The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-08 00:00:00

TIfE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 8, 1866.

provement was effected by carrying its intake up
the river to Lea bridge beyond the tidal range.
The water was brought down an open canal by the
side of Hackney cut, and terminated in two large
reservoirs on the other side of the black Lea. This
canal and these reservoirs of about nine acres still
exist; they are marked in the most recent map by
Stanford as the " East London Waterworks canal"
and the " East London Waterworks reservoirs."
One of these reservoirs was recently emptied and was
filled again perhaps by springs or soakage. These
old reservoirs are not, it is said, used, the covered
reservoirs containing the only water fit for use ; but
the old reservoirs retain their old channels of commu-
nication with the pumping wells, and the company has
the power, in an emergency, to distribute the water
from the old reservoirs all over the region of the
cholera field. But this the company professes not to
do— and it could scarcely be the result of accident,
otherwise the diffusion of the waters of the old reser-
voirs over the area would afford a probable explana-
tion of the sudden outbreak in East London.
It is a notable circumstance that the parts north of
Victoria-park supplied by the East London Company
direcb from their filter beds have not hitherto suf-
fered from cholera, notwithstanding contiguity to the
infected districts, more than other districts supplied
by other companies. This implies that the East
London water, as it leaves the filter beds, is as good
as any other water in London.
It is natural, as land is valuable in East London,
to inquire why a commercial company has for many
years retained some miles of a canal and nine acres
of reservoirs for no purpose ? Mr. Greaves replies
that the canal serves to carry off the wastes of the
filter beds, and that the company proposes to con-
vert one of the old ponds into a covered reservoir.
When this is done, and the other pond, which, we
are told, is of no use, is filled up, or has no longer
any connection with the pumping wells of the com-
pany, the public may well rest satisfied, until some
great general reform is effected in the water sup-
ply of London. In the interest of the public health
the country has a right to demand this security.

THE. CHOLERA.

MANSION-HOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Yesterday, at three o'clock, a most influential
meeting of bankers, clergymen, and other persons
of consideration in the city of London, with the
Lord Mayor at their head, was held at the Mansion-
house, to raise a fund to be expended primarily in
measures calculated to arrest or mitigate the prevail-
ing epidemic, and in relief of poor patients and of
persons suffering from the ravages of the disease.
The Lard Mayor occupied the chair, and there were
present, among others, Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P.,
Mr. Joseph Hoare, Mr. R. N. Fowler, Mr. G. G.
Glyn, Sir Mordant Wells, the Rev. W. Rogers,
rector of Bishopsgate, the Rev. F. G. Blomfield,
Mr. Richard B. Wade, Mr. W. J. R. Cotton, Mr.
Currie, Mr. R. Wigram, Mr. W. J. 'Maxwell, Mr.
Andrew Johnson, Mr. William Needham, Mr.
W. Ripley, the Bishop Designate of Nelson (Rev.
A. B. Suter), Mr. John Harman, and Dr. Andrew
Clark. In the course of the proceedings it was
stated incidentally that between £1,200 and £1,300
had already been subscribed as a beginning among
the persons concerned in promoting the meeting,
and its objects, and letters addressed to the Lord
Mayor by the Governor and the
.Deputy-Governor
of the Bank of England were read, stating their
willingness to co-operate in the movement. A long
conversation ensued as to the manner in which the
fund now being raised should be dispensed, the pre-
vailing opinion being that it should be administered,
as far as practicable, through local authorities, rather
than through individuals, and that no part of it
should go in the relief of ordinary pauperism. The
Lord Mayor interposed in the course of the discus-
sion, and reminded the meeting that they had now
to deal with the epidemic directly and at once, and
not with theories. The first object was to provide
meat, drink, and other necessaries for the wretched
people who were suffering from cholera, and to re-
lieve the destitution consequent upon the loss of
beads of families. Mr. Suter, be said, had observed
that there were about 9,000 houses in Bethnal-green
which required disinfection ; but that was a work
which, however necessary or desirab:e, was quite
beyond the province of this committee, which was
called into existence to save poor people from destruc-
tion. Disinfection was the work of the Government.
If the public responded to the invitation to subscribe
to the fund now being raised, which he knew they
would do, the committee would get to work at once
and wouli do an enormous amount of good. Mr.
Thomas Baring, M.P., said it would be desirable to
expend some part of the money at their disposal in
disinfecting and preventive measures. The main
object was, if possible, to get rid of the disease, and
he did not see how they were to get rid of it if they
only buried the dead and relieved the sufferers.
Impure water was one of the greatest causes of the
disease, and it was important to ascertain in what
state the water was, and to warn people against it
where it was impure. The Rev. Wm. Rogers argued
that one of the principal means of arresting the
disease was to provide poor people at all likely to be
liable to it with the. means of obtaining good whole-
some food. Gin and pickles would be found to
have something to do with almost every case of
cholera. It was a matter of stomach, after all, and
if they could inject a mutton chop .and a glass of
brandy every day they would soon stop the disease.
Eventually, on the motion of the Rev. F. G. Blom-
field, seconded by Mr. Joseph Hoare, it was resolved
in effect that the fund be used for the prevention of
cholera, for the relief of cholera patients, and of
sufferers from the effects of the disease, and that it
be distributed as far as possible through local boards
and committees.

