The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

WANT OF SANATORY REGULA-
LATIONS IN THE CITY.
The following is the substance of observations wli:ch
Were drawn up by the late Dr. Lynch, who intended
to submit them to the press in a more careful form, if,
as was his expectation, the majority of the Court of
Common Council persevered in turning a deaf ear to
to the petition of the Inquest Juries of the ward of
Farringdon Without
The memorial has been agreed to by men of all
shades of political opinion. Every allegation has
been dispassionately examined. I have been selected
to present it, because I have been known to have
for years endeavoured to improve the locality, and
because my daily avocations have made me practi-
cally acquainted with the wants of the poor. The
memorialists discuss the propriety of an outlay of
nearly half a million of money by the Corporation in
the formation of a new street, which they believe to be
of questionable utility. They are of opinion that if
the improvements cannot be concurrent, the diminu-
tion of disease and death, the preservation of life and
health, are of primary importance.
The memorial states that the ward contains 34,000
inhabitants; that it is principallysituated without the
walls of the city, and that it contains courts and alleys
of the worst description, to which the poor of the other
city parishes resort; that the houses are built back to
back, without ventilation ; that the rooms are not
more than eight feet in width, and nine feet in length,
and that they have on an average six persons in each
room ; that the privies are generally under the stair-
cases, and communicate with cesspools, the effluvium
from which is deadly poison to the element in which
the unhappy residents struggle to exist ; th•it such
hovels are unfit for human habitation, and a disgrace
to the city; that most of them are undrained, and
that where there are sewers they are untrapped and
unflushed, and the sewers thus become themselves the
sources of disease and death from the pestiferous gases
produced by the decomposition of animal and
vegetable matter beneath; that the supply. of water
is only on twice a week for two hours each time ; that
the poor have no vessels in which to preserve it,
and that in the crowded and heated rooms it absorbs
the poison contained in the animal exhalations, and
becomes altogether unfit for use. This is the picture
which the memorial presents, and to the horrors of
which the Corporation of London is indifferent.
Under such circumstances as the memorial repre-
sents the most simple diseases become malignant.
Scrofula, consumption, and other fell disorders are
generated, and a great portion of the labour of the
poor is lost in weakness. How frightful is the mor-
tality in these wretched localities I The average du-
ration of life amongst the middle classes in London
is forty-three years, that of the labouring classes is
only twenty-two. Amongst the former the deaths
from epidemic disease amount to no more than six,
whilst amongst the latter they amount to nineteen per
cent. From such places fever is never absent. The
number who suffer from that preventible poison is
twelve times greater than that of those who die, and
the victims are most frequently the heads of families,
as it prevails at the productive age of man (from
twenty to forty), and the offspring are consequently
made burdens on the poor rates. One-fifth of those
who receive parochial relief are the subjects of fever.
Nothing can more exclusively show the influence
which want of air and water has upon the health of
any district than the report of the Registrar-General,
from which it appears that in the ten healthy districts
in which an allowance is made of 202 square yards of
space to each individual, the mortality is 1 in 49.
In the medium districts, where 102 square yards are
allowed, it is 1 in 30; and in the unhealthy districts,
where there are only 32 square yards to each person,
the mortality is 1 in 30 ; the labourers in St. George's
parish die at 27, in St. Giles's at 17 years of age. In
the most unhealthy district of Liverpool, the gentle-
men die at 35 ; the poor .e.t 15. In the last season,
the most unhealthy within the memory of man,
simple fever was the minister of death. In the quar-
ter ending March, 1847, 56,100 persons died. In
Liverpool there was an increase of 13,034 deaths
over the corresponding quarter—in London an in-
crease of 10,000. The increase in London, out of an
equal number of males residing there, was 3 deaths
for every 2in the country. The excess in London
over healthy districts in seven years amounts to
97,000 persons—the excess of deaths of children in
London is 58.000. To prevent the possibility of
being met with the cry of exaggeration, or the
denial of those statements, I submit the statis-
tics of Farringdon Without. Of every 1,000 females,
taking the average seven years, 28 died in that ward,
whilst in Islington, of every 1,000 females only 18 ;
and in Hackney, of the same number only 16 died.
Thus twelve lives out of 1,000 are doomed to as cer-
tain destruction as if they were slaughtered in the
shambles in Smithfield. It is a most remarkable fact
that in Hackney, of the male children under five
year of age, 66 die, whilst in Farringdon West 128
die; and that of men in the intellectual prime of life,
between the ages of 45 and 55, in Hackney only 21
die, whilst in Farringdon \Vest 34 die. Of 1,000
boys under five years of age in Surrey and Sussex,
48 die annually, whilst in London the number is 93.
