The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-15 00:00:00

MANSION-HOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Yesterday, at 1 o'clock, a meeting of the Work-
ing Committee was held, the Lord Mayor in the
chair, there being also present Sir Mordaunt Wells,
the Rev. F. G. Bloomfield, Mr. Thomas Fowell
Buxton, chairman of tho House Committee of the
London Hospital ; Mr. R. N. Fowler, Mr. R. B.
Wade, Mr. W. J. Maxwell, Mr. H. IV. Ripley, Dr.
Andrew Clark, physician to the London Hospital ;
Mr. Robert Wigram, Mr. Richard Hoare, and Mr.
Samuel Hoare.

A very influential deputation from the managing
committee of the Seamen's Hospital ship Dread-
nought attended before the committee, accompanied
by Mi. Kemball Cook, the secretary, and Dr. Rooke,
the medical officer, to explain their operations with
regard to the visitation of cholera. The deputation
stated that Dr. Rooke, the medical officer, had re-
presented to the Committee of the Hospital that
cases of cholera were being daily brought from the
river to the Belleisle (their cholera ship), and that
on inquiry he found that no visitation of the ships
in the river had taken place, or was taking place.
Dr. Rooke gave it as his opinion that it would be
highly advisable and tend to check the spread of the
disease if the ships on the river 'were visited daily.
The committee thereupon instructed their secretary,
Mr. Cook, to write to the Lords of the Privy Council,
which he did, and an answer was returned in about
eight or ten days, speaking from 'memory, to the
effect that the matter should have the consideration
of their lordships. Not having received any .further
communication from the Privy Council, and nothing
having been done by their lordships, on the follow-
ing week the surgeon again represented the matter
to the committee, stating that the cases of cholera
were on the increase, and that every day's delay was
attended with risk to so many lives. Upon that
representation the committee, resolving to take the
responsibility and expense of the work upon them-
selves, instructed the surgeon to make such arrange-
ments as he deemed necessary to carry out an effi-
cient inspection of the river. Those arrangements
were accordingly made, and ever since the 11th
of August the river from London-bridge to Wool-
wich and the Regent's and City Canals had been
visited daily (Sundays excepted). Every vessel
moored in those districts had been visited by the me-
dical officer daily. In all cases of diarrhoea medi-
cines were given and disinfectants were distributed,
where required, on board the ships. The medicines
and disinfectants were carried in the hospital boat
and given by the medical officer himself. Nearly
10,000 vessels had been so visited, and in 1,100 cases
medicines and disinfectants had been dispensed. To
show the good effects of that visitation and those
precautions, between the 18th of July, when the
first case of cholera was taken to the Belleisle cholera
ship, and the 11th of August, when the visitation
commenced, an interval of 24 days, 22 cases of cho-
lera were admitted from those districts of the river
only which the hospital had taken under its supervi-
sion. Between the 11th of August and yesterday not
more than eight or ten cases, speaking from memory,
had been admitted from the same districts, and every
case except two, which occurred on the first day of
visitation, was sent in by the medical officer of each
district in the early stage of the disease, the boats
which conveyed them to the Belleisle being distin-
guished by a white flag and the letters S. H., denot-
ing Seamen's Hospital. For the purpose of visita-
tion they had mapped the river into four districts—
the first being on the north side of the river from
London-bridge to the Tunnel Pier, including the
Regent's Canal ; the second being south of the river
from London-bridge to Greenwich ; the third in-
cluded the City Canal on the north side, and from
the Tunnel Pier to Greenwich on the north side of
the river ; and the fourth extended from Greenwich
to Woolwich, including Bow Creek. Seventy-three
cases of cholera had been received on board the
Belleisle, and there had been 20 deaths.
Mr. CooK, the secretary of the hospital, supple-
menting the above statement, said the annual in-
come of the institution was not equal to the
expenditure, and that every year the authorities
were obliged to intrench on the legacies left
to the hospital to make up the deficiency.
It had suffered a. severe loss—viz., about £550
a-year from the abolition of the Merchant Sea-
men's society, and also a loss of £l,lOO a year,
which it used to received from the Board of Trade.
Its annual expenditure was about £B,OOO a year,
and its receipts£6,ooo, of which about£3,ooo a year
was derived from legacies. Mr. Cook added, in re-
reply to Mr. Richard Hoare, that their total expenses
for cholera purposes had been about £5OO, of which
about £5O a week had been expended by the medical
officer. They had received £llO from the public on
the occasion, including £5O from the Trinity House.
Sir MORDAUNT WELLS thought the work had been
admirably done by the society, and he said he could
not understand the Privy Council, who had promised
to take the matter into consideration doing nothing
afterwards. Ho asked the deputation how it was
that in such a port as London the shipowners and
masters did not support them so as to keep up an
ample income. The committee were much surprised
tolearn that an hospitalof such great importance did
not receive the support it deserved. They should be
glad, on public grounds, to know that it did.
Mr. Coos replied the reason sailors assigned for
not contributing was that hospital money was kept
off their pay, and that they thought it, or part of it,
went to support the Dreadnought. The
ney,
however, went to Greenwich Hospital, and it was
estimated that from the reign of William and Mary
Greenwich Hospital had received £2,000,000 ster-
ing from the mercantile marine.
Sir MORDAUNT WELLS, the chairman for the time,
intimated to the deputation that the committee had
unanimously voted them £250 ; adding that they
were also unanimously of opinion that the institu- e
tion was deeerving the most generous sipport from

