although extramural sepulture was one of the chief points to which the attention of the Health of Towns Commission and Sanitary Associations has since that time been continually directed, it was not till the appointment of the General Board of Health that any decisive step was taken to abolish the existing practice. That board was directed by the statute (12 & 13 Vict. c. 3), to cause inquiry to be made into the state of burial grounds, and to frame, if necessary, a scheme to be submitted to Parliament for the improvement of interment in towns. After consulting the evidence previously collected respecting the practice of interment, and investigating the subject anew with reference to the most recent facts and experience, the board, on the 15th February, 1850, presented their report to Her Majesty. From the considerations and evidence therein set forth, the board stated that they had arrived at the following conclusions, which they submitted as the foundation of a general scheme for extramural sepulture :—

"1. That, with a view to remedy the evils of intramural interment, as at present generally practised, it will be necessary to obtain separate Acts for London and the country.

"2. That, after the passing of the Act for London, all interments in churches and within the precincts of the metropolis, except in special cases, under licence issued by the metropolitan interment commission, should, as soon as the necessary preliminary arrangements are completed, be strictly forbidden.

"3. That public burial grounds be provided at a suit

able distance from the metropolis; that, with a view to prevent the near approach of the population to such burial grounds, no new dwelling-houses be permitted within a distance proportioned to the size of the cemetery and the number of interments for which it is calculated; and that, in order to render possible the advantages of extramural interment, without, at least, enhancing the cost to the poor, to secure the proper decencies of burial, and to put an end to the injurious influence to health occasioned by the careless and unchecked disposal of bodies, it be, with the exceptions above referred to, unlawful to inter in any other place than the public burial grounds within the prescribed precincts.

"4. That, considering the river as a highway passing through the largest extent of densely-peopled districts, the facilities for establishing houses of reception on its banks, the conveniences arising from the shorter distances within the larger portion of the same area for the removal of the bodies to such houses of reception, the advantages of steam-boat conveyance over that by railway in respect to tranquillity, and the avoidance of any large number of funerals at any one point at any one time, and of any interference with common traffic and with the throng of streets; and, lastly, taking into account its great comparative cheapness, it is desirable that the chief metropolitan cemetery should be in some eligible situation accessible by watercarriage.

"5. That it be unlawful to inter in any burial ground more than one corpse in one grave.

"6. That the price of funerals be regulated according to a series of scales or classes; and that the whole expense of each funeral be included in the charge fixed for its class, and be paid for in one sum.

"7. That, it being essential to the success of the proposed improved practice of interment that it be administered on one system, under one responsible authority, all public burial grounds and the whole arrangement for burial be intrusted by commission to a small body, not exceeding five, of whom not less than one should be paid, specially qualified and responsible.

"8. That in every cemetery there be a part consecrated and a part unconsecrated, and that in the consecrated part there be erected a church adapted to the purpose, and fitted also for full services according to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England; and that in the unconsecrated part there be erected a commodious chapel.

"9. That the new consecrated grounds be under the same ecclesiastical jurisdiction in matters spiritual, and in respect to the performance of the service and the superintendence of the chaplains, as the parochial burial grounds for which they are to serve as substitutes now are; that the inhabitants retain the same right of sepulture as they would have had in their respective burial grounds, subject to the general provisions which may be necessary for the public health and the convenience of sepulture; and that the incumbents have the right of performing the burial service for any of their parishioners in the public cemetery, subject to the regulations established for the same.

"10. That, inasmuch as the fees and voluntary offerings paid to the clergy constitute one of the least of the charges incident to interment, and at the same time form in some instances almost the whole, and in many instances the greater part, of the funds on which they have been accustomed to rely, provision be made for compensation to the benefice, on account of the receipt of fees for interments, on the average of three years before the passing of the Act.

"11. That compensation be made to the proprietors of private burial-grounds and to the holders of cemeteries established by Act of Parliament according to the award of juries.

"12. That provision be made for placing the existing burial-grounds under such regulation as may be most conducive to the public health and advantage.

"13. That, although, if the whole work were to be done afresh for the first time, one part of a general scheme of extramural-cemeteries would have included the formation of corresponding sets of intramural officers to receive orders, to give instructions, to collect and enforce payments, and to transact other general business, yet, to avoid the unnecessary creation of offices, it be provided that the present parish clerks or sextons, or both, as the case may be, should be retained, and their offices made use of for maintaining the parochial connexion with the cemeteries.

"14. That the whole immediate outlay for carrying into effect this scheme may be obtained without any aid from the Treasury, and without the levying of any new rate, in the following way: that is to say, by

loan; the principal and interest of such loan to be defrayed out of the receipts of the cemeteries, security being given by Act of Parliament for making good from the rates whatever deficiency may occur, should there be eventually any."

A bill founded upon this scheme was accordingly prepared and brought into the House of Commons by Sir George Grey, Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, and Lord Seymour, the Chief Commissioner of the General Board of Health. The measure, after meeting with considerable opposition from parties interested in the continuance of the existing mode of sepulture, and undergoing some few alterations, which, however did not affect its main principles, has since become law; and, in the words of the board, we may now confidently hope that within a few months the whole of the intramural interments will be discontinued, and a system of extramural sepulture substituted; and that, if the principle developed in the new statute be properly adhered to, within a reasonable time the whole practice will be elevated, not only beyond the least objectionable practice in this country, but beyond the best practice which the board have found and examined on the Continent.

It will be convenient to consider the provisions of the statute in their exact order, so that a clear view may be at once obtained of the nature and scope of its provisions.

The first section declares "the Metropolitan Burial District" to consist of the cities and liberties of London and Westminster respectively, the borough