The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-17 00:00:00

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE
WEEIr.

AYES-96.
Agnew, Sir A. Evans, Sir De Lacy Ogilvy, Sir J.
Anderson, Sir J. Evans, T. W. Philips, R.
Arlon, A. Ewart, W. Pinney, Col.
Bagwell, John Ewart, J. Proby, G.
Baring, T. G. Ewing, Crum Puller, Christopher
Baxter, W. Fergus, John Ray-nham, Viscount
Biggs, John Finlay, A. Ridley, George
Black, Adam Fitzroy, Henry RobarteS, T.
Bland, L. H. Foljambe, Francis Russell, 11.
Bouverie, Hon. E. P. Forster, Charles Russell, A.
Bouverie, Hon. P. Fortescue, Hon. F. Salisbury, Enoch
Brand, H. B. W. Fox, W. J. Sheridan, H. B.
Smollett, A.
Buchanan, Walter Freestun, Colonel
Buller, J. W. Grey, R. Stapleton, John
Butler, C. S. Gurdon, Brampton Stuart, Lord J.
Cavendish, W. Hamilton, Capt. Talbot, C.
Clay, James Mlkey, T. Taylor, S.
Codrington, Sir W.C. Harris, J. D. Thompson, General
Corbally, M. E. Hay, Lord John Thornhill, W.
Cowan, C. Johnstone, Hope Trelawny, Sir J.
Cox, W. King, Locke Turner, J. A.
Craufurd, E. H. J. Knatchbull-Huguessen Villiers, C.
Crossley, F. Langton, H. G. Waldron, Laurence
Dalglish, R. Locke, John Watkins, Col.
Denison, W. H. Macarthy, Alex. Westhead, Joshua
De Vere, S. E. M'Cann, J. Whatman, J.
Dodson, J. Mackie, J. White, James
Duncan, Viscount Martin, C. Wilson, J.
Dundas, F. Melgund, Lord Wood, W.
Dunkellin, Lord Mitchell, T. A. Young, A.
Ellice, E. Napier, Sir C. TELLERS.
Elliott, J. E. Nicoll, D. Colebrooke, Sir E.
Elton, Sir A. H. O'Brien, P. Dunlop, A.
NOES-108.
Adams, W. H. Griffith, C. Naas, Lord
Arbuthnott, Gen. H. Hamilton, Lord Claud Newdegate, C.
Beard T. Hardy, G. Newport, Viscount
Bernrnard,, W. Hassard, Michael Ossulston, Lord
Barrow, W. Henley, J. Pakington, Sir J.
Beecroft, G. Henniker, Lord Palmer, R.
Bentinck, G. Hodgson, William Peel, Gen.
Blackburn, Peter Holford, R. Percy, J.
Booth, Sir Rt. Gore Hopwood, John Philippe. J.
Bridges, Sir B. Horafall, T. Ramsay, Sir A.
Buller, Sir J. Uotham, Lord Richardson, J.
Burghley, Lord Inglis, John Robertson, P.
Burrell, Sir C Johnstone H. B. Rolt, J.
Carden, Sir R. W. Jolliffe, d
Sir W.
Rust, James
Carnac, Sir J. R. Jones, D.
Seater, George
Christy, Samuel Kerrison, Sir E. Scott, F.
Clark, J. Knight, F. Seymer, H.
Collins, T. Langton, W. G. Spaight, James
Corry, H. T. L. Laslett, W. Spooner, R.
Cross, R. A. Lefroy, Anthony Stanhope, J.
Dobbs. W. C. Lennox, Lord H. G. Stirling, W.
Du Cane, C. Liddell, H. G. Steuart, A.
Duff, L. Lockhart, A. E. Stud, H.
Duncombe, A. Lopes, Sir M: Taylor, Colonel
Dutton, Hon, R. H. Lyall, George Tempest, Lord A. V.
Egerton, Sir P. Lygon, Hon. F.
TrollopeTollemache
Sir J.
J.
Estconrt, T. Mscartney, George ,
Farquhar, Sir M. Malins, Richard Verner, Si W.
Forester, Col. March, Earl of Warren, S.
Forster, Sir Geo. Maxwell, J. Whiteside, J.
Whitmore, H.
French, Colonel Miles, W.
Gallwey, Sir WW. Miller, Taverner Wickham, 11.
