The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-29 00:00:00

nu% .44._

LONDI)N, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 29, 1847

Ministers have adopted the co t'nstit •
calling together the representatives ofli
constitutional course of
deliberate upon the circumstances which rendered people, to
a
departure from the ordinary law of the land an act
not merely et: sound policy, but of actual necessity,
necess
to obtain their opinion as to the propriety of the stls_
pension of the Bank Charter Act, and their sancticm
to the new measures by which it is proposed to re.
gulate the monetary affairs of the country. In a few
days the Gazette will contain the proclamation sum-
moning Parliament to assemble on the 18th of No-
vember for the dispatch of business. This is as it
should be, and affords a favourable augury for our
future prospects, and a reasonable hope that we may
speedily be extricated from the financial difficulties
and the general distress in w!lich the entire nation has
been involved from too obstinate an adherence to a
code which experience has proved to be in the
highest degree injurious to the national interests, and
4"tcagtiY• of th• prosperity, Any were

many reasons illkr it was highly desirable that Par
liament should meet without delay. The state of
Ireland, unfortunately, is such as to require measures
for the relief of her people, which it is expedient to
place before the Legislature before they :should be
brought into operation. The steady advance of the
cholera, and the great danger that the natio n would
again be exposed to its fearful ravages, demanded that
sanitary measures should be brought forw•ar..i of such
a character as to enable us, so far as merely human
means may be effective, to arrest its progress, and to
preserve the lives of those who might otherwise fall
victims to its baneful fury ; but, above all, the ruin
that was impending over our commercial and manu-
facturing interests, the general distress that prevailed
throughout the entire country, from which none
were exempted, but which alike affected the
'.vealthy merchant, the opulent mill-owner, and the
hard-working operative, rendered it essential that
not an hour should be lost in convening Parliament,
and adopting measures by which some more perma-
nent prosperity might be attained than any that has
existed since the passing of the fat.l Act of 1819, or
perhaps we might say since 1816, when the Bach
contracted its issues with a view to ex,mtnencing its
preparations fur a resumption of cash payments, and
a fearful amount of agricultural and commercial dis-
tress was the consequence.
Impressed with these feelings, we omitted no op.
portunity of calling for the immediate assemblage of
Parliament. We perceived that, although temporary
steps might act as palliatives, and in some degree al-
leviate the sufferings of the country, a remedy by
which a permanent cure could be effected could alone
be hoped for from the Legislature. On the
19th inst. we said, " The summoning together
of Parliament to assemble with the least possible de-
lay, in order to take into their consideration the mea-
sures rendered necessary, would have an instant
effect in calming the existing excitement. Such a
course would be, at the same time, the most consti-
tutional and the begt calculated to afford a permanent
remedy for the disease under which tt,e country is
suffering, to effect a perfect cure." And again, on
the same day, we added, "Let Parliament, then, be
immediately called together ; and in the meantime,
let otfr chosen Ministers assume the power that
should have been granted by that Bill, and demand
an indemnity fur the Act rendered necessary for the
welfare of the people." We have since repeated
those demands almost every day. But the moment
that the Government came to that conclusion, " that
the time had arrived when they ought to attempt, by
some extraordinary and temporary measures, to re •
store confidence to the mercantile and manufacturing
community," and with that object authorised a de-
parture from the terms of the Bank Charter Act,
that which was before desirable as a matter of sound
policy, and of corsiderable importance to the public
generally, became a constitutional duty, which could
not be postponed or evaded. Lord Joule RUSSELL-i •
too sagacious a statesman to afford a precedent
which, at any future time, may be made use of
against the popular liberties. We are rejoiced, there-
fore, to find that what we desired on the 19th instant
has been conceded, that Parliament has been sum-
moned, and that the Ministers, in the meantime, have
assumed the power which should have been granted
by the Bill of 1844, and which it was intimated by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his letter of the
16th of April, 1844, to the Governor of the Bank,
would be allowed, when he said, " that the
securities should not be increased beyond the amount
originally fixed, except under circumstances to be stated
by the Bank to the Government, and after the con-
sent of certain members of the Government, namely,
the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and the Master of the Mint." That con•
cession has undoubtedly been clogged with conditions
calculated materially to impair its value and to restrict
its benefits. It has fixed the rate of interest so
extremely high, that it is impossible that production
can be carried on with profit to the manufacturers;
but still the mere fact that the Act of 1844 had been
practically thrown overboard, that it had received its
death-blow, and could never again be restored ; and
that, in all human probability, the Act of 1819,
to which it was an appropriate adjunct, would
be involved in the same destruction, and consigned,
along with it, to the sepulchre of those enactments
which are found unsuited to the advanced intelligence
of the age, and the general interests of the nation,
restored the confidence of the people, and led them to
hope for the speedy advent of more auspicious days.
It now rests with the people themselves to say what
shall be the nature of the new enactments. If they
are apathetic or careless on the subject, they will
still be exposed to the periodical return of scenes of
distress and misery, such as those under which they
have been, and, we regret to say, are still suffering.
Attempts will undoubtedly be made by some parties
to retain a fixed price for gold, and the immediate
convertibility of all paper issued by or with the
sanction of the State ; there will still be
a hankering after the old system, and ef-
forts will still be made "to maintain the in-
tegrity of the standard." If these attempts be not
defeated the people must themselves be the sufferers ;
they can never hope for a continuance of prosperity.
This is the time then to make known their sen-
timents to our rulers. Meetings should be held
in every district throughout the country. Let
the free- traders demand that the great "prin-
ciple should be fully carried out—that the
pernicious monopoly of money should share the fate
of all other similar enormities—that our whole inter-
nal trade should not be paralysed because the foreign
exchanges happen to be in an unfavourable state.
Let them demand, then, a circulation sufficient
for the wants and exigencies of the nation,
and in some degree proportioned to our vastly
increased resources, and our extended popu-
lation. Let them he taught that there is no
real lack of capital in the country, but that a repre-
sentative of value is all that is required. It is absurd
to say that even the loss of twenty millions sterling
could have so serious an effect on a nation pos-
sessing more than five thousand millions of ac-
cumulated capital, and an annual income of
nearly five hundred millions sterling, if our mone-
tary laws were not radically wrong and defective.
Let them -take lessons from the wisdom of experienced
men, who long since predicted the very events that
have recently taken place as the natural results of the
laws that were enacted, and let them be guided
by the history of former years, which will show
that an extended circulation was always attended
with general prosperity, and that the happiness and
welfare of the people was the price we paid for every
attempt unduly to force back gold, without waiting
for the natural order of events. If they are fully
impressed with these views, and call upon their re-
presentatives to support them in St. Stephen's, we
may hope for a speedy removal of our distress and
diffieulties ; if not, they will richly deserve the fate
that awaits them, and their future sufferings will be
only a fitting expiation for their present folly and
carelessness.

