The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1866-07-13 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE RAILWAY AND THE LONDON CBURCEIYARDS.  On Tuesday afternoon the Bishop of London ooneecrated a pieoe of ground which adjoins the two burial grounds of St. Giles and St. Pancras. The ceremony had a peculiar interest not only for inhabitants of the district, but for the whole population of a country in which railways are extending so rapidly as to threaten a general displacement. For several weeks past the desecration of graves in the two abutting cemeteries above named has been a subject of considerable discussion. The Midland Railway Company had coin. menoed simultaneously a tunnel end a viaduct through and over the graveyard., and the consequent scenes had been of a very revolting character. The navvies had begun by throwing down the wall. on either side, and had actually out through piles of ooffins. The bones thus rudely disturbed were, it is true, only those of " paupers whom nobody owns," but it is creditable to the large parish of St. Pancras, with its 200,000 inhabitants, that at the first sign of invasion a very handsome per.centege of those inhabitants were up in arms. A deputation, led by Mr. Harvey Lewis, M.P., besieged the Home Secretary, and gained from him a satisfactory assurance that the rights and de. fancies of the neighbourhood should not be violated. It was subsequently arranged that a piece of ground, provided by the railway company, should be consecrated, and that into this piece of ground should be transferred by competent gravediggers, and not by ordinary labourers, the remains mortality lying in the path of living enterprise and improvement. In pursuance of this plan, the Bishop of London attended on Tuesday on the spot at the time above men. tionod. The excited feelings et the neighbouring in. habitants had been in very great measure calmed; and there was not any manifestation of disapproval among the group of persons who gathered round the church. yard. There were present Mr. Beale; Dr. Hillier, the local officer of health; Mr. Pies, the vestry clerk; Mr. Watson, the chairman of the sanitary committee; Mr. Gibb, their clerk; and a number of vestrymen. The clergy were represented by the Rev. Mr. Arrowsmith, the incumbent, and by other ministers, whose opinion seemed generally to be that if the course now urged upon the Midland Railway Company bad been adopted by them at first there would have been no shock to public feeling. The only point en which now exception can be taken is the manner in which the piece of ground has been obtained. It is not a piece of waste ground, as it has been called, or rathlr it was not waste ground until certain poor dwellings standing on it had been somewhat Ind. dently swept away. This, after all, is but an instance In detail of the system of demolition now being carried on in Agar Town and the Old St, Pancraaroad. Perhaps no neighbourhood of all London has undergone such rapid and extensive transformations. In the long run, no doubt, it will be found that tire vicinity has benefited every way; but in the process of improvement the weakest will be thrust rather roughly to the wall, if any wall with which they are acciasinted ahall be left standing. As for the ehurchyard of Old St. Pancras, which the new line of railway has out ' into, it possesses many historical sssociations, and was at one time the cemetery of Roman Catholics, some of whose sainted names are celebrated in Rome to this day.  How the Prussians were Received at Trautenau.— A. letter from Lenart to the Cologne Gazette reports the following fact as imputed to the inhabitants of Trantenau :—" When the Prussians approached the town the Bargoinaster went out to meet them, and when questioned declared there were no troops in the place, and that the new corners could enter the place in all security. Two equadrone of dragoons traversed the plea', followed by some 'entry. These having reached the principal square were suddenly attacked with a murderous fusillade; the balls rained from all the windows (rem the garrets to the cellars; stones and even quantities of boiling water were thrown down on the soldiers. Then ensued tahleriygmhteft7l.m ilassacitary roer, thiveilisPriitu: "nin t houses, and the artillery finished by destroying the secured, arid amongst them the Burgomaster and an town almost completely. About 130 prisoners were hotel keeper, accused of being the authors of thte , ambush." LkiellintreLpesnli-dmienllttlel