The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-30 00:00:00

THE SUN,

be most ready to listen to their complaints, and even to
award them compensation if it`could be reasonably claimed.
He preferred Hyde- park to Battersea-fields as a site for the
building; and he should, therefore, piess his motion to a
division.
The House then divided, when there appeared—
For the motion
Against it...... 221
Majority against the motion —llB
COLONEL OUTRAM.

Mr. ANSTEY moved for copies of the papers and corre-
spondence concerning the investigations made by Colonel
Oatram, C. 13., into the existence of corrupt relations between
the Guicowar or his subjects and certain officers of the Bom-
bay Govern went ; and also concerning the removal of the
said officer from his post of resident at Baroda.
Mr. HERRIES said that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
was entirely mistaken as to the groundwork of his motion.
Those documents that have been referred to had not as yet
come into the hands of the Government. The Court of
Directors bad not as yet had time to deliberate upon the
case. It was, therefore, quite premature for the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman to make such a motion as the present.
The questio 1 was not in such a state as to be made a fit
subject for eiiscussion in that House. When the documents
were receive d, and in such a state as they could be produced,
the Government would be ready to lay them before the
House.

Lord JOCTLYN said that he considered the explanation
given by the Right Hon. Gentleman as satisfactory. He,
however, thought it was a question in which the honour of
the East India Company was deeply concerned. It was due
not only to t;he Company, but to the honour of the Gallant
Officer referr eel to, that these papers should be produced as
speedily asp ossible.
Sir J. lIO'G defended the course pursued by the Bombay
Gavernment in reference to the subject before the House.
He could not, however, be induced to enter into a discussion
of the ruatter,in the absence of those papers which would
inform the H;ouse of the real facts of the case. The Hon.
Member had been told the documents bad only arrived by
the last mail„ and that some of them were under considera-
tion. After gach a statement, he believed the Hon. Member
in proceeding with his motion had taken the course most
likely to produce the result he complained of. He felt called
upon positively to deny the assertion of the Hon. Member
that any of i he civil or military servants of the East India.
Company had either been accused or convicted of the cor-
ruption imputod to them. He had shown the Hon. Member
the passage ire the letter of Colonel Outram, in which, alluding
to the fact that corruption had been imputed by the native
subordinate servants for their own purpose, be stated
that he had laboured to bring to punishment the indi-
viduals through whose means attempts had been made to
tarnish the reame of the British Government, and that he
had brought those miscreants to merited punishment. With
regard to the case of the widow alluded to, it was one
of greater op pression than had ever occurred even in the
East. The child, which was said to be spurious, was taken
from her, and' died ; but it was not murdered, and she was
deprived of her fortune. Colonel Outram, on hearing the
rumours that had been raised, instituted an inquiry, and
had the individuals who raised them signally punished, the
principal delinquent having been sentenced to eight years'
imprisonment. The woman was restored to her caste—the
injury she bud sustained was proclaimed, and all was done
that could be done by Colonel Outram, whose conduct had
received the app,obation of the Bombay Government. He
had not yet had time to read the memorial, but the atten-
tion of the Court et Directors would be given to it. The
impression created by the remarks of the Hon. Member was
that the civil and military servants of the company had been
guilty of the corruption imputed to them. If the Hon.
Member had any such charges to make, he should make
them openly, and not by dark and vague insinuations.—
(Hear, hear.) If there was any scandal at all in the case it
was in casting imputations on men discharging their duty at
a distance.— (Cheers.)
After a few words from Mr. Scholefield, Mr. Baillie, and
Mr. G. Thompson,

