The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-09 00:00:00

-~t

Increase on the Quarter.-- £127,217
Considering the great depression which has prevailed during
the past month or two, in nearly every branch of commerce,
iit s gratifying to find that Liverpool continues to progress
towards the rust port in the empire. We ought to remark,
however, that the receipts of the month of June are swelled
this year by the duties just paid upon foreign grain under the
new law. These, we believe, have amounted to about
120,000/. There is, therefore, an increase independently of
the receipts from this source. We ought also to bear in mmd,
when contrasting the two periods, that considerable sums
would be paid in 1845 under the old scale.—Liverpool
Standard.
SERIOUS ACCIDENT.—On Friday morning last, a
number of persons assembled in Bartholomew-yard, Exeter,
to celebrate the passing of the Corn Bill, by a cannonade.
They had eight cannons, weighing about Sib. each, and 41b.
of gunpowder, and had fired four rounds, when the last
cannon burst on being discharged, from being overloaded.
One of the fragments struck John Gill, the town-crier, in
the knee, completely smashing the bones, portions of which
were by himself picked out of the wound. He was removed
to the hospital and will have to lose his leg. Another frag-
ment struck another young man, named
.Webber, in the face,
knocking out some of his teeth and cutting off his nose ; he
was removed to his own house. A third fragment struck a
person, named Teed, in his side, and has rendered his arm
useless for the present. A portion of the cannon was blown
across the yard and struck a window, the glass and frame-
work of which were much broken.—Derouport Telegraph.
STEAM. NAVIGATION.— The competition amongst the
steam-boat companies on the Thames, particularly above
London-bridge, seems to increase. On Sunday was wit-
nessed the novelty of the boats of one company running for
one halfpenny per head from the city to the west-end. A
splendid new boat, started by this company, seemed to at-
tract great notice on account of her extraordinary speed.
This boat, which is double-headed, having a steering-wheel
at each end, is named the New Cricket, and is intended to
take the place of a boat called the Cricket, built some time
ago for this company by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare, of
Blackwall, but which, from some defect in her build, was
not considered fit to run on this station. The New Cricket
and her engines were built and manufactured by Messrs. W.
Joyce and Co., of the Greenwich Ironworks, who, we learn,
are acquiring great celebrity on account of the very small
consumption of fuel required for their engines, and which, no
doubt, must enable the company to carry the public at the
unprecedented low rate they do. They are vibrating en-
gines, and seemed to be universally admired for the style in
which they wert• turned out, combining great strength with
beauty and excellence of workmanship. They were appa-
rmtly objects of great interest among the engineering pro-
fession ; and, judgi,ig from the great speed of the boat,
must reflect the highest credit on the architect and manu-
facturer.

THE BONE-CRUSHING SYSTEM.
REPORT of the SECRETARY of the POOR-LAW
COMMISSIONERS on BONE-CRUSIIING.
There appear to be two sorts of bones used in agri-
culture : Ist, the bones of commerce, from which all
the gelatine fat and animal juices are boiled out—a pro-
cess necessary, it is stated, to prevent decomposition,
and accidents and annoyance during their transport.
In this state the bones consist chiefly of phosphate of
lime, carbonate of lime or common chalk, phosphate of
magnesia, soda, and cartilage ; and in this state are
sold by the manure companies and preparers of ma-
nures, and are stated to be inoffensive, and compara-
tively uninjurious. 2dly, " green bones "—those in
which the gelatinous and other animal matter is re-
tained in the same state in which the bones are collected
by the bone-gatherers and others, from amidst dunghills
and heaps of ashes and refuse.
Inasmuch as the smell is referred to in the paper be-
fore me, it is inferred that the objection is taken to the
process of crushing the green bones, i. e. those bones
which give off putrid emanations; and it is the eligibility
of the proeess of crushing such green bones, as fitting
work for the inmates of workhouses, that is hereafter
considered.
There does not appear to be any recorded or precise
observations as to the specific effect of putrid emanations
from bones or from bone dust ; but there are no general
facts now more clearly ascertained than that all putrid
emanations from decaying animal matter are noxious,
that " the effects of such miasma are manifested imme-
diately on all surrounding human life (and there is evi-
dence to believe they are manifest in their degree on
animal life generally), in proportion to the relative
strength of the destructive agent, and the relative
strength or weakness of the beings exposed to them.
