for the last twelve months. If they are thus misled and bewildered, is it not the duty of this House to speak with the voice of authority in this hour of peril? We are the depositories of the power and the guardians of the interests of a great nation and of an ancient monarchy. Why should we not fully measure our responsibility? Why should we not disregard the small-minded ambition that struggles for place? and why should we not, by a faithful, just, and earnest policy, as I believe we may, restore tranquillity to Europe and prosperity to the country so dear to us? MR. F. SCOTT moved the adjournment of the debate. MR. BARROW said, he wished to observe, if the debate were not adjourned, that he should go into the same lobby with the hon. Member for Manchester (Mr. Bright), not because he agreed with him in all his opinions, but because he would not fetter future negotiators. VISCOUNT PALMERSTON said, he felt that it would be difficult to resist the wish of the House for an adjournment of the debate if such a wish existed; but he really hoped, after the length to which the discussion had extended, that the House would seriously determine to come to a division to-morrow. Debate further adjourned till To-mor row. STAMP DUTIES REPEAL ON MATRICULATION AND DEGREES (OXFORD) BILL. Order for Second Reading read. COLONEL DUNNE said, he wished to know whether the measure would be extended to Trinity College, Dublin? THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, that it was proposed to abolish the stamp duty in the University of Oxford, in pursuance of a contract which accepted that boon as an equivalent for the payment of certain fees to professors, formerly paid out of the public funds. This was not applicable to Dublin. LORD NAAS said, that the argument could not apply with any justice to the University of Dublin, which, never having received anything from the public funds, had nothing to give up. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said, that he had expressed no opinion as to the propriety of abolishing the fees in all cases. He had simply stated a fact, from which he inferred the argument that if the abolition of fees were made gratuitous in other cases, Oxford VOL. CXXXVIII. [THIRD SERIES.] METROPOLITAN BURIAL-GROUNDS- THE BISHOP OF LONDON, who had a notice on the paper to move, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty "To inform Her Majesty that it appears, by Petitions presented to this House, that the Want of adequate Provisions for the decent Interment of the Dead in some parts of the Metropolis is now producing very injurious Effects on the Welfare of its Inhabitants, and much Suffering, which falls especially on the poorer Classes : "To express to Her Majesty the Opinion of this House that this Evil has been aggravated by Orders in Council which Her Majesty has been advised to make, under the Authority of an Act of Parliament passed in the Sixteenth Year of Her Majesty's Reign (1852), whereby certain Burial Grounds have been prematurely closed before other Places of Sepulture had been pro vided in lieu of them. "And humbly to pray that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct Her Servants to adopt such Measures as may be necessary for applying an immediate Remedy to an Evil, which this House considers to be most serious and urgent :" said, he rose for the purpose of once more directing the attention of their Lordships to a subject of great importance to the best interests of the country, as involving the interests of morality and religion. Their Lordships would recollect that on a former occasion he drew a picture of the present state of things in the metropolis, occasioned by the Metropolitan Burial Act; and the noble Earl who was then at the head of the Government (the Earl of Aberdeen) admitted that the subject was one of great importance; that the picture he had drawn of the actual state of things was most painful and distressing, and that it demanded the imme 3 G diate attention of the Government, with the view of seeing whether something could not be done by way of removing the evils which existed. Another noble Earl (Earl Grey) had advised him on the same occasion to press for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the subject; but he forbore from doing so, because he placed implicit confidence in the assurance of the noble Earl at the head of the Government that some measure would be devised for the purpose, if not of entirely removing, at least of mitigating the evils which he had described. In that hope he had been disappointed. He had made repeated applications to the noble Earl and his colleagues, and had renewed those applications to the present Ministers, but nothing had been done. The evils which he complained of still existed-they were becoming every year more numerous and more aggravated-and he really thought it was the bounden duty of the Government of a Christian country to take some measures for remedying a state of things which he could not describe otherwise than as disgraceful and indecent. The Motion of which he had given notice was for an Address to Her Majesty. On full consideration, he thought it would be inexpedient to persevere in proposing that Resolution. If he did, he feared he should have no hope of carrying it, and he did not wish to do anything which should have the appearance of casting censure on the Government, What he wanted was, to call attention to the actual state of the case, and, if possible, to elicit from their Lordships some opinion which, if it did not constrain the Government to move in the matter, would at