Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-24 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES THURSDAI, MARCH 24, 1859

Bourses also of the French and Austrian capitals-
The effect is represented as having been such as to
show in a remarkable mannner, on this occasion, how
sensitive all these Exchanges are, in their operations,
to political influences, and more especially those
which involve considerations of peace or war. " /slot-
withstanding," said one account, "that the rise on
the Paris Bourse was unimportant, the fact that the
Austrian funds have recovered materially from the
late depression, coupled with the rumour of the
dispatch of a special envoy from France to Turin,
created an effect ; and the great majority of the
operators having sold for a fall, numbers were
anxious to terminate their outstanding engagements."
And then it was remarked, that " credulous as many
persons appear of the possibility of preventing a
collision after the preparations already made and
the excitement occasioned in Italy, it was neverthe-
less, at the same time, fully admitted that if peace
should be assured it would have a most marked
influence upon the credit of the Stock Exchange."
We have, in these facts, very striking evidence of
the mischief that is sure to be done, by every distur-
bance of the peace of Europe, to the monetary
interests, and through them to the general commerce(
and indeed the common weal, of its principal states,—
and, of course, by the evil which one in the position
of Louis NAPOLEON has it unhappily in his power
to do, to the welfare of other countries besides his

•
own.
Everything, as we have shown from time to time,
has been made ready for a conflict. All Europe has
seen with regret, if not also with alarm, the immi-
nence of the collision that was being prepared for.
As a Paris correspondent, writing *a day or two
since, observed, " the French Government have col-
lected an army in the south ; Piedmont has marched
all its regular forces, swelled by volunteers and dis-
tant garrisons, and reserves raked up from every
corner of the kingdom, to the frontiers, a few miles
from which the Austrians are accumulating a force
sufficiently large to swallow up Sardinia and its army
at one mouthful." Such was the state of things at
the beginning of this week, and suchsit practically
still remains, although with confident hopes of its
now peaceful issue. And whence the change ? The
mediation of England has doubtless mainly produced
it. We are aware that there is another influence
to which it is attributed,—that of public opinion ;
and we admit its power, and its operation in this
case. " Public opinion," it was truly said, before so
much was known as there is to-day--" public
opinion in France and England has so unmistake-
ably pronounced itself against going to war on so
futile a pretext as the Italian question, that in some
quarters well-informed people begin to think that,
notwithstanding all these preparations, the Govern-
ment will shrink from disregarding the veto so
unanimously expressed." But then, public opinion
has had a direction given to it, and a pointedness
and strength of effect, by the judicious interposition
of her Majesty's Government, without which
it might have spent itself on its object in
vain. In France there is evidently no slight
confidence in our Government, as one of peace
for the general good ; and the opinion that
war would be disastrous to the great interests
of Europe, and would retard the course of that
political and social, as well as commercial,
progress, which is now regarded everywhere
with so much interest, and so much hope, has been
fostered and strengthened by the earnest manner in
which it undertook the part of a peace maker, under
so evident and 'so deep a feeling of deprecation
9.0 f
g
itiSfaTEZTecfeitite of Piedmont.
There is, then, instead of a Campaign, to be a Con-
gress, to which the whole question in dispute is to
be submitted, with certain conditions. Austria is
understood to be quite willing to leave her cause
entirely in its hands, as regards Italy. At
present it is believed she feels that there
are obligations subsisting between her and some of
the Italian States which, while they are evidently
causes of offence—or, at least, are made such—to
Sardinia and to France, are of no advantage to
herself, but rather the reverse. And if this be really
so, why, in the name of reason, should war be
thought of to rid her of such incumbrances ?
Thanks, then, to British interposition and influence,
this idea is likely no longer to be entertained. A
Congress, with such a disposition on the part of
Austria, can have no difficulty in taking away every
shadow of a pretext for either France or Sardinia
persisting in their hostile purposes, which are con-
demned so strongly by the whole public opinion of
Europe.

