The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY MORNING OCTOBER 18 1844.

BURIAL IN. TtoiVisis.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
•

" The grave, dread thing!
Men shiver when thou'rt named: Nature, appall'd,
Shakes off her wonted firmness. Ah, how dark
The long extended realms and rueful wastes,
Where nought but silence reigns, and night, dark night!
• • • . The sickly taper,
By glimmering through thy low-brow'd mirky vaults,.
Furr'd round with misty damps and ropy slime,
Lets fall a supernumerary horror,
And only serves to make thy night more irksome."

In The Sun of September 3 appeared a well-
written article, copied from the Leicester Chronicle,
pointing out some of the ill effects arising from the
dangerous practice of burying the dead in towns. -It
is a subject but little considered, and consequently the
evils arising from it are seldom thought of. Was,
every town within itself provided with an extensive
and well-ordered burial•ground, where there would
be no possibility of the coffins becoming crowded to-,
gether, even then the practice would be bad and un-
justifiable. But taking the fact as it is, namely, that
the burial-grounds are generally of small dimensions,
and filled with dead, even to heaping up, how much
more is a continuance of this system to be deprecated,
as fraught with most imminent and dangerous come-
sequences. It is strange that, whilst we boast of our
advancenient in the arts and sciences, and assert the
moral and intellectual improvement of all classes of
society, we should still, as a nation, tenaciously
.adhere to a practice unworthy the most ignorant ages
of the world, -and in every way revolting to the best
feelings of our nature. At no period, probably, has
the spirit of the philanthropist shown itself, or been
more active, than during the present age—in the
hospitals, the visiting societies, the humble individual
efforts to alleviate the misery of our fellow-creatures,
and in providing suitable relief for their bodily suf-
ferings. It is strange, too, that while this is being
done, we look calmly on, and—by our tacit acknow-
ledgment of the fact, without making an effort_ to
arrest its progress—encourage a perpetual monster
reservoir of pestilence, in the crowded and heaped up
masses of decayed mortality to be found in every old-
established burial-ground in the kingdom.
Habit has accustomed us to view this state of things
with indifference, and so blunted the sensitive feelings
of our nature, that We bestow not a thought upon the
sickness and death, which is too often attributable
(although we knew it not at the time) to the inhaling
of the noxious and poisoned atmosphere generated
from the dead.

"The main object of a burial-ground," says Mr.
Loudon, "is the disposal of the remains of the dead
in such a manner as that their decomposition, and re-
turn to the earth from which they sprung, shall not
prove injurious to the living, either by affecting their
health, or shocking their feelings, opinions, or preju-
dices. In a burial-ground, properly arranged and
managed, a coffin, after it is once interred, should
never again be exposed to view, nor a human bone be
disturbed." Let those who read bear this in mind.
No one will dispute the correctness of the assertion,
while every one will admit that the principle is daily,
in thousands of cases, being violated.
Let us, for a moment, turn our attention to the
decomposition of the body, and its results. We are
all aware of the indestructability of the bones. "In
the ante-hominal part" of the creation there are bones
daily discovered, which have existed 6,000 years at
least. Dr. Charles Loudon informs us, "'that he has
seen numerous human bones, in certain caves near
Naples, which are supposed to be those of the Grecian
colonists who settled there before the Christian era,
or perhaps those of an older race, who inhabited Magna
Grwcia.'

