The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-13 00:00:00

EXTRAMURAL SEPULTURE.

COPY OF LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON, M.P. SECRETARY
OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

Sphinx Lodge, Chelsea, April 2, 1853.
My LORD,—From a report by Mr. Heywood, Sur-
veyor to the City Commissioners of Sewers, on the sub-
ject of Extramural Sepulture for the City of London
(noticed in the morning papers of yesterday), it appears
that the Court of Common Council entertain the idea of
providing a cemetery for those dying within the juris-
diction of the City, or having present right of burial in
the churchyards, &c., situated within its limits.
2. The 9th clause of the Metropolitan Burials Act of
last session ordains and declares " That no new burial-
ground or cemetery (parochial or non-parochial), shall be
provided and used in the metropolis, or within two miles
of any part thereof, without the previous approval of one
of her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State" ; whilst
the 53d clause ordains and declares "That for the pur-
poses of this act, the expression 'the metropolis' shall be
construed to mean and include the Cities and Liberties
of London and Westminster, the Borough of South-
wark, and the parishes, precincts, townships, and places
mentioned in schedule A of said act.
3. By reference to this schedule, your L ordship will
perceive that the said " Metropolis,' or, in other words
Metropolitan Burial District, takes in a radius from St.
Paul's Cathedral, varying from six to ten and twelve
miles, embracing, in addition to the cities and liberties
of London and Westminster, and the borough of South-
wark, 63 parishes or other districts in the county of
Middlesex, 6 parishes in the county of Kent, and 19
parishes or other districts in the county of Surrey.
4. Considering, my Lord, that the " Metropolis" thus
defined embraces a population of nearly three million
souls—a population double that of Wales, which nearly
equals that of Scotland, and exceeds the number of
men, women, and children scattered over the entire
extent of fourteen English counties and that the
Roman maxim, " Salm populi supreme& est Lex,"
is recognised and allowed to be a fundamental prin-
ciple in the legislative enactments of every civilised
State, it may be justly said the atmosphere of London
extends on all sides to at least a distance of 15 miles ;
and considering that no cemeteries or burial-grounds can
be established without contaminating the earth, the
water, and the air of the various localities in which they
are situated, your Lordship will readily see that the
strongest sanitary objections exist against depositing,
year by year, 60,000 to 70,000 corpses within even so
near a distance as two miles from the boundary described
by the Burials Act of 1852, in any one direction.
5. But, my Lord, did no sanitary reasons whatsoever
exist against our changing the present noxious system
of burial within walls to one to be carried out at short
distances from the metropolis, there are other weighty
considerations arising from public convenience, from
economy, and from decency, which ought to lead your
Lordship and the Government strenuously to resist the
same. As yet, the legislation of Parliament for the rec-
tification of the enormous social evils in the system of
metropolitan interment has fallen altogether short of
the requirements in the case ; and as the second Burials
Act will be found in practice as unworkable as was the
first, for reasons which I shall shortly develope, I avail
myself of the appearance of Mr. Haywood's report to
draw your Lordship's special attention to the accompany-
ing copy of a memorial which Mr. Sprye and myself pre-
sented in May last to the Lord Mayor and Common
Council, and also to two memorials of ours, addressed to
the Lords of the Treasury in 1850, descriptive of the
NECROPOLIS at Woking, of which we are the joint pro-
jectors and founders.
6. A perusal of these 3 documents will, I feel confident,
satisfy your Lordship that we have accomplished for the
inhabitants of this vast metropolis in all time coming
everything that is necessary to insure henceforth cheap,
convenient, wholesome, and decent sepulture ; and such
being the case, your Lordship would incur the heaviest
responsibilities as a Minister of the Crown and a guar-
dian of the public weal, were you in any one instance to
grant your approval to the formation of any new burial
ground or cemetery within two miles at least of the
limits of the •' metropolis," as defined by the Burials
Act of last session.
7. I have said, my Lord, that the Burials Act of 1852
will be found as unworkable as the Interments Act of
1850, and I will shortly state my reasons for coming to
this conclusion. The moment the 200 existing metropo-
litan graveyards aro closed, the whole practice of sepul-
ture will resolve itself into a matter of pounds, shillings,
and pence. The question with every householder will
then be, t 0 Where can I cheapest bury my dead 9" Such
being ie case, it is self-apparent that so long as the
eight suburban cemeteries and the London Necropolis
exist, no cheaper burial will be found within
twenty-five miles of London than what they will
collectively supply. The eight cemeteries are much
nearer to the city than any which the law will
now allow to be established, and hence conveyance to
them will be greatly less expensive than conveyance
would be to other cemeteries and burial-grounds in their
respective vicinities, but some miles farther out of town ;
whilst as regards railway conveyance, the Necropolis
Company has secured the only city terminus and line at
all adapted for the special purpose of removing the dead
out of London without occasioning public disturbance,
alarm, and indecency. A single glance at the map of
London will satisfy your Lordship that such is the fact.
8. That whilst such is the case, there is no need what-
soever, as regards convenience, sanitation, or economy,
for one single foot more of burial-ground than what the
eight suburban cemeteries and the Necropolis conjointly
furnish. The small area 0f176 acres of pa.rochial graveyards,
and 42 acres of Dissenters' burial-grounds, have sufficed
to inhume generation after generation of the metropolitan
dead for upwards of 1,000 years ; whilst not only the
lawful spirit of commercial enterprise but also an en-
lightened philanthropy have, within the last and present
reigns, furnished eight beautiful suburban cemeteries,
containing collectively 282 acres of land (of which about
17 acres only had been used when the Board of Health
made their report in 1850), and one NECROPOLIS, or
" City for the Dead," comprising an area of 1,500 acres,
an act for the establishment of which was passed last
session—making the whole 1,782 acres.
9. As the floor, my Lord, of an acre of ground will
suffice to receive 3,887 coffins laid side by side, we have
at this moment, in lieu of 200 petty festering grave-pits
dispersed amongst our hearth-seats and altars—which
have engulphed the mortality of London since an era
antecedent to the Norman Conquest—an existing virgin
grave accommodation in our eight cemeteries and one
necropolis for upwards of 6i millions of bodies—a space
which it would take upwards of 100 years to cover with
one layer of corpses at 7 feet deep, burying yearly from
from 60,000 to 70,000 ; 200 years to cover with a second
layer at 6 feet deep; and 300 years to cover with a third
layer at 5 feet deep.
10. Hence then, my Lord, for all purposes of sanitary
interment, we have as much burial ground, authorised
already by acts of Parliament, as the inhabitants of the
metropolis can require even until the last trumpet shall
sound, and the dead arise. And if as regards a suffi-
ciency of wholesome grave space no necessity exists for
establishing so much as even one other burial-yard or
cemetery, an inspection of the burial map of London
will suffice to convince your Lordship that the position
of the eight suburban cemeteries and the necropolis
leaves nothing to be desired as regards convenience—
each of the former being in the immediate precincts of
the metropolis at intervening distances from each other
of two or three miles ; whilst, for all practical purposes,
the necropolis at Woking may be said to be as approxi-
mate to the centre of London as Charing-cross is near to
the Mansion-house.

