The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-06 00:00:00

EASTERN UNION.

A Wharncliffe meeting of this company was held
yesterday at Radley's Hotel, Blackfrairs, to consider
two bills now before Parliament, Mr. S. C. Cobbold,
M.P., in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said that the first bill he had to
submit was a bill to amalgamate the Eastern
Counties, the East Anglian, the Newmarket, the
Eastern Union, and the Norfolk railway companies.
He explained that the committee of the House of
Commons had settled the terms of amalgamation
between the Eastern Counties, Norfolk, and Eastern
Union Companies. The terms were not so good as
the directors of the Eastern Union Company thought
they were entitled to; but after a very long con-
test, and with a view to a peaceable settlement, the
Norfolk Company had offered them about £34,197
of the ordinary stock to which the Norfolk were
entitled, which would have the effect of making
the Eastern Union B shares of equal value with the
Great Eastern ordinary stock, and each £lOO of
the Eastern Union A stock worth £l5O of the
Great Eastern ordinary stock, on condition that the
Eastern Union should withdraw their opposition to
the Amalgamation Bill. _ _

A very long discussion ensued, in the course of
which Mr: BRA SSEY and other proprietors expressed
an opinion that the terms now offered should be
accepted.

Mr. CAYLEY, on the other hand, contended that
they would get more by not accepting those terms.
On the motion for the approval of the Bill being
put, it was announced to be carried, after which
Mr. CAYLEY demanded a poll.

A Bill to confer powers upon the Eastern Counties
Railway Company with respect to the Epping
Railway was also approved, and the proceedings
terminated with a vote of thanks.

EXTRAORDINARY DOINGS IN A CEMETERY
AT SHEFFIELD.

Some consternation has been caused by certain strange
discoveries that have been made at the Wardsend cemetery.
A few days ago a man who is occasionally employed at
the cemetery perceived a disagreeable smell issuing from a
sort of coach-house there is on the ground, and took some
trouble to ascertain the cause. From what he saw he
made a further investigation, and, we aro informed,
made a discovery which it will be incumbent on
the authorities fully to inquire into. We are told
that a hole about four feet deep, and of considerable width
and breadth, was found covered with planks, on which a
quantity of earth had been loosely thrown, and that there
were a number of coffins in the hole. The plates had been
removed from the coffins, and in some cases the bodies,
which the coffins had previously contained, were gone also.
The police have been informed of the circumstance, and
we understand are investigating it. _

