The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31, 1866

reefs and shoals, we shall have catastrophes that are
beyond human control. Seafaring men and
women must take their risk of these, even as
they are often obliged to encounter the chances
of death and danger on the land. But it is
too true that very often these great disasters
owe their origin to want of care, of forethought,
of moderate precautions, and are traceable either
to wilful neglect or inexcusable indifference. In
the case of the London there was too much reason
to fear that the overloading of the vessel had some-
thing to do with her misfortunes, but in the in-
stance of the unhappy Evening Star there is no
room for doubt or conjecture. Six months ago,
we are told, the vessel was condemned as. unsea-
worthy, and yet she is allowed to leave New York
for a voyage through waters known to be liable
to sudden and violent tempests ! The rising of
the first fresh breeze tried the ship severely, and
no sooner did the hurricane make itself felt than
the whole ship broke to pieces. The wheel houses
were washed. off, the bulwarks stove in, the rudder
chains snapped, the engines disabled ; yet the sud-
den uprising of a hurricane is no uncommon thing
in these seas. A river steamer could scarcely have
failed more completely in an ocean voyage. We
fear that in America, as too often in England,
mercantile cupidity is allowed to supersede every
better feeling, and the greed for money is only
exceeded by the recklessness of human life which
it entails. We talk of ambitious kings and aggres-
sive diplomatists being wholesale murderers, and it
is the fashion nowadays to reckon military heroes as
assassins on a large scale ; but what are we to say
of the contractors and the shipowners through
whose cupidity and whose recklessness a whole host
of miserable beings are sent without warning to a
premature and unwelcome grave. In the interests
of common justice and humanity, as well as for the
good of the mercantile community, we hope that
the authorities at New York will institute a strin-
gent inquiry into the fact of a ship condemned as
unseaworthy being crowded with passengers and
sent to sea.

The breaking up of the Mansion House Relief
Committee may be regarded by the public as a
favourable sign, since we may be sure that the gen-
tlemen composing it would not cease from their

labours unless they bad good reason to believe the
necessity for their labours had in a great measure

passed away. There is indeed ground for hoping

that we have seen the worst of the cholera visitation

of 1866 ; and, although in respect to a matter which

defies human prescience, and frequently overturns

the most elaborate systems, it would be presump-

tuous to reckon on further immunity from the disease,

yet we may fairly hope that, with constant care and
rigid supervision, we shall be able to reduce the danger
of its return within the narrowest possible limits.

The diminution in the number of deaths, both from
cholera and diarrhoea, has of late been steady.
When the Registrar-General, a short time since,
discontinued the issue of the daily returns, some un-
easiness was felt because the number of deaths im-
mediately rose, very probably in consequence of
relaxed stringency in sanitary precautions. It was
generally decided that it would be the wiser course
to resume the issue, but after a gradual decrease the
return for last Saturday only gives us 21 deaths
from cholera and 1 from diarrhoea. The disease is
therefore, as the opening sentences of the report of
the committee remind us, reduced within the
dimensions of an ordinary epidemic, and the
funds placed at the disposal of these gen-
tlemen by the liberality of the public having
been exhausted, they consider that the time
has arrived to lay before the public an account
of the money entrusted to them and a general report
of their proceedings. The emergency which called
them into action having, as they hope and believe,
passed away, and the money entrusted to their care
well and wisely laid out, the committee held their
final meeting on Monday, when the official report,
under the hand of the LORD MAYOR, was read and
presented to the meeting.

