The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-24 00:00:00

COURT OF COM!,If-,)N COUNCIL

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Yw•tP,r(la.y— a C-7.3r
pubde business.
THE LORD MAYOR AND C.iißl*F'S EiOS
PITAL.

't. tlir! o'iSpilte.l Or Mile

The TOWN CLF.e.it. -Jated that he attended at Christ's
Hospital on Sr. Mettnew's da‘, and fuuiid that the list
of governors had not been made out in the proper form;
but he wouid direct that a proper list should be made
and presented at the next Court.
Some members of the Court having expressed a vs ish
to be informed whether any misunderstanding existed
between the governors and the Corporation,
The LORD MAYOR said that in the list which had
been exhibited, the name of the Lord Mayor appeared
under those of the Pre-ddent and the Treasurer, and
that, as he considered such a position was an insult to
the Chief Ma,istrate and the Corporation of London,
he had refused to sit down to the dinner provided at the
hospital.
Mr. ANDERTON said that if all Lord Mayors acted in
so spirited a manner, there would be no insult offered to
the offiee.—(Hear, hear.)
SCRIPTURE READERS' ASSOCIATION.
Mr. WIRE presented a petition from the Scripture
Readers' Association, praying for a donation in aid of
their funds. The great obleet of the association was,
he said, to aid the eler_zy of the Church of England in
diffusing Christian knowledge amongst the poorest, and
most desolate, and most ignorent of the population; and
for the purpose of accomplishing that object they were
employing persons who were competent to the task of
instructing, and were recommended by the officiating
clergyman of the parish which it would be necessary to
visit. The result, he was convinced, would be that a
new aspect would be placed upon society.—(Hear.)
Mr. 11. TAYLOR thought that such an application
ought not to be made to a municipal body consisting of
individuals of many different persuasions.—(Hear, hear.)
The society from which it came was evidently a prosely-
ting society. If it had come from a Catholic society the
Court certainly would nut for a moment listen to it.
Why, then, should they entertain a petition from a body
belonging to any other exclusive church?—(Bear, hear.)
Mr. LAWRENCE objected to the application. The
petitioners, instead of showing that they wanted money
to advance their object, very plainly proved by their
statement of their income above their expenditure, that
they had no occasion for the assistance of the Corpora-
tion at all, and moved that the petition should lie upon
the table.
Dr. LYNCH seconded the amendment. He considered
the object of the Association to be partial and proselyting,
and altogether at variance with the tolerant and generous
spirit' which was daily diffusing itself amongst all
classes.—(Hear, hear.) He did not wish to encourage
the frantic railing of journeymen shoemakers, and tai-
lors, and carpenters, who, under the plea of a call from
the Lord, uttered all sorts of extravagant folly. Without
meaning to give the slightest offence to the gentlemen
at the bar, be could not help declaring that he looked
upon the plan thus proposed of assisting the clergy as a
most bitter satire upon that body. It was telling the
lazy dogs that it was actually necessary to get up a secu-
lar staff to do the duties which they were bound to per-
form themselves.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HARRISON said that Mr. Lawrence did injustice
to the Association, when he said they were not in 't ant
of the assistance for which they petitioned. It was but
a new society, and every one knew that it was the prac-
tice of patrons to subscribe liberally at the beginning
of an institution, in order to give encouragement to the
the public lo follow the example ; but it would be ab-
surd to calculate upon the permanency of such contribu-
tions.—(Hear, hear.) The Association stood in need of
assistance in carrying ollt their object, and he trusted
they would receive it most extensively. Ile regretted to
hear the epithet lazy dogs applied to the clergy. He
well knew how they laboured, and he knew that it was
quite impossible for them to go round to the lanes, and
alleys to the poor creatures who required religious in-
struction. Perhaps in the district of one clergyman
there were thousands of poor whom it would be the care
of the Association to supply with the instruction which,
without such aid, it would be impracticable to administer.
Mr. ANDERTON said it appeared to him that the As-
sociation did not at present need the aid of the Corpo-
ration. If, at any time, they should be in a condition to
require that aid, then they might come forward with a
good excuse and good effect.—(Hear.)
Mr. BENNOCH thought the ridicule cast upon those
who, without being possessed of liberal education, under-
took to expound the Scriptures, illiberal and unjust, and
referred to the great apostolical labours as evidence in
favour of their zeal and energy. He was in favour of
anything at all calculated to take information, religious
or secular, into the miserable, benighted dens of the
metropolis.—(Hear, hear.) There was no cant, in his
opinion, more despisable than the cant of parsimony,
when a fair demand was made upon the funds of the Cor-
poration.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. PEWTRESS said the question was whether the ob-
ject was a legitimate object upon which to expend the
funds of the Corporation. In his opinion, they had
nothing to do with the subject. If the funds belonging
to the Established Church were properly disposed of,
there would be no need of application to that Court.
After some observationsfrom Mr. LOTT, who said there
were plenty of poor clergymen well able and willing
to do the duties prescribed by the Association, and from
other members, a division took place, when the original
motion was carried, by a majority of nine, in a Court
consisting of 69.
INTERMENT OF THE DEAD WITHIN THE
CITY OF LONDON, &c.

