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    Lordships acknowledge the receipt of communications as to the difficulty of raising the cash , and further sarcastically observe : — *• My Lords cannot but regret that any erroneous expectations should have existed on this matter . As the position in which you are now placed , with respect to the parties with whom you have commenced negotiations for the acquisition of cemeteries , arises entirely from your having entered into communication with the parties for this purpose before you were ¦ well assured of the certainty of obtaining the money . My Lords are not prepared to apply to Parliament in order to authorize an issue of Exchequer Bills for this purpose . "

    The Board even now appeared full of vitality , and determined on braving all difficulties in the accomplishment of their delegated object ; when they were suddenly brought to a pause by the following letter : — " Treasury Chambers , July 23 , 1851 . " My Loeds and Gentlemen , —With reference to the correspondence that has taken place hetween this department and your Board , relative to the purchase of the Abbey Wood estate , and to your statement of your inability to obtain loans on the security which you can offer , I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty ' s Treasury to acquaint you

    that my Lords desire that you will put an end to any negotiation for the purchase of the estate in question , if it is still open to you to do so . My Lords also desire that you will report in what state the proceedings are for the acquisition of the Nunhead and Brompton Cemeteries , and whether it is possible to put an end to them in either of these cases ; and that you will take no further steps in these cases without further authority from this Board . Their Lordships are further pleased to direct that you will incur no further expense in the survey of ground or otherwise , ¦ with a view to the purchase or creation of cemeteries , without the like authority . I have , &c , " ( Si-ned" ) C . E . Trevei / yan . "

    Forthwith the Board reply that they have " directed their solicitor to put an end to the negotiation for the purchase of Abbey Wood , and to report on the proceedings concerning the Brornpton and Nunhead Cemeteries . " Thus the Treasury succeeded in laying the unquiet spirit of the Board of Health , in the matter of Extramural Interment . The Treasury was evidently actuated by a desire to impede " the progress of the Board . But it did more than this . It forced the Board into the

    acceptance of that which is nselesstothem . lhe trilling act passed in August of the [ resent year , authorizing the purchase of two cemeteries , niL ' t with tin ; most strenuous protest on U : e pnrt of the Board of Health . In a minute , ( I ; -:.. ! July 28 , ' 51 , : uid transmitted to the Treasury , it is argued , in reference to the bill before the House : —• " If it is proposed tliat the ; 1 ' oanl should complete ! the purchases of the Bromptou and Nunhcad Cemeteries , and proceed to bury therein , the ] 5 oard would

    recal the attention of then- hnel . ^ hips to the ISoaru ' s minute of the 21 st November , ltt . OO , wherein they set forth the insuperable diflicultierf in the way <> f entering , into competition with the oilier cemetery ci > inpanien , the necessary effect of which will be a great and indefinite increaneof the liabilities of the Board . If , on the other hand , it is not intended that the Board should use these cemeteries lor interments , the , purchase of them toill occasion a yreat expense for acquisitions which can be turned to no useful purpose . "

    In another minute , dated July 2 <) , ' 51 , the Board remark : — " Kven if they were themselvcH to attempt to use the Biomptoii and Nunhead Cemeteries for purposes of intermei . it , the receipts of the Board in burial fees would , in the opinion of the Jioard , certainly not cejual the liabilities to which they would be exposed . " The Hill was nevertheless read ; i third time on

    the . 2 nd of Atigu . st ; and on the 51 , 1 > of that month , the Board transmitted a Minute to the Treasury , recalling the attention of their Lordships to the fart that tin ; Board h ; ul " advisedly abstained from taking any . step for the compulsory purchase ; of any one cemetery until they had re reived their Lordships' sanction lor the pui chase of the whole . " They urge upon their Lordships the , absurdity of their possessing themselves of two cemeteries , " the remaining kcvc . h being left to enter into unrestricted competition wil . li the two assigned ( o tin ; Board , " and they conclude their paragraph thus : ¦—¦

    " The Hoard are more than ever Hntirdied that , if they were to enter into huc . 1 i competition , they could not , without abandoning the essential principles , m U > the proper mode of buriul , urged in I heir report , nvoid incurring heavy liabilities , to an extent which they have ; no means of estimating , and without ihu blighteot countervailing profit . "

    In the face of such a protest , Government forced upon the Board £ 140 , 000 for the purchase of the Brompton and Nunhead Cemeteries . The next scene in this Drama of " Who ' s the dupe , " " Determination versus Humbug , " is at the Treasury . Lord John Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are discovered . Enter a deputation from the Sanitary Commission . The Bishop of London , as spokesman , calls his lordship ' s attention to the continuance of interment within the Metropolis , although an Act had been passed fifteen months since prohibiting the same .

