The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-09 00:00:00

proceedings cannot influence public opinion one jot.
It can neither " command success" nor yet "deserve
it." The whole thing is little better than a waste
of time in the elaborate performance of a farce that
no one outside the Great National Letter-Box in
St. Martin's-le-Grand can ever be expected to care
two straws about. As a contemporary has very
admirably put it, in summing up the entire case
anew, of the Public generally versus the Post-office,
or, at any rate, the Circulation Department—lt
should be borne in mind especially, that " The
Post-office is not charged with corruption, malver-
sation, or waste. It is not even accused of mis-
management in the ordinary sense of the term, for
it would perhaps be impossible to give the public
better service on the same principles or out of the
same means." No—the charge preferred is nothing
whatever of this kind. All that is maintained
as a distinct accusation against the Post-office,
or at any rate against its Circulation Department,
may be epitomised by saying "That the introduc-
tion of the penny postage system has rendered the
accommodation at the command of the establish-
ment utterly inefficient, and that the desire of
saving a large surplus for the national revenue has
prevented such an employment of the resources of
the department as would have put things straight
again." As our contemporary very accurately
insists :—" The natural result of such conditions is
scarped' workmanship. The Post-office, instead
of welcoming any new demands upon its services,
as a national establishment ought to do, evades its
duties and curtails its work. Some of its proper
business it shifts on to the shoulders of its cus-
tomers; some it altogether refuses." The par-
ticular charge—to descend from generalities—is thus
specified :—" Newsletters," says our chief morning
contemporaty, "or newspapers have suffered most
of all. For some years past there has been a steady
desire on the part of the Post-office authorities to
shut us out of the letter-box. The question of the
newspaper stamp was worked by gentlemen to the
general disadvantage of newspapers altogether.
Every fresh arrangement brought us some fresh
disability, till at last comes the naked proposal to
deny us any special recognition, and to treat our
daily issues just like carriers' parcels or ordinary
books." It is against this that we have been for a
long while past strongly protesting—and against
it we shall continue to protest until the matter
shall have been, as it surely must be, remedied.
The Post-office is no longer up to its work. In
order to pour a surplus into the Treasury it shirks
its own bounden duties—it refrains from doing
what it should have done long ago, what it should
continue to do (more or less) perpetually. It does
not—to be plain—keep pace with the expansion
and multiplication of our national requirements.
Its central structure needs considerable enlarge-
ment. Its aggregate number of "hands" requires
increase: Let it use its own money, as it ought, in
carrying out its own duties—before contributing
one sixpence to the Exchequer ! Applying the
duty of the Post-office system in its relation to the
expansion of the Newspaper system, we say
distinctly, absolutely, and advisedly of the for.
mer, as it affects the latter, that it ought
to " grow with its growth and strengthen with its
strength!" Which it notoriously does not—and
has not done. To constrain it at last to the tardy
performance of this among other neglected duties,
we insist that the Commission of Inquiry into the
working of the Circulation Department ought to be
conducted outside and apart from all the Post-
office influences. It ought, in point of fact, to be,
in one word, Parliamentary.
One consideration alone, in regard to the necessity
for this expansion in the working of the Post-office
system, opens up an immense field of conjecture to
the imagination. It is a consideration suggested in
the course of an admirable article (given elsewhere)
in a recent number of the Mechanics' Magazine—an
article about " Cheap Paper and Cheap Postage."
It is this :—" The distance over which mails are
now conveyed within the United Kingdom by
railways, coaches, carts, foot-carriers, steam-
packets, and boats is about 140,000 miles per day !"
I Having mentioned which fact, the writer in the
Mechanics' Magazine adds :—"Who shall say what
it will become when the restrictive and heavy hand
of prohibition shall be removed, and the Post Office
be thus allowed its full development and legitimate
.
mission ?" We are fain to believe that this sug-
gestion must surely, upon second thoughts, be too
much for Sir ROWLAND HILL—For we cannot
easily make up our minds to regard the author of
the Penny Postage System—now that he is, really
and truly, oue of the very few Right Men in their
Right Places—can by possibility persist, in any
way, in being (what must surely be his very anti-
podes or antithesis), an Obstructive !