In the advocacy of sanitary reform, Lord NOR'
MANBY has been emulated by Lord LINCOLN ; but
Lord LINCOLN'S mcasure was quashed, and the Bill,
propounded by the present Government, and intro-
duced to the House of Commons by Lord MORPETIT,
was thrown out last session by the dissentients in the
late Parliament. Discouraging as were these suc-
cessive disappointments to the aspirants for the im-
provement of the health and cleanliness of the com-
munity, the labours of these practical philanthropists
have been throughout, and still continue to be, un-
ceasing. Stupidity may retard but cannot terminate
the movement in behalf of the operatives or the des-
titute. The pests of society arising from neglected
sewerage, indifferent drainage, inadequate ventilation
insufficiency of water, intermural interment, and want
of a properly-regulated system of street cleansing,
must ultimately be dissipated by the winds of agita-
tion. Of that there is every confidence. It is the
conviction of their ulterior triumph over the pro
moters of dirt and disease that has sustained the
more prominent advocates for a comp rchenAve sani-
tary
retuarinknaobsl•eatiroenvein
rs
etsh.
It provedf so many a
then y
pa
en
rdp
es
tuucahl
e midst
ts
source of their inspiration. Like the original ni em
hers of the League, they have maintained theirposition-
from a conciousness of the rectitude of the principle
upon which their endeavours have been based. Ses-
sion after session has Mr. MACKINNON laid his pro-
position for the prevention or abatement of the smoke
nuisance before the Legislature—in a spirit of per-
aniCitY kind ea to tbit Yibio 41112*4 TUC

