Punch (72.1877)

290

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[June 30, 1877.

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

0 natural, when my
Lords were engaged
on a Burials Act,
that we should have
had more than one
funeral performed
on Monday, June 18.
First came the burial
—under a heavy
heap of objections
from the Duke of
Richmond, half-
promises by the
Lord Chancellor,
and solemn rebukes
of the Earl of

Beaconsfield—of the Archbishop of Yoek's Clause empowering
silent burial in cases of such " open and notorious evil-livers " that,
in their case, the Clergyman feels the Church Service's words of
Christian hope and trust an impious mockery. But the relief which
both Archbishops and two Bishops made bold to ask for, the Govern-
ment was afraid to grant, and the House declined, by 146 to 89, to
ease clerical consciences, perhaps distrusting clerical discretion in
grave matters.

But the minority had their revenge when it came to the perform-
ance of the second funeral of the evening—that of the Government
Opposition to Lord Harrowbv's Clause authorising the use in
parish churchyards of burial services other than that of the Church
of England. This was carried against the Government by 127 to
111, the majority of 16 including an Archbishop of Canterbury,
three Bishops (Exeter, Oxford, and St. Asaph), and twenty-one
Conservative Peers. However the Bill may fare this year, the Clause
is carried, and its enactment in the law of the future is as good as an
accomplished fact. We congratulate the Church on this'abandonment
by its heads, if not its rank and file, of an untenable position.

Then their Lordships had a light legislative meal of Oysters,
Crabs, Lobsters, and Mussels' Fisheries Bills and Provisional
Orders, and was up by half-past seven. Another lesson for the
Commons. Though Ast'ley's is closed, " Rapid Acts " are still to be
seen in Westminster. Apply at the House of Lords.

{Commons.)—Why is Monday night like misery? Because it
makes the House acquainted with "strange bed-fellows." Here
are some of the odd rubbings of shoulders in last Monday's omnium
gatherum of questions and answers :—

"Army Examinations" and The Priest in Absolution; "The
Irish Sunday Closing Bill" and New Caledonia (should it not have
been New Hibernia?); the Richmond'Park Rabbits (which Sir. G.
Camfbell doesn't like, because they honey-comb the ground to the
risk of horses' legs and riders' necks, and Mr. Gerard Noel does,
because they are pretty creatures, and it is delightful to see them
turning up their white "scuts" as they flash through the fern);
Short Army Service versus the roster (roaster P) of Indian duty ; the
grave question of the gravel between Hyde Park Corner and the
Marble Arch, (which Sir Drummond Wolff wants, and Mr. Gerard
Noel objects to, because the riding Gentlemen bespatter with it the
walking Ladies; Sir Henry must have felt gravelled with an
explanation which shows up the Hyde Park equestrian in the
character of "a Galloping Snob"); Mr. Rylands's wish to know
if Mr. Layard had spoken to the Sultan about his Ministers
negligence in carrying on the war (Mr. Bourke did not know
anything about it. What do we keep a Foreign Office for F) ;
the Controllership of the Stationery Department, (which has gone
to an outsider, a disappointment that naturally riles those in
the Department who had looked for the office among them.
But that wotdd have been " promotion." The business of the
Department is "stationery," and so, we presume, its servants
should be content to be)'; Army Promotion, and the Denton
Melton rifle range (where a beneficent rain of bullets seems
to be showered on the surrounding fields—a modern version of
the myth of Cadmus sowing the ground with lead); the log of