Various - Notes and Queries, Number 32, June 8, 1850

In the late debate on Mr. Grantley Berkeley's motion for a fixed duty on corn, Sir Benjamin Hall is reported to have imagined the presence of a stranger to witness the debate, and to have said that he was imagining what every one knew the rules of the House rendered an impossibility. It is strange that so intelligent a member of the House of Commons should be ignorant of the fact that the old sessional orders, which absolutely prohibited the presence of strangers in the House of Commons, were abandoned in 1845, and that a standing order now exists in their place which recognises and regulates their presence. The insertion of this "note" may prevent many "queries" in after times, when the sayings and doings of 1850 have become matters of antiquarian discussion.

The following standing orders were made by the House of Commons on the 5th of February, 1845, on the motion of Mr. Christie, (see Hansard, and Commons' Journals of that day), and superseded the old sessional orders, which purported to exclude strangers entirely from the House of Commons:—

"That the serjeant at arms attending this House do from time to time take into his custody any stranger whom he may see, or who may be reported to him to be, in any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House; and also any stranger who, having been admitted into any other part of the House or gallery, shall misconduct himself, or shall not withdraw when strangers are directed to withdraw while the House, or any committee of the whole House, is sitting; and that no person so taken into custody be discharged out of custody without the special order of the House.

"That no member of this House do presume to bring any stranger into any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House while the House, or a committee of the whole House, is sitting."

Now, therefore, strangers are only liable to be taken into custody if in a part of the House appropriated to members, or misconducting themselves, or refusing to withdraw when ordered by the Speaker to do so; and Sir Benjamin Hall imagined no impossibility.

Like most other things, the "Agapemone" wickedness, which has recently disgusted all decent people, does not appear to be a new thing by any means. The religion-mongers of the nineteenth century have a precedent nearly 300 years old for this house of evil repute.

In the reign of Elizabeth, the following proclamation was issued against "The Sectaries of the Family of Love:"—

"Whereas, by report of sundry of the Bishops of this Realm, and others having care of souls, the Queen's Majesty is informed, that in sundry places of her said Realm, in their several Dioceses there are certain persons which do secretly, in corners, make privy assemblies of divers simple unlearned people, and after they have craftily and hypocritically allured them to esteem them to be more holy and perfect men than other are, they do then teach them damnable heresies, directly contrary to divers of the principal Articles of our Belief and Christian Faith and in some parts so absurd and fanatical, as by feigning to themselves a monstrous new kind of speech, never found in the Scriptures, nor in ancient Father or writer of Christ's Church, by which they do move ignorant and simple people at the first rather to marvel at them, than to understand them but yet to colour their sect withal, they name themselves to be of the Family of Love , and then as many as shall be allowed by them to be of that family to be elect and saved, and all others, of what Church soever they be, to be rejected and damned. And for that upon conventing of some of them before the Bishops and Ordinaries, it is found that the ground of their sect, is maintained by certain lewd, heretical, and seditious books first made in the Dutch tongue, and lately translated into English, and printed beyond the seas, and secretly brought over into the Realm, the author whereof they name H.N., without yielding to him, upon their examination, any other name, in whose name they have certain books set forth, called Evangelium Regni, or, A Joyful Message of the Kingdom; Documental Sentences, The Prophecie of the Spirit of Love; a Publishing of the Peace upon the Earth , and such like.

"And considering also it is found, that these Sectaries hold opinion, that they may before any magistrate, ecclesiastical or temporal, or any other person not being professed to be of their sect (which they term the Family of Love), by oath or otherwise deny any thing for their advantage, so as though many of them are well known to be teachers and spreaders abroad of these dangerous and damnable sects, yet by their own confession they cannot be condemned, whereby they are more dangerous in any Christian Realm: Therefore, her Majesty being very sorry to see so great an evil by the malice of the Devil, first begun and practised in other countries, to be now brought into this her Realm, and that by her Bishops and Ordinaries she understandeth it very requisite, not only to have these dangerous Heretics and Sectaries to be severely punished, but that also all other means be used by her Majesty's Royal authority, which is given her of God to defend Christ's Church, to root them out from further infecting her Realm, she hath thought meet and convenient, and so by this her Proclamation she willeth and commandeth, that all her Officers and Ministers temporal shall, in all their several vocations, assist the Archbishops and Bishops of her Realm, and all other persons ecclesiastical, having care of souls, to search out all persons duly suspected to be either teachers or professors of the foresaid damnable sects, and by all good means to proceed severely against them being found culpable, by order of the Laws either ecclesiastical or temporal: and that, also, search be made in all places suspected, for the books and writings maintaining the said Heresies and Sects, and them to destroy and burn.

"And wheresoever such Books shall be found after the publication hereof, in custody of any person, other than such as the Ordinaries shall permit, to the intent to peruse the same for confutation thereof, the same persons to be attached and committed to close prison, there to remain, or otherwise by Law to be condemned, until the same shall be purged and cleared of the same heresies, or shall recant the same, and be thought meet by the Ordinary of the place to be delivered. And that whoever in this Realm shall either print, or bring, or cause to be brought into this Realm, any of the said Books, the same persons to be attached and committed to prison, and to receive such bodily punishment and other mulct as fautors of damnable heresies. And to the execution hereof, her Majesty chargeth all her Officers and Ministers, both ecclesiastical and temporal, to have special regard, as they will answer not only afore God, whose glory and truth is by these damnable Sects greatly sought to be defaced, but also will avoid her Majesty's indignation, which in such cases as these are, they ought not to escape, if they shall be found negligent and careless in the execution of their authorities.

"Given at our Mannour of Richmond, the third of October, in the two-and-twentieth year of our Reign.

"God Save The Queen."

Lichfield, May 28. 1850.

The interleaving, of a little work in my possession, published by Kearsley in 1787, intitled Account of the several Wards, Precincts, and Parishes in the City of London , contains MS. notes of the commencement of the registers of fifty of the London parishes, and of four of Southwark, the annexed list 1 1 We have collated the list with the Population Returns (Parish Register abstract) 1831, and noted any difference. In addition to the list given from Sir Geo. Nayler's MS. the following early registers were extant in 1831:— 1538. Allhallows, Bread Street; Allhallows, Honey Lane; Christ Church; St. Mary-le-bow; St. Matthew, Friday Street; St. Michael Bassishaw; St. Pancras, Soper Lane. 1539. St. Martin, Ironmonger Lane; St. Martin Ludgate; St. Michael, Crooked Lane. 1547. St. George, Botolph Lane, at the commencement of which are 22 entries from tombs, 1390-1410. 1558. Allhallows the Less; St. Andrew, Wardrope; St. Bartholomew, Exchange; St. Christopher-le-Stock; St. Mary-at-Hill, St. Michael le Quern; St. Michael, Royal; St. Olave, Jewry; St. Thomas the Apostle; St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. 1559. St. Augustine; St. Margaret, Moses; St. Michael, Wood Street. 1560. St. Magnus. of which may be of use to some of the readers of "Notes and Queries." The book formerly belonged to Sir George Nayler, whose signature it bears on a fly-leaf.