The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-27 00:00:00

OCTOBER 27, 1842.

EXTRACTS FROM THE "INQUIRY
INTO THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE
LABOURING POPULATION OF GREAT

BRITAIN."-(CONCLUDED

Though the deaths from accidents bear only a
small proportion to the deaths from disease, yet
registries show that the scattered deaths from
various descriptions of violence amount to an
average of about 12,000 yearly, in England and
Wales alone, or more than aroused the national
attention in he late massacre of the troops of the
empire during the war in India.—Page 205.
The amount expended in ardent spirits (exclu-
sive of wines), tobacco, snuff, beer, &c., con-
sumed chiefly by the labouring population, can-
not be much less than 45,000,0001. to 50,000,000/.
per annum in the United Kingdom. By an esti-
mate obtained from an eminent spirit merchant,
of the cost to the consumer of the British spirits
on which duty is paid, the annual expenditure on
them alone, chiefly by the labouring classes,
cannot be less than 24,000,0001. per annum. • •
In the town of Bury, with an estimated popula-
tion of 25,000, the expenditure in beer and spi-
rits is estimated at 54,190/. annually, or 2/. 35.4 d.
for each man, woman, and child. But on an in-
quiry made from house to house by the agency
of the Manchester Statistical Society into the
condition of the labouring population of this
town, with such an expenditure on one source of
dissipation and ill-health, it appeared that of
2,755 of their dwellings examined, only 1,668
were decidedly comfortable; that a smaller num-
ber were well furnished ; that the number of
families in which there were less than two per-
sons sleeping in one bed were only 413 ; that the
number in which on the average there were more
than two persons to a bed was 1,512; that the
number of fittnilies who had not less than three
persons in a bed and less than four, was 773 ;
that the number of families in which there were
" at least four persons, but less than five persons
to one bed," was 207. There were sixty-three
families where there were at least five persons to
one bed; and there were some in which even six
were packed in one bed, lying at the top and
bottom—children and adults. Similar results as
to misapplied means and numbers crowded to-
gether would be ascertained from similar inqui-
ries into the state of the population in other dis-
tricts.—Pages 227, 228. _

DISTRAININO ON POOR TENEMENTS.—In some
of the worst neighbourhoods in Manchester, the
whole population of a street have risen to resist
the service of legal process by the civil officers.
In the course of the Constabulary Inquiry I was
informed by the superintendent of the old police
of that town, that one of the most dangerous ser-
vices for a small force was attending to enforce
ejectments. This they had often to do, cutlass in
hand, and were frequently driven off by showers
of bricks from the mobs. The collection of the
rent weekly in such neighbourhoods is always a
disagreeable service, requiring high payment.
This, and the frequent running away of the te-
nant, and the waste, greatly reduce the appa-
rently enormous rent obtainable from this poorer
class of tenants.—Page 235.
MODE OF PAYIYG WAGES.—The direct sani-
tary effects may be best displayed in the follow-
ing evidence of Mr. Lomax, an army pensioner,
which has been corroborated by superior officers :
—" When I was in the Life Guards, fourteen or
sixteen years ago, there was a good deal of ill
health prevalent amongst them. Before that
time the men received part of their pay weekly,
namely, seven shillings at the end of the week.
With this seven shillings they had to provide the
food which they required, except their dinner.
The ration for dinner was three-quarters of a
pound of uncooked meat, a pound of potatoes or
vegetables, and a pound of bread. it was found,
however, that many of the men spent the whole
of the seven shillings in a single day in drink or
dissipation. During the remainder of the week
the men would be on what was called the crib-
bite,' that is, living only on their dinner rations.
I knew many of the men who drooped under
this system, partly from the excess of drinking
or dissipation, and partly from the privation of
the necessaries of life and the work they had to
undergo. This, again, led them to much temp-
tation. If anything was lost it was amongst this
class of men that we looked for it. The crime-
book would speak as to the further bad conse-
quences of these habits. The plan was then tried
of paying the men one shilling each day. Over
and above that the men were provided with
coffee. It was universally felt that this change
was highly beneficial to their health, and it
stopped the dissipation, and the consequences of
the dissipation."—Page 245.
EXTENT AND PREVALENCE OF PERSONAL
UNCLEANNESS AMONGST WORKPEOPLE.— Mr.
John Kennedy, in the course of the examina-
tions of some colliers in Lancashire, asked one of
them—" How often _do ._the drawers (those
employed in drawing coals) wash their bodies ?
None of the drawers ever wash their bodies. I
never wash my body; I let my shirt rub the
dirt off; my shirt will show that. I wash my
neck and ears, and face, of course.—Do you
think it usual for the young women (engaged in
the colliery) to do the same as you do ? I do not
think it is usual for the lasses to wash their bo-
dies; my sisters never wash themselves, and see-
ing is believing; they wash their faces, necks,
and ears.—When a collier is in full dress, he has
white stockings, and very tall shirt necks, very
stiffly starched, and ruffles? That is very sure,
Sir; but they never wash their bodies under-
neath; I know that; and their legs and bodies
are as black as your hat." One labourer remem- '
bered that a particular event took place at
Easter, " because it was then he washed his
feet." The effects of these habits are seen at the
workhouse on almost every one of the paupers
admitted. When it is necessary to wash them
on their admission, they usually manifest an ex-
treme repugnance to the process. Their com-
mon feeling was expressed by one of them when
he declared that he considered it " equal to rob-
bing him of a great coat which he had had for
for some years." The filthy condition in which
they are found on admission into the hospitals
is frequently sufficient to account for the state of
disease in which they appear, and the act of
cleansing them is itself the most efficient cure.—
Page 253.
WASTE WATER FOR BATHS.—A few years
since a gentleman, observing some ditches in
London, in the neighbourhood of City-road,
smoking with clean hot water, running away
from the steam-engine of a manufactory, directed
attention to the waste, and suggested the expe-
diency of using that water to supply public warm
or tepid baths. After a time the suggestion was
acted upon as a private speculation, and large
swimming-baths were constructed; one, with
superior accommodations and decorations at one
shilling; another, with less costly fittings-up, at
sixpence the bath. These were luxurious tepid
baths, kept at a heat of 84 degrees. The ex-
ample appears to have been followed in West-
minster by the establishment of similar tepid
swimming-baths, where only threepence is
charged to persons of the working-class. As
many as 2,000 and 3,000 of this class have re-
sorted to these baths in one day, and the bath at
the lowest charge is stated to make the best re-
turn for the capital invested in it. Similar esta-
blishments are, we believe, in progress in other
parts of the metropolis.—Pages 254, 255.
Besides those means which affect immediately
the health and moral condition of the, work-
people, others are within the control of their em-
ployers which affect the personal appearance,
and, through the self-respect, the morality of
the population. Mr. William Fairbairn, in the
course of an examination, adverted to respecta-
bility in personal appearance, thus—" ' It is
always,' said he, ' an indication of looseness
of character, and a low standard of moral con-
duct, to see a mechanic in dirt or in his
working-clothes on 'Sunday. Thirty years' ex-
perience leads me to draw a very unfavourable
conclusion as to the future usefulness to me, and
of success to himself, of any workman whom I
see in dirt on a Sunday.'—As a general rule,
does the aditince of his house keep pace with
the advance in condition of the person? As a
general rule, it does. Better personal condition
leads to better associates, and commonly to better
marriage, on which the improved condition of
the house is entirely dependent. It is due to the
labouring classes of females in Lancashire and
the surrounding districts to :state that, in the im-
portant household virtue of cleanliness, they are
superior to the females of the same class in
Scotland.—Are you aware of what is the con-
dition of their houses—have you visited them?
I have not made it a practice to visit them, I
chiefly judge of their circumstances from seeing
them with their wives' and families, and their
well-dressed and respectable condition on the
Sundays. These externals are always indications
of greater comforts and respectability at home.l
I am a strong advocate for dress, and encourage
the working men to dress well: if I see any
workman in a dirty condition and in his working,
clothes in the streets on the Sunday, I do not,
perhaps, speak to him then, but on the Monday
I tell him that 1 have been looking over the
books, that I find that he has had as good wages
as other men who dress respectably, and that I
do not like to have any one about me who will
not dress well on the Sunday. This intimation
has generally had the desired effect."—Page 281.
EQUIVOCAL NUISANCE.—The complication of
various nuisances in some of the larger manu-
facturing districts has frequently become so great
as toputthem beyond any existing legalxemedy,
whether private or public, by placing out of the

