The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 27, 1865.

Meetings and speeches are now the order of the
day, and, strange as it may seem to the uninitiated,
the members are rushing about in all directions to
make their views known to their constituents prior
to the assembling of Parliament. Mr. LEATIIAM
has lately done his part in contributing to the
goodly store of orations ; but it cannot be said that,
after a critical analysis of his speech, much can be
gathered in the way of instruction or imparted as
to any new line of policy. His discourse would seem
to possess the prejudices and narrowness of the
speeches of Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT, without
being adorned by the logic of the one, or the elo-
quence of the other. When he falls short in his
arguments, Mr. LEATHAM has recourse to abuse,
and appears to think -that such a device is very cute
indeed- We find the same superficialities indulged
in, the usual amount of excitement as to Reform,
the common outcry of the war in America, and the
ordinary meanness concerning Denmark, which cha-
racterise all the speeches of the ultra school of poli-
ticians. With them it would seem as if the new
doctrine they had inau
be as degenerate gurated was, that they can
as possible in their foreign policy,
if they only fire up about social grievances and do-
mestic wrongs. By this convenient manoeuvring
rom
they can gratify all their cherished desires at once
—vent their spite against their political opponents—
do
a good turn to their friends in America—proclaim
their everlasting peace policy—and make a great
show of their devotion to the cause of freedom and
justice on behalf • of their oppressed and per-
secuted fellow-countrymen. It is, however,
unfortunate for the success of all this
skilful planning and most ingenious scheming, that
the country is getting rather tired of it, and begin-
ning to recognise that there is a vast amount of
clap-trap in all the fine sounding words, and much
mannerism in the glow of patriotism, and the reflec-

tions of wisdom abounding in the discourses of the
Manchester school. It is not the way to make any
cause honourable, to hurl abuse an
continually upon all who do not make themselves
thgemsridieclvulees
ictsonssuppipocuortu.s bylt
isthaeirquvesethieomen
uncem
and
mviaoy-
leceinucalle iny
not be done by cautious and careful working than
by the sudden and startling changes which the poli-
ticians of Mr. LEATHAM'S schools persist in advo-
cating. Whether they are quite sincere in their
desire to see their plans brought to a consummation
is another question, perhaps more easy to ask than
to answer. Some ungracious individual might go
so far as to say that OrnELLo's occupation would
be gone, and that these fiery politicians would
really regret the day when they could no longer go
about the country on the stalking-horse of Reform.
It is a capital theme, as it now stands, for
haranguing the many, while it is easy, during the
Session, to shirk it and throw the blame on the Op-
position. What is to be complained of in all these
speeches referred to is the very un-English spirit
that pervades them. Bad as our present foreign
policy is, it would be ten times worse had they more
influence than they at present unhappily possess in
the councils of the nation. The name of England
would, indeed, be a byword and a reproach among the
communities of the earth, and we should be renowned
through the world for our pusillanimity and base-
ness of action. Mr. LEATHAM is about as ridicu-
lous as he can be in his remarks concerning
America ; and really it lowers one's opinion of this
set of politicians, as men of sense and judgment, to
find that they wilfully persist, in the face of
evidence, and in spite of the most irrefragable
proofs, in their assertions about the issue of the
American war. It looks as if, instead of admiring
the constitution of the United States on principle,
because they thought it worked for the welfare of
the people, they had takeri up a hobby which,
through good and bad report, amid success or
failure, they would alike swear by and adhere to.
It is insulting the judgment of men of experience,
and injuring the validity of their own opinions most
incalculably, thus to state such deliberate fallacies
as this Passage contains :—" I have always main-
tained that there could be but one issue to this war,
if the North were prepared to make the necessary
sacrifice ; and that is the extinction of slavery, and
the subjugation of the South." Can anything be
more absurd than this ? But, further on, the hon.
member becomes nearly profane when lie affirms
that the " religious mind of America can believe
that its solemn decision has received its ratification
from on High, and that the LORD of HOSTS himself
is going forth with their arms." If ever there was
a war whose conduct and style was likely to call
down the direct condemnation of Heaven, it has
been that which the Federals so persistently and
ruthlessly wage, in defiance of all the claims of
humanity and the feelings of honour, truth, and jus-
tice. The men who spare neither sex nor age in their
cruel course, who destroy the supplies of human food
with savage recklessness, and torture their prisoners
by neglect—who indulge in every barbarity they
can think of, and respect no rules that guide the
marches of civilised armies—should be the last to
boast of their cause receiving sanction from Above.
