^*fA ^4 t V i: mm .iff,? ^^ /" [Circular. PUBLIC HEALTH (INTERiMENTS) ACT, 1879. (42 & 43 Vict., Cap. 31.) Local Goveniment Board, Whitehall, S.W.. 1.9th August, 1879. Sir, I am directed by the President of the Local Government Board to request that you will bring under the notice of the Sanitary Authority the provisions of the Public Health (Interments) Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict, cap. 31), which received the Royal Assent and came into operation on the 21st of July last. The object of the Act is to enable Sanitary Authorities, rural as well as urban, to pro- vide cemeteries for their districts, and for this purpose all the provisions of the Public Health Act, 187.5, with respect to a mortuaiy are extended to a cemetery. As the Sanitary Authority are aware, Section 141 of the Public Health Act enables a Sanitary Authority to provide and lit up a proper place as a mortuary for the reception of dead bodies befoi'e interment, and to make bye-laws with respect to the management and charges for the use of the same, and it is moreover compulsory on a Sanitary Authority to provide a mortuary if they should Iju requu-ed by the Local Government Board to do so. The effect, therefore, of the Act, which hns just been passed, is, in like manner, to empower a Sanitary Authority to provide a cemetery, and to render it compulsory on them to do so if the Local Government Board should require one to be provided. The Legislature has not specified the cases in which it is incumbent upon the Sanitary Authority to give effect to the provisions of the new statute ; but, seeing that it is in- corporated with the Public Health Act, there can be no doubt that wherever, in the__ ijiterests of the public health, it is necessary that a cemetery should be provided ilTliny locality, the Legislature contemplated that the Local Authority would exercise tlie im- portant powers now conferred ujiou them. The following may be referred to as circumstances under which it will be incumbent upon the Sanitary Authority to take action : — 1. Where in any burial ground which remains in use there is not proper space for burial, and no other suitable burial ground has been provided ; 2. Where the continuance in use of any burial ground (notwithstanding there may be such space) is by reason of its situation in relation to the water supply of the locality, or by reason of any circumstances whatsoever, injurious to the public health ; 3. Where, for the protection of the public health, it is expedient to discontinue burials in a particular town, village, or place, or within certain limits. There are other circum.stances which might render it necessary or expedient that a cemetery should be provided, such as inconvenience of access from the p(jpulous parts of the district to the existing burial ground, or the nature of the site, or the character of the subsoil ; and instances may exist where, in deference to the wishes of the inhabitantsTTTT may be expedient to provide, in accordance with the policy of the Burial Acts, a [[ Cemetery in which persons of different creeds ujay be buried with their own religious^ rites. Uu all or any of the foregoing grounds the authority of the Local Government Board may be invoked, and if the application should prove well founded, a compulsory order would necessarily follow. The question, however, whether a cemetery should be provided for a particular locality will be one for the determination of the Sanitary Authority in the first instance ; and it is only in the event of their default to estal>lish a proper cemetery where one is required, or in consequence of a loan being needed to carry out the undertaking, or if they should determine to construct a cemetery outside their district, of objection being taken to such a proceeding, that the Local Government Board have any autlmrity to interfere. To the Clerk to The Sanitarv Authoritv The President has reason to believe tliat in numerous hjcalities considerations of puhlie healtli require that a cemetery should be provided, and with a view of enabling the authority to determine whetlier, on sanitary grounds, it is necessary, or desirable, that a cemetery should be provided for all or any part of their district, tiie Medical ( )t}icers of Health should be instructed to report upon the state of the several burial grounds within the area subject to their jurisdiction. The statute enables a Sanitary Authority to acquire, construct, and maintain a cemetery either within or without their district. In the latter case, however, at least three months before the cemetery is commenced public notice must be given, and, in the event of any objection, the work cannot proceed without the sanction of the Local Government Board after local inquiry. It will be seen, therefore, that a Sanitary Authority are empowered not only to es- tablish a cemetery, but also to purchase an existing one ; and it will be competent for the Sanitary Authority, in the event of their failure to acquire a suitable site by agreement, to apply for a Provisional Order enabling them to take lauds for the purpose com- pulsorily. Moreover, with the sanction of the Central Authority, they will lie enabled to Ijorrow monej' to pay for the purchase of the requisite land, for draining and inclosing the site, and for rendering it otherwise suitable for the object intended At the same time 1 am to point out that, if the Sanitary Authority should deem it expedient to provide a cemetery without resorting to a loan for the purpose, it is com- petent for them to do so, and to charge the cost upon the local rates. In the case of an Urban Sanitary Authority the rate liable for this cost will be the General District Rate, or other rate applicable to the general purposes of the Public Health Act within the district. In the case of a Rural Sanitary Authority the amount would come under the head of general expenses, and be defrayed out of the rate appli- cable to the payment of such expenses. If, however, the cemetery were provided for a separate contributory place, by which is meant a parish or special drainage district, or so much of a parish as is not within an Urban Sanitary District or a special drainage district, it would be competent for the Local Government Board to order the amount to be .special expenses, in which event the charge, would be borne by the particular contributory jjlace, but with this distinction in the inci- dence of the rate, that whereas in the case of general expenses the amount is either paid out of the poor rate or levied by a rate of an equal .sum in the pound, in the case of speoi.al expenses the amount is raised by a separate rate to which lands are as!5essable at only one fourth. It may be useful to add here that the rates referred to would in like manner be appli- cable to the maintenance of the cemetery after it is established, and also that a Rural Sanitary Authority may depute to a Parochial Committee the exercise of their powers in connexion with the management of any cemetery which may be rec^uired for any contri- butory place. In addition to the powers conferred upon Sauitar}- Authorities of purchasing land for a cemetery the recent Act authorises them to accept a donation of land for the purpose, and also a donation of money or other property for enablmg them to acqurre, construct, or maintain a cemetery. ^^ ith regard to the regulation of the cemetery after it has been established, I am to state that the application to a cemetery of Section 141 of the Public Health Act, IS 75, will enaljle the Sanitary Authority to make byelaws with respect to the management and charges for the use of any cemetery established by them, and in this manner to provide for the orderly conduct of all persons within its limits, for the regulation of graves, and for the payment of reasonaljle fees for interments therein. It .should lie borne in mind, however, that such byelaws must be made in conformity with the Public Health Act. and be confirmed by the Central Authority ; and the President contemplates that the Department should hereafter frame a series of model byelaws to be recommended for adoption. In oi'der to make further provision for the due maintenance and management of a cemetery the recent statute incorporates the Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. 65.) That Act forms one of a series of Statutes passed in 1847, the object being in each case to comprise in one General Act the provisions usually contained in Acts of Parliament relating to matters of Local Improvement or administration. Several of these Acts, as well as other Consolidation Acts, were incorporated, either wholly or partly, with the Pul)lic Health Act, 1875, and the particular Act referred to has previously been uioc I incorporated with some Greneral and several Lui-al Improvement Acts. Its provisions will now form part of the Public Health Act, 1875, and will apply, subject to the necessary qualifications, to all cemeteries acquired, constructed, or maintained by a Sanitary Authority under the new Act. The President tlierefore thinks it right to direct the attention of the Sanitary Authority to the following obligations and powers imposed upon and exercisable by them under the incorporated enactments. With )rt>i>cct to till' inakuiy of the Cemcterij. The cemetery is not to be constructed nearer to any dwelling-house than :2U0 yards, except with the consent of the owner and occupier. The Sanitary Authority may build such chupeLsiu the cemetery for the perfornumce of burial services as they may think tit, and lay dut and eml)ellish the grounds of the cemetery. The cemetery nmst be enclosed by .substantial walls, or iron railings, of the height of eight feet at least. The Sanitary Authority must keep the cemetery and the buildings and fences thereof in complete repair and in good order and condition. With respect to Burials. The Sanitary Authority uiay set a part a portion of the cemetery lor burials according to the rites of the Establishetl UIuirctT'and the Bishop of the Diocese may, on the appli- cation of the Sanitary Authority, consecrate the portion so set apart. A chapel, to be approved hy the Bishop, nrust bejjuilt on the consecrated part for the performance of the Burial Service of the EstablishedT'Eurch. A salaried chaplain is to be appointed to officiate in the consecrated part of the cemetery, the appointment and salary to be subject tu the approval of the Bishop. The Sanitary Authority may set apart the whole or a portion of the unconsecrated part of the cemetery as a place of burial for persons not being members of the Estalilished Church, and may allow in any chapel built in any such uncon.secrated part, a Burial Service to lie performed according to the rites of auv church or congregation other than the Established Church. With- respect to exclusive rights of Burial aud Monuuwntal Iiiscnptinns. The Sanitary Authority may set apart portions of the cemetery for the purpose of granting exclusive rights of burial therein, and may sell the exclusive right of Innial in such portions, and the right of placing any monument or gravestone in the cemetery or any tablet or monumental inscription on the walls of any chapel or other building in the cemetery. It should be observed that the Act under consideration does not extend to the metropolis, and it is scarcely necessary to point out that in other parts of the country where suitable cemeteries are in existence there can rarely be need for resorting to its provisions. The President trusts, however, that in other locialities the Sanitary Authoritie-; will not hesitate to avail themselves of the important powers conferred by the Act, having regard to their serious obligations in the interest of the Public Health and to the responsibilities imposed upon them by the fiCgislature. 1 am. Sir. Your obedient Servant. JOHN LAMBERT, Secretan/. [42 & 43 Vict.] Public Health (Interments) Act, 1879. [Ch. SI.] An Act to amend the Public Health Act, 1878, as to a.d. 1879. Interments. [21st July, 1879.] BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excelknt Majesty, by and witli the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : (that is to say,) 1. This Act may be cited as the Puldic He;dth (Interments) Act, J 879, fjj;;'^^.*!^*'^ ""'^ ™°' d shall be construed as on( Act called the principal Act. aud shall be construed as one with the Puldic Health Act, 187.5, in this 3s and 39 vict. 2. (1.) The provisions of the principal Act, as to a place for the J„^j ^™ vfcr^°^5* reception of the dead before interment, in tlie principal Act extended to ceme- called a mortuary, shall extend to a place lor the interment of '^"^^ the dead, in this Act called a cemetery ; and the purposes of the principal Act shall include the acquisition, construction, and maintenance of a cemetery. =^8 and 39 vict. •' c ,55, .ss. 32—34. (2.) A local authority may acquire, construct, and maintain a cemetery either wholly or partly within or without their district, subject as to works without their district, for the purpose of a (cemetery to the pirovisions of the principal Act as to sewage works by a local authority without their district. (3.) A local autliority may accept a donation uf land for the purpose uf a cemetery, and a donation of money ur other property for enabling them to acquire, construct, or nraintain a cemetery. 10 and 11 Vict. n rni /N ■ (1 » 1 11 1 • '^' ^^' incorporated S. Lhe Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847, shall bi; incorporated with with this Act. this Act. The Public Health Act divides local sanitaiy authorities into two classes, viz., urban sanitary authorities, and rural sanitary authorities ; the former are ;;enerallv Town Councils, Impro\ement Commissioners, or a Local Board ; the rural authorities are the Guardians of the Poor. The whole of the Country is therefore provided with a "Burial Authority." Who is to move Local Authorities ? The Local Govern- ment Board mav require proper Cemeteries to be provided by the local sanitary authorities. The Sanitary state of our Churchyards. It is, surely, quite unnecessary to sav much on this point; the Churchyards speak for themselves. Can anything be more disgusting than the way the Nation has gone on for so many centuries ? It is a scandal and disgrace to our boasted civilization. Our Duty. The duty, then, of all who desire to see "the Burials Question " settled on a fair, sanitary, basis, without doing violence to the rights or scruples of any individual, is to endeavour to extend the principle now sanctioned by the Legislature. The Cemetery syscem already supplies, apart from all political or religious considerations, two-thirds ot our popula- tion ; is there any reason for exempting the remaining third ? The Landowners. To facilitate these objects, Landowners, especially Clergy owning glebes, are urged not tu give, or sell, any Land for new Churchyards, or additions to old ones. As the New Act authorises local authorities to accept a donation of Land for a Cemetery, and of money or other property for its maintenance, Landowners are urged to proceed under it only. The Clergy. The Clergy generally are urged to avail themselves of this grand opportunity, and set to work, at once, to introduce the measure in their Parishes or Districts. Much of the success of future opposition to Mr. Osborne Morg.\n's designs on the Churchyards, and the Churches, i.e., Disestablishment, may depend on the extent to which the new Act is adopted within the next few months. J. W. EASTWOOD, M.D.,)^^^^^^^^_ W. H. KITSON, ) " Tht: Society for " The Rejection of the Burials Bill.''' Offices, Torquay. i;^> TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. The favour of vuitr attentwn to the considerations in the folloa;ing " Paper'' is respectfully asked ; and it is suggested that if any opportunities should arise of calliu" attention, during the recess, to. the simple, unobjectionable, solution of the Burials Question, afforded by Mr. MARTEN'S Act, Members of Parliament may find the copv of the Local Government Board Circular, and of the Act, sent herewith, useful for that desirable object. THE "BURIALS QUESTION" SOLVED BY MR. MARTEN'S ACT. % " The defect Mr. Marten's Act professes to remedy is undeniable. If the existence " of Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, with the angry passions it has stirred, could for a " moment be forgotten, the general outline of the arrangement this Public Health Act " Amendment Act 'proposes would have naturally recommended itself. Were Mr. Osborne '' Morgan's Bill passed to-morrow, such a measure would still be necessary." — Tlie Times. The Past Session. It is a remarkable fact that althouf^h " the " Burials Question " {i.e. the attack on the Churchyards,) has been before Parliament some 20 years, ajnd although the late Session has witnessed the introduction of no less than six measures on this subject, it has been nevertheless signalised by t^e passing of a very simple Bill, introduced b} Mr. Marten, M.P., extending the Public Health Acts to the provision of Cemeteries ; — these Acts, stiange to say, having stopped short at tHe provision of " Mortuaries " for the reception of the dead. • Burial is now, as it should be, recognised as a Sanitary tiuestion ; a principle for the introduction of which the Conservative Government, by their Bill of 1877, deserve all credit. The principle, for which " the Society for the Rejection of the Burials " Bill " has all along contended, is now therefore sanctioned by Parliament — i.e., that it is the duty of the nation to bury the nation, that ever}' individual, as far as possible, should contribute towards his own resting place, that this obvious and undeniable principle cannot be honourably and fairly carried out by the State throwing its legitimate burdens on any portion of the community — i.e., as Mr. Osborne Morgan's Bill would throw them — on the Church of England onlv. What is Mr. Marten's Act? The new Act incorporates the Cemeteries Clauses Act 1847, ^i"fl i^ to be construed as one with the Public Health Act 1875. In proceeding therefore under it, reference need only be made to these two Acts. %\it flpemortte of 2>amrteti Brett)ren, anti tl)e ^atvtMtss of ti)eir 6artt)lj> laestingplaees. A C H A R G E DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF MAIDSTONE at tbe DtDinatp 1:7i0itation IN MAY, MDCCCLXXIX WITH NOTES BY BENJAMIN HARRISON, M.A. ARCHDEACON OF MAIDSTONE RIVINGTONS WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON iHagUatm Street, (©)ifort(; Ciinttw Street, CambrttJSf canterbury: a. ginder, st. George's hall; hai. drurv, mercery lane maidstone : f. bunyard MDCCCLXXIX TO THE REVEREND THE RUE AL DEANS AND CLERGY OF THE AKCHDEACONKY OF MAIDSTONE, AND TO THE CHURCHWARDENS AND SIDESMEN, PUBLISHED IN GRATEFUL COMPLIANCE WITH THE WISHES EXPRESSED BY THOSE WHO HAD LISTENED WITH DEEP AND KINDLY INTEREST TO THE MEMORIALS OF THEIR BRETHREN DEPARTED, IS IN TOKEN OF RESPECT AND REGARD FOR THE DEAD AND THE LIVING, WHO HAVE MINISTERED AND YET DO MINISTER IN THEIR VARIOUS OFFICES IN THE CHURCH OF GOD. PRECIKCTS, CANTEKBCRT, MA.T XXr. MDCCCLXXIX. uiuc \ A CHARGE My Reverend Brethren, We have been brought, " by the good hand of our God upon us," to the Eastertide of another year, and, with it, to a renewal of the duties which, in accordance with the Canons of the Church, call you together again, as Clergy of the several parishes, gathered around the centres of your respective deaneries, and with you, the Churchwardens and Sidesmen, duly representing the Laity of the Arclideaconry. We have just — and only now just — seen the end of a winter which has been truly described as one " of unusual length and severity " ; and one which has proved more than ordinarily trying to those in feeble health, or in advanced age. When the roll has just been recited of those who are called upon, in conformity with the rule of the Visitation, and the purpose of our gathering together, to answer to their names, as the responsible Ministers of the Church, put in charge, under its Divine Head, of the cure of souls in their several spheres of duty, it will seem to you, I am persuaded, to be in accordance with the dictates of a " natural piety," A 2 A CHARGE. and brotherly love, if I dwell for a few moments on tlie memories of one or two of our brethren, who have lately been taken to their rest, and wliose places are, at the present moment, unfilled. I would notice it, first, as a satisfactory and gratify- ing circumstance, how often it is our privilege to trace the tokens of respect and regard, on the part of a parish, towards its pastor, — and that when he is departed, and nothing of " flattery " can come in to "soothe the dull cold ear of death," — in cases, even, where the singularly retiring character of the person concerned would give little reason to expect such testimony to the feelings entertained towards him. It was lately mentioned in the local paper, that " on Easter Day a flagon was presented to Tong Church," in the deanery of Sittingbourne, " bv the parishioners in memory of the late Vicar, the Rev. Alfred Baldwin, who," as it was recorded, " during a period of forty years, gained the esteem and affection of those among whom he spent the greater part of his life." ^ In two instances, I would go on more par- ticularly to mention, we have very recently lost from amongst us members of our clerical brother- hood, whose term of service, as Incumbents in the Diocese, had nearly reached, or already exceeded forty years; and whose ministerial character, as seen in their lives, and sealed to us by their deaths, ^ " A box to hold the church linen and plate," it was further stated, " will be added, and will contain a suitable inscription." — Maidstone Journal, May 5, 1879. A CHARGE. 