I adduce these details for the purpose of removing
the extraordinary ignorance which prevails amongst
those whose duty and condition make that ignorance
iniquity. No sneer or clamour can overthrow these
deplorable facts, which are written down in that
invaluable repository of useful knowledge the Re-
gistration-office, and from which it appears there is a
waste of life per annum of 22,000 lives, by contagious
diseaseS, out of four millions of inhabitants ; and that
by a little care and attention to sanatory regulations,
there might be a saving of 50,000 souls.
I felt it to be my duty, after having read in the
public papers that most ridiculous of official false-
hoods" that the cleanliness of London could not be
surpassed," to wait upon the foremen of the inquests
of each parish, who in the discharge of their duties
are obliged personally to inspect the dwellings of the
poor. From the following presentments to the City
Aldermen this year, it will be evident that the most
charitable comment on that statement was that it was
made in ignorance and nbt in a wicked or wilful dis-
regard, or criminal perversion of the truth. The in-
quest of St. Sepulchre alleges that numerous courts
are in the most foul condition, that the habitations of
the poor are unfit for beasts of burden, that the houses
are dilapidated, that cesspools and open gutters are
found in every court, that the privies are common to
several houses, that in cellars 14 feet square, eight per-
sons are lodged, that these nuisances have year
after year been presented to the Court of Alder-
men, without producing the least symptom of
correction, and that the labours of the in-
quest were useless, as their remonstrances were
unheeded. In the districts of St. Andrew's
and St. Dunstan's the same state of things exists,
and their active foremen in vain exerted all his capa-
bilities. I have visited the parish of Bishopsgate
Without, in which the chairman, who made the ex-
traordinary statement I have repeated, resides. In
front, on each side, and at the back of that chair-
man's house, in Devonshire-place, in Farran s-rents,
in Half Moon-street, place, and mews, in Sherrard's-
buildings, in Thompson's•rents, abominations abound.
The evidence of Dr. Porter before the commission
exhibits the desolating effects of sanatory neglect in
that particular locality, which is one of the worst in
London. Yet the chairman declares that, with all
those nuisances under his nose, the health of London
cannot be surpasse 1. I have been for ten years
medical officer of several parishes, and of a large
workhouse, and am daily called upon to attend
diseases distinctly traceable to the want of pure air,
the best and first of God's gifts, and to the want of
water, thousands of tons of which are running
to waste under their feet. In those filthy
masses of bricks and mortar, rotten, tottering
with age, built centuries ago, reeking with plague,
vapours, and exhaling irremediable infection, as
.1 have wound round the wretched stairc ises, I have
frequently been called upon to " lay hold of the rope,"
in order to be enabled to guide my footsteps. Every
house had its victim—there you would meet the or-
phan and the widow, the recipients of the poor-rates.
According to the returns ordered under the commis-
sion, there are in this way pauperised in England
and Wales, 47,000 widows and 120,000 orphans.
The loss in money in the year's deaths, in round
numbers, from the loss of the productive powers of
labour, amounts to fifteen millions, and the loss of
the East and West London Unions is 146,0001., the
greater part of which may be saved to the country
by sanatory regulations. In these crowded hovels,
in which filth abounds, in which no order can at an
exist, where no separation can be male for sex, where
darkness, disease, and death are the inseparable com-
panions of the inhabitants, where the lowest of the
animal wants are not supplied, where decency is
daily, hourly outraged, where the most loathsome
forms of vice are engendered, where poisonous ex-
halations and moral miasmata fester and react upon
each other, where health and life are undermined,
where youth is corrupted and innocence is destroyed;
in those nurseries, those normal schools of crime, in
those hotbeds of thieves and prostitutes, your la
bourers dwell.
Lord Ashley well said, " While such a state of
things exists schools and chapels were useless." The
malaria from the cesspool, the privy, or the sewer, is
a sedative poison, it depresses the energies of body
and mind, it saps the constitution ; the poor fly to the
gin palace for a stimulus to resist its effects. Intem-
perance lends the last link to complete the circle of
their physical and moral degradation. The parish or
the workhouse, or the hospital is the alternative. We
read with horror of a certain caste of Africans, whose
sympathy for filth is so strong upon them that they
preserve the dead until the exudations gradually fill
the hut and expel the survivors. In this city of Lon-
don, for the surpassing health and clean' iness of which
the Chairman of the Commission vouches, there is to
be found a parallel to the enormous abomination of
the savage state of existence to which I allude. I, and
other medical men, have seen the dead kept so long
in the odious dens, that the horrors of the grave were

revealed to the living, until the maggots of putrefac-
tion have crawled about the fire-place, and under the
table at whics the relatives were taking their meals.