It would seem as if, in the excitement of his zeal con-
cerning his friends, Mr. LEATHAM was forgetting
the, tenets of his creed. How is it that he thus en-
courages war, and makes demigods of such san-
guinary militants as those who swell the ranks of
the Federal armies ? In his enumeration of the
many events which had crowned their troops with
victory and their cause with glory, he ingeniously
forgot one that did neither. We hear of the march
of SHERMAN, the capture of Savannah, and the
defeat of HOOD, but a silence total and supreme
—may we not add ominous and significant—reigns
concerning " Wilmington." In the hurry of his
discourse, his hearers doubtless did not consider
the full import of all his flowery sentences, for, had
they done so, and then cheered his address, they
would have been unworthy to represent the cha-
racter of Englishmen at a public assembly. Such
language is quite preposterous as to argument, and
most unseemly as to taste and style. As Madame
ROLAND exclaimed, " Oh, freedom, what crimes are
committed in thy name I" so it may well be said of
this American war, that it is a mockery and a delu-
sion to call it a crusade against slavery and a
struggle for the righteous cause, while it
is a selfish attempt for gain, and an
unworthy desire for monopoly of power.
It is not the way to win over men of discernment
to their views, for Mr. LEATHAM and his friends to
go about the country proclaiming such a mean and
paltry policy as one that should actuate the feelings
of England. They talk in the same breath of the
necessity for a thorough reform, and then go on to
magnify the virtues of those who are scandalising
all Christendom by their want of decency and de-
corum in.the prosecution of the war. The intelli-
gence of the country will be arrayed against such
an inconsistent course, and rise in refutation against
those who advocate doctrines that trample under
foot all that honour and honesty have made sacred
through the world, and respected by those who
have been the noblest and highest of mankind. It
is the best proof of the instability and unsoundness
of a cause when it leads its supporters into such
violent extremes as Mr. LEATHAM has resorted to
in his vindication of Federal rights. and English
wrongs. It would be better and safer for the com-
munity to go back to the most bigoted days of the
last generation of statesmen than to be under the
sway of those who would disseminate the prejudices
of such a school through the land. If the passing
of events and the warning of actions are not to be
recognised, but all to follow one predetermined
plan, and act in one preconceived conclusion, it will,
indeed, speak ill for the intellect of the age, and do
little credit to its progress and enlightenment.
Those misguided individuals, who persist in their
mischievous course, had better reconsider their de-
cision, or they will rank among those who cry peace
where there is no peace, and mar, instead of realis-
ing any good effects in the works they undertake.

The periodical examination of our statis-
ticssanita;orynee:
is a matter of no slight interest and importance.
The condition of the public health concerns every
one of us, and as physiological science makes more
and more progress, the details which are given by
the registrar's report grow more and more valuable.
They furnish the data upon which to found our
sanitary laws ; they teach us the governing prin-
ciples of health and disease, and point out the
dangers to which a City life is more especially liable.
It is true that the prevailing fashion of late years
has drawn men much away from their places of
business, and fixed their residence, if not in the
absolute country, at least out of reach of London
smoke and fog. But even this change is not with-
out its dangers. In the first place, there are other
considerations than those which are immediately
apparent, and it may be fairly questioned whether
thetcinh
creased exertion, the hurry and excitement of
ca
It is a gdays work,
fatigue of even a short journey
after a lon
w o
ef
f f b u rk
e, e
tdoeso s
u anot in
diminish ng n
ttrhaei
beneficialds
statistics, the rbas
nomresie degree
noticeable fact that, according to the official
strain
on a City life is increasing in-
stead of diminishing
glown between the. This is most conspicuously
ages of 55 an 175, and Dr.

LETHEBY considers it to be one of the most striking
facts in his table of deaths. In his annual report
on the sanitary condition of the City, submitted a
day or two since to the Commissioners, he observes
that in the preceding ten years the number of deaths
among persons at from 55 to 65 years of
age was 28 9, and from 65 to 75 28 2 ;
in the last twelvemonths the numbers have
risen respectively to 315 and 292. Formerly the
rate of mortality at those ages was 48 and 99 per
1,000 ; last year it was 57 and 110. In all England
tis 32 and 66 per 1,000, and in France only 29
and 65, though, in other respects, our mortality is
lower. It is true that the past year has been most
exceptionally unhealthy, and that persons who have
passed middle life are naturally the chief sufferers ;
but it is remarkable that the death-rate among
females at a corresponding age was not excessive,
being only respectively 37 and 80 per 1,000 be-
tween the ages of 55-65 and 65-75, the averages
for England and France being about the same.