6 seems to claim our grateful remembi'ance. Of the late Rector of Harrietsham, the Rev. John Charles Buchanan Riddell, I would the rather speak because his ill-health for several years had com- pelled him to spend the winters in the South of Europe, or on the coast of Devonshire; and had also withdrawn him, to a considerable extent, from those occasions of public service, within the Diocese and the Archdeaconry, in which he would otherwise have been found zealously taking part. The parish of Harrietsham, in the deanery of Sutton, was the one scene of his pastoral work in life.^ Connected as he was, both by birth and by his marriage, with the family which, in the person especially of the late Earl of Romney, took so highly honoured a place in all works of piety and charity, of public utility or Christian interest, and gave to the Church Societies of the Diocese, and in particular to the Diocesan Education Society, a central home, if I may so speik, in the unfailing hospitalities of the Mote, his kinsman lent his earnest services for many years, as one of its Honorary Secretaries, to the Diocesan Board of Education, which had owed so much from its earliest days to the steady, unflagging support of the then Yiscount Marsham. On a vacancy occurring, in 1853, in the representation of the Clergy in the Convocation of Canterbury, by the ^ The rectory is in the gift of All Souls' College, Oxford ; of which CoUfge Mr. Riddell, originally of Christ Church, was a Fellow. A 2 4 A CHARGE. death of Dr. Mill, it was tlie desire of a large number of the Clergy to bring forward the Rector of Harrietshara to succeed him ; but when it appeared that a senior clergyman of the Arch- deaconry, and one higldy esteemed by all, the Rector of Pluckley,^ had been already com- municated with, Mr. Riddell at once withdrew. On the death, however, of Mr. Chesshyre he was elected without opposition, and continued to sit as Proctor until his state of health, some four years ago, made him desirous of resigning. In Con- vocation he was not a man of many words ; but whenever he interposed, one miglit be sure that some important principle was involved, or some questionable admission proposed which needed to be watchfully guarded. He had returned home last spring, just before the Visitation, but was obliged to absent himself in consequence of the medical opinion he had received. But he attended, in October, the Ruridecanal Meeting in the Yestry of All Saints, Maidstone, and moved there a Resolution for the appointment of a Committee to examine the statistics which had been then lately put forth, on the part of the adversaries of the Church, in regard to the amount of Church accommodation in the county of Kent, compared with that supplied by other religious bodies, or which remained unsupplied by any. ITe had spent the winter at Torquay, and seemed, to those who saw him there, much better than last 3'ear. But ' Tlic lU'v. Aslitou Oxcndcn. A CHARGE. 5 in the month of February he caught a cold which weakened him greatly ; though he did not think himself, nor did others think him, in any immediate danger. It would appear, meanwhile, that there was one thing on his mind in regard to his church of Harrietsham. He had, several years ago, restored the interior, re-seating the church, removing the western gallery, and opening the tower arch, with excellent effect. It might have been anticipated that he would himself, as Rector, simply have under- taken the chancel ; but he was anxious to carry out at once the greater work, which would not other- wise have been of very easy accomplishment ; and the chancel remained unrestored. On Saturday the 1st of March last, his eldest son coming to see him, he availed himself of the opportunity to dic- tate to him a codicil for the chancel repairs : it was never signed, but it made his wishes clear. On the following day^ Sunday, March 2nd, he had most of the Morning Service read to him at his desire ; and afterwards asked to have read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and some Prayers for the Sick, and other Devotions ; directing the reader exactly where to find the part he wanted. It was towards the evening when, inquiring after a near neighbour, an invalided clerical friend,^ he ex- pressed the wish that he might be asked to come and give him the Holy Communion. He was reminded that it had been already arranged for 1 The Rev. Frederick Mcyrick, well known in connection with the Au;ilo-Coutinental Society, and the interests of the Church at large. 6 A CHARGE. the Curate to administer it to liira tlie next morning. He answered, '* But one need not liinder the other ;" and said " it would be a great satisfaction to " him. The clerical friend soon came ; and he moved slightly, and looked at him, when he entered the room, and then began the Service. He lay quite still, his eyes open ; and seemed only keeping quiet in devout attention. But, as the prayers went on, the eye that was watching him close by saw there was no breath or movement: and at last, just before the Pra^-er of Consecration, the ministrant was stopped. He spoke to Mr. Riddell, as he lay propped up in his bed, and touched him. There was no doubt then : only no one could say which was the last moment. But it could truly be said, that " his last thoughts were of faith ; and the last sound he heard must have been the prayers which he knew and loved so well." It would seem, — may w^e not say ? — as if tliere had been to him, that evening, something like an echo of the sacred words of his Master and Lord, when He instituted that Holy Communion, " With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I sufier;"^ while, yet again, the departing spirit might seem, when the time was come, silently to have caught the sound of those other Divine words recorded in the same Gospel story, " But I say "unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." " . ^ S. Luke xxii. 15. ' S. Matt. xxvi. 29; compare S. Mark xiv. 25 ; S. Luke xxii. IS. A CHARGE. 7 It was a large gathering of his brethren of the Clergy of the deanery of Sutton and others, — more than thirty in number, — who, with the village choir of Harrietsham, and some of the choristers of St. John's, Maidstone,^ led the funeral procession, and stood by his grave, when he was carried to his last earthly resting place in his own churchyard, on the Saturday following; that day consecrated to thoughts of paradise by the Divine Creator's rest, and Christ's rest in the tomb.. He had wished to be buried among his flock, and had long before chosen the place in the churchyard, close to the entrance of the ground, of which he had himself procured the enlargement several years ago. A simple cross will mark the spot where his mortal remains lie, recording that he was for thirty- seven years Rector of Harrietsham. It will stand there, where there is " . . . . the mourners' pause, Waiting their Saviour's welcome at the gate,"^ to listen to His own Divine words of comfort and hope, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saitli ^ The church which the late Earl of Romuey built in the Mote Park. ^ Keble, "The Burial of the Dead" (Poems, p. 15). Compare TJie Christian Tear (" Burial of the Dead ") : — " Even such an awful soothing calm We sometimes see alight On Christian mourners, while they wait In silence, by some churchyard gate. Their summons to the holy rite ; And such the tones of love, which break The stillness of that hour. Quelling th' embittered spirit's strife." b A CLIAKGE. the Lord ; " and those other words, next following, speaking, even out of the dust, in calm accents of humble confidence, the stedHxst assurance handed on from patriarchal days, through the long line of " the household of faith " : "I know that my Re- deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." ^ It was on the same day of the week, three weeks later, that we were gathered again, the Clergy of the parishes around of the deanery of Shoreham, with a long train of children and grand- children, at the burial of one who had served for a yet longer period amongst us, and who was, I believe, in common parlance the " father of the Diocese," being now in his eighty-seventh year. It was just forty years ago last autumn tliat I first met Mr. Lane at Addington, when I had myself lately entered the household of Archbishop Howley. The Archbishop had first known him some twenty years before, when he was Curate of Fulham, the Archbishop residing in the palace there as Bishop * The Clergy of the deanery of Sutton, assembled at their ordinary meeting in March, by unanimous Resolution expressed " their heartfelt sympathy with " the widow of their departed brother, and her family ; and " their sincere regret at the death of" one " whom some of them" liad "been privileged to call their personal friend, and who, as a member of the Ruridecanal Chapter, a Parish Priest, and, during some years, Proctor for the Clergy of the Diocese in Convocation, was universally esteemed and beloved." A CHARGE. 9 of London ; and, at the time to wliicli I refer, he had just appointed him to the rectory of Upper Deal : and Mr. Lane was on a visit to Addington with his wife, the much-loved daughter of the pious and excellent Bishop Sandford, of Edin- burgh, and one or two of their children, on their way from Bognor, where he had held the chapelry, by the Archbishop's gift, for some few years. He was made, a few years afterwards, Rural Dean of Sandwich; and when, in 1845, he was collated by the Archbishop to the rectory of Wrotham, he became Rural Dean of Shoreham. Perhaps, in some respects, to the outward eye, there could hardly be a greater contrast than there was between these two of our brethren, thus lately taken from us, both Honorary Canons of our Cathedral, and with each his own claim to our respect and regard. In accordance with the teaching of the Apostle we may say, " the eye," bright and beaming, '' cannot say unto " the brow, grave and thoughtful, " I have no need of thee;" any more than even " the head to the feet," as the Apostle hath taught us, " I have no need of you." ^ There was in him of whom I speak now, in a signal manifestation of it, what the poet of our " Christian Year " ^ speaks of admiringly, " bliss of ctiildlike innocence, and love Tried to old age ! creative power to win, And raise new worlds, where happy fancies rove, Forgetting quite this grosser world of sin." ^ 1 Cor. xii. 21. ^ Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. 10 A CHARGE. There was a cliaracteristic freshness of mind and spirit, of wliich it must be said, that it was derived from that deep well of the ceaseless study of Holy Writ, and constant drawing from the only un- failing source of true *' light and sweetness " to man's heart and mind, the communion with God's most Holy Spirit, the Divine fountain of truth and love. It is said of Richard Hooker by his biographer, in regard to his studies, that, " as he was diligent in these, so he seemed restless in searching the scope and intention of God's Spirit revealed to mankind in the sacred Scripture." There was much that might fitly be so described in our departed friend. He would go back again and again to some passage which seemed to contain a difficulty, or to have hidden within it some deeper meaning; delighted if he obtained from any source what appeared to throw light uj^on it, or inquiring eagerly after, perhaps, some patristic or recondite authority wliich would help his eager and un- wearied search. " His love of the Scriptures," it has been truly said of him, " was intense : he spent a great portion of every day in reading them. His well-worn Bible showed how constantly it was used ; " while " the very many written pages of his thoughts declared most plainly how he searched and loved the Scriptures." There was in him in a great degree that which our Lord's parable describes as cliaracteristic of " the kingdom of A CHARGE. 11 heaven," that it is " like unto treasure hid in a field ; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." ^ And the things which he sought out there were not such as the Apostle to Timothy speaks of, as those " which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith ; " ^ " questions and strifes of words whereof Cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings : " ^ it was rather in the spirit in which, as Isaac Walton says of the subject of his simple biography, " the good man would often say, that ' the Scripture was not writ to beget pride and disputations, and opposition to govern- ment ; but moderation, and charity, and humility, and obedience, and peace, and piety in mankind ; of which no good man did ever repent himself upon his death-bed.' " * " There was one subject," it was said in regard to Canon Lane, in the address made to his flock on the day following his funeral, by him who had for several years been work- ing under him,^ "one subject he loved above all others to dwell upon. How many " of them, they were reminded, had " heard him speak of it at length again and again." "I mean," said 1 S. Matt. xiii. 44. ^ 1 Tim. i. 4. ^ Chap. vi. 4, 5. * Walton's Lives, cd. Zouch, vol. i. pp. 340, 341. ^ In Memoriam. A Sermou preached in St. George's Church, Wrotham, oa Sunday, March 30th, 1879, on the death of the Rev. Canon Lane, Rector of Wrotham, wh.o died on Sunday, 23rd March, 1879, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. By the Rev. J, 11. Jaquet, M.A. Published by request. 12 A CHARGE. tlie preacher, " our Lord's Prayer, and especially that clause of it where we are taught to pray for God's Holy Spirit in the words ' Give us this day our daily bread.' " And, indeed, the Church has taught us in her Catechism that, in this petition, we " pray unto God that he will send us all things tliat be needful both for our souls and bodies."^ " We know full well how earnestly he himself daily prayed for an outpouring of this same Holy SjDirit, and what a special day in his calendar was Wliit- sunday ! You will remember," it was said, " how earnestly he spoke to you on this day, the very last time he addressed you in this church ; and we rejoice that his last words were about this loved subject of it." It was mentioned on that same occasion, that " his first prayer every morning (and it is believed it had been so from a child) was for tlie outpouring of God's Holy Spirit upon him. His custom was to rise early, and meditate and write upon holy things. He used to say his early morning thoughts were the best ; and nothing delijrhted him more than to communicate these thoughts to others during the day, with the hope of influencing them for good." And " as his life was," it has been well and truly said, "so was his death .... No fear nor sign of fear. Happy in death ! His countenance " — always beaming brightly — " lit up in his last hours by the recital several times of the Prayer he so delighted * See Note A. A CHARGE. 13 in, and by the reading of passages from the Scrip- tures, and the consolations of rehgion ; surrounded by those he loved, severally blessing his children, like the patriarch Israel," and desiring for himself the last blessing of the Church ; amidst the prayers of those who were gathered around him, and with the Church's solemn Commendatory Prayer, com- mending the soul into the hands of a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour, " he passed into the presence of Grod." As in the case of his brother 23resbyter, it was on the Sunday, the day of Christ's Resurrection, that he also was taken to his rest ; in this case not in the " solemn eventide," but " very early in the morning," before " it began to dawn toward the first day of the week": in the hours which he had loved for meditation and prayer, it was given to him, like Simeon of old, to " depart in peace." On the Saturday following, as I have said, — on a day which, like that earlier one at Harrietsham was, in its sunny brightness, a cheering contrast to the days on either side of it, — he was laid, beside the grave of his wife and two of his children that had gone before him, close under the eastern window of his chancel, on the restoration of which to its original beauty, with its new painted windows, commemorative of the four Evan- gelists, he had bestowed much thought and care ; effecting at the same time a restoration of the entire church from a state of dreary desolation to a con- dition worthy of its pristine dignity, and well 14 A CHARGE. befitting the office which its Rector held of Rural Dean. I may mention also, that he had Luilt excellent schools in the village itself, and in an outlying part of the parish ; the latter at the same time making temporary provision for religious service for a growing population at Borough Green, far removed from the parish church. I have lingered, my Reverend Brethren, — not longer, I am persuaded, than your own feelings would approve, — on the memories, still fresh in our minds, of those whose places, vacant in this our sacred assembly^ know them now no more. If, in the early days of the Gospel, this was the Apostolic exhortation given to the disciples of the Hebrew Church, " Remember them which have had the rule over you, which have spoken unto you the word of God ; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation " ^ — contemplating their course on to its close, to the last scene of their eartlily trial ^ — it is iStting, assuredly, that such remembrances should have a place in the thoughts of those who cannot but be reminded solemnly, by the duties which call them together in Visitation, that they have, each of them, their share in the same holy ministry which these their brethren, through God's mercy and goodness, have thus faithfully fulfilled, and which, in their case, has been graciously brought to its close not without tokens » Heb. xiii. 7. ^ S)V duadeupovvTts rijv fKfiaaiv T^r dvncrrpoffitjs. fiifielaBt Tt)v TTicrriv, Set' Note B. A CHARGE. 