The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-20 00:00:00

Obeiming -7-''sit

LONDON:. SATURDAY, APRIL 20;1850.

Government has definitively resolved to hurt", the
sanitary measure already referred to by ourselves,
entitled the Metropolitan Interments Bill, through the
different Parliamentary stages, the passage through
which is requisite for its resolution into an -enact-
ment. It can scarcely be forgotten, that on the very
earliest occasion, when leave was demanded to bring
in this measure of reform, we eagerly welcomed a
proceeding indicative of the onward progress of the
sanitary movement. While exulting, however, in a
token so manifest that the Cabinet itself has,
at length, become affected by the agita-
tion of this most important question—while
rejoicing in the prospect thereby opened to us
of ultimately dissipating all the evils experienced
under the old system of intramural sepulture—it ap-
pears to us imperatively necessary for those members
in the House of Commons who sympathise in the
endeavours of such men as Mr. G. A. Wautua and
his co-operators, to observe a sedate and wary cau-
tiousness in reference to their support of the projected
enactment. Not that we would by any means re;
commend anything like a wholesale opposition
to a Bill which may be modified into a sym-
metrical shape in its passage through Com-
mittees. We don't at all insinuate the advisability
_of showing it the " cold shoulder." On the con-
trary, Ministerial measures of reform (and espe_
cially of reform in the way of sanitary amelioration)
are altogether so coy and unfrequent, that we are
chiefly solicitous that the present Bill should bs
hailed as much as possible with evidences of eager
satisfaction. Yet, in the midst even of these most
enthusiastic gratulations, we would witness on the
part of our reforming representatives the mainte-
nance of a judicious equanimity, the preservation of
a wholesome and unruffled prudence. Otherwise,
in the precipitations of their joy at the apparent
boons proffered to the multitude, they may be in-
duced to overlook divers most objectionable particu-
lars ; and.might thus discover only when too late that
they have been advancing without due reflection air
enactment calculated when in operation to prove most
detrimental to the interests of the community.
A. superficial glance at the 66 clauses constituting
this Metropolitan Interments Bill—a Bill which i-
announced for introduction to the Lower House ofPar-
liament on Monday evening—will be quite sufficient to
demonstrate the necessity of some such prudential and
precautionary examination ; for out of these sixty-
six clauses no less than eighteen appear to demand
either a careful management or a radical alteration.
Unless something of this kind be done, and that, more-
over, betimes, we shall discover in the present move-
ment of the Cabinet only cause for regret and an-
noyance. As at present constituted, the Bill is little
less than a covert effort to repose all the powers, and
consequen►tly a large portion of the emoluments, i►,
the possession of our ecclesiastical establish-
ments. Nov, against such a proceeding a,

this the whole bulk of the population will
stand forth almost unanimously as dissentients.
What we want is, not a clerical Bill, but a popular
Bill for extramural interments. We want such a
movement of sanitary reformation to benefit—not the
clergy but—the multitude. We want—not to swell
the perquisites of our ecclesiastical functionaries but
—to cleanse the atmosphere of our densely-populated
cities, and, in removing the places of sepulture from
those crowded localities, to moderate, very consider-
ably, the expenses incurred for interment. By such
a proceeding—and such a proceeding alone—we shall
realise the benevolent aspirations of all who have been
advocating the introduction of a Bill for extramural
sepulture.

By a hurried reference to the objectionable clauses
already hinted at we shall be enabled most readily to
indicate the extent of modification required for the
Ministerial measure in Committee.
Clause 4—provides that the duration of appoint-
ments shall be limited ; in regard to which provi-
sion it must be obvious that the periods stipulated
should be most carefully scanned by the competent
authorities prior, to their ulterior enactment.
Clause 6—provides that the managing authority
shall select burial-grounds within or without
the district ; whereas it should be specifically re-
solved upon that the distance of such cemeteries
should be several miles from the metropolitan dis-
tricts. To obviate any difficulty in regard to the
additicnal expense that might be incurred by way of
conveyance, arrangements might readily be entered
into, at a very reasonable and even moderate charge,
for the carriage of the dead and their mourning atten-
dants in certain funeral trains traversing diurnally
the various lines of railway branching from the me-
tropolis.

