The Express.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

worthy combinations. He is far above Imptschmeet of
Elation. 1f be opposed the government on one question,
_ .

L supported it os;Ctiters ; ha supports it now; he recom-
mends it to the corintry as the beet government that is prac-
ticable in existing circumehinces, and pieces the policy of
insintaining it foremost among the ruling considerations of
the (Timis.

As to the conduct of the Registration Association towards
Lad John Russell, it is only to be mentioned to be repro-
bated. It was unpatriotic, ungrateful, and flagrantly un-
just. It would have born unfair had the faults of the noble
lord been much graver than his moat decided enemies
charge hint with; but we entirely acquit the body of the
'factored all participation in the injustice, and an bays no
doubt they will only be the more anxious and determined to
make him amends at the election.

We are ignonust of a mingle remon of the &lightest validity
why Lord John Russell should not bo returned win for
Louden. We know his tordahip's defects as wells. the sharpest
mine of the flegistration Society; we know theca, and have'
never hesitated to censure them; but we know his public
merits end public virtues also, end striking the bsl.nce,
where is the liberal statesman of the day to be Owed
before him P If there is to be a liberal party in the next
parliament, is there a man in the country mit to lead it, and
who so dt to represent London as its leader ?

THE GRAVE IN DANGER.
(From the Examiner.)

The quiet of the tomb is a figure of speech, and Face-
ts! raves emOt only in elegies. There would be no " anus
lying" in any abbey, or sleeping in any charnel-house, if
its tenants were (nimble of hearing the coil that wrangling

churchmen make ever and anon over theirheada, making Of our I
bones, bones of contention, and of the chapless skull a veiled
of wrath and a cup of bitternese. We have often seen the
Church imperilled by brawling. Now the same mischief
threatens the churchyard, and at Swansea, in the diocese of
St. David's, the grave itself is in danger.
It mans highly probable that the people of Swansea will
soon be reduced to the necessity of dividing their coal be-
tween the &ad and the living by returning to the ancient
but Bather pagan practice of burning instead of burying
their mortal remains. It is evident that if the custom of
arn•burial is to be revived, it could not be adopted any-
where with more advantage than in ► town where the mate-
rials for combustion exist in such abundance. Should the
necessity actually erica, it will be noticed by the future ecele-
siastic►l historian so a curious fact that so great a revolu-
tion in our funeral rites should have been the work of a
Christign prelate. Dr. Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's, will
be recorded as the man who in the middle of the nineteenth
century substituted cremation for interment in England.
The borough of Swansea, it appears by a parliamentary
paper recently printed, has lately provided itself with a new
cemetery, but the bishop refuse. to consecrate it until the
borough or the burial board also provide► coaches, or other
comfortable conveyances, for the performers of the last
solemn services, the Welsh clergy having, it scam, become

sr iks their brethren acmes the marches, that even their
bishop will not hear of their being required to walk • mile
and • half, which is just the distance of the new cemetery
from Swansea. Meanwhile the ancient parochial burying-
places of the borough are on the point of being closed by
law ' • and the Secretary of State for the Home Department
has refused (upon sanatory grounds) to grant any extension
of the time for closing them, without receiving a pledge for
the opening of the cemetery on a certain and early day.
Sir George Grey properly observed "that the object of the
se of parliament would be defeated if the mere refusal of
a bishop to consecrate a burial ground, till some condition
on which he Mt it right to insist was complied with, were
held to be sufficient to postpone the operation of an order
founded on considerations of public health." Such is the
critical state of things at Swansea ; and it must come to the
urn there unless tho bishop relents and sanctities the new
ground to receive the coffins.
But of the bishop relenting there seems to be but little
prospect. The considerations of public health that prom
the minister have no weight with the bishop. The clergy
must not follow the deed on foot even for so short • walk, and
the Burial Board have not the power to provide carriages,
nor, as they properly informed the bishop, if they bad the
power, would they think it right to exercise it. We think
we remember to have read somewhere in ea old book (of
which there may probably be a stray copy In the palace el
St. David's) passages proving Bat the author of Chrletieadty
himself, and the ministers who held their COVIZAbIiCON
directly from him, ware wont to go on foot when they want
on their pious errands. Dr. Thitiwall, however, ought to
know more about this than we do.

