The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

In other springs our life may be
1
In bannered bloom unfurled ;
But never, never match our wee
White Rose of all the world.
The next fragment, " Lady Laura," is the only
one with any pretence to story, and this is
told in a series of tableaux. The first is the
interior of a mill, where the " Factory Fiend "
tramples out the soul-sparks of the children
day by day. The second scene is a grand old
Gothic palace, where dwells the Lady Laura.
The third, a visit of the angelic young heiress
to the mill, where she takes a youth
From out that cruel iron world to the tender human day.
In succeeding parts the youth sings his
adoration. He is encountered by Ltura at
the moment when in " a trembling confidence
of love" he talked to himself. He fears her
displeasure, but she comes to tell him that
false friends have usurped her title and lands
till the law shall do her right. A picture of
many-sided London serves to indicate the
youth's rise to fame ; and another picture
shows Lady Laura welcomed home a bride
with the conquering youth at her side.
Nothing can be imagined more shadowy than
the indications thus supplied of the incidents
of the tale. We are required to accept sym-
bols for narrative. It bears strong resem-
blance to Mr. Tennyson's " Maud,' but is
rather more indistinct. Many of the images
are striking. Take this one :
Fine actions feed Love's holy fire,
Like sandal-wood of fragrant gold ;
Till heavenward, glorious to behold,
It breaks, in many a splendid spire.
And this, of a factory lit up at night :
Which like a doomed ship far away i the night
Pleaded—each port-hole lighted up for help !
The fragment following, " Glimpses of the
War," indicates in bursts of song the great
actions of the Crimean struggle. The death-
ride at Balaklava is extremely spirited :
Sit proud in your saddles ! grip tighter each blade!
We ride, ho. we ride a magnificent raid !
Today win a glory that never shall fade.
Old England for ever ! Hurrah!
O the lightning of life! 0 the thunder of steeds !
Great thoughts burn within us like fiery seeds,
Swift to flame out a red fruitage of deeds.
Old England for ever ! Hurrah !
O the wild joy of Warriors going to die,
All Sword, and all Flame, with our brows lifted high !
Ride on, happy band, for the glory swims nigh.
Old England for ever ! Hurrah!
Chariots of fire in the dark of death stand ;
Down thro' the battle-cloud reaches a Hand
To crown all who die for their own dear land.
Old England for ever! Hurrah!
The Sea of Flame wraps us now! take one long breath,
And plunge for the prize of Immortals, beneath.
Shout to the cannonade, shouting to Death :
Old England fur ever ! Hurrah !
Spring to now ! dash thro' now! and cleave crest and crown !
For each foe round you strown now a wreath of renown !
In a red rain of Sabres ride down, dash them down.
Old England for ever! Hurrah !
Charge back ! once again we must ride the death-ride,
You Victor-few smiling in terrible pride!
Charge home ! smoking hell of horse, grim, glorified!
Old England for ever ! Hurrah!
Now cheer for the living ! now cheer for the dead
Now cheer for the deed on that bill-side red !
The glory is gathered for England's head.
Old England for ever ! Hurrah !
Mr. Massey expresses bitter disappointment
at the results of the contest. He anticipated
a war for liberty all over the world. Our great
ally is greeted with a torrent of radical wrath.
We quote a couple of stanzas only as showing
the ribaldry with which the poet's page is
sometimes stained :
There was a poor old Woman once, a daughter of our
nation,
Before the Devil's portrait stood in ignorant adoration.
" You're bowing down to Satan, Ma'am," said some Spec-
tator civil:
" Ah, Sir, it's best to be polite, for we may go to the Devil."
Bow, bow, bow :

We may go to the Devil, so it's just as well to bow.
So England hails the Saviour of Society, and will tarry at
His feet, nor see her Christ is he who sold him, curst
1 scariot.
By grace of God, or sleight of hand, he wears the royal
vesture,
And at thy throne, Divine Success ! we kneel with reverent
gesture,

And Low, bow, bow :

We may go to the Devil, RO it'a just as well to bow.

