The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-30 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA MORBUS.

Since our last publication, the progress of this frightful ma_
lady in our immediate vicinity has been alarmingly rapid. On
Monday, subsequent to our morning publication, the official
reports were received from Musselburgh (and given in our
second edition) of the cases which had occurred from its first
appearance here, on Wednesday up to Sunday inclusive, exhi-
biting the number of 63 cases and '23 deaths. On Monday and
Tuesday there were 34 new cases and 11 more deaths, and a
private report of yesterday states 17 new cases and 10 deaths,
making in all 114 cases and 44 deaths. We received some in-
formation yesterday forenoon from a gentleman who is a mem-
ber of the Musselburgh Board of Health, which we think inte-
resting. There have been above 250 cases altogether in that
town, but by the great exertions of the medical gentlemen, the
progress of a number of these was arrested before they assumed
the character of malignant cholera; and what is rather extraor-
dinary, a small number of the recoveries have been after the pa-
tients had fallen into the collapsed state. By far the largest portion
of the sufferers are in the lowest ranks of life: colliers who
have struck for wages, hatters, and others, notorious also for their
dissipated and irregular habits. The extent of the mortality
and the necessity of early interment have made it imperative to
dispense with the usual ceremonies on such occasions. A large
' hole is slug in the burying-ground, sufficiently capacious to hold
two or three coffins abreast, and of the depth of 25feet. A layer
of earth is placed on the first tier, then a second tier of coffins,
and so alternately till the grave is filled up, which in this way
is made to hold fourteen or fifteen coffins. The progress of the
disease has been from six hours to two or three days. The me-
dical men consider that the virulence of the disease is now very
much abated. Cases have also occurred at Beil, near Dunbar,
and at North Berwick, besides the other places from which (Ali_
cial reports have been received. At Duddingston we are afraid
it is quite certain that one if not two cases have occurred. The
Edinburgh Board of Health have placed policemen at all the
avenues of entrance into the city, in order to prevent the admis-
sion of beggars and other characters likely to bring with them
the seeds of infection. It is said that the fisherwomen from
Prestonpana, Fishcrrow, &c. had been also denied access, but
there is no truth in this. A quarantine, however, has been es-
tablished at Leith, which prevents the entrance of any fishing or
other vessels from the whole line of the east coast as far as Eye.
mouth._Caledonian Mercury.

THE DEBATE OF THURSDAY.

(From the Times of Ssturday.)

We are informed that the minority who voted
against the Government on Thursday night on the
question of the Russo-Dutch Loan, was swelled
by the friends of economy, who desired to get rid of
the burden of the debt, as well as by the Anti-Re-
formers, who desired only to get rid of the Ministry.
The former, of course, took the fifth article of the
treaty of 1815 in its literal sense, and conceiving
that the conditions of the contract having been lite-
rally broken, we had as good a right as Holland to
discontinue the payment of dividends which de-
pended on its preservation, thought Government had
done wrong in giving its sanction to any further
advances. The latter admitted that they would
have done the same thing in substance as the Mini-
sters, they admitted that they would have recom-
mended the payments of the Dutch dividends,—
they admitted that they considered the debt as a
debt of honour on the country ; and they only con-
tended that the Administration had done wrong
in consulting the law officers of the Crown,
when they ought to have consulted Par-
liament ; that in fact they had committed
a technical error, which could be made the ground
of a party attack ; and that they ought to resign
their places, because on a matter of legal form they
had been deficient in official caution. Though the
debate on this promising patty topic was long and
animated, both from the casuistical doubt with which
some Members sought to involve it, and from the
importance to the stability of the Cabinet which
accidentally attached to the vote, the merits of the
question, both in equity and in law, may be brought
within a very limited compass, and settled by a very
few remarks.

It was evident, from the object of the financial
treaty which we explained yesterday, and from the
articles to which we specially referred, that the pur-
pose of the King of the Netherlands, in taking
upon himself the obligation of paving the half of
the Russian loan, was to compensate Russia as the
representative of the anti-Gallican alliance, for fret-
ing Belgium from the French yoke, end enabling the
Belgic provinces, as a conquest, to be added to his
dominions. England, as having engaged to advance
3,000,000/. sterling for the accomplishment of any
Dutch object, joined in this treaty to pay the
25,000,000 of florins, or the half of the Russian
loan, with the same views and intentions as her
Dutch ally. From the terms of the treaty the pay-
ment of the loan was to be, not only a compensation
for past exertions, but a kind of retaining fee for
future service. Hence the clause—the important
clause—that the payment of interest was " to cease
and determine" whenever the Belgian provinces, for
which the advances were made, came to be de-
tached from the Crown of Nassau. Hence like-
wise, perhaps, the arrangement that Russia should
still continue responsible to the Dutch contractors
for the payment of the dividends, though England
and Holland advanced the money to a Russian agent
to discharge them—the two latter thus retaining the
power •f freeing themselves from the obligation,
whenever the former should refuse to protect the
union which the joint grant was intended to reward.
Had no future services been contemplated, the two
contracting parties would either have poured the
stipulated treasure directly into the Russian exche-
quer, or have finally transferred to themselves the
loan in question, to the entire release of the original
Russian debtor.

