The Statesman. — London, England, 1821-10-13 00:00:00

who returned thanks in an eloquent and ener getic_ week which we regret we cannot give. " Tnllet, Mr. Sudwortb, and success to the Plough and the 31r.'FFe1N,g'r, in an eloquent and excellent speech, en forced npoi country gentlemen the necessity of exertion in sending gash men to Parliament as would attend to the interests of the country, rather than their own pri vate ensolosment, as the only means of redemption. MV. 817111111101111 briefly returned thanks to the compa ny, and particularly to his Lordship, for his kindness in connectiag his name with that of a gentleman so well • known% tire agricultural world. Mr. Sudworth thee begged leave to give— " May the County of Chester be as rich in honest prin ciple, as in valuable produce." At about half-past ten o'clock, Lord Grosvenor, Lord Anson, Sir John Stanley, Sir Henry Bunbury, and some other Gentlemen, mired from the company with mutual gratulation., expressive of the sensible feelings upon both the bility of the persons and of the prin. riples disph, t the Meeting. In about half an hour afterward., rd Crewe, with some other Gentlemen, took leave of the company. His Lordship, in doing so, declared in the most feeling and impressive manner," he had spent one of the happiest evenings be bad expe rienced in his life." THE PLAGUE OF PESTILENCE, THE LONDON COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, AND THE CITY OP BARCELONA. TO TILE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN. LETTER 1. London, October 10, 1021. Silt-It is impossible for say man of ordinary feelings of humanity to contemplate. without grief and even horror. the proceedings, to which, under one •,f the most preposterous, as well as the most stu nendons delusions that have ever disgraced the intel lect and destroyed the life of wan, the Christian Clo vernments of the ivorl , l continue, without due exami 11.stion, to have such frequent recourse. I allude to the prroavtioss employed against the phantom of con tagion in epidemic diseases, which I have, in so many ways, irrefragably demonstrated to have no exist ence. For many years, it has happened to me, regu lady and periodically, to be able to adduce every mr.tann practical and historical proofs of the truth of my conclusions, similar to those which are now aford e•! by the Fever of the Spanish Peninsula, of America, and other places. The most essential of these con clusions are :-Ist, That a specific contagion does not, and cannot possibly form the cause, or any pert of the cause, of epidemic and pestilential diseases ; and. 2.11 y, That the means of prevention, founded on the opposite conclusion, as quarantine, lazarettos, Sze. are, ii.stcad of being useful or only simply useless, causes of a great increase of sickness and mortality, fre quently even to the extent of nineteen-twentieths of ti,e whole. Let us apply these doctrines to the Fever at present prevailing in the Spanish Peninsula, in the Lazaretto in Marseilles, and in other places. In the first place, no conclusion ran he more absurd than that u disease, which invariably appears about the com mencement of the autumnal season, and invariably disappears - with the commencement of the winter, should depend upon a specific contagion; and no con clusion cab be snore rational than that a malady regu larly so commencing and so disappearing, depends upon the vicissitudes of temperature, and quali ties of the atmosphere, peculiar to the season, together with circumstances of a Neal nature.— Tta distinction between " infection of the air," ar.d speeijic eontogion," is real and palpable ; they can only he confounded purposely, or inconsequence of a la mentable confusion of ideas. The latter is propagated from person to person, as small-pos, and cannot possibly have any regard to season; the former is produced by sudden or extreme vicissitudes of temperature, or noxi ous qualities oldie atmosphere, and must depend entirely upon the nature of the season. In the one case, contact of persons alone propagates the disease ; in the other, the operation of the temperature and the atmosphere.