The Dissenters of Corsham and its neighbourhood have sent an
address to Mr. Paul Methuen, M. P. for North Wilts, expressive of their thanks for his attention to the public interest, and of their senti- ments, &c. regarding Church-rates. The Rector of the parish of Marsh Gibbon, in Buckinghamshire, we believe, is annoaing the farmers by demanding tithe of milk, which has not been paid for half a century. He takes it every tenth day; and the first day of collection happening to fail on a Sunday, his men were at work the greater part of the day levying the parson's contribution, while he was denouncing from the pulpit all who did any manner of work on the Sunday. Oh, this is the way to make the clergy re- spected! The town of Melton Mowbray has been greatly excited by a pre. ceeding, at the instance of the Vicar, to recover from a poor man, keep- ing a small shop, and who has been in embarrassed circumstances, 74.1.. for the tithe of eggs ! The hearing came on at the Bell Inn, in Melton Mowbray, on Tuesday week ; when the demand of Md. was paid, and also the expenses. The plaintiff is the son of a London banker, and receives 600/. year as Vicar of Melton Mowbray !
The conduct of a reverend divine in Kent has been so irregular u to excite the displeasure of the parishioners, (above a thousand in num- ber,)who, at the visitation about a month since, reported to the Arch-. deacon his frequent neglect of clerical duty. The Archdeacon, as also a certain Baronet, have since been endeavouriug to smooth over the affair; and the Rector, likewise, has been somewhat more attentive to his duties. —Kent Herald.
At the Quarter-sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire, held last week at Northallerton, the conduct of the Reverend Mr. Dent, an active Tory Magistrate, and of Mr. Shepherd, Governor of the House of Correction, was the subject of a long investigation. It ap- peared that the servants of Mr. Dent had been in the habit for eight or nine years of procuring oatmeal for his reverence's dogs from the stores at the Workhouse, without paying for it. Mr. Dent declared that he was not aware of the manner in which the oatmeal was taken by his servants ; and a majority of the Magistrates, the Tories having mustered very strong, believed Mr. Dent ; and as he bad restored the oatmeal, passed a resokition substantially acquitting him of fraud. But it is certainly very strange, that Mr. Dent should never have in- quired how it happened that for many years together he had oatmeal without paying for it.
We remarked the silence of the Reverend Joshua King at the late Cheshire Tory dinner; but a correspondent of the Liverpool Mercier' says that Joshua intended to have held forth, and had actually sent a column and a half of his speech to a Chester paper, but that the hairman, fearing, doubtless, a similar explosion to that of last year, • ontrived to call upon a Mr. Mainwaring to reply to the toast of" The Iii hop and Clergy."
Previous page
