The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-03 00:00:00

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IN MEM OR I A Ttr.-'CAtelt. -06
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN" '-.' ?7;
)
Stn,--A correspondent in your paper of Saturday 4
draws the attention of your reidi,r,s to hat_hia...‘34-
ceives an error in the title of Mi.:Teptlysop'fk,w
saying that it ought to be " In Memoria;"-ges -"' n,
except in a few instances, governs the ablative case."
This, however, is one of those instances. in, Kith an
ablative case, signifies rest or position, with an accu-
sative motion or direction, bodily or mental. Here
the object to which the poetry is directed is the me-
mory of some one, therefore " In Memoriam " is
right. I would icier your correspondent to the titles
of several of Horace's Odes and Epodes—" In cani-
diam veneficam," Epod. iv. " On or to Canidia the
Witch." "In Mcevium poetam," Epod. x. "On or
to the Poet Mcevius." To this I may add that monu-
ments to the deceased are inscribed " In Memoriam,"
and not " In Memoria."

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Sept. 2, 1850. CANTAB.

BURIALS IN LONDON.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia,—l again intrude upon the columns (..f your
paper a description of the state of the graveyards of
the metropolis. " The City Dunhill Burial-ground,"
better known as the Golden land graveyard, from the
notoriety given to it by Mr. G. A. Walker in his lec-
tures, is again open for the interment of the dead.
This graveyard is situated in one of the most thickly-
populated districts in London, in the midst of a poor
and impoverished neighbourhood, which, during the
prevalence of cholera and the annual epidemics, was
visited by the fatal consequences attendant on the
poisoned air produced fro:n the burial of the dead in
crowded localities. It has been proved that the bodies
were taken from their graves and disposed of by burn-
ing or by some other means, and the coffin wood,
saturated as it must be by the liquid from the decom-
posed and decomposing corpses, caused a stench which
was felt for several hours after all through the neigh-
bourhood. The parish of St. Luke's will be found on
reference to the Registrar-General's returns
to be most unhealthy, and it may be argued that
the local graveyard system of burial is the
cause of that evil. The Act passed in the
last session of Parliament, and which was considered
by Ministers of sufficient importance for the public
benefit to call for encomiums from the Sovereign in
her speech, would seem to be a nullity, when the
Commissioners appointed, under the provisions of the
Metropolitan Interments Act, allow the graveyards
ofcrowded, impoverished, and sickly localities to be
opened for interments, in defiance of the law ; and as
the Act provides for land in the present suburban
cemeteries, pointing thereto as a remedy for the ex-
isting evils in the parishes of the cities of London and
Westminster. The powers of the Metropolitan In-
terments Act extend so far as to prevent all inter-
ments in the city, and to compel the interment in the
present cemeteries, where there is sufficient ground
undisposed of, until a cemetery of adequate dimensions
is prepared for the interment of the dead of this great
city. Something ought to be done to compel the
Commissioners to do their duty, if they are unwil-
ling ; and the farce of advertising for 100 acres of
ground, within twenty miles of St. Paul's,
with the perfect knowledge that such a quantity
of land in one eligible spot is not to be had,
will be no excuse for the fearful results of the neglect
of the duties imposed upon the Board of Health, as
Christians, and as servants of the Crown, to whom
they are answerable for the neglect. It has been re-,
marked by an observer of the present plan of inter-
ment, that he knows not "how the repulsive system
of burying the dead in intramural nooks and corners,
in such grave-holes and charnel-dens as abound in
London, could ever have come into practice, or been
thus long perpetuated, and says it is explainable
upon no principle either of enlightened Christianity
or rational humanity. There is, on the contrary,
something grand and religiously consoling in the
idea that the civic generations, who in life have
dwelt together, should not in death be divided.
Community of sepulture would be a powerful stimu-
lus to a higher standard of religious and moral ex-
cellence than as yet exists; for, when the ashes of the
deceased rich and poor, of the deceased good and bad,
repose within the wall encircling one vast mausoleust
church, the living rich and poor and the living
good and bad will be desirous of hastening the day when
time shall more and more be regarded as a prepa-
ratory stage to eternity—the day when death and
the grave shall more and more be looked to as the
gate and entrance to immortality."
The burial-ground of a vast Christian metropolis
should occupy a great space in the public eye,and fill
a large place in the public heart, and I would impress
on the minds of the Commissioners, and the public at
large, the necessity there is for having a stop put to
burials in London, and also the benefit to be derived
from the interments being made at a distance from
any inhabited locality, and in a space of ground ap-
propriated to cetneterial purposes, of vast and, exten-
sive dimensions, so as to prevent useless outlay of the
public money by keeping up separate establishments
for different cemeteries. Let, then, a space of several
hundreds of acres be enclosed for one grand cemetery
at a great distance from, but within a short time of,
London ; this will remedy the evil of disseminating
from different points or cemeteries the mephitic gas
which produces so much disease in the locality of
every graveyard, and, above all, to hasten the closing
of those graveyards and charnel-dens in populous
localities.

Hoping that the authorities will be called upon to
inquire into the fearful miseries entailed by the
spread of sickness and destitution brought on by their
neglect, I remain, Sir, your obliged servant,
London, Sept. 2. W. H.