Nothing tends to keep up, in the imaginations of the poorer sort of people, a generous horror of the work-house more than the manner in which pauper funerals are conducted in this metropolis.  The coffin nothing but a few naked planks coarsely put together,—­the want of a pall (that decent and well-imagined veil, which, hiding the coffin that hides the body, keeps that which would shock us at two removes from us), the colored coats of the men that are hired, at cheap rates, to carry the body,—­altogether give the notion of the deceased having been some person of an ill life and conversation, some one who may not claim the entire rites of Christian burial,—­one by whom some parts of the sacred ceremony would be desecrated if they should be bestowed upon him.  I meet these meagre processions sometimes in the street.  They are sure to make me out of humor and melancholy all the day after.  They have a harsh and ominous aspect.

If there is anything in the prospectus issued from Mr. Middleton’s, Stonecutter’s Street, which pleases me less than the rest, it is to find that the six pair of gloves are to be returned, that they are only lent, or, as the bill expresses it, for use on the occasion.  The hood, scarfs, and hat-bands, may properly enough be given up after the solemnity; the cloaks no gentlemen would think of keeping; but a pair of gloves, once fitted on, ought not in courtesy to be redemanded.  The wearer should certainly have the fee-simple of them.  The cost would be but trifling, and they would be a proper memorial of the day.  This part of the Proposal wants reconsidering.  It is not conceived in the same liberal way of thinking as the rest.  I am also a little doubtful whether the limit, within which the burial-fee is made payable, should not be extended to thirty shillings.

Some provision too ought undoubtedly to be made in favor of those well-intentioned persons and well-wishers to the fund, who, having all along paid their subscriptions regularly, are so unfortunate as to die before the six months, which would entitle them to their freedom, are quite completed.  One can hardly imagine a more distressing case than that of a poor fellow lingering on in a consumption till the period of his freedom is almost in sight, and then finding himself going with a velocity which makes it doubtful whether he shall be entitled to his funeral honors:  his quota to which he nevertheless squeezes out, to the diminution of the comforts which sickness demands.  I think, in such cases, some of the contribution money ought to revert.  With some such modifications, which might easily be introduced, I see nothing in these Proposals of Mr. Middleton which is not strictly fair and genteel; and heartily recommend them to all persons of moderate incomes, in either sex, who are willing that this perishable part of them should quit the scene of its mortal activities with as handsome circumstances as possible.