The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-18 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

There has just issued from the the admirable press Ot
the Messrs. Cloves and Sons, an octavo condensed
edition of the Parliamentary Folio, entitled "First
Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the
State of Large Towns and Populous Districts, Vol.
This is a document fraught with information upon the
statistics which it is most essential for the well order-
ing of society to have diligently collected, carefully
compiled, accurately classified, and conveniently di
gested and arranged. In endeavouring to give our
readers an adequate notion of the importance of the
volume before us, we cannot do better than follow the
classification which its contents have assumed. Let
us premise that the Report most fortunately exceeds
in its scope the terms of her Majesty's instructions to
the Commissioners ; for, whereas these required them
to direct their attention to "the causes of disease
among the inhabitants of large towns and populous
districts in England and Wales ; the best means of
promoting and securing the public health under the
operation of the Jaws and regulations now in force,
and the usages now prevailing, with respect to the
drainage of lands, the erection, drainage, and venti-
lation of buildings, and the supply of water in such
towns and districts, whether for purposes of health,
or for the better protection of property from fire ; and
how far the public health and the condition of the
poorer classes of the people of this realm may be pro-
moted by the amendment of such laws, regulations,
and usages ;" the Commissioners have also taken evi-
dence not less interesting to humanity—namely, as to
the moral evils attaching to some of the conditions of
poverty in which a vast portion of our more unfortu-
nate fellow-countrymen, their wives, and families, are
plunged. The "Report" itself is followed by
.sixty-
/ two detailed questions framed by the Commissioners,
and issued to various localities for answers ; by an
" Abstract" of the replies to them, and a table of
mortality. The " Analytical Contents" range under
these heads :—" On the Causes of Disease, and vary-
ing intensity of their operation in different districts;
"uisances ;" "Regulations for Buildings ;" "Sewer-
age and Drainage; " State of the Authorities for
the 'administration of Local Measures of Improve-
ment;" " Supply of Water ;" and " Ventiliation."
The nine plates which illustrate this edition of the
Report and Evidence are thus entitled-1. Stream
of Life in Preston—Gentry, Tradesmen, Operatives.
2. Ditto, showing the Periodic Diminution of Vi•
talky. 3. Bird's-eye View of a Group of Cottages
at Preston. 4. Ground-plan of these Cottages. 5.
View of First Water-lane, York. 6. Diagram,
showing the rates of Mortality in different wards at
Nottingham. 7. Sketches of Districts in Notting-
ham, showing the back to back houses. 8 and 9.
Ditto, ditto. 10. Plan of the Borough of Notting-
ham, showing the Commons and Commonable Lands.
On the subjects to which these plates relate we
shall have much to remark hereafter. The evidence
applying to them is one overwhelming revelation of the
actual filth in which the wretched denizens of the
localities in question habitually live, and the in-
conceivably polluted atmospheres in which the vital
functions can, for periods that must astonish the least
reflecting inquirer, subsist and operate.
Under the first head of " Analytical Contents" we
find the intelligent and striking evidence of Dr.
Southwood Smith, M.D., Physician of the London
Fever Hospital, &c., on the causes of disease, and the
necessity for sanatory regulations ; J. N. Ward, Esq.,
on the influence of light and air as a means of pre-
venting diseases; D. Neil Arnott, M.D., on evils
arising from want of drainage, ventilation, and clean-
liness ; J. Toynbee, Esq., Surgeon to St. George's
and St. James's Dispensaries ; Doctors W. A. Guy,
C. J. Allis, R. Rigby, W. 11. Duncan, and T. Lay-
cock. These gentlemen depose to the prevalence of
scrofulous diseases and their causes; the influence of
employments upon health ; the physical causes of the
high rate of mortality in Liverpool, &c. J. Liddle,
Esq., the Rev. Mr. Clay, S. Holme, and T. Hawkesley,
Esqs., give very valuable information on all these, and
on other sanatory questions. _ _ _

The evidence taken to " the Causes of Disease and
varying intensity of their operation in various dis-
tricts," treats of the condition of the poorer classes in
the inferior districts of the metropolis, with reference
to the state of the drainage, the neglect of cleansing,
the deficient supply of water, and other usual causes
of disease prevalent in towns. We have statements
of the ages and sexes of parents attacked with fever,
showing its ravages among adults, and especially
females; also, the general depression of the moral
and physical powers of the inhabitants of ill•con-
ditioned districts. Other passages illustrate the risk
of infectious disorders, thus generated among the
poor, extending to the districts of the wealthy.
Instances are given of fever occurring in the imme-
diate vicinity of gully-holes. An essential feature of
the volume consists in the demonstration it affords of
the physical and moral evils resulting from the over-
crowding of houses; and of the injurious (physical)
effects arising from deficient ventilation in dwellings,
workshops, and schools. The beneficial restf.ts of a
due supply of light are well contrasted therewith.
Then we have estimates of the comparative mortality
during periods of prosperity and distress ; an inquiry
into the proportion of sickness that is capable of re-
moval ; examination of the causes to which scrofulous
affections are chiefly attributable; of the influence of
employments upon health; the proportion of con-
sumptions among males and females; the number of
lives which in every year might be saved by the
adoption of precautionary measures. It is admitted
that the demolition of houses for the formation of
new thoroughfares has not invariably proved bene-
ficial, and that some of the assigned causes of mor-
tality are inseparable from various conditions of
poverty. Reasons are given for the necessary excess
of mortality in towns over that of rural districts, and
especially for the high rate of mortality in the town
of Liverpool; and moreover, for the deleterious in-
fluences produced by the condition of their dwellings,
on the working classes of both Liverpool and Man-
chester. There are some melancholy facts allewed to
account for the alteration in the condition of the po-
pulation of Preston during the last century. In
hereafter selecting extracts from the evidence, we
shall especially recur to this point.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)

