The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT UV PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Raja Ramtnohun -ROT " Al)
Exposition of the Practical Operation of- the
Judicial .and Revenue Systems of India) and of
tile General Character and Condition of its
Natkve Inhabitants, as submitted in Evidence to
the Authorities in England, with Notes and
Illtisrrations," &c. A book in nnglish by a
flindoo of high caste, published in our own
Capital, is assuredly a striking novelty in Lite-
rature. The Rajah writes with great modera-
tion and freedom from prejudice, and his opi-
nions on many points will have much %%Tight.
But it is not our intention at present to give an
account of the book. We wish merely to
notice what he says respecting the physical con-
dition of the Indian peasantry. In Ml:bunting
for the general inferiority of thn natives of India
in physical qualities to the Northern nations, he
attributes much to the simplicity of the food
which they use, chiefly from religious prejudices,
observing that the natives of Africa and some
parts of Arabia, though subject to the same
or a greater intensity of heat, from using animal
tor.d, are able to cope with any northern race in
physical strength.

" If the people of India (he says) were to be inclen.d. to
abandon their religious prejudices, and thereh7 become ac-
watomed to the frequent and common age br a moderate
proportion of animal food (a greater proportion of the land
being gradually converted to the pasture of cattle), the
physical qualities of the people might be very much im-
proved. For I have observed, with resp -ct t distant
cousins (relations?) sprung from the same family, and
living, in the sante district, when one branch of the family
bad been converted to Mussulmanism, that those of the
Mohammedan branch living in a freer manner, were dis-
tinguished by greater bodily activity and capacity for ezer-
tions than those of the other branch which had 'tdbered to
the Hindoo simple mode of life."

According to the Rajah, the cholera moths,
which is now creating alarm in Europe, was of
great advantage to the Ilindoos. Being asked,
does the population increase rapidly ? He
observes,—

" it does increase considerably from the early marriages
of the people, and from the males so seldom leaving the
families, and almost never going abroad. But there are
occasional strong natural checks to this superabundance.
The vast number carried off of late years by cholera mor-
bus having lately reduced the surplus population, the con-•
dition of the labourers has since been much improved in
comparison with what it was before the people were thinned
by that melancholy scourge."
1-Tow much there is in India to which we can
find a parallel in Ireland—a populatiDn beyond
the demand for labour, reduced to a low, vege-
table diet, which ever engenders typhus, as de-
structive as the Indian cholera, affording an
occasional relief from redundancy. But, unfor-
tunately, the evil in Ireland is not confined to
that country ; but from the proximity of the two
islands, the potatoe-fed race make inroads into
this country, lowering the physical condition of
the people wherever they appear. Dr. Kay, of
Manchester, whose valuable pamphlet on the
moral and physical condition of the working
classes we noticed some days ago, attributes the
very worst effects on the population to the
existence of an Irish Colony in Manchester.
We had no idea, before reading this pamphlet,
of the extent of pauperism in that city. - " The
cases reliev-ed at the Churchwardens' Offices," he
says, " are classed as Irish and English cases ;
the first consist exclusively of Irish. cases without
settlements ; but under the denomination of
English cases are included all who have obtained
settlements., whither English or Irish ; and
this class comprises a very great proportion of
Irish." Irish." The observation,. that under the deno-
mination of English cases are included all who
have obtained settlements, whether English or
Irish, must be kept in mind in perusing the fol-
lowing Table :

DISTRICTS. Nov. Dec. Jan. and Feb. of 1827-8, 1829-30, 1830-31.

Irish. Eng.l Irish. Eng. I Irish. Eng. I Irish. Eng.

Newtown
andAncoatsi 30411';60 36451239' 6601 16015 ;86918156
Central and
Portland-st. 630 14286 1109 14136 1928 18259 2023 17 794

The Newtown and Ancoats districts have always
contained a greater portion of Irish than any other portion
of the .town ; but the increase of pauperism in the central
and Portland Districts must evidently be ascribed to the
recent. rapid colonization of Irish in Divisions, 3,7, and
10 ; since, whilst the Irish cases, having no settlements,
have increased from 600 to 2,000, or are more than
trebled—the eases having settlements, which have been
relieved, have oily increased from 14,000 to 17,000, or
about two-ninths. In the same period, the rapid relative
increase of the Irish cases having no settlements, in the
Newtown and Ancoats Districts, renders it extremely pro-
bable, that the increase of those cases which have ob-
tained settlements, is in a great measure to be imputed to
the Irish ; and that pauperism, therefore, spreads most
rapirry in an ignorant and demoralized population. . . .
" The population of the township is 144,026 ; and the
acts of parochial relief in one year, each continued through
indefinite periods of time, were 321,172, of which acts
67,700 concerned Irish who had obtained no settlements."