Mr. ANST/E Y, in reply, said he was not the person to cast
an imputatio a on any one where he could not make a charge.
What he had said was that imputations had been cast on
officers of high rank in the Company's service, and that Colonel
Outram thought they were of so a grave a nature as to call
for an inquiry. After hearing the statement of the Zion.
Gentleman he should not press his motion to a division.
The motion was then by leave withdrawn.
Mr. AN STEY next moved, "That it be an instruction to
the Select Committee on Indian Territories that they do ex-
amine Colonel Outram, C. 8., touching the alleged corruption
of officers of the Bombay Government with bribes from
Baroda."
Mr. HERRIES hoped the Hon. Member would see that
this motion also ought to be withdrawn. The House was
not in the habit of giving instructions to a Committee which
had been appointed for a specific purpose, unless some docu-
ments or facts were first laid upon the table which justified. it
in doing so.
Mr. G. THOMPSON thought that the circumstances
which had been stated in connexion with the name of
Colonel Outram constituted a sufficiet reason for the motion.
Mr. HERRIES said that it was no doubt within the
scope of the instructions to the Committee that they might
undertake the investigation of this subject, inasmuch as it
had been referred to them to consider the mode of adm'inis-
tration of all the affairs of India, and he dared to say t here
would be no disinclination on their part to investigate any
public interest. But as the Committee
ofthis course if they thought right, it was
shuabdj e
powerc t
to
takew a was
quite unnecessary for this House to instruct them further,
unless some particular facts and documents had been laid
before the House to warrant it in taking such a step.
The SPEAKER said the Committee had full power, under
the order issued by the House, to take the subject referr ad to
in the motion into their consideration ; but no rule of the
House could be clearer than this —that no instructions r xmld
be given to a Committee to do that which they coul.d do
without such instructions.
Mr. ANSTEY, after the statement of the Right Hon,
Gentleman, would not press his motion to a division.
The motion was then by leave withdrawn.
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Mr. SOTHERON moved the appointment of a Select Com-
mittee to inquire into the operation of the law relating to
friendly societies, He trusted it the House acceded to his
motion, that the result of the inquiry would be to put the
House in paqqpssinn of such a hndy of P vidm act as wnn!d ma-
terially assist it in placing these popular institutions on a
just and proper footing.
After some conversation the motion was agreed to.
On the motion of Lord J. MANNERS, leave was given to
bring in a Bill, intituled, "An Act for Registering Births,
Deaths, and Marriages in England."
On the motion of Mr. AGLIONBY for the third reading
of the Enfranchisement of Copyholds Bill,
Sir J. STRICKLAND moved that the Bill be read that
day three mouths.

After some discussion the house was ordered to be cleared
for a division, but the amendment was withdrawn, and, the
Bill was read a third time and passed.
The Friendly Societies (Salaries and Expenses) Bill was
passed through Committee.
The Repayment of Advances (Ireland) Bill was mad a
third time.
The Episcopal and Capitular Revenues Bill was brought in
and read a first time.
Adjourned at One o'clock.

Colonel Clifford. paired off in favour of the retention of the
Crystal Palace, wan Sir Charles Douglas against.

ROUSE OF LORDS, April 29.
Lord REDESDALE presided in the absence of the Lord
Chancellor. _

CRYSTAL PALACE.

The Marquis of NORMAN BY presented several peti-
tions in favour of the retention of the Crystal Palttoe•
The Noble Marquis added that he dissented from the
prayer of the petition, gposidering that such a step would
involve a breach of public faith.

INSPECTION OF NUNNERIES.
The Earl of RODEN presented petitions from severs,
places in Scotland praying for a measure to place
nunneries under Government superintendence.
GENERAL ROSAS.
Earl GRANVILLE rose to put a question to the
Noble Lord at tho head of Foreign Affairs as to what
his Lordship termed the extraordinary honours which
he saw by the public papers bad been paid to General
Rosas on his arrival at Plymouth on Monday last. He
wished to know whether these honours had been paid to
General Rosas in accordance with official instruction.
The Earl of MALMESBURY said that until he
had that morning received a communication from the
Noble Earl he had not heard a word on the
subject of his reception. Certainly no order had pro-
ceeded from the Foreign-office, and he might say from
the Treasury. The only communication which the
Government had bad with General Rosas was to
ask leave to reside in this country as quietly as
possible as a private individual. lie could not, there-
fore, tell why the authorities had received Gene-
ral Rosas in the manner they had, except it was
from a very natural feeling which animated them, to
show kindness to one whose conduct in his own country
had always been of the most kindly disposition
towards British merchants. That certainly was a feel-
ing which he could not blame, because, though we might
not be able to pity the fate which his own conduct had
brought upon him, yet, as he came to this country as a
fugitive, and seeking an asylum, it certainly was not the
time to remind him of his faults, and to seek to visit them
on him.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE inquired if there
had an been
nous,. y Treasury order issued to pass General
effects without search and duty?
any great amount of The Earl of MALMESBURY said that he was not
aware,_ but it was very probable. It was, however, a
fled to this
mistake to
great poverty. country almost destitute, and
that General Rosas was possessed of
a NtaLE LORD,
unt of wealth; the fact was that he had
In answer to
The Duke of in a state of
Rosas on boardtaake
particular order y.THUMBERLAND said that no
-had:.bees issued for the reception of
British man.of-war, but there
General
Lordaeoby the Brazilian troops, azfas,t, and
a a
d ques-
tiont
whe-
therh a t
was a general order to
oy s
were
be
rl ee to
on save
this
tPwl means
eheiel de imminent
tihnfpe -
the lives of those who
said that
to theo
dan-
ger.—(Hear, hear.) might V
putting
rumouredtroo occupa-
tion BEA.UMONkeTthe
opportunity
st
inobuj etocoft
the
Monteh he
w ou
Video
Nobledi
dt
was
ss
mlikeerelylyto be attendedemporary
inattetrhaotfocpcoulipeaet,ioonr
important political results. by any
The Earl of MALMESBURY said he believed it was
mcorrectonte irthiadteottes hnaodwbienetnhseupcohesaenesociocnupoafttihone
Brazilian
troops. He was informed, however, by the Brazilian
Minister that this occupation was only intended as a
temporary measure.
The subject then dropped.
EXCHEQUER BILLS' BILL.
This Bill passed through Committee.
SHEEP CONTAGIOUS DISORDERS PREVEN

