The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 25.

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SELDOM have Christian nations been able to cele-
brate their great festival all over the world with more
benign and philanthropic feelings than at present.
Never was there a period in which international
rancour was so completely allayed, in which more
pacific hopes and calculations prevailed, or in which
envy, malice, and uncharitableness were more com-
pletely banished from the lay world. We wish we
could say the same of religious professors and ecclesias-
tical communities. But, unfortunately, all the rancour
and strife, the personal and party hatred, so
wisely thrown off by people and by politicians,
seem to have been industriously picked up by church-
men. And from the Alps of Switzerland to those of
Wales we hear of nothing save laymen recommending
peace, and churchmen trumpeting war—there for the
Jesuit, here for the Tractarian cause.
That there should be not only peace, but every
prospect of continued peace, from the Sea of China
to the St. George's Channel, is indeed a fact as novel
as gratifying. Never, perhaps, at any former
period could India have been contemplated
so as to allow of such a hope. The result
of all former wars, however successful, and of all for-

flier treaties, however sincerely entered into, was to'
bring us into contact with fiercer and more unmanage-
able neighbours, so that war, or a continued prepara-
tion fur it, seemed forced upon us. For the first time
one brilliant campaign has established true and
effective frontiers for India—frontiers within which
we may cultivate the arts of peace, and watch without
feverish emotion any movements or menaces of
that great power,twhich lies on the confines, and occu-
pies so large a portion, of both Europe and Asia.
But never was Russia itself more quiescent than at
the present moment. As the restless youth of the
Czar attained and passed the zenith of manhood, the
ambition and intrigues of Russian subordinates have
relaxed, and we are no longer alarmed by their
machinations or invasions on the shores of the Caspian
or the Bosphorus. When Russia and Great Britain
are really in accordance and pacific, the rest of Europe
must be quiet. Nor is all the fussiness of the
French minister to arrange the houses and esta-
blishments of all his neighbours after his (M. Ormor's)
peculiar ideas, sufficient to create serious quarrels.
Indeed, when we see the French minister, in order

to get up something like strife and antagonism,
obliged to enlist in the cause of religious fanaticism,
and to come forward as the champion of monks, for
whom no rational person, save I.GUIZOT himself and
Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL, has cared for the last century,
we may judge to what straits foreign and enter-
prising politicians are put, who are eager to open
new spheres for their activity.
The present Christmas does, indeed, wear very
much the appearance of that which Mr. COBDEN
hails as the great era of free trade and no war, when
the eagerness of all nations shall be but to buy and
sell, and when this characteristic of the mercantile
classes shall absorb the other old, courtly, and feudal
characteristics of robbing, conquering, and over-
reaching. We are not indeed quite sure as yet of Mr.
COBDEN'S Utopia being fully realised, and we can
still descry some disturbing influences. But it is im-
possible to deny that it is making progress.
It would be curious to examine, though the inquiry
would stretch far beyond our limits, what were
the several causes which might, if strengthened
and developed, yet disturb this peace of
the world.. For, knowing and examining them,
the friends of peace might be better able to
combat the warlike principle. The first source of
strife and war is despotic rule, the placing upon the
throne and amidst the chief motives of policy, the
personal feelings, family interests, and ambitious
views of a potentate. Thus, the peace and happiness
of nations, and the lives of millions, depend upon the
age or humour of an individual. This grand and
primal cause of war is, however, fast disappearing. In
constitutional states of some duration, such causes are
almost completely neutralised. Even is France, Louts
PHILIPPE has not been able to indulge in those dy-
nastic and personal lines of policy which produce the
future risk of war, except by flattering and falling in
with the popular prejudices of his subjects.
This leads us to another great source of warlike
tendencies—viz., the pride, the passion, and historic
reminiscences of a sensitive and spirited people. In
our long struggle with France, the later events have
been favourable to British pride. The history of
those years galls the French ; the history of
a few years more remote shows them mas-
ters of Europe, whilst' 1415 placed them at its feet.
What shall erase from the French mind the irritated
and warlike feelings so naturally begotten by such
events? Mr. COBDEN recommends free trade, and
others philosophy. We place great hopes in the
spread of education, and, as Mr. COBDEN recom-
mends, in our ceasing to assume towards the French
an attitude of rivalry :atid to display too grossly the
feelings of fear or of 'distrust.
Another source of war used to lie in the character
of our aristocracy, petulant and proud, eager for the
profession of acme, and contemptuous of mercantile
pursuits. Throughout seven-eighths of Europe, and
throughout all America, aristocracy, as a political
power, is defunct. And where it still exists, it is timid,
cautious, more sensible to its pocket than its pride ;
in short, no longer capable of being raised into &bug-
bear. The aristocracy of wealth, which has suc-
ceeded to it, has at least not the demerit of being war-
like. There can be no fear of it on this head.

