The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

variably injurious. The Church as it once
subsisted under the supremacy of Rome was
not ohnoxions to till the imputations which at-
tach to the Runtish ('lurch in these days.
If its tendency ids to yield to corruptions or
al, act rine and its political intlutswe
wait adapted. ia many respects, to promosb
the harmony tat the aorta. There were tacos-
slims ales it Was virtually able to proclaim)
its " Trace of God " upon at European Neale ;
and, ba.4mre aliplonisey undertook the task a
stiinssing a 'aslant* of power, there were tittles
when the Chrktian opinion which was di-
mete,' by the ii' Sea curbed the ambition
of kings snal emperors, or converted their
rival forces into a scourge for the lawless and
a terror to the barbarian. Dining those
days, if its privileges were at times op-
pressivo. their possession made it a power
eotupetent to produce cohesion, tool which
at least prevented anarehy. lint, in strain-
lug its preteusions to the provocation of a
European revolt, its sceptre was broken, and
iu its collapse from a system to a sect its
wale of action fur good or evil was irreparably
changed. It Was no longer a combining,
fusing, supetintending influence, but an ele-
ment in the discord and a party to the strife.
Its targa nisation was not destroyed when its pre-
rogatives were abrogated ; but it retained its tra-
ditions without commensurate responsibilities,
and exerted its energies without its authority.
It has wade stupendous etliarts to regain its hold
over the consciences of men; and with some
it has succeeded—with enough to make it, in
its altered phase, a permanent though a
partial incubus ou society. It has had the
option of a to iterated freedom ; but it is
obtrusively refusing tolerance on the only con-
ditions which make its freedom possible. It
might have abated its pretensions—have sus-
tained them without abatement, yet with a
tack admission of compromise ; but instead of
doing either it has remained separatist and
hostile, and it has now in these latter days
become tilfensively aggressive. It is even
dangerous. We say this with no consciousness
of impolitic tremors or excited fanaticism ; but,
observing, these later proofs of its secret inten-
tions, we eamehole that it is now time to meet
theta defensively. Rome has had its opportu-
nities, but they are passing away. It has ra-
tified no Concordat with the genius of
civilisation. An authority which vacillates but
never retinas. tin allay Which disappear!: but
does nut dish:null, an organisation which
threatens even when it does not domineer, is
an object of political vigilance, and may be
proved by investigation to be fairly a subject
for political control. The science of govern-
ment is essentially experimental. It' it en -
(-mtter a polity which pursues without cu 111-
promise its limited objects, which disturbs
organised governnwnt without promoting
liberty, anal avails itself of the facilities of
eivilisation to raise obstacles to progress,
that polity is ripening for u day of retribution ;
and it will be no reproach to those who ulti-
mately restraiu it that, bbim; an automnaly, it is
open to the application of new principles.

REPORT Ok"I'llE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
WK invite the particular attention of our
readers to the admirable report of the City
Medical Officer, an abstract of which will be
found in another part of this day's impression of
our paper. Wo hold it a noble course, and worthy
of professional imitation, for a practitioner of the
healing art, like Mr. Stmos, to preach openly
the superiority of drains to drugs for the pre-
servation of the public health ; and to show,
as he virtually does in this respect, how the
quickened flow of subterranean water may ex-
tinguish hundreds of those coloured lamps
(symbolic of red inflammation, yellow fever, and
blue cholera morbus) which are fed with the life
of plague-infected patients. Standing, armies
have acquired in the progress of civilisation
less anal less of an (*noire. and more and
more of a de:to/sire. character, till at last (so
tin•, at least, as the Western States of Europe
are concerned) they may be regarded rather

SATURDAY,

as a sort of international police, than as
institations in the old sense. Just so
should our medical and snrgieal armies be-
eome less and less the direct combatants (too
often worsted) ot' disease and death, and more
and worn the defensive watchmen of health
and life, substituting a house-to-house inspec-
tion, continually mew frequent and more
close, of men as yet whole, for the tardy visi-
tatiou of the sick. In the struggle to which
this suggestion gave rtae, during the cholera
plague of 'V, Mr. Slues bore a distinguished
part. While the guardians of the metropoli-
tan parishes, resisting the orders of the Hoard
of Ilcsalth, and refusing to undertake a pre-
ventive inspection of the dwellings of the
poor, who were perishing by thousands around
them, had to be summoned by scores before
the magistrates to answer for their infraetiona
of the law, the City Medical Officer was en-
gaged in organising, amidst immense opposi-
tion, a staff of sanitary inspoctors, to whose
exertions we owe the unexpected revelation of
the innumerable fever-nests and plague-springs
which are now in course of gradual abolition.
This was the sanitary triumph of 10; awl,
whatever mistakes or shortcomings may have
been exhibited in other sanitary departments,
the author of the report before us is entitled
to the highest praise.

DECEMBER 3, 1853.

cotton consumed per week about IO,'MM► bags, anti
over this mass of property and population influence
is exercised by such men as Mr. D. NI-11TR ! The
time for the strike could not, for the operatives, have
been worse selected ; winter and war at hand. money
dear, and foreign markets glutted—just the very
tune when it would be advisable to diminish the pro-
duction. Accordingly we find that, even where the
operatives have not struck, their services are par-
tially dispensed with. At Stockport 20,000 perions
are employed in the mills, and there the masters will
only work four days a week. tinder these circum-
stances, it is obvious that the men are fighting a
losing game. Political events, the season of the
year, the state of the markets, all are in favour of
the masters. The trifle the operatives receive from
their toiling brethren will cease with mid-winter. The
workhouse then may be a refuge from starvation ;
but not unless their labour is not wanted. For,
whilst our law recognises the rights of poverty when
it arises from misfortune, it can never be tolerated
that men who had failed, by abstaining from work,
to reduce the masters to their terms, should impo-
verish them by living in idleness on those rates
which are obtained from the masters' property.