We read of the tyrant who in the exercisa of an atro-
cious ingenuity chained the living to the dead. The
neglect cf the poor and their necessities assimilate
their condition to that of the still breathing corpse, for
the cesspool and its appendages are of like chemical
decomposition, and prove equally destructive in their
effects. All other classes .have improved in their
social position—their comforts are consulted by every
means which science suggests. For the mess of so-
ciety—the proJuctive classes, the bees of the hive—
nothing whatever has been done. With the increase
of the population there has been a diminution of
household accommodation, which was greater than it
is now 100 years ago. The improvements—the fine
streets in other parts of the metropolis—have aggra-
vated the evil. The philosophic exposition of Mr.
Chadwick--whose vigilant humanity is only equalled
by the power and the means with which he guides its
operations—and the admirable articles which have
from time to time appeared in the press, have fully de-

monstrated that fact.
Some persons may be disposed to impute the pre-
sent mortality and that of last year to the scarcity of
food. It is true that an inadequate supply of food
has its deleterious effects per se; but it is still more
injurious in bad districts, as, by reducing the powers
of the system, it renders the system more susceptible
of the noxious influences which surrounded it. Ire-
land presents a melancholy instance of the fact that
famine precedes fever. Scarcity cannot be received
as the explanation of the mortality in such places as
I have described. For the records prove that the
proportion of deaths from epidemics in 1838, in the
ward of Farringdon, was 1 in 102, whilst in Cam-
berwell it was 1 in 262, and in that year amongst
children, who, like plants, are sensitive of atmos-
pheric impurity, the deaths were as 2 to 1, and the
excess of deaths in east and west London was above
the healthy standard 1,162. Upon the most un-
deniable statistic calculations the inhabitants lose
eight years of their natural lives. Thirty-eight
people die of ascertained and preventible maladies
every day. The city of London, without the walls, and
Whitechapel,are the two most unhealthy of the thirty-
six metropolitan districts. In Elliott's-court there
are eighteen houses, each 'of which has four rooms,
which contain on an average thirty people, so that in
each house there is an excess of 200 per cent. above
the proper number. Smithfield and the Old Bailey
abound with such nuisances, as well as Cow-cross,
est-street, and Field-lane, with the adjacent slaugh-
terhouses and knackers'-yards. In Fetter-lane there
are 2,600 people in 145 houses, and in the courts of
that immediate locality there is intolerable over-
crowding. In Plough-court there is an excess in
thirty houses of 400 per cent. over the healthy stand-
ard, and in Plum Tree-court, an excess of 360.
Fleet-street and Holborn, two of the finest streets,
are hemmed in by dense unventilated, unwholesome
masses of miserable habitations. The squalor of the
courts is strikingly contrasted with the splendour of
the shops. There are three times as many people in
the worst courts as there are in the better class of
lanes. It, however, invariably happens that where
sanatory precautions are most necessary they are
most deficient. Language would fail to convey any
idea of the horrors of the black-holes in the lodging-
houses of Field-lane. Mr. Payne recently held an
inquest upon a man who was asphyxiated in a crowded
room, where there was no ingress of air, and the
jury expressed their horror of the place, in which
males and females, old awl young, were promis-
cuously lying, and where such was the want of ac-
commodation since the removal of the dens of St.
Giles's, that the indigent stragglers about town paid
twopence a night for permission to stretch, or rather
to huddle themselves on the staircases. The Corpo-
ration calls itself the guardian of the public health.
It has disclaimed Government interference, and thus
incurred a fearful responsibility, which Government
ought not, in the present condition of the city, to al-
low for a moment to exist. But as it seems they are
to remain in their. boasted independence of all obliga-
tion to do good or evil by the favour of their Minis-
terial representative, and as they disregard the ap-
peals of their fellow-citizens, I implore them through
the powerful medium of the press, which knows well
how to administer its bitter corrective, to devote some
portion of their enormous funds to the amelioration
of the physical and moral evils of the humble and
neglected classes to whom they owe everything them-
selves. I entreat them to insist upon a constant sup-
ply of water, to cause the sewers to be flushed, and the
foul air to be trapped and carried off by the shafts, and
to apply immethately to Parliament for the necessary
authority to make every house communicate by
drains with the sewers, and to abolish cesspools
altogether. If they expend half a million in im-
proving traffic, they can easily contrive to expend
one-fifth part of that amount in preserving the lives
and administering to the comforts of their fellow-
creatures. Interest, duty, humanity, economy call
upon them to promote the public health. Let them
at once avail themselves of the assistance of men of
science (for hygienie is not to be learned by inspira-
tion, and men engaged in
_the busy pursuits of com-
merce cannot be acquainted with it), and all the
evils I have enumerated will disappear. They are
proud of their historical traditions. Let them
achieve the greater glory of raising the condition of
their fellow-creatures in the scale of moral and
physical improvement. At all events, whatever
change may come upon the Corporation as regards
the good of their fellow-citizens, it is to be hoped
that the Government will acknowledge the necessity
which the Corporation have not yet discovered, and
so far make amends for their attempt to degrade one
of the most able and honest and indefatigable public
functionaries in the kingdom, by extending the
operation of his enlightened plan to every filthy nook
and corner of the metropolis.

