- The newspapers this week record two fresh instances of
eccle- siastical overbearing, of a very offensive kind. In one case, Mr. DUDLEY RYDER, the Vicar of Easton, a village in Hampshire, re- fused to admit into the church the body of an old lady whom he buried, because she had let part of her house to some Dissenters and had allowed her daughter to marry a Dissenter : he would only deal out to his departed sister half the measure of religious valediction ordered for such occasions—that half which may be performed in the churchyard. His abrupt exclusion of the dead from her church, not merely insulted hut grievously afflicted her mourning children, and two of her daughters fainted at the grave desecrated by clerical insolence. In the other case, a soldier was altogether refused burial by the Vicar of a church at Tynemouth, because he was a Roman Catholic.
The time for these exhibitions is, to say the least, ill-chosen. A general irritation about church-rates makes it peculiarly expedient for the Church to preserve a good aspect in the eyes of the people. But, as if to render the affair, in the tirst case, as damaging as pos- sible, Archdeacon WILBERFORCE—a member of the Chapter of York, lately pronounced from the judgment-seat to be in a state of disorder and disorganization, while its chief has been convicted and degraded for simoniacal practices—sanctioned by his silent presence the quibbling and impertinent explanation which Mr. Kromt gave of his conduct to the injured friends. Is there no way of stopping these derogatory exposures in the Church? cannot a better discipline and a more politic demeanour be enforced against its less discreet and decorous members ? They bring a discredit upon the Establishment which ie.= ill afford at present, and risk
obtrusive brethren who better
observe the spirit of their law.
