The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-16 00:00:00

POLAND UNDER THE DOMINION OF

RUSSIA.

An entertaining publication, half novel, half
historiette, penned in a sprightly style, currente
calamo, especially in those portions of the work
which regard the manners, habits, &c. of the
inhabitants of Warsaw.

THE CADEAU. LONDON, 1831.

This is a new Musical Annual of singularly
attractive exterior, and not deficient in graceful
pictorial embellishments. As for the practical
portion of the work, it is chiefly, if not altogether,
a selection from the works of many of our most
approved living poets, and therefore is not strictly
amenable to criticism. The music, so far as we
have yet had an opportunity of judging, is
pleasing and various.

THE BOUQUET. LONDON, 1831.

" Amurath an Amurath succeeds." Here we
have the twentieth Annual (at least) for the year
1832, pleasingly illustrated, and bound in
superb red silk, flowered, gilded, &c. &c. The
only fault we find with the embellishments is
their wondrously sentimental character, which, as
the work is mainly intended to be put into the
hands of children, we cannot hut look upon as
an error of judgment on the part of the Editor.
The prose and verse are for the most part se-
lections.

THE POST-OFFICE.—For the last fortnight
have the journals and the merchants of Dublin been
annoyed, and we have reason to know, deeply injured, by
the disgraceful delays that have five times occurred in the
conveyance of the Holyhead mails. Yesterday the packet,
due at eight o'clock in the morning, did not reach the
Post-office till after three in the afternoon ! This is really
disgraceful to the Government. The public are heavily
taxed for the maintenance of the Holyhead packets and
the Post. office, but what is the tax when compared wish
the injury which results to the country and to. persons in
trade in particular, from the unpardonable delay in the
arrival of tke English m ? If the complaint on this
subject were of modern origin we should not express our-
selves so warmly ; but for three years has their cause ex-
istence—for full three years have the citizens of Dublin
been crying out against the contemptible, rickety boats that
ply between Holyhead and How th—vessels which never
by any chance snake head against the most trifling squall,
and which to our own knowledge have often been hours
behind the Kingstown steamers, notwithstanding the ins.
mense disadvantage of a doubly long sea passage, which
the Liverpool vessels have to encounter. We bad ex-
pected some reformation in this department from the Duke
of RICHMOND'S management ; but we find with regret that
our anticipations were ill founded...—Dublin Morning
Register.

THE CHOLERA MORTIUS.

(From the Tyne Mercury.)

