The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-06 00:00:00

respects. Our past rule may have done much to
strengthen this belief, but we rejoice to think
we have reached a period when a beneficent
spirit will influence our national councils, and prosper
and direct all their consultations, to the safety,
honour, and welfare of that afflicted country.

The report of the Royal Academy of Medicine of
Paris on the questions referred to them by the hi each
Government, with a view to their giving an opinion
on the quarantine laws, is a document of the greatest
importance, and from which we may eventually hope
for the most valuable results, in the relaxation,
and, perhaps, ultimate abolition of the odious
system, by which the most injurious effects
have been produced—by which science has been
impeded, travelling obstructed, and commerce,
navigation, and manufactures seriously restricted.
The report of these learned gentlemen, which
is in every way worthy of their high reputa-
tions, objects in the strongest manner to the
system now in use by the authorities of Mar-
seilles, where the quarantine regulations are most
frequently used, and which it justly designates as
having been adopted under the influence of exagge-
rated fear and a total ignorance of the limits
of t. danger, and as stamped in several
points with a character of barbarism which
demands an early reform. The: Commission pro-
poses a line of conduct entirely opposed to the mea-
sures now taken. It is suggested they should be re-
placed by means simple and easy of execution, and
which have already received the sanction of expe-

rience.
The report is divide I int) four branches : the first
refers to countries in which the plague has arisen, or
still arises, spontaneously; the second, to its epide-
mic or sporadic character, and to the manner
in which it propagates itself ; the third treats
of the transmissibility of the disease ; and the
fourth of what is the common or exceptional
time for the incubation of the plague. It then
introduces the applications therefrom to the question
of quarantine. On the first branch, after giving a
definition of what the plague is, and the general
characteristics of the several localities in which it has
arisen spontaneously at different times, they arrive at
the conclusion, that in all countries where the disease
has been observed to be spontaneous, it may reasonably
)e considered to arise from certain causes acting on
a great portion of the population. Those causes are,
iving on a marshy soil, near the Mediterranean sea—
mar certain rivers, the Nile, the Euphrates, or the
Danube—living in houses that are low, not well
ventilated, and where there exists a superabundant
accumulation of inhabitants—hot and damp air--the
action of animal and vegetable substances in a state
if decomposition ; and, lastly, great moral and human
nisery.
In Lower Egypt, where these causes are chiefly
)revalent, the disease is endemic. It is observed to
tssume the sporadic form every year—that is, when it
attacks a small number of separate individuals, and is
aranting in the character belonging to epidemic
liseases; and the epidemic, where it attacks a vast
lumber of persons in a given time, about once in
.very ten years. After showing that this country,
low so frightfully afflicted, and from which the prin-
cipal danger of the imports.tion of the disease is to be
'eared, was for a long space of time kept free
*rom the epidemic by good administration and the
.xertions of the sanatory police of the country,
hey state their expectation that the adoption of
he same means would be followed by th e
same results. We have thus the hope afforded to
is, that by energetic measures being adopted in
Egypt, the scourge may eventually be banished from
the face of the earth. Surely such a desirable result
—a consummation so devoutly to be wished for—
would justify the different European Governments
nore particularly the French and English, in remon-
strating with MEHEMET Au, who now presides over
the destinies of that nation, who has already intro-
laced so many and such valuable reforms, and who
has evinced the strongest anxiety for the ameliora-
ion of the condition of his people. Is it not to be
supposed that if the restrictions and expenses occa-
sioned thereby to the commercial interests of his
:ountry, which he has proved himself so desirous of
advancing, were clearly pointed out, that he would
elopt every suggestion calculated to attain the object ;
tnd from the extraordinary power belonging to an
Eastern Sovereign he would have the means of
king so more readily available than in a more
imited monarchy would be possible ? Sincerely do
we hope that no time will be lost by our Government
in taking measures with those of other nations
`Or so greatly advancing the interests of humanity.
[ndependent of the considerations which must
have such weight with all philanthropists, the mere
?olitical economist must feel most desirous of the re-
-Ormation of a system the maintenance of which has
been so costly. It has been calculated that commerce
has been taxed for the support of the quarantine laws
•o the extent of from 1,000,0001. to 2,000,0001. per
annum ; but even that expense, great as it is, is
)f less consequence than the vexation and
lelay attendant thereon. The report of which we
have been speaking clearly proves the utter inutility
)f by far the greater portion of these regulations,
old testifies that they may be either wholly abo-
lished, or, at least, subjected to such changes as, in a
;seat degree, to do away with the principal grievances.
)ne.country alone can do nothing : if England alone
should take the lead, which she has ever done, by the
removal of these commercial restrictions, and the adop-
tion of a sounder and better principle, her commerce
might possibly be subjected to a greater degree of in-
.lonvenience by the additional stringency to which it
would be subjected by the nations whose prejudices
bad not been removed, and which still cling to the
antiquated and objectionable 'system with obstinacy
Ind pertinacity. It can, therefore, only be attained
by persuasion and losing no opportunity of
calling the attention of other nations to the
practical result of the observations of the Academy.
We trust, at least, that the attempt will be made by
our Liberal Government. They may be unable to
command success, but let them deserve it; and, should
they happily be successful, and induce the principal
nations of the earth to join with them
,n the total abolition of these vexatious laws,
they will have conferred a most valuable boon
3n the great mercantile and commercial interests of
their country. It is impossible for us to follow the
"eport through all its parts, suffice it to say, that it
states that the disease is propagated by local and
atmospheric causes, and not by contagion, and that it
is not conveyed by goods or merchandise—and that,
at a distance from countries where the pest is ende-
mic and out of the focus of infection, it never broke
out among persons that had been exposed to its
action after they had been isolated eight days.

Letters from Rome of the 28th state that the
emeute at Cesana, in which a captain of the Swiss
Guard was killed, was merely an affair between the
guard and a body of smugglers. The POPE, however,
has ordered the Swiss troops in garrison at Cesana
to be removed, and it is expected that one of the first
acts of the administration of Cardinal Gum will be
to reduce the number of Swiss in the pay of the
POPE. His HoLnizss presided over the deliberations
of the Committee of Education, consisting of sixteen
cardinals, on the 26th ult., and, it is said, proposed
the introduction of many improvements in the system
of public education.

At Berne the new constitution was adopted, on
he Ist instant, by a large majority of the inhabitants,
,n public meeting assembled.

The Military Commission of Inquiry at Cracow
has completed its labours ; 1,250 prisoners were ex-
amined ; of these 200 have been delivered up to
Austria and Russia ; 220 remain in prison in Cra-
crow, to undergo a trial before the Civil Commission.
composed of two Austrian, two Russian, and two
Prussian judges, with a President, and 830 have
been set at liberty.
The Emperor NICHOLAS addressed, on the 25th of
June, the following edict to the nobles of Esthonia:—
.• TO OUR BELOVED, FAITHFUL, AND DISTINGUISHED NOBLES

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ESTHONIA.
"The nobles of Esthonia have presented to us their propo-
sitions relative to the organisation. of the condition of the
peasants in this province. A committee especially appointed
for that purpose having examined these measures, which
fully answer our expectations, we bestow on them our ap-
probation, and it is with peculiar satisfaction that we ex-
press our imperial goodwill to the nobles of Esthonia for
this fresh proof of their generous efforts for the general
welfare. In the conviction that the nobles of Esthonia will
continue in the same spirit to deliberate on the final mea-