The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-09 00:00:00

,Isiii,
Cu '-lliliTlT i;t2i7 tit nr.

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1850.

On Thursday evening the Right Hon. Gentleman
the Member for Bute obtained leave to bring in a Bill
for removing the unjust and impolitic prohibition
against marriage with the sister of a deceased wife,
imposed by the sth and Gth Will. IV., c. 54, com-
monly called Lord LYNDHURST'S Act. The im-
portant question has now been so fully argued on
both sides, every proposition contained in tile con-
templated measure has been so thoroughly discussed,
as well within as outside the walls of Parliament, that
we might be well excused from entering more par-
ticularly into the subject, were it not for the ran-
corous and unmitigated hostility exhibited by a cer-
tain party, who desire to govern the consciences of
their fellow-men, and to compel others to adopt the
narrow and limited views by which they themselves
are influenced.

It is eminently a question of civil and religious
liberty, affecting " the most interesting, the
most important and the most sacred franchise" which
belongs to the condition of man—the liberty of
choosing the companion of his sorrows and his toils,
the mother of his future children, and the guardian
and protector of those who had been deprived of a
mother's care and a mother's sympathies in their
early youth. There is no relationship of life in which
such perfect freedom and such unlimited toleration
should be allowed. The affections of the heart can-
not be chilled or restrained by the absurd restrictions
imposed by narrow-minded bigots, who would insist
upon a blind and unreasoning obedience to their own
standard of doctrine.

Every concession has already been made, in the
vain hope of conciliating these inveterate opponents,
but in vain. Every alteration that has been allowed,
every change has only rendered them more energetic
and determined'still to coerce a large and influential
body of their fellow-subjects. In obedience to their
pretended scruples—not for themselves, for it is not
even alleged' tilt any person can be compelled to con-
tract snob 9,5., rriage without their own free will and

consent, but on account of others, who see nothing
wrong either in a religious or moral point of view
therein—the matter was delayed and procrastinated
until the very close of the session, and then necessa-
rily withdrawn from want of time to carry it through
the hereditary branch of the Legislature. The Fabian
policy was, unfortunately, but too succesgful during
the past year; but such a course cannot a se-
cond time be attended with similar results.
The Right Hoeurable Gentleman who in-
troduced the Bill, and has taken upon himself the
duty of removing a most unnecessary and vexatious
grievance, cannot be again entrapped. He must be
well aware of the imperative necessity of pressing
the subject forward with all the speed which the
forms of the House allow. He must perceive that
concessions are worse than useless—that they are
positively mischievous, their only effect being to in-
spire the enemy with new vigour and new courage,
and to induce them to redouble their exertions in the
vain hope of neutralizing the measure, and totally de-
priving it of its efficiency ; warned by past
experience, he will persevere with fixed re-
solution and determination, and by carrying
the matter to a triumphant termination,
will earn for himself the cordial and grateful thanks
of many thousands of his fellow-subjects, who are
now pining under the " hope deferred that maketh
the heart sick," lamenting their own anomalous
positions, and the painful obscurity in which the
future state and condition of their beloved offspring
is involved.

The present Bill is substantially the same as that
of last year, which was sanctioned and affirmed by
repeated majorities in the House of Commons, no less
than 320 Members being present on one occasion. Its
main object is directed against the monster grievance,
the prohibition of marriage with the sister of a
deceased wife, although it would manifestly
be impossible to retain restrictions upon such
connexions in more distant degrees, such as with
the niece of a former partner. He has announced
two amendments of considerable importance : the first
will have the effect of protecting parties to marriages
recently contracted from any consequences arising
out of the law of the land, and rendering their issue
legitimate. This provision is so equitable in itself,
so essential in every respect, that the measure would
be incomplete and valueless without it. What could
be more absurd than to declare that all such mar-
riages celebrated previous to the year 1835, and sub-
sequent to the year 1850, should be valid and binding,
and the offspring legitimate, while all nuptials cele-
brated in the interval should be utterly null and
void, and the issue bastardized ? The marriages could,
indeed, be solemnized a second time, the parties could,
at a trifling inconvenience, become legally man
and wife ; but the innocent children would be the
only sufferers. Those would be the victims, whom it
should be the object of the Legislature to protect
rather than persecute.
The other amendment relates solely to the clergy
of the Church of England. By the former Bill those
persons, although not compelled to officiate at such
marriages, if they really entertained conscientious ob-
jections thereto, were still protected from any un-
pleasant consequences, in case they thought
proper to act, and not to drive their parishioners
into dissent by a perverse and obstinate
refusal. It was well known that many of the most
pious, learned, and exemplary divines saw no solid
objections to such union, save that the Act of 5 and
6 Wm. IV. rendered them inoperative, and that if
that difficulty were removed, they would willingly
render their assistance at such ceremonies. Many of
the prelates of the Church also entertained similar
opinions. It is now intended " not to interfere with
the law or discipline of the Church, but to leave it
to the clergy to celebrate these marriages or not, ac-
cording to their own consciences, without any fear of
civil consequences, the law of the Church being left
as before."

