The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-12 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

An English traveller writing from Bruges on the
Gth of the present month says :
The cholera—which I encountered at Hamburg
in July, and at Cologne last month—has travelled
westward with steady steps, and is now raging in
this fair old city. The Channel alone divides it
from England, and the Thames would afford it a
hearty reception should it cross the narrow sea.
Owing to the unprecedented drought and heat of
the summer months, the canals which traverse
Bruges in every direction became stagnant. Their
waters were covered with oozy slime, and the mud
they so plentifully contain emitted the most fetid
exhalations. The back streets and courts are filthy
and foul, there being not a few, into which—on the
authority of a local journal—" everything is
thrown" to fester and to rot. Towards the begin-
ning of last month warnings were given of the pre-
sence of cholera, which has since progressed with
alarming strides. The ordinary mortality of the
town is two or three daily, but for some time past it
has averaged from 20 to 30, and yesterday we learn
on authority that it reached the unprecedented
number of 40, or at the rate of 280 a week. The
population of Bruges consists of 50,000 souls, so
that having regard to the difference of numbers,
this is equal to a mortality in London of 15,000 to
16,000 weekly. _ _

At the colliers of the Rues St. Georges and Poic-
tewyn stands a house on the spot where the plague
was stayed two centuries back. The event is com-
memorated by a Flemish inscription, surmounted
by an allegorical picture of the Saviour, the Virgin,
and the Patron Saints of the town. Every morning
hundreds of persons may be seen at this place pray-
ing for a cessation of the existing pestilence. The
women in their failles, or black mantles, impart a sad
air of mourning to the ceremony. The Chapelle du
St. Sang, wherein are said to be deposited some
drops of our Saviour's blood, brought by Count
Thierry of Alsace from the Holy Land, is also much
frequented for a similar purpose. " God helps those
who help themselves," and there is no Palmerston
here to tell the people that prayers, to be effectual,
should be accompanied by ablutions, and that pen
ante will be unavailing unless assisted by the la-
bours of the whitewasher and the nightman. The
Town Council has oflered lime gratis to all who will
apply for it, but very few have availed themselves
of the privilege. The weather has become unsea-
sonably hot and oppressive, and the mortality has
risen with the barometer.

Meanwhile, those admirable women, the &eurs de
Charite, unceasingly continue their holy labours.
Regardless of all risk, and utterly unmindful of self,
they distribute alms to the poor, succour the sick,
and console the dying. The old Hospital of St.
John of Jerusalem —al well known to English
tourists for its glorious collection of Hemlings—is
one of the principal scenes of their labours. But
they are to be found everywhere among the poor,
the sick, and the afflicted. The priests, also, are
unremitting in the performance of their sacred
duties. It is to be hoped the municipality will
bestir itself, and (with or without the consent of the
owners) cleanse the courts and back slums, which
here as elsewhere, are the nests and breeding places
of cholera, lever, and pestilence.