The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-21 00:00:00

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-STREET ' ANcEs.
(F the Chronicle.)
The dwellers in cities are subject to a long catalogue
of minor nuisances, which, taken in the aggregate, are
sufficient to poison all the enjoyments, and materially to
interfere with the business of life, and which yet,
from their individual insignificance, escape the in-
terference of the strong hand of power. We ask
of any candid Londoner which of the two
would he prefer—that Great Britain should possess
herself of Otaheite, or that barrel-organs should cease to
exist? Any reasonable unit out of the two millions
would, w e are sure, give it in favour of the barrel-organs.
This is not purely a metropolitan, but a national ques-
tion; yet not one solitary Member out of the 650 can be
found to take it up. This, however, is but one out of
the long and dismal series. We have no wish to under-
rate the deteriorating influence of the organ upon the
population of the metropolis, for well do we know what
5,000 organs, grimed into discord almost night and day,
can effect. Still, this is but 0,,e of many. We have at
present in London, in full operation—
The Organ Nuisance.
The Slide Nuisance.
The Snow ball Nuisance.
The Advertisement Car Nuisance.
The Opening of Drains Nuisance.
The Drawing-up of Omnibuses at Crossings Nuisan2e..
The Long Team Nuisance, &c. &c.
We could fill up a cclurnn of small type with a bare
eranneration of the sufferings to which a man is exposed
in a walk from Charing-cross to Sr. Paul's Cathedral.
Pandora's maid must have brought these down in a
small, r Is.x, rt tl.e time her mistress kid the founda-
tion of the le:i ned proiessions—nor, but for a few sug-
gestions wl,ica have t ccurred -to ouiselvei should we
feel justifh d in saying that in the, second case we had
even left us the poor consolation of hope. In the first
place, every Member of the Lower House might be
compelled to adopt his nuisance before his return should
be deemed complete. The two questions of What is
your qualification? and What is your nuisance? might
go together. Thus each nuisance would- be represented
by a Member.- We should have 650 nuisances, leaving
out Sudbury and the Speaker. We would divest their
discussions of all political acrimony. They should be
entirely eX.7:affpy3'J matters to be settled in the
lobbies by imprmised Committees; never in the body of
the House, except when the assembly was uselessly
employed; therefore of course they n4ver could be in-
troduced there. In the next place, they might all be
considered open questions. 'the lion and the lamb might
go into Committee together upon such subjects. A col-
lateral benefit resulting from this at rangement would
be, that it would have a humanizing effect upon the
fierceness of political partisanship. Thus Sir Robert
Peel, representing "the slide nuisance," would exchange
votes and compliments with Lord George Bentinck, re-
presenting " the snow-ball nuisance," and probably both
could be put down. So of Mr. Macaulay and " the
advertisement-car nuisance," of Mr. Disraeli and " the
barrel-organ nuisance," &c., &e. If it were thought fit
to extend the scheme to the Upper House, any Peer
might take any nuisance ; e. g., Lord Brougham " the
fish-wife nuisance," Lord Grey " the long team nui-
sance." We only throw out these hints by way of sug-
gestion : the two Noble Lords might exchange, &e. It
would be a mere question of arrangement. Another
idea would be to place all the London nuisances under a
board. There should be the Board of Nuisances, just as
we have the Board of Trade or the Board of Works. By
the adoption of this suggestion, a provision could be
made fur the younger and unemployed branes:es of the
nobility, an object the country has so much at heart.
Thus the nuisances and the young gentlemen would
neutralise each other. If neither of these suggestions are
thought practicable, we would propose a third method—
the introduction of a clause in the Police Act, by which the
police (under the control of a magistrate of course)
should be enabled to interfere summarily in these cases,
and check the nuisances at their origin. It is astonish-
ing how much additional comfort might be given to the
inhabitants of London with a slight degree of trouble.
So badly, for example, are the streets kept in the City,
that it is ten to one you can get from the Bank to
Temple-bar sooner on foot than in any vehicle. A piece
of pavement has been pulled up, a drain has been opened,
a stcpt.age of some kind (which might have been pre-
vented) has been created, and thus the stream is checked.
With a little management of street officers, compelling
vehicle s to move on, by no longer submitting the streets
of London to ridiculous experiments, and all these nui-
sances night, in some degree, be kept under. Time in
London is all in all ; the quarter of an hour we are
compelled to waste in a cab or omnibus probably dis-
arranges the engagements of the whole day. These
things appear to have been better managed at Rome.
for, if we remember right, Juvenal, in his good-hu-
moured sketch of the manners and customs of that
city, tolls us the wealthier classes could get about with
comfort :

" Si vocat officium, turba cedente vehetur
Dives, et ingenti curret super ora Liburno,
Atque obiter leget, aut scribet, vel dormeit intus."

Rothschild or Baring, or any one else, though his
name were good for a miliiou upon 'Change, must be
knocked about with the humbler classes of the commu-
nity—

" Nobis properantibus obstat
tuck prior; rnagno populus prernit agmine lumbos
Qui sequitur. Ferit hic cubito, ferit assere duro
Alter; at hic tignum capiti incutit, ille metretam,
Pinguia crura luto, plants; mox undique magna
Calcor, et in digito clay us mild militis hieret.

