The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-28 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1853.

It has already been frequently remarked by
ourselves that one advantage, at any rate, and
that, perhaps, when least expected, has accrued
from the heterogeneous structure of the Coalition
Government. Allusion is here made to the trans-
fer of Lord PALMERSTON'S distinguished genius in
statesmanship from the Foreign to the Home De-
partment. 'Whatever regrets we may have felt
on witnessing the instalment of that eminent
administrator in another position than that in
which he acquired his splendid and world-wide
repitation, it must be confessed that the change
has illustrated, if possible, more remarkably than
any other incident in his career, the scope of his ca-
pacity as one among the principal of the Ministerial
advisers of his SOVEREIGN. While we may still
regret the circumstance of his being no longer at
the head of British diplomacy—more especially
at a juncture when his energetic and patriotic
policy might have secured at Constantinople the
opportunity of its full and complete development
—vie must nevertheless exult in the fact of the
Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton being at this
T,eriod supreme in the conduct of the affairs of the
Home-office, as Secretary of State for that Depart-
ment. It were easy to demonstrate the benefits
derived from his nomination to the guidance of
that paxticular branch of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment, although it would be matter of some diffi-
culty, in so doing, to enumerate, on the instant,
the whole of his numerous endeavours to for-
ward the great work of social, and, more
Peculiarly, of sanitary improvement. Enough for
us
at
the
prOsent moment to remind the public
that have at length got rid of that odious sys-
tem of intramural interment which had hitherto
been tb e disgrace of our metropolis, polluting its
atmoalthere degrading the tone of its morality,
and tending frightfully to enhance the amount
of the periodical mortality among its inha-
bitants. All this, moreover, thanks to
thi.) personal activity, the official energy, and
tl-,e individual resolution of Lord PALMERSTON.
743ut for that activity, that energy, • and that reso-
lution, we might still have witnessed the viola-
tion with impunity of the Metropolitan Burial
Act in spite of the notorious evils resulting
from that most hideous scheme of sepul-
ture. But for the beneficent interposi-
tion of the present Home Secretaryrao we must
unquestionably for a long while
yet e comedawdling hv e
observed the continuance of the sat
policy—based upon that laissez faire system which
is the virtual suicide of Boards and Commission-
ers—a policy which had apparently become per-
manently enshrined as a thing to cherish and adore
in the recesses of Gwydyr House, under the.ZEgis
of the Board of Health, and under the auspices
of the Sanitary Commissioners. Sextons would
still have been chopping up old coffins for fire-
wood, and burning the half-decomposed remains
of our dear brothers and sisters departed—the
pestilential soil of our city graveyards would
still have been stirred up industriously by the
spade d the mattock poisonous vapours
would consequently still have been reeking
up in more and more copious volumes even than
heretofore—but for the bold and decisive course
adventured upon in this matter by Viscount
PALMERSTON. Conscious that nothing could he
effected under existing circumstances with a view
to the practical prevention of intramural inter-
ments by merely bungling Acts of Parliament,
the Noble Lord, the Home Secretary, as will long,
we doubt not, be remembered, resorted to the aid
of a series of Orders in Council for the closing up
of those abominable pits of corruption, which-
Intl contrived until then to manufacture pestilence
within the boundaries of the capital, notwithstand-