The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-04 00:00:00

THE SUN,

motion was strictly in accordance with the understanding
into which he had entered with the Noble Lord the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, He should decline the
correspondence now offered.—(The Ilon. Member im-
mediately left the House.)
Lord PALMERSTON said that he had understood
the lion. Member to ask for the corrtspondence with
Mr. Backhouse relative to the Portfolio, and that was
what ho had agreed to give. The motion, however,
which was now sought to be rescinded was for corre-
spondence relative to the Hon. Member's recal, end that
correspondence he (Lord Palmerston) had distinctly in.
timated to the Hon. Member could not be given. On
constitutional grounds he thought that that correspond-
ence could not be made the subject of discussion in that
House.
Mr. ANSTEY quoted Mr. Urquhart's spe-ch to prove
that the motion did not refer to corresponder,c,t, connected
with the Portfolio, but to his recal from the legation of
Constantinople.
The motion was then put and agreed to, and
The House adjourned at a Quarter before Two
o'clock.

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS.

From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.)

THURSDAY, AUG. 3.

FARMERS' ESTATE SOCIETY (IRELAND) BILL.—
Amendment proposed in page 4, line 9 (Printed Bill as
amended) to leave out the words " thirty acres," in order to
insert the words " ten acres," instead thereof:—Question
put, " That the words ' thirty acres' stand part of the Bill.
The House divided:—

MAJORITY-AYES, 52.
Greenall, Gilbert Mailings, J. Ti.
Grogan, Edward Norreys, Sir H.
Hamilton, J. H. Parker, John
Ilayter, W. G. Pattison, J.
Heald, James Rapkael, Alexander
Hobhouse, T. B. Seymour, Lord
Houldsworth, T. Sidney, Alderman
Howard, P. 11. Somerville. Sir W.
Hudson, G. Thornely, T.
Jolliffe, Sir W. H. Tutbell, henry •
Jones, Captain Vane, Lord H.
Knox, Colonel Walsh, Sir J. B.
Law, C. E. Willcox, Brodie
Lewis, George C. Wyvill, Mannaduke
Masterman, J.
Meux, Sir H.
Milner, W. M

Arkwright, G.
Blackall, S. W.
Brown, W.
Campbell, W. F.
Carew, W. P.
Clay, James
Clements, Charles
Cocks, '1 homas S.
Courtenay, Lord
Dlvett, Edward
Duckworth,: Sir J.
Duncan, George'

Duneuft, John,
Fdwards, Henry
Ferguson, Sir H.
Forster, Matthew
Fuller, A. E.

Gladstone, W. E.
Grace, 0. D. J.

Morpeth, Viscount
Mostyn, E.

TELLERS.
Monsell, William
Stafford, Augustus

MINORITY-NOES, 14.
Alcock, Thomas Grenfell, Charles W. Tenison, E. K.
Armstrong, Sir A. Henry, Alexander Wilson, Matthew
Caulfeild, J. M. Kershaw, James
Dawson, T. V. M'Cullagh, w. T. TELLERS.
Fortescue, Chichester Pilkington, James Scrope, G. I'.
Greene, John Reynolds, John Thompson, Colonel

MARRIAGE (SCOTLAND) BILL.
Order for Second Reading read; Motion made, and Ques-
tion proposed, "That the Bill be read a second time upon
Monday next, at Twelve of the clock :"—Amendment pro-
posed, to leave out. the words " at Twelve of the clock ."
Question put, " That the words at Twelve of the clock'
stand part of the Question." The House divided:—
MAJORITY—AYES, 79.

--- - --- -
Abdy, T. N.
Fortescue, J. W. Pilkington, James
Adair, R. Shafto . Fox, Richard M. Reid. Colonel
Anson, Colonel Fox, W. J. Reynolds, John
Armstrong, Sir A. Freestun, Colonel Ricardo, Osman
Armstrong, R. B. Grenfel , Charles W. Rich, Henry
Arundel, Earl of Grey, Ralph W. Romilly, Sir John
Barkly, Henry Henry, Alexander Russell, Lord John
Bellew, it. M. Herbert, H. A. Russell, F. C.
Berkeley, Captain Hobhouse, Sir John Rutherford, A.
Berkeley, Craven Hodges, T. L. Shell, R. L.
Bernal, Ralph Jervis, Sir John Shelburne, Earl of
Blackall, S. W. Labouchere, henry Somerville, Sir W.
Bouverie, E. P. Lemon, Sir Charles Spooner, Richard
Bowring, Dr. Lewis, G. C. Stanton, W. 11.
Boyle, Colonel Matheson, Colonel Stuart, Lord P.
Bright, John Maule, Fox Thornely, Thomas
Brotherton, J. Melgund, Viscount Wakley, T.
Carew, W. P. Morpeth, Viscount Ward, H. G.
Charteris, Francis Morris, David Williams, John
Clay, James Mostyn; E. M. L. Wilson, James
Clements, Charles O'Connell, M. J. Wilson, Matthew
Cocks, T. S. Ogle, S. C. Wyvill,..Marmaduke
Craig, W. G. Paget, Lord A.
Douglas, Sir C. Paget, Lord Clarence
Duncuft, John Palmer, Robert
Dundas, Admiral Palmerston, Vis. TELLERS.
Ebrington, Viscount Patten, J. W. Tanen, Henry
Elliot, J. E. Pechell, Captain Hill, Lord Marcus