    The Bishop , in the most serious tone possible , and absolutely as though he places faith in the intent of the Government , urges upon them " the importance of coming to an immediate decision as to what should be ' done , and finally settling the question some way or other . " Lord John appears quite frisky after his " run " in the Country , and pokes all manner of fun at the Board of Health . He won ' t tax the Country for the burial of the Metropolis , nor will he interfere as to the manner

    and mode of burial . " Government has a great deal to do ; and undertaking to be answerable for the removal and burial of every dead body in a population of 2 , 000 , 000 is really a serious matter . " He seems much to relish the joke , that they have bought two cemeteries which " were calculated to inter about 6000 in a year , " while " the whole mortality of London amounts to 58 , 000 or 60 , 000 . " " It is asked why is not something immediately done ? I would say the Government has not the power to do it . "

    And yet Government , in the face of the protest of the Board of Health , passed the act for the purchase of the two cemeteries . The Chancellor of the Exchequer graphically referred to the straits of the Board of Health as to the little matter of the loan , confessing that they could not borrow " because they had no power of insuring the payment of the fee . " But the

    meaning of Government lies in the last sentence , " He might remark that in Edinburgh no one was buried within the city , but the whole was managed by cemetery companies . Therefore , it did not seem so absolutely impossible to be done by private parlies . " The Bishop evidently thought the question decided ; for , said he , " if the objections of Lord John Russell held good in their full extent , there was an end oi the whole question of extrumural interment . "

    Lord John Russell did not agree with the Bishop . Nor do we . The common sense of the people will not permit it . Too much is known of the horrors of the meirnjjolitan eharnels for us to relapse into the old modes of sepulture . The falling oil" of the Government in the matter is no very serious consideration . They have taken their usual mode of burking the . question . The . Sanitary Association was "taken in and done lor "; the Treasury took the Board of Health home with the deliberate

    intention of overlaying it at nurse . As to carrying out the proposals of the Board of Health with reference to extramural sepulture , from the equivocating impediments throughout the past year , it is evident " they never meant to do- it . " They woidd not be able to treat any independent body in that cavalier , not , to say dishonest fashion . Private bodies would soon show that they could extort the powers which are so slightingly withheld from the (« overnnient ' s own " Hoard . "

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    1136 ® t ) e % ta * tt . [ Saturday ,

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    • JAW FOR T 1 IU CAPITALIST . # Act the last of the famous Wolverhainpton "conspiracy , " and the finale as executed by Mr . Justice ; l ' atteson , are . worthy of the whole drama . Peel , Green , Dufliehl , VYoodnort . li , and Gaunt have been sentenced to three calendar months' imprisonment , and Pia . lt to one calendar month ' s imprisonment , in Stafford gaol Now the whole ihain . i is fairly ended , Mr . Perry triumphant , the prisoners lodged iu Stailord gaol , and lnw . satisfied , we may he allowed to : isk , What it all means ?

    How did ibis trial arise ;? Mr . Pony , of Wolverbainpton , tin-plate manufacturer , had a diirercnce with his nu ; n respecting the ; prices of work . At the . request of the men a deputation from the National Trades' Association waited on Mr . Perry , and offered to mediate ; between him < md his men . For mouths Mr . Perry allowed the negotiation to continue , until he had obtained contracts from a number of men in his employ , and then he abruptly intimated that " he allowed no third persons to interfere ; in his business . " The result , of which

    declaration was that , by the exertion of tin ; local , backed by the National AHsoeiatmn , several men were induced to leave Mr . Perry ' s factory , bin business watt deranged , and be lout a large- mini of

    money . In August last , the jury held that those means amounted to " violence , obstruction , intimidation , " and decided that the combination which effected the result above described was a u conspiracy . " It is to this point that we wish to draw attention . Mr . Justice Patteson throws some light upon ifc . " The offence here , " said Mr . Justice Patteson

