The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-03 00:00:00

bieninty
LONDON, Farn A
—"Y, JANUARY 3, 1831.

Yesterday we insisted upon the necessity of
watching with more than ordinary vigilance the line
of policy pursued by the Legislature in reference
to the emancipation of knowledge,
amelio-
rations scarcely a j it less important, Other
though of less
intellectual—we should rather say of a purely
phy-
sical character —are requisite to the community_so
requisite, that we shall eagerly observe the disposi-
tion evinced by the Imperial Parliament in their re-
gard—solicitous that they may simultaneously pan
from mere expectations into actual enactments.
Among these :we would especially particularise the
long-desired reforms in the way of sanitary improve-
ment. So much has been said latterly in illustration
of the evil tendencies of the existing system of things
that it might almost be deemed superfluous to
revert in any way to a necessity so fully recognized
by every individual member of the population. Those
who happen to be: interested, pecuniarily speaking,

in the continuance of the filthy customs so '
pertinaciously carried out in our larger and
more populous cities, very naturally display
a disposition to waive all considerations of
humanity, with a view to preclude themselves
from the possibility of any losses whatever, no matter
whether trivial or extensive. Very naturally, we say,
from a remembrance of the principles engendered by
an age of organized traffic and commercial specula-
tion. Sentiments nobler than those inspired by a
mere anxiety for gain we still believe to be surviving
in the hearts of a large proportion of the multitude,
and to those sentiments more particularly is it that
the sanitary reformers appeal in their arguments in
favour of systematic innovation. Hitherto, it is true,
the only response afforded to those arguments has
been exclusively that of verbal sympathy—the aspi-
rations of the more sanguine leaders of the movement
remaining to this very time unrealized. We have had
lecturers innumerable. We have had pamphleteers
in abundance. We have had discussions on the
platforms, and inquiries in the public newspapers.
We have had volumes from the press and speeches in
Parliament—all tending directly to the same conclu-
sion, that sanitary reforms are absolutely requisite if
we would decrease the mortality, disseminate mo-
rality, extend the decencies of civilization, and act up
to the pure and lofty dogmas of Christianity. Yet,
notwithstanding the energy of the endeavours thus
made in furtherance of this benign cause, the people
are left still to sigh after the boon they have so long
and so earnestly desiderated. Fragments of the
entire scheme of innovation have at intervals been
offered as temptations to the community, in the hope
of appeasing the popular appetite for change by se-
curing its partial satisfaction. Specious foretastes of
the ultimate improvement have been yielded with a
niggardly hand, to the end that some, at least, might
be deluded into the idea that the aim of the sanitary
reformers was already accomplished. For instance,
it was only during the course of last session that a
testimony of this was afforded by the feeble and in-
efficacious enactment, against which we ourselves
have so frequently inveighed—the Act ostensibly in-
tended to prevent the continuance of intramural in-
terments within the boundaries of the metropolis,
Perhaps no more shameful imposture was ever at-
tempted than the one comprised in this very estimable
enactment. In reality a mere sop to the clerical
faction, it assumed to itself the beneficent aspect of
a gratuitous benefit to the community. Several
months have elapsed since it passed into a law of the
land, by receiving the assent of the SOTEREIGN, and
the impotence of the measure as an improvement has
even now been demonstrated beyond the reach of de-
nial. Our sorrowful predictions in its regard have, un-
happily, been too fully and too speedily verified. Instead
of putting a stop to the system of burial in our city
graveyards, the Bill has enable that atrocious prac-
tice to be continued altogether with impunity—the
promoters of this method of interment sheltering
themselves under the cover of the said enactment.
Dejected we unquestionably acknowledge ourselves to
be, but at the same time in no measure surprised.
For, from the first moment when the character of the
Bill became known, we branded it in the columns of
this journal as a humbug and a prevarication. We
recognized the despicable manner in which it was
made to truckle to the clerical influences, and the
barefaced fashion in which it evaded the evil against
which it impudently pretended to raise its head in
opposition.
Frequently, however, as the people have been dis-
appointed in their hopes of sanitary improvement,
shamefully as they have been deceived from time to
time by the Legislature, we nevertheless fail to see any
reason for the abandonment of their aspirations for
this great scheme of popular improvement. Neither
can we perceive any cause whatever for the diminu-
tion of their efforts in its regard; beholding, on the
contrary, additional stimulants and, as it were, sup-
plementary incitements in the way of agitating
its advancement. The very circumstance of the Me-
tropolitan Interments Bill, already alluded to, having
been forced through both Houses of Parliament, we
look upon as an assurance that with a certain degree
of pertinacity the dream of the proposed innovation
may be ultimately realized. Ineffectual as it is in its
present shape, it is still good, as affarding substantial
testimony that the Legislature is prepared to obey the
mandate of the popular cry for improvement The
monopoly of interment—that most ghastly of all trades,
thriving as it does upon the growth of the national
mortality, and battening as it does on the corpses of
the departed—may in the end, therefore, be broken ;
that is to say if the sanitary reformers prove them-
selves staunch in the maintenance of the beneficent
principles they have undertaken to promulgate and
render triumphant.
Our solicitude to witness the termination of the
present abominable system of intramural interment
is not restricted to a wish that the burials within
cities should cease from this time henceforth. We
should hope to see the abodes of the living unconta-
minated by the presence amongst them of those pits
of decomposition. We yearn, in a word, to behold the
approach of the day when the resting places of the dead
shall no longer be allowed to continue in any single
populous locality. As far as is practicable we would
see the removal of the remains of the departed
from their present temporary tarrying place to their
final repose in the quietude of an extramural ceme-
tery. This removal on a very considerable scale has
taken place without anything at all approaching to
desecration, but rather with the most beneficial
consequences. That it might again be attempted
with happy results we are satisfied. For its
repetition somewhat more systematically, therefore
we shall continue sanguine until the period may
arrive when our intramural temples of religion shell
no longer stand over the pestiferous vents of the
charnel-house, and when the dead shall moulder into
dust without detriment to the living, lying each in
their narrow place with their stark features ever
turned upwards to the sky, as if indicative of their
undying hope of a never-ending hereafter.

