The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-16 00:00:00

Ldeficiencies]

a handsome sum to boot to cover . of calcs-
lation, that the grand total of all falls immeasurably
short of the amount which, with any show of reason,
could be set down as capable of producing such a tre-
mendous revolution in oar financial condition. We
believe the plain truth to be, that if the country had
not had the misfortune to be afflicted by the purely
gratuitous jerks and excitements produced by the act
of 1814, during the progress of the drain of bul-
lion, and especially since the cessation of that
drain, that long: before this time the rate of
interest would have fallen to its natural and

_
undisturbed state; and that this would have
permitted, we will not say an expenditure of forty
millions a year on railways, but an expenditure of
certainly not less than half of that sum. And not only
would such an expenditure have been perfectly pos-
sible, but the reduction of the railway engagements
of the country would have proceeded gradually and
with comparative quietness and facility. The worth-
less lines would have found their level, one by one,
and we should have been spared the present most
dangerous process of violent and indiscriminate stran-
..

IN a well-timed anatomy of the navigation laws,
Tjust issued by the hon. member for Stoke-upon-
rent, a very felicitous use is made of the ducens od
aluitirdrint method of exposing error. The tenor of the
compact between parliament and the shipowners in
1660, subsequently modified or confirmed by no
lees than one hundred and forty-four acts of which
the 8 and 9 Vic., cap. 88, with its auxiliary 8 and 9
Vic., cap. 89, contains the quintessence, is thus stated:
" Parliament on the one hand undertakes to give en-
couragement to the shipowners by means of a nano•
poly of the carriage by see, so far as other nations
will permit. The shipowners, on the other hand, un-
dertake to find men for the royal navy, sad
to that end to register their seamen, to
carry useless apprentices, and to submit to
have their crews abstracted from them by
desertion or imps essment, when and where to the
admiralty. it shall seem fit." Both parties, with the
beet will in the world, have failed to perform their
part of the bargain. The act of parliament has
failed, because "restriction has produced retalia-
tion ;" and " by restriction on the one hand, and
retaliation on the other, the field of enterprise is
narrowed, the cost of transport is enhanced, and so
fewer ships have been required altogether." The
shipowners have failed, because "by carrying
apprentices they displace able seamen, and drive them
to seek employment in foreign service ;" because " by
registering the sailors they advertise to them their pur-
pose, and these objecting to fight for lower wages
than they could earn by trading, when they are
most wanted are least likely to be found:" and be-
cause " the seamen of merchant ships are not adapted
, for the royal navy, and are not such as modern naval
warfare requires. Therefore, leaving out of view
altogether the rights and interests of other classes of
the community, government on the one hand, and
the shipowners on the other, are holding each other to
the fulfilment of a contract positively hurtful to
both.

This view of the question, it will scarcely be de-
nied, is conclusive against the navigation law, pro-
vided the facts assumed in it are sufficiently estab-
lished by evidence. And this is amply done by Mr.
RICARDO, in his selections from the testimony of the
witnesses examined last year before the committee
of the House of Commons on the navigation laws.
Some of ;the points, indeed, may be held to prove
themselves. For example, it will not be called in
question that, in the statutes above alluded to, parlia-
ment
promised the shipowners to enrich them by a
monopoly of the carriage by sea, as far as other
nations would permit.
As little does evidence seem to be required in sup-
port of the 'impositions that restriction produces re-
taliation, and that retaliation narrows the field of en-
terprise. But, to prevent cavilling, oar author adduces
testimony to this effect, of which a very brief specimen
will serve our purpose at present. The navigatiou laws
of the United States were avowedly enacted because
ours had been enacted before them. Some writers
choose to say that the Americans adopted our
model, believing that the great leaders of trade in
the world must be right; others, that they sought to re-
taliate for the injury our laws inflicted on them. The
meaning of both phrases is the same. " The very
flags employed," says Mr. RICARDO, alluding to the
carrying trade to and from the Canary Islands, "show
that the American prohibition of British ships is
purely in retaliation for our navigation laws.
Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Sardinia allow Ameri-
can ships to bring them the goods of Asia and Africa,
and have the liberty accorded to them of carrying
goods from these continents to America. The United
States meet us with the same restriction, and give us
the same freedom as we give them." How this
retaliation narrows the field of enterprise
to our shipowners will appear sufficiently
from the following statement made by Mr.
BERGER to the committee on the navigation laws:
" We are in the habit of loading from twelve to fif-
teen vessels annually for one port alone—namely,
Boston; and that restriction under which British
vessels are not allowed by the American navigation
laws to import certain goods not the produce of
England, prevents us from sending so many or such
good vessels as we otherwise would do, because it so
happens that those goods which we are prohibited
from importing into the states, by the American
navigation laws, are the goods which pay the best
freights, being the most valuable."
The failure on the part of the shipowners is also
proved beyond dispute. That the apprentice system
drives able-bodied seamen out of the merchant navy
is apparent, from the statement made by Mr.DoNaAn
to the committee on the navigation laws. "If not
obliged to send boys I should send a ship with
twenty able-bodied men ; I now send her with four-
teen able-bodied men, and six ordinary men, and six
apprentices. The ships would be better manned if
they were not compelled to send boys; and there
would in that case be more security for the lives of
the persons on board." The evidence of Sir JAMES
STIRLING (corroborated by that of Mr. DUNBAR)
'shows how the registry system drives our able-
bodied seamen into foreign service:—" Seamen com-
plain of the registry ticket as a very great hardship.
Seamen are not always temperate or prudent, and if
they leave their ship at an improper time the
forfeiture of their ticket is the consequence, and,
with the forfeiture of their ticket, of course,
their exclusion from further employment -in
British ships. It tends to lead them to seek employ-
ment in foreign vessels." The apprentice and registra-
tion systems, therefore, do not provide a supply of able-
bodied seamen for the royal navy. In fact the royal
navy, as appears from the evidence of Sir JAMES
STIRLING, a poet captain, rears in a great measure its
own sailors :—" The navy is recruited chiefly, at
present, by boys brought up in the service." And :
" At the present moment there are not aboVe a thou-
sand men in the royal navy who have been brought
up in the merchant service. The remainder of the
sailors are trained in the navy itself." Nor does it
appear desirable that the royal navy should de-
pend for its supply of seamen on drafts from
the commercial navy. "Of men who enter from
the merchant service for the first time, one
half desert from their first ship ; consequently, naval
commanders are not very anxious to obtain such
men." And it would be too costly to man our men-
of-war entirely with experienced seamen. According
to Sir JAMES, it would be desirable to include in the
crews of men-of-war a certain number of seamen
brought up in the coasting trade; " but the proportion
of these men would not exceed one-tenth part of the
whole naval force," provided " we have landsmen oaf-
cient time to train them to the use of the guns." "It
is impossible," be adds, "to obtain the services of ex-
perienced seamen at the present rates of remuneration."
From what has now been said, it is obvious that,
even in so far as the two parties to the compact em-
bodied in the navigation laws are alone concerned, it
is not merely a nullity, but positively injurious. At
what expense to the rest of the community these par-
ties continue to delude themselves by sticking to their
blind bargain, will be shewn in future articles.

