The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-19 00:00:00

THE Si) N, LONDON, WEDNESDA Y EVENING, SEPTEMBE

turning again to our Cornish Contemporary, we find
the necessity for some improvement in the system of
interment in that locality, enforced by a long and
earnest communication from M. F. R. DE LA
TREIIONNAIS. After explaining the miserable con-
dition of the graveyard at Falmouth, where
the coffins are "separated from the surface
by merely two feet of putrid soil," that
gentleman asserts, and very justly asserts, that this
is indeed " a brand of shame deeply marked on the
face of British civilization"—this mockery of religion,
this defiance of all the laws of decency, this oblivion
of all the claims of affection, of respect for sorrow,
of regard for humanity, of reverence for the
departed. By a persistance in a course so re-
pulsive to the gentle and elevating prin.
ciples inculcated by Christianity we are blunting all
the more delicate sensibilities of our nature; we are
parodying the most sublime and pathetic ceremonies
of our ritual, and are doing our utmost to obliterate
all recollection of the exceeding holiness of death.
These things must not be permitted to continue. The
islands must be purged of such abomina-
tions. To permit victims of cholera to be
huddled into the earth like dogs, and at the same
time to breath forth before the throne of GOD that
beautiful prayer which has recently been composed
by his Grace the Archbishop cf CANTERBURY—is
nothing less than an insult to that Awful Being Si hcse
Omnipotence we are desirous of propitiating. Such
considerations as these we are satisfied will be suffi-
cient to command the interference of the authorities,
both at Falmouth and elsewhere, throughout the
United Kingdom.

