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

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4444 i
trb itE;4ll" lot 4,84

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 4, 1853.

Now or Never. It is strong language, no
doubt of it, as applied to the abolition of Intra-
mural Interments. But matters have gone on so
long and so desperately in regard to the postpone-
ment of the Dead-man's Question, by procastina-
tion after procrastination, that we are driven to
the use of strong language. If we are not really
now to witness the destruction, partial at least, if
not total, of the horrible old system of burying
thousands upon thousands of corpses annually in
the midst of our crowded metropolis—we shall
view the hope of reform in this particular with
feelings little short of absolute desperation. The
atrocity of the thing has been exposed. The
cruelty of it has been laid bare. The folly of it
made as apparent as the folly of suicide or of any
other criminal absurdity. We have had books
upon books written on it—portly volumes and
portable pamphlets fly leaves and octavos.
Among other books of this kind, too, we have had
blue books, and plenty of them—blue books in
abundance—petitions, answers of witnesses, and
reports of commissioners. If ever an abuse has
been thoroughly laid before the public' in all its
horrible deformity and nakedness this has.
Everybody recognises it. Everybody, at any
rate, who is not interested in keeping up the old
evil arrangement—interested, we mean, pecuni-
arily. For it is one of the chief horrors
of the Question—this Dead-man's Question—
that there are certain classes in this country reap-
ing profit—profit in pounds, shillings, and pence
—from the interment of their departed fellow-crea-
tures in the very thick of the living population.
It is because of the efforts made by these classes
to put down any systematic attempt in the way of
innovation, that the advocates of improvement
have not yet succeeded. It is because of the per-
tinacity of these ghouls that we have not yet been
able to realise our hopes of establishing a regular
system of extramural cemeteries. The monstrosity
of the evil has been proclaimed again and again,
and yet—because of the resolute opposition of
these upholders of that evil—the capital is still
suffering grievously from the continuance of the
abomination.

But—Hope at last has sprung out of Despair.
OrderS in Council to close the reeking graveyards
of London have been promised by Lord PALMER-
STON, and that promise has some force in it, be-
cause Lord PALMERSTON is at this moment Houle
Secretary.
Under existing circumstances, therefore, we
conceive that it may not be regarded as altogether
idle to draw public attention more directly to the
matter by the repetition of a few details already
very frequently reiterated—tending to explain the
character of the abuse of which we are yearning
to witness the abolition.

It is notorious that all the eminent medical
authorities who have ever written upon the subject'
are unanimous in the expression of one opinion
as to the effects of animal decomposition. DUPER-
GTE has elaborately described the disastrous nature
of those effects, in his Treatise on -Medical Juris-
prudence. Another Frenchman, Ft:Taw-Boy, has
recorded a variety of sickening facts bearing upon
the same argument, in the elaborate statement
upon the subject laid by him, some years ago,

