The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-06 00:00:00

NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE
ABOLITION OF BURIALS IN TOWNS.

A very large public meeting, called at. the instance of
this society, was he:d on Wednesday evening at the
Whittington Club, in the Strand, to petition Parliament
for the imm_diate eosing of burial places in cities and
towns.

Upon the platform we observed Lord Dudley Cootts
Stuart, Lord Cochrane, W. A. Mackinnon,
John Abel Smith, Esq., M.P., George Thompson,
M.P., James Wyld, Esq., M.P., George Alfred Walker,
Esq., George Geoclwin, Esq., Mr. Simpson, Mr. Hunter,
Mr. Ross, D. Aldis, Mr. Briscce, and a number of other
gentlemen who are known to have always taken a warm
interest in Vie progress of this society.
On the motion of Mr. MacreeNNoN, seconded by Mr.
GOODWIN,
Lord D. STUART was unanimously elected to the
chair. He said—l regret extremely that the Hon. Gen-
tleman who was originally announced as chairman of this
meeting is unavoidably prevented attending hero to-
night. Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell—(Cheers)—who is
exceedingly, well known in the metropolis, and in the
country nt large, for his charitable disposition, has par-
ticularly directed his attention to the subject which now
calls you together. I, therefore, regret deeply the
absence of one who is so well able to do the subject jus-
tice, and above all do I lament the nixie of his nhsence,
which is no other than that he is at present stretched
upon a bed of sickness, and of course unable to fulfil
the engagement which he had made.—(Hear.) Lament-
ing his absence, I have not thonelit it proper to hesitate
in agreting to the wishes of those gentlemen who are
deeply interested in the cause, and who have requested
me to fill his place this evening.—(Cheers.) Before
saying another word I will call upme the secretary to
read the advertisement convening the meeting.
The SECRETARY, Mr. C. J. Thicke, then read the
advertisement, together with letters from several noble •
men and gentlemen apologising for their non-attend-
ance, but all concurring in the object of the meeting.
Sir Benjamin Hall, Bart., stated that continued
illness prevented his attendance, but lie hoped
ere long that the practice of burying in large and popu-
lous towns would he discontinued. Mr. Horsman,
said he was obliged to leave town, but that he would
be most happy to co-operate in any proceedings in Par•
liament to put an entire stop to practices so grievous to
civilization and religion. The Marquis of Northampton
and Lord Ehrington also concurred in the desirability of
prohibiting interments in towns, and gave their hearty
wishes for the success of the society's efforts. Letters
were also read from the Earl of Carlisle, the Lord Mayor,
Baron Rothschild, and a number of Members of Par-
liament.

