The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-18 00:00:00

rector lost his wife, his daughter, and the gardener
who had used the poisoned earth for manure. The
patron's gardener, who had dressed his flower beds
with human manure, was also attacked; in short,
wherever the earth was taken to, the fever fol-
lowed.—(Bear, hear.) The children of the Sunday
schools caught fever, went home and died, bat they did
nut communicate the disease to their relatives and at-
tendants—those only suffered who had been exposed to
the cause of its development. Seventeen deaths are re-
corded as having taken place from this cause alone; and
Dr. Smith states that nearly 200 cases of scarlet-fever
and measles, with anomalous and peculiar eruptions, •
followed, all in his opinion from the same cause.
"Ia ancient E evpt, the plague was unknown so long as
the sepultural rites of civilized heathens were continued,
but the barbarous practice of interment was introduced,
and the land of mummies became what it now is—one
vast charnel-house.—(Hear, hear.)
" During the decomposition of the human body, after
death, ce:tain principles denominated morbid poisons
are thrown off. The stege in which these are eliminated
is called putrefaction. Besides sulphuretted hydrogen
and carbonic acid gas, there are other peculiar animal
principles, hitherto not reduced to palpable existence,
which do their deadly work. The manner in which
these morbid poisons act on the living frame has been
well explained by Baron Liebig. According to this illus-
trious chemist, the effects of morbid poisons are ana-
logous to fermentation—that is, a similar process to that
which takes place when yeast is placed in contact with
sugar or glutinous matter."
A protest against the burial of the; dead in. churches
and in graveyards in populous towns, is no new thing.
In an admirable volume from the pen of Air. Walker,
now present, entitled " Gatherings from Graveyards," I
find a most interesting document, in the shape of an or-
dinance of the Archbishop of Toulouse on the interment
of the dead in churches. This was at a very early period.
On the side of this excellent cause, whicn is ono of the
highest
public importance, we have our respect for the rites
of our religion, our regard for the feelings of the bereaved.
the importance of health to the dwellers in towns, the
diminishing of local burthens, the diminution of general
pauperism, and the checking of gross immorality.—
e p
(Cheers.) Against it we havrejudice and custom, and
the love of burial fees, and the Dean and Chapter of
Westminster---(Laughter)—and the ministers, sextons,
and gravediggers of other religious edifices ; but these
may and will be overcome when the intelligence and re-
ligious feeling and domestic affections, and the anxiety
fur the advancement of sanitary measures throughout
the kingdom are enlisted in the cause. Let us then
boldly face the impediments whieh exist in our way,
and we shall finally reach the goal of our desires—the
entire removal of this flagrant and most pernicious abuse.
—(Loud cheers.) Too much credit cannot be awarded
to the gentleman who has devoted tho most precious
paleaesaur,rehnoarr
.p)rofiltt,rtnostthhies
h
encouragement and support
portion of his life, whether foL(
willu ma
not humane
laonotkl bi
ne nvenflicno
fornt wt
ho rek
to which he is entitled, and which his cause so impera•
tively demands. Let him, and all others who are simi-
larly engaged, gather hope and confidence from the
contemplation of past victories in enterprises for
the good of their fellow-creatures.—(Cheers.) Let
every reformer here, whatever be his object—if it be a
good one—listen to the words of a simple but sweet poet,
whose muse is consecrated to the cause of the people—l
refer to Eliza Cock—(Cheers):—
_ _

" If ye see afar off that worth winning,
Set out on the journey with trust;
And ne'er heed if your path at beginning,
Should be among brambles and dust.
" Though it be but by footsteps ye do it,
And hardships may hinder the way,
Keep a heart, and be sure you'll get thro' it,
For where there's a will there's a way.' "
—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. G. A. WALKER rose to propose the first resolu.
tion. He said, if a man from a far country, a stranger
to our manners and customs, an Egyptian, fur example,
could take Lie stand on the top of St. Paul's in this city,
he would be surprised at the view that presented itself.
If he were told that within the immediate circuit Of
his view there lived some two millions of people—
that the living swarm beneath him would be
gathered to their fathers, would require graves with-
in about thirty-five years, he would probably inquire
how end where those two millions of people would be
buried. And what would be the humiliating answer?
Why, that the inhabitants of this the most magnificent
duringcit yi n the
centuries, universe,
apeople rich and powerful, had,
untaught by experience and unine
strutted by misfortune, committed the sad and lament-
able error of burying the dead in the very midst of the
habitations of the living. In the 19th century of the
Christian era, temples dedicated to the worship of the
Most High were, by the sanction of law, and by the per-
mission of our forms of religion, converted into pest-
houses for the living. The rich, interred at the price of
gold, are allowed to corrupt the atmosphere of our
chapels. The poor and the middle
classes are stacked in graves, in deep pits, one
churches and c •
t
upon the other, and side by side, as was the case in
very neighbourhood—in the Golden. lane Cemetery,
to his own knowledge, the uppermost coffin frequently
not being more than a few inches below the surface.—
(Hear, hear.) There were divisions in death as well as
distinctions in life—
" Here lie I, beside the door,
Here lie I, because I'm poor;
Further in the more they pay;
Here lie I as well as they.'
