The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The low rate of profits on capital—whether
employed in agriculture, or in commerce, or ma-
nufactures—has reduced the labourers in all
these branches of industry throughout Great
Britain, particularly the first mentioned, to a con-
dition of want and suffering not paralleled in
this country for many ages. It is plain enough,
therefore, that the corn law system, enacted pro-
fessedly for the support of the agricultural in-
terest, has totally failed, unless the " agri-
cultural interest" be understood to exclude
the two classes of fgrmers and their servants.
But we may go further in condemning the corn
laws than the there proposition of their failure to
produce the good ascribed to theta, It has
more than once been argued in this journal, that
the effect of the corn laws is not negative but
positive evil—obvious ih their operati,,n upon
manufactures—demonstrable as to agriculture
itself, and to those engaged in it. The artificial
height to svhich the price of corn has been raised
by withholding from the English consumer the
heuefit of the foreign market, has tempted into
cultivation a great breadth or inferior soil, which
requires a large outlay of manure, and labour,
and capital ; and yields, as compared with land
of superior quality, an ungrateful and beggarl)
return. The point to be aimed at in the applica-
tion of human industry, is to produce the greatest
value at the smallest cost. But the direct con
sequence attic corn law is to raise the cost and to
lessen the produce. What has been the grand
principle of modern economy as to the true po-
licy for commercial nations? In England formerly,
and still in other countries, where prejudice, or
ignorance, or national hatred, blinds the reason-
ing faculties, no less than it chills the better cha-
rities of mankind,—the method of politicians
was and is, to pay a mad price to home manu-
facturers for worse articles, when better might be
procured, and at a cheaper rate, from the looms
or forges, or warehouses of other nations. ,
France has, until now, when she seems to give
ear to wiser counsels, been acting on that de-
lusive scheme. The United States, from motives
we fear not wholly of a commercial character,
persist in it ; while in England there is no man
who pretends to have read or thought upon
commercial subjects, who would not blush to
uphold any other maxim, than that the surest
way to sell on good terms is to buy on good
terms, —that is to say, that we ought to buy
every article in the market where it costs us least,
or, in other words, where the smallest portion of
English labour is requisite to furnish the price
of it. This maxim so clear—and, among rea-
!wirers, so universally recognized—has been
boldly set at nought by the interested patrons of
our corn laws. They force a bad material—to
wit, bad land—into use at an extravagant cost.
and tell us that it is all the better for a dense])
peopled country, where so much hunger and
consequent misery are experienced, that the poor
man shall have but two-thirds of a loaf for his
famishing children, than a whole one. What is
this but the French tariff over again, and the
American tariff for the exclusion of British ma-
nufactures from their markets, but aggravated
by the fact that they shut out luxuries, while we
banish the necessaries of existence ? It is clear
that if corn were to be had for a less price, it
would no longer be worth while to pay a tillage
rent for lands, which, under the plough cultiva
tion, as at present, can scarcely remunerate the
farmer. Such soils would be turned to pasture,
or to woodland. Wheat would be brought in
larger quantities from abroad ; while beef and
mutton might be raised at home more plentifully,
and we should in time, or our children would,
have a more abundant supply of home-grown
timber, an article of prime value to every nation.
Upon a first view of the subject, it might ap-
pear that lands of the highest quality, which
under any, the most liberal system of importa
tion, must always be susceptible of corn culture
at a profit, would nevertheless bring a lower
rent to the landlord than when bolstered up
!)37 protecting duties; and that, make the reduc-
tion of those duties as gradual as we pleased,
still the point to be finally contemplated must
he a real and permanent diminution of rent to
the landowners. This question has been elabo-
rately handled by Colonel Torrens in his first
work on the corn laws, and the conclusion flatly
contradicted that the landlords would suffer at
all. But the cause of our noticing the corn law
system at this moment is, the publication of a
short letter by the same ingenious gentleman, ad-
dressed " To the Farmers of the United King-
dom, on the low rate of profits in Agriculture and
in Trade." Colonel Torrens here applies him-
self to prove (and at a season when such falla-
cies are circulated by the Anti-Reformers with a
view to alienate the firming interest from the
Reform Bill, we cannot avoid praising the en-
deavours of the honourable gentleman as most
opportune and useful)—to prove, that those very
corn-laws which are painted in all the borough-
monger speeches and newspapers as essential safe-
guards of the " agricultural interest," havebeen,
so far as the farmers and labourers are concerned,
the origin of all their distresses. The argument
.of the writer we shall give to-morrow.— Tinzes.