Now, what danger was apprehended, or from what
quarter was this danger to arise, to repel which
Russian aid was by anticipation engaged ? Why, it
is evident that it was foreign conquest alone, and
that France was expected to be the aggressor. It
was apprehended that the French might again over-
run the Belgic Netherlands, as they had done before,
and therefore Russia, which had freed them, was
thus bound to protect their union with Holland.
Failing this protection, and in the event of a sepa-
ration by foreign invasion, which Russia did not en.
endeavour to prevent, Holland was no longer to be
bound to pay the debt due to Russian creditors,

But ;t was never contemplated, nor entiid it be ;ma;
glued by the treaty, that any thing short of external
pheu
pulse could
s thel s
conquesttpt justifyiia
ylicltie Russia
iu
the
)ccpties in refusing to pay to
zmight he called upon to re.
iary indemnity or advance.
It could never be supposed that an internal move.
ment, which Russia could not controui, would expose
her to the forfeiture of compensation for her past
exertions.
At any rate, whatever were the rights and duties
of his Dutch Majesty in the circumstances of a se-
paration brought about, against his consent, by ex-
ternal causes, England could never plead that sepa-
ration, to which she herself has willingly consented,
and which she has urged the Russian Government
to sanction, as a reason for freeing hersel from the
obligations of a treaty which contemplated the con-
tinuance of the union. Had his Britannic Majesty
shown himself as averse to the establishment of
Belgic independence as the King of Holland, and
had he called in vain upon the Emperor of Russia
to aid him in restoring the Belgic provinces to their
Dutch masters, there might be some reason for dis-
continuing the payment of the Dutch loan ; but
there can be none if England fa;•ours rather than
impedes the separation. We might as well claim
from the King of Belgium the repayment of the
money which we advanced to build the new for-
tresses on the Belgic frontier, which are now to be
demolished by our own consent.

The striking similarity of the two cases, in point
of right, will appear from this,—that we have actu
ally redeemed nearly a fifth part of the Russian loan
already by a 1 per cent. sinking fund ; and had the
Russian Government exercised the option left in its
power by treaty, of demanding a sinking fund of .1
per cent., a great part of the debt must have been
already cancelled. In this case we should have had
no redress, even though we had been opposed to
the separation ; and •is Russia to suffer because she
showed a spirit less suspicious and exacting than
strict law and justice permitted ?
We have now done with the proposition of the
lovers of economy, and with the deductions of the
literal interpreters of the treaty,—deductions which
would lead to the most flagrant violation of the
national faith, and economy which would entail upon
the country the greatest of all losses,--the loss of
national honour; and we have only a few words to
say to technical opponents of the course of Minis.
ters,—to the small critics of official routine,--to the
expectants of place by the success of a factious vote.
We shall, then, candidly admit that the Ministry
would have acted with better discretion, had they
consulted Parliament instead of the law-officets of
the Crown, on a matter where they were, indeed,
substantially right, but where they ought to have
observed the forms as well as the spirit of the
statute. It makes no material point in the case of a
justification, but it is of importance, as a defensive
explanation, that the whole of the negociations re-
specting Belgium are not vet concluded, the ratifi-
cations not having been exchanged ; and, therefore,
that a Government might naturally be unwilling to
consult Parliament on any of their consequences till
the arrangements were completed. In such circum-
stances, if an appeal to the proper constitutional la
authorities pro:aired them an opinion that they
might continue the payment of the dividends with-
out a new sanction front Parliament, they eau neither
be severely blamed for having recourse to such ad-
vice or acting upon it. The motion of Mr. Herries
would, therefore, have concluded more for a censure
on the Law Officers of the Crown, or an address
far their dismissal, than for a resolution against the
course of the Government.
We may add a few words on the divisions whicl►
followed the discussion of this question. Ministers
obtained majorities of only 20 and 24. These, in
the absolute days of Pitt, would have been con-
sidered as no great cause for triumph; but since
those days, parties have beer► so severed, interests so
divided, and political obedience so diminished, that
great majorities, except upon same question that is
felt through the whole country, have heen long un-
attainable, and Ministries have been found sufficiently
well established who could carry forward the cause
which formed :the principle of their formation,
though upon other incidental matters of less im-
portance they were far from possessing an over-
whelming force. Pitt was held by his party to be
more knowing and more skilful than all the world
in every thing, from the throwing away of millions
in the way of subsidies upon foreign Powers, to the
comprising of sky-lights in the window-tax. But
Members will now judge a little more independently.
Would they had adopted the practice sooner
Yet, while we hug with pleasure the conviction
that the strength on the grand measure of Reform
remains unabated, if not greater,in the Lower House
of Parliament than heretofore, we must caution its
advocates against suffering the charm which attends
the obvious superiority upon that question to be
broken and frittered away by close divisions upon
points of minor consequence; and w must call
upon Ministers to put forth all their diligence and
forethought, so to conduct the general business of
the country as to ensure the continuance of their
popularity and keep the people their friends. They
owe this to the important cause which they ad-
vocate, to the generous support which they receive
from the nation, and to the liberal-minded Sovereign
whom they serve.

