and its worst offender, London, went on in the old way, without let or hindrance, until 1850, For fifteen years prior to that date there had been in progress an agitation against the existing order of things, led by Dr. G.A.  Walker, a Drury Lane surgeon, living in a very nest of churchyard fevers, who wrote a book and several pamphlets, delivered public lectures, and raised a discussion in the public press.  The London City Corporation petitioned Parliament in 1842 for the abolition of burials within the City, and a Select Committee of the House of Commons was at once entrusted with an enquiry on the subject.

[Footnote 8:  In France in 1782-3, in order to check the pestilence, the remains of more than six millions of people were disinterred from the urban churchyards and reburied far away from the dwelling-places.  The Cemetery of Pere la Chaise was a later creation, having been consecrated in 1804.]

The following were the official figures shewing the burials in the London district[9] from 1741 to 1837, and it was asserted that many surreptitious interments were unrecorded: 

    From 1741 to 1765 588,523

    " 1766 to 1792 605,832

    " 1793 to 1813 402,595

    " 1814 to 1837 508,162

    Total 2,105,112

In the same year (1842) a Export was presented to Parliament by the Select Committee on “The Improvement of the Health of Towns,” and especially on “The Effect of the Interment of Bodies in Towns.”  Its purport may be summed up in the following quotation: 

“The evidence ... gives a loathsome picture of the unseemly and demoralizing practices which result from the crowded condition of the existing graveyards—­practices which could scarcely have been thought possible in the present state of society....  We cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that the nuisance of interments in great towns and the injury arising to the health of the community are fully proved.”

[Footnote 9:  London was much increased in area by the passing of Sir Benjamin Hall’s “Metropolis Local Management Act of 1849.”]

Among the witnesses examined were Sir Benjamin Brodie and Dr. G.R.  Williams.

In 1846 a Bill was prepared to deal with the matter, but it was not until 1850 that an Act was passed “To make better provision for the Interment of the Dead in and near the Metropolis.”  Powers were conferred upon the General Board of Health to establish cemeteries or enlarge burial-grounds, and an Order in Council was made sufficient for closing any of the old churchyards either wholly or with exceptions to be stipulated in the order.  One month’s notice was all that was needed to set the Act in operation, and in urgent cases seven days; but it was found necessary in 1851 to pass another Act for the purpose of raising funds; and in 1852 a more stringent Act was put upon the Statute Book to deal summarily with the churchyards.  This was, in the the following session, extended to England and Wales, the General Board of Health having reported strongly in favour of a scheme for “Extra-mural Sepulture” in the country towns, declaring that the graveyards of these places were in no better condition than those of London.