very hard to understand in London the
various items of an undertaker's bill. If any
sorrowing relict or rejoicing heir should be
disposed to go into its details, it would be
found very difficult to prove that the
benevolent undertaker has not been selling off his
funeral effects at the least possible advance
upon prime cost. He can show his bills,
perhaps; and who would venture to suggest that
he has heard that upon the prime cost of some
funeral properties, as stated in the invoice sent
with them to the funeral manager, there is
a matter-of-course discount of some sixty or
seventy-five per cent, and that the price put
upon paper is a little bit of humour proper to
the trade—a jeu d'esprit for the amusement of
the public?

In Paris, the undertaking of funerals is
managed on a different plan. There, as we
all know, everything, from the supply of milk
to the furnishing of funerals is systematised
to a "service" or an "administration." Formerly
the members or agents of the funeral
"service," added to the function of burying the
dead the privileges of crying wines for sale in
taverns, of vegetables and meat for sale in
the markets, and of announcing in the streets
the loss of children and dogs. An ordinance
of 1415 fixed the amount of the crieurs' fees.
At first their number was only twenty-four,
but by a decree of January, 1690, it was raised
to fifty. At that period it was the custom to
receive five or six bodies at a time in one
hearse, to place the indigent in open coffins,
and to toss them into a common grave.
The undertakers, not being under control,
often used to leave the bodies at the doors
of public-houses while they enjoyed
themselves.

Just before the Revolution, some hospitals
in certain places obtained the privilege
of burying the dead; but, after the
Revolution, the privilege was transferred from
them to the churches, as a means of
contributing towards the revenues of the
clergy. Three vast cemeteries were created
at the north, the south, and the east of
the city. The conveyance of the dead on
men's shoulders, with the exception of the
bodies of children, was interdicted. Hearses
drawn by two horses, proceeding at a foot
pace, and accompanied by an officer called
an ordonnateur and three bearers, were
made to replace the common open coffins.
Finally, it was decided that a coffin and
a shroud should be provided for every
person dying in indigence. A certain M.
Bobée contracted to execute all funerals,
receiving a tax from the rich, and burying the
poor gratuitously. But it was soon found
that the former was insufficient to cover the
expenses of the latter. The contractor was
therefore authorised to treat with wealthy
families for burying their dead with certain
pomp, and he purchased a stock of funereal
appliances for the purpose. The produce
which he realised by these means was sufficient
to cover the expenses to which he was
subjected, and to yield a profit. By a decree of
the eleventh Vendémiaire, of the
Revolutionary year XII., the exclusive right of
effecting all funerals, and supplying all
the matériel for them, was reserved to him,
subject to the payment of a certain sum to
churches and consistories, to be settled by
agreement.

A later decree established a general
tariff for the conveyance of the dead and
the supply of different articles, the families
of the deceased being at liberty to choose
such articles as they pleased. For the
convenience of families, a decree of the 18th of
May, 1806, divided the tariff into six classes,
according to the greater or less pomp of the
funerals; and another decree of 1811 made
some modifications in the distribution of the
money among the churches, so as to secure
to those situated in poor quarters a fair
remuneration.

In 1842 M. Pector became contractor,
and his contract still continues. On the
twenty-fourth of the present month a new
contract was entered into. The contractor is
bound to abide by a fixed scale of charges,
imposed upon him by the municipal administration,
and graduated in such a manner that
it is at the option of an executor to provide
for the dead a funeral fairly proportioned
to the means available for such a purpose.
These are the ordinary and the extraordinary
services. The ordinary service is for
the poor. It must consist of a carriage
of a certain form, drawn by two horses, and
driven by a man in mourning. The coffin
must be covered with a black pall without
fringe, and the accompanying mourners are
to be guided by a director of the ceremony,
and attended by four bearers. In payment
for this service, an inhumation tax of sixteen
shillings and eightpence for an adult, and
eight and fourpence for a child, is levied on
the house, and the town adds an allowance of
five shillings and tenpence for each body.
The whole payment, therefore, to the public
undertaker, for an ordinary funeral, is one
pound, two shillings and sixpence for an adult,
or fourteen shillings and twopence for a child.
For all persons dying in indigence the undertaker
of funerals is bound to supply, at his
own cost, a coffin and a shroud.

The extraordinary service is divided into
nine classes, out of which each family may
select the class that provides a mode of burial
most suited to its means. It is allowable in
each class to require supplementary
provisions, or extras. The fixed expense, then,
for a funeral of the first class, with extras,
is, according to the present contract, about
two hundred and eighty-seven pounds sterling;
without extras one hundred and ninety-seven
pounds. Second class with extras (named in
the tariff as "first section") one hundred and
thirty-seven pounds; without extras (or
"second section") one hundred and fifteen