15 which we may thankfully recognise, of His tender lovingkindness and favour, of whom the holy Psalmist hath said, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." ^ And in a world — and an age of the world's history, in its onward course — in which men are too much disposed to walk " by sight," not " by faith," it is well that they should have recalled to their minds from time to time, that it is not only those who are commonly spoken of as having "left their mark" on the age in which they lived, who are to be remembered by Christian men ; that, as has been truly said, " the world's benefactors " are to a great extent " un- known " ; that the eye of Him who " seeth not as man seeth " rests upon many a hidden page of that " book of remembrance " which hath been "written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name " ; ^ and that, meanwhile, in many a country parsonage, with no thought, or view, beyond the immediate objects of the pastor's tender care, the souls which Christ died to save, there has been silently at work, in no small measure, and through many a long year, the " care and study," of which the Ordinal speaks, as " necessary " for an office " both of so great excellency^ and of so great difficulty." There are men " studious in reading and learning the Scriptures"; endeavouring, "by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures," as the Exhortation ^ Psalm cxvi. 15. " Right dear in the sight of the Lord." — P. B. Version. 2 Mai. iii. 10. IG A CTTAKr.K. in the " Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests " so emphatically repeats and so earnestly enforces, to wax " riper and stronger in " their " ministry " ; " diligent," accordingly, as they promised to be, " in prayers," as well as in this " reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the know- ledge of the same"; and thereby giving their "faith- ful diligence always," — so far as in them lies, amidst the difficulties which beset their course, in these latter days especially, — " so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church and Realm hath received the same, according to the Com- mandments of Grod ; " looking supremely to Him, and labouring humbly to commend themselves and their work in His sight, who gave them their high commission, appointed them their several posts of duty, and, in His own good time in the case of all His servants, — a time perhaps long waited for in patience, perhaps coming suddenly " in such an hour as " they " think not," — will call each one from his labour to his rest, and grant to him, if he have proved himself, through Christ's grace and power, a " good and faithful servant," to " enter into the joy of" his Lord.^ It is to you, my Reverend Brethren, partakers of this holy ministry, that the words of brotherly counsel, or sympathy, which are looked for on ' S. Matt. XXV. 21-23. A CHARGE. 17 these occasions from those in conformity with whose citation you are gathered to the Ordinary Annual Visitation, are immediately and directly addressed. But I do not forget, that an important part — I might say, perhaps, more properly, the essential part — of our assembly here consists of those lay representatives of the several parishes visited, who are called upon to give evidence, and bear true witness, as to the matters concerning which inquiry is to be made by lawful authority. And, as I have thus far spoken to you of those, members of our own brotherhood, who have lately been taken from our sight, I should be neglecting a duty if I did not now go on specially to refer, in regard to the body of Churchwardens and Sidesmen in attendance at the Visitation, to two of their company who, since we last met, have been called away, from the midst of active duty, and in the prime of life, and, in both cases, with a sad and startling suddenness ; both Churchwardens of one deanery, of Sutton ; and both of them men who, in different circumstances, had faithfully applied them- selves to this office, as well as to others which they had undertaken in their several spheres of public duty, and usefulness amongst their fellow-men. I had occasion, at my Visitation at Maidstone last year, to express my regret at missing the customary presence of one who was wont to occupy a prominent place in our gathering there, the honourable member for the City of Rochester, B 18 A CnARGE. kindly serving as Churchwarden of the parish of Leeds/ whose absence, I could not doubt, was in consequence of important duties elsewhere. It was with a great sliock that ten days afterwards, when I had lying before me the page, only that morning received in type, on which I had recorded his name, in connection with the good deed which he had purposed, in a large and liberal gift towards the restoration of the ancient church of his parish of Leeds, that the intelligence came, in the morning papers, that he had died, by a sudden seizure, the day before, in the library of the House of Commons. He had been speaking there, it appeared, with a friend in reference to a sudden death that had occurred, when his own summons came. My last thoughts ot him were associated not only with kind and genial courtesy, in his official relations with myself in connection with the yearly Visita- tion, but also with the remembrance of the great kindness and consideration which he had sliowu towards the aged vicar of Lceds,^ who had then lately died, and to the sadly bereaved widow he had left behind him. His faithful parishioner and Churchwarden had given proof of a true and genuine kindness and goodwill " towards the house of our God and to the offices thereof," which 1 rhilip Wykcliam Martin, Esq., M.P., of Leeds Castle. 2 The Kev. William Uuikitt, M.A., who died in 1877, a;:;ed 78 ; havin;j; been for thirty-four years Yicar of Lccds-with-lirooniOcld ; a laborious cure, with two churches to serve, and, till lately, with a very inadequate income. A CHARGE. 19 was not to be forgotten amidst tlie regrets of his neighbours, and of the tenantry of Leeds Castle, which followed him to the tomb. It was at a later period in the year that a feeling which might be fitly described as something like consternation, was awakened among his neighbours and friends in the town of Maidstone, by the intelligence of the sudden death of one of their fellow-townsmen, who held a high place in their respect and esteem, Mr. Henry Hughes ; the zealous and excellent Churchwarden, for very many years, of St. Peter's parish, and then lately of the new parish, the creation of which was so greatly owing to his exertions, of St. Michael and All Angels_ He had been in London the day before — his ac- customed day of weekly business there — employed that day very much in a matter which affected the interests of his native town, and therefore failed not to call forth his zealous and effective services. He had felt somewhat indisposed, and consulted his medical adviser on his return, and by his advice went to bed ; within a few hours, " in the morning watch," the thread of life was snapped, and he was gone. I cannot but speak, from ample knowledge, of the valuable qualities which distinguished him, because of the communications I had with him, through several years, in regard to the object which he had deeply at heart, viz. the making a more satisfactory arrangement for St. Peter's n 2 20 A CHARGE. parish, and obtaining a larger supply of spiritual oversight for the greatly increased, and rapidly increasing, population of the West Borough. It was a matter full of complicated difficulty, which could only have been overcome by his earnest but quiet zeal, his patient perseverance, conciliatory counsels combined with strong Church principle, without any party feeling, and the accurate and practised legal knowledge which he could bring to bear on the subject. He was distinguished, also, I must add, by that bountiful liberality, in works of piety and charity, which I have had occasion so often gratefully to acknowledge, as shown by Maidstone Churchmen. In addition to other active duties he had only last year kindly consented to act as Honorary Solicitor to the Diocesan Education Society. For many years he was a member of the Town Council of Maidstone, representing the West Borough Ward ; " and his assiduous and conscientious dis- charge of his duties," it was, I believe, truly said of him, " won alike the appreciation of his fellow- councillors and of the inhabitants generally." Three years ago he filled, with efficiency and acceptance, the office of Mayor ; his year of office, it so chanced, being that of the Archbishop's Visitation, which combined with it other events and circumstances of I'eligious and general interest, such as made it in some sort memorable in the ecclesiastical history of Maidstone. " By his A CHARGE. 21 death, Maidstone," it was truthfully recorded, " lost one of her most trusted public men, a true- hearted Christian gentleman, and an upright and straightforward member of an honourable and useful profession." On the day of his funeral, it was observed, a stranger coming into the town would perceive that some one highly honoured there had been taken away ; the principal shops and houses closed, along the line which the funeral procession had to traverse through the town, from his house in the West Borough to the churchyard of Boxley ; and the Mayor and Corporation, and other leading inhabitants, attending at his grave. If these, and other like " instances of mor- tality," which have marked, with more than ordinary solemnity and sadness, the past year, downward from the Royal House with its much loved children, and the sacred dwelling of our own Archbishop, overshadowed as it has been by renewed and deepest sorrow ; — the towers and palaces of princes, in more than one case, visited somewhat strangely, otherwise than as the poet of old described the common lot, in the affliction which death brings to them alike and to the cottages of the poor ; ^ — if saddening occurrences like these have taught us with impressive force, that " in the midst of life we are in death," what other lesson do they read to us, my Reverend ' HoR. Od. lib. I. iv. See Note C. 22 A CHARGK. Brethren — speaking herein " to us " especially, but, in the same tones, " even to all,'' ' — than that which is contained in those words of our Divine Master and Lord, which form the first utterance given to the voice of the deacon, when he has just been admitted, by the privilege of his ordination, to " take authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God ;" — words, let me add, which, in their tones of solemn warning, and withal of overwhelming condescension and grace, cannot fail to sink deeper and deeper into our hearts, as our course of humble service holds on toward the end — "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burn- ing ; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding ; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Terily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." ^ But it is not only thoughts of man's mortality that the scenes amidst which we have been jmssing would fix deeply on our minds ; there are thoughts beyond, brighter and more blessed, breathing the very atmosphere of the Apostle's words of holy triumph, inspired by Christ's Resurrection ; those words which, in the ' S, Luke xii. 11 ; comp. verse 43. ^ lb. 35-38. A CHARGE. 23 Church's calm and soothing ritual, brace us to stand sorrowing, but with holy comfort, beside the open grave of those whom we love ; telling us of Death robbed of his sting, and the grave of its victory, and " the victory " given to us, " through our Lord Jesus Christ." " Therefore, my beloved brethren," saith the Apostle, "be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord ; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." ^ Of the various undertakings of Christian zeal and piety, " in the work of the Lord," which have been completed, or taken in hand, since we last met — within the special sphere of the Archdeacon's office, in regard to the fabrics of our churches, and the services performed in them — I will now briefly speak. The internal restoration of the parish church of St. Nicholas, Sevenoaks, so far as concerns the main part of the work, in fulfilment of the contract first entered into, was happily accomphshed, and the church reopened in November last. I had ventured strongly to recom- mend the taking the work in hand, in justice to a noble fabric, the fair proportions of which were grievously disguised or hidden by the arrange- ments of the interior, as well as in justice to the religious interests of the worshippers within its walls. The result has, I believe, more than realised the expectations which were formed con- ^ 1 Cor. XV. 58. 24 A CUAKGE. • cerning it ; and what remains to be done, to com- plete the fitting up of tlie middle space of the body of the church, with seats corresponding with the side aisles, and the placing of stalls in the now beautifully restored chancel, will, I doubt not, ere long be eflfected. The restoration and enlargement — I might almost call it the rebuilding — of the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Tunbridge, a work involving great cost, and which promises to be highly successful, is nearly approaching comple- tion ; and the church will be ready for its re- dedication to Divine Service on the 11th of next month. The unavoidable necessity for leaving it so long in the hands of the workmen would have been more seriously felt, had it not been for the new church of St. Saviour's, erected a few years ago, by the munificence of the patron, for the supply of additional church room and pastoral ministrations to the new neighbourhood which had arisen at the northern end of the town. And I hope I may now report that plans are under consideration — after having been for a long time delayed by circumstances which, I earnestly trust, will no longer hinder the work — for the building of a new church in the parish of St. Stephen's, formed some five-and-twenty years ago, at the southern end of Tunbridge, amidst the population which had grown up rapidly near the South-Easteru Railway station ; and for the forma- A CHARGE. 25 • tion now of a district, to be attached to the new church, reHeving St. Stephen's of an overburdened charge, and providing for the spiritual wants of a neighbourhood which is certain to attract to it a great increase of small houses and villas. The restoration and reseating of the church of Charing, an important work which I spoke of last year as in hand, is all but finished, and the church will be reopened before the end of next week. Kenniugton, in the same deanery of East Charing, was completed last year ; the chancel restored by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with an organ chamber added at the cost of a parishioner ; the east window filled with stained glass by a landowner of the parish, as a memorial of his father ; the reparations and refurnishing including new roofs to chancel and nave, and entirely new fittings for the church. The church of Loose, in the deanery of Sutton, has been effectively restored since the fire which destroyed great part of it, and has been much improved. The church of Leeds, already referred to, in the same deanery — a church which, more than any other, perhaps, in the Arch- deaconry, demanded and well deserved the careful hand of the restorer — is now undergoing restoration, without sacrifice of its characteristic features ; and the same may be said of the smaller village churcli of Wormshill, where a side chapel belonging to Christ's Hospital is, by a very desirable arrange- ment, to be thoroughly repaired by the Governors, 26 A COARGE. • being at the same time made over to the parish, for the better accommodation of the parishioners. In the Isle of Sheppey an important work has just now been completed — by dint, I must say, of exemplary patience and indomitable perse- verance — in the transfer of the patronage of Queenborough by the Mayor and Corporation into the hands of the Archbishop, with the augmenta- tion effected, from different sources, of a miserably endowed vicarage of 90/. to 2001. a year ; to be followed now, it is hoped, by the repair and re- storation of the church. The design of restoring the ancient jiriory church of Minster, in Sheppey, the mother church of the island, is also going forward, and will, I trust, be carried into effect. At the other end of the Archdeaconry, in the deanery of East Dartford, the church of Bexley, in which an extraordinary proportion of the area has been, in former times, most injuriously taken possession of by faculty pews, is now by a reso- lution of the parish to be repaired and reseated ; under the powers of a faculty which has been applied for, and which will, doubtless, be able — as in like cases, generally — to adjust satisfactorily the rights claimed thus by faculty with tlje rightful claims of the parishioners at large in their parish church. In the deanery of West Dartford, Mayes church has had a south transept added, opened only a few days ago (Sunday, May 4), with an organ chamber and vestry, at the cost of a parishioner ; A CHARGE. 27 t and a south aisle also built by him, the seats in which are by express condition to be free and unaj3propriated for ever. In the parish of Beck- enham, of the enormous increase of which in population I spoke last year, a new church. Holy Trinity, Lower Penge, has been built, with a par- sonage, the whole costing something like 12,000^.^ the munificent gift of the founder ; ^ a district of 4200 people to be attached to the new church. In the parish of Bromley, with its population also greatly increasing, a new church is to be built, con- taining, ultimately, accommodation for 800 ; grants to which have just been made by the Diocesan Church Building Society, and the parent Incor- porated Society. And the church of Knockholt is about to be enlarged, by the addition of a new aisle.