The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

T h E SU' 11,T,

:nazi by a person on whom he placed no reliance.
We, therefore, think that Mr. SMITH is exonerated
on this charge also ; and that, if the valves were ac-
tually tied, it was wholly without his knowledge, and
that he omitted no reasonable precaution.

We have thus gone through the principal points of
the evidence that was brought forward in this lament •
able case. It certainly appears as if Mr. SMITH had
been hardly dealt with in the reproaches that were so
lavishly heaped upon him. We had not intended to
have alluded to the matter until after the trial of
flAismAN, but as that has been adjourned, we think
it only a matter of justice to notice
.those points to
which sufficient attention has not hitherto been paid.

We yesterday expressed our solicitude that on the
meeting of Parliament, on the 18th of the present
November, inquiries should be addressed to Viscount
MORPETFI as to the intentions of her MAJESTY's Go-
vernment respecting the introduction of some compre-
hensive measure of sanitary improvement. With all
the earnestness of our heart we would impress upon
the Legislators the necessity of some instantaneous
agitation within the walls of St. Stephen's upon this
most urgent and most important question. It is not
only policy which demands an immediate innovation
in this particular. Humanity, decency, religion,
reason, generosity, economy, and prudence, all cry
aloud for the more active employment of the Sanitary
Commissioners. Upon the course adopted by the House
of Commons depends, in a very great measure, the
extent of mortality throughout the country during the
ensuing twelve months. Life and death are in the
hands of the popular representatives. And, but that
other extraordinary matters require the vigilance
and activity of the advisers of the SOVEREIGN, they
would become answerable for the demise of many
hundreds of the population, supposing precautions
were postponed through any wanton indolence on the
part of the Cabinet. Most cordially and most ex-
plicitly we exonerate the present Administration
from a wilful indifference to the health and salvation
of the multitude. The embarrassments in the money
market, arising from the erroneous system of currency
established by the late Prime Minister, would be of
themselves a sufficient apology for the delays which have
already prevented the adoption of a comprehensive
scheme of sanitary amelioration. The complication
of foreign affairs, arising from the retrograde princi-
ples of Louis PHILIPPE, and the execrable absolutism
of Austria, is another reason for the procrastination
of the Government in regard to the internal welfare
of the United Kingdom. Ireland, the education
question, the project of a wholesale revision of the
criminal code, the imperative wants of our colonists in
different quarters of the two hemispheres, all require
the especial and speedy interposition of the
Legislature. There are a multiciplicity of excuses
for this postponement--excuses enough to silence
the surliest curmudgeons among the Opposition and
to sate the Cabinet of Lord JOHN RUSSELL from being
aspersed as a Do-nothing Cabinet. So conscious are
we of the variety of the labours already chalked out
for the Executive, and so convinced are we of the
patriotic industry of the Premier and his colleagues,
that our chief solicitude as a journalist would be to
abstain from any superfluous demand upon their per-
severance. It were madness indeed to expect that
the difficulties of Government could be conquered
like a game of backgammon.
Ready as we are, however, to exonerate her MA-
JEST r's advisers from any unnecessary procrastination,
we must distinctly assert, that if any reform should
be allowed the precedence among those social and
political reforms which are expected from a Liberal
Administration, it is that reform which, by diffusing
sanitary improvements throughout these islands, will
diminish the mortality, increase the salubrity, and
enlarge the happiness of the United Kingdoms. If it
be maintained that the innovation is one of a nature
so vast and complicated as to require more prudence
and preparation than would be compatible with its
immediate introduction to Parliament, we would
observe, that there are a thousand temporary expe-
dients which might be adopted pending the prepara-
tion of Me measure itself, and which expedients would
at once effect a visible advantage to the community.
We would by no means enforce our importunities
to the Legislature by merely general assertions of
this character. We would speak to the point, not
arming ourselves with any of the quibbles of circum-
locution. We would enumerate some of those pre•
cautionary expedients which we conceive it to he
tha prior to
The revival of the Bill of the Chief Commissioner of
Woods and Forests. That this duty does actually
exist, and that its non-performance entails a terrible
responsibility upon our rulers, would be shown by
the Registrar-General's report on the health and
mortality in 117 districts of England during the last
quarter, if it were shown by nothing else. These re-
turns are published by ourselves in another column,
and they disclose such an increase in the general
mortality of Great Britain as to present an
alarming aspect when coupled with the
progressive advances westward of the Asiatic
Cholera. According to the statement of the Registrar•.
General, the deaths during the summer season of
1847 have exceeded the average proportion by 7,007.
This is proved by the comparison of the actual
number of deaths which have taken place during that
quarter, namely, 49,479, with the average number
deduced from the average of 1838-46. In London
especially—a district comprising Lewisham and
Hampstead--the contrast is remarkable ; for, while in
the September quarter of 1845, 10,987 deaths were
registered, in that of 1846 there were 12,601, and in
that of 1847, there are 13,187. To illustrate this in
crease he continues :

" The deaths in the summer quarters of the three
years from small-pox were 76, 51, and 320 ; measles,
688, 78, and 521 ; scarlatina, 194, 208, and 316;
diarrhoea, 449, 1,549, and 1,196; cholera, 26,197, and
98 ; dysentery, 43, 75, and 143 ; remittent fever, 8,
12, 23 ; typhus, 273, 403, and 395 ; erysipelas, 56,
92, and 126 ; the zymotic class of diseases generally,
2,409, 3,234, and 4,061."
Nor does the Registrar-General content himself
with the arguments of these unanswerable and im-
pressive statistics. He concludes his representations
by remarking that such has been the indolence of
the authorities in England as to the sanitary condition
of the empire, that measures of improvement were
adopted at Calcutta before the question had in any
practical manner been agitated in the United
Kingdom.

To-morrow we shall commence the enumeration of
the temporary expedients which we regard as abso-
lutely requisite, and take into consideration the prac-
ticability of an immediate and effectual improvement,

We give in another column a notice of a pamphlet
recently compiled by Mr. MONTGOMERY MARTIN at
the request of the India and Australia Mail Steam-
packet Company. It describes the route by which
the company intend to open a regular steam commu-
nication with Australia, and it reflects the highest
credit on the enterprise of the company, who, as it
would seem, are about " to put a girdle round the
world." But while we pay due honour to the en-
terprise of the company, let us not forget the man to
whose genius and energy we are entirely indebted for
opening this communication. It is to Lieutenant
IVAGHORN that we are indebted for the opening up
of this steam communication with India and
Australia. But for his genius and energy, the route
would never have been opened, the company would
never have existed. All honour, therefore, to
Lieutenant W.Lonoax—and not honour alone. The
labourer is worthy of his hire ; and we trust that
Lieutenant IVAGftouN will find that the nation will
show its gratitude in a more solid manner than by
awarding to him mere empty praise.

Lord MINT° arrived in Florence on the 22d ult.
Letters from Genoa of the 25th ult. announce the
arrival of the French fleet, composed of the ships of
the line Friedland, Souverain, and Jena, and the
steam-frigates Titan, Cacique, arid Panama, in the
Gulf of Spezzia on the 22d ult. The two latter
steam-frigates arrived at Genoa on the 23d ult.
It is said that the King of NAPLES intends to in-
troduce a perfect and complete separation of the
island of Sicily from his continental dominions, and
to place the Prince Royal at the head of affairs there
under the title of Viceroy.

We copy the following from the St. Petersburgh
Gazette of the 22d ult.:—

"At Moscow, as we mentioned yesterday, the first
case of cholera having occurred on the 14th of
October, fifteen other cases, most of them of a fatal
nature, have occurred up to our last accounts. Those