The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-01 00:00:00

OCTOBER 1, 1833. CITY INTERMENTS. rLAGRXNT evils having proved the necessity, and private enterprise having indicated the way, the civic authorities of London are at length endeavouring, in good earnest, to organise a system of extramural interment for that section of the metropolis which is under their control. The ides has indeed taken long to arrive at its present state of ripe ness. Writers, from Defoe downwards, when delineating their "pictures of London," from whatever point of view, seldom failed to find occasion for some remarks upon the absurdity, the indecency, or the insalubrity attending the practice of intramural burial. With time and the increase of population the evils grew fearfully aggravated, and the descriptions deepened in horror. What the earlier ob servers deduced from theory, or noticed in the occasional visitations of pestilence, became a conspicuous and normal atrocity. For twenty years past the publi' have been only too well familiarised with the sickening details of :.ernes °aining, as matters of course, in the overcrowded City churchyards, where room for fresh tenants is made among the festering and half decomposed remains of former occupants; and, fir an equal period, the medical reporters and population-enumerators hate been able to state. almost to a fraction, the extra percentage of disease and mortality which is disseminated among the living by their fatal proximity to the sleepim . , , places of the dead. However, the authorities have now been warned, advised, and rebuked sufficiently to induce them to act. Aud, as the usual preliminary to action, they have obtained a report" from a properly-qualified fitnetionary to whom it was entrusted to examine the subject in all its bearings, elucidate the evils of the existing system, and lay the foundations for another and better one. This repo rt is ,just piffiliahed. It bears the official signature of Mr. John Simon, the City "Officer of Health," and is ad dressed to the " Improvement Committee " of the Com miesioders of Sewers ter the City of London. The first thing which strikes us on perusing this very sensible and practical document is this :—That the pnie tical difficulties are but a very trifling proportion of all those which have to be surmounted in accomplishing the desired result. Three points, says Mr. Simou, require the attention, and will come within the responsibilities, of the Burial Board " constituted under recent acts of Parlia ment. First, to .provide " sufficient extramural burial jdaees ;" secondly, to thrnish "commensurate fiwilities fur transit and conveyanee to such burial-places ; and, thirdly, t...) put a stop to the injury which now accrues to the health of the City " from unnecessary delays of inter ments, or from keeping dead bodies in the dwelling-rooms of the poor." Respecting the first point, nothing more is required than a brief process of arithmetic to ascertain the area of ground rinuired, and a comparatively trifling out lay to purchaac it. Three thousand two hundred burials are estimated as the animal average among the population who can " claim " interment 'utile hands of the City Board, including the resident householder, certain ratepayers non-resident, and (possibly) the families of the latter. Taking, therefore, an average space of twenty-eight square feet for every separate grave—and that all interments should be single and separate Mr. Simon Includes among the recognised principles whereon the new system must be fon:id:A—and further taking twenty years us the maximum period required to obliterate every trace of organisation in a buried corpse, even the most solid portiona having then inoiddered and eiiimbhal away so us to allow the spot it ones occupied to be 118411 OHM more fur interment—we find that a total area of fifty-four acres will suffice on sound principles for the ordinary interment:semis:vent upon the annual mortality in the city of London for twenty ) ears ; and, therefore, by an easily-arranged process of succession, in perpetuity. Collateral purposes, however, require a considerable ex. tension of this aura. There must be ground for the at. tached bu►ldings and faces : fur edifices provided " for the temporary actsonnuidati of persons resorting thither at the! burial of their friends; or fur the religotts services of different congregations." A further allotment is also sug gested for strangers who may have wished to find resting places in the City Cemetery, although not entitled to claim tone ; and tier such wealthy inhabitants as may please to se. cure, by purchase, a continuous or perpet tad p►ssession of tha space occupied by their grave, instead of a twenty years' tenancy. And yet another addition mina he made to the estate on account of the trees. turf, undulating walks, and other appropriate decorations which Mr. Simon judiciously recommends to be introduced on considerations bot.h of health and taste. Altogether 1w calculates that every pur- Pose will be nerved by an area of 100 acres " in a suitable• soil. • This is, however, an inPide. measuretnent. '►onside the eemetery itself some more land, and even larger Nur faee WV l of it. will be requisite to carry out the intentions of the Legislature on the subject. For as usual the Le gislature in the acts hitherto passed has failed to carry them