Wyndham, General
Galway, Viscount Miller, Stearne
Gard, R. Mills, Arthur Yorke, E.
Garnett, William Montgomery, Sir G. TELLERS.
Goddard, A. Morgan. 0. Dundas, G.
Gray, Captain Mowbray, J. R. Bruce, Major

Till 3 following letter has been addressed to a con-
tent? orary :
Sit s—The subject of procuring seamen for her
Maje ,sty's ships is again to be inquired into by a
earn/ nission appointed at the instigation of Sir C.
Napi, er, and its exertions seem likely to be quick-
ened by the warlike preparations of the Emperor.
If the alarm these excite should induce our rulers
to over chaul their own conduct, anddeal more justly
' and wi .sely with seamen, its effects will be benefi-
cial. `_Their mods of procuring men for the navy
was fo `V centuries an outrage of humanity and an
opprob Them to statesmanship. From the reign of
William. 111. to the close of the reign of George 111.
they lab, 7rued incessantly on this subject. The num-
ber of act 'a
.passed for the encouragement of seamen
and for ril wining the navy was very great, and till
1853, we a_ to assured by the late Secretary of the
Admiralty, A.l.:r. Osborne, " no satisfactory results
had been pri educed." Now the Navy is more in
want of men than ever, while our neighbour can
summon 70,000 men into his vessels with the
swiftness of di ispotism. Enlarged bounties, little
pensions, and swell rewards, have all been tried
have failed. The Royal Navy is about the only
employment in the whole civilised world which
never can get as .sufficiency of men. This is the
more singular wh en, the gladsomeness of the sailor's
life is considered, and the honour in which his pro-
fession is held. I 'here is never any want of colliers,
miners, scavengers, &c. ; and that our adventurous
maritime populati• on do not willingly enter the
navy is one of the most extraordinary facts in the
history of society. Officers are plentiful, marines
abundant ; a want of men in any other employ-
ment where funds exist to pay them is unknown ;
andlfor this singular -want of seamen by the Navy,
both in peace and in war, there must be some
cogent reason equally singular. Our statesmen
and our admirals have not found it out, or will not
acknowledge it, and we can scarcely expect that
much light will be thrown on the subject by their
1 new Commission.
In fact, the source of the evil is in the minds of
our statesmen. It has no root iu the popular mind,
or in the great law of population in relation to em-
ployment. Thoroughly ignorant of that, as was
proved by their having given bounties on the pro-
duction of people, and unable, as aristocratic civi-
lians, to comprehend the possibility of enterprising
youth loving the adventures of a sea life, they acted
on their own fear, and rashly resolved to seize the
seamen, as in olden time they had seized ships, and
compel them to serve in the navy ; or the state con-
tinued the old practice of stealingthe seamen after it
had learned to respect the property of shipowners ;
it continued to expose the seamen to unrighteous
slavery, and the usual consequences followed. For
the country they have been most disastrous. True,
it has been well defended, the navy has gained
great victories, but at an enormous cost. While
every other employment has been abundantly
supplied with hands, without trouble or expense,
never from the reign of William 111. till the close
of the French war were seamen obtained without
press-gangs and guardsbips, tenders, numerous
officers, soldiers, and all the apparatus of a great
system of coercion, the total cost of which would
have hired twice the number of willing men.
Always did this system invest each man-of-war
with the characteristics of a gaol, and the whole
naval service with the attributes of felony. It
was in consequence abhorred. When the press
was at the hottest, and men were most united,
the seamen left their ships and fled into the coun-
try, or fled with their ships to Holland, or fled in
crowds to the United States, and thus that costly
system actually drove the best men out of the
country when they were most wanted. It reached
the climax of expense and mischief when to recover
our seamen it led to a war with the United States,
which tarnished the flag and lowered for years the
naval character of England.
It was not (said the New York Tribune of the
29th ult.) against the right of British ships of war
" to search and detain the merchant vessels of other
nations," as the Union alleges, that the war of 1812
was undertaken. That right, for certain purposes,
and to a certain extent, was fully admitted. It was
against the right to deprive American merchant
ships of a portion of their crews, and that too at
the risk of the frequent subjection of American-
born citizens to a life of slavery in the British navy,
that the war of 1812 was persisted in ; and it was
in the character, and in the character alone, of a
war on behalf of sailors' rights as against British
press-gangs, that it took such a hold on the hearts
of the people.
