The Express.
London, England, 1865-11-16 00:00:00

A PUGILIST'S FUNERAL.

PROPOsED CONSOLIDATION 07 LOCAL BOARDS BY
Tux GOVERNNISTE—At the tneetiog of the Vestry of St.
Papers', held yesterday (Wednesday), Masers. Taylor and
Healer (representatives of the parish at the Metropolitan
Board of Works) galled attention to the following letter
addressed to Sir John Thwaitee, from the Home Depart-
meet :—"Whitehall, 31st October,lB6s, —Sir, I am directed
by Secretary Sir George Grey, to request that you will call
the attention of the Metropolitan Board of Works to the
kthate in the House of Comtism, oa the 13th of June last,
en the Pieties of Sir William Fraser, for the appoistment
of a commission to inquire into the operation of the act,
18 and 19 Vic., cap. 120, so far as relates to ;the paving,
lighting and cleansing of the metropolis, and
that you will move the board to favour Sir George
Grey with any observations and suggestion' which they
may wish to make on the subject of the proposed reasoli.
dation of district municipal boards in the metropolis.— I
have the honour, ho., T. G. Baargo.—The airdrome of
the Metropolitan Board of Works." From the statement
of Mean. Taylor and Healey it appeared that this letter
hal been discussed with closed doors by the Metropolitan
Board on Friday kat, and referred to the Street. Commit-
tee, who considered the question yesterday. In order to
test the views of the Streets Committee, Mr. Taylor said he
moved. and Mr. Healey seconded. the following resole-
tic. :—" That in the opinion of this committee the various
vestries and district boards of the metropolis are fully com-
petent to manage the powers granted to them by the act
18 and 19 Vie., esp. 120, with regard to the paving,
lighting, end cleansing of the various districts, and that the
ebairmaa be requested to inform Sir George Grey thereof."
This ono only supported by fire members, and a motion
was coned by a large majority that the further consider-
ation of the subject bs deferred until Wednesday asst.
Masers. Taylor sod Healey were Sleeked by thyroid of the
vestry, who based to make stemmata opposition to say
era proposal if brought forward by Sir Georg* Grey.
TYPE ALHAMBRA AND THE LICENSED VICTUALLER...
--.k complimentary entertainment was given yesterday
morning by Mr. F. Stump, the proprietor of the Albambre,
to the children of the Lkensed Victuallers' Schools, the
inmates of the Asylum, and the boards of maciapmsot,
and their friends. The centime and the inmates were
provided with a dinner, and after that the whole Alhambra
company gave a grand morning perform's°, to about four
thousand visitors. The entertainment included ballets,
operatic seleotioss, arid gymnastics. Mr. Strings's liberality
was warmly acknowledged by the managers sad chief
friends of the Lioensad Vetnallere Institutions, aad he
bad to respond to • most callimieetio nen hem the whale
sodium,.
THE LOSS °inn FIERY STAR.—The Secretary of
the Admiralty has received • letter, dated the let yaw,
from Captain Hope, of her Majesty's ship Brisk, at Anelr-
land, reporting the result of be emerela slang Chatham
Islands for the survivors of the ship Fiery Wan, Net eft
Barrier !elands, but was enable to glean the least Wisp
of them, leaving very little doubt ea lie Wed that they
meet all Moe perished.

- -
Toni Sayers, the pugilist, was buried yesterday
at Highgate Cemetery, under circumstances which
can only be described by the word diegraoeful.
Soon after mid-day a vast crowd had assembled in
High-street, Camden-town, where the ox-champion
lived, and the main road and pavement from the
Mother Red ,infestedCap seral hundred yards towards
Hampstead, was by what looked like an
execution mob. The shops were nearly all closed,
partly perhaps out of respect to the memory of
Sayers, and partly, there can be no question, out
of deference to the evidently predatory instiocts of
the crowd. Jesting, swearing, and rough chaff,
wishes that the music would come, jostling and
horse-play were the occupations most iu vogue. All
the way from High-street to the cemetery the
same class of people on foot, in carts, and on the
roof and inside of overladen cabs, were to be seen
steadily making for the hero's grave.
At the cemetery itself the gates were guarded by
what seemed a strong body of policemen, who only
admitted people who either " gave the
number of their tomb," or otherwise
justified their claim to enter. At two p.m.
this crowd was easily kept in order, but half-an-
hour later a successful rush was made, and some
hundred sturdy vagabonds carried the gates by
main force, amid the yells and shouts of their com-
panions. The police, who behaved splendidly
thronghout a most trying day, succeeded in re-
doing the gates, and in again exercising discrimi-
nation as to whom they should admit. As it was,
the tombs and covered crypts were crowded
with people who turbulently jostled and laughed,
trampled on the grass, and defiled the graves
with as little reverence for the place they were iu as
if it bad been an old prize ring. The succeeding
two hours were taken up in watching the hand-
to-hand combats between the police outside
and the rapidly increasing crowd of roughs,
in the arrival and admission of tavern celebrities,
each admission being the signal for a struggle on the
part of those who wanted to force their way, and ie
securing vantage ground from which to see the
procession.
Soon after four p.m. the sound of drums and
trumpets was heard, and a brass band playing the
Dead March ; feathers, hearse, and mourning
coaches, struggled through the surgiug, disorderly
mob. Sayers's pony and dog-cart, with his magnifi-
cent dog, the sole occupant of the latter, followed
immediately after the hearse. The police contrived
to keep back the attendant mob for a few moments,
but as soon as the coffin was taken into the ceme-
tery chapel, and before the carriages bad filed in, the
crowd of thieves and blackguards proved too strong
for those opposed to them, and the gates were again
stormed. The members of the band, while in the act
of playing the Dead March, were scattered pell-mell,
their instruments flying over-head, and themselves
running for safety. Hundreds of the foulest scum of
the back courts and alleys of London, the creatures
who only come to light to the aggregate at an exe-
cution, or racecourse, or an illegal betting ground,
rushed in to hold saturnalia at the grave aide. All
this time the noble brute in the dog-cart looked on
with stern composure, as if to prove his superiority
to the degraded wretches around him. For a few
minutes the police were completely overcome.
Thewere a mere handful of men against the enemy,
but they subsequently rallied, arid once more suc-
ceeded in closing the cemetery gates. Many of the
roughs were trodden down in the raid, and
after it was over the gasping, speechless forms
stretched at no unfrequent intervals on the grass,
or reared by their luckier comrades against the
tombs while neckcloths were torn open and ani-
mation restored, spoke to the severity of the conflict.
Such were the last obsequies of Thomas Sayers,
and such the tributesof re.spectpaid by a large section
of his admirers--a good-tempered, uneducated man,
whose stout heart and unbounded animal courage
inspired the respectable classes with such admira-
tion that they subscribed to keep him in idleness
for life; who became the idol of pothouses, and died
of drinking, and whoa) funeral was a riot.