The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 25, 1852.

It will be remembered that upon the occasion of
the last appearance of Cholera in England the disease
arrived amongst us by way of Edinburgh. It is
gratifying to learn, therefore, that already active pre-
parations are being made in the capital of Scotland in
order to guard as much as possible against the recur-
rence of that dreadful mortality, v.hich must be attri-
buted in a great measure to a very deplorable want
of precautions. After a careful perusal of the Report
presented to the House of Commons by the members
of the Board of Health, and recently issued in the
form of a blue book, by order of her MAJESTY, with
a view to the guidance of the future deliberations of
Parliament—it becalms manifest that much may be
effected in the way of mitigating the violence of this
terrible scourge by proper attention to a few simple,
but most essential sanitery arrangements. Although
this fact has been long recognised by the more intel-
ligent practitioners in the medical profession, although
it has been insisted upon as imperative by the writ-
ings of Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH, although the argu-
ments advanced in favour of cleanliness by that
0
humane and distir'
uished physician have been en-
forced beyond the reach of contradiction by the mass
of evidence add,,,A from
time to time, under the
direction of 11Sr. Enwias
CHADWICK, in hip capacity
as the chief of the Government Commissioners—
comparatively speaking nothing has yet been done in
this matter in obedience to the force of common sense
and in compliance with the most ordinary dictates of
self-preservation. In the metropolis at least the
drainage is still very lamentably latfacien
t and the
advantage of what little good is attempted in that
particular is
immeasurably more than counter-
balanced—is transformed into an evil signally y destruc-
tive in its character—by the continuance of that ab-
surd system which discharges the whole accumulation
of sewage matter through a variety of channels into
the current of the River Thames. By this ingenious
contrivance the recuse of the city is washed to and
fro, by the ebbing and flowing of the tide, between the
populous districts lying opposite each other in Surrey
and in Middlesex. So that pastiientisl vapours are
continually rising from the surface of the stream
which was provided by nature for the purposes of
purification. Until these obviously mistaken regu-
lations are abolished, until London ceases to contami-
nate the waters of the Thames with daily tons upon
torao of tho most nosioug filth end tho mw6 pesztfaroas
abominations, the inhabitants of the capital of Great
Britain must be perpetually liable to the miseries of
periodical decimation.

It were well for ui if our authorities would only
take example betimes from the creditable activity
and judicious forethought of the corporation of the
city of Edinburgh. A handbill, dated the 22d of
September, has within the last few hours been distri-
buted by messengers among the population of "Auld
Reekie,, requAring the especial attention from the
occupants of every
both in the new town and
in the old town, and
renderiug obedience to the re-
o.holder.
commendations of the head of the municipality in-
cumbent upon every householder, The document to
which we are here making reference is addressed "To
Proprietors or their Ageints, and the Inhabitants ge-
nerally of the city of Eumburgh,,, including, more-
over, the densely crowded parishes of St.a Cuthbert's,
South Leith, and the Canongate. It sttes—" The
Commissioners of Police an.c!
.the
parochial The
having by law the responsibility committed to them
keeping
of adopting measures for the prevention and
from spreading of infectious disease, earnestly call
upon all parties concerned to make en immediate ex.
amination into the state of their houses, garrets, Stair_
cases, celhirs, arefi, private courts, &c., particularly
in the more densely inhabited portions of the city and
suburbs, in respect of cleanliness, and to have all of-
fensive and impure matter, and all manner of dirt or
filthiness instantly rernoyA, and to have them tho-
roughly cleaned and whitewashes-1
—with certification
that if this is not done within fourteen days they will
be held responsible for the consequences of neglecting
this notice, and that cleaning operations will then be
proceeded with at their expense ;" the handbill adding,
that " For the public convenience there will always
be ready at the police-office a staff of whitewashers to
execute with promptitude and economy any orders
which may be addressed to the Inspector of Cleaning.'
The signatures authenticating this document are
headed by the Lord Provost
(41Aligki), and the

convener of the Cleaning Committee, acting for the
Commissioners of Police—and include, besides the

names of four inspectors, those of some of the most
eminent physicians of Edinburgh. From this it will
be manifest that no time is being lost by those entrusted
with the conservation of the public health in the
capital of Scotland, in the hope of at least diminishing
the virulence, if it be impossible to prevent the arri-
val, of Asiatic cholera in the locality where it first
appeared in the United Kingdom on the occasion of
the last destructive visitation.