The whole cost of that war, in money and repu-
tation, as was remarked in the Edinburgh Review
of October, 1824, when the matter was fresh in
memory, was the consequence of our system of
impressment. If the country were defended by
impressment, it was at an enormous sacrifice. But
there is abundant reason for saying that impress-
ment, instead of contributing to its defence, only
blighted, while it lasted, the natural energies of the
people.
The real basis of our naval superiority is the
natural character of our seamen. They are at
once the most daring and the most numerous mari-
time population of any civilised state of the world.
For upwards of forty years imprewment has been
suspended, but it has never been formally abro-
gated, and the Admiralty; clinging to it still, hold
up forced service in the navy in terrorem to the
seamen. If the tyranny, too, be dead, its exhala-
tions still polute the atmosphere. The system of
cruel coercion which grew from it, constituting dis-
cipline, still prevails in our ships. They still carry
soldiers and unnecessary officers to keep the
sailors submissive. If these be heroes they are
gaolers, and the imprisoned slaves cannot
be allowed to share the higher honours of
the profession. These are monopolised by
the Greys, the Russells, the Elliotts, and the
Percys. It was justly deemed a grievous evil that
the aristocracy could by purchase monopolise all
the high places of the army, but without purchase
they monopolise them in the navy, now little better
than an appanage to the scions of some noble houses.
The seamen, as Mr. Osborne stated, could never
hope to reach higher offices than those of warrant
officers. In civil life every post in the law, in the
church, and in commerce, is open to talent, but till
1853 the high places of the navy were reserved for
a Brahmin caste. By accident a cook might reach
the wardroom or the captain's cabin, but as a rule
the men never have a hope or a chance of passing
into the rank of commissioned officers. In 1853,
indeed, it pleased the Admiralty to submit for her
Majesty's approval that warrant officers, "for ex-
emplary conduct and acts of gallantry and daring,"
might be " eligible to hold commissions in her Ma-
jesty's fleet," and might "receive 1001. as an out-
fit." In what spirit the niggardly proposition has
been carried out is not apparent, and the classes
continue t) be distinct. As a consequence, too, of
impressment, the detestable cat-o'-nine-tails, the
spawn of ancient barbarity, is still the prevailing
instrument of discipline. In 1853, according to the
parliamentary return, No. 48, session 1857, 24,959
lashes; in 1854, 35,479 lashes; and in 1855, 42,154
lashes, were scored on the flesh of her Majesty's
gallant seamen. To the general public, these dis-
gusting punishments—partly inflicted for insubor-
dination, insolence, quarrelling, skulking, and
other trifling offences against discipline—are un-
known ; but amongst the sea-going population
they are continual topics of talk, and keep alive in
their hearts the great hatred and detestation of the
naval service which have descended to them from
the time of impressment. When such degrading and
cruel punishments are banished from our gaols, to
retain them as the means of discipline in the navy
is to make the service more odious and degrading
than crime.
To have the navy readily and freely supplied
with seamen it must be implanted in the affection
of the people. There must be a moral reform at
head-quarters, and all the consequences of impress-
ment must as soon as possible be swept away.
Ministers must place a little trust in human na-
ture, and believe that it is possible for men readily,
and even patriotically, to enter on board her
Majesty's ships on a emergency. They must,
from that belief, frame a system of discipline con-
sistent with the usages of civil life, and impose
neither restraints nor privations on the men not
indispensable for the public welfare. Martinetiem
or irksome discipline, for the gratification of in-
dividuals, must not be tolerated. All situations
must be avowedly open to merit, and officers and
men must be treated as one and the same class.
Corporeal
punishment must be indignantly de-
nounced, and for ever abolished ; soldiers employed
IdBa2sc was T
hperoaptotsrei
only as sentinels and guards over seamen should
pbuarrto pr Review
lp in an
be removed from our ships, as Sir C. Napier in
bdutilis theof a gaol
must be for ever swept from a man of war, and
the naval service must never again ba degraded
into felonry. Wages must be made to conform
to circumstances and exigencies. The rate that
might be sufficient before the cered orn laws were
repealed, and g was discov in Cali-
fornia, will not &lace now. In short, if the
navy is to be recruited from society it must
keep pace with society. So it will become beloved
by the people ; men will make interest to obtain a
berth on board ship as they do to be made a tide-
waiter or a guager, and the only punishment ne-
cessary to maintain discipline will be dismissal from
the service.--I am, &c.,
A RETIRED COMMANDIA.