eiERs in making his annual motion for the abolition
of the statute laws against the importation of foreign
corn. And while the Free-trade Association pos-
sessed the omen of its final victory in the logical
eloquence of RICHARD COBDEN, the Health of Towns
Association has from the first preserved the guarantee
of its inevitable triumph in the aesthetic intelligence
and inexhaustible energies of SOUTHWOOD SMITH.
Long before there was a glimmering indication of
the legislative acceptance of the doctrines favourable
to the emancipation of commerce Mr. HUSKISSON
died; but there was already sufficient evidence that
the Government was prepared to acknowledge the
necessity of sanitary improvements when a humbler
labourer, though one equally capable of sacrificing
himself for the enforcement of a principle—Dr.
LYNCH—perished, and perished through the self-forget-
fulness inspired by his humanity. If the League,
moreover, had its discussions aid its newspaper, the
Health of Towns Association has had its public
meetings and its periodical reports• What has been
wanting in rhetoric has abounded in apposite statistics
Ind unanswerable evidence. And, although the pam-
phlets and lectures of Mr. WALKER, on graveyards,
aave been somewhat less savoury than the rhymes of
EBENEZER ELLIOTT, and somewhat less pretensions
than the catechisms of Colonel THOMPSON, they have
with equal emphasis enforced a necessity, and re-
duced an important truth to she comprehension of the
znultitude.

Bearing in recollection the fact that the Metropolis
was alone excluded from the benefits of the sanitary
tneasures of the present Administration, it is satisfac-
ory to know that a society has been recently formed
in Landon for the purpose of watching over the in-
terests and demonstrating the exigencies of its
citizens. The Health of Towns Association
has evidently been regarded as the prototype
of the Health of London Association ; and,
in consonance with the practical character of
'he proceedings of its predecessor, the preliminary
set of the new association has been the circulation of
3,000 lists of queries relative to the sanitary condi-
tion of the capital, amongst those classes who are
better qualified from their position to return useful
and accurate rejoinders—clergymen, medical men,
solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, and
parochial officers. A digest of the information thus
accumulated has been published in the shape of a
report, under the immediate direction of a sub-com-
mittee, consisting of two physicians, Dr. HECTOR
GA VIN, and Dr. A DoLrrtus BARNETT, and two surgeons,
Mr. THOMAS ABRAHAM, and Mr. JOHN LIDDLE. In
addition to the revelations therein made to the inha-
bitants of the metropolis as to the deplorable evils
which are rife in all directions, generating contagious
maladies, and conducing to the moral and physical
depression of the labouring population, the inferences
deduceable from this report have been illustrated,
and its arguments enforced by a lecture delivered
by Dr. GATIN, on the " Unhealthiness of London, and
the necessity of Remedial Measures"—a lecture emi
nently calculated to advance the intentions of the new
association.

How far these exertions are requisite in the me-
tropolis of Great Britain is shewn by the remark-
able report just mentioned. Disease is there proved
to originate in the miserable construction, and still