Accounts from the continent assure us, only more
and more forcibly each mail, of the necessity of timely
efforts at precaution. The steady progress of the
disease across the different countries of Europe—al-
most precisely in its former track, and nearly at the
exact rate of its previous advancement—indicates the
bounden duty of every intelligent person in Great
Britain to prepare against an emergency that appears,
unhappily, to be altogether inevitable. It will be the
duty, therefore, of her MAJESTY'S Government to
further, es much as is at all practicable, under the
circumstances, the labour of carrying out these active
endeavours at a new system of sanitary
arrangements.
Upon the members of the Board of Health, in parti-
cular, devolves a heavy weight of responsibility. In-
dolence on their side would, at this moment, be more
than ever culpable—and its consequence would be
certain to prove fraught with disaster to the popula-
tion. If no other incentive to exertion were any.
where discoverable, it would be found every week in
the Report of the metropolitan mortality, issued
from the office of the ever-watchful Registrar-Ge-
neral. From those reports it has been recently very
manifest that English Cholera, or, as it is sometimes
called, Summer Cholera, has been very rife in loca-
lities where due attention had not been paid to
drainage and ventilation. Diarrhce2) in neighbour-
hoods of this character, is continually carrying off
large
numbers of the inhabitants—demonstrating
clearly
yeough the absolute necessity of systematic
cleanliness. Yet, hitherto--
with these truths glaring
them in the face—the
majority of the inhahitants of
London end Westminster, and the scarcely nume-
rable surrounding suburbs, have refrained from insist-
ing upon changes which, more than any other social
innovations, would tend to secure their health and
their domestic happiness. Twice already the Asiatic
Cholera has reached the shores of England from the
remote regions of pestilence in Hindostan, and upon
each occasion it has devastated the population of these
islands, striking down the rich and the poor in almost
every corner of the United Kingdom. Again the
Modern Plague is on its march towards us—striding
from city to city across the breadth of the European
Continent. It were insanity, therefore, for the autho-
rities in Great Britain to dream of our remaining
scatheless under the movement of the most terrible of
epidemics, without making enormous efforts in the
way of precautionary measures of the most various and
comprehensive description. It were worse than in-
sanity for the people of the three kingdoms to con-
tinue idle during the approach of the disease, instead
of themselves adopting those rational sanitary regula-
tions which are suggested by the force of a very
melancholy experience. To a considerable extent,
indeed, it will be our own fault if the Cholera on its
next aarival proves in any way as destructive to
human life as it was unhappily upon both of the
former visitations ! And assuredly that reflection is
one which imposes a very serious responsibility upon
the population. Valuable, or rather we should say,
utterly invaluable, time should not be lost before our
municipal and parochial authorities adventure upon a
course of energetic and persevering preparation.
Least of all should this indolence be visible in the
more populous districts of London and Westminster.
Example, we repeat, should be at once taken from
the activity displayed by the custodians of the public
health in the gcod old city of Edinburgh.

The future prospects of the present Ministry
mainly depend on the fiscal policy that may be pro-
mulgated after the assembling of the new Parliament.
If the principle of " Protection"—the attempt to tax
any portion of the community, not merely for the
sake of revenue, but in order to afford peculiar advan-
tages to another portion—be unequivocally re-
nounced, and finally abandoned, and if the taxa-
tion of the United Kingdom be adjusted on
a wise and equitable foundation, all will be
well. Past transgressions will be buried in oblivion,
and the present benefit conferred on the country
alone be remembered.

We confess that we look forward with considerable
hope to the approaching development of the Minis-
terial intentions. We cannot suppose that the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER is incapable cf per-
ceiving the evils of the present system, or of devising
suitable remedies. He has the ability to plan and
the cor:age to execute all that may be required to
secure en almost unprecedented amount of
national prosperity. The 'chief danger is that he will
be prevented from giving full scope to his genius
and to his inherent sense of equity, through the malign
influence of those personally and pecuniarily interested
in keeping down the industrious classes and prevent-
ing them from obtaining the ample relief to which
they are eminently entitled. The financial statement
of the Right llonourable Gentleman, which elicited
such general commendation from men of all par-
ties and of every shade and variety of opinion
on public affairs, clearly and unequivocally indicated
the nature of his views. It showed that something of
no ordinary importance was indeed 1° looming in the
future," something that might be received as a boon,
not by a section only, but by the entire community
—by all classes of her MAJESTY'S subjects without
exception. We should not feel in any degree sur-
prised if the principles of free trade were more
extended under the auspices of the Right Honour-
able Gentleman than cou'd have been ex-
pected from those who, although nominally
Free-traders, negatived their own pretensions by re-
taining such a man as Sir CHARLES WOOD as chief
of the financial department.

