BURIAL, depositing (a body) in the earth. Every one in England, whether a parishioner or not, has the right to be buried in the burial ground of the parish where he dies, except exe cuted felons, who must be buried in the prison or in a place appointed by the Home Office. At common law the person under whose roof a death takes place has a duty to provide for the body being carried to the grave decently covered ; and the executors or legal representatives of the deceased are bound to bury or dispose of the body in a manner becoming the estate of the deceased, according to their discretion, and they are not bound to fulfil the wishes he may have expressed in this respect. The disposal must be such as will not expose the body to violation, or offend the feelings or endanger the health of the living ; and cremation under proper restrictions is allowable. In the case of paupers dying in a workhouse, or shipwrecked persons whose bodies are cast ashore, the overseers or guardians are responsible for their burial. In the case of persons found f elo de se, the coroner must give directions for the burial of the remains in the churchyard or burial ground of the parish in which the remains might be interred had a verdict of f elo de se not been found.
The expenses of burial are payable out of the deceased's estate in priority to all other debts. A husband is liable for the funeral expenses of his wife, even though she has been living separate from him, and though she was buried without his knowledge or request. A parent is liable for the funeral expenses of his children, if he has the means of paying. Legislation has principally affected (I) places of burial, (2) mode of burial, (3) fees for burial and (4) disinterment.
I. The overcrowded state of churchyards and burial grounds led to the passing of a group of statutes known as the Burial Acts, extending from 1852 up to 190o. By these acts a general system was set up, the aim of which was to remedy the existing deficien cies of accommodation by providing new burial grounds and closing old ones which should be dangerous to health, and to es tablish a central authority (now for most purposes the Ministry of Health) to superintend all burial grounds with a view to the protection of the public health and the maintenance of public decency in burials. The Ministry of Health thus has the power to obtain by order in council the closing of any burial ground it thinks fit, while its consent is necessary to the opening of any new burial ground; and it also has power to direct inspec tion of any burial ground or cemetery, and to regulate burials in common graves in statutory cemeteries and to compel persons in charge of vaults or places of burial to take steps necessary for preventing their becoming dangerous or injurious to health. The vestry of any parish was thus authorized to provide itself with a new burial ground, if its existing one was no longer available ; such ground might be wholly or partly consecrated, and chapels might be provided for the performance of burial service. The ground was put under the management of a burial board, consisting of ratepayers elected by the vestry, and the consecrated portion of it took the place of the churchyard in all respects. Disused church yards and burial grounds in London may be used as open spaces for recreation, and only buildings for religious purposes can be built on them (1881, 1884, 1887). The Local Government Act 1894 introduced a change into the government of burial grounds (consequent on the general change made in parochial government) by transferring, or allowing to be transferred, the powers, duties, property and liabilities of the burial boards in urban districts to the district councils, and in rural parishes to the parish councils and parish meetings ; and by allowing rural parishes to adopt the Burial Acts, and provide and manage new burial grounds by the parish council, or a burial board elected by the parish meeting.
3. Fees are now payable by custom or under statutory powers on all burials. In a churchyard the parson must perform the office of burial for parishioners, even if the customary fee is denied, and it is doubtful who is liable to pay it. The custom must be immemorial and invariable. If not disputed, its payment can be enforced in the ecclesiastical court ; if disputed, its validity must be tried by a temporal court. A special contract for the payment of an annual fee in the case of a non-parishioner can be enforced in the latter court. In the case of paupers and shipwrecked per sons the fees are payable by the parish. In other parochial burial grounds and cemeteries the duties and rights to fees of the incumbents, clerks and sextons of the parishes for which the ground has been provided are the same as in burials in the church yard. Burial authorities may fix the fees payable in such grounds, subject to the approval of the Home Secretary; but the fees for services rendered by ministers of religion and sextons must be the same in the consecrated as in the unconsecrated part of the burial ground, and no incumbent of a parish or a clerk may receive any fee upon burials except for services rendered by them (Act of 1900) . On burials under the act of 188o the same fees are payable as if the burial had taken place with the service of the church.
4. A corpse is not the subject of property, nor capable of hold ing property. If interred in consecrated ground, it is under the protection of the ecclesiastical court ; if in unconsecrated, it is under that of the temporal court. In the former case it is an ec clesiastical offence, and in either case it is a misdemeanour, to dis inter or remove it without proper authority, whatever the motive for such an act may be. Such proper authority is (I) a faculty from the ordinary, where it is to be removed from one consecrated place of burial to another, and this is often done on sanitary grounds or to meet the wishes of relatives, and has been done for secular purposes, e.g., widening a thoroughfare, by allowing part of the burial ground (disused) to be thrown into it ; (2) a licence from the Home Secretary, where it is desired to transfer remains from one unconsecrated place of burial to another; (3) by order of the coroner, in cases of suspected crime. See also CEMETERY,