FOREIGN CORN AND HARVEST.
Eight vessels have entered the harbour of Antwerp
laden with rye, and one with wheat.
Our markets on Wednesday' were not well sup-
plied, and there were only 250 sacks of potatoes,
which were sold at a lower price than at Friday's
market. In potatoes there was, as might have been
expected, a great fall in the price. The old potatoes
did not find many purchasers, in spite of the manwuvres
of certain sellers. New potatoes were sold retail
at 12 to 14 centimes per kilogramme. Vegetables of
every kind follow the general movement in becoming
much cheaper, caused by the prospect of the most
magnificent and abundant harvest which we have
seen for years.
The Prussian State Gazette publishes the medium
prices of corn during the month of May in the diffe-
rent provinces of the Prussian monarchy. The
medium price of corn was—
In the Province of Prussia
77 Posen 17f.
Pormerania...l
Brandenberg
171. 25c.
/7 Silesia . l6l. 25e.
Saxe . . l6l. 62c.
Westphalia .... 21f. 60c.
Ythenish Provinces
We thus see that in the Rhenish Provinces provi-
visions obtained the highest price.
COPENHAGEN, JUNE 20.—1 t is stated that a decree
is about to be published which will prohibit the sales
of standing corn in Denmark. This decree not only
imposes heavy fines for every breach, but sets aside all
contracts which may have been already made. The
ships Hecla and Bellona have returned from Russia,
richly laden with corn, and immediately after landing
their precious freight, have returned to the storehouse
of Russia for a fresh supply. The prices of corn have
again fallen. The magnificent appearance of the
crops, the continued aids afforded to our poor, as well
as the continued free importation and suspension of
he mill system, gives us every prospect of a happy
'uture.

Shoals of fellows are tramping the county, attempt-
ing to entrap and deceive the unwary. Some represent
themselves as surgeons ; others as broken-down clerks ;
others, again, as persecuted and banished schoolmasters
from Ireland. In their wake come others who do not
assume so lofty pretensions, but content themselves with
selling religious tracts to some and dissolute songs to
tlerirsnhity.
schoolmaster, One
others. These fellows are undoubtedly of the same fre-
fello
wasw, who
recognised represented
as be o
g onehimself
ofas
thean
London "runners," although he had been,
according to
his own version, imported only a fortnight. When
taxed with the fact, he
politely walked away. All
would do well to refuse any relief to such
vagabonds, who
are impostors from London on their summer tour.—
Brighton Gazette.
The Observer of yesterday gave a folio column of
particulars connected with the splendid preparations in
progress at Cambridge up to 8 o'clock on Saturday
evening; four folio columns of literary notices, including
the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and Westminster Reviews,
also Biackwood, Fraser, and Bentley' s Magazines, &c.;
summary of the quarter's revenue; second critique of
the exhibition of the works of art at Westminster Hall,
to the extent of three folio columns; a folio column of
Marylebone election, 100 miscellaneous advertisements,
and twenty•six folio columns of foreign and domestic
news, chiefly original. Price of the Observer, sixpence.
Published at 170, Strand, by Mr. Clement, junior.
SOCIETT FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
—At the last general meeting of this society the bishops
of Cape Town, Adelaide, and Newcastle were present,
and acknowledged the gr,.nts recently made by the
Board towards promoting Christian knowledge in their
several diocese:. The whole sum lately voted by the
society in behalf of its objects in these dioceses, and that
of MelLoarne, amounts to 10,000/.; previously to this
the society contributed 10,000/. towards the Colonial
Bishops' Fund, The issue of books and tracts during
the yt ar was stated to be nearly 4,000,000.
We understand that Mr. Labouchere will enter
upon the office of President of the Board of Trade im-
mediately before the dissolution of Parliament. The
Right Hon. Gentleman will be succeeded by Sir William
Somerville as Secretary for Ireland.

ELIZA COOK'S POETRY.
(From the Dispatch )
MR. EDITOR,—You have favoured your readers
with a good likeness of Eliza Cook ; hut there exists
a far better portrait—sketched, though unconsciously,
by herself; and delineating, not indeed the external,
but the mental features of the popular poetess. Her
truest portrait is in her lyric compositions ; and while
thousands are receiving with delight, and treasuring
with care, the excellent engcavin' which makes her
at home in their dwellings, I would stimulate them to
make her at home also in their minds and memories,
and to read her works not only for the enjoyment of
particular songs and passages, bill. so as to realise the
intellectual and moral companionship of the writer,
and understand and appreciate her character.
