The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-03 00:00:00

Tremendous Conflagration at Lambeth.

Last evening the inhabitants of Lambeth, near the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury's palace and Hodges' distillery, were
thrown into a state of excitement, owing to the outbreak of
a fire of no small magnitude in the extensive range of pre-
mises belonging to Messrs. Ogleby and Co., the well-known
wax bleachers and patent candle manufacturers, situate in
Paradise-street, Lambeth.
The property in question, as most of the public are
aware, covers an immense space of ground, and comprises
sundry erections, some of brick and timber, others of cor.
rugated iron and glass, whilst the open yard serves the
purposes of a wharf or general depot. Each building con-
ally
it
oil naemd
mma abnl
ey
atrotni
cal
eosf, fat
c, h o
as
is, sapr
ee rma c c andt
oo t
shperr
eeaqau
dis-
may, which was the case last evening, upon the sudden
outbreak of a fire in such an extensive range of buildings
as stood upon the ground. To add to the excitement which
prevailed upon the alarm being raised, it is necessary to
vos tfeantt thateehde bet
factory,wbetween
Mess.e ratsnh deHac,gd rgeeast'
distilleryn dillyusarat
nid ee rrthoefi sbswithin
hoaufseews
property,iynatr d Bei;
Norfolk-place and Norfolk-row. These houses were tenanted
by poor people, and it was distressing to see how they
hurled their furniture into the street to avoid the ravages
of the flames,

From inquiries made,
the factor
manager of the works remises at 5 o'clock, when
, left the p
y
it appears that Mr. Myers, the
appeared perfectly safe from fire, but in less
than an hour afterwards soma one cried out that the pressing
rooms of the factory were in flames, Sueb, unfortunately,
turned out to be correct, and in less than 5 minutes subse-
quently immense bodies of flame rolled from that part of the
factory, and huge sheets of smoke nearly obscured from
the public eye the Archbishop's palace. It then became
apparent that a fire which could not easily be extinguished

had begun.
The various workmen, upon finding they were unable
to get such a body of fire extinguished, sent for the aid of
the fire-engines, and, in a space of time incredibly brief,
the parish engine attended, closely followed by
Capt. Hodges
ines also came up
and Lieut. Becker, with three engines from the first-named
gentleman's distillery, including the Torrent land steamer
from the same firm. -Various brigade ong
Shand and Masnirg
in rapid succession, including two of
, district,,4 I r i
hurried
andto
land steamers, one of their powerful river floats, Roberta 's
the
er
sFpoorte,maannd
Princess of Wales land steamer, and a large number of
manual working engines, from nearly every. station in the
derson,
metropolis. The force was under thedirection of Mr Hen-
J. Jerrard, who has charge of the steam engines.
the chief engineer of the
Mr Phipps, the secretary of the LambethWater Company,
who was in the
.neighbourhood at the time, upon seeing the'
flames rising so high into the air, b
gave 1 'Demotions to the turneocks as to the best mains to be
opened to supply such a large nuu,ber of
engines as were
present. Upon such an emergency Hodges' distillery, it
should be stated, afforded sufficient water
but the Thames took the first honour to feed 12 pipes,
of supplying the coat-
ing engine.

The firemen, under the direction of their superior officers,
upon seeing the danger that existed of the tames lapping
over and seizing upon the distillery, laboured incessantly,
as did also Mr Deeley, from Burnett's distillery.
Eventually, about 9 o'clock, all danger of any further
extension of mischief was over; but the damage done to
catastrophe
Messrs Ogleby and Co,'s premises is very serious, It is
gratifying to state, however, that instead of the whole of
heretofore.
oci theirocu3, rinsheirat,lll larges7-a esi tss bl igenerallyshnrtq s the—
b ceiansge wthhreonw thrown out of em-
ntdbepfr'aecestoinryg
large as the fire was, may
br(e)oduiesscdreibsterdoyeesdf,olalnoNdvsva:
thrielebudsaiun,easgse
doofntel:e firm will be carried on as
Tioll'ihseotth)oeirlinpgorlititioTsctio zit.
damaged by fire and water. The origin of the fire is un-
known. The firm was insured in the Phoenix, the Royal,
the General, the Land in lland, the Imperial, and the
West of England Fire-offices. Messrs C. and H. White,
of the County Fire-office, with Mr Superintendent Webb,
and Inspectors Heath, Edmunds, and Byron, rendered es-
sential aid to the firemen by keeping an immense crowd of
spectators out of danger, and with the help of the workmen
in removing sundry casks of fatty matter out of the reach
of the flames.
Several persons in Norfolk-place and Norfolk-row rill
also be serious losers.