The CHAIRMAN then rose and was received with loud
cheers. He said, Ladies and gentlemen, you see by the
state of the platform that the object which we have in
view has many friends, and you will perceive also by the
list of letters, which the Secretary has just read, that
we have a great many supporters who are not present.
I don't wonder at that-1. don't wonder that wo should
have supporters—my only wonder is that there should
be any one who does not feel that this subject is one of
the very greatest importance; that the evil is one which
calls aloud for a remedy; and if there be persons who are
not impressed with that belief, I am convinced that they
are only those who have not had an opportunity of giving
to the subject their serious attention. Ido believe that
no man who has had the means of acquainting himself
with the practices which prevail with regard to inter-
ments in this metropolis, and who has had access to the
zeal sources of information, can for a moment hesitate,
or does Lesitate, in saying that interments in large cities
like this ought immediately to be put a stop to. Persons
there may be who do not agree with us, and who, per-
haps, do not feel the necessity of something being done;
but who are they? They are persons who have not
made themselves acquainted with the facts of the case—
persons to whom the mass of evidence which has been
collected by Committees of the Houses of Parliament,
by those who, to their great honour, have devoted
themselves to this subject, is nothing but a sealed book.
Occupied with other subjects and engaged with other
facts, they are not aware of what is actually going on in
this metropolis—they pass through the streets daily and
they do not know—they do not even suspect--that in
many streets, and I will say, emphaticalla, also in this
street, they aro in the immediate vicinity of graveyards
where bodies are piled up in heaps, which are at once
the cause of ill heath and disease to the population,
and where scenes are enacted that are degrading
to humanity.—(Cheers.) I do not hesitate to say
that this practice in crowded cities is in the highest de-
gree conducive to immorality.—(hear, hear.) It has a
tendency to blunt all the finer feelings, and to make men
careless of paying that tribute of reap, ct to the departed
which appears to be implanted in man's heart by nature.
—(Cheers.) Who is there who does not feel the greatest
desire to render all tribute of respect to rela-
tions and friends who are departed? Which of us is
there but contemplates without horror and without a
shudder, which it is impossible to describe, the idea of the
remains of any dear and beloved relative not meeting
with a proper and decent interment, whose blood
will not run cold at the thought of the bodies of those
dear and beloved persons meeting only with a mock in-
terment, being only placed a few inches under the
ground, and being afterwards removed by unhallowed
hands to make room for other bodies?—(Cheers.) Yet
scenes like this take place, and are taking place every
day, for it is in evidence that in some of these receptacles
fur the dead such things are continually practised. The
space in large cities which can be devoted to interments
is of course smaller It costs a large sum of money
to obtain an area, and those who undertake the
burial of the dead, I am sorry and ashamed to say, do
no in many instances for no other purpose than to make
-money.—(Hear, hear.) It is therefore an object to
them to bury as many bodies as possible in the smallest
possible space. They dig deep holes, for they are not
worthy the name of graves, and pile one body above
another to the depth of a great many feet, until at
last they come to the levet earth, and then
a thin coating of earth is thrown over them.
Another grave is then opened immediately by the
side of it, again to be filled up, and as there is frequently
not room to bury all the dead that are brought, it is con-
stantly occurring that the pickaxe and the shovel of the
gravedigger breaks in upon the coffin and violates the
dead body which was laid there by sorrowing relatives.
—(Elatta hear.) Alai those sorrowing relatives who
have made it their business to inquire into these prac-
tices will tell you that they have seen bodies mangled by
the tools of these gravediggers, and pieces of dead bodies
and limbs thrown about with the spade as if they were so
much earth. These things are indeed revolting to contem-
plate—they are degrading to the population where they
take place, but still they happen in the greatest, the
richest, and the noblest city in the whole universe.—
(Cheers.) We are proud of our riches, of our talents,
of our civilization, and of our progress in commerce
and in all the arts and sciences, and we should be
offended if any person presumed to say that this
country was not the most moral and most re-
ligious in the world, and yet, gracious Heaven! we
suffer such things to he in the midst of this great metro-
polis.—(Cheers.) But when I mention to you the
shocking state of things to which I have alluded, and
which is of a nature to harrow up your feelings, and as
I must think, to blunt the sensibilities, and make men
careless of the respect to the dead, and also irreligious.—
when I mention these things I have not told you all, for
a very great deal remains behind. If burials amidst
crowded cities are injurious to the morals, they are also
fraught with deadly poison to the public health.—
(Cheers.) No subject has engaged the attention of the
public or of the Legislature of late years to a
greater extent than that of the public health.
sanitary measures have engrossed much of
the attention of Parliament, and have occupied
the minds of men throughout the country, writings have
been poured fourth from the press on the subject, meet-
ings have been held again and again, and information to
a great extent has been supplied with the hope of im-
proving the health of the public, but it may be said that
all these endeavours will be in vain as far as regards the
health of towns as long as the system of burying in the
heart of towns is permitted.—(Cheers.) You say let :us
have good sewerage, let us have good ventilation, let us
have fresh air and a good supply of fresh water, and I
say so too. I know nothing more important,
but, alas! it is in vain to have improved
sewers, good supplies of water, and fresh air; it is in
vain to make the attempt which has been made, and will
be renewed, to give poor people an unstinted supply of
light by the repeal of the window-tax--(Loud cheers)—
if with those advantages wo did not also succeed in
rooting out and drawing away all interments from the
heart of the metropolis.—(Cheers) For what would be
the use of breaking open the small cramped-up windows
of the poor to let in light and air, if that air brought in
with it poison?—(Cheers.) Men say give us air—aye,
but give us fresh air—don't give us polluted air, charged
with miasma and poison from reeking bodies in a
state of putrefaction, which are heaped up at
our very doors. Men of science who are acquainted
with this subject tell you that a certain space is neces-
sary for every dead body—that a man when ho dies
and is put into the earth must have' a curtain amount of
earth around him in order that his bodymatyhle b 3 e 6
d e
bodiesco
m -
posed, and it is calculated that in an
may be properly interred. Now,
stateonoef
things in this city? Why there areg what is acre
grave yards—not
but man in which instead of 13e there are I,ooo—
2,000 y—
bodies—cramned into an acre.—(Cheers.)
They throw forth noxious gases which
ily
producehel
every kind of disorder, but many persons are
ignorant of this. I told a gentleman to-day that wholly
ignorant was
going to attend a meeting on the subject of interments
Itl towns, which I thought ought to be abolished; and he
said " Well, I never experienced any bad effects from
/hem." " I dare say not," said I, " but have you never
been unwell—have you never had any illness without
being able to account for it?" " Aye." " Then how do
You know that it has not been occasioned by the vicinity
of graveyards to your habitation?" Many men are seized
With sickness, with typhus, and with all kinds of dis-
orders which medical men can clearly trace to the prac-
tic of bodies being interred in graveyards where there is
L:et sufficient space for them, and where they
esides
too near
the habitations of the living.—(Cheers.)
B this it frequently occurs that those whose duty
it is to open graves often fall down suddenly dead, such
is the miasma which comes out from them. It is also
in evidence that in order to bear the horrible. stench and
foul air which they have-indl
stantly obliged to to encounter they are con-
proudageeesin thef use of ardent spirits,hi
'which in its turn
a aceraetnaalone ffecst
the
1)
on
burial t
o their
the dead—only think of that most beautiful most most touch-
ing, and:most consoling of all services being performed
in the presence of sorrowing relatives, whose feelings,
if ever, must be exalted and raised to things
above, and to the most holy contemplation, and then think of that service being completed hyon,
wretches in a state of usebriety.—(Cheers.) These things would eer-
tainly be put an end to if burials in the heart of large
towns were no longer allowed. Strange, indeed, is it that
this practice should be continued in a city which is the
eery centre of civilization, In other countries it is not