The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WI4DNESDAY

nity from the practice are fully proved." . They
further asserted "that this custom has desecrated the
repose of the dead, and injured the health and feelings
of the living, cannot be denied ; it has also exhibited
the singular instance of the most wealthy, moral, and
civilized community in the world tolerating a prac-
tice and an abuse which has been corrected for years
by nearly all other civilized nations in every part of
the globe :" deciding finally " that burials should
bs absolutely prohibited, after /I certain date, within
the limits of such towns or placer, except in the
case of family vaults already existing, the same par-
taking of the nature of private property, and being
of limited extent." Such, the writer very justly
insists, should be the course pursued in this
matter by the leaders of the present Admi-
nistration. " The time has assuredly arrived," he

sass " when a system, which I have long since fully
exposed and denounced, cacnot, must not be dealt
with in a feeble or partial manner." Feeble and
partial the measure introduced to the House of Com-

mons on the part of the Cabinet unquestionably pro-
rnisas to be—but for its rejection, or, at any rate,
for its modification, we now look forward with all

eagerness after the remonstrance addressed to Lord

JoaN MANNERS by the originator of the sanitary

movement.

The Protestants of the United Kingdom, and par-
ticularly the members of the Church of England,
Owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Hon. Gentleman
the Alember fir Cockermcuth for his indefatigable
exertions to purify the Establishment from the abuses
that have from time to time crept in. He has on
many former occasions boldly grappled with matters
that brought censure and reproach on the Church,
sparing no pains to ascertain the real facts of each
case, and bringing them fairly and openly before the
House and country. The nature, and cir-
curnstanceF, and extent of the evils, were
thus made manifest, and in many instances
remedies were • provided which would never
have been beard of but for the fear of exposure by
the vigilant and fearless censor. Never, however,
did he render more valuable service than last night,
when he carried by a rnejority of 45, in a House of
267 Members, his motion for a Select Committee to
inquire into the circumstances connected with the
institution of the Rev. Mr. B2NNETT to the vicarage
of Frome. ,

The circumstances of the case are unfortunately so
painfully notorious that it is unnecessary. to enter
at any length into the fact?. Suffice it to say,
that the Reverend Gentleman had been the in-
cumbent of the perpetual curacy of St. Paul's,
Knightsbridge; that while in that position his
proceedings were of such a character us to lead
to great public excitement and frequent remon-
strances on the part of his diocesan—that on bis de-
cisive refusal to change these objectionable practices,
the Right Rev. Prelate accepted the resignation
which had been tendered, feeling, to use his own
words, that "the peace and good order of the Church
in his diocese would be seriously interrupted if Mr.
BrINNETT were to remain the incumbent of that bane-
ace' These points, which were matters of public
notoriety, and which were brought distinctly under
the notice of the Bishop of BATH and WELLS, not
only by the energetic remonstrance that was pre-
seated
against the nomination of the Reverend
Gentleman to the vicarage of Frome, but also by
a letter from
the Bishop of LONDON, should have
insured full inquiry before the institution and induc-
tion into an important and populous benefice of a
gentleman who, whatever might be the amiability of
his private character, could not have continued in his
former cure without seriously interrupting the
peace and good order of the Church in the diocese
in which it was situate. It would then have been ascer-
tainedt7rines of the RY such
chznges had occurred in the
ii opnons and
whetherdo:
en''. Gentleman in the
interval between the months 01 December, 1850, and
January, 1852, as to remove the objections that had
been entertained ns to his being g entrusted with a
cure of souls as a • minister of the Church of
England at the former period. 141 that inquiry
have
taken place, it would been trained that, that, so far 'from the objections
being removed, they had been materially increased
by the subsequemeyroceedings of the Reverend Gon.
tleman---that while. at Kissengen he had not only
pointedly abstained from attending the services of the
Church of
England„ but was a regular attendant at
those of the Church of Rome, so as to give ample
foundation for the report strengthened and confirmed
by the statement int the. " Catholic Directory," that

he had actually gone
over to the Roman Catholic re-

igior,

In place, however, of the inquiry so urgently
required under the peculiar circumstances, there was

cuous the " great distance" of the intended site from
the metropolis. Now to talk of the " great distance"
of the cemetery at Woking is positively nothing less
than absurd. The " great distance" is within thirty
minutes' journey of about the most central point
in the metropolis, within thirty minutes' journey
of the Strand, the great thoroughfare con,
electing the East with the West, the bond of
union between the siamese cities of London and
Westminster. From the Waterloo Station of the
South-Western Railway the funeral trains could be
conveyed in half an hour to the gates of the Na.
dismal Necropolis. Why, more than half an hour
would be occupied in carrying dead bodies by the
ordinary modes of conveyance from the majority of
dwellings to any one of the horrid intramural
graveyards, and certainly more than half an
hour from most points to the nearest of the
existing suburban cemeteries ! Yet, with
the projected mausoleum, within a journey of
thirty minutes from the Strand, Lord SHAFTES-
BURY could talk last night of its " great distance "
from the metropolis ! The statement was unfair and
the objectiOn ungenerouz, and for these reasons we
were the more heartily rejoiced to find that the House
of Peers decided against the express wish of the Earl
of SHAFTESBUR Y.
In reference to the Government Amendment Bill
relating to Intramural Interments, an important let-
ter has recently been addressed to Lord Jour' MAN-
NERS by the gentleman in whose energies originated
the whole of the great sanitary movement.
To this document we are the more eager to refer, be-
cause therein we observe that Mr. GEORGE ALFRED
WALKER speaks of it as " the close of almost half a
lifetime of labour and exertion" in the cause of eani-
tary improvement. It is a communication such as,
if only on this ground, challenges observation. It
appeals to us, however, for, other reasons—reasons
more applicable to the subject under public notice,
though not more generally interesting, we feel assured,
in their character—epitomizing as it does with
very forceful lucidity the progress made during
past years in the important movement of which it is
dreamed by the present Cabinet that the proposed
measure is to be the consummation. Would to
Heaven that the Bill in question were capable of put-
ting an end at once and effectually to an evil which,
in truth, as the writer forcibly observes, "weighs
down the energies of the strong, imperils the life of
the weak, and lowers the standard of vitality in the
aggregate populations exposed.to its influences !" That
such an anticipation would be frivolous and futile is
sufficiently evident on,the very frontispiece, as it were,
of the Ministerial scheme ofamendment. The testimonies
given in against the measure by Mr. G. A. WALKER are
nominally five, but really eight in number. Before sta-
ting them, however, that gentleman reminds the Noble
Lord the Chief Commissioner of Woods and
Forests that he conceives himself justified in
pronouncing his views at this moment, " having re-
peatedly and continuously protested against a state of
things so destructive and so terrible—having ad-
dressed those in authority in plain and unmistakable
language—having more than once petitiOned the
House of Commons—and having been the chief
means of procuring a Select Committee, in the year
1842, before which Committee I adduced a vast
mass of evidence confirmatory of my views
having given, in the year 1840, important evi-
dence before another Select Committee—and having,
I repeat, during many years written against,
spoken against, and acted rgainst this great
iniquity." Thereupon Mr. WALKER adduces the
conclusion arrived at by the Select Committee in
their report, dated 14th June, 1842, affirming that,
after "A long and patient investigation," they (the
Committee) "cannot arrive at any ether conclusion
than that the nuisance of interments in large towns,
and the injury arising to the health of the comma