This is, indeed, the noblest work of literature. It
gives us, not only lessons of wisdom, but the friend-
ship of the wise. No product of the mind is to be
compared with the mind itself from which it flowed.
The emanation is insignificant compared with its
source ; but it leads us towards that source. Even a
solitary ray of light guides the gaze to the sun. The
perception of individual character in a work is the
best good we derive from the best work. It renders
an isolated gratification of taste subservient to the
widest and noblest influences on the heart and life.
This philosophising, which almost every reader
practises, in a greater or less degree, though often
without being aware of it until the critic comes with
his explanation, is our compensation for the change
introduced by the Press—the one small evil in the
vast ocean of good created by that invention. A
book is in itself a cold thing. To have Plato's Dia-
logues in print is poor work compared with gathering
round the Sage in the groves of Academe, and catch-
ing from his lips the living accents. " I sing," says
the modern Bard, speaking to the eye alone, by the
help of type-founders, papermakers, compositors, ink
balls, folding, and stitching. Of old, the Bard struck
no figurative lyre, nor chaunted with fictitious voice;
but his fingers drew forth real melody to the en-
chanted ear, and his inspired tones went thrilling to
the heart. The song and the singer were one, as
they have rarely been in later times. For the charm
thus lost, we must make up, as well as we can, in
other ways. The painter's and graver's art does
something • the reader's mind must do the rest. It
is to stimulate the minds of readers to such an opera-
tion that these criticisms are appended to the portrait
bestowed upon your subscribers.
Eliza Cook is just the writer to be at home with.
and to make at home with ourselves. The spirit of
home pervades her compositions. Every household
object has its song ; from the kitchen to the garret,
and every flower of the adjoining garden, or of the
field beyond. True, her imagination will sometimes
soar with the lark above the clouds • or skim the
ocean, in calm or storm, to bask in the golden light
of oriental regions ; but her " heart untravelled,
fondly turns" to home ; and like the lark, from the
loftiest flight, she drops into her nest. Yes, there she
is ; in " the Room of the Household ;" you may see
her by " the Rushlight ;" in the " Old Arm Chair ;"
the " Grandfather's Stick" is by, a sacred relic ; she
has been gathering " Buttercups and Daisies," or
" Blue Bells in the Shade," or sporting with " Old
Pincher ;" and the "Murray Plaid" is thrown by, with
the " Old Straw Hat," and she is musing on childish
times, when she swung on the " Farm Gate," or wore
" Bed Shoes," and played at "Tom Tiller's Ground."
People send their cards with Mr. and Mrs. Such-an-
one at home, on such a night ; but Eliza Cook is
always at home, and every where, with all who de
serve it. The reader that has no relish for her songs
ought not to have a home, and has no proper concep-
tion of the meaning of the word. Her card or motto
might be " Poetry at Home."
Perhaps it was one of those pieces whose subjects
have just been enumerated that suggested to a critic
in a splenetic mood the not very felicitous sarcasm of
calling these lyrics "Dunstable stuff." And yet the
appellation was better than its author intended. The
straw hats of Dunstable are very serviceable for a
long country ramble. On a warm summer's da'y
they are very pleasant and familiar things ; and they
wear very well to the last. If that be a sneer, what
would be praise ? False criticism, like the false
prophet, unwittingly blesses where it meant to curse.
The poetess may sing defyingly,
And if one bay-leaf falls to me.
I'll stick it firm and fast in thee,
My Old Straw Hat.
There are vulgar smatterers who will think such
themes "shockingly low." They can reciprocate no
sentiment in a less costly attire than silks and satins.
They feel neither poetry nor pathos beneath the
Peerage. The muse, as they suppose, only " dwells
in marble halls." Everything about her must be
Eastern or antique. They are in raptures with the
bulbul, and scorn the skylark. In the Cymar they
make shift to see more than in English costume.
They are profoundly classical in taste, and know
the Latin for a three-cocked hat. Any weapon
more modern than a spear is spurious in verse. In
vain are such people told, but it is the
fact, nevertheless, that the wellsprings of all poetry is
in the common human heart. It may gush forth and
overflow upon the most familiar articles of cottage
furniture. All the great poets of classical antiquity
were homely. Virgil poetized his farm-yard; with
Homer we sit down to heroic cookery and feasting,
which show that fingers were made before forks.