TION BILL. .
THE METROPOLIS.
SANITARY CONDITION OF
This Bill also pissed through Committee.
The Earl of SLIAFTESBURY rose to move a reso-
lutiuu that the sanitary condition of the metropolis
quires the immediate attention and nterposton of her
t t
Majesty's Government. He would then proceed to state to
,
their Lordships the consequences of the present condition of
met.
i re-
the many thousands, both in a moral and sanitary point of
view. He believed that, if legislation did not interfere, the
Australian Emigration-office, before long, would take the
very
.flower and vigour of their rural population, whilst the
remainder would flow into the towns, where they were cer-
I lain to undergo the deteriorating process, until premature
old age took them cff, in many instances leaving a sickly and
useless ff,pnng.—(hear, hear.)
The population of thismetropolis, as also ot all great towns, depended altogether on
provincial supply.
.The census of 1851—not yet fully pre'
pawl—would tg.hlblt more striking re4olt4 than Ulm of

LON DON,

1841. No great town could sustain its population from its
own resources. The population of the metropolis was sus-.
tained by immigration from the rural parts, which, if diverted
away, the populdtion would become extinct in a very few
years. In the parish of St. Luke, by the census of 1841, the
number of those bora in country as compared with those
born in the parish was 34 per cent. ; in St. Giles's, 42;
Marylebone, 54; Pancras, 39 ; Kennington, 43 ; London,
40; Westminster, 48; Lambeth, 54; Newington, 48. In
almost every instance half the population was not born in
the town, but in the country. In Manchester the out-of-
town births, as compared with the town, were 35 per
cent.; and in Liverpool, 44, As regarded the mortality,
very much the same might be said. So that with mortaliy
to such an extent, simultaneous with the emigration drain,
there could be no doubt that the result would be as stated—
a very considerable reduction in the amount of population.
It had been remarked by an eminent statist, that "If the
metropolis were surrounded with a wall of brass, so as to ex-
clude all ingress, the population would become extinct in
some 20 years." It was, therefore, for their Lordships to
consider the matter, otherwise the result might be a positive
scarcity as regarded all the great civil, social, industrial, and
military purposes of the country. By the return of the Re-
gistrar-General it appeared that the deaths in the first six
years between 1.540 and 1851, both included, were of scarlet
fever 9,872, whilst in the second six years they reached
11,728. The deaths by diarrhoea in the first six years of
the same period were 4,200, and in the second six years
13,659. Of scrofula, in the first six years, 3,098; iu the
second six years, 7,016; and these ware altogether inde-
pendent of the deaths resulting from cholera. By the report
of last year it would be seen that there were received from
all parts of the metropolis 877 cases of fever ; and of these
there came from one side alone of Gray's Inn-lane 211
cases. One house in that lane had 12 cases, and another