Wild and rhapsodical. but vigorous and glow-
ing, the verse of Mr. Massey will meet with

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many admirers. His richness of imagery, and
emotional fervour, show the true poet. Oftea
his thoughts are most happily expressed :

Not by appointment do we meet Delight
And Joy ; they heed not our expectancy •
But round some c inter in the streets of life,

They, on u sudden, clasp us with a smile.

The finest descriptive piece is near the end of
the volume, at pages Uoi-U. The description
of Charrnian's habitual beauty is superb :

Her bounteous breast that breathed magnificence
And billowed with proud blood.
There is in Byron nothing finer than this
fragment, " Only a Dream."

We are sorry to hear that calamity has been
busy in Mr. Massey's household, and that he
is now struggling sorely to keep the wolf from
the door. Frankly, this should not be. The
bounty of the Crown may often be more fitly
bestowed on genius struggling to win its way
than on genius reposing when its work is done.
Such aid as, relieving the poet from the most
pressing cares of life, would allow him to give
more time to his productions, might gracefully
be rendered to and honourably received by
him. It. might also have the good effect of
making him a little more discreet in the ex-
pression of his political opinions.

The Tricks of Trade in the Adulteration of Food
and Physic. London : Bogue.
WE easily get accustomed to things noxious
in themselves. " Custom," says Horatio, re-
ferring to the grave-digger's business,
" Custom hath made it in him a property of
" easiness." The same may be said of the
horrifying disclosures made to us from time to
time of the poisons contained in the food we
cat and the air we breathe. Over and over
again the public has been told that it takes
slow poison in the adulterated bread paid for
on the supposition that it is the staff of life ;
in the polluted water supplied to it through
lead pipes ; in the tea and sugar of its social
meals ; in the viands which it buys to sustain
health ; in the medicines which it pays for so
dearly to cure sickness. It gets accustomed
to these representations. The profitable
trade of adulteration goes on ; cheap ticketing
shops flourish ; gin palaces are crowded ; and
the bulk of the urban population is cut off
sonic twenty years before its time.
By the report of the medical officer of the
city of London it appears that the average life
of the adult population of London is scarcely
fifty years Whence this early mortality ?
London itself is not unhealthy. Inhabitants
of the metropolis, favorably circumstanced,
attain a great age. Adverse locality and.
occupation may weigh for much, but of them-
selves would not account fur the lamentable
mortality of the industrious population. It is
a question suggested by works like the
present whether unwholesome food may not
have some influence in shortening the dura-
tion of human life.
We presume this little book is by Mr.
Henry Mayhew, whose search into social
questions has been honourable to his activity,
and beneficial to the public. But the author-
ship of the book is of little moment. as facts
only are described. Turn to what kinds of food
we may, and the adulteration, not only fraud-
ful, but poisonous, is the same. The smoker
seems to fare the best, the dram drinker
the worst It would, perhaps, be no exaggera-
tion to affirm that on an average the life of
every inhabitant in the metropolis is cut
short by ten years through the impurities of
his food. What wholesale murder is here
There is no " crowner's quest" on the victims
who have been prostrated by diseases or weak-
ness, slowly but surely brought on by the
noxious diet to which they have been accus-
tomed. The " visitation of God" is cliarged
with the mortality resulting from the cupidity
of man. _ _

There need not be much sympathy with tho
epicure, who. instead of a genuine anchovy to
flavour his toast, is served with a sprat pickled
in " bole Armenian " ; but the manufacture of
butter, as an article of general use, is more
serious. Nothing is easier, we are assured,
than to make up fine Epping, fresh from
Essex, for the market:—
Irish salt butter of a very inferior quality is taken ; this
is repeatedly worked with water, in order to free it from the

1000

salt. The next process is to wash it frequently with milk;
the manufacture being completed by the addition of a small
quantity of sugar. The result is styled " Epping butter ;"
the sale of which yields the ingenious manufacturer a pro-
fit of one hundred per cent., while his shop gets the credit
of being supplied with genuine Epping butter from the
first-rate dairies.

