The National Register.
London, England, 1816-05-20 00:00:00

118

VIOLATION OF 7'llE DEAD.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REcustzn.

SIR.

It has often occurred to me as a very extraordinary circum-
iitance,inan age so famed fur it s huutugity,benevolenre,and piety,
• as the present, that the practice of digging up dead bodies, by
what are called resurrection men, for the purpose of supplying
„gmbjerts for dissection, to aid the students in surgery, has never
yet been sufficiently reprobated, or indeed noticed, by any
of the distinguished pions and limitaue is niters of the present
day. Surely this cannot be from auy other cause then utter
inattention; for who can rationally conceive, that a practice
so revolting to common feeling, so wantonly used, and other-
wise so impious and disgusting, can be. contemplated with in-
d iferenc by those whose exertions in the cati.e of suffering
humanity and morals have hitherto crowned them with the
honours of imperishable time, and who are associated on her
scroll with the good and great of alleges and climes But, how-
ever this silence may he interpreted by sonic, to me it has
ever appeared an in:.olvalile enigma; hir I can never suppose,
at least until 1 um better informed, that this disgraceful'
practice is at all reconeileable (whatever specious reasons may
be urged in its favour) either with reltgionerr morality. It is
. not my intention, in this communication, to enter into a very
wide field of observation; but merely, by some few cursory
remarks, to draw the attention of your readers; in the hope,
that some one better qualified than myself may pursue the
theme; as it is a subject which I humbly conceive to he, in
its certain mural effects, fraught with the most deadly means
of corrupting the source of our best feelings, and brutalizing
the human character. _ . .

If we look back into the history and progress of civilization
from the earliest periods of aigiquity, we shall find that the'.
sanctity of the grave ,was proportionably recognized as a prin-
ciple of piety, with tee advancement and cultivation of im-
proved manners. The buria of the dead has, at every period,
been held as an expiatoty relitsitmcceremony ; and the quiet
repose of their mouldering ashes as a necessary means fur the
peace of the soul, and as an indispensable respectful duty
which the living owed to the manes of the deceased. Nothing
can he more la maul, nothing more sweetly moral, nothing
snore ref-mealy pious, than this veneration towards those who
have pa tell away to that haunt from whence they ought never
to return to be cut and mangled, and almost ere their lamented
remains are cold, by the ruthkss knife of the unfeeling sur-
gical operator. Burial places have ever been hallowed spots ;
some form or other of religion has at all times consecrated
those mournful receptacles; and in general they have been
situated remote from the bustle and noise of life, sequestered,
peaceful, and hnly. 'fliose who are unmindful of the dead,
those who violate the sacred temple of the grave, and who
with saceeligions hands outrage the quiet mausoleum of their
lifeless brethren, and who pay no voluntary homage of the
heart to the tomb, are men who will not scruple to wound the
tenderest and hest feelings of our nature, and scar with bruta-
lity the exquisite sources of sensibility. Those who are indifer_
cat about the c'ead, are unfeelingly careless of the firing. The
ancients, though varying in their ceremonies, (lid any thing but
disturb the last lied tenement of man; and this was a truly
pious feeling, as every religion enjoins the expiatory offering'
and prayers, and the undisturbed repose, of the breathless
lineaments of the departed. Let him, who regards religion as
an incumbent et.ity of man towards the author of his being,'
tread lightly and reverentially over the raised turf of the grave;
and let him, while he contemplates the calm duelling of its
silent inhabitant, reflect on the outrage committed on piety and
decency in the wantonly ,disturbing the bones laid lowly at
rest. Suered find ituitoircl he the habitations of those who NO longer
lire among a .
Is this, or is this not, a religious and refined community ? If
it is, let Ds act consistently, and let us abandon a practice
which is, in its frightful details, impiously disgusting, and
"which in its consequences is altogether savagely brutalizing.
-It; on the contrary, we have no acquaintance with refinement
air religion, let us endeavour to
.aint at that degree of civiliza-
tion, which in the ancients, %Wilma the light of the Gospel,
induced them to respect the hones of their bur: 41 fellow
mortals. But we have religion; and in the name of our holy
faith, which so beautifully prescribes to us the cultivation of
the social qualities as a means of salvation, let us purge our
habits from such an unliallow eel violation of our moral ditties,
and, through the sanctity of the grave, sat au example of real,
unaffected piety to the I isn't: generation.
But whatever impiety and perverted reason may sophistically
urge in its favor, und yet I can hardly anticipate any thing.
save only on the miserable ground of expediency, I shall ever
he of opinion, that the morals of a et 1111 l funky, involving piety,
decency, and refined feeling, is of infinitely mule importance!
to general happiness, than this same plea of necessity applied.
in justification of the practice, which, in the most liberal view,
can only benefit a few mitintimate individuals. To the plea
hove es er of expediency, on the score of its utility to the living,
I answer, by the mention of one well-known fact; viz. that
the world has been more populous than it is nose, and that
when the dissection of human trollies was never or scarcely
ever practised. The truth is, I believe, that the heiding art
Max then merit better known than it is at present; Had that,
too, when the ancient operators dissected beasts of atialogoini
organization to the Iwnan frame, and when they were so,
sem:oil/m4y delicate of violating the house appointed fur.
all living.
To those who cherish delicacy of sentiment, whether as,
husbands, tathi r:, brothers, or loser., this subject cannot but
be painfully affecting. In their respective relations to the
departed,.let them ask their own unperverte d judgments, and
consist their best feelings, as to what mould be their horror
and indignation against those who practised their singical
skill on the beloved remains of that interesting being with
whutn they Haul unto so tenderly asaaaatea ; and who had,
iiii„ut v,:nyt.e, turned nit the green earth to drag from the
I irr, tile wife , the sister, or the anistre:s of their purest affee
lion,. Let them go iota the disserting mein, and see the form
n lately adored, as the possesso:. ot' seraph-like purl; v and
chastity,
chastity, umaigled, distigtued, lacerated, vase sued. tae set-hi...a:ls