Our attention has lately been directed to a very
painful case which has, we learn, created much
excitement in the neighbourhood of Sher-
borne. It appears that a young girl named ELIZA-
BETH HODDER, a domestic servant, was attacked,
while in service, by an infectious fever. The doctor
recommended her immediate removal from the
family, who had no accommodation for her, having
already a sick servant in the house. He went to make
inquiries at the Union, and found on personal inspec-
tion that there were only between 70 and 80 people
in a house designed for 240, and consequently there
was ample convenience, for her admission. It seems
that she was admitted but was soon after removed.
At whose door the cruelty lies is not stated ; but
this poor girl, suffering from a dangerous fever,
" was taken," to use the words of the physician
who attended her, " when certainly not fit to be
removed so far—a distance of about five miles, to
a cottage which had not been inhabited, except by
night, I was told for several months; standing in a
swamp, surrounded on three sides by a stagnant
ditch, one of the windows of the room to
which
hh theare
poor girl was taken, opening immediately over one
of these ditches, the exhalations from
freely admissible through the casement that will
To this miserable locality the
not nearly close."
wretched sufferer, by the wise and humane decision
of the Board of Guardians, was conveyed ; the
result being, as Dr. WILLMAN says, that she
"almost necessarily died in a few days." We are
not surprised that warm and general indignationhuold
should be felt in the neighbourhood. We s
recommend that the rate-payers of the district
express their sentiments pretty plainly to the
parochial authorities on this matter. Surely the
Union should have a sick-ward, with pro-
per accommodation for the isolation of in-
fectious disorders. That a poor girl afflicted
with a dangerous disease should be bandied about
from one place to another because the accident of
her being in service deprives her of a lodging, is a
thing not to be tolerated in a heavily taxed coun-
try like ours. The parishioners have a right to
demand that the case should be immediately and
stringently inquired into, and we trust they will
not neglect their duty in this matter. In addition to
the inhuman treatment of the sick girl herself, how
great is the risk incurred by keeping those having
infectious disorders in crowded places of business.
The doctor recommended her admission to the
Union after having ascertained that none of her
relatives could take her, excepting the inhabitants
of this miserable cottage. Her 9ther friends in

Sherborne had no room in their houses, but an aunt
said she would take her in if she had a bed to place
her in. This aunt is the washer for the King's
school, and a large quantity of the linen was then
in the house,a fact which as Dr. WILLIAMS points
out, might have had most dangerous consequences
in spreading the contagion. The case adds another
instance, if any were needed, to the urgent necessity
that exists for some alteration in the management
of our Unions. As at present constituted they are
too often a disgrace to a people professing humanity.
It would be well if a part of the time, exertion, and
money so liberally bestowed on charitable institu-
tions were directed to the purpose of making our
workhouse system a little more what it should be.
The plan of refusing to admit anyone not born
in the parish is simply absurd. If a man is
born in the North of England, and in
the course of years settles in Dorset or Devon
where unforeseen circumstances reduce him
to utter destitution, he is expected, forsooth, to
make a journey of two or three hundred miles be-
fore he can obtain relief. And, in very many in-
stances, people may not be certain what parish is
theirs. In a case of severe illness the obstacles and
difficulties put in the way of claimants for admis-
sion, bad enough in health, become positively
barbarous. We do not envy the feelings of those
gentlemen who ordered the removal of the unfor-
tunate girl. To send a sufferer from fever to such
a locality as the one described above was simply
signing her death warrant. It is a disgraceful
transaction, and if a poor girl, honestly working
for her own support, is to be liable to such treat-
ment in case of sudden and severe illness, the less
we say in future about our national justice and
charity the better.

