scandalised the Rector of Whitechapel. After this utterance, Mr. Vernon, as if to abash him, said, "You object to a Dissenting Chapel being erected out of funds provided parochially?" "Yes," was the reply," and by legislative enactment raised on a level with the chapel of the Church of England."

Such are the men by whom this Bill proposes to work the new system of Cemeteries; but we do trust that the voice of the country will be raised with effect against it. Surely England is not to continue under priestly domination for ever! Surely Dissenters will at length awake to their danger and their duties! "The Scripture tells us," says Swift, "that 'oppression maketh a wise man mad;' therefore, consequently speaking, the reason why some men are not 'mad,' is, because they are not 'wise;' however, it were to be wished, that 'oppression' would, in time, teach a little wisdom to fools." Dissenters, be instructed by a Dean!

September 7, 1842.

LETTER IV.

RUINOUS EFFECTS OF THE

CEMETERIES ON THE REVENUES OF THE CLERGY-INJURIES INFLICTED ON DISSENTERS.

In the preceding Letter, we affirmed that the losses sustained by the clergy, rather than considerations of the public welfare, prompted Mr. Mackinnon's preposterous Bill. The sight of Cemeteries provided by Companies on all sides of the City revealed to them their true position, which was still further illustrated by vulgar arithmetic. What with the effect of liberal legislation on baptisms, and of Cemetery association on burials, the perils of the priesthood became both obvious and imminent. The parish clerk of St. Stephen's, Coleman-street, in the city of London, thus speaks: "Since the Register Act came into force, that has made a great difference: they used to have from 3,000 to 4,000 baptisms in the year; they have now little more than 1,000; they have nothing to depend on but the burials; parties go to district chapels to be married; and, if they have nothing

but the burials to depend on, or a compensation, their bread is entirely taken away." This honest man is a philosopher.

The condition of the clergy was not better than that of the parish clerks. Their prospects were equally alarming. Their loss and danger were confined to no single locality of the city or its suburbs. The Curate of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, states that the interments in his ground are fewer now than they have been for two hundred years; that for many years the average was 700; but that, since the opening of certain Cemeteries in the neighbourhood, it has been so reduced, that last year it did not exceed 400. This blow was mainly struck by Mr. Barber Beaumont's Cemetery, erected five or six years ago, and in which the Curate believes there are 1,000 burials a-year. His burial-ground has also been much damaged by the burial-ground in Globe-lane. In consequence of these Cemeteries, the "fees have been diminished most seriously." The Incumbent has lost" at least 300l. a-year." Now, let it be remembered, that in Stepney churchyard there was no "cramming." Mr. James states, that it contains perhaps upwards of three acres of ground, and there are some parts of that burial ground which have not been touched;" and he asserts that no circumstance ever arose "affecting public decency or public health." In such a case, then, legislation is not required for the public, but for the priest! Close the private Cemeteries and Dissenting burial grounds, and thereby restore him his fees, and he wants no more. The Rector of Whitechapel, we have already shown, for some time has not buried much more than a fourth of his parishioners, and, with regard to that proportion, he says, "the number of interments has decreased in latter years, and that decrease is still going on."

The Rev. J. E. Tyler, Rector of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, declares that his new Cemetery was the only means of keeping up the living," for "the burials round the church have fallen off."

66

Clerical experience, at the West-end of the town, fully corroborated that from other quarters. The Rev. H. H. Milman, Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, after declaring that the churchyard space was quite large enough for Westminster, and that he knew of no evil whatever arising from sepulture there,

99

affirms that the weekly interments "have diminished very considerably; the more opulent have in general removed their interments to the Cemeteries;" and that, but for the tax laid upon Cemetery funerals for the benefit of the clergy, their "emoluments" would be "half swept away." The Bishop himself affords a large amount of startling illustration as to the effect of the Cemeteries upon the emoluments of the clergy. Of these we may take, as one of the most decided, the case of St. James's, Westminster. During the six years previous to 1838, the yearly average of the Incumbent's fees for burials was 4057.; in 1838, when the Cemetery system had come into something like full operation, the fees were reduced to 1207.; in 1839, they were 1307.; but, in 1840, they fell as low as 817.! Thus the revenues of the clergy were getting

"Fine by degrees, and beautifully less,"

when Charles James and his tools had recourse to this expedient to raise their falling fortunes.