Mr. ANDERTON rose to move that the Court do
petition both Houses of Parliament to pass an Act to
prohibit the interment of the dead in churches and
church-yards within the City of London, and other
large cities and towns, and prevent the violation of
graves. Eight months had passed away sine.) he had
put the notice of motion to which he had called the at-
tention of the Court upon the paper. Since that time
the subject had undergone discussion so extensively in
the newspaper press, and through other sources of public
intelligence, that it became unnecessary for him to enter
with any degree of minuteness or particularity into its
merits. He expected a unanimous concurrence on his
motion. If he required any late additional testimony in
favour of it, that testimony was to be found in the ma-
gisterial examinations which had just taken place. (Here
Mr. Anderton called the attention of the Court to the
revolting scene in the Friday-street burial-ground.) He
asked whether those who surrounded him could quietly
listen 'to the unexaggerated descriptions of the horrors
which accumulated at their very doors ?—(Hear, hear.)
Could they look patiently at the violation of graves, at
the exposure of the partially decomposed bodies of their
fellow creatures on the dunghill? Could they read the
statements made by the sanatory Commissioners, who
showed that by burying the dead amongst us we were
scattering amongst the living the seeds of pestilence
and death—could they read these statements and remain
inactive as the corporation of the great City in which
such scenes were daily enacted ?—(Hear, hear.) He
felt assured that he calculated rightly in calculating
upon their unanimity. In 1726 the practice of burying
the dead within the City was petitioned against by a
clergyman, who represented it as the remains of one of
the grossest superstitions that ever visited mankind,
and condemned it with as much indignation as if it had
attained its present enormous maturity. In 1546 the
superstition existed to be destroyed he hoped by the
example of London operating upon all other places of
dense population.—(Cheers.)
Mr. NORRIS seconded the motion.
Mr. LOTT did not object to the principle, but he wished
for some qualification. There were certain feelings to
be respected, particularly the feelings which operated
upon the members of families as to lying in the same
graves.—(Hear, hear.) lie believed that a good deal of
the opposition to churchyard burials arose from the
monopoly of cemeteries.—(Laughter, and cries of "Hear,
hear.") He would only ask the Court to look at what
was going on as to the monopoly of railways.—(Hear.)
Mr. W. S. HALE said that whenever there was a
crowded churchyard ill-health might be expected. He
witnessed the effect of these burials in the very neigh-
bourhood in which they were that moment speaking.
In Coleman-street churchyard, which was paved, the
effluvia from the dead bodies escaped through holes
made in the tomb-stones, and made the air pestilential.
—(Hear, hear.) How such an abomination could be
allowed to exist so long was a thirg he could not at all
comprehend.

