No. XXVI.] APPENDIX. 341 



so powerful as to include the names of Faber, of Dalgairns, and the 

 other priests of the Oratory, assisted by Bowyer and lawyers of high rank, 

 and who have newspapers under their control to vilify the families of 

 those whom the Oratorians deprive. 



April 4th, 1864. 



SIR, I am most anxiously awaiting your answer to my request to know 

 if there are any other private and secret burial-grounds besides that at 

 Sydenham, so that the public may be informed upon the matter before 

 it comes before the House of Commons. Since that letter, I have care- 

 fully perused the papers which you have presented to Parliament upon 

 the private and secret burial-ground of the Oratory belonging to the Order 

 of St. Philip Neri, and I most respectfully urge that they do not contain 

 that information which the relatives of those there buried are entitled 

 to have. 



1. The position of the burial-ground of 500 square yards in the 

 garden is not given. The definition of the precise spot allotted as a burial- 

 ground is the more important, as the Government inspector has stated 

 that it is on the part of the ground constituted of stiff clay, and without 

 water at eight feet from the surface : whereas at the spot where my rela- 

 tion was buried the ground was sand or sandy clay, with water at five feet. 

 Dr. Dalgairns states that it is the centre of the ground, whereas it is on 

 one side. This discrepancy might be immediately used by Oratorians, 

 keen in the use of words, should any dispute as to position arise. 



2. The ownership of the land is not given. The estate at Sydenham 

 belonged to the family of the Bowdens, and is mixed up in a complicated 

 trust, whereas it is provided that, should the trust be illegal, the property 

 shall vest in its former owners; a provision showing that the skilled 

 barristers who have been consulted have been perfectly well aware of the 

 provision of the Catholic Relief Act, fear themselves that they could not 

 evade the law, so that years hence this land may fall into different hands, 

 and the graves of the dead may be desecrated. 



The terms of their licence are not given. The necessity of a correct 

 public burial-register is paramount, and at present all access to a register 

 has been denied. I most respectfully urge for your consideration that I, 

 as husband of the next-of-kin and heir-at-law of a person there buried, 

 ought to possess this information, and therefore I trust that you, as Con- 

 servator of the burial-grounds of this country, will kindly furnish me 

 with these facts. 



WHITEHALL, 



April 5th, 1864. 



SIR, I am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey to acknowledge 

 the receipt of your letters of the 30th and 4th, and to inform you that 

 although several licences have at various times been given for the opening 

 of a burial-ground for the exclusive use of the members of a particular 

 religious community, he has not the means of informing you whether a 

 register is kept of the interments in such burial- grounds, or whether the 

 names, if any, on the tombstones are falsified, as these matters do not come 

 within the scope of the power vested in the Secretary of State by the Acts 

 which regulate the burial of the dead. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



H. A. BRUCE. 



