The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-29 00:00:00

L

gested, and above all, is just the fitting length

" Pestilential Cholera" is fortunately timed,
It is a question which just now engrosses public

attention to a nearly equal degree with Reform.
Ye hear of it, we read of it, in every quarter ; it
is the subject of conversation in all classes, at
the East End and at the West End, in the
palace of the Peer and the hut of the peasant. It
has driven hydrophobia clean out of the field,
and inspires as much horror as the Episcopal
Bench, though we trust it will not be equally
productive of mischief. The reviewer, how-

ever, is an alarmist, and anticipates the worse

He makes no doubt of the infectious character of
cholera, and seems to take for granted that it
will approach our shores. He asserts, more-
over, that it " is altogether a new disease, and
one totally unknown to medical science previ-
ously to the year 1817, when it first made its
direful irruption in Jessore, a populous and
wealthy city in the centre of the Delta of the
Ganges." There it was in a perfect passion, and
raged with all the fury of a monsoon or a ma-
niac, while in other places, even in the sultriest
parts of Africa, it was gentle, and placid, and
temperate in its character. We hope, should it
reach England, it will be equally considerate and
gentlemanlike. The reviewer seems to think

that the cholera is
" Propagated by an animal miasm or effluvium of a
peculiar kind, emanating from the bodies of the affected ;
and this effluvium, being inhaled with the air into the
lungs, acts as a poison on the class of nerves which sup-
plies the respiratory, the assimilating, the circulating and
secreting viscera, vitiating also the whole mass of blood,
and thereby occasioning a specific disease, which in its
turn gives rise to an effluvium, similar to that in which it-
s,lf originated ; which, also in like manner perpetuates its
kind, under the favourable circumstances of predisposition,
aerial vicissitudes, &c. and thus a specific form of disease is
propagated for and wide, as long as a concomitance of causes
favours its perpetuation. The morbid impression of this
effluvium or poison upon the nerves of organic life, and
probably the effect of its introduction also into the current
of the circulation, are of a sedative kind, rapidly destroying
the vitt' energy of the one, and vitiating the other, mad
thereby giving rise to the characteristic phenomena of the
malady."

This is one theory. A second is that the
cholera is epidemic—not decidedly infec-
tious ; a third that it originates in the air ; a
fourth that it is caused by some derangement of
the earth. Among these various contradictory
opinions, we shall leave our readers to make
their own selection, and content ourselves with
remarking that the impression produced on our
minds by the numerous cholera treatises that we
have lately had the ill-luck to peruse, is that
little or nothing is yet known on the subject,
and that professional men are in the same
blessed state of ignorance as the unprofessional.
One fact alone we will vouch for : namely, that
the cholera is a highly dangerous disorder, and
that the less we have to do with it the better.
We have neither time nor space left to discuss
the remaining articles, or we should venture
on a notice of the very eloquent criticism on the
works of that fine old musical composer Bee-
thoven.

CLERICAL DOMINATION.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

In a parish church, not a hundred miles from Wix,
Essex, the following ludicrous circumstance recently
occurred :—The parishioners had been summoned to
meet on business. Two or three of them happened
to be there a few minutes•earlier than the time ap-
pointed; when they arrived at the church, it rained
rather fast, and as they were not provided with
umbrellas, they took the liberty to step without the
doors, just far enough to protect themselves from
the weather. There being no service in the church
at the time, nor indeed any one there but themselves
except the parish clerk, they thought it unnecessary
to take off their hats. They had been there but a few
minutes, when up came their new rector. Immediately
on entering the church, he turned round upon them,
and in a tone the most magisterial and authoritative,
thus addressed them :—" I command you to take off
your hats, and on no future occasion to be guilty of
such indecent conduct." 'Without waiting for a
reply, he immediately strutted towards the chancel
end of the church, and placed his own hat on the
communion-table. Other parishioners had then ar-
rived, and they then retired to the vestry, to transact
the business of the parish. This being done, as they
were leaving the church, one of the gentlemen who
had been so rudely and unceremoniously accosted
ventured to ask the Rev. Vicar,—not in an angry
recriminative tone, but mildly and politely,—if he
did not think his own conduct, in placing his
hat on that holy place (the communion-table),
as much meriting the term " indecent" as theirs
which he had so insultingly condemned, when, in
fact, if they had been guilty of any indiscretion,
it was entirely without thought. The Rev. Gentle-
man immediately flew into a rage, and vociferated to
the parishioners, who were fast retiring from the
Church, " Come back, come back." " 1 have no
wish," said the former respectfully, " to offend you
Sir ; and I merely mentioned the matter as entirely
between ourselves, simply to inquire whether there
was riot as much indecency in one case as in the
other." "I know the feelings of Dissenters towards
the Church," rejoined, with vehemence and rage, his
reverend opponent, "and I am determined to make
the affair public." The parishioners had by this
time re-assembled, when, elevating himself so as to
command a view of them all, the incensed vicar cla-
mourously said, " When I entered the Church this
day as 1 came to the meeting, I found three Dis-
senters with their hats on in the Church; I com-
manded them to take them off, and not to
he guilty of such indecent conduct in future.
One of these gentlemen has had the temerity to in-
quire if my own conduct, in placing my hat on the
communion-table, was not quite as indecent ? I
reply, with indignation, certainly not. And I have
now only to say, that if, on any future occasion,
gentlemen be guilty of a similar indiscretion, I will
not ask them to take off their own hats, but will
command the churchwarden to sttike them off."
Will it he believed that this modern Jehu, only a
few weeks previous to this meeting, accompanied
by a lady and a little Sunday-school girl, entered the
same church, dressed himself in full canonicals, and
strutted into the pulpit, desiring the lady to inform
him what figure he cut. Where was his sense of
decency while performing this farce ? Was not
this, if anyeting can be called so, a desecration of
the holy place ?—and. does it not deserve the most
public exposure ?—Tames. .