The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-10-11

Eliza Williams, should be burnt by ner
on a funeral pyre, and that the ashes
I should be placed in a Wedgewood vase, the
ultimate disposal Of which he left en-
tirely to her. The testator was Catholic,
and on his death his executors and family,
notwithstanding protest upon the part OF
/ Miss Williams, had him buried in the ordi-
nary manner. Miss Williams now went to
work to get possession Of the body, and
petltioned the home secretary for permits
sion 10 remove it to another church
yard. This permission was given, and
Miss Williams having obtained possession
OF 1t, took il to Italy, which is the
modern, as IT was the oncient, home of ere;
nation, and there had 1t burned in accord
ance with Mr.. Crookenden's directions. and
then buried the vase and ashes anew, and
brought her action against tine executors 10
recover the expenses incurred by her in
carrying out the testator's intentions. The
court held that she could not recover; that
she had obtained the home secretary per
mission by misrepresentation and illegally,
that there can by the English law be nc
| property in II human body; that the
provisions of the will with regard to
its delivery to Miss Williams were wholly
void, and that in the opinion OF the court,
though this was not considerd rs being nee.
essarily involved i'll the decision, cremation
itself was illegal
We doubt very much whether the deci-
sion will be followed elsewhere. 1t seems
to be founded upon the idea that such ties.
tamentary directions as those contained in
the will OF Mr.. Crookenden are designed to
make u gift Of his remains to the person
who IS authorized to carry them out but
| obviously there is no such intention.
What the will means is that the testator
dislikes burial and prefers to be
burned. In order to make sure that this
shall be done, he gives minute directions
on the subject, The decision, therefore,
would seem to make cremation an impossi.
bility in England, unless the executors are
willing to consent, or; in other words, to
transfer the decision of the nature of the
funeral rites from the person Immediately
concerned to his executors, and to enable
those persons who have taken upon them
| selves to carry out his last will to do ex-
actly the opposite of what he desired
This is a queer condition of the law, and
seems to show that the subject needs
further judicial consideration. Is there
any legal objection to cremation, and if so,
what is iR Making the executors RESPONSE
bic for the burial will not dispose of the
matter, for the executors might be crema-
tlonists and the family in favor of burial
This might lead to case the reverse of
that just decided, and in which the legality
of cremation would be distinctly involved
MIR. Crookenden was Catholic, but
the church asserted no rights in the
matter On the contrary, the urn contain
ing his ashes was regularly blessed at the
second burial, and all Miss Williams pro
ceedings received in this way full religious
sanction. We are not aware of any princi.
pie of law which would interfere with the
right to direct the manner in which a fu-
neral shall be conducted, provided that it
does not violate decency and order and good
morals. The cremationists maintain that
our present burial customsare dangerous TO
the public health, and if this can be estab
lshed as q fact judges will have to take
cognzance of it IN considering the cues
ton. In Williams VS.. Williams no
reason Is given for the opinion that crema-
ton is illegal, except that it involves an at
tempt to establish II right of property in a
corpse. There are, of course, many obIec-
tons to the recognition of such right. and
the recollection Of the Guiteau case and the
CHASTITY market that he talked of making
Tor his remains,.w will, to. American readers,
suggest several not mentioned in the Eng
lish decision. But all this seems to leave
untouched the question Of the legality of
cremation. The question really is, can a
man determine what his own funeral
rites shall be, or is it determined for him by
law and custom? The tendency OF the err
tire western world is to loosen the bonds of
both in matters of religious observance,
and leave them open to individual choice
ana taste That the choice and taste must
be that of the persons most directly con.
cerned-that is, of the persons who are to
ne buried or burned, and not of third per-
Whnen ta,,V