THE SANITARY CONDITION OF LIVERPOOL.
THE report of our Medical Officer of Health for
the year 1858, which was given in our impression of
last Monday, is by no means a favourable one, as re-
spects the sanitary state of the town for that period;
for it appears that the amount of its registered deaths
in that year,- were 13,937, being 986 more than in the
previous year, and 960 more than the average of the
preceding three years, corrected for increase of popu-
lation,—although it seems, that as compared with the
mean of the five years 1851-5, and deducting the
scarlatina deaths from both periods, there is a balance
of about 400 in favour of the year 1858 ; and the
Medical Officer desires it to be remembered, " that
scarlatina is a disease comparatively little under the
control of sanitary measures." Still the case, taken
entire, is not one that says so much as might have
been expected for our sanitary condition,
under what has been done to improve it
during the period embraced in these calcula-
tions. There is something significant in the
fact—and significant as affecting that very state of
the town, to improve which is the object of all the
sanitary measures that have been introduced--that
0f13,937 deaths last year, 9,570 were in the parish,
and 4,367 in the out-townships ; giving a death-
rate for the former of 34.2, for the latter. of 26.5, and
for the borough of 31.4 per thousand; for it is in
the parish, that is, in the crowded town portion of
the borough, that there is still so much to be done in
the way of improvement. The out-townships are.
free from these deleterious influences, which do so
much mischief within the town ; although they are
not by any means so free from them as they
might be. There are many situations in the
outskirts of the town, especially such as
contain any considerable number of the dwellings
of the working classes, which are not, we believe,
devoid of unwholesome nuisances, and where the inter-
nal arrangements and economy of the dwellings them-
selves are not such as can be otherwise than injurious
to health. Collections of stagnant water and of other
filth, and the general want of proper drainage, can-
not but be more or less injurious to those who live
amongst their offensive exhalations, however open
and favourable the situation may otherwise be. For
example,---about a third of the deaths registered last
year were ascribed to diseases of what is called the
Zymotic class; “and there is no doubt," says the

Medical Officer, " that the principal Zymotic diseases
obey certain laws, whose elucidation may be expected
when the record of facts becomes large enough for
the purpose. They require the presence of some
peculiar, and in most cases, unknown condition of the
atmosphere, in order to give them an epidemic
character. These conditions varying with each
disease, seem to come into operation at different sea-
sons of the year, but usually at nearly the same
period in the case of the same Zymotic."
Now, admitting the truth of this theory, it must
at the same time be evident that the deleterious
influences of such conditions of the atmosphere must
be aggravated in no Slight degree by the bad exhala-
tions that prevail, arising from the causes just stated.
There is some `instruction to be derived, in this
regard, from the case of typhus fever, which, says
the report, "is perhaps more than any other disease
dependent upon 19ca1 causes ;" and which, it adds,
" had a much higher mortality in the parish than in
the out-townships--the proportion being one in 692
in the former, and only one in 1,040 in the latter."
Of course, the inference is, that typhus met with
more encouragement, and was more fatal, on account
of the atmosphere of the parish being more noxious
than that of the out-townships. But at the same time
it is more than probable, that the disease in the latter
district might be still less frequent and less fatal,
were its sanitary condition but better attended to in
situations occupied to any extent with the dwellings
of the poor.
There is yet a more serious consideration; and it
is one that has to do with both moral and physical
influences. " The number of deaths," says the report,
"and the rate of mortality in each district of the
borough, are shown in the following table, where
Vauxhall Ward occupies its usual place at the head
of the list," This is the point,—Vauxhall Ward,
which is thus fearfully prominent as respects its
pauperism and its immorality. It is a ward specially
remarked upon, we remember, by Dr. HUME, as the
scene of violent deaths ; and it is marked on his map
as the darkest portion of the North pauper district.
" The district of violent deaths, therefore," it is
observed, " coincides with the district which exhibits
prominently a high rate of mortality, and with the
district in which the ravages of an epidemic are most
acutely felt." Morality, therefore, has no little to do
with what is healthy. And upon the same principle
it is that " cleanliness is next to godliness." Moral
impurity and physical impurity are very generally
co-existent--the one as a consequence of the other.
One valuable portion of our Medical Officer's
Report, is its refutation of Dr. GREENHOW'S state-
mentr as put forth in an official form, and also that
of the Registrar-General, that the sanitary state of
Liverpool was discreditable, and that the efforts
made for its improvement had been ineffectual. To
say the least of them, these were gross exaggerations.
It, might certainly be, as is charitably alleged, that
the intention of those mis-statements was " not to
say anything in disparagement of Liverpool, but
rather to stimulate to still greater improvement,"—
although they did, in fact, disparage it in no slight
degree. " But," continues the Report, "in discussing
these matters, it should never be forgotten that
Liverpool was the first town in the kingdom to set
the example of sanitary improvement, taking
precedence even of the Government measure in
this respect, and that, on this account, as well
as -in regard to the peculiar difficulties to
be overcome, and the large sacrifices which have
been made for the purpose, it is justly entitled to a
generous consideration." Thprp 'nn 11P aqphi- of
consmeration must
excuse any relaxation of those efforts which are still
so essential to make the sanitary condition of
Liverpool what it ought to be. There are yet in its
most densely populated districts impurities, physical
and moral, which must be most polluting to the
community, and the removal of which must be
accomplished, ere Liverpool can ever expect to
escape criticism and censure.