out for itself. The law forbids the construction of THE PRESS: tiny cemetery from approaching within 200 yards of any inhabited house, but it omitted to prohibit the builders of houses from approaching a cemetery' In order to pecuro this sanitary margin around every bnrial-place it will ae• eordingly be requisite for the Board to obtain, by purchase if necessary, a defensive contt•ol or complete possession of su•ip of I=l2 10 yards in width, comp' etely ene irel:ng their cemetery. This, for an area of 100 acres formed into a square, will constitute an additional surface of more than 130 acres. To accomplish the second object—viz., the cominen• mate" and economical means of conveyance-31r. Simon relies wholly upon the facilities offered by the railroads. Two-thinls of the whole mortality he computes to arise smoug the artisan or pauper classes, to whom the smallest enhancement of the funeral expenses would he a very serious evil, At the same time he considers that six miles is the nearest limit at which the eemeteryean be prudently placed from the City. It is obvious, as he states, that " the price far which an artisan could procure the decent timers' of his wife or child within a stone's throw of his house will be unavoidably angmented by every mile added to the distance, if the eonveyance is still to depend upon the old means and annulments." In such a case he aces nothing but an alternative between the total failure of the system or intolerable oppression of the poorer inhabitants. To escape this dilemma, he suggests that the into for the cemetery should be selected, in the first instance, with a special view to railway trans;t ; and, when completed, be " entertains little doubt that yen might make a contract to the following effeet with the authorities of any line convenient fur your purpose—viz., that every day at a tixed hour there shank be a train, or some portion of a train. exclusively attained to the funeral purposes of the poorer classes ; that for this train therm should fie is:iteti funeral tickets, franking the convevemee of a coffin, situ some stated number of motumets, who should Ms , be entitled to return; Unit the illtrOtllllMOU of funeral traflle should be by It special entrance, and Its estt at a !•pecial 1 terminus.- Upon the third point Mr. Simon confesses that for Ai the practical hindrances to its attainment a remedy has already been amply provided. Nut only has the Legishe hire conferred 1101 , 1e114 by which the delay of interments, ' or the keeping of dead bodies, ►older eirctimstances eaten I hated to injure or even annoy the thing. entt be etfec wally prevented, but he himself held such powers. And yet he has never exercised them ; tior does he believe that in sum: discretion he ever sill. For myself," In , srq • s, "having officially the power to order removal of the dead, I may state that I have never yet exercised any authority. Practically speaking, I can hardly conceive an instance in which I should attempt to do so. It would require the strongest ease that could be shown 4)f aerial mischief iu progress—of disease and death multiplied day by day through the presence of some particular dead body—to justify interference even in that single instance. Nothing like the operation of a genend law world be tolerated—nothing like including the dead in a compulsory pla► of hygienic police." Such a police regulation prevails no doubt somewhat extensively on the Continent. Eight.and•foity 1 ra are in many countries the extreme limit allowed lay law to daps) between decease and sepulture. There also, as here, the instincts of attic' tion rebel against the ordinance. Very curious and melancholy tales are told of the arts employed by bereaved relatives to decei►e the police authorities mill keep a little longer by them the relics of those they love Mr. Simon evidently wishes it were mat NO. lie considers the senti• went overstrained and morbid, and indulged too often to the material injury of the parties themselves anal of a wide circle of neighbonrs. lint he refuses, even tin' the sake act humanity, to violently crush feelings which spring from deeper sources in the human heart than the instinct of preservation i s rolll material harm. Though deeming it prejudice, Mr. Simon respect" it, and trivets to indirect influenevi, to example, ands gradual apreial ut niori itenteilple ideas, to change a emetum which is to 14 re,rretted. Two reasons of any substantial account have alontr been offered for the practice of delaying inlet ments beyond a few hours after death. one or these is founded on the necessity of allowing a sufficient interval for the arrival (tutu a distance of friends aho may wish to attend the funeral ceremonies. 