The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1858.

an investment or honourable and praiseworthy as a national undertaking,
there is no fear of its meeting a most liberal support. Past years have given
examples, usque ad nauseam, of the readiness of speculation which induces
thousands to rush into ill-digested schemes of aggrandizement, and even to
confide well-devised business to hands clever indeed, but not sufficiently
honest to resist the temptation of no supervision. Authority sways the
British public. They are always ready to follow men whom they recog-
nize as authority ; and it would almost seem as if bitter experience had not
materially reduced their powers of gullibility in this respect. So there is
no fear of the Great Eastern steamship being sold to Cherbourg. But it
will require a proper amount of explanation for the public mind to realize
the project proposed; and it looks well. She is not more than one-
fourth larger than our first-class steamers ; her capacity to carry
double the proportionate tonnage at double velocity, and therefore
her working expenses will be proportionably less ; and the computa-
tions of mechanical science, which have hitherto in successful praci ice
demonstrated that increase of size has been attended with corresponding
increase of speed and carrying power, leave no reason to doubt their cor-
rectness in this instance also. But there is another, and in our opinion
a more important consideration :—This gigantic vessel is a monument of
engineering and mechanical skill, which as a nation we have just reason to
be proud of. With colonies and dependencies in every quarter of the habi-
table globe, both the rapidity and efficiency of such a vehicle as she affords
for communication is really invaluable ;!and in the hope that, by this very
simple and well-known expedient of calling upon a liberal public to endorse
their approval of a scheme fraught with national honour as well as private
profit, the object proposed will be; eventually realized, we heartily wish
success to the movement.

The New Yorkers have just accomplished a coup-d'Ctat in a small
way, and after their own peculiar fashion. They have not overturned an
unpopular Government, but have burnt down some obnoxious Government
buildings. On Staten Island for sixty years past had existed a Quarantine
Establishment designed to protect the Empire City from the visitation of
that disease which is to the Western Continent what the plague is to the
Levant—yellow fever. Now, Staten Island stands towards New York
n much the same position as the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth; and
though considerably smaller than the Isle, is large enough to contain
some pretty diversified scenery, and besides commands magnificent views
of the Hudson and its adjacent shores. It has accordingly become a
favourite site for the out-of-town residences of New York merchants.
With the growth of the city these residences multiplied until at length
they were regularly "built up" to the Quarantine Establishment, whose
existence thenceforth became a nuisance to the highly-respectable
inhabitants of the vicinity. Many propositions were made
for its removal, but the difficulty was to find where to take
it to. There was no available locality except Sandy Hook, a narrow
" spit " of land running into the sea from the opposite bank, and therefore
belonging to New Jersey. That State refused to cede the Hook to New
York except upon exorbitant terms. For some years the
States have been higgling and chaffering over the deal without result, the
Federal Legislature as usual declining to interfere in the controversy.
Meantime the Quarantine Establishment remained, and in spite of all
precautions some taint of fever transpired through its walls into the
fashionable districts around. The evil, of course, comes to its climax in
the autumn, which is the fever " season." Tired of waiting for the State
bargain-drivers, the New York population have this year taken the
remedy into their own hands. On the first of the present month a mob
attacked—not without warning—the establishment, and destroyed several
sheds and out-buildings. Next day they resumed operations, the autho-
rities having adopted no preventive measure in the interval, and effec-
tually completed the work of destruction. Nothing remained on the
morning of the 3rd, as the New York Herald states, but heaps of smoul-
dering ruins. This was not the worst. The establishment contained
extensive hospitals, in which at the time were many sick patients of both
sexes. These were treated with most abominable cruelty. They were
ejected from their wards and placed on the bare grass beside the blazing
edifice, and left all that night and during the following day with no
shelter but a strip of canvas. Many are said to have died on the spot
from fright and exposure. All this while the authorities never stirred
a step. Some " Federal" policemen came down, but ostentatiously pro-
claimed that they should interfere only for the preservation of " Federal"
property—of which there does not seem to have been any in the estab-
lishment. Here the matter remained when the last mail left. One or two per-
sons who had made themselves most conspicuous in the affair had bcen
held to bail before the magistrates, but there was no prospect of any serious
proceedings in consequence. It was, indeed, still uncertain whether the
mob, being in the vein, might not attack something else. The chief
anxiety felt among the general community, however, arose from a selfish
fear lest the assailants of the Quarantine Establishment might have brought
away the seeds of infection, and disseminated them throughout the city.
Disgraceful as the incident is, it acquires still greater importance when
viewed as the symptom of a disease which seems rapidly extending through
the social system of the United States. Lynching appears really sporadic
among the model Republicans. It is practised in California against felons
and murderers • it exists in a state of chronic activity in the Slave States
against suspected Abolitionists ; in the North it is employed to put down
an unpopular institution or an obnoxious establishment. An American
mob is a highly genteel mob ; indeed, the present grievance was a highly
genteel grievance ; but it is just as prone to " descend into the streets" as
_the Paris sanseulottes in 1790, upon the slightest provocation. As a col-
lateralquestion, the event is likely to excite much discussion respecting the
real utility of Quarantine as a shield against epidemic diseases. In Eng-
land an opinion has become almost universal that the whole system is
worse than useless. As Professor 0 WEN remarked in his inaugural address
before the British Association on Wednesday:—" Quarantine exemplifies
" only the first step in the progress of thought bearing on the prevention
of some dreaded distemper. It is a system which might keep out contra-