The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-22 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1864.

Scarcely one hour hid elapsed after the first
publication, in our earliest edition yesterday after-
noon, of the article in which we commented upon
the extraordinary impropriety of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
conduct in officiously precipitating General GARI-
BAIDI'S departure from England, when that latest
Ministerial scandal—[we are certainly getting
enough of them !]—was formally brcught under the
Consideration of the House of Commons. The
"n• member for Perth, addressing himself to
the Speaker, referred to certain uncomfort-
able rumours afloat, these rumours namely
about Mr. GLADSTONE'S interference with
General GMIIBALDI'S arrangements—[upon the
score, forsooth, of the latter's health ! as if GARI-
BALDI were not old enough to take care of his own
health without being coddled by a Chancellor of
the Exchequer !] —and put it frankly to Mr. Speaker
whether it might not, really, be just as well if Mr.
GLADSTONE would offer the House a few words of
explanation. Don't let it be forgotten, by the
way, who the hon. member for Perth is, what
position he occupies in regard to GARIBALDI, etid
how far he has personally to do with GARIrALDI'S
arrangements. The member for Perth is, then, be
it said, the Hon, ARTHUR KIN:SAIRD —who oecti.
pics the position, in regard to that extraor•
Binary fund now collecting, celled the GARI.,
BALDI Fund, who cccupiee, we say, the position, in
regard to that fund, of Treasurer, jest as the position
of Vice-Chairman is occupied by Mr. SEELY, and
the position of Chairman by his Grace the Duke of
SUTEIERLAND. It is the Treasurer of tlig GARIBALDI
Fund, therefore, the immediate associate just now
' (in reference to GARIBALDI) with such men as Mr.
Or ELY and the Duke of SUTHERLAND, who yester-
day, in the House of Commons, asked Mr. GLAD•
STONE, in the usual roundabout parliamentary way

—n amely, through Mr. SPEAKER—whether tie had
any thing whatever to say for himself, either in
confirmation or in contradiction of these rumours
abciut his (Mr. GLADSTONE'S) personal interference
wit h GARIBALDI'S arrangements, with a view,
natnely, to hasten, as abruptly and as quickly as
possible, GARIBALDI'S departure from England ?
Mr. GLADSTONE thereupon explains—he does not
con:radict the rumour as to the fact of his interfer-
encit—he simply explains the nature of it. Bat—
how ? Why, by such an intolerable rigmarole, that
the hon. member for the County of Cork has to
get up and call the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer to order ! It is only, you will say,
Mr. VINCENT SCULLY who calls to order—and
whom, you will add, does he call to order ? Why,
no less of a parliamentary Personage than the Right
Hon. W. E, GLADSTONE. Yes—we will grant all
that—it seems ridiculous—BUT, while Mr. SCULLY
is the one calling to order, while Mr. GLADSTONE
is the one called to order, how does the House re-
ceive the interruption ? Observe—for the fact
is significant—with " loud cheering." With laugh-
ter if you will, the thing is so odd and out of the
way, but, together with that laughter, with " loud
cheering." Mr. GLADSTONE'S explanation—[why
in the name of fortune could he not answer a plain
question plainly and to the point, simply and to
the purpose?]—Kr. GLADSTONE'S explanation be-
ing so very much, indeed, in the way of a rigma-
role! The long aue the short of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
explanation, after all, being, just simply this—mat
really and truly, the tumour was so far cor-
rect, that Mr. GLADSTONE had interfered,
had taken tender care of Gentral GARIBALDI'S
health, had been the principal means of hurrying
GARIBALDI out of England. The English of it all,
was that at any rate. So that by this time—in re-
gard to this extraordinarily sudden, this entirely
unlooked-for, surprising, confusing change, made in
the whole of GARIBALDI'S arrangements—we have
already had—what ?
The official paragraph in the Moniteur !
Lord PALMERSTON'S denial in the Commons !
Lord CLARENDON'S denial in the Lords !
Mr. FERGUSSON'S professional opinion !
I And—besides a number of other denials—

