The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-12 00:00:00

other portion of the cumbrous machinery of the
State, if nothing can be done to mitigate the
misery of which one striking instance has been
prominently put forward to-day. A commission of
inquiry should be instituted, or a committee ap-
pointed, or some other form entered upon which
shall in time do something effectual to remove such
nuisances from the neighbourhood of the metro-
polis, as the places before described. They are by
courtesy called houses, but they are not the
sort of places in which any one would allow a
valuable animal to be located, and must therefore be
totally unfit for human habitation. We can hardly
suppose a more cruel thing than for a young child,
suffering from a disease, to be exposed to such im-
pure atmosphere that the little frame cannot battle
with the attack, and fades away, adding another
victim to the long list of those prematurely cut off
from the unwholesome state of their locations.

It is quite out of character that any one
should be permitted to take money for
such houses as those described in the ac-
count above alluded to. The present condition
of the sanitary regulations of Bethnal-green
is a disgrace to the community, and those
who have the authority to do so are imperatively
called upon to interefere. This is their duty, and
nothing should deter them from fulfilling it, It is
sufficient to know that a portion of the population
of the metropolis is exposed to such horrible evils,
and the next step taken in the affair should be to
put a stop to the grievance if the regulations of the
law, and the appliances of the statutes will enable
them do so. It they will not, the sooner they are
altered the better, for nothing can make a country
secure, or a people prosperous, if the public health
is sapped at the foundation by such deteriorating
iafiuences, and the air which is their life is vitiated
by the corrupt state of the dwelling-houses, which
bear more affinity to charnel-houses than abodes
for living persons. Then is a selfish consideration
to impress those who can only feel for themselves
that the spread of such diseases as those
generated by these foul abodes will penetrate in
time to the comparatively healthy divisions of the
town, and the fever which originated with want
attack the homes of plenty, and lay low the posses-
sors of wealth and ail that renders existence enjoy-
able. But there must be few who require selfish
inducements to incite them to exertion when they
know that more than life depends on their efforts,

'or death is a merciful boon in comparison with the

life of torture which is superinduced by these noxi-
ous exhalations. The greatest benefactors of their
kind have often been found among those who went
about doing good in an unassuming form, and the
results of whose labours have callei down the
blessings of Heaven upon those who have aided
the poor and ~f acted dwellers upon earth, It is
not likely, with the best end,:avours, that the
wealthiest community may realise the description of
the Psalmist, that there should be no complaining

in our streets ; but when want, wretchedness, and
decrepitude pay out of their scanty portions for a
covering for their heads, let ❑ot the shelter within
be worse than the storm without, and the spot
they seek for repose or refuge be more injurious
to their welfare than any exposure or privations
they can encounter elsewhere.