The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-11 00:00:00

LONDON, TIJURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 1849.:

ST. CLEMENT DANES BURIAL
GROUND.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—The paragraph which appeared in your
journal of the 6th instant, on St. Clement Danes
Burial-ground, is calculated, more especially at the
present time, to mislead those whom it most concerns
—viz., the public. The left-handed compliment which
would make me discriminate between the odour
arising from boiling fat, the "open grating commu-
nicating with the sewer," and that arising from decom-
posing dead bodies, I decline accepting. It is quite
true that I have during many years endeavoured to
convince my countrymen that the living cannot with
impunity inhale the odours arising from the grave-
yard. The conclusions which I have long since
arrived at are the result of some labour, close obser-
vation, and personal risk. " Dead men tell no
tales ;" yet, though our legislators seem to think
that the cesspool and the sewer should be the
chief objects of their solicitude, they will find that
the dead man's question, which should have been first
in the category, will force a recognition, and demand a
remedy. The forthcoming retribution would fall less
heavily had the facts on record been duly appreciated.
I could, Sir, say much, and to the purpose perhaps, in
its
graveyard to the condition of Clement's-lane,
grave.yard and other abominations, but, for the pre-
sent, I forbear. I may, however, restate a portion of
my evidence before a Committee of the House of
Commons in 1840—viz., that in this lane, in which
the living breathe, on all sides, an atmosphere im-
pregnated with the odour of the dead, there had been
41 deaths in 18 months ; whilst in 111148 the propor-
tion of deaths on the north-eastern, the grave-yard
side of the lane, are at the rate of one in each house—
that is, there are 37 houses on that side, and 37 dead
bodies are taken out of those 37 houses during the
year. And, be it remembered, these deaths are ex-
clusive of those who are smitten there, but die, or re-
cover, as the case may be,in the hospitals or elsewhere.
It is said, that the smell of which I complained before
the Committee on interment in towns, in 1842, arose,
undoubtedly (?), from an open grating communicating
with a sewer in a yard in the above lane. Perhaps
by the removal of pig-styes and boiling houses, one's
olfactories may have a less appreciatory task imposed
upon them. But though the nose is not merely an
ornamental appendage to the face, but the registrar of
odours ; and though the " sentinel" may be constantly
on guard, he cannot persist in the recognition of even
the most disgusting effluvia beyond a certain period
of time ; yet, what does this prove ? Why, that by
the sense of smell we recognise the presence or ab-
sence, of an odorous compound, and that is all. Let
not people, therefore, deceive themselves, or deceive
others. Life has, in myriads of instances, been de-
stroyed without any smell being perceptible. If it
were not so, how comes it that the fathers and mothers
of the generations that are past never smelt the rni-
asms that impaired the health, or destroyed the lives
of their offspring, by the various diseases to which
childhood is more especially liable—as measles, scarlet
fever, &c.? Or why was it that about this time last
year, when the mortality in London alone exceeded
by thousands the ordinary two weeks' average—why
was it, I say, that no one smelt anything peculiar;
whilst this year, when cholera (an exaggerated form
of typhus) is the destroying angel, have the victims
seen, or have they recognised by the nose the peculiar
principles that have poisoned their blood and knaved
them out of their lives ? I, Sir, am anxious not to
participate in, or sanction, any such notions, and this
is the chief cause of my troubling you with this corn-
munication.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
GEO. A. WALKER.
St. James's-place, St.James's, Jan. 8.

COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS.
The new Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers held
their first meeting yesterday, at the Sewers-office, in
Greek-street, Soho. There was a very full attendance
of members, amongst whom were the Earl of Carlisle,
Lord Ebrington, Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P., Hon. F,
Byng, E. Chadwick, Esq., C.B , Dr. Southwood Smith,
Lambert Jones, Esq., Dr. Buckland, and John Leslie. Esq.
The Earl of CARLISLE was elected President of the
Commission, and having taken the chair, said, it had been
a subject of regret that, in consequence of legal and
technical difficulties, the opening of the new Commission
had not taken place some time ago, but they could only
strive by increased diligence and exertions to make up
fur the time which had been lost. He thought any one
who scrutinized the list of` those who composed it would
perceive that its selection had been guided by a wish to
comprise within its numbers persons qualified by pre-
vious experience, and of high attainments, and whose
successful exertions in the general cause of sanitary re-
form entitled them to the consideration of G overnment, butt
the best vindication of the composition of the Commission
would be the future efficient performance of its functions.
It could not be said that they commenced their labours
at an ordinary time, or under common circumstances,
for though the metropolis had certainly not been exten-
sively visited by the baneful cholera, they could not be
sure whether its destructive energies might not at pre-
sent be bound by the strong hand of winter, and that
when the spring came on, it might not fall upon them
with a hundredfold power. From what had just oc-
curred at Tooting much was to be feared, but he trusted
the Commission would take care that the workhouses of
the metropolis were more carefully examined. The
Government had recently constituted a general Board of
Health, and he thought it was most desirable that that
Board and this Commission should establish an inter-
change of reciprocity and good offices, and with this
view it was proposed that one of their chief officers
should hold a continual communication with both Boards.
The business of the Court was then proceeded with.
The officers of the former Commission were provisionally
re. appointed. Mr. Stubbes, however, the treasurer, being
desirous of retiring, a committee was appointed to
consider his case. A gratuity of 2501. was voted to
Mr. Hertalet, the secretary, for increased exertions
under the old board, 250/. to Mr. Row, the surveyor, and
2001. to Mr. Phillip, the sub 'surveyor. The solicitors
were directed to retain Sir John Henderson as the
standing counsel of the Commission, and complaint
books were ordered to be kept at all the offices of the
Commission. The meetings of the Commission were
then ordered to be held the first Thursday in every
month; and thanks having been voted to the Noble
Chairman, the Commission adjourned till next Tuesday

