high and unscriptural estimate of the Christian priesthood prevails, as if Christ's ministers were the lords of His heritage, rather than stewards for

the good of His people Every inch of the ground won by our • Re- formers has to be fought over again, and the memory of those pious de- parted worthies who took the yoke off the neck of our fathers, which they were not able to bear, and went through a fiery death to win our freedom, is treated in some quarters with scorn. Here, then, there is room for more than alarm and a cry for indignation. But we are still safe if we are only true to the principles of the Reformation, that is, to God's Holy Word, for we only regard the Reformation as built upon that Word."

The season of meetings between Members and their constituents, or between them and the neighboum of their constituents, has now set in. The practice is generally to review the session, and not to look far ahead ; bat sometimes a Member goes beyond this practice ; and points to the future. Mr. Mowatt met the electors of Ashburton on Friday week. After a smart criticism on the past session and a justification of his abandonment of Lord Palmerston, whom he was elected to support, Mr. Mowatt referred to the promised Reform of Parliament.

"I may say that I am for the extension of the franchise, and shall sup- port a measure of that kind from whatever point of the political compass it may come. I am quite sure that the franchise may be extended, and safely and beneficially extended in this country, I am quite willing—aye, ram desirous that we should make our constituencies larger than they are at present ; and I think those points ought to have the attention of any Government in broaching this great and difficult question. I believe, also, that large bodies of men at present unrepresented ought to be represented, and that small bodies having two representatives ought to be well content with one, and perhaps amalgamated with some other constituency for that one. I should -be glad to see an equalization, to a moderate extent, of the

constituencies of the country ; but I tell you unreservedly. that I am not prepared to vote for a measure that shall make the franchise of no avail by bringing it down to manhood suffrage; or that shall cut the country, as it were, into parallelograms and squares in order to Bend members to Parlia- ment. This country has maintained its character of representation simply by the varied elements sent to Parliament. Century after century it has sent them there, unbought, unpaid, and at a great sacrifice to themselves of time and health, in order that they might have the high honour and privilege of serving their country. That is a high honour and privilege, and it has been maintained in that almost sacred state by the mixture of the various elements you send there. You send a given number from large constituencies representing abstract popular opinions ; you send some from the counties representing the agricultural interest ; and you send others from the leas important towns representing the opinion of the middle classes. I am willing that small boroughs should be made larger, although perhaps, if you watch not only the present Parliament, but any Parliament, you will see where the really independent body of men come from. It has been from small independent boroughs which would not be overridden by great landowners, and the constituencies of which have exercised their own freedom in the choice of their own representative. I assure you that there is not a more free body to act in this country than those who represent small independent boroughs, where a man is not returned at the dictation of my Lord the or Sir somebody else." (Cheers.) Mr. Arthur Mills, member for Taunton, expounded on the same day his views with respect to Indian missions, not to his constituents, but to their neighbours at Exeter. The occasion was a meeting of the Church Missionary Society, Sir John liennaway in the chair. Mr. Mills said he was disappointed respecting the success of Christianity in India. It is most discouraging to know that the time has not yet come, spite of the change in the government of India, when in India the cause of Christ will have full play.

The statesman who told them that the cause of civilization is not associated with the cause of Christ has misread history and has mis- represented the opinion of the people of this country. If he believed that the time had come' or that it ever would come, when the people of this country would disconnect the cause of civilization from the cause of Christ, then he should forget that a voice had spoken to them from the grave and from the extinct empires of Greece and Rome, warning them that that cause of truth which is at the bottom of their own civilization' and which is not at the foundation of those civilizations which has passed way, is the only cause that would give life, energy, and permanence to nations as well as individuals. Mr. Mills was convinced that the discouragement which the cause of Christian missions, and especially Christian schools in India would receive, if the opinions of those now in authority were carried out, would be far more fatal and serious than they could at that moment anticipate. The Minister said he would withdraw the aid granted to the 17,000 vernacular and Anglo-vernacular schools organized by the missionaries. The effect would be that either the schools themselves must drop, or the alternative— which he trusted, by the blessing of God, might be in store for them—that the energies of this country and of the self-organized associations of this .country might be redoubled and quickened until they taught the Govern- ment that they were not to trifle with the religious institutions of the country, and that if they were not called upon to interfere with the reli- gions of India they should give full scope to the Christian people of this country, who were content to devote their time, spend their money, and lay down their lives for the cause of Christianity. The Government would be reminded that for those who so tampered with the religious instinct of this country a day of reckoning would come—they would be reminded that here in England, at all events, we had the blessings of free institutions, which enabled us to prove to Governments that they must reflect the reli- gious instincts of the people.

Mr. Donald Nicoll visited his constituents at Frome on Monday. Rustic games and amusements were the order of the day, and "mere speechmaking was studiously avoided."