This, of itself, should furnish sufficient argument for
the inviolability of the grave being respected.
" The health of the living," continues Mr. Loudon,
" is chiefly affected by a certain description of gas,"
generated in the decomposition of the body. "To
inhale this gas, undiluted with atmospheric air, is in-
stant death, and even when much diluted, it is pro-
ductive of disease which commonly ends in death."
" This gas abounds to a fearful extent in the soil of all
crowded burial-grounds, and has been proved to be more
or less present in the soil thrown out of graves where
bodies have been interred before." "In the years 1782
and 1783, when the disinterment from the burying-
grounds of Les Innocents, in Paris, took place, under
the direction of some eminent French chemists, these
philosophers wished to analyse the gas, but were un-
able to procure it. Fourcroy says, 4ln vain we en-
deavoured to induce the grave-diggers to procure us
some of this elastic fluid ; they uniformly refused.
The horrible odour and poisonous activity of this
fluid, announces to us that it is mingled with hydro-
genous and azotic gas, holding sulphur and phospho-
rus in solution. It may contain, also, another dele-
terious vapour, whose nature has hitherto escaped
philosophical research, while its terrible action upon
life is too strikingly evinced.' " The secondary ob-
ject of a cemetery is, or ought to be, the improve-
ment of the moral sentiments and general taste of
all classes, and more especially of the great
masses of society. In vain we look for
an attractive influence or argument in the crowded
churchyards of towns. Tall weeds, rank grass, and
neglected gravestones do indeed teach a lesson ; but
it is one where, too often, mingled dread and disgust
usurp the place of moral reflection and calm and holy
feelings. " Why," says Washington Irving, "should
we seek to clothe death with unnecessary terrors, and
spread horrors around the tomb of those we loved ?
The grave should be surrounded by everything that
might inspire kindness and veneration for the dead, or
that might win the living to virtue. It is the place not
of disgust and dismay, but of sorrow and meditation."
" Nothing can make amends," says Coleridge, " for the
want of the soothing influences of nature, and for the
absence of those types of renovation and decay which
the woods and the fields offer to the notice of the
serious and contemplative mind. To feel the force of
this sentiment, let a man only compare in imagina-
tion the unsightly manner in which our monuments
are crowded together in the busy, noisy, unclean, and
almost grassless churchyard of a large town, with
the still seclusion of a Turkish cemetery in some
remote place, and yet further sanctified by the grove
of cyprus in which it is embosomed." " Where is it,
we would ask," says the learned and elegant author
of " Necropolis Glusguensis," "that the innate desire
which is felt in every bosom to live in the recollection
of his companions, the pleasing hope that he may still
be a remembered denizen of this fleeting world,

is more likely to be realised than at the spot
where his ashes are laid ? Where is •it

and half the towns in the kingdom, or more, will be
found to tell a similar tale.

Where is Mr. Mackinnon's Bill? Why does not
the Legislature step forward -and put its veto upon
this crying evil ? Every town in the kingdom which
does not already possess a cemetery, situated at
a proper distance from its precincts, should be
compelled to abandon its present practice, and adopt
the tbrmer. No interment whatever should be permitted
within a town, except under peculiar circumstances.
I would fain arouse the attention of the public to the
i►nportance of this subject ; more especially would I
call upon the ministers of religion to come forward
and render their aid in correcting a monster evil, and
in promoting a public good. The clergy of the Es-
tablished Church are not permitted to bury in uncon•
secreted ground. Their grounds are " consecrated "
to a holy purpose; and yet, in the performance of
their duty, in such as that at Poole, are not the laws of
decency, morality, and religion violated ? In such
cases, " consecration" becomes a farce, and the ordi-
nances of the Church a bye-word.
Poole, Oct. 16, 1844. 11. J.

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
• Yesterday a Court was held, in consequence of a
requisition to the Lord Mayor, "to consider of an
address to be presented to her most gracious Majesty
the Queen, on her auspicious visit to the City, to be
present at the opening of the New Royal Exchange."
The Court was tilled with members.
THE KING OF THE FRENCH.
The LORD MAYOR informed the Court that the de-
putation appointed by the Corporation had had the
honour of waiting upon the King of the French with
the City address, upon his Majesty's arrival upon a
visit to the Queen, and that his Majesty had been
graciously pleased to give an answer, which the Re-
corder would read to the Court.
The RECORDER read the answer of the King of the
French in an extremely impressive manner. The
Court applauded to the echo every paragraph of his
Majesty's answer, and manifested their admiration
when the Recorder concluded by the loudest cheers.
Sir PETER LAURIE rose to move that the answer of
the King of the French should be placed upon the
records of the Court.

The motion having been seconded,
Mr. ANDERTON said he hoped that this Court
would go further.—(Cheers.) He thought that
such an answer as the King of the French had re-
turned to the address of the Corporation—an answer
so highly honourable to the feelings of his Ma-
jesty, and so highly complimentary to the body to
whom it was addressed, should meet with no ordi-
nary reception by that Court.--(Cheers.) He was
convinced that every member of the Court would
feel the utmost gratification and pride in having the
opportunity of keeping and exhibiting in his own
house an engraved copy of his Majesty's words.—
(Cheers.) Mr. A nderton then suggested to the
mover to improve his motion, by adopting the addi-
tion to which the Court had so unequivocally assented.
Sir P. LAURIE acknowledged that the suggestion
was unexceptionable. He begged to state, too, that
the Court had now the opportunity of supplying an
omission which had been made at the last Court. In
consequence of the hurry in which the subject hid
been got up, and the shurt stay which his Majesty
intended to make, the form of having the address to
his Majesty ornamentally written and emblazoned
had been omitted in the consideration of the merits of
the question. They had, since the meeting of the last
Court, had time to consider more particularly the
subject, and they had what enabled them to form a
more accurate opinion of the nature of their duty
upon such an occasion—the answer of the King of the
French.—(Cheers.) That was no common answer.—
(Loud cheers.) It was no ordinary answer to a
Corporation from a great Monarch to say, as he (Sir
Peter Laurie) had heard with his own ears the King
of the French say, that he was desirous to have the
portrait of the Lord Mayor, that he might place it in
his palace at Versailles.—(lmmense applause.) Sir
Peter Laurie then moved that the address be orna-
mentally written, properly emblazoned, framed and
glazed, and transmitted to his Majesty the King of
the French.