Clause 7—providing that the management shall
cemeteries—should
be empowered to purchase certain
be accompanied by the regtilation that all cemeteries
must be closed when in a district notoriously populous.
Clause B—providing that the management shall
be entrusted with the responsibility of laying out
grounds and building chapels—ii of itself a sufficient
reason for the careful retention of the supreme autho-
rity from the ecclesiastical functionaries.
Clause o—provides0—provides that chaplains shall be appointed
with the consent of the Bishop of LONDON ; in lieu of
which we would see the total exclusion of both
bishop and clergy from the management, and the
arrangement of all such appointments by committees
of laymen.
Clauses 10 and 11 provide that a portion of each
burial-ground shall be left altogether uneonsecrated ;
whereas we would Witness some more liberal en-
actment whereby the- feelings of all kinds of reli-
gionistsmight be directly consulted. In death there
no reparation.
should be be

Clause 12 provides that the QUEEN in Council
may, on report of the managing authority, order the
discontinuance of interments in churchyards : instead
of which we look to the Legislature fur the resolute
determination that hereafter there shall be no more
sepulture within the limits of the metropolis.
Clause 13—pro iding that " inhabitants of parishes,
&C."—requipes a careful scrutiny before acceptance.
Clause 14—providing for interments in unconse-
crated portions of burial-grounds—has already been
condemned by our objection to such invidious dis-
tinctions.

Clause Is, also, has been indirectly adverted to in

our previous condemnation of all intramural inter-
tnents without exception.
Clause 16 provides the saving of rights to bury
in vaults; whereas there should be no such right what-
ever, except in—

Clause 17—where it is provided that sepultures
hall still continue in the vaults of Westminster Abbey
and S.. Paul's Cathedral, the tombs consecrated to
the ashes of the illustrious.

Clause 18—providing power to remove bodies
already interred to the burial-grounds provided
under the Act—reminds us of the absolute
necessity of imposing upon this a uniform prohibitory
price.

Clause 19 provides that fees shall be paid upon in
terments : it should also provide that these fees she]
henceforth be on a moderate scale.

Clause 20—directing that the management shall
be vested in a board should provide, on the
contrary, that the management shall be vested in a
general committee.
Clause 22 has already been condemned in our
allusions to the seventh and sixteenth clauses.

Clauie 415 provides that the management should
select houses for the reception of badies previous
to interpe,nt, in lieu of which it should be decided
that several houses must be built, so that the bodies
of poor persons, or of individuals found dead, msy be
thae sheltered, and the houses kept open in different
districts, as in the case at the Morgue, in the French
capital.
With reference to the general management of ce-
meteries-being vested in committees of laymen, we
may observe, in conclusion, that it may be so ar-
ranged that no expense shall be incurred even for
the ground required fur interment. In testi-
mony of this, we may direct attention to
the Prospect Cemetery near Dublin, where
the whole of the affairs are managed by an unpaid
committee of gentlemen, some of whom are Mem-
bers of the Imperial Parliament. There, under the
direction of that unremunerated committee, the
charges for sepulture are of a most moderate
charaoter ; notwithstanding which a surplus fund,
remaining over and above the expenses, is appro-
priated annually to charitable purposes, and the as-
sistance of eleemosynary institutions. Of the efficiency
of this admirable system of conducting cemeteries
those Members of Parliament above alluded to
can speak themselves ; and we are sanguine
that our future metropolitan cemeteries, through the
force urtheir evidence, may be conducted in some
sort lace the Prospect Cemetery mentioned as in the
vicinity
,of the Irish capital.

