The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-04-07
The Burial Question in England.

II is strange spirit Of intolerance which
has lately been exhibited by majority of
the clergy in the English Established
Church, The Proceedings OF the Canadian
Catholics in the GUIBoRD case, n few years
ago, provoked an cutlery Of indignation, yet
the Bishop of Montreal did nothing more
than has just been done 10y ecclesiastical
authorities in England. who deny the right
of burial in parish churchyards to all per-
Sons not belonging to the Anglican Com
munon.
Have English nonconformists under
which broad term may be included Untari-
ans, Mohammcdans, COmtists and iniidols,
rs well as Roman Catholics. and the several
'Calvinistic sccts, right to be Inferred with
their own peculiar services in cemeteries
consecrated to the Established Church
That is the question which, for some time
has been agtatcd with growing vehemence,
and which eliminated about a month ago
In two important discussions. in which the
friends of liberation seem to have been
worsted. The first took place on the 18th OF
February in the Lower House Of Convoca-
ton for the province Of Canterbury; the sec
ond during the evening Of the same day in
the House of Commons. In the clerical
dSStulbl1 a lt7bluAibH Nd' IhorNh ~ hi
overwhelming majority to the effect that
the Church could not, withoL. breach of
trust and detriment TO her spiritual charac-
ter, admit within her consecrated grounds
rites other than her OWN. In the House OF
Commons, too, although the debate was
distinguished by superior knowledge and
moderation, a resolution that the law OF
England gave TO every person dying In a
parish, irrespective OF his religious opinions,
a right TO be inferred in its churchyard with
any form of service desired, was lost by the
small majority Of fifteen out OF four hun
dred and sixty-nine. On their face these
facts would seem TO indicate that those
clergyInen who consider GODS acre desc
Grated by the bodies Of noncOnformlsts have
gained their cause. This IL not the case,
however, for reasons worth a cursory glance,
because they explain tho burial customs
which, as a matter of fact, have prevailed
throughout the United Kingdom.
II appears that when the AttOrney-Gen-
eral was called upon in the House OF Com
mons TO state some legal ground in support
OF the view taken by the majority Of his
party, he could cite nothing but a single
clause OF the much vilipcndcd Public Wor-
ship act, passed in 1916 Down to that date,
IL is admitted on all hands that there was no
obstacle in the ecclesiastical and statute la "
OF England TO the performance Of Dissenting
or other like services in the cemeteries OF
the Established Church. The amount OF evil
dencc brought forward BY DEAN STANLEY
and other liberal churchmen on this head
was overwhelming. II was shown, for in
stance, that the bodies Of unbaptlzed chill
dren have constantly, and by usage which
has acquired the force Of prescription, been
buried in parish churchyards. An act OF
GEORGE III. provides for the intcrment IN
-cOnsccratcd groundof dead human bodies
cast upon the shore, without regard to theil
place Of residence, creed or race, later
statute allows the burial in churchyards o.
those whose death L. ascribed by a Cor
oners inquest to suicide. Again, in an ac
OF GEORGE ", applying to Ireland it is reci
ted that the privilege Of burial according
" the rites VI the ralrelgions proiesseC