In the libel case, " Milder v. Richards and
another," reported in the Chronicle of yester-
day, Sir James Searlett took especial care to let
the world see that he is not behind any of his
Tory allies in his hatred of Journalism. Indeed,
Sir James has better cause than Sir Robert
Peel to fall foul of Journals ; for the novelty of
a Tory abandoning the packing of Juries, and
wishing to improve our laws, led the newspapers
to bestow more praise on him than if he had
been a Liberal by profession ; whereas, the dis-
gust felt at the odious attempt to renew prosecu-
tions for political libels, after a cessation of half
a score years, was not a little aggravated by the
circumstance of the Attorney-General being a
Whig ; and in order to relieve themselves from
the odium which his sins against the Press would
otherwise have attached to the very name of
Whig, his party were obliged to disown him.
The insolence with which Sir James taunted
his predecessors for their liberal and enlightened
conduct towards the Press—a conduct not less
politic than enlightened ; for during the whole
tune the language of faction was seldom, if ever,
heard in any journal—instead of obtaining for
him his anticipated triumph, subjected him to
humiliation the most mortifying; for while the
Whigs assailed him on the one hand, Sir Robert
Peel refused to participate in the responsibility
of the prosecution, and left poor Sir James to
aet out of his scrape the best way he could.
tProm that time to this Sir James has been a
fallen man ; one who would bring to any party
sufficient to sink it. It
a weight of unpopularity
is as natural, therefore, for Sir James to bear
hatred towards the Press, as for Charles the
Tenth to hate barricades and citizen soldiers.
But every animal makes war in its own way.
The n-astiff attacks in front ; the cur slyly
starts on you from behind, to bite your heels.

The once arrogant Sir James Scarlett now shows'
his malice by paltry inuendo—by a kind of stab in
the back. " The plaintiff', his client," he said;
had this weakness—that he felt uneasy about
slanders published against him in newspapers.
(Another client of his—the Duke of Welling-
•on—had this weakness, too; tit he was belied
')37 his Counsel.) The tithe was fast approach-
ing, when nothing would be believed which ap-
peared in a newspaper ; and when that time
should come, then no one would have any reason
to care what was said of him in newspapers; and
when there would be no offence, there would be
:10 punishment. It would, therefore, probably,
soon become the law, that no action could be
maintained for anything that appeared in a news-
paper. Things were rapidly approaching to this
consummation. But it so happened, that not-
withstaoding the march of intellect, there were
some people who thought that nothing could be
.1 lie which appeared in print. He remembered
when he himself thought that when he saw a
statement in print, that it was impossible but it
must be true. The march of intellect would,
no doubt, soon put an end to this notion ; but
while it continued, there were some who would
have the weakness to feel uneasy at slanders pub-
iished against them in newspapers, and his client
was one of them. Newspapers were not as yet
protected by law from being responsible for
Any slanders that might appear in them, although
there was every appearance that they would soon
be so protected, and therefore his client was still
entitled to maintain this action." We suppose the
Pisgah vision of Sir James of a time when news-
)apers will be protected by law for any slanders
.hat may appear in them, bear reference to the ex-
pected return of his Tory friends to power, when
a full career will be again opened for their slan-
derous journals. It is curious enough that the
only journals which have dealt to any extent in
slander, are journals belonging to. the party to
which he has gone over. Several of these jour-
nals were established on the principle of libelling,
Ind form an exception to the general character
For decency belonging to the Press of our times.
Sir James amused the world in his libel pro-
secutions by a singular display of ignorance of
the state of the Press in the time of Queen
Anne. He is not more happy here in his in-
sinuation that the Press is more slanderous than
in former times. There are, we are sorry to
say, publications exclusively addressed to the
,working classes, in which very mischievous doc-
trines are inculcated ; but these publications are
not dealers in slander. Slander is merely con-
fined to the publications honoured by the
patronage of the Church, and the friends of Sir
James. The other journals of our times are
often argumentative, sometimes vituperative, but
very seldom slanderous. In an article in the
Metropolitan Magazine for December, entitled
" A View of Modern English Litera'ure, by
Mr. James Montgomery"—a much bights au-
thority than Sir James, it is well observed,
" Newspapers alone, if no other evidence were to
he adduced, would prove incontrovertibly the im-
mense and hitherto unappreciated superiority in
aoint of mental enl ure, of the existing generation
over all their forefathers since Britain was invaded
by Julius Caesar. The talents, learning, ingenuity,
and eloquence, employed in the conduct of many of
those; the variety of information conveyed through
their columns from every quarter of the globe to the
,bscurest cottage, and into the humblest mind in
the realm, render Newspapers, not luxuries which
'hey might be expected to be among an indolent
ind voluptuous people, but absolute necessaries of
life—the daily food of millions of the most active,
intelligent labourers, the most shrewd, indefatigable
and enterprising tribes on the face of the earth.
Compare an ordinary provincial Journal of last
week with the best that was published in the mc-
'ropolis fifty years ago, and the step which refine-
ment has made in the interval will at once appear.
The periodical publications of the first half of the
last century—the Taller, Spectator, Guardian, and
'heir successors—did much towards increasing an
eager relish for elegant literature, as well as render-
ing the more useful and popular kinds of knowledge
accessible to everybody. But ixcept in these master-
pi« ces, which may be equalled, though never ex-
celled, there are hundreds of articles, in every week's
Newspapers, which may- of least rival the common
run of essays in some of the most celebrated works
above alluded to." _ _