PRUSSIA.
M. Temme, the Director of the Chief Court in
Minster, who was arrested there by the order of
that Court itself on a charge of treason, for the part
ha took in the vote refusing the payment of taxes,
has published a formal protest against his arrest.
He denies that the local court has any jurisdiction in
a matter which, if it involve any criminality, comes
under the cognizance of the Court of Berlin alone,
and impugns the step it has taken on account of its
previously expressed animosity to him, which
prevents its deciding any question by which he is
affected with impartiality. He denies also that a
deputy can be proceeded against for anything he
may have done in his legislative capacity. He claims
a speedy hearing and legal decision in his case, which,
however, must be removed from the Court of Mun-
ster, on every legal ground, of incompetence, and
because as it has commenced the prosecution, it can-
not also pronounce the decision. By his own account
of his arrest, and the first steps of the inquiry, the
proceedings against him appear to have been some-
what informal :

" By order of the Court of Justice of this city I was
suddenly arrested on the 28th inst. and confined in the
city prison. In the warrant of arrest it was stated that
the Chief Court of Justice had commenced a prosecu-
tion against me for having aided in carrying into effect
the well-known refusal of taxes resolution, passed on the
15th of November. The examination and imprisonment
had been decreed without any preliminary inquiry
having taken place. On my being examined I was in-
formed that the prosecution had been commenced on the
ground of a proclamation issued by the deputies of the
National Assembly to the Prussian people, which had
been published on the sth of December by the Deutsche
Reform, a journal appearing at Berlin, and in which my
name was mentioned among others. A copy of the
paper was laid before me. No other charge was made
against me. Only on the ground of a statement con-
tained in that journal, as the decree of the Court ex-
pressly mentioned, a prosecution for high treason had
been commenced against me, and my imprisonment bad
been ordered. I, of course, refused to give any expla-
nations at the examination. To be imprisoned and pro-
secuted" for high treason merely on the ground of a
statement made by a journal is a case entirely unprece-
dented in the administration of justice in Prussia."
The letter is dated from the criminal prison, where,
he says, the President of the supreme Court may
have been sent by his colleagues to a cell prepared for
his reception by removing the robbers or murderers
who were its former tenants ! It has been before
stated that if the prosecution is conducted wholly
. at the discretion of the judges of the different courts,
the judicial officers compromised will be treated
with the utmost severity, so fierce is party feeling.
M. Temme was for several years second director of
the Criminal Court of Berlin, but afterwards was
removed to Tilsit—it is said, on account of his con-
tributions to the Lo:pziger Zeitung. He was then
called to fill the post be recently held in the superior
Court of Munster. As a writer on criminal law his
reputation is great ; but though he has a large circle
of friends in Berlin, in Munster he was not much
liked; his nomination to the Court there violated the
old principle of promotion by seniority, and this
prejudiced his colleagues against him. He is himself
a Catholic, but having married a Protestant, allows
his children to be educated in the Evangelical
Church—another cause of offence to the Catholic
population of Munster. No doubt now remains that
the prosecution of the Deputies of the Opposition has
the full approval of the Ministry. In addition to M.
Temme and the other judicial Deputies who have
been arrested, the same step has been taken against
those Deputies who held any administrative office
under the Government in the provinces. It is under-
stood that the warrants are prepared for the appre-
hension of the whole 180 Members who signed the
resolution. The process will be one of the most
gigantic political prosecutions ever recorded. I I

nothing,- else but an usurpation of our sovereign
powers, and that the said Junta neither has nor
could have the remotest authority iu any degree
I whatever. Thence let all our subjects of every grade
and condition be informed, that in Rome and in every
part of the Pontifical dominions there does not exist nor
can arise any legitimate authority which is not derived
from us. We have, from our aforesaid will and plea-
sure, of the 27th of November, instituted a temporary
Government Commission, to whom alone exclusively
belongs the regulation of all public matters during our
absence, and until another disposition is made by our
will and pleasure. "Pius PAPA IX.
"Datudt in Cejeta, di 25 Dec., 1548."