1831.] Affairs in General. 673 



as ever. More cautioiij perhaps, may be exerted in keeping the facts 

 from the public eye ; still they escape from time to time, and they are 

 always repulsive and distressing. An instance lately occurred in Dub- 

 lin. The remains of a respectable old gentleman, an inhabitant of that 

 city, were interred in St. Kevin's church-yard. A nephew, who attended 

 the obsequies, was told by the sexton that, unless he procured persons 

 to watch, he could not be accountable for the body three hours after 

 sunset. The young gentleman expressed some impatience at the sug- 

 gestion, and seemed to think it a device of the sexton to extort money. 

 He is a medical student, and attends one of the anatomical schools. On 

 entering the dissecting-room, the first object that met his astonished 

 view was the body of his uncle stretched on one of the dissecting-tables. 

 The body was, of course, claimed, restored, and re-interred. 



We may philosophize as we will on the necessity of promoting science 

 at this cost. But the expedient is against nature, and therefore 7misi be 

 unwise. We may be perfectly assured that the respect for the dead, 

 which is an universal feeling, and has been so from the beginning of 

 the world, was not implanted without some special reason in the human 

 heart ; and that any attempt to render that respect nugatory, or any 

 general violation of the sacredness of the grave, would be attended with 

 effects of no slight evil to the living. 



In the first place it is obvious that contempt of the dead easily brings 

 on a brutal disregard of the sacredness of human life ; and we have had 

 evidence, in the hideous case of Burke, how simply the robber of the 

 dead becomes the murderer of the living. The men concerned in this 

 traffic, limited as it may be, are proverbially savage, wild, and ready for 

 any atrocity. But the practice is lucrative ; and, unless the legislature 

 shall interfere at once with some provision for the actual wants of 

 science — and they are not great — and some strong restrictions against 

 the ravages of ruffians who for hire supply the demands of every puffing 

 anatomical lecturer, human decency and national humanity will continue 

 to be outraged more and more. We should rejoice to see the whole 

 matter inquired into by some intelligent member of the legislature. 



If the time shall ever come when every man may roll in his own car- 

 riage, we may despise hackney coaches, but until then we must look 

 ■with an anxious eye on the progress of legislation as it regards our 

 tours through the streets. The New Hackney-coach Act has come 

 forth, and a great performance it is. 



" This act will come into operation on the 5th of January next. It 

 provides that all coach licenses shall be granted by the Commissioners 

 of Stamps. All hackney-coaches to have four plates, viz., on the back, 

 each side, and inside, and contain the name and address of the proprie- 

 tor. Defines a hackney-coach to be every carriage, with two or more 

 wheels, plying for hire within five miles of the General Post-office, 

 whatever may be its structure. To pay 51. for a license to the 5th of 

 January, 1833, previous to which the number to be limited to 1,200 ; 

 after that date no limitation, and no charge for license ; to pay a duty of 

 IDs. a week during tlie continuance of each license. Hackney-coaches 

 compelled to go five miles from the General Post-office, or from the 

 place hired, exempt from post-Iiorse duty within ten miles of the Post- 

 office. Fares to be taken: — Two horses, not exceeding a mile. Is.; 

 6d. for every half-mile extra. Carriages for time. Is. for the first half- 