^ Last, but not least, to speak of the chief town of the Archdeaconry and of the county, I have already alluded to the new church and parish of St. Michael and All Angels, Maidstone, lately formed out of the parish of St. Peter's, in connection with the loss it has recently sustained in the lamented death of its Churchwarden. The building of the church, with the formation of the new parish, has been marked by a succession of instances of that ever ready liberality of which I have spoken as distin- guishing the Churchmen of Maidstone. The Eural Dean, officially inspecting the church for the fiirst 1 E. Peek, Esq. 2 ggg ^^^^^ jy^ 28 A CHARGE. time, the other day, in the entry which he made in the parish minute-book, congratulated the inliahit- auts of the parish "on the perfect condition and beauty of their church;" remarking that it was *' replete with munificent gifts, of which the organ, the peal of bells, and the clock," had " been given since the time of the opening," and I may add, in quick succession. The undertaking now in hand to complete the good work as regards the newly formed parish, by the building of a parsonage- house is a very important object, the difficulty of obtaining a residence for the Yicar being very great ; but a grant in aid has now lately been obtained, I am glad to say, from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the object is, I hope, secured. The loss sustained by the much-regretted departure of the first appointed Yicar,^ has been hapjDily made good to the parish in the person of his suc- cessor ; ^ and while, by a somewhat singular coinci- dence, on the same day on which the new Yicar of the oldest church in Maidstone was collated to his benefice, the collation took place of the new In- cumbent of this the youngest parish of all, the kindest and best good wishes, meanwhile, from numerous friends have followed, to their new spheres of labour, those who were quitting their scene of ' 'J'hc Rev. Edward Buckmaster, M.A., appointed to the Vicarage of Epping. ^ The Rev. John Mastcrman Braithwaite, M.A., late Curate of Ratnsgate. A CHAEGE. 29 duty here — in the one ease/ after four-and-twenty years of ministerial charge ; desiring heartily for them His favour and blessing who, in His gracious providence, determines, for each of His servants, whatever be their office or order in His Church, " the times appointed " for them, " and the bounds of their habitation." Before, however, I pass on from the mention of the good works which have been completed, or are in hand, at Maidstone, I must record, that the munificent memorial offering of which I spoke last year, as designed for St. Philip's Church, in the new chancel and the tower — a great improvement to the church and an ornament to the town — is just finished, and that the re-consecration of the church will take place within a few days hence (May 28th). I would mention also, in passing, the recent improving and adorning of St. Stephen's, Tovil ; and this the rather, inasmuch as one of the painted windows recently given bears upon it an inscription, recording that it was " erected by the Congregation of this Church in grateful remem- brance of their spiritual blessings and temporal comforts, a.d. 1878." Nor must I leave unnoticed that it has been lately resolved to erect, by subscrip- tion, a new organ in the church of All Saints, at a ^ The Rev. David Dale Stewart, M.A., lately appointed by the Archbishop to the rectory of Coulsdun, Surrey ; and succeeded at All Saints, Maidstone, by the Ven. Thomas Dealtry, M.A., some time Archdeacon of Madras. 30 A COARGE. cost of not less than IGOOZ. ; the greater part of which sum has already been raised/ In connection with tlie subject of new churches and increased church accommodation, I would refer, somewhat more particularly, to what I have already alluded to, the movement made at the Ruri- decanal Meeting of the deanery of Sutton, on the motion of our brother the Rector of Ilarrietsham, for a committee to examine the report and tables of elaborate statistics lately put forth, — not avowedly, indeed, but not the less actually, as matter of fact, — in the interests of the " Liberation Society." ^ It was a piece of policy, more skilful than fair, putting foremost the county of Kent in an inquiry which, it would seem, is intended to go on and include all England, to give this county precedence because it contains the first diocese of the Church of Eng- land, the metropolitical See, ignoring the fact that the districts in which the amount of spiritual desti- tution is the greatest do not, and never did, form part of the Diocese of Canterbury ; I mean the suburban parishes of Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich, with other populous parishes adjoining them ; and, again, the town of Grravesend with Milton, and the city of Rochester, with the large ' See Note E. '^ The jmblicalion is entitled, Provision for rublic Worship in the County of Kent: a Full Analysis of the Accommoilation i>rovie Orat.), ]ieculiar to the New Testament, and marking the newness of the precept involved in this petition, seems to be formed in the same way as Trepioixnos (superfluous), and is contrasted with it, and signifies what is necessary, not nepi-ovcnov, but sufficient for our ova-'ia or existence ; hence apros eniova-ios is the same as ''pn UTw Qehem huki) in Agur's prayer, Prov. xxx. 8 ; and this petition appears to be derived from'^it (Mede)." In the " New Testament Commentary for English Readers," now in course of publication, under the editorship of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Professor Plumptre says, " A strange obscurity hangs over the words that are so familiar to us. The word translated 'daily' is found nowhere else, with the one exception of the parallel passage in Luke xi. 3 ; and, so far as we can judge, must have been coined for the purpose, as the best equivalent for the unknown Aramaic word which our Lord actually used." [This is what Origen says.] " We are ac- cordingly thrown partly on its possible derivation, partly on what seems (compatibly with its derivation) most in harmony with the spirit of our Lord's teaching. The form of the word (see Note in Excursus) admits of the meanings, (1) bread sufficient for the day now coming ; (2) sufficient for the morrow ; (3) sufficient for existence ; (4) over and above material substance — or, as the Vulgate renders it, panis super- stantialis. Of these (1) and (2) are the most commonly received ; andf^- the idea conveyed by them is expressed in the rendering 'daily bread.' So taken, it is a simple petition, like the prayer of Agur in Prov. xxx. 8, for ' food convenient for us ' ; and as such, has been uttered by a thousand childlike hearts, and has borne its witness alike against over-anxiety and far-reaching desires for outward prosperity. It is not without some W/ 48 A CHARGE. hesitation," says Professor Plumptre, " in face of so general a concurrence of autliority, that I find myself constrained to say that the last mean- ing seems to me the truest. Let us remember (1) the words with which our Lord had answered the Tempter, ' Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedcth out of the mouth of God (Matt. iv. 4) ; (2) His application of those words in ' I have meat to eat that ye know not of (John iv. 32); (3) His own use of bread as the symbol of that which sustains the spiritual life (John vi. 27-58); (4) the warnings in verses 25-31, not only against anxiety about what we shall eat and drink, but against seeking those things instead of seeking simply the kingdom of God and His righteousness — and we can scarcely fail, I think, to see that He meant His disciples, in this pattern Prayer, to seek for the nourishment of the higher and not the lower life. So taken, the petition, instead of being a contrast to the rest of the Prayer, is in perfect harmony with it ; and the whole raises us to the region of thought in which we leave all that concerns our earthly life in the hands of our Father, without asking Him even for the supply of its simplest wants, seeking only that He would sustain and perfect the higher life of our spirit. So when we ask for ' daily bread,' we mean not common food, but the ' Bread from heaven, which giveth life unto the world.' So the reality of which the Eucharistic bread is the symbol is the Lord's gracious answer to the Prayer He has taught us." Dean Alford, after examining other derivations, observes that, " return- ing to the derivation from dvai, which has in its favour the authority of the Greek fathers, especially of Origen and of the Peschito {indigentice nostrce), Tholuck thinks it most [irobable that it is fonned after the analogy of Trepiovaios, from the substantive olala. The substantive signifies not merely existence . . . but also subsistence, compare Luke XV. 12, w^here to eiri^dWov fiepos ttjs ovaias is a curious illustration of this word. And even were ovaia existence only, it would still be open for us to take the meaning of the Greek fathers, 6 eVl ttj ova-la fipav Knl (rv(TTd(Tfi TTJs (oiTjs a-vfj.^aX\6fi(i>os, — Theophylact. Similarly Chry- sostom, Basil, Gregory Nyssen ; and Suidas, and the Etymol. Mag. Then (niovcTios will be ' required for our subsistence * — ' proper for our suste- nance'; . . • so that 6 apros 6 eTriovaios will be equivalent to St. James's TO fTTtrijSeta rov crw/iaToj (ii. 16) ; and the expressions are rendered in Syriac by the same word." Our English word " essential," it may be remarked, reflects somewhat of the same idea. " It yet remains to inquire," says Dean Alford, " how far the expres- sion may be understood sjjirituaUy — of the Bread of Life. The answer," he would say, " is easy, viz. that we may safely thus understand it, provided we keep in the foreground its primary physical meaning, and view the other as involved by implication in that. . . Augustine well says (Serm. Iviii. 4 [5] vol. v. pt. 1) : ' Quicquid animaj nostrje et carni nostra3 in hac vita necessarium est, quotidiano i)ane concluditur.' The A CHARGE. 49 Vulgate rendering, swperstantiaUm [substituted for the old Latin A^ quotidiamim'j, tallies weu with a large class of patristic interi^retatious, ""^X which understand the word to point exclusively to the spiritual food of the Word and Sacraments." "The literal and spiritual," says Mr. Isaac Williams (on St. Luke xi. 3), " are ever in Scripture to be combined : it is essential to our well-being that we look for our daily bread from God ; it is equally so that we seek not that bread which perisheth, but that which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give, '['he Church hath ever taken it in both senses, never exclusively." — Gospel Narra- tive of Our Lord's Ministry (Third Year), p. 307. The foregoing brief outline and summary may sufBce to show how much reason our departed brother had to search into the deep and full meaning, in the original, of a single word in Christ's Divine Prayer ; " so familiar to us," and yet which is so often used with but little thought of all that it contains. It may well be a satisfaction also to find how well both the etymological import, apparently, and the spiritual mean- ing of the word are represented in the simple interpretation given to the children of our people in the Church Catechism, " I pray unto God that he will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies." NOTB B. " It is plain from what follows here (e. g. eXaXTja-av and '4Kfia(nvy\ as Dean Alford observes, " that the course of these fjyovfievoi is past, and it is remembering with a view to imitation that is enjoined." '"Your leaders' (ijyou/iej/ot), cf. vv. 17, 24, are their leaders in the faith. . , . It is a word of St. Luke's, cf. Acts xv. 22, Luke xxii. 26." " The aorist (ekaXrjaav) shows that this operation was over, and numbers these leaders among those in ch. ii. 3, as those who heard the Lord. . . . " 'AvadecopovvTfs — 'Ava-deape'iv, like dva-^r]T€lv, to contemplate, a search from one end to the other. Bleek quotes from Winer, De verborum cum praspositionibus compositis in N. T. usu, p. iii., 'aliquem rerum seriem ita oculis perlustrare, ut ab imo ad summum, ab extremo ad principium pergas.' . . . "Tijv eK^aa-iv — the termination by death. . . . We have €^o8os in the sense of death, Luke ix. 31 ; 2 Pet. i. 15 : and acpi^is, Acts xx. 29. It is perhaps to be inferred that these died by martyrdom, as Stephen, James the brother of John, and possibly . . . James the brother of the Lord, and possibly, too, St. Peter. So the ancient Commentators. . . . " Trjs avaaTpo(f)ris — of their conversation, i. e. their Christian be- haviour, walk, course. No English word completely gives it." To the same effect the Bishop of Lincoln, in loc, " In bidding them to remember them, and to consider the ncd of their conversation, D 50 A CHARGE. he is referring to those who had died for Christ at Jerusalem, particu- larly to St. Stephen, the First Martyr, and to his preaching (Acts vii. 1-00), and to St. James, the first Martyr Apostle (Acts xii. 1, 2), and to St. James, their first Bishop, whose memory might well be revered by St. Paul ; because the death of St. James was a consequence of St. Paul's own dtliverance from the Jews about three years (as is probable) before the date of this Epistle. So Euseb. ii. 23," NOTE C. In Francis's translation, the saying of the Roman ix)et assumes this fomi — "With equal pace impartial Fate Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate." But Horace, to do him justice, says nothing about " Fate." He simply tells us, " Pale Death with equal foot knocks at the cottages of the poor and the towers of kings " — " Pallida Mors ajquo pulsat pede paupcrum tabernas Eegumque turres." But when the fatal malady at Darmstadt took away from us the beloved Princess whose death cast so dark a shadow of grief over the whole of her native land, and called forth feelings as deep and warm as if she had never left the shores of England, it could not but be felt as a remarkable circumstance that there was no diphtheria in the town of Darmstadt, where it might with more likelihood have been looked for, when it came to the gate of the palace, and bore away first the child from the mother's tender embrace, and then the Royal mother herself, from the midst of her ministries of love and devotion. But the strange recurrence of dates, when that fatal 14th of December called up to memory the events of the years 1861 and 1871, was such as could not allow for a moment the idea of chance, any more than of fate, to come in. And the thought could not but bring its consolation to those whose minds were fixed thereby at once on the Divine hand of Him who " doth not afiiict willingly nor grieve the children of men " with- out some gracious and loving purpose ; of Him who is "our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes," and who doth from His " throne behold all the dwellers upon earth." Mysterious indeed are His doings, and " He giveth not account of any of his matters," as was said to the sufferer of elder days, in words of divinely inspired wisdom (Job xxxiii. 13) ; but in the case of the pious Psalmist, when lie records, amidst anxious musings, "the victory," as our Translators give it, " which he had, by consideration of God's great and gracious works" (see heading to Psalm Ixxvii.), if this was the reflection of his deepest thoughts, " Thy way is in the sea, and A CHARGE. 51 thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps arc not known," he could add, as the last calming and soothing impression upon his inmost spirit, " Thou leddest thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron " (Psalm Ixxvii. 19, 20). It was so in like manner when " again there " was " mourning in the Royal Household " ; when " the third son of the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany, Prince Waldemar, fell a victim to the same insidious disease that desolated the Darmstadt family last December " (Letter from Dusseldorf of March 29, in the Guardian, April 2). " The young Prince began to complain on Monday of sore throat, which rapidly developed into diphtheritis ; and on Wednesday night the swelling had so spread that jireparations were made for tracheotomy. But towards three o'clock on Thursday morning the breathing grew better, and the doctors advised the Crown Prince and Princess, who had watched in the room through the night, to retire ; and the young Prince cheerfully wished them, in English, * Good night.' These were his last words ; for half an hour later, a sudden spasm of the heart unexpectedly ended his life. Prince Waldemar was the third of the sons, but fifth child, of the Crown Prince : he was born on February 10, 1868 " — a well-known day in England, the anniversary of the Queen's marriage. There was no diphtheria prevailing in Berlin when Death thus visited the Royal palace. In a letter from Wiesbaden, of April 4th, it was said, " Our dear Princess is admirable in her efforts to be resigned to God's will, and to uphold and comfort the Crown Prince ; but their grief is a tenibly heavy one ! He was such a noble, straight- forward boy ! " The language of the writer, so natural and expressive, bears witness to full knowledge of the character of the young Prince. There is a simple and beautiful inscription on a gravestone in Canter- bury Cathedral which may not unfitly be referred to here. It was laid over the grave of a child, the grandson of Dean Bargrave. " Here," says Dart " (amid the ashes of his father, brothers, John, Isaac, and Henry, and his sister Jane Bargrave), lies Robert, son of Robert, the only son surviving of Dr. Isaac Bargrave, late Dean of this Cathedral ; who died the 28th of August, 1659 (but newly five years old), and left his sad parents thus bewailing him. . . . Here also lies at the right side of this child, Isaac Bargrave, his brother, who died the 10th of July, 1663." " Farewell, sweet Boy, and farewell all, in thee. Blest parents can in their best children see ; Thy life, to woo us unto Heaven, was lent us, Thy death, to wean us from the world, is sent us." D 2 52 A CnARGE. NOTE D. Of the works of church restoration and improvement spoken of in the Charge, one or two, which have been brought to completion since the delivery of it, demand a few supplemental words of more particular notice. The parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Tunbridgc, as' has been said, almost rebuilt, was re-dedicated to Divine Service, according to the intention expressed, on June 11th. The outlay, altogether, including many separate and costly offerings, exceeded 12,000Z., and was raised in a manner which ought to be thankfully recorded, and which may be described, in sacred words, as a " gift bestowed by the means of many iJersons," in some cases with more than ordinary muniBcence. The patron, John Deacon, Esq., headed the subscriptions with a contribution of 3000/., to which he has since added 1000?. ; " while Mrs. Deacon has, as a special gift from herself, presented the church with a new pulpit in oak and teak combined, on a pedestal of carved stone. The fine old tower has been completely restored at the sole expense of the Misses Deacon, of 39, Eaton Square ; who have also given the new clock, which has been placed in the church tower. One munificent donor — known only to the committee as 'A Relation of Mr. Deacon ' — has placed at the disposal of the committee the sum of 1500/. towards the reseating of the church in teak." They " are able to state that the above sum will entirely effect the purpose for which it was given ; so that the seats in the body of the church will remain an abiding memorial of this one benefactor." " The committee," in their report lately put forth, " desire to record their warmest acknowledgments of their indebtedness to ^Ir. Deacon and several members of his ftimily, for the liberality with which they have supported tliis great undertaking. It is not too much to say that but for their aid success could not have been achieved." Set on foot by so munificent a gift from the patron, " subscriptions began to flow in apace." " Past and present residents in the town, i^ast and present masters and pupils of Tunbridge School, and many gene- rous neighbours, were ready at once with their contributions." And it was announced on the day of the reoiwniug of the church, that the Worshijiful Company of Skinners, the Governors of Tunbridge School, had given GOO/, to the work. " The best thanks of the committee are also " oflcred to the ladies (Mrs. Edward Welldon and Mrs. Little) " for the beautiful font which adorns the west entrance to the nave. The font has cost about 80/., and is from a design of the architect (Mr. Ewan Christian). A large part of the money has been contributed, through Mrs. Little, by A CHARGE. 