Transfer this dandyism to the East (of the world,
and not of Temple-bar), and Orientalisms are no
longer rich and rare. All subjects are elevated, on
which poetry alights, and leaves the radiant traces of
its footsteps. A song on Irish lumpers may have
higher inspiration than one on old Olympus. The
poet,", says Byron, " can make a silk purse out of
a sows ear." And if it be asked, why select such
topics, when there are many with dignified associations,
the reply is ready. The choice is a championship of
human nature, in its most frequent mode of exist-
ence. It ministers to the millions, and feeds them
with Angel's food. The divine is brought to the
cottage-door; and tarries there, like celestial guests
of old, in the Patriarch's tent. Put an Eliza Cook,
by her portrait and her poems, in the homeliest
abode, and you give new feelings, a new sense, to
its inmates. They look around ; they sing, they
weep, they sympathise, rejoice, and hope ;
and a glory unperceived before plays over all the fa-
miliar objects of their habitation. Monsieur Jour-
dain (in Moliere's comedy of the Bourgeois Gentil-
honzme) was astonished that he had spoken prose all
his life without knowing it. The millions find that
they have breathed an atmosphere of poetry with like
unconsciousness. The writer who works this wonder
is a public benefactor. The multitude harmonized
by song, which comes home to their business and
bosoms, realise the fable of Orpheus and the brutes.
The homeliest themes are not the least favourable,
perbaps the most of all, to true delicacy and refine-
ment of feeling. Miss Cook's published works may
be confidently referred to in proof of this fact ; she is
never mawkish, affected, or what is called sentimental.
The emotion she expresses or excites is always sound
and healthy, It has a clear tone, and rings like a
bell. There is a sturdy morality in it, often made
tender, but never weak, by susceptibility. Happily
the tendency of her compositions is not matter of
mere speculation. The transported convict, weeping
over his tattered copy of Our Native Song," super-
sedes or silences a thousand criticisms, and is a nobler
trophy than warrior ever won. After that anecdote
(vide Preface to " Mellia,") it may be said, as Dr.
Johnson said of the "Elegy in a Country Church-
yard," "Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain
to blame, and useless to praise him." Gray did not
often write like the Elegy; Eliza Cook always writes
like " Our Native Song."
How delicious is that cluster of reminiscences which
makes poetry of an accumulation of ballad titles in the
lines on "Old Songs,"—
Old songs, old songs, what heaps I knew,
From " Chevy Chase" to " Black-Eyed Sue,"
From " Flow thou regal purple stream,"
To Rousseau's" melancholy " Dream."
I loved the pensive " Cabin Boy,"
With earnest truth and real joy ;
My warmest feelings wander back,
To greet " Tom Bowline" and " Poor Jack;"
And, oh! " Will Watch," the " smuggler" bold,
My plighted troth thou% ever hold!
I doated on the " Auld Scot's Sonnet,"
As though I'd worn the plaid and bonnet;
I went abroad with " Sandy's Ghost;"
I stood with Bannockburn's brave host,
And proudly toss'd my curly head,
With " Scots wha lute wi' Wallace bled."
I shouted " Comin' through the rye,"
With restless step and sparkling eye;
And chased away the passing frown
With " Bonnie ran the Burnie down."
Here was inspiration. The enjoyment was the pres-
tige of power. Appreciation was the herald of pro-
duction.
Old songs! old songs! ye fed, no doubt,
The flame that since has broken out;
For I would wander far and lone,
And sit upon the moss-wrapt stone,
Conning " old songs" till some strange power
Breathed a wild magic on the hour;
Sweeping the pulse chords of my soul,
echo
lyre"
st
t
was mine, and I was blest.
As winds o'er sleeping waters roll.
_twaws
myv own.ealed.
'Twas done—the volume was unsealed—
The e ,
hallowedrted
mission as reOld songs called up a kindred tone;
Au
Joy, pride, and riches swell'd my breast,
Th
Rightly was the vocation construed ; and its real
worth and nobleness were justly understood.
Oh ! who shall say the ballad line
That stirs the heart is not divine !
And where's the heart that would not dare
To place such song beside the prayer?
I have dwelt chiefly on the songs of Eliza Cook,
because they are her most characteristic compositions;
and those in which she renders the most peculiar and
valuable service to our popular literature. England
is not, like Scotland, or Ireland, a land of song. Our
poverty, in this respect, has been obvious and de-

plorable. Anterior to Barry Cornwall, the prince of
English songsters, the name of Dibdin is the mot
conspicuous. And Dibdin profaned his powers to make
himself a recruitirr, officer for the navy. lie var-
nished over the foul oppressiuns and crucl:ies which
at that time (the Service is wonderfully improved
since) made a sailor's lire, to thousaods, scarcely
endurable, and rendered many a man-of-war a
" floating hell." The cajolery of'
Dibdin co-operated
with the violence of the pressgang. If the discre-
pancy between the song and the ship be now much less
than it was, we may thank the influence of such prin-
ciples and feelings as are exhibited in the volumes
before us. They have made the old sea songs come
true at last. And if it have long been known that
" the earth hath bubbles as the water 'lath," the songs
of Eliza Cook, by the side of those of Dibdin, show
that the earth also bath pcetry as the water hath ;
nor will the land service yield to the marine in all
that constitutes the lowliness and power of song.