" What shall be done with Cardinal WISEMAN ?"
The question is one of the deepest and most vital
importance, and the answer that must be given at
the very commencement of the rapidly approaching
session is awaited with intense anxiety by all classes
of the community throughout the length and breadth
of the land. Never, perhaps, has a stronger and
more general sentiment of indignation been excited
among the Protestant inhabitants of this Pro-
testant country than that awakened by
the insolent aggression by which a foreign
Potentate invaded the prerogative of our beloved
SOVEREIGN, and usurped the privilege of conferring
honours and dignities within this realm of England
at his mere will and pleasure ; or, to use the language
of the Papal bull, "of his own motion, on certain
knowledge, and of the plenitude of his apostolical
power." Party dissensions and party disputes were
for once forgotten in the anxious desire to protest
emphatically against this unwarrantable assumption.
An unparalleled unanimity was exhibited by
the press and the people of Great Britain ;
even the Judges of the land spoke out plainly and
distinctly, and the First Lord of the Treasury, the
responsible head of her MAJESTY'S Government, dis•
regarding the ordinary official reserve, expressed his
views, and we may safely assume, the views of his
colleagues in the Ministry, clearly and unequivocally.
This declaration produced the most beneficial results.
It alleviated the popular excitement, for all were con-
tented with the voluntary pledge given by the
Premier, "that the present state of the law shall be
carefully examined, and the propriety of adopting
any proceedings with reference to the recent as-
sumption of power deliberately considered." Public
meetings were held for the purpose of giving ex•
pressioa to the voice of public opinion, and strengthen-
ing the hands of the Noble Lord who had so tho-
roughly identified himself with the popular feeling re-
specting the gross and unprovoked insult to the British
QUEEN and the British nation. But the nature
of the remedies to be adopted has not as yet been dis-
cussed. " What is to be done with Cardinal Wan-
let?,p'y',y is
onisnettielrleastted.
" topic involved in the greatest ob-
scurity, and the inquiry entered upon by an "English
Journalist" is one in which the community at large
is
.`The Journalist" is manifestly a man of great
abwell qualified "to make the worse
appear the better reason ;" he is clearly one of ti-e

" What shall be done with Cardinal Wi.echan? An
Inquiry by an English JournaliEt." Dolman, New Bonc:-
street.