THE BURIAL OF THE UNBAPTISED.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOL'l
Sia,—The Rubric concerning the burial of the unbaptised is a dead-letter in Lordon. No questions are ever asked, and the evidence afforded by the baptismal registers, e.g., of 1850 to 1860, in the East of London is plain. An estimate from twenty to twenty-live years ago gave the then existing proportion of baptised children as less than half, and in the general effort to remedy this state of things, the 'baptism of whole families at once was an every-day experience.
It is in the country parishes alone that the rubric is opera- tive, and practically it bears only on the case of the Baptist community. A clergyman in a country" ruridecaual chapter" who should venture to express his personal readiness to dis- regard the rubric, would find an instructive study in the couutenauces of the assembled incumbents ; and from some, at least, of the Bishops he could expect but little sympathy. I trust that the Burials Bill may contain a clause either abro- g sting this rubric, or exempting the clergy from all penalties or proceedings in case of its non-observance.—I am, Sir, &c., Tedstone Delamere, June 30th. F. SIMCOX LEA.
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