The effects are seen first on infants, then on children, in
the order of their age and strength, then on females, or
on the sickly, the aged, and feeble ; last of all, on the
robust workmen, and on them it appears on those parts
of the body that have been'previously weakened byexcess
or by illness."—( Vide Supplement to the Sanatory Re-
port for the general character of the evidence to support
this conclusion, paragraphs 5 to 11.) In general, the
work of bone-crushing appears to have been undertaken
by stout able-bodied men, on whom the influence of
noxious effluvia is not commonly immediately manifested,
nor likely to be observed ; but particular instances are
known where it was observed that nausea, inability to
take food, was the result on healthy independent labou
rers, when employed in crushing bones from which the
putrid emanations were strong. The same labourers
sustained no nausea or inconvenience whatever during
prolonged employment in loading, unloading, and spread-
ing dung.
The conclusion would be, from all such information as
appears to be applicable to the subject, that the process
is one which if it were carried on by independent la-
bourers, as a matter of private speculation, that would
come, a fortiori, under consideration with other processes
in manufactories where deleterious processes are carried
on, and on which it has been submitted to the Legisla-
ture for decision, whether they ought not to be placed
under authoritative regulations, with a view not only to.the
protection of the public from the emanation as common
nuisances, but for the protection of workmen engaged in
conducting them (videSanatory Report, page 256 to page
261, on the employers' influence on the health of workpeo-
ple, by regulation of their places of work), and whetlser
this process of crushing green bones is not one which,
from its peculiar offensiveness to the smell (and the
smell is in respect to emanations from decaying
animal as well as vegetable substances, the faithful
monitor of causes injurious to the health), ought to
be required to be conducted under chimneys, or with
appropriate appliances to carry away effluvia, and to pro-
tect the workmen from inhaling the dust, which will be
more injurious than the effluvia ? If protective legisla-
tive provisions on this principle were adopted for the
protection of independent workmen, there could be little
doubt that the process in question will be comprehended
within them as being at least as injurious and offensive
as several processes which the Building Bill before Par-
liament proposes to exclude for the future from the me-
tropolis. It would seem to follow, that the remedy which
it were desirable to apply by legislation for the abate-
ment of the nuisance arising from the process when car-
ried on as a private trade, should be applied to the pro-
cess now that it is biought within the cognisance of a
public authority. The question then arises, whether it
is practicable to conduct the process with proper care,
and with the requisite protective appliances, when that
process is carried on as an incident to the ordinary
workhouse management ?
It is assumed that it is not practicable to do so, except
at an expense of labour that will outweigh its advantages.
Mr. Tufnell states, " that the boxes used for crush-
ing the bones should always be perfectly dry, and broken
under an open shed, when the smell or effluvia is next to
nothing."
If these conditions be obtained, and if the effluvia be
reduced to " next to nothing," then undoubtedly the
"injurious effects will be reuced to next to nothing,
and there would be nothing to object to in requiring this
labour to be performed by young able-bodied men.
This statement cannot, however, be taken to the letter,
as it is obvious that bones enclosed only in a box, with
an open top, in a shed, without any contrivance of a
chimney, or funnel, to create a draught and carry away
the effluvia which the box will freely give off, could not
be inoffensive. The air contained in them being, how-
ever, more diluted, will, to some extent, be less noxious
than if the process were carried on in a closed chamber;
but the process would still, pro tank, be an injurious
one, even to ) oung labourers, if kept to such labour for
any great length of time.
But it is to be borne in mind, that " able-bodied
paupers " will not, in general, be of the most robust
class. Those whom the guardians may often be the
most disposed to set to work will be those whom they
consider to be the worthless class, the idle and the dis-
sipated. Now the dissipated will be pre-disposed to all
such deleterious influence by their dissipation ; they
may be deserving of punishment, but punishment cannot
legally be mixed up with relief, nor would exposure to
nausea and a fit of illness, be a mode of punishment re-
cognised. Mr. Tufnell considers bone-crushing to be a
tort of employment " peculiarly suitable to the semi-
able-bodied, a class very difficult to deal with, and who
may be very easily set to work in this way." Now, on
the principle above cited, as conclusions from medical
evidence as to the increased effect of putrid emanation
tos
in proportion to the weakness of the persons expose
them, the semi-able-bodied is a class on whom, as being
doubly susceptible, such exposure must at least be
doubly injurious.
