The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-31 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1853.

We have not for a long time read a document
in which the statesman and the Christian are more
admirably combined than the reply of Lord PAL-
MERSTON to the Moderator of the Edinburgh
Presbytery of the Church of Scotland. It was
received indeed in no very Christian spirit by the
divines whom it more immediately concerned, but
it will, we trust, suggest a view of the subject to
thousands of minds which shall direct their reli-
gious sentiments, in regard to the visitation of the
cholera, to the most happy and really religious
results. The Presbytery wished the Govern-
ment to appoint a clay of national fasting and
prayer. Lord PALMERSTON'S reply, conceived in
the very spirit of some of the most solemn warn-
ings of Scripture itself, is in substance, that "the
fast which GOD hath chosen" is not " to bow down
his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and
ashes underhim," but, amongst similar things, " to
deal our bread to the hungry, to cover the naked,
and to house the poor." Thus thought IsAus, and
thus thought Lord PALMERSTON; but to apply to
himself the language of the Rev. Dr. CLARK, we
would not " wish to be sharers in the responsi-
bility of those" who presume to censure such sen-
timents in her MAJESTY'S Home Secretary, and in
the words of the Rev. Dr. Mum, applied to the
Government, " there can be but one unmingled
feeling of pity" that Christian teachers should fail
to appreciate the admirable reply addressed to
them.

Lord PALMERSTON agrees " that humble re-
signation to the Divine Will, and sincere acknow-
ledgments of human unworthiness are never more
appropriate than when it has pleased PROVIDENCE
to afflict mankind with some severe visitation ;"
but he does not think a national fast suitable on
the present occasion. And why not ? For the
very best, the most religious of reasons. He thinks
that the manner in which this awful disease has
appeared, shows it to be a warning, and a warn-
ing not of neglected devotional duties, but of neg-
lected social duties. That the appropriate national
offering to the ALMIGHTY, therefore, is immediate
attention to those duties. Because we ourselves
rarely cross or visit the streets inhabited by our
poorer neighbours, we have suffered those streets
to become centres of wide-spreading and dread-
fully
fatal pestilence. We are alarmed at the
result, because it touches ourselves. This last
visitation has spread to the upper classes at New-
castle, to a far larger extent than it ever did before,
and if the language of PROVIDENCE can be at all
interpreted by mortals, we are sure that his Lord-
ship has interpreted it aright. "Aml my bro-
ther's keeper ?" has been the sentiment tacitly
indulged by us ; and cholera commencing amongst
our " unwashed" brethren, and slaying an equal
number almost of ourselves, is the reply of HEA-
VEN. The voice of the neglected condition of our
scenes of filth and misery has "cried from the
ground" to the SUPREME JUDGE. We have
supinely overlooked all the wretchedness of this
filth and overcrowding, and all its debasing and
demoraliSing effects ; overlooked its results
in
crowding our penitentiaries and prisons, and scaf-
folds too ; overlooked thousands of our fellow-
countrymen growing up in circumstances which
must animalise, nay, bestialise, every appetite
and instinct, take the bridle of conscience and rea-
son off every passion, and render the Luman

intellect but a more cunning purveyor than the
senses of the brutes for depraved propensities ;
we have overlooked all, or pissed by on the other
side far too long, but now those who have the
means are warned that they must use them—that
if they would not see men die by hundreds, would
not support by heavy rates their widows and or-
phans, and would not incur the visit of the dread
monitor to their own better-kept dwellings, they
must bestir themselves to rescue their neighbours
in time.

We have had a most severe infliction on one
town. The pestilence is withdrawn for a time ;
but the records of that town testify, beyond all
reasonable doubt, that filth is death, and cleanli-
ness is life. The ALMIGHTY, as his Lordship ob-
serves, has established His laws, and He demands
obedience to them. He has shown us that noxious
gaseous exhalations, under certain circumstances,
may be terribly fatal ; but he has also shown
that prevention of these exhalations, and attention
to premonitory symptoms, are almost uniformly
successful. One of the most striking confirma-
tions of the justice of Lord PALMERSTON'S view is
the entire success with which it pleased GOD to
crown the care and efforts of the surgeons and
officers of the garrison and barracks at Newcastle.
Death was close around them ; only 250 yards
from them the disease made fearful ravages ; yet
amongst 519 persons (including 11 women and
21 children) there were 451 cases of diarrhoea,
9 cases of dysentery, but no cholera ; and amongst
107 persons belonging to the garrison outside the
barracks, 29 cases of diarrhoea, 2 of dysentery, 1 of
cholera (a child), but no death ! Now, what was
the cause of this exemption ? The garrison
surgeons, while gratefully acknowledging the
mercy vouchsafed them, record their adoption of
the advice of Lord PALMERSTON as the means of
their deliverance—to use his language, they took
care that the places under their charge, " should
be freed from those causes and sources of con-
tagion which, if allowed to remain, will infallibly
breed pestilence, and be fruitful in death, in spite
of all the prayers and fastings of an united, but
inactive nation. When man has done his utmost
for his own safety, then is the time to invoke the
blessing of HEAVEN' to give effect to his exertions."
We must refer our readers to The Sun of the 28th,
for the details of precaution adopted ; they may,
however, be summed up in a sentence, as, the
most rigid removal of every species of filth, and
the most immediate attention to premonitory
symptoms. One of the surgeons was always in
the barracks. Death raged most fearfully all
around them, but, with cleanliness and care in
their hands, these exemplary surgeons and officers
" stood between the living and the dead, and the
plague was stayed."
We put it to our readers in every town in the
kingdom whether their first step ought not to be
a most diligent following of the officers and sur-
geons of the Newcastle Barracks. As our Home
Secretary has pointed out, "an interval" is now
allowed us. What thousands of lives may be
saved if it be only used with invincible determi-
nation. If funds connot be obtained otherwise,
a liberal subscription in behalf of the wretched
victims of filth would be more pleasing surely to
the MOST HIGH than a fast. At all costs, the
food of pestilence ought to become the food of
our crops ; and what in our alleys and streets is
pregnant with death, to multiply in our fields the
staff of life. We hope that if needful anywhere,
or generally, our Home Secretary will supply
powers which may be wanting by an Order in
Council. He can be perfectly sure, not merely of
an indemnity, but of applause, for straining his
powers in such an emergency. And an emergency,
our readers must remember, it is ; for it has been
the wont of the cholera thus to retire for a time,
and to reappear with fearful vigour. Aware of
this, it is almost manslaughter for the authorities
, of a town, a village, or even of a house, to tole-
rate for a day the well-known causes of cholera.

