View report page

26
This ground was subsequently consecrated and (hereby became subject to the
jurisdiction of this Court, and the 42nd section of the act which provides that
"nothing therein contained " is intended or shall extend to invalidate any ecclesiastical
" Law'or constitution of the Church of England or to destroy any of the rights or
u powers belonging to the Bishop of London and his successors or any other local
" Ordinary or to any archdeacon chancellor or official, and the 43rd section (which
" provides that the Bishop of London and all other ecclesiastical ordinaries and
"judges and their successors respectively shall hereafter exercise ecclesiastical
"jurisdiction in the said new Parish as amply as they or any of them may now do
" in the said Parish of Stepney " the Parish out of which this new Parish is carved
in case that act had not been made) would seem to contemplate that that Churchyard
was to be placed in the same position in reference to the jurisdiction of this
Court as the Churchyard of Stepney or any other Parish.
Another objection taken was that the position of the Churchyard was unsuitcd for
the purpose in consequence of its being situated at the west end instead of in the
central part of the parish, and the inconvenience of access to it, and further (and to
this a great portion of the evidence and argument was directed) that the mortuary
would be a nuisance to the inhabitants of the houses near the Churchyard and
injurious to their health. It occurred to the court that both these objections were
entitled to the most serious consideration and if it were satisfied that any other
suitable site in the parish could at the present time on reasonable terms have been
secured it would have hesitated to grant the faculty for a mortuary. It seems however
that the erection of this mortuary was first mooted by the Vestrj^in the year
1872 when its erection was strenuously resisted by Mr. Hansard as the Rector of the
parish, supported by a considerable number of parishioners, on the ground of the
inconvenience of the site and the possibility of obtaining a more convenient site
elsewhere in the Parish. The Vestry in consequence of this opposition abstained from
pressing the matter at that time and made application to the Poor Law Guardians,
and to the Commissioners for Crown Lands for a site in the parish, but without
success. They also inspected several sites which had been suggested as convenient
for the purpose, and from an inspection of the sites myself I am bound to say that I
concur in the conclusion the vestry came to, that these sites were objectionable. The
Court has come to the conclusion after due consideration of all the evidence that
has been adduced to it, and of the able argument of counsel, that it is essential for
the health of the parish that there should be a mortuary. It appears by the petition,
(paragraph 6) which is confirmed by the evidence, that the population of the parish
consists of 120,000 persons, that many of them are exceedingly poor, that in some
parts of the parish the population is most crowded, whole families having only one
or at most two rooms to live in, that it is most important for the moral and for the
sanitary welfare of the inhabitants that the bodies of persons dying in these crowded
rooms should be removed at once to some convenient resting place, there to remain
until they can be properly and decently interred; and it is to effect this purpose that
the present application for a mortuary has been made. This Court therefore has
come to the conclusion that it is essential for the health of the Parish from sanitary
reasons that there should be a mortuary and after the inspection of the Churchyard
and on consideration of the evidence it has also come to the conclusion that on the
whole, notwithstanding its inconvenience, it is the most available and most suitable
site for a mortuary.
To other portions of the application objections were urged, and as to having living
rooms over the mortuary, Dr. Tidy, a medical gentleman of great experience in such
matters, and Mr. Bate, the Medical Officer of the Parish, in answer to questions put
to them by the Court said at once that there were grave objections on sanitary
grounds to having living rooms over the mortuary. There was a legal objection
taken to the erection of rooms for holding coroner's inquests founded on the words of
the 88th canon. The wording of the canon runs in these terms :—"The
"churchwardens or questmen and their assistants shall suffer no plays, feasts,
" banquets, suppers, churchales, drinkings, temporal courts or leets, lay juries,
" musters, or any other profane usage to be kept in the church, chapel or churchyard,
" neither the bells to be rung superstitiously upon holidays or eves abrogated by the