It is, moreover, to be considered that the workhouse,
besides being a place of work, according to the ability
of the parties received, is also to be viewed and dealt
with as a hospital, and a place of reception for the sick
and convalescent, and very young children, and of
persons ; it is therefore a place
weakly and susceptible
from which all deleterious effluvia should be excluded,
a place for which such a process and traffic as that in
question is peculiarly unfitted; for though decaying bones
may be placed in the outhouses, yet it may be presumed
that it will be an object of difficult attainment so to con-
fine the fumes as to prevent them being carried into tln
house, and amidst the susceptible dosses of inmates.
It may be that with the very little attention that has
hitherto been paid to the effect of such influences en
health, the deleterious effect of the putrid emanations
from decaying bones will not be greater than those to
which the inmates of most workhouses are still exposed
(the effluvia from cesspools, and bogholes, and drains,
for example) ; but on that very account additions should
not be made to the existing depressing agencies. But
now that the operation, and causes of disease, of such
agencies is better understood, the whole should be re-
moved.
The process of bone-crushing is recomm( need as
being. advantageous to agriculture. Preparations of
chemical substances, phosphates, sulphates, and carbo-
nates, treated with the various acids, are valuable as fer-
tilisers, and are well prepared by the manufacturers, but
would not, on account of their importance to agricul-
ture, be the less unfitted and dangerous for manipulations
in the workhouse. On these several grounds, then,
That the process of crushing bones, when in a state in
which they give off putrid effluvia, is one which, when
unguarded, is deleterious :
That the protective precautions requisite, even when
the employineut is given to robust, able-bodied men, im-

V ~._

ply an extent of skilful arrangement and Cl
there is no security or reasonable expectation A ill be
be applied to the work when conducfssd under ord. him"'
workhouse management :
That although, when the emanations are not bit:bly
offensive, or where the bones are not in an aciss.;ve Atate
of decomposition, they may be housed or worked swith
impunity, by healthy labourers, yet, on account of .sthe
greater susceptibility of the sick and the weakly innsab ess
no materials giving off such emanations ought to• be
brought within the precincts of workhouses:
It is considered that the process of bone-crushitV
ought not to be indiscriminately sanctioned as an ems.
gible mode of setting paupers to work.
But beyond the nature of the employment itself, the
terms on which it is recommended for adoption by Mr.
Tufnell, and by some of the guardians, if any dependence
is to be placed on the newspaper reports transmitted with
the documents, appear to imply mistakes as to the prin-
ciple of the law, and deviations in the practice, which re-
quire some observations.
The employment is recommended by Mr. Tufnell be-
cause "it is very hard work, and from their not being,
accustomed to it, very disagreeable to paupers." One of
the guardians of the iloniton Board is reported to have
said that he thought bone-crushing might be advan-
tageously continued as " a test."
Now it may be questioned whether any part of the law
justifies the application of any process, simply and solely
as " a test."
Any poor person being in danger' of perishing from
destitution, having no means to maiatstin him, that is,
having no work whatever, is, in the terns of the 43d
Elizabeth, to be relieved by being " set on work" out of
the funds provided under the authority of si_Nat statute ;
the sort of work specified in the statute app ears to be
ordinary and usual occupations on " necessm v
wares
wares
and stuffs." In return for such work he receives
and the condition on which such relief ought to be ga yen
is thus stated in the report of the Commissioners ;of
Poor-law Inquiry:—
" The first and most essential of all conditions, a prin-
ciple which we find universally admitted, even by those
whose practice is at variance with it, is that his situation
on the whole shall not be made really or apparently so
eligible as the situation of the independent labourer of
the lowest class. Throughout the evidence it is shown
that in proportion as the condition of any pauper class
is elevated above the condition of the independent
labourers, the condition of the independent class is dee
pressed, their industry is impaired, their employment
becomes unsteady, and its remuneration in wages is
diminished. Such persons are, therefore, under the strong-
est inducements to quit the less eligible class of labourers
and enter the more eligible class of paupers. The con-
verse is the effect when the pauper class is placed in tisa
proper position, below the condition of the independent
labourer. Every penny bestowed that tends to render
the pauper's condition more eligible than that of the in-
dependent labourer is a bounty on indolence and vice."