before the French Government. MAJENDIE, by
a number of frightful experiments, proved that the
most deadly poisons were produced by this species
of putrefaction. ARMSTRONG has declared that
the affection produced by the introduction of
putrid matter into the blood so exactly resembles
typhus fever, that he believes no individual could
confidently pronounce that it differed from that
fatal disease. BICHAT has specified minutely the
several influences positively destructive, or simply
deleterious of all the various gases thrown off in
the process of animal decomposition—sulphuretted
hydrogen, deutoxide of nitrogen, chloride of
ammonia, oxygen, hydrogen, azote, carburetted
hydrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and
protoxide of azote. GREGORY has shown how
several of these vapours " variously combined "
produce empyreuraatic oil, and a multitude of
of foetid vapours most prejudicial to existence.
Sorrirvveon SMITH long ago wrote these words—
" It is a matter of experience that, during the
decomposition of dead organic substances, whether
vegetable or animal, aided by heat and moisture,
and other peculiarities of climate, a poison is
generated, which, when in a state of high con-
centration is capable of producing instantaneous
death by a single inspiration of the air in which
it is diffused." Evidence like this might be al-
most indefinitely multiplied. And all these
odious and baneful influences are being constantly
generated in the midst of the crowded streets
of London by those intramural graveyards, which
are literally so many manufactories of pestilence !
Wherever we look in this great metropolis
there we are sure to see festering in the midst of
the dwelling-houses of its inhabitants one of these
horrible sinks of corruption. They are sown
about thickly in all directions—in all localities
indiscriminately—the most squalid and the most
fashionable. They are in Whitechapel and May-
fair, in Belgravia and Shoreditch. It would be
preposterous to excuse ourselves for having done ac-
tually nothing as yet worth speaking of in the
way of effecting their removal, upon the plea that
there has been any ignorance as to their evil cha-
racter. There is one man in London who might
start up against any such shallow plea as a witness
fired by no idle indignation. Fully fourteen
years ago Mr. WALKER published, through the
LoNaltArts, the first of those remarkable works by
which he roused public attention to the Dead-man's
Question, and thereby in fact constituted himself
the originator of the whole sanitary movement.
Hitherto this fact has been passed over, and by
many persons been forgotten, or at any rate disre-
garded. But there it remains before the world,
avowed plainly enough in the very date, " 1839,"
upon the title-page of that inaugurative volume
—" Gatherings from Graveyards." There it re-
mains visible to any eye that chooses to glance at
it, where it is asserted by the author in that same
title-page that the book contains " a detail of
dangerous and fatal results produced by the unwise
and revolting custom of inhuming the dead in the
midst of the living." Those words were, as long
ago as 1839, written, and printed, and published.
And they were not published obscurely by some
eut-of-the-way establishment, without any sort of
reputation, but by one of the first houses, if not the
first house in the book trade of the metropolis—
that of the LoNamays. If we have done nothing
since then towards abolishing the system of in-
tramural interments, we cannot, after this, as-
sert that our conduct is in any way excusable
on the score of ignorance I As if the
purport of the volume here referred to
as having originally appeared as far back
as 1839 were not sufficiently indicated by
the expressions above quoted, we find a motto in-
scribed upon that same ample title-page wonder-
fully appropriate, and surely, surely significant ;
a motto taken from the sombre verses of KIRKE
WHITE, those verses which fell from him so scan-
tily and gloomily like yew berries upon tomb-
stones.

. . . . And who would lay
His body in the city burial-place,
To be thrown up again by some rude sexton,
And yield its narrow house another tenant,
Ere the moist flesh had mingled with the dust,
Ere the tenacious hair had left the scalp,
Exposed to insult, lewd, and wantonness ?
No, I will lay me in the village ground.;
There are the dead respeCted."

Fourteen years have gone by, and still we are
hoping—hoping--only hoping for the improve-
ment. SincelB39, the evil, instead of kaving been
diminished, has literally gone on increasing in ex-
act proportion to the increase of the population !
And here is 1853, with it positively intensified in
virulence, multiplied in numbers, and extended in
dimensions. Are we wrong, therefore, or hasty,
or extravagant in our all but despairing cry of
Now or Never. Now, while Orders in Council
are being prepared for the peremptory closing of
these horrible graveyards one after another : now,
while the Home-office is presided over by a States-
man as resolute and energetic as the present Chief
Secretary, Viscount PAULERSTON.

