The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-12
ovERORowDBD GRAvRYARDs.
The Condition of England's Cemeteries
q Cause of Alarm.

From the Lancet
Under the ominous heading of "Over-
crowded Cemeteries" the Duke of West
minister writes urging the necessity Of fresh
legislation to correct the many abuses which
exist in our present mode of burial. His
grace repeats what has been frequently no
tice1 in these columns, that the large num-
Der of bodies inferred in the metropolitan
csmeteries-100, 600 in twelve acres at the
Brompton, quarter of a million in the sew
enteen acres OF the Tower Hamlets-would
be no cause for alarm were they properly
buried. An indefinitely greater number
could, he remarks, be buried with harm to
none if the mode of burial were in accord
ance with sanitary laws. How thoroughly
true this is may be proved by the following
simple calculation: In suitable soil 1000
graves can be made in each acre without
overcrowding. If each body is buried in a
periShable coffin and in the earth, the reso-
luton of the body is effected in few years,
and another burial can take place without
in any way diminishing the capacity of the
grave for moro interments. In other
words, graves and grave-plots eau be made
limited number of bodies, while vaults,
catacombs, and bricked graves can
only hold very limited num-
Der. If the metropolitan cemeteries
had from the first been managed as burial
grounds in the strict sense of tho word,
they would be in the same position as many
of our older churchyards-hol the dust
of ages past and still having room for more.
Burial reforms is not thing of yesterday
More than two centuries ago Sir Christie
pher Wren strongly denounced the practice
of burying bodies in the vaults of churches,
and advocated suburban burial grounds
And in the middle of last century the mortal
remains of the sanity Bishop Wilson
were, in accordance with his expressed
wish, buried in the churchyard of
Kirk Michael, and not under the church. he
wishing to set good example, and not to
sanction SO dangerous practice. And yet
in the Lancet of last week there was a no.
tice of an application for power to bury a
body in vault beneath the parish church
of Bebington, which has a large congrega-
ton at its Sunday services. And though
the memory of good Bishop Wilson still re-
mains in Che island of which he was for
mora than fifty years bishop, his good ex-
ample was not followed, several Of the
Manx churches having large numbers of
dead in the vaults beneath them. Much
has been done by individuals, collectively
and individually, to set a good ex-
ample in these days, and by no
one more than the Duke of West
minister. It is well known that the burial
Oh us ldO0 AdluouCeO sui, I1tIl STOSV6uOf,
was a model of simplicity in all its details.
and he still continues the energetic president
of the Church of England Burial Reform
Association, whose interchangeable secretary,
the Rev. f. Lawrence, has done so
much to make burial reform popular with
all classes. But much remains to be done.
Burial under churches ought to be absolutely
forbidden, the soil Of the public cemetery
should be for the use of all the pensioners,
and not partitioned off by walls into vaults
or bricked graves. No collins except those
of pershable kind should be allowed.
These reforms will, it is to be feared, need
legislation for their general adoption.