Our Paris correspondence of Sunday has arrived,
but its contents are without general interest. The
reform demonstrations are the only subject which
occupies the journals.
The Madrid

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warmest apnprovsl and support. ' League,
Erod. '''''uee"tatal" "•
Thie, however. is no excuse ; •tceituar, itwould pry an.didotothervemotetra, seed understandlateiheiween the people of Capps, of the excess of our exports over imports, and shot
be alleged on behalf of the affirmative of this The Madrid mails of the Bth due on Saturday in mon, Others affirmed that this was not true, becauseand that then the objects or the that many articles bed been sold at less than the cost of tl
what rere oughtbto he none in admla tilts
proposition ; but we take leave to think that, Paris were not received till Sunday—those of the Orlando had been working in his cabinet up to nine o'clock. no: - sue= ltd. leX—tban Sr People' Ite 'that assodatica andtkd to our production. This he knew to have been done in Andre
He had little to na resiPzcv"tionugagtheiettemetts.tthelntinational chants the effect waa doubly felt in Ireland. All the hi
after reckoning up the utmost farthing of the 9th due on Sunday had not arrived at the time when The most probable version, it adds, is, that the tobacco coa,. bating out in the debates in the House of C.olluenoeut. It is be
traet, which has made no mach noise, having been annulled, hoped that AldermantbdlTlalueolmbrienpeon.reFrrwewirvll as argent.' others
uersevwidlienoteoulxbidt
League, being one of m 1810 ; and whenever such calamities betel English
of obtamiag information, which, whjeonm
Irish loan, the cost of corn, the magnitude our correspondent closed his despatches. The Gazette
heed ful consequences of the currency laws were there aggrava
of the railway calls, the sale of railway debentures, contains royal ordonnances dismissing Gen. Concha Senor
whether Orlando eked his
resign
colleagues, assembledwwhich in council,
iltheirtgietwillefgl
no answer tight g well resign. It would. pert:aps, berttreig=l= ,they it for the p pose
~and the effect on the peasantry could not easily be coital,
Ilid Maegletrate were appointed. would Insure put- actuality, soi had obtainuerd, he would disseminate to' the best of his He trusted, when the question came to be discussed in
from the captain-generalship of Catalonia, and ap- wmenas ought
a?dtitheoltiecnottosza7 crhtrirsttirons, towards
and th. r otwh the
ells-
II pointing Gen. Pavia to that post, and others disiniss- Mirafl .is garotted so President of the Senate, and the WC much time and trouble, tO thewgrcat tweet of all parties.—{/. ability. With the Objecta of the present meeting he fully proper theatre, that there would be no shrinking back,
• -- - ---- ,
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.