If AY 20.

and do mountains covered with perennial snow. Evan in the enlti-
vated pert of the country, he would discover a wild atiternhlage,
of hilts, and waters, unmarked ley inclosures, not einkellidoel to-
tems, and destitute of navigable canals, public roads, and rill sthe
great and elaborate productions 47,1'11111t0n industry anti mint melt: he
would find the towns few, and far distant than each other; and he*,.uld
look in vain for inns, or other conveniences, which a traveller would
meet with in the wildcat parts of Great Britain. Yet he would
sometimes be delighted with the fertility and populousness, of par-
ticular plains and villahns, whim he would see the prudesetions of
Euroe mingksl in pnauaion with thous of the torrid 'c* : and the
Lind Lsboured with an industry and a judgment no whoa surpassed.
Ile +multi see the inhabitants following their flocks in tent, or assembled
its •illages, to which the terraced mots and 'mid walls gine an appeo-
auce entirely new. Ile would be strut* at first with their high and
even their hush features, their sun-burnt countenances, their long
hearth, their loose garments, and their shaggy mantles of skin. When
he entered into a City, he would notice the absence of molar courts of
justice, and of every thing lace an organiard police. ale would be sur—
prised at the fluctuation and instability of the eivituinuitutions. Ile
would find it difficult to comprehend how a natioreefarld exist it such
disorder; and would pity those who were compelled to pea their days
in such a acne. and r: hose meals were trained, by heir unhappy
tine, to fraud and violence, 10 rapine, iltecit, and revenge. Yet he
could scarce WI to admire their martial and lofty spAit.thetrhcapitality
and their hold and guide manners, Nuttily remittal from the supple.
ness ef a citizen, anti the awkward rusticity of a (loan ; and hew mild
probably before lung distmaT among sat many qualities that excited hii
disgust, the rudinaernw of many virtues.
•• But an Fagan}, tva.nalka neat intim womd emu-them with a more
favourable eye: he would be pleased with the cold climate, etc% and
by the wild and novehtaenery, and delighted by meeting many of the
productions of his ranee lard. Ile won't] first struck with the
thinness of the fixed population, and then with the appearance of the
people ; not fluttering in white muslin% while half their bodies are
naked, but soberly and decently: ttised in thirk Mound woollen clothes;
and wrappesi in brown mantles ea in large sheep-skin cloaks. lie
would admire their strong sad active forms, their tete complexions and
European features ; their !Angry and inuarpriza ; the hospitality, so.
briety, and contempt ef pleasure, which appear in al, their habits ; and,
above la the independence and energy of their character." &anew.-
count is given also in this work in regmallob the province of firshnicer,
called by the celebrated traveller Bernier '• the Terrestrial raredise of
India." One great branch of inanufluattre here is that of shawls. %hid'
is maid to employ sixteen thousand /moms. The wool of the shawl-
goat is imported from Tibet and nther'parts of Tartary, and is 9011 by
women. The best is pnveuredferrin Rodauk, and it bears in Cash:neer
the price of halls crown or three shillings paratourid. A sbap. shed.
or tent, contains genendly three working people, and a very fine shawl
will erveloy them a whsle year, while other shops can make •ix or
eight in the same perioil of the best sort: three people will work only
about a quarter of an inch in a day. Sometimes shawls are nude is
separate piecta and then joined together. The plain shawls are sown
with a shuttle; but the variegated amen are worked with wooden needles,
tech difliaently colnured thread having a distinct needle. In regent its
the material of which these shawls are nettle, Bernier says that statue
arc manufactured of the wool of the country, which is lins than the
Spanish: and other* of wool, or rather a kind of hair, called tote
taken froth the breast of a species of wild goat, found in Thihet. The
latter an: much dearer than the filmier. The great softness of the Cash-
maerian shawls is ascribed by Bernier, in some measure, to the nature
of the water. Mr. Elphinsrone says. that the Caufirs, a people situated
in the mountains, north of Bajawr, have many points I,W:unto:a com-
mon with the Greeks. They arc celebrard for their bunny and Eu-
ropean complexion; they worship idols, drink wine in silver curl or
vases, use chairs and tables, and speak a language unknown to their
neighonura This seems to give some colour of pretence for the 11,,,r-
-tion, that-there is still in India a tribe who call themselves lineal de-
scendants front sonic persons belonging to the army of Alexander.

