Maryport Cemetery Print E-mail
 
A public meeting was held in the Oddfellows' Hall, on Thursday week, to consider the propriety of a requisition to Her Majesty's Secretary of State, to prohibit the erection of the obnoxious wall of separation between the graves of churchmen and dissenters, resolved on by the Burial Board, in opposition to the wishes of the ratepayers.  At half-past seven the room was crowded, and so strong was the feeling against the wall in question, that even female ratepayers were present at the meeting to sign the petition.
 
MR. J. WALKER, having been called to the chair, explained the object of the meeting, and read the following memorial:.......
 
"To the Right Honourable SIR GEORGE GREY, Bart., Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department.
 
"The humble petition of the undersigned ratepayers of the parish of Crosscannonby, in the county of Cumberland, sheweth, that the Burial Board of the said parish have resolved to erect a wall, three feet above the ground, for the purpose of separating the consecrated from the unconsecrated portion of the Cemetery, which is in course of preparation for the use of the said parish.  And that your petitioners are aggrieved at the resolution of the Burial Board to erect the aforesaid wall, because -------
 
"First.  That they conceive the erection of a wall of separation is not in accordance with the requirements of the act of Parliament.
 
"2nd.  That the erection of the aforesaid wall will add materially to the cost of the Cemetery, when a less expensive and a less offensive means of distinguishing the two portions of the ground might be adopted.
 
3rd.  That the erection of such a wall will perpetuate and make an invidious distinction between the graves of departed churchmen and dissenters, and be a perpetual source of bad feeling betwixt the two, which it is most desirable to prevent, and to promote harmony and good feeling between all religious denominations.
 
4th.  That in no other town in the county has a similar wall of separation been erected.
 
"Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will, in virtue of your constitutional authority, prohibit the Burial Board from erecting the aforesaid intended obnoxious wall of separation.
 
"And your petitioners beg leave further to state that two members of the Burial Board resigned their office in consequence of the passing of the aforesaid resolution, and that a numerous meeting of the ratepayers, convened to elect two others to supply their places, unanimously re-elected them, thereby expressing their approval of their conduct, and their disapproval of the resolution of the Board to erect the wall of separation."
 
THE CHAIRMAN - I now leave the matter in your own hands, but before sitting down, I beg leave to mention that I hope that discussions on the subject, if any arise, may be conducted in a calm and temperate manner.
 
MR. J. BROWN proposed that the memorial be adopted.  He remembered some years ago, a meeting was held in this town to oppose the appointment of Bishops by the Pope of Rome in this country, and the parties who then took the most active part in opposing such a monstrous absurdity, were now the most strenuous in their exertions for the erection of this barbarous relic of the middle ages.   [ Cheers ]
 
MR. KIRKBRIDE seconded the motion.  In Carlisle and Wigton the ratepayers had refused to erect a wall of separation, and the Bishop refused to consecrate the ground.  Now, here, the Board had resolved to meet his wishes, and to build the wall ready for his reception.   [ Hear Hear ]   The Bishop said in defence that the Canons of the Church require it, and that he is only carrying out the rules of his own church.  The Canons of the Church clearly had reference to an outward wall or enclosure to surround the ground.  In requiring a wall to divide the sects, he stretched his authority, in order to render Dissent as odious as he can both in life and in death.
 
[ Deafening cheers ]
 
The building of the wall would cost £150, of which the Dissenters would have to pay about £40 or £50 for the odium inflicted on themselves.  This was a gross and glaring indignity, and should not be borne.  Instead of being suffered in Britain in the nineteenth century, it is more worthy of the serfdom of Russia.    [ Applause ]
 
These puseyrite Bishops are now merely inserting the thin ends of the wedges, in time the noble vessel, the Christian Church, will be launched headlong into the clutches of Rome.
 
[ Loud applause ]
 
The Motion was carried without a dissenting voice.

 
MR. J. FLETCHER proposed "that this meeting views with deep regret the proceedings of the Burial Board in wishing to carry sectarian distinctions to the graves of the dead?"
 
It had been said that undue measures have been taken by the Board in order to secure the passing of the motion concerning the wall.
 
