The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

THE VIENNA CONFERENCE.

The following particulars of the course likely to be
followed were circulated in Paris;on Thursday. Count
de Buol will explain the state of the question, in a speech
setting forth the history of the diplomacy of the last
two years. He will then read the protocol of De-
cember 28, and the additional declarations exchanged
since by the parties to the treaty of December 2, to de-
termine the sense of the third guarantee required by them
from Russia. The intent of this prefatory reading will be
to lay down in an unmistakeable and irrevocable manner
the basis of negotiations for peace. Prince Gortschakoff
awl M. de Titoff will be asked to give their formal ad-
hesion to the protocol and to affix their signatures to it.
Should they refuse, the conferenoeti will be immediately
closed.. In case their objections sriould merely relate to
secondary points, the representatiyes of the Allied
Powers will, if tf.ey think fit, defr to tl7 object: on
their own repensibility,- le them ti their
Governments ad referenda44 It is to be suppeL KI that,
even in the case of the Conferences being declared
closed in principle, the Russian Plenipotentiaries
would be allowed a reasonable time to ask for fresh
instructions, so that every door for negotiation
may be left open up to Passion-week. If by that time
no understanding is come to, the Conferences will be
dissolved without loss of time, and arms alone will be
depended upon to effect a solution. Austria, whose
threats of declaring war upon Russia have so frequently
come to nothing, is now said to be firmly resolved to
~hrow away the scabbard should the Vienna Conferences
come to no result by the beginning of April. •

MARKET NEWS-(THIS DAY.)

LONDON, SATURDAY, IWARCR 17, 1855.

The Right Honourable Baronet the Member
for Marylebone is entitled to much credit for the
patient industry and judicious consideration be-
stowed on the important and complicated subject
which he last night brought forward in the House
of Commons. By his temperate and simple, but
at the same time lucid statement, he established
the existence of flagrant abuses and crying
grievances, imperatively demanding immediate
legislation. The most thorough-going advocate
of local jobbery could not have denied the neces-
sity for remedial measures to abate the existing
nuisances, and prevent the clashing of jurisdic-
tions that occasioned everything to be attempted
in the worst and most extravagant manner, the
different Boards being engaged rather in counter-
acting the efforts of their neighbours than in
removing the universally acknowledged evils.
Where friendly co-operation was essen-
tial to the welfare and comfort of the
inhabitants, the petty potentates—generally
self-elected—were vindicating their own preten-
sions to dignity by snubbing and quarrelling with
those who had the management of contiguous dis-
tricts. The number of cases in which collisions
might arise may be judged from the example of
the Strand, where the 1336 yards from No. 1 to
Temple Bar, about three-quarters of a mile, was
divided into no less than nine division ! with nine
distinct governing bodies. Generally speaking,
" the boundaries of the different jurisdictions all
through Westminster ran through the centre of
the streets ; so that, while one side of the street
was paved by one authority, the opposite side was
pared by another." Can we wonder at the in-
terminable dissensions of almost daily occurrence,
or at the absence of any fixed plans as to the
paving and repairing of thoroughfares. The gen-
tlemen who determined that " one side of the
street should be watered in the morning,
and the other in the evening, so that both
sides were covered with dust during the whole
summer's day," were not singular in their
inconsistency. We venture to assert that
many examples might bo cited of equally ridi-
culous perversity, by which the money of the
inhabitants was squandered, while their interests
were disregarded. Such a state of things could
not be suffered to. continue. Indeed it is only
astonishing that it was allowed to last so long.
Having decided that legislation was indispen-
sable, the next question was, What should be
ansidered as the metropolis ? What districts
should be included within the operation of the
newl4w I After duly weighing the comparative
advantagea and disadvantages of the district sub-
ject to the coal tax, being a circle of 40 miles,
having St. Paul's as its centre—of the metropo-
litan police district, a circle of 30 miles, with
Charing-cross for its centre, and the Registrar-
General's district, which has
recently
for the census and other St, tistiobjects,beeil used
and
extending from Hampstead in the north to
Wandsworth in the south, and from Stepney
in
the east to Chelsea is the west—the
Right
Hon. Baronet has selected the last mentioned,
probably from the convenient divisions into which
it is already divided, and which will save much
trouble and delay in fixing the new quasi munici-
pal districts.
Three principles have been chiefly regarded by
the President of the Board of Health in framing
the measure so ably brought forward.
Ist. That there should be a uniform system of
local self-government.
2d. That there should be a consolidation of
many of the boards. And

3d. That those boards should be elected by the
ratepayers.

There ia, however, to be no interference with
ecclesiastical affairs, nor with the powers of the

Poor-law Board, exclusive of the City of London,
which is to be dealt with by a separate bill.
There are to be 36 District Boards, to which the
different parishes will send a certain number of
representatives, proportioned to their relative
populations, so that to the District Board they
would stand in the same relation as wards to
municipalities in provincial towns. The Boards
thus constituted would have important duties to
discharge. They would have the power of " cleans-
ing, lighting, paving, watering, and generally of
discharging the duties of surveyors of highways ;"
would also have control over the local sewers,
and the powers conferred by the Health of Towns
Act on local boards of health.

