The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-21 00:00:00

THEE SUN, LONBON, FRIDAY 1 E.VENINGsq AuGlusr 21; 113h7.,

Ist ruction of fortified places, and other
much required works. The simple fact that a
great proportion of the Sappers previously em-
ployed by the Company, had deserted and were
now with the mutineers at Delhi, proves the im-
perative necessity of strengthening that im-
portant, and we may say, invaluable arm at the
scene of action.
It has been announced that ten thousand
militia men are to be forthwith embodied. This
is good so far as it goes, but we fear that it falls.
far short of meeting the exigency. Thirty thousand
regular troops have been, or are about to be,
despatched to the East, and surely ten thousand
militia cannot be regarded as an adequate substi-
tute for home defences. We believe that they
would be very efficient, and might discharge the
entire home duty, but at least double the num-
ber indicated would be required for the due and
appointed task. We cannot forget that there are
many difficulties still pending, and although
convinced that the national enthusiasm
would speedily supply everything required against
any invasion that might be attempted, we should
not leave anything to chance in such a case.
Lord Palmerston has virtually admitted the force
of this argument, by the reason assigned for
keeping our steam line-of-battle ships lying up in
ordinary, and of no immediate use. He declared
that it would be inexpedient to send to the other
end of the world the greater part of our naval force ;
the fleet which circumstances occurring in
Europe might, at short notice, render necessary
for our defence at home. If there be any vali-
dity in this argument, if it he anything more
than a plausible pretext, it is manifest that the
further precaution of having garrisons capable of
meeting any men who, eluding the vigilance of
our fleets and cruisers, might contrive to effect a
landing on the British soil, is absolutely essential.
It appears also that the engagements embodied
in the recent Treaty with Persia have not been
yet fulfilled. Herat has not been evacuated.
It has been affirmed that additional troops have
been despatched by Persia, and " great doubts
are entertained of the good faith of Persia." If
this be so, it requires no great stretch of imagina-
tion to ascribe it to the sinister influences that
excited the war, and we firmly believe fomented
the military insurrection in India. Any cir-
cumstance may be taken advantage of by Russia,
which can, at any moment, discover a pre-
text for war. It is, therefore, but a
penny-wise and pound-foolish saving to encourage
acts of aggression that might lead to an expendi-
ture tenfold, nay, a hundredfold more than that
which would be required under more liberal con-
duct. The extra cost might properly be regarded
as a premium of assurance that would be amply
recompensed by the additional secur;ty conferred
on the nation.

But with great deference for Lord PAL3fERSTON,
it seems to us that several of our large screw
line-of-battle ships might easily be spared
and an effective channel fleet still maintained.
Many of these valuable vessels are lying up in
ordinary, and it would take almost as much time
• to render them effective as it would to bring them
back from another quarter of the globe. We fully
concur in the efficiency of our navy as a protec-
tion to the coast; but surely, under such circum-
stances, far more than 2,000 additional seamou
should have been voted by Parliament, and this
was not the fauls of either House, but of the
Ministers who were granted all they asked for.
Wby net add 5,000 t) our marines and marine
artillery 7 They would serve both as soldiers and
sailors in case of necessity, and woull be found
invaluable for any emergency.

We may also ask, what of the gun.-boati t
Everything shows that they would be moat useful
in India and China, and yet a large number are
lying by uselessly, while they might reutle,r the
most valuable services. If we had them not
there would be a universal outcry for their con-
struction at any expense, but having them we per-
mit the benefit to be neutralised, to gratify tLo
red-tapist propensities of Sir CHARLES WOOD.

And so the "Crowded Dstellings' Bill" is with-
drawn, and preventible, pestilential disease is to
remain undisturbed in its scats, and the infliction
of preventible sickness and of premature mortality
is to be maintained. The reason stated by Mr.
COWPER for the withdrawal of the bill was " the
feeling that in the last week of a protracted ses-
sion the opponents of the measure had power more
commensurate with their pertinacity than their
numbers. The opposition in the present instance
had this peculiarity, that it came mainly from
Hon. Members who represented those parts of the
metropolis in which evasions of the law were the
most frequent, and in which the greatest number
of lodging-houses were found to the injury of
health and the detriment of morality."
We have not time to comment on the condition
of the Commons' }louse and of its precedure, in
which such an opposition from such a minority
may prevail against such a measure. It was the
excuse of one of the opponents that it would not
succeed--an excuse impudently set up in the face
of the fact that it was only a partial extension of
a measure which had had unwonted and extra-
ordinary succes?. Let us recall attention to some of
the chief points of the incontrovertel and incon-
trovertible evidence set forth in various reports,
and to the recognised principles of legislation
involved in the measure.