It was a matter of regret that the LORD MAYOR
himself (Mr. Alderman PHILLIPS) was prevented by
illness from presiding. His lordship has been so
indefatigable in his arduous labours, and has shown
so much sound sense, good feeling, and enlightened
judgment in his opinions on many of the social pro-
blems brought under the notice of the com-
mittee, that very much of the success which
under Providence has crowned their efforts may
justly be attributed to his personal service. To all
the gentlemen composing the committee indeed the
public are largely indebted. They came forward at
a time of alarm and apprehension, when every one
felt the necessity of prompt and systematic efforts
to relieve the misery in the east of London and to
diminish the danger to the other parts of the metro-
polis, but when there was no general and wide-
spread organisation to combat the disease. At a
considerable sacrifice of time and labour they de-
voted themselves daily to the consideration of the
claims for aid, and by their excellent regulations,
their punctuality and readiness in dealing with
appeals for aid, and their liberality and promp-
titude in dealing with them they effected the
greatest possible good, and restored confidence in
place of panic. Of course their efforts would have
been much less serviceable without two aids—the
liberality of the public on the one hand, and the
noble exertions of the local committees on the other;
but the Mansion House Committee proved them-
selves wise and faithful stewards of the one, and so
encouraged the flow of subscriptions, and they were
mainly instrumental in calling the other into exist-
ence. They could not, indeed, animate those who
were living in the very midst of the danger to endure
the hardships and encounter the perils which they
braved ; they could not inspire them with the
self-devotion, the fortitude, the unwearied
charity with which men of all ranks and all
denominations worked heartily together ; but they
could, and did, discourage the smallest approach to
a spirit of narrowness or intolerance, and they were
urgent in recommending caution as well as liberality
in the disbursement of the public money, a careful
examination into claims for assistance, as well as
ready aid if proved.
f rlnl
ehde
,r 1 e
at hr
ley Ainlatnnseionn-101-nlothusecfCoAmumgnitstte,e
twheas first
want in the cholera districts, says the report, was
local organisation to grapple with the disease.
,f
ot therefore, ore toadministration
c reate localo of
com-
r
Tmliitetieresfirs,t,
ncoarteownlays
but also for a house-to-horse visitation, and for the
, application of precautionar:i and remedial measures."
They were also very anxious that the fund en-
trusted to them for the pm -pose of mitigating the
distress occasioned by choi era should not be di-
verted to purposes of genera 1 relief, so that they
laid down from the first the principle that
" the funds placed at the disposal of this
committee shall be applied only to the prevention
of cholera, to the relief of cholera patients, and of
sufferers from the effects of that clisease, and that
all grants shall be administered as far as possible
through local committees." '_Co this principle thus
laid down they have rigidly Idhered, and to this
they attribute much of their si recess. No less than
92 local committees and instit' ltions have been in
communication with the central. committee, and the
report warmly applauds thpir labours and their

sacrifices. To these local boards, and to hospitals
and dispensaries 191 grants have been made,
amounting to between £9,000 and £lO,OOO. In
every instance it was stipulated that the money
should be applied exclusively to cholera purposes,
and the committee required an undertaking to that
effect.

The claims of the children left orphans by
the epidemic were soon brought under notice,
and formed, indeed, an important item in
the duties of the administrators, both
of this fund and of the Metropolitan Relief
association. Great care was exercised in supervising
and reducing the lists sent in, and the names of all
children who had relatives able to support them, or
whose fathers were still living and not permanently
disabled, were excluded. Orphans above the age of
15 were also struck off, and those children whose
parents had been in the habit of receiving parochial
relief, since it was felt that they might fairly come
upon the rates. It gives a startling idea of the
cholera's ravages to find that after all this careful
reduction of the claims, 710 orphans have been
assisted out of the Mansion-house fund, besides
more than 600 relieved by the Metropolitan Asso-
ciation. This part of the relief made a heavy claim
on the funds in hand, the total cost for cholera
orphans being £6,570. This money was not care-
lessly given, but a detailed scheme was required
from each local committee of the manner in which
they intended to apply it for the benefit of each
child, and a written undertaking, so to apply it,
was also required, from persons competent to act
as trustees.

Destitute widows to the number of 277 were also
permanently assisted, at a cost of £541. A special
sum of £2,000 was also set aside for the benefit of
convalescents. The importance of assisting those
of the industrial classes who were recovering from
the disease until well enough to work in compara-
tive comfort was strongly felt by all who investi-
gated the matter, and large sums were also em-
ployed for this purpose by the local boards. Many
excellent institutions for the temporary relief of
cholera convalescents have been organised by ladies
like Mrs. TAIT, Mrs. GLADSTONE, Miss TWINING,
and Miss MARsH, whose names are always foremost
in practical good works, and we may well
believe that their united efforts have dole
much to lessen the danger that at one time
prevailed that an epidemic of typhus would follow
on the steps of cholera. The returns from 56 local
committees and from 46 hospitals and dispensaries
do not include all the cases in the larger hospitals,
and are not brought down to the present date. The
committee therefore regard them as totally inade-
quate. Nevertheless the numbers are by no means
insignificant, since they include 10,424 attacked
with cholera, and 68,975 with diarrhoea ; of these
4,396 died from cholera, and 646 from diarrhoea.
These figures are evidently very incomplete, and are
entirely made up in the east and north-east. It is
satisfactory to know that English benevolence did
not fail in its wonted work ; but that, considering
the various channels through which the contributions
flowed, the committee estimate £70,000 below the
mark. Nevertheless, there is work to be done for which
all the resources of private charity are inadequate,
and the committee call attention to the fact that
" there are sanitary and remedial measures essential
to the repression of epidemic diseases which can
only be effected by persons in authority through
public funds; and that in poor districts, already
rated to the utmost amount which the inhabitants
are able to bear, it becomes almost impossible for
the local authorities to raise additional funds to