apparent possibility of distinct technical proof
any injury or particular effect arising from any
one: An instance of this is stated by Messrs.
Paris and Fonblanque, where two indictments
were preferred ; the one preferred against the
proprietor of a Prussian-blue manufactory; the
other against a black-ash manufacturer; both of
these works were situated in Seward-street, Gus-
well-street, London. The counsel for the de-
fendant, in his cross-examination of the witnesses
for the prosecution of the Prussian-blue maker,
drew from them an account of the noisome va-
pours of the black-ash manufactory ; while in the
latter trial the same barrister made the wit-
nesses declare the extreme stench of the Prus-
sian-blue manufactory; so that in both cases the
defendants obtained a verdict, because in neither
ease could the witnesses for the Crown unequivo-
cally prove from which of the manufactories the
nuisance complained of arose.—Page 302.

THE LATE GRACE HORSLEY
DARLING, THE HEROINE OF THE FERNIE-
ISLANDS.

A Correspondent at Bamburgh gives the following
particulars of the death of this young woman, so well
known to the public from the heroic part she acted in
saving the crew of the Forfarsbire steam-boat, which
was wrecked on one of the Fernie groups in the
autumn of 1838 :—For the last few months symptoms
of a decline have been manifest in her constitution,
and notwithstanding every care and attention that
change of residence and medical skill could effect, she
has ceased to be. Not so her fame—this we may
safely predict will be as lasting as the rock, the
scene of her noble exploit. She expired without any
apparent pain at the house of her sister, at Bamburgh,
her mother and sister alone being present. Every
expression of sympathy and kindness was shown to
the heroic sufferer during her illness by the inhabi-
tants of the district, especially by their Graces the Duke
and Duchess of Northumberland, the latter of whom
was unremitting in her inquiries after her. It will be re-
membered that at the time of the wreck of the For-
farshire, a public subscription was set on foot to testify
the admiration of the subscribers for her meritorious
conduct. This amounted to upwards of 7001., which
was funded for her use under the trusteeship of his
Grace the Duke of Northumberland and Mr. Arch-
deacon Thorp. This money, it is supposed, will beg iven
to her father, who accompanied her in the boat on the
memorable occasion referred to. Besides this sum,
she was in possession of considerable sums presented
to her on different occasions, by many noble and illus-
trious admirers, which, it is stated, she has bequeathed
to her brothers and sisters in nearly equal shares. Her
mortal remains were interred this afternoon (Mon-
day), in the family burying-place, in Bamburgh
Church-yard. The mournful procession moved from
the house of her sister about three o'clock, followed
by a numerous party. The service was performed by
the Rev. Mr. Darnell, Incumbent of the parish. At
the lowering of the coffin, and throughout the whole
of the service, many a tear was shed. The coffin,
which was remarkably neat, bore the following in-
scription :—" G. H. Darling, died October 20th,
1842, aged 26 years." A severe gale from the N.N.E.
prevented her three brothers from being present at the
last mournful tribute of affection to their dear sister.