The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-26 00:00:00

FEARFUL MORTALITY AT LISBON.

A letter fr m Lisbon, dated Oct. 19, says
regret that I am not yet able to notice a chant e+
for the better in the course of the deadly epidemic,
which continues to ravage this capital. The disease
now appears to be spreading, instead of confining
itself, as at first, to the parishes of the Se and Mag-
dalena. The movement everywhere, and among all
classes, is to get out of the town and into the open
country. So many people have left Lisbon, that
the al, ered state of things is obvious to everybody.
There is no appearance of life, no business, the
shops are shut up—no carriages wake the echoes
of the silent streets ; on 'Change it is the same,
hardly a dozen merchants are to be found at the
hours of business, few bills are negotiated, and
everything ill the shape of trade is paralysed.. The
government his begun to provide encampments in
squares and open places for the gal!egos, or water-
carriers, who live in close dirty houses, where they
are great'y overcrowded and unable to pay proper
attention to cleanliness. The average mortality is
about 60 daily, and the upper and middle classes of
soc'ety have hitherto suffered most. The Count.
de Casal, the Baron de Rezende, and Signor Sex-
zedello are among the victims of note who have re-
cently been carried off. The I..ctilty still continue
divided in their opinions about the nature of the
fever ; and are by no means unanimous in cls.ssing
it as yellow fever. There can, however, be no doubt
that many cases of yellow fever have occurred, but
the balance of probabilities seems to turn to Vile side
of those who maintain that the disease is a species.
of typhus, highly contagious, and very fat: al in its.
effects.

"Among other things may be mentioned the fact
that the Cardinal Patriarch, the head of the church,
in Lisbon, has seized this time to visit Santarem,
where he persists in remaining—praying, but at a,
distance, for the welfare of his flock.
"I hear, besides, of some cases of husbands aban-
doning their wives and children who are attacked
by the fever and flying away into the open country.
But in opposition to this we may set the conduct off
many members of the medical profession who man-
fully maintain their posts, although many of their-
number have succumbed to the destroyer. The
Xing isalso assiduous iii doing everything in his
power to calm the terror of the people, and isise-
quently to be seen riding about the streets.
"As a natural consequence of the stoppage Of
business, there is a great scarcity 9f money, and a,
monetary crisis is feared in the commercial commu-
nity. I hear already that bills upon some of the
wholesale Portuguese houses in the dry goods line
have been protested, and that the Bank has refused
to discount paper.
The Peninsular and Oriental packet Granada
arrived only on the 13th instant. She did not com-
municate with the city, and received the mails for
the south wade up in tarred boxes, which the
Spanish sanitary code declares not to be infectious.
The Tyne left this for the Brazils on the 14th
instant, taking a very large mail for the various
Brazilian ports.
" Political news there is none, all questions
being now merged in the absorbing topic of the
pest_

"In foreign exchanges the transactions both in
Landon and continental paper have been very
limited, owing chiefly to the want of buyers. The
quotations are as follows :—London, 33 days,
53i ; 90 days' 54i ; Hamburg, 48i ; Paris, 527 ;
Genoa, 526 ; Amsterdam, 42g.
" The stock market is also very dull, and the
quotations may be considered nominal ; they are
as follows :—Three per Cent. Coupons, 464 to 47 ;
Deferred Stock, 28 to 28k. Bank of Portugal
shares, 114 to 12 per cent. premium. Bank of.
Oporto, 22 to 224 per cent. premium.