The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-08 00:00:00

IDEN'S VALUA

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17carata.. S 0 2
16 carat*.. tl6 74
15earsis.. 2 13 1
14c24242.. 2 9 64
13caraLs.. 2 6 0
12carata.. 2 2 61
I 1 camp.. 1 18 11
109arste.. 116 2i

AMR WHAT T—After Mellon'a Promenade
Concerts, VirANB' to P. We man meet there

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BRITANNIA.
TRIG Evranci, THE WIFE; A TALK OF ILLITUA. Mir
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TO-HOnaoef—Morulng, Oh. Sin Afternoon, dfen.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8.

IT is often said that the English character never
appears to better advantage than when some
calamity, overtaking a class or a population, calls
out the generous sympathy of the public in
effort and sacrifice for its relief. The present
outbreak of cholera has already been the occa-

sion for an outpouring of liberality, and been
marked by instances of individual heroism,
especially in connection with the immediate care
of the sick, which do honour to our age and
country. But there is another aide of the same
national character which at a time like this it is
not proper to overlook. If we are, as
we love to repeat, a practical people, it
must be admitted that we show it more

by the energy and promptitude with which
we meet emergencies, than by the wis-
dom and foresight which might anticipate and

prevent them. The present visitation of cholera
comes to remind us of some serious omissions
in this respect. Our local organisations, it
must be acknowledged, are somewhat better

adapted to deal with the disease than on any
former occasion, but in other respects we

are chargeable with serious neglect. The epidemic
has broken out under circumstances which have

compelled attention to the fact that the field which
it first occupied, and in which it has committed

- . .
the severest ravages, is a crowded and poor popu-
lation, with an intermittent water supply drawn
from an open river. Again and again has the
connection between polluted water supply and
cholera been folioed upon public notice, and as
often has the duty of providing against the evil
been evaded. One of the first impulses of the
authorities in many districts threatened by

cholera has been to take off the
handles of the public pumps, a measure
very likely to prevent the people from being
poisoned by drinking water contaminated by
the specific cholera poison which finds its way
from house drainage to wells, but one which, at
the same time, deprives the poor of the means
of washing themselves, their clothes, their uten-
sils, and their houses, at a time when cleanli-
ness is all-important. It is a hard case, and a
lamentable illustration of public improvidence, wl en
the choice thus lies between privation and poison.
We have been like the Indian who was advised to
mend the hole in the roof of his hut. How could
he do it when it rained 1 And what need was there
to do it when the weather was fine ? After all the
warnings we have had, we ought by this time to be
in the enjoymentof an abundant and constant supply
of pure water brought from distant mountains, ful-
filling every requirement of health and refreshment.
Seventeen years ago, when a day of humiliation
and prayer was publicly appointed on account
of the cholera, the late Dean &TOLLAND declared
in Westminster Abbey that this was the great
religious lesson taught by the calamity ; and pre-
dicted that until we honestly assumed the duty of
making adequate provision for a full supply of
pure, fresh water, accessible to the poorest
and most numerous classes of the people,
we should be repeatedly visited by the
scourge. His words have been fulfilled. The
population of London is half as large again as
it was in his day. We are getting from the exist-
ing companies an average daily quantity of
100,000,000 gallons of water, of which about
50,000,000 are taken from the Thames, and the
other half from the original sources of the New
River Company, from the River Lea, and from
deep wells on the easterly and northerly aides of
London, and from the river Ravensbourne on
the south. Upon the present gross popu-
lation the average supply is about thirty
gallons per head daily. Suppose this average
allowance to be thought sufficient, and the
population of London to continue to increase at
its present rate, in 1886 we shall want 150,000,000
gallons. The present companies cannot be charged
with not seeking to increase their means of meet-
ing public requirements. Within the last fourteen
years they have expended 4,000,0001. upon ex-
tensions, and are still anxiously looking out for
new sources of supply, while the residents on the
banks of the Thames are loudly complaining of
the diminution of the stream. But it is not by
each company seeking to be the first to appro-
priate the scanty local sources which remain that a
great wantlike this is to be met ; the came must be
looked at from a higher point of view than any
which a commercial company can reasonably be
expected to take. The water supply of the metro-
polis is a matter which, in the very highest degree,
eoncerns the public health, and in whatever hands
it is placed security should be taken for
having it dealt with in a large and liberal
spirit. Glasgow and Manchester bare settled this