Poetry began her work in the world by chaunting
oracles and laws, assuming to be the voice of God to
man, dictating his politics and religion. And then
she sang of savage wars, the shock of battle, and the
slain dragged at the victor's chariot wheels. From
scenes of blood she sought relief in the pastoral strain,
piping to listening flocks the artless love of shepherds.
in minstrel guise, she entered baronial halls, reciting
legends of the feats of feudal chiefs. Half turning
from the banquet, she crowned the revellers with
flowers, that wine and luxury might be restrained
from excess by dainty phantasies. Her inspiring
voice has ever and anon sounded the march of patriot-
ism for the assertion of right. And now, thanks to
such writers as the one whose likeness we contem-
plate, she sojourns in cottages and lowly homes, ma-
, (hating them by her presence, which, in its influences,
makes them, though all the winds of heaven may
• whistle through their walls, fairer than fabled bowers,
statelier than the palace, grander than the castle, and
; holier than the temple. P IJBLICOL A.

THERE'S NOTHING IN VAIN.
Oh! priz not the essence of Beauty alone,
And disdain not the weak and the mean in our way,
For the world is an engine—the Architect's own,
Where the wheels ofleast might keep thelarger in play.
We love the fair valley, with bloom in the shade,
We sing of green hills—of the grape and the grain;
But be sure the Creator did well when he made
The starkdesert and marsh—for there's nothing in vain.
We may question the locust that darkens the land,
And the snake, flinging arrows of death from its eye;
But remember they come from the Infinite Hand,
And shall Man, in his littleness, dare to ask why?
Oh ! let us not speak of the "useless" or " vile,"
They may seem so to us—but be slow to arraign:
From the savage wolf's cry, to the happy child's smile,
From the mite to the mammoth, there's nothing in vain.
There's a mission, no doubt, for the worm in the dust,
As there is for the charger with nostrils of pride;
The sloth and the newt have their places of trust,
And the agents are needed, for God has supplied.
Oh! could we but trace the great meaning of ALL,
And what delicate links form the ponderous chain' •
From the dew-drops that rise, to the star-drops that fill,
We should see but one purpose, and nothing in vain.
ELIZA COOK.

COURT CIRCULAR.
The Queen held a Court on Saturday afternoon a,
Buckingham Palace.
His Excellency the Duke de Broglie had an audience
of her Majesty, to deliver his credentials as Ambassador
Extraordinary from his Majesty the King of the
French. His Excellency was introduced by Viscount
Palmerston, G.C.8., her Majesty's principal Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs, and conducted by Coloi:el
the Hon. Sir Edward Cust, K.C.11., her Majesty's Mus-
ter of the Ceremonies.
The Queen gave audience to Viscount Palmerston.
Her Majesty was attended by Lord Byron, Lord in
Waiting, and Sir Edward Bowater, Groom in Waiting.
The Queen and Prince Albert rode out on horseback
on Saturday, attended by the Hon. Miss Murray, Colo-
nel Buckley, and Lieut.-Colonel Seymour.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, and their Royal
Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess of Saxe Weimar, visited the Queen and Prince
Albert on Saturday, and partook of luncheon with her
Majesty and her Royal Consort.
His Royal Highness Prince Peter of Oldenburgh vi-
sited the Queen on Saturday.
His Royal Highness Prince Waldemar of Prussia, at-
tended by Baron de Lauer, Count Oriola and Count
Groeben, visited her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians
on Saturday, at Buckingham Palace.
His Majesty the King of the Belgians, attended by
Dr. Carswell, returned to Buckingham Palace from
Claremont, at half-past five o'clock on Saturday after-
noon.
The Queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by their
Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, honoured
the performance at her Majesty's Theatre with their
presence on Saturday evening. The Royal suites con-
sisted of the Countess of Desart, the Countess Vander-
straten, Lord Byron, Major de Moerkerke, Colonel
Buckley, and Lieut.-Colonel Seymour.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, accompanied by
their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke
and Grand Duchess of San Weimar, and Prince Peter
of Oldenburgh, honoured the performance at her
Majesty's Theatre on Saturday evening, with her
presence. Her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses
were attended by the Countess of Sheffield, the Countess
of Assenburg, Hon. William Ashley, Count de Beust,
and Baron de Ziegesar. Their Royal Highnesses the
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, attended by Baron
Hammerstein, also honoured the performance with their
presence.
