of H.M.S "Genoa "; in 1845, assuming charge of the "Agincourt's" barge, he distinguished himself at the destruction of the piratical settlement of Malloodoo; and in 1846 he contributed, as officer in command of the field-piece and rocket brigade, to the capture and destruction of the enemy's forts and batteries on the river Brun. As a reward for his meritorious conduct he received his commission of Commander. Of late years Admiral Paynter took an active part in the local politics of Bath, and was the leader of the Liberal party there. He was elected mayor of that city two consecutive years, 1874 and 1875. The Admiral married, 1848, Frances, only child of the late Henry Chapman McVeagh, Esq., and widow of Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Slade, 1st Dragoon Guards. MR. ROBERTSON. The death took place, on December 15, of Mr. Henry Robertson, who was for many years the naval editor of the Army and Navy Gazette. He commenced life in the Royal Navy, and in the course of his service gained the friendship and made the acquaintance of many distinguished officers. He was devoted to the best interests of the service, and as naval editor of the Standard, when that journal was the great organ of the profession, he was known for the fearless and energetic manner in which he advocated the interests of officers and men, and pointed out the defects and shortcomings of our naval administration. SIR TITUS SALT. The death took place on December 29 of the well-known manufacturer and philanthropist, Sir. Titus Salt, at the age of 73. He was the first to introduce the wool of the alpaca into general use in manufacture. He entered Parliament as member for Bradford in 1859, and ten years later he was made a 1 aronet. His works near Bradford have furnished employment to a vast number of persons, for whose accommodation he erected the dwellings now grown into the town of Saltaire. These comprised, at the last census, 820 houses, occupied by 4,389 persons. In 1859 he erected the Congregational Church at Saltaire. In 1863 baths and wash-houses were built, and Mr. Salt had previously furnished his people with facilities for the education of their children by building a large schoolroom; but as with the extension of his works and the increase in the number of his workpeople, this provision had become inadequate, he built a fresh range of schoolrooms in 1868, with accommodation for 750 scholars. During the past summer a new Sunday-school was built by Sir Titus in connection with the Saltaire Congregational Church, costing, with site, nearly 10,000. He contributed also in a munificent manner towards the cost of the Congregational Church at Lightcliffe, and very recently offered a site for a board school at Saltaire. A hospital and infirmary have been added to his foundations, while for the widows and aged he provided 45 alms-houses, in which the married couples received 10s. per week, the unmarried inmates 78. 6d. In 1871 a park, fourteen acres in extent, on the banks of the river Aire, and within an easy distance of the factory and the town, was given by Sir Titus Salt for the use of the public; and in November of the following year a large and handsome building was provided by him to serve as a club and institute. Sir William married, in 1854, Emma Dove Octaviana, only child of Mr. John Dove Harris, of Ratcliffe Hall, Leicestershire. MR. STAFFORD. He On December 23, died at Norwich, Mr. William Cooke Stafford, aged 83. The deceased was one of the oldest journalists in the kingdom, having, after a visit to America, commenced his career in 1818 in London with contributions to the Anti-Jacobin Review, The White Dwarf, and Stradgett's Weekly Review, for which he wrote the leading articles-rapers which, though they may have served their purpose as political organs in their day, will probably be unknown, even by name, to the present generation. was tempted to leave London by an offer of the editorship of the Leeds Intelligencer, a post which he relinquished after a time (being succeeded by the late Alaric A. Watts), and proceeded to York, where for many years he edited the Yorkshire Gazette. He left York to establish the Doncaster Chronicle-a venture that was unsuccessful to him, although the paper is still in existence and flourishing. His subsequent engagements included the editorship of the Hull Packet, which he gave up on the death of the proprietor and the passing of the paper into other hands; and of the Norfolk Chronicle, to which and other journals he was a regular contributor during the remaining active years of his life, COMMANDER C. SUNDERLAND. The death took place on Dec. 1 of Commander Carleton Sunderland, R.N., who entered the service in July 1828. His first service was in the East Indies, and, when in the "Andromache," he assisted, on September 7 and 9, 1834, in forcing the passage of the Bocca Tigris. In Feb. 1836 he was appointed to the "Terror," then fitting for an Arctic expedition. He took part-in the "Powerful," under the command of Capt. Charles Napier-in the operations on the coast of Syria, and was present at the bombardment of Acro. It was then that he received his promotion to the rank of lieutenant. Shortly afterwards he was placed on half-pay. Commander Sunderland was deputy-lieutenant for the county of Lancaster. MR. TEULON. Mr. Seymour Teulon died cn December 9 in his 73rd year. He was descended from an old Huguenot family, one branch of which at least still exists in France. For a long time he was a director of the South-Eastern