The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-13 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCP. 13, 1863.

Yet another seat lost to the Government and
gained to the Opposition ! And the change is effected,
too, in this instance, it will be seen, under rather
peculiar circumstances. Under circumstances as
peculiar, perhaps, as any that have yet come to
light since the commencement of what is called (and
with reason) the Conservatism reaction. We speak
thus, moreover, of this recent contest—a contest
so recent that it was completed, for that matter,
only yesterday—down at Tamworth, with a
vivid recollection the while of Mr. Bus-
FIELD FERRAND'S Tory triumph as an Oppo-
sition candidate down at Davenport, in open
defiance of the influence, power, and authority
of Government. It is true that Mr. PEEL who
has just now been returned as the representative of
the Tamworth constituency is hardly quite
avowedly a Derby ite. But, at any rate, he is any-
thing in the wide world of politics, even a Derbyite,
rather than what his opponent Mr. COWPER
appealed to the electors of Tamworth as—viz., a
thick and thin supporter of the Palmerston Govern-
ment. The announcement simply of the fact—that
a Mr. PEEL has been returned as M.P. for the
borough of Tamworth, seems to read, no doubt,
as a mere matter of course. But then, it should
at once be borne in mind that the Mr. PEEL in
question came to the hustings and went to the poll
not only uncountenanced by the PEELS of Tam-
worth, but openly and vigorously opposed by
them. It has been rendered, nevertheless, a
matter notorious throughout the country
during the contest that Mr. PEEL, now
M.P. for Tamworth, is all this while, though
frowned upon by the lord of Drayton, not only
a relative of the PEELS of that renowned
house, but in point of fact a son of the
elder branch of the family. Notwithstanding
which claim to the attention and countenance of
the third Sir ROBERT PEEL, the present owner of
Drayton Manor, Mr. PEEL, now M.P. for Tam-
worth, is cold-shouldered and frowned down, and
altogether discountenanced as systematically and as
pertinacious as though he ware some poor relation
with a damaged reputation, and a shabby coat, and
a bar sinister across his escutcheon. Instead of all,
which being in any way the ease in regard to
this scouted and flouted, yet in the end vic-
torious Mr. PEEL, now M.P. for Tamworth—
he is rich, indeed, if in nothing else, in the
golden opinions', he
has won there (hard by the
family seat) from " all sorts of men"—his coat he
has not even (like some others) had occasion, yet, to
turn—his escutcheon being, moreover, not only un-
marred by the bar sinister
not but
hisillustrated
since its symbolism
hhayvehiee n recent proceedings. ln
testimony of which
been as busy as " bees" supporters, there,
in his behalf, and
may not his motto be newly emphasized and
italicised, and freshly emblazoned—per industria
_Knowing, as we do, the very active part taken in.
this contest by Sir ROBERT PEEL, the ignominious
defeat of his chosen candidate, Mr. COWPER, has,
in truth, about it a very especial significance. It
is an intimation, of the most signal kind that could
well have been given anywhere, of the declension
of late of the popularity of the Government, and
of the increase and expansion of the movement
latterly going cn by the name of the Conserva-
tive reaction. Of both these things there cannot
possibly be any longer the smallest misapprehen-
sion. These is a Conservative reaction. No matter
'what our prejudices or predilections in regard to
it .there it is undeniab y,
flagrantly, notoriously,
all round us. Equally visible has it become that
there
IS a perceptible decrease in the popularity of
the Government. This fact is as patent to every-
one gifted
with eyesight or with hearing, as
that other
fact (illustrating it) that seat
after seat for
a
long while pastTrOm has been
ro dnping over
the Government to the
the instance of Tamworth
is the latest of them, Mr. Peates triumph down
at Tamworth being
regarded, in point of
fact, by his chief supporte so r:
eord of the Manor,
owner of Drayton, colleague •
tion of the borough the representa-
, and
he
nistrtin
member of Lard PAtatEn.sTov:Ancid
lan
shat, in
a
his capacity as Irish Secretary ! Proof
positive, the
event is, indeed, of the unpopularity pined for
him
self, even in his own neighbourhood, by the right
hon. baronet the Secretary for Ireland. Riding
t
rough-shod over his own people, down at
Tam worth, he has been fairly gravelled. Yet all
the while he aeeais to have been hieuseleso serenely
unconscious of the egregious dilemma into Which
he has thus blundered so very deliberately !
When being yelled and hooted and groaned after

r his own people yesterday in the borough of
T amworth, Sir ROBERT PEEL is told by one
' stentorian person in the crowd, while pointing to
an elector who had just then been giving his vote
for Mr. PEEL—" Here's a man who's voted
against COWPER !" What is the First Secretary's
dignified rejoinder ? "Then bonnet him!" Where-
upon the elector referred to is bonnetted accordingly.
Sir ROBERT PEEL himself all the while, though him-
self apparently quite unconscious of having under-
gone the operation at all, Sir ROBERT PEEL having
himself been more distinctly bonnetted than any one
about him, and this noc in the sight of Tamworth
merely, but of all England—and Ireland ! The
result of this noisy contest altogether, has, in one
word, been—exemplary!