53 persons baptized in the church ; and the remainder by Mrs. E. Welldon and her daughters, as part proceeds oi' a sale of work held at Juddc House, principally for this purpose." A separate fund had been set on foot for a new organ; and half the sum, 800^., required for it had already been raised. The subscri[)tions to the General Fund included one of 500/. by W. S. Deacon, Esq. ; of 300Z. by the llev. T. B. Kowe, Head Master of Tunbridge School ; of 2001., each, by C.'aptain Bartram (late Churcli- warden), Mrs. Nottidge, the late Horatio Beeching, Esq., A. T. Beeching, Esq., and Alfred H. Beeching, Esq. ; and of 1001., each, by the Rev. E. J. Welldon, Second Master of the- School, W. Gorham, Esq., Messrs. Beeching, the late John Milles, Esq., the Rev. Canon Welldon, D.C.L. (late Head Master), E. Cazalet, Esq. (and a second donation of equal amount), the Rev. S. S. Greatheed, W. Burra, Esq., G. C. Courthope, Esq., and Sir Julian Goldsmid, Bart., M.P. ; and 50/., each, by the Rev. J. R. Little, G. Stenning, Esq., Mrs. Pierce Seaman, Major AV. J. and Mrs. Blackburue Maze, Messrs. Curtis and Harvey, Messrs. G. Punuett and Sons (the builders), Julian Senior, Esq., the Rev. John T. Manley (the Vicar), and the Rev. T. W. and Mrs. Carr. The Canterbury Diocesan Church Building Society granted loOl., and the Incorporated Church Building Society 200/. towards the work. The restoration and reseating of the church of Charing, which I reported in my Charge as all but finished, and the church to be re- opened before the end of the following week, I had spoken of last year, as concerning a large and important i)arish, which had, from divers causes, been under peculiarly unfavourable circumstances for the carry- ing on of such a work, but in which an excelleat spirit had been shown now towards it. The jjarish is to be congratulated on having had a curate in charge, in the person of Bishop Tufnell, late of Brisbane, who not only has suc- ceeded in bringing the undertaking to a happy accomplishment, but also, with other members of his family joining with him, contributed largely to the subscription list. To the three funds set on foot, viz. for the nave and transepts, the bells, and the organ. Bishop Tufnell con- tributed, altogether, a hundred guineas ; and members of the Tufnell family, together, nearly the same amount. John Sayer, Esq., of Pett, and Colonel Groves, of The Moat, Charing, headed the subscription with large and liberal gifts; Mr. Sayer contributing to the several funds a hundred and si.\.ty guineas ; a beautiful reredos having formed part of the restoration of the chancel by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in fulfilment of a wish of the late Miss Sayer, the bountiful builder of the new church on Chariug Heath. The work undertaken at Charing included the restoring and reseating of the entire nave and transepts, with the removal of the western gallery, and throwing open the tuwer and western doorway, before blucked up. The roof of the nave re(|iiircd 54 A CHARGE. the stripping ami relaying of the tiles ; dflapitlated stonework in some of the windows needed to be renewed, the windows reglazed, and the church wanned. The southern transept, which had been a rebuilding oi" the original in brickwork, in a style quite out of character with the rest of the building, required a new root' and restoration of the walls in flintwork. The ancient transept, destroyed by fire, had been, many years ago, "replaced by an ugly, square erection of brick, castellated on a modern pattern, and having mean, would-be Gothic Avindows." It has been now entirely and substantially cased with flint, and covered with a roof of pitch pine. The flat ceiling of the nave has been done away with, and the oaken rafters opened out. The ugly gallery at the western end having been removed, a handsome stained-glass window replaces the old one, which the gallery obscured ; it has been filled by- Messrs. Clayton and Bell with stained glass, representing events in the lives of SS. Peter and Paul, to whom the church is dedicated. The chancel had been already restored by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, holding the great tithes; the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, the patrons, contributing fifty guineas. The parishioners were also anxious, if possible, to provide some bells for the fine tower, which possessed but one solitary bell bearing the inscription " Josephus Carter me fecit 1604 " ; it was supposed to have been recast out of some of the metal saved from the fire. A fine peal of six bells, from the foundry of Messrs. Taylor, of Loughborough, has now been placed in the tower, at a cost of 600^, so that the old Kentish rhyme no longer holds good : — "Charing in the dell lies in a hole. It has but one bell, and that it stole." A new organ was also needed ; so that the whole outlay to be incurred amounted to 2400?. I am glad to learn that the whole sum required has now been made up. The Sermon at the reopening of the church was preached by the Bishop of St. Albans, whose fulfilment of his engagement to come to Charing on the occasion took place under circumstances very exjiressive of the kind sympathy he felt with the good work which his friend. Bishop Tufnell, had happily brought to a successful issue. I am tempted to copy, in its close connection with the subject of the fore- going Charge, a ])assage from the Sermon, as reported in the local paper : " The ancient parishes of this land are the witnesses that they (our forefathers) never suffered any number of people to dwell together without the house of God in their midst. To those who believe, these churches are so many homes of that great family in heaven and earth which is named after Christ its head ; in which the members of that family who are struggling with tem|>tation here on earth hold com- munion, none the less real because it is s|)iritual, with those who have A CHARGE. 55 gone to their rest. Here they exercise such acts of affection as are con- ceivable between the living and the dead ; clierish the sweetest, the most tender recollections ; fulfil to the utmost of their power the wishes of the departed ; offer the same sacrifices as thej^ once offered, sanctified by the Word of God, and follow after their example of holy charities. And so they increase love, friendship, duty, every relation in which they stand to others. All this has been felt more sensibly since our churches have been more resorted to than they were during past days of coldness and infidelity. The building of them, the restoration of them, the dedication of them, the consecration of them — he did not mean on their first dedication, but the continued consecration of them by acts of love and reverence — had gone on increasing ; and men felt, even if they did not say it, -when they crossed for the first time the threshold of an ancient, or restored, or recently built church, ' How delightful is this place ; this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' They could not tell but that the first stone of this ancient church was laid in old times in some holy resolution, or in some vow of obedience and love, in some uplifting of the sorrowful and weary eyes to the cross of the Saviour, in some sorrowful life or death, or in acknowledgment of some great mercy received : or it might be the lord of the soil said to his servants and dependants who helped him to till the ground, ' We will build a house where we may worship God together.' Thus were our ancient churches buikled. They who built them fell asleep, and were gathered to their fathers, and their names and their memories perished ; but through all the successive changes of owneiship, and habitation, and lineage, the house of God continues still the home of the dead and the living throughout their generations ; it serves as an example and shadow of heavenly things, as it served those who went before us. Let them try to imagine to them- selves what our land would be if there were no parish churches ; no gathering of the people for prayer ; no communion ; no sanctifying of the marriage tie by prayer and blessing ; no burial of the dead — perhaps a burning, a cremation, a scattering of a few ashes to the wind, so that every sign or trace of the body in which the incorruptible spirit dwelt should vanish away in a moment, and annihilation be established by a sign ; no planting of a few sweet flowers on the grave of one we love in token of an undying affection ; no dedication of children to God. Let them conceive in their minds, if they could, what the breaking up of the home of the great familj'' in heaven and earth, even the tabernacle in which they worship, really involves and means. The Bishop concluded by making an appeal for the work, to complete which he said he knew many had already most generously contributed. He was sorry to make his appeal for what remained to be doue, in a time when many were unable to do what their faith and love yearned to do, because of the prevailing commercial and agricultural depression, when, with all honest exertions and prudent forethought, men could scarcely maintain 66 A CHARGE. themselves and tbeir familiea. But still they must not let that ad- mitted necessity of care and forethought for their families put out of si-^ht the needs of the house and jieople of God." An oflertory was then t;\ken, and with the singing of 'The Church's one foundation' the ser- vice ended. The sum contributed by the day's oflertories was 85/., though I lie weather was most unfavourable ; heavy rain falling through the whole afternoor.. " The sjx'cial services in connection with the reo|K;ning of the church were continued on Sunday, when oflertories were again taken. 'J"he total sum raised on Friday and Sunday amounted to lOOZ, 8s. lid." — From the Ash/ord News, May 31. It is encouraging to observe how, in works of this kind, when Chris- tian zeal and liberality are once aroused, men are found to strengthen each other's hands, to undertake and comi)lete what, in the first instance, perhaps, they would hardly liave ventured to look for. I am tempted, therefore, to refer to a lleport of " Dartford Church llestoration," which has been kindly sent to me by the vicar, the Rev. F. G. Dale, since the Visitation. Mention of the completion of the work and of the re- opening of the church — which took i)lace in September, 1877 — was duly made in the Charge at my Visitation, in the following year; but it appears that, " as several of the subscriptions were promised on the understanding that the payment should spread over three years, it has not been possible to close the accounts at an earlier date" than the present. It is stated in the Report, that " on the 15th June, 1876, a meeting of the parishioners was held in the vestry to consider whether the restoration of the parish church, so happily commenced in 18G2, might not be further carried on. The general feeling was so strongly in favour of doing something, that a committee was formed to promote the raising of funds. On Sunday, June 25th, 1876, His Grace the Archbishop very kindly showed his interest in the proposed scheme by preaching at Dartford in its behalf; and within a few weeks a consider- able sum was promised. The first proposal was to attempt only a part of what yet remained to be done to complete the work of restora- tion : but the response to the appeal of the committee was so hearty and liberal, that, when Mr. A. Campbell, of Heath Close, most gene- rously offered to defray the entire cost of the north aisle (-llOZ.) on condition that the rest of the work was carried out, the committee felt that they could not refuse to undertake the responsibility of the whole. The work was commenced on the 14th May, 1877, and the church was reopened on the 26th September, 1877, when the Bishop of Worcester, with a kindness and sympathy for which the committee will be always grateful, preaclied the ojiening sermon. The residt," as tlie Report goes on to say, " could not be more satisfactory. Without taking away from the number of sittings, the heavy galleries have been removed, and the high close pews replaced by ojten sittings. A handsome roof has taken tlie i)lace of the former flat ceiling, and the south aisle has A CHARGE. 57 been in great part rebuilt. The committee are indebted to their archi- tect, Mr. A. W. Blomfield, for the skill and taste displayed in the treatment of a very difficult problem. They also acknowledge their obligation to the builder, Mr. J. G. Naylar, of Kochester, through whose energy and promptitude the work was so speedily executed. The committee are now thankful to be able to forward to subscribers the following satisfactory statement," showing an outlay of 3266?. 6s. Sd. ; provided for by subscriptions amounting to 3218?. 19s. 7d., with 47/. from the "churchwardens, for repairs included in builder's account," and a " donation " of 6s. 8c?. to make up the total amount. It may be mentioned that a "ladies' committee" raised 166?. 15s. 6c?. ; and that donations of 100?., each, were made by the vicar, by the Rev. H. W. Arkwright, Messrs. J. and J. C. Haywood (60?. and 40?. severally), Mr. C. N. Kidd, Mr. E. F. Satterthwaite, and the Rochester Bridge Company; and 50?., each, from Sir C. Mills, Bart., M.P., Mr. E. A. Quail, Mr. F. T. Tasker, and Mr. J. B. White. The Canterbury Diocesan Church Building Society made a grant of 160?., and the Incorporated Church Building Society of 50?. The Report, with the balance statement of the amount duly audited, fitly concludes with the sacred words of grateful acknowledgment, "Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name ... of Thine own have we eiven Thee." NOTE E. The reconsecration of St. Philip's Church, Maidstone, by the Arch- bishop, took place on tlie day announced in the Charge, as fixed for the solemnity, viz. May 28th. In the new chancel, on a brass tablet, is the inscription — " This chancel was erected to the glory of God and the memory of a beloved father and mother, Thomas Robert Hollingworth and Elizabeth Hollingworth, of Turkey Court, and a sister and brother, Frances Ann Fraser and Oliver Hollingworth, M.A., by Thomas and John Hollingworth, 1878." The day being within the octave of Ascension Day, the sermon preached by the Archbishop had special reference to Christ's Ascension ; and the tone of thought was set in a key in harmony with the season, and with circumstances which would naturally be very present to the preacher's mind. I venture to quote a passage from it here, as reported in the Maidstone Standard of that week (May 31st), reflecting as it did the feelings which could not but call forth deep sympathy in the minds of those especially who had recently passed through like experiences. " Speaking of the anti- tj^pes of the Ascension, in the quiet removal of Enoch, who had lived a pi.aceful family life, and the stirring translation of Elijah, who had passed through the fire of opposition and trouble, the Archbishop said. 0« A CHARGE. referring to Kuocli : — * Now this sort of translation from tlie one world to another, from the quiet, calm, family life, to the presence of God, has, no doubt, cheered manj' a saint of God. I remember a famous servant of God in my youth, who had passed a comparatively quiet life, was a preacher of rij^hteousness, and had a great influence on his generation. At a not very advanced age he was taken by an easy death. In the evening he had called together his family, and had family prayer. It was a bright summer evening, and he walked in his garden, and those who were near heard him conversing with God in prayer. He retired to rest, and never woke, as far as man knew, again ; for when they came to call him in the morning " he was not" ; for God had taken his soul. And surely such, in their passage from the one world to the other, have their faith strengthened by such a type as God manifested through Enoch of the nearness of the one world to the other, and the reality of the truth, that in Jesus Christ our compound perishing human nature may be an heir with God of the spiritual life above. There may be,' the Archbishop adde^l, ' graves visited continually which suggest difficulties to the thoughtful soul. How can that life so bright and happy here on earth bo fulfilled in the spiritual presence of the Father? And this Ascensinn of the Lord, and those tyj^es of the Ascension, are written to calm those doubts, and to teach us that our poor, perishing, human powers may yet see God — the King' in His glory.' Having passed on to observe tliat, as the earth had been the scene of Christ's sufferings, so it would be, in His second coming, the scene of His triumph over his enemies, the Archbishop concluded: — ' Surely, then, it is our jwrt, in anticipation of His coming, to do all we can to prepare, both our own bodies, by watching over their api>otites and their many temptations, and also the world, in that spot of it in which we dwell. And every eflfort which we make, such as that which has gathered us here to-day, is rightly used as an eflfort to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. We are right to use every gift of God, in order that it may speak of His goodness and of His glory. "We are right to have our Houses of Prayer adorned and beautified, that they may liclp men to rise in thought to the spiritual Preserver; and we are thankful when God puts it into the hearts of His servants in so good a work, as we thank God to-day for the kindness which has enlarged and beautified this House of God. May He grant that in this church, and in thousands upon thousands of others, the work of preparing the world for His second coming may be going on, and that, when tlie Lord comes. He may find faith in the earth, kept alive through the worship in His House, and the preaching of His Word, and the drawing of souls to Him through His Son.' "The oflertory hymn was that commencing ' Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea' (J. 13. Dykes), and this, with concluding prayers, and the pjcncdiction, impressively pronounced by the Archhishop, concluded the service ; after which several ul' the visitors viewed with evident A CHARGE. 59 admiration the immense improvement which has taken place in the interior of the building. " An evening service was also held, and a sermon was preached by the Eev. H. W. Dearden, M.A., vicar of St. John's, Upper HoUoway, and formerly vicar of St. Paul's, Maidstone. The Rev. H. W. Dearden took his text from Psalm cxxii. 