The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-12 00:00:00

SANITARY THANKSGIVING.
(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
Mr. Editor,—On Thursday next we are all to
thank God, according to law, for the abatement of
the cholera. There will, undoubtedly, be much real
and heartfelt devotion on the occasion ; and there
will, as undoubtedly, be cant and conventionalism,
assumption, impertinence, and hypocrisy, in great
abundance. It is to the correction of this iniquitous
alloy that I would now address myself.
'1 he positivity with which some people speak of the
designs and dealings of Providence is very presump-
tuous, considering that Heaven bas never called them
to its secret councils. Some of the Clergy, and of
those who act as their sycophants and tools, are con-
tinually repeating that the cholera came because God
was angry ; and they further pretend to say why God
was angry, one frequently assigned reason being,
that letters are posted, sorted, or carried on the:Sunday,
and other acts done of similar harmlessness and utility,
about which no considerate person would be angry,
much less put people to death by thousands who had
nothing to do with the transaction in question, or
who, perhaps, raised their voices in its reprobation.
Stuff of this sort disgraces and stultifies a national
thanksgiving. Look at the profane ,impudence of
the " Lord's Day Observance Society," in their
memorial to the Lords of the Treasury. They
say, " that the continuance of that Divine judg-
ment under which the nation now suffers, and for
which it has spontaneously humbled itself before
God, is to be apprehended, if his solemn and
emphatic command, ' Remember to keep holy the
Sabbath day,' be thus more and more set at nought
in a most important national department." Now, see
how facts have rebuked these dogmatical pretenders.
Their hit at the Government about a national fast-
day was disregarded—and ye the cholera has abated.
Their protest against the new Post-office regulation
was disregarded ; the plan is in actual operation—
and yet the cholera has abated. The attempt,
whether made by an agent of the Lord's Day Ob-
servance Society or by some independent zealot,
influenced, perhaps, by their publications, and by the
platform fervour of clerical oratory, to upset the
mailcarts and Post-office omnibuses, by placing a
ladder in their route, has failed—and yet the cholera
has abated. It is demonstrably plain that they were
wrong about the Deity being angry at all ; or
wrong as to the reason of his wrath ; or wrong in
taking the cholera for a manifestation of that anger.
A truce, then, to these spiritual impertinences on the
approaching Thanksgiving Day ! The Pharisees are
put to shame by events ; or would be, were they
capable of shame tor detected imposition. If the
incumbents and churchwardens did their duty, every
acting member of the Lord's Day Observance Society
would be made to stand through the service in a white
sheet, in his parish church, on Thursday next. While
other people sing praises, with frank voices and lusty
hearts, penance anu prayer should be the portion of
those who trifle with truth, slander their neighbours,
make "judgments' of calamities, and pretend that all
is for the glory of God.
Everybody knoss s how and why the cholera comes.
The Sabbath is broken at Birmingham and Notting-
ham as much as in the London Post-office, and yet
it came not there. Neither of these towns is par-
ticularly churchified. The inhabitants had the good
sense to take precautions. Water supply was in-
creased—medical visitation was established—nuisances
were abated. The enemy was kept at bay, and scarcely
touched their borders. This was better than pious
canting and criminating. It did the work. If Deity
was really angry with other towns, as these pretenders
say, it shows the reason why, much more truly than
they can tell; it also (to argue on their principle)
shows that for their vigorous sanitary precautions
with Birmingham and Nottingham Providence was
pleased.
Several classes of hypocrites will make themselves
prominent on the Thanksgiving Day, some of whom
I shall particularize. First and foremost, all those of
the Clergy who have, directly or indirectly, opposed
themselves to the abolition of intramural burial.
"In all the larger parochial burying-grounds"
says Mr. Simon, in his late able and admirabl
report, "where the maintenance of a right to bury
can be considered important ; in all such, and in
most others too, the soil is saturated and super-
saturated with animal matter undergoing slow decom-
position." The Church is thus a focus of physical
poison, which infects the entire atmosphere. And
what has been the difficulty, what is the difficulty, of
a complete transfer of funerals to appropriate locali-
ties beyond the boundaries of the metropolis ? The
clerical claims for funeral fees. Never let this be
forgotten. The pestiferous practice of intramural
burial would have half abolished itself, at least, but
for the obstruction to forming suburban cemeteries,
and, when formed, the inordinate tax upon them for
the advantage of the clergy. Projectors of cemeteries
have long stood in dread of the opposition of the
Bishop of London in the House of Lords, unless they
submitted to most unreasonable exactions. And yet
there will be gowned and cassocked men on
,Thurs-
day, raising their voices in tones of pious gratitude to
Heaven fur the cessation of the plague, whose ravages
were aggravated by the consequences of their cupidity.