meet an extraordinary emergency." Two great
evils stare the Reformer in the face, and to these
cholera owes half its power. The first is the in-
sufficiency and impurity of our water supply, and
this we may hope will henceforward be vigorously
grappled with. The other, and the greater of the
two, is declared by the committee to be wholly un-
touched by their efforts. They describe it as " the
wretched sanitary and social condition of a vast
number of our labouring classes, and especially the
filthy, dilapidated, and over-crowded dwellings in
which many of them are compelled to reside." This is
attributable to many causes, some of them beyond
the control of the poor, others due to their own bad
habits ; but, whatever its origin, it is an evil
which no wise man, no lover of his kind and of his
country, will consent to overlook. The Mansion

House Committee but re-echo the warning which
has again and again been uttered from press, and
pulpit, and platform—repeated wherever earnest
and thinking men have met together to discuss the
signs of the times, when they say, "Of all the
matters which affect the peace and prosperity of this
nation, there is not one more full of danger, or
which more urgently needs reformation, than the
sanitary and social condition of the poor in London
and in great towns."
Such is the word of warning with which these
public spirited gentlemen retire from their labours.
Let us hope that it will not pass by unheeded, but
that the next session of our Legislature may see fac-
tion silenced and political controversy laid aside for
a time, while men of all professions and all parties
unite in devoting their earnest and practical atten-
tion to an evil which can no longer be safely left
unchecked, but which threatens to assume such
formidable proportions that it will render fruit-
less and profitless every other reform, moral,
legal, or political.

BRO3IPTON CONSUMPTION HOSPITAL.-011 Sunday
sermons were preached at St. Paul's, South Kensington, in
aid of the funds of the Consumption Hospital, Brompton,
immediately adjoining. The Rev. Capel Molyneux, the
incumbent, preached in the morning from St. Luke, chap.
xiv., 12th, 13th, and 14th verses. " Then said ho also to
him that bade him, 'When thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kins-
men, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again,
and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind,
and thou shalt bo blessed ; for they cannot recompense
thee ; for thou shalt bo recompensed at the resurrection of
the just." After an earnest and practical discourse on the
subject of beneficence and Christian hospitality in its
highest sense, the preacher strongly urged his congregation
again to give their help freely and abundantly to the Con-
sumption Hospital, whose objects needed no explanation.
The amount of good done by means of this charity in the
last 25 years was almost incalculable. Since the opening
of the first portion of the new building in 181 E the number
of in-patients who had received treatment was 13,298, and
of out 90,688 ; each of these patients having been
under medical care for a period varying from a few weeks to
several months, and in many instances with successful
results. The great addition to the number of patients,
through the enlargement of the building a few years ago,
which provided accommodation for 211 in-patients, in-
creased the expenditure to upwards of £lO,OOO a year. The
annual subscriptions amounted to little more than half that
sum ; and the charity had still to look to the voluntary
contributions of the benevolent for support. The collection
in the morning amounted to £9l 3s. 4d. The Rev. Cosmo
R. G n-don preached the sermon in the evening, when the
claims of the charity
were again warmly advocated. The
sum of £2O 4s. ld. was collected after the service.
NEW STREETS IN THE CITY OF LONDON BY THE
LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER RAlLWAY.—Yes-
terday the "fourth" Act of Parliament connected with the
London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, obtained in the
late session, was issued. It authorises the company to en-
large the Ludgate Station, by making two new streets and
altering another street, and to take part of the property
of Apothecaries' Hall, in which the society have carried on
business for two centuries. The now streets are to be in
Union-street, Earl-street, and Church-entry. The City
Commissioners are to act with the company as to the land
taken, and among the improvements contemplated is to
widen Ludgate-hill. The corporation may contribute
towards the expenses, and may agree with the railway
company as to the alterations. The money of the com-
pany is to be taken out of the City lines, and four years is
the period limited for the completion of the new streets
and altering the other street.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.
There being nothing of importance from Ger-
many or Italy to-day the papers direct their atten-
tion to the insurrection in Crete, respecting which
some very contradictory reports have been in circu-

Lation. It has been stated that the insurrection was

entirely suppressed. On the other hand, however,
the Independance Belge, a Brussels paper, publishes
a private despatch from Constantinople, which states
that the insurgents had been completely successful

a great battle which had lasted three days.
A letter from Dresden, dated October 23, says

