In the works of the early dramatists, and by some writers of fiction, it has been stated, or implied, that the body of a deceased person could be seized and detained to compel the payment of his debts. This was never the law. In Jones _v._ Ashburnham, 4 East, 460, it was held that to seize a dead body on pretence of arresting for debt would be _contra bonos mores_, and an extortion on the relatives, and that case distinctly overrules any authority to be derived from the case of Quick _v._ Coppleton, 1 Vent., 161, to the effect that forbearance to seize or hold a body upon such a pretence would afford any consideration for a promise to pay a debt. So, also, where a jailer refused to give up a body of a person who had died while a prisoner in execution in his custody, to the executors of the deceased, unless they would satisfy certain claims against the deceased due the jailer, the Court issued a peremptory mandamus in the first instance, commanding that the body should be delivered up to the executors (Rex _v._ Fox, 2 Q. B., 247). And in R. _v._ Scott, 2 Q. B., 248, it was said, that a jailer who should attempt to do so would be guilty of misconduct in his public character, for which he would be liable to prosecution.[499] _How and by Whom the Dead Human Body may be Removed or Exhumed._—Where the right of burial has been exercised, and the body interred in its final resting-place, no person has any right to interfere with it without the consent of the owner of the grave, or of the properly constituted public authorities. In Foster _v._ Dodd, 8 D. & E., 842-854, it was held, that a dead body belongs to no one, and is, therefore, under the protection of the public. If it lies in consecrated ground, ecclesiastical authorities will interpose for its protection; but whether in ground consecrated or unconsecrated, indignities offered to the remains or the act of indecently disinterring them, are the ground of an indictment.[500] Even the purchaser of land upon which is located a burial-ground may be enjoined from removing bodies therefrom, if he attempts to do so against the wishes of the relatives or next of kin of the deceased. Every interment is a concession of the privilege which cannot afterward be repudiated, and the purchaser’s title to the ground is fettered with the right of burial.[501] On the other hand, the right of the municipal or state authorities, with the consent of the owner of the burial lot or in the execution of the right of eminent domain, to remove dead bodies from cemeteries is well settled.[502] After the right of burial has once been exercised by the person charged with the duty of burial, or where such person has consented to the burial by another person, no right to the corpse remains except to protect it from unlawful interference.[503]