THE RIGHTS OF THE NONCONFORMISTS.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Surely Dr. J. Morgan Gibbon gives a very misleading description of the treatment of Nonconformists in his letter to you on the above subject. He says :- " The pale that not so long ago encircled the Universities still runs through the schools . . . it invades the cemetery, the Church- man is buried in consecrated, the Nonconformist, on the other side of the pale, in unconsecrated, earth."
I have always understood that an unconsecrated cemetery or portion of a cemetery was set apart at the demand of the Nonconformists, and that the Church Catechism is not taught to Nonconformist children because their parents do not wish them to learn it I have never refused burial to a Nonconformist in our consecrated cemetery ; but their friends generally choose the unconsecrated ground. And in our Church schools, although the Catechism is only taught to Church children as a rule, yet several Nonconformist children have been admitted to
the class at the request of their parents. Has Dr. Gibbon any valid grounds for his statement ?—I am, Sir, &C.,
RURAL DEAN.
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