The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-25 00:00:00

propriate architecture; and they are of opinion that,
however the design and execution of such an edifice
may fulfil this object, the end will be still more
completely attained by the appropriation cf the
building us a church in which, especially on the
Sundays, the usual services of that day may be per-
formed. They have expresed their conviction that
many would attend those services with peculiar interest,
from the consciousness of their nearness at that moment
to all that remains on earth of the objects of their affec-
tion; and that there would be no difficulty in rendering
the celebration of funeral rites in a church thus doubly
suggestive cf the most touching associations incompar-
ably more solemn and imposing than has hitherto been
effected in this country, excepting, perhaps, in some rare
instances, as ou the occasion of the interment cf royal
persons, or of men whom the country has endeavoured
to honour by the expression of national gratitude for
natior al services. It might be very practicable to secure
also the impressive accompaniment of music, whether by
the performance of a single voluntary or by some form
of choral service, and it is conceived that there are many
on whom the compositions of our great masters would,
on such an occasion, have an elevating and consoling
effect; but these details must be confided to those who
may be charged e ith the direction of this service in
communication with ecclesiaEtical authorities. _ _ _

" In the unconsecrated part of the ground chapels
may be erected, convenient for the celebration of funeral
rites and the; performance of divine service, according
to the modes of worship of those who dissent from the
doctrine and ritual of the Church of England.
"8. It will elevate the celebration of the funeral rites
of the poor man, and tend to remove, in respect to the
services of the Church in the performance of burial, the
distinction between rich and poor. Though funerals
may still differ in costliness, and be performed, accord-
ing to the scale chosen, with more or less expensive ma-
terials, a greater or fewer number of attendants, and so
on, yet these differences need have no relation to the
celebration of funeral rites. We concur in the earnest
opinion expressed by clerical witnesses, that within the
church, in the performance ef the religious service over
the dead, there should be no distinction of persons, and
that an important moral and religious object would be
fulfilled by adherence to this principle.
" 9. We also fully concur in the opinion which the
same witnesses have expressed, that moral and religious
purposes cannot fail to be answered individually and
nationally, by making the abode of the dead a hallowed
spot, and by investing it with the utmost solemnity and
sacredness. The evidence which we have adduced con-
tains the strongest expression of opinion on the part
both of clergymen and medical men—the best authori-
ties on this subject, for they truly know what passes
in the crowded hovels of our dismal courts and
alleys—that the familiarity with the dead which in
numerous instances is at present forced upon the resi-
dents there, tends to brutalise the mind, to destroy the
sense of the sacredness of life, and to predispose it to
violence and crime; but all who are really acquainted
with the humbler classes entertain the conviction that
they are I eeuliarly susceptible of the moral and reli-
gious impressions naturally produced by the loss of re-
lathes and friends; that the solemn and impressive
burial t f their dead would strengthen these impressions;
and that the places in which their dead repose might
be made instrumental in soothing, refining, and elevat-
ing their minds."
This ends the report of the Board of Health on the
subject of extramural inrerments—a docurn, nt which, if
it be adopted in practice, will be p.. 1. haps the g reateA
boon ever conferred upon the people or tnis metropolis,
as well as upon the inhabitants of the country at large;
but which, if it be set aside and suffered to remain as a
" dead later," will form a monument of lasting disgrace
to the Legislature.

THE GREAT NATIONAL
CEMETERY.

The report of the Board of Health describes the
site of the intended national cemetery, without de-
signating the spot. It is, according to that document,
perfectly satisfactory with respect to the requisites of
:situation, surface, sail, extent, and accessibility.
Situated on the river shore, forming part of the do-
main of an ancient abbey, occupying a gradual slope,
rising 80 feet above the level of the water at high
tides ; of an irregular broken surface, consisting for
the most part of undulations and slopes—ample in ex-
tent—standing on a bed of strong sand, from 70 to
80 feet in depth, which is superposed upon a chalk
bottom of from 270 to 300 feet thick—perfectly free
from rivulets, or land springs, or any other cause of
offence in conjunction with sepulture—with the ad-
vantage of river side as well as railway conveyance—
and distant from London-bridge by railway half an
hour, by steamboat one hour and a-quarter, the ques-
tion naturally arises, what part of the vicinity of the
metropolis complies with these conditions ? The
chalk formation in contiguity with the me-
tropolitan district is confined to Kent and
Sussex. Sussex, however, does not touch the
river in any part. In Sussex, therefore, this
spot cannot be; Kent, consequently, is the
county where it must be looked for. Then comes the
second question—what part of Kent ? From London
to Gravesend taking two hours, on the average, by
steamer; it cannot be Gravesend for that reason.
What other point on the river, in connexion with a
railroad answers the distance, v IZ., half an hour by
that mode of locomotion, and an hour and a quarter
by water, or steam conveyance ? Clearly none other
that Erith, which is precisely identical in all further
respects with the description : and than which there
can be no pleasanter resting place for the living to lay
the dead in the whole kingdom. Planted with the
taxodiaand thepinussempervirens—with the eupressus,
the arbor vitas, and the cedmis, interspersed with the
richer varieties of the quercus, the ilex and the holly,
and all those trees of that tribe which brave the
rigours of an English winter with impunity, and
fringed on hill top and water's edge with the salex
Babeonice (the weeping willow) and its pendant
branches, a combination of the beautiful in .onnexion
with death might be produced at a small comparative
outlay, which would not have its parallel in the whole
world ; and a cemetery constructed which would put
to shame even the " City of the Silent" at Constanti-
nople. Than Erith there can be no place better
adapted for this purpose in the entire kingdom.
Eritb, then, it must be, or the Commissioners have
but pictured a scene drawn from their imagination.—
Obserrer.