1 to 4 ; and, in ihe course of the sermon he remarked, that he doubted not those present had watched the progress of this church with the keenest interest, and they must now be happy to see it invested with increased beauty. They rejoiced that it had been made more worthy of its high and holy purposes. " The collection at the two services realised upwards of 4:01." NOTE F. The requirements of the Burial Acts now in force in regard to cemetery chapels are very clearly stated in the useful manual by T. Baker, Esq., barrister-at-law (of the Burial Act Office), entitled ' The Laws relating to Burials in England and Wales, including 15 & 16 Vict. cap. 85 ; 16 & 17 Vict. caj"). 13i ; 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 87 ; and 18 & 19 Vict. cap. 79, and cap. 128, with Xotes, Forms, and Practical Instructions ' (London, 1855). After quoting the provisions respecting cemetery chapels contained in these several Acts, and in particular, the Act 18 & 19 Vict. c. 128, s. 14, he observes :— " From this and the previous clauses [15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, s. 30, and 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134 (part of), s. 7] it will be seen that, in every case in which a new burial-ground is provided under these Acts (excepting under sect. 10 of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 128), a chapel may be built on the consecrated portion, and another on the unconsecrated portion of the ground ; but when an episcopal chapel is erected on the consecrated ground, it is imperative that another shall be also built on the unconse- crated ground, unless it be deemed unnecessary by three-fourths of the vestry, and by the Secretar}' of State. There may be instances where neither are required, by reason of the proximity of both Church and Dissenting chapels to the new ground. There are also cases where, the church being close at hand, no episcopal chapel is needed; but it is desirable to build for the accommodation of Dissenters. In the third case, the church may be distant and the Dissenters' chapels near, or there may be no Dissenters in a small parish ; therefore under the last Act means are provided to enable the burial board to erect an episcopal chai^el only " (p. 42, note). (JO A CIIARGK. NOTE G. The Rubric says, "The Priest ami Clerks meeting tlie Coqise at the cutranceof the Churchyard, and going l>e/orc it, either into the Church, or towa)-ds the Grave, shall say, or sing." " That is, if I rightly iindei-staud the words," says Wheatly, *' if the corpse is to be buried within the church, he shall go directly thither ; but if in the churchyard, he may first go to the grave. By the First Common-Prayer, both the Psalms and Lesson, with the suffrages above- mentioned, were ' to be said in the church either before or after the burial of the corpse.' But from that time to the Pestoration of King Charles, the Lesson (for I have observed during all that time there were no Psalms) was appointed to be read wherever the grave was, whether in the church or churchyard, immediately after the sentence taken out of the Revelation. But, the Presbyterians objecting that this exposed both minister and people to many inconveniencies by standing in the air, there was a Rubric added at the last Review, which orders, that the Psalms and Lesson shall be said ' after they are come into the church ' ; so that now, I suppose, it is again left to the minister's discretion (as it was in the Rubric of the First Book of King Edward) whether he will read them before or after the burial of the corpse. For the second Rubric at the beginning of the Oflice iicrmits him to go ' to the church or to the grave,' that is, to either of them directly, which he pleases: nor is there any farther direction, that if lie goes into the church, it shall be before he goes to the grave; but only that 'after they are come into the church,' one or both of the Psalms shall be read with the Lesson that follows ; and ' when they come to the grave,' the rest of the devotions that are to be used. " I know some are of opinion," Whcatly goes on to say, " that the design of the Rubrics, as they are worded now, is to give liberty to the minister to go immediately to the grave, and so wholly to omit the Lesson and Psalms ; but, if that were the design of them, one would have expected some hint, that they might be omitted ; whereas the expression in the Rubric, 'after they are come into the church,' seems to sup^xjse, that either first or last they will come thither. I am therefore rather inclined to think, that the meaning of leaving the Rubric so dubious is, that, if the minister go directly ' into the church,' tlie grave being there, he should use the Psalms and Lesson before the burial ; but if the grave be without the church, he may first go thither to bury the corpse, and then afterwards, to prevent any inconveniency from the air, proceed to the clnu'ch itself, to read the Psalms and Lesson, accord- ing to the Rubric in the First Common-Prayer. For 1 don't know any instance in the whole Liturgy bet^ides, where the minister is at liberty A CHARGE. 61 lo leave out so considerable a part of an Office, when it is so pvopcr to be used. But I only give this as my private opinion ; for 1 know it belongs to a much higher authority ' to appease diversity, and to resolve doubts concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the things contained in this Book.'" ShejAerd, in his Elucidation, observes, " Whether the Psalm and Lesson be read before, or after, the interment ; whether the corpse is. or is not, taken into the church, are in their own nature matters of indiflference: and so the Church has left them. Still the Psalms and Lesson are so exceedingly proper for the occasion, that I presume," he says, " few clergymen would be disposed to omit them, even if they had, what in this instance," he is of opinion, " they have not, a discre- tionary power. When the Rubrics were formed," he thinks, " there was a reason for the minister's going to the grave in the first place, which does not at present exist. It was then in some places not uncommon to bury the poorer people without a coffin, the body being wrapped in some thick coarse clothing. On such occasions there might be an obvious reason for not admitting the corpse to be brought into the church. And even at present, when the deceased may have died of the small-pox, or any other infectious disease . . . the minister, for the sake of the health of the company attending the funeral, as well as on account of the congregation who may assemble the same or the following day, would not, I conceive, exercise his discretion im- properly, if he should first go to the grave, and then into the church." At the recent meeting of the annual Conference of the Clergy and Laity of the diocese of Ely, held in the cathedral on June 24 and 25, the Bishop, in his opening address, said on this subject — " I have had brought before me certain cases in which it is proposed to have a cemetery formed under a Burial Board ; and I have been con- sulted as to the necessity of erecting the two usual chapels in such cemetery. My answer has been that, in my judgment, it is not neces- sary to lay upon the ratepayers the burden of erecting such chapels ; and that neither on religious grounds is it desirable to build them. The obligation to build a chapel for Nonconformists rests upon a chapel being built for Church people. If you have a chapel for the use of Church people, you must provide one for the use of Dissenters. This is per- fectly fair and just. But my own feeling is, that Church people ought not to demand the building a chapel for themselves ; and, if they do not require it, the ratepayers would be spared the necessity and expense of erecting any chapels at all ; and the (to me) ofi"ensive exhi- bition of two rival chapels within the same solemn precincts will be spared to us. How then shall the clergyman meet the requirements of our Burial Service ? I answer, as they were met in the city of Bristol, when I w-as a curate there some thirty years ago. In that city nearly every churchyard had become separated from the parish church by intervening streets. The clergyman met the corpse, as directed, at the G2 A CHARGE. entrance of the churchyard, and, availing liimself of the option given him in the Service, went before it towards the prave, saying the ap- pointed sentences. Then followed the portion of the Service appointed to be said at the grave. That jx)rtion ordered to be read when they are come into the church was dropped ; there being no entry into a church. You will, if you study the Service carefully, observe that no direction is given to the clergyman as to the ground upon which he shall make his choice between the two courses of proceeding, to the grave or into the church. He has an absolute discretion in this matter ; and the discretion thus vested in him by the Rubric tends itself, as api)ears to me, to solve the apparent difficulty of disjiensing with a cemetery chapel. The clergyman would, of course, hold himself pre- pared, if so requested, to receive the body first at the parish church, and, after completing the Psalms and Lessons therein, to accompany it to the cemetery. This would, however, be only at the expressed desire of the mourners, and would not, so far as my experience goes, be sufficiently often expressed to cause any real hindrance. I believe that at least one cemetery has been thus constituted in this diocese, and no incon- venience has resulted." At the same time, I would observe, there is no necessity to contem- plate any general omission of any part of the Service. At Canter- bury, for the last five-and-twenty years, the only cemetery available for Church burials has been the burial-ground attached to St. Gregory's Church — a new church built for the benefit of an extra-parochial ville, the site of the ancient priory of St. Gregory, which had become covered with houses, and had a large population requiring church accommoda- tion. The ground around it was consecrated at the same time as a burial-ground for the use of the city generally, though legally belong- ing to the parish of St. Mary, Northgate, which had contributed to it out of the parochial rates. It has been the burial-place of the poor of Canterbury generally ; the churchyards, with almost the sole exception of St. Martin's, having been closed. (There has been a small burial- ground, elsewhere, uuconsecrated, separate from any chaix'l.) The time most commonly chosen for the funerals of the poor in Canterbury has been on Sundays, at two o'clock ; and as an afternoon Service fol- lowed in St. Gregory's Church at three, it was established as the j^ractice, some years ago, at the time of a prevailing epidemic, not to bring the bodies into the church, but carry them at once to the grave. The usage has been, accordingly, for the clergyman to meet each corjise at the churchyard gate with the sentences, going straight to the grave, and performing there all that is appointed to be said at the grave-side. The mourners have then gone into the church, where the Psalms have been said, and the Lesson read to the whole company of mourners. It might in some cases, as I intimated in my Charge, he convenient to adopt the same order, the Rubric plainly allowing it : " After they are come into the church, shall be road one or lx>th of these Psalms follow- A CHARGE. 63 ing." " Then shall follow the Lesson," &c. If we are to presume that the whole Service is to be performed, this Rubric must be understood to give leave for the Service in the church to follow that which is performed by the grave ; for " the Priests and Clerks " are distinctly authorised by the preceding Rubric to go, while saying the opening sentences, " either into the Church, or towards the Grave." In cases where the residence of the deceased was near the burial-ground, and the church somewhat farther off, it might be a desirable arrangement to carry the body the shorter distance, and then go to the church for the remainder of the Service, with hymn, and sermon or address if need be, as was common in fonner days. The use of the hand bier, meanwhile, facilitates con- siderably funeral arrangements in country places. I have said that it is becoming more customary every day, in con- nection with burial in cemeteries, to separate the portion of the service read in the church from that which is performed at the grave. I was present a few months ago at the funeral of my lamented friend, the late excellent Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Rev. Prebendary Bullock. The first part of the service was performed in the chapel of Kensington Palace, in which he had minis- tered for many years ; Her Royal Highness Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck, resident in the Palace, being pjresent in the Royal pew with her children, and other residents in the Palace who had formed part of the ordinary congregation, and been under Mr. Bullock's pastoral charge, as chaplain. In addition to those who followed the funeral procession to Kensal Green, where he was buried in a family vault, there was a large attendance there of members of the Society for the Propagation of the Grospel, and other friends. In like manner, more recently still, at the funeral of the much- lamented Archdeacon Fisher, Vicar of St. Mark's, Kennington, the first part of the service, in St. Mark's Church, allowed of the attendance of the great body of his parishioners, who could not have gathered in the same way at Barnes, where the inteiTaent took place. In the notice " In Memoriam," which appeared in the Guardian, of May 14th, it was stated, " The funeral took place on Saturday last, the loth. The first part of the service was read at 11.30 a.m. by the Bishop of Rochester at St. Mark's " and it spoke of " the tears of the friends and parishioners who filled the densely packed church." " Among those present, besides the immediate relatives of the deceased, were the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Misses Tait, the Rev. R. T. and Mrs. Davidson, and a large gathering of clergy from all parts. The service was choral, the hymns sung being No. 221 {A. and M.) ' Let saints on earth in concert sing,' and No. 400, ' Christ vnW gather in His own.' The funeral cortege proceeded to Barnes Cemetery, where the interment took place, at 2 p.m. ; the service at the grave being read by the Rev. Canon Erskine Knollys, an old and beloved friend of the late Archdeacon. Several who were unable to be present at Ken- 64 A CHARGE. ningtou went to Barnes; among them the Bishop of London, the Rev. J. Oakley, and the Rev. J. Baldwin Brown." It may be added that the same order of proceedings was adopted in the case of the last two Deans of our Cathedral, At the funeral of Dean Lyall in February, 1857, the first part of the service was iM?r- fornied in the nave, and the service at the grave in the churchyard of Ilarbledown, his brother's parish, where he was buried, the cathedral having been closed for interments; in like manner, in the case of Dean Alford, in January, 1871, the burial taking place in St. Martin's churchyard ; hymns comiX)sed by the Dean being sung, one in the nave of the cathedral after the Lesson; the other by the grave-side at St. Martin's. NOTE H. It may be of use to give the precise particulars in the case of the burial-f'round at Brenzett, referred to in the Charge. The deed of con- veyance recites the purchase of the ground for 200?., and conveys it to a burial board constituted under the provisions of the Acts 1852-1871, and to their successors and assigns. The ground conveyed in this in- stance contains three roods of land, bounded on the North by the high road, on the South by the glebe lands of the parsonage, and on the East and West by private property. The petition of the Burial Board for the parish of Brenzett, dated April 15, 1878, and signed on behalf of the Vicar and Churchwardens of the parish of Brenzett, and others, states that " a large portion of the said piece or parcel of land herein- before described and coloured pink on the plan annexed, is intended to be used for Ecclesiastical purposes, and is now in a fit and proper state for the purposes of interment according to the rites of the Church of Enf'land, and is in a fit state to be consecrated." A fifth part of the ground is left unconsecrated. I am glad to find that, since my Visitation, a resolution has been adopted by the jiarish of St. Mary Cray, to establish a cemetery with- out chapels. The cemetery will be not far from the parish church, and of convenient access generally. In connection with this subject, I ventured to say in my Charge, that I did not think any fresh organic legislation was required for tho purpose in view ; though some additional provisions might ix)ssibly with advantage be made in regard to the tenure of the burial-grounds. What was needed seems to have been effectively supi)lied by the Act which has just passed— entitled, "The Public Health Act (1875) Amendment (Interments) Act." It ought to have been mentioned in my Charge, as a sixth Bill which was laid on the table of the House of Commons at the opening of the Session, "A Hill to amend the Public A CHARGE. 