There remains an influence very much inclined
to fill the place of that aristocracy which has been
dethroned, and with which it was of old closely
allied. We allude to ecclesiastical and sacerdotal in-
fluence. People may at first laugh at the idea of
classing sacerdotal and religious influence amongst the
possible causes of war ; but a little consideration
will, perhaps, convince any one who chooses seriously
to reflect on the subject, that in no class of persons
or of ideas does there exist so much of the inflamma-
tory, of the mutually hateful, and of those
old dominating and persecuting impulses, as in
churches. Rancour, indeed, seems to have been
banished from the lay world. and to have taken re-
fuge in the ecclesiastical. This is so perfectly true of
England, that we need not spend a line in the de-
monstration of i . And it is equally true of the Conti-
nent. What has stirred up civil war in Swit-
zerland, and has roused the courts of Paris
and of Vienna to prepare and threaten the motion
of diplomatists and armies ? What agitates the smaller
states of Germany, and the court of Berlin? Iteli-
gioas parties : the Jesuits here, the Pietists there :
the public aiding with the latitudinarians to escape the
dominion of the high priests, and government throw-
ing its influence, now to one side, now to that, in
order to eecureita independence from the most threat-
ening and powerful, for the time, of the forms of reli-
gious zeal.
In our own allusions to religions controversy we
have sought to be calm and impartial—the worst
way, perhaps, to secure followers and friends. But
we really dread to see a period of truce between do-
mestic parties, and of peace lbetween rival nations,
turned into an epoch of religions strife, as if public
opinion was an arena which must necessarily be occu-
pied by combats of some kind; and as if men's minds
might not be allowed, at least at this season, to repose
upon an unbroken prospect of peace, of hope, and of
charity.

Warn 9T we are dreading and preparing for the ad-
vent of cholera as a fearful scourge, the tables of the
Registrar-General show that, for the last few
weeks, the mortality in the metropolis has not only
been greater than it was daring the presence of
cholera in this connt•y in 1831.2, bnt greater than it

, has been at any period since the great plague.
Although the register for last week exhibits a decrease
' upon that of the two previous weeks, it still presents
u• with a mortality nearly double that which usually
occurs at the present sown of the year. The average
number of deaths for the week ending December 18,
for the years 1842-3-4-6-6, was 1,046 ; whilst in this
year it amounts to 1,946. During the week ending
on the 11th of Deo., the mortality mounts up to
2,416 ; the week previous it was 2,454 : and the
week ending November 27, 1,677: making altoge-
ther an increase in the number of deaths above the
average for one month, effete thousand three hundred
and nine. On referring to the records of mortality
from cholera, it will be found that this increase of
deaths in London is nearly equal to all the deaths that
took place from cholera in Scotland, and equal to half
the deaths that occurred from the same disease in
London. Although this increased mortality has been
attributed to influenza, the registrar's report does
not confirm this opinion, for we find that during the
period we have referred to, only 878 deaths have been
referred to influenza, which constitutes but a sixth
part of the increased mortality of the period. It is, how-
ever, probable, that the deaths referred to inflammation
of the lungs and air tubes (pneumonia and bronchitis)
which amount, for the same period, to 2,031, are refer-
able to the same general causes as influenza. It has
usually been found that when one form of disease pre-
vails extensively and fatally, other diseases are
less prevalent and fatal ; but that is not the case during
the present season, for we find an increase under al-
most every farm of disease. Whatever be the cause
which is now favourable to the production of influenza
and inflammatory disease of the lungs, it seems to be
equally favourable to the development of typhus fever.
This frightful disease, which bas been prevailing in
London in the abodes of poverty and filth during the
whole autumn, has suddenly made a destructive start,
and carried off, in the last four weeks, nearly one
thousand persons, or twenty-six daily, beyond the
ordinary average at this season of the year.
These are alarming facts, and calculated to produce
earnest inquiry. Every one must feel interested in
ascertaining whether this mortality has arisen from
our defective sanitary arrangements, or from causes
over which human foresight has no control. It has I
been customary for medical men to refer influenza to
the combined occurrence of a low temperature and a
damp atmosphere. During the present season, the
temperature has been rather higher than the average,
whilst the amount of moisture in the atmosphere has
not indicated an excess over years in which no in-
fluenza has occurred. Whilst the atmoepheric changes
are not sufficient alone to account for the existence of
the disease, yet, combined with other causes, they
have probably assisted in its production. The past sum-
mer has been unusually dry, and has favoured the
drying up and solidifying of vast masses of animal
and vegetable matter not only in our drains and
sewers, but also in our streets and every exposed
place. The occurrence of the rains in November
would soften this matter, whilst the unusually high
temperature of the air would facilitate its decomposi-
tion, and the damp atmosphere would be the best pos-
sible means of conveying its poisonous agency into
every system. It is in this manner that we believe
there has been introduced into the human body a
poisonous ferment as it were which, coming in contact
with the blood, has produced such changes there as
to engender positive diseases, like influenza, in
some, and a predisposition to the influence of specific
poisons, as typhus, scarlet fever, small pox, in others.
If this be the true cause, the present alarming
mortality may be directly traced to our want of
sanitary arrangements. It is these same causes,
acting upon the human system, that give the predis-
position to cholera. There is no fact better ascer-
tained in the history of cholera than that it breaks out
in damp places, on the banks of rivers, and near the
mouths of sewers, or after heavy rains. If we have not
had cholera then in London, it arises not from our cir-
cumstances forbidding its residence amongst us, but
that its poison, its germs, whatever they may be, have
not yet arrived in this country.
That the accumulated filth of our sewers, drains,
lanes, courts, and alleys, combined with the ener-
vating influence of imperfect ventilation, has been
an active cause of the late mortality, will be
found from an examination of the districts
where the late mortality has been greatest. For
instance, we find that Whitechapel, with a population
of 71,000, has lost in the month 413 inhabitants,
whilst the district of St. George, Hanover-square,
with nearly the same population, 68,000, has had but
176 deaths. Or again, contrast the deaths in Wands-
worth and St. George-in-the-East, districts with
nearly the same number of inhabitants, and it will be
found that whilst only 96 persons died in the first,
263 died in the last. We might give other illustra-
tions from the registrar's report, but these will be
sufficient to prove our position, that the present
enormous rate of mortality in London is mainly due
to our want of proper sanitary arrangements.
The question occurs here as to whether the present
pestilence is likely to have any effect on the advent of
cholera. Taking the most favourable view of the
question, we might suppose that the great majority of
the weak and predisposed having sunk under the dial-
eases now prevalent, that there would be few left for
the cholera to prey on, and that, consequently, its
visitation would be mild. At the same time, if we ,
recollect that on a previous occasion the severity of
influenza was not mitigated by the cholera which had
preceded it, we shall have no reason to hope that the
converse will be the case; and, indeed, when we find
that the causes which produce influenza have in-
creased within the last few years, judging by
the greater severity of this attack, and know
that they are analogous to those which favour
the development of cholera, it does seem to
our minds an additional reason, if not for appre-
hension, at least for increased and redoubled activity
with regard to sanitary measures. It should be recol-
lected that, although so much has been said and writ-
ten with regard to public health, really very little
has been done at all. Oullyholes 'still remain
entrapped, to poison the frequenters of the most
splendid streets of our metropolis; our courts and
alleys are as redolent of all abominable stenches as
ever ; we have whole streets of houses in which
every room is a den of filth, and each article of fur-
niture, and every rag employed by its inhabitants,
are foci of contagion ; there are walls which have
never known whitewash, and floors which have been
strangers to water for nearly a century ; even the
mansions of the wealthy are exposed to the stench of
the cesspools which have been so foolishly and abun-
dantly formed to injure the health of their inhabitants.
These things should not be, if we wish to escape
cholera.

