Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1876 — Cremation a Failure in England. [ARTICLE]

Cremation a Failure in England.

We have not heard much lately of the doings of the cremationists. By the way, the late Lady Amberley was an ardent advocate of cremation, and neither she nor her husband was committed to the earth with “ Christian burial.” But the London Cremation Society, which was established two years ago, has just issued its first report. The report recapitulates the efforts made by the Council to promote the object of the Society. Tnese efforts have not been very success fill. They first sought to ascertain whether crematipn was legal, and the counsel whom they consulted decided that “the performance of the process of cremation was perfectly legal, provided that it involved no consequence which could be construed by any one as a nuisance.” It then became necessary to devise a machine by which a body could be burned without causing a nuisance,and “Dr.Siemen’s patent regenerative gas furnace” was selected as the apparatus by which this desideratum could be secured. But now came ahi tch the sum of $6,000 was necessory for obtaining suitable ground for tits experiment, and it copld not be raised. Finally, the Olney Hatch Cemetery Company came to the rescue and offered to sell a part of their ground at a low figujre for • , . . , ■" ’ ; *■■■'- |'y '£

the purpose. Hie offer wss accepted, and the thachiue was about to be put up when some one remembered that the ground had been consecrated, and that the Company might get into trouble if they allowed it to be used for unconsccrated rites. They wrote to the Bishop ot Rochester. in whose diocese the cemetery is situated, but he replied: “ I cannot consent to the introdnetlou of such a mode of disposing of the bodies of the dead.” This ended the matter, and the Society now proposes to dissolve itself and return all the subscriptions that have been sent to it. —London Cot. N. T. Graphic.