11. Again, as regards economy the site of the necro-
polis, which is reachable from the Waterloo station in
45 minutes, has been obtained for 1051. per acre less
than the average price asked for the 15 estates tendered
to the Board of Health under the Ist Metropolitan In-
terments Act ; and for 4601. 6s. per acre less than the
average price paid for sites alone by 16 established
cemetery companies ; whilst, as regards conveyance, the
London and South-Western Railway Company are
bound by their arrangement with Mr. Sprye and my-
self, to take down from the Waterloo station to Woking,
a Hearse-van capable of containing 50 coffins in sepa-
rate compartments, for 11. per trip—or less than 6d.
each ; and to carry mourners to and from the necropolis
and London at the respective low fares of-65., first class ;
3s. 6d., second class ; and 25., third class.
12. Such being the case, my Lord, and seeing from
Mr. Heywood's Report that the average mortality of
the city of London does not exceed 3,139 deaths per
annum, what necessity is there, let me ask, for the Cor-
poration to establish a city cemetery ? The poor of this

annual civic mortality (amounting to 78 per cent. of the

whole) can find separate graves at the necropolis seven
feet deep, which will not be re-opened for ten years un-
less at the request of a relative, conveyance, and funeral
rites, for the sum total of 14s. ; and as for the rich (22
per cent, of the above deaths), they have the choice of
eight suburban cemeteries and the necropolis where to
bury their dead. There is then no necessity whatsoever
for a city cemetery; and seeing this projected burial
ground cannot, without a violation of the law, be made
nearer to the Guildhall than at least eight miles, and
that the expense of conveyance by railway to a place of
interment is about the same, whether the distance to be
travelled is five miles, or 25 miles—l venture to say that
if a site unexceptionable in all respects could be found
within eight or ten miles of the centre of London (which
it cannot be), and if the proposed city cemetery was con.

