The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-24 00:00:00

- The City Solicitor—My Lord Mayor, this, as the
terms of the summons have already informed your
lordship, is a proceeding against these gentlemen fora
nuisance at common law. I wish I could, as in the
last case, save your lordship the unpleasantness of
hearing the evidence in this. lam sorry to say
that a circumstance has come to my knowledge
within the last few minutes which would prevent
my taking your judgment upon whether a similar
proceeding might not be adopted in the present
case to the last. I am sorry to say that there are
facts in this case which render it absolutely neces-
sary I should open the case arid take your lord-
ship's judgment upon it.'lt appears that Mr. Young
is the surveyor and Mr. Piper the contractor for
the erection of a school adjoining the Catholic
Chapel at Moorfields. For the purpose of the erec-
tion they found it necessary to excavate a portion
of the burying ground a ljoiniug tee chapel, and in
the course of that operation they removed the
coffins and the bodies of numerous persons interred
there. It has been necessary for the City autho-
rities on various occasions to remove churches
and churchyards, and the bodies have been un-
tombed for the purpose of necessary improvements-
Wherever that has been done it has been the uni-
form practice not only to hoard in the ground so
as to prevent the indecency of pub!ic cmhibition,
bu,, to place in authority a person of some position,
education, and feeling, iu order to prevent unne-
cessary violence to the feelings of the living by the
unnecessary disturbance of the remains of the dead.

I am sorry to say that precaution has been entirely
neglected in the present instance. I do not desire
to arouse painful feelings by any recital of the dis-
tressing particulars of this case—they will be nar-
rated upon oath by the witnesses who were pra sent
upon the occasion ; but the circumstance that has
just come to my knowledge,-which distinguishes
this case in its present aspect from what I thought
it was before, is this : it appears that a discovery
has been made by the polio:" that a vast quantity
of human bones that had been deposited in that
yard have been actually taken away and sold to
dealers in marine stores. lam bound to say that
I entirely acquit the defendants of any cognisance
of such transactions. Tney are both of them gen-
tlemen probably known to your lordship—they
are wall known to me, and their name and
character will protect them from the suspicion
that they had any part in such transactions ; but
still, men under their control, or who ought to be
under their control, have been guilty of this great
outrage upon decency and upon the common feel-
ings of humanity. I have had the honour of con-
versation with the rev. gentleman now in court,
yound h
who is the officiating ecclesiastical
iedviretctor theof in-
tendedth
MoorfieeldeesuClphaatipeeel,
ofan dtlhsergr as the site of ail
school was under the idea, communicated from the
superior Board of Health, that, with certain pre-
cautions, and under certain circumstances, it might
be right to use it for that purpose. lam sorry
that the rev. gantlenian had not been sufficiently
informed upon the subject to have induced him to
communicate with the medical officer of he it fh. He
communicated with the superior loud, but that
does not discharge Dr. LettJeby, our medical offi-
c-e-, from the task of seeing that the necessary re-
quirements in i expect to health and life are fulfilled.
At this stage of the proceedings tie olfactory
organs of every person present convinced him of
the presence of some animal substtnee in a far-
ad vancerl stage of decomp sit:on ; and it was inti-
mated to Mr. Goodman (the chief clerk) that aline
of the human bones were in court. That gentleman
immediately ordered them to be taken away, upon
which two police-constables, after a
good deal of
lif jog and dragging, removed from thecourt a sack
which appeared to contain nearly three bushels of
bones. The doors and windows of the court were
immediately thrown open, and after the admission
of a little fresh air, the business was proceeded
with.

The City Solicitor—Some of these remains that
had been already disinterred were placed by the
order of Dr. Letheby in a vault, and by the advice
of that gentleman, pending this iuvestigation, they
will be walled up. At the present moment the
public mind is impressed with the Importance of at-
tending to sanitary matters, and happily no more
interments take place within the City. A short time
ago there wasplaced in my handathe following short
extract from a sermon of Bishop Latimer, iu 1552,
upon this very subject ; " And here you may note
by the way that these citizens had their burying place
wi About Ithe city, which no doubt is a laudable thing;
I and I do marvel that London, being so rich
a city, bath not a burying-place without, for no
doubt it is an unwholesome thing to bury within
the city, specially at such a time when there be
great sickness, so that many die together. I think
verily that many a man taketh his death in Paul's-
churchyard, and this I speak of experienc for
myself, when I have been there to hear the ser-
mons, have felt such an ill favoured, uuwholesome
savour that I was the worse for it a great while
after. And I think no less but it be the occasion
of much sicknemand disease ; therefore the citizens
of Nain had a good and laudable custom to bury
their curses without the city, which example we
may follow." After a lapse of 300 years, the citi-
z ns of London have nceived the opinion thus pro-
mulgated by Bishop Latimer. lam sorry to say
that in the vaults below the Roman Catholic
chapels, as in the vaults of many of the churches,
'there is an awful accumulation of this festering ma-
terial, the consequences of which it is almost im-
possible wholly to exclude from the external air.
Mr. Harting—Will the City Solicitor be good
enough to mention the precise nature of the charge
against the defendants? •
The City So!icitor—Under the Central Criminal
Court Act it is rendered, if not absolutely neces-
sary, yet desirable that we should bring every case
in which there is a contemplative prosecution into
this court, and have the evidence stated, and the
witnesst s subjected to cross-examination, in order
that the defendsat
may know what he has to meet.
In the exercise of my diScretion, and in conformity
with the intentions and objects of that act, I have
summoned the defendants here to-day.
Mr. Harting—My clients are most anxious to
give every information in their power t) the prose-