The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-15 00:00:00

can to procure a dwelling, whether it be in the
pent-up " terrace," the foetid " court," or the
new and unsewered street. Dr. LETIIEBY has
just made his report to the authorities of the
City of London, upon this interesting and highly
important subject. It is an official document,
truly appalling in its character, and the revela-
tions which it contains are only equal to the
manners and customs of the most barbarous
tribes. The Doctor's Report clearly demonstrates
that there is no form of misery, no extreme of
African heathenism, which cannot find a parallel
in the metropolis of the United Kingdom—a
kingdom, by the Way, whose people pride them-
selves in being the foremost in civilisation, who
send out missionaries to heathen and unconverted
lands without limit, whose Bible and Tract
Societies' subscriptions amount almost to princely
revenues, whose contributions for Education and
Ragged Schools, and all other plans put forward
to aid and relieve every kind of suffering huma-
nity, are far beyond any other nation on the face
of the globe. Nevertheles, in the very centre
of this humanity, Christian zeal, and philan-
thropy, there is not a doubt but the rankest and
most noxious weeds of barbarism and irreligion
bud, grow up, and cast their pestilential seeds
throughout the length and breadth of the land.
Let us see how this comes to pass. Dr. LETHEBY
reports that in the first quarter of the present
year the mortality of the eastern districts has
greatly exceeded the average, but has been unable
to ascribe this undesirable result to any legiti-
mate cause—although no doubt some of the
mortality in question was owing to the hardness
of the times, large numbers of the poorer classes
being unable to procure employment during the
past winter. The Report sets forth that the
dwellings of the poor were characterised by the
following horrid defects and injurious deficien-
cies :—Over-crowding, imperfect drainage, bad
ventilation, added to which was, as a matter of
course, extreme filthiness. Painful though it may
be, to all sensible and well-regulated minds, to
quote the Doctor's own words in describing
the wretched and squalid condition of
of the London pDor, it is a duty we owe to
the public to reproduce them, for if this social
cancer is to be healed it must be probed, no
matter how shocking the operation may prove
to all our senses. He describes men, women,
and children " herding together like brutes, where
every human instinct of propriety and decency
is smothered." To this he adds, " I have seen
grown-up persons of both sexes sleeping in com-
mon with their parents, brothers, and sisters, and
cousins, and even the casual acquaintance of a
day's tramp, occupying the 'same filthy bed of
rags or straw; a woman suffering in the midst
of travail, among males and females of different
families that tenant the same room—where birth
and death go hand-in-hand—where the child but
newly born, the patient cast down with fever, and
the corpse waiting for interment, have no separ-
ation from each other, or from the rest of the
inmates. Such instances as these—and I might
add nthers of even more extreme debasement—
are not uncommon within the walls of this
city."

Dr. LETHEBY tells us that he made analyses
of the atmosphere of Rose-alley, a place particu-
larly distinguished for over-crowding and filthi-
' ness, and found that it was " not only deficient
in the due proportion of oxygen, but contained
about three times the usual amount of carbonic
acid, besides a quantity of aqueous vapour charged
with alkaline matter, that stinks abominably—
doubtless the product of putrefaction and stag-
nant exhalations, that pollute the air of the
place." Now, it requires no argument to prove
the results which must eventuate from such a
state of things. They are described in two words
—Disease and Death. Such localities send forth
typhus fever, cholera, and other Ettal. epidemics.
These spread to the dwellings of the more
affluent. The aristocracy, whilst enjoying them-
selves in the fashionable quarters of the city, may
inhale the pestilential vapours borne from these
dens of poverty, and the very fountains of sick-
ness and disease, bring it into their families, and
ultimately receive a mandatory message from the
King of Terrors! Nay, more ;it may be that
while the very street beggar holds forth his or
her hand to receive any alms which the dictates
of charity bestows, that seeds of typhus are then
communicated. Indeed, the close observer will
find that every neglect of the poor recoils
upon the head of the rich. It was, no doubt,
this feeling that induced the late and
much to be lamented Captain DRUM-
MOND, when Under-Secretary of Ireland, to
enunciate that beautiful philosophical maxim of
morality—" Property has its duties as well as its
rights." In nothing does this packing of the
poor in close and pestilential localities, wreak a
greater or more serious vengeance. The poor
cannot help themselves in such a matter,
although well aware of all the dangers which
surround them, they are perfectly helpless as to
the remedy, Matters have now reached such a
crisis that, flailing all other means, the Legisla-
ture must step forward and compel improvement.
What is true of London i 3 also true of Liver-
pool. The dwellings of the lower classes contain
within them all the elements of disease, filthi-
ness and immorality. The state of the poor was
some years ago described at full length by Dr.
CHARLES MACKAY, as Commissioner for the
Morning Chronicle. At the time he made his
enquiries, we frequently accompanied him
through the lanes and alleys of our great mart of
commerce, and we there beheld scenes equally
appaling as those described by Dr. LETHEBY.
It is true some improvements have taken
place since that time, but we are still in a
very inferior position to what we ought to
occupy. Oar Corporation could not do better
than to cause our Medical Officer to make an
inspection similar to Dr. LETHEBY, and to report
the result. By so doing we would know the
amount of disease and death which stalks abroad
in the borough and its suburbs, and could then
apply a thorough remedy for both. Whilst