(From the Report of the Registrar General.)
The population of London now appears to be in
a very healthy condition. In a metropolis which
in a few years more will be able to count its third
million of inhabitants, the deaths in a week do not
often fall below a thousand ; for a reduction of the
weekly deaths below this point occurred only nine
times in 1857, though the total mortality of that
year was less than the average. At this season of
the year the mortality has been observed to be
least ; and last week, ending June 12, the deaths,
which had been about 1,100, fell to 963. In the
10 years 1848-57 the average number of deaths in
the week corresponding with last week was 982,
but as the present return is for a population which
has annually increased, for the purpose of compari-
son the average should be raised in proportion to
this increase, and it will then appear that the
deaths of last week were less by 117 than would
have occurred under the average rate of mortality
for the early part of June.
The births of last week exceeded the deaths in
the same period by 663.
Last week the births of 854 boys and 772 girls,
in all 1,626 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the years
1848-57 the average number was 1,507.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.846 in.
The highest barometrical reading was 30.04 in. on
Sunday (the 6th), which decreased to 29.71 in. on
Tuesday. The mean temperature of the week was
63.8 degs., which is 6.2 degs. above the average
of the same week in 43 years (as determined by
Mr. Glaisher). Wednesday was the warmest day,
and on it the thermometer in the sun rose to 105 y
deg., and that in the shade to 82.9 deg.; the lowest
point was 55.6 deg. and the mean temperature
68.5 deg., which is 11 deg. above the average. The
lowest temperature of the week was 49.1 deg. on
Tuesday, and the entire range was therefore 33.8
deg. The mean daily range was 24.5 deg. The differ-
ence between the mean dew point temperature and
air temperature was 8.1 deg. The mean degree of
humidity of the air was 74, complete saturation
being 100. The mean degree of temperature
of the water of the Thames was 65.8 deg. The
direction of the wind, which was north-east on the
first two days, was afterwards generally south-west.
No rain fell, except a few drops on the evening of
Tuesday, when there was a thunder-storm of short
duration.

RICHES OF INDIA.

The first report of the select committee appointed
to examine witnesses on the policyof colonising por-
tions of British India with Englishmen who would
make that country their permanent home is now in
the hands of the public, and it contains much va-
luable information. Till the Company's charter was
renewed in 1813 no Englishman could reside in
India without a passport. In that year the exclud-
ing enactment was repealed ; but the power of hold-
ing land was not conceded till 1837, when the In-
dian Government passed a law to that effect, in
conformity with the 86th clause of the parliamen-
tary act of 1833, which deprived the company of its
trading privileges. Mr. Theobald, barrister, who
was examined before the colonisation committee,
stated that even to this day some legal doubts are
entertained on the subject, which arise from a con-
struction put upon that chapter in the Indian penal
code which is entitled, "On illegal entrance into
the territories of the E ist India Company," pro-
viding penalties for such illegal entrance. The
authors of the penal code were also the authors of
the Indian Act of 1837, and, unless it be presumed
that they have contradicted themselves wilfully or
ignorantly, they must have been of opinion that
the act of 1837 did not repeal the prohibition, and
hence doubts have arisen. We have alluded to
these facts because, to a certain extent, they ac-
count for the small number of Englishmen who
have permanently located themselves in India.
The class of persons who ought to emigrate to our
Eastern empire are very different from those who
emigrate to Australia, New Zealand, or Canada.