65 Health Act, 1875, as to Interments. Prepared and brouglit in by Mr. Marten, Mr. Greene, and Mr. Cole." (Dec. 12, 1878.) The Bill was, in fact, so small in its dimensions, and so unpretending in its provisions, that it attracted less attention than its five competitors for legislative favour, of which one was rejected, and the other four dropped. It simply provided (1) for the extension, to any " place for the interment of the dead, in this Act called a cemetery," of the provisions of the prin- cipal Act (of 1875) "as to a place for the reception of the dead before interment, in the principal Act called a mortuary" ; and it was declared that " the purposes of the principal Act shall include the acquisition, construction, and maintenance of a cemetery." It enacts (2) that " a local authority may acquire, construct, and maintain a cemetery either wholly or partly within or without their district, subject, as to works without their district for the purpose of a cemetery, to the provisions of the principal Act as to sewage works by a local authority without their district." It provides (3) that " a local authority may accept a donation of land for the purpose of a cemetery, and a donation of money or other property for enabling them to acquire, construct, or maintain a cemetery." It is declared further, that " The Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847, shall be incorporated with this Act"; and it "shall be construed as one with the Public Health Act, 1875, in this Act called the principal Act " (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55). The second reading of the Bill having been carried in the House of Lords by a large majority, and the motion for going into Committee having been also carried by a large majority on a division, opposition was renewed to the passing of the Bill (July 14), and amendments moved, taken from the Bill proposed in 1877 ; the opposition being made on the ground that " it was left entirely to local authorities to say, whether security should or should not be given against inequality between Churchmen and Nonconformists in the matter of burial." Earl Stanhope answered, that " the Bill was on a broader basis than the proposed amendments, which are virtually included in the Bill already ; as it was to be construed with the Cemeteries Act of 1847. Under the Burials Act the vestry were bound to provide consecrated ground, but in the Cemeteries Act the clause was entirely optional, and ran as follows : — " ' The bishop of the diocese in which the cemetery is situated may, on the application of the company, consecrate any portion of the cemetery set apart for the burial of the dead according to the rites of the Established Church, if he is satisfied with the title of the company to such portion, and thinks fit to consecrate such portion ; and the part which is so consecrated shall be used only for burials according to the rites of the Established Church.' " The local authority was under the Local Government Board, which would probably see to the carrying out of the Bill, and who had to make an annual report to Parliament. But there was another argu- E 66 A rnARHK. laent. ... lie did not wish to accept amendments to tliis small and imj>retentious Bill, lest it should fail of being carried in another place. " The Archbishop of York could not support the amendments, although they might, no doubt, have the effect of providing additional safeguards ; because, from the late period of the Session, and the state of business in another place, to accept them would simply be to lose a very useful Bill (hear), which would supjjly country communities, where the people did not care much about the Burials question, with additional pieces of ground for the puri>oses of interment, at a little distance from their overcrowded churchyards. Cases where this was required existed probably in thousands. . . . The present was a prac- tical measure, of a healing and excellent character. ... To send it to be discussed in another place would simply be to vote against it. " Viscount Cranbrook thought there had been a complete misappre- liension with respect to this Bill. It was not a question of voting by majorities. The public body was quite different from the vestry to which it was wished the appeal should be made. It was a local sani- tary authority ; in fact, the Board of Guardians, who might, if they thought proper, provide a burial-ground for two or three parishes. The Local Government Board must see that the burial-ground was a proper one. All the circumstances of the case considered, he believed that there was security that justice would be done to all parties. (Hear, hear.)" — Times, July 15. As already stated, the second reading ^had been carried by a large majority — 51 (116 to 65). Earl Stanhope, in moving it, had " ex- plained that the Bill was a very short and simple one. ... Its object was simply to enable local authorities to acquire, maintain, and construct cemeteries ; they, of course, being vested with the powers of regulation and control over them. The Nonconformists complained that they laboured under a great grievance in the matter of burials. Xo doubt, when church rates existed, there was a grievance ; but that grievance had been removed by the abolition of those rates. That being the case, he confessed that he had been surprised and startled at the notice put upon the paper by the noble lord the leader of the Opposi- tion for the rejection of the Bill. He (Earl Stanhope) was of opinion that, if the Bill were accepted, it would settle a long-standing question of religious controversy, and enable Nonconformists to conduct their burial rites in accordance with their own wishes and consciences. (Hear, hear.) He hoped the House would take no narrow view of this matter, and that the Burials question would not be made a stalking- horse at the next General Election. It was a miserable thing to tight over the bones of the departed — (Opposition cheers) — and he trusted their lordships would consider the subject in a liberal spirit." — Slandard, July 2. The main objection taken was, that "it would enable the local authorities, out of the parish rates, to establish exclusively denomi- A CHARGE. 67 national burial-grounds." Under the Burials Act, it was said, there must be a certain portion of the ground uncoiisecrated, and an unconse- crated chapel. " This Bill, however, authorised the local authorities to establish denominational cemeteries at the public expense." The state- ment in regard to the Burials Act was not quite correct ; inasmuch as there need not, under those Acts, be any portion left unconsecrated, if the vestry are unanimous in so resolving ; while on the declaration of the Secretary of State, upon the representation of a majority at a vestry meeting consisting of three-fourths of the members of the vestry, there need not be an unconsecrated chapel, although there is a con- secrated one.'' There is, in fact, no protection, in those Acts, against a possible exclusive resolution of vestry ; and, on the other hand, there is no probability, under the new Act, of any other course being taken ordinarily by the local authority — not a vestry — than that which has been established by general custom in regard to cemeteries, and which was followed the other day in the precedent set at Brenzett, of having a portion unconsecrated, and so giving freedom to all. The leaving matters to local authority must surely be regarded as a merit, and not a demerit, in the Act. The view embodied in Mr. Marten's Bill was stated by him very clearly and fairly in a paper " read at the Ely Diocesan Conference held at Ely on Tuesday, the 5th of June, 1877," and printed at Cambridge under the title of " The Burials Question." It had been preceded by a letter written to the Times of Thursday, May 31, 1877, and which was printed with the Address as an Appendix. " The difSculty as to Burials," he observed in that letter, was " solved already in urban dis- tricts by the closing of churchyards and burial-grounds adjoining chapels, and by the establishment of cemeteries. The same course," he suggested, " should be pursued in rural districts." When he was at Cambridge the week before, he, by request, put his suggestions into writing ; and they had been so far favourably received by some who took an active interest in the question, that he ventured to ask the ' editor of the Times to give them publicity in his columns, with a view to their more general consideration. He referred to the Diocesan Conference as about to be held in the following week, which would be an opportunity for ascertaining the views of the clergy, and to some extent of the laity; and other opportunities for discussing the subject would doubtless shortly occur. " A similar letter appeared in the Standard and Daily Express of May 31, and in the Daily News of June 1." What he advocated, he briefly stated, was the " reverting, throughout the country, to the primitive system, under which the grounds set apart for the burial of the dead were situate at a distance from the edifices appropriated for the stated performance of public religions 1 18 and 19 Vict., cap. 128, ss. 10. 14. E 2 G8 A CHARGE. worship — a system whicb prevailed during the first six or seven cen- turies after Christ, and which was superseded by the use of church- yards for burial. The expense of the change would," he believed, "be in many jiarishes met wholly or partially by donations of land or money, and in any case might be spread over a series of years ; and would be small, compared with the advantages in point of goodwill, health, and permanency ; and of sentiment as well on the part of those who arc, as on the part of those who are not, members of the Church of England. The general provision of the new cemeteries would merely anticii^ate, by a brief period, that which the grailual filling of the existing rural churchyards renders ultimately inevitable." The grounds were fully stated in the published paper above referred to, and which was read at Ely. Mr. Marten says in it, " Doubtless in many cases the tenderest reminiscences of afTection invest the country church- yards with peculiar sacredness ; but no proposals for the establishment of cemeteries would disturb the past. On the contrary, the churchyards closed against future interments would still retain the mf-morials and remains already placed there ; and would, under the influence of piety and taste, become church gardens, equally solemn and beautiful." He showed from fi<;ures "that the change in question has already been made so far as concerns iipwards ot two-thirds of the ]X)pulation "; and that " it has been made," as he believes, " without giving rise to any complaint." The view thus thoughtfully taken, and well considered, was embodied in the Bill brought in by Mr. Marten in the Session of 1878, and again laid on the table of the House of Commons, in December last, and which, owing to the early meeting of Parliament before Christmas, lay for an unusually long time before the eyes of members. It stood for second reading on each of the two Wednesdays in Februarj' (19th and 2Gth) devoted to the discussion of the Burials question ; Mr. Marten siwaking on both days, and entering very fully, on the first day, into the matter. And it was by no means overlooked, or neglected, by it« enemies. " In anticipation of the debates in the House of Commons, the executive Committee of the Liberation Society passed a scries of resolutions dealing with the several Burial Bills before Parliament; and in these resolutions objection was taken to Mr. ^Tarteu's Bill " (Times, February 12). Mr. Carvell Williams, the late Secretary to the Liberation Society, has himself informed us, in a long letter of complaint addressed to the Times from " Serjeant's Inn, July 22," that when the Bill "was introduced by Mr. Marten, Mr. Osborne Morgan gave notice of opposition ; and it was set down for a second reading seven times without coming on. On the 5th of May it was set down for a morning sitting on the day following ; when, in Mr, Morgan's absence, the Bill was read a second time between 10 minutes to 7 and 7, when tlie House rose. A new notice of opposition on going into committee was given, and the Bill appeared on the notice paper A CIIARGK. on at tea several sittings in May and June. At length, on the 18th of June, at a Wednesday sitting, after a quarter to 6, and when Mr. Morgan had left the House under the mistaken impression that his notice would stop the Bill, Mr. Marten got it through committee — of course without any discussion — and set it down for a third reading on the following day. There was no time for a fresh notice of opposition ; and as the half-past 12 o'clock rule did not, therefore, apply, the third reading was moved about half-past 1 in the morning. An adjournment was twice moved, but, with the aid of the Govern- ment, was defeated in a House of but 62 members; and the Bill was therefore passed." Mr. Marten defended himself in a letter in reply, in the columns of the Times, as to the course he had taken in regard to the Bill ; and " Mr. Osborne Morgan, as was to be expected," said the Times (July 30), *' intervened in the dispute about the fees chargeable under " the Act ; Mr. Carvell Williams, followed herein by Mr. Morgan (Lincoln's Inn, July 26), having endeavoured to awaken the alarms of the clergy — the Welsh clergy, in particular — for their burial fees, an attempt which, it would appear, has totally failed. The Times, thus appealed to, has duly heard the cause, and given judgment. It has pronounced that " the measure, on its face, is modest almost to excess." " The measure, twenty-five lines and a fraction in length, is," says the Times, " a very violet of legislation. It hides its bashful head under a previous provision concerning mortuaries, and apologises for any shortcomings by an appeal to the Cemeteries Act. For its course through Parliament, we must, however," the Times goes on to say, "abandon our botani- cal metaphor. From this point of view it has more nearly resembled a heavy goods train. Not entitled, still less desirous, to have days and seasons set apart for its stages, it has waited quietly but watchfully in sidings its chance for a short passage, in the interval between express trains freighted with Eastern Questions and other urgent commodities. Shunted here, and risking a collision there, it has made its way to its destination before it was well imderstood to have started." " The official representative of the movement for equalising the rights of Churchmen and Dissenters in churchyards expressed last week in our columns," says the Times, " his own anguish and that of his clients at the success of Mr. Marten's retiring measure." ]5ut it goes on to observe that " Mr. Carvell Williams, when he complains that his friends and Parliament were taken unawares, is not to be understood as asserting that, had the venom of this innocent-seeming Bill been ex- posed by the most subtle analysis, the House of Commons would have been persuaded to reject it. There might have been the most solemn of field-days ; Mr. Carvell Williams," says the Times, " knows perfectly well on which side the majority would have been. All Mr. Carvell Williams means is that, except for the ingenuity of the Bill's sup- porters, its foes might have protracted their opposition to a point at 70 A CUARGE. which, in tlie present temper of the Uouse, it must have been dropped from mere exhaustion. His indignation is tliat no opfjortunity was afforded for employing the machinery of opposition. He cannot expect to meet with much symi)athy in his disap]>ointment at the failure of that amiable intention." If there has happened, in the language of the Times, " the interpolation into the Statute Book of a law which, by common admission, has never been properly debated " — the question, meanwhile, what is "proper" debating, need not, I may add, here be discussed — the Times unequivocally says, " Mr. Marten's letter in our Columns is a complete defence so far as he personally is concerned. It is no apology," it goes on to say, " for the indulgence by Parliament in imconsidered legislation." But those who look back on the " sayings and doings " of the session which has just come to its close (Aug. 15), will be disposed to regard with something of tender compassion one of the few *' innocents," which have escaped not only the customary " murder " at the latter end of a Parliamentary session, but the vigilance which was ready, from the moment of its birth, to do the infant Bill to death, at least by " talking " it " out." It was a natural and a laudable counter-vigilance — it must be said in bare justice to its friends — which, not simply at half-past one in the morning, but at seven and six in the evening, was at its post to watch over the threatened life of this "sma' mercy." And the public will be disposed to treat favourably one of the, confessedly, few results of a session beset by the present system of organised " obstruction." " That it is ' a little measure,' as Lord Cranbrook styled it, on its surface, and yet may prove an important measure in its action, is in the circumstances," says the Times, " a reproach to it as well as to Parliament. On the Statute Book, however, it stands; and the only practical question now is what benefit the country can derive from it." " The meaning of an Act," the Times goes on to say, " has to be sought, not in the motives of its promoters or the apprehensions of its adversaries, but within itself. The defect it professes to remedy is imdeniable. If the existence of Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, with the angry passions it has stirred, could for a moment be forgotten, the general outline of the arrangements this Public Health Amendment Act proposes would have naturally recommended itself. Were Mr. Osborne Morgan's Bill passed to-morrow, such a measure would still be necessary. In towns commonly, and in many rural districts, the parish churchyard is no longer adequate to the wants of the locality. Though every churchyard were thrown open to Dissenters as Dissenters, ceme- teries would nevertheless have to be acquired sooner or later to supple- ment the churchyard's ' narrow bounds.' For the purpose of providing such enlarged facilities for interments no more neutral or undenomina- tional authority could be selected than local sanitary authority under the supervision of the Local Government Board. The Bill and its subject matter have no necessary connection with the question of the A CHARGE. 71 rights of Dissenters in churchyards. So far its advocates occupy an unassailable position." "The Liberal party in the two Houses," the Times goes on to observe, "opposed the Bill on behalf of Dissenters, whom the Opposition supposed to be threatened with a multitude of consecrated cemeteries which a Church majority on Boards of Guardians was tyrannically to establish." " The Opposition peers," it remarks, " would have been on stronger ground, had their amendments provided that a portion of each cemetery should be consecrated as well as that a portion should be un- consecrated. The Cemeteries Act of 1847, which is incorporated in the new Act, empowers, but does not compel, an application to the Bishop to consecrate part of a cemetery. Mr. Marten's measure is now law, and under it, in any parish which requires a new burial-ground, a sanitary authority swayed by Dissenters may set out a new cemetery, and refuse to have a single corner of it consecrated." " Lord Cranbrook declared," as the Times observes, " that the Local Government Board would see that any new burial-ground was ' a proper one.' We find," however, as the Times proceeds to say, " no power conferred by this Act, or by that of which it proclaims itself an amendment, or by the Cemeteries Act it incorporates, on the Local Government Board to overrule a decision of the local sanitary authority to provide a cemetery either wholly con- secrated or wholly unconsecrated. If the Board had the power," the Times thinks, " it would not be likely to exercise it on behalf of some inconsiderable section of parishioners whose grievance would not be the less that there were not many of them to feel it. In view of this flagrant defect of the Act," as the Times considers it, it declares it to be " difficult to feel any strong interest in the question of the title of the parochial clergy to fees for interments of Churchmen in the proposed cemeteries. The Cemeteries Act contemplates the appointment of a chaplain of the Church of England for the consecrated part of the ground. It provides also for his payment out of money received by the managers of the cemetery. Mr. Osborne Morgan, however, agrees with Mr. Carvell Williams in concluding that, in the case of parochial ceme- teries founded by local sanitary authorities, there will practically be no income available for the salaries of clergymen, in default of a right, which the present Act does not bestow, to exact fees from the family of the deceased. If that opinion be well founded, the clergy, it may be said, will at all events not be worse off than Dissenting ministers. The absence of legal powers to exact fees may, indeed, furnish a convenient opportunity for testing the efficacy of the voluntary principle in remunerating clerical services. Mr. Marten, however," says the Times, " reposes faith in the power and readiness of the sanitary authority to pay the chaplain's salary out of its * general