The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-13 00:00:00

TILE CIIOLERA.

Sir Benjamin Hall has already done much to
' guard against the approach, or to mitigate the
effects, of the cholera, and it is therefore in no cap-
tious spirit that his exertions should be judged.
Although, however, the steps which he has taken
since his accession to office have been characterised
by much wisdom and energy, it is impossible to
conceal from ourselves the fact that they will never
be sufficient to cope permanently with the evils
against which they are directed. Sir Benjamin
has probably exhausted all the powers with which
the law invests him, and employed the only machi-
nery at his disposal. If so, it only remains to him
to mature such further legislative provisions for the
consideration of Parliament in the next session as
shall supply the present defects of the law. That
such defects exist is but too obvious ; and until
they are remedied the cholera will continue ever
and anon to assert its supremacy among us, be-
cause, till then, we shall never succeed in destroy-
ing its strongholds.
After the experience of the last two or three
and twenty years, it cannot be doubted that
this epidemic is either the direct produce of filth,
or finds in filth one of the invariable conditions of
its existence. Just as the sweating sickness,
which used to carry off its thousands and tens of
thousands in the fifteenth century, was the terrible
punishment with which nature visited personal
uncleanliness, so the cholera has sprung up in the
nineteenth century to teach us the necessity of
maintaining our towns and habitations free from pol-
-1 ution. We may be slow in learning the lesson,
' but, sooner or later, we must learn it. If
we are wise, then, we shall betake ourselves to the
task at once, for the school of experience is an ex-
pensive one, and will make us pay in life and trea-
sure for our obstinacy or stupidity. The moral which
the cholera teaches is simply, " Remove your nuis-
ances ;" and to the enforcement of this duty all
the efforts of sanitary legislation tend. The most
important of all instruments for effecting this is
unquestionably an efficient sewerage, and yet we
know how little, or how unskilfully-, it has been
used in our towns. In London we long prided
ourselves on those granite-paved subterranean
drains which were pronounced as wonderful as
anything above ground in the metropolis ; but
this satisfaction was unfortunately never marred
by the reflection that their foul contents were dis-
charged into a tidal river, and were thus kept in
the very heart of the town. The discovery of this
oversight is recent, and although we are now on
the eve of commencing colossal works which will
effectually carry off all the refuse of our dwellings,
many years must elapse before they are completed,
unless much larger sums are devoted to them than
are now at the disposal of the Sewers Commis-
sioners.