All who are acquainted with Ireland state that
dyspepsia prevails to a most extraordinary ex-
tent among the lower orders in that country,
owing to the wretched diet of the people. In
Manchester the physical condition of the people
has been greatly lowered by the admixture of
Irish; and in the following passage Dr. kay
furnishes some curious particulars regarding the
inferiority of the stamina of the degraded past of
the Manchester poor, compared with the de-
graded part of the Edinburgh poor

" More than one-half (he says) of the offspring of the
poor (as may be proved by the bills of mortality of the
town) die before they biree completed their fifth year.
The strongest survive; but the same causes which de-
stroy the weakest, impair the vigour of the more robust;
and hence the children of our manufacturing population
are proverbially pale and sallow, though not generally
emaciated, nor the subjects of disease. We cannot sub-
scribe to those exaggerated and unscientific accounts of the
physical ailments to which they are liable, which have
been lately revived with an eagerness and haste equally un-
friendly to taste and truth ; but we are convinced that
the operation of these ciuses, continuieg unchecked
through successive generations, would tend to depress the
health of the people ; and that consequent physical ills
would accumulate in an unhappy progression.
46 We have avoided alluding to evidence which is faunded
on general opinion, or depends merely on matters of per-
ception ; and have chiefly availed ourselves of such as ad-
mit of a statistictl classification. We may, however,
be permitted to add, that our own experience, confirmed
by that of those members of our profession, on whose
judgment we can rely with the greatest confidence, induces
na to conclude that diseases assume a lower and more
chronic type in Manchester than in smaller towns and in
agricultural districts; and a residence in the hospitals
of }iehoburgh, and practice in the dispensaries amongst
the most debased part of its inhabitants, enables us to
affirm with confidence, that the diseases occurring here ad-
mit of less active antiphlogistic or depletory treat.
ment than those incident to th degraded population of the
Old Town of that city Diseases,
we have said, assume in this town a comparatively chronic
type; and general prevalence of suck maladies are com-
patible._ with. a low rate of mortality. Acute diseases
(which are eminently fatal) prevail, on the contrary, in a
popula ion where the standard of health is high, and attack
the most robust and plethoric. Thus a high rate of mor-
tality may often be observed in a community, where the
number of persona affected with disease is small ; and on
the other hand, general physical depression may concur
with the prevalence of chronic maladies, and yet be unat-
tended with a great proportion of deaths. We have else-
where discussed the origin and shown the great prevalence
of dyspepsia, gastralgia, eMeralgia, and chronic bronchitis
and phthisis, in Manchester ; and this, reference to the
subject may therefore be suflicien t hqre.
Wff are disposed to believetbat..4arriparkon,
between Manchester w, and other
towns of the West of Scotland, in which there are
large Irish colonies, would exhibit a eery differ-
ent result. from that of: the comparison with .

Edinburgh. On the east coast-of Scotland there
are yet comparati;ely fewArish, andthe vigour of
the native population has not been impaired by
' an admixture with a potatoe:red rate. Are we
to remain always pastie under evils of this mag-
nitude ? The institutions of England are, thank
Goid, upon -the whole, well adapted to seeu:e
the population against the evils of under-feeding.
If the English were left to themselves, we should
trust to their institutions, and the national ha-
bits, as a tolerable secuity against physical dete-
rioration. But while Ireland remains neglected,
or rather abandoned to misrule for the sake of
a selfish Aristocracy who wring Troth the poor
peasants all but the p6tatoes and salt necessary
for the lo,,'.:ett animal existence, there can be no
stcurity for the people of England. Manches-
ter, Glasgow, and Paisley, are as much Irish as
British towns, and they will become less and less
British every day. How petty those questions
with which Ministers have been occupied regard-
ing Ireland, compared with that to which we are
alluding! The - support of a tithe-paid Esta
blishment—not for the people, but for the sake of
the Aristocracy—is deemed of far more conse
quence than the prosperity of the peasantry of
the tonntry. When shall we cease to legislate
only for landholders ? How long are the people
to be sacrificed to their selfishness and preju-
dices ?-IViornitfg diivnicie.
The Mayor of Leeds having refused in his
official capacity to call a public meeting, as re-
quired by several members of the Leeds Reform
. .

