The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-14 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAT.—Morning, Bh. 59m.—Afternoon, Oh. 45m.
To-Momtow.-Morning, 10h. 26m.—Afternoon, 11h. 10m.

aj ‘4,44.,,
g ~,,,::„o..owir,
,vitut.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 14, 1865.

We are sometimes fortunate enough to see good
come out of evil, and happily there is just now a
case in point in Lancashire. Whatever moral quali-
ties, whatever fortitude, patience, and heroism the
cotton famine may have developed on the part of
the sufferers, and however prompt and spontaneous
might be the open-handed kindness and sympathy
which hastened to exert themselves on their behalf,
it was certainly not supposed that the long dearth
of employment and the collapse of a most profit-
able trade could be productive of any material
advantage to the country. Yet now it seems,
from plain statistical information, that real
lasting public good has resulted as the indi-
rect, if not the immediate, consequence of a time
of almost unparalleled distress. The sanitary pro-
visions of Lancashire were previously most woe-
fully disproportioned to its wealth and industry.
The excessive mortality of the county, which
has hitherto considerably exceeded the me-
tropolitan rate, has hitherto probably been
as much due to the defective sanitary arrangements
as to the exhaustive labour of the people. Each
evil helped the other, for a man working all day in
a close and crowded factory would not have the
same physical resistance to offer to malaria or typhus
that an out-door labourer who spends his time in
the fresh air and gains a hearty appetite would
possess. Fresh air and wholesome air are the two
great foes of epidemic zymotic disease, and these
rarely ever lend their aid to the jaded factory
operative. There have been several reasons for
this apparently disgraceful neglect which, if
they do not completely
exonerate, the local
authorities at least go far to account for the state of
things. Labour and capital may seem at first sight
to have been plentiful in Lancashire during its
pros-
perousbut the fact is that both were time, ere Wholly
absorbed in the cotton trade. The raising of
mills, or the speculations in cotton, were
far more attractive and remunerative invest-
ments than an outlay on drainage and paving.
Again all spare hands were speedily pressed into the
services of King Cotton, who was so exacting in
his demands that no one had much time or thought
to spare for such uninteresting topics. Small un-
known villages, thanks to the same mighty influence,
rapidly developed into populous towns, before pav-
ing, draining, or lighting had been thought about•
Then when every one's energies were concentrated
upon the progress of mills and manufactories, it
-was not likely that any influential party would
stop in the race for gain to attend to such
very ordinary concerns. The consequence naturally
has been that a good many thousands of the work-
ing classes have found premature graves, but until
the enforced idleness of the Cotton Famine there
was very little prospect of substantial improvement.
The praiseworthy endeavour to give relief in the
form most acceptable to Englishmen, by providing
a fair day's work for a fair day's wages, led to the
Passing of the Public Works Act, and to the ex-

penditure of nearly two millions on works of sani-
tary improvement and public utility. A similar
scheme when tried in the sister kingdom occasioned
much disappointment, but having the advantage
of the experience gained in the previous
experiment, the mistakes and errors for-
merly committed have in this case been
happily avoided. The local authorities who were
empowered to obtain the loan have been the parties
responsible for the proper regulation of the works ;
and consequently, being on the spot, and being
personally concerned that full value should be
obtained for the money, they bad taken good care
that the works should be judiciously managed. The
factory operatives whom it was intended to employ
have been mixed with a smaller number of skilled

operatives, in the proportion of two operatives to
one workman. The idle factory hands were not
forced to work if unable or disinclined, but the fact
of the guardians being able to offer regular and
profitable employment to all applicants for relief
has been a powerful check on pauperism. The
favourable conclusions arrived at are founded on
the reports of Mr. RAWLINSON, the chief engineer,
so that it is not mere rumour that declares the
Public Works Act to have been a success, but the
actual experience of the parties concerned.
_ _