'the other rests upon the apprelien• sion, should the intenneut be hurried, that a living body, in which animation is tor.ly suspended, might pereinuice be honied in mistake for a corpse. I:ailroails hose rendered the first of these reasons obsolete. Medival testimony proves that the second is baseless. Mr. Simon states that in his own extensive experience he hits never witnessed a single instance of suspended animation where any doubts of death, or questions respecting interment, could possibly arise ; nor has he, in professional circles, ever heard of such. Evidence tothe mime effect,founded on awider range of trials, is given by a high authority, from the faeoi weer tained respecting the •• receiving•honse •• for the deiwl in Frankfort• Especially to gnarl spinet the possibility of burying a body still endowed with vitality. very elabesttn precautions are taken in this institution against such a con t ingaucy. Thebodiesataplacedseparately in eeUs. warmed. ►ventilated, anti watched ; coma are attached to the Angers in such a manner that the slightest movemin►t would sound an Minim end simnel% issistanee. Vet Dr. Sutber. land asserts that neither in Frankfort nor in other cities where similar cnntrivanees are used could he learn that any ease of resuscitation had ever occurred. Among the wealthier classes this postponement of burial may be comparatively harmless. Ample space, well closed coffins, and rooms set apa►t for the deceased, will prevent the inmates of a rich man's house from suffering any inconveniences, even though the interval should he somewhat pnvlon+ted before their deal ore buried out of their sight. With the poorer classes the case is far other. ►rise. Mr. Simon does not venture to calculate the average number of instances in which " tho sides of a wooden (soffits, often imperfeetly joined, are all that divide that Jecoinpostition of the dead from the respiration of the living. A room umlauted night and day by th e f am ily of a►otirwrt likewise contains the remains of the dead. Ft► some days the coffin is unclosed. The bare corpse lie there amid the living, beside them in their sleep, bigot then► at their meals. Summer or winter makes little difference to this deteution ; nor is there sufficient know• 'edge on the subject among the poorer population for alarm to be excited, even by the concurrence of infections disease in a room so hurtfully occupied." Its fears, however, that the ease i curs only too frequently, and leaves behind it a legacy of disease and &nth among the asststanta. Hut, ati we said before, he will nut attempt to arrest the evU by 444inptilsory measures, although such are put into his hands by the ltenith of 'roans or Nuisances Removal Acts. He seeks to Mauve, end not to force, obedience to the dictates of commove sense and self preservation. For this purpose he tiro, the plower of eitimple--exhorting the rich to sacrifice a sentiment which in their ease may probably Ito gratified without danger. for the sake of fellow•citizens. slut so eonstiently follow the lead set them by their• superiors in station, withmit c.otsideritio the difference of eiretimmtstiers, or the dstigerons conse q uences which must inevitably follow. Seeondly, Mr. Simon proposes, ma a It gitimete indueement fur prompt interment, that the burial fee charged by the Potted eliouhl in till eases Is. increased, say by :is. or Ills., if the (vivo y d/•layrd for Mon, then a certain number of hours alter death. Against smell is fair ease the poorest can have no just elms', of complaint, since it would be altogether voluntary in character. Thirdly, he surzgents that, as much delay arisen fr o m the ciremitstanee that Sunday is specially considered by the artisan classes as the "burial tiny," it tun; prove advisable to pnohibit interu u •utn altogether on that day, so as 11/ dixhibute them iutpartially o%er the seek, and upland the probability of hastening, perhaps by several days, the period when the lifeless body in vousigned to the earth. liv way of collateral arranwinutit, for the same• per*• mount object, it is proposed that a recciving•house sl Id be established within the precitieln of the cemetery, %hither the corpse might lie conveyed at the earlie.t peri,sl Mier death, awl kept still s kith. the reach of mourning rely• Liven, while removed from hurtful proximity to yet liviug beings. Such is the scheme of e‘traitioiral interment outlined by the City Officer of Health. The e‘tent to which he liar carried it issoN but small yetis irt ion to the necessities of the whole metropolitan population. Ilia offielul function. indeed, limited Mr. Si 1111 l to the consideration merely of the requirementa arising in the City proper; and his eion • putatious tiro neconlingly made npon the basis of pmviiiiie; .iuly for about three thonsatill out of the forty or fifty thousand interments atitoutily (transited from among t h e twa and a half million inhabitants of Liostion in itsentinsty. size, lii,aeltx, has Intl(' to do with the feasibility of lib. plan. Multiplied ten or twenty fold in arra, and provideil with accessory arrangements on a scale of enrreKiNdiiiiiis magnitude, the e‘trunitiral cemetery bete design..l will new, as well for the whole rnetropolis as fur that hive fmnth part which is ilignitied with the name of tie. 'fur Fair Nos tiv fliturt r held a publii• meeting on Thursday evening. at erosby hell, 111,1topsigate- Kt rect. The expressed object s:is the protaiition of Christianity in the East by thii extension of thu power of the Creek races. Nearly loopersons went assembled on the occasion, of whom tnore than one half appeared to be foreigners. The Earl of hating. ton, who had beet, lashed to pri -iile, and several other influential individuals whose pr. `once hail been solicited, had declined to attend on the gr ound t h a t, by accepting the invitation forv.artle , l to than. it might ho supposed that they were favourable loth.. Russian projects in the East. Loan PAI.XERSToN returned to London from Scot. land on Wodnestlay evening. M . ■ 519 r4,-4