Mr. J. G. Talbot (M.P. for West Kent) both made
and with- -drew on Wednesday his motion for the second reading of the Burial-Grounds Bill, for enabling the vote of a minority of the ratepayers,—a minority as low as one-fourth,—to -acquire and open unconsecrated burial-grounds,—a measure which was proposed as a solution of the sanitary, rather than of the religious difficulty of the Burial question. The Government advised the withdrawal of the Bill, admitting that it touched a -question which greatly needed to be dealt with, and which they hoped to deal with next year ; and Mr. Talbot withdrew it, but not without intimating that Churchmen would feel churchyards " desecrated " by the rites which might be introduced into them under Mr. Osborne Morgan's Bill. We wish Mr. J. G. Talbot would explain what, to his mind, "desecration" means. Is it a psychological effect, produced on the memory and the associations? If so, why not avoid hearing of unwelcome rites? Or is it the removal of a physical advantage to the persons whose remains are buried in the ground? And if so, an advantage of what nature ?
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