Mr. GLADSTONE'S explanation of yesterday.
The upshot being, nevertheless, that GARIBALDI
is to-day, all of a sudden (and as it certainly
appears to us, rather unceremoniously) hurried out.
of England—because, it seems in the exceedingly
affectionate solicitude of one of our Cabinet
Ministers for General GARIBALDI'S health, that
he, GARIBALDI, had better change all his plans,
break through the whole of his arrange-
ments, promises, no matter what, and go
away ! GARIBALDI himself all the time not only
protesting that (everything considered, or, in other
words, barring his foot) he feels uncommonly well
—but, in every line of his bronzed and handsome
face, looking the very picture of health ! His
sense of his own capability for going through any
amount of fatigue that appeared to be before him, is
corroborated, for that matter, by the able Italian bur-
geon personally in attendance upon him, namely,
Dr. :BAsiLE, whose brief but emphatic letter
(to that effect) we published in The Sun
several days ago. All this time—side by
side with this Hurrying Away of GARIBALDI
—what is occurring here, in the midst of us,
in our metropolis ? What is occurring we mean
in the matter of the Dano - German Confe-
rence ? Why—to say the least of it, by a very
strange coincidence—there are all this little
petty hitches and delays in regard to the prelimi-
nary getting together of the Conference ! The in•
augurative sitting of the plenipotentiaries, some-
how or another, has to be postponed and postponed !
Of course purely by a coincidence—the negotiators
from the various Governments, can't, for some
reason, fairly settle down to the business before
them. Perhaps—we just throw out the hint,
as a little shadowy shred of a hope for us
yet to cling to, in the matter of this Con-
ference—perhaps, just barely as a possibility,
the Conference may .21reto at length contrive to
begin its labours—by the time, that is to say, that
our authorities have come to know for certain that
GARIBALDI has taken his departure from England
en route for Caprera, on board the Duke of SUTHER-
LAND'S yacht. Who knows ? At any rate let us
hope so. And afterwards let us hope, too, that
something may eventually come from it—that is,
from the Conference itself ?

In the meantime, we presume we may—if only in
the exercise of our common sense—entertain our own
opinion in regard to the health of GARIBALDI.

Yet, really and quite frankly, be it said at once
by us—also in the exercise of our common sense—
that while Ministers of the Crown are doing
what they are doing, and not a doubt
about it—(for the facts come to be proved
afterwards very awkwardly, come even to
be acknowledged by themselves as facts)—
while, we say, Ministers of the Crown are doing
what, one after another, they are doing, we
don't set such very high value upon their explana-
tions afterwards ! If the truth must be spoken
in the matter at all—well, There it is! Frankly)
and quite distinctly we acknowledge it : the ex-
planations recently given in regard to their—shall
we say ? extra-official—doings, the explanations
recently given to the House of Commons,
in one case, by Mr. STANSFELD, and now, in regard
to a totally different matter, by Mr. GLADSTONE,
have for us the very smallest interest, value, or
importance. There has, in each instance, been, first
of all, so much of the suppressio veri in the manner of
these two Ministers of the Crown, the little one and
the big one, the ex-Junior Lord of the Admiralty
and the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer—there has been on their part so much of
studied reticence, that it has been in no way pos-
sible for us to respect very much, or to set any
very particular value upon their subsequent
explanations. We listen to whet it is they have to
say as English gentlemen—and one of them at any
rate as an eminent British statesman. And—listen-
ing to them as such—we believe of course
that we are listening to the manly truth
throughout. But—for the life of us—we can't get
over the glaring, staring, undeniable facts of the
case in either instance. We can't for one instant
lose a recollection of the proved and acknowledged
doings:' of ;:the two Ministers. There, for
example, on ono hand we know foi an absolute
certainty that only the other day Mr.
STANSFELD, though, a " Minister of the Crown," as
Lie coxcombingly called himself, though a junior
Lord of the Admiralty, and as such a mem.
ber of Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration,
not only continued individually to cherish his inti-
mate personal friendship with M. MAZZINI, but
also continued (until he was found out to be doing
so, and was thereupon shamed into discontinuing it)
that, he continued to render his (the Minister's) pri-
vate residence the channel and receptacle for the
Secret Correspondence of that notorious Arch-Con-
spirator. Again, we know also for an absolute
certainty that, within a very few bears from the
present time, another and a far more impor•
taut member of the Government has, on
the plea of GARIB health, been personally in-
strumental in hurrying him, GARIBALDI, out of
England—and this very oddly (purel;, of course, by

a coincidence) when this Dano-German Conference
is trying to begin its sittings here in London !
And, beyond that, we know also that Mr. GLAD-
STONE has strangely gone uut of his way to do all
this—very oddly (but here again, of course, purely
as a coincidence) just after Lord CLARENDON'S
return to London from his coLcilistory mission to
the French Government.

