The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-07 00:00:00

TILE CHOLERA.

MANSION-HOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Yesterday a customer of Messrs. Williams, Gads-
den, and Co., wine merchants of Great St. Helen's,
Bishopsgate, made anonymously the munificent
present of a pipe of old port to the Mansion-house
Committee, for distribution among the sick and
convalescent. The value of the gift was further
enhanced by the wine being presented duty free.
Within
.the last few days the Lord Mayor has
been interesting himself in endeavouring to procure
a better supply of water in the poorer parts of the
City, and especially on Sundays, repeated com-
plaints having been made recently to the City Com-
missioners of Sewers that the supply on Sundays
was scant, and that the poor were much inconve-
nienced in consequence. The result goes to show
that it is the niggardliness of landlords of
small houses, 'and not the water companies,
who are to blame in this matter, and that the
New River Company in particular has of its own
spontaneous motion, and free of charge, done much
to make up for the shortcomings of landlords in
that respect, especially while the epidemic has
been prevalent. A deputation yesterday from
the eastern districts of Whitechapel attributed
much of the low fever which has set in there since
cholera has abated to the short supply of water to
small tenements, among other predisposing causes,
and to the bad drainage. In Little Collingwood-
street, where they said there was fever in almost
every house, the water, after heavy rains, was to be
seen stagnating four inches deep in places, and the
drainage was altogether unsatisfactory. This state
of things arose wholly, they said, from the neglect
of landlords, and the tenants, who were mostly very
poor, were powerless to help themselves. They did
not even complain, fearing if they did, and the land-
lords were put to expense in consequence, that their
rents would be raised. A letter addressed to the
Lord Mayor on the part of the New River Company
states that for years past the company has given a
Sunday supply wherever parish authorities had
shown that they were unable to compel landlords of
small houses inhabited by the poor to provide pro-
perly for their tenants; and during the late alarm
consequent upon cholera, without waiting for appli-
cation, the company has granted a Sunday supply
to about 50,000 houses. Indeed, where consumers
are ready to take water in any way, and will give a
sufficient guarantee against waste, the company are
ready to make the supply constant. Besides, as a
temporary arrangement during the epidemic, in order
to provide drinking water for poor people without
the contamination which comes from its store in foul
cisterns, the company are allowing free of charge
supplies of water to stand posts in the courts and
alleys throughout their district.
The local committees in the districts lately in-
fected who attend at the Mansion-house concur
in representing that the disease continues to sub-
side, and that in some parts it has been altogether
stamped out ; but there is much distress from
bereavements, especially among children, and from
the heads of families whom the epidemic had at-
tacked being too weak from its effects to work. The
low diet also upon which thousands of the poorest
classes in the east of London habitually subsist has,
with other concurrent causes, superinduced fever in
many parts. In the case of many of the convales-
cent Cholera Hospital
irneghas been a relapse
of fhoth have
aadvt disease enbat seseenfordYrneht theuarr discharged
eildVgatpht Pon their homes. Many
of the patients who had resorted to the hospital
there were working men and seafaring people of the
better class, and where death has resulted there
have been some painful instances of bereavement
among widows and children. At Richmond there
have been six fatal cases of cholera within the Last
few days, but the disease has been entirely confined
to the workhouse, and is said to have been imported
there by a woman from the east of London, and who
became its first victim. There were no fresh cases
yesterday.

At a meeting of the working committee held yes-
terday, Sir M. Wells in the chair, grants of £lOO
for purposes of general relief, and £5O for assisting
convalescents, were made to the district of St. Leo-
nard, Shoreditch ; £5O and £25 for those purposes
respectively to the eastern district of Whitechapel ;
and £5O for convalescents, to the Wapping Hospital.
A deputation from the Bow and Bromley Health
.Committee of the Poplar District Board of Works,
composed of Mr. Blott, the chairman ; Dr. Wood-
forde, medical officer of health ; Mr. C. Hoare, Mr.
W. Oakley, Mr. Sherrardr and Mr. W. R. Brooks,
waited upon the committee in reference to a state-
ment made by a Cholera Relief Committee from
Bromley-by-Bow, of which the Rev. Henry Lance
is chairman, to the Mansion-house Committee on
Monday last as to " the dreadful state of the drain-
age there," and especially in reference to a remark
by one member of that local committee to the
effect that in some parts of the diStrict
night soil was being used in making new
roads, and even in some way for building pur-
poses. Mr. Blott, the chairman, and Dr. Woodforde,
the medical officer, on the part of the deputation,
gave an emphatic contradiction to the latter state-
ment, but admitted that the drainage was in an
unsatisfactory state, arising from the low level sewer
being unfinished, and from there not being sufficient
pumping power to drain the district. That being so
they said they had made extraordinary exertions to
deodorise the district by the extensive use of carbolic
acid, and by flushing it thoroughly with water.
There were also so many agencies at work relieving
the distress that they did not believe any case of
real destitution could have gone unrelieved. The
entire district Board of Works was divided into two
parts for that special Purpose ; they had dispensaries
open night and day for the supply of medicines, and
provision was made for furnishing disinfectants and
stimulants. They had, in fact, taken action in the
matter before the publication of the Order in Council.
Sir M. WELLS (the chairman) asked the deputa-
tion if they did not think that some of the servants
or workmen of the local Board of Works might have
used night soil in the abominable way which had
been stated unknown to them, adding that they all
knew to what courses sub-contractors and the like
sometimes resorted.

Dr. WOODFORDE replied that he did not believe it
possible that such a thing could have been done
without their knowledge, and he entered into some
details to show the promptitude with which they
had dealt with nuisances whenever brought under
their notice.

Sir M. WELLS said before coming there to com-
plain of the statement made by the member of the
local relief committee in question the deputation
ought to have written to the person making it to
know on what grounds he had done so. They
would then, as public men, have been in a position
to give an explanation ; but he did not think they
were at present able to give a total denial to the
statement. It might be, when they came to in-
vestigate the matter as a.Board of Works, that
they would find something had been done which
ought not to have been done, or, as they now
said, that there was no foundation for the state-
ment. Be that as it might, the committee would
rest assured, after the statement of Dr. \%Toodforde,
that the local Board had done all that was fairly re-
quired of them in the emergency.
Vsome complimentary remarks
madethe committee on
Wednesday, as to the arrangements made and being
made by Mrs. Gladstone for the reception of li t
bhy respectD r.
Andrew t o
Clark in
con-
valescent children, he wishes it to be understood
that he did not mean that all the 28 children of
whom he spoke had gone from the London Hospi-
tal, but only some of them.