While an ex-Whig Attorney-General is thus
endeavouring to recommend himself to his new
associates by the display of this low malice
against newspapers, it is curious to perceive that
even a Turk has the penetration to perceive that
newspapers will be of use in enabling his subjects
to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and
thus securing them against those who wish to
practice on their ignorance. Volney, in his
Lectures on History," has an excellent passage
on the aid which truth derives from the Press.
Volney, like the Grand Seignor, had lived in
countries where there were no newspapers, but he
arrived at a very different result from that of Sir
James Scarlett _ _

" In the habit (he says) in which we are of living
under the influence of the Press, we do not feel,
with sufficient force, all the political and moral
advantages which the publicity which follows from
it, promises for us. He must have lived in countries
in which the liberating art of the Press does not
exist to conceive all the effects of its privation, to
imagine what confusion the scarcity of books and
newspapers throws into recitals, what absurdity into
hearsays, what uncertainty into opinions, what obsta-
iles to instruction, what ignorance into all minds.
History owes benedictions to him who the first in
Venice thought of publishing bulletins of news for
the small coin called gazetia, from which they have
taken the name; and, in fact, Gazettes are instruc-
tive and precious monuments even in fault., as they
paint the prevailing spirit of the times in which they
were published, and their contradictions present fixed
foundations for the discussion of facts. Titus, when
we are told that the Anglo-Americans, in their new
4ettlements, first trace a road, and carry a Press to
have a newspaper, it appears to me that in this double
operation they attain the object and make the analysis
of every good social system, as society is nothing
but the easy and free communication of persons, and
thoughts, and things, and all the art of Government
is reduced to the prevention of the violent frictions
capable of destroying it. To inform ourselves
whether a people are polished or barbarous, we have
only to ask, have they the use of the Press have
they the liberty of the Press ?"
That country must be in a strange predica-
ment, where men of elevated rank and fortune
offer daily vows for the excitement of civil war,
and where the most earnest advocates of law and
peace are to be found among the industrious
classes of society. We stated yesterday, and
we repeat the assertion, that having failed to
distract the minds of the people of England
from Reform, by engaging them in a crusade
against liberty abroad, the borough Aristocracy
are now employing the most diligent—albeit
abortive—efforts to create or find some source
of collision within the country, out of which
may spring, on one side or other, a direct ap-
peal to arms. " Only give us confusion
enough,—only shed blood enough,—and we
shall hear little more about Reform." Such is
the monstrous invocation of a tribe of English;
men, so inured to plunder, so drunk with in.;
solence, of such incarnate contempt for other

