applied to Public Cemeteries. 297 



should be so much lime put in with the body, so as to destroy it in a certain 

 time ? " 



" Do you think there would be any objection to burying bodies with a 

 certain quantity of quicklime, sufficient to destroy the coffin and the whole 

 thing in a given time ? " 



are questions continually recurring. One honourable member put the quick- 

 lime question so often, that we took the trouble of counting the number of 

 times, which we found to be twenty. It would no doubt be very desirable in 

 the eyes of those who find themselves above the poor, to get rid of " the 

 whole thing" at the expense of a little quicklime ; but, unfortunately for this 

 desire, and fortunately for the poor, and sometimes for the cause of justice, 

 there are the bones, which, as we have before seen (p. 3.), are not to be 

 got rid of so easily. Very different indeed were the feelings expressed 

 b}' the Bishop of London, and some other clergymen who were examined. 

 It is very natural for the rich to hate the poor, and wish to dispose of 

 them, and of " the whole thing," with as little trouble as possible ; but this 

 is the feeling of wild nature, exactly the same which leads a herd of deer to 

 forsake a wounded individual. Cultivated nature, whether that cultivation be 

 the effect of religion or philosophy, ought to lead to a very different mode of 

 feeling. Sympathy with the whole of human nature must surely be produc- 

 tive of more happiness to the individual who feels and exercises that sym- 

 path}', than when it is limited only to a part ; to those in the same circum- 

 stances as ourselves, or who are connected with us by the ties of relationship 

 or friendship. It is certain that many of the rich have very little sympathy 

 for the poor, and equally certain that there are others among the rich who 

 evince much sympathy for them. Which of these parties comprises the most 

 useful members of society, and by which is the most happiness enjoyed ? 



It should never be forgotten, that what are called the poor and paupers are 

 fellow-creatures, and that the difference between the former and the latter is 

 very frequently matter of accident. Every poor man, however honest, in- 

 dustrious, and even talented, is liable to become a pauper. The common idea 

 is, that a pauper is a person who has brought himself into destitution by im- 

 providence or misconduct; but, admitting this to be sometimes the case, it 

 cannot generally be so. Most paupers, in the ordinary state of the country, 

 are aged persons, no longer able to work, from infirmity or disease. Many in- 

 dustrious persons are brought to the state of paupers by unforeseen accidents ; 

 by fire, water, storms, robberies, the death of persons on whom they chiefly 

 depended, and by a variety of other causes over which they had little or no 

 control. Admitting that a number of pauper children have become so by 

 the recklessness of their parents, is not that the fault of the government in not 

 having provided for the education of the poor, by which they would have 

 acquired habits of self-control, and lieen taught the advantage of foregoing a 

 present enjoyment for a future good ? Admitting even that a number of per- 

 sons have brought pauperism on themselves, is that a sufficient reason for 

 interring them m a ditlerent manner from the other poor ? We think not ; 

 and therefore we contemplate the provision of no particular part of a ceme- 

 tery for paupers : but would bury them indiscriminately in those parts of the 

 ground destined for graves without monuments ; and also among those parts 

 having monuments, in order that by surrounding the latter with plain spaces, 

 they may, as already observed, have more effect. 



The following suggestions are made with a view to the interment of the 

 poor, of paupers, and of such persons as desire no monuments to their graves, 

 belonging to London ; and they may apply also to some other very populous 

 towns, such as Manchester or Liverpool. — Suppose London divided into 

 four or more districts ; then let each district, besides its permanent cemetery, 

 have a temporary one for the use of all persons whatever who did not wish to 

 have monuments to their graves, and of course including paupers without 

 friends sufficiently wealthy to bury them in a monumental cemetery. This 

 temporary cemetery may be merely a field rented on a 21 years' lease, of such 