But this cue has another curious aspect; there appears
to be a vicar as well as a bishop concerned in the opposition
to the cemetery ; but the vicar, it will be seen, cannot be
accused of seeking to introduce hydrietaphic usages. On
the contrary, he adheres to the practice of interment, end is
strongly in the interest of the worm. The burial board of
Swansea informed Sir George Grey that this vicar has had

nine brick vaults made "on epeeWarm" at a new church

at the Coati, lately opened; and "as long ss he nn per-
suade the bishop not to consecrate or grant n licence to

bury in tho new ground, the more money will he be en-
abled to exact freak the hien& of pawns requiring the

same." This is a brick of a vicar. We wonder how many
brick vaults or lucrative Ames the Bishop of St. David's
holds in this devout speculation of the Joint Stock Cockit
Burial Conway, established in opposition to the municipal
graves. As • vim to a bishop, so is nine to a fourth pro-
portional. It is also particularly stated that there is no
conveyance to the vicar's cemetery, although twice as re-
mota as the other. To the former the curates trudge on
foot without a murmur, beguiling the road probably by spe-
misting thernenlves as they go upon a share in the grim in-
vestment, when vaults fall in the market.
We shall be curious to hear how a dispute terrninateswhich
at present seems to involve a return to the custom on which
Sir Thomas Browns has written so exquisitely. The
occuion of his Ilydriotaphia was the recent disoovary
at Vt'aleingham of forty or My urns, containing
human bones, with fresh impressions of Ere; end
" near the seam plot of ground, he tells us,
" were digged up coati and incinerated substances,
which begat conjecture that this was the sostrino, or place of
burning bodies." In • few more centuries the husbandman
digging the fields about Swansea, will perhaps turn up
similar relics, curiosities of church history, and monuments
of Bishop

ELECTION EXPENSES.

(From the Solicitor. .Tournal.)

The office of "Election Auditor" was created by
the Act of 1854, and since then its nature has become
tolerably familiar, and in one or two points has been con-
sidered in the courts of law. He is appointed by the return-
ing officer for each constituency in the month of August in
every year, for the ensuing twelvemonth, and has, by the act,
no more definite qualification than that of being a "fit and
proper person" —a return to theprobus et legates ham of more
Um* times. His function in to be the medium of payment of
all the tarpons's connected with the election, with the exception
of certain payments which may be made by the candidate
himself, or by hie "agent for election expense.," as we shall
presently explain. In the performance of this duty, the
" Election Auditor" has no judicial power, no authority to
reject, on the ground of illegality, unreasonableness, or other-
wise, claims and bills properly sent in to him by the condi-
' date for payment ; no power to refine payment out of the
aerate in histands(at least so it would secan,though the pundits
of electioneering law are not altogether agreed on this point),
even if the payments he is required to make be manifestly
corrupt and contrary to law. His office is simply to register the
candidates' expenses, and act as • conduit-pipe in the proems
of their liquidation. Having discharged the claim, sent in
to him to the extent of the funds provided for that purpose,
be has next to make out a full and true account of all the
election expanses, to band this over to the clerk of the peace
or town clerk for public impaction, and, finally, to insert an
abstract thereof in a local newspaper.

The other office created by tkeact is that of " Agent for
Election Expenses." And in this capacity attorneys are
likely, for the neat two or three months, to be extensively
employed, in addition to their onlinary service as elec-
tioneering agents. The special agency, however, for " elec-
tion exporting" is the only one which is the subject of
legislation in the act; and them is an important peen-
kissity to be observed in relation both to the appoint-
ment and the duty of this class of agents. As to the Int,
it must be made by the candidate in writing, edthw
before cc at the nomination, or " es soon lifter an conveniently
may be." As to the latter, it consists, first, in paying, at any
time before the day of nomination, any lawful and remonable
expenses in respect of the election which he beridjkls believes
fit and proper to be paid in ready money, and the payment of
which cannot be conveniently postponed ; and, secondly, In
making out end delivering to the election auditor, upon or
before the day of nomination, afidl and signed account of such
payments. It is the 16th, 25th, and 31st sections of the Act