;h it is

we wi Ts
eh
te
or ed areb ae
rga ot
eo d l
omn
ga ny
an
aq uceasrtei
fel:lel y o nb
ewf
obr iec
at-
tempt to act. We do well to take time to consider
our verdict, to reflect upon the evidence which has
led us to the conclusions we have arrived at, and to
allow the first excitement and enthusiasm of die.
eassion and debate to pass ever before we attempt
to turn our theories into practice. There are other
matters, however, in which delay is fatal, and action
urgent; in which the procrastination of every week
or month suffers the evil to grow more rapidly, to
extend its baneful influence more Widely, and does
mischief which the best and wisest will be unable
to undo. Among these we may certainly reckon
the excessive mortality in India, a mortality whose
full extent we do not and cannot know, from the
absence of a general system of 'registration. Wc
may guess enough from the terrible statistics re-
cently brought to light—statistics not only since
uncontradicted bat confirmed in every important
particular. The average death-rate of the British
troops inlndia, exclusive of those invalided and those
dying on their way to England, is 69 per 1,000; or
assuming the Anglo-Indian army to be 73,000, that
army loses on an average a whole brigade a year.
These startling facts have just been considered
in a vary able paper read at one of the sittings of
the Social Science Congress, in the department of
Public Health. The essay propeeded from the clear
head, enlarged experience, and sound judgment of
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE; and the marked atten-
tion with which it was listened to proved the uni-
versal respect and esteem in which our English Saint
FILOMENA is held. Prince ALFRED joined the meet-
ing for the especial purpose of hearing this paper,
feeling a natural and praiseworthy interest in a ques-
tion affecting so large a body of his mother's subjects.
Miss NIGHTIN GALE, who was unfortunately unable to
be present, began her treatise by remarking that
the question dealt with was one of the most impor-
tant of the day, since it had been conclusively
shown that unless the present enormous death rate
were reduced we should never be able to maintain
a British army in India. It has been said that as
the death rates cf the war year were the highest
(not from wounds), peace, and not sanitary measures,
was the remedy. To this suggestion Miss NIGHTIN-
GALE indignantly exclaims from the depths of her
bitter experience, " As well might it be said that
because the British army had nearly perished before
Sebastopol, not from wounds, bit from want of
every supply of civilised life, peace, and not the sup-
ply of the wants of civilised life, was the remedy."
The dangers to which the European constitution is
exposed in India are very great, but the climate is
by no means the greatest. The English inaptitude
to assume foreign habits and customs is cited among
the drawbacks of the soldier. If he has been a large
eater and hard drinker in a cold climate, and with
hard outdoor labour, he will continue the same
habits in a tropical country in enforced idleness.
Ihis very idleness, which is the source of so many
evils, affords every encouragement to intemperate
habits, and too much blame can scarcely be attached
to the regulation which permits the soldier in India
to drink two drams, or 6ez, of raw spirit every day ;
a quantity amounting in the year to 181 gallons.
A hearty country youth, accustomed to plain scanty
fare and constant outdoor exercise, to whom rum is
a luxury, is suddenly transported into an oppres-
sively hot climate, fed largely, and allowed an
amount of spirit which far exceeds the ave-
rage consumption in Scotland, famous as it
is for its dram-drinking. He is besides suf-
fered to live a life of almost total idleness,
a life which brings a whole train of vices after it,
and he is debarred by the tropical sun from the
outdoor exercise to which he has always been accus-
tomed. Such a transition of itself goes far to ex-
plain the excessive mortality ; but Miss NIGHTIN -
GALE denies that the prime cause of the evil is to
be found in individual vice, intemperance, or mis-
management. The want of drainage and of water
are carried to an extent which poisons the air and
renders our stations and barracks, and still more
our native towns, hotbeds of fever and cholera.
Miss NIGHTINGALE sums up the question very
briefly when she says simply—" That there is n©
drainage either in town or country. As regards
water, not a single barrack has either waterpipes or
drainpipes. Pumps are unknown, and each water
as there is, is nrought in skins by men and bullocks,
its quality being often as inferior as its quantity. if
such were our arrangements in England, no tempe-
rance of life or climate would exempt us from
epidemics ; and bad as is the state of things in
Anglo-Indian towns, in the native towns it is
far worse. The air for some distance round the
latter is described as positively foul. No wonder
that in such a country plague and pestilence are the
ordinary state of things. "Take," says Miss
NIGHTINGALE, "the worst condition of the worst
and most neglected districts at home, multiply it
ten and a hundred times over—and this is, to say
the least of it, the. normal condition of every city
and town in India." And this in a country which
has been for a century under British rule. The
criminal neglect has been bitterly avenged. Not
only have many of our eminent men paid forfeit
with their lives in India itself, but the epidemics
etoEnudr bo
and miasmatic diseases constantly brooding there
xte
The laws
pyed. egrees their malignant influence even
are not
westward has 'which govern epidemics
yet fully understood, but their pro-
gressbeen often traced. The
plagues of former
have originated in times 'were supposed to
the -e,
ttheiisr
Strdaenagthe-ntihaartchE
ngto.
—est, and to have
moved slowly on in
eagerness for sanitary
more temperate climes. I
land, the foremost in her
reform and a due observance of the laws of physio-
logy at home, should wilfully suffer so large and
populous an area beneath her own dominion, though
under a sun that trebles every danger, to deserve
the epithet of ' the focus of epidemics." Fzi•
armee
that, year by year, she should gather her brave
young recruits and send them forth knowingly to
face death, not in the trench of a siege or the field
the closely -packed rooms of their
oofwbnauttrildecabiunt ied:
ill-built barracks, where sicknees
comes in every breath of air wafted over the fetid
accumulations around, and the very water they
drink sometimes carries cholera with it. Strange,
too, that the great work
of irrigation, so profitable
as well as so necessary, should be so feebly and par-
tially carried on when able,
energetic men are
waiting eager for the tank. Bat so long as the
land tat comes safely and promptly to the cache- '
quer, what it
liTe? So ' whether the
people die or
mutters,
°llB as the name quiet, comfortable rota-