strutted there to-morrow, the Commissioners or Sewers,
whether discharging the incompatible functions of a
"Burial Board," or acting in any other capacity, never
Weald bury within its walls in any given year one tithe
of those dying, or having right of sepulture, within
their jurisdiction.
13. And if this remark, my Lord, holds good as regards
the graveyard contemplated by the City Burial and
Sewerage Commissioners, it will apply with equal force
to each and all of the 176 Parish Boards to whom
the Burial Act of 1852 most injudiciously assigns the
task of finding sites and completing arrangements-for the
sepulture of their respective parochial dead ; as also, to
the scheme propounded by the parties calling themselves
" The Great Extramural Cemetery Association, Harles-
den-green." As regards the impropriety of employing
the machinery of Vestries as parochial burial boards, after
the expositions of the Board of Health in regard to the
depravity of the existing parochial graveyard system,
and the utter inaptitude of such fluctuating and irrespon-
sible bodies for any better purpose as regards extramu-
ral sepulture, than that merely of shifting the evils of
the practice of interments from the interior to the suburbs
of the metropolis, it is wholly unnecessary for me to
speak. But as regards the question of economy in the
new system, a thing not to be lost sight of in a matter
of such heavy household expense as is that of burial, 310
portion of the Report of the Board of Health on a gene-
ral scheme for metropolitan extramural sepulture is more
clear and decisive than that where they declare that,
unless the whole interments are placed in the hands of
one authority, and are under one management, the ex-
penses of burial (calculated to be from 750,0001. to
1,000,0001. yearly) cannot be diminished. It was in-
deed the very essence of their scheme to purchase up the
eight suburban cemeteries, to create a. ninth and larger one
of 400 acres, 18 miles down the river at Erith, and to make
a Government monopoly of the whole burials of the
metropolis. For this end they did not shrink from ask-
ing the Legislature, Ist, to bribe otrclerical oopnplyosiftoirentlhiye
heavy compensations in perpetuity, not
abolition of a nuisance no longer endurable, but for the
extinction of exactions levied not only without law, but
against the ancient canons of the church ; 2d, to autho-
rise an expenditure of no less a sum than 700,000/, of
the public money ; 3d, to sacrifice the principle of free
trade and domestic agency in a matter so purely con-
ventional as is that of committing dust to the dust ; and,
4th, to sanction, if necessary, the levying of an obnoxious
burial rate of one penny in the pound rental—holding out
as an inducement for legislation so vicious and novel an
assurance that the accomplishment of their design
would, in addition to sanitary burial, effect a saving in
funeral expenses to the inhabitants of the metropolis, to
the extent, in round numbers, of 350,0001. per annum.
Such being the case, I do not desire to conceal from
your Lordship—lst, that the necropolis plan of myself
and Mr. Sprye, developed by us several months before
the appearance of the Report of the Board of Health
above cited, was devised with the express intention of
its being a sole and effectual outlet—a grand and com-
prehensive cemetery—for the great body and bulk of the
metropolitan annual mortality—for all, indeed, except
the few thousand bodies yearly which the eight suburban
cemeteries are, from their limited area, capable of absorb-
ing ; 2d, that the site selected by us was chosen out of
the diocese of London purposely, to get rid of
those clerical body-scots which lay an embargo
upon burial at four of the cemeteries to the ave-
rage amount of 16s. 3d. per corpse ; 3d, that we
intend by the realisation of our scheme the entire
annihilation not only of the corrupt and disgusting prac-
tice of interring the dead amongst the habitations, the
churches, and the chapels of the metropolis, but also of
that system which has made burial a wide-spread source
of individual depravity and national shame.
14. Considering, then, my Lord that Parliament has
so far sanctioned and approved of our scheme as to in-
corporate the company originated by us to realise an
intention which adds to the eight existing cemeteries a
BURIAL Doltxur equal in extent to 30 cemeteries, each
about the size of that at Kensal-green, or 136 cemete-
ries, each larger than that of Victoria-park—and seeing
that the merit belongs to us exclusively, without asking
Treasury aid, without infringing upon the legitimate
operations of the various existing cemetery companies,
or compromising in the least the wholesome principle of
free and open trade in matters of burial, of bringing
within the reach of all classes in the metropolis conve-
nient and decent interment, at charges which will abate
funeral expenses and other mortuary exactions to an
amount little short of 500,0001. per annum—l hope I
may be allowed strongly to represent to your Lord-
ship that it is the duty of her Majesty's Ministers
to set their face against the unnecessary multipli-
cation of petty cemeteries or burial-yards in the vicinity
