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82 BURIAL-GROUNDS.
effectually the evils on which I then addressed you.
Her Majesty's government, acting at the instigation
of the General Board of Health, carried through
Parliament a Bill, enacting that the Queen, by
Order in Council, may prohibit further burials within
any district of the metropolis, so soon (after the
close of this year) as the General Board of Health
should have provided the means of extramural interment.
The operation of this Act of Parliament
is such, as I have every reason to believe, you will
welcome within the City of London; and I look forward
to the complete cessation of burial within your
territory, as a matter for warm congratulation
among all who are interested in the cause of sanitary
improvement.
From the terms of the Act in question, I find
that Her Majesty's Order in Council is to be preceded
by a Report from the General Board of
Health, stating their opinion of the expediency, that
(in any particular case reported on) burial should
forthwith be discontinued. Accordingly, in the present
state of the law, it will devolve on that Board
to initiate whatever measures may be necessary for
the prohibition of further interment in the City.
Two clauses of your Act of Parliament, which
have hitherto been inoperative, may perhaps come
into requisition whenever Her Majesty's Order in
Council closes the burial-grounds of the City; viz.,
clause 89, which empowers your Commission, if you
shall " think fit, to provide fit and proper places, in