The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-27 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 27. 1849.

NEW STORY OF SCOTTISH LIFE.
Now ready at all the Libraries. in 3 vols,
PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF

MAITL AND,

Th© cause of sanitary reform is steadily progress-
ing, and thanks to the exertions of Mr. SimoN, there
is every probability that a really efficient Health Bill

for the city of London will be introduced into Par
liament early in the next session, and be carried
through without any very great opposition or delay. As
was observed by Mr. Deputy PEACOCK, when speak-
ing of Mr. SIMON'S invaluable report at the City
Court of Sewers on Tuesday—
"lf a tithe of what was proposed in this report had
been inserted in the Bill of last year, and pressed for,
the Bill would not have been passed. But a ♦ery dif-
ferent feeling now prevailed respecting sanitary matters
—(Hear)—and very likely the City might he able to get
some further powers to enable them to carry out what
might be practicable in the suggestions of this report."
If the City Commission of Sewers does not possess
sufficient powers to carry out the recommendations
of that report, let them lose no time in applying to
Parliament for further powers, and having obtained
those powers, let them forthwith proceed to exercise
them, and to abate all the nuisances and to introduce
all the improvements necessary to preserve the health
of the inhabitants of the districts committed to their
charge, or let them at once set their house in order.
The public has been roused from its apathy by the
visitation of the cholera, and the public has determined
that drainage shall be rendered efficient, that the
Thames shall be preserved from pollution, that in-
tramural interments shall cease, that intramural
slaughter-houses shall he abolished, that the dwellings
of the poor shall be cleansed and ventilated; and the
public cares not one jot or tittle at whose hands it
receives these benefits, and will not be diverted by
the cuckoo cry of centralization from insisting that
these things shall be done by the general Government
if the local municipal bodies show themselves unable
or unwilling to meet the emergency; as Mr. Deputy
HARRISOW warned them on Tuesday—
" They ought not to deceive themselves. The public
required something to be done, and if the Corporation
did not take a stop in advance in this direction, no doubt
some other parties would be empowered to do so."
The tone of the discussion which we have alluded to
as having taken place on Tuesday, and which resulted
in the reference :of Mr. Simoss's report to a commit-
tee, was one on which we can congratulate all the
advocates for sanitary reform. It is true the patrons
of filth still ventured to urge some objections to the
introduction of measures of cleanliness, but those ob.
jections were urged " with bated breath and whis-
pering humbleness." Even Mr. H. L. TAYLOR, who
has hitherto been the great champion of the dirty
interest, apologised for rather than defended the
existence of Smithfield Market ; while Mr. Hicks
contented himself with saying that if all slaughter-
houses within the City were abolished the City would
frequently be left without animal food, a risk we
should be very well content to run, so
that we could thereby secure the abolition
of intramural slaughter-houses. There were
no laudations of the peculiar salubrity of
Smithfield, neither were there any long arguments to
prove that the slaughtering of cattle in densely po-
pulated localities greatly improves the health of the
inhabitants. It is clear that the conservators of filth
feel that theirs is a lost case, and they now defend their
rotten cause much after the same lugubrious and
despairing fashion as the conservators of Toryism
defended their rotten boroughs during the discussion
of the Reform Bill. The suggestion of Mr. ELLIOT'
with regard ;to Smithfied Market, is one well worthy
of consideration, and would, if carried out, render the
boast of Mr. Dixors, that Smithfield is one of the most
salubrious spots i❑ London, a reality instead of the
self-evident absurdity which it is at present. Mr.
ELLIOT said—
" Let them abolish that disgusting and immoral place
Smithfield Market. Let them build a row of houses
round the present site and call it 'the Working Man's-
square.' Let them draught so many men into their now
houses; and then in vacant spaces, from which the
horrid courts and alleys that now existed had been
cleared away, let them build another batch of properly
lighted and ventilated houses. They had a space to
begin with—Smithfield Market ; and they might go on
till they had built a sufficient number of comfortable
houses for the working men now employed in the City,
whose numbers, though large, were yet small as com-
pared with the number employed in the suburbs."
And taking skilful advantage of an assertion made by
Mr. Alderman LAWRENCE, he added,
" Mr. Alderman Lawrence had stated that there had
been no cholera in the gaols. We should not have done
our duty to the workman in the City till we had freed
him from influences so pestiferous that we guarded the
thief and the felon from them."—(Hear, hear.)
What is the Christian name of Mr. Deputy LOTT ?
It should be THOMAS, for man more hard of belief
than Mr. Deputy LOTT never was burst into this
mortal world. VOLTAIRE himself was a credulous,
superstitious, easily satisfied person, in comparison with
our sceptical friend of the City Commission of Sewers.
Listen to the words of the oracle, on the subject of
intramural interments :
" But the plan had been adopted of burying bodies
within the city; and on his conscience ho did not believe
a single death had occurred in consequence."
The worthy Deputy is certainly a perfectly unique
LoTT, and possesses a singular conscience ; but even
he does not venture to suggest a continuance of in-
tramural interments, and is forced to admit that the
opinions of the present day are in favour of the in-
terment of the dead without the city. In order to
keep the sewers free from accumulation, Mr. Deputy
PEWTRESS suggested that water should be constantly
running through them into the Thames, to which
Mr. Alderman LAWRENCE objected that, in that
case, they would have to drink the filth as it canae—a
valid objection under existing circumstances, but
one which would cease to be of any force if
some means were devised of deputrefying the
sewage, and precipitating from it all solid
matters, held either in solution or suspension,
before it reached the mouth of the sewer through
which, in that case, the deputrefied supernatant water
would alone flow. When some such plan shall be
adopted, then the suggestion of Mr. Deputy Paw-
TRESS may be acted on with advantage, but not until
then. We protest against the adoption of any plan
which shall still further pollute the Thames. On
reviewing the whole of this important discussion, we
cannot but congratulate the public on the immense
progress which the cause of sanitary reform has made
among the municipal authorities of the city of London
—a progress for which we are mainly, if not alto-