IBA the model of the needle cannon recently manu-
ractured had satisfactorily sustained the proofs to

which it had been subjected, and that various States

of Germany had given orders for experiments on a

grand scale with this arm, which was likely to effect
a complete revolution in artillery.
The Emperor has just afforded another and very
striking proof of his solicitude for the working
classes. Representations having been made to his
Majesty of the unfavourable state of the silk trade
at Lyons, his Majesty has not only sanctioned the
establishment of a co-operative society for the relief
of the silk weavers, but he has lent it 300,000 f. to
promote its operations. This offer is announced in
an admirable letter from the Marquis de la Valette
to the Prefect of the Department of the Rhone.
The delegates of the silk weavers, in reply to this
considerate and enlightened step in aid of " honest
labour," sent a letter of thanks and gratitude to the
Emperor, the Minister of the Interior, and the Pre-
fect. They express their deep sense of the many
proofs of the Emperor's sympathy for the working
classes. It should be added that his Majesty gives
them munificent assistance also from his private
purse.
The Salut Public, of Lyons, in remarking upon this
great manifestation on behalf of the working classes,
says :—" All the world has for a long time known
the solicitude of the Emperor for everything con-
nected with the interests of the working classes, but
upon the present occasion that solicitude has been
manifested so spontaneously and so generously as to
be almost unparalleled and exceptional."
A first warning has been given to the journal La
Liberte, edited by Mr. Emile Girardin, for an article
" considered as a systematic distortion of the policy
of the Government and a violent attack against
constitutional institutions." The Government is
considered to have been too long lenient towards
La Liberte (quite a misnomer as rcgaris that jour-
nal), whose vulgar attacks and misrepresentations
have often excited the disgust of the most advanced
Liberals. John Bright has done a good deal in this
line in England, but Emile de Girardin out-Herods
him.

The Augsburg Gazette states that the basis of the
reorganisation of the Bavarian army is, with a few
exceptions, framed upon the Prussian system of a
general compulsion for military service, and that
arrangements upon this principle are under consi-
deration at the War-office at Munich.

The weather on Sunday was so very disagreeable

that the autumn meeting at Vincennes attracted
very few visitors. Nevertheless the racing was ex-
cellent. The Prix des Haras (second category) was
won by l'Homme entre Deux Ages. The Prix du
Polygone (Military Steeplechase) 3,000f.,was won by
Pineapple. Grand Autumn Prize—the prize of the
city of Paris,'lo,ooof.—was won by Mario. The
Prix de Consolation (Handicap), 2,000 f., was won
by Harriett Watts.
Next Sunday will be the close of the regattas
of the Rowing Club on the Seine near the Pont de
la Concorde. The following is the result of the
matches last Sunday at Asnieres :—Prix du Cercle
(one rower), Hirondelle ; Prix d'Asnieres, for gigs
(two rowers), Iris ; principal prize for gigs with
four rowers, Saphir ; Prize of the Society of Parisian
Regattas, for gigs with six rowers, Stradella. A
supplementary skiff race was won by Perseverance.
The Almanack de la illusique just published,
which professes to give an account of the progress
of music during the past year, states that the sum
of 735,000 f. is annually shared among fourteen
artistes of the Grand Opera. The highest amount,
110,000 f., is paid to M. Naudin. It will astonish
some to know that original operas of high repute
have been produced in the French provinces—for
instance, at Bordeaux, Lille, Metz, Lyons, and
Luneville. There are 18 journals specially devoted
to music published at Paris :—" Le Minstrel,"

" Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris," "La France
Musicale," "La Presse Musicale," " L'Orpheon,"
"La Reforme Musicale," " I'Art Musicale,"
" L'Echo des Orpheons," "La France Chorale,"

" Revue de Musique Sacree," " L'Union Chorale
de Paris," "La Musique Populaire," "La Chronique
Musicale," "La Semaine Musicale," " L'Avenir
Musicale," " La Petit Pianiste," " Le Moniteur des
Pianiste," and " L'lllustration Musicale."
Independently of operas composed in France,
there were produced during the year " Catarina
Howard," by Cencetti, at Rome ; " I Due Mariti,"
by Spadetti, at Naples ; at Florence, " Veronica
Cybo," by Meiners; at Venice, " Mazeppa," by
Pedrotti ; at Lodi, " Sofia," by La Signora Car-
lotta Ferrari ; at Naples, " Virginia," a serious
opera, in five acts, by Mercadaute. Verdi, occupied
with his " Don Carlos," has not written anything for
Italy this year.
The following are the operas which have been

played more than a hundredtimes :—" L'Africaine,"
" La Muette," " Robert le Diable," " Le Comte
Ory," "Aladin," "Le Huguenots," " Le Rossignol,"
" Gustave III.," " Guillaume Tell," "La Juive,"
"Le Trouere," "Lucie de Lammermoor," "Le
Philtre," " Trajan, " "La Favorite, " " Les
Bayaderes," "La Vestale," " Moise," "Le Siege
de Corinthe," " La Reine de Chypre,' and " Fer-
nand Cortez.".

