The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-21 00:00:00

forward just and conciliatory measures, lowering the
tone of arrogant pretension and authority that it has
so long adopted; and conceding much, if its narrow
theory of legislation will not permit it to concede all,
that Ireland has a right to expect from an English
Government. 'We have little doubt that the reme-
dial measures with which Sir ROBERT PEEL is now
reported to be busy, will be such as will be advan-
tageous to the sister country ; but we are by no
means sanguine as to their comprehensive character,
and fear that they will only have the effect of warding
off his " difficulty" for a season.

The variety of incidents connected with royal pro-
gresses and royal visits which, for some weeks—or
months—past, it has become our duty to record—
may account for—but, we must honestly confess,
can scarcely excuse the postponement of other
matters of more serious import to the welfare of the
public, as affecting the health and the moral condi-
tion of vast masses of our population. Among the

topics which we have long been anxious to bring pro-
minently under the consideration of our readers, are
those suggested by the recent Reports of the
" Healths of Towns Commissioners." For—so long

as the maintenance and protection of human life in

,he communities committed to their charge shalt

form paramount objects of solicitude with rulers and
legislators, so long must the knowledge and control,
the modification, or the removal of the causes which

predispose those masses (composing the "lower
orders," as they are called) to disease and death, be
considered to assert the strongest possible claims on

the sympathising attention of their fellow-country•
men of all ranks and conditions. In the " First

Report" of these Commissioners "for inquiring into
the state of large Towns and Populous Districts,"
vie find so many unsuspected and appalling phases of
social misery among the swarming multitudes who
throng the squalid suburbs of our mighty manufac-
turing emporia, or vegetate in neglected wretched-
ness and want among the nameless alleys and obscure
districts that radiate from this metropolis, as a centre,
of which the concentrated magnificence is hideously

contrasted with the gaunt and sordid aspect of its far
outlying and scattered extremities ;—we find so man:
revolting but impressive pictures of abject destitu.
tion, filth, and corruption, physical and moral, tha
we know not which first to present for consideration,
as a memorable lesson upon the gigantic distress that
sits ever brooding, like their evil genius, over the
humblest quarters of gigantic cities. The first illus-
trations, therefore, which we have elsewhere selected
for extract, regard the condition of certain inferior
sections of this imperial city in which we write—of
the tenements that disgrace them —of the almost
fantastic forms in which the utter desolation of their
their ill-starred inhabitants develope itself; of the vile
nuisances, the noisome stench, the intense misery,
the privations, the polluted and infectious atmos-
phere, the contagious disorders, the "pestilence and
famine"—in, and amidst, and against all which,
human existence may maintain a precarious and con-
trasted tenure!
The evidence to which the public will not fail to
attach a primary share of importance, is that of Dr.
SOUTHWOOD SMITH, the Physician of the London
Fever Hospital. Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH is a gen-
tleman whose residence in the eastern districts of the
metropolis has necessarily brought him much into
contact with the victims of penury and disease in
their most fearful aggravation, and amidst the
hovels and cellars of their most profound and most
helpless wretchedness. He appears to have addressed
himself to his benevolent, but sickening task, with
the enthusiastic perseverance of a philanthropist, but
with the acute and vigilant research, also, of a
scientific observer. He has collected an enormous
aggregation of facts with an industry which will
astonish, and a method that must gratify, those even
who may not be able to appreciate the enlightened
and philosophic spirit in which he has generalised,
and reasoned upon, their results. We have never
perused a paper suggestive of conditions more singu-
lar in themselves, more important in their relations
to the general working of our whole social system,
than that which is occupied by the Doctor's evidence-
His replies to the Commissioners, in cases where the
interrogatories must have evidently been unpre-
meditated and asked off-hand, seem to us all distin-
guished by the same fine power ;—a matured and
disciplined habit of reflection, so familiar with the
matters upon which it has concentrated its energies,
in all their aspects, that it is never at a loss how to
deal with them, in whatever forms, and however
abruptly they may be exhibited to him. But we
must not content ourselves by stopping short of one
important moral which the perusal of such evidence
will press on the most languid or torpid sensibility.
Let the contrast of these scenes of want and crime—
of these abodes of sorrow, sickness, and degradation
—these unlighted, unventilated, undrained, damp,
dirty, noxious, horrifying receptacles of men whom
misery has degraded from the rank of sentient beings
to the level of grovelling, torpid animals, animated by
brute appetites and instincts, but cursed with the in-
ability to gratify the cravings of them ;—let this
terrible contrast awaken wholesome reflection and
stimulate slumbering charity in others, of destiny
more fortunate and moving within the sphere of that
wealth, luxury, refinement, of the healthful homes
and well-ordered establishments, the plenty, elegance,
and cleanliness, which are nowhere more widely dif-
fused than in London. Let all who have so lately
been absorbed by the glittering pageantry of courts,
the splendid hospitality of palaces, and the regal pomp
and banquetings which have so recently celebrated
the friendly greetings of two mighty Sovereigns in
this capital, now turn a benevolent ear, and hold out
a helping hand, to the wailings of desolate poverty
and to their feebleness, whose very wants are so
abject and overmastering as to preclude them from the
power of putting forth those efforts they would be but
too willing to make to improve their own pitiable and
disconsolate condition. We shall endeavour to offer
some suggestions as to the mode in which such relief
might be advantageously and extensively afforded on
recurring to the subject of this report.
.0 ---

The Madrid journals state that the Senate and
Deputies met again on the 11th, but their proceedings
were confined chiefly to the appointment of Com-
mittees and verifying the qualifications of Members.
The capital remained quiet. A letter from Saragossa,
however, published in the Castellano, states that sedi-
tious placards had been found posted in different parts
of that city, demanding the head of General NAR..
VAEZ, and of the recently elected deputies, Messrs.
QUINTO and ORTEGA.
The Three per Cents. were done on the Madrid
Bourse of the 11th inst., at 26 cash, and 26 at sixty
days ; the Fives at 20 cash, and 201 at sixty days.

We give, in another part of The Sun, from the
Journal des Debals, the new tariff just issued by the
Belgian Government, and regret to find that it is so
little favourable to this country. This, coupled with
the Brazilian tariff, equally unfavourable, may, per-
haps, at length, open the eyes of our bigoted mono-
polists in corn, sugar, coffee, and many of the neces-
saries of life.

A full report of what took place at the dinner given
to the French officers at Portsmouth, appears in the
Journal des Details, on which it makes the following
comments :—" We have no need to say that we set a
high value on the magnificent reception given to the
KING of the FRENCH by the SOVEREIGN of Great
Britain and her Court ; but we will add, that we are
not the less sensible and proud of what we may call
the popular welcome received by our officers in the
first military port of our great ally. We see in these
spontaneous demonstrations, free as they are from all
official character, the genuine expression of the senti-
ments of the two people. On seeing the elite of the
French and English officers fraternising in a manner
so noble and so cordial, we cannot help saying to
ourselves that it is impossible that this good
harmony can be disturbed by any fortuitous
incidents arising in other parts of the globe.
The eccentricities of a sectarian, the intemperance
of a chaplain, or the conscientions mistakes of officers
who exceed the powers given them, cannot make any
any alteration in the entiments of two Govern-
ments, or of the people of two nations, who sincerely
Nish to be on a mutual good understanding. It is
impossible that with such extensive and complicated
interests as are embraced within the policy of France
and England that various points of rivalry and oppo-
sitioa should not present themselves; but ?t is for the
immense
advantage of maintaining peace that both
parties are disposed to come to an amicable settlement
iof these inevitable difficulties. The general policy of