the land of their nativity would only be of temporary, -.Tether, indebted to the indefatigable exertions of Mr
duration—the day of retribution upon their adversa- SimoN, whose eloquent and convincing report will, to
ries depending in some measure upon the will of quote the words of Mr. Deputy HARRISON, " here-
FUAD EFFENDI, then acting as Plenipotentiary Ex- tfter be looked upon as an index to point out the
traordinary to St. Petersburgh. Although we can, course which their proceedings ought to take."
unhappily, entertain but feeble hopes of any such
rapid realisation of the golden dreams of patriotism,
and although we cannot conceal from ourselves the
conviction that those words were uttered by KOSSUTH
simply as a means of affording some wholesome solace
to men in a state of profound dejection, there
can be no question but that matters are
assuming a very serious and somewhat com-
plicated aspect when we find the representative of
the Turkish SOVEREIGN speaking in terms of digni-
fied and resolute remonstrance to the Russian
AUTOCRAT, while a British fleet almost immediately
afterwards makes its appearance at the mouth of the
Dardanelles. While such important events are
transpiring simultaneously on the Baltic and the
Mediterranean, there is surely ample ground for
conjecture, and hence the sanguine expectations of
the most renowned among the heroic emigrants from
Hungary is to a very considerable extent justified.
Knowing that occurrences such as those already
mentioned are taking place on the European
continent, the readers of the excellent speeches
addressed to the inhabitants of Newcastle on the oc-
casion of the recent demonstration will not fail to
recognize that that assemblage assumes a character
of real and engrossing interest. The meeting was
not, as might have been otherwise argued by the
more surly among the class of political curmudgeons,
a meeting convened to express sympathy for exiled
destitution or patriotic pauperism.; No ! thanks
be to the nobler sentiments of humanity, the
little band of emigrants recently removed Jrom
Widdin to Shumla are, by contemporary occur-
rences, invested with an importance in some measure
commensurate with the grandeur accruing to them
from their own bravery, civism, and self-sacrifice.
Hence it is a subject worthy of observation and re-
membrance that the sympathies of England, so far
from having in any degree diminished, have become
enhanced and extended towards the upholders of the
cause of the Magyars, the aspirantqor the liberation
of Hungary : and this we conceive was sufficiently
apparent in the earnestness of the speeches delivered
amidst acclamations at the recent meeting of the
iberal inhabitants of Newcastle.

'ME FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
On Sunday M. PIERRE BONAPARTE fought a duel
with M. DE LAVALETTE, the responsible editor of the
Assemblee Nationale, who had taken upon himself the
esponsibility of a letter which had appeared in the
columns of that journal, and which reflected in an
nsulting manner on the character of M. PIERRE
BONAPARTE. The duel took place at St. Germains.
The parties exchanged shots at twenty paces without
effect, and the affair terminated by the interference of
he seconds.