Dissenters of England! This is a part of the history and the mystery of the present sepulchral enterprise. Does it go no deeper; does it extend no further? Yes, verily; it is a profound and a wide-spread plot! It aims a blow at Dissent in all the great towns of England. An opinion prevails among Churchmen, that the profits of sepulture form, in such places, one of the main pillars of Dissent. Some of the witnesses who appeared before Mr. Mackinnon's Committee have been guilty of most villanous misrepresentation upon this point. A person calling himself George Whitaker gave the Committee not a little satisfaction in speaking of Hoole and Martin's ground, in Southwark. In reference to that Cemetery and the Methodist chapel connected with it, Colonel Fox, whose name is dear to Dissenters, and a sure passport to the confidence of all patriotic Englishmen, put a question which we deeply regret, because it involves a great principle, and indicates the Hon. and Gallant Member's entire unacquaintance with the subject.

"Q.485. Colonel Fox: Is not the whole thing a speculation, the chapel, burial ground, and all?—Yes."

The point thus started was too important not to be followed up by Mr. Mackinnon.

"Q. 486. CHAIRMAN: Is it the custom of Dissenting Ministers to establish speculations of that sort in this town?Yes it has been remarked to me that they gain more money by the dead than by the living.”

This grateful slander had passed unrefuted, but for the generosity of Mr. Ainsworth, who checked the traducer, and fixed him down to a point.

"Q. 499. Mr. AINSWORTH: You have said it was remarked that the Dissenting Ministers got more from the dead than from the living ?--Yes; it was so remarked to me.

"Q. 500. To what did that apply?--It related particularly to Enon Chapel. Mr. Howse was then the minister; and from the stench that arose from the dead bodies, the congregation in a great measure left the chapel; and the remark which was made was, that more money was made from the dead than from the living.

"Q. 501. It was a remark which referred to Enon Chapel chiefly ?—Yes.

"Q. 502. Do you know of any other?—I have never heard the remark applied to any other."

Thus honourably and completely did Mr. Ainsworth demolish the foul calumny of this son of Sycorax, for which we tender him our cordial thanks. This exposure took place on the 18th of March. Will you believe that the slander was revived on the 6th of April? Will you believe that the resurrectionist was the Hon. Chairman himself, W. A. Mackinnon, Esq., M.P.? Know, then, that this gentleman returned to the subject with perfect gravity, as a solemn puzzle which it was of the utmost importance to have solved; and he accordingly addressed to G. A. Walker, Esq., his chief metropolitan witness, the following question

"Q. 840. CHAIRMAN: Can you explain the evidence of one of the witnesses, that in many of the Dissenting Chapels, the speculators have made more by the dead than by the living?"

Upon this question we put another: What shall be thought of the man who could revive such a point, and solicit such an explanation, after that very witness had been driven from his position, and made to eat his own words? Did not Mr. Ainsworth compel him to give his own explanation? Was ever self

C

refutation more complete? Was ever a falsifier more confounded? Mr. Mackinnon, however, remembered the lie, but forgot the retraction, and sought relief by consulting the Doctor of Drury-lane! That gentleman's answer is as follows:

"He is perfectly correct in that; there is no doubt many of those chapels have been established as speculations. I believe that many of them would not have been established, but for their being enabled to bury the dead."

This is the language of the Chief City Agitator in behalf of the Cemetery Scheme, of the man who wrote a book upon the subject about two years ago, and more recently a pamphlet. Dissenters will, from his evidence on this point, know how to estimate the value of his statements, when he speaks upon others. We do not designate him an "artificer of fraud;" but it is well known to ten thousand respectable men in this city, that the first part of his answer is a flat falsehood; that, so far as the regular Dissenters are concerned, his second assertion is wholly untrue; and that the third is an unfounded assumption. The gentleman speaks in ignorance, or he does not. If the former, he ought to inquire, or be silent; if the latter, he should remember that a good cause never calls for the aid of misrepresentation, and that a good man will never give such aid to a bad one!

"We lay these honours on this man,

To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads."

There is something very equivocal about this question of Mr. Mackinnon. It is difficult to say whether he considers the alleged fact of Dissenters "making more by the dead than by the living" a thing of shocking wonder, or an alarming invasion of the rights of the clergy, as the chartered inheritors of all the spoils that can be gathered in the region of death. If the former, it will ultimately appear that he might have reserved his wonder for his friends the clergy; if the latter, we shall by and by require him to justify the prescription. We leave him for the present to choose between degradation and difficulty.

While Mr. Mackinnon and his Drury-lane witness are deeply in error as to the profits of sepulture arising from Dissenters' burial-grounds, and likewise as to the origin and support of the chapels with which they are connected, it is nevertheless assur