Dr. LYNCH supported the motion with pleasure,
They were indebted to Mr. Anderton for his able and
lucid, though brief exposition of the evils referred to.
Upwards of 3,000 years ago Abraham ordered the dead
to Le taken out of his sight ; upwards of 2,000 years ago
the Roman Commonwealth did what they were about to
do—vassed laws against burying in cities. "In urbe ne
sepia° " was an orlinance rigilly enforced.—(Hear,
hear.) The horrible effects of allowing the dead to be
deposited in the midst of the living, had been fully esta-
blished by the labours and writings of Mr. Walker. Mr.
Chadwick, too, in his invaluable work, had accumulated
and epitomised a mass of evidence of such a revolting
nature, that the wonder was that so frightful a practice
could have been so long tolerated.—(Hear, hear.) It
was well known that 12-13thc of the dead human body
dissipated in the air we breathed, and that disease was
daily resulting from exposure to the foul and pestilential
exhalation of the grave-yards. The festering putrid
matter was allowed unrestricted vent and diffusion every
time a grave was opened. It impregnated the atmos-
phere all around. In some cases 45 had been opened in
a day in one churchyard. The bodies were piled carcase
upon carcase until they had reached a depth of 10, 20,
and 30 feet, the topmost body being only a few inches
from the surface.—(Hear, hear.) St. Andrew's Church
was 25 feet above the level. The putrescent accumulation

raised every churchyard in London upon an average 10
feet high. They were all fourfold over-charged.
The number of persons dying annually in London was
upwards of 50,000. Some 4,000 or 5,000 were buried
in the cemeteries, and the remainder in intermural
grounds. The aggregate area of these latter was under
220 acres, and the average annual number of burials
per acre was 203, or about twice the number permitted
in continental states. That average afforded no indica-
tion of the restriction of the evil. Were the burials
equally distributed over the space allotted them, the
consequence would be comparatively little felt, but the
reverse took place. The burial grounds were mostly
situated in the poorest and most crowded. parts of the
town. Where there were most of the living there were
most of the dead—where the burial grounds were fruit-
ful and perpetual sources of disease, there the liability to
disease was greatest, while the ability to guard against
it or to provide a remedy was the least.—(Hear, hear.)
There was to be seen the narrow plot of ground reeking
with pestilence, its soil supersaturated with sulphurated
hydrogen and carbonic acid gas, its surface strewed
with bones and moist with matter and exhalations alike
disgusting to the senses and destructive of health._
(Hear, hear.) That plague spot was hemmed in with
hovels, in which space was economised to the verge of
suffocation, and the narrow streets and cesspools aided
the morbid exuchtion to percolate the subsoil, and

'T HE

on ler the dwellings of the poor, by which means fever,
te ry, E,crotula, and consumption were ne% er absent.
—< ~ear) In summer the dead smell from the
vaults was easily perceptible in many of the best churches.
P4oplo often returned home from them, -d1113.. d with
heaiaches, vomiting. and fainting fits. -The Louse of
God was thus filled with poisonous exhalations It was
in feet a charnal house, and the guardian of the sane•
tuary was made by the present abominable syste to have
an interest in its pollution. There was not accommodation
or cubical space for one-fifth of the dead, without re-
ference to the most disgusting stratagems to get rid of
the excess. Within the memory of the present genera-
tion, upwards of a million of dead bodies must have been
interred iq London. In some small churchyards there
were upwards of 1,200 to the acre. Here Dr. Lynch
referred to some of the statements of Mr. Walker and
Mr. Kelsey, and to the notorious practices of consuming
the corpses with fire to get rid of the excess, and con-
cluded by calling upon the Court to do itself honour by
leaving no effort untried to get rid of an evil so tre-
mendous.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WIRE hoped the Court would not be influenced
by the gross exaggerations which they had just heard.
He wished to know, after all, whore the poor were to be
buried.—(Hear, hear.) It was well to cry out about the
burial-places of the opulent, but where was the body of
the indigent man to be taken to but to the churchyard
of his own parish ? The Court ought to consider the
rights and interests, and privileges of the poor. If the
Corporation were determined to aid the poor, let them
purchase ground and give it gratuitously for the burial
of those who could not afford to go to a cemetery.
Mr. LAWRENCE said Mr. Wire must surely know that
the parishes must find burial-places for the poor.
Mr. BLAKE was strongly in favour of the motion, and
pointed to the example of the cities of the days of old,
within the walls of which the dead were never per-
mitted to be detained.

The motion to petition Parliament was then carried
by acclamation.
Mr. ANDERTON then proposed and carried a motion
for a petition to Parliament to pass an Act to prevent
nuisances arising from the smoke of steam-engines and
in buildings in and near London and Westminster.