THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 



331 



even mingled in their general scheme of civil policy an ecclesiastical 

 element sterner and more searching than that of the Church from 

 which they dissented. The curious historian may analyze, if he will, the 

 earnest puritanisni of early New England, or even the sturdy bigotry 

 of early New Netherland ; it is enough for the Commonwealth of New 

 York, " by the grace of God, free and independent," to know that its 

 first written constitution, born in 1777, in the very depths of the Revo- 

 lutionary struggle, extirpated from the body j^olitic every lingering 

 element of ecclesiastical cognizance or spiritual authority. On all its 

 features it bears the unextinguishable love of religious freedom, 

 brought to our shores by the refugees from ecclesiastical tyranny, 

 not onlv in Ensfland, but in Holland and France. Its ever-memorable 

 declaration of religious independence oifspring of the lofty intellect 

 and noble heart of John Jay, and growing bright with his Huguenot 

 blood proclaims to the world the fundamental resolve, " not only to 

 expel civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppres- 

 sion and intolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak 

 and wicked priests and princes have scourged mankind." 



Following up this fixed determination, and yet with wise regard 

 and unaifected reverence for the Christian Church in its purity, the 

 illustrious authors of this Magna Charta of our religious liberty, pro- 

 hibit any "minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination," 

 from holding any office, civil or military, within the State; inscribing 

 in the organic law, thus unmistakably, their settled purpose to de- 

 liver both dead and living from ecclesiastical cognizance, to emanci- 

 pate the courts of justice from every j^riestly and media3val fetter, and 

 to allow them to breathe, through all coming time, the invigorating 

 air of ancient, Anglo-Saxon freedom. 



It is a striking jDroof of the inveterate attachment, even of the 

 most enlightened nations, to prescriptive authority, that the monk- 

 ish idea of the church-yard as an engine of spiritual power not 

 only lingers in England, but is boldly proclaimed in its Very metrop- 

 olis. Within the last two years, the Archdeacon of London, in an 

 official address to the clergy of the Established Church within his dis- 

 trict, openly complains of modern legislation in the British Parlia- 

 ment, in establishing extra-mural cemeteries around their crowded 

 cities; for, says he, "the chi;rch and the church-yard of the parish 

 have hitherto been one of the strongest ties, to hind the people at 

 large to the communion of the Church." And again, " Burial hound, 

 I say, the people, in the metropolis, to the Established Church." 



It certainly is not for us to interfere with the ecclesiastical law of 

 England, nor needlessly to ci'iticise its claims to the respect of the 

 people whom it binds. We only ask to banish its maxims, doctrines, 

 and practices from our jurisprudence, and to prevent them from guid- 

 ing, in any way, our judicial action. The fungous excrescence which 

 required centuries for its growth may need an efflux of ages to re- 



