The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-10 00:00:00

1

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1845.

The House of Commons met at Four o'clock.

The order for the second reading of the Midland
Counties Railway Extension Bill was discharged, on the
ground that a clause had been introduced into it sur-
reptitiously and against the standing orders, and which
had escaped the observation of the Committee of the
Bal. The attention of the House was drawn to this cir-
cumstance by the Speaker.
Mr. T. DIINCOMBE asked if this was one of the Bills
which had been reported favourably on by the Board of
Trade?

Mr. frraurr, as Chairman of the Committee, threw

he blame on the Parliamentary agent, as it was impos-
sible for the Committee to read through all the Bills
submitted to them.

Lord G. SOMERSET hoped the House would punish the
Parliamentary agent, and
Mr. ENTWISLE gave notice that he would again draw
the attention of the House to the subject.
Mr. W. B. FERRAND, amidst roars of laughter
from all parts of the House, gave notice that he would
on Friday present a petition from the Dublin Operative
Protestant Association, praying for the impeachment of
Sir H. PEEL.

Mr. AGLIONBY then drew the attention of the House
to a letter which had appeared in the Times, animadvert-
ing upon his conduct as a Member of the New Zealand
Committee, and entered into several explanations on the
subject.
In answer to Lord EBRINGTON, Sir J. GRAHAM said
he was not aware that it was the intention of the Go
vernment to prevent interments in St. Margaret's
Churchyard.
Mr. W. COWPER moved the second reading of the
Field Gardens' Bill.

Mr. Escorr opposed the Bill. After a few words
from Mr. M. MILNES in support of the measure, the
House divided, when there appeared—For the second
reading, 92 ; Against it, 18 ; Majority for the second
reading, 74.
The Scotch Infeftment Bill passed through Committee.
The Public Museums' Bill was read a third time and
passed, as was the Glass Duties Excise Biil.
The Mutiny Bill, and the Marine Mutiny Bill, passed
through Committee, and were ordered to be read a third
time to-morrow.
The Sugar Duties Excise Bill was read a second time;
and the House adjourned at Seven o'clock.

It was understood at the Anti-Corn-law meeting, held
in Covent-garden Theatre last evening, that no other
meetings would be held in that place till the close of the
Great Bazaar, which will be opened in the course of
next month. This League has now been in existence for
nearly seven years, and we trust that long before other
seven years have elapsed its labours will be accomplished,
and a complete victory obtained not only over agricul-
tural monopolists, but monopolists of every class in society.
The advocates for the maintenance of the sliding scale,
and the heavy tax on the staff of life, advert with com-
placency to the little noise made by the League—to the
less frequent meetings and the very small effect which
they have produced. on Sir ROBERT PEEL and the
House of Commons, for, say they, notwithstanding the
thousands and tens of thousands collected, the vast dis-
play of patriotism and liberality made by so many
individuals and the country excursions of paid lecturers,
the Corn Bill remains, and will remain unaltered. We
will not enter on that point. Our opinions are very
different, and time, a very short time, too, will show whe-
ther these men prophecy truly ; but, looking at the effects
produced already by this powerful body, what rational
being can believe that, while monopoly is on the wane
in all other directions, it is to remain fixed
and immutable only as regards corn ? During the
existence of the League the most unexpected commer-
cial changes have taken place. Many agricultural pro
ductions, which were formerly prohibited or paid an
enormous duty, are now admitted at comparatively mo-
derate charges. The landowners have been as-
sailed by the Minister on every point: he has al-
tered the corn duties, and though that alteration
was not very material, It caused the resignation of the
only farmers' friend in the Cabinet. He has reduced
the Customs' duty on cattle, on beef, and hams, and
many other necessaries of life; and are we to infer that
he is to stop here, and not carry into operation the
great principle of free-trade—purchasing in the
cheapest, and selling in the dearest market—
which he unequivocally professed in his place
in Parliament? These changes could not have taken
place but for the pressure from without, and that pres-
sure owes more to the League than to all the writers on
political economy, to the cries of the poor, or to
any other circumstance whatever. If the League
had done no other good than open the eyes of
the farmer, they would deserve immortal honour.
They have done that and something more. They
have taught that -Class their true interests, and
convinced many that their only hope of safety rests
with themselves—that they must obtain leases, under-
take agricultural improvements, and put down competi-
tion, not by Acts of Parliament, but by energy, industry,
perseverance, and new inventions. But the League
has not confined its labours to corn—its princi-
ples apply to all ccmmodities; and this very session,
during which the duty on four hundred foreign articles
of production has been abolished, furnishes the most con-
vincing proof that their labours have been crowned by a
great victory. They have only to pursue the same path
for a few years more—to urge on the willing Minister
to further reforms, to enlighten landlords as they have
enlightened tenants, and to keep their irrefragable prin-
ciples before the public mind, in order to consummate
their benevolent and noble purposes.