The common lodging-houses of the metropolis
and throughout the country were the most con-
stant sources of typhus, and of physi3al as well as
moral pestdence. By the o)eration of Llrd
SHAFTESBURY'S Act for their regulation, a large
proportion of them have had their cesspools
abolished, the rooms whitewashed and cleansod
regularly, water introduced, and over•orowding
prevented. It has followed uppn these mea.

surer that epidemics have been banished
from the bou3es operated upon ; that they

are no longer fever nests, but stand out in high
sanitary contrast to the tenements occupied at
weekly rents by the labouring el asses. In the metro-
polis six or eight thousand persons die annually
from diseases which have now no spontaneous origin
in the well-cleansed common lodging-houses or in
the model dwe:lings. Parliament has had before
it the evidence of the beneficial working of the
acts but that it is much evaded. The House of
Superior Landlords readily passed a bill for the
prevention of the chief evasions, and for the par-
tial extension of its provisions for tho prevention
of overcrowding in those tenements occupied by
the poorer classes, which only differ from the com-
mon lodging-houses in the rents being paid weekly
instead of nightly. But in the House of Inferior
Landlords,
and by new, so called reform members,
the measure, for the extension of proved benefic,::,
instead of being hailed as a boon, is virulently op-
posed as an
haveit were
so it would be far
pure air under a despot:tarn,
than foul air under
such a rule and atmosphere as those members seek
to maintain—shortening the period of health and
working ability of the inmates, and deeLlatino
their children. No possible p)litieal tyranny
could in these days visit upon its sulject.
evils so grievous as are inflicted on the in._
mates of the vile tenements sought to bo amended. ,

The measure is one of relief and emanci-
pation.. Unconstitutional ? Whera could, the
lawyers, the metropolitan representatives, and the
squires who set up the cry, have learned their law?
In no institutional book ! Law pupils so mis-
using the term would be plucked, in any proper
examination now instituted, to keep out such ig-
norance. The substantive old common law is
of the highest order, but it exists in vain for the
want of a cheap summary procedure for its en-
forcement. We quote from the nearest legal state-
ment, containing references to the authorities on
the question.

Thus it is decided " to be a common nuisance,
and indictable, to divide a messuage in a town for
poor people to inhabit, by which it will be more
dangerous in time of infection."-2 holes Abridg-
ment, 139.—Such indictment of one Brown for
dividing a messuage in the village of Hertford was
held good, and he was put to plead to it ; and
it was then said that such indictments are
frequent in London for dividing of messuages/

" The Policy of the Common Law was en-
deavoured to be enforced by the statute of the 31st
of Eliz., c. 7, which provided that there should
not ba any inmate or more families or households
than one, dwellings or inhabitings in any one
cottage, made or to be created, upon pain that
every owner or occupier of such cottage, placing
or wilfully suffering any such inmate or other
family than one should forfeit 10g. for every
month that such inmate or other family than one
should dwell in it."

This is a specimen of some of the Legis-
lation of " Good QUEEN Bess" for the protec-
tion of the labouring classes ; and we trust
that similar and grateful mention may
yet be gamed for Queen VICTORIA. Later on, in
our own times, "it was decided in the case of the
KINQ v. PEDLEY, 1834-Ist Adolphus and Ellis,
822: that if the owner of land erect a building
which is a nuisance, or of which the occupation
is likely to produce a nuisance, and let the land,
he is liable for such nuisance being continued or
created during the term. So he is if he let a
building which requires particular care to
prevent the occupation from being a nui-
sance, and the nuisance occur for want of such
care on the part of the tenant. That if a
party buy the reversion during a tenantcy,
and the tenant afterwards, during his
term erect a nuisance, the reversioner is not liable
for it ; but if such reversioner re-let, or having
an opportunity to determine the tenancy, omit to
do so, allowing the nuisance to continue, he is
liable for such continuance." Per LITTLEDALE J.
"And such purchaser is liable to be indicted for
the continuing of the nuisance, if the original re-
versioner would have been liable, though the pur-
chaser has had no opportunity of putting an end
to the tenant's interest, or abating the nuisance."
The production of typhus fever and the like diseases
is the creation of a nuisance. The landlords of
the disposition of Mr. BONITA.K-CARTER, the
Member for Winchester, should be reminded that
property has its legal duties as well as its rights. The
occupiers of the tenements at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
which were so terribly visited by the cholera, and
which, yet in all probability, especially require the
application of the provisions of the Act, should have
their attention directed to the exertions of the
lion. Member to maintain the illegal impunity of '
their bad landlords. But the economical notions,
or mere commercial views of the adminis-
tration of house property, entertained by
the defenders of the lilt!), are almost as er-
roneous as their notions of constitutional
or legislative principle. It has been found that
when the class of tenements in question are pet
into a proper sanitary condition, and the attacks
of sickness and the frequency of deaths are
diminished, the frequency of long interruptions of
rents is diminished. The most healthy houses
pay the best rents to the owners, and the best
rates to the parish. That the aged Prime -Mi-
nister should stay up to the last for the vigorous
defence of this bill, (unsupported by Mr. SLANEY
and other younger Members, who have talked
much, but have this Session dope little in sup-
port of the sanitary measures) is great!), to his
credit ; but Ile would have achieved more if ho
had persisted to the last. But the cause needs
the revival of the Health of Towns Association,
t) inform constituents of their interest 4, and to
give warning on their betrayal under the cover of
popular inattention, or misrepresentation in be-
half of foul cliques of bad owners.