At the suggestion of the Lord Mayor the gentle-
men present formed themselves into a committee,
with power to add to their number, and a smaller
committee, with the Lord Mayor as chairman, was
appointed to meet daily at the Mansion-house, with
power to receive and entertain applications for as-
sistance and make grants in the spirit of Mr. Blom-
field's resolution. The Lord Mayor and Mr. Joseph
Hoare, banker, were appointed treasurers to the
fund, and Mr. Joseph Gibbs, the Lord Mayor's
private secretary, undertook to act as the secretary
to the committee.

Before departing the Lord Mayor announced that
he would be happy to receive donations at the Man-
sion-house from the public for the objects in view,
adding he was satisfied that the right thing had been
done in setting the subscription on foot, and that
it only remained for them to enter into the matter
with willing hearts.

The number of patients suffering from the epide-
mic admitted to the London Hospital during the 24
hours terminating at noon yesterday was 22, being
six more than had been taken in during the previous
24 hours. Of these 16 persons, all males, were at-
tacked with cholera; six, of whom four were women,
suffered from choleraic diarrhoea. The deaths dur-
ing the period mentioned amounted to 11, as against
12 on the previous day. The recoveries were, from
cholera, 4 ; from diarrhoea, 6—total, 10. About a
dozen convalescent children have beeri removed
through private beneficence to a home. The appli-
cants for out-door treatment for premonitory
diarrhoea fell to 200 yesterday. From about the
11th of July, when the outbreak first set in, the
y
number of such patients steadily increased
o fromssi
three or four in the day to the maximum of
which was reached on the 23d of July • then a corn'
'
parative lull took place, and the numbers fell to
about 270 ; but the disease again increasing, on the
31st ult. 497 persons were prescribed for. A gra-
dual falling off was observable after that date, and
it is ascribed, not to a diminution in the number of
those attacked, but to the opening, in various loca-
lities, of dispensaries where medicine and advice
are given gratuitously to all who present themselves.
In the week ending yesterday the total number of
deaths in the hospital from the epidemic was 80,
exactly the same as during the preceding week. It
is, therefore, evident that the disease is not at present
increasing in virulence. Indeed, the resident medical
officer, Dr. J. Jackson, is inclined to think that there
arc signs of an abatement in severity. In the work-
house of the Whitechapel Union about 70 cholera
cases have been treated—a number that would have
been far exceeded but for the proximity of the Lon-
don Hospital. At present there are about 12 cholera

patients in the house. An entire ward has been set
apart for male patients suffering from the disease, and
they are under the care of Dr. C hampneys. The White -
chapel district has been very severely visited, and
the extreme poverty of a portion of the population
has united with the pestilence to produce scenes of
the greatest misery.
Some cases of Asiatic cholera, which in a few in-
stances have proved fatal, have occurred in St.
Philip's and Redcliff Mead, two districts of Bristol,
in which sanitary reform is sadly needed. The Local
Board of Health and the guardians of the Bristol
and Clifton Unions are taking prompt measures to
stay the spread of the disease. In the few cases
where death has ensued the beds, bedclothing, and
clothes of the deceased have been destroyed and com-
pensation made, and the tenements have been white
washed. Altogether the steps taken for meeting and
staying the spread of cholera in Bristol are highly
creditable to the authorities of that city.

