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

favatiitt _Sm.*

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1847,

Before many days have elapsed the great national
question of the improvement of our sanatory system
will be submitted to the deliberation of the Legisla-
ture. It would be utterly impossible to exaggerate
the importance of a matter so intimately connected
with the health, the comfort, the morality, and the
commonest decencies of society. And it is a pecu
liar satisfaction to know that the modification and re-
arrangement of our sanatory laws will not be under-
taken prematurely or precipitately ; that the Govern-
ment is not blundering into a concession merely for
the purpose of stopping a momentary clamour ; that,
in short, the consciousness of the necessity for some
such modification, and some such re-arrangement, has
grown upon the mind of the nation through a gradual
succession of years, becoming clay by day mor:•
obvious to the multitude and the Ministry, both from
the unanswerable logic of Reason and the indis•
putable statistics of Experience. Conspicuously as
the name of SOUTHWOOD SMITH has become asso-
ciated with this remarkable movement in favour of
cleanliness, the extent to which that movement h9s
become diffused throughout the community is not
alone attributable to him ; the cause has found advo-
cates in a thousand quarters, the people themselves
have acknowledged the advisability of some alteration
in their parochial proceedings, and for a very consi-
derable time the Press has endeavoured to stimulate
the thirst for social reformation and to enunciate the
real anxieties of the population. All the preliminary
measures, indeed, for insuring a change in the laws of
the land have been taken ; the potential impulse of
National Opinion has been given to the Legislature ;
the SOVEREIGN herself has recommended the consi-
deration of the sanatory wants of her subjects to her
faithful Lords and Commons ; the Ministry is deci-
sively pledged to the introduction of some compre-
hensive scheme to Parliament—a scheme bearing
directly upon the monster exigency, and calculated to
dissipate all the existing evils.
With so many villanous pests to remove, so many
difficulties to obviate, and so many and such compli-
cated interests to consult, it is only natural that the
Ministerial proposition about to be laid before
both Houses of Parliament should be characterised
by many deficiencies. This, we repeat it, is
but natural. In the first step of a grand
reform it would be folly to anticipate a panacea for
all the ills which it is intended to correct. We must
discard the advice afforded by HouacE as inappro-
priate to legislation, whatever it may be to poetry;
we must advance with all rational caution up the
scale of Innovation, instead of plunging in medias res,
and surrounding ourselves with new and yet more in-
tricate difficulties. Meanwhile, it would be equally
pernicious to nullify the efficacy of our legislative
enactments by an exaggerated timidity and an over-
weening precaution. Either extreme would be most
prejudicial, and, as with almost everything else, the
best course is the preservation of a proper medium.
There are two things, however, which we would
emphatically impress upon the minds of our country-
man—first upon Parliament, and secondly upon the
people in their particular localities. And we would
the more especially impress these things upon them
at this moment, seeing that the Ministerial proposi-
tions are on the very eve of their appearance.
First, upon the Legislature we would earnestly re-
commend the extension of their scheme of reformation

in the sanatory laws to every one of the more con-
spicuous abuses. We would see in the measures in-
troduced by the Cabinet no glaring omission or re-
markable oversight. We would see in those mea-
sures an individual remedy to every individual
evil manifestly tending to diminish the health of the
population. Rejoiced as we should be to find the
Parliament called upon to aid the more extensive
establishment of public baths and washhouses, we
should be more than disappointed to find the Govern-
ment silent upon the question of intermural inter-

ment. In the same way, the introduction of a good
sewerage Bill would be a great boon, it is true, but

it would be no compensation for a complete disregard
of the advisability of forming abattoirs and of sup-

pressing the system of private slaughter-houses. The
diminution of the smoke nuisance, again, would
scarcely satisfy us for the postponement of any effort
for the better introduction of fresh water into our
towns. To be brief, we shall not be contented, and
the people will not be contented, unless the Legis-

lature sweep away all the most crying abuses o
social life.

Secondly, we would enforce one consideration
upon the people in their municipal capacities. We
would see them prepared for the more necessary en-
actments of our rulers, so that the sanatory mea-
sures of the Legislature may be carried into opera-
tion with as little delay as possible. The various
local and parochial authorities should be ready to
correspond at once with the generous intentions of

Government, so that the public generally may reap
the advantages of the new system as rapidly as

possible.

Let it never be forgotten that sanatory arrange-
ments, of whatever character they may be, must,

more or less, influence the mortality of the nation.

We have perused M. GUIZOT'S very lengthy
dispatch, of the 25th instant, to Count ST. AULAIRE,
and we are perfectly satisfied that, not only England,
but France herself, whose honour and national in-
terests have been so shamelessly tarnished, and disre-
putably sacrificed by her Minister for Foreign
Affairs, will cheerfully concede that the correspond-
ence relative to the Montpensier marriage ought not
Titoo...place a few days to be further protracted. It would be at once generous
atya,e,,,,,ta
A singular railway accident 1,----
pointer de,
since at Ort,n, Westmoreland.
cut off by a' and dignified in us to adopt this course. Whatever
which was standing upon the railway, may have been the political differences between our-
idissing train. —Cali de Journal.selves and the French, no man, in his senses, can
THE ATRAPILA';ORT7 OR LIQUID llseriously entertain the
1 TE—the
supposition that the latter
only dye that really answers for all colours, I)
ri..quire re-doing but as the hair grows, as ii,naet::- doesf not nation, so sensitive upon points affecting their honour
n- quires that unnatural red or purple tint common
mades or and integrity, will view with approbation the humi-
, tier dye:g.' Botanic Water and Bear's Grease,—Wheino all
the hating policy
1-ir is becoming thin, and fallingthe only effectnael ourselves, which
M. Guizor has sanctioned. For
r,?mecly besides shaving the head is the use of the two above- so gratified as we are with the eclaircissement,
4,s;ned articles, applied al, ern ately—the botanic water to favourable to the
ability, end—what is of fur
( !,-arse the roots from scurf; and as a stimulant, and the greater consequence—the -,. e—the good faith, with which
heir's grease as a nourisher. The New Tooth-1 le n 1., L A T.,
ic.. -rus.., -01%. ..ALMERSTON Is
i loroughly cleansin,, between the teeth when used up and are - has acted throughout, we much yet
own, and polishing surface when used cross-ways. The , more concerned
that the chi-
) .i'r warranted never to come out. The Union and Triple 1
vary, refinement, and inst. •
2! . - Brushes. -r,e p ~,,,t- Arti-Pressure NO Brmh, our neighbours, should h motive integrity cif
Medium Shaving Brush. The Railway Strop and ;
guard. -Ii• ians ip of a Minister who
have been confided to the
rusder. The above new and elegant articles, in addition o has proved himself
to a very extensive assortment of beautiful perfumes are ennob
to be devoid of every one of those •
j ling senti-
Sne We manufactures and inventions of Messrs. Ross and meats: None but a mean and • jealous ;
tous,lt9, and 120, Bishopsgate-street, London. nt-n4 would