The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-11 00:00:00

to the whole country.—(Hear.) I ghe the G.::vere-
ment no credit then for the I3ii—the credit is due to
those who i:ave egiteted the public mind with re-
gard to it, and the Governmeet have doire nething
hut yield to the public eLreour at last ; hut even that
they have done ungrecieusly, and they have b: sides
clogged the Bill with thcee objectionable eel uncon-
stitutional glances of which we have beer(' so much
just complaint. Therefore, I can give them no credit
at ell, though I rejoice that the measure which
we pressed upon them so far as regards
the suppression of intramural interments has
been carried.—(Hear.) I3ut, gentlemen, whatever
be the merits or defects of the Bill, whatever be the
faults or errors of the Government, I think there can
be but one opinion with regard to the merit, of that
distinguished and patriotic citizen, Mr. Walker.—
(Loud cheers.) He brought forward this question
when there was no man to back him, when he had
everybody to oppose him, and he kept it constantly
before the public, notwithstanding the frowns and
sneers of those in power; supported and sus-
tained during the struggle by that honest enthusiasm
which belongs to him, he has persevered, till at last
he has foued the whole public rally round him, and
thus show how impossible it was for those who were
inclined to oppose the movement to do so any longer.
I admire the enthusiasm of the man. It may be sail
that Mr. Walker is an enthusiast.—(hear, hear.) I
know he is an enthusiast, but without enthusiasm no
good or great achievement can be performed. He
may be an enthusiast, but his enthusiasm is tempered
by judgment and directed by practical good sense.—
(Hear, hear.) I only wish that some of those who
opposed him, and who pretended to adopt his views,
had been tinctured with some of those noble feelings
which belong to him, and with less of regard for
their own interests or that of the party who supports
them in power.—(Hear, hear.) I rejoice to think
that the merits of Mr. Walker are so well known, as
are also.his perseverance, his talents, hi 3 disinterest-
edness, and the sums of money which he
has spent in this cause—(Hear, hear)--Le-
cause I am sorry to- know, and yet I am
glad to know, that he has made great sacrifices

in this cause. lam sorry he should be put to any
loss, but I may congratulate him that he is, in soma
measure, compensated for that loss by having earned
the admiration of his fellow-citizens.--(Cheers.) Par
better that men should suffer pecuniary loss than
that they should lose the respect and admiration of

their fellow-citizens, which are of far more valde to
right-thinking men than any sum that can be named.
I think you will agree with me, that it is right, fit-
ting, and proper, that if the Government have not
been so impressed as they ought to have been with
the merits cf Mr. Walker, if they have been disposed
to overlook and leave him on one side, and to reward
those who did not deserve it half so well as himself,
we, at least, should do what we can to testify
the feelings with which we regard him. The best
reward of any man who acts with a view
to the public good is the public expression of the re-
spect and attachment of his fellow-citizens. I trust
you will concur in some arrangement by which we
may testify to 11Ir. Walker our respect and admira-
tion for him.—(Cheers.) I won't presume to enter
into details, or point out how that is best to be done ;
but probably some means may be adopted which may
place on record our feelings and opinions with regard
to that eminent and distinguished individual, and I
imagine that nothing would be more acceptable to
him than something which would be lasting—(Hear,
hear)—and which he would be able to transmit to his
family, and which they and his descendants would
always look upon with a just and honest pride.
Mr. THOMPSON, M.P., then read the following
letters which had been addressed to him by Mr.
James Thompson, the editor of the Leicester Chro-
nicle, and Mr. James Wyatt, of the Bedford Times:—
" Chronicle Office, Leicester, July 9, 1850.
" Sir,—l regret that I shall be unable to attend the
meeting to be held to-morrow, for the purpose of origi-
nating some suitable testimonial to Mr. G. A. Walker,
for his labours in the cause of sanitary reform.
" Nothing would have given me grt ater pleit Ille than
to have been pre. eat on the occasion, as I cordially con-
cur in the propriety of the object you are pronio4ng,
believing that the present state of enlightened oiAnion in
this country on the subject of town burials has been
mainly created by Mr. Walker's long, disinterested,
and successful labours in the cause of sanitary reform.'
" If Mr. Rowland Hill deserved a nation's gra. tude
for his efforts to carry out a system of penny postage—
if Mr. Cobden merited a general testimonial for his ex-
ertions to promote the enfranchisement of commerce
from the shackles imposed upon it by vicious legislation
—it teems to me Mr. Walker is not less entitled than
they to a mark of public favour as signal and as me-
morable. His exertions have, indeed, been carried'on
through a longer series of years, with an equal, or pro-
portionate, sacrifice of time and money, in the face of
prejudices the most bitter, sinister, and deep-rooted, land
have terminated in results most beneficial to the physi-
cal and moral welfare of the people.
" I venture to think that the friends of Mr. Walker
will feel themselves bound to assert his claimi to public
reward at this juncture more zealously and resolutely
than they might have done under ordinary circumstances,
since the principal sanitary authorities of the country
appear disposed to ignore, or to pass over with an ac-
knowledgment so slighting, as to be more disparaging
than total silence, his demands upon the national Go-
vernment for a rip( et and adequate recognition of his ser-
vices. If Mr. Walker's friends and admirers among
Members of the Legislature and the representatives of
the press, suffer this denial of justice quietly to pass over
unexposed, they will be dead to the appeals of their own
feelings as gentlemen and Englishmen, and stand abased
before their own consciences.
" I have only to add, Sir, that I shall contribute to
the proposed testimonial fund, and be happy to be the
recipient of subscriptions in this town and neighbour-
hood.—l remain, Sir, yours obediently,
" JAMES TIIOUPSON."
" Bedford, July 9, 1850.
_ _