The account of a brush between some Russian
steamers and gun-boats on the Danube, and the
Turkish Fort of Isactcha, to which we alluded on
Saturday, and in which the first blood was shed
on either side, has been speedily followed by the
intelligence of an armistice or temporary truce
between the belligerents. It is said that this
further delay has been conceded by ABD-UL-
MEDJID, at the earnest desire of Lord STRATFORD
DE REDCLIFFE, with a view to further negotiations,
which it is confidently anticipated will be attended
with more auspicious results than those which have
already proved abortive, reflecting so much dis-
credit on our diplomatists.
This latter intelligence, which appears to have
received very general credence, came by electric
telegraph from Vienna on the 28th instant. If
well founded, it certainly offers a better prospect
of a pacific solution of the difficulty than any
which has yet occurred. It cannot for a moment
be supposed that the representative of any of the
European Powers, more especially Lord STRA TFORD,
would take upon himself the responsibility of advis-
ing the deeply-aggrieved SULTAN to con sent to further
delays, except on the well-grounded expectation
that the time might be turned to good purpose in
laying the foundation of a permanent and honour-
able peace. Were it otherwise, it would afford
additional cause of complaint to our injured ally,
and exhibit the conduct of England during the
entire transaction in (if possible) a more unfavour-
able light than that in which it might have been
regarded. It would, indeed, be deeply criminal
on the part of the English Ambassador's conduct,
for which no excuse could be accepted, or even
offered.

Lord STRATFORD is not the person likely to
commit so grave a mistake, more especially after
the instructions recently received. Before •he
could venture on such a step, unless well aware
that the CZAR and his advisers are animated by a
very different spirit from that heretofore exhi-
bited, that arrangements similar to those that
have already been rejected, would now be
willingly entered into ; that the Porte would
give what Russia would freely accept as the
preliminary to the total evacuation of the
Principalities, and the restoration of the status
quo. There is nothing very improbable in the
supposition • that the Noble Lord may have
received a significant hint on the part of the CZAR
that his good offices might be successful. We have
already explained thatNienoias is now thoroughly
convinced of the imprudence of his conduct—of
his folly in having " endeavoured to pluck the
near ere it was fully ripe," and his anxiety to
seize any possible excuse for retracting without a
severe wound being inflicted on his amore propre.
As was long since declared, he greatly relied on
the efficacy of his bullying, believing that the Turks
would never venture on resistance, unless sustained
and encouraged by the Western Powers, and that
he believed could not have been accorded, from
the absence of a complete cordiality between
France and England, and from the intense dis-
like to war generally felt throughout the British
dominions. He is now, however, sensible of his
He perceives that the SULTAN will not
sacrifice his independence, and that he will be
sustained and encouraged by the Maritime
Pow'ers, which are cordially united in their
geneaal views, and ready to co-operate with
each. other in honourable competition as to
which shall render the most efficient and
valnable services to their ancient ally, and
moat obviously, the weaker side. He also sees
that the people of England are not inoculated
with the " peace at any cost or price" mania, and
that no journal or Minister can influence the
popular feeling on such a point—that he has, in
fact, gone the full length of his tether, and that
he must therefore retrace his footsteps with all
consequences
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application to the SULTAN for
the further post-
ponement of active hostilities.
He must, however, have fully explained his
motives, and the foundation for the hopes he en-
tertained before ABD-UL-MEDJID could
have con-
sented to any additional procrastination. The
mistake into which the parties concerned in the
Conference of Vienna fell too greatly complicated
matters, and reflected too much discredit on

error.