This is true of London at the present hour, even to
the long private of the Blues, the digamma of the human
alphabet, who brings his huge splay fin t down on your
boot, end leaves you there, to your torture and your
mud. It would be so ,a,y to do so much n ith so little
trouble. Wh►►t injury to individuals, in comparison with
the public convenience, would there be in compelling,
the waggons carrying coals, huge beams, &c., to circu-
late through the streets only at given In urs—say not
after eleven in the morning, nor until post hour in the
evening. Why could not the advertisement cars be at
once summarily put down, one and all, and the drivers
sent to the treadmill for a couple of months if they again
offend? Why is there not a division of police scattered
about the metropolis, guerilla-fashion, for the sole pur-
pose of boxing the ears of little boys who make slides in
the street? This may appear ridiculous, but we have
known and heard of many serious accidents incurred from
this cause which we should wish to see removed. Why
do tot the rolice receive express orders to conduct the
Italian boys to the station-house, and destroy the in-
human traffic ? The sufferings undergone by these
wretched boys, for the benefit of a few cold-blooded
speculators, would baffle all description. By forbidding
them to circulate for the future through the streets, and
aiding them, if they would, to return to their own
country, we should in reality be doing them the greatest
possible service. The relief from hourly discomfort to
the inhabitants of the metropolis would be past: all
,belief. We have thus touched slightly on some of the
main nuisances of the streets, and have offered some
suggestions for their removal. Whatever may be
thought of our first propositions—the last one will pro-
bably be admitted by all, viz., that of empowering and
requiring the police, by an express order, to see the
nuisances abated. We are not aware of the exact mea-
sures adopted at present by way of keeping the streets
in the principal thoroughfares, as from Charing- cross
and Oxford-street to the Bank respectively, and in the
most crowded parts of the City. Whatever the arrange-
ments may be, judging by results, they are certainly
inefficient, and should at once be put upon a new
[ foundation.

THE BRITISH ARMY.
(From the Times.)
Before the close of last session of Parliament, Mr.
.Warburton put a question to her Majesty's Government
in Parliament, in consequence of a calumnious report
published in a paper called the Heald of Peace, in 314
last, asserting that on the 22d of December last, after
one of the victories on the banks of the Sutlej, " the
troops were engaged in banging and shooting all the
prisoners; which dreadful work lasted nearly the whole
day." A similar question was put to the War Depart-
ment, to which Mr. Fox Maule replied, " that it was
impossible." Inquiries were, in consequence, imme-
diately directed to be mare in India as to the truth or
falsehood of so unexampled a charge against the ho-
nour and humanity of the British army. We have,
by the last accounts from India, received intel-
ligence that Lord Gough has, in the most peremptory
and indignant terms, not only completely refuted the
charge, but has thoroughly confirmed all that we have
advanced in proof of the humanity as well as
bravery of the forces under his command.
The calumny was founded upon a letter purport-
ing to have been written by a stldier of the Stith Regi-
ment to his father, which charged the British arms, after
the battle of Feroz,,z4iah, with acts of atrocity which
would have disgraced a nation of savages. We can re•
fute this foul accusation upon the testimony of the most
competent authorities in India, and give it the most un-
qualified contradiction. It could not have been written
by any soldier who was an eye-witness, for there is not
an iota of fact which could give rise to such gross false-
hood. During the heat of that desperate action very
to ask
taken.spkriosronaceresepwtegreuart.
Almost The
invariably,
Seikh soldiers s
when
able to escape, they rushed upon our men with their
(tulwars) cimeters. Except in action, there was but one
Seikh executed, and that one by the express order of the
Commander-in-Chief. Great numbers of British troops
were killed or wounded on tf.e 22d and 23d by the ex-
plosion either of "expense magazines" or of mines
some, no doubt, accidentally, but others were fired by the
profession
soldiersooaru nend dpet
hrdoe
proudly
hu-
manity by
people of the village of Ferozeshah. One man was. ap-
prehended in the act of firing a train, the explosion of
which caused the death of Lieut. Warren, of the 80th
Regiment, and two or three privates. He attempted to
make his escape, and would have been bayonettedit
Lord Gough had not come up at the time. As an exam-
ple to the Seikhs of the vi!lage, he was condemned, and
hanged in front of it, by the Provost Marshal. We are
fully justified in :ruing that, instead of the Seikh pri-
soners having been massacred. the utmost humanity was
extended to them. The wounded were carefully attended
to, and their wounds dressed by our medical officers,
and all that could be removed alive were sent to Feroze-
pore, and attended to by the British in the hospitals.
No person was killed after the action. Thank God, there
is:not a British officer in the army of India who would
disgrace himself, his country, and his
cgaivpitulgreadnfooer.derTfhorantkheGmoal,ltrteha;rmeeialtrea:on,efranaeotrow;
wmoau4ltybeof foundthe
e Indian guilty of
armyso brutal an
manifested than after the action on the banks of the
1 Sutlej.
11

T E CONDE DE MO'S TEMOLIN.—The Conde de
Montemohn,after receiving several distinguished visitors,
left his residence at an early hour, and spent the re-
mainder of the day in returning visits.. The Conde, as
usual, dined in the eveuiug with the noblemen and gen-
tlemen of his suite.

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