The Sun.
London, England, 1825-06-18 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

Mg. EDITOR—I was so fortunate as to be at
St. James's Church last Sunday, to hear the
Rev. EDWARD SMEDLEY draw a just and affect-
ing description of the much lamented Doctor
ANDREWES, Dean of Canterbury, the late Rec-
tor of that parish ; and I hope the Rev. Preacher
will be prevailed upon to publish his Sermon,
not only in consideration of what is due to the
memory of that great and good man, but like-
wise as furnishing a model of what a Clergyman
of the Establishment ought to be. I cannot
conclude without remarking, that I have seldom
known the service so satisfactorily performed,
in perfect obedience to the rubric, without ad-
dition or omission, as in that Church, during the
time of the late Incumbent.

June 16, 1825.

QUARANTINE LAWS.

W. T.

Lord KING, in the House of Lords, on Thurs-
day, presented the following Petition from Dr.
M‘LEAN, relative to the QUARANTINE LAWS :
" To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
—The humble Petition of CHARLES MACLEAN, M. D.
" Sheweth—That Quarantine Laws, purporting to be for
the preservation of the public health, are founded on the belief
that epidemic diseases depend upon a specific contagion ; that
their object is to prevent the introduction and spreading of epi-
demic maladies generally, but more especially of plague and
yellow fever; that the means which they employ are bills of
health; quarantine and lazarettos; and in general, every
mode of separation, seclusion, and restriction. That this
systeth.originated in ignorant and credulous times ; has been
continued without proof ; and rests at this moment. upon
no otiaer foundation than the assumptions of the 18th and
17th. Onturies. That, with respect to yellow fever, the
doctrine of contagion has, by the experienced part of the
medical faculty, been for some time abandoned ; and
that even those who still persist in maintaining it,
,admit
that precautions against this disease are unnecessary
in England. That your petitioner trusts he shall be able,
even within the compass of a petition, to adduce to your Lord-
ships sufficiently strong grounds for concl ding
.that plague
cannot be propagated by contact; that its ruse is incapable
of being imported ; that that cause cannot, t erefore, be a spe-
cific contagion ; and consequently that Quarantine Laws are
without foundation or object. That in a plague hospital of
Constantinople, in 1815, the result of a free intercourse, upon
a large scale, between the sick and persons in health, was
proof that the disease is incapable of being . propagated by
contact, arithmetically as nineteen to one ; nd that other
unequivocal instances of -a similar result are wit in the know-
ledge of your petitioner. That during the 140 ears in which
li
the commerce with Turkey was carried on by the Levant
Company, previous to . the establishment of quarantine in
this country, as well as during the 104 years in which qua-
rantine has existed—in all 244 years—no disease has been
occasioned in consequence of importation, by ships, or goods,
or persons, into England. That, with respect to the last
great epidemic of London, in 1665, which happened in the
interval (159 years ago), its phenomena have distinctly as-
signed to it a place amongst epidemics, excluding it of course
from, the number of contagious diseases ; the laws of these two
classes of maladies being not only dissimilar, but opposed.
That, contagions not being limited to soil,. it would have been •
quite impossible, did the supposed virus exist, that it should
not have been in a constant course of importation, in the twenty
thousand vessels, that must have arrived in British ports, during
the first of the above periods, from countries liable to epidemic
diseases; and in the thirty thousand vessels, that must have
arrived, during the last of these periodS, could communities
survive such ordeals. That your Petitioner humbly submits,
that the entire absence of sickness among the crews and pas-
sengers of fifty thousand vessels in 244 years, and among the
expurgators of goods, in thirty thousand veels, in 104 years
in England, is proof es
that pestilential contagion had not been
shipped in any one of these vessels (for if it had been shipped
it could not have invariably become extinct on the passage, nor
could quarantine have prevented its affecting the persons on
board) ; and that it had not been shipped in any of the numer-
ous cargoes which .were imported during that long period of
time, from countries, in some of which epidemic diseases
were almost constantly preVailing, is proof that it does not
any where exist. That your Lordships will readily per-
ceive that a specific contagion could not continue to prevail
for a long series of years, in any one country, without its being
conveyed to every other with which that country had inter-
course, whether by, sea or land. That the non-importation of
the cause of plague into England by sea, and into Persia by
land, at those times in which it has been raging in Turkey, is
therefore a most unequivocal proof that that cause is not a spe-
cific contagion. That, in principle; Quarantine Laws very much
resemble our ancient laws against witchcraft, recently repealed,
with this material diff'erence in Practice; that, whilst they are
infinitely more:destructive, they have not, however, fallen into
disuse. That, as your petitioner has proved at large, in works
which arc befOre the public,these laws are,in times of pestilence,
a powerful additional cause of sickness and mortality, as well as,
',in other respects, highly injurious to many of die best interests
of communities. That they impede science ; produce immo-
rality ; obstruct travelling; restrict commerce, navigation, and
manufactures; occasion the failure of expeditions and the de-
struction of armaments; are injurious to the general consumer
and the public revenue.; and are. capable of being, as they
have sometimes been on the Continent of Europe, rendered
eminently subservient to the purpose of despotism. That the
question at issue is a question of fact, fit to be decided by ap-
propriate evidence ; not a question of physic, fit to be decided
by professional authority, opinion, or vote; that of the validity
of the doctrine of pestilential contagion, from its having so
long existed as a mere matter of faith in the Medical Schools,
physicians are necessarily less competent judges than other per-
sons of liberal education : and that, in all cases, induction of
experiment ought to supersede assumption. That, upon con-
viction consequent on direct personal examination, notwith-
standing the previous inveterary of prejudices in the Peninsula,
the Spanish Cortes did, in 1822, reject, contrary to the unani-
mous advice of all the medical members of their own body, ,be-
ing nine in number, as well as to the known opinion of an
immense majority of all the physicians of Spain, the third project
of a code of sanitary laws' which had, within a short period,
been assiduously prepared by successive Committees of Public
health. That, in a Work published last year (1824), entitled
' Evils of Quarantine Laws,' &c. your Petitioner presumes to
have refuted all the objections against the doctrine of non-
contagion, which have been adduced_ by the advocates of the
sanitary laws, and more especially in Reports of the College of
Physicians, and in the evidence of medical witnesses examined
by Committees of Parliament, in the course of the existing con-
troversy ; and that lie now most respectfully solicits the justice
from your Lordships, that his facts and argumentS may be
duly balanced against their assertions and assumptions. That,
if it should become manifesne upon thus fairly weighing the
evidence on both sides, that pestilential contagion does not
exist ; that Quarantine Laws are consequently without either
foundation or object; that they are besides productive of infi-
nite mischief; that they are eminently anti-commercial, anti-
social, and anti-christian ; and that, whilst the evils appre-
hended from their abolition are,pueely imaginary, those which.
would result froin their continuance are real and serious.; all.
the best interests of mankind would imperiously demand the.
earliest possible abolition of restrictions which are a source
only of evil.. That if, on the contrary, it should. become manic
fest that pestilential contagion does exist, and that sanitary
laws have both aioundation and an object, consistency, as well
as public safety, would imperiously require, that, instead of
being modified or abolished, quarantine restrictions should be
augmented in duration, increased in rigour, and universally ex.:.
tended. That, as to ignorance respecting epidemic diseaseS„
perpetuated by the, fundamental error of the belief in pestilen-
tial contagion, may, on a reasonable coinputation, be attributed
the deaths of several millions of human beings annually;
throughout the world, and the misery of many millions more,
the earnestness, perhaps the importunity, with which your Pe-
titioner presumes to press his conclusions upon the attention of
your Lordships, will, he is persuaded, be readily pardoned.—
That your petitioner, having thus respectfully offered to your
Lordships an epitome of principles obviously of extraordinary
importance anti universal applicability, entertains the most
perfect reliance that your Lordships, in your wisdom, will
adopt efficient measures, in order speedily to arrive at a deci-
sion respecting their validity, which may form a correct ground
for Legislation, and prove permanently satisfactory to your
Lordship's minds.
" And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray."

