The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-19 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE,

THIS DAT —Morning, 24 min. after 3 I Evening, 41 min. after 3
70- Womsow— Inrnint, 0 min. alter 4 Evening, 17 min. after 4

THE WEATII.E.R.—SUN OFFICE, SEPT. 19.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, 43; Highest, 55; Noon, 58,

BAROMETER, 30.51.
Wind N.N.E.—fine clear weather.

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. Jeff 4
g 4_401 k
• 6111,1-,'N • `-'• *-
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ITA Itite
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1849

According to the old adage, it must be an ill wind
indeed that blows no one any good ; and appalling as
is the character, and grievous as are the ravages of
the pestilence still devastating the metropolis, we may
expect that some extraordinary improvement in our sa•
nitary laws will date from the prevalence of the cholera.
Seldom has public attention been so generally occu-
pied with the consideration of one subject. And no
wonder. Questions regarding abstract principles
may exercise the ingenuity and occupy the thoughts
of the logician and the philosopher, but to the
multitude they. are comparatively without interest.
Far otherwise is it with a matter like this, relating to
life ard death, which affects each and all of us with
personal concern.
The cholera is now (very naturally) the subject of
discourse in every assembly, friends and strangers
alike find in it a subject of common sympathy. Every
journal is halt filled with details concerning it. In
ore column we find a list of the daily victims of the
pestilence; in another a form of prayer, entreating
from the mercy of PROVIDENCE an abatement of th,
affliction. Again we recognise the wise fulfilment of
that most excellent maxim, approved alike by reason
and religion, " Aide toi et Dieu t'aidera." Simulta-
neously with the supplication fur Divine help, we
are rejoiced to witness some indications of humus
efforts. Already some of those fruitful sources of
corruption, the burial-grounds of London, have been
closed by order. Things are come to a sad pass when
we are able to find matter of gratulation in the fact
that no more corpses will be laid in spots already so
full, already crammed to such a revolting and
poisonous degree as fully to justify the recent parody of
Punch on the far-famed " Elegy in a Country Church-
yard." Very different was the sacred spot, beneath
"some yew tree's shade," which inspired the musings
of GRAY, to the hundreds to which the following
verses might be truthfully applied :
" Good folks, impute not to their friends the fault,
If memory o'er their bones no tombstone raise;
Where there lie dozens huddled in one vault
No art can mark the spot where each decays.

" Full many a gas of direst power unclean
The dark, o'erpeopled graves of London bear.
Full many a poison, born to kill unseen.
And spread its runkress in the neighbouring air.

" To F. ome doomed breast the noxious vapour flies,
Some luckless lung the deadly re( k inspires;
Ev'n iron) the tomb morbific fumes arise—
Ev'n in men's ashes live Disorder's fires."
This iniquitous system—for when its consequences
are considered it may truly be styled iniquitous—is,
however, virtually at an end. The cholera has
effectually closed the graveyards of London, and also
the details connected with the cholera have occasioned
such public revelations of the undercurrent of misery
and loathsotnencss which exists beneath the
glitter and the gold of mighty London, that
it is all but impossible but that :some interference,
legislative or otherwise will be called in to remedy
a grievance so intolerable. A correspondent of the
Times has suggested that a public subscription should
be raised in behalf of those (and the class must be a
numerous one) whom the pestilence has deprived of
their protectors and sole means of support. A mul-
titude of widows and orphans and helpless beings
must necessarily be suffering pitiably. Many a
perhaps thriving family has been, by one stroke, re-
duced to the border of destitution. These are, indeed,
fit subjects for charity : a helping hand stretched in
time may save multitudes from, otherwise,
irretrievable misery. Still, however praiseworthy
such an attempt would be, the evil effects
of the cholera, have imposed a yet more imperative
duty upon the public. No longer can it be said "one
half of the world does not know how the other half
exists ;" the condition of the inhabitants of the courts
and alleys of London is no longer a secret to the great
body of the wealthy and the powerful. When an
evil is recognised the first step has been taken towards
its amendment. GOD grant it may: be so in the
present instance. The cholera has already been the
means of sketching cut a vast amount of business for
the next sitting of Parliament. Let the public bear
the matter in mind, and evince their continual remem-
brance of it, and that business will be satisfactorily
accomplished.
In ad

,dition to what we have already observed in
reference to the generation and diffusion of the preva-
lent epidemic, we must be permitted to express, in
the Most emphatic terms at our command, our abhor-
rence r
at the disgraceful scenes now dailydand almost raE PITMAN COURT-MARTIAL.
hourly vvitnesed in our metropolitanGodlines,provincihal f We have received a communication this morning
graveyards. Cleanliness is next to
esasys•shat,,e
Eroi m Mr. W. J. Little, the legal adviser of Mr.
old axiom ; but neither cleanliness nor godliness
fo.liott, late master of H.M.S. Childers, in which the
is being des:
penned
ersmteerrd gentlemanaby his
iscl
client
nt transmits a
an
ns md i Ins
inserted
tue
ds a i
nc oopuyr oe fo
columns
nl letter
toe rf
we, at the very time ',alien the country
lilted by an awful and destructive pestilence : we have
evening.l. It will doubtless have been per-
neitl.e.r cleanliness in regard to the treatment of
nor godliness in referance to the treat- ceived bry r. Little, from that impression of our
the living,
„lent cf the dead. Our rookeries and the more journal,that we are disposed to be anything rather
most splendid cities than dilatory in advocatin the cause of those much
a t pn felonsrt
eet snede ne
"sun
penurious quarters of our
attest the former fact in their want of decent regula. injured and unfortunate officers
shall have
vhee
tions, of proper drainage, and of moderate ventilation, an undeserved incarceratiocners:.
Again and again is some ghastly incident recorded in county gaol at Exeter. Until their"
our elSn eolumni or in those of our Contemporaries, been revised, their punishment mistei
el and until
complete •
affurdiug horrible testimony as to the accuracy of the their grievous wrongs have received ingsomewemsehaslulre at
least the semblance of compensoaftioanom
latter assertion. Only yesterday a paragraph was
not
quoted by ours( Ives from the West Briton and cease to insist upon the necessity
Cornwall Ll,lvertiser, recounting a very hideous oc. ganigation of the present atrocious system of eQuerotrs:
ourr«,nce which recnltly transpired at Falmouth. On martial,