The attention of those interested in railway pro-
perty should be prominently directed to the extra-
ordinary depreciation in the value of the shares in
almost every company, and the causes that have led to
such untoward results, in order that they may make
some combined and organized effort to retrieve their
former position, and to prevent a continuation of the
iniquitous system, by 'means whereof they have been
victimised to so fearful an extent. A game similar
to that carried on eighteen months since,
and which then produced a " railway panic,"
has again been played, and with like
consequences. A determined attempt has been
made by means of a wicked confederacy to
plunder the innocent shareholder:, by reducing the
nominal quotations far below the actual value of the
stock, in the hope that timid persons may be induced
co sell at any price, however inadequate, and thus to
enable the " ursine herd" to reap a rich harvest at
their expense. The game may, however, be carried a
little too far. There is a certain limit to human cre-
dulity awl human patience. Shareholders may not al-
ways be contented to permit the process of "fleecing"
to be carried on according to the will and pleasure
of a few speculative jobbers in Capel-court. A re-
action must arise that will absorb a considerable por-
tion of the ill-gotten gains of these unconscientious
spoliators, that will make the engineer be
"Hoist with his own petard."
Such was the case in October, 1848, and such
be the case in April, 1850.
At that period, when the deterioration had arrived
at the deepest point, when all was gloom and terror,
and none could say what, might be the next stage in
the course of events, we publiihed a series of articles in
which we fearlessly and unsparingly exposed the nature
of the" Bearing" operations which had been carried or,
and showed that there was no real foundation for the
unwarrantable tales that had been falsely and fraudu-
lently circulated, or for the wild and unreasonable
panic occasioned thereby. Our friends and the public
—more especially those who bad sold shares to a large
amount, which they had not within their possession,
power, or procurement—will not have forgotten the
41inost immediate result. When the mists that had
been raised by interested parties were dis-
persed, when the real nature of the trans-
Actions that were then taking. place was ex-
plained, and the actual position and prospects
of the leading companies were clearly indicated, the
panic and excitement passed away, and there was a
marked improvement in the prices of shares in every
line. London and North-Western, which were at 1
discount on the very day when our first article on
the subject appeared, speedily rose to 16 pre-
mium, and before another month had touched 26
premium. The change in Great Westerns was
no less striking, and the " Bears" received a
severe but salutary lesson, by which they
profited for some time. But they are
unfortunately of too active dispositions to remain
tranquil and contented for any lengthened period.
The profits they had obtained during many successive
months were too tempting to be relinquished, and
although the greater portion thereof had been dis-

gorged, sufficient remained to enable them to enter
upon new operations of a similar description, to fit out
another expedition in quest of another "golden
fleece." Hitherto they have succeeded beyond even
their most sanguine expectations. Shareholders
have dropped into the nets opened for them
with scarcely an effort at escape. A
panic was again excited, equal to that
of October, 1848, and on Tuesday last the quotations
of stock in the leading companies were as low as they
had been at any former period. But, happily, the
tide haw already turned.; a change has set in indicating
a steady and continuous improvement, which may
possibly be retarded for a day or two by the convul•

sive efforts of the discomfited " speculators for a
fall," but which must inevitably overcome every ob-
stacle and impediment, and continue until prices
reach something like the fair value of the property
brought into the market.

We shall now simply compare the present prices
of shares in two companies—the London and
North-Western and the Great Western—which
have been among the chief. sufferers by
the iniquitous system to which we have al-
luded, with their actual value, in proportion to the
dividends paid, and which there is a positive certainty
will be fully maintained, if not materially increased,
with the revival of trade and the greater commercial
activity now perceptible, It must also be borne in
mind that the causes which formerly led to the undue
depreciation are no longer in existence.
There is now no danger of new calls being
made beyond the power of the shareholders to meet
unless with serious inconvenience ; there is no con-
cealment to induce fears of the possible conse-
quences of some startling disclosures ; there is
no capital, the dividend or interest of which
is not provided for froni revenue. Ample pro-
vision is made for the maintaining of the
permanent way and full efficiency of " the rolling
stock," without deterioration. There is also no doubt
but that a continuous and scrutinizing audit will be
held, so that, in fact, there is nothing cn which to
hang suspicion, and yet,• as we have already stated,
the " Bears," by the magnitude and audacity of their
operations, have succeeded in creating a panic un•
paralleled on any former occasion
Great Westerns on Tuesday last were done at 46 ;
they have since rallied, and the quotations yesterday
were 51 to 52, in other words, the party who desired
to sell could only obtain 51, while those who wished
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