The Illoniteur publishes the law passed by the Le-
;islative Assembly extending the treaty concluded
.4etween the Minister of Finance and the Bank of
France on the 30th of June, 1848, for a loan of
150,000,000 f.
The members of the Bonapartist club of the
Beaux Acts have declared their object to be to assist
in securing harmony between the National Assembly
and the PRESIDENT of the Republic on the ground of
the Constitution.

The proprietors of the Assemblle Nationale have,
it is said, agreed, for a sum of 30,000 francs, that all
irticles on foreign politics which appear in that journal
shall before publication be submitted to the approval
of the Russian Embassy.
M. FRANCISQUB BOUVET, member of the Peace
Congress, has given notice of a motion in the Assem-
bly for the reduction by one-half of the contingent
of 80,000 men demanded by the Government for 1850.
A letter from Toulon of the 21st inst. states that
orders had been dispatched to the Admiral command-
ing the French fleet at Omlac to return to France.
The fleet is consequently expected at Toulon by the
end of the present month.
The Moniteur Algerien of the 20th publishes
the following account from Zsatcha, contained in a
letter from General 1;1E11E11.1.0N, dated the 10th
instant :

" Colonel Canrobert arrived at Zaatcha on the Bth,
without having had any engagement. He had made a
razzia on the flocks of the revolted tribes, which had
enabled him to furnish the camp with a supply cf pro-
visions which was much wanted. The force of Colonel
Canrobert was immediately employed in assisting to in-
vast the:place, which would:be completed by the 11th, on
the arrival of reinforcements coming from Constantina.
More than one hundred men of the colonel's force had
fallen victims to the cholera on their march from Auniale
to Zaatcha. The remainder of the troops under Gen.
Herbillon were, up to the above date, exempt from the
disease. The siege works were advancing rapidly. The
fire of the artillery made great ravages in the place,
and the decisive moment for a general attack was fast
approaching. The negotiations which had been opened
with the nomade tribes had been purposely delayed by
them, and General Herbillon, at length becoming tired of
the delays, had driven out the emissaries from his camp,
and was making preparations for attacking a number of
Arab cavalry and infantry, which had assembled at a
short distance from his camp, before making a general
assault on Zaatcha. The attack on the place would
probably be made on the 12th or 13th. The Arabs in
Zaatcha appeared determined to sell their lives dearly;
they were about 1,200 or 1,500 in number, entrenched
in narrow streets, strongly barricaded, the houses all
pierced with loopholes. General Herbillon was taking
every precaution to lessen the effusion of the blood of his
men in the attack on the town, which would take place
by two or three moderate-sized breaches. The inhabit-
ants of Bon Cada had opened their gates to Colonel
Daumas, had removed all the barricades, and given
hostages for their future good conduct. The cholera
had made great ravages in his column, having swept off
more than 140 of his men. The cholera has generally de-
creased on the coast, but continues to rage very severely
among the Arabs further in the interior."
PARIS, MONDAY, 5 P.M.--The Bourse was agitated
to-day.. After various fluctuations, however, the Five
per Cents. closed at 89f. 90c., being a riso of 30 centimes
as compared with the opening price.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Nov. 26.
_ _

East Indian, 334—Great Indian Peninsala, 51/(2—Ditto,
% —Namur and Liege, 6 Northern of France, 23% dis.
Orleans and Bordeaux, 2%—Rouen and Havre,
Sambre and Meuse, 1%.

E Et _NI A N

AND

THE NORTHERN STATES.

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.
The rumour that the Austrians had protested
against the assembling of the Diet, and had threat-
ened Prussia with war in case she should persevere in
summoning the Central Diet to meet, is confirmed.
The answer of Prussia was the publication, in the
official Moniteur, of a decree for the convocation of
the Diet at Erferth, on the 31st January, and the
sending a dispatch to Count BERNNSDORIT, the Prus-
sian Minister at Vienna, with orders to read it to
Prince SCHWARZENBURG, in which Prussia maintains
her right to assemble the Diet ; and with regard to
the threat of an armed Austrian intervention, Prussia
replies that she awaits it. The bully ScHwARzEN-
BURG will now be obliged to eat his leek with
most Pistol-like humility, for the idea of Austria going
to war with Prussia is absurd. Within six months
of the commencement of war, Austria would cease to
exist; Franconia and the Palatinate would become part,
of the Prussian dominions, and Ilungary and Italy would
be free; it would be well for the interests of freedom
that Prince SCUWARZENBERo should put his threats
into execution.