(3.) In placing a dead body under ground we can never be sure how long the remains will be left undisturbed, a new street or railway will soon destroy all traces of its resting place,[241] and even the law only allows a grave to remain undisturbed for a short 14 years.
(4.) In the event of friends or relations dying abroad their remains cannot be sent home for burial except at great expense, cremation would reduce the body to a few beautiful silvery ashes which could easily be brought home and secured on arrival in a suitable and safe position.[242]
(5.) Cremation is the most respectful and beautiful manner for the disposal of dead bodies, and need not alarm (on religious grounds[243]) any more than the practice at sea of lowering the dead bodies overboard to be eventually eaten and digested by marine animals.
(7.) Cremation would settle at once and for ever the vexed question of burial in consecrated or unconsecrated ground, and all the unseemly quarrels which have taken place in connection with it from time to time.
(8.) The great extent of land that is now wasted in public burial grounds and cemeteries.[244]
There is no reason, even if cremation should take the place of burial, why the fees for clergymen and others should not remain as at present, and the unpleasant assistance of the British-ghoul, the undertaker, with his long face at the ceremony and still longer bill afterwards, could easily be dispensed with.
The opponents of cremation urge that it would be more expensive than burial, and consequently out of the reach of the poorer classes, and also that it would cause so much difficulty in detecting cases of poisoning, that it would tend to encourage persons to poison others who happened to be in their way, or objectionable to them, and thus crime would go unchecked.
If these are the only objections they are easily to be overcome.
First, by constructing public crematories, where for a few shillings a day sufficient heat could be maintained to consume almost any number of bodies, whilst the present great expense of maintaining large cemeteries with their attendant guardians and other costs would be dispensed with; and
Secondly, by instituting a scientific and independent enquiry as to the cause of every death which occurs. This is so much required at the present day for the sake of the public health, that even if cremation is never introduced it should be at once enforced, so that those who have charge of the public health could have exact and reliable knowledge of the causes of all the deaths throughout the United Kingdom, and thus obtain such valuable information as would greatly assist in the daily fight to subdue and overcome deaths from preventable causes.