of " the Metropolis," as defined by the Burials Act of
1852, seeing that every fresh cemetery or burial-yard
must enhance the expense of interment to the inhabitants
at large ; must deteriorate the salubrity of the air, water,
and soil of the environs of London ; must complicate the
difficulties and inconveniences incident to the removal of
from 1,100 to 1,300 corpses weekly from the place of
death to the place of interment ; must protract the pe-
riod when the eight existing cemeteries from repletion
will be closed ; must open a door to an unseemly com-
petitive traffic in things connected with the last sad
offices to the dead ; and, finally, must more or less im-
port into the new system of extramural sepulture those
evils and abuses which have made the practice of burial
within walls so repugnant to public health, to morals,
and decency.
15. At page 9 of the Report of the Board of Health,
15th Feb., 1850, your Lordship will find that, on one
occasion in Spain, within the space of one or two months
after 20;000 corpses had been put into the ground, the
troops that remained exposed to the emanations from
the soil, and drank the water from the wells sunk in
the neighbourhood of the spot, were attacked by malig-
nant fevers and by dysentery ; yet from the return on
the Metropolitan Burials Act, dated the 31st December,
1852, recently published, it appears that the promoters
of the projected Great Extramural Cemetery, near Har-
lesden-green, in the parish of Willesden, propose that
each acre of their ground shall contain 15,438 corpses
of paupers, or 11,61 G bodies of artisans, in grave-pits,
containing eight layers deep of the former, and six layers
deep of the latter. When however-, my Lord, it is taken
into account that this proposed site for a large burial
place is situated not two miles distant from the boundary
of "the Metropolis," as defined by the Burials Act of
1852, but within a parish expressly prohibited by name
by the said act, and that the nature of the soil, a stiff
clay, totally unsuits it for interment purposes, it being
established by evidence that coffins have been found in
similar ground in the neighbourhood quite sound, even
to the cloth, after a period of twenty years, and with
the wood entire, but the cloth decayed, after 102 years,
it is impossible to conceive that any Minister of the
Crown, or either branch of the Legislature, will incur the
enormous guilt and responsibility of sanctioning the
deposit of many hundred thousand corpses there.
16. I cannot, my Lord, conclude this letter without
suggesting to your Lordship the propriety and import.
ance of Government introducing and passing a third and
final Metropolitan Extramural Burial Facility Act. It
is quite certain that the measure of last session will
prove a dead letter for any beneficial purpose con-
nected with burial. The Interments Act of 1850
was a blunder from its preamble until its close.
It proposed " better interment for the Dead in and near
the metropolis," interment of any description IN and
near the metropolis being the wrong, loudly calling for
redress. Again, the Burials Act of 1852, seeks to
"amend the Laws concerning the burial of the dead in
the metropolis," the laws in question being nonentities ;
whilst the whole system and practice of intramural inter-
ment is in open violation of the dictates of reason, the
injunctions of religion, and the canons of the Church.
What the inhabitants of the metropolis want, is an act
of some 50 to 60 lines in length, ordaining, and declaring
—lst. That interment within the metropolis, as defined
by the Burials Act of 1852, shall (except in the eight
suburban cemeteries) absolutely cease and determine
from and after a given date—say, the Ist of January,
1854 ; 2d, that from and after the said date, funeral
parties shall meet the relatives of the deceased at the
place of sepulture, instead of the house of death ; 3d,
that all corpses shall be removed to the reception chapel
of the place of interment without street processions, and
at such hours of the evening or morning as shall be most
consistent with public convenience—the health and feel-
ings of the living in this particular to be more regarded
than mere vain parade as regards the exit of the dead
from town ; 4th, that the services at the desk or grave
of the Church of England, or any other religious deno-
mination, shall be performed without separate charge
for the same by, the clerical officers of the company in
whose cemetery the interment takes place, private
families to have at the same time the option to em-
ploy, at their proper cost, the services of their parochial
incumbent, or other clergyman—but all other clerical
dues or fees to cease and determine with the expiry of
intramural burial ; sth, that all corpses now deposited
in open vaults and catacombs under churches and chapels
within the metropolis (the cathedrals of St. Paul and
Westminster excepted) shall be removed, and interred
in one or other of the eight suburban cemeteries, or in
the necropolis at Woking ; 6th, that all tombstones
shall be removed from the metropolitan graveyards
without exception, and the said graveyards sown down