In the last number of the Tyne Mercury we stated
that Dr. 111'Whirter, Dr. White, and Mr. Edgcome, sur-
geon, were despatched to Sunderland to obtain as much
information as possible respecting the suspicious cases of
cholera morbus which had occurred. On Tuesday last,
the Sth November, at a full meeting of the Newcastle
Board of Health, held in the Mayor's Chamber, the depu-
tation attended, and produced a Report and Notes descrip-
tive of what they bad heard and seen. In these they stated
that from the inquiries they had made of Drs. Daun,
Brown, Kell, and Ogden, they were induced to think the
disease could not be traced to foreign importation—that it
was true some vessels had been performing quarantine in
the river Wear at Deptford, part of which had arrived,
they were informed, from Dutch ports where the cholera
had not yet appeared, and others from Hamburg, before
the malady broke out there—but that it was not true that
any known case of cholera had appeared at Deptford, as had
been rumoured, since these vessels had arrived. They added,
that whether the crews went on shore or not they had no
satisfactory information. They said the first suspicious case
of cholera had appeared on the 26th Oct., the day on which
the case of Oswald Reay occurred in Newcastle, and that up
to that time the cases were 12 in number, which bad all,
except one, terminated fatally. The opinions of Drs. Daun
and Kell, who had seen the malignant cholera in India and
the Isle of France, were, that the symptoms of the disease in
Sunderland coincided with those which they had treated in
Asia. Dr. Daun, on his arrival in Sunderland on Satur-
day, saw the only case known, and found the symptoms
to be those of Asiatic cholera, but recollecting that severe
cases of indigenous cholera frequently occur, and from the
well-known fact that epidemics in large towns have a ten-
dency to increase, while the present affection had been di-
minishing for some days, he was induced to entertain a
favourable hope, but that every successive hour since bad
tended to lessen that hope. The deputation stated that
the first case which Lad excited alarm was that of a man
named Sprout, whose son and daughter were successively
attacked—the latter of them recovered, but the other died
at the infirmary, and though those who attended him in
his illness were not attacked by the disease, the nurse who
assisted in removing his dead body was in six hours seized
with the complaint, and in thirteen more died ! They
added some remarks deserving particular attention. The
nurse was very apprehensive of taking the disease, and nearly
all the sufferers at Sunderland were of the lowest rank, gene-
rally drunken and dissolute in their habits, previously ill, of
delicate constitution, and persons who had been much ex-
posed to cold. They stated ether peculiarities, as that while
members of the same family had suffered, the head of
another family had been cut off without any of his children
being affected ; that the disease had appeared chiefly in one
district, including Warren-street, Silver-street, and the
Long-bank, though it had also occurred at some distance
froni it without their being able to trace any connection
between the places. They visited the only known case,
where the patient seemed dying, and gave a detail of the
symptoms, but did not offer any opinion as to whether it
was Asiatic or English cholera. In conclusion, they stated
that just as they were gutting Sunderland eight more cases
were reported to them, of which four had proved fatal,
and four were left undecided : that altogether there ap-
peared to have been twenty cases and fifteen deaths. The
Mayor declared the report was very satisfactory, and though
it conveyed more sombre news than was to be desired, it
appeared to be considered full and explicit by all present.
Though several cases of cholera have occurred in the course
of the week, we are happy to observe that many persons are
of opinion that its character is rather that of aggravated or
extreme English than Asiatic cholera. On this point,
however, great difference of opinion appears to have
prevailed even in Sunderland. In an address, for in-
stance, which has been published by Dr. Clanny, the
Chairman of the Medical Department of the Beard of Health
at that place, it is stated that " On Tuesday, the lit of
Nov., at a general meeting of the Medical Department,
which was pretty numerous, and at which all the members
of the medical department were invited, the foilowine
was put from the Chair without comment :—ls it the
opinion of the medical gentlemen present that we have
the continental cholera amongst us? Those who are of
this opinion will hold up their hands—when it was car-
ried unanimously. Next, those who are of a contrary
opinion will hold up their hands—when not one was held
up." This is Dr. Clanny's own statement : it is clear
also that Dr. Brown was present as well as himself, be-
cause he says that another resolution was then drawn up
by Dr. Brown. Singularly enough, however, we ob-
serve the names of Drs. Clanny and Brown, as well as
Drs. Burn, Collingwood, Miller, Hazlewood, Atkinson,
and Ogden, and a number of surgeons, to a resolution,
the object of which is to satisfy the public that the Con-
tinental or Asiatic cholera is not now and has never been
in Sunderland ! It is true this is not stated in express
terms: the language used is vague, general, and guarded,
and though it might admit of a different construction, the
obvious one intended is, the non-existence at Sunderland
of Asiatic cholera. They say " that a disease possessing
every symptom of epidemic cholera is now existing al
that town : that it h s never appeared on board of ship :
that there is not the slightest ground for imagining that it
has extended itself by contagion, though the suff rers have
been attended by friends, esc." They add. " that it ap-
pears to have arisen from atmospherical distemperature,'
and trust this statement will remove " the false reports."
A numerous and highly respectable meeting was held at
Sunderland on Friday, when several medical gentlemen
attended, the substance of which was given in The
Sun of Monday.
There is no doubt the rumour that so destructive a
malady as the Asiatic or continental cholera had gained a
footing at Sunderland, is calculated to do that town serious
injury in a commercial point of view. But by whom has
the report, true or false, been raised ? By a pretty nu-
merous meeting of the medical gentlemen of Sunderland
itself. It was their own representation, beyond all ques-
tion, that induced the Government to send down the me-
dical commissioner, Dr. Daun, and that gentleman who
was, we ate informed, 20 years in India, and had ample
experience of the cholera there, has distinctly confirmed
their report by declaring that the symptoms of the disease
are those of Asiatic cholera. Mr. Kell, the surgeon at the
Sunderland barracks, who has also been in India, has
given his testimony to the same effect. Are these gen-
tlemen both mistaken, and were all the medical gentle-
men who held up their hands at the meeting on the let of
November, in support of the opinion that the continental
cholera had reached Sunderland, mistaken? All men are
liable to be mistaken, and if they were, it is right that they
should openly and cadidly avow their error. It is no
disgrace to any man to say that he is wiser to-day than
he was yesterday, that additional information has induced
hint to change his opinion. But we hope that the dread
of giving offence to their fellow-townsmen has not led
them to pretend a change of opinion which has not taken
glace. If they still entertain the belief they at first pro-
fessed, much as we feel for the people of Sunderland,
(where we have friends whom we highly esteem), it is
their duty to God and man to act ingenuously and declare
it, reckless of consequences. When the medical men are
so completely at variance in their opinions, it is difficult
for persons out of the profession to cornet to a satisfactory
conclusion on the subject. If it be admitted that the dis-
ease bears a striking resemblance to that which has pre-
vaied on this continent, that it is in fact the same, it is not
possible, nay probable, that it may be so modified by the
climate, and the food and habits of the people, as to be in
effect a different complaint, not so malignant as the
Asiatic cholera, but more malignant than the Eng-
lish cholera ? Whatever the nature of the complaint may
be, there is no doubt that proper steps have been taken to
prevent its spreading, and that within the last few days
the accounts have been so favourable as to justify an expec-
tation that it will speedily disappear altogether.
THE Sour KITCHEN.-We are glad to observe that
the saup kitchen has been re-opened in Newcastle. We
know of no charity that is better deserving the patronage
of the benevolent and humane than it is at this period,
more especially when so much sickness prevails among the
poor classes of the community.
NUISANCE IN COWGATE.-We hope, now that so much
attention is paying to the removal of nuisances in this
town, the very discreditable state of the pavement in
some parts of Cowgate will be attended to. There are
in particular some ruts and boles that afford a lodgment
to a quanity of water, and are apt to overturn the carts
that pass along the street.
Considerable alarm was felt in this town to-day (Mon-
day), in consequence of a person of the name of William
Armstrong, a 'rater, in the employment of Messrs. Arm-
strong and Co., merchants, having died on Sunday, ex-
hibiting apparently suspicious symptoms. The Mayor of
Newcastle with great propriety requested that the body
might be opened, and after the post mortem examination
fwaeetitnianveogfret,hit ple
p.enals)uliree, in being
tiba a
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decidedlysatis-
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et ha
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iasn
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' having, when much heated, imprudently drunk a quan-
tity of cold water. Nothing can be more idle that the
eagerness with which people put particular constructions
on complaints at this moment, which at another time
would have excited no attention.

An order from the Custom-house in London has been
received in Newcastle, requiring all vessels leaving this
port to be provided with clean bills of health.