doing so, we would promote the comfort and
happiness of the lower orders, render them more
contented with their position, habits of steadiness
and industry would be engendered, and the
public at large reap advantages both substantial
and permanent in their character.

Tun day is to be laid the foundation-stone of
a building, to be used as a Free Library, the
munificent gift of one of the " Merchant
Princes " of Liverpool, WILLIAM BROWN,
Esq., M.P. for South Lancashire. By this
generous and noble gift, Mr. BROWN confers
a great benefit on the town of Liverpool ;
he sets to the whole country a high example of
the right use of wealth, and he helps practi-
cally towards the better education of the
working people. May the example be followed
by many others, who, like him, have the means
to benefit their fellow-countrymen, doing good,
and hoping for nothing again, but satisfied
ith the feeling that good is done. Amidst the
thousand schemes and plans to benefit society
and hasten a Millenium on earth, we believe
that this may certainly be reckoned as one —to
increase the means that minister to knowledge
and self-culture. Many young men may be
saved from idleness and immorality by having
access to such an Institution, which he can freely
enter at all hours of the day, and hold converse
through the printed page with the good and
gifted minds of all time. " Thank God for
books !" says the American CHANNING ; but if the
price of books places them beyond the reach of so
many, here is the difficulty met and the want
supplied. We consider Free Public Libraries to
be among the best of those enlightened move-
ments which do so much honour to modern
times. Free Libraries have had a longer
existence on the Continent : they are only of
recent introduction here. But better late than
never. England, though slow to adopt improve-
ments, and very jealous of things un-English, s
yet not backward to carry them on when she is
fairly committed to them ; and whether it be a
war or a line of railway, she will not falter.
Once let the nation take up anything in earnest,
and they will be second to none.
Free Libraries meet a want that must be exten-
sively felt, and how many a book is there that a
poor working man might covet the reading of that
he cannot afford to purchase. He has only now to
enter a certain building, consult the catalogue,
select his book, and he may retire to read it
undisturbedly at his leisure, satiating his mind
with the thoughts of the great of old. What a
privilege is here ! We can call upon LOCKE,
MILTON, or SHAKSPERE, to converse with him,
and give him their selectest thoughts, clad in
their happiest language, written down in
moments of their highest inspiration. Poets,
historians, philosophers, men of genius, are all
ready to become his teachers. He has
only to pay them the easy price of his attention.
The institution of Free Libraries seems to cry
aloud, in the language of the ancient book, " Ho,
every one that thirsteth, camp ye to the waters,
and he that hash no money let him buy wine
and milk without money and without price."
It is one of the most encouraging sights, any-
where to be seen, to go into a Free Library and
mark the fixed attention, the quietude, the order,
the intellectual atmosphere that seems to brood
over all. Often enough our eyes and ears are
afflicted with sights and sounds that remind us
of the less favourable side of our nature, but in
this instance we have a consolation for much that
is evil, and a promise of much that is good. A
taste for reading is connected with morality and
with all liberal tastes.

It is too late in the day for any one
to question the beneficial tendency of educa-
tion. That tendency may be counteracted,
and we are aware that mere knowledge is
not virtue. Still it is favourable to virtue ; there
can be no virtue without some knowledge ; and
virtue itself is only knowledge quickened into
action under the direction of good impulses. We
are aware, also, that knowledge is not education ;
for education means the training and developing
of all man's faculties. But there could be no
education, no unfolding of the faculties, without
faculties of knowledge. To increase the amount
of knowledge, then, or to offer more facilities for
its diffusion, is, therefore, indirectly to add to the
power, virtue, happiness, and prosperity of the
community, But we will not stoop to argue
with those who question the propriety of educa-
tion, or the safety of knowledge. Happily the
question will be decided without them, Know-
ledge must spread as surely as the seasons revolve
or the earth runs on in her orbit ; and as no
noise or shouting will delay the one or arrest the
other, so no gloomy vaticinations of giving people
too much information, the danger of educating
too much, or making people dissatisfied with
their sober employments, will be listened to for
a moment, in order to withhold the boon. God
has made man to desire knowledge. It is a pure
and spiritual taste, and is in harmony with all
pure and noble impulses.