Mr. John Locke, M.P., recently addressed at Barnsley, a meeting assembled to celebrate the founding of some schools, on Cherbourg. As the engineer of the Paris and Cherbourg line, he spoke as a practical man. There is a strong feeling in France against English men and Eng- lish institutions.

He believed that the present Emperor had not the slightest intention of wishing Cherbourg to be looked upon as a menace to England, still, he must be a foolish man indeed who could not see that Cherbourg, placed in the hands of an ambitious ruler, would be a very powerful weapon. The ques- tion is, are the Emperor's intentions good or bad ? If he means war, in Cherbourg he has a most powerful weapon. But, believing that Louis Na- poleon means peace, they in that case have nothing to fear. Still, so long as human nature remains as it is, England cannot see the establishment of so great a work, evidently intended for a warlike purpose, without at once taking steps to place the country in a position to counteract its probable effects. As he had before said, nobody knew what the French opinion really is, and a time might come when the Emperor himself would not be able to control the exuberance of feeling of his people ; so that it is the duty of our statesmen to take steps to place England in such a state as to be able to successfully guard against so dangerous a neighbour, and to maintain our proud supremacy.

A large number of colliers are on strike at Wolverhampton. They have held open air meetings, and this has given occasion to Chartist agi- tators to attempt to inflame their political passions. The colliers have resolved to work only four days a week, and not to take reduced wages. As yet they have been peaceful.

There is now in Aldershott camp the large force of 22,000 men. In about a fortnight not more than 6000 will remain. The Duke of Cam- bridge is to close the season at the camp by a series of inspections and field days.

The anticipations of scandal lovers in the West have been disappointed by the compromise of a ease of breach of promise of marriage which excited great interest. The parties were Mr. Miles of Bristol, on behalf of his daughter, and Captain Megan, M.P. The trial was to come on at the Bristol Assizes. The court was full of ladies. When Baron Channel took his scat, the counsel engaged asked for time, and in a few minutes, terms "strictly private" were arranged to the chagrin of the audience. Mr. Collier, the defendant's counsel remarked, that the painful investigation which they had been spared could have had no good result. And he added : "there is not and cannot be the slightest imputation on the character of Miss Miles for purity and virtue, and had Mr. Magan's conduct been in- vestigated it would have turned out to be equally free from blame."

Adelaide thesarini, the daughter of an Italian gentleman, who keeps a private boarding-house in Golden Square, has obtained at the Guildford Assizes a verdict against one Bonzam, manager of a theatre at Turin, for

431. 38. 4d. balance of salary. The young lady was engaged to sing at Turin. Ronzani desired her to appear in an opera of his own, "II Bravo!. The music was of too high a pitch and she declined. She afterwards played Fenena in " Nabucco." Ronzani paid her only part of her salary. The de- fence was that she had signed a receipt as a final settlement ; but the you lady declared she did not know the contents of the paper she signed, The Judge decided that this instrument was not binding. Therefore the venliet was for the plaintiff.

A short time since, two men fishing, found the body of an infant in the Thames near Reading. The local chief of the police had the body photo. graphed and exhibited. This simple process was the means of discovering the murderess. The master of the Henley workhouse recognized the body It proved to be that of the child of a girl who had resided in the workhouse' She was arrested ; when charged with having murdered her child she admit. ted that she went to Reading to see its father, and, as he would not consent to give her any money to maintain it, she went at midnight and threw it into the river. She is in gaol.

Ebenezer Cherrington, a baker, convicted of the murder of Mrs. Studd, his paramour and his employer's wife, has been executed at Ipswich. He confessed that he killed the woman, but denied that he intended to kill her. Her death ensued in a quarrel. Cherrington's version of the tragedy is as follows-

" An altercation took place between the deceased and myself. She said that I should not be there, and that I should leave the house ; she would have nothing more to do with me. This excited me, and I said, What am I to do ? What is to become of me ? Where am I to go ? You have ruined me both body and soul, and now you want to get rid of me.' This made the deceased angry, and she took up the poker, and said, If you say that again, I will hit you on the head with this; I took the poker from her, and in endeavouring to do so it struck me on the head. At this I became excited, and it was then, having the poker in my hand, I struck the fatal blow. I did not wait in the house a moment, but ran out directly. I never intended to kill her."

An attempt was made by several persons of local influence to obtain a reprieve for Cherrington ; -but Mr. Walpole did not feel justified iu inter- fering with the course of the law.

Experince may teach ordinary mortals but not miners. The other day a body of men entered a coal mine near Swansea, the first man carrying a naked light. An explosion of fire damp followed, and out of eleven who had gone down, only three escaped with their lives. We are afraid miners take these things as a matter of course.

Liskeard suffers from a constantly increasing mortality. Why? The reason is plain. The sewage and filth of the town either accumulates in cesspools, or runs down open gutters,- or stagnates in open ponds. The people crowd thickly in the houses. Hence diptheritis, putrid measles, and fevers of all kinds prevail.