§ 69. Although the practice referred to, of multiplied insurances of sums payable on the death of children, appears happily to have broken out into infanticides only in the districts mentioned, yet as the means and the temptation are left equally open in all, the necessity of preventing them, as far as a direct legislative act may, is submitted, by a short provision prohibiting payments beyond the actual cost of interment, and directing the return of the premiums or subscriptions where they have been given to more than one club.
§ 70. The means for the most direct protection of infantile life, and for giving additional security for life in general, will be subsequently submitted for consideration, with the evidence as to the means and the necessity of the appointment of medical officers for the protection of the public health.
§ 71. A collateral means of security, and of the abatement of other evils incidental to the practice of interments, will be found in the practicable administrative measures for reducing the unnecessary expense of interments, and, by consequence, of the temptations to crime constituted by the apparent expediency of the insurance of the payment of large sums to meet that expense.
It will, moreover, on further examination, become apparent, in this as in some other branches of public expenditure, that a course which attains increased efficiency with the popular desiderata in respect to interments is a course of economy.
Total Expenses of Funerals to different Classes of Society.
§ 72. In the following table is given a proximate estimate of the total expenses of funerals of the persons of each class in the metropolis:—
| Class. | Total Number of Funerals of each Class that have taken place in the Metropolis in the Year 1839. | Number of Children under 10 Years of Age. | Expenses of Each Funeral of Each Class, Inclusive of Burial Dues. | Total Expenses of the Funerals of all the Persons of each Class, inclusive of Children. | Annual Expenses of Funerals in England and Wales: estimating the proportions of Deaths of each Class to be the same as in the Metropolis, and the Average Expenses of each Class to be the same. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults. | Children. | |||||||
| £. | s. | £. | s. | £. | £. | |||
| Gentry, &c. | 2,253 | 529 | 100 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 188,270 | 1,735,040 |
| Tradesmen, 1st cls. | 5,757 | 2,761 | 50 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 250,792 | 2,370,379 |
| Tradesmen, 2nd cls. and undescribed | 7,682 | 3,703 | 27 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 103,728 | |
| Artisans, &c. | 25,930 | 13,885 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 81,053 | 766,074 |
| Paupers | 3,655 | 593 | 13s. | 2,761 | ||||
| Total expense for the Metropolis | 626,604 | |||||||
| Proximate Estimate of the Expense for the Total Number of Funerals in one Year, England and Wales | 4,871,493 | |||||||
The above, which can only be submitted as a proximate estimate, certainly shows an amount of money annually thrown into the grave, at the expense of the living, which exceeded all previous anticipations; and yet, from the information derived from the inspection of collections of undertakers’ bills for funerals, I cannot but consider it an under rather than an over estimate, and that the actual expenses of interment in the metropolis would be found, on a closer inquiry, to be nearly a million per annum. Hypothetical estimates of the amount of money which must be expended to maintain so large a body of men as that engaged in the business and service of the undertaker are confirmatory of this view. Even in Scotland the expense of the decent burial of a labouring man is not less than 5l., exclusive of the expense of mourning. I have been shown the payments on account of burials of an affiliated association of a convivial and benevolent character called the “Odd Fellows,” which has upwards of 150,000 affiliated members, chiefly of the better class of artisans, in different parts of the country. With them, the payments usually amount to 10l. per funeral. The expenses of burial of some of the smaller descriptions of shopkeepers may not much exceed the expense of the undescribed class, which is taken us an average between the sum set down for labourers and that for tradesmen; but the latter is certainly a low average for the metropolis. All the information tends to show that the expenses of the funerals of persons in the condition of gentry are, on the average (inclusive of burial dues), much higher than the sum stated. From inquiries I have made as to the practice in the offices of the Masters in Chancery, where executors’ accounts are examined, I learn that if an undertaker’s bill is 60l. or 70l. (exclusive of burial dues), for a person whose rank in life was that of the clergy, officers of the army or navy, or members of the legal or medical professions, “it would, according to all usage, be allowed as of course, and notwithstanding it should turn out that the estate was insolvent.”[[15]] The cost of the funerals of persons of rank and title, it will have been seen, varies from 1500l. to 1000l., or 800l., or less, as it is a town or country funeral. The expenses of the funerals of gentry of the better condition, it will have been seen, vary from 200l. to 400l., and are stated to be seldom so low as 150l. § 45.
§ 73. The average cost of funerals of persons of every rank above paupers in the metropolis may, therefore, be taken as 14l. 19s. 9d. per head. In some of the rural districts, and in the smaller provincial towns, where the distinct business of an undertaker has not arisen, coffins are made by carpenters, and services are supplied at a very moderate cost; but the allowances from the benefit and burial clubs throughout the country, of which instances have been given, may be stated as instances of the general expense to the labouring classes. To persons of the middle or higher classes, who give orders to undertakers in the metropolis, for funerals to be performed in the country, the expense is further enhanced by the extra expense of carriage; so that there is ground for believing that the same average prevails throughout Great Britain, and that the total annual expense of funerals cannot be much less than between four and five millions per annum.
§ 74. Out of 5l. expended for the common funeral of an adult artisan in the metropolis, about 15s. will be the burial dues. Of this 15s. about 3s. may be stated as the amount the clergyman will receive. The surplice fees vary in different places from 2s. for the lowest class, rising with the condition to 5l. 5s., or more; but taking the average of all cases which occur in the metropolis, and on the experience of the ministers of several parishes, the burial fees, which form their chief emolument, that which was anciently denominated “Soul Scot,” might perhaps be fairly taken as at 7s. 2d. per case, which is the average of the burial fees in some of the principal parishes in London.[[16]]