The primary test of the future conduct of the Go-
vernment will be the proceeding in reference to the
renewal of the property and income-tax. There is
no impost more obnoxious than it is, in its present
unequal, oppressive, and unjustifiable form. It
naturally excites the deepest indignation in the minds
of its •
injustice, inins, who recognise its gross and palpable
almost unive
feel that it is neither more nor less than
legalised robbery,rsa.ereeling that, if judiciously modified,
d
On the other band, there is an
it might be rendered
the best and most unobjection-
able mode of replenishing
the national exchequer. It
has many unquestionable
ar less dvantagean in an other
form, s. The expense
. my
of collectiuLt would be fa
and under it each
person
con-
tribute more fairly in proportion
be made to
to his means to the
liquidation of the national liabili •
endl,l"es, the mainte-
nance of the national establishments.
But to do this the difficulty which PEEL
on the plea that it was but a temporary
ezpa.v.oided,
repair the evils of the Wbig mismanagementt
IT,. to
proved insuperable to Sir CHARLES Woou, and:knell
occasioned the feeling which drove Lord jou%
RUSSELL from place and power, and cone„,ea
the seals of office on the Earl of DERBY—must be tuuy
and fairly encountered. There has already been to,,
much procrastination : it has on two several occa-
sions been renewed for a single year in order to en-
sure its revision. The first time a Committee was
appointed on the motion of the veteran Member for
Montrose. Of that Committee Mr. DISRAEI I was an
active and efficient member ; he participated in its
proceedings, and was perfectly cognizant of the facts
elicited. He might have legislated on the subject
last session, but he availed himself of the legitimette
excuse for postponement. But nothing of the kind
will be again practicable. It must,
,the next time, be
either finally abandoned or placed on an equitable
Foundation as a permanent source of revenue. It is,
however, too
it profitable to be relinquished. Without
there would, -
l, in place of a sur plus, be a I
lamentable deficiency, a deficiency
•. that would 1
,3 Productiveof the
the
communi,,
It e,
-11't tbeYn.b, •
tel "tally ang,,,,eni,7nlinued, a_nO, we should say ma. I
afforded in to eyabi,e fiscal relief to he
gnat ter-
Mr. DisaAtEia himself,s where it i A much required. But
members of the eab. Alr,,. HERRIES, and other
of its inequality,
and hay e repeatedly complained
cation the country
Ivo:il declared that without modifi-
tinuance. It is, 3,deeo,
toonever consent to its con-
professional man,
~,,__ra a absurd to say, that the
".sul'illichange of fashion, to say
nothing of loss of he, ,
might redwe to poverty, is

in as good a position as the proprietor of broad
acres, or that the active tradesman is as
secure of a certain and unvarying income as
the owner of a handsome sum in the Three per
Cents. The person who depends on his labour for a
precarious income must, if desirous of avoiding the
imputation of gross and culpable imprudence, devote
a considerable portion of his earnings to make pro-
vision for possible contingencies.
The owner of
accumulated and realised property of any description
and a distinction
suchthat
even chargeif
r'equired on no other
ground.
isshosuulbdjebcet mtaod en oon

COURT CIRCULAR.
" BALMORAL, THURSDAY.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert
drove yesterday in an open carriage towards Inver-
c auld.
The dinner party yesterday included her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Kent, her Serene Highness
Princess Hohenlohe Langenbourg, her Serene High-
ness Princess Adelaide of Hohenlohe Langenbourg,
and the Earl of Aberdeen.

The Right Hon. J. 117. Henley arrived in town
yesterday from his seat, 'Vaterp~rry, county Oxford.
Mr. Rolt, M.P., had an interview with the Right
Hon. Gentleman and Lord Colchester at the Board of
Trade.

Dispatches were received from the Governors of
Hong-Kong, Ceylon, the Mauritius, Malta, and the
Lord High Commissioner of the lonian Islands, yes-
terday, at the Colonial ,office. Dispatches were sent
yesterday to the Governors of Hong-Kong and Ceylon.

The LATE DUKE of WELLINGTON.

- - -
WALMER, FRIDAY.—Walmer Castle is at this moment
the centre of a ciPep and universal interest. Numerous
are the visitors constantly arriving to gaze on its exte-
aior; and any passer-by who can point out the windows
of the apartment which his Grace occupied, is eagerly
applied to for that information. Few signs of life are
observable at the Castle, save the measured movements
of the Rifle sentries, and the regular changes of guard.
The officers appear in full military mourning, and all
who remain at the Castle show the like mark of rever-
ence for the departed warrior.
The present Duke of Wellington (who left Walmer
yesterday with his brother, Lord Charles Wellesley) is
expected to return to the Castle in a fortnight, and to
remain there for a few days.
Among the retinue of the late Duke at Walmer is
Mr. Townsend, a venerable-looking old soldier, holding
the office of warder and steward of the castle, and who
bravely served his country in the field under his illus-
trious master. This veteran was formerly in the 2d
battalion of the Grenadier Guards, with which corps he
was present at the storming of Bergen-op-Zoom, under
General Graham. The advantage gained by the capture
of that strongly fortified place, as is well known, was not
judiciously followed up; and the result of the error was,
that many of our soldiers were driven to surrender. But
Townsend, when called upon to give up his arms, re-
fused, and having: induced thirteen of his comrades to
join him, they passed the square of the town in the face
of the enemy's cross fire, and mounted the battery which
the British were about to evacuate. There he turned
some guns upon the enemy, and expended the whole of
the ammunition within reach, even to the contents of his
own and his comrades' pouches, and then retired, per-
fectly unscathed. His gallant little party, by this act of
valour, effected their departure from the town, thus es-
caping the horrors of a French prison. This veteran
also fought at Waterloo, being then a sergeant in the
Guards. He there took part in the memorable and
crowning charge of the British Guards upon the Impe-
rial Guard of Napoleon; and in that desperate yet deci-
sive affair he had his halbert shot from him, and his bat
carried away by a gun-shot. Yet he survived to receive
the above appointments from the Duke, which ho holds
to this day. His Grace also nominated him to a va-
cant wardership in the Tower of London, two years
since.