A very important memorial in favour of making some concession
to the Dissenters in this matter, signed by more than four hundred clergymen of the English Church, and which might easily have obtained, we are told, a great number of additional signatures, if there had been more time,—all the signatures were procured in eight days,—was presented to the Prime Minister on the morning of the debate. Mr. Llewelyn Davies tells us some- thing in a short letter in another column of the his- tory of the memoriaL It contains names of so mush influence, that if the significance of the signatures be weighed, instead of the signatures merely counted, the memorial represents a. most important vein of opinion in the English Church. The prayer of the memorialists is that "permission should be given to a. recognised minister or representative of any religious body to perform in the churchyard a funeral-service consisting only of passages of Holy Scripture, prayers, and hymns ; and that the obligation of the clergy in respect of the use of the Burial Service should be modified at the same time, in such manner as may be deemed expedient." Four hundred is not a large propor- tion of twenty thousand, but then four hundred Liberals make a good lump of leaven, so that the dough, we hope, will soon begin to rise.
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