A pleasant prospect has just been drawn in de-
licate perspective by a very few but sufficient
touches ofan ingenious pen in the Lancet—a delight-
ful prospect for all of us unhappy Londoners,
during this next midsummer ! It is worth looking
into at once—if only to see whether there may not
be yet time for staving off the threatened evil.
Everybody who chanced to be in London during
the dog-days of 1859, will only but too well
remember the foul stench reeking from the
surface of that great open sewer bisecting the
capital of the British Empire—once upon a time
a noble and beautiful river called the Thames !
Well—remembering that stench—we are now in-
formed by the Lancet (which gives its reasons for
the statement) that that bouquet will be as nothing
to what we may expect this summer ! The Lancet
says :—" The Board of Works have committed
many grave blunders ; they are about to extin-
guish these by one which shall be immeasurably
greater. They are advertising for thousands of
gallons of perchloride of iron, by which they
mean something else." Perchloride of iron as a
disinfectant has been proved to be a dead failure !
Yet the Board of Works—mistaking it for another
fluid—are advertising for perchloride of iron, that
they may pour it into the Thames, with a view to
its disinfection and deodorisation ! How the blunder
originated the Lancet very clearly explains as follows:
R Warned by the unutterable stench of the Thames
during the past seasons, and seeking means more
efficacious than those hitherto employed, which
converted the water into a peculiarly uninviting va-
riety of sanatory lime soup, the Board had called
into council two eminent chemists, Dr. Hofmann
and Dr. Frankland, whom they invited to select,
from a shoal of schemes submitted to the Board, a
deodorising process combining both efficiency and
economy. Of those proposed the name was legion.
After rejecting the proposition of Mr. Kottula for
dosing the river with salt, and with others for gal-
vanising the astonished waters, and treating them to
electric shocks, these gentlemen reported that only
on a fluid possessed 'that combination of qualities
which could warrant them in recommending it to
the Metropolitan Board of Works for the deo-
dorisation of the London sewage.'" The
Lancet goes on to observe—" The agent was
that described as Dale's muriate of iron,'
which far surpasses any other in its imme-
diate action and permanent effects.' Its supe-
riority in immediate action arises from the small
quantity which is needed of the fluid, for five drops
effectually deodorises a gallon of foetid sewage ; or
half a gallon suffices for 7,500 gallons of sewage, as
Drs. Hofmann and Frankland report. Next, in the
facility and rapidity of its application, and in the
agreeably pellucid condition in which the deodorised
water is subsequently left. Finally, whereas sewage
deodorised with lime or chloride of limo (the next
best agents) becomes offensive and putrid four days
after treatment, that treated with Dale's fluid re-
mains permanently deodorised. Probably it may
also be said that it is disinfected, for the iron salts
appear not only to deodorise but to precipitate the
organic matter, which is likely to act as a ferment.
Hence the completeness and permanence of the deo-
dorisation. The reporters confirm all that has been
alleged in these respects concerning Dale's fluid ;
but finding it to contain an excess of perchloride of
iron, they fell into the grave chemical error of speak-
in g of it through the latter part of their report as per-
ch loride of iron !" Here is the error. And now, to and
behold, " The chemical blunder of the reporters has
been magnified by the Board into 1 sanitary blunder
of the greatest magnitude. The fact is, that the per-
chloride of iron did not come under the notice of
the reporters at all ; they reported throughout on
Dale's fluid. The perchloride of iron has compa-
ratively feeble powers of deodorisa tion. The Board
are advertising for thousands of gallons of a fluid
of the properties of which they know officially no-
thing ; they are asking, in fact, for what they do not
mean, and will get what they do not want. The
result will be, that thousands of pounds will be
wasted, and the Thames will stink worse than
ever." That is the pleasar.t prospect we have alluded
to. It is enough to empty London of all who can
leave it, through the nacre terror of the an ticipa

titi o_n_Nve
conduct of M. Dupanloup,
In order to testify their admiration of the spirited
first declined
with the Siccia and the heirs of his predecessor, Bishop
have paid
cliiiirsecleaiwvanedeyxthrt:oo:e.isn.
Bishop of Orleans, in his litiga-
uas au, thae.c.itizens of Orleans have, by voluntary con-
accepting
tributions
These
hhl‘
eel
e.
sehßaepr
gentlemen
yoe fra
remune-
ration, d l' sa'
t.
Dufaure
but
were sub •
s. One of the sequently induced to change their
cessful prosecution is that
of that ill-advised and unsuc-
upon as the head of tile ChurchM.
BEULAH SPA HYDROPATHIC in France.
The reputation which Beulah Spa
cen-
tury, on account of the medicinal properties
waters, appears destined to be not
greatly increased in future years b
I?upanloup is now looked
ESTABLISHMENT.—
in the last
roperties of its mineral
only perpetuated, but
successful and well-conducted hydropathic ein the locality of a
establishment.
In no place is such an institution more needed
than in the neighbourhood ofLondon
vast population is so deeply absorbed in tt\Lvehere its
conflictof various interests, and where every nerve is strained
to the utmost in the eager competition *in which it
is necessary to bear a part. To those engaged in profes-
sional or mercantile duties in London, Malvern, and other
hydropathic establishments, aro too far removed, and to
them it will be a grateful announcement that within a few
minutes' ride by railway, or other conveyance, there exists
an elegant and commodious building, in the midst of spa-
cious grounds, and in one of the most commanding spots
in the neighbourhood of London, to which, at ter the close of
the labours of the day, they may retire, and enjoy the full
benefit of medical supervision and advice, and of those
various descriptions of baths which experienced practi-
tioners may recommend for their use. Except in very extreme
cases, the hydropathic treatment does not preclude the
patient following his ordinary pursuits and avocations, and
it is one of the greatest recommendations of tho Beulah Spa
that it enables a man to attend to his professional or other
duties, while at the same time undergoing a curative pro-
cess. The site of the building and grounds is in Upper
Norwood, Its proximity to the Crystal Palace, and its
easy accessibility from London, are also advantages which
ought not to be overlooked in estimating thf) value of Dr.
ititterbandt's sanitorium.