The loss of the 'Avalanche' has led to a great
scandal on the South Coast. The bodies of the poor seamen washed ashore from the Avalanche 'and the ' Forest ' have been housed and buried in a manner very discreditable to the public authorities who were responsible for the duty, and but for private charity many of the bodies would have been placed quite naked in the 'coffins. Moreover, the burial itself at St. George's Church, Ref erne, would have been performed in a most disrespectful manner, but for the aid of sympathising volunteers. The truth is, we suppose, that public authorities who have sudden demands made on their funds for which they are unprepared, are apt to be very hard- hearted. Having got into grudging habits towards the living, they are not likely to melt into tenderness for the dead. Yet it is most important that the awe and compassion which wrecks excite in the mind of the people should have fitting expression, and that if the public authorities on whom it devolves to bury the corpses of the drowned, have no feeling of compassion, they should at least be taught that they must act, on behalf of the public, as if they were better than they are.
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