The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-07 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

The weekly report of the Registrar-General states
that cholera is now rapidly declining in London, and.
the deaths by it have fallen from 2,050 in the first
week to 754 in the last week of September.
The present epidemic eruption began later than
the eruption of 1849, and it has latterly been more
fatal; but the aggregate mortality will yet probably
be less than it was in 1849 ; for the deaths by cholera
in that year down to September 29 were 13,098, while
the deaths by the present epidemy down to Sept. 30
have been 9,707.
Yet the loss of nearly 10,000, or, including the
deaths by diarrhea, of 12,000 lives, within a few
weeks, in the chief city of the empire, is an appalling
fact, demanding the strict investigation into all its
details which the Board of Health has directed to be
instituted.
Is London to continue every five years to he
attacked by pestilence, and to lose so many thousands
of its inhabitants? Cannot the conditions in which
disease is fatal be determined, and cannot they be
removed ?
The 2,210 deaths from all causes registered in the
week include the deaths of many persons on whom
inquests had been held in previous weeks, but the
returns relating to which were not presented until
the close of the quarter.

THE SCOTCH BROTHERS.-A tale of two Scotch brothers
—more moving by far than that of the Corsican Brothers—
has reached us. They met in London : the ono rapidly
winging his way homeward from the Continent, the other
rushing in hot haste to India. One night only had they
time to interchange endearments—to talk over old times
—to conjecture the future—to " take a cup o' kindness yet
for auld lang syne." But the night of their meeting was
Sunday, and they were lodged at different hotels. Touched
by the peculiarity of their position, one of the Bonifaces
ventured nevertheless to set a bottle of wine before them.
But at the witching hour of night Policeman X entered
with the Beer Act in his hand and found them hob-nobbing
with the last glasses. The tender-hearted publican was
summoned to the police court, where the magistrate laid
down the law as follows :—" The innkeeper has served out
refreshments to two persons of a Sunday night after ten
o'clock. But one of the parties was a lodger, and did not
count ; the offender must, however, pay for the other." If
only the resident brother had partaken of the wine—had
the other been a teetotaller and looked on—the innkeeper
might have escaped, What a pity the two brothers did
not drink after the fashion of Sir Adam Ferguson and John
Kemble. One morning Sir Adam called upon Sir Walter
Scott, and in the course of conversation informed him
that he bad sat up till four o'clock with John Kemble
drinking wine and water. "Wine and water!" exclaimed
Scott in astonishment, who had never suspected his friend
of being addicted to such thin potations. "Yes" rephet
Sir Adam, " I drank the wine and he drank the water.
But perhaps water is a refreshment " in the sense of
. the
act :" in that case the act would run counter to Scripture,
which enjoins the charity of " a cup of cold water" witheat
limitation of days.

OCTOBER 7, 1854

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