.CARL.SRULIE7 JUNt perSonS who em-
ploy themselves in washing the sand of the Rhine
for gold, obtained, in the year 1824, the value of
`4,300 crowns 46 gmins of pure gold ; for which,
at the rate: of five florins per crown, which
.Government pays them they have received 11,500
behia 4,430 florins more than in 1823.

BRITISH SUBJEdTS IN PARAGUAY.

We stated on Thursday, from the Buenos Ayres.
Papers, that Mr. PARISH, the British Consul-General, had
succeed:d, by his remonstrance, in chtaining an order from the
Government of Paraguay that the British subjects dOtained in
that country should have permission to withdraw from it at
their pleasure. The following is an 'official list of the persons
so released :

•
BUENOS A YIIES, 5, 1/125.—List of British Sub,
jeer's rekas.ed frOm Paratzuay, through the interference of the
British Consul-,:eneral resident at Buenos Ayres.

Name. Prof,:ssi.m. I
____
._ •
Constantine O'Rourke COmMerce.
Duncan Stewart . . :. Do.
Edward Costello . Do..
John Lewtas - Do.
John Robson - . Do.
Alexander 31‘Gafry Cabinet-Maker.
William Petty - Mariner.
James Turner - Carpenter.
John Reed . Do.
Michael D'Arcy - - Shoemaker._ -
Thomas Wheeler - Mariner.
William - Do.

Detained.

Aboi4 4. Years

Ileiident 14 Years

These persons came out in the schooner Martha and a garan-
dumba. Their cargoes consisted of 523 tierces of hierba-mate,
and 1,200 arrobes of tobacco. The garandumba left Assum-
ption on the 14th Feb. Two British subjects, John. M'Farlane
and Alexander James, were preparing to leave with about 600
tierces of hierba-mate and some tobacco. The ',smack Saint
Joseph, the property of Messrs. J. Parish, Robertson, and
Co., Joseph Martin, master, was waiting for •a licence, and
Robert Gibson, mariner,-would leave in her. There would
then remain no British subjects in Paraguay.
(Signed) CONSTANTINE O'ROURKE-