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1864.

Midway between the Federal Capital of Wash-
iolton and the Confederate Capital of Richmond,
the greatest Soldier produced by the American
Civil War, the one Great Captain born of that War,
G4neral ROBERT LEE, Commander.in-Chief of the
Confederate Army, has assumed, according to our
last advices from Virginia, the position not of the
assailed, but of the Assailant !

it is a terrible drop down, this acknowledgment
of the fact by the Northern press, the press of
New York and of Washington, that LEE, after
all, was assuming the cffensive against GRANT,
ncrth of the Confederate lines at SpottSylvania—
a terrible and deplorable drop drown, after all their
vauntings about GRANT'S triumphant success, and
LEE'S almost (not quite but almost) ignominous
defeat, if not flight, before the conquering army of
the Federals—then (not so very many days before
these last accounts came to hand, so recently cor-
recting all this same wonderful intelligence)—then
full upon their march, we were assured, to the occu-
pation of Rchmond.

Since this miserable civil war in North America
Commenced, some four sanguinary years ago, we
EmPpose that General LEE has been defeated (in
print), about as often, let us say, as his Holiness,
Pope Pits IX., has expired (also in print)—
thanks, in regard to LEE'S (reported) defeats, to
the lively imaginations of the:Federal journalists,—
thanks, in regard to the POPE'S (reported) mortal
illnesses' to the no le" lively imaginations of the
correspondents of some among our contemporaries.
To say nothing whatever of course, tither in regard
to the Federal Journel:sts, or in regard to par-
ticular Correspondents Just now alluded to—to say
nothing whatever in reF,arl to either, or in regard
to both, about " the wish being father to the
thought,'' as SEIAKSPERE happily phrases it.

As it has chanced to happen, however,
throughout the whole of this American
war, General LEE has, sowehow Lir an-
other, in spite of all his reported defeats,
contrived, strange to tell, to hold his own—of
course, purely by a coincidence I While he himself
bas, from first to last, been the one solitary, un•
superseded Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate
..Vciny—he has w itnesscd a whole series of Federal
Commanders in-Chief (confronting him turn and
turn about) " come like shadows"—and—"so
depart t" liere is the last of the series of these

wonderful Federal Commanders-in-Chief, meaning
Gen. GRANT—almost even now, so far as his aggres.
sive capabilities are concerned as " catawampously
chewed up," to write for a moment in the expres-
sive Yankee vernacular, almost as " catawampously
thawed up" as ever before him was Fighting JOE, or
the Young NAPOLEON, or any other of those suck-
ing Tamerlanes who were to have subdued the whole
of the insurgent States, as it were, off hand, and were
to have brought the Southerners into a wholesome
state of subjugation in the first preliminary taste,
as one may say, of a single campaign ! Campaign,
however, has (since the first virginal boast
of Federalism was uttered) succeeded cam-
paign, in dreary and most destructive successioa—
the Conquering North being even now still at it as
desperately and, to all appearance, quite as hope-
lessly as ever. It was only the other day that the
Confederates under LEE were stated to have been
compelled to beat a hasty retreat before their formid-
able assailants, their then all but conquerors, the
Federate. Instead of which being really and truly
the case—the fact turns out to be exactly reverse !
LEE, so far from beating a retreat, is, on the con-
trary, beating—the Federate. Hie signal manner
of repelling their last attack upon him is thus
recounted by the Federals themselves—" After a
desperate conflict, lasting throughout the forenoon,
the Federals were forced to retreat, with the
loss of 1,200 in kilted and wounded." Subse-
quently he even turns the tables—becomes him-
self the assailant! And finally, we learn from
the seat of war, according to'one of the very last of
these telegrams —" On Thursday (the 19th)
EWELL gained GRANT'S rear, and attempted the
capture of the Federal supply trains. The result is
unknown ; but after an hour's hard fighting, in
which the Federals lost upwards of 1,000 men, the
Confederates returned to their entrenchments."
Altogether, a wonderful anti-climax

