The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-29 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tills DAY.—Morning, 7h. 52m.—Afternoon, Bh. 33m.
To-Mon.now.-Morning, 9h. 15m.—Afternoon, 9h. 58w.

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...),-46.,*, \----Alll-1-
" g 4.4;7",,N, V 5,
.41,1116"4: ir-\-' 444134

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPT. 29, 1865.

An interesting entertainment took place at Hert-
ford yesterday, on the occasion of the Herts Agri-
cultural Society's annual dinner. The members for
the county attended, and the affair went off very
successfully. The Earl of VERULAM presided, and
when he proposed " Success to the Society" he made
some very wise observations on the subject of the
pestilence now hanging over the cattle throughout
the country. There is no doubt whatever that the
wretched manner in which the poor animals were
treated had a great deal to do with the cattle
plague, and nothing can possibly excuse those
who neglect to profit by the warning thus
imparted to them. Not only during the
period of their transit from one place to
another, but also while they are stationary in
their several localities do these poor creatures have
to endure great evils. As the noble earl stated, the
houses in London in which they are placed are
often overcrowded, they are badly ventilated, and
the animals are thus " doomed to much suffering."
The practice of keeping them without water when
on their passage and after landing is a most bar-
barous one.

Sir E. B. LYTTON, in responding to the toast of
the County Members, made an impressive speech,
and dwelt at some length on the difficulties that
beset his way in endeavouring to make a speech on
such an occasion as the one before him. In
the first place, politics are supposed to be
directly excluded, and therefore it is very
awkward to proceed far on any topic, when
constant obstacles present themselves in the shape
of differences of opinion and so on, which must not
be touched upon lest the harmony of the" meeting
be disturbed. Yet, as the right hon. bart. plain-
tively observed, " When you say to a member of
Parliament, ' Mind, not a word of politics,' he is
like OTHELLO : his occupation's gone." In conse-
quence of these prohibitions, there was nothing left
for the speaker but to plunge into agricultural
subjects, and make the desperate venture of enter-
ing into such matters before an assembly chiefly
composed of practical farmers. It must be ad-
mitted that the right hon. baronet acquitted himself
very well of his arduous task notwithstanding his de-
preciatory remarks on the matter. He excited much
amusement by declaring that it would be a very
good thing if the farmers themselves addressed the
meeting, and stated their opinions upon various
matters, such as " deep ploughing,' " thin sowing,"
" deep drainage," &c., and also intimated what ad-
vantages were derived from the modification of the
malt tax.

No doubt, as the Right Honourable Baronet I
said, there are uses in the recurrence of
these scientific meetings and exhibitions, which
ate not evident at first sight to those
who read the speeches in the papers, because a great
deal is discussed in private, and many are fortunate
enough to return home with old prejudices partly
shaken and with the germ of new ideas. It would be
indeed difficult to
exaggerate the advantages of
these societies, as they afford
opportunities for the •
diffusion of thought, and also induce persons to
come forward and impart the result of their disco-
they might be slow to do
veries, which otherwise
without incentive. Besides this an impetus is given
to the prosecution of the several labours and pur-
suits from the emulation created by the bestowing
of prizes, and the general excitement of the exhibi-
tions. Sir EDWARD made allusion to the pro-
posal recently made by Mr. DISRAELI, to the
effect that the area of competition should be
widened in the Agricultural Society of Buck-
inghamshire, which the right hQn. baronet
described as a great county, 4‘ the history
of which certainly derived an additional lustre from
being represented by a man of so brilliant a genius
and so eminent in the position to-which that genius
had exalted him." SirEDWARD gave it as his opinion
that there would be great benefits derived from this
plan if it were practicable in improving public spirit
and competition. The imperfect state of the rail-
ways in Hertfordshire would, however, he feared,
detract from its likelihood as yet.
The great calamity of the cattle plague, as the
right hon. baronet aptly designated it, of course,
engrossed some portion of his speech ; and indeed,
no one can nowadays possibly discourse upon a,gri-
elliblrai subjects without touching upon this mc-

