The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette. — 1880-06-01 (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

THE BURIALS BILL. The Gladstone Ministry have made a modest commencement in that course of Liberal legislation which may be expected to be carried out during the next few yea a. They have been at discreet in not attempting to deal with any great tiO,j.ct at this period of the Parliamentary session as they have been provident in not allowing the session to pass without attempting some needful reform. In taking up the Boris bs Que.stina, they will give their supporters in the country an earnest of their intention to carry out what may be termed the mandate of the general election. Apart from all consideration for the technical convenience of Parliamentary business, which has doubtless been oonsidsred in the course adopted, It has doubtless been good policy to initiate the new Burials Bill in the House of rdi. That awat assembly had already committed itself to • considerable 11161111FUre of conoeulon, while the strong Tory majority in the lower House refused to consider any reasonable compromise. Now that they know how much larger a majority there is on the Liberal side in the Commons, their lordships will not be lees acornmo bating than when there was no sort of political pressure behind them. On the contrary, they wiU ororbdably be rather sage! than otherwise to accept Selborne's Bill lest ' a worse thing" come upon them. The Lord Chancellor has judidously gone somewhat further in his measure than Mr. Osborne Morgan did in his bill, or Lord Harrowby in the clause to which the lords assented by a considerable majority. The principle of the new bill is, in fact, that of establishing entire religious freedom in the services of the grave. Further than that it does net pretend to go, for it makes no provision for " secular " funerals, with non-religious orations or °bareanoes. Every address or utterance which it proposes to legalise must form part of • religious service. There is, therefore, no provision for the burial, in consecrated ground, of the body of • person of Mr. Bradlaugh's views by relatives or friends of the same views if such coincidence of opinion in the deceased and the bereaved should in any case exist. For the non-believer there will still be, of course, the unconsecrated side of the churchyard, and the unbiased portion of the modern cemetery—that Is if any sort of non-religious celebration is attempted but without any service or ceremonial, consecrated gi will apparently be open even to non-Christians. Lord Selborne has dune well in going beyond even the old churchyaris in legislating for rel one freedom, and bringing the modern cenuiterisi wit in the scope of his bill. Of course there is not the same pressing grievance in regard to the latter as to the former class of burial-grounds. In the rural silage there is only the churchyard available for burial, and only the distinction of the larger consecrated portion, sad the mineg unblessed part reserved for suicides or still-beeninfante. There it is simply • question whether a concession shall be granted to religions Meantime which can give legitimate personal offence or pain to no individual churchman or whether an extension or restriction shall be maintained which does give notional offence and pain to individual Dissenters. But, while opening the churchyards, which are defended by many churchmen simply and solely because of their being generally in England the enclosures within which the churches stand, it was hardly worth while to leave even the shadow of • grievance in the cemeteries, to which the same stroglrlt of exclusion sloes not extend. It was rec that if • person, being a churchman, pure a family grave in the copsecrated portion of a cemetery, _and afterwards, becoming • Dissenter, were not entitled to the same rights with respect to that grave as if it existed in • churchyard, ; the fag-end of a !grievance would remain to necessitate • fresh legislation in the proximate future. One feature ' of the bill should not be overlooked—the legalisation ' of • varied or shorter form of the Anglican servioe.  " It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest" wily be well applied to an anonymous writer, who not only brings charges against the neighbourhood in which he lives, but does it under an assumed name, and takes the trouble to write to • distance, spreading the accusation as far as he can. The fault' of Dorchester may not be hidden, and the Local Board appear to be very slow in providing even surface drainage for the western district, but wlhen an accusation is brought against some one of the dairies of this district, and people at a distance are to be prejudiced against this beautiful and healthy town, we feel the Dorchester people have a right to demand the name of the writer and of the dairy accused. With respect to the alarming charge sent down into Somerset, we shall not further publish by repeating it, but quote the medical officer of health, who writes : is far se it is possible to say the drainage of no dairy In this district would warrant such a supposition. If he (the correspondent) had not withheld his name and aldrers fr, in the public, yoo would not have been troubled with this note. Instead of rushing into print it would have been far bettor and saved much time had he communicated either with the Inspector of If utaances or with me. To say the least, we are as anglous as hp would have us believe him to be for the health of the community, and wish to inspect the spot at once—if he will only tell I one or other of us where it is."—E. J. Day.