BURKING.
ONE of the most extraordinary propositions that was ever made in any assembly, was this week broached in the House of Commons. It was suggested, that we should exchange the manufactured goods of England for the dead bodies of France !—in order to pre- vent Burking. Did it ever occur to the sapient legislator—Mr. SAnt.Ea—why dead bodies were plentiful in France so scarce in England ? Do not Englishmen die P—Of this fact we can as- sure him, that no nation in the world is more particular about the dead than the French: and that if the anatomists arc well and in- effeasively supplied, it is not because the corpse is an object of in- difference: moreover, he is little aware of the French character, to suppose that they would permit the remains of Frenchmen to be exported, to be mangled by English surgical students.
The cause and the remedy of Burking have never been stated Mainly and shortly two lines will suffice. The price of a dead man in London runs from S to 12 guineas—in Paris, from 6 to S shillings.
Adopt the regulations of Paris, you have the same result, and there is an end of Busking and Body-snatching ; both dreadful evils, though the public is just now only thinking of the former. The regulations in Paris are municipal, and altogether inoffen- sive: let our Home Minister send over some one to learn what they are, and frame an act for the purpose of establishing them here. The business there is conducted secretly, silently, and me- thodically : no prejudices are offended, no feelings outraged. We quite agree with Mr. SADLER, that the sacred feelings asso- ciated with a corpse are not so much a prejudice, as a principle of human nature; and the attempt to eradicate it is to aim at washs ing the blackamoor white, and when there is no occasion. Again we point the attention of the Government to Paris.
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