the public, and that the managing . committee
had discharged their duty in the emergency
in an admirable manner and in a manner conducing
to the interests of the metropolis, having regard to
the danger during a visitation of cholera of the dis-
ease being still further propagated in this country
through shipping or carried abroad in the same way.
The committee, before separating, made a grant
of £lOO to Miss Marsh's Convalescent Home, and
also one of £5O for convalescent purposes to the
parish of West Ham.

The committee then adjourned until Monday.

With respect to the temporary cholera hospital
recently established in Commercial-street, White-
chapel, it appears that during the lastlfive days 38
patients have been admitted into this hospital. Of
this number 28 were cases of severe Asiatic cholera,
and ten cases of severe diarrhoea. There have been
13 deaths in the hospital during these five days.
Of the 28 cholera cases admitted in the five days 16
have died. During Monday last there were six
cases of. cholera admitted, of these one died on the
day of admission, three next day, and two on the
third day. It will therefore be seen that the type of
the disease is still very severe, in some respects
equally so as during the height of the epidemic. It
is the exception to have a case of cholera from the
neighbourhood that suffered most during the epi-
demic. The caseshave come from Shoreditch, Spital-
fields, Bethnal-green, and one from Hackney-wick.
The following is the official return of deaths from
cholera htea registered on Thursday, 13th
Se
i)t.:Land diarr
Cholera. Dia rrlicea.
West districts ... 1 ••• 2
North districts ... 6 ••• 1
Central districts ... ... 2 ••• 1
East districts ••• ..• 12 ... 5
South districts 7 ...

Total in London ...

... 28

... 14 ,

The return for the sub-district of St. Paul, Ham-
mersmith, was not received in time for publication

