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Leader (1850-1860), 19th July 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 681, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ticipations of the future , and to a happy meeting in that world where there shall be no more de < ith , and where sorrow and sighing shall be heard no more for ever . The ancients exhibited peculiar care for the dead , and it is not very creditable to civilization that reverence for the departed appears to have been always greater in rude ages than in those of luxury and refinement . Egypt is peculiarly distinguished for its monuments , erected in honour of the dead : and the soil around its ancient cities is d remains

      literally sown with the carefully preserve of millions of bodies . Petra , the Edom of prophecy , whose existence was unknown for a thousand years , when again discovered , presented on every side tombs and mausoleums of surpassing splendour . Etruria has recently become a region of enlightened curiosity , for its sepulchral vases and monuments . The funereal structures of ancient Greece and Rome are yet consulted as models ' , while the ruder tumuli , which are scattered over the face of the whole earth , show the prevalence of the sentiment in which both originated .

      Contrast these facts and feelings with the condition of things which the report of the Sanitary Commission and Mr . Walker ' s researches have brought to light—burial grounds reeking with corruption—burned coffins and mutilated remains —the dead resting in the one apartment of the living while the funds were being raised for interment—and the hundred other horrors which investigation has unfolded to the world .

      Modern carelessness in this matter may , however , in some measure be accounted for by the overcrowded state of our Babylon , wherein the multitude of the living absorbs the dead . In the country , the death of an inhabitant is not only matter of conversation and reflection , but the funeral has an especial interest throughout the district . In London , where there is an average of 151 deaths daily , the appearance of a hearse in the crowded thoroughfares is looked upon as an inconvenience . The passage of a corpse is amid rude jokes and curses , and the peaceful dead are

      an impediment in the course of the restless competitive living . The closing of the parish graveyards , however , so entirely affects the * ' walking funerals , " as imperatively to demand an immediate arrangement . It has become impossible for the poor to " walk" with their dead to the place of interment ; and the misery of bereavement is aggravated by the expense it entails . But this is not all . The mortality of the Metropolis is 54 , 993 deaths annually ; and as the present suburban cemeteries are precluded from receivingmore than 18 , 000 corpses per annum , there are 36 , 993 bodies without any provision for interment .

      Such is the position in which Government leaves the Metropolis ; and , as in many another instance , the people must look to themselves , and by concert and cooperation provide those benefits which , simply because they are benefits , will not be afforded by the Legislature . Such an opportunity is offered by " The London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company . " The Company has just obtained two thousand * acres of land on Woking Common , on the line of the South-Western Railway , by which it can be approached in forty minutes . One of the most important featuresoeconomy , appears to have been provided for .

      ArrangementN have been made for the suitable deposit and separate transmission of bodies , and for the conveyance and return of mourners , at a tariff below the present expenses of interment within the metropolis . It is calculated that the site is capable of furnishing separate graves for no less than twenty millions of bodies ; and b y the reservation of separate and distinct localities , the several Metropolitan parishes may preserve the individuality of their burial-places , and Parochial Authorities will , at the expense of the Company , have an opportunity of ascertaining , periodically , the fidelity and propriety with which the arrangements of the Company are carried out .

      AVe understand that a branch mil way will be formed from the main line to the Necropolis , and that jr . will proceed under the chapel , ho that , by the time the mourners have alighted uml entered the chapel , the body will have been raised and placed on the bier ; and thus the important element of decency will be provided for , so as to prevent any shock to the feelings of the survivors . This Company is another instance of the great Hdvantu ^ es to bo derived fro m the principles of Association . Although , an a speculation , there can be no doubt of kit affording a handsome per ventage on the capital invested , it will secure

      benefits of the most important character to the community , and will aid in the advance of the great work of Sanitary Amelioration .

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      THE CRYSTAL PALACE AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF HYDE-PARK . Campbbll , C . J ., has pronounced judgment against the Crystal Palace ; so did Mr . Justice Creswell , " a gentleman and a scholar , " the Dowager Lady Clarendon , and Mr . Elger , the builder ; and the nation , argues Lord Campbell , is pledged to fulfil their decree . Lord Campbell does not seem to admit that the nation may change its mind , or may do what it likes with its own Hyde-park . That the vulgar public should flock to the Winter Garden , must only aggravate the displeasure of those who hold that the park is to be kept according to the pleasure of Stratheden Hou 6 e , Eden Lodge , and the future tenants of the houses builded by Mr . Elger , the builder . Lord Campbell , however , is not only arbitrary , but he is full of tenderness for the public , on the " paternal government' * principle : he thwarts the public all for its own good . The building , he says , cannot last ; most of its pillars are , not of iron , but of wood ; it will be falling down , or costing more than it is worth to repair . He has no evidence , indeed , for these statements ; Mr . Paxton , for instance , totally denies the wood ; but why should a Chief Justice wait for evidence when he is

      counsel in his own case , in the sacred cause of the Dowager Lady Clarendon , " sister of Lord Auckland , " of Mr . Justice Cresswell , " a scholar and a gentleman , " and of Mr . Elger , the builder ? Is it not evidence enough , that the vulgar public may disturb those illustrious persons in their metaphysical , judicial , or commercial speculations ? Besides , says Lord Campbell , waxing tenderhearted , the poor public will catch cold if it goes to a Winter Garden ; for the Quarterly argues that it will be " suffocating and steamy ; " that venerable