There is no surer way of meeting with imperti-
nence than to let overbearing nations know that you
are afraid of them, and to yield to the demands of
encroaching avarice. Our Ministers have given
rise to the most hurtful suggestions, and caused the
most impertinent remarks to be made concerning
us by the German writers. The language which it
pleases these good people to adopt is quite extraor-
dinary, and must surprise even those who are well
versed in their tactics and mar ecurres, and are
aware of their irritation when opposed in their
plans. It is perhaps as well that this sort of
poetical justice should exist, for otherwise an
encouragement might be given to succeedin es. states-
men to follow in the footsteps of our present
advisers. After all that they have con-
ceded and yielded to Germany, it certainly
is too bad that insults should be heaped upon them,
and indignity be attached to their politics. No
seruples of consistency nor motives of propriety and
decorum seem to influence or restrain them in their
headlong course, and we find the Gotha Gazette has
been amusing its readers and the public generally
with the summary of all the disagreeable things
that have been said and written against England.
The title to this combined jumble of precious relics
is of a character with all the rest of this transac-
tion. L. was styled " a straw in her neighbour's
eye, and a beam in her own, or the irritation of vir-
tuous Britain against wicked Germany." The con-
ductors of this journal cannot really entertain a
solid idea of respect, or they would never so grossly
insult a nation from whence comes their future
King. The Sovereign of their State will be a son
of that people they are holding up to scorn and de-
rision, and it would be as well for many reasons it
they feigned a virtue, though they had it not. It
must be evident, however, by this time to the
dullest capacity that it is quite id.e to expect any
consideration from German States, great or small,
and that we have entered upon a course which will
lead us blindfold to the sacrifice, the immolation of
our proudest hopes and most cherished memories, the
feeling of being free to hold out the right hand
of fellowship to any people we are inclined to serve,
and the consciousness that our influence is immense
whether we speak in the words of thunder, by lard
and sea, or essay the persuasive but potent agency
of conciliatory MUCUS and redeeming mediations.
One sows that another may reap, has been verified
in this instance to a striking extent, for our Govern-
ment have brought upon us the moat deplorable of
all injuries that can befall a State touching its
dignity, the annoyance of being ridiculed, with
the conviction that the sarcasm cannot be repudi-
ated. The insolence of uncultivated persons, the
withering contempt of jealous rivals, and the preju-
diced notions of more important personages, may be
withstood, but it defies patience and outwits mode-
ration to think that but for the grossest mismanage-
ment not a syllable of all this tirade of flummery
would have found its way into the publications of
the several States; or, if by chance, any attempt
was made so to do, it would speedily be arrested,
and die a natural death. It is impossible at all
times to fathom people's motives, and it really
seems almost beyond our discernment to account
for the object that these detractors could have, in
thus decrying the character of the very country
that has so firmly, and fatally for herself,
stood up for them through thick and thin.
It is to be presumed that there larks somewhere a
reason, but what it can be may puzzle the most
astute politician and the shrewdest casuist. Per-
haps even the hardened feelings and selfish machi-
nations of the Germans have not quite deadened
them, or made them indifferent to the growing sen-
timent of reason and the indignant expressions that
ever and anon are manifested in this country touchs
lag their proceedings. They think that they will
take time by the forelock, and disarm criticism by
beginning a vindieation of their conduct before it
is asked for, and engaging the most proficient per-
sons to defend them before they are put on their
trial, When that day comes, it will be vain for
them to resort to that abuse which is not argument,
and unlike many counterfeits, cannot take its place
for a moment. Such subterfuges will no more avail
than more potent weapons of contention. The good
opinion of an honest and independent nation can-
not be forfeited easily ; but, once lost, it is a
ques-
tion if it can ever be restored, and certainly it never
will be in its pristine integrity and endurance. It
is worthy of remark that the errors of our Ministers
are constantly bringing insults upon us. The Ame-
rican press teems with slanders, and its writers
have vied with each other as to which shall succeed
in heaping the grossest abuse, and casting the
fiercest reproaches upon us. It results from these
impertinects know;ng that the chief men in autho-
rity will not resent the insults that are co gra-
tuitouslyuneffmding nation, Had
put upon an
we been consistent throughout, and treated
unwarrantable demands with the stern denial that
they deserved, such an occurrence could not hare
taken place. It is by chilly-shallying that so much
harm is done, and a timorous vacillating policy
always results in the most ignominious manner.
When a Government yields one thing after another
to arrogant requests and insolent expectations, the
men who have resorted to these unjustifiable courses
begin to wish for something more ; and whether it
is practicable to accede to their new desires or not,
of course it is expected that they should do so with-
out fait. We heard no more of the French colonel's
to exterminate the
ardent entreaties to be led on

