The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-03 00:00:00

Passed, Oct. 3—Carl, from St. Thomas, for Hamburg.

WHAT IS CHOLERA.--For the last 30 years people
have been asking, What is cholera ? Whence comes
it ? How can its return be prevented ? What is the best
defence against its attacks ? When occurring, how can
they bo cured ? Wo may fairly pass with slight conside-
ration any hypothetical, dreamy, or superstitious notions
respecting its final causes. We cannot believe it to be the
hand of Providence punishing us for our evil deeds. Be-
cause Providence is just ; and so many honest folk have
died of the cholera, and so many rogues have escaped or
survived it, that that pious supposition must be discarded.
Nor can we believe the cholera to be a natural means of
keeping down a superabundant population. Men have
been foolish enough to say, " We want a good war; wo
shall soon not know where to stow ourselves ; Europe is
too thickly inhabited." But there is no good war. War
is one of the most senseless acts which our infant
humanity commits. Moreover, there are not too many
inhabitants, neither in the United Kingdom, nor in
France, nor in Europe, nor elsewhere. We cultivate only
one-tenth part of the habitable globe, and we set-to to cut
each others throats instead of cultivating the remainder.
Truly, mankind is an intelligent race ! It is poverty, and
the weakness which it engenders ; it is debauchery and
selfishness, which undertake the task of limiting the popu-
lation. There is no need for either war or the cholera to
give them a helping hand. War is quite a thing of human
invention ; and " the God of Battles," if not a scrap of
heathen mythology, is certainly an abominable and absurd
piece of blasphemy. It is now held that the cholera is an
evil due to the same initiation ; that the cholera, like the
plague, is the consequence of human stupidity and folly ;
that, although we cannot exactly say what the cholera is,
at least we know whence it comes. And, when onco we
know the cause, can we not avert its consequences by the
effectual suppression of that cause.—Dickenes "All the
Year Round."

ASSAULT ON A BOY BY A SCHOOLMASTER.—At
the Petty Sessions, Croydon, on Saturday, Mr. W.
Ingram, head-master of the Whitgift School, was summoned
for unlawfully assaulting and beating a boy, aged 13, named
Francis Lambert. Mr. W. Drummond appeared for the de-
fendant. The complainant deposed that about 4 o'clock in
the afternoon on the 22d, while in the playground with
another boy, the defendant came up to him and boxed his
ears twice. Assisted by Mr. Day, one of the masters, he
pulled complainant into the schoolroom, add, holding
him tightly, gave him eight or nine stripes with a
cane. Complainant admitted that he kicked defendant
while Day was holding him, and while defendant beat
hlm. A person who examined the boy found on his back
eight black wheals, from which the blood was ready
to start. There was also a severe bruise on his arm. Mr.
, amto an inquiry
very neer dead, and I think this
Lambert gave confirmatory evidence as to the severity of
ft
ehne
dfla ongt gingreply ry by the witness, the
replied,de-
,
will kill me. lam very sorry, but I was obliged to do it."
Mr. Drummond addressed the Court for the defendant,
stating that an the afternoon in question, while at prayers,
the latter saw the boy Lambert enter the yard, and on re-
questing him to leave he kept at a distance, shaking his head
at him. Defendant then boxed his ears, and took him down
to the class-room, where he resisted and was very violent.
Defendant took a small stick, and did what he should
have done if the boy had been one of his own scholars. Mr.
Day, the assistant master, stated that the defendant used
the switch until it was broken, and then gave the boy half
a dozen strokes with the cane. Mr. Day, in reply to a ques-
tion, said the defendant did not exercise more severity than
was usually exercised towards the scholars. Some evidence
was taken which did not materially alter the complexion of
the case, and after a consultation the chairman expressed
his reprobation of the defendant's conduct, and said the
Bench would mark the feeling they entertained on the
subject by fining him GOs. and 235. costs. As one of the
assistants had stated that the punishment the com-
plainant received was not more severe than that ordinarily
administered in the school, it would be well for the
governors to make an inquiry into the subject.
The quotation of gold at farts is about 1 per mine pas., an d
the short exchange on London is 25.223 per 41 sterling. On
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of £3
17s. 104 d. per ounce
t•
forstandard.gold, it appears that gold is
nearly 1-1413 per cell • dearer in London than in Paris,