The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-23 00:00:00

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LONDON. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 185,

Although we may reasonably congratulate our-
selves upon the absence of any resemblance between
our own
population and that of the neighbouring Re-
public, inasmuch as we have for a long time sedu-
lously abjured revolution, there are subjects and sys-
tems upon which it would be well for us to consent
to a certain degree of imitation, or of emulation.
Among these must more particularly be noticed the
arrangements made by the Parisians for the interment
of the dead in every instance beyond the walls of the
metropolis. Hitherto the practice in London has been
diametrically the reverse. Hitherto the decaying rem-
nants of mortality have been carefully deposited within
our most populous localities, so that the atmosphere

inhaled by the living has been strongly impregnated
with the deleterious and pestilential vapours reeking
from the bodies of the departed community. Often
as we have, ere this, enlarged upon the folly, upon the
madness, and upon the immorality of this system,
there still unhappily exists the same serious cause
for complaint, no perceptible diminution being to this
moment visible in the regulation of the metropolitan
interments. This, moreover, notwithstanding a
statute nominally interdicting the continuance of the
old<nbomination ! It is surely most lamentable
to reflect upon the apathy with which the inhabitants
of the wealthiest and of one of the most enlightened
capitals in the world regard facts so material affect-
ing their own health and happiness. During four-
teen or fifteen years we have listened to the terrible
revelations of Mr. GEORGE ALFRED WALKER—one
of the most practical of reformers, and one of the
most energetic of philanthropists—and yet, in de-
fiance of all his unanswerable arguments against in-
tramural interments, the multitude still consent to
witness burial after burial in the graveyards of Lon-
don and Westminster. The notoriety of the evils
insisted upon for so long a period by Mr. WALKER
has been so great and indisputable that the Parlia-
ment itself—the last of all public bodies consenting to
innovation—has recognised the necessity for its inter-
ference. It has interposed. Its discussions upon the
subject have ended in the passing of an Act for the
prevention henceforth of the evil complained of—and
yet, despite all this, the air of the chief city of the
British Empire is still poisoned by the miasma en-
gendered by this very terrible system of intramural
interments. The reason of the failure of the measure
here particularised we ourselves have already again and
again proclaimed. From the moment of its first intro-
duction to the notice of the Imperial Legislature we
asserted that the boon held out to the community was
certain to prove altogether illusory in its character.
The result has unfortunately shown the accuracy of
our predictions. So far from any change for the
better having been secured by the new and vaunted
law of amelioration, whatever change there has been
is decidedly for the worse. We assert this most con-
fidently, because by the passing of the Bill in question
the agitation in favour of the desired organization of
extramural sepulture was, to a very considerable ex-
tent, terminated. That circumstance, therefore, ne-
cessitates the loss of much valuable time in the effort
at its revival—more especially when the advocates
for the system of burial in cemeteries find themselves
somewhat discouraged at the commencement of their
new enterprise by the fact of the recent failure of
their expectations.
While such has been the lamentable condition of
' the people of London, the population of Paris ;have
very wisely acted upon totally different principles in
regard to the important subject of interment. Instead
of allowing the metropolis of their country to be
rendered a nest of perpetuated and continually increas-
ing pestilence, by burying their dead within its boun-
daries, they .have so arranged that every corpse
within 24 hours after demise is decently interred in
one or other of their extramural cemeteries. By this
arrangement they have preserved most effectually the
salubrity of the atmosphere, and have secured the
purity of the water supplied to them for general
consumption. Pere la Chaise, and other noble
establishments of a similar description, in
the vicinity of the French capital, are mag-
nificent testimonies of the wisdom of our neighbours in
this particular. If we avoid any resemblance to them
in their emeutes and revolutions, it would be well for
us to emulate the course pursued by them in the con-
duct of their metropolitan interments. We should
then materially and appreciably diminish the amount
of our annual mortality. We should be enabled to
breathe a:purer air, to drink a purer water, and to'live,
moreover, in the midst of scenes more accordant with
the beautiful morality inculcated by the Christian
Religion. Instead of heaping together under the
pavements of our City churches a hideous accumu-
lation of putrescent matter, the exhalations of which
necessarily act most destructively upon the health of
the assembled worshippers, we should then, under the
new system, be enabled to transform those structures
from dens of corruption into houses of sweetness and
sanctity. Horrible though it is to reflect upon, and
incredible though it may appear, yet it is not the
less true, that, not only is the water which is con-
sumed by the citizens of this metropolis contaminated
by disgusting filtrations from the intramural grave-
yards, but the very meat hanging in their larders
becomes tainted by the odious vapours from those
same golgothas and aceldamas of our metropolis.
With these facts_before them, it is marvellous, in
truth, to reflect upon the indifference evinced in a
matter of so much importance by the inhabitants of
London and Westminster. They appear to be un-
conscious of the fearful consequences to themselves
of this most remarkable apathy. Ultimately they
cannot fail to recognise the reality of the grievance
insisted upon during so many years by the advocates
of extramural interment. Pity it is, however, that
;he magnitude of the evil is not already appreciated !