presided. They were: pun air, good drainage, total ab-
senceof all putrid vegetable and animal matter ; a full sup-
ply of pure water ; and, lastly, the removal of all stagnant
pools or cesspool& to a distance of not less than a quarter of a
mile from the building. (Hear.) Were these requisites to
be found in the dwellings of the lower classes ? (" No.")
Yet to every man of feeling, or of property, or who looked
to the interests of his country, the welfare of the poor
should be sacred. (Hear.) He held it to be the duty of
the legislature (and he believed in this ministers fully coin-
cided) to bring forward and pass en efficient and comprehen-
sive bill, to secure as far as possible the health of this and every
other large town in the kingdom. Being, however, satisfied
that nothing could be done unless public opinion took up
the subject, he celled upon the meeting, collectively and in-
dividually, to put their shoulders to the wheel and assist the
committee in carrying out their common object.
Mr. C. Come Rater., who was received with mach cheering,
rose to second the resolution. He concurred with the last
speaker, that the House of Commons attended to individual
and not to public interest, and if he wanted proof of this he
had it in the fact, that at the very time when last year a
meeting was being held in the parishes of St. Margaret and
St. John, \Vestminster—a district where the poor were, in
many instances, herding together two and three families in
a room of nine feet square, and were suffering from bad
drainage, bad ventilation, and deficient supplies of water,
and he anal other friends of the sanitary movement were
pointing out the danger to public health of such a state of
things, the House of Commons were passing, almost unani-
mously, a vote of 150,0001. to enlarge Buckingham Palace,
on the authority of the report of the surveyor tkat
the rooms were too small, and that the palace
was fitted only for the occupation of a bachelor, and not for
a family. He congratulated the meeting on having so good
a chairman, and such excellent advocates of sanitary reform,
as the hon. gentleman who had last spoken and the hon.
member for Westminster (Mr. Lushington) on the platform.
Ile had visited many of the dwellings of the poor. He was
satisfied that the pigs in this country were better housed and
cared for than a large portion of the lower classes. (Hear.)
He knew many houses which were built over sewers, but
the Sanitary Society to which he belonged had never ben I
able to get the parochial authorities to take any interest la
the matter. Last Saturday he went to Field-lane,
Holborn, to see the state of that neighbourhood,
which bad been represented to him as being ex-
tremely wretched. Ile visited a house where lodgings were
let ; and, beginning at the cellar, he found it four feet high,
anal filled with all sorts of filthy abominations. He neat
went up into the dwelling-rooms, and there was not one
more than 12 feet square, and they contained families of
from 4 to 6, who were obliged, in bad weather, even to dry
their linen in these miserable rooms, He also found they
were paying from Is. W. to half a crown a week for them.
In another cellar in the same house, used as a kitchen, dbx,
there was an open sewer, and everything in the place was
in a decayed state. There were also from 6 to 8 beds
crammed into a room of from 6 to 8 feet square, and the in-
habitants paid Id. • night for each bed. He had visited
various other lodginghousei, and he found them all nearly
similar. The great object was to remedy these evils. As to
water, he found its supply was a complete mono- '
poly—there were only eight water companies in
London, and water was very inefficiently supplied
to the poor. The shares of one company—the New River
Company were originally worth only from 401. to 501. a ,
share, whilst they had now increased to the enormous value '
of from 13,0001. to 14.0001. each. (Hear, hear.) It had
been ascertained that from 12,000 to 13,000 deaths occurred
in the metropolis annually from imperfect sanitary regula-
tions; there were also from 100,000 to 200,000 people in
London thrown on a bed of sickness from the same cause.
Throughout the whole country be found, from investigation,
that 60,000 persons died, and 1,600,000 were rendered ill
every year, from the want of sanitary reform ; and this state
of things involved the nation in a loos of 14,000,0001. an-
nually, in consequence of the persons thus suffering and
dying being unable to earn their own livelihood by their
sown exertions, and thus also contribute to the wealth of the
state; as well as the cost arising from their sickness and
death. The government had had to contend with corrupt
monopolists and municipal authorities, and they required the
streog aid of the people. The opposition of the City of
London, and the parochial authorities of the metropolis, had
obliged them to withdraw that part of their sanitary bill
which applied to London. He was, however, delighted to
find that the bill which the government was about to bring
forward would be a comprehensive and excellent measure.
With reference to the churchyard which had been com-
plained of to the Lord Mayor, and to which the chairman
had referred, he should say, he had ascertained that 32 per-
sons had died in the locality (Golden-lane) within the last
three or four years, twelve had fallen victims within a short
time, and twenty-five individuals were now sick in the same
vicinity, arising from the effluvia of this noisome pestilence.
The speaker coucluded by calling on the people to express-
their determination in one united voice, and the government
would succeed in carrying their sanitary measures through
parliament. (Cheers.)
Mr. GEORGE complained that the evils of interments in
cities and towns had not been allowed to be made a distine•
tive resolution to be proposed to the meeting. As one of the
overseers of St. Ann's, Seho, he could say that the church-
yard in his parish bad been in existence for the last 150 years,
during which time 93,000 bodies had been buried in a space
not exceeding seven-eighths of an acre. An acre of ground
was only capable of accommodating 110 bodies annually,
whereas in this instance they had been interred at the rate
of 1,062 a year. ( Hear, hear.) He would instance one
case which had come under his notice a grave 18 feet
deep 17 adults and 8 children had been buried in about two
months. (Cries of " Shame !") He wished the meeting
to put the case to themselves, and he would ask a father
whose solicitude had been bestowed upon the rearing of a
lovely daughter, what would kis feelings be, when death
had torn ber from his embrace, and
Before decay's effacing fingers
Lad swept the lines where bunt, lingers—