_ .
Mr. Jurr seconded the proposition, which was
unanimously agreed to - amidst great cheering; and
it was also unanimously agreed that the answer of
the King of the French should be inserted upon
the records of the Court, and that steps should
be taken by the Committee to emblazon and other-
wise record the answer of Louis Philippe, the King of
the French, and that a copy, executed in such manner
as to the Committee appeared to be most eligible,
should be transmitted to every member of the Court.

. _
that the extincta amabitur, surth as Cicero professed to
his daughter Tallia, and which is still the pledge of
friendship offered at the couch of the dying, is more
likely to be experienced in all its force, and all its
purity, than at the tomb, where all the remains of
mirth and loveliness is lying? Where is it, indeed,
that the heart is likely to be so feelingly moved, or
the memory to be so powerfully roused, as at a
parent's grave or a sister's tomb ?" " A garden
cemetery is the sworn foe to preternatural fear and
superstition. The ancients, from their minds being
never polluted with the idea of a charnel-house, nor
their feelings roused by the revolting emblems of
mortality, contemplated death without terror, and
visited its gloomy shrine without fear. With them
death was tranquillity, and the only images that ever
associated with it, were those of peaceful repose and
tender sorrow."

The burial-ground at Poole, Dorset,measuring about
one acre, was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester,
July 3, 1781. The number of burials which have
there taken place since that period to the present time,
is about 6,300. Mr. Loudon calculates that in the
ordinary mode of burial, with and without head-stones
and monuments, with necessary roadway, &c., that
the extent of an acre of ground will give 1,361 graves.
Taking, therefore, the number of interments in the
Poole ground from 1784 to 1796, inclusive, we have
1,369. We will suppose that each grave was seven
feet in depth. The extent of the ground was then
covered. From 1797 to 1811, inclusive, 1,377 inter-
ments took place ; the ground was, therefore, covered
a second time. Mr. Loudon argues that, for the
health of the community it ought to be
imperative that a layer of earth, of not
less than six feet in depth, should be left
between the under and upper coffins, so that
the earth may absorb the greater portion of the gene-
rated gases. In the ground now spoken of, sup-
posing that the earth left between the under and
upper coffins was two feet in depth, the latter would
then be about three feet from the surface of the
ground. It then necessarily follows that in 1811,
after 2,746 interments (and upwards) had taken
place, that the ground was full. Not another

' THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.
Mr. R. TAYLOR said he wished to call the attention
of the Court for one moment to a subject of very
serious importance—the decision of one of the Revis-
ing Barristers, lately delivered, to the effect that
none of the freedoms conferred by the Court of Com-
mon Council are recognised in the matters concerning
the election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Now, he could nDt see why the privileges of the Cor-
poration were to be done away with by a•revising
barrister.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HEPPEL said it seemed to escape Mr. Taylor's
memory that no man had a right to vote for a Member
of Parliament merely as a freeman.
Mr. R. TAYLOR stated that, in the case he alluded
to, a Liveryman had been divested of his right to vote
because he had been made a freeman according to the
recent regulations of the Court. . .

Sir P. LAURIE saidihe—;l;ject was certainly one
of much importance, and that Mr. Taylor ought to
give,notice of it for future discussion. _ .

Mr. It. TAYLOR accordingly gave notice of motion.

interment could take place without the desecration
of a grave. The coffin and the remains of one
must be displaced to make room for the remains of
another. The parish register shows, as before.
observed, that since the consecration of the ground,
about 6,300 interments have taken place ; therefore,
after the ground was filled, the remains of three thou-
sand five hundred and upwards were added—not
buried, or, if so, the majority only for a time—not one
of which should ever have been placed there.
"Is the human heart so callous to right feeling,
that men must wait until their own parents or rela-
tives are dragged from their graves before they will
act and speak out on this question ?"
It is truly said that " use is second nature." As
man, by the force of example, becomes habituated to
a life that, in moral capacity, places him below the
beasts of the creation, so does the most sensitive and
refined in character become indifferent and callous to
a practice every way worthy. the most degraded ages
of the world. Many there are who, looking upon the
bright green sod of a country churchyard, may
accuse the writer of exaggeration. There is none.
Let them beware of the exhalations of burial-
grounds. Pestilence and death hang over every grave.
The crowded state of the ground at Poole is not an
isolated case. Let the parish registers be examined,

