The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-09 00:00:00

WEST .HARTLEPOOL CEMETERY.

TO THE EDTTOR 01` THt FAUN•

Six,—My attention has been nailed to a paragraph,
headed " Where's the tishopP' which appeared in The
Sun on Saturday last, and which, while professing to
give a true account of certain occurrences at the West
Hartlepool Cemetery on Sunday se'nnight, is at once so
garbled, so one-sided, and in many partioulars so wil-
fully untrue, that I shall rely upon your sense of justice
for the insertion of an accurate statement of what really
did take place on the occasion referred to. The narra-
tive which I now subjoin was drawn up by Mr. Ralph
Jackson, as chairman of the West Hartlepool Improve-
ment Commissioners, and its literal truthfulness being
guaranteed by the observation of several of the other
members of the Commission who were present, it was
ordered to be entered on the books as the official minute
of the proceeding t--.•

Memorandum of Occurrence at the West Hartlepool
Cemetery, on Sunday, the 31st of August, 1856.
About 3.30 p.m. my son and I left my room at West
Hartlepool to walk to the cemetery. On our approach-
ing it we saw Mr. Burges and another person (whom I
did not know) walking quickly to it from another direc-
tion. Seeing us they hurried forward at a much quicker
pace, almost running, to get before us. Mr. Burges, on
arriving at the cemetery, it being then more than 20
minutes before the regulated time for funerals, entered
the room in the lodge, and before I reached it (which
was not half a minute after him) he had slipped on the
Town Commissioners' surplice and hood, and was com-
ing out of the door. I there met him, and at once closed
the door ; and, without touching him, stood with my
back against it, folding my arms across my chest. I
immediately handed to him the following notice, which,
he at first refused to read
" The Rev. John Hatt Barges.
"The West Hartlepool Town Commissioners having
understood that, notwithstanding their order to you, it
is your intention to interfere to-day with the Rev. Mr.
Ridley in his performance of the burial service in their
cemetery on a funeral proceeding from his parish, have
attended here on this occasion for the purpose of calmly
remonstrating against your conduct, and of entreating
you not to provoke the very painful feelings which must
arise from your refusal to recognise their duty to take
care that no indecency shall occur at the grave side in
their cemetery, If you believe the Commissioners are
acting in contravention of any rights you may consider
belong to you, they beg to assure you that they are pre-
pared to unite with you in having the question decided
in a court of law in the most expeditious and reasonable
manner, and for that purpose request you will furnish
them with the name of your professional adviser, in
order to the adoption mutually of the proper proceedings.
" RA. WARD JACKSON, Chairman.
" West Hartlepool Cemetery, 31st Aug., 1856."
I stated to Mr. Burges that the Commissioners (a depu-
tation of whom were attending at the time) had presented
themselves at their cemetery, for the purpose of preserv-
ing peace and decorum, and to entreat him to avoid a
scene, and to abstain from interfering with Mr. Ridley,
who, as vicar of the parish, the Commissioners considered,
under all the present circumstances, to be the proper per-
son to perform the burial services in the cemete-y. It was
evident Mr. Barges had previously arranged with the man
whose child was to be buried to be at the cemetery before
the usual hour, 4 o'clock. On my closing the door, Mr.
Barges became extremely excited in the room, in which,
besides myself, were several persons. He called out, when
in the middle of the room and no one near him, "Murder"
twice—walked backwards and for wards hurriedly—first
to one window facing the east, then to another looking to
the west—nearly breaking the panes with the hard raps
he gave them, and calling out to the people to come and
rescue him. In fact, he worked himself up into a totally
unfit state to perform any such solemn and religious
ceremony as he was contemplating. I repeatedly re-
quested him to take off the Commissioners' surplice and
hood, and told him he should leave the room the
moment he did so. He as often refused, and I repeated
to him that, on Mr. Ridley's arrival at the proper time,
the queetion as to who would perform this ceremony ;might
be arranged between them ; and that if he (Mr. Burges)
declined any arrangement, I should not allow him to go
out of the room, in order to prevent him from causing a
scene and confusion at the grave. He said that " Mr.
Blanshord would set all these matters right." On Mr.
Ridley's arrival (5 minutes before 4 o'clock) he carne into
the room, and put on the other Commissioners' surplice
and hood, and then went out with the sexton to perform
the ceremony. Mr. Ridley proceeded into the chapel,
and commenced reading the service. It was evident a
preconcerted arrangement had been made by Mr. Bar-
ges; for the father of the child to be interred rushed
into the chapel, where the coffin W 39, and violently laid
hold of it ; and, though remonstrated with by the actual
attendants of the funeral, he insisted upon taking the
coffin away. The man appeared considerably the worse
for liquor. Before he had proceeded five yards from the
chapel door, and when surrounded by the attendants of
the funeral, who were endeavouring to persuade him to
allow the ceremony to proceed, I went up to him, and
asked him if it had been agreed between Mr. Barges and
him that Mr. Barges should bury his child. The man
said it had been. I immediately exclaimed, "Under
these circumstances, then, Mr. Barges shall perform the
ceremony." I instantly returned into the chapel and
told Mr. Ridley of this. He at once came out, and
audibly addressed the man and the people—for a crowd
had been get together—to the effect that, as he wished
Mr. Barges to perform the ceremony, he (Mr. Ridley)
would most readily allow him in this instance tct do so.
Mr. Ridley accordingly requested Mr. Burges, who was
in the crowd, to take the funeral. Mr. Ridley, my son,
and I then left the cemetery.
RA. WARD JACKSON.
I would merely observe upon the above that the ac-
count which was printed in The Sun on Saturday had
been previously forwarded by Mr. Burges himself to the
different local papers in this' district, a circumstance
which to the minds of all people hereabouts sufficiently
accounts for the extraordinary exaggeration and disre-
gard of truth by which that statement is disfigured.—l
am, Sir, your obedient servant,