false delicscy ; and if the man who originated them
banefel laws could be pointed out, and his mo-
tises laid here, that he might be called to an
account, sod, if in her Mitiesty's councils, be removed from
them. If this man and his coadjutors had been deceiving
the public, to serve their own sordid motives—had been
plying as it were with cogged dice—he hoped the public
would, ia the words ofGraham, demand of these aa-
oeitats, who had so long batten on the public purse, a
double and treble contribution from their ill-gotten gains.
(Cheers.)
Idr. J. DI:NCAN traced the history of the currency laws,
and showed that they had produced distress alternately
among the maanfacturing and aericultural populations.
He retired to the writings of Mr. Homer, the chairman of
the bullion committee of 1810, who, twenty years after the
resumption of ash payments, admitted that he had fallen
into a grievous error. This was a good reason for demand-
bag the appointment of a committee of inquiry in the new
parlisment. In like manner, Mr. Ricardo, who, in 1819,
said the change would only depress prices three to five per
cent, ,had afterwards admitted that the reduction had been
equal to 25 per cent Mr. Matthias Attwood also had ad-
mitted that the committee had been completely misled by
the testimony of incompetent witnesses ; he had further said
that the chairman of the committee (Sir R. Peel) had been
mistaken as to the character of the measure. On the other
hand, Mr. Baring (now Lord Ashburton) had, in 1821 and
18-28, condemned the bill of 1819 as a fair-weather sys-
tem; as he had alto done in his pamphlet, published
in the present year. Mr. Gilbert, the manager of the
Loudon and Westminster Bank, considered a suspension of
cash payments in time of war as inevitable. These were
great authorities in their favour; and the late Mr. Cobbett
had also condemned the bill of 1819. This bill having been
pared in error of its nature, and its opponents having main-
mined a consistent opinion, good grounds were laid for par-
liament to grant a committee of inquiry. (Hear.) Mr.
hoes Loyd, it was well known, was the inventor of the bill
of 1919; for Sir R. Peel had the misfortune never to strike
out a new idea. (Laughter.) He had borrowed his bullion
notions from Mr. Horner; his criminal law reforms from Sir
S. Romilly and Mr. Msckintoeh; and his corn-law from Mr.
Cobden. (War.) Mr. Loyd, as • skilful banker, had sought
to keep down all taxed commodities as near as possible to
the level of untaxed goli; the necessary effect of this was
to throw an aggravated burden on the working chimes.
Be making untaxed gold the standard of value for all
other commodities, those commodities most necessarily fall
to the ,nine level; and hence the fluctuations in value, pro-
ducing, in regular cycles, depression and stagnation in trade.
All who professed to be free-traders, and were ao in reality,
ought to support this movement for a free-trade in gold,
which was more important than a free-trade in corn, because
it applied to every commodity. (lieu.) Ilse league was
charged with wishing to put out " kites ;" but he charged
Sir R. Peel with being the great " kite-flyer," inasmuch as
be had permitted the Bank of England to issue 14 millions
of notes without any basis of gold ; he had authorised the
country bankers to make similar issuee to the extent of eight
millions; in Ireland, six millions; and in Scotland, three
millions more ; in all, 31 millions of kites. (Hear.) But he
accused Sir K. Peel also of deception. There were 22 mil-
lions to the Savings Banks, and the poor dupes were taught
to believe that at any time they could withdraw their
deposits in gold at a fortnight's notice. P. was well
known that 22 millions of bullion were not forth-
coming; and hence the delusion put upon the poor
creatures, whom the country, with its rich church estab-
lishment, was not liberal enough to educate. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. D. then proceeded to describe the basis on which the
league proposed that the currency should be placed. He re-
ferred to the Scotch banks, and observed that, in 150 years,
only 30.0001. bad been lost by these bank.. These banks
exercised a most effective check on each other; and there
was another most influential check on over issues—the prin-
ciples which regulated the mutual dealings of borrower and
lender. (Hear.) Seeing that alternate depression and pros-
perity had invariably followed the restrictions and augmen-
tations of the currency, it was evident that prosperity could
only be secured by a sufficient and well.regulated circulating
medium.
laic proceedings terminated at about 11 o'clock.