lancholy theme. Sir E. Lvrrorr reminded his hearers
of his remarks some three years back, upon the
report of Professor SAWYER, the veterinary surgeon,
of Edinburgh, as to the increased and increasing
progress of disease among our stock, attended with
no symptoms of an epidemic nature, " dating from
the free importation of foreign cattle." These
prophecies have indeed been fulfilled in a very un-
satisfactory manner, and the best plan to adopt will
be to follow the advice here given, and use every
possible precaution to guard against the introduc-
tion of the evils mentioned, and also to remedy
their fatal effects when once they are in
action. The disease is increased in virulence
when it reaches our shores by our very faulty
management. In the first place, among the predis-
posing causes may be mentioned the cruelty and
suffering to which they are exposed on board the
ships that carry them over ; and next, the bad man-
ner in which their railway travelling is conducted.
A third cause was named by Sir EDWARD as the
" pestilential mode in which mulch cows have been
huddled together in places reeking with filth by the
London cowkeepers." Considering, as the right
hon. baronet said, that there is no known means
of cure just now despite all the efforts being
made by skill and science, it behoves us to
lend ready co-operation to the preventionary
methods advised by Government, and also
to take advantage of that safeguard which insurance
presents in individual cases of loss and destruction
of property. It appears that in Hertfordshire an
insurance society of this nature has already been
established, and it is to be hoped that so excellent
an example will be followed in other counties, for it
must offer great securities to persons whose means
of livelihood is rendered doubtful by the uncertain
state of their stock through this malady now raging.
Certainly Sir E. B. LrrroN could have given his
hearers no wiser counsel than to urge them to take
advantage of the warnings they had received of the
advent of the plague, and improve all that has hitherto
been so much amiss in our mode mode of procedure.
The right hon. baronet concluded his most interest-
ing speech by alluding to the peaceful state of our
relations with our continental neighbours, of which
we have just had so happy an instance in the recent
interchange of hospitalities between the navies of
France and England. " Yet," said he, "if the hour
of peril should indeed arrive, it is in societies like
the present, composed chiefly of those who live by
the soil, that the soil will find its most enthusiastic
patriots, and, if need be, its strongest defenders."
This address appeared to give the greatest satisfac-
tion to all the auditory, and it was warmly received
through o at.

The threatened visitation of cholera has done us
some good service. It has brought into notice old
abuses, which havebeen so long left undisturbed that
they have become established customs. It has
aroused the vigilance of our reformers, and has
given them support and encouragement in. making
their complaints and representations to the authori-
ties. There still remains, however, very much to
be done, and as is invariably the case, in matters
that are everybody's concern and nobody's busi-
ness, the necessary forms are deferred from day
to day, because no one sets them on foot.
Whenever there is an alarm of cholera, or any
other special epidemic—for with fever in all
its forms we have unfortunately grown so familiar
as to become indifferent—startling facts are brought
to light, and evidence is given of such great and
widespread evils that we can only wonder that such
scandalous neglect has not long ago avenged itself
on the whole population. But when the alarm
passes by, the subject drops, the revelations are
forgotten, and all goes on as before. Typhus, in
I some of its forms, goes on quietly mowing down
the people, and little notice is taken of the gra-
dual increase of his victims until a fresh alarm of
pestilence rouses the authorities from their lethargic
indifference. The sanitary condition of Lanca-
shire has long been disgraceful. Though one of
the most populous of our counties, its drainage,
sewarage, paving, &c., have been almost en-
tirely neglected. The cotton famine which has
been productive of so much immediate suffering has
effected lasting good, by means of the Public
Works Act, and the consequent expenditure of two
millions of money on these useful and necessary
undertakings. With this large amount of capital
and so much unemployed labour, it is no won-
der that great results have been achieved
and that now the tide of business once
more begins to flow and to absorb the
energies of masters and men, the results of the
cotton famine may be considered as decidedly bene-
ficial. But, unfortunately, in some respects the
business is only half done. If the towns are
drained into the rivers, and the water of those
rivers is used in the mills, it is at once evi-
dent that very little is gained. Yet such
it seems has been the case in some -parts. The
Irwell and its tributaries are becoming what the
Thames was a few years since, and the practice of
making the nearest running stream the receptacle of
the sewage has been carried out with the most
unpleasant and injurious effects. What a
pity it is that while the works were
being carried on the business was not done effectu-
ally, and an arrangement made for the.utilisation or
deodorisation of the sewage. The local boards have
been very energetic in pushing forward the works,
but they have stopped half way. The description
given of the course of the Irwell by a resident of
Blackburn is certainly not very inviting. It rises
in Rossendale as a small stream, and very soon
passes through several factory steam boilers, and a
turkey-red dyework, so that at a few miles
from its sources its colour has undergone a
complete metamorphosis. At Bacup the sewer-
age operations have been vigorously carried
on, and through all the populous valley of
Rosseudale the Irwell receives tributaries charged
with refuse matter containing as vile compounds as
itself. Yet it goes on turning the wheels of mills
and supplying the water of boilers till it reaches
Manchester, having meanwhile passed Bury, Rad-
cliffe, and other crowded districts, and having been
enlarged by the contributions of the Roach and the
Croat bearing the sewage and refuse of Rochdale
1 and Bolton. The result of all this in hot weather
may easily be guessed. In the mills where the water
of the Irwell is employed the people com-
plain of Sickness and want of appetite, and
hevil odours are remarkable. Yet,
instead of anything
beingr oAv ddeodn
done
to localitiesremedy
th on t
ie
evil,
la) laln k
sthrtohueg the c
are completed the
will be still
it is only made worseerndiewdorsone. the drainage
workscratersaters
onfo iv
East b
being
nngd South Lancashire
more unwholesome, still more laden with pestiferous
matter. Yet, as Lord PALMERSTONnoonthceersaeilende,mitist
only matter in the wrong place. A
would absorb it with as much profit as health. If
the amount of sewage and refuse committed to the
water were given to the earth, the result would be
as directly beneficial as it is now positively
injurious. Surely, then, this question de-
serves some attention, and the local autho-
rities can _hardly exonerate themselves from
the charge of neglecting their duties if they do not
attempt to remove the evil. With a rumour of
cholera approaching us, any inattentign to sanitary