TIIE OXFORD-STREET WOOD PAVlNG.—Yester-
day, in consequence of the peremptory notice served
on the Metropolitan Wood Paving Company, by the
Marylebonc Vestry, calling upon them, in accordance
with the terms of their contract, to put in immediate
repair that portion of the wood paving in Oxford-
street, between Well-street and llathbone-place, the
roadway between Well-street and Berners-street was
stopped up, and workmen were employed in removing
the wood paving. On being turned up, the under sur-
face appeared in a very decomposed and blackened con-
dition, and, in many instances, the blocks were so rott(
that, instead of being taken up in flakes as they w( rs
laid down, they were thrown up in heaps in the centre
of the rond. The Vestry have not yet commenced the
removal of Stead's paving, opposite the Boar and
Castle, which has been already condemned by the parish
Surveyor, and Paving Committee ; but it is understood
that its removal will take place in the course of a few
days, and that granite will be substituted.

THE MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, OCT. 17.—The
Royal West India Mail-packet The Tweed, Captain
Parsons, left her moorings at three o'clock, P.M., on her
outward voyage for Madeira, St. Thomas's, &c., taking
out the mails for the West India Islands, which were un-
usually large. The Tweed has 115 passengers ; no
freight, except three boxes of specie. The Teviot is ex-
pected here on Sunday from the West Indies with the
1 inward mails. The Pacha, Captain Bernie, left the docks
at four o'clock, P.M., with the Gibraltar and Peninsula
mails, and twenty-six passengers and a small cargo. The
Braganzl, which has been lengthened thirty feet, and
fitted out with new engines, is fast getting ready for sea,
and is expected to proceed to Constantinople on the 25th,
vice Royal Tar.
EXTRAORDINARY FRACAS IN THE COURT OF BANK..
RUPTCY.—John Rudden, of Chatham, came before Mr.
Commissioner Evans yesterday for his interim order,
which was opposed on the ground that he had fraudu-
lently made away with his property, and remained up-
wards of six months in the Queen's Bench prison, but
obtained his liberation by petitioning that Court. It
was proved that his debts were more than 3001., and that
he was a trader at the time. Mr. Commissioner Evans
said he had no jurisdiction in the case, and dismissed the
petition. The solicitor said that the insolvent must go back
to prison. A scene of indescribable uproar now took place;
the insolvent, surrounded by several of his friends, in-
sisted that the Commissioner had discharged him, and a
regular fight ensued between the parties. The solicitor
ran into the Court to ask for the Commissioner's advice,
whilst Mr. Hodgson, the house registrar, called iasneevtee-
ral of the City police, and gave them instructions
clear the avenues of the Court.
insol-
vent could be again arrested upon
t a blieriff'snofEcer, or
the solicitor was unpreparedwith
heCourt could not assist him.
Evans said, under the 6th section
the
ef t.s.heider.gmAceot,
judgment
but, as
necessary warrant,
to th eeastehhouthsiomf
his party, leaving
The police bad a most embarassing
again when he can.
them to clear the Court, and
duty—the registrar urging .
Eventually the instohveenutnt
leuscelcayPeda,ttoarainiedyst
would aid the escape of the insolvent
the solicitor's party threatening that if they did so, they
CADVERTISEMENT.]—A POOR MAN'S LIFE SAVED
BY HOLLOWAY'S PILLS —Jeremiah Laughlin, a porter
about the quays of Dublin, was afflicted for years with
shortness of breath, spitting of phlegm, night perspire.-
tions, and general weakness of body, a want of appetite,
sick head-ache, besides suffering much from the liver.
This man was in the second stage of consumption, and
not expected to live three months, when he commenced
(also
HI lo olllIza•
the use of Holloway's wonderful Pills, and by their
means alone he is now as strong, as hale, and as well as
everat t the eh c was
Establishment his
life.of Professor
Sold ayY , 112°44i n,
t Strandni ent
(where advice may be had gratis), and by almost all
respectable vendors of medicine throughout the civilised
world.

TuE WOES or WEALTH.—MISS Burdett Coutts has
we hear, taken one of the houses in Lansdowne-place,
Clifton. This lady has been so much importuned for
charity in other places, that her doors have been besot
by needy or designing persons ; and when she takes an
airing she is unable to avoid the importunate supplicants.
We hope no such annoyance will be practised in this
neighbourhood.—Bristol Gazette.