The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-19 00:00:00

ebetilintt 21111:

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1849.

Yesterday, in answer to a deputation from the
Committee of Liberal electors in the metropolis, the
Right Hon. the LORD MA YON explicitly avowed his
intention of accepting the candidateship for the re-
presentation of the city of London in Parliament.
Beyond this acknowledgment, his Lordship candidly
explained his political feelings upon many points of
considerable importance. Not that the constituency
of the capital could be considered as entirely ignorant
of the general bearing of the policy favourably re-
garded by Sir JAMES DUKE. His conduct through-
out the period of his mayoralty, not to say
the course adopted by him throughout the time of
his being one of the members of the corporation, has
been sufficient to prove to the citizens of the metro. t
polis that their chief magistrate is, in all essential
particulars, a legislator actuated by the most
en-
lightened vieyvs and by the most liberal principles.
Nevertheless, there still remained one or two parti-
culars upon which it was absolutely requisite that
the LORD MAYOR should plainy declare his senti-
ments. respecting him as a high civic functionary,
and a teeming him as a fellow-citizen, and as a
participator in their commercial enterprises,
it Wa3 still imperatively necessary that the
electors of the city of London should arrive at some
distinct and positive understanding in reference to his
intentions, for example, with regard to the Jewish
Disabili,les. Having so very tact ntly, by a splendid
majority of stiffrages, pledged the capital to the labour

of aiding in the extinction of the last vestige of reli-
gious intolerance, it was absolutely incumbent upon
the metropolitan holders of the franchise to elect as a
successor to Mr. PATTISON :.,ome man identical with
then in their opinions as to the necessity of
extinguishing the final spark of bigotry and fans-

ticism.
Upon this, as upon a variety of other topics, Sir
Jsztes DUKE was enabled to express himself entirely
to the satisfaction of the deputation. In no one par-
ticular did the LORD MAYON find it advisable to
resort to the sheltetof ambiguous language. He
pointed with a very justifiable complacency to the
whole of his Parliamentary career in proof of his
undeviating resolution to support liberal measures.
He referred to his proceedings since he first began to
represent in the House of Commons the distinguished
and influential constituency of Boston. He directed
the observation of the inhabitants of London to
the division list, in which his name would be invari-
ably found on the side of a liberal Administration, or of
a liberal Opposition ; the gradual extension of the
suffrage was a scheme which would receive his cordial
concurrence and his most energetic support ; the
application of the principles of free trade to all
the machinery of commerce was an end to which his
eff ,rts were now undeviatingly directed. These
declarations cannot but have their effect upon the
great metropolitan constituency ; they cannot but
confirm the electors of London in their determination
to carry the LORD MAYOR triumphantly through
the approaching contest at the Guildhall.
For it is to be a contest ! One Mr. PARKER,
Queen's Counsel, eminent in his intellectual aridity
as a Chancery lawyer, has been scrambled forward as
a candidate. Certainly, if the electors of London are
curious to find out the character of this unknown
politician, they must dip into some such guide-book
as that one published this year, and facetiously
termed Who's Who ? Yet even Who's Who, we
would wager, will be found to afford them
no satisfactory information with regard to Mr.
PARKER, beyond the fact already familiar to
them that he appends to his name the magical ini-
tials, Q. C. Further the deponent sayeth not. Mr•
PARKER himself, on the day of nomination, may,
perhaps, be kind enough to unbosom himself upon
this particular, as to Who's Who, and in addition
may also probably inform the electors, upon one or two
political questions, What's What. Until that morning,
we must wait the issue in patience, cherishing some-
times a suspicion that after all this gentleman may
be as much a myth as the ever-redoubtable Mr.
ABRAHAM PARKER.
The novelty of a Lord Mayor appearing
upon the hustings as a candidate for the votes of the
citizens of London will not fail to impart a stimulus
to an election which might otherwise pass over with
comparative quietude, from the circumstance of the
recent election of the Baron LIONEL DE ROTHSCHILD.
As to the issue of the contest, there cannot of course
be one moment's hesitation. The proceeding is
already all but completed, and the vacancy is even
now virtually filled up—that vacancy in the represen-
tation of the metropolis which has been so very unex-
pectedly caused by the demise of Mr. PATTISON. When
the twelve months of civic supremacy has expired to
Sir JAMES Duxx, he will still find himself intimately
associated with the first city of the empire—and that
not only as a merchant and an alderman, but in a
peculiar degree as a popular representative.

