342 APPENDIX. [No. XXVI. 



Petition of ALFRED SMEE, Fellow of the Royal Society, of No. 7, 

 Finsbury Circus, in the City of London, 



Sheweth, 



That on the 16th of July, 1863, your Petitioner attended the funeral 

 of a relative in a private garden attached to a house called St. Mary's at 

 Sydenham, in Kent, belonging to the members of the Order of St. Philip 

 Neri, now located at a building called the Oratory at Brompton, in the 

 county of Middlesex. 



That your Petitioner was informed by the Rev. William Knox, one of 

 the members of the Order, that this garden had a licence, which was pro- 

 cured by representations made to the Secretary of State by his Grace the 

 late Duke of Norfolk, whose family was in close association with the 

 members of the Order, and assisted them in their various schemes. 



That your Petitioner has seen his Grace, the present heir to the 

 dukedom of Norfolk, with his Grace's brother, assisting in ecclesiastical 

 garments in the public performance of services on the 16th July, 1863, at 

 the Catholic chapel at the Oratory at Brompton, in conjunction with the 

 priests of the Oratory, and also subsequently on the same day at the 

 garden of the house called St. Mary's at Sydenham. 



That young men of position and wealth are concealed from their 

 friends by the members of the Order, that they may be converted from 

 their faith, and that their property may be obtained for the maintenance 

 of the Order. 



That the existence of the burial-ground at St. Mary's at Sydenham 

 was unknown to the clergy of the parish of Sydenham, to the neighbour- 

 ing landowners, and to the tax-collector ; and your Petitioner has been 

 informed that the Ordnance surveyors were ignorant of its existence. 



That the part of the garden used as a burial-ground has no boundary 

 walls and no public access. 



That the persons there buried are described on tombstones by names 

 falsified by the addition of a second Christian name, so that the names on 

 the tombstones do not correspond with the names known to the families, 

 or with names as used by themselves in their wills, whereby the means of 

 identification are destroyed. 



That no register of burials is kept; and up to this moment your 

 Petitioner has not been able, after many applications, to obtain a certifi- 

 cate of the burial of your Petitioner's relative. 



That the house at the Oratory at Brompton is so constructed as to 

 afford means of concealment. 



Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays that your honourable House 

 may institute an inquiry into the facts alleged, to ascertain whether it 

 may not be desirable that legislative enactments should be framed to 

 compel the owners of the burial-ground at St. Mary's at Sydenham to 

 erect boundary walls, to afford public access, and to keep a public register 

 of persons there buried, as required under the general Burial Act in force 

 in this country ; also to institute an inquiry whether it may not be desir- 

 able that enactments should be framed for the more effectual protection of 

 families from the concealment of individuals in the houses of these con- 

 fraternities or religious societies, and from the combined action of the 

 members of the Order to deprive the heirs-at-law of the fortunes of their 