Our only safety and wisdom, at this time espe-
cially, is to educate the great body of our people.
All parties seem agreed that the Parliament
which has just been returned must entertain the
question of extending the franchise to a wider
area among the people. Lord JOHN RUSSELL
and Mr. DISRAELI are agreed on this point.
And if so, what can be more wise and indis-
pensable than to afford the means of rightly
wielding that power, to those who are soon to
become its possessors. But, whether soon or late,
people-power must one day come, as sure as
God's kingdom will come on earth, and men do
his will. To give power into the hands of the
many, without wisdom to use it, would be like
giving a knife to a child to play with. Men, like
Mr. BROWN, see this looming in the future, and
they wisely prepare for it, by supplying the
means of instruction betimes. Let the Parlia-
ment of England also do their part as the mem-
ber for South Lancashire has so nobly done his.
Fortunate it is for society when the wish to do

good is so well seconded by the power to do it,
as in the present instance. We do not say we
envy Mr. BROWN the luxury of doing good, but
it must be a proud and a glorious feeling for him
to entertain, when lie thinks of the possible good
of which he is here laying the foundation. He
does not Wait till the hand of death's angel shall
have loosened his grasp of all that is his, but he
gives it now, in the day of health, and in the full
possession of his faculties, and of his own free
and generous will. Ail honour to the name of
the Liverpool merchant ; which will always be
remembered among the list of England's bene-
factors. There is no lordly title of Duke or Earl
that could sound more gloriously in the ears of
Englishmen than the plain and unassuming name
of WILLIAm BROWN, the generous donor of the
Free Public Library of Liverpool.

GOING TO TUE COUNTIIY.—This is the expressive
way of putting it; when a British minister, finding
he can no longer command a majority of votes in
Parliament, determines to make a direct appeal to
the people ina new election. This is what Lord
Palmerston is now going to do in reference to the
China W' ar, and, though there is every prospect of
his being sustained by the .country. yet, to needle
all sure, and remove every cause of popuiey dis-
affection, he performs an act of jnatice which he
would not probably otherwise have done ; thus
giving an exemplification of the power of public
opinion even in a monarchial Government. The
case of the two Crimean Commissioners. Sir John'
M'Neil and Colonel Tallooli, has before been
alluded to in our columns. The report of these
officers condemnatory of the conduct of Lords
Lue.an and Cardigan, General Airey and
Colonel Gordon, vas disapproved of by a
Board of General Officers to whom they
appealed, and the Government, by bestowing
no mark of favour on the Crimean Commissioners
seemed to take sides against them. But the
people gave an unqualified decision in favour
of General M'Neil and Colonel - Tulloch,
which stirred the Government up to the neces-
sity of •Lndering them some reward for their
services ; and accordingly they were awarded
a thousand pounds each, which they promptly
declined. The of ,w of money in such a case
was construed as an affront, and the popular
dissatisfaction was more loudly expressed than
before. Lord Palmerston was in a dilemma, but
there was only one way to escape from it, and that
he took. By the last mail from Etl-i.'and, it
appears that the Premier offered a resolutiol; in
Parliament recommending that the Queen
should bestow some mark of her approval
upon the Crimean Commissioners. The reso
lution was passed, and it amounts to a reversal
of the judgment pronounced upon the
incapable officers by the Court of Generals. It is
one of the most striking exemplifigations we have
seen of the power of public opinion in Great
Britain; and it shows how necessary it is to the
preservation of popular rights for the Government
to be compelled oeeasionally to go to the country
for support. It is rarely that our own Govern-
ment ever shows such a marked deferauce to the
popular will.—New York Daie'y Times.