least stimulate them to consider whether something could not be done to alleviate and mitigate the serious evils to which he referred. He was the more disposed not to press his Motion for an Address to Her Majesty because he believed that the Government were willing to take the subject into consideration, and were not altogether unprepared to inquire whether some remedial measure might not be devised. He would, therefore, respectfully entreat their Lordships to accede to the Motion of which notice had been given by a noble Earl (the Earl of Waldegrave) for the appointment of a Select Committee. The evidence taken before that Committee would show the absolute necessity of something being done, and would guide the Government in the choice of a mode of providing for the wants of the metropolitan districts. With reference to the continued existence of the evils which he had described to their Lordships, he did not think that he could state his own opinions as to the facts of the case more clearly and emphatically than it had been stated to him by a gentleman who had devoted a great part of his life to the consideration of sanitary questions, and who expressed his belief that the Metropolitan Burial Act had augmented, instead of diminished, the expenses of interment to the poor, and had produced many sanitary as well as moral evils-had diminished the solemnity of sepulture, and occasioned scenes of the most distressing character. He wished their Lordships to understand that the remarks with which he would trouble them regarding the present state of interments within the metropolis would relate chiefly to the eastern districts of London. Many of the western parishes, which were principally inhabited by the more wealthy classes, had done their duty in providing suitable and convenient places of sepulture in lieu of those which had been closed; while the various cemetery companies recently esta blished, of the decency of whose proceedings he had no cause to complain, had no question, to some extent, lessened and mitigated the evil; but in the eastern districts no adequate provision had been made for the interment of the dead. Before the passing of the Metropolitan Burial Act, in the eastern districts of London, containing a population of 500,000 souls, and furnishing at least 13,000 burials annually, there were forty-three burial-grounds, a number confessedly too small to meet the wants of the population. Of these forty-three burialgrounds, thirty-six had been closed, while not a single new one had been provided. One evil, of which the poor inhabitants of London justly complained, was, that they were obliged to bury their dead in unconsecrated ground, without the due performance of religious service, and where the remains of their relatives were subjected to every kind of indignity. He was informed by a respectable undertaker that in Cambridge Heath burial-ground no fewer than sixty interments took place in one day. There was one burial-ground still open in Bethnal Green, and so great was the pressure in that district that no fewer than 3,663 interments had taken place in less than one acre. But, even to reach unconsecrated ground, the poor people had to travel great distances; and the consequence was, that a dead body was often kept in a single room, occupied by a poor | London) thought the practice of interment family, for ten days or a fortnight, or even in churches was so objectionable that the three weeks, until they had scraped toge- Secretary of State was justified in prother a sufficient sum to pay the increased hibiting it. But the Metropolitan Burials expenses of the funeral. The corpses of Bill, while it operated with great hardship children were frequently carried to the on the poor, inflicted another grievous inplaces of sepulture in cabs, and it was no jury upon the parochial clergy. By this uncommon sight to see a string of such Bill the parochial clergy were deprived of vehicles, filled with dead bodies, waiting that which was the chief source of their at the gate of an unconsecrated burial- incomes-namely, burial fees. In the paground until they could be admitted. He rish of Whitechapel, with 50,000 inhabineed not say that on such occasions the tants, the income of the incumbent had solemn services of the Church were per- been reduced from 600l. to 300l., upon formed in a slovenly, irregular, and in- which he had to support himself, a wife, decent manner. He was informed that at and eight children, and two curates. The some of these unconsecrated grounds there same thing occurred in St. George's-inwas no clergyman in attendance on the the-East, and other parishes, and it was burials. Sometimes the undertaker's man evident that where the fees were so rethrew a surplice over his shoulders, and duced it was impossible adequately to supread a portion of that service in which the ply the spiritual wants of the inhabitants, poorer members of the Church took a spe- and that the number of curates in such cial interest, and from which they derived cases must be limited. Not only, however, special consolation; and the friends of the was the income of the clergy diminished, persons interred conceiving that the ser- but the fund for the repair of the churches vice had been performed by clergymen, had been cut off, so that the clergyman had on some occasions complained to him and his church would go to decay togethat the service had been mutilated in such ther. But both he and the clergy felt a manner. With regard to the sanitary most deeply the evils of the system in its state of the case, there could be no doubt operation upon