more miserable ventilation, of the dwellings of the in-
dustrious classes, especially in those localities where
there is an accumulation of decomposed rubbish from
tallow-boiling, the slaughtering of cattle, and similar
occupations. Poisonous vapours are thrown off in
pernicious abundance from ammoniacal works, mer-
curial manufactories, and the manufactories of corro-
sive sublimate. Noxious smoke is disgorged from
the chimneys connected with the gasometers. Bane-
ful evaporations are the constant results of the works
of sulphuric and oxalic acid. Pestiferous exhalations
float up from the rank soil of the grave-yards, im-
pregnating the atmosphere with poison for the living
from the loathsome and decaying ruins of the dead !
Open cesspools add a more disgusting pungency to the
air, already deprived of its beneficial qualities, andren-
der the city, as a residence, merely a gigantic gateway
to the grave. There is no exaggeration in so speaking. Is
it, we would ask any reasonable man, is it possible
that there can be exaggeration in so speaking, when
we remember that this execrable atmosphere is con-
veyed, at every respiration, into 170,000,000 of cells
in the lungs of each human being, and, through those
cells affects a surfaCe tantamount to thirty times that
of the human body ? Can there be a chance, by the
most shadowy possibility, of exaggeration in so speak-
ing, when the animal tissues are brought into con-
stant communication with such destructive agencies?
As well might we have expected the unfortunate
victims to have survived a night's incarceration in the
black-hole at Calcutta! As well might we attempt
to invigorate a debilitated constitution by in-
haling the odours of bilge-water ! As well might
we look for the preservation of the life of a
frog or a rabbit, by placing it under the bell
of an air-pump ! How great is the need for some
legislative interference in London for the removal
of these almost innumerable abominations was evi-
denced by an investigation which took place, on Mon-
day morning, at Enon Chapel, Clement's-lane, Strand.
The facts collected by that inquiry almost defy credi-
bility, they betray such a hideous perversion of
sentiment and are so exquisitely derogatory to a land
of boasted civilization. Under the chapel, in a cellar
measuring 59ft. by 29ft., and scarcely sft. in height,
were huddled together mutilated corpses and broken
coffins—denoting the systematic violation of the
sanctity of the tomb. At one extremity were dis-
covered some seventy or eighty coffins—empty, their
tenants " having been made away with !" In another
direction were half-decayed carcases ; in another a
deep trench, in the excavation of which the remains
of departed men and women were "packed " like
vermin; i❑ another was a blind window, said to have
been originally an aperture through which bodies
were shot into a different den to be chopped up
piecemeal to make way for additional remains !

Good GoD ! and all this is in a Christian country,
is hard by our very thresholds, is tainting the air
we breathe, is polluting the vicinity of our homes, is
calling down upon us the vengeance of contagion
and immorality ! Good GoD ! and these things
happen daily in the capital of an empire in which that
religion is predominant which invests the grave of
man with associations so holy, so august, so beau-
tiful ? Have we eyes? Have we hearts? Have
we imaginations? Have we Faith in Time, or Hope
in Eternity, or Charity towards our fellow-men and
co-religionists ? Are the relics of mortality less
precious to us than to the Paynim or the Infidel ?
Do the dogmas which tell us we are immortal teach
us to profane the majesty of dissolution, and to ravish
from the ruins of the departed the last transient

glimpses of their loveliness ? Surely, surely these
revelations of every-day life are more terrible than
the legends of the ghouls, or than the ravings of a
madman !

The Alba of Florence states from private corre-
spondence, that warlike preparations are in progress at
Modena. Brescello is in a complete state of defence.
Three cannons have been sent to Reggio, and accom-
modations are preparing for a numerous body of
Austrian troops, who appear to be shortly expected
there.

Letters from Naples state that the Neapolitan po-
lice having opened the dispatches of the British Con-
sul at Messina, the latter, after vainly demanding
satisfaction from the authorities, had apprised the
British Admiral at Malta of that violation of his cor-
respondence.

It is said that two French ships of the line are sta.
tioned in the Gulf of Spezzia, two others at Genoa;
and a fifth at Porto Ferrojo.

The Gazette de la Suisse Catholique publishes the
following resolution, come to by the authorities of
Lucerne, on the subject of the reception to be given
to the commissioners from the Diet :

"Being officially informed of a decision come to by
the Diet, by a majority of twelve votes and one half-
vote, in virtue of which federal representatives
are sent to the cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Un-
terwalden, Sebwitz, Zug, Friburg, and the
Valais, with a mission to dissolve the pro
tective alliance, end to distribute in the said
cantons a proclamation by the Diet, in which it is ad-
vanced that, in the present struggle, neither liberty,
independence, nor religion, are in question, but that
nothing more i 3 required than the execution of a
decree legally issued by the Diet ;—Considering,
that Lucerne and its allies have not acknow-
ledged the above-mentioned decree of the 20th July
last; that the missien of these representatives is a con-
Ficlqa°o ofthii *tee i thit facts are at TiiriinCe With