All this is true, and yet if the applicant have " no
means" to maintain him, if he be in the position con-
templated by the statute of Elizabeth, however simple
the fare, and hard the task of ordinary and useful work,
being saved from the consequence of having " no meatus"
to maintain him, it is still relief which he receives, and
the provision is still a beneficent one.
In another part of the report of the inquiry, p. 264, it
is stated as an incident to the carrying out of this prinsted
-
ciple, " that the offer of relief on the principle sugge
by us, wonld be a self-acting ' test' of the claim of the
applicant."
" It is shown throughout the evidence that it is de-
moralising and ruinous to offer to the able-bodied of the
best characters more than a simple subsistence. The
person of bad character, if he be allowed anything
could not be allowed le.,s. By the means which we pro-
pose, the line between those who do, and those who do,
not need relief, is drawn, and drawn perfectly. If the
claimant does not comply with the terms on which relief
is given to the destitute, he gets nothing, and if he does
comply, the compliance proves the truth of the claim—.
namely, his destitution."
The tent is still the incident to the principle on which
the relief is administered, the pauper is still relieved by
being " set to work." All the examples of dispauperised
parishes cited by the Commissioners of Inquiry were by
setting the applicants on work, on ordinary and usual
work of the character of the work specified by the statute
of Elizabeth, but it appears to be going not only beyond
the terms of the comment of the Commissioners of In-
quiry, but beyond any terms of the law itself, to erect
the mere incident into the principal and sole objects of
the law. When used in such a manner as above recited,
and with such a process, the man is popularly under-
stood to be (and it is to be featCd is often intended to
be) " tested," as a coin is tested isir the application of
nitric acid, or aquafortis, and then ism; ;aside without any
further care if he stands the test. The law' directs work
to be given as the inseparable condition of the benefit,
and as a relief, and not as " a test." But when it is s:-.Sed
that that which is of little or no use as labour, is value'
able, and to be retained as a " test," a course is taken to
bring the law into odium, to excite opposition against it, •
and by the injudicious use of the word " test," justify
the declamation against its administration, that its real
intent is to " torment" the paupers.
To an idle and vicious man, any work such as an in-
dependent labourer executes with cheerfulness, maybe
disagreeable, but it is only on the condition of his being
set cn work, however disagreeable, thatthe statute of the
43d Elizabeth allows him to receive relief. In prin-
ciple, and according to the fair interpretation of that
statute, the usual and ordinary work should be such as
may offer no temptations to an idle man, but present no
ground of fear to an industrious one, that if he take the
employment he will be subject to a fit of illness, or to
any severity that is to operate not as proper labour, but
simply and solely as a test. If the word were taken
from their report, which does not appear, the Coronsii-
sioners of Inquiry ma 3 fairly complain that no precau-
tion can protect any term from perversion, when a word;
used as characterising an incident is coined into
ac
phrase, and used as above described in the face of such
illustrations as the following :
" A further advantage of extended districts, the
unions, say the Commissioners, arises from the com-
parative facility of providing for the paupers' useful
employment. Opportunities for such employment are
wanting in many parishes, in others exist in forms too
large to be undertaken, and in still more numerous in-
stances exist uselessly, in consequence of the jealousies
which always act most powerfully in small neighbour--
hoods. It appears that one of the first preliminary
measures must be the preparing for the able-bodied
more of this employment than we believe that they
will accept."