No fact is, perhaps, better established at the pre-
sent day than that the cholera is produced by a de-
teriorated state of the atmosphere, and that its
ravages may be materially mitigated, if not altogether
terminated, by proper attention to the most obvious
sanitary precautions. The numerous investigations
that have taken place into the causes of the deaths of
the unhappy persons that perished from that fearful
disease—reports of which have appeared in the
public journals—all show, that in every instance the
sufferers have been exposed to the morbific influences
of untrapped gullyholes—of defective sewerage—of
overcrowded churchyards—or of some other of the
numerous devices for tainting the air, and rendering
the various localities unwholesome and dangerous to
human life. The " smoke nuisance" has bad
la. run the production of the
deadly visitation. In the various inquisitions held
on Monday last, at the Millbank Penitentiat y, we
find an intelligent physician (Dr. WILLIAM BAYLEY),
in speaking of the predisposing causes of the disease,
alludes to "a bone-house" in the immediate vicinity
of the cell of the deceased, the smell from which
was of " the most offensive description," and which
must have produced "a most deleterious effect on
all within its reach." The Learned Gentleman
added, " Besides the bone-house, there were manu-
factories which threw out dense masses of smoke,
that sometimes enveloped the entire prison. They
were, in fact, surrounded by manufactories of all
kinds. The gas-works, in particular, ware dreadfully
offensive, and for the last few weeks the nuisance
had been greater than ever. The atmosphere was,
in fact, quite poisoned." This statement, which
was immediately " loudly corroborated by
several of the jury," will sufficiently ex-
plain the causes of the dreadful mortality that has
prevailed in the Millbank Penitentiary since it has
been used as a receptacle for, convicts. We say "at
all times," for it is notorious that the same pollution,
which in one state of the atmosphere will produce
cholera, will in another lead to fever, or other diseases
which have generally been classed as " infectious
complaints."
In Millbank, and, of course, in other localities
where similar nuisances are in operation, an enormous
waste of human life may fairly be attributed to the
" dense masses of smoke," so justly complained of by
Dr. BAYLEY and the assembled jurors; and it, there-
fore, becomes an imperative duty, which cannot be
slighted or disregarded, that Parliament should, without
a moment's unnecessary delay, afford protection to the
people, and provide some cheap and expeditious
method of abating those nuisances which cannot
effectually be suppressed under the expensive
and tedious process of an indictment at common law.
It is not because we cannot immediately produce
a perfect measure, that we cannot grapple with all
the evils that must eventually be suppressed, or be-
cause these evils have existed for many centuries, that
we should not attempt to make any progress, and to
get rid of the most glaring grievances. The smoke
nuisance has undoubtedly become
"An aged vice, a grey iniquity."

It might have been just as objectionable, and elicited
as many complaints in the reign of CHARLES the SE-
Conn as at present; but surely that is no reason why,
we should consent to its continuance, or to the sacri-

five of whole hecatombs of victims at its shrine.
`The nation did not possess in those days the scientific
appliances that are now in every-day use. It
would, indeed, be ridiculous to argue that
we should eschew the railway or steam-boat,
because our fathers were contented with the heavy
stage-coach or lumbering waggon, or
_that we should
still suffer the population to be decimated by small.

pox, because vaccination had not been resorted to b.

fore Dr. JENNER published the results of his expert

ments. In the seventeenth century no method was
known by which the smoke of furnaces could be
consumed ; the only alternative was either to sub-
mit patiently to the inevitable nuisance, or altogether
to abolish the manufactures in which those furnaces
were essential, and to deprive of employment thou-
sands of the labouring population. There was only a
choice of evils, and that of least magnitude would

necessarily be selected. But no such alternative is

now forced upon us. We may in a great degree, i

not altogether, prevent the issue of smoke from
furnaces, and that without any serious expense
or injury to the proprietors. Nay, it would,
after the first outlay, effect a considerable saving of
expense to the parties, for that very smoke that
now poisons the atmosphere may easily be rendered a
valuable element of combuition. The smoke•con-

suming apparatus has already been tested in many
large manufactories, and even in the public dock-
yards; there it has proved perfectly efficient, and
the smoke grievance has been completely removed by
means thereof. A reference to our advertising
columns will show that the public are invited to wit-
ness the effect of " GODSON'S Smoke-Preventing Ap-
paratus," which is in daily operation at Messrs.
BECKETT'S Steam-mills, Barbican, where every in-
quiry will be fully answered, so that the
most incredulous mut be perfectly convinced
of the absurdity of their doubts and of the
perfect practicability of making important pro-
gress in sanitary reforms, The ,Smoke Prohibition