Tile mail packet Colombo has just taken out
1,095,0141. in specie for India and China. This,
we are -bid, was I,ss than was anticipated ; the
estimates amounting, in round terms, to twelve
hundred thousand. pounds sterling. This may
bo regarded as a regular drain, occurring
twice in every month, which cannot be averted
during the existence of the monetary code
of 1844. There are also prospects of the

Bank of France renewing the premiums for-
merly offered for gold, s) that we shall have
to meet the double demand. Farewell, then, to
money or pecuniary ease for
some hr)P
time to ctoiecome. Indeed, we may consider
ourzelves well off if we are not called on to en-
dure a commercial crisis, of even greater intensity
than that of 1847, before the end of the year.
October is always a trying month, and there is no
great degree of timidity manifested in wishing
that it may pass without any extraordinary dis-
turbance in the Money Market.
It is now too late to hope for any change
during the present year. The Select Committee
have suspended their labours without arriving at
any conclusion, and if relief is to be obtained it
can only be by the Government following the
precedent of 1847, by suspending the unwise
and impolitic restrictions that compel us to re-
duce our domestic circulation at the very time
when it is of the utmost importance to have ari
ample supply.

We can, however, hope for nothing boyond
more Omporary expedients before next year, and
even then no effectual relief will be granted, un-
less it be earnestly demanded by the people.
The pressure from without must be strongly ap-
plied before Sir G. C. LEWIS will make ally con-
cession. He is, however, retch) of squeezable
materials, and will yield t) the proper amount of
coercion whenever it is judiciously applied.

The great mistake that has hitherto pre-
vailed, as well with the members of the Com-
mittee as with the witnesses, is that they
are " always bearing in mind the convertibility of
the bank-note." "Inconvertibility," as it is
termed, is the great bugbear that frights the i6le
from its propriety. In comparism with that the
currency Tracks care nothing for the ruin of
every person embarked in trade, commerce, or
manufacture, or the disemployment of labour of
every kind and-description. Tens of thousands,
hundreds of thousands may be sacrificed at the
shrine of the golden idol; but what signifies
that, say the cold-blooded philosophers, so loiig
as the integrity of the standard is maintained ?
We have the authority of the Times for saying
that, so far as our internal commerce is concerned,
there is no necessity for the deposit of a single
ounce of gold. The hypothecation of an adequate g

amount of Canaols, or the fact that the notes_
would be received in payment of taxes, would be
quite sufficient to ensure their willing reception
by every tax-payer. The foreign trade may
require bullion, but that could easily be provided
for, although it were made an article of trade and
purchased at its market price. The element of
uncertainty, looking merely to the interests of
foreign merchants, and throwing over those of
our whole home population, would be far less
than that occasioned by the fluctuations in the
rate of interest and the purchasing powers of
money. An additional issue of notes, particularly
of those of small denominations, say for 11., 21.,
and 31., may alleviate our difficulties ; but we
shall never place the matter on a stable foundation
until we get rid of the idol " convertibility," and
establish a domestic currency that can neither be
hoarded nor drawn off by foreigners. Our taxa-
tion furnishes the proper basis, and so long as
that continues—and when can we hope for ex-
emption I—there is no chance of the national
inconvertible paper currency being neglected, or
materially deteriorated in value. Gold and silver
will be articles of commerce, which may be safely
left to the skill and enterprise of our bullion
dealers.

LATEST NEW

TRIESTE, Auo. 20.
Mr, Murray has demanded from Persia the im-
mediate evacuation of Herat.

Despatches from Monte Video state that, on the
reiterated demand of France and England, the
Government of Uruguay has just authorisel the
nomination of a mixed commission to arrange the
claims of the subjects of those two nations.

The Vienna correspondent of the Nord of Brus-
sels speaks of a letter which King Ferdinand of
Naples is said to have wri•ten to Queen Victoria,
and in which he begs her Majesty to take pity on
the unhappy inhabitants of Corfu, and also to give
instructions for the discontinuance of the horrible
massacres and butcheries of rebels now taking place
in India. Although the correspondent affirms that
several high diplomatic personages had spoken of
the existence of this letter, lie does not adduce any
sufficient reason to show that such is really the
case.

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY EVENING.

General Windham has arrived in Paris on his
way to Marseilles to embark for India, where, as
already announced, he has been appointed to a
high milita►y command.
A despatch from Marseilles, of the 18th Aug.,
says thit the 1.4 umhard papers denounce new
Mazzinian meetings and plots at Genoa.
Piluee Jerome yesterday morning embarked on
board the Ariel steamer, at Havre, and went to
make a short excursion along the coast to Trou-
ville and Honfleur. The Prince returned in the
evening.

BOURSE, Aug. 20.—The following were the last
quotations :

Cash. fr. c.
1i per Cents
93
50

End of Month.
--fr.

3psr Cents 67 67 10 -
Bank Shares 2,785 Credit Foncier — --
Credit Mobilior 965 Roman 6—
Do. Account 960 Austrian 1—
Belgian 4
Fiedmonteso (5) — Home Debt