20 cases; so that Gray's Inn-lane alone furnished
one-fourth of the mass of disease in that year. In the
towns of Cheshire and Lancashire, which were also fed
from the country districts, the mortality was even greater
than in London. In Lancashire there was an excess of
deaths over births, and the same might occur in London.
These evils are confined to great towns, and were sure to
exist in thickly-populated districts, where sanitary arrange-
ments did not prevail. In the towns of York and Selby
mortality had been very great of late years ; and here in the
metropolis—where parties crowded in courts and alleys,
having neither water nor drainage—hundreds imbibed
disease and death.—(Hear, hear.) Let them look at the
present state of our intramural interments. He believed it
was universally admitted that that was an execrable
practice; and yet, nevertheless, it was continued, and was
still decimating 2,000,000 of her Majesty's subjects. Recent
inquiries proved that those graveyards were exhaling an
amount of mephitis gas which was most pernicious to all
who came within reach of it. It should be recollected that
those masses of dead bodies not only poisoned the air, but
pervaded the soil, and tainted the supplies of water.
Sir James Macgregor, who had attended the army in
Spain, gave an illustration of the mode in which the de-
composition of dead bodies affected the health of the
living. He said, that on one occasion about
20,000 bodies had been interred in the space of two or
three months, and that the result had been, that
the troops who bad remained in the neighbourhood
had been generally attacked by fever and dysentery.
In this metropolis there were annually interred, in a space
of 218 acres, not less than 50,000 bodies. In Bunhill-fields,
one of the oldest of our graveyards, which consisted of an
area of less than four acres, there had been interred, according
to a register which had been very imperfectly kept, between
the years 1713 and 1832, not less than 107,461 human bodies.
In the ground attached to St. Pancras Church, of which one-
half had been used as a burial place for at least six cen-
turies, there bad been deposited the remains of more than
twenty generations ; and assuming thirty years as the life-
time of each generation, there must have been interred there
1,500,000 dead bodies. He would next pass to the question
of drainage. Many portions of the metropolis were most im-
perfectly drained, or had no system of drainage whatever. In
the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, and in several other dis-
tricts, it was easy to find by the smell the ill effects of the defec-
tive arrangements upon that subject. A survey had been made
of what might be called the subterranean works of London
and the result of that survey would, he felt assured, startle
any one who might be made acquainted with it, because it
revealed the portentous danger to which we all, and more
especially the poorer classes, were exposed, from the presence
of an intense and deadly poison in our atmosphere. It ap-
peared from that subterranean survey that there was accu-
mulated in undrained cesspools in this metropolis an amount
of matter which would cover an area of 700 acres to the
depth of six inches. From these cesspools there was neces-
sarily thrown out every moment an enormous amount of
mephitic gas. Many of the cesspools were under houses, and
some of them were only separated by a boarding from rooms
in which nine or ten persons spent a large portion of the day
and slept by night. But it would be impossible they coals/
have a good system of drainage unless they had a good sup-
ply of water. The great subject of complaint on that head
was the defective distribution of the water. There were
thousands of people who had no water at all, except what
they fetched from a considerable distance. But an abun-
dant supply of water was indispensable, not only
for cleanliness but for health. As an instance
of the beneficial results of the contrary prac-
tice, of affording people an abundant supply of
water, he would refer to what had happened in the city of
Hamburgh. Not many years ago a large portion of that
city had been burnt down; and those who had been charged
with its re-construction had shown the most earnest and en-
lightened desire to make the best possible provisions for the
health and comfort of the inhabitants. They had sent over
here for au engineer who might have the most complete ac-
quaintance with the principles affecting the sanitary condi- ,
tion of the people, and they had resolved on entrusting to
him the management of the supply of water in their city.
Mr. Lindley had accordingly gone over to Hamburgh, and
he had taken the necessary measures for supplying every
room, from the bottom to the top of every house, in that city
with a constant and unlimited flow of water, at a cost to each
occupier of something under a penny a week. And what
had been the result of that supply of water in Hamburgh?
iVhy, it appeared from a statement of the medical men
of that city, that since that supply had been furnished
cutaneous disorders, which had previously been com-
mon among the working classes, had become almost
outirPly unknown. Th. .apply of water in London wee
of a far more unsatisfactory character. He had him-
self visited a court here to which a flow of water was fur-
nished at irregular intervals, and where the inhabitants
had been in the habit of losing hours in waiting for it,

