THE VESTRYMAN'S DAUGHTER.
EVERY one must sympathize with a father who sees his daughters entering the world, and observes behaviour which implies that they may, at least in his estimation, go astray ; but of all the branches into which education, in its largest sense, may be di- vided, there is perhaps not one which has been so little prose- cuted, and is in a state so lamentable, as positive instruction re- specting the modes by which a father can conduct and guide his family. Our attention is called to the subject by an application of a distressed parent to Mr. Broughton, the Magistrate at the Marylebone police office. The case is simple enough. Mr. Over- ton is father of a family in which there are several daugh- ters, some of them, it appears, grown up. One of these daughters sometime since was companion in the family of a gentleman who travels on the Continent. She left the family on account of ill- health, and a second daughter seems to have taken her place. The family again having travelled and returned home, Mr. Over- ton the father of the girl, discovers that the second daughter " has been induced to embrace the doctrines of Romanism, and to renounce those of the Protestant faith " ; and, under these per- plexing circumstances, Mr. Overton, casting about for counsel and aid, can think of nothing better than to go to a police magis- trate ? It would appear that this was not the first time at which attempts had been made to convert the young ladies, for " a simi- lar attempt was made to imbue the mind" of the elder daughter with Roman Catholic doctrines, "but she beine.° older was not persuaded." " She was taken ill," continues Mr. Overton, " and was obliged to return home, when we succeeded in inducing her to renounce her Roman Catholic views." The whole story is clear. Mr. Overton seeks employment for his daughters, as com- panions in families of some standing ; they happen to find situa- tions in the house of a gentleman who has been educated at Ox- ford; that gentleman has passed from Oxford to Rome. Mean- while, Mr. Overton is a member of Marylebone vestry, and he is obviously associated, in principles at least with the meeting of Vestry deputies which assembled recently at St. James's Hall. The first remark suggested by the case is, that Mr. Overton did not pursue the ordinary maxim of " looking at home " ; while he was at the meeting looking after the souls of Belgravia, his own daughter was leaving the hereditary faith. When Mr. Broughton explained that he could not interfere, as the young lady is twenty-two years of age, and according to law is old enough to choose her own convictions, Mr. Overton received the information as if it were too much for him ; and he avowedly bespoke the magistrates sympathy for his "excited feelings." Mr. Broughton remarked, "There is nothing very bad in the faith which she has adopted "—for it is at least one form of Chris- tianity; but Mr. Overton retorted, " If you had a daughter," and so forth. He said that he had been seeing her—but what for ? " In order to impress upon her the necessity of again adopt- ing Protestant principles." Mr. Overton did not tell us what was the convincingly argumentative process which he adopted, unless it is intimated in his remark—" I should not allow her again to enter my house to corrupt the religious opinions of my other chil- dren and my family." In Marylebone, therefore, Christian fathers exact certain convictions from their children, under pain of shutting them out of doors. It seems that in the model parish they have yet to learn that convictions coercively enforced are seldom sincere.
The Marylebone Vestryman asked the magistrate whether, if he went to the house where the daughter resides, he could not " demand her " ? "Not at all," answered the magistrate. If she were a prisoner, he might apply for a habeas corpus ; "but not because she has embraced the Roman Catholic Religion." The habeas corpus in fact is a right retained for the benefit of the individual as a check upon the abuse of any legal proceedings in restraining his liberty ; and anybody, on a prima facie case, can obtain such a writ on behalf of a prisoner. But the member of the Marylebone vestry, one of those bodies which lately under- took to guide and control the country, has yet to learn the grounds on which one person may demand the surrender of another.
He was not easily diverted from his object, and he struck out
one suggestion after another. As he said, "Surely a tutelars feelings ought to be considered "; " only," rejoined Mr. Beano, ton, " as a matter of sympathy. A parent has no control over is child, after twenty-one years of age." " From her position,,, said Mr. Overton previously, " I believe the Poor-laws are bind. ing on me to support my child : why have I not, therefore, a control in this case?" So backward is the state of education ia Marylebone, that one of the Vestrymen positively supposes the Poor-law to be available for the purpose of spiritual coercion! An English Protestant thinks that a parent, " whose f ' ought to be consulted," may obtain from a police magistrate Some. thing like a leltre de cachet in order to enforce parental authority, And, discovering that his authority fails over the mind of his
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daughter, he seeks to recover a paternal influence over her as a pauper ! It is impossible to presenta more concentrated eon. verging of many ignorances on one point, than this exhibition of the knowledge which prevails in Marylebone vestry on the subject of personal freedom, parental authority, Poor-laws, and Protea. taut principle.
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