The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-19 00:00:00

TANTLI TOPRE.

For the sake of its description of this extraordi-
nary freebooter, we extract from last night's Gazelle
the following deposition of Aman Singh, Tuhseel-
dar, taken by the officiating political agent, Camp
Goodah, Jan. 17 :

"My name is Aman Singh, Tuhseeldar of Ajub-
ghur. On the 14th January, 1859, I heard guns
firing about 11 o'clock a.m. Five sowars came from
the direction of Sainthal, and a buneah whom they
had plundered of a camel came and complained. I
at once came out to the garden, outside of Ajub-
ghur, and I saw a number of sowars assembling. I
sent a man to inquire why the sowars had come,
and to inform them that if they came in the direc-
tion of the city I would fire on them. One of the
sowars accompanied my man back ; he said that he
had come from Dewsa, and was with the Shahzada
Ferozeshah. I informed him that there was no road
via Ajubghur for a force, and asked his reason for
coming ; he then said that his people had been sur-
prised at Dewsa early that morning, and that they
had lost a great deal of property, and that a num-
ber of men had been killed on both sides ; and he
said that he intended to stay there, and get russud,
and procure money from me, and added that if he
did not receive 20,000 rupees be would sack Ajub-
ghur, and take russud by force. I refused to give it
him, and said that if he sent one of the sirdars I
would speak to him about it.
" The sowar went to his force, and brough a Ka-
nojia Brahmin, named Ghoree Shunkur. I inquired
who was his sirdar, told him that I had received
information of his approach, and was prepared for
him with my guns. He replied that he knew all
about my Hindostanee Fouj, and would plunder the
city if he did not get supplies. I said he would
find it difficult to plunder the city, as my men were
ready, and recommended him to go past the city by
another road, and that if his Sowars did not keep
together they would be fired upon.
" I was then told that Tantia was behind, and
that he would come up directly, and then the city
would be plundered.
" I then requested to have an interview with
Tantia alone, outside his force, but they refused
this, but offered to give me (dhurma) if I went into
their force alone. My people did not wish me to
go, "but I said there was no way of saving the city,
as we were so few, and they numbered 4,000, and
that if they did attempt any treachery I would
destroy Ghoree Shunkur, who gave me the safe-
guard, before they could kill or seize me.
" I then went on horseback with Ghoree Shun-
kur to Tantia Topee. I was accompanied by one
servant and two Sepoys. A Rajpoot Thackoor
seized my bridle, and tried to prevent my going
into Tantia's camp. I refused to get off my horse
until Tantia and Ghoree Shunkur came to one side,
where I got off, and they also dismounted. I sat
down with Tantia and Ghoree Shunkur.

"Tantia then told me that if I wished to save
the city from plunder I must pay 20,000 rupees. I
refused to do this, but Tantia, being very
.much
confused with the beating he had received in the
morning, agreed to go, provided I gave him four
Chowkeedars to show him the way outside the city,
and they went on eight miles, and encamped at
Bamun, in the Ghazika Tanna pergunnah ; there
they plundered the village, and got some russud by
force. Tantia has a round face, is copper-coloured,
and is slightly pock-marked ; he has a rather flat
nose, has a stubble beard, and seems to have been
unshaven for a month ; he is a strong middle-sized
man, about 40 years of age.
" The force under Tantia
is much distressed,as very
Tantia's horse, a cream-colour (Koorla), was
thin ; and the horses of the Sonars were in bad
condition and galled. There were about 3,500 or
4,000 people of all sorts ; there were between 100
or 200 foot, the rest were gowars ; 20 charP oys
were carried along, containing the wounded, and
20 more followed ; there were also a number of
men on foot and horsebrick wounded. There are
also a lot of men wounded in the different villages
on their line of march.
" They say they were completely taken b
sur-
prise on the morning of the fight,, and y
that they
lost between 600 and 700 men, but that they killed
200 of the British.

The Begarees who accompanied them from
Ajubghur report that a number of the enemy had
dispersed after leaving Ajubghur, and they tried to
bribe the villagers to allow them to remain con-
cealed. I consider that they received such a blow
that they will now disperse, as numbers of the
Sowars are men from the neighbourhood of Aug-
gur and Shekawattee."