In the afternoon of Tuesday a great crowd collected at
the cemetery, and the excitement became intense. A
funeral was fixed to take place in the ground, and a number
of people expressed their determination to be avenged
on the sexton as soon as he arrived. When he made his
appearance the crowd flocked round him and rather roughly
assaulted him, and, but for the opportune arrival of the
police, the feeling was so strong that there is no doubt ho
wculd have been severely injured. BetNeeen seven and eight
o'clock in the evening the windows of the house which
stands in the centre of the ground, and also the windows of
the place in which the burial service is read, were smashed;
and the premises were otherwise considerably damaged.
About twenty men were seen to commit this mischief,
and then walk away, During the afternoon and even-
ing a large number of persons assembled near to the
house cccupied by the sexton on the land alletuaent
near the liellebro' toll-bar, The house was of stone, and had
been bleat by Howai d. It was two storeys high, contained
five or six neatly furnished rooms, and was, in every sense
of the word, a comfortable working man's residence. The
crowd appeared to get more and more excited as their:nurn-
bars increased, and threats of violence were loudly made.
At night stones were thrown at the windows, and when se-
veral of them had been broken, a cry was raised to set fire
to the house. Extreme and ruffianly as this step is, it was
actually taken. A number of persons rushed into the
house, ernashed the furniture, and piled it in heaps on the
floors, and then set fire to it. "At that time there was only
Mrs. Howard in the place, and she begged of the persons
who had gone into the house to spare the property. They
disregarded her entreaties, and the place was soon enve-
loped in flames. Mrs. Howard evinced great reluctance
to leave her house, and we are told had actually to be
forcibly ejected from it when it was on fire. Information
was despatched with all spsed to the Sheffield fire-offices for
assistance, and engines from the Sheffield and the Liver-
pool end London offices were promptly sent, with
a strong body of firemen, to the scene of the fire.
Before the arrival of the engines the flames had taken so
firm a hold on the premises that it was at once perceived
to be impossible to save any portion of the contents. The
house, fortunately, was detached, and the fire was, there-
fore, confined to it. So rapidly did the fire consume the
information
ng
ftWosh
ation
of a
very grave nature
house that at midnight nothing but the bare walls were
left standing, every combustible having been com-
pletely destroyed. During the progress of the fire
strong expressions were made use of by several
to Howard.
people in the crowd in reference
ld
v.
st
efftdajthhi acquaintance
LP
a lertoceabenecelhh°us°, a mutilated human body ;
andwou
havewas broadlybeen
thrown stated i n t thato the
flier
ehe
in
church
o r had
otherwiseb ee n there
severelyh e
handled. The actual amount a the damage done by the
fire we have not been able to ascertain.
e nvecsumthb
g
this case was on Saturday, explana-
tion
Yon'
which the cemetery
cHaorenetehh3oareeflynaeinformed,
theter is insured.
I saw two of the country police in the cemetery
After the funeral, seeing a policeman still lin-
geringl requested to know his business,
grounds.
he,
when
had teen laid against the sexton, viz., that he had there,
that the legs had been
seen dangling out of a box by the
informant
that morning ; and that the sexton, when re-
I quested, bad declined to.produce the key of the coachhouse.
1 at once waieed the objection that the county police had
no jurisdiction within the borough, and no legal authority
for such an investigation, and ordered the coachhouse to be
Opened, There indeed was a box containing a shapeless
mass of decomposing matter, black and fcetid, not having
the remotest resemblance to the human frame, but a mourn-
ful illustration of the universal doom, ' Dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return.' The sexton accounted for the
possession of the box by stating that it had been sent from
the Medical Hall; that it had been securely nailed up, and
had been opened by some one who had picked the lock, or
otherwise obtained surreptitious entrance to the coach-
house ; that he had placed the box there for a short time
previous to conveying it to a covered excavation, which was
' originally constructed for a catacomb, but the shale not
having sufficient coherence, the arch fell in, and the exca-
• vation has since been used as a receptacle for the remains
sent by the Medical Hall, and for stillborn children, relics
of humanity over which the Burial Service cannot legal_lya
T
be read. I have made searching inquiries respecting
small empty coffins, greatly decayed, found there. ofheot
sma__
planation is that they, as well as a few
coffins and coffin-plates found and removed eurrep
table had been
(no doubt by the same individual) from the s
buried,
as
the
thrown out of the shallow graves of ohildr
ceen,
and therefore
plates prove, from four or five yearos ~„T
be remarked, are
long since decomposed. These, unappropriated
all infants' graves five feet deep, in
the
deeply for family graves ;
nk
section, and have all been aunt
of the sexton's offending.
here is the front and substaropriate
d he was justified when
As these graves were untuerPnP _
ed to dust, to sink them deeper,
the first tenants had returned
remove even a decayed particle of a
but he had no right, t
In having done so he has grossly
coffin from the graves' and by this no one has - been more
offended against decency,
deeply pained than myself, The
public, however, may rest
assurvd that this has occurred only in 24 cases (for I have
obtained an
exact list), and the wild and exaggerated ru -
urs now afloat may be utterly disregarded. The truth
ims:the act 3 and 4 Win, IV., C. 75, has amply supplied the
requirements of the medical profession, as well as imposed a
severe penalty on dis interring the dead. The crime now
would be as unwise as it would be wicked, and every intel-
ligent person is well aware that it has long ceased to be
perpetrated."

The rev. gentleman then proceeds to say that the charge
against the sexton had been got up by a person who had
been dismissed from the grounds, and adds—" There is no
doubt the sexton has acted in this instance in a manner
which is highly improper and blameworthy; but it is the
first offence which has come to my knowledge in 25 years
and he has faithfully promised not to repeat it."