Men's welfare, and so wedded to thir yet un-
punished usurpations, that, rather than restore
one particle of those rights whereof they have
been for centuries despoiling all the rest of their
fellow-subjects, they are eager to plunge blindly
into a desperate conflict, the certain result of
which must be, not simply their disgorging the
whole of what belongs to their neighbours, but
the irreparable loss of station, privilege, and
property, which are now legitimately their own.
It is not on light grounds that we charge
this mixture of atrocity and madness to
some of the leading boroughniong€rs. We
could name the parties—aye, dozens of them—
who threaten us with political improvements
akin to military monarchy, as the proper cure
for our impertinent spirit of Reform. It is vain
to ask them how all this is to be brought about.
They can explain nothing—their hope is vague
as it is inhuman. Some vision floats before them
of the mob being suffered to proceed to such ex-
tremities, and to acquire such force, as will
compel this liberal and popular Government to
quarrel with them and make war upon them, and
as the boroughmongers choose to recognize no
difference berween the mob and the middle
classes, who are equally included by them under
the name of " revolutionists," they fancy that
this separation and bloody conflict between the
Whig Ministers and the people, must leave the
field open for themselves to interfere, and even-
tually to recover and extend the power which a
year ago they were forced to surrender. Chi-
meras like these may amuse the Tory Lords for
a little, but they need expect nothing more. The
nation, keeping apart from the dregs of the popu-
lace, wherewith the borough faction has hitherto
,pretended to confound them, will cling to. the
Royal Government, and help it to achieve the
one great victory which alone can compensate
all labours and sacrifices to both King and
people. As a proof of
.the excellent spirit
which prevails throughout the country to-
wards his Majesty's present Government,
we should refer our readers to another
meeting of the Birmingham Union on Tuesday
last, and to the sentiments-of Mr. Attwood and
of Mr. Hadley, the secretary, upon the recent
proclamation expository of the law as it relates to
the organizing of political bodies. Had the in-
telligent portion of the English people been dis-
posed to swallow the bait held out to them by
the Tories, they would have put an hostile con-
struction upon the Royal manifesto : so far from
it, they accepted that expression of the Royal
pleasure as a kind and parental admonition—
" a vise, friendly, and beneficial measure, on the
part of Ministers, towards the people." Such
are the words of Mr. Attwood, who repeats the
anxious and emphatic exhortations which he
had in former instances addressed to his political
brethren, invariably to reverence and abide by
the laws. Mr. Hadley moved a petition to his
Majesty, praying that he would he pleased to
adopt one of two alternatives,—viz. either to
create a considerable number of Peers, or in case
of his Majesty's invincible repugnance to such a
measure, that he would please to issue his writs
to such boroughs and towns as the Bill proposes
to enfranchise: Mr. Hadley's argument was
one which has been frequently and justly re-
sorted to in recommendation of an increase of
the peerage,—namely, that the country has no
assurance of a majority in the House of Lords
being practicable through any other expedient.
At all events, enough is now. made manifest to
convince us that the boroughmonger-device has
failed, and that no division of policy or feeling
will take place between Reformers within doors
and those without, whereon to rest a single hope
of ultimate escape for the patrons of rotten bo-
roughs.—Mornzng chronicle.
The distressing scenes at Lyons have put the
Anti-Reformers into high spirits. They exult
openly in the excesses which have taken place,
because they hope, by charging those excesses
on the spirit of liberty, to bring popular Go-
vernments into disrepute, and serve the precious
cause of despotism all over the world. But
their immediate object lies nearer home at pre-
sent. The disturbances at Lyons have furnished
them with a text, as applicable to domestic as to
foreign purposes, and accordingly they avail
themselves of it to preach up the boroughmon-
gers, and to preach down Reform. One of the
organs of the party laboured hard, in a leading
article, yesterday, to show that, because blood
has been spilt in France, Reform ought not to
be attempted in England. The proposition
may appear to be a bold one, but what is there
in the way of extravagance that these men have
not attempted ? Where is the mighty chasm
between premises and conclusions which, at
one time or other, they have not ventured to
overleap ? The burthen of their song now is,
that, if Reform be granted, bloodshed will follow.
And why ? Because the bloodshed at Lyons
came after the revolution at Paris, and not before
it. If Charles X. were still on the throne, the
starving manufacturers, we suppose, would never
have thought of resorting to acts of violence ; or,
if they had, their violence would have no appli-
cation to the state of our elective franchise in
this country, and the efforts we are making for
its improvement. But Charles having lost his
throne, and Philip having been placed on it by
the voice of the people, starvation began to argue
on the nature and obligations of revolutionary
government ; and the consequence has been this
explosion, which the boroughmongers are so
anxious to turn to their own account. We can
tell them, however, that the attempt will not be
successful. The people of England-are too in-
telligent to be wrought upon by such fears ; they
will not seek shelter from absurd apprehensions
in the real tyranny of a corrupt. and corrupting
system. As a specimen of the high tone of
morality which the boroughmongets and their
abettors indulge, we call attention to the follow-
ing passage

