New-York tribune., 1909-06-06
ne Dean of Westminster Abbey Is Now Being RoundIy
Abused for Excluding George llere-
dith's Ashes.

more denied burial to George Eliot" In the
abbey and rejected the appeal made in her be-
half by Herbert Spencer the late Professor
Huxley, whom certainly one would have
ever dreamed of mputing Anglican or any other
kind Of orthodoxy, took up the cudgels in behalf
Of Dean Stanley. and expressed himself as fol-
lows: The dean is officially, and above every
thing else. a Christian priest. and burial in the
abbey implies :he grant by him of exceptional
Christian honOrs George Eliot is known far
and wide. not only as great writer. but as a
person whose life and opinions were in notorious
antagonism TO Christian practice in regard to
marriage and 10 Christian theory in regard to
dogma. How am / to tell the dean that think
he ought to read over the body OF a person who
did not repent of what the Church considers
mortal sin q service not one solitary PROPOSE
tion of which she would have accepted for truth
while she was alive?"
GEORGE MEREDITH'S S TEACHINGS.
George Nerediths domestic arrangements
We're unlike those of George Eliot" quite above
reproach. But the teachings contained in his
works on the subject of marriage. his widely
published views concerning the doctrines Of the
Church of England and last, but not least his
amusing but Churchmen somewhat dismay-
ing expression OF the hope that he would sooner
die with laugh on his lips while telling his
''-N'
blessing on his lips. are not precisely calculated
10 qualify him for burial in the abbey. More
over the very fact that his body should have
been cremated would in itself. believe have
proved an obstacle to entombment at West
minister For although the incinerauoh or
corpses has been accepted by the Church OF
England as orthodox. yet 1 cannot recall single
instance Of ashes Of the cremated dead finding a
place in the abbey.
Formerly a number of Burgesses of West
minister possessed the hereditary right of inter
ment within the precincts of the abbey always
providing that they belonged to the Church Of
England and that they had lived and died as
Christians. But these families have either
passed out Of existence or have allowed their
rights to drop. Indeed. there is only one house,
namely that OF Percy. Of which the Duke OF
Northumberland is the chief, that still retains
this prerogative. The Percy vault In the abbey
is situated beneath the St. Nicholas Chapel, and
the last entembment there was of the father OF
the present Duke of Northumberland, very
sustere and deeply religious man. who, no mat
ter whether he dined alone or gave state ban
quet always had a vacant chair at table, at the
place of honor. for the use Of the Saviour. who
he was firmly convinced was present as an un-
seen guest While it added 20 the solemnity and
decorum Of the feast. # did not precisely con
tribute to gayety and mirth-
Although the present dean and his two or
three Immediate predecessors have been
tremelv strict in the matter OF burials in the
abbey. some OF the former deans have furnished
extraordinary instances Of indifference to any
sense Of responsibility to the nation in the ex-
ercise of their duties of trusteeship In the
abbey. How otherwise is II possible to explain
the presence within its walls Of the tomb Of
John Broughton, a professional pugilist of the
eighteenth century. who kept one Of the most
disreputable resorts in Tottenham Court Road
and who has sometimes been described as the
father OF prizefghting 81 England? Then there
IS the tomb of Thomas PGrr, an illiterate Shrop-
shire farm servant, whose only title TO lame
was that he attained the extraordinary age OF
152 wears. and lived 10 ten rulers succeed
onA another on the English throne. dying in
1635 and being buried in the Poets Corner