This was not mentioned in the memorial to the Secretary of State, and as it was an important fact, he would propose the following clause be added: -----
 
"That the aforesaid resolution was passed at an ordinary meeting of the Board and not at a meeting especially convened for the purpose of considering so important a matter - that at the said meeting there were only four members present, a bare quorum, and only one of the dissenting members of the Board."
 
MR. KENYON then seconded the proposition.  The erection of a wall would be an outrage upon common sense, and common decency.
 
This Resolution was put to the meeting, and carried unanimously.
 
MR. D. COLLIN then proposed "that this meeting pledges itself to use every legitimate means to prevent such walls of distinction, and that it fully approves the conduct of MESSRS. ROSS and BOOKLESS in throwing themselves upon the rate-payers rather than submit to such obnoxious distinctions".
 
He had just heard it said that the Board were against the erection of the wall, if so, they had a strange way of showing it.  He did not care which side of the wall he lay on.  Were there any benefits arising from being interred in ground which had been consecrated by a Bishop ?  If there were, how many  of our brave soldiers, who had died in defence of their country's honour before Sebastopol, and been buried where they fell, had been deprived of that benefit !  He was assured, however, that there was none.  It did not matter one jot where they lay.
 
The multitude here to-night had given pretty strong evidence of their sense of indignation on the subject, and he might say he never saw a more numerous or a more respectable meeting than the present one.    [ Applause ].
 
MR. T. TICKLE seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously.
 
MR. FLETCHER said, at the late meeting of the Ratepayers in the Court House, the reason of the resignation of MESSRS. ROSS and BOOKLESS was not read, nor in any way entered into.  If it had been read, we should then have heard the real cause of their resignation.
 
MR. SANDERSON here handed the written resignation of the aforesaid gentlemen, which MR. FLETCHER read as follows:...
 
"Gentlemen, - We beg to tender our resignation as members of the Crosscanonby Burial Board, in consequence of the undue haste and the irregular way in which the Board passed MR. EAGLESFIELD's plan of the Cemetery, containing what is significantly called the "Bishop's Wall", and because we cannont conscientiously unite with the majority of the Board in erecting the said wall, for the following reasons: ----
 
1st.  Because the said wall is contrary to the 15th and 16th Vict., cap. 85, sec. 23, which empowers the Board to form ony one Burial Ground, and not a separate enclosure for churchmen and nonconformists.
 
2nd.  Because said wall is a justification of the Bishop's conduct in presuming to make the statute subordinate to the Canons of the Church.
 
3rd.  Because said wall will subject the ratepayers to unnecessary expense.
 
4th.  Because said wall is an invidious distinction, and consequently most offensive to dissenters, contrary to every Christian feeling, and opposed to that Christian charity which ought to influence all in providing a last resting place for ourselves and others to sleep in, until the great Resurrection Day !
 
[ Signed ]
 
"WILLIAM BOOKLESS.
"NICHOLAS ROSS."
 
 
 
MR. FLETCHER continued:  This is what I wanted to be at, if the resolution was passed in an irregular manner, instead of at a regular meeting, your memorial is weaker than it should be, and I propose that it be added.
 
My reason is that the memorial will then contain the real reason of complaint.  And if it be a fact, as it appears to be, that the resolution to build a wall was come to at an irregular meeting of the Board, I move that these words be added.  MR. FLETCHER here read the last section of the memorial as given above.
 
MR. J. BROWN seconded the motion, observing that only four members of the Burial Board were present when the resolution was passed, viz :   MESSRS. R. RITSON,   W. BOOKLESS,    the REV. MR. DUGDALE,    and    the REV. MR. WILLIAMS.
 
It was a resolution of MR. DUGDALE's and was seconded by MR. R. RITSON,  and MR. BOOKLESS was its only opponent.
 
Now any important act like this, if not discussed by the ratepayers themselves, should at least have come before a full meeting of the board, instead of that, a bare quorum was present.
 
A petition was got up concerning it, and was numerously and respectably signed.  It was sent in to the board, but no notice seems to have been taken of it.  The way in which the resolution was carried in a small meeting of four, was certainly nothing.    [ Hear, hear ].
 
The Resolution was carried unanimously.
 
A vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman.
 
Nearly 400 ratepayers had signed the petition when it was sent to the Home Secretary on Tuesday week.
 
***************************
 
< Prev   Next >