The parsons seem determined to steep up the ball
with spirit. The freaks of the Rev, Messieurs JONES
and CHAPMAN have barely been concluded when two
new clerical candidates for notoriety step into the
arena, as if striving to emulate the performances of
the former fanatic duutnvirate. The incumbent of
Bedford has already reaped the reward of his achieve-
ment, in the form of a Government prosecution,
which has been instituted against him for misde-
meanour. The petty tyrant thought fi t
published
refusein
to
marry two parties whose banns had been
registrar'sthe
manner, sn
certificate. d who
The dulib grbpt in
resenwtehdictioi
thhime
vio-
lation
seeregardedn; anadt
notthe Liverpool
assizes lation of hisduty will b
yet remains to b beee
prejudge the case, we shall dismiss the incumbent of
Bedford for the present.
His confrere, the Vicar of Leigh, is evidently a
man of mettle in his way, and disdains to be out-
generalled by episcopal authority. It appears that
a young woman, named Maar ANN KEARSLET, the
daughter of a weaver residing in his happy parish
had contracted, a few weeks since, a matrimonial en•
gagement with a young man of a parish adjoining.
They requested the vicar to publish the banns of
marriage, but he refused to comply with their desire,
alleging a similar reason to that advanced by his
brother of Bedford—namely, that they had not both
undergone the rite of confirmation. An appeal from
this monstrous decision was made to the Bishop of
MANCHESTER, who of course forthwith directed the
publication of the banns, and they have accordingly
been published during two succeeding Sundays. One
might naturally suppose that the mandate of the
Bishop would have set the matter at rest, and that
the clergyman would have proceeded to act " de.
cently and in order," but the vicar had another
arrow in his quiver, and speedily saluted the family
of the bride elect in the character of a process. server.
Will it be believed that he has actually intimated his
intention of instituting proceedings against herself,
her father, and her brother—the father having been
guilty of the high crime of neglecting to cause his
children to be confirmed, and the children of neglect-
ing to attend the church for that purpose? We
transcribe the notable document which the Reverend
Gentleman served in person on the astounded weaver,
for universal edification :
"I, James Irvine, vicar of Leigh, in the county of
Lancaster, and diocese of Manchester, do hereby require
you, James Kearsley, weaver, residing in a cottsge
situate in a street commenly called Canal-street, near
,he east end of Twist-lane, in the township of Penning-
ton, within the parish of Leigh aforesaid, to send your
son Peter, and your daughter Mary Ann, to the parish
church on Sunday next, and on every succeeding Sunday
ind holiday, to be there instructed and examined in the
Church Catechism, atter the second lesson at evening
prayer, until such time as they have learned all that Is
herein appointed for them to learn.—Dated this 6th
day of September, in the year of our Lord 1849.
(Signed) "J. IRVINE, Vicar of Leigh."
Accompanj ing this was an extract from the canons
of the Church, to the effect that a neglect of such
duty is to be visited with suspension by the ordinary,
and persistence therein for the space of a month, by
excommunication.
We shall not insult the common sense of our readers
by asking their opinion as to whether this proceeding
was instituted by the vicar out of regard to the
parties concerned as members of his flock, or out of
a paltry spite at finding himself compelled by superior
authority to retrace his steps in the matter of
the publication of the banns. We can surely feel no
pleasure in chronicling or commenting upon the mis-
conduct of any minister of religion, no matter of what
sect or denomination of Christianity.
Indecencies on the part of those who are invested
with sacred functions, however they may provoke the
scoffs of the irreverent, are matters of grief and
shame to well-thinking Christian men. But if the
noisome and noxious weed so fbigotry are permitted to
take root with impunity in the corn-field of the State
Church—if the lordly hierarchy are unable or un-
willing to root up the tares now springing plenteously
among the wholesome wheat are we the worst
enemies of the Church of England who point to the
creeping abomination, and lift up our voice in warning
to the nodding watchers P
Many truly honest and pious men are to be found
among the pastors of the Church by law established ;
but he must be indeed a sorry reader of the signs of
the times who fails to perceive the gradual diminution
of respect and affection for that corporate body among
the intelligent adherents of the reformed doctrines.
Tco great has been, and now is, its faith in
temporal power—too strong its reliance upon the
fleshly arm. There is manifest in it a want of spi-
rituA expansion—a forgetfulness, or a blindly obsti-
nate disbelief in the great and irresistible progress of
the human mind—a systematic stagnancy, unbroken
save by scattered symptoms of retrogression, that
rationally account for its decaying influence. The
Church of England was founded on progress, and if it
resist the power:which called it into being, and cling
to the pernicious doctrine of finality, the ever-advanc-
ing tide of intelligence will assuredly sweep it into
ruin. Whatever power it has possessed, or may still
retain, is derived solely from the fact that, at the
period of its establishment, it represented the para-
mount idea of the day, namely, the right of private
judgment. Has the Reformed Church fully repre-
sented that idea ? Has it even fairly and heartily
recognised it in theory ? No, it yearns after the
leaven of infallibility, and no longer maintains the
position it once proudly held, and on which its solid
strength was exclusively based. It daily assumes the
increasing, though unsubstantial, proportions of a
gigantic incubus on thought, of the palsied expositor
of a soulless doctrine, " cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd," in
the meshes of Mammon, clogged by petty ambition
and the narrow aspirations of worldly pride and emo-
lument. Who is so blind as not to foresee the advent
of the day when the worn-out mechanism must fall to
pieces, and when not all the mind-cramping formulas,
or the tinselled temporalities, however bloated with
the treasures which moth and rust doth corrupt, can
save the gaudy shrine from ruin, and its effete hiero
phants from impotency and decay ?

will show the reserve which we have used in publish-
ing the reports of the foreign journals :
In thanking you for the report which you made to
us in your letter of the Bth inst., we can strisfy you as
to the movement of the Austrian troops on your fron-
tier., and enable you to contradict the reports which aro
in circulation in your canton as to the object of that con
centration of troops, which were said to be intended and
ready to invade it. We have learnt from several com
munications that these movements are not to be at-
tributed to any hostile intention, and that the establish-
ment if Austrian military posts on the extreme frontier
of Switzerland has no other object than to prevent the
desertion of individuals who wish to escape the con-
scription, which is now taking place in Lombardy, and
at the same time to repress the smuggling which is now
being carried on very extensively on that frontier. The
marches and counter. marches of the troops have, besides
been made on sanitary consideration, the opportuneness
of which cannot be contested. This information will be
sufficient to tranquillise the minds of your, people, to
whom it will bo desirable to make it known.'