We have dealt elsewhere with the genius of Mr. Meredith,
the distinguished novelist and poet, who died at his house in Surrey early on Tuesday morning. There has been during the week a loud expression of public opinion that the cremated remains of Mr. Meredith should be buried in the Abbey. The Dean, however, has decided against burial there, and as he, and he alone, is responsible, his decision is final. Though we may be inclined to think that the demand for the very great honour of burial in the Abbey was not unreason- able, especially in view of the fact that the Dean granted the request in the case of Sir Henry Irving, we are by no means inclined to join in the hunt of noisy protest with which the Dean is being pursued. After all, the nation has placed in his hands an office which makes him trustee of the Abbey, and that being so, it is his duty to decide the question on what he believes to be its merits, and not in accordance with news- paper or any other form of popular clamour. If the nation desires to alter the conditions under which burial in the Abbey takes place, it can, of course, alter them ; but until it does make such alterations the Dean must carry out his trust, undeterred by the thought whether he is pleasing the King, the Prime Minister, or the Press.
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