On Saturday, when noticing the valuable sugges-
tions of our esteemed correspondent, Mr. W. CIIAL-
LINOR, for conferring on the superior courts of corn-
law " full jurisdiction as to those fertile sources of
Chancery abuse, viz., questions of legacies, intesta-
cies, and partnership estates," we observed that " a
still better course would be the amalgamation of the
superior, legal, and equitable tribunals." These
views received the strongest confirmation on that very
day, when the members of the Society for Promoting
the Amendment of the Law entertained, at the London
Tavern, Mr. DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, a gentleman who,
having been intrusted by the State of New York
with the arduous and important duty of reporting on
the changes and alterations which it might be
necessary to make in the system of administration of
the law and the forms of procedure, had discharged
the task with ability, fidelity, and zeal, and had the
gratification of seeing his recommendations adopted
by the Legislature, and passed into a law. The
extent of the evil, for which an adequate remedy was
to be provided, was fully understood by Mr. FIELD
and his learned associates. It was not (as truly
stated by the chairman of the evening, Mr. N.
D. HILL, Q.C.), by " some petty amendments—
some little changes—some patchwork tinkering"—
that this great work was to be achieved. It could
only be accomplished by " a complete revision of the
law in all its branches."

The magnitude of such an undertaking might have
well appalled the most industrious, but it did not
terrify Mr. FIELD. Had he regarded every existing
rule and form with almost superstitious veneration,
he could never have surmounted the obstacles that
impeded his progress; but his object was to get
rid of all that was 'useless, to abolish every form
and proceeding that was not absolutely necessary
to determine the rights of the parties. It may be
well here to state, in order that some conception may
be formed of the nature of the duty, that the Court of
Chancery in New York had been modelled upon that
in England, and that the laws of both countries were
to all intents and purposes the same—the English
law having been transplanted bodily into New York.
The result was that the Court of Chancery was
abolished; the Supreme Court, analagous to our
Court of Queen's Bench, was also abolished, while a
niLenee..chcort:as instituted, having jurisdiction over
"nttlave and equity • the offices of master and examiner
were done' away with, while the system of
written interrogatories was also abolished, and every
personallyo :biLaeif court,odranettnotdthaheneswerconsideration,
s moment,utco
hsubmitwi
twith-
out
or
leisure witness brought
to a viva voce ext,„in
ques-
tions as might be aq,„,,i of
out having time for fe
effected in the con-
leisure to frame a deceptive response.
Such were the general changes
tribunals—thehavin
substitution of one
efficient
jurisdiction
to give suit-
ablesticon-
stitution
ofthe
court, g
relief in any case that 'night te
brought under its cognizance, for two, nei-
ther of which could give complete relief, and
which in many instances r( gaited the assistance of
the other, and: between which the line of demarca-
tion was so very slight that frequent mistakes were
made as to the proper tribunal to resort to, mistakes
which were attended with almost ruinous conse-
quences to the unfortunate litigants who had been
misled by their professional advisers. In place of that,
there was a uniform procedure in all legal and
equitable proceedings, and the details were intended to
carry out that principle with simplicity and dispatch.
Let us now look to the bold and straightforward
course adopted by the Commisiioners, And subse.