what is announced in the proclamation ; and that
the deputation to the Diet has received, full power
to act in the name of Lucerne ; but it is, n evertheless,
proper that a suitable reception should be given to the
representatives, the Council resolves that—" The
federal representatives shall be received in the name
of the Government by the Avoyer. He shall declare
to them that the Grand Council has given to the de-
putation of the Diet power to treat upon federal
questions ; that, consequently, it cannot either enter
into discussion with the Council of State, or convoke
the Grand Council, or permit the proclamation of the
Diet to be published."
This decree adds, that the citizens of the canton
who may have distributed the proclamation shall be
arrested arid tried on a criminal prosecution. It at
the same time declares that all the honours shall be
paid to the federal representatives ; that a guard of
honour and an orderly officer shall be appointed to
attend them. It was known at Berne in the evening
of the 23d, that at Lucerne and Friburg the federal
representatives had been received in conformity with
this programme. There is reason to believe that the
same will be done in all the cantons of the Solider-
bund, except Zug.
Letters from Berne of the 24th state that the
federal representatives had completely failed in their
mission to the cantons of the League. Some dis-
turbances had occurred in the canton of St. Gall,
which were supposed to have been fomented by
Lucerne. They were, however, speedily suppressed
by the energy of the authorities and the federal
co-operation of Friburg, which sent two battalions
into the disturbed districts. The Diet held an extra-
ordinary sitting on the 24th, at which the Deputies
of the Sonderbund refused to assist. The repre-
sentatives of the Grisons, Ticino, and Geneva, who
had withheld giving their opinion relative to the
expediency of placing the troops under the command
of a federal chief, adhered to the proposition; after
which the assembly resolved itself into a secret com-
mittee. From what had transpired of the delibera-
tion it appears that the Diet ordered an immediate
levy of troops in the cantons which did not belong to
the Sonderbund. The Federal Council of War was,
moreover, instructed to form an army of 50,000
men ; the Vorort was empowered to raise the funds
necessary for the maintenance of that force, and the
Commander-in-Chief, General Duroua, was directed
to assuma the immediate command of the troop, to
exert himself to restore order and legality wherever
they had been disturbed, and to cause the decrees of
the Government and the independence of the con-
federation to be respected. The Commander-in• Chief,
in organizing the troops, was recommended to ap-
point chiefs enjoying their confidence, and, if a suffi-
cient number was not to be found in the federal staff,
t choose them amongst the cantonal officers. Ile
was, moreover, invited to suggest to the Diet what-
ever measures he considered indispensable for the
fulfilment of the mission confided to him. General
DUFOUR had accordingly divided the federal army
into five divisions, under the command of the federal
Colonels DONATZ, of Grisons, EILLIETT CONSTANT,
of Geneva, Gmun, of St. Gall, ZIEGLER, of Zurich,
and BORNKIIARDT, of Basle. Most of these officers
formerly served in the French army. The Federal
Colonel LUVINI, of Ticino, had been named com-
mander of a detached corps in Italian Switzerland,
and Colonel ZIMMERLI, Adjutant-General of the
army. The Diet was to hold another sitting on the
25th, when the federal representatives, who had slept
the night before at Hutt wyl, were expected to arrive
at Berne.
are._
Madrid papers of the 22.1 have arrived.

The jobbing in the conler6ion of the arrears due to
the Royal Household into Three per Cent. Stock has
been so barefaced, that the Government has been
obliged to order an inquiry into the matter ; and
CHRISTINA and the others wbo were to have bene-
fited by it are eo afraid to face the inquiry, that they
have returned their " Nubs," and are endeavouring
to come to some other arrangement. The Glamor
reckons at 1,700,000,000 reals de vellon, the fortune
that MARIA CHRISTINA has extracted from Spain, and
its statement is very possibly not overrated.
The same journal states—" It is said that Don
FERNANDO MUNOZ will probably be appointed Minis-
ter of War. We rejoice at it, for to tell the truth,
there are few swords in Spain equal to that of the
Duke DE RIANZARES. Its Lilt alone i 6 worth a large

sum."

SERRANO was to return to Madrid on the 23d, and
to set out immediately afterwards for Prance.
The report of the arrest of-the singer MIRALLE, and
cf his banishment to Valencia, is confirmed. The
Heraldo takes infinite pains to show that neither the
Court nor the Government had anything to do with
the arrest.