MINORITY-NOES, 24.
Henley, J. W. Mußings, J. R.
Hodgson, W. N. Osborne, Ralph
Hudson, G. Sandars, George
Hume, J. Scott, F.
Kershaw, James Somerset, Captain
Lockhart, A. E. Thompson, Colonel
Lockhart, W. TELLERS.
M'Gregor, John Arkwright, George
Melts, Sir Henry Sibthorp, Colonel

Bennet, Philip

13entinck, Lord G.
Christy, Samuel
Duncan, George
Edwards, Henry
Gordon, Admiral
Gwyn. Rowel
Halsey, T. P.

liastie, Alexander

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
COWES, AUGUST 3.
ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON INTELLIGENCE.
ARRIVALS.
JULY 28.—Gondola cutter, W. H. Woodhouse, Esq.,
from Liverpool ; Stormfinch cutter, Lieutenant Colonel
Bowers, C. 8., from Portsmouth ; Destiny schooner,
William Wells, Esq., from Portsmouth.
29. Pearl cutter, Marquis of Anglesey, from London ;
Amazon cutter, Sir John Walsh, Bart., M.P., from
Westward.
30. Enchantress schooner, Earl of Cardigan, from
Lymington ; Petrel cutter, Earl of Ilche)ter, from
Southampton; W y veils schooner, Duke of Marlborough,
from Plymouth ; Tarifa schooner, Earl of Wilton, from
Plymouth.
AUGUST 2.—Gipsey Queen schooner, Sir H. B.
Hoghton, Bart., from Liverpool ; Huzzar brig, T. P.
Williams, Esq., M.P., from Eastward ; Esmeralda
schooner, J. E. W. Rolls, Esq., from Westward.
SAILINGS.—None.
YACHTS AT AND ABOUT THE STATION.
Schooners—Capricorn ; Flirt ; Brilliant ; Fairy ;
Ariel ; Camilla ; Fair Rosamond ; Maud ; Merlin ;
Gipsey Queen ; Wyvern ; Coral Queen ; Esmeralda ;
Destiny ; Enchantress ; Gem ; Bianca ; and Huzzar
brie.
Cutters—Pearl ; Alarm ; Emerald ; Petrel ; Forest
Fly; Elizabeth ; Amazon ; Osprey; Lark ; Turquoise ;
Maid of the Mist ; Stormfinch ; Arrow ; Gondola ;
Spider ; Cygnet.
Yawls —Dream ; Susan.

STATE OF TILE PUBLIC HEALTH.
(From the Quarterly Return.)
The quarterly returns are obtained from 117 districts,
sub-divided into 582 sub-districts; 36 districts are in
the metropolis, and the remaining 81 comprise, with
some agricultural districts, the principll towns and cities
of England. The population was 6,612,958 in 1841.
It is gratifying to observe a remarkable improvement
in the state of the public health. The number of deaths
registered in the three months ending June 30, was
46,552; which is less by 11,158 than were registered in the
winter quarter of the present year, and less by 5,033 than
were registered in the corresponding quarter ending the
last day. of June, 1847. The mortality of the country,
after having been excessively high during the latter half
of the year 1846, the whole of 1847, and the first
quarter of 1848, is now little above the average of the
nine years 1839-47. The mortality, however, is still
much higher than it was in the spring quarter (April,
May, and June) of 1844, when the number of deaths
was only 38,977; which, taking the increase of popula-
tion into account, implies a lower rate of aaortality than
has been experienced in the spring season of any other

