30 OCTOBER 1875, Page 3

Mr. Bright has written a letter against expensive funerals and

expensive mourning, recommending the practice of the Society of Friends to the imitation of all true friends of society. We heartily hope his advice may be taken. The silliness of burying grief in pomp, and of wasting money most lavishly when, as a rule, the poor have lost the means of earning more, is a silliness not the lees elaborately artificial in its nature that it is essentially savage, and not a product of civilisation. True civili- sation often means luxury, but civilisation of taste always means simplicity.