The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-15 00:00:00

POLITICAL SUMMARY OF THE

MORNING JOURNALS.

The Morning Chronicle thus accounts for the result of
the East Surrey Election :—" The lateness of the appear-
ance of Mr. Alcock, and the knowledge that the 'furies
had turned the delay to the beat account, led to a very
general belief that if he proceeded to the poll, still it was
almost impossible that he should succeed ; and it is well
known that electors will not brave intimidation and in-
ctr the trouble of polling, especially if the season be in-
clement, when not buoyed up by the hope of success.
That in this case undue influence and intimidation have
been exercised is notorious. Tory Magistrates at the
polling-booths displayed their partisanship in the most
striking manner. One peer, the Earl of Eldon, actually
voted for Mr. Antrobus; and when a Peer ventured on
such a step, it may easily be conceived that other supporters
of Mr. Antrobus would by nu means be scrupulous. Mr.
Alcock is well entitled to the thanks of the electors of
East Surrey far the di termination he has evinced in their
cause. The battle which he has fought will satisfy the
electors that if they are true to their cause, he will be true
to them. In fact, he fought this battle with a view to a
future one."
The Times, speaking of Mr. Marshall's proposal far ex-
tending the franchise, says_" Ask the working men in
America what precise benefit they draw, or whether they
draw any benefit at all from the possession of the elective
franchise ? Apart from the occasional fingering of a mise-
rable bribe, the practice of which in the United States is
ra common and current as political venality can make it,
they toil their six days a week, earn their scanty wages,
and lam as desperate a struggle with poverty as our un-
!taffies NI operatives at home. Republican bribery, as we
may take a future opportunity of showing, is the rottenest
and most pernicious bribery in existence. Then, what
sort of senators should we have under Mr. Marshall's con-
templated regime ? Men returned to Parliament without
a proper qualification, and paid a salary by their consti-
tuents, would in a'l probability be the purchaseable tools
of any Ministry that might choose to bid high enough for
their co-operation or connivance ; and if Parliaments were
annual, the fugitive nature of their delegated henours, in-
stead of enhancing responsibility, would furnish only the
stronger motive for reaping an early harvest of corruption.
The Morning Post, speaking of Lord Morpeth'a Irish
Registration Bill, says :—" It was net we believe unti
within three days of Lord litlorpeth's proposition of his
new Irish measure to the House of Commons, that a
sudden thought struck her Majesty's Cabinet, and they
said to one another, ' Well, if we must, we must, so good
bye to the finality of the Reform Act. Perhaps it is as
well to begin with Ireland.' What was it induced this
sudden determination—this zeal for a new elective fran-
chise in Ireland—this new sense of the propriety of refus-
ing any amendment of the acknowledged abuses in the
registration, unless a complete change were made in the
nature of the franchise to be registered ? We believe it
was a communication from Mr. O'Connell. At all events,
whatever the means may have been, one cannot but admire
the very ready and offhand manner in which Ministers
made up their minds to an important change in the legis-
lative constitution of the country. Other Ministers would
have had scruples, perhaps a little obstinacy might have
been displayed, in adhering to what they had so often
avowed their determination not to change. But our pre-
sent Ministers, delightfully accustomed as they are to the
amenities of a polite and dignified Court, yielded to the
necessity of circumstances with an admirable grace, which
found its appropriate organ in the witty and elegant Vis-
count Morpeth."
The Morning Advertiser contains the following re-
marks on the subject of Copyright in Designs :—" The
manufacturers of France are protected, even to perpetuity,
upon the payment cf certain small fees, and the system
has worked well because the law has afforded them the
advantage of protection against piracy ; and why should
it not work equally well in this country ? Is it to be
imagined for a moment that a designer, or the proprietor
of a design, will deem it worth his while to incur the
same expense and the same labour when he knows that
the fruits of his genius or industry may become common
property in three months, instead of common property
in twelve? There has been, and there is still, a narrow-
minded view on this and a variety of other subjects. On
this par.icular subject, a question of time has been mooted ;
but the genuine question is not a question of time, but a
question of national prosperity and supremacy.
The Morning Herald comments as follows on the Go-
vernment Local Courts' Bill :—" What does it propose
to do ? To give cheap justice' to the people. Well,
but we want security that what it still give to the people
will be 'justice' at all. A bad article at a low price is
usually no bargain. And we say there is no security
afforded by this Bill that the article of which it is to re-
gulate the sale will be a good one. On the contrary, the
Bill furnishes in itself strong presumptive grounds for be-
lieving that the sort of ' justice' which it is to dispense will
not be that which is likely to command the public confi-
dence. Its provisions violate great principles which long
experience have shown to be necessary for the securing
to the public a pure, upright, and efficient adminis.
tration of justice. One of those principles is, that Judges
appointed by the Crown should not be removeable at the
pleasure of the Crown, or, in other words, at the pleasure
of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who
represents that portion of the executive Government which
concerns the administration of justice. The Government
Bill proposes that the local Judges to be appointed under
it to the itinerant Courts, should be wholly dependent
upon the Minister of the Crown. That affords no guaran-
tee forjastice to the suitors. The tenure of the judicial
appointments is to be as uncertain as the locality of the
Courts—the one is to be unfixed, the other ambulatory.
FROII THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
(From the Globe.)