ITALIAN journal being word of the death of NA.
Poteott's widow, MARIA LOEI9A, Duchess of Parma
and Piacenza, who expired at Parma, on the
17th. The demise of this princess will facilitate those
re-arrangements of the principalities of Central Italy,
which the imbecility of some of the sovereigns, the
unpopularity of others, and the popular effer-
vescence throughout the region, have rendered
necessary. The ex-Duke of LUCCA can now suc-
ceed to his patrimonial heritage of Parma;
and the little territory,not so much disputed, between
Modena and Tuscany, as itself resolute never to be-
come Modenese, will have the satisfaction of return-
ing permanently under the mild and liberal rule of
the Grand Duke.
There is little to say of the character of MARIA
LOUISA, much as might be indited on the fickleness
of her fortune. SacriSced when young by her family
to the ambitions desire of NAPOLEON to found a
dynasty in France, and to impart to it at least some
claims of imperial descent, MARIA LOUISA was more
a dutiful than a devoted wife. She displayed
in the moment of NAPOLEON'S fall none of that energy
and affection so usual in women, and which, had it
been displayed by her, might have altered the fate of
NAPOLEON. Bit her apathetic nature was roused
neither by his fall, nor yet by the disinheriting of her
am. Her history since she went to Parma, is made
up of the usual events of an Italian sovereign's
life--misrule and exaction towards her subjects,
and in her court a domestic and semi-legitimate
connexion with Count NEUPERO in the first instance,
and some other as unknown courtier since. It is as-
tonishing how noiselessly and obscurely all the rela-
tives and connexions of the great NAPOLEON sink
into their graves.

Our Paris letters say that the agitation which pre-
vailed in that city on Wednesday continued on Thurs-
day, and the funds suffered a further decline.
Notwithstanding 'unmoor& received in:high quarters
that the King enjoys his usual good health, appre-
hensions and suspicions to the contrary prevailed. On
Wednesday evening the reception rooms of the Tuile-

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