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Political revolutions, it hasbeen said, are
mostly matters of finance, and the revolutions of
Mexico are certainly no exception to the rule. -Our
first acquaintance with Mexico, unfortunately for
us, was a financial one, and our latest account of
Mexican politics is financial also. A new Conven-
tion between the Emperors Louis Napoleon and
Maximilian has just been published, and its bearing
is exclusively upon the financial relations between
the two countries. What character Mexico sus-
tains in these transactions we need hardly say. It
has been consistently maintained for more than one
generation, and the country possessed of the greatest
natural riches in the world is probably the most
deeply and irredeemably indebted. Of the actual
finances of Mexico, which within the last few months
have been so hopefully described in the French Cham-
bers, we can give, at any rate as regards one side of
the sheet, a very concise exhibition. In the last year
for which any public accounts are discoverable—that
is to say, about a quarter of a century ago—Mexico
was said to possess • a revenue of some £3,500,000.
That is all we can say about assets. The account of
liabilities is considerably longer, and brought down to
a much later date. Mexico owns, in the first place,
to a bonded _debt, representing the loan by which its
political independence and sovereignty were origin-
ally established. This-debt, including unfathom-
able arrears of interest, amounts now to a good
£12,000,000. In the next place, every commercial
country in the world has " claims" upon Mexico,
some on one score and some on another, but which,
including compensations due for what, even in for-
mal accounts, appear frankly described as " robbe-
ries," amount in the aggregate to about £9,000,000.
Altogether, with the addition of certain other claims
variously characterised, the public debt of Mexico
at the time of the French conquest might be put at
£23,000,000 sterling. After the conquest, at the
establishment in 1864 of the new Empire, the first
public act of the Imperial Government was to con-
tract a new loan of some £12,000,000, and that
loan, twelve months later, was followed by another ;
so that the whole debt has perhaps been nearly
doubled. Not much of the money, we fear, found
its way into the hands of Maximilian, the percen-
tages retained in various shapes and for various
purposes having been exceedingly large ; but,
however that may be, it is understo6d that
at present and for some time past the Imperial
Government has been nearly destitute of re-
venue or resources. It is not worse off in this
respect than any of the so-called " Governments"
which preceded it ; but there is this difference, that
whereas a President made no pretence of paying
and never hesitated to plunder, Maximilian is bound
by the common obligations of crvilisaion and honesty.
His straits, therefore, have been extreme, and the
Convention of which we are now speaking, and
which bears date the 30th of last July, will not assist
him in his own difficulties, though it bears testi-
mony to his good intentions. It is simply an agree-
ment by which the Customs of the Empire at Vera
Cruz and Tampico are, in so far as they are not en-
cumbered already, mortgaged to the French Govern-
ment to the extent of 50 per cent. of their value.
As to the ports on the Pacific coast, the duties at
those establishments are already pledged to the ex-
tent of 75 per cent. of their amount, and so the new
mortgage only absorbs the 25 per cent. which re-
mains. Hopeless, however, as this statement may
appear, there would be really nothing desperate about
the case if the reorganisation of the country and the
political stability of the Government could but be
assured. Mexico, at the worst, owes perhaps ten
and by that measure her debt is not
years' income,
atadbt as our own. But the income of
Mexico under a strong and successful Administra-
tion would be very largely in excess of its reputed
revenue 25 years ago. There is, as we have said,
no country in this world so stored with natural
riches or so favourably situated for turning these
treasures to account. The instincts of early
settlers led them to this spot as the most
promising in the whole continent, and the
civilization to which they attained when the
rest of America was a wilderness shows the ex-
cellence of the selection. So precious, in fact, and
indispensable are the products of Mexican territory
that even political anarchy could not drive trade
away from the country. Many a reader has, per-
haps, wondered why, when there was not only no
encouragement to commerce, but no security even
for property or life, foreign merchants should
still settle in Mexico. The spirit of trade, how-
ever, and the chance of gain will carry men
anywhere ; and nowhere in the world should
there be a more valuable trade than in the
territories of Maximilian. The chief supply of
one of the precious metals comes from Mexico ;
we might almost say in one sense the only supply,
for the silver which does not come from Mexico
represents no new product at all, but simply old
coin thrown out of circulation. The mines, how-
ever, of. Potosi and other districts are no longer
worked to any sufficient purpose, while no enter-
prise is applied to the discovery
If Mexico were but " prospected" with
asnieuven
pains as California, it would probably yieldthe French
richer returns. The descriptions given to
loan were
Chambers on the proposal of the seconcsi
of new deposits.
not in the least exaggerated as regard
Mexico
resources and capabilities of the
nlwas said of her ;
might easily enough become all
thatment been but esta-
blished, the financial solvency
actual
resort of immi-
followed. America is
t tehe most attractive terri-
grants, and Mexico
Maxi` iii of every kind to
tories in America.
privileges, and Ishxaitanilian actually offered land,
•
and to spare for any number of immi-
grants, enough
Aiexico has about twenty times the
settlers either froefEurope or the States. There is
grants, and
area Leland, and about three times the popu-
lation of
Middlesex. 1
Vith all its natural treasures,
it has at°f g
present no roads, banks, manufactures, or
commercial establishments of any kind. Apply to
uch a country such energies as are applied to the ,
development of new Territories in the American
Union, and what would be the result ? Unhappily,
there has been no scope for the experiment. All
these speculations must proceed on the assumption
that Mexico proceeds on a new period of her his-
tory, and enjoys the blessings of security and order
under au effective and responsible Government'.
Maximilian has been unable to establish such
a Government. Juarez, the Chief, expelled
from power by the French, refused, as might
naturally have been anticipated, to acquiesce
in the new settlement. He could never have been
expected to do so, if a chance were left him of doing
otherwise. Why should he lay down his arms, in-
stead of levying war, in brigand fashion, against
the man in power? Why should he not fight against
Maximilian, just as he would fight against Miramon
Or against anybody else, find just as Miramon or