The workmen of Lyons are not altogether
wrong. If it be just—which has never been dis-
puted—on the part of established Governments, to
ounish with severity those who attempt their sub-
version unsuccessfully, it is scarcely less just on the
part of a people who have been betrayed into the
work of revolution by the promise of certain advan-
tages to wreak their vengeance upon their betrayers,
when they find, by experience, that the promises
held out to them have proved delusive."
Aye, let them wreak vengeance upon their be•
trayers—let them shed blood enough, that the
borouginnongers and the friends of despotism
may have something to talk of when they wish
to turn the tide from their own abominations to
the excesses of revolutionary madness. The re-
volution of 1830 was too tame to please those
men, who want to keep up a horror of all change
by appealing to the calamities which sometimes
attend the most necessary vindications of right.
To the events at Lyons they turn with peculiar
satisfaction, for in them they find atrocities to
garnish their declamations against every advance
that society makes towards improvement. They
say that Reform will disappoint the people—that
it will encourage them to expeet more than can be

realised, and that violence will result from their
disappointment. This is an argument drawn
from the ignorance of the people, not from the
disadvantages of the measure itself. What rea-
son is there to suppose that the people will expect
too much ? They will certainly expect that
Reform should produce economy ; and so it
will ; for when they have the power to elect their
representatives they will have the means of insist-
ing that economy shall be attended to. This
one consideration of the ssish of Parliament to
afford relief will have a strong tendency to pro-
duce satisfaction under almost any circumstances.
Convince men that whatever can be done will
be done, or has been done for them, and you
take away one of the strongest motives to vio-
lence—the belief that they arc neglected and
despised. At all events we should have more
confidence in the adoption of such a course than
in the favourite expedient of the boroughmongers
and Tories, whose cure for discontent is not re-
dress, but military execution—a cure which
has been often known to fail upon occasions
when its efficacy was most confidently antici-
pated,—Morning Herald.
A letter, addressed by Mr. Henry Drum-
mond to the Editor of the Times, and pub-
lished a day or two ago in that Paper, will
obtain a greater share of public attention than
it could otherwise have demanded, from the cir-
cumstance"of Earl Grey having taken offence at
some of the expressions contained in it, and
having demanded and received what, upon such
occasions, is always in Parliament deemed a sa-
tisfactory explanation. The passage which seems
to have led to the warlike manifestation of the
Noble Premier is as follows :—" The passions
of all ranks have been excited by Lords Grey
and Brougham against the Ministers of Religion
and the hereditary Councillors of the King who
opposed them, in order that the upholders of
our ancient institutions might be intimidated
into becoming accessaries to their new Constitu-
tion ; and it is vainly imagined that the labour-
ing classes will submit to be discarded and
sink again into their former degradation
as soon as they shall have served the pur-
poses of these profligate politicians." Now
it can excite no surprise that the truths here told
should have been unpalatable to Earl Grey.
But nothing can be more certain than that the
statesman who treats expressions in such com-
mon and ordinary use as matters of personal of-
fence must be a very foolish and inconsistent
man, unless he really wishes to suppress political
discussion altogether. It would be convenient,
no doubt, to Earl Grey and his colleagues that
political discussion should for the present be
discontinued. But the excessive sensitiveness
of the Noble Earl, indicating, as it does, any
thing rather than a high-minded consciousness of
integrity and rectitude, is a reason for any thing
rather than for the cessation of that public scru-
tiny and animadversion from which no former
Minister has claimed an exemption. That the
Lords Grey and Brougham have done much to
inflame the passions of all ranks against the
Members of the House of Lords who opposed
their new Constitution, that they have done this
for the purpose of intimidation, that this could
have been done by no other than profligate poli-
ticians, are propositions which, considering the
latitude in debate to' which the Noble Lords• have
been themselves accustomed, it would have been
better for them, but, unfortunately, less easy,
to disprove than to resent. Having had our at-
tention thus called to the letter of Mr.. Drum-
mond, we cannot refrain from stating that, be-
sides
the above very accurate appreciation
of the political conduct and characters of the
Premier and his Noble and Learned Colleague,
it contains much salutary and important truth in
reference to the Reform Bill of last session. Mr.
Drummond very correctly describes that Bill as
a measure which " took power from the Crown
and gave it to delegates of the middling classes,
thereby converting the Monarchy into a
bad Republic, but left the working classes
just where they were." Of this truth the work-
ing classes are now fully and universally con-
vinced, and its importance may best be appre-
ciated
by the alarm and fury into which its pre-
sentation never fails to throw all ranks of Minis-
terialists. The Bill was indeed most illiberal,
tyrannical, and unjust. It excluded from all
share of the representation the most numerous
and important class of the people, while it in-
vaded the constitutional prerogatives of the
Crown, and overthrew the conservative influence
and authority of'the Aristocracy. It gave a
monopoly of legislative power, and a veto even
upon the appointment of the Ministers of the
King, to one single class of society, and that
the very class who have shewn themselves, in
the exercise of the suffrages they now possess,
more corrupt and profligate than any other ; the
class which comprehends all that is most vile,
mean, abject, disreputable, and selfish—low
traders, pettyfogging attorneys, quack doctors,
the keepers of low public-houses and brothels.
This tyrannical and absurd scheme of Reform is
defended on the foolish and inconsistent pretence
that the class to whom it gave the elective fran-
chise have a necessary community of interest
with the whole nation, including those to whom
all share of direct representation was denied.
Thus it seems the mass of the people were ex-
pected to be satisfied, after every unworthy
artifice had been employed to stimulate their
zeal in the cause of Reform, with such a Reform
as merely substituted for the present constitu-
tional system of virtual representation another
system of virtual representation, infinitely more
harsh, insulting, and repulsive towards the lower
orders than the present. When it is said that the
ten-pound householders in pursuing their owii
interests must of necessity intend to promote the
welfare of the the country, it is surely forgotten that
the same thing may be said with greater truth of
the proprietors of nomination boroughs, gene-
rally men who, from the magnitude of their pro-
perty in the country, have the deepest interest in
its good government, and who may surely be
supposed, without any extravagance of flattery,
to be in the main as competent judges of what
will conduce to the public welfare as the keepers
of tap-houses, brothels, and chandlers' shops.
A Reform of the representation may be expedi-
ent for the limited purpose of giving direct ad-
mission to the Legislature to such new interests
as have arisen or grown to importance in the
country since its representative system was esta-
blished. A Reform of this extent would not
violate the prescriptive and venerable principles
of the Constitution; but whoever proposes any
Reform more extensive than this, and pretends
at the same time, on grounds of arbitrary discre-
tion,t,o,
fsot or p
itis
short e
voifdent tuniversalhat shueffraigs ea,t deservesonc once
a
severer reproach than that of a " profligate poli-
tician,driveller in intellect and a tyrant at heart.—
Morning Post.

