The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 158, 9 July 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1867.

There was one especial feature in the debate on Tuesday evening, which followed upon Mr. Burn's motion that £250 should be placed upon the Estimates for the thorough repair of the roads in the Nelson Cemetery, to which nothing but the limited space which has lately been at our disposal, has prevented our adverting at an earlier date. We allude to the proposition made by the Provincial Secretary that some part of this sum should also be devoted to the planting of trees, etc., in the Suburban North Cemetery, and the announcement by the Provincial Solicitor that some of the religious denominations had expressed their willingness to contribute, as well to the repair of the roads as to the planting of the ground with trees, shrubs, etc. This we conceive to be decidedly a step iv the right direction, which we heartily trust will not be rendered nugatory or ineffectual by any apathy on the part of the community, for there can be no question that, in order to be carried out successfully, the proposition must bs sup plemented as well by public contributions, as by private exertions. In ancient times, it is almost heedless to remark, ifc was the custom to bury the dead, as we do now, beyond the precincts of the towns and cities, and among the Greeks and Romans they were frequently interred by the way side. We might pause to consider the many advantages which naturally result from such a practice, and especially reflect upon the beauty which memorials to our departed friends and relatives, thus placed, must borrow from the surrounding images of nature, from the trees, the wild as well as cultivated flowers, from streams running within sight or hearing, or from the beaten road, stretching its weary length hard by. Our readers cau picture to themselves, for few can have visited our new Cemetery without experiencing them, the strong appeals to visible appearances, or immediate impressions which the mindis prone to summon up in such scenes, the lively and affecting analogies of life as a journey — death as a sleep overcoming the tired wayfarer — of misfortune as a storm that falls suddenly upon him — of beauty asa flower that passe th away, or of innocent pleasure" as one that may be gathered — of virtue that standeth firm as a rock against the beating waves — of hope undermined insensibly like the poplar by the side of the river that has fed it, or blasted in a moment like a pine tree by the stroke of lightning on the mountain- top — of admonitions and heart-stirring remembrances, like the refreshing breeze that comes without warning, or the taste of the waters of an unexpected fountain. These and a thousand similar suggestions give to the language of the senseless stone, a voice enforced and endeared by. the soothing influences of nature, which are thus instinctively presented to the notice of the serious and thoughtful mind. In all civilised countries at the present day the public cemeteries are tended with the greatest care, and have obtained the

deepest hold on the affections of the population. We need only instance Pere la Chaise and Montmartre at Paris, Kensal Green and other cemeteries near London, the Protestant cemeteries at Rome and Florence, all of which are places of public resort and jealously protected from desecration, to prove how deeply this practice prevails. At Constantinople the place of promenade for Europeans is the cemetery at Pera, which is planted with cypresses, and has a delightful position on the side of a hill overlooking the Golden Horn. It may be remarked, too, that the great body of English poetry, which, it has beeu noticed, is more rich on the subject of sepulture than the poetry of auy other nation, abounds wilh reference to the practice of ornamenting graves with flowers, shrubs, and trees. There can be no doubt, moreover, that the images presented to the mind by the visible arrangements for sepulture are inseparably associated with the ideas of death itself, at all events to the greater proportion of the population. Neglected or mismanaged burial grounds superadd to the indefinite terrors of dissolution the associations of desecration, cold forgetful ness, aud insult. With cemeteries that are undrained, for example, the associations frequently expressed on the occasions of burials in such localities are similar 'to those which would arise on plunging a sentient body into a " watery grave." Careful -visible arrangements, of an agreeable nature, unquestionably raise corresponding mental images and asseciations which materially j diminish the terrors incidental to the aspect of death. There is yet another point of view from which this subject may be regarded, and to which, but for its importance, we would fain have excused ourselves from adverting. We allude to the advantages in a sanitary point of view, which adequate authority has pronounced to be likely to result from the cultivation of a rich vegetation in cemeteries. This, it has been ascertained, exercises a powerful purifying influence, and will go far to prevent the escape of any deleterious miasmata. It is stated by scientific persons who have devoted much attention to the subject, that the escape of large quantities of deleterious gases by the Assuring of the ground would often be in a very great degree prevented by turfing over the surface, or by soiling, i.e. by overlaying vegetable mould of five or six inches in thickness, and sowing it carefully with grasses whose roots spread and mesh together. There is a beautiful legend which hts formed the subject of many celebrated pictures by the great masters, that on the death of the Virgin, the Apostles went, after a time, to remove the body, aucl on opening the tomb where it had been laid, found that it was gone,but in it its place appeared in full growth a thick cluster of bright and vari-coloured flowers. On this hint be it ours to speak. Let us remove the remains of our friends from the possibility of becoming a nuisance and a pollution, if uot afc the present time, at all events when our rapidly increasing population shall have augmented the numbers both of the living and the dead. Let us lay what is left reverently in the earth, and above the spot let us spread a carpet of living bloom, no trumpery dyed wreaths of immortelles and fragile amaranths, but humble, homely, low-growing favorites — the aconite and the snowdrop, to mark a resurrection from the death of winter — the violet and the lily of the valley, to join cheerfully in the sweetness of spring > — the rose to sympathise with the beauty of summer — and the anemone aud the chrysanthemum to carry a smile into the fading light of autumn. So best may the corruptible body be rendered up to Nature. The example has been set — only too sparingly — ia each of our public cemeteries, and with beautiful success ; let us be

thankful, and hope that the good course is to be largely pursued.