The Sun. — 1831-12-06 (London, England)

DEC. 2.  my diplomatic relations with that kingdom. The state of a country so long united with this by the ties of the most intimate alliance must necessarily be to me an object of the deepest interest, and the return to Surope of the elder branch of the illustrious House of Braganza, and the dangers of a disputed succession, will requite my most vigilant attention to events by which not only the safety of Portugal, but the general interests of Europe, may be affected.  " The arrangement which I announced to you at the close of the last Session, for the separation of the States of Holland and Belgium, has been followed by a treaty between the five Powers and the King of the Belgians, which I have directed to be laid before you as soon as the ratifications shall have been exchanged. A similar treaty has not yet been agreed to by the King of the Netherlands ; but I trust the period is not distant when the Sovereign will see the necessity of acceding to an arrangement in which the Plenipotentiaries of the five P- - have unanimously concurred, and which framed with the most careful and imention to all the interests concerned. I satisfaction to inform you that I have con'h the King of the French a convention, lave directed to be laid before you, the object is the effectual suppression of the African le; this convention, having for its basis tssion of reciprocal rights to be mutually in specified latitudes and places, will, I tble the naval forces of the two countries to dr by their combined efforts an object which both to be so important to the interests of trding the state of Europe generally, the assurances which I receive from Foreign and the union which subsists between me inspire me with a confident hope that not be interrupted. I ENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, te directed the estimates for the ensuing  iugs of the public inhis matter, and the more so because there exists in this and other northern nations a kind of sentimental attachment for the mortal remains of the dead, which, in southern countries, is scarcely felt, as it was also quite unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The custom of burning dead bodies, though inconsistent with our habits and notions, was one highly conducive to public health, and not at all calculated to efface the memory even of the insignificant dead, inasmuch as their ashes were preserved in urns. But the ancients, who understood the nature of man, and separated his intellectual from his physical existence, far better than the moderns, held it as foolishness to let the earth be cumbered with human carcases, after their spirit had fled into another region. Their cities did not contain church-yards raised as high as houses, concentrating and dispensing pestilential effluvia far and near. Their proceedings were more simple, and, as some will still think, far more sensible than ours. They burned their dead, knowing that by so doing they could not affect that immortal part, which was beyond their controul, and not being disturbed by any of those confused ecclesiastical surmises in regard to the resurrection of the identical body, which have in a great degree introduced the practice of burying in coffins, and the sentimental attachments and fears which prevail so largely in Britain and other nations, springing from Gothic races. It is plain that the prevention of diseases, and the preservation of public health, are of the first importance to the happiness of society. But without anatomical knowledge in the medical profession, the usefulness of that profession for the cure and mitigation of diseases, must necessarily cease. 'What, therefore, can be of more urgent public moment, than the furnishing to our surgeons and their pupils the same means of instruction as exist in Paris, and other great cities on the Continent, and which in London it is equally easy to afford them ? It is both disgraceful to this country, and bard upon the medical students, to drive them abroad for the purpose of obtaining the requisite knowledge. We do hope that Mr. WARBURTON, who has already so laudably exerted himself, will not let this matter rest. It has as plainly led to a systematic course of murder as any effect was ever yet known to be produced by any given cause.