The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-28 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GRAVE-YARDS.
Mr. G. A. Walker, a surgeon, and the author of ,
several works on metropolitan sepulture, commenced the
first of a series of lectures, last evening, at the Me-
.anics' Institution, Southampton-buildings, on the
et-,ral and physical effects arising from the practice of ,
coerring the dead in the midst of the living. He said,
it seemed strange that in the middle of the nineteenth
century—in the capital of the civilised world—in a
country distinguished for its respect for public decency,
for high moral feeling, and, above all, for its profession
of Christian principles—any necessity should exist for
an appeal against a practice which inevitably led to re-
sults that inflicted deep injury on public morals, and
which was highly detrimental to the health of the
commanity. Yet such was the fact. Scarcely a day
passed without their witnessing the most revolting
violations of the sanctuaries of the dead ; whilst
the hundreds of burying places in this large me-
tropolis, permitted to exist in the midst of its living
population, were so many centres of infection, labora-
tories of malaria, whence issue most offensive and deadly
compounds, the gaseous products of human putrefaction,
the food, if not the principle, of malignant disease and
premature death. As Christians they were called upon to
crush, and for ever, a system that necessarily entailed
and imposed the daily execution of deeds, from the per-
petration of which barbarians would recoil with abhor-
rence—as men, as members of a civilised community,
it was their ditty to remove constantly increasing causes
of discomfort, disease, and frequently inconceivable
suffering ; existing more especially among their
poorer brethren, whose poverty, and whose avocations
too frequently compelled them to reside in localities
where the evil was most prominent—where the burying-
places, public and private, were more numerous and
most dangerously surcharged. lle had employed,
during many years, every legitimate means for the pur-
pose of effecting this great moral and sanatory reforma-
tion, and His object in commencing this series of lectures
was in the hope that at their conclusion, sympathies
newly awakened, and judgments more fully informed,
might result in such an expression of opinion, as should
convince all but the unduly prejudiced or the deeply in-
terested, that the confidence of a too generous public
might neither be systematically abused nor insulted with
impunity, and that ere long they would demand from the
Legislature the complete abolition of a system which
weighed down the energies of the strong, imperilled the
life of the weak, and lowered the standard of vitality in
the aggregate population. After disclaiming that he was
actuated by any personal motive in entering on his cru
sade against interment in populous cities, and indig-
nantly denying the charge imputed to him, that
he had made a vile attempt to impose upon the
public and the Legislature in the books he had written
on the subject, and by the evidence given by him before
a Parliamentary Committee, appointed to investigate the
subject,- he went on to illustrate by unmistakeable data,
the condition of many of the grave-yards of London, and
the evils which they had caused, and were causing, to
those located in their vicinity. There was scarcely a single
grave-yard vault, or receptacle for the dead, in London,
that was not over-charged ; they were not under any
superintendence, and large profits were derived from
them ; bodies were mutilated and destroyed in various
stages of decomposition in order to make room for others.
The mortality in London annually might be computed at
52,000, or 260,000 in five years, which was the lowest
possible period which should be allowed for the destruc-
tion of the human body in graves. An acre of ground
contained 43,580 square 'feet, which, divided by 32, the
number of square feet required for a single adult
interment, would give 1,361 as the number of spaces let
for graves in an acre of ground. If the burying grounds
of London, some of which had been in use for centu-
ries, contained only eighty acres, portions of which had
been pre-occupied by monuments, tomb, headstones,
&c., this space would receive 109,000 bodies, which
would leave, in five years, 151,000 bodies to be disposed
of, or in other words, uninterred—hence had resulted
the mutilation of bodies and the destruction of their cof-
fins ; and the same system prevailed in most of the ether
large towns of the empire. The statistics which the
lecturer furnished proved, that the churchyards of London
are just so many masses of human corruption, that num-
bers had died from simply inhaling the gaseous dis-
charge, and that the time had long since arrived when
interment in London, and all crowded cities, should be
strictly forbidden by the Legislature, and ,the dead in-
terred in cemeteries in the suburbs.
Mr. Walker was attentively listened to and applauded
by a numerous and sympathising audience.

THE PROPOSED EXPEDITION OF
• GENERAL FLORES TO THE EQUADOR.
The Lords of the Treasury having directed the legal
process to be proceeded with against the Glenelg India-
man, and the Monarch and Neptune steam-ships, which
were intended to take part in the proposed expedition of
General Flores to the Equador, the following particu-
lars relating to the contemplated invasion may be read
with interest:—
In the early part of June the directors of the General
Steam Navigation Company were applied to for the sale
of
_two of their powerful steamers, and eventually two
were disposed of, viz., the Monarch and the Neptune.