ADDRESSES ON THE ROYAL MARRIAGE.

Monday, the Lord Mayor, attended by 17 Aldermen,
the Sheriff's, and Court of Common Council, went in
grand procession to Carlton House, and were introduced
to the presence of the Prince Regent, Who was seated op
the Throne, by the Lord Chamberlain ; when an Address
of ,Congratulation on the nuptials of his Royal Daughter
was read by the Recorder ; to which his Royal Highness
returned a most gracious answer. The cavalcade then
proceeded to the Queen's Palace, preceded by a party of
Life Guards, and were introduced to her Majesty, who
was seated on a new throne placed in the centre of the
grand saloon, accompanied by the Princesses Elizabeth
and Mary, and attended by her ChamberhUns, &c. ; when
the Recorder read an Address on the same subject, to her
Majesty, which was most graciously answered : and they
had the honour, severally,
.to kiss ker Nl:tjesty's hand.
They then returned to their carriages, and proceeded to
Camelford-house, round which an immense, crowd had
assembled ; but Sir N. Conant, with a large posse of
Bow-street Officers, being in the street, complete order
was preserved. On the procession entering Hereford-
street, the Princess appeared at one of the windows, and
was greeted by the heart-felt acclamations of the people.
On entering the the 'Lord Mayor infivued the
Gentlemen of the Corporation, that the room in which
they were to he received was only capable of receiving 30
of them at a time ; but that the Princess would see every
Gentleman. This regulation was chf,ertUlly :ulopted ;
and on his Lordship's entrance, the Recordei read the
Address, which her Royal Highness graciously answere&
and the rest of the Gentlemen was admitted in rotation,
the whole of whom had the honour .to kiss her Royal
Highness's hand. The same ceremony was then observed
to the Prince of Saxe Coburg, who was dressed in reg:-
mentals, wore his several orders, and was attended by
Sir R. Barker and t3aron Hardenbrock. The Meath:Ts
of the Corporation, as well as the setendants oa the or-
casion, wore white thvours, and his Lordship had white
ribbons affixed to each shoulder.

T