tissues. They destroy also all traces of organic poisons and even of some mineral ones, and modern chemical researches have proved that putrifaction of itself gives rise to the formation of poisonous alkaloids (or ptomaines), so that the discovery by physiological tests, as they are called-that is, by the effects upon the lower animals of poisonous material extracted from the viscera of a decaying body—can no longer be regarded as affording that conclusive proof which it was regarded as constituting in former days. On the other hand, direct experiment has shewn that with one or two exceptions, the mineral poisons which resist the process of decay are discoverable in the ash after cremation. Finally, as precautions which would be resisted if endeavoured to be imported into an established custom like burial, would be accepted without hesitation in connection with a new departure like cremation, there can be small room for doubt but that even from the medico-legal point of view, a system of controlled cremation might be made infinitely more protective against crime than that of burial, either as it at present exists, or than it could be made under any reforms which it would be feasible to engraft upon our burial laws.*

Bearing in mind the short time which has elapsed since the modern cremation movement took its rise, and the strength of the prejudice against which it has had to contend-remembering the legal obstacles which it has had to overcome, the progress which it has made throughout the civilized world is well calculated to inspire its sympathisers with encouragement and hope. As the merits of the question have become more familiar to the public, the tone of public opinion regarding it, as reflected in the public press and at public meetings, has undergone a pronounced change. The practice is no longer ridiculed and denounced. It is discussed with a respect and friendliness which leaves nothing to desire. The arguments founded on custom and prejudice have one by one been abandoned, and when hostile reserva

any

Before the legality of cremation in England had been established, in order to meet the scruples of the Home Office the Cremation Society offered to undertake to hold a post-mortem examination on each body cremated, and to preserve specimens of the viscera for examination if required for 20 years.

tion is made it is based almost exclusively on medico-legal grounds, which, whatever be their weight-and I believe it to be very small-are inapplicable in a country like ours where cremation at this moment is subject to no legal control or regulation whatever. The experience of Italy, Germany, and the United States, where the practice has been in existence a few years longer than among ourselves, has shown that its tendency is rapidly to spread, and though in the two years which have elapsed since Mrs. Pickersgill's body was committed to the flames at Woking, comparatively little progress has been made in this country, I have no doubt the same tendency to development will speedily manifest itself here which has been so remarkable elsewhere.

When the hand of death has laid some loved one low, it may be suddenly, in the midst of health and strength, it may be after months of lingering illness and wearing pain, the faculties of the bereaved survivors are numbed and stricken. At such a moment the strongest minded man is less than at any other time inclined to set his individual opinions as to what is right and proper against the conventional routine of the world in which he lives. To escape from the trammels of custom requires immediate resolution and action. It demands not only indifference to offensive comment and tittle-tattle, but probably also painful disregard for the prejudices of dear and intimate friends. It is not surprising, therefore, that even those who most firmly believe in the advantages of cremation over inhumation as a means of disposing of the dead, when the time for action arrives lack the energy and decision to carry their convictions into practice, and with more or less pain and reluctance resign the remains of him or her for whom they mourn into the ghastly jaws of the grave and revolving years of putrefying corruption. But the number of reflecting men and women with whom the prospect of escaping that revolting fate through swift and pure disintegration by fire is a cherished dream is daily widening, and as the knowledge spreads that every facility for the performance of the rite can be found within a few miles of London, I have little doubt that year by year the number of fire-burials in our midst will multiply, that the force of example will

lend courage to the timid, and that the tendency among local authorities to substitute the prompt, innocuous and economical action of the crematorium for the noisome and revolting system at present resorted to for the disposal of the corpses of our poor, will be encouraged by an intelligent public opinion, in a direction which will conduce at once to the respect due to the dead and to the health and well-being of the living.

CHARLES CAMERON.

ART. II. THE CORONATION OF CHARLES II. AT

THE

SCONE.

HE Coronation of Charles II. at Scone upon New Year's Day, 1651, possesses a special and melancholy interest as being the last Coronation which ever took place in Scotland. It also possesses the unique character of being the only ceremony of the kind which was performed under purely Presbyterian auspices, the one other Presbyterian Coronation having been that of a Queen Consort, viz., Anne of Denmark, at Holyrood, May 17, 1590. Posterity is therefore very fortunate in possessing a detailed contemporary account of the Scone ceremony in the shape of the pamphlet entituled, The Forme and Order of the Coronation of Charles the Second, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland. As it was acted and done at Scoone, the first day of January, 1651. Aberdene, Imprinted by James Brown, 1651. This pamphlet went through several editions. One of these bears the name of the Rev. Robert Dowglas, probably because the greater part of the contents consist of the sermon and exhortations delivered by him. The other editions are, however, more strictly correct in omitting any author's name upon the title, since the description of the ceremonial is not the work of Mr. Dowglas, but of Sir James Balfour, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, who officiated upon the occasion, as he had also already done at the Coronation of Charles I. in 1633.