— These distinctions are clear, important, and consequen tial. But, how does it happen, we shall be asked by the believers in contagion, as applied to epidemic diseases, that the Las 'reit° of Marseilles should be more sickly than any other part of the city ; and that in Barcelona the mortality in Barcelonetta, the suburb which extends along the harbour, should be greater than in other parts of that town, if contagion be not the cause of the disease, and if that contagion he not imported ? This is taking for granted the question in dispute with a ven geance! Upon rational principles, if we can divest our minds of the usual pre-conceived notions, the questions are easily solved. The site of the Lazaretto at Mar seilles, and the suburb of Barcelona, called Barcelonetta, would, from their lower situation, and greater damp ness, and more noxious air, be naturally the principal sites of sickness and mortality in epidemics : and these circumstances being the same, they would be equally so, if not visited by a single ship from any quarter of the world. But, if the lAsavetto at Marseilles were situated on a bill, without any marshes in its immediate vicinity, although it might contain the goods and crews of all the ships of the Levant, it would never become the prin cipal focus of any epidemic disease. At Marseille:, however, the disease is ridiculously &Hedged to have come from Spain, as if a similar state of air, or similar •ir:issitudes of temperature would net simultaneously produce a Amidst disease at different places. " The e pid em ic disorder, which ravages the coast of Spain, has appeared io our Lazaretto. It was communicated by a Swedish vessel—ethers say, by a Dasi:h—which arrived here last week." This article is dated the 17th of September, and was at first prevented from appear ing by the French Censors of the Press. It is in Sep tember generally, that the cause of epidemics operate with most intensity in those latitudes ; it may with certainty be predicted of the recent fever in the Penin sula, that it will spread, decline and cease, with the changes etthe sesames usual; i. e., that it will con tinue to lioness in September, decline in October, and cease in the course of November, or early in De cember. Whets variation' in these respects take place, they are easily to be accounted for, by the casual va rieties la thu anal OWN a the vicissitudes of temper. sty% or d the (polities of the air which distinguish the mama reipeeihrely ; together with the state of umaily called prodiermition, in which general operatioe have left the the is. TIN slum predictions will of Allelliol6 ssill is satins iscusa. I hart repeat- slot bum bees yield preeediai woos 41 e nestitstiesi of dm 141 redid the r la moil woke THE STATKSI edlydemonstratedthe doeiritcearoni . agio . ti in epitil/Znie and pestilential diseases, to be not only in fart a delu• sion, but in its origin a fraud: .1 *bre shown that it is supported, not by argument or fact, hut, 'on the part of the medical faculqv, 'from a pusillani mous reluctance. to acknowledge error, and, from a desire on the part of governments to conceal the real causes, which produce that state of predisposition in the constitutions of the people, which enables a smaller degree of vicissitude of temperature, or noxious quail tiesof the air to occasion an epidemic or a pestilence, than would otherwise be adequate to produce that ef fect; together with a wish, in this cautery, to maintain the patronage and influence of large and expensive esta blishments. The College of Physicians of London, have not dared to look my arguments in the face, when my researches were referred to theirs by the Privy Council th-y reported that the plague is con tagious, beau'se they hcliteed that the &orients rere of that opinion. If it were true that this was the opinion of the incients, it e• wild be nothing to the purpose.— Neither the opinion of the ancients, nor of any modern College can prove that to exist, of which the existence is shown, from the nature of things, to be impossible. But it was not the opinion of the ancients. The idea of contagion, in any disease, was unknown to them. I. the dissertations of the ancients upon epideinics, there is not the slightest mention, or the most remote allu sion to such a cause as a specific contagion. The cor porate spirit, and the false knowledge generated by it, which have made such inroads upon the understand ings of the modertv , , had not affected the writers of the enlightened days of Greeee or Koine, in such a man ner as to urge them to the adoption, or even to sug gest to them the idea of such an extravagant absur dity, as an epidonie disease depending - upon a ar t-Vic eo»tagion. Ilenre, instead of the insane and bar barous measures of cordons of troops, lines of Armin vallation, blockading of streets, dividing of cities into thirty or forty plague districts or divisions, blocking up commerce and navigation in all the principal sea port towns of Chri...iendotn, imprisoning the sick and those sett:peeled of being infected in their houses, or transporting them by force to the Lazarettos, or houses of recovery, as they are here quaintly and ri diculously caked, together with other measures of a similar description, ensuring the increase of sit kness, misery, and mortality, often twenty fold, the