MADRID BOLSA, OCT. 22.—Three per Cents., 2G:
money, 27 at 50 days ; Five per Cents., 161 paper
Debt, without interest, 5.2 money, 5i- paper; Cow
pons, 13 paper.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednes day.
There was a grand reform banquet held at Char-
tres on Sunday last, at which 500 persons were
Amongst them wereseveral members of
present. A

the General Council, and more than forty mayors,
municipal councillors, the Lieutenant-Colonel of the
National Guard of Chartres, and a number of officers,
together with a multitude of wealthy farmers, and
almost all the millers of the valley of the Eure.
There were likewise deputies from Chateaudun,
Dreux, and Nogent-le-Rotrou. M. ISAMBERT, Coun-
sellor at the Court of Cassation, and former deputy
for Chateaudun and Chartres, presided. At the
conclusion of the dinner, M4BARTIIELEMY proposed
the toast of "Electoral and Parliamentary Re•
form." Several speeches were made by M. LAM..
BERT, M. VAVIN, deputy of the Seine; M. LE•
FEVRE, a barrister; M. PAGUERRE, secretary to the
central committee of the electors of the Seine; M.
HENNEQUIN, editor of the Democratic Pacifique ; M.
SELLEQUE, editor of the Glaneur d'Eure-et-Lore;
and M. Ray, an old gentleman of 92 years of age,
who proposed a toast to the Italian National Guard.
One of the speakers, in proposing a toast, stated
that the object of the Reformers was to repair the
omissions: of July, 1830. This sentiment was re-
ceived with loud applause. The health of the KING
was not drunk.
The Journal des Debats gives the following account
of the arrangement of the differences which had
arisen between Mr. PEEL and the authorities of
Switzerland. It says—
" Mr. Peel vainly waited during the evening of the
21st for the reparation which he had demanded. On
the 22d M. Funck waited on him in plain clothes, to
offer reparation. But as he only presented himself in
the name and as the representative of the canton of
Berne, Mr. Peel refused to receive him in that quality.
He afterwards told him personally that he could not
accept the excuses which he expected, unless they
were made by the President or Vice-President of the
Vorort, or at least by two of its members. A little
while after a letter of apology was remitted to him
in the name of the Vorort; but Mr. Peel declared
that it was not sufficient, though he kept it. At
length M. Funck, Vice-President of the Vorort,
presented himself in official costume, and was ad-
mitted to Mr. Peel, followed by his huissicr.
Peel received him in uniform, having the Secretary
of the Legation by his side. M. Funck told him
that he deplored the accident of which he had to
complain, and that he begged of him to accept the
excuses f the Vorort."
The Dgbats also publishes the following, dated the
24th, which it has received by extraordinary ex-
press :

M. Dufour has just sent in his resignation, as
General of the Federal army. I do not know the
motive of this sudden resolution. But it is generally
supposed that he had accepted the post to obey what
he perhaps considered as a military duty, and that,
on reflection, he declined to incur the responsibility
and direction of a war of which he politically die_
approves."

The Afoniteur Parisien announces the occurrence
of several cases of hydrophobia in Paris.
M. DE LAMARTINE has addressed a long letter to
the Bien Publique of Macon, on the subject of the
foreign policy of the Government. It is, however,
merely a reproduction of the speeches which the Hon.
Deputy was in the habit of delivering on the same
subject in the Chamber of Deputies during the last
session.

The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse
on Wednesday at 761. ; the The per Cents., 115 f.
30e.; the Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,1751.; touen
908 f. 75c. ; Havre, 5201. ; Great Northern, 5381.
75c. ; Avignon, 5311. 25c. ; Vierzon, 540 f. ; Bor-
deaux, 4631. 75c. ; Troyes and Montereau, 2351. ;
Basle., 1501.; Paris and Strasburg, 398 f. 75c.;
Tours and Nantes, 3821. 50c. ; I'aris and Lyons,
S92f. 50c.; Lyons and Avignon, 475 f.; Spanish
Three per Cents. 28k.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN_ RAILWAYS AT THE

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