The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

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THE WEEK.

" WHAT is nearest touches us most." In London the cholera has for :
the time superseded all other topics in interest. The pestilence has
broken out in its most virulent shape, and has proved itself no respector
of persons. The noble and wealthy suffer from its ravages as well as
the lowly and poor. Tho death of Lord JOYCELYN has produced a
painful impression, as, in reviewing the Militia in the Tower he was
struck down, in the eloquent language of Lord STANLEY at Lynn, " in
the performance of his duty, as much as if he had died on the battle
field." The deaths from cholera alone in the metropolis last week were
at the rate of 100 per day. The time is singularly ill-chosen for the
appointment of Sir BENJAMIN HALL as head of the Board of Health,
a feeble Ministry having been induced to place an ignorant and
arrogant man at the head of a department of which he can possibly
know nothing, to get rid of a troublesome opponent. Mr. CHADWICK,
and Dr. SOUTHWOOD Small, whatever might be their faults, knew some-
thing of sanitary science ; but who knows anything of Sir BENJAMIN
HALL, except that he is the proprietor of some ironworks in Wales,
that he is M.P. for Marylebone, and that he threatened to give the
Ministry some annoyance if his own sense of his imp ortance was not
properly appreciated ? The Roman tyrant who made his horse a consul
(not a Three per Cent., Sir BENJAMIN) had quite as good reason for his
choice as our Government for raising a vestry agitator to preside over
our sanitary condition at the present moment. While this improvised
Administrator is learning his A B C under the judicious instruction of
Mr. ToM TAYLOR, the farce-writer, the cholera is sweeping off its victims

by thousands.
What the public bad a right to expect was, that, on the dissolution
of the old Board, Sir W. MOLESWORTH, or some other Minister, would
make himself responsible for the efficient discharge of sanitary duties,
and would have summoned to his aid men of acknowledged skill and
experience to superintend necessary details As it is, we are horrified
at reading that pestilence is nourished in its strongholds by all
manner of foul and filthy nuisances. The same return which records
between 800 and 900 deaths from cholera and diarrhoea, contains
columns of notices such as these :
At 9, Patriot-street, on Bth August, a painter, aged 25 years, " tliarrhcea (1 week),
cholera (11 hours)." Informant and other neighbours stated that this house is in a
shameful condition. The soil from the closet has saturated the ground all over the
yard. One family lives in the kitchen, another on the ground floor, where a man lies ill
with fever ; a third did live on the floor above, where this case occurred, and whence the
wife of the deceased has been removed, also ill with cholera.
6, Edward-street, on oth August, the son of a barman, aged 11 months, ' exhaustion
from choleraic diarrhcea." Situated near unfinished buildings ; at the foundations are
thrown and remain dead dogs, cats, and even a whole sheep is now lying there, all masses

of putrefaction.
At 22, Everard-street, on 9th August, son of a mariner, aged 4 years, "cholera (5
days), no premonitory diarrhoea, secondary fever (3 days)." Privies for two rows of
houses run into a small drain, which is very frequently overcharged, when the yards are
flooded with the contents. A second child ill, and the father recovering from an attack
of cholera.
It is difficult to understand of what use the Board of Health can be,
if nuisances such as these, and hundreds of cases similar or worse
might be noted, are allowed to remain unchecked.
Another domestic topic, the court-martial on Lieutenant PE nay,
has reached, with its conclusion, its culminating point of interest.
One is loth to suspect that the officers of a regiment would wilfully
forget circumstances essential to the merits of a military investigation.
Of course many questions might be put to a witness which he could
only properly answer by " I don't recollect," as—What were you about
on such a day a year ago ?—Who were you in company with ? &c.;
but in this particular case it does happen that cases of short memory
have been rectified by written documents, or corrected by other
evidence. Thus, there is produced in court a letter from Lieutenant
WALDY, who could recollect nothing material, stating, in boyish glee—
" These are jolly quarters; lots of women. We have a drag for Ascot,
" and are going in grand style," and telling how Captain NICHOLAS, in
anything but complimentary language, called an ensign a son of a
female dog. Mr. PERRY states in his defence that several officers had
been sent abroad whose evidence would have been material to him. This
series of courts-martial commenced on the 12th of July, and has con-
tinued with few intervals to the present date. The view they afford of
the interior economy of a regiment is certainly anything rather than
satisfactory to civilians, or creditable to the superior officers.
The boroughs which were at one time so nearly disfranched have
ical activity by the issue of new writs, but they
ir the new Bribery Act, to understand an elec.
What signification can be attached to blue,
ink, without the appropriate symbols? Wit, and
lot yet put down by Act of Parliament, and Lord
;LADE, at Cambridge, kept the hustings in a roar
-;e, though by a narrow majority they lost their
his loss, two Conservatives have been returned

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