      Tory organ consistently taking the side of the Campbell and genteel-house interest , against the public . The houses recently built near Prince ' sgate are of a very superior kind ; quite like a number of palaces squeezed a FAnglaise into a row ; stuccoed till you could almost imagine them stone , with porticoes at the doors ; and one of them , we are assured , was recently let , for four months , at a rent of a thousand pounds . Under such circumstances , one cannot but remember that the houses must have been built in the belief that the

      park would grow nothing but grass , trees , and reviews ; and surely the national faith should be kept towards houses of such very respectable rents ? That consideration might bo enough to pull down the Crystal Palace , without any sophistical presumptions that the Winter Garden will have a climate like a washhouse on washing-day . If Lord Campbell and his allies are so very anxious to improve the neighbourhood , they might turn their eyes in another direction , and agitate for the removal of that which really is an

      incumbrance , a nuisance , and a disfigurement—the cavalry barrack . The building is ugly , it obstructs the view in a very improvable part of Knightsbridge , and it is accompanied by attendant nuisances , which are all the worse because they have been of long standing . If there is such great regard for the freedom of the great lung of London , the soundest pathology would be to remove that immense and noxious tubercle . That would be a real improvement , and ought amply to repay those who begrudge the ground for the Crystal Palace . -

      With the barrack removed , and the heavy shutters of the Crystal Palace taken down , its architectural adornments somewhat amended , and the garden within completed , that portion of the park would he rendered one of the moBt beautiful and wonderful spots which the great cities of Europe could present .

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      HfllTU A N I > OMJTTONY . It is a curious fuel that CityDignatarie * cannot get upn bull . They are great in the gastronomic line ; but in any matter which dues not smack of turtle they miserably fail . The late balla exemplify the faet . How in this ? Have the multitude and amplitude of City banquets bo deadened the imaginations of her great men , that they can only devise and « 1 m bnnquetn . Whoever the Rod < le « s of Port and Turtle may be , she is certainly no re lation , to Kuphro « yne orTerpaiohore . We auggeat a fast of a month at leaat , in future , as a preparative for any attempt made to feaat the Qu « on and provide a ball for hex lieges .

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      Thb Republic of Letters has had a hard struggle for existence these latter years . In ' 48-49 , revolutionary enthusiasm ; in ' 49-50 , reactionary terrorism ; in ' 50-51 , " Papal aggression •* ' in' 51-52 , Universal Exposition ; starved in France , paralyzed in England , bewildered in Germany , extinguished in Italy , the trade may well be dejected and despairing—even to look coldly on a cookery-book ! For we had no sooner ceased to demand the tenth edition of the daily paper , than we were overtaken by the deluge

      of " Aggression " pamphlets ; and scarcely had the " drum ecclesiastic " rumbled faintly its last alarum , when the Crystal Palace with escort of guides , treatises , catalogues , preliminary , suggestive , explanatory , analytical , descriptive , retrospective , encomiastic , more or less useful , ornamental , oppressive , asserts an undivided supremacy . We strongly recommend activity to publishers during the brief respiteofthe coming winter , for in ' 52—tentheditions again , and pamphlets as the sands of the sea .

      Meantime we hear of the incommensurable Dumas in treaty with a . London publisher for a novel ( we dare not say his last ) , to be produced originally here in an English form ; but the offer had been declined . Why does not Alexandra " go at" a story of English life . We are sure he would be probable , if not true ; for we have never forgotten a trait in one of his tales which showed

      a profound knowledge of our most intimate habits : it was an English gentleman putting his spoon into his teacup , " a * they always do when they do not want any more . " Just now he must have wild notions on the state of our book-market ; but fancy the special trains and the channel dotted with steam-packets engaged in " expressing" the proofsheets of this literary Monte-Cristo .

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      What has become of Mr . J . A . Roebuck ' s longpromised History of the Whig Ministry , of which the first announcement produced a certain sensation ? On inquiry we are told it will probably be ready in October ! Is the learned author waiting for the brief respite of which we spoke ; or , with malice prepense , does he hold his Parthian arrows in reserve for the opening- of the next session , when the Whigs ( or all that remains of

      them ) are to move on ; and even Lord John threatens at last to take command of the Channel Fleet of Reform in his old weather-beaten ship—Finality ? The History of the Whitj Ministry will thus become a piece de circonstance , or . as some may say , a piece a conviction ; a text-book of old glories to the few who still believe in the great Family Party , and a pitiless refresher to the many who compare magnificent promise with meagre performance .

      Ihere is little noticeable in the Publishers' announcements this vveek , except , perhaps , the following , which will arrest the attention of our numerous Theological readers : —Five Letters to Archdeacon Hare , on a recently published Treatise , " Refutation of Heresies , ascribed ( erroneously ) to Oriffen . " By C . C . J . Bunsen , D . C . L . —Longmans . We always considered this great father of

      the third century singularly ill chosen for a refutation of early heresies . Now , the passion for mystical interpretations of even the plainest passages of Scripture , or furor allegoricus , as it was termed , for which he was so severely blamed , rendered Ohiokn himself rather prolific than otherwise in developments . " which were even then , and would ccrtninly now , be esteemed "heresies . " But what are heresies ? Lamaktink ' h History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France , to bo published imnultaneously in England , France , and Belgium , after a due flourish of trumpets , is expected next week . The rose-water historian is said to administer a crueller to the real Empire , and even to assert the

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      Joiv 19 , 1851 . ] < EIM ¦ !>»«»»*» 68 *

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make la-wa—they interpret an * try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1892/page/13/