The Coronation itself was an act of singular courage and

devotion upon the part of the Scottish Government, not only troubled by the Malignants in the North and the Remonstrants in the West, but with the very existence of the country jeopardised by the presence of the English Republican invaders. 'It cannot be denied,' writes Baillie at the end of the year, 'that our miseries and dangers of ruin are greater than for many ages have been; a potent victorious enemy master of our seas, and for some good time of the best part of our land; our standing forces against this his imminent invasion, few, weak, inconsiderable; our Kirk, State, army, full of divisions and jealousies; the body of our people be-south Forth spoiled, and near starving; they be-north Forth extremely ill-used by an handful of our own; many inclining to treat and agree with Cromwell, without care either of King or Covenant; none of our neighbours called upon by us, or willing to give us any help, though called. What the end of all shall be, the Lord knows. Many are ready to faint with discouragement and despair: yet divers are waiting on the Lord, expecting He will help us in our great extremity, against our most unjust oppressors.' It had been originally intended that the ceremony should take place upon Aug. 15, but it had been delayed, and meanwhile had taken place the battle of Dunbar. This terrible disaster had been followed by some relaxation of the sternness of the Government with regard to Engagers and even to others. Parliament was sitting at Perth since November. On the 29th day of that month it passed an Act ordaining His Majesty to be crowned at Scone, upon Wednesday, the first of January next; and this Act to be proclaimed at the Cross of Perth, by Lyon King of Arms.' The English were now in possession of Edinburgh. Had the capital been in their own hands, the Government might very probably have celebrated the Coronation in the Abbey Church of Holyrood. As it was, however, the spot chosen seems even more happy. The last Scottish Coronation took place at Scone, the immemorial metropolis of the Pictish monarchy before the VIII.th Century, at a later date the seat of the Scottish Royalty, and upon the summit of that very Mote Hill, the Mount of Belief, which seems to have gained its name when Nectan MacDerili in 710 embraced the

customs of the Church of Rome, and upon which, in the year 907,Constantine the King and Cellach the Bishop vowed that the laws and discipline of the Faith, and the rights of the Churches and the Gospels, should be kept equally as amongst the Scots.'

The Coronation pieces, or commemorative medals to be flung among the populace on the occasion, had been designed by Sir James Balfour, at Charles' command, as early as July 9. They were to bear on the obverse the King's face, with the inscription, Carol: Secundus, D.G., Scot: Angl: Fran. et Hyber Rex, Fidei defensor, etc.,' and, on the reverse, a lion rampant, holding in his paw a thistle of three stems, with the circumscription Nemo me impune lacessit,' and below the lion's foot, on the limbe Coronat: die Mensis.

A° 1650.' In the case of Charles I. these medals had been of gold and silver, but on Dec. 18, the Master of the Mint had to be ordered, if he could not coin them of gold and silver, at least to cast them in medals,' seemingly in copper or baser metals. There is, however, no further trace of their having been made at all at the time, or of any largesse of them at the Coronation, as usual on such occasions, but a few seem to have been executed, at least in the precious metals, either then or afterwards, and were probably distributed as remembrances.* The reverse is as intended by Sir James, except that the lion

* Mr. Cochran Patrick favours the writer with the following note upon the subject. There is undoubtedly a Coronation medal of Charles II., though it is very rare. I have a specimen in my cabinet in gold: and others exist in the British Museum, and in the Duke of Athole's collection, besides Mr. Coat's specimen. The same medal in silver exists in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, (formerly in the Advocates' Library), in the British Museum, and in the cabinets of Paris and Munich. Unlike the Coronation medals of Charles I., this piece is not "struck," but always cast, and then slightly "tooled." This mode of manufacture accounts probably for its rarity and for the fact that it was not used as largesse at the Coronation. If it had, it would almost certainly have been mentioned by Sir James Balfour, whose account is very minute, and who mentions the largesse of special pieces at the Coronation of Charles I. I enclose a spare copy of the illustration of the medal, which will save a long description.'