It is especially fortunate that Lancashire should
thus have " set its house in order," when there is
reason to apprehend the approach of a formidable
epidemic. The advent of the cholera among
the densely-populated, unpaved, ill-drained towns
and suburbs of the chief manufacturing dis-
tricts would have been a very serious and
alarming thing some year or two ago. Now,
however, though much remains to be done great
progress has been made. Two millions of money
cannot be judiciously laid out in public works
without effecting much lasting good and removing
many evils. Now that the cotton trade is reviving
so rapidly, the old works will draw in capital and
labour once more, but we hope that the good works
begun will be carried out, and that whatever re-
mains to be done will be fully accomplished before
the subject of sanitary improvement is allowed to
sink out of notice. Meanwhile our other manufac-
turing centres might well take the hint. Must they
wait for a collapse of their trade or the advance
of an epidemic before they look into matters so
nearly concerning the public health and welfare?
It is not a case where ignorance can be pleaded for
in the present state of sanitary knowledge ; every
one knows the importance of drainage, ventilation,
and good pure water. Let these things be looked
to in time lest men should say, with justice, that
we rank money higher than human life in our zeal
for trade and commerce.

Industrial Exhibitions are now the order of the
day, and the interest they excite is not surprising
when we consider their importance and significance.
Indeed, the value of such affairs cannot well be too
much overrated, and all the encouragement they
can possibly receive is only the due meed to those
whose skill and exertions contribute to their exist-
ence. The Reading Industrial Exhibition was
opened yesterday with great success, and a very
interesting ceremony took place. The inaugural
address was delivered by the Bishop of Oxioan,
and it was certainly worthy of the occasion. He
dwelt upon the great advantages which accrued to
the community in general from these Exhibi-
tions. They tend to develope thought and to
increase knowledge, more especially among those
classes who have the greatest difficulties to contend
with in the way of self-improvement. As the
Bishop stated with great accuracy, if the " observ-
ing faculty" is educated in our towns immense
benefits will follow, and when we come to reflect
upon it the full force of its meaning is made known.
In an intellectual view it is of the highest import-
ance that the faculties of the mind should be
developed, and that its powers should be generally
developed and not concentrated upon one particular
thing. When a man's energies are monopolised by
one employment, and bounded by a narrow sphere
of action, he may perform his part in that direction
with great ability, but his powers cannot be pro-
perly developed nor his efforts attain to the right
standard of excellence. The result of such a course
is thus properly put in the comprehensive discourse
before us. " You dwarf his general powers by
concentrating their action on one minute art ; the
body is the tabernacle of the mind, and that which
you have done for the man's body, by so limiting
his exertions you do for the mind, too." There is
no rational reason which can be adduced to show
why a man who is gifted by his CREATOR with many
gifts should not be able to exercise them in more
ways than one ; for it cannot possibly be
right or reasonable that they should lie dor-
mant until opportunities are wasted and powers
lost through want of cultivation. It was with justice
that in this speech at the inauguration of the Exhi-
bition so much stress was laid upon the advantages
afforded by such undertakings, and the opportuni-
ties they presented to those who stood in need of
variety for their thoughts and change of ideas in their
monotonous employment. Anything that tends to
enlarge the sphere of observation must be a benefit,
and as it is certain that some relaxation is needed
by those who denote their time and thoughts con-
tinually to mechanical engagements, it must be the
wisest and best course to present some pursuits
which combine utility with recreation, and render
what is a benefit a source of interest and attraction.
It is too much the fashion among a certain class to
render all that concerns the working classes as dry
and dull as possible. What with lectures they cannot
understand, and books that are intolerably tedious,
it is not to be wonderd at that arise courses indicated
to them should prove to be neither ways of plea-
santness nor paths of peace.

A better mode has been followed of late in many
instances with respect to the very difficult task of fur-
nishing what the French truly call a delassement for
those whose lives of toil demand a rest, and whose
continuous efforts deserve sympathy and encourage-
ment. With minds not trained to comprehend
easily these matters unconnected with their imme-
diate vocations, and with bodily powers maimed
with exertion, it is absolutely necessary that in
the recreations presented to them there should
be much that is pleasing as well as profitable.
OthZee: iiserwatthreateenadeabvyour will be a failure, and the
requirements, and ignoranceins
oonfcietpstvioitual opfrinits iefiplceh.
The Bishop of OXFORD also adverted to another
benefit that these Exhibitions conferred upon us,
and that was their tendency to put down an excess
of " artificial distinctions" of rank and place, and
attaching undue importance to mere external maL-
tors, which are, after all, not accidents. These insti-
tutions can also serve the noble purpose of develop-
ing talents which also might languish in obscurity,
and pine for want of an appropriate sphere. In
this inaugural address we meet with an eloquent
passage concerning the ", greatest gifts" which
are given to human beings. The marvellous faculty
which parts one man from another is " the imperish-
able gift of genius, the kindling of the fire which
comes from the fire which is eternal—a gift greater
than any of the external circumstances which belong
not indeed to us, but are, as it were, the accidents—
the play-clothes of the actors on the stage of life,
while each plays his little part in the tight of man,"