HEALTH OF TOWNS.
A grand demonstration in favour of a sound and
comprehensive ranitary bill, under the auspices of the follow-
ing associations, Health of Towns, National Philanthropic,
Health of London, City and Liberty of Westminster, and
the Working Men's, was held yesterday evening in the large
roam of the Crown and Anchor Tavern. There wos a mo-
derately full attendance, between 500 and 600 preens being
assembled in the body of the room; and on the platform,
besides the chairman, B. Bond Cabbell, Esq., M.P., there
were present Mr. Mackinnon, M P.; Mr. Lnshington,
M.P.; Mr. C. Cochrane. Dr. Ellerman, Dr. Gavin, Dr.
Gowerly, the Rev. Mr. Luslgnan, and several other of the
most influential members of the various sanitary associations
of the metropolis. Letter regretting that absence from
England, illness, important business, or other causes, pre-
vented their attendance, were read from Mr. T. Dunisombe,
M.P. ; Baron L. Rothschild, M.P. ; Mr. Wakley, M.P. ;
Bir W. Clay, M.P. ; Lord D. Stuart, M.P.; Sir B. Hall,
M.P. ; all, however, expressing their desire to forward the
objects of the meeting.
The CI(AIRSIAN, in opening the business, explained that
during the five or six years that the sanitary question had
agitated the public mind, some six associations had been ex-
erting themselves to carry out the object of sanitary reform.
The hrst was the Poor Man's Guardian Society ' • then came
the Health of Towns Association; then came the Health of
London Society ; next, a similar association for the city and
liberty of Westminster; then two societies for putting an
end to intramural burials. It had been considered by those
who conducted the proceedings of those several societies, that
now the subject had been taken up honestly and fairly (as
they believed) by the government, they should meet and
adopt measures by which all the influence and power of those
associations should be concentrated, and given to the govern-
ment in their efforts to carry out the object. (Hear, hear.)
The resolutions which would be proposed to the meeting had
been prepared with that view. Without such co-operation
—without unanimity of action—they could not hope to
succeed. (Hear, hear.) There was one point to which
he would allude—important in itself, though not the
most prominent—in considering this subject. This
was the practice of burying in towns. On that point he
wished to call attention to a letter in the Timer of that
morning, addreped to the Lord Mayor, in which it was
stated that there was a burial ground in Golden-lane (which
was in the most crowded part of the metropolis), where it
was the practice to dig graves 28 feet deep, and without any
other covering than a few boards, continue to deposit dead
bodies in them until they were filled within two or three
feet of the surface of the ground, when they were filled in to
that depth with earth, though it was known that 14 feet of
hard ground was necessary to prevent the escape of those
noxious and dangerous gases which human bodies gave out
in the process of decomposition. (Shame.) Was it not
necessary that the government should step in and prevent
such abominations—such desecrations of all that was decent
in reference to our respect for the dead—such danger to the
health of the living? (Hear, hear.)
Mr. MACKINNON M.P., moved the first resolution, viz.:
That the drainage and sewerage of the metropolis are very insuffi-
cient, the cleansing of the streets exceedingly imperfect. the supply of
water lamentalfiy deficient in quantity and had In quality ; that the
practice of burying the dead in the midst of the lining produces great
demoralisation' and grossly violates the sanctity of the grave ; that
these, amongst other evils, entail enormous and unnwereary expenses
upon the people, and lead to a great deterioration of health iuLd fearful
destrneuon of life.
The more the subject was considered, the more satisfied
must they all be that some alteration, some amelioration and
improvement, must be effected by means of legislation in the
health of towns. Having had the honour to be chairman of
two committees of tho Ifouse of Commons on this subject,
and having been the first in the house who mooted it, he felt
a conscientious and most intense interest in the result of the
present movement. The chairman had expressed a wish that
the government should take up the question. He could say
that her Majesty's present ministers, especially Lord Mor-
peth, who was at the head of the Woods and Forests,
bad ably, honestly, and zealously endeavoured to carry
through parliament a measure of sanitary reform, but he
had hitherto been prevented by a faction and by circum-
SWIM which he could not control. He had thought it his
duty to state thus much in justice to the noble lord. It wu
a misfortune that in the House of Commons every interest
was represented but the public interect. (Hear, hear.)
Money, commerce, trade—every interest was admirably pro-
tected in the House of Commons but the public interest,
whit was entirely undefended there. (Cheers, and a cry of
shame.") Not but that her Majesty's ministers (and see-
tog he had been generally opposed to them, his testimony in
their favour would not be considered partial) bad evinced a
most anxious, zealous, and enlightened ,sprit in the cause of
the health of towns reform. By many of the opponents of
the measure it was thought that the agitation on this
question was all a delusion, and that the excitement in
the public mind against the intramural burials was
not genuine, but was promoted by those who were
interested in the various cemeteries round London.
He, however, as one who had fully investigated the subject,
could say that the practice of burying in towns was a gross,
a crying,
i,,t an
baelsomiffnable, and dsogerous.nensanse, which
eeziren
in
ton
anevyst ineranclzi:leidsed
ountry,
ught
wthichtiolid not east nationc but
Great Britain. (Hear.) Was it not disgraceful that in this,
the nineteenth century, that nation which gave the lead to
all the nations of the earth in honour, in deeds of arms, in com-
'tierce, in trade, and in all noble enterprise, should be the last to
think of the health other own people ? The effect of efficient
sanitary measures was shown by the mortality in the navy,
now as compared with what it was sixty years ago. When
Commod. Anson sailed in the Centurion round the world, and
by his gallant achievements did much to maintain the glory
of British arms, he loin by death, in two and a half years, 75
per cent. of his grew, owing to the filthy state of the ship.
Subsequently, within the last five or ten years' a vessel
of the same ids-, in a similar voyage round Cape Horn and
the Pacific, lost only 21 per cent. of her complement in the
same period. If such was the beneficial result of are and
attention to the health of the seamen engaged in cur navy,
what might we not expect in diminishing the rate of mor-
tality, and decreasing the sufferings of the people, if the sametality,
attention were paid to the sanitary state of our large towns,
and an efficient Health of Towns bill were enacted ? There
was another point to which he had last session drawn the at-
tention of the home.secretary, and to which he would now
advert briefly: Suppose, as was probable, that this country
should be again, within the next five or six months, visited
by the cholera—that dreadful pestilence, which, up to the
present time, even the wisest of the medical profession had
been unable to grapple with—what would those members of
parliament whe stood in the way of the government in their
endeavours to pus a measure of sanitary reform have to an-
swer to their consciences and their constituencies for
the course they, had adopted ? He considered that there
were five requisites which should always belong to every
place where human beings took shelter, which five requi-
sites he had embodied in a resolution, and submitted to
the committee of the Rouse of Commons over which be