These facts would seem to indicate that from some
cause or other the strain on a City life is on the in-
crease, and Dr. LETHEBY'S explanation that it is
due to the increased mental labour demanded by
the growing activity of commerce is not altogether
satisfactory, since the cause should affect the -death-
rate throughout England, which includes Liver-
pool, Birmingham, Manchester, and other commer-
cial cities in the same proportion. Neither is the
increase of commercial activity confined to English-
men alone, and we do-not hear that France has been
similarly affected. Should the same high death-rate
continue in the City especially, it will be worth in-
quiry how far the present conditions of a City life
are an improvement on former days. It would not
be fair, as we have said, to accept the statistics of
last year in evidence, were it not for the
corresponding circumstances, since the tables
altogether show a most unsatisfactory
state of the public health. For the first
time since Dr. LETHEBY commencgd these records,
a period of 16 years, the deaths exceeded the births
in the City. This is to be attributed not only to a
diminution of the birth-rate, but to a singular in-
crease in the mortality, which was not restricted to
the City alone, but extended throughout the
country generally. The average of the preceding
ten years shows a death-rate of 22.1 per 1,000 for
all England, 24.3 for the chief towns, and 24.2 for
the City. In last year the corresponding figures
were, 23.5 per 1,000 for all England, and 25.3 for
the City. The returns of the winter quarter show
the epoch of the most formidable increase, the
death-rate rising to nearly 28 per 1,000 for all Eng-
land, 29.7 for the chief towns, and 30.9 for the
City. " Seldom," says the Registrar-General, " has
the winter been more fatal," and these figures cer-
tainly confirm his words. The unusual dryness of
the year is supposed to have been the cause of this
remarkable mortality, the average degree of atmo-
spheric humidity having been 74 instead of 80, and
the number of wet days showing the extraordinary
diminution of 47 from 169. The temperature of
the air was also fully a degree below the average,
and the mean proportion of moisture in the
atmosphere during the summer months was scarcely
four grains of aqueous vapour in a cubic foot of
air. So dry was the atmosphere that a difference
was perceptible between the quantity of rain in the
rain guages on the roof of Guildhall and in those
on the ground, owing to the evaporation of the
rain in falling that short distance. We may thank
the low degree of temperature, unusual in so dry a
season, for preservation from a serious and dan-
gerous nuisance. Had the temperature risen to the
height of some late summers the river would have
again become offensive, since it was considerably
affected by the almost total absence of rain. It has
been proved by regular examination of the river
water that during many months of the year the
flow of the river is not downwards but
upwards, owing to the evaporation of the
water and the small supply from above, and
consequently the sewage, even when discharged at
the new outfalls, flows upwards far above the City
bridges. The effect produced by a dry season is
strongly evidenced this year by the increase in the
solid matter, saline and otherwise, in the river
water. The normal proportion is 24 grains per
gallon, but at the end of May this year it was 124
grains, and at the end of August 386. This is of
course an extreme case, but it serves to point the
moral more forcibly than usual, and the principle of
the increased rate is the same every summer. Our
sanitary reformers, therefore, must not rest satisfied
with what they have done, but devote their energies
to further progress. There are many points to
which Dr. LETHEBY'S report will especially direct
their attention, such as the excessive infant mor-
tality in the city, the effect upon public health of
the present over-crowding, the necessity which
exists of providing some better accommodation even
for the worst classes, and if possible of inducing
them to put the sanitary appliances provided to a
better use. There is nothing more degrading than
dirty, unhealthy, and squalid homes, thronged with
a multitude of persons of both sexes and all ages,
and so long as these are tolerated the decent soil
will sink to the level of the lower, and the lower
grow worse and worse. Many interesting parti-
culars of the special diseases which attack different
ages, and the supposed reasons for such liability,
are given in the report which Dr. LETHEBY has
framed in his usual pains-taking and intelligent
manner.