SECRETARY'S REPORT. 147 



The tomb, at best, in that celebrated city of the dead, is but 

 a temporary resting-place. Many of the most expensive monu- 

 ments are inscribed m perpetuite, but even these are liable to 

 give up their dead long before it was intended they should, 

 while the great majority can rest but a few years at most, when 

 they are rudely thrust aside for some new comer, who, in his 

 turn, will give up his place to others in rapid succession. 



Now I am on this subject I will quote again from my friend 

 Strauch in regard to this, and other similar locations, most of 

 which I also visited with him : — 



" The Cemetery of Pere la Chaise was purchased in 1800 by the 

 municipality of Paris, to form the first national burial ground. It 

 was consecrated in 1804, and contains at present one hundred and 

 twelve acres, with over one million of interments. It is calculated that 

 over one hundred million of francs have been expended in the erection 

 of monuments to the memoiy of the dead ; many of them are, however, 

 disfigured by ridiculous inscriptions and other ornamental puerilities. 

 And considerable difference of opinion prevails concerning the taste dis- 

 played in the burial grounds of Paris, which form a striking contrast to 

 the magnificent parks and gardens recently constructed, as well as all 

 other improvements, in this great centre of civilization. The visitor to 

 Pere la Chaise will find the graves of the greatest men connected with 

 the arts, sciences, literature and the armies of modern France. 



"The Kensal Green Cemetery, near London, was established in 1832, 

 by the General Cemetery Company, after years of violent struggles 

 with those individual interests which always impede a social reform. It 

 now contains seventy-seven acres of stiff clay soil, and is divided into 

 two parts. The larger division is under the protection of the Church of 

 England, and is adorned with costly monuments of some of the first 

 families of the United Kingdom. The smaller part is unconsecrated, 

 and reserved for the performance of any burial ceremony the various 

 religious opinions of different persons may demand. Both parts, how- 

 ever, are provided with chapels, beneath which are extensive catacombs. 

 The colonnades for the erection of tablets to the memory of those whose 

 remains rest below, are spots where the visitor will find subjects for 

 meditation. In this cemetery are buried the remains of H. R. H. the 

 Duke of Sussex and the Princess Sophia. This was the first time in 

 the annals of England that a distinguished member of the royal family 

 was laid, by his own desire, in a burial place with the people. Here 

 are also to be found the tombs of Allan Cunningham, J. C. Loudon, and 

 others. 