    " did not consist in the combination of men to raise their wages , but in the conspiracy to use these means of violence , threats , and intimidation , to molest and obstruct the , prosecutor in the conduct of his business , and his men in the performance of their employment . In this case there was no charge that violence to the person or to property had been used , nor teas there any evidence of the employment of such violence . "

    He said that the law left it for the jury to decide whether this intimidation and violence had been used , and that it was " impossible for the Court not to see that the jury had materials " to come to the conclusion that the unlawful acts charged had been committed . That is to say , the jury came to a conclusion unsupported by " any evidence "; and on such grounds four men are sent to spend three months—winter months—in gaol . Now , the act under which this conviction is obtained is called the Masters and Servants Act , made in the 6 th of George IV .

    • ' It enacts that ' if any person shall , by violence to the person or property , or by threats or intimidation , or by molesting , or in any way obstructing another , force or endeavour to force any workman , &c , or persons hired , &c ., in any manufacture , &c , to depart from his hiring , or to prevent any person from hiring himself , or to force any manufacturer carrying on any trade or business to make any alteration in his mode of managihg such , business , every person convicted thereof , ' in the manner described in the act , should suffer three months' imprisonment . " The purpose of this enactment is to prevent combinations of workmen to raise wages . It is obviously so .

    "The object of this statute was , that all masters and men should be left entirely free to act as they chose for themselves . With respect to the conduct of their business , the masters were to determine how it was to he carried on , and what wages they would give , and the men were to be at liberty to enter into agreements among themselves as to what terms of wages and otherwise they would require ; and the men were ; not to be restricted fioin doing so because

    some of tl . em might be employed by one or other of sue h inastei s . The * legislature having left these perstuis free to pursue this course , nevertheless , in oider that in ) violence or intimidation might be used m oreler to cany into effect such agreement , made tnc enactment which he hud just read . " That , is , the Legislature having in view the keeping down of wages , invented certain specific offences i ni it n * > i \ % t k s * l vi . i « * 11 » v 4 i » , *^ »« » -. *_ . *« .- — — i _ i hands

    of a louse and vague , nature , leaving in the of a jury the determination of the fact as to the committal oi" those specific offences . Why , if there be violence used , are not the ordinary courts resorted to by the parties aggrieved ? If the real object were simply to prevent intimidation , ami s , o to protect the peace , the law of assault andbattej y would prove sufficient . But the object ot wit Masters and . Servanth Act is to repress concert

    among workmen for the purpose of raising wagt- 77 / mMs the animus of the law . Hence , faithlu y expounding that law and the p hilosophy J «" which it springs , Mr . Justice l ' atteson denounced the National Trades Association . wl ) 0 « - Nothing coul . l be said in fiivour of x >« re > on » ^ bele . ngeel to ussociatioiiH of this kind , anil wlio ^ . ^_ eiilierent pints of the country , making the me that they lmel grievances against , the i "" ™ „ , <¦„ at . least , were- volunteer in the matter . , . h slu . uhl be allowed , m the law meant , to m b ( j those grievnn . es on their own account , ni . he forced into c < . mbinatie > ns of this m > rt , whicK j of a very dangerous kind . " ¦ I ... , i i . ¦ . „ / . ( 1 ' ,-nre which ' h offence wim . , -

    In Franco they ave an pressed m the terms exciting hatred and « n ^ ^ lor the ( Jovernment , and exciting the u < a hate each other ; and on a par ^^ "" l ^ hwiiini ? law to punish persons , not only - <>» * , JV ) r workmen into quilling th < -ir cn . p » y »« " ' it it ; WJI ,, | , i ,, i n _« conspiring" to inakc ^^ „„ not only for obstructing the " >«*< , < ' , MrIir thi »>; his business , but for " cen . Npirmg to «»> „ . () rl . not only for using positive violence , m ^ , at npiiing " lo use positive violence w . ¦ ) Htan tiv o while" conspiring" i « ireaU , 1 < >» ' ^ frolB on ence , its culpability could only ^ < ^ < : aH o the ; wind U > commit , violence I "" - ( ., liirf r , ; . such an intent is assumed to eke <> aclice a is And thetrihunal which determines these —a Special Jury !

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1851, page 1136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1911/page/12/