We confess that we do not quite under-
stand this statement. If it be intended
that it shall be quite optional with the
clergyman to act as in his soul and conscience he
may deem right, without any fear of untoward re-
sults, whatever course be may think proper to adopt,
nothing could be more correct. Claiming the most
implicit freedom of conscience for all, we would
not require any man to act contrary to his own im-
pressions or to his interpretation of the Holy
Scriptures. But if, while a supposed liberty is
allowed, and that an individual who may chance
to entertain different views from his Diocesan,
is to be subjected to ecclesiastical censures,
to be subjected to heavy costs, and perhaps deprived
of his preferments, then, we say, that the fancied
relief will be little better than a " mockery, a delu-
sion, and a snare ;" that it will, so far as members
of the Church of England are concerned, be "keeping
the word of promise to the ear but breaking it to the
hope," and that its only result will be to swell the
ranks of Dissent, and make many depart from the
Church wherein such absurdities could be tolerated.

After the emphatic manner in which the prosecu-
tion of the labours of sanitary improvements were
enforced by the advice of her Most Gracious MA-
JESTY in her Royal Speech to the assembled Parlia-
ment, we can no longer entertain any doubts as to
the speedy realisation of many of our hopes in that
particular. It was nobly suggested by the SOVE-
REIGN, that ameliorations of this character should be
introduced as the best and fittest testimony of
our gratitude to GOD for his beneficent re-
moval of a destructive pestilence. The recommenda-
tion we are confident will not be lost upon
the Legislature. Neither will it be forgotten by the
Government, from which it may be said to have in-
directly emanated—a Government which must be re-
garded as associated with these kinds of reformatory
enterprises, so long as the Earl of CARLISLE remains
at the head of the Woods and Forest Department.
Conspicuous among all the objects long held
in view by the Commissioners at Gwydyr
House is that branch of the Sanitary Question,
for the advancement of which the people of Lon-
don especially are indebted directly and almost
exclusively to Mr. GEORGE ALFRED WALKER, the
well-known Surgeon. It is of course unnecessary
to say that we allude in this to the imminent neces-
sity for extramural interments. Having thoroughly
exposed the horrible consequences of allowing an
unlimited number of burials in our City graveyard ;
having disclosed the atrocities and indecencies com-
mitted in those horrible pits of corruption ; having
conducted the mass of the public in imagination into
those disgusting sources of pestilence, which he
himself, with an admirable indifference to his
own comfort, had visited in person—. Mr.
WALKER has now directed his attention, and with
no small success, to the elucidation of a somewhat
greater difficulty, namely, the actual plans by
which the evils of such systems of interment can be
at once and permanently remedied. For the pur-.
pose of solving this problem—a problem on the solu-
tion of which is mainly dependent the health and
longevity of our citizens—he has recently published
a pamphlet,* like all his other pamphlets, remark-
able fur its lucidity and its eminently practical
nature, in which he has endeavoured to ex-
plain a reasonable scheme towards the es-
tablishment of certain National Cemeteries. His
calculations, we are gratified to observe, are singu-
larly well calculated to diminish the exorbitant
charges at present noticeable in connexion with the
existing system of intramural sepulture. How
enormous those charges are it is anything but
difficult, unhappily, to demonstrate. For example, it
is estimated on an average that the funeral, exclusive
of ground or burial fees, fur an actually pone person,
is not less than 135., for an artizan amounts to
between 51. and 101., and for a member of the
middle classes is carried to the extent
cf either 501. or 701., sums in many instances which
must necessarily press with peculiar hardship on the
survivors. " The money expended," says our pam-
phleteer, " for interments in London during the year
does not fall much short of ONE MILLION or pounds
sterling : the annual expense for Great Britain has
been calculated at FIVE MILLIONS sterling." Here,
therefore, is ample reason for desiring that in the recti-
fication of the evils of intramural interment we should
also effect simultaneously a diminution of the ex-
travagant charges of undertakers. With the intention
of aiding in the accomplishment of these two great

* " Practical Suggestions for tho Establishment of
National Cemeteries." By George Alfred Walker, Sur-
geon, 460.8v0., pp. 16. London Longman and Co., 1849.