The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-22 00:00:00

•
tor of nuisances, but those Ivorthies are too apt to
remain at home waiting till the nuisane3 findS them
out instead of their finding the nuisance out. The
landlords are, in Many insta,nce3, both in town and
country, most grievously to blame ; but what can
we expect when the holder of an estate can contrive
to defy the law which requires him to keep his
cottages in a decent and habitable state? The
landlords of the fever nests of the metropolis must
be perfectly well aware of the condition of their
property, but they do not seem to feel that every
death caused by preventible evils in their property
lies at their doors. Complaint after complaint is
made in vain. The owner pushes them off with
the assertion that those sort of people are always
grumbling, and think of nothing less than of calling
in plumber and painter to his aid. There is not
much chance for a poor man in complaining about
the bad drainage, the deficient water, or other evils.
If he does not like the place he may move ; it will
not be long empty. Plenty more will be ready to
lead the forlorn hope against the fever if he is un-
willing ; and so case after case of sickness occurs
and poisons the air of the district. Low food and
I ignorant treatment perpetuate the infection, and a
regular fever nest is kept up. It is surely not too
much to expect that the law, which is always
prompt enough in coming to the assistance of
landlords against refractory tenants, should enforce
the plain public duty that every man who owns a
house shall keep it At for human habitation.
Whether or no any clause or statute provides this
now, it is quite certain that the rule is not ob-
served,.but that many house and land-owners re-
ceive rents for houses and cottages in which
health is almost an impossibility. The local
authorities of those districts in which 'fever and
malaria -are so common -as to be recognised fea-
tures should at once begin instituting inquiries.
They should look to the drainage, the water sup-
ply, and the means of ventilation. They should
see to the dust-bins, the refuse heaps, the unpaved
yards, the nuisances of the neighbourhood. Why
do they defer these duties till cholera is knocking
at the doors ? Typhus has been with us long
enough without rousing them into action, yet if
the district authorities had set about the work as
heartily as they are now confronting the cattle
plague, the state of the public health might have
been far more satisfactory. Our mortality does
not decrease in proportionate ratio with the in-
crease of our scientific knowledge ; but how can
we expect it to do so when we refuse to act upon
well-ascertained discoveries. The general public is
indifferent on the matter, and it needs the whole
course of the immortal fable in which it was
necessary for the bull to drink the water before all
the machinery could be set in action to get the old
woman's pig over the stile ! Public feeling must
be aroused and set to work to stir up the rate-
payers to induce them to influence the municipal
authorities and obtain the efficient administration
of the laws. If those laws are not sufficiently
stringent another session should not be allowed to
pass without obtaining the necessary powers, for
the present condition of many of our courts and
alleys is a disgrace to the civilisation of the age.

. -
MYSTERIOUS DEATH-0/AbY FROM POISONING.
—Yesterday Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner for West
Kent, resumed an inquiry (which had been three times
adjourned), into the circumstances attending the death of
Mrs. Elizabeth Reeve, aged .40, the wife of a veterinary
surgeon, residing at 52, Ashburnham-grove, Greenwich.
The death is alleged to have occurred through the admi-
nistration of a certain deadly poison known as veratria, or
white hellebore. The jury on the previous occasions had
merely met, but did not hear any evidence, owing to the
analysis ordered by the coroner not having been completed
by Professor Rodgers, of the London University Hospital.
Mr. Norton, solicitor, of Clifford's-inn, attended on the part
of the deceased's husband. The inquiry was again ad-
journed; but the coroner called upon Mr. Reeve, the hus-
r band, to enter into reeognisances of £lOO to appear at the
next examination.

SUICIDE IN THE SURREY C ANAL. —Yesterday
morning the body of a young woman, about 19
years of age, named Wood, was found in the Surrey Canal,
the deceased having committed suicide on the night of
Sunday last. It appears that the deceased, who was in
service, had permission from her mistress to go out on
Sunday evening, and called upon a friend near the Old
Kent-road. Having stayed soma time she was told it was
getting late, when she said it did not matter as she was
not going back to her situation, and that she intended
to drown herself. Sho then left, and as she was after-
wards missed the canal' was dragged, with the result
above stated. Some unhappiness between the deceased
and her mother is alleged as the cause of her destroying
herself.