assassins in their den, when the reins of power were
firmly grasped, and foreigners found that our first
consideration was the protection of our own rights
and the vindication of our national honcur. Our
present Government has made itself despicab o by
its abandonment of the weak; contemptible by its
subserviency to the strong; and utterly unstatesman-
like, through the exhibition of prejudices and the
strong partiality that marks their conduct. Every-
where alike do we trace the evil influences, and
deplore the fatal consequences of such an unwise
and dangerous course; and it will be so lamented,
in after days, when the busy generation around us
have pissed away and given place to another, who
will turn with shame from this unworthy episode
that darkens and disgraces the glcrious annals of
English history.

One of the least disputed branches of modern
science is that sanitary knowledge in which our
generation has made such surprising advances.
Happily since the questions to whose solution it
addresses itself are of such incalculable importance
to the well-being of the human race, there is very
little doubt or uncertainty about what we know.
The laws of health are by no means entirely within
our ken. We wonder if physiology have not as yet
fully unfolded themselves to the most searching or
the most intelligent student, but enough has been
acquired to enable us, in many cases, to substitute
health for disease, ease for pain, and prosperity for
wretchedness, by a careful end faithful observance
of nature's immutable laws, Fortunately, too, the
main principles which now regulate our sanitary
legislation do not come within the range of those
vexed questions whereon "doctors disagree." We
do not find one man of science telling us that fresh
air is absolutely indispensable to the possession of
health, and another asserting it to be injurious;
we are not told by one chemist that pure water is a
necessary of life, while his rival informs us that it
is more wholesome when deteriorated; neither is
there in any dispute as to the beneficial effect of
exercise and temperance ; of rest for the feeble and
labour for the strong. The importance of drainage,
too, occupies a prominent place in all saditory dis-
cussions and regulations, and certainly no theorist
or philosopher could be found bold enough or eccen-
tric enough to contradict the commonly received
notion on this point. But while all sides are thus
agreed upon the laws which should as far as possible
regulate all matters connected with the public health,
Englishmen are ruling over a country where they are
not only totally disregarded, but where ever y ag
gravation of such neglect which can be occasioned
by dirty habits, pestilential customs, and a tropical
climate help to increase the evil. The result is a
melancholy but convincing proof of the wisdom
of the men of science, and a startling evi-
dence of the consequence of such an outrage on
nature's laws in a pestilence that decimates the
population. A great part of Lower Bengal has
been, we were told, for years afflicted with a mystes
rious pestilence. Mysterious it may be in its
character and its symptoms, in the choice of its
victims or the course of its progress, but mysterious
in its origin it cannot certainly be called. When
we read of a mud hut surrounded with jungle
through which the fresh air never circulates, with
a hole scraped near to contain all refuse matter;
with a tank in the vicinity in whose slimy and
stagnant waters people bathe, wash their clothes,
and drink, we need not call any pestilence myste-
rious except as to the form it may assume. When
we add that the ryot who spends his life in the
manner described, is buried, when his time comes,
in a surface hole near one of these tanks, to be most
probably disinterred by wild beasts, we need not
wonder, though we may shudder, at the statistics