"Employment of some kind can indeed be always
provided, but it appears to us that it ought to be useful
employment. Parish officers, whilst they have had suf-
ficient labour of this description before their doors, in
their unwillingness or their inability to take upon them-
selves the trouble of superintendence, oe to make any
immediate pecuniary sacrifice for the purpose of enforc-
ing the performance of that labour, have resorted to the
expedient of sending paupers on fictitious errands, with
baskets full of stones, or blank paper, directed as letters,
and other devices of the same nature, obviously intended.
to torment them. Such contrivances are pernicious in •
the revengeful feelings which they Iss nerate in the
minds of the paupers themselves, and they are also
pernicious in exciting sympathy in behalf of the indo-
lent and vicious. and in the obstacles which they. create
to the use of legitimate labour and salutary discipline ;
we believe that they ought to be carefully prevented.
The association of the utility of labour to both parties,
the employer as well as the employed, is one which we
consider it most important to preserve and strengthen,
and we deem overythins; mischievous which unnecese
4arily gives to it a repulsive aspect. At the same time
we believe that in extended districts the requisite
sources of employment will be easily found. The supply
of the articles consumed in workhouses and prisons will
afford a large outlet for the manufactures carried en in
the house ; and with respect to out-door employment"
it is probable there are few districts to which such evi-
dence as that contained in the following extracts would
not be applicable."
The work exemplified is town drainage, and road
making and road repair. It may be asserted that, In
general, public work may be found within the district of
the union, possessing the qualities recommended, if the
officers entrusted with the local administration of the
law exercise due diligence. The recommendation of
such a process as that in question, because it is easy of
application, because it is efficient, ;hat is to say, severe
as a test, may amount only to this, that it saves the
union officers the trouble of providing and superintend-
ing useful and less objectionable stock, or materials on
which to set the applicant on work, or, in other words,
pauperises the officer at the expense of the pauper.
The doctrine propounded, that no work should be
undertaken which interferes with private labour, is open
to much observation. Its application to the process in
question is mistaken in fact, as it will be seen from the
price current of measures, and their prices in London in
October last, given in Messrs. Johnson and Shaw's Agri-
cultural Almanac for this year, that bone-dust is a re-
,ular article of manufacture and private commerce.

aro'

DuEL—A letter from Munster states a duel tool(
place close to that town, under the sanction of one of the
tribunals of honour now established throughout the Russian
army. It appears that Baron de Denkhaus, a lieutenant of
the 11th regiment of Hussars, having, when playing billiards,
used some insulting expression to Lieut. de Bounhart, of the
13th Infantry, the latter brought the matter before the Tri-
bunal of honour of the place. The Court endeavoured to
induce the offending party to retract the expression used, but
finding this to be impossible, it authorised a duel with sabres
between the parties. The meeting took place near the town,
at three in the afternoon, in presence of an immense crowd.
A stand was erected at one end of the lists for the judges,
who took their seats, dressed in full uniform. On the ar-
rival of the combatants a new attempt was made to effect a
reconciliation, but, on its proving unsuccessful, the opponents
were directed to choose out sabres with their eyes blind-
folded, and then, with head bare, and in their shirt sleeve, to
commence the attack. They fought with great determina-
tion, M. de Bounhart receiving two slight cuts on the arm,
but soon after giving M. fie Denkhaus a severe wound on the
thigh which prevented his standing. The fight was declared
at an end. After the first medical aid was given, the judges
recommended the disputants to be reconciled, which they
consentedto, and shook hands amidst the cheers of the multi-
tude. All the parties concerned then withdrew. This is the
first duel authorised by any tribunal of honour, reconcilia-
tion having been effected in all the other cases brought be •
fore them.
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.-00 Thursday en at-
tempt was made to assassinate Mr. Charles Farrell, of Dalys-
town, justice of the peace, near Loughrca, in the county-of
Galway. This gentleman observed a strange man at his
parlour window' looking iu very intently. He asked his
business ? "Charity," replied the fellow. He was told there
was nothing for him, whereupon he presented a paper to Mr.
Farrell, which he refused to look at. This movement was
evidently intended to arrest the attention of that gentleman,
for the fellow drew a pistol from his breast, and was in the
act of cocking it, when Mr. Farrell rushed towards him, call-
ing to his servants. The intended assassin was apprehended
after a run of three miles across the country, and on his pas
son were found two ball cartridges, together with the loaned
pistol.. was. identified at the gaol of Loughrea.onkiig
t.
name is Burke, and hadiust been liberates after a .?1
iwprioowzont for raptor.