Rancid Cork butter is converted into fine salt
by being well mixed, when in a half iluid state,
with water and salt.
Bread, beyond the unwholesome properties
resident in very inferior qualities of flour, is
most commonly adulterated with alum. In
brown or moist sugar a natural process of
adulteration commonly goes on which partly
spares the dealer the trouble of exercising his
ingenuity. A disgusting little insect is bred
in it, known as the sugar acarus, approaching
" in organisation and habits to the louse and
" the itch-insect." Here is a hint for poor
tea-drinkers :
The acarus sacchari clings to life with great tenacity, for
warm water does not always kill it. Hence those who
sweeten their drinks with brown sugar, must swallow
several of these disgusting insects in a living state, for
the heat of the beverage is not sufficient to destroy them.
It appears that these insects produce a disease
of the skin, well known as the "grocers itch."
We read :

To this disease all grocers are not equally liable, but
those particularly who are engaged in the " handling " of
sugars, as the warehousemen. Now the scams sacchari
actually belongs to the same specie as the acarus scabei, or
itch-insect, than which it is larger, and possessed of an
organisation still more formidable and forbidding.
Dr. Hassall reports that these insects were
present in thirty three out of thirty-six brown
sugars he purchased, and in nineteen sam-
ples were present in considerable numbers.
He comes to the conclusion that " the brown
" sugars of commerce arc, in general, in a
" state wholly unfit for human consumption."
The purchasers of sweetmeats, principally
the most helpless and sensitive class of the
community—children--fare about the worst :
Every investigstion that has been made int) the colour.
ing matters used by confectioners for the adornment of
their sweetmeats has invariably ended in the discovery of
poisons of the most destructive and deadly nature. We
must remember that these sweetmeats are principally pur-
chased by children, whose organisation is the more sus-
ceptible to their influence. The usual defence of this in-
iquitous custom is, that the mineral poison is used in
extremely small proportions. But this would only serve
to prolong the agony of the child; for it will, nevertheless,
most certainly produce disease, and, if persevered in, even-
tually death. The only choice rests, therefore, between
sudden and lingering death. The preparations of lead,
copper, arsenic, are what is called by medical men accumu-
lative poison, or poisons which are, little by little, taken up
by the s stem, until their full effects become manifested.
Dr. Hassell purchased one hundred and one
different kinds of sweetmeats, as comfits,
sugared almonds, imitations in sugar of bacon,
fruit, &c.; and in colouring these sweets, he
found that one hundred and forty poisonous
colours had been used. Chromate of lead oc-
curred in fifty-nine, red lead in twelve, and
white lead in four instances. Fatal results
often follow from partaking of these kinds of
trash :

In September, 1847, three adults and eight children were
taken to Marylebone Workhouse, having been seized with
vomiting and retching after eating some coloured confer•
tionary. Only twopenny worth had been purchased, and
eleven persons had shared it, yet the symptoms appeared
within ten minutes of its being taken. The poisonous
colours had been made from verdigris. _ _

At Nottingham, twenty persons were poisoned at a public
dinner through partaking of a blancmange, the top of
which was coloured with arsenite of copper (emerald
green). One of them lost his life.
Another case is mentioned by Dr. Letheby. In May,
1850, two little girls were taken to the London Hospital,
suffering from the effects of poison. They had bought
some sugar ornaments and coloured confectionary from a
Jew in Petticoat•lane, and soon after eating them, they
were seized with vomiting pains in the stomach, and burn-
ing of the mouth. On analysing the vomited matters,
there wad abundant evidence of the presence of arsenic,
copper, lead, iron, all of which metals had been derived
from the confectionary of which the children had partaken.
On making inquiry, Dr. Letheby was informed that
between thirty and Forty children had been attacked in a
similar way, after purchasing sweetmeats from the Jew in
question, who was not acquainted with the poisonous
nature of his merchandise ; for he had purchased it, so he
stated, as the refuse stock of a large and very respect-
able " firm in the City.

In the adulteration of spirits (especially
gin) vitriol seems to he most commonly used ;
a great proportion of the old crusted port dis-
posed or is a vile compound of spoiled cider,
elderberries, oak sawdust, logwood, rhatany-
wood, and catechn. Brandy or spirits of
ino is added to supply strength.