on the 16th ult. to celebrate the opening of the People’s College.” The persons referred to were Mr. J. H. Tillett, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. J. W. Dowson. The lecturer, amid much disturbance, stated that Mr. Tillett had “a large love of approbation, too little veneration, and a large portion of self-esteem”; Mr. Wheeler had “little veneration or philo-progenitiveness”; and Mr. Dowson’s head “showed beautiful Christian development.” Mr. Tillett rose from his seat and described the lecture as “a mass of rhodomontade, as an imposition, as non-conclusive, and as most of it foreign to the subject. He denounced this lecturing on heads, and asked what would be thought if he brought down a phrenologist to lecture on the heads of his opponents?”
4.—A balloon ascent was made from the Cavalry Barracks, Norwich, by Mr. Green, accompanied by Mr. Rush, of Elsenham Hall, Essex, “who was desirous of trying some experiments with a new instrument called an aneroid barometer invented by himself, and the first ever made on the new principle.” The balloon descended in a field at West Newton.
6.—The death of the Right Rev. Dr. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, occurred at Brahan Castle, near Dingwall, Ross-shire. The body was conveyed from Invergordon by sea by the steamer Duke of Sutherland, and landed at Yarmouth on the 19th. It arrived at Norwich on the same day, and was deposited in the Palace Chapel, where it lay in state on the 20th, and was interred in the centre of the Cathedral nave on the 21st. “Anthony Sparrow (50th Bishop), ob. 1685, was the last prelate buried in the Cathedral.” Bishop Stanley was the second son of Sir J. T. Stanley, of Alderley, Cheshire, and was born January 1st, 1779. He was elected to the vacant see of Norwich on the death of Bishop Bathurst in 1837. “His lordship was a Liberal in politics, but more of the Whig than the Radical, and although too conciliatory to Dissenters, he, of late years in particular, showed himself devoutedly attached to the Church.” He was Clerk of the Closet to the Queen, President of the Linnean Society, and one of the Commissioners appointed in 1848 to enquire into the state of the British Museum.
8.—A meeting of medical practitioners was held at the Guildhall, Norwich, to consider the best means of preventing the spread of cholera. Rooms were hired in different parts of the city for dispensing medicines, and special forms of prayer were used in all the churches and chapels. November 15th, the day appointed for thanksgiving “for deliverance from the scourge which has lately visited this land,” was observed in Norwich by the entire suspension of business. All classes of citizens attended the services held at the Cathedral and the parish churches.
OCTOBER.
2.—Victoria Gardens, Norwich, for so many generations the popular resort of the citizens, were dismantled on this date, when Mr. William Wilde, auctioneer, sold “the ranges of drinking boxes, seats and tables, the scenery, fittings, and machinery in the theatre, the fittings, benches, &c., in the circus and saloon, the materials of the firework house, the porter bar, cake-room, &c.” The sale was held by order
of the directors of the Eastern Union Railway Company, who had acquired the property as the site for their Norwich terminus.
3.—Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P., Sir Joshua Walmisley, M.P., Mr. George Thompson, M.P., Mr. J. H. Parry, Mr. Feargus O’Connor, M.P., and other members of the National Reform Association, addressed a large meeting held at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, under the auspices of the local branch of the association. Mr. J. H. Tillett presided.
22.—Madame Sontag, Signor Calzobari, Signor Bolletti, Signor F. Lablache, and M. Thalberg appeared at a grand concert given at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich. A second performance took place on the 23rd.
—A public meeting was held at the Independent chapel, Diss, for the purpose of hearing statements from Mr. James Everett respecting the expulsion of himself and Messrs. Dunn and Griffith from the Wesleyan Conference. On the 24th a similar meeting was held at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, when resolutions were passed condemnatory of the action of the Conference and expressive of sympathy with the expelled ministers. The agitation was continued until June 22nd, 1850, on the 19th of which month another meeting took place at St. Andrew’s Hall, at which the Wesleyan Reformers uttered “violent tirades against the Conference, the Missionary Committee, and other ruling bodies of Wesleyanism.” In December, 1850, a series of disturbances occurred at Lenwade, where the services of the chapel were stopped and the preacher, the Rev. C. Povah, assaulted with stones and burnt in effigy. Magisterial proceedings at Reepham were followed by an application in the Court of Chancery for an injunction to restrain certain persons from interrupting Mr. Povah and other ministers in the performance of religious worship at the Wesleyan chapel, Cawston. The affidavits read disclosed a number of gross outrages upon the ministers, extending over the period of six months. Issue of the injunction was stayed upon the defendants entering into an undertaking not to disturb or molest the plaintiffs in the exercise of their duties.