MEETING OF MIDDLESEX

HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO THE CITY.
The LORD MAYOR rose, and stated that he had
received a requisition "to consider of an address to be
presented to the Queen upon her auspicious visit to
the City, to be present at the opening
Royal Exchange." His Lordship then called upon
Nil'. Harrison, the gentleman whose name appeared
first upon the requisition, to proceed. of the new
Mr. HARRISON said that the sudden adjournment
of the last Court rendered it necessary that a requisi-
tion should be transmitted to the Lord Mayor, re-
questing that his Lordship would call another Court,
to consider the subject. He was aware of the claim
which several gentlemen who had been actively en-
gaged in superintending the elegant building which
had been erected possessed above that which he had,
and he should withdraw whatever claim he might be
supposed to have in favour of Mr. R. L. Jones, the
Chairman of the Committee.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. R. L. JONES said he felt highly honoured by
the flattering distinction of being called upon to move
that a loyal and dutiful address be presented to her
Majesty on the occasion of the visit to the City of
London, to open the new Royal Exchange. It was a
most gracious condescension upon the part of her
Majesty to pay so high a compliment to the Corpora-
tion, and to all the commercial interests of the great
community of the City of London.—(Cheers.) Her
Majesty had most graciously intimated that, upon the
28th instant, she would come to pay respect to the
citizens of London. The Corporation felt how highly
they were honoured by such condescension, and so
did the Mercers' Company, who, as they were joined
with the Corporation in accomplishing the great
object of raising the magnificent edifice, felt that they
ought to be blended with the Corporation in the great
honour about to be conferred.—(Cheers.) Mr. Jones
thcn moved that a loyal and dutiful address be pre-
sented to the Queen, and that the ancient Company
of the Mercers be duly recognised in the address.
The following letter from Sir James Graham to
the Lord Mayor, was read :
" Whitehall, Oct. 15, 1844.

MAGISTRATES.

A meeting of the magistrates fur the county of
Middlesex was held yesterday, at twelve o'clock, in
tha Court-house, Clerkenwell-green, for the transac-
tion of business connected with the aff“irs of the
county, at which there was the most numerous at-
tendance we ever remember to have witnessed. Mr.
Devon in the chair.

"My Lord,—l have the honour to inform your
Lordship, with reference to my letter of the 9th ult.,
that her Majesty has been pleased to signify her
gracious intention of visiting the City of London on
Monday, the 28th inst., for the purpose of opening
the new Exchange.
" Her Majesty will arrive at Temple-bar at noon
on the 28th.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lord-
ship's obedient servant, "J.R. G. GRAHAM.
"The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor."
Mr. HARRISON, in seconding Mr. R. L. Jones's
motion, stated that the new building reflected the
highest credit upon the City of London, and upon the
Committee who had so ably superintended the whole
of the proceedings, and were wholly actuated by the
desire to administer to the convenience of the mer-
chants of London, and by the wish to contribute as
much as possible to the advance of the commerce of
this great country.—(Cheers.) He contrasted the
enormous extent of the shipping of the present day
with that of former periods, and said that this mea-
sure was only to be attributed to the enterprising
spirit of the merchants. North and south the trade
of London was becoming greater and greater, and he
fervently hoped that the Queen would long be spared
to see the merchants of London prosperous, and her
people happy.—(Cheers.)
The motion was then agreed to amidst shouts of
applause, and a Committee was formed to draw up the
address.

It was then determined that the Lord Mayor should
himself decide upon the members to present the ad-
dress to her Majesty, and that the Mercers' Company
should receive due notice of the regulations.
The Court then having resolved to do no other
business, adjourned amidst acclamations. The most
complete harmony existed amongst the members
during the whole of the proceedings of the day.

COURT OF ALDERMEN.—The following are the
names of the Aldermen voting on the question of ad-
mitting Mr. Salomons, without taking the declaration:—
Majority—the Lord Mayor, Lord Mayor Elect, Alder-
men Lucas, Sir P. Laurie, Farebrother, Kelly, Sir C.
Marshall, Sir J. Pirie, Johnson, Sir G. Carroll, Hooper,
Farncomb, Hughes-13. Minority—Sir J. Key, Alder-
men Humphery, Thomas Wood, Hunter, Challis,
Sidney-6. Sir C. Hunter and Alderman Wilson left
the Court before the division, or the majority would
hare been fifteen.