and planted ; 7th, that no new cemeteries or places of

burial shall be established within a nearer distance from

the centre of London than at least fifteen miles ; and,

. .
finally, that it shall not be allowable in any cemetery or
burial place to inter yearly a greater number than 136
corpses in one acre of ground.
18. When an act of this nature is passed, your Lord-
ship will perceive that the expenses incident to burial
will resolve themselves into these three items—cons,

conveyance, and graves. The semi-Popish superstitions.
that have nursed and kept alive the practice of making
the house of prayer a receptacle for putrid bones will
come to an end. They that minister at the altar will
live by the altar—a care for carrion no longer clogging a
cure of souls. The wants of the living will occupy the
attention of Vestries, not the requirements of the
dead. The trade of Undertakers will fail ; and
the offices incident to the house appointed for all
flesh— whetber. these offices be lay or clerical—N;ill
be so discharged by the responsible officers and servants
of Cemeterial Companies as to reduce the general charges
for sepulture for the future, some 75 per cent, below ex-
isting demands.

19. Your Lordship, from a perusal of the memorial
to the Lord Mayor and Common Council which accom-
panies this letter, will observe that the provisional trustees
of the London Necropolis Company have acted in various
ways to the hurt and prejudice of the scheme which the
company was devised and set on foot by Mr. Sprye and
myself to carry out. But, as the 31st clause of the act of
last session incorporating our company makes binding
upon, and operative against, the shareholders, a memo-
randum of agreement dated the 18th Dec., 1850, and
la
deed of agreement dated April 1, 1851, between ?nysef
and Mr. Sprye on the one part, and the said provisional
trustees—viz., Messrs. Vim. James Voules, John Gar-
diner, Ch. R. Thompson, and Sir James C. Anderson,
Bart.— On the other part, it is the intention of Mr. Sprye
anknvaelf, both on public grounds and tprivate oonsi.