anybody else Would fight
against somebody had been
Mexico for ninny a long
ing up the custom of the
e il
ii n-
to assert that something 1.
vhaasvieonb,eeonr tehxaetitJeduainrez mayMexil/4 fsoerenot on the n
occa-
sion be sustained by a better spirit than that which
animated Mexican factions against each other.ch
Such may, perhaps, be the fact, but there is nothing
known to make us credit it, nor anything visible
on
the surface of affairs beyond the ordinary course of
Mexican contests. Maximilian, however, has not
been strong enough to repress the brigandage by
which he was opposed, while his responsibilities
prevented him from resorting to the weapons of his
adversaries. The result is the failure of his Go-
vernment to insure tranquillity, and the incapacity
of the country to produce a revenue. Trade never
deserts Mexico, and while trade goes on, something
can always be gleaned from Customs' duties, hut
Mexican finances can only improve with the politi-
cal regeneration of the State.
ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES. The President
of the United States is not happy in his
speeches. Calmness and dignity should be
the inseparable attributes of a kingly position.
Above all a great Governor should steer clear of
party-spirit. He who aspires to a high command
should first command himself. It is the fate of
those whom destiny calls to rule in troublous times
to be the victims of unscrupulous attack—to be de-
nounced by every engine which a factious opposi-
tion can devise, but the great ruler, trusting to the
honesty of his motives, to the wisdom of his well-
matured measures, to time, and to the justice of
history, should be above all such attacks. It is
painful to witness the Head of a nation traversing
the country as an electioneering agent. Andrew
Johnson is a great man in a great position, with
gra it talent, determination, and patriotism. But
he would be a greater man if he left to his sup..
porters the work he is now doing himself. He
should stand aloof, on the pinnacle of his power,
while the factions rage beneath him, instead of
hurling himself into the tumult. Dirt thrown on a
bronze figure is washed away by the first shower,
and the statue stands iu its noble proportions unin-
jui,,l the spiteful indignity. The case is very
different with the, man who descends into the fray.
Ile emerges therefrom with battered hat, torn gar-
ments, and ruffled person. lie who was above that
level has descended to the level of the common
herd, and he earns the satisfaction of blackening
his opponent's eye by reaping himself indignities
out of all proportion to those he inflicts. We
freely grant the provocation given to the Presi-
DENT. It is no small matter to have his private
character calumniated, his measures misrepre-
sented, and his acts falsified. But it is the fate of
all those who reach the highest peaks of this world's
positions. We quote from memory from " Childe
Harold"—
" He who to mountain tops doth climb will find
The highest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow ;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below,
Though high above, the sun of glory glow;
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
Contending tempests on his naked head,
And thus reward the toils that to those summits led."
A President of the United States is not born
and educated for the greatness of his position.
He has been brought up in party strife, and must
throw his energies as a partisan into the scale, or
he cannot reach the pinnacle. But if on the one
hand this tells against the calm dignity of the ruler,
on the other hand, he must be one of Nature's
noblemen ; for none, save those in whom Nature has
centred the highest qualities, could hope to climb to
such a summit. The fact of his success is the gua-
rantee of his superiority. With the innate feeling
of the strength which has outstripped all competi-
tors in the raco of ambition should come the calm
superiority n hich such strength gives. A President
of the United States is the elected of 30,000,000 of
enlightened citizens. Not only can he look down
on the nation from the height to which it has raised
him, but he can look down on all other kings and
rulers of the earth. If any ruler of this world is the
anointed of God it is the President of the United
States, for the voice of the people has called him.
If the habits of his former career be too strong for
him, and he aives way to the party spirit in which
he has been educated, he derogates from the dignity
to which he has been elected. No inducement should
lead him into so fatal an error. Impromptu speeches
from the balcony of an hotel cannot be made with-
out the utterance of objectionable matter, and
where he feels strongly he should be the more
guarded in giving vent to his opinions. It must not
be forgotten that the President is fighting a higher
power than himself, and probably backed by the
greater mass of the people. Whether Congress be
right or wrong, its opinions are entitled to the
greatest weight and respect, and the last
person to denounce them should be the head
of the Executive. We are all liable to error.
A Sovereign may err in judgment as well as
a Parliament, and with a free people the only solu-
tion where such a dead-lock occurs is in an appeal
to them. But this appeal can bp made with-
out the President descending from his high
estate, and committing himself to opinions
from which it may be hereafter impossible
to recede. If he be wrong, and the general feeling
of the nation decides that he is wrong, he ought to
be unshackled to carry out the express wish of the
nation. At the same time that we consider the
course taken by Andrew Johnson to be undignified,
we believe in the excellence of his motives, we be-
lieve in his ability and sterling patriotism, and we
believe in the words in which he closes his late ad-
dress from Delmonico's—" that he would rather
live in the affections and hearts of his countrymen
than be endowed with any other gift that God can
give on earth to man."

Railway and other Companies.

DEHERIRA.

The traffic receipts on this company's line for the
fortnight ending the 18th of August amounted to
£4,268, and for the corresponding fortnight of 1865
to $,3,618, showing an increase of $642.

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