“The inspectors of public health have been empowered to regulate the practice and the charges for interment, and to contract for and on behalf of the public to ensure the means of burial in a proper and respectful manner for the highest, as well as for the most humble classes. Formerly, the charge for the funeral of a person of the condition in life of your husband was four or five pounds, but by the new regulations, an equally respectable interment is secured to you for little more than half the amount. You are, nevertheless, at liberty to obtain the means of burial from any private undertaker. You may also, if you prefer it, have burial in any private cemetery, or elsewhere.” § 192. It is anticipated that, except on private canvass, and that only for a time, interment under the auspices of a public officer would be preferred in the great majority of cases, if the business were conducted with moderate care, in a manner really satisfactory, and if the minor but really important conveniences of all classes were duly consulted. For example, one frequent cause of the delay of interments amongst the poorer classes in crowded districts, is the delay of notification of deaths to distant relatives and friends, whose attendance may be required. More than one-half of the poor cannot write, and many of all classes who can write are unable to collect their thoughts even for a simple announcement of the event. The poorer classes generally get some one to write for them; and the regular payment for each letter is fourpence and a glass of liquor, or sixpence, exclusive of paper and postage. In the charges for funerals of the labouring classes in Scotland, five shillings is set down as the item of expense of letters of notification of the death of an artisan, and fifteen shillings for the notifications of the deaths of persons of the middle ranks of life. Under practicable regulations, such notifications might be prepared in a manner suitable to persons of every condition, at the rate of threepence per letter, or at one-half the ordinary rate of payment, paper, and envelope, and postage stamp included. The service might be rendered at an expense of a few minutes’ time to the officer in taking down a list of the names and addresses of the persons to be sent to. This list he would on his return to his office, hand to a clerk, by whom they would be immediately prepared and despatched in proper and well considered form. The Inspector might, therefore, add—