There are, however, many nuisances which
sewers cannot, or are not, allowed to reach, and
these will need not merely the incessant watch-
fulness of our sanitary officers, but more strin-
gent and summary legal powers for their suppres-
sion. Nothing, for instance, can be more discre-
ditable to the law of a civilised nation than the
toleration of unwholesome trades in the midst of a
densely-crowded population. It is true that Par-
liament prohibited, some years ago, the future esta-
blishment of such trades in such places ; but it has
done nothing to prevent the perpetuation of those
previously existing, and which are at present effec-
tually protected by the best of all titles, known to
English courts and Englishmen—long user. These
firmly-rooted nuisances, however, must share the
fats of other sources of injury to human health.
The bone-boiler or knacker may aver that, when
he built his premises, no human habitations were
within the reach of his deadly influence, and that
lie is not to blame, and ought not to be damnified,
if others have deliberately taken up their abode at
his gates. This plea, however, cannot avail him
against the paramount principle—salus populi su-
premo lex. If he desires to carry on his business
undisturbed, he must fly to the wilderness and en-
trench himself there in a camp sufficiently spacious
to confine within its limits all the deleterious
effects of the elements which he has let loose. The
owner of one piece of ground has no right, in ab-
stract justice, and ought to have none in law, to
corrupt the atmosphere which is to be inhaled by
the occupiers of another ; and the prescription
which he would set up in support of such a pre-
tension ought to be fully met by the more sacred
and imprescriptible right of every man to the pure
air of heaven. The evil under consideration is a
very serious one, and urgently demands the im-
mediate attention of the Legislature. If a bad
law has given men a vested right to destroy the
constitutions of their neighbours, that right, we
suppose, must be purchased from them, just M the
right of holding negroes in slavery was purchased
from our planters ; but it cannot be suffered to
continue much longer, for life, after all, is quite as
precious as liberty. If all the tall chimneys which
vomit abominations over the town between West-
minster and Vauxhall bridges have a valid title
to pollute and poison our dwellings, let the Sheriff
of Surrey empanel a jury by all means, and assess
the pecuniary value of the privilege, and lot the
amount be paid by the ratepayers who suffer from
it. If the law does not sanction such nuisances,
let them put them down vigorously and summarily
.by summons, in forty-eight hours—not by indict-
ment, in six months.
But there are many nuisances which are by law
easily removable, and which yet, from the means
relied upon for the purpose, are but too often left '
as "removable by
unremoved. Take the simplest cave of a nuisance
classed by the Board of Health in its recent direc-
tions,of the annoyance is directedeiea ntos,incgga"idaresfs'oual
intelligible complaint of the nuisance,
bi • w i
ii
aialnwi
writing,
i,
sttellitivniosegrtn,t-
-n or a manure heap. Any person who is sensible
to the board of guardians,''
no gentleman who dislikese2'.treniely
owner to abate it, or, on
the email his neglect, to abate it
themselves. This course is who are to order the
mows in the rear of his Bel the effluvia of the
gravian or Padding-
rebels mansion—no attor
leaves of next-door'hsidsu_st:b simple, and
rebels against
his office or shop from the putrescent which creep into
nt.ey or tradesman who
putrescent cabbage-
culty in inditing
offendine- locality,
the Bonn
which is to re n--will have any diffi-
and ud'ismPlaint, describing the
remedy
the habitat of
any his grievance.. But
where shall we find, in
and alley full of Irish
labourers, and navvies,
ifloteurllboicuetor with the coal-whippers, the
scholar and the lawyer to purl,
The men will growl and gruntalieji such directions 7
readily enough
jaegeati,nwstiltlhoevderulnogiehlmeapthoer
owner ; and their wives, if spoken'
n to oat he sub-
and aainst its
ac-
count of the sufferings which they
whiScianything of the
source. But which of there kno;v endure from that
directions of the Board, and
1 of them will
volunteer to find out the guarch
known that they are the authorityawnis,. even if. it is
diction in such cases ? The
dinpo.inion of the
court may condemn such a precce
pis,. as unneigh-
bourly, or the nuisance may be the Property of the
landlord, whom it is not wise to
°find These
and similar motives are in incessant oper t.
be Made wore
in the midst of disease, and they
the most aristociarsartht'oec
vent the thorough abatement of nuirciaaonactyess
pre-
cisely in those quarters where they are most
Opinion
has juris-
namely, among the habitations of the pees riTiehTs
difficulty might easily be obviated, if it
athuethohrui
ordered that the complaint should
and
as tofamiliar
an
squares. Let the policeman be informed,
eityhalelwstaylsanaetsouars doors, and
walks his beat, of the overcharged cesspools a
dirty,
pig-styes, and putrid substances, which are cor-
rupting the atmosphere in this or that 1 1
p ace— et
him have power to verify the statements on the
spot--and let him report every such complaint •
p-aint to
the proper authority.
But suppose the complaint is duly made, it then
becomes the duty of the guardians to attend to it.
Will they always discharge this duty ? In the In
tropolis and in large towns they may ; e-
per laps be
trusted during the prevalence of an epidemic, and
while public opinion keeps a steady watch on their
movements. But when was a large and hetero-
geneous body, such as a board of guardians, ever
found to act with the same rigour and honesty as
a
single officer, well paid for his services, and bear-
ing the whole responsibility of his acts ? In
agri-
cultural districts such heavy bodies move especi-
ally slowly, for the individual members are but
too prone to act on the maxim that what is the
business of all is the business of none. We have
new already learned from the example of our
Mi-
nister of Health the advantage of pos •
sessing, in
times of emergency, a sanitary dictator ; and v, e
cannot help thinking that, if every district in Eno._
land elected au cud° and armed him with suffi-
cient authority to abate nuisances, and to enforce
all regulations necessary for the prevention or miti-
gation of infectious or epidemic disorders, more
would be done for the health of the country than
ever will be effected by unwieldy boards of guar -
di -
ans, municipal corporations, and local boards of
. healtia.--Alomiiig Civronicle.
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