The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-23 00:00:00

CBMETERIES IN ITALY.

A representation having been made to Count
Cavour, by her Majesty's Minister at Turin, on
behalf of the relatives of the three gentlemen who
perished last year on the Col du Geant, complaining
that their bodies had been buried in the portion of
the cemetery at Cormayeur assigned for the inter-
ment of the unbaptised, the following circular has
been addressed by the Minister of the Interior to
the Governors and Intendents-General, with the
view of preventing the recurrence of similar occa-
sions of complaint.

Translation.

(From the Gazetla Ufficiale del .Regno d
Turin, April 11, 1861.)
" CIRCULAR TO THE GOVERNORS, INTENDENTS
GENERAL, AND DISTRICT INTENDENTS.
" Department of the Interior.

" The laws and usages regulating the establish-
ment, purpose, and removal of cemeteries, and the
burial of the dead, also out of the locality where
the death has taken place, having been based on the
general principle of abolishing, for the benefit of
the public health, all privileges, with few and well
defined exceptions, they could not consistently ad-
mit, in the differences of the various religions per-
suasions held by the inhabitants of the kingdom,
any sufficient ground or motive for modifying the
general principle sanctioned by these regulations—
that is to say, that all interments without distinc-
tion shall take place in the common cemeteries.
But considerations of a nature entirely foreign
to the principles of public health, and directly
connected with the rites and religious beliefs pro-
fessed by the populations, suggest the expediency
of admitting within the limits of one and the same
enclosure (where such does not exist already) a
separation of locality for the use of non-Catholics,
with a view to obviating, as far as it is possible, the
opposition and the remonstrances which promiscu-
ous interments, though in very rare and exceptional
cases, have not failed to give rise to, and which have
their principal origin and most natural explanation
in long-existing usages.
"The undersigned therefore consider it expedient
to call the attention of the Governors, Intendents-
Genera!, and District Intendents to this subject, in
crdcr that they may, in accordance with certain
principles and uniform rules, issue, when the case
occurs, such directions as may be most in harmony
with the principles enunciated.
" In conformity therefore with the general maxim
that all burials shall take place in general ceme-
teries', a portion of each of these, when no distinct
locality for this object exists already, shall be
marked off so 4s to distinguish one part of the area
from the remainder by a ditch, or wall, or hedge,
according to each case and to the nature of the
buildings of the place, for the burial of non•Cathc-
lies, reserving to the ecclesiastical authorities the
previous performance of the rites and forms usually
observed by them in such cases.
" A separate part of the common cemetery shall
also be assigned for the interment of infants born
of Catholic parents and buried before performance
of the baptismal rite.
," But no classification of the dead belonging to
the same religion—such as, for example, suicides,
capital criminals, and the like•—can be admitted, as
the separation of burial-places within the general
enclosure is made solely with a view to the differ-
ences of worship professed by the populations.
"And here it is proper to observe that, although
the different principles of worship professed by
various peoples have taught all civilised nations,
ancient and modern, respect and reverence for the
dead, yet cemeteries mu 3t not be considered from
the religious point of view solely, but also as insti-
tutions eminently civil, and it will therefore always
be just and expedient that they be properly regu-
lated and governed by the civil authorities.

"M. MINGILETTI, Minister.
" Turin, March 31, 1861."

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN -ROA D.
The number of patients relieved at this hospitAl during the
week ending April 20 was 2,804 ; of which 811 were new