It appears that the glove manufacturers of
Yeovil have been compelled to reduce their manufacture
one half, taking the average of 48 weeks, ending Dec. 3, --
Bath Chronicle.

A wag observed, in the House of Commons,
on Wednesday night, on Mr. PERCEVAL causing the
doors of the gallery to he dosed against strangers, that the
Hon. Member was so determined on carrying his mctior►
for a general fast into immediate effect, that he commenced
by making even the very doors fast.

INCENDIARISAI.—On Monday night, be-
tween ten and eleven o'clock, a fire was discovered in the
Rectory barn, at Bowers Gifford, which burnt with con-
siderable violence, and was soon demolished ; it contained
some unthrasbed oats and oat-straw. The wind being
high, the fire communicated quickly to some adjoining
buildings, cart-lodge, &c., all which were entirely de-
stroyed, with a rick of clover hay and a stack of beans.
The wind having taken a favourable turn, a coach-house
and stable, and part of a rick of meadow hay, were saved.
A number of gentlemen were soon on the spot. The la-
bourers in the neighbourhood were also prompt in their
attendance and very active in their exertions, by which
souse valuable horses and cattle were preserved. There
cannot be the slightest doubt that the fire was the act of
an incendiary. Mr. Bt.ucx is insured in the Essex
Economic office.—Chelmsford Chroxiele.
The shatneful attempts to impose on the
public various commodities, under the pretence of their
being specifics for the Cholera, deserves severe exposure.
Those who wish to take proper measures for avoiding the
much dreaded malady could not do better than consult
Dr. GRANVILLE'S inestimable little treatise, " The Cate-
chism of Health," a third edition of which has just issued
from the press. The volume contains rules, impossible to
be misunderstood, on every question that involves that
greatest of all blessings—health. The benefit accruing
from an observance of its precepts is already apparent in
many parts of the country where it has been circulated
among the poor tenantry--an example which cannot be
too widely followed by the affluent at the present crisis.
MILITARY COURTS-MARTlAL.—Dillitig
the past week several Courts-martial have been held at the
King's-mews Barrack, Charing-cross, and the merciful
sentences on the prisoners have been marked with hu-
manity by the Officers composing the Court, which it is
to be hnped will be followed by all military Officers, who
may be called upon to act as Judges on their fellow-men.
J. Pvaar, a private in the 3d Battalion of the Ist Regi-
ment of Guards, was tried for insubordinate conduct in
the barracks, and attempting to strike the eerjeant of the
guard. Lientenant-Colonel THORNTON acted as President,
and the Court found hint Guilty.—J. BUCKLE, a private
in the same battalion, and J. AYRES, another private,
were also tried for absenting themselves from the regiment.
Lieutenant-Colonel BOLDER() acted as President. The
Court found them both Guilty.—On Friday the regiment
Adjutant of the regiment read over the mi,,iites- of the
when the
mustered at the usual place in the King's•mews,
Court-martial. PYAM was sentenced t 0.511: months' im-
Brixton House of Cc tectioo, and BUCKLE
and AYRES were sentenced to 2Walays' bobtail• confine-
ment each, in such prison as the:Commanding.Otetr 9f
prisonment in
think proper ti
the regiment may