until they had at length stationed an old woman -at the
top of the court and paid her sixpence a wed( fi r giving
them notice when the supply should have begun to flow, and
when that time arrived the people rushed to fill with the
water every variety of vessel.—(Bear, hear.) He said that
such a state of things was a disgrace not only to this
country but to the age in which we lived ; and he hoped
their Lordships would not allow the session to close without
recording their anxiety to remedy those evils. The
city of Paris stood in a much better position in that
respect than London. The late King, Louis Phi.
lippe, had devoted much time and attention to
that subject; he had got a turncock placed at the corner
of almost every street in Paris, and the water which was
so supplied had previously been well filtered. As far as
the supply
foirfty perwat oeersnvt. in a betterascancerne tiodo,entdhiepneople of Paris
were fully than a
large
portion of the inhabitants of London. He would next
proceed to consider the state of our courts and alleys, and the
general condition of the dwellings of the poorer classes in the
metropolis. In the year 1843 a survey of those dwellings had
been made in anticipation of the coming cholera; and Mr.
Grainger had made a report, after having conducted that in-
quiry. From that report it appeared that according to the
uniform testimony of medical men, the dwellings of the in-
dustrious classes in the metropolis were in a most deplorable
condition ; that they were filthy, ill-drained, ill-ventilated,
and deficient in every arrangement demanded by decency,
health, arid comfort; and that there prevailed in them ex-
treme misery, sickness, and mortality. According to the
evidence of Mr. Lloyd, a surgeon, the interior of
those houses were in a most neglected condition,
and were filled with an impure atmosphere; and there were
cases in which as many as ten persons slept in one room.
Then there was the state of that famous place called
Jacob's Island," in which the houses were built over a
stagnant pool, from which the inhabitants drew their sup-
ply of water. There were several other districts which
vere hardly better circumstanced; and it was no wonder
that the cholera should have ravaged such districts. Let
him show them the effect of even a slight attempt at re-
medying those evils. In one of those districts the parish
engine had been brought to bear, for the purpose of cleansing
it ; and when the sewers and cesspools had been emptied,
and lime-wash had been applied, the cholera had instantly
abated. There was abother place called Tindal's-buildin_Pf
in Gray's Inn-lane, which was well deserving of notice, be-
cause it exhibited almost all the evils to which he was refer-
ring. He had received last year a statement with respect
to the condition of that locality so strong, that he
had thought it desirable to visit it himself. He
had gone there with Dr. Southwood Smith ; and he
could state that what they had seen there had far exceeded
anything it would be in his power to describe. That was
the more remarkable, because it was a place which at first
sight would not strike one as being peculiarly filthy and
unwholesome. It was a narrow court, with a tolerably
clean pavement ; and it was only on gibing into. the houses
that one saw the length and breadth of all the misery and
mischief there. In one of those houses not less than twenty
cases of cholera had occurred. He would state the condi-
tion of a single house, which was by no means one of the
worst. The interior was dirty, filled with a foul stench from
a cesspool; the floor of the cellar, which was below the level
of the main sewer, could not be drained; and to remedy that
a hole had bean dng, which was filled with impurities that
could only be removed by baling them out. Some of the
houses had been in so filthy a condition that it had been
utterly impossible for him to examine them, because he
could not, even for one moment, have endured the intensity
of the horrible stench within them. He believed those
were fair representative cases, and he would undertake to
show that what he had stated with respect to those houses
was true with respect, not to 100 or 200, but with respect
to 1,000 or 2,000 houses in the metropolis, and with
respect to the condition of several hundreds of
thousands of its inhabitants. There were other nui-
sances equally great and detrimental. In some of
the densest portions of London numbers of works
were carried on of the most filthy and pestilential character.
There were, for instance, in Lambeth the bone-boiling fac-
tories; there were the lay-stalls in Whitechapel ; and there
were in Bethnal-green the night -yards and places where hu-
man ordure was manufactured into manure for exportation,
All these processes very prejudicially affected the health of
people living in the neighbourhood where they were carried
on. He had frequently heard complaints made of those nui-
sances, and made in terms calculated to excite one's com-
passion. He had seen in Bethnal-green a large pond, about
etha t
an acre in extent, into which the cesspools of a great portion
of the neighbourhood were emptied, and which presented an
enormous exhaling surface ; and the complaints made by
persons exposed to that nuisance were perfectly heart•rend-
of the
poisonous 'rises he
such as he had described might be necessary; bnt
ing. A labouring man had at one time fallen into that pond;
and th
foremanalthough
poor
(thenmtan
could
al of
notS have
h af tes
bury)
remained-
2
in it more than a second, he had been
broughs
out ouite dead, so powerful had been the effect
they ought
not t
must have inhaled. Factories
ite allowed to stand in the centre of
populous districts.
—(Hear,
f r
00muttbhreesaokfsa
co
tfo
rdiiesse,asa
and
dh had
suddenly occurred:
these districts in consequence of the
wind having changed and
or 50 children had in
night. Many of these a tway
been struck down in one
disgustingf processes were carried on,
not by Englishmen but by
because in no other capital in oir,eigners, who had come here
to establish them.—(Hear, hear.) ope would they be allowed
smoke nuisance, which he believed might be put an end to
Then there was the
with advantage to all parties. A
person
by consuming his smoke he saved notlesshtand told him that
It was impossible to go among the poorer classes
300/. a year.
them in their dwellings without being struck with the per-
and to see
nicious effects—moral, social, and physical—produced by
these evils. In their moral effect they created discontent
exasperation of spirit, recklessness, indifference to cleanliness
,
and to order, and extravagance. Hundreds and thousands,s
male and female, young and old, were driven to the gin-palace
and the pot- house by the want of domestic comforts ; and those
parties ehould not be visited with too severe
a condemna-