A reverend Mr. Maberley, Curate of the parish of Bourne,
in the diocese of Ely, has taken it into his head to become an itinerant agitator against the Poor-law. The Mayor of Bury St. Edmund's complained of Mr. Maberley's conduct to the Home Secretary : he said that the parson called public meetings of the labourers, and endeavoured to create a feeling against the Poor-law dangerous to the peace of the country. Lord John Russell sent this letter to the Bishop of Ely ; who thereupon warned Mr. Maberley that be should revoke his licence if he did not desist from agitation and attend to his curacy. At the same time, the Bishop wrote to Mr. Holworthy, Maberley's Rector, requesting his cooperation in restraining the Curate. Mr. Holworthy besought Mr. Maberley to behave with greater caution ; but Maberley persisted in his " agitation." A second application was made to Lord John Russell by thepItiyor:of Ipswich; and the Home Secretary again wrote to the Bishop of Ely, who then directed Mr. Holworthy to repair to Bonnie and attend to the duties of his own parish, that the diocese might " no longer incur the disgrace of having so dangerous an agitator among its clergy." The Tory papers are trying to make out a eas-t: against Lord John Russell for his interferenee ; but if pursuits will neglect their duties, and move about the country exciting resistance to the law, and if the Magistrates complain of their proceedings as danger- ous to the public peace, surely the Horne Secretary is justified in taking measures for confining such turbulent divines to their parishes and pulpits. The Birmingham Advertiser charged Dr. Butler, the new Bishop of Lichfield. with making a Sucinian bookseller the " medium of com- munication between a Tri&tarian Bishop and his clergy;" but Mr. Drake, the bookseller in question, relieves Dr. Butler from such a ter- rible stigma. In a letter published in the Birmingham Gazette, he says- " I feel it to be due to his Lordship to state, that I have not had the bourns of any communication from him with reference to the delivery of copies of his Charge to the Clergy in this district. Messrs. Longman and Co. booksellers, London, have occasionally sent me copies of similar charges for gratuitous distribution. The last I circulated was a Charge of the late Bishop Ryder. I do not believe that Bishop Butler selected roe as the medium of circulating his Charge; such matters, as is well known, being left to the publishers. Messrs. f.origman arid Co. probably sent it to me Ir.:cause I airs one of their most coredderable customers in this town; and it is not their practice to de- mand of their custoincrs any confession of faith."
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