Romans were wisely busied, in the height of epidemics, in celebrating the fectival of the Lectisternium ; thus seeking to remove or to alleviate the terrors incidental to the calamity, in its usual and ordinary farms, instead of superadding fresh causes of fear, and consequently of sicknesa, which are the in evitable effects of the sagacious regulations of the moderns. No wonder the inhabitants of Barcelona, as is reported, have forced the cordon of troops which surrounded their city, and were endeavouring to keep them exposed to the air which constituted the principal cause of the malady. In this they would have done right, if even conta gion had been ascertained to form part of that cause : for it is folly in• area to submit theteselvra-tiasa muse to he devoted to almost inevitable destruction, in order that others may he exempted from an evil of which thP reality is at best unascertained. Nor can any government have a right to exact this destruction, far less to impose it—in fact deliberately to u►ur.ter their citizens or subjects upon a large scale ;—for every man, who dies f being compelled to re main in impure air, is, I must contend, officially murdered. As the London College of Physicians, in their Re port to the Privy Council, upon the subject of my work. upon epidemic disease•:, have assigned the alleged ITiidurs of the ancients, and the real belief of Sir Arthur Faulkner, a member of their body, as the sole grounds of their °end belief in the doctrite of contagion, (not clsooslng to venture, as 1 pre dicted to the Privy Council would be the case, into the argument at large) I shall here meet them upon the ground which they have themselves 'chosen ; al though, as I have said, if 1 were to admit their alle gation to be true, nay, if both ancients and moderns had universally entertained such a belief, the belief be ing shown to be absurd, it would be nothing to the purpose. lam now, then, directly at issue upon the matter of fact with the College, and with all those who accuse the ancients of having entertained so preposterous an opinion. It is no light or trivial ques tion, in consequence of which we see the great body of the population of large cities doomed to almost inevita ble destruction. I say, then, that not only the ancients generally did not entertain such a belief, and were wholly unacquainted u ith the idea of contagion in any disease, but that not a single ancient author has main tained such a doctrine. It is, by no means, sufficient, that the words " Contagio," Contagions," &c. should be pointed out in some of the ancient poets or historians, since we know that they were used by them, ins sense very different from the modern acaopta lion of the words " Contagion" and " Infection," which are also now pnrp6iety - confonnded by di the adherents of this modern delusion. If the College, then, cannot show, that any single author, medical or other, among the ancients. has treated s xpressly of the doctrine of contagion, or that a doctrine so consequen tial, could have existed and prevailed, without being expressly treated of, they lutist stand convicted of having, by unfounded assertions, contributed to the maintainanee of destructive opinions and regulations. and most expensive establishments. 1f the London College had done their duty, by examining the argu ments against, as well as those in Aeonr of this delu sion, and reporting. according to the facts al the case, not according to the opinions of the ancients. which the ancients serer entertained, would the. catastrophe of Barcelona, and all the quarantine and other plague police regulations, which are now pervading Christen dom, have taken place? Would die military have or ders to fire on citizens running away from death ? Os the contrary, would not other nations have inimedi ately followed so laudable an example, and entered upon a strict investigation of facts, instead of pertina ciously adhering to the errors of time 16th century? Let the College reflect upon their conduct. aid learn, that it is nd shame to be wiser this year, than they were the last. They may be assaged, however pots at they may fancy their•wn influence io the sappers of , demonstrated error, that. whilst I have exist...we, sod am able to write, their memories will be refreshed yew eeraing their most shameful modest, respecting theen-; cent investigation before Cosintittes'of the House of Commoah into the validity of the deetrixe of anew ; N, . pion in the plague, in which etopk no prominent a part, until, imitating the magnanimity df Dr. Rash, of Philadelphia, they sing their recantation. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, CUARLES MACLZANG M. D. TH' CO/041TTER appointed to ,undertak e the manairentent of the PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION to INDEMNIFY Sir ROBEST WILSON hasten to announce the sums already subseriba: to attain the desirable end of placing him ‘. above the reach of Ministerial . malice and vengeance;" and they trust that public spirit 4,11 be suffi ciently alive to prove that the people of England are not idle spectators of injustice or oppression being committed with impunity on a meritorious and deserving Officer. By Order of the Committee. Three Tuns-tavern. Southwark. R. HALL, Sec. SUBSCRIPTIONS received since last Advertisemeot. C. D. Oirange,296, Bo- E. Ellice, Esq. M.P.50 0 0 rough. I 001 A. R. 50 0 0 Dibbin ti R. W. E. John Bunton.. 1 I 0 A Friend, per ditto 100 R. G. A........ ... 3 3 0 T. Denman, Esq. Servility proctaresPa- M.P. ..... tronage . 6 6 0 Dr.Loshington.M.P.2.l A Boronghonian.... 6 5 0 Dancer.Nel:owg, and R. I'. Maundeville .. 1 1 0 Co. 3 queer fish in Liberty 1 0 0 Clipitone-street . 6 J. II 1 0 0 A Enemy to Oppres s. Whitbread, Esq. sion 1 M.P . 10 0 0 A Willing Mite 1 Rt. Hon. Earl Fitz- A. W. Pedley, Es, 5 William.... 800 0 0 JonatkanDocker.Eq. Lord Holland ......100 0 0 Barr-street, Loa- Earl of Jersey 50 0 0 don-Docks I.ord J. Itussall,M.P.2s 0 0 V. W. G. per ditto I I 0 W. V 9O 0 0 John Alder. per ditto 1 1 0 LordOssulston,M.P 245 00IA. P. per ditto II 0 Viscount Duneannon. Danl. Harwood, pr do 1 1 0 M.P. 25 00 G. E. Atkinson, pr do 0 50 Subscriptions are received by the following Banking houses :—Memrs. Marten, Stone, and Co. 68, Lombard , slreet ; Williams and Co. Birchin-lane; Ladbroke and Co. Rank-buildings; Ransom and Co. Pall-mall; and Sir John Pinhorn and Co-Borough Bank. O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0 00 00 00 3 0 ERRATA.-111 OUr li s t Subseriplion advertised for J. D. 11., read S.T. It.; for James llogg. Esq. 63, Old Bond street, 101.. read 03, Old Broad-street. PRICE OF STOCKS THE Sank Stork 2371 7 1 per Cent. Red 761 71 7 I per Cent.Coe. Ina Si per Cyst. 4 per Cents. 9611 S per Ct.Na',y 110}l s per Cent. Long Aso 191 7-10 Imp Spar Cert. Irish 6 per Cent. DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK. India Moak Dittoßot de 71: 693. 71s. pm South-Sea Mock South Sea Old Ann. Ea 911199/1. 10001. 4s. bs. p. -3001. bs. 4s. p.. Small 3s. 7s. pm. India for ditto Con, for Aoet 771 Lott. Tiakets 191. ISs. ett Abtattilittatt. Tilt IRITIft STAMMAN" II INCORPORAMD WITS 41 rai STATIUMASI." LONDON: SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 13, 1821. STOCK EXCILIN(4, TIVKLVE O'CLOCK. Yesterday Consols left off at 7717 e, and opened this morning at 77. i, though they are not quite so brisk as 4/steamy ; but money being plentiful, the market con tinues to look favourable for a rise. This being the 'first day of the Bank paying the Dividend!, the differ ent offices were crowded at an early hour. ht addition to the statements of the public re venue, which we inserted in yesterday's paper, was one which we then omitted on account of its length, and a couple which have since been issued from the Treasury. The former is an Ahstr4ct of the Net produce of the Revenue of Great Britain, in the year ended 10th Oct. 1820, and 1821, as well us of the Total Produce of the Consolidated Fund. the an nual Duties and War Taus. together with, the total produce of the Customs and Excise. Of the two which have subsequently been given, the one is an account of the Produce of the Excise Duties in the years and quarters ended the 10th of October, 1820 and 1821. *hewing the Increase or Decrease on each Head ; the ether is an abstract of the Income and Charge on the Consolidated Fund in the quitter ended 10th October, 1821. To occupy our columns with these details would be neither amusing nor edifying to our readers. it may suffice to say, it at acco►ding to the statement of the first mentioned paper, the total Revenue appears to amount to 50,526,8001. , but it should be also remetn beim. (to check any impulse to excessive exultation on We store) that there is au annual charge upon this Re venue, (referred to in the last of these three statements) in the first plaice, of 30,000,0001. on account of the un paid National Debt of eight hundred millions ; and in the next, of about 20,000,0001. more, on account of the expenses of the Government and the Interest of the Unfunded Debt. When these two seats are added together, and subtracted from the above-mentioned amount, little more than 500,00 W. surplus will remain, to operate as a Sinking Fund, instead of the five mil lions which had been reckoned on by our calculating COANCILLGO of the EXCINEINEk. Of the two other abstracts, the only one that is of any general interest, is that which relates to the produce of the Excise Du ties. As