Opportur cities are needed, however, for the cultiva-
tion of t 3 'esegifts, and in some classes of life especially
it is cet taro that talents must often be lost which,
if perfectly developed, might have conduced to the
welfare .of society, and the fulfilment of the mission
of the poosessox of the privilege to do honour to his
MAKER and render service to his fellow-creatures.
There is g reat truth in the observation here made,
that educai,ion of a certain kind has a tendency to
raise all 'to one level, and to sink all to the same
level al; 50. It ignores genius altogether, and while
it proetuces a fair mediocrity, "it never can give
to the world men who are capable of shaping a
statue such as CANOVA could chisel, and such as
MICHAEL. ANGELO could design." All that
farniliari4 es men's minds with works of art and
trophies of genius must be of advantage,
both in awakening dormant qualities in the
few, and in refining the taste of the many.
Those who contributed to the striking wants of
industry to the Exhibition were congratulated by
the Bishop on such a " day of lawful triumph and
real intellectural rejoicing" as that which called
them together. The right rev. prelate adverted to
the good-will displayed by those who had lent
works of art to the Exhibition, and foremost
was the name of our gracious QUEEN, who has
lent some of the treasures of Windsor Castle to the
Industrial Exhibition of Reading, and concluded
his excellent address by entreating those around
him to make the best use of that and every other
opportunity afforded to them, anxious to do
their duty in the state of life to which
GOD had called them, " to develope more
perfectly the instruments of service with which he
had endowed them, and in the midst of a redeemed
world to work as renewed men, educating them-
selves for service here, and the blessed vision of the
ALMIGHTY hereafter." At the luncheon subsequently
given, Mr. WALTER made an appropriate speech on
the "Contributors of the Loan Collection," in which
he said that he hoped on a future occasion Reading
might contribute a large share of its own proper
industry, and cited " inlaid woodwork" as a manu
facture that the town might produce, and thus sue
cessfully rival other cities in their different depart
ments of industry.

Almost the worst part of any public disaster is
the consequent panic. The dangers of an epidemic
are increased tenfold by the alarm and depression
produced in the public mind, which predisposes per-
sons to infection, and in the same way most other
evils, when magnified by fear or rumour, grow into
unnecessary size. At present the cattle disease is a
very great and serious evil, and the English being, as
a rule, very helpless when deprived of their ordinary
food, the diminution of supplies is naturally no
slight difficulty. But we need not make the worst
of things. In the first place, we must be on our
guard against the extortions of tradesmen and dealers,
who are very likely to take advantage of the con-
fusion to raise their prices and increase the alarm ;
secondly, to mitigate the present panic against the
old English dish of beef, we may remember that
the disease has hitherto shown itself principally
among the milch cows, and also that proper in-
spectors being placed in every market there is no
great risk of unwholesome meat being freely circu-
lated. But the scarcity and dearness of meat may
teach us that there are other kinds of food cheap,
wholesome, and palatable. Fish is certainly un-
affected by the disease, yet very little fish is con-
sumed among us, notwithstanding the plentiful
supply on our coasts, and the ease and rapidity with
which it is transmitted inland.

The tasteful and savoury dishes prepared by
French peasants out of ingredients that an English
labourer's wife would disdain to use teach us ano-
ther lesson. There are endless varieties of stew
and soup to be made out of the neglected parts of
wholesome meat and good fresh bones, with plenty
of vegetables, which are surely forthcoming. Any
one who has seen what fine rich soup is procurable
from a sheep's head properly cooked will know that
excellent family meals are to be had for very little
money. The haste and ignorance with which our
poorer housewives prepare their meals waste at
least half their hard-earned money, and in the pre-
sent scarcity of meat it is much to be wished that
they could be taught better.