"Dear Sir,—l have only just received your circular,
convening the me2ting, at Herbert's Hotel ; ad this
short notice prevents my making. any arrangements
which would enable me to be with you, and aid you,in
originating a suitalsle testimonial to Mr. G. A. Walker.
I Shall be happy, however, to join in any plan you may
suggest, having for its purpose the acknowledgment of
the indefatigable exertions, the disinterested services to
the public, which Mr. Walker has rendered for many
years past.
" I will endeavour to attend your next meeting, and
regret very much that I cannot be with you to-Morrow.
" I am, dear Sir, very faithfully yours, •
" JAMES WYATT.

" George Thompson, Esq."
Mr. CHARLES LUSRING TON, M.P., in proposing
the first resolution, said his lion. Friend, the honorary
secretary of that meeting, bad requested him to per-
form the gratifying duty of proposing the first reso.
lution to their adoption ; and be (Mr. Lushington)
assured them he did so with the greatest gratification
and satisfaction, although in the eyes of the public
he might not have appeared a very prominent pro-
moter of extramural interments. When he said in
the eyes of the public, he meant that he bad not been
enabled to attend many of the numerous public meet-
ings which had been held on the subject in this
metropolis ' • an unfortunate concurrence of circum-
stances had, time after time, and day after day, pre-
vented him from attending ; but he assured the
meeting that his- heart and judgment were with
this movement, and from the first time be
ever had any knowledge of the intent ious
and designs of Mr. Walker, he cordially
concurred, and deeply approved of them.—(Hear,
hear.) Indeed, though he (Mr. Lushington) had not
appeared at those public meetings above once or twice,
yet, certainly in his place in Parliament he had sup-
ported all the unexceptionable parts of the Metropo-
litan Interments Bill, and he had done his best to ex-
clude some of the exceptionable parts, some of those
which disgraced the persons who brought them in,
and which were intended to mortify a certain portion
of the community by raising, perpetuating, and exalt-
ing the emoluments of another portion.— (Cheers.)
But on many essential occasions he (Mr. Lushington)
had supported extramural interments. Shortly after
Walker brought forward his proposition for re-
moving interments from the metreaaolis, some gentle-
[men assembled together for the p arpose cf establish-
eing a suburban cemetery. He (Mr. Lushington)
was among those who concurred in the plan ;
he was also one of the first avho supported it,
,and from the beginning he, bad been a
director. The site chosen for that cemetery was
Kensal-green, and at the time wham they took it they
did so, not with any view to emolument, though it
had been rather a remunerative concern, but entirely
upon the public principles of expediency, and of the
propriety of removing the nuisance cf burials from
towns. When they fixed on the site there, Kensal-
green was two miles and a half from Oxfordastreet,
and was quite detached from any buildings or cla ell-
logs whatever ; but in the course of fourteen or fifteen
years, so great had been the desim of people to live
near a burial-ground—(Laughter)---that a town bad
sprung around Kensal-green, sad they had got a
church and a school there, and, venat was more, the
Cemetery Company had been solicited, over and over
again, to subscribe in support of the church and
the schools. The very object of the company
had, therefore, to a certain extent, been frus-
trated, and it only showed what people
would do for the sake cf gein_ People had long
complained in the metropolis of intramural inter-
ments, and yet, for the sake of selling a few
others had laboured for
tomb-
stones, some would foregofessed rirci-
ples, and join
hear.)
at last in 4-ir pro
rle4sisetrinlgs e
ye ery evil
eexv
gwuhiischh.
those Perhapsob'servataiioldnsh
—(Llear,
ere r thea thermeetingbeyond
tohtliel d think
before them;
of
the ought to ree,lll their attention to
Mr. Walker—(fleare
the recognition
groat and p ro minent Eel vices of
ton) regretted exceedingly
brought forward that Bill,thly
—and he (Mr. Lushing-
ton) -neither those who
entitled od"
nort the Sanitary Associa-
tion had done that justice 'Walkerlt to
was which
he
his meritorious exertions
business of the meeting to
something to supply
that omission,omission,rind he trusted, iv,, aen ,he read the reso-