ROADS TO THE PACIFIC,—The dream of half a
century begins to be realised, and we may soon
expect to see a well made road across the conti-
nent from the Mississippi river to the Pacific. Not
a railroad, it is true, but its sure and necessary
precursor—a properly constructed waggon road—
has been authorized•by Congress, and active pre-
parations are makingfor the effective expenditure of
the appropriations provided for that purpose. Three
different departments of the government will unite
their experience and their forces for the prosecution
of the work. The department of the interior dis-
burses 500.000 (bolsi appropriated for the construe
torn of military roads, the ww: department
100,000 dols for digging artesian wells to supply
water on the desert, and the Post office depart-
ment gives out the contract of 600,000 dots per
annum for transportation of the mail over the new
road. The general course of the main road to be
male (for there are two others of less importance.
to connect with roads now constructing in the Ter-
ritories) is that of the Memphis railroad route marked
out by one of the Pacific Railroad surveys. As the
principal work is to be done under direction of a Civil.
Department, instead of the War Office, we may
hope for expedition and economy—for experience
has established the fact that public roads con
strutted in the territories,- under direction of the
Indian Bun,au, have been cheaper, better,
and far more expeditiously ma ie than those
engineered by the War D.Tartment. At all
events, there seems to be a dispo.ition to hasten
the work; and we learn from Washington that
the necessary preliminaries are being arranged
as rapidly as though the new Administration were
not overborne by the pressure of patriots who seek
opportunity to serve the Government and them
selves. There is no reason to doubt that the
appropriation will be sufficient to put the entire
line in good condition for travel, although addi
tional expenditure will doubtless be necessary for
permanent improvements.—New York Teilptne.

ACCIDENT kr, DEATH.—Yesterda7, a young man, named
Elwin Kenyon, a plumb9r, was engaged on a house in
Islington, when he fill off by aceidea, and was killed on
the spot,

BALL.—The annual ball in connection with the Bri-
tannia Rooms, Traurnere, came off with great ec'at on
Monday night last. Mr. Sewell, jun., acted as master of
the ceremonies. The arrangements of mine hosts Messrs
Relph and Simpson were highly satisfactory, and all
went merry as a marriage bell.' The party, which was
numerous, separated at an early hour.
We observe, with much satisfaction, that the " band of
Limekiln lane conspirators," as they are been rather faceti-
ously termed, have been ejected in tote Irons office, in con-
nection with the township of - Traninere. From the new
blood, therefore, infused into the various posts of honour,
we have no doubt but great good will result to the rate-
payers generally.
ACCIDENT.—Yes'Trday morning about six o'clock, an
itinerant vender of home brewed Eau de Cologne,' and
general perfumery, named Baron Von Buhl, while
wending his way down to Woodside ferry, and as is
allegel, carrying " mor,i sail than ballast," sedenly
capsized on the pavement, and sustained a very severe
cut on the temporal artery. Mr. Cassels, i:ispector of
ferries, and constable Jenne, had him quickly conveyed to
the hospital, where the wound was dressed. We may add
that but for the expedition used in this case, the unfor-
tunate individual ‘eould have inevitably Wel to (lea! h.
TEA PARTY.-0,1 Monday last, the annual tea p.trty of
the Band of llope Total Abstinence Society, took place .)
the schoolroom, aiktree place, St. Paul's road, Tranmere,
ender the presidency of Me. Ordish, from Birkenhead.
During the evening, addresses were delivered by G. R.
Williams, Esq., merchant, Liverpool, residing at Rock
Park, and by Messrs. Glyde and Collins. The tea and
sweet breads were supplied by Mr. Morris, and the
general arrangements were carried out by Messrs. North-
more, Guy, Morris, and Stevenson. The number present
amounted to upwards of 200. Wo may here add that,
prior to the tea party, the juveniles, accompanied by
the Birkenhead band, promenaded Rock Park and Tran.
mere generally. The progress of the Band of Hope move-
ment in this quarter may be best gleaned from the fact
that since the formation of the society in July, 1856,
upwards of 100 members have been admitted. To aid on
the adult movement, talented speakers have been selected
from
whichomtlie Liverpoolitwoulc b
ite,ewagetlil to efogrive all duearegular pse,ribielsicoitfy.lectures
to
Mr. W• CLERC'S ANNUAL BALL.—Mr. Clerc, of 'sling
ton, gave his annual grand ball, at the Royal Assembly
Rooms, Great Georges street, on Monday evening, which
was most respectably attended. There were upwards of 120
ladies and gentlemen present, and all expressed the utmost
tettisfactiou at the arrangements, which were excellent in
every respect. Dancing commenced at .nine o'clock, and
with few exceptions the pieees were tie composit ion of Mr.
Clore himself, and met with the highest approbat hal of all
present. The following is a programme of the dancing :
Polka ; Quadrille ; Schottisch ' Vaise ; La Varsoviana,
vourite ; Po'ka, tarnrock ; Lancers; Polka, Ma zourka;
Sehottisch ; G clop, Our Ball ; Irish Quadrille; Pokae
Trumpet ; Valse, original ; Schottisch Quadrille, on
Welch airs ; Galop ; La Varsoviana; Polka, medley ;
Quadrille, song tunes ; Country Dance, Sir Roger de
Coverly. Supper was served in the best style, and, after
the repast., dancing was again resumed, and kept up with
great spirit until an early hour ; and all passed off with
deserved eclat.