Tow ra Nom= Oommuston OF Enmatts.—Yes-
terday a Court et Commiseioners of Sewers for the Tower
Hamlets, was held in the board-room, Great Alie-street,
Whitechapel, for the despatch of business. Mr. Alderman
Musgrove having taken the chair, Mr. Pundit called the
attention of the court to some severe strictures which had
appeared in the Unify News, in reference to the manner in
which their affairs were managed, and which he thought
aught to be noticed by the commissioners in their official
capacity. The extract having been read, the Chairman said
whatever might be the opinion of others, he could say that
during the whole time he had been connected with the com-
mission he had seen nothing but the utmost desire to for-
ward the great work of sanitary reform in the meet
economical manner possible. The coet of their commission
he found to be 2401. per annum, and no more,
for the whole of that important district. The annual ex-
pense of the Holborn and Finsbury division far exceeded
that sum. The commissioners of the Tower Hamlets were
determined, independently of all passing remarks, to leave
no stone unturned to effect the object for which they were ap-
pointed.—Mr. Parnell then sat a,that,some time since, a com-
mittee was appointed to draw up a bill for the protection of
the commission. It was not at present known whether
Lord Morpeth would press his measure or not, but he, Mr.
Parnell, thought they ought to do something for themselves.
—The Chairman remarked that the committee were actively
pursulog their labours. He considered it to be a duty totleta,
public to show to the government that they were met
behind the legislature, not only in desiring, but is memo-
rialising them fur powers to effect sanitary improvensest—
, Mr. Henderson said that the commissioners had not proper
powers given them to make sewers and levy rates on the
parties who ought to support them when they were made.
Owners of property ought to be compelled to pay towards
the maintenance of effective drainage—Mr. L'nwin, clerk to
the commissioners, then read a letter from the solicitors of
the St, Katharine Dock Company in reference to the pay-
ment of four rates due ti the commission for sewerage, which
had bees in dispute about twelve years. (The rates in
question were nearly 2,0001., the company having disputed
the right of the levy of the commissioners in several courts of
law.) The following is a cop of the letter :
To the Clerk of the Tower lla Commission of Sewers.--Bir,
We are now authorised to state for the information of the commis-
Stoners of sewers for the Tower 111101k13 that it Is not the Intention of
the Bt. liatlaarinies Dock Company to offer any further resistance to
the payment of Ms rates which have been imposed on their property.
—feigned) Topes, Son, and Faccowm.
THE HEWLETT FUND.—Yesterday an adjourned
meeting of the subscribers to the fund for the relief of the
family of the late Rey. Mr. Hewlett was held at the Free-
masons Tavern; the Rev. Dr. Russell in the chair.—Mr.
Alston, M.P., having stated that the object of the present
meeting was merely to propose a trust deed for adoption,
and to appoiat trustees to whom the money subscribed was
to be transferred for the benefit of Mr. Hewlett's family, the
trust deed was read and approved of, and the Rev. Dr.
Russell, Algernon H. White, and It. G. Alston, Esq., were
appointed trustees. Votes of thanks were passed to the
London committee, and those who acted in co-operation
with them, for their unwearied exertions in behalf of the
family of Mr. Hewlett, and also to the masons of Essex and
the masonic body generally, for their efforts in the same
cause. It is estimated that the money subscribed amounts
to about 3,oool.—The chairman having been requested to
communicate to Mr. Leary, of the London committee, the
names of the trustees appointed by the meeting, and to
express their readiness to receive the contributions of the
London committee, the meeting separated.
COMPLETION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH BE-
TWEEN LONDON, LIVERPOOL, AND MANCHEETER.—After
months of labour in laying the wires, a thorough commu-
nication was yesterday effected between London, Liver-
pool, and Manchester, from the company's temporary
offices. in Seymour-street, Euston square. Messages and the
state of the money markets were interchanged between the
three places. The delay in completing the through commu-
nication has principally arisen from the difficulty in fixing
the wires through the Watford tunnel, where the men have
been employed day and night. The communication is at
present carried rid Rugby to Normanton' and thence paral-
lel with the railways to Manchester and Liverpool; but the
wires are being rapidly strung up from Rugby, and thence
rid the Trent Valley Railway to Manchester, as well as
from Rugby to Birmingham and from tiirmiogham to
Gloucester. The communication will be forthwith carried to
the central station now erecting in Lothbury.
MYSTERIOUS ROBBERY AT THE GREAT WESTERN
RAILWAY TERRI:MS.—It will be seen by our Marylebone
police report, that early yesterday morning a mysterious and
extensive robbery was discovered at the Paddington Railway
station ; the amount stolen is supposed to be somewhere
about 1,2001. It appears that Nash, one of the company's
police sergeants, found the dear of the second-class passen-
gers' office open, the entry no doubt having been effected by
means of a skeleton-key. From this office a passage was
made through other offices contiguous, and from these were
carried off notes, gold, and silver to the amount above
alluded to, the doors having been broken open and egress
made with the property at a door adjacent to the office of
Mr. Collard, chief police superintendent of the company.
Every exertion is being used to trace the depredators.
INQUESTS, YESTERDAY.—LOVE.—By Mr. Payne, at
Guy's Hospital, on the body of Eliza Nancarrow, aged 29,
who committed suicide.—Decessed, a widow, was a servant
at the Trinity Almshouses, Deptford, and had been in a
very low and desponding state for the last six or eight weeks,
brought on by • love affair. She had been keeping com-
pany with a young man who was religiously inclined, and
very much attached to her, but by some means they broke
off the correspondence, which deeply affected her mind.
On the lit inst., in a paroxysm of excitement, she caught
hold of a knife and inflicted a dreadful wound in her throat.
She was removed to the above hospital, where she expired
from the effects of the wound on Sunday last.—After some
evidence as to the state of her mind, the jury returned a
verdict of "Temporary insanity."--COLLECTINO TAXES.
—Striciee.—Before Mr. Bedford, at the King's Arm',
Bowling-street, on the body of John Wright, aged 79, a
master carpenter, who hanged himself in his own workshop.
—Mrs. E. Kilber, sister of the deceased, deposed that on
Saturday last a brokeri named Cox demanded 71. for arrears
of assessed taxes, and proceeded to open the door of a lodger.
The witness begged him to desist, telling him those were not
Mr. Weight's apartments, and requested him to go down
stairs, where he would find Mr. V. right and plenty of goods
to pay him, and not to disturb or frighten the lodgers. Cox
said he should do nothing of the kind, but go where be liked
and take what ho liked. He then went up stairs into the
lodger's rooms on the first floor, and took an inventory
of the furniture. The deceased, who was suffering from
rheumatic gout, became greatly agitated at the conduct of
the broker, and frequently exclaimed, " lam a ruined man,"
and that had they but given him three hours to pay he could
have raised the money. The deceased's irritation Increased,
and words ensued between him and Cox. Witness sent for
a friend, and in the course of a few hours the distress was
paid out. Some time after, and in the confusion, the de.
'eased was missed, end was afterwards discovered in a work-
shop, hanging by a rope to a beam.—Mr. Randolph, a
surgeon, who had been sent for,
_cut the deceased down.—
The broker, Cox, was then called; he denied having been
guilty of any such conduct as that imputed to biro,
and that the witness Kilber's statement was untrue
as to requesting his not going up stairs. He did not know
where the deceased's goods were, and had distrained
in the first place he could. The deceased was very much agi-
tated, and said he would be the death of him and his man ;
but witness thought he meant to say they would be the
death of him.—By the Coroner: He generally distrained first
on the landlord, but could take any goods found in the house.
—By a Juror. He did not receive any instructions from Mr.
Sawyer, the collector, in cases of distras, or on the point of
dying. not to levy the execution.—At the request of a juror,
Mrs. K fiber was recalled, and in the presence of Cox repeated
her former statement, which was confirmed by Mrs. Nichol-
son.—John Nicholson also deposed to the harsh conduct of
Cox, and his threat to turn them all out and leek the doors
that night.—Cox positively denied that the statement* were
true, as one article alone in the place (a table) was more than
sufficient for the levy.—The Coroner having summed up,
said it was certainly a meet melancholy case.—The Jury re-
turned a verdict " That the deceased hanged himself whilst
labouring under a fit of temporary insanity, caused by the
harsh measures adopted by the assessed tax collector in levy-
ing a distress for V: —ALLEOLD CRUELTY TO AN AGED
FlVSBeND.—Before Mr. Higgs, at the Bull Inn, Clapham.
The inquiry, twice adjourned, in the case of Mr. J. Orme,
aged 76, a retired draper, was concluded yesterday. The
facts have already been reported in this paper. The verdict
yesterday wee—. That the immediate cause of the death of
Jonathan Orme was the effusion of serum on the brain, and
the proximate came a continued series of unkind treatment
and neglect."