funds.' We can quite believe that some way will be found for paying for clerical work, if clerical work be done. But any such payment out of general funds will be matter of grace, not of rv^d. We are not sure that the present 72 A cnAPvGF:. recipients of burial fees will be best pleased, when they find that they have thus been exi^rimented upon by ' their particular friends without their leave asked, leaving them to the mercy or benevolence of a local sanitary authority.' The fact may help to suggest to them that there are some inconveniences in the conjuring of Bills into Acts." For the clergy of the Church of England, not in the metropolitical diocese only, and in the county of Kent, but in the most remote parts of the Principality of Wales, I venture to say, that they are fully alive to the difficulties which, in these days, beset those whose duty it is, in the Parliamentary workshop, to turn Bills into Acts ; and to the neces- sity of members of the Legislature keeping their eyes open, and being themselves wide awake, even in " the small hours of the morning," if they are to carry through measures of sound principle and practical utility. They know, I trust, who are their best and " particular friends," of whatever variety of opinion on divers matters ; and they cherish the hoi)e and conviction that there are those, not a few, who, whatever their own predilections may be, have a true English love of honesty and fair dealing, and who have a wholesome dislike to seeing subjects of tender feeling, or religious sentiment, chosen by keen partisans to be the hopeful battle-fields whereon to conduct a fight for political objects of sectarian rivalry and jealousy, in the cause of alleged civil rights and social equality. And, as regards burial fees, the clergy of England and Wales, with all due gratitude for the solicitude on their behalf of newly found friends, have no desire, I believe, to obtain by Act of Parliament a "power to exact fees from the family of the deceased" which they do not at present jiossess ; and would, I am also pereuaded, willingly purchase, if it were so, some possible — though not probable, I think — pecuniary loss, if thereby they might promote the cause of peace among men, the peacefulnoss of the burial-})laces of their brethren, and the sacrcdness of their ancient churchyards. Mr. Carvell Williams complains that tlie speech of the noble lord the leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords on the second reading, " received no answer," but that the House immediately divided. But, in fact, the noble lord who had moved the second reading of the Bill, as appears from the full report given in the Times, had, in his speech, gone over the whole ground. It may be well, therefore, to refer to it somewhat more in detail. Since the abolition of comjmlsory church rates, " those who had left the Church," Lord Stanhope observed, " were not called upon to contribute to the maintenance of the church grave- yard, and if they still wished to be buried there, they almost invariably accepted the service of the Church of England ; or occasionally, as in Scotland, perlbrmed the service at their own chapels, and committed the lx)dy to the ground without any further religious service. There were also many parishes, in which Nonconformists had established their own burial-grounds, and in some of these the same rule applied as in the Church of England." The object of the Bill " was to dissever the A CHARGE. 73 question of interment from any vexed religious controversy. . . . He had been anxious to see a settlement of the question, and here was an instalment towards its settlement on a broad and liberal basis. . . . There were now cemeteries provided in England and Wales for 14,000,000 persons out of 22,000,000, leaving 8,000,000 to be supplied; and the Bill, by giving the ratepayers a direct interest in obtaining cemeteries, would have the result of supplying that deficiency. It would also place the matter under the Local Government Board, who, unlike the Home OiSce, had numerous local inspectors. He need not remind the House that the local authority meant, in the Act of 1875, the urban and rural sanitary authorities. The whole kingdom was divided into urban and rural sanitary authorities ; thus an existing machinery would be utilised for providing cemeteries through the length and breadth of the land. He was at a less to understand why the noble earl should quarrel with this proposal. During a discussion on the Government Bill of 1877, he had objected to such powers being conferred on vestries, because, to quote his own words, ' he did not think a vestry would be a good body to undertake those duties, with or without a committee of ratepayers ; and with regard to the election of these committees, he thought it would be a great pity to infuse into the parish fresh elements of religious discord.' But, perhaps, the noble earl considered that the area of a local authority was too large a district. In that case, by clause 202 of the Public Health Act, a local authority might appoint parochial committees. He had such a parochial committee in his own village in Kent, ap- pointed by the Board of Guardians to assist the school attendance committee ; and so harmonious was it in its action, that it included members of all denominations, who co-operated most amicably ia filling the parish voluntary school. Again, it might be urged that it would entail a great additional expense on the ratepayers ; but that would be the ratepayers' own fault, as they elected their own representatives on the local authority boards. Lastly, it might be said the whole of the ground provided would in all cases be consecrated under the Cemetery Clauses Act. That would not necessarily follow. Those clauses had worked well for many years ; and the local authority would not have any more power to extend unduly the area of consecrated ground than any commercial company would have. He wished to point out to the House, that the proposal of making local authorities the burial autho- rity originated with a distinguished member of a former Liberal Government — viz. Mr. Hibbert, who was formerly Secretary to the Poor Law Board. Last session Mr. Hibbert presided over a committee of the House of Commons on Poor Law Guardians ; and, after a most careful and elaborate investigation, they adopted the reix)rt of which he would read the two first sentences. They reported — ' That Burial Boards, where they exist in urban sanitary authorities, shall be merged in the urban sanitary authorities of such districts respectively. That, whenever practicable, the powers of Burial Boards 74 A CHARGE. in niral sanitary districts in England shall Ix; transferred to Ttoards of Guardians, or the rural sanitary authority of the district.' He hojxHl the noble earl opposite would act in a liberal spirit, and support a mea- sure which he (Earl Stanhope) thought formed a settlement of thia question." — Times, July 2. There have been indications, of late, from different quarters, of a convergence of men's minds to the same general conclusion. At the Salisbuiy Diocesan Synod, held last spring (the 23rd and 24th of April), a motion having been made in favour of closing all existing church- yards, and providing everywhere new cemeteries, to remain unconse- crated, with a special collect to be added to the Burial Service for the consecration, as occasion might arise, of each individual grave ; and an amendment having been moved for power to " be granted to boards of guardians, or some other authorities, to acquire and maintain ceme- teries in rural districts, either for single parishes or for districts, as local circumstances may render expedient " ; the following amendment was proposed, and carried without a division : — " That the Bishop be requested to sign, on behalf of this Synod, a petition to the two Ilouses of Parliament, praying that greater facilities may be given for the authoritative closing of existing churchyards, where desirable ; and that power may be given to parochial authorities to provide new cemeteries — without the present expensive machinery of the burial board — which shall be open to the ministrations of all religious bodies." In the course of the discussion of the Burials question. Lord Ashley expressed the feeling of many a souud-headed and sound-hearted Englishman, when he said " he was perfectly free to confess that from some point of view the Dissenters might have a slight grievance, in the way they put the matter when they said, ' Why should not we come iu and say a religious service over our departed friends ? ' " " But what had to be considered," he said at the same time, " was the ulterior object which the Dissenters had in view, and, remembering that, the duties of Churchmen were uncompromising opposition." "He (Lord Ashley) had caught up the complaint about rates — about the expense of such a thing as that proposed [by the original motion]. But what they, as Churchmen, must consider was, ' What is good for the Church?' They, as Cliurchmen, belonging to the dear old Church of England, ought to be united, prepared to suffer any sacritico, and cast aside the most cherished sentiments and some of the old-established, he was almost saying, suiwrstitions, about being buried in the old churchyard, rather than allow the vantage ground to bo obtained by ' the enemy.'" — Qiiardian, April 30. The same number of the Guardian contained the reply of the Bishop of Lichfield to a Memorial addressed to him by the Burial Board of Burslcm, in regard to which his Lordship (writing from Cannes, A CHARGE. 75 March 31,) observed, " The special request contained in yoi;r Memorial is, that I should waive the requirement for the erection of a second chapel in the cemetery, and abstain from consecrating the only chapel which is your purpose to build, in order that it may be used by Churchmen and Nonconformists alike. I am very desirous to meet your wishes in this matter, if it be jx)ssible to do so, and should be glad to avail myself of this opportunity of showing my Nonconformist neighbours that kindly consideration to which they are at all times entitled from members of the Church. " I regret, however, to say, that after the most careful consideration, I find considerable difficulties in the particular plan which you propose ; and I do not see my way to accepting as sufficient the reason advanced in your Memorial for its adoption But, though I find myself imable to comply with the particular request which you have made to me, I venture to hope that the end which you have in view, both in its financial and religious aspect, may be equally attained, and indeed more fully, by the arrangement I have now to propose. " I shall be quite willing, so far as I am concerned, to dispense with the erection of a chapel altogether ; and to authorise the clergy of the neighbourhood to perform in their own churches that part of the ser- vice which is usually read in a cemetery chapel, leaving the various Nonconformist bodies to make a similar arrangement, or any other which they may prefer. By adopting this course a very considerable saving will be effected in the burden which falls upon the ratepayers in connexion with the new cemetery ; and there will be an equal, indeed a greater, security against any manifestation of religious discord." With respect to the erection of chapels for cemeteries to be formed under the recent Act, there seems to be some little ambiguity in the Acts incorporated, taken all together, as stated in the Circular Letter from the Secretary of the Local Government Board, August 19, 1879. " With respect to the making of the Cemetery. " The Sanitary Authorities may build such chapels in the cemetery for the performance of the Burial Service as they may think fit, and lay out and embellish the grounds of the cemetery " . . . . " With respect to Burials. " The Sanitary Authority may set apart a portion of the cemetery for burials, according to the rites of the Established Church ; and the Bishop of the Diocese may, on the application of the Sanitary Authority, conse- crate the portion set apart. '* A chapel, to be approved by the Bishop, must be built on the con- secrated part for the performance of the Burial Service of the Established Church. " A salaried Chaplain is to be appointed to officiate in the conse- 76 A OilARGE. crated jxirt of the cemetery, the appointment and salary to be subject to the approval of the Bishop. " The Sanitary Authority may set apart the whole or a {wrtion of the unconsecrated part of the cemetery, as a place of burial for ficrsous not being members of the Established Churcii, and may allow in such un- consecrated part a Burial Service to be ])erforraed according to the rites of any Church or congregation other than the Established Church." The erection of a cemetery chapel not being absolutely required, as we have seen, under the Acts already in force, the question has, I believe, been regarded by the authorities at Wliitehall as one which was to be determined mainly by the discretion of the Bishop. It is to be hoped that there is room, under the recent Act, in combining the provisions of the several Acts which it incorporates, for the exercise of the like discretion ; the apparent stringency of one of the provisions above cited having regard, as it would seem, to the special case contem- plated in the original Act, viz. the establishment of a cemetery by a Company. It is to be borne in mind, also, that the recent Act does not repeal the Burial Acts previously in force, but comes in to act side by side with them ; and if, as would aj^j^ear from the parliamentar}' discus- sion above referred to, there js a preference actually felt in certain quarters for the provisions of the former Acts, it is the more desirable that it should be understood that action may be taken under the one set of Acts or the other. The great practical value of the recent Act consists in its utilising existing machinery for the official insix-ction of churchyards and burial-grounds, with the power of enforcing on local authorities the duty of iiroviding fresh ground where required. I do not see why there should be any disturbance of the facilities alYorded by Acts already in force for the addition to existing churchyards of ground to be consecrated for Churcli burials, 1 lately visited a parish in which this seemed to be the desirable course ; the Nonconformists having a burial-ground attached to their chapel, and there being ground contiguous to the churchyard in the hands of ecclesiastical impro- priators, with whose assistance such addition might be made. The inexpensive character of the provisions made for such annexation is an advantage not to be lost sight of. And it is to be lx)rne in mind that the dispensing, if possible, with cemetery chapels will greatly promote the caiTying into eflect the recent Act by the diminished cost of the work to be undertaken, and the avoiding, above all, of the necessity for erecting dual chapels in small cemeteries. The Act just referred to, which gives facilities for adding contiguous ground to the churchyard, provides for the appropriation to a private family of a sixth part of any ground given by a private donor ; a provision which was taken advan- tage of not long ago in one parish of the Archdeaconry of ^Maidstone. I am glad to find that the Sanitary Authority of the Milton Union (next Sittingbourue) h;\s lost no lime in taking order for an inspection of the churchyards, and a report to be made thereon without delay. A CHARGE. 77 In the same connection, reference may be made here to a move- ment made — some two years ago, or more — by leading men among the clergy of the diocese of Norwich, in the form of an Address to the Archbishop, the signatures to which were received by the Eev. W. E. Scudamore, Rector of Ditchingham, and the Eev. W. J. Stracey, Vicar of Buxton, Norwich. The petitioners represented that in their opinion " the only just, safe, and conciliatory way of terminating the agitation on the Burials Question — preserving the rights, and respecting the consciences and religious feelings of Churchmen, and, at the same time, removing the real or supposed grievances of conscientious Noncon- formists — lies in the closing of all or of a very large proportion of our old existing churchyards, excepting vaults not yet filled in, and new ground lately added to any churchyard." " With a view to provide new ground for the burial of the dead,'' the petitioners would suggest, that — • " 1. Every facility should be given to owners of land, whether entailed or glebe, freehold or copyhold, to give or to sell land for this purpose to the extent of one-half to one acre of land for every five hundred of population. *' 2. That such new land shoull be detached (sic, ital.) from any existing churchyard, and that a part of it should remain unconsecrated. " 3. That every provision should be made to reduce the expense of this charge, especially by requiring that no wall or building be erected as a sine qua non. "4. Also that adjoining parishes should be allowed to combine for this purpose." Attention should also be called to a valuable pamphlet, entitled * The Burial Question,' by the Eev. Morton Shaw, M.A., Eector of Eougham, Suffolk, Eural Dean (Skeflfiugton and Son). The writer arrives at the same conclusion with that which has been recommended in the preceding Charge. NOTB I. n?*n?. It is the same word that occurs, and in the same paral- lelism with the "palaces," in Psalm cxxii. 7: "Peace be within thy «;a?Zs "—■n'?.''n3—" within thy rampart:' So in Lam. ii. 8: "The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Sion : he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart (^H) and the wall to lament ; they languished together." Also in Nahum iii. 8, concerning " populous No {Eel. No Amon), that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea." Compare 2 Sam. xx. 15 ; "they cast up 78 A rnARGE. a bank apiainst the city, and it stood in the trench " (marg. " it stood against the outmost wall"; rather, " against the rampart'"). So also in 1 Kings xxi. 23 — " by the wall of Jezreel " (Or, ditch, niarg. ; rather as above, " rampart "). The LXX. has ds ttjv 8vvaniv airrjjs — having regard, rather, to the other substantive from the same root, ^^n. So also in Psalm cxxii. 7, T(Vi(T6<>) 8f] fipT]VT) iv rfj dwdfifi a-ov. In Lam. ii. 8, the rendering is TO TrpuTfi)(i(Tfjui ; as also in 1 Kings xxi. 23, tv tw TrpoT(i\i(XfxaTi. rov 'iffputX. — The Yuli^ate, in both the jassages in the Psalms, renders the word in accordance with the LXX : " Ponite corda vestra in virtute ejus" (I's. xlviii. 14) ; " Fiat pax in virtute tul" (Ps. cxxii. 7). Pbecincts, Cantebbuby, September 24, 1879. ERRATA. Page 41, line 8 from bottom, /or two-thirds read three-fourths. Page G4, line 3 from bottom, the title of the Act, as passed, is " The Public Health (Interments) Act, 1879." BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Prospects of Peace for the CJiurch in the Prayer Book and its Rules. A Charge delivered in April 1875. '^^• The Church in its Divine Constitution and Office, and in its Relations with the Civil Power. A Charge delivered in May 1877. With Notes. \s. The more excellent Way of Unity in the Church of Christ. A Charge delivered in May 1878. With Notes, is. RIVINGTONS HonTJon, ©jrfortr, anT» CambriKse. ^ ^« ra^'^ l^sa w5^