We are not about to institute an investigation into
the causes of epidemic diseases, nor will we attempt to
define the occult properties of the atmosphere, by which
the human constituticn is affected by disease or recover-

ed to health. The Marquis of Normanby last night
availed himself of scientific investigation, illustrated by
facts, sufficiently to establish the case he presented to the
House ; and carried with him not merely the feelings but
the judgments of their Lordships, so as to secure the
adoption of the measure he proposed, not merely with.
out opposition, but with strong expressions of commenda-
tion. Every man who desires to secure himself and those
of his own house from the visitation of epidemic diseases,
should be sensible of these facts—establ'shed as they
are by the testimony of the most eminent in medical
science—that the air is often charged with noxious
exhalations, arising from the putrefaction of animal
and vegetable matter. The exhalations arc generated
in low and marshy situations, or where stagnant water
contains dead vegetable matter ; and their production is
greatly promoted by heat. Their precise nature is not
known ; for they have never been obtained in a separate
state ; but it is ascertained that they are suspended in
the air ; that naturally they do not extend far beyond
the place where they are generated ; that by currents of
wind they are capable of being carried to a great dis-
tance ; that they exert a powerful agency in the pro-
duction of the most malignant diseases ; and that a long
exposure of them wonderfully shortens human life. Tha
ravages of the cholera in 1831 will not be soon forgotten.
The statistical inquiries to which that fearful visitation

gave rise., afford a powerful illustration of the necessity
of some sanatory regulations, to be provided by the Le-
gislature, and guarded and enforced by the penalties of
law. The writer of this article was at that time rk sident
io a town where the number of victims was very great, in
proportion to the number of the inhabitants. A committee
of haalth was appointed. As the disease %vas principally

confined to one. Part of the town, a searching inveztigation
was instituted, in the hope of discovering some peculiarity
in the locality by which the pestilence might possibly be
caused. An old drain, leading to the river), was opened ;
end such was the pestiferous exhalation wiNcli issued iin-
mediately upon its covering being removed, t hat quick-lime
in large quantities was required to neutralize the foul ex-
halations which arose, before the workmen could com-
mence the necessary operations. The main channel
was found blocked, and the smaller drains from the
houses which communicated with it were also clogged.
Along the sinuous course of the main sewer, extending
through a considerable district, the disease raged. The
cause of the pestilence was detected ; a lime-kiln was
built for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere ; the
drains were cleansed ; and the disease was arrested
from that very hour. Not a single case of cholera oc-
curred after the cause was discovered—a cothiaeing
proof of its origin ; and furnishing a powerful warning to
the inhabitants of that town, and to all others, against
suffering accumulations of noxious matter, which, sooner
or latter, will not fail to generate pestilence and death.
(From the Courier.)
Lord Eilenborough, who of late years has made pro-
digious advances in the science of political economy, as
evidenced in his patronage of New Poor-law mercies,
appears also, in imitation of the Right Rev. Metropo-
litan Suffragan, to be making considerable progress
in the new Drainage philosophy. He attributes
wonders miraculous to sewerage, which the world
never dreamt of before, for the very best benefit con-
ferred by sewers, as vulgarly believed, is that they afford

convenient and comfortable shelter for the rat consumers

of garbage and other impurities out of sight, instead of
leaving them exposed, as in the streets of Lisbon and

Paris, to the pelting of the pitiless elements in the pur-
suit ef their vocation. His Lordship gives us cause for bitter
regret that the following remarks were not present to
his mind on any one of the multifarious occasions when
the new Poor-law and its murderous tendencies came
before the House of which he is so active a Member.
For the reporters make him say that " he believed the
moral and religious improvement of the poor to be totally
inconsistent with their physical degradation. To build
churches,
to build school-houses, and to employ cicr-
eytnen and sehoolirr.sters, was in his opinion utterly
idle, while the physical wants and destitution of the poor
continued as debasing es they now were. We b„,_
gait too far from the real source of the evil, unless we
placed the poor man in such a position that he might
hive some self-respect—that he might have something
like a home. The object of their legislation should be
—what perhaps this Bill would do ultimately—to secure
a home to the poor man." This is generally excellent,
although we think the Noble Lord is superfluously
earnest about a " home" for the poor man, seeing that
a very secure " home" has been provided for him al-
ready in those Bastiles, denominated " Union Work-
bouses:' We are entirely of his opinion that, until the
" physical" wants of the people are first and well at-
tended to, it is but a cruel mockery to be legislating for
their " moral and tergious irrai rovement." But when he
was so eloquent in demonstratieg the inutility of build-
ing churches and school-houses, and employing clergy-
men and schoolmasters, With a view to elevate the con-
dition of the poor socially, morally, and religiously,
"Mead of previously relieving them from the