The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-29 00:00:00

THE SUW, LONDON',

ceived any public encouragement. This unjust and
anomalous line of conduct is henceforth happily at an
end. A great public exhibition of arts and maufae-
tures is intended to be held in London two years
hence, in 1851, at which the successful competitors
will be rewarded with prizes of a magnificence fully
adequate to the importance of the occasion. The first
prize will be the sum of 5,0001., and there are to be
five other prizes of 1,0001. each, which prizes, and
the gold medals accompanying them, her
MAJESTY purposes bestowing with her own hand.
For this ceremony, so national in its characteristics
and calculated to produce such beneficial effects, we
are chiefly indebted to the spirit and discrimination of
the President of the Society of Arts and Manufac-
tures, his Royal Highness Prince ALBERT. The
Prince, anxious to promote the development of arts
and manufactures in England, Scotland, and Ire-
land, desired two gentlemen (Messrs. COLE and
FULLER) to ascertain from the leading manufacturers
of the three kingdoms whether, in their opinion, a
public exhibition like the one proposed would be
likely to promote their interests; and, furthermore,
whether such an exhibition should be exclusively
devoted to English, Scotch, and Irish manufacturers,
or open to competitors from all parts of the world.
Mr. COLE detailed the result of these inquiries at a
recent meeting at the Mansion-house, from which it
appears that the general feeling was in favour of the
exhibition, and in favour of its being of an unexclu-
sive character—" wherever they had been on their
interesting mission, they had heard but one opinion
of extreme desire to see the whole world admitted to
compete at the exhibition." The Royal President of
the Society had expressed his intention, if the replies
of the manufacturers should authorise him, to lay the
subject before the Cabinet and urge its promotion by
the Government. We may, therefore, expect that at
last the industrious arts will receive in a remarkable
manner all the stimulus which public countenance
and private emulation can afford. The unexclusive
nature of the exhibition, at which artisans from every
clime and of every character may unite, in friendly
rivalry, is indicative of one of the happiest signs of
the times. This is the true Peace Congress, this
fraternization of all nations in promoting their com-
mon cause, the development of the peaceful arts. We
are confident that the proposition will be received
with very general satisfaction—a satisfaction en.
hanced by the fact that the proposition itself is
another proof of how readily her MAJESTY and her
Royal Consort identify themselves with whatever
is calculated to promote the interest of the people.

The many differences of opinion between the
various authorities who are the supposed guardians of
the public health, and the many impediments and de-
lays which those differences necessarily throw in the
way of all satisfactory results, very forcibly demon-
strates one fact. The next session of Parliament has
already an abundance of work prepared for its hands.
Only a few weeks of the recess have elapsed, but
those few weeks have been fraught with matters of
grave importance—matters which will permit but a
brief recreation to the Ministers of the Foreign or the
Home Department. Wlat different aspect foreign
affairs may assume before next February it is, of
course, impossible to say ; but as regards our home in•
terests it is beyond a doubt—the awful number of
recent deaths, and the frightful revelations of the
registrar, have placed it beyond a doubt—that the
sanitary condition of London must undergo a minute
supervision and a material reform. Some months,
however, must elapse before the Legislature can in-
terfere, and in the meantime there are nuisances
in existence, the pernicious consequences of
which are daily apparent, adding to the fatal power
of the epidemic, of which they have been in some
cases very probably, if not the principal, at least the
prominent causes. Are these nuisances to continue
to exercise their baleful influence until an Act o
Parliament has decreed the shutting up of all burial-f
grounds and the removal of all similar sources of
poisonous atmosphere ? Is London passively to submit
to the decimation and do nothing towards her own
preservation collectively, because the inhabitants of
her various localities will neither help themselves nor
suffer others to help them ? Even in those countries
in which the fullest amount of personal liberty is
enjoyed individuals are forcibly prevented from com-
mitting suicide, and a similar interference is
assuredly necessary with regard to communities.
Without in any way wishing to restrict
the due enjoyment and exercise of local authority on
the part of members of various districts, it is certain
that in a time of emergency private interests and
private animosities must be wholly set aside. The
Board of Health at the present moment holds, or
should hold, a position similar to that of a com-
mander in•chief in time of war, whose authority, to
be henefi. ial, must be paramount. So essential is
unity of purpose to all matters of moment, that
NAPOLEON (a good judge of such matters) declared
that " one bad general was better than two good
ones ;" and all history tells us that the greatest evils
have been the inevitable consequence of a division of
opinion and vacillation of purpose. Who shall
decide when doctors disagree?'—in such a case the
fate of the patients generally decided. So it will be
with the sanitary state of London, unless all contend-
ing reformers give way, and one authority be im-
plicitly obeyed. That authority will, in such a case,
be invested with a heavy responsibility, which will
most probably act as a greater stimulant to exertions,
and a greater restraint upon imprudence, than the
clashing of opinions and the antagonism of rival
powers, which has recently too much prevailed. The
tribes of Lilliput might very properly go to war for
the veriest trifle, but assuredly the people of London,
in the nineteenth century, are not to be consigned to
wholesale slaughter for some individual differences of
opinion.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The following paragraph on the subject of the
POPE'S manifesto appears in the semi-official Patnie :
" The maniksto of the Holy Father has produced
considerable sensation in the political and financial
world. This document was the subject of conversation
in the Hall of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
We believe we may confidently assert, however, that
the policy of the Government will not undergo any mo-
dification, and that the French Cabinet is still on this
sutject in accord with the other Cabinets."

heath has been busy of late among the old officers
of the Empire. General BORELLI, the uncle of M.
ODILON BARROT, and formerly aide de-camp to
JoAcntm MURAT, died on Thursday.; General
D'ASTORG, another of the Imperial General!) died at
Nantes on Monday, and General MARTEL died at
Lyons on Tuesday. Within one week three of the
heroes of the Empire have passed from the scene of
life.

M. Durum has been slightly indisposed, but is now
convalescent.

The Bishop of MOULINS died on Thursday.
It is said that the celebrated LAMENNAIS is about
to become editor of the Reforme.
M. PROUDHON'S new paper, the Feuille du People,
which appeared for the first time on Tuesday, was
seized on Thursday, by order of the authorities.
'1 he Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on
Friday at 56t. 15c.; the Five per Cents. at 89f. 10c.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 7451.; Rouen, 530 f.; Great
Northern, 438 f. 75c.; Avignon, 220 f.; Vierzon, 301 f.
25c.; Basle, 1031. 75c.; Bordeaux, 4101.; Paris and
Strasburg, 3511. 25c.; Tours and Nantes, 2921..50c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, SEPT. 28.
_ _

Boulogne and Amiens, s—')utch Rhenish, 11/4—Great
Indian Peninsula, sA—Northern of France, s7' dis.—Rouen
and Havre, 101.