year.
In London the deaths in the quarter were 12,945
The deaths in the preceding quarter were 16,455;
the quarter ending December, 1847, when influenz i
prevailed, 19,605. Influenza has almost entirely dis-
appeared; it was the cause of death in only 50
cases during the 13 weeks ending in June. Small pox
was fatal to 381 persons in London; measles to 30h0;
scarlatina to 816; hooping cough to 449; purpura and
scurvy to 12 ; typhus to 882 ; erysipelas to 129. Small
pox, scarlatina, and typhus were prevailing epidemic.;
in London. Scarlatina in one week destroyed 107
lives. Typhus was at a maximum (1,279) in the last
quarter of the year 1847 ; it is now declining ; but it
is invariably longer in the epidemic form than other
diseases of the class. The diseases of the tuber-
cular class—namely, scrofula, tabes, consumption, and
hydrocephalus, fluctuate very little; to them 2,640
deaths were ascribed in the June quarter of 1841, and
2,403 in the June quarter of 1848; which were the
highest and lowest numbers returned in the eight 3 ears
1841-8. Diseases of the lungs declined rapidly; they
were the cause of 176 deaths in the first week, of 76
deaths in the last week of the quarter.
The improvement in the health of Liverpool is remark-
able ; while there were 4,809 deaths in the June quart( r,
1847, there were only 1,907 deaths in the June quarter
of 1848. In Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds there
has also been some improvement. Small pox and scar-
latina have been the prevailing epidemics throughout the
country.
The deaths in London from diarrhoea, dysentery, and
cholera were 11, 23, 13 and 14, in the first four weeks ;
27, 31, 37, and 51 in the last four weeks of the quarter.
The mortality from these diseases is somewhat higher
than it was in the corresponding week of 1847. The
deaths ascribed to cholera in the June quarters of the
eight years 1841-8, were 1,7, 8,9, 2,9, 4, 17 ; in the
last year, therefore, though the deaths are not numerous,
there is a slight excess.
These three diseases are always most common in the
three months of July, August, and September, when the
temperature is highest. The popular error which
ascribes them to fruit was referred to last year. That
it is an error is established by the fatality of these
diseases to infants at the breast, to the aged, to persons
in prison and public institutions, who procure no fruit,
and by many such facts as the following, reported about
the middle of the last century, by Sir John Pringle, in
his classical account of the diseases of the campaign in
Germany.
" Nearly half the men were ill, or bad recovered from
dysentery a few weeks after the battle of Dettingen,
which was fought on the 27th of June, 1743. The
dysentery, the constant and fatal epidemic of
camps, began sooner this season than it did in
any succeeding campaign. Now as the usual
time of its appearance is not before the latter
end of the summer or the beginning of autumn, the
cause has been unjustly imputed to eating fruit in excess.
But the circumstances hero contradict that opinion ; for
this sickness began and raged before any fruit was in
season except strawberries (which from their high price
the men never tasted), and ended about the time the
grapes were ripe ; which, growing in open vineyards,
were freely eaten by everybody.
"To this add the following incident :—Three com-
panies of Howard's regiment, which had not joined us,
marched with the King's baggage from Ostend to Hanau,
where, arriving a night or two before the battle, and hav-
ing orders to stop, encamped for the first time at a small
distance from the ground, that was afterwards occupied
by the army. These men had never been exposed to rain,
or lain wet; by this separation from the line, they were
also removed from the contagion of the privies ; and
having pitched close upon the river they had the
benefit of a constant stream of fresh air. By means
of such favourable circumstances it was remarkable that,
while the main body suffered greatly, this !ittle camp
almost entirely escaped, though the men breathed the
same air, the contagious part excepted, eat of the same
victuals, and drank of the same water. This immunity
continued for six weeks, until the army removed from
Henan, when these companies joined the rest, and en-
camping in the line were at last infected, but suffered
little, as the flux was then so much on the decline."—
Pringle on the Diseases of the Army, 3d Edition, 1761,
pp. 20, 21.
Fruit, potatoes, and green vegetables, are essential
parts of the food of man; and it is only when taken to
excess that, like other articles of diet, they disorder the