Tn addition, there is to be a Central Board,
consisting of 42 elected members—selected by the
different districts, the City of London sending twe
representatives and a chairman, to be one
selected by the Secretary cf State, from
three persons chosen by the Metropolitan
Board. This board would have the main sewers
under their control, and have power to make in-
tercepting sewers on each side of the Thames, and
to levy rates for general improvements. The
Treasury may advance the sums necessary, to be
re-paid, principal and interest, within 50 years.
Such are the leading features of the great plan
last night introduced by Sir BENJAMIN HALL ;
and without prematurely deciding on its details,
we venture to say that it will be not only a great
improvement on that now in operation, but that
it is well calculated to effect the important object
for which it is designed.

Upwards of one hundred thousand human be-
ings are annually perishing in England from pre-
ventable disease, while in Scotland and Ireland
the preventable mortality is even greater in pro-
portion ! What an appalling amount of needless
suffering and misery is suggested by these words.
What.a waste of national power ! Never, per-
haps,:did Great Britain need strong men more
than at the present time, and yet we have to
record facts like these. Twenty or thirty thou-
sand men are lost unnecessarily in the Crimea,
and the nation is in a blaze of righteous indigna-
tion. Yet, year by year, there perishes in our
midst a force numerically large enough to man our,
fleets, recruit our armies, replenish our police force,
and go far to strengthen and consolidate our distant
colonies, andhardly any one seems to be aware of it.
Slaughter in our streets, slaughter in our courts,
slaughter in our alleys, slaughter in our villages,
slaughter everywhere, with mourning, lamenta-
tion, and woe in its train ; and when the country
is told of the fact, it is listened to with less inte-
rest than would be excited by a single murder or
an old woman's tale of dances by an unearthly
visitor on the snows of Devonshire.

There is something really astounding in the
apathy of the public in relation to this great life-
and-death question—something totally inexpli-
cable save on the supposition that they don't be-
lieve what sanitary reformers tell them. They
floret believe that typhus and cholera, and a host
of other epidemic diseases, can be prevented.
They look on the workers in the cause of health
as so many well-meaning but weak-headed enthu-
siasts, entitled to some degree of respect, but to a
great deal more pity. We wish their estimate
were correct, and that there was no reason
to believe that mere than a million of our
fellow-subjects are sacrificed every ten years,
as Mr. HOPLEY tells us, through culpable
neglect. Let any one, however, who may think-
the statements of this gentleman exaggerated
take the trouble to compare them with
the three or four last volumes of the Registrar
General's Annual Reports, or with half a dozen
of the various Blue-Books on the subject, is3ued
from the Health-office during the last two or three
years, and we venture to say they will find ample
reason for altering their belief. They will then
find that the figures put forth by Mr. HOPLEY,
including others even more startling, have been
so carefully compiled and calculated as to preclude
the possibility of the word exaggeration being
fairly applied to them.

In a paper drawn up a year or two ago, under
the supervision, we believe, of the General Board
of Health; and entitled " Comparison of the Cost
of Life by War and Pestilence and Civil Vio-
lence," theaverage annual amount of deaths in Eng-
land from preventible diseases—i. e., from "typhus
and other zvmotic diseases," is estimated at one
hundred and fifteen thousand ! The calculations
on the subject are arrived at by comparing the
mortality of healthy districts with the mortality
of other districts rendered unhealthy by known
and removable causes ; but, startling as they are,
it must not be supposed they perfectly represent
the case, for it cannot be doubted that even the
healthiest districts are not so healthy as they may
be made. LA it_be granted that the death roll
for the whole country can be reduced as low as in
some of the "model dwellings," and it must be
admitted that the preventable mortality is far
from being adequately represented by the above
figures.

How long, it may well be asked, is this fright-
ful state of things to continue ? How long is
society to go on living " contrary to the dictates
of reason ?" How long are the poor to be deci-
mated by preventable diseases ? How long are
entire communities to be compelled day by day to
imbibe more or less of poison which, though it
may not seem to occasion positive disease, must
render the individual less physically, intellec-
tually, and morally capable than ho should be—
less strong to resist morbific influences, and, there-
fore, more liable to he attacked, not only by any
prevailing epidemic, but also by every other kind
of sickness and disease ? How long, we ask, is
all this to last 7 So long, we reply, as the many
are indifferent to their own interests ; or, rather,
so long as so little interest is taken by the few
to teach there what these are. Let the many
but realise the true state of things as regards dis-
ease and mortality, and it will go hard if a vast
change is not speedily effected. Once let but a
grand popular opinion, be formed upon the
"solemnly momentous questions of Health and
Education," and interested clamour and opposi-
tion will cease, and the country will bo blessed
with some Legislative enactment which will give
long life to the people.