the increase in the last Quarter's Revenue wu principally owing to an improvement in that branch, the public will be curious to learn is what particulars the augmentation had taken place . The articles in which the greatest increase is obs•rra. ble are Beer, Bricks and Tiles, Glass, Malt, Salt, Soap and Tea ; and those' ie which the greatest Ut erus* had taken place, Auctions, Cyder, Hides, Hops, Printed Goods, Tobacco and Snuff, and Wier. The article, however, to which the Revenue has been chiefly indebted fur its improvement during the last partie s is Malt, the increase of the duty on which, shove thecorrespeedleg quarter of last year is stated to a moo nt to tie less than 488,0741. The whole amount of the pro d.'s ' of the Incise being surly 6011.000/.. we confess, we eoesitiered it yesterday as s gratefel symptoms of int orareassi is the circumstances of the labouring classes #imar rerslsties. As ietelligens corresponiket, who hai (issued ea with a cu+a►asicatioa, which we i • q t.; that t e inserted in anot t l iaiti l i te ia r co r l e u m mn ar , ha nks e t • are deserving of attention, especially with r esp ,, t to those duties the collection of which has b eet transferred from the Customs to the E xc i se. In his observations on the increased cossomt, Lion of certain gaciseable articles duri :g t h last quarter on account of the Coronation at r es% minster, and the Coronation festivals in different par' s of the country, he has anticipated what we bad Weed• ed to express today. We - recollected since yesterdar th at immediately after these occurrences the Treasury J o , r . nals boasted of the wonderful accessions these entert4in. meats made to the public Revenue; and though wed, not recollect the amount at which they reckoned the m , we are confident the actual produce fills far short o f their anticipation. After all, however, the Excise no Wine is above 24,0001, less than in the corresponding quarter of last year, and the increase on British sad Foreign Spirits (the ss hole duties on which amount to more than half a million,) is little more than 7,(nno . The ground, however, on which we t wine d opinion which our correspondent contests, rem a i n unaffected by these considerations; for the principal i ncrease is found to take place in the articks of beer and malt, which must be admitted as strong F rump , tuous evidence of improvement in the circumstances of people. But though we rejoiced at thi s appeas " r' improvement on account of the pe o pl e i n general. of saw no reason for the people of the Treasury to exult. Though the last Quarter's Revenue has com paratively increased, the Revenue of the whole year is shewn to have decreased, to the amount of more due MAO/. No Paris journals had reached us to-day when sat paper went to press. The private letters received yesterday give deplorable accounts of the ra►ages of the Yellow Fever in Spain. It is rather re markable that the French accounts of the Fever should be so much more favourable than those which come from Spain itself. It is true that they have gene rally been of a later date than those brought at the same time by the Spanish papers; but it is also equally true that when subsequent Journals came up to their date, they dill not confirm their ststeurents.— it is impossible, therefore, though we most sincerely hope it is not the case, that the French Government, anxious of preventing alarm amongst its subjects, may have directed the Censors of the Press not to Wimpy account to appear, but what was of a satisfactory sad tranquillising nature. EXTRACTS CONTINVED FROM TUE NORFOLK PAMMS RECEIVED YESTERDAY. Intelligence from Arlcansas to the lath September. A boat has arrived at that place from the Union Nis. sionary station. The passengers state that a war party of Cherellees have made an incursion into the o.4cre country, and murdered a Frenchman named Joseph Revoir, at a small settlement on Grand River, abort I 5 miles above the Missionary establishment. It is abs reported, that several other white persons hays beet murdered. As soon as Major Bradford received& information, he despatched from Arkansas an Inter• preter to ascertain the facts. Extract of a letter from Pensacola, dated Jell 23: _ _ —" I n my lad I advised you of the change of flags.