Execution at Stafford.

STAFFORD, Tuesday.
The last dread sentence of the law was carried
into effect at eight o'clock this morning, at Stafford,
(,n the body of William Collier, aged 35 years, a
small farmer, who resided at Johnston Eaves, near
Cheadle, in North Staffordshire, and who was
found guilty of the murder of a young gentleman
named Thomas Smith, the eldest son of a gentleman
of the same name, who resided on his own estate
at Whiston, at the last Staffordshire Assizes. The
murdered gentleman was only 25 years of age, and
was much respected in the neighbourhood of his home.
He was known among the peasantry as the "young
squire." He lived with his father, who was the lord
of the manor, helping him to farm and manage the'
large extent of land belonging to him. It will be re-
membered that the back portion of the deceased gen-
tleman's head was beaten in in a terrible manner,
apparently by some heavy blunt instrument, and
scattered about the grass near to the body were
picked up several pieces of the stock of a gun, two
gunlocks, and a broken trigger, with also a ramrod.
Subsequently Collier was observed by the wife of
one of Mr. Smith's servants to go in the direction of
a ditch in one of his fields, carrying something under
his arm, and from time to time casting furtive
glances on either side. This woman told her hus-
band of what she had seen, and he, suspecting that
all was not right, went to the mouth of the ditch,
and found the double barrel of a gun broken off at
the stock. This gun was identified as that belong-
ing to Collier, and, upon comparing with it the
trigger, locks, and ramrod found in the wood, they
were found to correspond exactly. Collier was
then arrested. A few days after his condemnation
he took farewell of his brother (who is a respectable
publican at Cheadle), and his wife and 7 children.
As may be imagined, the interview was most heart-
rending. Subsequently, however, the convict re-
covered in a great measure the composure which had
so characterised him. As he was a Catholic, he
was attended by the Rev. Canon O'Sullivan, the
recently appointed Catholic chaplain to the gaol.
It is understood that he confessed his crime to the
rev. gentleman. He also made a statement to the
chief warder of the gaol, in which he acknowledged
his crime and the justice of his sentence.

The crowd present at the execution this morning
was not so large as usual. The rain had poured
down nearly all night, and doubtless prevented many
persons in the potteries from undertaking a pedes-
trian journey to Stafford.
The hangman was Smith, of D udley. The wretched
man had to go through the agony of being twice
suspended, for the rope, at first slipped from the
beam. When he was brought.again to the drop the
spectators hooted and cried, " Shame." llis con-
fession fully confirmed the evidence for the prosecu-
tion.

The Mormon Settlement at Utah.

-..-:

The American Government have issued a report
made by the " House Committee of Territories" on
the condition of Utah. The commissioners ap-
pointed to make an investigation say that the tes-
timony discloses the fact that the laws of the United
States are openly and defiantly violated throughout
the territory, and that an armed force is necessary
to preserve the peace and give security to the lives
and property of citizens of the United States resid-
ing therein. The only witness introduced at the
request of the delegate from Utah admits the ne-
cessity of maintaining United States troops in the
territory, in order to secure protection and safety to
persons and property. The committee have been
unable to adopt the suggestions made by some of
the gentlemen examined for the abolition of the pre-
sent territorial government of Utah, and the estab-
lishment of a military government. They also re-
gret to state that they have been unable to agree
upon and submit for the action of the House a plan
which seemed to themto promise a practical solution
of the abuse and evils complained of, and which are
admitted to exist. They do not deem it advisable
either to divide the territory and annex it to Nevada
and the territories adjacent, nor do they favour the
establishment of a military government. They have
therefore been compelled to postpone the further
consideration of the matter until December next.
On the 18th June, Mr. Hooper, the delegate from
Utah, addressed a letter to the chairman of the
committee, in which he denied the statements of
some of the witnesses, and asks that no report be
made to the House until the people of Utah could
be heard in reply to the charges made against them.
Ile also asked for a copy of the testimony already
taken, which the committee declined to furnish him.
He subsequently appeared before the committee,
and requested that a select committee or a sub-
committee from the Territorial Committee be sent
to Utah by direction of the Home, with authority
to examine and report on all the allegations made
by the witnesses examined, and also on the condi-
tion of all classes residing in the territory. The
committee were unable to satisfy themselves that
any material facts could be obtained even if a sub-
committee should go to the territory; they therefore
declined to ask the house to make an order, which
would necessarily involve a large expenditure of
money in sending such a committee to Utah. Among
the witnesses examined was Joseph Smith, the sou
of the founder of the Mormon Church, who says
that the Book of Mormon explicitly condemns and
forbids polygamy, which was not known, acknow-
ledged, or held as an article of faith until Brigham
Young became the leader of that part of the church
which went west with him. The church did not,
under the presidency of his father, nor does it
now under his. The witnesses testify that the
Presidency teaches hostility to the Government of
the United States. Gen. Connor, who hasbeen mili-
tary commander of the district of Utah since 1862,
testified that polygamy is taught as a fundamental
principle of the Mormon religion, and disloyalty and
treason to the Government is a practice enjoined by
its tenets. It is regarded by good Mormons not only
allowable, but meritorious, to assail and despoil the
Federal Government in every way. Gen. Connor
has no doubt the Mormon leaders have assumed to
authorise and justify homicide. He believes it from
their own record, from current report among them-
selves, and from a Mormon who confessed to him
that he had committed murder by direction of the
Mormon leaders, and believed at the time he was
doing right as taught by them. As further evidence
the witness submitted the following copy of a special
order issued by Brigham Young for the murder of
80 innocent men, discharged teamsters of General
Johnston's command, then at Fort Bridger, Utah,
who were en route for California. Fortunately the
officer designed to execute the order was a humane
person and did not execute it, and lately gave the
original order to a Federal officer in Utah, and it is
now in Gen. Connor's possession. The signature of
James Ferguson is authenticated by the affidavits of
two respectable merchants of Salt Lake City :

(Special order.) " Salt Lake City, April 9,1858.
" The officer in command of escort is hereby or-
dered to see that every man is well prepared with
ammunition, and have it ready at the time you see
those teamsters a hundred miles from the settle-
ments. President Young advises that they should be
all killed to prevent them returning to Bridger to
join our enemies. Every precaution should be taken
and see that not one escapes. Secrecy is required.
—By order of " DANIEL WELLS, General.
" JAMES FERGUSON, A.A.G."
Other witnesses testified to the demoralised con-
dition of the Mormons.

THE ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS AND THE
LIPEBOATCAUSE.—TheAncientOrder of Foresters have just
sent to the Ndtional Lifeboat Institution, as a contribution
for the current year, the munificent sum of .£3.13 is 11d. in
aid of the support of their lifeboat stationed in Cardigan
Day, and of the general purposes of the Lifeboat Institution.
Altogether the order, to which upwards of 300,000 persons
belong, has contributed to the institution, through the prin-
cipal and able Secretary, Mr. Samuel Sli a wcross,X 689 14s. 2d..
The contributions have varied from a penny to ono shil-
ling from members of this great body, and a more substan-
tial token of sympathy and support for a great and national
work has probably never before been recorded in the annals
of any benevolent institution. It should be remembered
that the Lifeboat Society contributes every year to the sav-
ing of between 600 and 700 lives from shipwrecks. Pro-
bably many of the persons thus snatched from a watery
grave are members of this beneficent and popular order,
which accomplishes so much in mitigating the sufferings
of its members, their widows, and orphans.