Railway, and he was an active justice of the peace for more than one county, and a deputy-lieutenant. His connection with the Society of Arts commenced in 1861, and a few years afterwards (in 1865) he became treasurer. On the expiration of his two years' service as treasurer he was elected on the council, and afterwards he became a vice-president of the Society. During the chairmanship of Lord Henry Lennox he acted with Mr. S. Redgrave as deputychairman. SIR CHARLES TURNER. Sir Charles Robert Turner, Knight, late Senior Master of the Court of Queen's Bench, died at his residence in the Regent's Park, on December 13. He was born in 1789, the fifth son of the Rev. Richard Turner, Vicar of Great Yarmouth, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Rede, Esq., of Beccles. Early in life he practised as a solicitor, but in 1829 he was called to the Bar, and in 1839 was appointed one of the Masters in the Court of Queen's Bench. He retired in 1870, and received the honour of knighthood the following year. Sir Charles married, in 1816, Judith, daughter of the late Charles Onley Harvey, Esq., afterwards Charles Onley Onley, Esq., of Stisted Hall, Essex, M.P. REMARKABLE TRIALS. I. THE CLIFTON COMMUNION CASE. JENKINS V. COOK (CLERK). Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, February 16. Before the Archbishop of York, Lord Hatherley, Lord Penzance, the Lord Chief Baron, Lord Justice James, Sir James Peacock, and Sir James Hannen. The following is the judgment, delivered by the Lord Chancellor, on behalf of the Committee, in which the facts of the case are briefly given. In this case the appellant, a parishioner in the parish of Christ Church, Clifton, instituted proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Act, in the Court of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, against the respondent, the vicar of the parish, for an offence against the laws ecclesiastical in refusing to administer to the appellant the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. The case was sent by letters of request to the Court of Arches, and on July 16, 1875, a senttnce was pronounced by the Dean of Arches, dismissing the suit against the respondent, and condemning the appellant in costs. From this sentence the appellant appeals to her Majesty. There are no facts in dispute in the case, and the allegations as to the refusal complained of, and as to the grounds of the refusal, are extremely simple. The appellant alleges that on September 28, 1874, he gave notice in writing to the respondent of his intention to present himself to receive the Holy Communion at the mid-day service on the following Sunday, October 4, 1874, and that having presented himself accordingly, he was, without lawful cause, repelled, and the respondent refused to administer the Sacrament to him. To this allegation the respondent answers that he on the day in question did refuse to deliver to the appellant, or to permit the appellant to receive, the elements of the Holy Communion when he presented himself to receive the same, for and on account of the writing and publishing by the appellant of certain letters particularly referred to, and for and on account of his causing to be printed and published a certain volume of selections from the Old and New Testaments, and for no other cause or reason whatsoever. These allegations therefore raise the issue, and the only issue, between the parties. In order, however, to appreciate properly the justification relied upon by the respondent, it is necessary to refer more particularly to the letters and volume referred to in the defensive allegation, and to the circumstances under which those letters were written. The appellant states, and it is not controverted, that he has been a resident parishioner of Christ Church for six years past; that he is a member of the Church of England, and has during that time regularly attended divine service at the parish church, and has also during that period been in the habit of receiving the Holy Communion in the church monthly; that during his attendance at divine service he has always conducted himself reverently, joining in the responses in accordance with the directions of the rubric; that he believes in the inspiration of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, that Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation, and in the doctrine of the atonement for the sins of mankind by the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the cross; and he exhibits a book of family prayers compiled entirely from the Liturgy of the Church of England which he has published, and which is regularly used by him at family prayers in his own house. It appears that the appellant, in the year 1865, had also printed and published a volume entitled "Selections from the Old and New Testaments." This volume has been produced before their lordships. It consists of extracts or selections from the Bible, apparently arranged for the convenience of reading at family prayers. Many chapters and portions of chapters are omitted, but the volume is a bulky one, although not containing any note, comment, or matter other than the text of the Bible, so far as it is given. It appears, further, that on July 6, 1874, in reference to a sermon preached by the respondent in the parish church, the appellant wrote to the respondent a letter as follows: "My dear Sir,-As one of your parishioners, who accepts his conscience as the voice of God within him, I beg to protest most emphatically against the irreligious tendency of your sermon of last night. I quite believe that you would not willingly deceive others, but it is my opinion that no difficulties as to language or books should stifle what is imprinted in every man's breast by his Maker-that is to say, the knowledge of right and wrong.