The proceedings respecting the late Derby elec-
tion have not as yet terminated. Something still
remains to be done, in order to vindicate the
majesty of the law, so far as the chief offenders
are concerned. But, in the present instance,' it
is not the mean and paltry " acceptors " of 40s.
bribes, or even the subordinate agents of corrup-
tion that will be compelled to submit to legal in-
vestigation. More distinguished " quarries "
will be aimed at, and if the statements made at
the banquet given last week at the Derby Athe-
naeum, to celebrate the triumph of the Liberal
party in that borough, are in any degree to be
credited, the chief movers in this very extraordi-
nary transaction will have to answer for their
conduct before a jury of their countrymen. The
" Gentlemen of the Lead Works" appear to be by no
means in an enviable position. The " Shrewsbury
tonsor," the modern " OiiivEn LE DAIN," is by no
means easy in his mind ; nor does the renowned
" W. B." himself altogether repose on a bed of
roses. A body of determined men are resolved
that the truth—nay, more, the whole truth, shall be
elicited—that the matter shall be probed to the
very quick, and that no position, however ele-
vated, shall save those implicated from the penal
consequences of their conduct. This is as it
should be. There may be a prosecution for a
conspiracy, although the state of the law
with respect to bribery and corruption (perhaps
one of the most flagrant instances of class legisla-
tion) prevents the well-merited punishment of
those who endeavour to induce the less wealthy
voter to " sell his birthright for a mess
of pottage," to barter the sacred privilege
confided to his charge—that which gives him,
through his representative, a voice in the national
councils - for a pecuniary consideration, or, still
more degrading—for there is even in the lowest
depths of infamy a deeper humiliation—for the '
means of the most beastly intoxication. If we can
conceive the degradation of mind which induces a
man to bestow his suffrage in opposition to his
conscience for a sum of money, how much more in-
famous is that man who accepts of the sensual gra-
tifications of gluttony and drunkenness as adequate
temptations ! The legal offence may be the same,
whether the corrupt voter be persuaded to,
uplift " his most sweet voice" in favour of the donor
of a Bank of England note for 201. or 501., or of
the treater to a coarse substantial meal, accom-
panied with an undue proportion of alcohol,
British or foreign. But the latter is a more des-
picable vice. The free and independent elector
who wallows in the gutter, and with aching head
and sickly stomach votes for the party who en-
abled him to commit the disgusting debauch, is a
meaner ruffian than a man who accepts a money
bribe. Notwithstanding the well-known adage,
" D 1 got, ill gone," the family of the one may
possibly, though the chance be very remote, bene-
fit in some degree by the transaction. The un-
fortunate wife and children of the other must
suffer by the demoralisation of the husband and
father, who, on account of his excess, may suffer
ix health, but must also suffer in purse from being
, It unfitted faosrihit shacisailbeyeanv
justly remarked,
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But withoutphintoo
of which those concerned may well be proud.
t was,
striking and unequivocal exposure of a stupendous
' evil." Never was the infamous system more

thoroughly laid bare, or the whole of the vile
machinery more clearly held up to public indigna-
tion. The "W. B." inquiry—the prosecution
and confession of MORGAN—the investigation be-
fore the Election Committee, terminating in the
unseating of the Tory, and the substitution of the
Liberal, Member—all tend to the same point. But
it is the promised prosecution for conspiracy that
will form the consummation so devoutly to be
wished for—that will " cap the climax." Much
as we respect the decision of a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, there are subjects on
which we should greatly prefer that of a jury of
twelve men, assisted by one of the Judges
of the Superior Courts. There is a natural
reluctance on the part of those who have
themselves been concerned in electioneering
transactions to hurl too weighty a stone against a
detected brother—a tendency to soften down into
" indiscretion" that which before another tribunal
might be called by a sterner and a harder name.
We rejoice, then, at the promise so distinctly
made at the Derby banquet, and we hail the un-
equivocal admission made in favour of the Ballot
—the most important of all the branches of Par-
liamentary Reform—by one whose great experi-.
ence constitutes him one of the best witnesses
that could be found as to the best means of
materially mitigating, if not entirely eradicating,
bribery, corruption, and intimidation. From
what has already transpired with respect to the
Derby and other elections, it is manifest that the
existing laws on the subject are not sufficiently
stringent ;to meet the acknowledged evil. There
must, then, be some new legislation on the
subject ; and as " prevention is better than
punishment," why not endeavour rather to
remove the temptation to the crime than to
subject the offenders to stringent penalties ? The
Derby demonstration will, we trust, produce a
considerable effect, not merely among representa-
tives, but among the represented. The argu-
ments there adduced must have considerable effect
in persuading all those anxious to promote "purity
of election" to demand " the Ballot" in all its in-
tegrity, as the only means of achieving that great
desideratum.