FRESH WATER ON BOARD PASSENGER SHIPS.—
The Gazette of yesterday contains an order in council direc-
ting that any passenger ship may now be cleared out and
proceed on her voyage having on board, in tanks or casks,
only half the quantity of pure water required by the " Pas-
sengers' Act, 1855," to be carried for the use of the passen-
gers, provided there be on board an efficient apparatus for
distilling fresh water from salt water, such apparatus to be
provided under certain regulations.

what may hereafter fill a present want in medical
education. It will hardly be believed that hitherto
many a medical student has completed his studies
without having had any convenient opportunity of
learning to vaccinate ! It has therefore often been
wished that some well-frequented vaccination
stations, situate in those large towns where medical
schools exist, could be available for educational
purposes.
Mr. Simon has most laudably made local inquiries
relative to the prevalence of disease and its preven-
tion, in Conway, Windsor, and Wraysbury. In
Conway it was found that the sanitary laws were
most inefficiently administered, and that cleanliness
was disgracefully neglected. There was scarcely
any house-drainage, privy accommodation was
miserably deficient, and pigs abounded; in short,
within the walls of this dirty town (so well known
to tourists in Wales by its fine old castle), nuisances
existed to a flagrant and dangerous extent. The
diseases actually existing in the town at the time
of the inquiry could not, Mr. Simon admits, be pro-
perly imputed to the state of the place ; but in
other respects Conway has not altogether escaped
from the ordinary consequences of filth. The pro-
visions of the law were to be more strictly en-
forced, and a " Nuisance Removal Board has
since been nominated. At Wraysbury, and, indeed,
in the whole Eton union, there was apparently
great insufficiency of vaccination, and malig-
nant smallpox was carrying all before it. The typ-
hoid fever at Windsor (a common " filth fever," as
Mr. Simon styles it), is clearly traceable to unclean-

liness and extreme slovenliness in the removal of
filth. The nuisances were literally innumerable,
and the town had as many stenches as—or more
than—the famous old city that adorns the banks of
Father Rhine. But the great evil was defective
sewage arrangement, the external ventilation being
utterly inadequate. In fine, " the system of sewer-
age, with frequent domestic defects of sink trap-
ping, favoured the habitual escape of sewer atmos-
phere into houses ; last year, from accidenal cir-
cumstances, the sewer atmosphere was at about its
maximum of poisonousness, and the result was an
epidemic of typhoid fever." Disease, however, the
precursor of " pale death," did not on this occasion
verify the aphorism of the Roman poet ; for,
while it unscrupulously invaded " the cottages
of the poor," it passed by " the palaces of
Kings." Windsor Castle, in fact, was remarkably
exempt from the pestilence, a phenomenon to be
attibuted not to " the divinity that cloth hedge "
Kings and Queens, but to the very prosaic secon-
dary cause of obedience to hygienic laws, the
drainage of the Castle being abundantly ventilated
and in capital order, and, in curious corroboration
of this position, it is shown that while the " Castle
proper," which is drained apart from the town, was
free from fever, the cloisters and the mews, de-
pendencies of the Castle, which [alone were in
communication with the town sewers, were severely
scourged by the epidemic. The Local Board of
Health is denounced as not irresponsible for the
existence of the fatal causes at work, while Mr.
Austin. Mr. Simon's collaborateur on this occasion,
severely stigmatises the incompetence of the town
surveyor—a charge which Mr. Simon endorses with
opinions of members of the board respecting his "cul-
pable inefficiency." Mr. Simon has reason to doubt
that typhoid fever was at Windsor communicated
by contagion, although he will hazard no assertion
on the general principle. The result of Mr. Simon's
valuable inquiries about the disease (epidemic) of
diptheria cannot be submitted to their lordships for
some time to come. A part of them will, it is hoped,
be ready before the autumnal recess, in the form of
a supplement to the present report. On the gene-
ral state of public health in England, to which Mr.
Simon very briefly refers, the essential points
evolved are-1, the present very large total of deaths,
and, 2, the inequality of their distribution in different
districts of the country. There are, as already
shown, 100,000 deaths every year that ought not
fairly to take place •, these 100,000 deaths (in ex-
cess) are due to bad drainage, impurity of water,
overcrowded and un cleansed habitations, want of air,
unwholesome occupations, neglect of children, and,
above all, the omissian or malpraxis of vaccination.
Towns are the chief sufferers, although it is not in
towns alone that the mean& of public cleanliness
are neglected; for in hamlets and villages, no less
than in cities, refuse often remains unremoved from
about the dwellings of the people ; but in this case
the quantity of nuisance in proportion to the quan-
tity of wholesome ventilation commonly remains
small, and an amount of sanitary neglect, which to
dense urban populations would be the sure cause of
great mischief, remains comparatively harmless in
rural districts with scattered populations#
Some of the diseases consequent on a violation of
the sanitary laws are shown to prevail twice or thrice,
some 10 or 20 times, some even 40 or 50 times as
fatally in some districts as in other districts of
England; the result being that the mortality of
some districts is higher than that of others by 50 to
100 per cent., and that the death rate of the whole
country is 33 per cent. above the death rate of its
healthiest parts. These facts are startling, and
Mr. Simon does not wish to soothe the public mind
into the slothful apathy of indifference by disguising
the truth, or " prophesying smooth things." The
second part treats generally of the state of public
health in England, and the remarks on this head
are so important that we extract them without
abbreviation :