The editor of a literary journal, where books are
sold, says that a provincial went into the shop the
other day, and in his dialect asked for a dictionary.
"What dictionary do yod want ?" said the clerk.
" Eh-oh ; the first that comes to. hand. What is
that to you ?" " But what size and shape ?" "In
the shape of a book, to be sure. Come, will you
give me a pocket dictionary or not?" "By what
author do you want the dictionary ?" " I don't
want it a yard and a half long, as I ask you for a
pocket dictionary."
There now lives at Reims a man named Frangois
Gerard,who, on the 20th inst., accomplished his 102 d
year. He was born on the 20th October, 1764, near
Verviers, Belgium, where he was a cloth manufac-
turer. Ruined by selling cloth, for which he was
paid in assignats, he went to Reims, where he
worked as a weaver until within a year or two ago.
For more than 40 years he has not had the slightest
illness. He has no infirmity, and possesses all his
faculties. He goes to the church of St. Remi every
day, and often takes a walk on the banks of the
canal. He is upright, and walks with firm step.
The Sport tells an amusing anecdote respecting
the purchase of a horse by a member of the Jockey
Club. The horse-dealer, as usual, vaunted the
virtues and good qualities of the horse, but said the
best way would be for the gentleman to try him.
The gentleman accordingly rode him to the Bois de
Boulogne. The animal went beautifully, and gave
great satisfaction. The rider stopped on the other
side of the wood to take lunch. On his return he
could not get the animal to gallop, trot, or do any-
thing else. The gentleman went to the horse-
dealer and told him that the animal would not suit
him. It was all very well to have a horse that
would go out, but he wanted one which would come
back again also. " Allow me," said the dealer. " I
lent you a horse, but you have brought me back a
mare." So it proved. The horse had been put up
in a stable, but the gentleman was in a hurry to get

back, and the hostler, mistaking the stall, had
saddled a mare. The real horse was sought for and
tried again, and gave such satisfaction that the
bargain was concluded at a long price.
The weather is again unsettled, and a very cold
wind has prevailed all day.

SERVANTS' WAGES AT CANTERBURY,---The wages
for married couples engaged at the barracks averaged £7O ;
for single men, from £35 to £6O; and for single women,
from £l5 to £35, the former rate being for a nurse girl.
One supprior cook was engaged on board the vessel at
Lyttelton for £52. The single women who went to the
barracks were all engaged within three days after arrival.
—New Zealand Examiner.

L A TEST INTEL LIG-ENUE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ROME AND ITALY.
ALLOCUTION OF TILE POPE

ROME, Oct. 30.

The Pope has distributed to the cardinals two
allocutions delivered by his Holiness in the consis-
tory held yesterday.

In the first the Pope deplores the persecutions of
the Church by the Italian Government, the sup-
pression of the religious orders, the secularisation of
the ecclesiastical property, and the law of civil mar-
riage. All these acts he condemns, and declares to
be null and ♦oid, and repeats the censures of the
Church against their authors. Nevertheless, his
Holiness declares he accords his benediction to Italy.
The Pope further protests against the invasion and
usurpation of the Pontifical provinces, and against
the revolutionary project of making Rome the capi-
tal of the new kingdom. He states that the tem-
poral power is indispensable to the independence of
the spiritual power, and declares that he is ready
even to suffer death for the maintenance of the
sacred rights of the Holy See, and, if necessary, to
seek in another country the requisite security for
the better exercise of his Apostolic Ministry. Finally
his Holiness prays that Italy may repent of the evils
which she has brought upon the Church.

In the second allocution his Holiness states that
the Russian Government has violated the Concordat
of 1848, and recalls the persecutions exercised
against the Archbishop of Warsaw, the suppression
in the dioceses of bishops of their legitimate juris-
diction, the abolition of religious orders in Poland,
the confiscation of ecclesiastical property—all acts
tending to the destruction of Catholicism in Russia.

His Holiness concludes by offering up a prayer
that the Czar may put an end to the persecutions of
Catholics within the Russian dominions.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Oct. 31.

Count Mensdorff, who has been replaced as
Minister for Foreign Affairs by Baron von Beust,
will return to the military service.

The Emperor has sanctioned the Ministerial pro-
position to convoke the Hungarian Diet for the 19th
November. Count Esterhazy has tendered his re-
signation, which has been accepted.