the poor. As it now workthat many evils arose from the retention ed, it broke down their religious feelings, of dead bodies in a state of decomposition. destroyed their respect for the holy ordiThe clergyman of one of the largest east-nances of religion, and led them to regard ern parishes stated that liquid corruption with indifference those rites and ceremohad been seen dropping from coffins as they were carried along the streets; and nothing could exceed the distressing statements with respect to the hardships inflicted upon the poor by the premature closing of burial-grounds which had been made to him by both clerical and lay correspondents in the eastern districts of the metropolis. Even the bodies of paupers were interred in unconsecrated ground, although by the poor law it was enacted that they should be placed in consecrated grounds. Some time ago an application was made to the Secretary of State to allow the reopening of a burial-ground, which might have been done without any inconvenience. The application was refused on the ground that, according to the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, no person could authorise the reopening of a burial-ground which had been closed by an Order in Council. Since then, however, the Secretary of State had authorised the reopening of a burial-ground in Shoreditch, and his conduct, therefore, might fairly be called somewhat inconsist ent. At the same time he (the Bishop of nies which, when duly performed according to the ordinances of the Church, were calculated to call forth the best feelings of the heart. He hoped their Lordships would think it incumbent upon a Christian Government to remedy the painful evils he had pointed out, and he called upon them, at least, to consent to the Motion of his noble Friend (Earl Waldegrave), who meant to move for the appointment of a Select Committee. EARL WALDEGRAVE, having called the attention of the Government to the state of the law concerning the interment of the dead, to see how far these laws require amendment, so that they may be made effective, Moved, That a Select Committee be appointed to take into consideration the 15 & 16 of Vict., c. 83, the 16 & 17 of Vict., c. 134, and the 17 & 18 of Vict., c. 87. EARL GRANVILLE said, that everything which fell from the right rev. Prelate on this subject must have great weight with their Lordships, not only in consequence of the interest which he must doubt hardships had occurred, but the evils he described had been chiefly confined to the eastern part of the metropolis; for the north-western portion of the metropolis ample provision had now been made, and, indeed, it was highly creditable to some of the larger parishes that they had exerted themselves most effectually to meet the acknowleged evils which existed. Public cemeteries had been established-one on an enormous extent of ground at Woking naturally take in a question of this kind, lief that the progress of the disease was but from the great personal interest which aggravated by the continued existence of at all times he had taken in matters of a interments in the burial-grounds of the sanitary description; and he trusted that, metropolis. He believed that under all the in the few remarks which he felt it his duty circumstances of the case there was no to make, he should show no want of con- reason to complain of the manner in which sideration for a question so important, or the Act had been put into operation. say one word that would indicate insensi- With regard to the number of graveyards bility to the painful and melancholy inter- that had been closed, the right rev. Preest that attached to the subject. He late complained principally with respect to thought that, in considering the evils ex- the defect of cemetery accommodation in isting under the present state of the law, the eastern part of London; and he must their Lordships must not forget what were admit that it was deficient. Being struck the evils which that law was intended to with the enormous number of burialremedy. Their Lordships could not but grounds closed, he had ascertained, on furrecollect how the public indignation was ther inquiry that many of them were orroused by the accounts which were daily dered to be shut, and, in fact, were disused published of the manner in which burials by order of the parochial authorities—the were conducted in this great metropolis number disused in this way amounting to before this measure was adopted. It no fewer than thirty-eight. The right was not his wish to harrow their Lord-rev. Prelate had drawn a distressing picships' feelings by any description of those ture of the evils that had followed. No pit burials in which bodies were thrown one after another into one common grave, or of the stench and noisome pestilence arising from churchyards reeking with the pestilent products of accumulated centuries of burial; but he simply referred to this because he thought they should not lose sight of the evils that had called forth legislation on this subject. The first measure that was brought forward to cure these evils was one in which power was conferred on the Board of Health to pro--having a central terminus in town-and vide more spacious burial grounds at a distance from the metropolis. It would be useless to enter into a speculative inquiry as to whether that body would or would not have been able to carry out a plan for that object; it was enough to say that the Government of Lord J. Russell and that of his noble Friend opposite (the Earl of Aber: deen) found it inexpedient to give the Board of Health the assistance they required, and the result was that a Bill of a different character was introduced by the Government of his noble Friend opposite. The chief feature of that Bill was that it made it compulsory in parishes to close certain burying-grounds, and to provide others beyond the bounds of the metropolis. There had been great complaints, however, of the manner in which the Bill had been acted upon, and the premature manner in which it was supposed Orders in Council had been issued for closing parochial burying-grounds. Some time had now elapsed since the passing of the Act? but it would be recollected that there were then great fears of the cholera, and a be with capabilities, as they said, for supply- The were not so referred, Her Majesty's Government would not fail to introduce a Bill upon the subject. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY said, that the Act of 1852, which was passed by the Government of his noble Friend (the Earl of Derby), and which applied to the metropolis alone, had been followed by another in 1853, referring to the country districts, and which had created greater difficulty than the previous one. He thought the reason there was no complaint of indecency as to the manner of carrying out burials under the late Act was, that persons who were shocked by such scenes as had been adverted to by the right rev. Prelate, would not refer their complaints to the Secretary of State, who was powerless to remedy the evils complained of; but he feared there could be no doubt that scenes of the kind which had been described had taken place too often; and he must say that he thought nothing was more to be deprecated than that there should be any diminution in the feelings of horror with which the desecration of the dead was regarded in this country. His noble Friend had passed over with too little consideration the fact, that there were no compulsory Home Department, though he daily received complaints of individual hardship and of injury done to property, had not received more than two complaints of indecency as applicable to interments. The right rev. Prelate last year distressed their Lordships with an account of the dreadful state in which bodies had been tumbled pell-mell into water at Mile End. On that occasion a Government inspection was ordered, and the right rev. Prelate himself afterwards came down to the House and admitted that the facts were not as he had originally stated them to the House. The right rev. Prelate complained that the dead bodies of the poor were frequently left unburied for two or three weeks in consequence of the increased expense and inconvenience of interment; but, in reply, he must remind their Lordships that by the existing law a permissive power was given to parishes to erect dead-houses for the reception of bodies that could not be immediately interred-a provision that was of great importance in a sanitary point of view. The right rev. Prelate had stated that thirty-eight burial grounds had been closed by the interference of the Home Secretary, and he said that he believed the return was imperfect. It was imper-powers in these Bills, with respect to the fect certainly; but it was so inasmuch as provision of new burial-grounds by parishes. it did not show that many of the graveyards The fact was, that it would be very diffito which the order of the Home Secretary cult to do so in the first place; and in the applied had been previously closed by the next, even if the parishes were willing to parish authorities themselves. With re- buy, it was impossible to compel the owngard to the re-opening of graveyards after ers of land to sell sites. That point, he being closed, there could be no doubt that thought, had been passed over with less the law was not such as to justify the consideration than it deserved; for the Secretary of State in doing so; and in practical result was, that in some instances this respect he thought some amendment parishes which had been reduced to the might wisely be introduced into the law. absolute necessity of opening new burialThe question now was, how far it would grounds had been compelled to pay from be right to give the Secretary of State a 100l. to 150l. per acre for a site for their compulsory power to provide for grave- cemeteries. Another obstacle interposed in yards which had been closed. This was the way of the provision of new cemeteries not so easy a matter to settle as some was this-By the Act of 1852 it was promight suppose. It was a difficult thing to vided that a new chapel might be built in make a parish which was not a corporate a new cemetery; but in the Act of 1853, body, provide itself with a burial-ground, which extended to the whole country, it but still the evil had risen to such a point was provided that if one chapel was built that the Secretary of State for the Home two chapels must be built; one for memDepartment was of opinion that some mea-bers of the Church and another for the sure should be introduced on the subject. In that Bill he should take power to rectify the grievances complained of by his right rev. Friend. At the same time, if the House considered it more desirable that the subject should be investigated by a Select Committee, he had no objection to refer it. But, on the other hand, if it Dissenters. The Act did not, however, compel any chapel whatever to be built. He knew the case of a parish some of the parts of which were actually twelve miles from the parish church; when that burial ground was closed it occurred to the burial board of the parish that it would be desirable to have three cemeteries instead of |