--(Laughter.) Now for himself, speaking as an indivi-
dual, he would have no objection at all to those divisions
in eraveyards—they had their rich man's ground, their
poor man's ground, and their pauper's ground,but then it
resolved itself into a:most important sanitary question. It
had frequently been his lotto endeavour to demonstrate—
more especially in writing, and latterly by speaking—
that the dead man required so much material, so much
earth in which he should decompose. According to a
calculation which he had long since made, an
adult body would require thirty-two superficial
feet for its burial ; that was the body would pass off, it
would be resolved into its original elements, into gaseous
matters and animal compounds, which must enter into
the lungs and corrupt the blood, and produce va-
rious forms of disease. Now, let any man show him, as
times went, a better investment than this ; a man took
a plot of ground, or rented a house, and there might
perchance be a cellar underneath, and be forthwith com-
menced burying the dead. He (Mr. Walker) was not
at all desirous of pressing hardly upon any individual or
upon any locality, but there was a place which he had
in his memory, Enon Chapel, in Clement's-lane, Strand.
—(Hear, hear.) Now he would adduce that as an in-
stance, demos strafing
the truth of what he had
asserted to the meeting. In that place, merely fifty-
nine feet in length, by
twenty-nine feet in
width, many thousands of bodies were interred—that
was, they were put away somehow or other—(lcer,
hear)—which was another name for the same thing. In
that place, measuring, as he had said, fifty-nine feet by
twenty-nine, many thousands of bodies were buried, and
the sum derived during six
years by the proprietor of
the place for burials in that cellar—for cellar it was—
(Hear, hear)—merely the usual joists supporting a floor,
covered by boards. and not even a lath and plaster do-
fence—(Hear, hear)—in that place—that manufactory of
malaria—there were deposited many thousands of bodies,
and the sum received by the proprietor amounted to
9511. ss. during six years for burials in that cellar.—
(Hear, hear.) Now, those facts were taken by himself
( Mr. Wlker) fro the book of theproprietor of thelace,
the figuraes writtenm, he believed, in the hand of the man
himself, and therefore there could be no mistake about
rather
them. He proposed, however, that night dealing
with the dangers than with the immoralities of the system.
He did not know whether it was with them as it was
with himself; but in his case he had looked at that mat-
ter so frequently in its various aspects, it had come so
often upon him, that he felt it was like the
thrice told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of drowse man."
—(Applause.) He could tell them 0-f enormities that
should call a blush on the cheek of Englishmen and
English women. He had long and frequently wondered
how long the public would permit such a state of things to
tho interment prac-
tised most elaborate
go on. It was now some 14 years since he commenced
his inquiries. From 1839 up till now the question had,
however, progressed; and by the meeting that night, and
by other meetings, he thought they might judge that at
length public attention had been roused to its enormit
(Applause.) There were learned men who would )g'ive
historiestheecperhaps,,ottne thee tho ds
moat
and
modesminute,
in the earlier ages—men who would write them
m
very good books on that subject, yet those men, perhaps
knowing better, as he feared too many of them did, yet
hesitated to deal with a question which must eventually
be dealt with, and the sooner it was dealt with the
better.—(Applause) It would seem that men could
only be brought to the recognition of great truths
and of simple facts through the paths of suffer-
ing and of sorrow ; and yet what had a series
of such experiences taught us ? Why, that they had
made scarcely a move in the prevention of so fruitful
a source of disease, of immorality, and of death. It was
true that during the last session of Parliament a few
measures had passed the Legislature; but what had they
done in this? He must say, even at the eleventh hour,
that they had done nothing on this, the greatest question
of all.—(Applause.) Yet they had paid most scrupu-
lous, the most deferential attention to every other known
cause of disease. The City Sanitary Act talked not of
the width, not of the superficial surface of the graves
and graveyards of this metropolis, notoriously over-
crowded as they were ; but talked of depth
only, of five feet from the surface. How was
it that they did not talk of the width as
well? If, as ho had told them, a dead body
must require thirty. two feet to give it sanitary burial,
how was it that the City authorities, knowing, as they
must know—for they had had sent among them books,
not by ones or twos, but by tens, and fifties,. and hun-
dreds, at the expense of the individual then addressing
them—displayed so: much indifference ?—(Loud ap •
pleuse.) He said, therefore, that they had a right
to expect better things. The City authorities, in
their corporate capacity, should be the leaders of the
nation in this matter.—(ElLar, hear.) If all that he
(Mr. Walker) had stated was true, it was time, not that
they should regulate the depth of the graves, but
that they should shut up the graveyards altoge-
ther.—(Loud applause.) There is a period in the history
of nations when the common succession of events in the
material world paases unnoticed,—when Governments
and Legislators cease to regard with due concern sub-
jects of essential importance to the welfare of tho mass
of the community,—when ordinary occurrences lose their
interest, and nothing has power over attention but WO