By the mail from Bombay we learn with regret
that the fears which were previously entertained
by the experienced residents have been too surely
fulfilled, and that a disastrous outbreak of cholera
is ravaging the provinces of Central and 'Western
India. It will be remembered that considerable
uneasiness has been felt in India on the score of the
public health for some time past, and the last mail
brought us intelligence of the commotion excited in
Bengal by the steps which the provincial Govern-
ment had thought it necessary to take in order to
put a stop to the pernicious and dangerous custom
of throwing dead bodies into the Ganges. Accord•
ing to the Bombay Gazette there was only too much
reason for apprehension on the subject, seeing that
the terrible epidemic which, tradition tells us, had
its origin in the dirt and unhealthiness of native
towns, has already broken out with great virulence
in the Southern and Western portions of the em-
pire. Bombay itself is, as yet, comparatively free
from the disease, but in Surat, Guzerat, Berar, and
Kandeish the list of victims is alarmingly extensive.
It is said that the deaths number some hundreds per
day in these parts, and even allowing for the exag•
geration of alarm and anxiety, there is reason to
fear that the visitation is severe and widespread.
The natives are, of course, the first and most nume-
rous of the victims. Their habits, their ignorance,
the disposal of their dead, all tend to propagate
the disease when once established, as well as to
render them especially liable to its influence. A
good many Europeans, however, are said to have
also auccumbed to the unseen enemy, and principally
those employed on the railway works. Such a
calamity, although always deplorable, is particularly
to be lamented just now, when industry and enter-
prise were beginning to develope themselves in
India, and so many sources of benefit to the country
and profit to individuals seemed to be opening oat
to the adventurous. It is to ba feared that this
appearance of a foe more invincible than the tribes
of the hills, more deadly and more dangerous than
the mutineer, will damp, in some measure, the ener-
gies of Anglo-Indians, and deter many from casting
in their fortunes with a land subject to such blight-
ing influences. It remains to be considered, too,
how far we are justified in exposing men to the
dangers of such a latitude, and several points lay
open to grave reflection. In the first place, we shall
do well to consider how far the (Ail is remediable,
and how it is inevitable, and before setting down
the climate or soil of India as hopelessly unhealthy
we shall do well to ask ourselves what result the
same conditions of life would produce in our own
temperate zone. A rigid system of sewage and
drainage, a constant endeavour to diffuse physio-
logical knowledge among the people and to pro-
mote the use of baths and wash-houses, to encou-
rage ventilation and cleanliness in social habits, has
not prevented fever and cholera from decimating
the population of some of our lanes and rookeries.
We have found by an experience so common that
its teaching has passed into a truism, that wher-
ever large numbers of persons are packed together
without a close and careful observance of the three
grand requisites for health in cities—cleanliness,
drainage, and ventilation—sickness and death will
be of constant and familiar occurrence. The sound
sense of Lord PALMERSTON'S practical advice to the
Scottish eitizane on the occasion of their proposed
Fast Day on account of a prevailing epidemic, was
universally recognised, and the inconsistency of
public humiliation for a calamity which was in-
duced by public neglect, without any corresponding
steps being taken to mitigate the evil, was admitted
on all hands. But if the laws of health are inexor-
able in their nature in a climate and among a peo-
ple like our own, what must they be under a sun
like that of I❑dia ? Yet a limited supply of bad
water, a totally inefficient attempt at drainage, cud
accumulating heaps of decaying matter are pressed
into the service of King Cholera, as if he needed
any such help. The climate may be trying to the
European constitutiou, but what would our Regis-
trar-General's returns be like if heaps of refuse were
suffered to accumulate at our doors under a July
sun, if our sewage system ware a thing unknown,
if dead bodies floated up and down the Thames, it
we could only obtain a small quantity of very in-
different water, and a mass of people lived hard by

with the evil habits of the Hindoos, and the smell
of burning bones continually poisoned the air and
sickened us with the thought that human remains

were being thus consumed ? If we picture to our-
selves the probable condition of things after a few
weeks of such a state of things carried on in the
temperature of last July, we shall have less to say
about the dangers of the English climate. We
must, too, as regards the Anglo-Indian population,
add to these dangers the obstinate attempt to fol-
low the English style of living, the strong food and
drink, the exercise at all hours, and many
other habits harmless or even beneficial
at home, but dangerous, because unsuitable,
in our Eastern Empire. The mortality among our
soldiers has been so excessive as to attract official
attention, and the result is that barracks will,
henceforth, be built in dry and airy snots instead
of in low, marshy, and unhealthy neighbourhoods.
We have all heard the story of the barracks
where pestilence raged until the high blank wall
which shut oat the sea breezes was pulled down ;

but doubtless there is many a similar case in

which men'a lives have been. sacrificed in
India to official ignorance or indifference. But
the time has gone by for the supine influence of
red-tapeism to reign paramount, and the condition
of the publio health in India is a matter too
vitally important to this country to be neglected
in any way. Prompt and unprejudiced attention
should at once be given to the matter. It is, of
course, extremely difficult to interfere with the
habits of the natives, but a few plain sanitary
laws might, we should imagine, be enforced with-
out troublesome consequences if causes for irrita-
tion were carefully avoided. Secondly, no effort
or expense should be spared in removing public
establishments to well drained and airy localities.
It is nothing less than wholesale murder to con-
demn men to pass their days in close barracks, built
on low swampy ground. A good and plentiful
supply of water is another necessary of health, but
how can we hope for that with Sir CHARLES WOOD
at the India Office ? The newly appointed sanitary
officials will surely make it one of their duties to
provide for the removal of all refuse and decaying
matter, since its presence in the vicinity of human
habitaticns is a patent agent of malaria. Many
such as preventing Anglo-Indians
minor points,
from working in the wrong hours of the day, avoid-
ing unwholesome diet and dirty habits, &c., must
be mainly carried out by the people themselves, but
were such regulations, largo and small, fully and
fairly observed, we should have less of the fatal and
widespread influence of the cholera. But unfor-
tunately India has to contend not only against
obstinate ignorance there, bat against wilful ple-