Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-06-11
Respect for tho Remains of the Dead.

Respect for tho Remains of the Dead.
1t has been the boast of the rebels, at
the South that aristocratic institutions,
such as slavery in America and monarchy
i'll Europe, produced greater humanity
and refinement in the upper classes than
more republican forms of Government.
How superficial is this gliding of civiliza-
ton may be best judged of at times from
the respect shown to the remains of the
dead and the treatment of prisoners of war
especially the former. The inhuman
treatment of those who fell at the first
battle of Bull Run, the subsequent bru-
tality displayed, not by private individu-
ais or officers, but by the authorities at
Richmond, to the remains of Col. Dahl
gren, have only been matched by the
newly discovered atrocities practiced by
the royalists in 1914 OH the remains of
those originators of the First French Rev.
olution who lies buried in the Pantheon,
and said to be by the permission or direc-
ton of Louis XVIII. 1t seems that the
proposal was made lately to restore Vol
tairc's heart to his other remains in the
coffin that was supposed to contain them.
On this proposal being agitated, it was
found that tradition existed that neither
his body or that of Rousseau really were
in their supposed resting places, but has
been clandestinely elected, as originators
of the revolution, and thrown into ditch
near Bercy-where is not known-and
now it never can be. But the fact is said
to have been verified by search that they
are not in their coffins, which thousands
had supposed when they have made their
pilgrimage to this shrine.
William Shakespeare had inscribed on
his tomb, three hundred years ago or near
it
Blessed be the man that spares my bones;
But cursed be he that moves the stones"
And his remains have been respected to
this day, and lie in their beautiful resting
place at Avon. To disturb the bones of
the dead from love and veneration of their
memory is not, it seems to us, desirable
mark of respect usually. But to subject
them to indignity, in hate and revenge, is
so weak, poor, pitiful, and cowardly that
no revenge should be permitted to follow
even the worst beyond the grave. Yet so
it is, that the more absolute and tyranical
the Government, the greater the tendency
to pursue its victims with brutal indigni-
ties to the defenseless corpse.
Arnold, of Brescia, who, in the midst OF
the dark ages, established a republican
government in Rome itself, when at length
captured by Barbarossa had his body
burnt by his enemies, and the ashes thrown
into the Tiber lest his remains should be
worshipped by his followers. But the dust
thus scattered has been washed to every
shore. 1t has sowed. itself as seed along
the coast of Italy especially, and now after
eight hundred years it lives and grows and
spreads the love of liberty and republican
institutions throughout Europe.
1t was Herod the Great, the most exc
cradle of all tyrants, who, for the treas
ures foolishly buried with the long line of
Jewish Kings, violated and rified all their
sepulchers and then erected monument
of expiation to their memory. Within a
few months French scientific expedition
has succeeded in uncovering not only
parts of the old foundation of Solomon 5
Temple, but at the tombs of the kings in
discovering the monument thus built by
Herod, and one tomb of the royal line that
he had failed to discover or had spared.
When opened the savants succeeded in
obtaining just one moments view OF the
royal corpse, buried there perhaps, three
thousand years ago, in all its state and
magnifcencc; one moments view, and
then on being exposed to the light and
air, single quivering motion was OBJ
served and all sank down into an indis-
tinguishable mass ofdust. A Hebrew in
scription, however, Of the most ancient
period was discovered and brought to
Paris, and is about to be published. 1t
will probably throw much light upon the
formation of the ancient as distinct from
the later or square characters in which the
Hebrew Scriptures are now written and
nted.-Philadelphia Ledger.