— I am, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, "HENRY JENKINS." What was the subject or substance of this sermon, or what were the expressions used therein, their lordships have no means whatever of knowing, and no evidence has been adduced on either side as to it. It appears that, about two years before this time, the volume of selections had been sent by the appellant to the respondent, but the respondent had laid the volume aside, and apparently had not looked at or examined it. After, however, receiving the letter of July 6, 1874, the respondent for the first time examined the volume of selections, and, as he states, shortly afterwards called on the appellant at his residence, in order to communicate with him in reference to the volume. But the appellant, as the respondent alleges, refused to have any communication with him in reference thereto. At this part of the case the evidence of Mrs. Jenkins may properly be referred to. She states that on July 20 she called on the respondent, and told him she did so hoping to do away with any unpleasant impression in his mind arising from the appellant's abrupt manner when the respondent had called at the appellant's house. She then asked him if he meant to carry out the threat conveyed in his last remark to the appellant on that day. The respondent said he did mean to carry it out most emphatically : "Then he went on; he commenced about the volume of selections that had been sent to him two years ago. He said at the time he received them he thought they were meant for family worship, which I said they were. He had not looked at them, he had put them by on a shelf, or something to that effect, but since his visit to the appellant he had examined the volume thoroughly from beginning to end, and he found all passages relating to the devil and evil spirits were excluded from the selection." Further on Mrs. Jenkins continued: "I attempted to draw his attention to the appellant's character and manner of life from his youth up, the honesty of all his motives, and his blamelessness in every condition of life as husband and father, and he said that only made the case more difficult to manage. Then he said, let Mr. Jenkins, as he cannot sit down and talk like a man, write me a letter, a calm letter, and say he believes in the devil, and I will give him the Sacrament." On the same day, and apparently in consequence of this suggestion of the respondent that the appellant should write him a letter, the appellant wrote to him in these words : "My dear Sir,-Mrs. Jenkins has very kindly called upon you in order to arrange matters, with, I am afraid, very poor success. With regard to my book-'Selections from the Old and New Testaments '-the parts I have omitted, and which has enabled me to use the book morning and evening in my family, are, in their present generally received sense, quite incompatible with religion or decency (in my opinion). How such ideas have become connected with a book containing everything that is necessary for a man to know I really cannot say, and can only sincerely regret it.—I am, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, " HENRY JENKINS." To this the respondent replied, by a letter of July 24, 1874, as follows:"Dear Sir,—It would be a great relief to me if I could find in your letter of 20th instant, or in any other communication written or spoken, something to show that I have misunderstood your opinions, or that you have changed them for the better. Unhappily the conclusion I cannot but form from your letters, words, and printed 'Selections from the Old and New Testaments,' is, that of set purpose you reject very many portions of Holy Scripture. That you have, for instance, cut out as you have from the Bible what is therein written concerning Satan and evil spirits, is to me terrible evidence of how far you have allowed yourself to go in mutilating the Word of God. Large differences of opinion concerning Scriptural matters no prudent or charitable minister of the Gospel would condemn, but there are perversions and denials which no faithful minister will sanction, lest he allow unbelief a recognised place in the Church of Christ. With such perversions and denials, I grieve to say, I am driven to connect yourself; while they remain not retracted or disavowed you cannot be received at the Lord's table in my church. I hope you will feel that my course is directed according to conscience and not by resentment. I quite forgive your behaviour when I called, and although you would then listen to nothing, if you will converse quietly with me my time shall be willingly given for that purpose. May the Spirit of Truth deliver you from the errors you have adopted, and in the hope of seeing this my prayer answered-I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, "FLAVEL COOK." In answer to this the appellant wrote another letter, which is the last that need be referred to, dated July 25, 1874: "My dear Sir-Thinking as you do, I do not see what other course you could consistently have taken. I shall, nevertheless, come to the Lord's table as usual at 'your' church, which is also mine.-I am, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, "HENRY JENKINS." |