WEALTHY PAUPERS.—A fire broke out in one of
several cottages that stand on Gus Green, Chelten-
ham, on Sunday night. One of the cottages was occupied
by an old man named Henry White, but better known by
the appellative of " Old Harry, the gravedigger at the old
cemetery." Nearly X5OO in gold and silver coin was rescued
from the old man's cottage, and was carried to the police-
station, and carefully counted over in the presence of Mr.
John Nicholls, the deputy chief constable. Since then the
money has been removed to one of the banks of the town,
whether the old man allowed it to be conveyed after consi-
derable persuasion by the police authorities. It is currently
reported that" Old Harry" has been in receipt of parochial
relief, and it appears that he has been "excused" from pay-
ing his qTiota of the poor rate. ' The patine will in all pro-
bability hear more of this matter. We may add that a few
months ago an old man, who had been for many years en-
gaged in repairing the roads, was compelled from sheer in-
ability to relinquish work, since which time to the time of
his death he subsisted upon private charity. During his
illness the members of the town commission, to the number
of 30, handed the old man over ss. each, believing him to
be completely destitute. After his death, however, a bank
book was discovered, and it was found that ho had placed
in one of the local banks upwards of £2oo.—Birmingham
Gazette.

TRUE NOBILITY.—A writer in the Oxford Chro-
nicle argues that incivility caused the downfall of Lord
Westbury, and civility the exaltation of Lord Cranworth.
Lord Cranworth (says the writer) has always been civil to
everybody—ho was even civil to Bloomfield Rush when he
tried him for his life. Rush, as perhaps you may remem-
ber, was very tedious and prolix in his defence, so much
so as at last to exhaust the patience of his judge. Lord
Cranworth (then Baron Rolfe) interrupted him and told
him so, when Bush turned furiously round and cried out,
"My lord, if you were on trial for your life, you would
expect a little indulgence." Another judge would have
been furious, but Baron Rolfe mildly said, " You are right,
and I was wrong ; 1 beg your pardon."

THE CONDEMNED CONVICT CURRIE.—The pri-
soner Carrie, convicted on Wednesday at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court of the murder of Major de Yore, was
removed on the evening of the same day to the Kent county
gaol at Maidstone. He spoke but little, and appeared to be
in a dejected state of mind. He was at once placed in the
condemned cell, where he will be watched night and day,
till the sentence is carried into effect, which, following the
usual custom, would be on the 12th October. The convict,
at his own request, will be visited by the Rev. Mr. Greener,
the Presbyterian minister at Maidstone. It is not yet
known whether the execution will take place at the county
prison or at the barracks at Chatham, where the crime was
committed.
COBDEN AND " THE NATIONALITIES."—It acquits
him of the charge—one by no means unfrequently
brought against him—of being indifferent and callous to
the progress, the struggles, and the wounds of liberty
abroad. He was, it must be admitted, extremely cautious
as to the' overt expression 'of sympathy for the oppressed
peoples of the world. For he had seen how out-spoken
utterances from Englishmen had fed such unfortunates
with vain hopes of English interference, and thereby in-
citing them to the prolongation of struggles whose failure
made their woes more grievous than before, and entailed
upon them additional exasperilted strokes of dynastic ven-
geance. The remark may seem ungenerous, but we con-
tsN I,pleoenegerrehateinsr einsuloldi
ft ss that we think it, to say the least, very questionable
whether the Cireassians are not to-day in a worse plight
than if Mr. Urquhart had never been born, or employed at
Earll ne b
C a
Czar
isairu—sa
ihtshe tehde: rs
despatches
upon
Dudleyont yh Stuart'sen3oit
a gya havers
heightened the agonies of the Pules, and whether the
nd
might not have;been less severe had some one else than Lord
I Palmerston been at the Foreign Office in 1848. Be that
as it may, Mr. Cobden's course in such matterswas at least
and not only self-consistent, but perfectly compa-
logical,
tible with the warmest love of liberty, the most intense
hatred of enthroned wrong, and tenderest commiseration
for enthralled right.-21PGilchrist's Life of Cobden.
THE NUMBER OF PAWNBROKERS.—At the present
nas appears from an official paper, 3,645
pawnbrokersi thereare,
the United Kingdom, and they paid last
year for their Houses, £30,728.
t