AN OBSERVER.

West Hartlepool, Sept. 8, 1856.

. SMELTING ORE.

LATEST NEWS.

RESTORATION OP KARS.
MARSEILLES, Szpr. 8.

By intelligence from Constantinople, it appears
that the province of Kars was evacuated on the
9th ultimo by th© Russians, who retired upon
Alexandropol.

SIGNIFICANT SYMPTOMS.
MADRID, SEPT. 5.

The Gazette publishes a royal decree which re-
lieves several military chiefs, in certain provinces,
from the control of the civil command.

General O'Donnell has received, from his Ma-
jesty the Emperor of the French, the Grand Cor-
don of the Legion of Honour, The insignia were
placed in a box covered with sky bluo velvet
ornamented with golden bees, and with the ini-
tials of the Emperor.

A letter from Vienna of the 3d, in the Augs-
burg Gazette, says :—" Our Government, particu-
larly M. de Bruck and the Archduke Maximilian,
are exerting all their efforts in support of the
principle that the Adriatic is an Austrian sea, in
order to consolidate the domination of the Aus-
trian navy on those shores. A war between Mon-
tenegro and Turkey might lead to disagreeable
complications, since the Turks would take advan-
tage of their sea ports of Slek and Sutarina to send
troops and ammunition. One of the principal ob-
jects of the mission of Count de Leiningen in
January, 1553, was to obtain the cession of these
ports to Austria, or at least the exclusive use of
them ; but the war in the East caused the nego-
tiations to remain a dead letter. It is clear that
with her new maritime tendencies it is of great in-
terest for Austria to obtain this concession, and
from that circumstance the struggle between Mon-
tenegro and Turkey acquires great importance for
her."

M. Ottenfels, the Austrian charge d'affaires at
Paris, has called on the Government to prohibit
the subscription which M. Manin had opened in
Paris for the proposed 100 guns to arm the for-
tress of Alessandria. The French Foreign•oihce
communicated to the Austrian charge that the
Government of the Emperor had not waited for
this interrogation, but had already taken steps to
prevent the subscriptions in question.

TURKEY.
(From the Times' Correspondent.)
_ CONSTANTINOPLE, AuG. 28.