The essential points which I deem it necessary to
bring under your lordships' consideration are—first,
the present very large total of deaths ; and secondly,
the inequality with which deaths are distributed in
different districts of the country. From the Regis-
trar-Generals last quarterly report I learn, thatb in
the year 1858 the deaths in England amounted to
450,018. If the views be correct which in the above
mentioned report I had the honour of submitting in
detail for the consideration of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, this mortality very greatly exceeds the normal
rate of death. It represents an excess of at least 300
deaths a•day above what the best authorities consider
the natural and attainable death-rate of England;
'
and if this death-rate which fortunately is habitual
in a tenth part of the districts of England, had not
been exceeded by the death-rates of the remaining
population, there would have been in the year 1858
a saving of more than 100,000 lives. In the report
already referred to, I have stated the grounds on
which it seems certain that, if only a few simple
sanitary faults were corrected throughout the coun-
try, the average annual mortality might be reduced
even to this large extent. Absence of proper
drainage and scavenging, impurity of water supply,
overcrowded, ill-ventilated, uncleansed dwellings ;
—unwholesome conditions connected (but often
not necessarily connected) with the pursuit of
certain branches of industry; neglect of children,
incidentally (but not unavoidably) arising from the
employment of mothers in factories ; omission or
mal-performance of vaccination : these few heads
indicate our chief sanitary evils, and their average
annual fatality may safely be reckoned at more than
100,000 deaths. As regards the local distribution
of this large excess of mortality, I need haridiy,
ly
inform your lordships that, speaking generally,
towns are the chief sufferers—partly because they,
with reference to the habits and occupations of the
people, have certain causes of disease almost
pecu-
liar to them ; but still more because they_ ar
e_ the
chief seats of those very fatal diseases which are
engendered or multiplied by filth. In.
this, 1858 disease
diseaße
seems to have been distributed on usual
fEnbgyla thenhd. Te
remaining three-tenths
Seven-tenthsofof large towns, 'who do
the excess of deaths were
plan.suffered
inhabitants
population were
not constitute ha_telfntthhes
inha-
bitants of small towns and country parishes. I
have no present means of analysing
with perfect
exactness the local distribution of particular diseases
in 1858. The fact of the large total excess, taken.
in conjunction with the statement just quoted, and
with such information as can be gathered from the
quarterly returns of the local registrars, is all that

NOTTINGHAM, 18111—The lace trade is quiet,
and although some i,f the warehouses are doing a
fair stroke of business, manufacturers, generally
speaking, are very indifferently engaged. In the
home trade there is rathermore doing, and morels
expected to be done shortly for export. Some small
failures have taken place during the last few days,
Some orders have been received for mosquitos and
plain nets, and mechlins are still in request. The
hosiery trade is still brisk, and while the demand
for home consumption is steadily on the increase,
manufacturers have orders on hand for the Ameri-
can market. There is very little change in the
price of material.