About the same time application was made from the
same quarter to Mr. Green, the owner of the Glenelg,
and which was then lying in the East India Docks,
for its purchase, which was also effected. The pur-
chase money was paid, and they were consigned to a
Captain Chararete, who formerly was a marine
captain in the East India Company's service. Their
complete repair was immediately proceeded with,
the utmost expedition being used in getting them
ready for sea. They were represented to be for foreign
service, and that the Glenelg would be employed as an
emigrant ship. The unusual description of work for the
merchant's service mentioned in the shipwright's con-
tracts excited at the time much attention, but similar
work having been done to other vessels in the dock,
and sanctioned by the English' Government, the sus-
picions created by the fitting of the Glenelg and the
steamers passed away. About the beginning of Sep-
tember, however, the fact of a Colonel, who had served
under General Flores in Columbia, being in London,
authorised, as it was said, to engage men to aid the
Spaniards in a certain expedition, and also to grant
commissions to officers with the same view, created more
specific suspicions as to the purposes fur which the
vessels were intended. By the following month facts
had transpired which tended to confirm previous suppo
sitions; and en the 20th of that month, Lord Palmerston
received a protest in respect to them, signed by Baring
Brothers and Co., and the principal firms in the City.
And subsequently a second protest was forwarded from
the president of the Manchester Commercial Association,
embodying the same facts.
To this protest a reply was received, which has been
already published, announcing that the attention of the
Government was directed to the subject; and in fact
measures were immediately taken to ascertain the truth
of the alleged suspicions. The Customs were directed
to institute inquiries, and several of the most active
officers connected with the detective police force were
employed in the proceeding. A few days' exertion suf
ficed to warrant the interference of the Government.
The principals were watched from place to place, and
equitments of a most warlike character were proved to
among their preparations.
The fitting out of the vessel proceeded with much
celerity, and they were appointed to leave on last
Thursday. From some unexplained circumstance the
steamers did not leave on that day. The Glenelg,
however, sailed down the river, and took up the usual
moorings off Gravesend. At this juncture, it appears,
the Government had directed the detention of the
vessel, and in the course of the evening Mr. Forsayth,
the principal jerquer of the Customs, accompanied
by a staff of officers, boarded her, and seized her
under the Equipment and Enlistment Act, the 59th of
Geo. 111., cap. 69, for being unlawfully equipped, with-
out the sanction of her Majesty, for the purpose of com-
mencing hostilities against a foreign power. There
were on board, besides the ship's company (which ap-
peared only to be half-manned), 250 young men, who
seemed to have been recently in the most_destitute con-
dition. The officers who had charge of the vessel
frankly admitted that the men had enlisted to become
either soldiers or marines, and that she was to
touch at Corunna. To a casual observer the vessel
appeared to have been fitted out as an ordinary
emigrant ship, but closer inspection showed
that the arrangements were very rudely put
together. She is a very large vessel, being
1,200 tons burden. She has three decks, and certainly
in the present state may be more properly termed a
transport ship than one in the emigrant trade. No am-
munition was found by the Government officers, but of
course it is difficult to state what she may really hold
while her cargo is cleared out. Since her seizure the
Lords of the Treasury have ordered her return to Black-
well for that purpose. The steamers were seized on
Friday on behalf of the Crown, by Mr. Forsayth, and on
inspecting ;them there can be no doubt of the purposes
for which they were intended ; they have been entirely
new rigged and altered to carry guns of large calibre.
Since the detention of the three ships the Lords of
the Treasury have received a petition from Captain
Chararete (who was eventually to be appointed as the
Admiral of the fleet), soliciting their restitution, assert.
inc, that they were his own property, that he had fitted
them out as a matter of speculation, that he intended to
take hem to the coast of Spain, an the to dispose of
them at the best advantage to himsd elf.er The result of
the application has not transpired.
There is every reason to believe that a large amount
of ammunition and guns have already been shipped, not
only in the Thames, but at Liverpool and Southampton,
for the coast of Spain. Even as late as last Saturday
week a vessel assuming French colours left the river
from Erith, with 3,0001b5. of gunpowder, her papers
stating her to be for Cuba.
Should the vessels be proved to be of the description
suspected, they will not only be confiscated to the Crown,
but the owners are liable to imprisonment and fine.
General Flores is at present in London.

SALARIES OF THE DAYANIM.—We are much gratified
in being able to announce, that an increase of the salaries
of the Dayanim (of 601. each per annum) has just been
unanimously recommended by the Board of the Conjoint
Committee of the three City Synagogues to their re-
spective communities. No doubt is entertained that
this recommendation, which we are happy to learn was
strongly supported by the Rev, the Chief Rabbi, will be
attended to by the above Synagogues. As our humble
efforts in urging the claims of the rayanim in several
leading articles on "Our Ecclesiastical Courts" have
been instrumental to the furtherance of the above reso-
lution, we derive a double pleasure from the prompt
response made to an appeal, emanating from a sense of
justice, and reverence for our religious' institutions.—
Jewish Chronicle.
SINGULAR IMPORTATION. A vessel arrived at
Liverpool has brought, in addition to a general cargo of
dried fruits, five tons weight of locusts. This appears to
ise a very singular article of importation, but the purport
of the same is not apparent.