what, he would reek, would the feelings of a parent be in
consigning the relics of his lost one to the care of the brutal
wretches whose miserable cupidity created such pestilential
evils in the me at of living men 1 (Cheers.)
Mr. Roosas, a surgeon, and chairman of the Anti Inter-
ment in Towns Association, also spoke to the resolution, but
complained that the Health of Towns Association, with its
three bishops and seven clergymen, looked upon the question
of burying in towns bat as of secondary consideration, though
it was one that perhaps more than any other affected the
health of the living population. (Cheer', mingled with
marks of disapprobation.) Within the last year 60,000 per-
sons had died in this metropolis, and 482 tons of decomposing
'human flesh (independent of the bones and other sub-
stances) were thus left in the midst of this densely-populated
city to poison the air with their deadly gases. In 25 years
• million of bodies had, through the cupidity of man, been
deposited in a space of 218 acres. Having referred to the
degraceful state of many of the City churchyards,
and the reports made by Mr. Walker, the speaker
accused Lord Morpeth of having wanted the moral courage
or honesty to bring forward the subject of burials in towns.
He also, amidst much confusion, charged the Health of
Towns Committee with basing thrown over this part of the
question oat of respect to the clergy, who bad a direct inte-
rest in keeping up the town churchyards. Bad drainage
and an insufficient supply of water were great evils, but no-
thing equal to the burying of the dead in the midst of the
living.
Mr. &toes defended the Health of Towns Association
from the charge of wishing to throw over the important sub-
ject of burials in towns, and pointed out that it was a promi-
nent part of the resolution. Ile, however, considered that
over-crewding, bad drainage, bad and insufficient quantity
of water, were all equally prejudicial to the health
of the poor. Unless the lower classes were provided
with the means of preserving the decencies of life we could
hardly expect from them the moralities. He complained of
the monopoly of the water companies, and the high,price
which in consequence the public were compelled to pay for
that necessary article. It was the duty of the legislature,
who gave to those companies the power of taxing, to subject
them to an efficient responsibility. As showing the tyran-
nical mode in which they now exercised their powers he re-
ferred to a case in Westminster, where a man had been re-
fused a supply of water unless be consented to pay • year's
rate left unpaid by a former tenant. The resolution was
then carried unanimously.
Mr. C. LUSIIINGTON, M.P., proposed the next resolution :
That this meeting deplores the apathy generally evinced by the
public relative to the evils referred to la the peecedlag resolution, as
well as the absence of sr' uniform law whiehMadd bleena the govern-
ment to exercise an efficient oontrol over kcal adminbaradve bodies ;
and that this meeting pledges itself to aappert the government in
any efforts made by It to pus a sound and comprehendve sanitary
measure.
lie stated, as a proof of the unanimity of opinion on this
subject, that he bad that day travelled 80 miles to follow in
the sequence of Mr. Cochrane, his late opponent. He had
looked into the statistics of the subject, and they manifested
a lamentable detail of neglect, misery, and danger. He did
not see how we could better meet the evil with which the
country was menaced by the approaching cholera than by
adopting the measures which had been recommended that
evening. It was very important to improve the dwellings
of the poor, but, at the same time, it was most desirable to
meet the fell antagonist with courage and determination
for he had found, when in India, that the natives, from
their spirit of fatallem, more generally became the victims
of the disease than the Europeans, who, from resisting. often
Overcame it. His experience had proved to him that the
cholera, like a coward, attacked with the greatest effect the
weak and the timid. The hon. gentleman concluded by
moving the resolution.
Dr. °item, in seconding it, said that fever, consumption,
sad epidemic diseases, might be prevented by sanitary
measures almost as surely as that vaccination bad set the
small-pox at defiance. (Hear, hear.) To prove that disease
and death were the result of an impure atmosphere, it was
only necessary to say that the proportion of deaths in the
country was one in 54, whilst in towns it was one in 38. The
speaker proceeded at some length to point out the ill effects
of want of sewerage in the habitations of the poor of the
metropolis ; the enormous rat incurred from the want of
proper sanitary measures, and the crime which resulted from
the same cause. The cost in London alone, from the neglect
of the public health, was nearly two millions sterling annu-
ally—(hear, hear)—and all these evils might be got rid of if
public opinion were expressed powerfully in support of
the government. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put from the chair and carried
unanimously, after which Menke were voted to the Chair-
man, and the meeting dissolved.

