The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

CALCUTTA AS IT IS.

Every English traveller who visits Paris sighs over its
improvements. The contrast with London is too strong.
The difference between the acts of M. Hausmann and those
of the Board of Works are too great to leave room for
any feeling but regret. Travellers have even been heard
to aver that we might purchase independence too dear at
the price of stagnation, that a few weeks of a wise despo-
tism might do more for our cities than ages of municipal
self-government. Yet it is doubtful if such a despo-
tism, if worked by Englishmen, would suffice to the end
required. In Boston Americans, as jealous of interference
as the citizens of London, still enforce sanitary lawn with
a rigour Louis Napoleon dare not attempt. In India an
absolute Government declines even the effort to improve
its capital. Calcutta, the metropolis of Asia, the seat of a
trade which has risen to 20,000,0001., is cared for less
than a tenth-rate town in the Mediterranean. The City of
Palaces, as some traveller contrived to designate it, wants
all the three attributes of a capital—convenience, beauty,
and original character. It is not convenient for health, for
the science of which we boast has done nothing to redeem
the original mistakes of the founder. He placed the city
on a spot where there is no natural drainage, and we have
only reported on an artificial remedy. A single shower of
r tin fills the streets knee-deep. The cowl ounds of the
European houses retain the water till the sun sucks it up,
scattering malaria in the transit. The bazaars of the city
and the native town are alike crossed by open drains full
of corruption, such as the costermongers of St. Giles'
would be unable to endure. Great native merchants
leave black ditches uncovered under their walls, and a
journey through Chitpor-road is full of torture for all but
snuff-takers. The river, perhaps the swiftest, and cer-
tainly the most beautiful of Asiatic streams, besides
the uncleanliness natural to a port, is filled with
dead bodies and feted with the excrement of a nation.
That river, and a few half-stagnant tanks, furnish the
drinking water of a population which has learnt from habit
to fear the cholera as little as the lightning. The stroke of
both may be deadly, but they are considered equally una-
voidable. Charnock and his successors let the native town
grow as it would, and it has grown, as a jangle grows, the
faster for the absence of ventilation. That the plague has
never appeared in the Burrs bazaar is a blessing we owe to
the mercy of God, not to any carefulness of our own. With
cholera endemic we stilt enforce no ventilation, open no
new streets, clear no path for the wind; and regard build-
ing,acts and acts for lodging houses as a drew,' some future
generation may begin uselessly to discuss. Our popula-
tion congregates as it wilt, builds as it can, and lives as it
way, without that guidance which is our moral claim to
govern. It is " Oriental," and that is a sufficient apology,
as if Orientals had not built Antioch, or Munco had never
enforced the religious duty of the bath. The shore, which
from its gradual slope renders quays and jetties easy of
construction, is left to be covered with mud and filth, and
dangerous bits of granite. With a trade of 20,000,000/.
there is not one quay, one jetty, or one landing wharf,
and but one large crane. Imports from half the world
are still unloaded in country boats, and insurance is still
rendered two per cent. more costly by the dangers of the
river. Calcutta has no idle class, and we may pass with
resigned regret over the absence of all European amuse-
ments. But even the busy could appreciate cabs, or some
mode of progression swifter than the
palanquin, and less
costly than a private carriage. We have nothing of the kind
—a strange nondescript box on wheels, drawn by ponies
whose traces are usually of rope, Plying only from the rail-
way ghaut. There are some places on earth as little fa-
voured by nature and as little cared for by man which
have one not unimportant recommendation. They are
cheap. Calcutta is dear. Rent,
absorbs one-third,
thPerov_i_stiownehiacr,he at least con-
sumes one-sixth of tho householder's expenditure, in Cal-
cuttaoctroi. Meat, three-fourths ofdwi
dear as they are outside I.Leasontdtownipeao
is no
Eng-
land can be wholly consumed
be eaten, is rising to Et• b • loiosuh ge
hih
bet.hfeorre.e it can
111 prices for joints which in
still cheap ; but the confect. •ouri English habits
impose on us fully reale loner's bill
insignificant
updprobriunt
on the genius of ies that imago/
tr ine unven-
tilated, ,blos we believe, ars
o-ra
or the meaOst
our Ichaneamahs.
and una
ed with 'water, without amuse-
mentst costly in the
extreme, Calcutta is 9 sane men would select
flat countryma•y f ioooesotion, Ye
not the place
for convenience As little is itistinguished for beauty. A
the union
contain the elements of the
features.
picturesque,verdure and union of flowing
may compensate for the absence of
grander natural
water and perpetual
But Calcutta is wanting in all these. Indian
Paper.