of the mortality caused by the plague. According
to the cfficial report, the graves which are made by
the 3lahomedans, " are seldom made sufficiently
deep to insure the people against poisonous exhala-
tions from the interred bodies. The bodies lie so
near the surface that sometimes, as is well known,
they are disinterred by jackals and dogs." The
Hindoos, as is well known, court pestilence in an-
other manner by throwing their dead into the
sacred river, to be washed up and down with the
tide, an appalling spectacle. After all these authen-
ticated details, need we marvel that a disease has
broken out of so deadly a character that medical
skill is perplexed, and the resources of science
baffled; that it has gone on increasing in intensity
and in extent, until it is calculated that 36 per
cent. of the dwellers in the infected part have fal.
len from it. Within six years, in one locality, 12,000
inhabitants perished out of a population of 18,000.
Large villages, which previously reckoned their
thousands, can nowscarcely number hundreds; whole
streets are deserted, and places where 30 or 40 persons
resided are left perhaps with one solitary dweller.
The disease is sudden in its attack, and clings to its
victim with fatal pertinacity. But the form or
manner of its attack is of comparatively little con-
sequence. What concerns us to know is how far
it lies in our power to stop its ravages by altering
the state of things which gave rise to it. It may be
true that India presents terrible obstacles to sani-
tary reform, from the prejudice and indolence of
the people ; but how comes it that we have ruled
with unquestioned sway for so many years without
more progress having been made in these important
respects. Indians have learned our language, our
sciences ; have studied our abstruse speculations,
and entered with interest into intricate controver-
sies. How is it, then, that they have not acquired a
further insight into the laws of health ? We fear
the culpable indifference of Englishmen to all
matters concerning the interest of Indians alone
has much to do with this unhappy ignorance, and
yet the condition of public health can never be really
a matter of no concern to any part of the popula-
tion. The fever or the pestilence bred in a Bengal
village may darken the City of Palaces; the malaria
produced by neglected drainage and accumulations
of decaying matter may suit the wealthy Anglo.
Indian, as well as the humble Hindoo. It will, no
doubt, be a work of time and caut ion to uproot
those customs connected with native religious pre-
judice; but something can surely be done at (nee.
Tue religion of neither Hiadoo nor Mahomedan
forbids cleanliness ; let us see, then, whether
something cannot be done by the erection of public
baths and washhouses adapted to the country. If
it be objected that there would not be a sufficient
water supply for such an undertaking, then there
is at once a work for the Government to undertake
with which national prejudice and native reli-
gious have nothing to do. It will be time
enough to say the Hindoo is incorrigible
when we have given him the means of clean-
liness. Then, with regard to the disposal of the dead,
nlgetfuors
do whatthedeareerau be donelightof atCo tnhriisttigiaantecitvhie-
We are not reduced to
a choice between
pestilence and revolution unless we choose to makem
it so. Those whose religion allows them to bury
their wlit.riaodintej'ad should be assisted or instruectedtedri;
the graves of a proper depth, and to defend them
againsttelase attack of wild beasts. Public officers
might be appointed to supervise this department.
The Hindoos, who must choose between burning
the bodies or throwing them in the Ganges present
a greater difficulty, but it has been already sug-
gested that by the erection of places for inerema-
tion at a safe distance from bumaa habitation the