A first dividend of 9s. in the pound is de-
clared upon the notes of the late Spalding bank.

THE CHOLERA MORBUS.

(From the Second Edition of the Tyne Mercury.)

THE CASE OF ROBERT JORDAN'.

A full meeting of the medical gentlemen of this
town was held in the Mayor's Chamber on Monday
evening, the 28th of November, Dr. HEADLAM in
the Chair, for the purpose of considering the case
of Robert Jordan, who died on Saturday night
with some symptoms resembling spasmodic cholera.
Mr. Charles Davison, the surgeon who was called
on to attend the deceased when he was first at-
tacked, was requested to give a detail of the cir-
cumstances attending, the case, and he produced a
report in which the symptoms during life, and the
appearances which presented themselves after death,
were stated.

Dr. HEADLAM then observed that the Mayor of
Newcastle was, anxious to have the opinion of Dr.
Dann on this report, as to the character of the disease.
Dr. DAUN, who had kindly come from Sunder.
land, at the urgent desire of the Mayor, to attend
this meeting, stated that several of the symptoms
and appearances certainly resembled those in spas-
modic cholera; but there were others, and particu-
lady the presence of urine, and the non-contraction
of the bladder, in this case which favoured a dif-
ferent construction. If the same case had occurred
at Sunderland, he should have ranked it among the
cases of malignant cholera. As it was at Newcastle,
isolated and alone, all he could say was, that it wus
a doubtful Gr suspicious case.
A good deal of discussion took place among the
medical gentlemen, as to particular circumstances
which favoured or opposed the idea of this being a
case of spasmodic cholera, and on the subject of
contagion.

It was unanimously resolved, that no other case
at all resembling this of Robert Jordan existed in
this town; and that a full and exact report should
be drawn up and transmitted to the Central Board
of Health in London, in order that they might give
a decisive opinion as to the character of the disease.

STATEMENT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND SYMPTOMS
ATTENDING THE CASE OF ROBERT JORDAN.

