The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-22 00:00:00

enough, and more than enough, to show the aspect
of affairs, and the great want of care that is ex-
hibited in the very spots which imperatively demand
extra vigilance on account of the crowded state of
the inhabitants and their scanty accommodation.
In Clement's-place, which is near Sun-street, no
less than 100 persons lived in eight small houses,
the sanitary araangement of which were so bad that
the causes of cholera, each fatal in less than twenty
hours, were furnished from one of these tenements,
and a house in Sun-street was in such a filthy state
on the Ist of September that its details hardly bear
description, and on the 14th of this month no change
had taken place for the better—" no attention to
or alteration of these disgusting matters had been
paid or effected." One of the first reports of this dis-
trict medical officer was concerning the " filthy and
overcrowded state of 140, Bishopsgate-street With-
out ;" but although he then stated that " this house
requires the constant supervision of our inspector
of nuisances, its state on the 15th inst. was on the
whole no better than six weeks before when visited
with cholera." What makes this condition of affairs
the more truly lamentable is that ample provision is
made in the Public Health Act for the remedy
of all the sanitary evils here so properly corn-
plained of ; and, as the writer says, none of her
MAJESTY'S principal Secretaries of State would re-
fuse the applications made to them by the nuisance
authority of the city of London for the necessary
power to remove the evils here complained of. We
entirely concur with the concluding remarks of the
medical gentleman on this matter. He states first
of all that the fact he has set forth may perhaps
account for the sudden outburst of fatal cholera in
Bishopsgate parish, and at all events " they suffi-
ciently show the palpable absurdity of drenching
our streets with caloric acid, and of even lime-
whiting the interior of houses, while blots far deeper
and more foul are left to poison the physical and
moral humanity of our poor." It is not surprising
to find that another case of Asiatic cholera in a
state of collapse was admitted into the temporary
cholera hospital of the Union from Catherine-wheel-
alley, one of the places referred to in this letter as
being in a very unfit state for human occupation,
and that there were diarrhoea cases in almost every
house in it.

It is almost impossible to account for the great
dilatoriness which has been displayed by the board
of guardians of the East London Union in the
face of the epidemic raging around them.
Surely the events of the last few weeks
have spoken to them in their position as
strongly as any possibly could, and those who
would not heed their warnings are of that nature
which would not mind the words of one that rose
from the dead. No doubt, however, but culpable
indifference is by no means an isolated case, and
if we had before us a full and comprehensive account
of all the facts relating to the existence of nuisances
and the care bestowed upon their removal, we
should find plenty of cases as bad, if not worse, than
those we have been considering. It rests in a great
measure with private individuals to effect some bene-
ficial change in the condition of things, for by the
provisions of the New Sanitary Act the representa-
tion of any dweller in a parish to the Secretary of
State will call for his interference ; and we trust
that many will be led to adopt this wise course, for
it will be the best and most effective means of
checking the evils that abound. One very notice-
able thing in the accounts we find in this letter is
the faulty supply of water in these crowded places,
where abundance is especially called for, and, in
fact, may be considered as most essential to health.
In many places an uncovered water-butt is the only
means of obtaining water, and that is in a fearful
condition with decomposi❑g matter. The local
authority enforces the landlords to alter the condition
of their property, and it will be a shameful thing if
after all the care that was taken by the Govern-
ment to get the Sanitary Act through Parliament,
and the zeal displayed by the members of both
houses to facilitate the object, it should turn out by
the commencement of next session that little or no
good has been effected by it. The River Lea has
been an active agent in the spread of cholera, and
the other day an investigation took place which re-
sulted in the opinion of the jury that a young man
died from the prevailing epidemic "occasioned by
drinking polluted water from a certain pump." The
analysation of the water showed that it was totally
unfit for drink, as it contained matters derived from
surface drainage, and the filtration from sewers and
cesspools. The pump was in the vicinity of Bow
Creek, and the deceased drank some of the water
from it in a vitiated state, which made it so much
the more dangerous.

Earl GREY is always well worth hearing, and,
although he does not choose to enter the arena of
official life, he does the public good service by his
straightforward manner of dealing with the vexed
questions of the day. His ability is great, and he
does not allow himself to be biassed by the preju-
dices of his order, or by the tenets of party, so that
he frequently says things that other men have either
not the sagacity to perceive nor the courage to
utter. He has just been dealing in this manner
with a very difficult and complicated social question
—that of Strikes and Lock-outs. The occasion of
his speech was the opening of the fine arts
exhibition of the Newcastljon-Tyne Mechanics'
Institute, at which Earl GREY delivered
the inaugurative address. He referred to the sub-
scriptions on behalf of the Institute as a proof that
masters were not always indifferent to the welfare
of their men, and he expressed a hope that the In-
stitute itself would tend to enlighten its members
as to the causes which really influenced the rate of
wages. The question of strikes is just now a very
prominent one in the North, for, in addition to the
great strike which is paralysing the iron trade of
that part of the country, the masons and building
trades have a strike of their own, so that the new
Mechanics' Institute in which this very exhibition
was to have been held in is left incomplete. Earl
GREY did not attempt to decide upon the merits of
the matter, but addressed himself
histo hearersth e general
question, and endeavoured to make
rea-
lise the great losses which resulted to a
from prolonged inaction. The wagesannuallyl Iparties
paid
in the iron trade amount to two millions sterling.
Even a few weeks' stagnation of one branch of the
trade must, therefore, it is manifest, occasion a
heavy pecuniary loss. During the strike just over
in the blast furnaces £50,000 in wages had been
lost in four weeks ; and in the strike still going on
in the rolling mills, £lOO,OOO in wages has
already been forfeited. Lord GREY pointed
out the practical results of such a loss of wages in
the homes of the men themselves. "Must there
not," he asked, " have been women in weak health
to whom the loss of their accustomed weekly income li
would make the difference between life and death,
or between permanent and confirmed sickness and
restoration to health? Must there not have been
children whom, at their critical period of life, the
loss of their parents' income must deprive of the
advantages of schooling, and of that nourishment
which was so essential in order that they might
grow up to be strong and healthy men and women ?
Were there not the causes of future and greater suffer-
ing, perhaps for many years to come, to numberless
individual iu that unhappy state of ings ?" And