Association and of the Leeds Political Union,
to address his Majesty on the subject of a speedy
citation of Peers, a meeting was appointed in the
legal form, to be held on Thursday last for the
above purpose. His Worship the Mayor not only
refused, but, like wiser, or at least more eminent
personages, he attempted to give his reasons,—
a ticklish proceeding for great men and for
small. A Noble Duke, we persuade ourselves,
would rather at this moment see his famous pro-
test expunged from the Lords' journals, than
have himself and his protest likewise gibbeted
and exposed to the wonder of all future tunes, by
the light of such arguments as precede his
Grace's signature to that ill-omened paper. So
the little great autocrat of Leeds has probably
received some hints before now that Mayors
have no business with political discussion. His
worship, fancying himself a statesman, twaddles
it away through a whole paragraph about" inde-
pendence of Parliament," " subversion of un-
doubted rights," " own judgment," " freedom
from control," and other branches of learning,
which he has evidently borrowed from the ex-
Premier. Now what has any officer of a
Corporation to do with such fine words ?
Could not he be satisfied with saying,
" Ay," or " No," and not plaguing people
with his opinions? We are told by this municipal
Wellington, that the creation of Peers would be
destructive of the independence of Parliament,
and we are told this by a man who deems it by no
means destructive of that independence, that a
certain and weak minority of the Peers should
nominate a third of the House of Commons, or
that the King and Commons (and nation in the
bargain) should be domineered over and robbed
of the choicest attributes of liberty by a single
faction of the Peers. If this gentleman objects
to any control being exercised by one branch of
the Legislature over another, how will he dispose
of the same argument, when we employ it.
against an interference by him or his anti-reform-
ing party with the King's prerogative of creating
as many Peers as may suit the Royal pleasure?
The fact is, that Peers will be made so as to
meet the emergencies of the Bill. Lord Grey
and his colleagues are now convinced, as well as
we, or any of our Reforming friends of Leeds,
London, or elsewhere, that if the Reform Law
should slip through their hands, a halter a-piece
would be mercy compared with the moral pu-
nishment which awaits them. There is no
reason, we trust, for assuming (far other-
wise) that Lord Grey is not actuated by noble
and generous motives ; but were he sensible
only to the meanest and most vulgar, he would
rather resort to a vigorous use of the prerogative
than lose the Bill, and irretrievably perish with it.
There are sixteen Anti-Reform interrogatories
quoted by a respectable Evening Contemporary,
comprising in them the multifarious essence of
one short leading article put forth bya wo-begone
morning Paper. Softest of Conservatives ! how
many bright eyes must thy effusions of yesterday
have dimmed ?—By how many pallid cheeks of
thine own blanching must the labours of the
toilette have been multiplied ? If the Reform
Bill, this odious Reform Bill, do pass—dread
thought !—there is an end of Tory administra-
tions for ever. That, indeed, is an argument, the
argument, the true nail to drive,—it is the logical
climax, and therefore, perhaps, by our amiable
conservative, of whose education rhetoric as a
science made no part, it is put foremost in the
throng of dissuasives to their Lordships against
the barbarous Bill. Then comes the hail-storm
of questions, which the unfortunate Peers are
one and all to answer to the best of their several
consciences and understandings,—questions be-
ginning with an adjuration against the love of
Popish ascendancy in Ireland, proceeding to an
indignant vituperation of the attack by France
upon Popish ascendancy in Italy, and finishing
by a burst of eloquence in praise of Bishop Phill-
potts, who (happily, we are sure, for the Church
establishment of this:country) is represented by
his admirer to stand unrivalled and alone. That the
Rev. Prelate may long maintain a solitude of repu-
lation, resembling in all particulars that; he
at present occupies, must be the wish ofevery
friend to church and state. Since. the above,
was written, the report of the proceedings at..
Leeds on Thursday last has reached us. We
have no time to do more than recommend this
animated picture of English feeling to the at-
tention of our readers of all ranks ;. and if there
be any doubters upon the reality and depth of
the reform spirit, as it pervades the whole king.
'doin, let them read this report, and be satisfied.
The meeting was attended by 4,000 persons,.
not embodying 'but merely representing a class
forming but a sample of that intellectual and
moral power which some of our coxcomical con-
servative Lords affect to despise.—Times.
The conduct of the Ultra-Tory, Conserva-
tive, or by whatever name the party we Aide to I
may choose to be designated, is the most ex-
traordinary and unaccountable that can well be
imagined. Not contented with opposing Re-
Lform at hothe, and resisting every amelioration of
existing institutions, they carry their hatred of
public freedom into their view of. all our foreign
relations, bestowing all their sympathies on Fer-
dinand, Miguel, and Nicholas, while the fate of
the unhappy Poles raises in them neither a sigh
nor a bhish. Yet these persons have lately been
Ministers of England, the hitherto proud asylum
vx34. freedom, and are looking out for the lucky
'lli otnenti.,which may reinstate them in their much-
loved and ..mstahsregretted offices. That men
may be,lioii.est. ly cippbsted no what they deem in.
novapons either in the inetitliiiiihs Of 'their own.
i ...