84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 143. 



(Vol. v., pp. 320. 549. 596. 613.) 



Will your correspondent Alfred Gatty kindly 

 point out any authority for his position, p. 613., 

 " that a clei'gyman would render himself liable to 

 suspension by his bishop, who either allowed in- 

 terments to take place in the churchyard without 

 the burial service, or, on the other hand, used the 

 service in unconsecrated or unlicensed ground ? " 



The question of the use of the burial service by 

 a clergyman in unconsecrated ground has become 

 of great local interest in Birmingham, in conse- 

 quence of the rector of St. Martin's having re- 

 cently attended the funeral of a member of his 

 congregation in the " unconsecrated and unlicensed 

 ground" of a joint-stock cemetery in the town, 

 and there officiated in his canonicals, using the 

 whole Church of England service for the burial of 

 the dead ; although there is a Church of England 

 cemetery, duly conseci'ated and established at great 

 expense, immediately adjoining. 



The irregularity and impropriety of such conduct 

 is indeed very glaring (Vol. v., p. 549.) ; but I can 

 find neither canon, rubric, nor law of the church 

 that makes it illegal. 



The 71st and 72nd appear to be the only canons 

 bearing on the point; the rubrics for the Com- 

 munion of the Sick and the Private Baptism of 

 Children contain a stringent caution as to their 

 use out of church, except in cases of sudden danger 

 or inability to leave home ; the Conventicle Act 

 (22 Geo. II. c. 1.) only refers to the " exercise of 

 religion in other manner than according to the 

 Liturgy and practice of the Chirch of England;''^ 

 and finally, the statutes of Elizabeth respecting at- 

 tendance at church speak only of "their parish 

 church or chapel accustomed, or upon reasonable 

 let thereof, some usual place of common prayer." 



The whole matter, therefore, seems to resolve 



itself into a question of good taste and consistent 



churchmanship. It would be a great favour to 



obtain an early answer. Benbow. 



Birmingham. 



DR. CDMMING ON ROiMANS VIII. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 6, 7.) 



On the publication of my remarks, I thought it 

 right to call Dr. Cumming's attention to them, and 

 in reply I have received a private letter from him, 

 with a request that I would communicate the sub- 

 stance of it to " N. & Q." 



1. In speaking of "the poet who is supposed to 

 tread nearest to the inspired," Dr. Gumming did 

 not intend to point to any individual, but to the 

 whole class of poets. The meaning, therefore, is 

 not, as I supposed, " that poet who is generally 

 regarded as approaching nearest to the inspired 

 poets," but " a poet, a writer of that class whose 



genius is considered to approach nearer to in- 

 spiration than any other human talent or endow- 

 ment." I have to beg pardon for my mistake, 

 and can only plead in excuse my want of acquaint- 

 ance with the writer's style. 



2. As to the quotations from Goethe and Luther, 

 Dr. Cumming considers that, since they are avow- 

 edly quotations, it was needless to mention the 

 work from which they were immediately derived. 

 He states that the chapter on Romans viii. is the 

 only part of his Voices of the Night in which he 

 has made any use of Olshausen, and that in others 

 of his works he has amply acknowledged his obli- 

 gations to that commentator. He disavows all 

 intention of " parading " the names of other com- 

 mentators, and states that his acquaintance with 

 the Fathers is derived from their own writings, 

 not from secondary sources. And, generally, he 

 is of opinion that express references are not re- 

 quired in religious books of a popular and prac- 

 tical character. 



3. " It is perfectly true," writes Dr. Cumming, 

 " that I did mistake Bettina for a creature of 

 Goethe's imagination, and therefore supposed the 

 noble and beautiful thought to be Goethe's own, 

 and Bettina merely to be the organ of it." 



I am bound to acknowledge the candour and 

 the good temper Avith which my remarks have been 

 received ; and having, as I trust, now fairly stated 

 Dr. Cumming's side of the question, I shall not 

 add any comment on those parts of it as to which 

 I am unable to agree with him. 



N.B. — In the sixth line of the poetry, page 7, 

 from has been printed instead of /or. 



J. C. Robertson. 



ON SOME DISPUTED PASSAGES IN SHAKSPEARE. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 8. 26.) 

 After the apology which you have deemed it 

 necessary to make to your readers for the lar^e 

 space occasionally occupied by Shakspearian criti- 

 cism, I should have scrupled again to trespass iu 

 this way, but that I feel called upon to notice 

 Mr. Collier's very courteous appeal to me re- 

 specting my note on two passages in King Lear 

 (Vol. vi., p. 8.), in which I have unwittingly mis- 

 represented his reading of one of them. 



It is true that the absence of the capital letter at 

 the word " dispatch," and the period after it, escaped 

 my observation; but I must confess that I do not feel 

 satisfied with the view Mb. Collier takes of the 

 passage, " that Gloster intends to say when Edgar 

 is found he should be dispatched." The pointing 

 of the old copies, in which a semicolon occurs after 

 the words " And found," is in my mind decisively 

 against it. It may be that Gloster merely is meant 

 to say, that all possible dispatch shall be used in 

 having the fugitive Edgar pursued. 



Being one of those who received with acclaim 



