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

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 isrolll 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