The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-15 00:00:00

HOLLAND.

THE HAGUE, the sittings of the
Second Chamber on Monday a Royal Message was
brought, accompanying a project of law relative to
the abolition of some extraordinary taxes in the Pro-
vince of Brabant.

The project of law fixing the Royal expenditure to
a certain sum, in lieu of the method hitherto pursued,
was also brought under discussion.
This project, which is contained in 102 printed
pages, regulating the income of the Crown lands,
&c., has given very great and general satisfaction.
The First Chamber of the States General was to
have re-assembled on the 12th June.

DORDRECHT, JUNE 11.—The cholera here is still
on the increase. Since the Bth 27 new cases have
occurred, 11 of which proved fatal, and only six
recovered. Total since the commencement of the
disease, 140. Deaths 74, recoveries 27, under treat-
ment 39. It is considered remarkable that an aged
woman, 88 years old, who had a serious attack of the
cholera, is perfectly restored.

THE IMPROVIDENCE OF A
PEOPLE.
In the eyes of foreigners we are a wealthy, money-
making, provident people. We labour unceasingly with
our hands and with our heads; we amass wealth, we
support our charities with a munificence which redeems,
in a great measure, the refinement and amount of our
vices; our argosies float in every sea, we are called into
and sway the councils of other nations, greater in extent,
but weaker in powsr, and the sun never goes down upon
our vast possessions, but shines perennially upon them;
yet we are not, as a people, provident. The soft stirring
sounds of music from the palace fall upon the ear of the
wretch languishing in poverty and rags upon his pallet,
such is the proximity of wealth and squalor—magnifi-
cence and filth. In the highways of the sister isle,
men, women, and children, whose lives have been one
long, dark, bitter, night of agony and suffering, unche-
quered by the slightest gleam of sunshine, the amount
and extent of which no pen can paint, lie down
and die of disease and famine; thousands here want
work, and to want work is to want bread, lodging, and
raiment; yet are we an improvident people, when we
have the means of being provident. To hear that a man
has died and left his family without a farthing—left
them to chance—to live or perish anywhere; in the work-
house, in the prison, or the street, is so common an oc-
currence as not to be regarded as such things should, as
the integral parts of a disaster, which in the aggregate
amounts to a national calamity! Forecast and the
merest prudence would obviate this to a vast extent.
The mass of the people possess no capital save their la-
bour, and the sustenance which it produces may. the
next moment, be impaired or taken away altoge;her. It
becomes therefore the absolute duty of the poorest man
is provide, in however slight a degree, for the support of
hiirself and his family in that season of helplessness
which comes upon men when they least expect such
a visitation. The curtailment of some slight
enjoynat nt—a glass of beer, or a "screw" less a day--
wouti ees fei 3 a man of twenty-five years of age to pro-
vide, by the aid of those humane establishments which
have hem formed for the accomplishment of so much
good—the assurance offices of the metropolis-501. to his
family on his death, or a small annuity when he reaches
a 'eivsn age.
The assurance of life has been esteemed by the
ignorant a luxury, which the opulent classes alone could
purchase. It is obvious, from what we have said, that
nut only is life assurance within the means of the
humblest mechanic, but that from the precarious nature
of their subsistence and the poverty which their decease
would entail upon those they must leave behind them,
it is more incumbent upon them to make some pro-
vision, however small, for the future, than any other clsss
of society!
The man whose thoughts do not extend beyond the
mere gratification of the wants of the day is on a par
with the mere animal; forecast shows the mastery over
the lower passions of our nature; it is our duty. there-
fore, to exercise it to the best of our ability; and, as we
have said, there are few who cannot do so. Life assur-
ance, let it bs borne in mind, is a barricade thrown up
against the foul fiends—want and misery !
Again: but a small portion of the industrious classes
seem alive to the fact that few homes are worth more
than the amount of the accumulated rent for ten years.
By baoming a member of a Building and Investment
Society he may buy a house outright for the ten years'
rent; the money is famished by the society; he mort-
gages the house to it as security for his payment of the
rent to it for about ten years, it is then delivered up to
him intact—it is his for ever!

The mass of the people know nothing of the advan-
tages to be thus obtained. Let those whose attention
has not been arrested by these simple facts pause ere
they are beyond their reach. They e.trn money, and
they spend it all; show them how they can be pro-
♦ident—give them an interest in their labour
beyond sepplying the mere wants of the present hour,
and you create better citizens, better morals, and, at the
same time, a social police, who, having something to lose,
would array themselves against the reckless and the tur-
bulent for the common benefit and protection of all.
" Procrastination is the thief of time;" the boldest and
the strongest often go down into the valley of death be-
fore the weak and dying;—the head of a family, whose
labour brings present comfort and happiness,—whose
death would bring misery and agony—unfathomable
wretchedness,—may be btricken down among the dead
this night. Let those who would lessen the agony of the
throes of death recollect that they must work out their
own redemption; and that if they defer the preparation
for the work until the back is bowel and the head is
bleached, the effort will be vain and fruitless. They
will thus add to the pains of the deathbed the wild agony
of despair—the thought that, by the smallest expenditure
of money in earlier life, that despair would not have
taken the place of happiness and peace, and that those
fur whom they were bound to provide by every law,
human and divine, would have been left in comfort in-
stead of in deplorable wretchedness !—The Reporter and
Savings' Banks Advocate.