Kars has been evacuated by the Russians. The
Turks took possession on the 6th inst. Three of
the English officers attached to the British com-
missary with the Turkish army in Asia, Major
Stuart, Major Fraser, and Mr. Evans, were pre-
sent at the surrender, not in their official capa-
city, but as spectators. These gentlemen went to
Kars before Hussein Pasha and his force, and
were received in their quality as visitors with
the greatest attention. Colonel Buetoff, the civil
commander of the town, ceded them his quarters,
and both he and his colleague, Colonel Melo-
koff, an Armenian, the military commander of the
town, vied with each other in civility, and af-
forded them every opportunity of satisfying their
curiosity on every-point. Their stay there was
celebrated by festivals with streams of champagne
and numberless toasts, among them that of General
Williams, with a salute from the guns of the cita-
del. As in the Crimea, the Russian officers seem
to have been very communicative on past events,
especially about the main subject of interest, their
unsuccessful attack upon Kars. They say that
Mouravieff was entirely against an attack, and
opposed it to the last moment, in spite of
the urgent entreaties of several of his officers.
But the troops were so dissatisfied at this seem-
ing want of confidence in their leader, that he
was in the end obliged to yield against his own
better conviction, and ordered the attack. Ac-
cording to accounts given by the Russian officers
the thing was decided one evening at dinner and
executed, which seems rather a contradiction with
the circumstance that several days before the at-
tack took place the Russian heavy baggage was
seen going back towards Gumri, an unmistakable
evidence that they must have contemplated the
attack for some time before they executed it.
Neither the failure of the attack nor the heavy
losses sustained seem to have, even for an instant,
occasioned the idea of a retreat, and General Mon •
ravieff, when asked in the evening after defeat what
his orders were, is said to have replied, " Draw in
your posts and double the patrols."

.•
When Kars was evacuated the Russians had 5000
men on the territory, under the command of Gen.
Xruhloff. Only a very small part of these troops
formed the garrison of the town—the main body
was encamped between Kars and Erzeroum, at the
foot of the Soghanli range. When the Turks under
Hussein Pasha came to take possession of the town
this force retired to the other side of Kars, and
encamped about four miles on the road to Gumri.
There they still were when the English officers left,
so that what we know hitherto positively is only
the evacuation of the town, not of the territory of
Kars.

The town was given over with the usual ceremo-
nies. The account which I gave you in my last
about the destruction of a part of the citadel walls
proves to be correct. The destruction is, however,
only partial, orders having been received to stop
it. It was likewise by orders from St. Petersburg
that the work of destruction was commenced.
The accounts of the state of the country are very
Gad. Not a Turkish house is standing on the whole
territory which had been occupied by the Russians.
Most of the Mussulman inhabitants fled voluntarily
at the approach of the Russians, and their houses
were pulled down and burned for firewood, and the
few crops that had been sown eaten up by Cossack
horses. As soon ail the Russians began to retire the
Turks gradually came back to their desolate house-
holds ; but it is difficult to see how they will be
able to pass the seven or eight winter months,
and to wait for the next crops without a sub-
vention of some kind. The Armenian villages
have remained unmolested during the Russian
occupation. A number of families petitioned the
Russian commanders to be allowed to expatriate
themselves and to retire into Russia after the with•
drawal of the Russian forces, but they were told to
remain, as they are thought much more useful in
the enemy's country, where they had rendered con-
siderable services during the war. Russia knew
very well what she was doing when she gave back
so generously the provinces she had conquered
from Persia, keeping only the district about Ararat,
with the seat of the Armenian Patriarch, through
whom she has the whole large Armenian popula-
tion both in Persia and Turkey at his disposal.

FRANCE.
PARIS, MONDAY EVENING.
_ _

The Moniteur de la Flotte announces that a divi-
sion of gun-boats is about to be placed at the dis-
posal of the governor of Senegal.
A Paris letter, in the Independance of Brussels,
says :

"It is said that there is a community of views between
France and Prussia on the Neufchatel affair. The latter
proposes to abandon any pretensions to the canton of
Neufchatel, in return for an indemni4 to be fixed by
common accord, under the mediation of the great powers
of Europe. The Congress of Paris, which is about to
re-assemble to settle the points left undecided as to the
frontiers of the Danubian principalities, will probably
terminate the 'Neufchatel affair once for

BOURSE, Sept. B.—The following were the last
quotations :

Cash. fr. a. End of Month,
4i per Cents (xd) ... rd. 50 —f. —O.
3 per Cents 7O 70 70 80
New Loan 7O 50
_ _

Bank Shares 4,125 Roman
Credit Mobilier 1,650 Austrian
Belgian Fives 99i— Spanish Threes
Piedmontese(s) 92 Homo Debt 40i