ence the following passage from Lord
Coke was quoted: "It is to be observed that in every sepulchre that hath a
monument two things are to be considered, viz., the monument, and the
sepulture or burial of the dead: the burial of the cadaver is _nullius in
bonis_, and belongs to Ecclesiastical cognizance; but as to the monument,
action is given at the common law for defacing thereof." The only Act of
Parliament which was said to bear on the subject was that of 1 Jac. I., c.
12, which made it felony to steal bodies for purposes of witchcraft. The
Court, however, held in this case of Rex _v._ Lynn that to take a body
from a burial-ground was an offence at common law, and _contra bonos
mores_. In the judgment it was stated that as the defendant might have
committed the crime through ignorance, no person having been before
punished for this offence, the Court only fined him five marks. The
reference here, to no one having been previously punished for a like
offence, refers only to the Superior Courts, as there had been convictions
at the Police Courts and the Old Bailey. Despite this decision of the
Court, prosecutions were very seldom undertaken, although Southwood
Smith[19] states that there had been fourteen convictions in England
during the year 1823. In examination before the Committee on Anatomy, in
1828, Mr. Twyford, one of the magistrates at Worship Street Police Court,
stated that he had not had more than six cases in as many years.

The following account of proceedings at Hatton Garden Police Court, in
1814, will show the difficulty of getting a conviction. In this case there
seems to have been no one to identify the bodies. It is very improbable
that in a case of this sort the authorities of burial-grounds would come
forward to give evidence, and so confess their own negligence.

"HATTON GARDEN.

"T. Light, W. Arnot, and ---- Spelling, were brought up on Wednesday. It
appeared that the prisoners were going up Holborn about half-past four
o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, with a horse and cart; they were observed by
two officers, who, knowing the prisoners to be resurrection-men, stopped
the horse and cart, and, after a hard contest, succeeded in securing the
prisoners. They then examined the contents of the cart, and found it
contained seven dead bodies of men and women; one of the bodies was
headless, but how it came to be so remains as yet to be cleared up. They
were packed up in bags and baskets. The prisoners wer