stomach.
There is as yet in England no trace of the epidemic
of cholera which is ravaging Russia from Moscow to
St. Petersburgh and aseeniing the Danube. It raged in
the summer of 1831, 17 years ago, at Sr. Pezersburgh,
reached Sunderland in October, London in February,
1832, Paris in March of the same year. Whether it will
pursue the same course now, travel at the same rate,
and be less or more fatal, must depend on a variety of
circumstances. If the visitation cannot be arrested, it
is greatly to be wished that it should be de-
ferred, for though enlightened communities have before
been too much in the habit of postponing sanitary
arrangements, and only commencing them when the
plague is actually destroying them—which is very like
admitting the enemy within the city walls and then putting
the fortifications in repair—it is certain that the great
capitals of the continent were never in a worse condi-
tion to withstand an epidemic than they are at the
present time.
That much remains to bo done in English towns is
evident from what is observed in London. It is one of
the best established truths in medical science—confirmed
by the experience of the army, the navy, the prisons,
the town and country districts of England, that pure
water and pure: air are necessaries of life; and in the
supply of these, London, though in a much better posi-
tion than other places, is still deficient. The vestry of
St. Marylebone, the largest and wealthiest parish in
London, to which we last year called attention, subse-
quently appointed a committee to inquire into the con-
dition of their constituents. The committee drew up a
valuable report in which they state among other things,
that " there are 538 streets or ways in the parish of St.
ISlarylebone," and though formerly sceptical, and not
very well informed, their information is now satisfactory
and complete—" Your committee have through the pa-
rish surveyor obtained now, for the first time, a complete
knowledge of the state of the sowers of this great parish,
and they are compelled to declare that it is manifestly in-
sufficient for the wants of the locality, no fewer than 191
streets or ways in the parish being wholly without proper
sewerage, and a great portion of the remainder detective
or incomplete. * * * Your committee have to report
another nuisance of a most pestilential character, over
which thy have not the slightest control, viz., the gully
holes opening into the sewers. Of these there are no
less than 2,732 in the parish, and your committee feel
that the number of these pest holes has been increased,
as the streets were built without the slightest reference
to their previous situation and requirement, and
without any at,regard to their noxious effects."
There does not in fact appear to be any valid reason why
people; when the gases generated up the sides of the chim-
neys, should opei
inevitably
vni
tnadbel
yr
in
ahteh
the
noses
presentof
the houses into the smoke.. The committee
in its own way :—" It
accounts for this state of things
fact that the rate-
payerstnshee:yvsse:rso"vmgeauryllybe so easily carried
must be attributed entirely to the
is punced defective.
Sewers." The water supply
an hour three days a
The water is only " on" for about
Middlesex Coin•
have no voice at the board Tonommis of
parry who brought their water into the parish _ a
week. The report says—" The West
express pretence of defeating monopoly, f
cahneagapreereamndenr
wrietrhsuttpel under the
the metropolis into districts, and placed the wholeot, com
munity at the mercy re-
gardsn_
edd igno
ut ot
theb sub a-
y,
other after
companies, a f
few years
ar
spoeanrteegerlei
supply and price." It is always so;
permanent
yentf
water is a thing in which there can be no pe
competition.
The committee throws all the blame which the sewers
of this giant monopoly,
and water supply suggests on other bodies; the vestry,_,
has the control of the "dust" and cleausing. Ibis,
though touched tenderly by the committee, is admitted
to be in an unsatisfactory condition.
committee
" Regarding the removal of the dust, your commi
find, in many places through the parish, accumulations
of dust in the yards and cellars of the houses, and there
is very general complaint of the dustmen refusing,to re-
move the same unless they are paid for so doing.' For
"dust"—which is innoxious—read, the refuse of the
kitchen,, and all varieties of putrefying vegetable and
animal matter, which were then only removed when
paid for in some way or other ; and are even now never
removed at all, but at the "reof
;request the inhabitants,
o very who in the worst parts are n clu intolerant of dirt.
These
These facts are not adduced to throw any special cen-
sure on the vestry of St. Marylebone, who, as well es
their officers, have, since the report of their tottith.ttee,
evinced a laudable anxiety to do
constituency and to improvehealth of the district.
The report of Marylebone exhibits fair cf
the condition of London, and must undeceive specimenthose
suppose that the houses tire drained, e:te itve
hattti who
nrich
and middle classes, to say nothing of the petit of London,
are adequately supplied with the means of cleanliness
and enjoy the benefit of a pure, salubrious air. Other
towns in England are comparatively in a worse condi-
tion; the continental cities are still mere insalubrious,
and judging from the analogy of the last epidemic they
will suffer much more than London, but it is little satis-
faction to the inhabitants of London to run the risk of
dying by thousands while their neighbours die by tens of
thousands, when they know that the danger to their
health and lives may be diminished to a great extent by
simple and obvious precautions. It may be a difficult,
but it is assuredly not an impossible, problem in engi-
neering, to supply every house in London with abun-
dance of pure water, and to remove all dirt by scaven-
gers and sweet drains; and these simple arrangements
would render it possible for the populat,ion to be cleanly.
A part of the mortality which men experience in
early life is perhaps inevitable; but this natural morta-
lity cannot e'iaeed the mortality in aome of the districts
in England, comparatively healthy, Matte Parte of !4e