These three countries, scantily populated, require
labouring men of all trades, but in India they would
be superfluous ; nor, indeed, could they work out
of doors in the plains, on account of the heat of the
climate. The emigrant to India should be a capital-
ist, having a knowledge of European arts, and capa-
ble of directing native labour, so as to derive the
largest result from the least expenditure. Thus a
new field is open to a new class, who struggle in
vain at home against the severity of competition,
but who may easily enrich themselves in India,
either by agricultural or mineral pursuits. Hitherto
English settlers have confined themselves to the
manufacture of sugar and indigo ; but India is
rich in vegetable productions, such as wheat and
other cereals, cotton, opium, hemp, flax, tea, and
timber. In the culture of cotton the value of Eu-
ropean supervision is strikingly illustrated by a
statement made by Mr. Turner, who declared that
his house lost 7,0001. a-year by the dirt and refuse
with which the cotton is mixed, which would have
been sav•d. had Europeans been living on the spot,
by whom its picking, cleansing, packing, and trans-
mission to Liverpool would have been superin-
tended. The culture of the sugar-cane also would
be very much improved if Europeans directed the
process, as the natives conduct it in a very unsci-
entific manner, and it is desirable to introduce the
West Indian method. Indigo, transferred from
the West to the E ist Indies, has been so improved
in quality by English management, that it now
readily commands the best price in the markets
of the world. General Tremenheere gives an in-
teresting account of the operations at the Poosah
Stud Farm, on the Ganges, under the supervision
of Colonel Apperley, where, by improved agricul-
ture, more than 700,000 bushels of fodder were
produced, the yield, under careless management,
having been only 458,281 bushels. Carrots were
grown at this place fourteen inches long, and
weighing four pounds each, the cost of which,
when led off, was only ls. per ton. The natives
pay little or no attention to manure. In many
plac' s they burn it for fuel, and in the neighbour-
hood of villages heaps of scattered bones remain
untouched, which Europeans would convert into
bone-dust and mix with the soil. Gen. Tremen-
heere remarks as a curious fact, which does not
appear to have attracted much attention, that " the
surface of the land in India is very often covered
by a saline efflorescence which is impure carbonate
of soda. I believe that to this moment no one knows
the correct chemical properties of this substance,
or what might be made of it ; but I have no doubt
that if it were mixed with the carcasses of animals
it would produce nitrate of soda, which is very ex-
cellent manure, for the nitrogen given off by the
decaying substance would combine with the soda in
this saline substance. I have no doubt that through
the prevalence of this substance lands which have
been rendered sterile might be turned into fertile
tracts." This would be an operation suited to British
skill, as well as the construction of works of irri-
gation.
Mr. Hooke-, who visited India its a bstanist in
1848, and who gave evidence before the committee,
stated that there were very great capabilities for
extending the cultivation of tea along the Himalaya
mountains and indeed the whole distance from
Assam to the' Indu4, about 1,300 miles, following
the course of the Himalaya. Tea succeeds excellently
in Sikkim, and is a vary favourite beverage iu India,
and Mr. Hooker thinks there would be no "limit
to the cultivation and consumption of tea in Asia,
both in Central Asia and India." He further con-
siders that Da, jeeling, in the Himalayan range,
elevated to
some 7;900 to 8,000 feet above the sea,
is an eligible posit:on from which British enterprise
might establish trade with Central Asia. We have
there a sanitarium for invalids, and the climate is
excellent. Sikkim is the shortest mountain pas
sage across the Himalaya int 3 Tibet, and is the
direct route from Calcutta to Lassa, the capital of
Eastern Tibet. That the hill tribes would gladly
trade with es is proved by the fact that when Dr.
Campbell established a fair about thirty miles from
Darjeeling, it was very much frequented by
the natives. Ponies, silk, and woollen cloths,
musk, amber, bead., and salt, ware brought
from the hills and exchanged for the products
of the plains. In Tibet gold abounds, and Mr.
Hooker says, " according to report, it must be
another California." Mr. Turner, who was sent
into the country by Warren Hastings in 1783, to
open up trade between Calcutta and Tibet, stated
that it was produced in great abundance in the al-
luvial soil of Tibet, and that the quantity was so
grew-, that during a severe frost, when the ground
opens,. the value of gold, fro:n so simple a cause
very much decl fled—from 21 to 9—because it was
e isily obtained. Strange to say, sections of tea
made up in the form of bricks are used as currency
in parts of Central Asia. These bricks are also cut
into por ions, and those portions represent the cir •
culatiug medium. Woollen manufactures would
find a ready market among the Tibetans, and even
in 1775, ai it appears from the report of Mr. Bogle
to the Government of India, the trade must have
been considerable in broadcloth. In these hills,
may
an
find
bt hue:3i
n,
etsnsany
employmentedtica t educated yionu n
g men
Englandvi.ho
cannot
realise
independence.
India is alsorich in mineral wealth especially coal
and iron, copper and tin. The coal beds of Burd wan
and the N erbudda are excellent in quality and most
extensive in range. Iron is abundant in the Hima-
layas and the Tennasserim provinces, and also in the
Kumaon and Gwalior territory. There are large
deposits of tin throughout Tennasserim, and copper