Robert Jordan was 56 years of age, of good health
and temperate habits, though he was very frequently
dirty in his person, a labourer, living on the New-
road, opposite to the Keelmen's Hospital; felt cramps
in his feet and legs a little before one o'clock, p.m.,
on Siturday, Nov. 26; he had often had cramps in
his legs before. His son, observing him not looking►
well, advised him, as the day was cold, to remain at
home till he had his dinner, and take three-penny-
worth of rum with warm water. He replied he
would try to walk it off, and would take his dinner
when he came back. He then went out. On his
return the son observed a great change in the ap-
pearance of his father; that his legs were more
cramped, and that his fingers were clinched. He
was immediately put to bed, domestic comforts were
applied, and medical assistance sent for. Mr. Da-
vison, surgeon, saw him about two p.m. He fOund
him in bed, with a cold clammy skin, with pulse at
84., and almost imperceptible; sunk eye, contracted
countenance, livid lips, tongue colder than natural,
hut moist and covered with a whitish fur, a slight
shrivelling of the fingers, abdomen flaccid and not
corrugated, and capable of bearing the greatest pres-
sure without pain to the patient. Soon after he
was seized with spasms in the arms and legs. Before
Mr. Davison saw him he had three evacuations by
stool, the last of which resembled water-gruel, and
had vomited some brandy, with a small quantity of
what appeared to be bread, of which he had eaten
in the morning. He passed some urine at the com-
mencement of the attack, but none appeared to have
been secreted afterwards. Brandy and laudanum,
ammonia, and other stimulants, in conjunction with
calomel and opium, were administered without any
permanent beneficial effeCt. Hot bottles and blad-
ders were applied. He expressed no feeling of
thirst. He lived in a dirty, low room. No traces
whatever of infection were discoverable. He died
at eleven o'clock, p.m., apparently without pain, his
countenance appearing placid.

(From the Tyne Mereul'y.)

Siturday a very numerous meeting of the Board
of Health was held to receive Dr. Barry. Dr.
Barry stated, that having accompanied Dr. Russell
to Russia, the Government had been pleased to send
him to Sunderland, in consequence of some disputes
and differences of opinion having arisen as to the
nature of the disease which prevailed there. Per-
haps, before adverting particularly to it, those he
addressed would feel an interest in being made ac-
quaitited with what he had witnessed at Sr. Peters-
burgh. The moinent they had seen a case, Dr.
Russell declared that the disease was the same he
had known in India, and he himself said, and wrote
to Government, that it was a disease which lie had
never seen before. He mentioned in particular the
cases of three of the Imperial Guards who were
attacked near eleven o'clock at night, and died the
following morning. He saw them almost imme-
diately after they were seized with the disease.
They appeared fine strong young men; they were
still and motionless except when attacked by spasm
and cramp ; they spoke in a whisper, their lips and
hands were blue ; the fingers were shrivelled, and
seemed to be a third only of their usual size ; the
tongue and breath were exceedingly cold, and the
skin of the abdomen was drawn up in folds ; still
they appeared perfectly sensible. Their evacuations
were of fluid resembling rice-water. A remarkable
qmptom in this complaint was the suppression of urine
—on examination after death the urine was also absent
and the bladder was much contracted, presenting the
appearance of a dried fig. Dr. Barry alluded to the
treatment which had been pursued by Dr. Lang, at
Cronstadt. That physician proceeded on the sup-
position that the cerebellum and the spinal chord
were the primary seats of the disease, they having
been found to be partially inflamed, and thereby af-
fecting the nerves issuing- from those parts. He ap-
plied in fourteen cases a hot iron to the side of the
spine, and only lost two out of fourteen. This
treatment might have been attended with the hap-
piest effects, btu the ignorance of the people in-
duced them to believe that the physician wished to
destroy their friends, and to such a height was this
prejudice carried, that Dr. Lang, from a regard to
his own personal safety, was obliged to conceal him-
self. The spasmodic cholera was unlike any other
disease. No man who had ever seen it once could
mistake it. There was more analogy between it
and the worst forms of tertian ague or intermittent
fever, than between it and the ordinary cholera of
this country. Should this disease unhappily extend
to Newcastle, he felt convinced, from what he had
seen of the medical gentlemen of this town, that
they would not attempt any concealment, they would
not dispute about names, but would give an ex-
ample to England and to Europe of manliness and
candour, and of scientific skill in their manner of
treating the disease. lie should not presume
to dictate to them the way in which they
should administer the contents of the materia me-
dics: in that respect they were as competent as he
was. In this complaint, unlike others, they had often
to save the patient twice. Once, when he is in a cold
state—when his skin is cold as marble—when his
tongue is moist and white, and there appears as little
pulse in the arm as there is in a wooden table. A
second time, when a re-action takes place, NS hen he
gets into a feverish state—when the toneue is dry
and hot, red, and occasionally brown—when there
are all the symptoms of the ordinary typhus fever,
which is treated more successfully in England than
in any other part of the world. As to bleeding, it
was a remedy which must be pursued with consi-
derable caution. When the patient was young and
Plethoric, or if of a full habit of body though not
young, bleeding might be adopted with considerable
benefit. In the state of re-action to which he had
referred, bleeding would almost always be necessary.
Laudanum, though useful in this complaint, should
be used with caution, for if the disease proceeded
from congestion of the cerebellum, the too free use
of laudanum would increase that state. If hiccup,
should occur in any case that came under their notice,
they should not consider it an alarming symptom,