Their Royal Highnesses Prince Alfred and the Prin.
cessAlice, accompanied by the Dowager Lady Lyttelton,
took a carriage drive on Saturday, and their Royal High-
nesses the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal took
pony and walking exercise. Yesterday the Royal
chit lren took their usual airings.
The Queen and Prince Albert, the King of the Bel-
gians, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the
domestic household, attended Divine service yesterday,
in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace. The Hun.
Marlboroughtheir
Royal
oyal
HHi og uhsnee.
sses the
and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay officiated.
Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians
visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager yesterday, at
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester and
Hereditary Grand Duke
and Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar, visited their
Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians yesterday.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, and his Royal
Highness the hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar,
attended Divine service yesterday in the Chapel Royal,
St. James's. The prayers were read by the Rev.
J. V. Povah, and the lessons by the Rev. T. Helmore.
The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Wesley,
from St. Luke. chap. 8, verse 2. The anthem was " 0
Lord give ear" (Green). The sacrament was adminis-
tered by the Rev. Dr. Wesley.
e dBi. thaerfy"
field
dler MandajtytehseHwnans attended
Abyshtileiye.Colu,nnteeshe
Countess of
Grand Duke was attended by Count de Beust.
e tee s
rc ;
u
The Bishop of Norwich, Clerk of Beust.
u was in
waiting. Among the nobility present were Ladies
Foer
fort, the Marquises of Anglesea, Ormonde, and Win-
hCawdor.e,LWoridltsonß, aannddoSnt:
St. Germans, Wilton, and
Germans, the Duke of Beau-
The Duke of Wellington, the Duke and Duchess of
St. Albans, and the Marquis of Anglesea, attended the
early service, yesterday. iu the Chapel Royal, St. James's.
The Rev. Mr. Haden officiated, and preached the sermon.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge
yisairtelhdehrneurghHouse.
Majestythe Queen Dowager, on Saturday, at
Marlborough
The Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary at-
tended Divine service, yesterday, in St. Michael's Church,
Cmheersstteeirn-sNqrevueare B
in
waairtoinn
giinnne st ehbesi kit andnye Bl
Hairgohnneessss m-
.
The Duke of Cambridge attended Divine service, yes-
terday, in Grosvenor Chapel. Sir William Davison was
in waiting on his Royal Highness.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, at-
tended by Baroness Hammerstein, honoured Viscountess
Palmerston with her company on Saturday evening, at
her residence in Carlton-ardens.
His Royal Highness Prince Waldemar of Prussia, at-
tended by Baron Laner, Count Oriola, and Count Groe-
ben, visited the Exhibition of Drawings of India and the
.ss Prince Waldemar of Prussia
Punjaub, by the Hon. Charles Hardinge, ou Saturday, at
at dinner, on Saturday, at his residence in
Mr. McLean's
hohnioiusrcßdotyhael Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian Minister, with
Mr. Bond Cabbell, M.P., and Colonel Reid, had an
interview with Sir George Grey on Saturday, at the
Home-office. Hg Igl
he rnye,
The French Ambassador visited Viscount Palmer-
ston on Saturday, at the Foreign Office.
Sir Benjamin Brodie, Mr. Hammick, and Mr. Ed-
ward Rushton,had interviews with Sir George Grey on
Carlton Myise.terrace.
Saturday at the Home Office.

LONDON TO PARIS.—The Brighton and Continen-
tal Stearn packet Company have commenced running
their new -
packets from Shoreham Harbour to Dieppe
in five hours, and from Shoreham to Havre in six hours.
They are remarkable for speed.
Madlle. Rachel arrived in London on Saturday
from Ostend. Taglioni was also a passenger in the
boat. Madlle. Rachel commences her engagement et
the St. James's Theatre this evening, in the tragedie of
Les Boraces.
ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL QARDENS.—A novel
and most attractive exhibition took place in these gar-
dens on Friday and Saturday. The Siege of Gibraltar,
which is attracting all classes to witness it, was repre-
sented by daylight, for the gratification of the juvenile
visitors. The idea was a happy one, and we confess
that we had our doubts as to the effects that could be
produced—we :Were most agreeably surprised. We cer-
tainly
might have reflected that as fir as fact was con-
cerned the advantage was in favour of a day light repre-
sentation, and we feel assured the proprietor may, from
the success which has attended the first attempt, repeat
the same with the like gratifying result.
On the 28th ult. serious disturbances took place at
Groningen, m Holland, on account of the excessive
clearness of food. The troops had to be called out.
They made use of their arms, and, it is said, killed four
persons and wounded twelve, some of them very seriously.
Most of the wounded persons had taken no part in the
disturbances, having been present only
as spectators.
On the morning of the 29th order was re-established.
At Amsterdam, during the last eight days, the price of
the four-pound loaf has been reduced five cents, about
' 15 centimes.