WRECK OF THE STEPHEN WHITNEY.-

NINETY-ONE LIVES LOST.
We regret to announce the total lon of the New
York packet-ship, Stephen Whitney, off the south-western
coast of Ireland, on the night of Wednesday last, some
particulars of which appeared yesterday in the Express.
The unfortunate ship left New York on 18th ult., with one
hundred and ten passengersand crew on board. Subsequently,
on the 22nd ult., she was spoken by the packet-ship Sea, and
during several days, until the 27th, the twoships sailed in com-
pany. They then parted, inlet. 41,10 n. 48; the Sea arrived in
the Mersey onThursday last ; but so late as Saturday night no
accounts were received of the Stephen Whitney. O s Sunday
morning, however, • letter reached Liverpool from Skib-
bereen, dated Friday, the 12th inst., announcing that a
vessel had been lost on the coast on the night of Wednesday
but.
Copy of a letter from J. Allen, chief-mate of the S.
Whitney, to Messrs. F. and J. Sands, dated Skull, Nov. 12 :
" It is my painful duty to inform you of the lass of the S.
Whitney, with her noble commander, on the night of the
10th inst. We had no observation on that day, wind strong
from S.W., weather thick ; at six p.m. we close reefed the
*wails and reefed the courses, intending to haul off the
feed at eight p.m. ; but at eight precisely made the land off
Crealaven, which we judged by the lighthouse to be the
Old Head of Kinsale. We immediately made all possible
sail and hauled oft shore; at nine we kept away, Channel
course, judging we were clear of all danger, but at ten made
the land a-head about pistol shot. In the act of staying
(owing to the tremendous sea) the ship went ashore stern
first, nearly broadside on. The island proved to be the
Western Calf, inside Cape Clear. The scene that followed
baffles all description; out of 110 passenger' and crew only
19 were saved. Captain Popham was washed sway from
alongside me, and I have no doubt killed immediately. In
15 minutes from the time she struck she went to atoms. The
survivors are all here, landed half naked, and all more or
less hurt on the rocks. The authorities here are very busy
saving the wreck, but it is in such a dreadful state that it
will scarcely pay the labour. Several bodies have been
found to-day (crew and steerage passengers), and were
buried on the island.
" I have written to the consul at Cork, stating our dis-
tress and I hope to hear from him shortly. We were near
perishing, had it not been for the kindness of some gentle.

ETITERISATION SUPERSEDED.—Professor Simpson,
of Edinburgh, has, in the trichloride of formyle, discovered an
agent which more rapidly, pleasantly, and without communi-
catiag any offensive odour to the clothes of the patient, pro-
duces entire insensibility. No inhaler or instrument of any
kind is necessary. A few drops put on a handkerchief and
thus applied to the mouth end nostrils produces the desired
effect in a few seconds. Last week Professor Simpson
brought his discovery before the Medico-Chirurgical Society
of Edinburgh.

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 16, 1847.

men here. We shall leave for Liverpool as soon as we can."
The Cork Southern Reporter says: "The bodies of a
lady and child were thrown on shore. The lady had three
gold rings on her Bogen, and was very richly dressed. It is
reported that there were three verse lost on the same fatal
night. The vessel has completely gone to pieces, and the
cargo, which is said to be very valuable, is being carried off
by the country people, who flocked in thousands to the
scene of the wreek._

The Stephen Whitney was a splendid vessel of 1,034 tons
burden, and belonged to the class of packet-ships termed the
" red star line," of which Messrs. Thos. and Jos. Sands and
Co., of Liverpool, are the consignees. She was built in New
York about seven years ago, and took the place of the
packet-ship St. Andrew, which was wrecked off this port in
the memorable gale of January, 1939. The late commander
of the Stephen Whitney, Capt. C. W. Popham, was highly
respected, and was en active and a skilful navigator. He
was for some years chief officer of the ill-fated ship, when
under the charge of Cept. W. C. Thompson, and succeeded
to the command, about two years ago, on that gentleman
I resigning to superintend the construction of the screw steam-
ship Sarah Sands.

IRELAND.
DUBLIN, Nov. 14.
Tipperary still marches from atrocity to atrocity.
Every act of barbarism is followed by another still
more outrageous. Mr. Uniacke Bailey, an extensive
land-agent, and chairman of the board, on leaving
Nenagh at half-past five o'clock yesterday for his
own residence, in company with his brother-in-
law, Mr. Head, was fired at within a short distance
of his own house, and frightfully wounded. His
mouth was shattered to pieces by a large discharge of
slugs, and Mr. Head was also seriously injured. The
injuries inflicted on Mr. Bailey are supposed to be
mortal. A more excellent and considerate country
gentleman there does not exist in Ireland than the
victim of this terrible outrage.
Another horrible murder was perpetrated on Friday
night in the county Limerick. The abject of the
assassins was the murder of a man named Ryan—
the wife of that unhappy man their victim. A party
entered the house of Ryan at the early hour of
seven o'clock in the evening. A man named Tucker
was with him on their entrance, and they announced
their savage purpose. Ryan threw Tucker between
himself and the murderers ; they succeeded in sepa-
rating both, and a gun was pointed at their intended
victim. His wife flung herself before her husband to
shield him, and received the shot in her left breast;
it planed out at her back, and she fell a corpse. The
assassins then decamped. Ryan is steward and
bailiff to Sir M. Barrington.
The Limerick paper records a dozen outrages at
least besides that fearful one just noticed—houses
attacked for arias, property violently taken, and
armed parties parading openly the country—the
process of the law courts violently opposed, as in one
instance we find it stated that the house of a civil bill
bailiff was attacked, and a large number of decrees,
ready for execution, abstracted, together with his
arms. It is gratifying to know that in this instance
three of the neighbouring peasantry followed the
marauders, and succeeded in recovering the arms,
which the party flung away in their retreat. The
decrees were not restored.

Tue POOR-LAW CORMISSIONERS have refused to acknow-
ledge the redgnation of the Rathkeale guardians. They
cannot, by a voluntary act, get rid of their responsibility,
and must continue to administer the law until further no.
tice, or bear the consequences. It is probable, however, the
order for their chasolutlon will soon go down.