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

tmnM ln

LONDON;. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1850.

Government has definitively resolved to burry 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 u,
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. WALKER 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-
mittee. IVe 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 be
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 an
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
announced for introduction to the Lower House ofPar-
!lament 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, betitnes, 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
consequently a large portion of the emoluments, in
the possession of our ecclesiastical establish-
ments. Now, against such a proceeding as
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 cf. sepulture from
these 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
indic*te the extent of modification required for the
Ministerial measure in Cmimittee.

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
additional 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
be empowered to purchase certain cemeteries—should
be accompanied by the regulation 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—is of itself a sufficient
reason for the careful retention of the supreme autho-
rity from the ecclesiastical functionaries.
Clause 9—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 mitness some more liberal en-
actment whereby the feelings of all kinds of reli-
gionists might be directly consulted. In death there
should be no separation.
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—providing that " inhabitants of parishes,
80.—requires a careful scrutiny before acceptance.
cc ro
Clause 14—providing for interments in unconse-
atedmportions of burial-grounds—has already been
condemned
our objection to such invidious dis-
tinctions.

Clause 15, also, has been indirectly adverted to in