Out upon it ! Their " offence is rank ; it smells to
Heaven."
The next class of thanksgiving hypocrites will be
your local magnates, your Select Vestryman, your
Corporation leaders, your Monopolist Company Mana-
gers, all who, from affected or exaggerated jealousy
of Government interference, or from servility to civic
factions and interests, or from yet baser motives, have
so perseveringly thwarted both the enactment and
execution of sanitary laws. They have, practically,
been fellow-conspirators with the Clergy above de-
scribed for the promotion of the cholera. They have
no right to pretend to thank God that it is gone.
Smithfield-market is not gone. The slaughter-houses
(138 of them are registered within the city walls, in
58 of which the slaughtering occurs in vaults and
cellars), these are nut gone. The tidal sewers
that poison the river are not gone. The up-steam-
ing effluvium from numberless sink-holes in the pub-
lic thoroughfares is not gone. And will the authorities,
who, in their ignorance, their obstinacy, their
pride, or their selfishness, neglect or delay to abolish
such abominations, dare to go to church, and thank
God that cholera is gone, while they offer all these
most tempting invitations for its prompt return ?
Mr. Simon affirms, backed by the reports of the
Registrar-General, that " within the city of London
there have died in the last year twice as many per.
sons as it seems necessary that there should die." To
this extent, death has been helped by the Corpora-
tion and others having command over the needless
circumstances that realised the surplus. Death and
they are partners in the replenishment of grave-yards.
Corruption is their brother. Crowded vaults, like
improved streets, may be inscribed, " Widened by
the Corporation of London." When those who, by
absurd authority, perverted influence, or culpable
neglect, have been parties to this needless multiplica-
tion of mortality, respond to the voice of thanks-
giving for a cessation of the consequence of their
conduct, it would be a mercy to stop their open
mouths with grave dirt, and check the utterance of
untruth, offensive alike to God and humanity.
A third class of hypocrites will be the last I shall
now specify. Owners of houses, unfit for human
habitation, yet made profitable by the workings of a
necessity which has no law, upon wretchedness who
can find no other shelter, may be chiefly amenable to
public opinion, but it is the more requisite that they
should not escape its reprobation. The proprietor of
a fever factory returning thanks for the abatement of
cholera is a sight alike unholy and preposterous. I
have called them "chiefly amenable to public opinion."
To a certain extent thy late enlargement of the powers
of the Corporation over untenantable houses has
brought them within the scope of authority,
and they have fought the battle of plague
and pestilence like faithful allies. They have
blended the colours of Mammon and misery,
and done their damnable duty by disease and health.
I quote again Mr. Simon's report. " The intentions
of your Court, and the industry of its officers, have
been, in a great measure, frustrated by the passive re-
sistance of landlords. Delays and subterfuges have
been had recourse to, by the owners of house pro-
perty, in order to avoid compliance with the orders
of the Commission." If these men must and will
join in the thanksgiving, let them have a separate
service, congregated in some foul grave-yard, with
rotting coffins for their seats, and a chorus of owls
bats, rats, and all other loathsome things for their
psalmody.
After all, the best thanksgiving will be a determi-
nation that the mischief shall be remedied. Let
penitent landlords make their houses properly habit-
able. Let persons of local influence and authority
learn that there is more real dignity in co-operating,
though it be with a Government Commission, for
preserving health and life—more real dignity in
obeying even—than there can be in the pragmatical
adoption of an independent course. Let the clergy an-
nounce from the pulpit, as prefatory to the services of
the day, that their claims and fees shall not for one
instant longer stand in the way of a wholesome dis.
posal of the dead. And if this manifest duty be
neglected by the specified classes, let the public take
the matter into its own hands, in so determined a
spirit as to override all interested opposition.
Heaven, it may safely be answered for, will accept
that as a more grateful offering than all the prayers
of all the parsons, or the spiritual songs of all the
Psalmodists.
Why should everybody be thankful in the way,
and only in the way, prescribed by authority? Many
find churches and sermons very dull affairs. At-
tendance on them is not their natural mode of show-
ing gladness and gratitude. When anything par-
ticularly good and welcome happens in their families,
they know it comes from Providence, and have an
honest sense of thankfulness ; but they do not show
it by catching cold and weariness, if nothing worse,
at church. Not they, indeed. They make holiday.
They take Brighton return tickets for their wives And