hut rather the reverse. Th's disease ni
quently began with diarrhcei, and when(
found it, he thought the best course wal
brandy, catechu, kino, or some other a,
They should stop it at all events. This
doubt in some cases give rise to intlammi
that *as easier removed than the cholera,
should not regard vomiting and purgin
favourable symptoms; they are often th(
particularly vomiting. Indeed, the adm
of water, completely saturated with
salt, had been found in an attack of
ease to be highly beneficial by producing
copious vomiting. . One of the most marks
teristic distinctions between the cholera 111
and the ordinary cholera was, that the pat
former appears to be rendered powerless
while in the latter, exhaustion and debili
to be the consequence of vomiting and pal
Ireland, in England, and in Paris, he ha
god deal of ordinary cholera, but he h
been concerned in any case in which it 'lt
Hated fatal'y. Dr. Barry, who appeared ti
annoyed by the heat of the crowded rot
chided his observations amid the warm ap
his numerous audience. The Mayor said
patty were extremely obliged to Dr. Barry
luminous address. Dr. Smith moved

thank.; to Dr. Barry, which was secondek
Hardeastle. Mr. Greenhow begged to
Barry (though be collected such was his
it was his decided opinion that the disetu
derland was the same as that which pr,
Russia ? Dr. Barry said he hoped he

himself understood: He shouldhave no
to answer any professional gentleman any
in private, but be did not wish to be cross-e:
The symptoms of the disease he had sees
Berland were precisely the symptoms he
at St. Petersburgh. How it got there
it was imported or arose spontaneously) h
his business to decide: there it was. 0
he would mention that he had seen at
land. Two of them were in the hospiti
were in their own dark, dirty, close,
ventilated room at home. He was not
en:cr into any discussion on the subject
gion, but he would observe that in such

as they lived, cholera, fever, or almost
disease, would be more or less commui
others. These three, who were all you'
the two at the hospital, who had better

accommodation, and good medical atter',
covered. Mr. Greenhow begged, for im
to ask Dr. Barry if those cases which in

reports from Sunderland were called commo
were of the ordinary cholera of this count
Barry said he had nothing whatever to d
mode of classing the cases, but this he
that he had seen no common cases of
Sunderland. Mr. Greenhow explained ti
no wish to give offence by asking the qu
had done. Dr: Barry expressed himself
Mr. Trrin said, notwithstanding the of
Drs. Barry and Daun that the disease at St
was the same as that which prevailed in Rh
India, the majority of the medical gentlem
were of a different opinion. Indeed he or
a person reported to have died there of cl
actually died of apoplexy. He would
himself to say, that the symptoms which
just described by Dr. Barry as distingth
Russian cholera, were exactly the symptom,
nary cholera which occurred every year
Sunderland, and in every part of this kin4cl
would ask the medical gentlemen present I
not the case,—if the symptoms were not
Neither 1)r. B rrry nr,r any other gentlem
any reply ; the Board of Health immediately
The x% ants of the poor at this season, it
to having their houses clean and well ,
mry be comprised in the words food,
c'othing. A public meeting is to br
Wednesday to enter into subscriptions to a,
relief, and we are rejoiced to be able to
the Duke of Northumberland has contri
this benevolent purpose 1501., and the D•
This is princely, and worthy of the illustr
of Percy.
The Board of Ordnance has refused to
hospital at Clifford's Fort for the purpose
lera morbus hospital.
There have been no more meetings of 1
of Health at North Shields. It is said t,
culty, being slighted, derided, and unasi
the inhabitants, are determined not to busy
selves any further.

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