The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

REMOVAL OF CITY CHURCHES.

A report of Messrs. Grainger and Holland, in-
spectors of burial-grounds, which has been made to
Sir G Lewis, the Home Secretary, by his order, on
the proposal to remove some of the city churches,
throws additional light upon the subject. The
Home Secretary instructed them to make a careful
examination, in its sanitary bearings, of the propo-
sal, with the view of determining, if the plan could
be carried out, what precautionary measures would
be necessary. They state that the proposal in ques-
tion, which has been made by the Rev. Charles
Hume, is not to disturb any of the burial-grounds,
but simply to take down such of the least used
of the churches as may be determined upon for the
purpose of building warehouses, offices, parsonages,
and parochial schools upon their sites, and to de-
vote the large funds expected to be thus derived to
the building and endowment of new churches, with
parsonage-houses and schools, in such parts of the
metropolitan districts as are most in want of church
accommodation. Mr. Hume believes that, if his
plan be fully carried out, a fund may be raised suffi-
cient to provide for the religious instruction of
many thousand people and for the maintenance of,
perhaps, 30 new schools, and urges that the failure
of a plan which would be of such infinite value,
from any less cause than palpable danger to the
public health, would be most deeply to be re-
gretted. Messrs. Grainger and Holland are of
opinion, if it be proposed to take down any church,
and build warehouses, dwellings, or schools upon its
site, that the most satisfactory plan would be to
remove the human remains beneath the churches to
be taken down entirely, and re-inter them in some
appropriate place of sepulture. This course, they
say, is not free from objection, and great care and
expense would be needed to prevent danger and
annoyance to the public and just cause of complaint
to the friends of the dead. But with very careful
management and the observance of such precau-
tionary arrangements as they can recommend as
soon as any individual case is submitted for approval,
such as the proper use of disinfectants, the enclosing
previous to removal from the vaults of any damaged
or defective coffins in airtight shells, and especially
by the vigilant supervision of the medical officer of
health of the district and of the church authorities,
they believe that it would be possible to guard
against violation of propriety, and to obviate all just
cause for for apprehension. Partial removals, they
add, of the kind contemplated have been frequently
effected. Mr. Holland has inquired, and has been
'informed that generally there is very little attendant
difficulty. The servants of the London Necropolis
Company have removed about 50 coffins from vari-
ous church-vaults to Woking; in very few of these
instances has there been any difficulty, and in the
cases where the coffins were damaged the difficulty
was easily overcome by using shells lined with pitch
and partially filled with charcoal, which absorbed
and destroyed the smell of any liquid escaping from
the coffins. Mr. Latchford, churchwarden of St.
Martin's, also told Mr. Holland that the difficulties
attending removal of coffins from vaults were easily
, they feel no doubt
ay
being effected
ofovercome.w thteutpossibilityr e
aAlthough,danger,
of
thett
hh
eer
sk of exciting apprehen-
sion removalss
l
is so great that they do not think it would be
prudent for them to recommend that any general
approval of such removals as cannot be recalled should
now be given, and submit that the most expedient
course would be to have a legislative provision re-
quiring that in each case individually the previous
sanction of the Secretary of State should be obtained,
and the precautionary regulations he directs for the
protection of the public health and maintenance of
the public decency observed. There would thus,
they say, be retained the power of adopting in any
future case such additional precautions as experience
might show to be aecessary, or even of prohibiting
further prosecution of the plan if, on trial, the dif-
culties should, contrary to their expectation, prove
insurmountable.

m
TIE WESTERN FISHERIES.—The boats at St.
I've's, Mount's Bay, and other places on the Cornish coast,
have taken quantities of rnackarel lately, which have sold
at from 12s. to £1 Is. per 100.
THE GARIBALDI FUND.—A correspondent at
Glasgow writes :—The committee forwarded on Wednes-
day the handsome sum of £3OO, being the second remittance
from Glasgow. This sum comprises remittances from
Lanark, Ayr, Dundee, and other towns, also the first in-
stalment of the " Volunteer Shilling Subscription for
Garibaldi," per Ensign Mactear, of the Southern Corps;
and £B5 from the Working Men's Committee, per their
treasurer, Mr. James Smith, sen., which includes £2O from
Dunfermline, collected by Mr. Thomas N. Brown, and
also the proceeds of the concert on Saturday evening. The
committee intend remitting every Wednesday, and as several
handsome subscriptions have been sent in to the treasurer,
including £25 from Sir Andrew Orr, it is seen that Glas-
gow in this, as in the Patriotic Fund, the volunteer move-
ment, and other good causes, has come nobly forward, and
occupies a proud pre-eminence over even London itself.