Mr. MActurtzsort brought forward on Tuesday evening
last the proposition, of which he had given notice, for a
declaratory resolution on the part of the House of
Commons, affirming the report of the Commissioners on
the Health of Large Towns, condemning and denouncing
the practice of interring the dead within churchyards
and other such mural precincts. The simple object 01
this motion was, by the moral influence attaching to such
a declaration of opinion, effectually to discourage the
practice of burying the dead within localities densely oc
cupied by the living. We should blush for the Legisla-
ture that could repudiate a suggestion so consonant to all
the moral and religious associations under which a
Christian community regard the disposal of their mortal
remains who have been called from among them ; so
essential to the decency and decorum with which sur-
viving kindred desire to see the dust of their deceased
connexions undesecrated in the earth to which it has
been solemnly committed; and, above all, so imperatively
demanded by a just regard to the health and comfort of
large communities. This motion, however, was lost by
161 votes against 78. It is gratifying, on the other
hand, that, notwithstanding the uncompromising oppo-
sition of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and other leaders of the
majority in question, a second division affirmed, by a
considerable majority, the substantial object of Mr.
MACKINNON'S appeal, by carrying Mr. THOMAS DUN-
COMBE'S amendment, to the effect that—" The practice
of interments in the precincts of the metropolis, and in
large towns, is injurious to the health of the population,
and demands the serious attention of Parliament."

It is not necessary that we should carry our readers
again with us over that revolting field of strange and
terrible details, connected with the weekly, daily, hourly
treatment of the dead that we have, on several occasions,
found it our duty to explore. In noticing the reports of
Mr. CHADWICK, Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH, and others,
to whom the public are indebted for their courageous
exposure of these polluting enormities (occurring at our
own doors, before our own eyes, under our own feet,
within the most busy quarters of this vast capital), we
have felt all the difficulty of discharging a hideous duty.
But it was necessary to demonstrate how the further
toleration of this abominable system was instrumental
to the wholesale extirpation of living generations. On
evidence not to be impeached we showed that the reek-
ing exhalations of our crowded Golgothas were decimat-
ing families and individuals, and infecting whole dis-
tricts with malignant fever and fatal centagion. That,
whilst all human sympathies and affections were scan-
dalised by the outrages and mutilations committed on
the dead, in order to suit the purposes of avaricious
landlords, greedy parsons, and reckless sextons, the in-
habitants of the vicinity in which such practices were
and are commonly perpetrated were more or less affected
by strange and noisome diseases, manifesting themselves
in types of aggravated intensity and under hitherto un-
recorded forms. The three plague spots in this desecrated
region of interments which we more particularly de•
nounced to the notice and supervision of the authorities,
namely, Enon Chapel, and the churchyards and burial-
grounds of St. Clement's Danes and St. Ann's, Soho,
were on Tuesday evening the subjects of emphatic denun-
ciation in the House of Commons. We may now hope,
therefore, that the Legislature is beginning to feel itself
pledged by the reports of the Health of Towns Commis•
sioners to a vigorous repression of these filthy abomina-
tions. But there were passages in the same debate
which we cannot allow to pass unnoticed. The speech
of Sir JAMES GRAHAM was remarkable for a degree of
bigotry and a deficiency of argument that really sunk
the Home Secretary deeper than the depths in which his
Yost-office piracies had precipitated him. He discovered,
in opposition to Mr. MAciusmos's argument and the
beno Commissioners'serious objectionelatxate
toresetharecphrease,
practice
eato
fthilearmreecouuraldi
interments in large towns, on the score of danger to the
public health, because, although it prevails to so vast an
extent in London, London is yet the healthiest city in
the world. Perhaps the Right Honourable Baronet's
logic does not recognise the doctrine of proportions.
It thus may not have occurred to him to ask why the
ratio of mortality should not be much leis even than it
is, looking to the unrivalled advantages of sewerage and
ventilation which London, with all its defects in parts,
possesses as a whole over every ether capital? More-
over, if he will refer to the weekly returns of

mortality, he will find that diseases of the lungs,

the viscerze, the larynx, and the other organs which are
most susceptible to the action of malignant influences,
have been actually increasing, as compared with corre-