— Pensacola is now an American town, and begins to look like one; people are coming here every day, some with a view to settle, and others to look about them. _ General Jackson has lost no time in commencing his administration. The day after the change of flags, some wholesome regulations were promulgated in the form of ordinances, for the government of the city. He found the place without police ; the elude under the Spanish Government, where there is no cabildo, is every thing ; a kind of Caleb Quotem, and therefore nothing. No civil police had ever bees or ganised here. To avoid the necessity of employing the military for this purpose, or for the purpose of civil government at all, the General found it absolutely necessary to establish something like a corporation, or cabildo, for the city, composed of a mayor or cot regidor, and six aldermen or regidors, together with a board of health. Mr. Bowie has been appointed mayor, and three American gentlemen, and three of the old inhabitants. aldermen; to these the power is given to appoint inferior officers; and the peace and health of the city are confided to this body. net are now in full exercise of their functions. Dr. Bronaugh, as resident physician, presides in the beard of health, which is composed of the mayor and alder. men. An ordinance has been promulgated, regulating the quarantine of vessels coming to this port. The administration of justice was found in a most defective state. The alcade was nut a lawyer. and they was no officer to execute civil process. la crimisal cases there is no public trial, and in fact it is almost impossible to say what is the _rule or form to be pet. sued. Judge Brackenridge was appointed steads, ald received all the public archives and records. It hiss lieved the p twers of this office will shortly be distri buted by ordinance in such a manner as to be less re staffing toour habits and feelings, at the cam e doe without essentially departing from Spanish usagessei customs, excepting. perhaps, in criminal cases, Otte it is impossible to pursue them. We are gratified pi learn that it is the Geseral's intention to i n troduce tha Trial by Jury in criminal cases at once. and a p ali hearing rim yore. The Spanish Constitut ion cos tesoplates the establishment of this mode of trial, hut the Cereal, I believe, have not yet adopted it. Colonel Pero, it is said, will be Alguazil , Mayor or Sher& None of the officers of the general government have y et made their appearance here. Captain Call is artist Secretary of the Province of West Florida. The ordinance alluded to contemplates the estate lisbmeot of country courts, to be comp osed of is justices of the peace, with a limited juri sdiction; the ng General himself the judge in last resort, and also of oricinal jurisdiction in cases beyond the power of th e county court. Bast auJ West Florists will each cote pose a comity. Justices of the peace are also to be IP pointed in the different settlements and towns, la Ilia purpose of haring eases of a small amount. • are among the fiat acts of the new government. 111 are all en the side of the rights, privileLess and 11 ' berty of the eititeak as well as calculates' fur therms' ral presperity...(orinnse Gazette.) Maffei Mader. Bet of New York, is areist a Coast of 111111111da foe Pensacola. • . • • •t 1 -t• • 1. mutants. 411.1lizuscu , w. •••...m. ..... r -- -- hang inferior officers; and the peace aka se city are confided to this body. Tbef r full exercise of their functions. Dr. s resident physician, presides in the beard hick is composed of the mayor ad alder. di nance has been promulgated, regulating see of vessels coming to this port. ikistration of justice was found in a exact te. The alcade was not a lawyer. sod thew rto execute civil process. la crimisal II no public trial. and in fact it is almost P say what is the rule or form to be per. re Brackenridge was appointed elude, sad the public archives and records. It is be k +were of this office will shortly be distri• linauce in such a manner a' to be less ne kr habits and feelings, at the sam e brae i tidally departing from Spanish usAgessni :epting. perhaps, in criminal cases, where sle to pursue them. We are gratified P is the Oeseral's intention to introduce do ry in criminal cases at once. ands pablic i voce. The Spanish Constitution csor e establishment of this mode of trial, but , • I believe, have not yet adopted it. Colonel i'' id, will be Alguazil, Mayor or Sherif. *1 officers of the general government have Y .!., Ippearance here. Captain Call is a ctiug 'the Province of West Florida. Dance alluded to contemplates the estate country courts, to be composed of is he peace, with a limited jurisdiction ; the &self the judge in last resort , and also of isdietion in cases beyond the power of lb° 1. Bast and West Florida will each cot ty. Justices of the peace & reale., tu be up .he different settlements and towns, or da Wady eases of a small amount. Thr" ~ tie i fet actsof the new government. 'lli dm side of the rights, privikLea , am"' 1 Citiffillk as well as calculated for there , ty..-(Oriewiss Gazette.) ..2 Mods , , se q . of N e w York, is appedato. Wilk fee Pensacola. V