The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-10 00:00:00

TEIE YORKSHIRE SOCIETY.

The Anniversary Festival of this Society, in-
stituted for the purpose of maintaining, clothing,
and educating the children of indigent Yorkshire
parents, resident in the metropolis, was celebrated
last night, at the Freemasons' Tavern• The chair
was taken by Lord BTIOUGHAM, who was sup-
ported by Lord Dundas, Sir E. Petre, Sir J. Hall,
the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Bayntun, M.P. for York,
Dr. Biikbeck, &c. Above :100 persons sat down
to dinner.

Lord BROUGHAM, in proposing the healths of the
King, the Queen, and the rest of the Royal family,
observed that those toasts called for a warm re-
ception from an assembly which had met together
for charitable purposes, because the Royal Family's
known patronage of all charitable institutions re-
flected equal honour to themselves and benefit to the
community.—(Applause.)
The next toast was " The county of York, as
munificent in charities as boundless in resources."

The CHAIRMAN then proposed prosperity and
perpetuity to the Yorkshire Society. He said that
he attributed the honour which had been con-
ferred on him of being permitted to propose
this toast from the chair, to his being a York-
shireman by adoption. He was glad to see, by
the reporr, that a material increase had taken
place in the effective operation of the cha-
rity. In 1828, the number of children in the school
was but twenty, and it was at present thirty-two.
But he wished to say a few words with respect to
the expellees of the establishment. He was an old
inquirer into matters of charity.—(Laughter.) To
a certain degree he might call himself an old school-,
master.—(lncreased laughter.) What he first looked
to in these matters was the balance-sheet, and he
found by that that the average coat of each child in-
the school was 20/. a year. Now he conceived that
if the Society possessed a school-house of their own,
which at present they did not, the average cost
would not exceed 17/.; and thereby 1001. per an-
num might be added to the funds, or five or six ad-
ditional pupils supported by the charity. This con-
sidetation, he said, ought to induce the friends of
the institution not to relax their endeavours, but
rather to increase them, in order that the Society
might he enabled to confer- more extensive benefit
than it could do at present.
The Members for Yorkshire, the Committee of
Management, and various other toasts were then
drunk.

Lord DUNDAS proposed " The health of Lord
Brougham," who, he said, ought to be considered,
as far as charitable institutions were concerned, a
t:tizert of the world. The toast was honoured with
great cheering.
The amount of subscriptions to the charity col-
lected in the course of the evening was stated by
the Secretary to be nearly 5001.

ST. MARTIN'S VAULTS.—The stew vaults
under St. Martin's burial-ground are the most capacious
structures of the sort, we believe, in London. They
opened on Tuesday for the inspection of the persons pre-
sent at the consecration of the new burial-ground. They
consist of a series of vaults running out of one another in
various directions ; they are lofty, and when lighted up,
as on Tuesday, really presented something of a comfortable
appearance, reminding one of the " snug lying" talked of
in The Rivals. Some of the vaults having been quite
filled with the coffins taken out of the old burial-ground,
have been blocked up at both ends—in fact, hermetically
sealed—a plan which we learn is to be adopted with
the other vaults its succession, when the Crlld tenants shall
be sufficiently numerous. They are of tolerable height, about
10 feet to the turn of the arch, 20 in width, and nearly 40 in
length, capable of holding, we should suppose, almost
1,000 coffins each. They are whitewashed around and at
top, and the flagging at the bottom keeps them dry beneath
the foot. All the leaden coffins removed from the burial-
ground are placed in one vault; on the end of one; conspi-
cuously situated beneath a grating through whiCh the light
descends, was inscribed the name of •' Lady HANNAH
GORDON." There are arcades or corridors leading to the
vaults, which branch off right and left, along which are
anges of head-stones recording the individuals whose bones,
removed front their old resting-place, repose beneath.
These have a handsome appearance, lying as they do at
e;th!r side, close to the wall, and looking somewhat like an
at tificial balustrade flanking the wall in the centre.
Crowds of ladies perambulated the vaults for some time,
and the whole had more the appearance of a fashionable
promenade than a grim repository of decomposing mortality.