The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-21 00:00:00

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LONDON
FRIDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 21, 1842.

The other great project of the Whig party in
America, to which Mr. WEBSTER is devotedly
attached, is the establishment by the Govern-
ment of some general and universal bank. On
this subject, be says:—
" Another great and original object of the Revolu-
tion of 1840 was the restoration of a sound and uni-
form currency. Our troubles did not begin in the
want of money, nor with the Compromise Act, but
with the derangement of the currency in 1833. For
this great evil of a disordered currency no provision
has yet been made. Until some provision (be made)
fora general currency of uniform value throughout
the Union, I shall he hard to be persuaded that we
Can see a return of our former prosperity." " There is
an absolute necessity,' he further says, " in this
country for a common, uniform, and cheap medium of
exchange, for a machine which shall equalise debt and
credit from one end of the country to the other, and
with the same velocity with which steam carries men
and merchandise. We. must have for the country a
large and liberal proriszon for exchanges, really cheap
and uniform, such as existed when many millions
for
could at any time be exchanged less than three
quarters per cent. between the most distant portions
of the country. How can we reach this goal but
by t,ze authoritiof the General Government."
On those principles Mr. WEBSTER, the chief'
currency man of the Whigs, and the Whig party,
arc prepared to act. For their sake that party
effected what be calls a revolution. But is not a
" sound and uniform currency"—a "currency of
unibrm value," a mere chimera—the baseless
vision of a dreamer? Where and when did such
an instrument ever exist ? The nearest approxi-
mation to it is the precious metals; but as trade
expands or contracts, and as the supply of them
increases or decreases,. they vary in value in rela-
tion to everything bought and sold. Every•
newspaper, which tells us of rates of exchange, ,
informs us that gold and silver are dearer in some
places than in others. Small as they are

in bulk it costs something to convey
them from place to place, which necessarily
causes, even where the communication is the most
free, a variation in their value in relation to
other commodities. Our own currency, consisting
mainly of paper convertible into gal, is gene-
rally supposed to be as little liable to fluctuation
as the currency of any kingdom of Europe ;
but have we not, within the last twenty years,
seen variations in its value, which have at one
time lent wings to speculation, and at an-
other have chained our dismembered indus-
try to the earth ? Communicating with all
the commercial nations of the globe, what-
ever disorders the currency of England ne-
cessarily disorders theirs to some extent, in-
dependently of all their internal causes of
fluctuation ; and we may, therefore, safely
assert that in no part of the world now, and at
no time, was any such instrument in existence,
nor can it ever exist, as Mr. WEBSTER risks
the fate of his party, and the peace of his coun-
try, to establish by an Act of Congress.
We are obliged, when we read such phrases
as " cheap medium of exchange, which shall
equalise debt and credit with the velocity of
steam navigation," to suppose that Mr. WEB-
STER has been extremely unfortunate in his
reporter. Such language sounds like the rhodo-
' montade of a visionary, not the sober words
of a statesman carefully pondering over the public
good, and what he is able to accomplish. He
proposes to provide, by the authority of the
General Government, a large and liberal provi-
sion, of exchanges, ready, cheap, and uniform ;
a gigantic project, which, if it were only practical,
surpasses, we will venture to say, any project
ever yet conceived by the most despotic Govern-
ment for the presumed benefit of commerce. In
all these observations, Mr. WEBSTER seems to us
bank or currency mad, and we seek in vain in
them for any glimmering of the sagacious and
cool-headed negotiator. When such are his
opinions, and the opinions of his party, we can-
not be surprised that he has been unable to
remedy "the evils of a disordered currency,"
and that "even a Whig senate would not pass
Mr. EWING'S Bill." Such wild language and
wild schemes, to the credit of the Americans,
were not sanctioned even in the delirium of a
party contest and party triumph; and, in spite of
Mr. WEBSTER'S endeavours to "hush the storm,"
it arose and scattered the Whigs, of which lie is
one of the leaders.
We are surprised that he should talk of " ex-
changes," and immediately jump to the conclu-
sion that a means of providing them can only be
found by the authority of the General Govern-
ment. But in what do the several States of
America differ, as to commercial transactions, from
the several States of Europe, all of which settle
their exchanges in a ready and easy manner,
without the help of a Federal Congress le-
gislating for France, England, and Ame-
rica? Exchanges grow from commerce, and
do not need the regulating hand of Government.
Indeed, our merchants would look with some
degree of astonishment were our Government to
interfere with the exchanges between England
and the United States, and between England
and France. As the several distinct political
States of the world cannot have any general
Congress to make laws for them, and provide
them one uniform measure of value, as the com-

merce between them regulates the subject
itself, so the commerce between the different
States of the Union would regulate it, though
the General Government were not to interfere
with it. Mr. WEBSTER, by his proposal, convicts
himself of a very ignorant ambition.
He boasts very much of his long acquaintance
with the currency question. It has been, he
says, " the study of his life." Thirty years ago,
" when the subject of a mixed currency was
much discussed in both Houses of Parliament, I
paid the greatest attention to the controversy."
" I read everything at all valuable written or
spoken on the subject." On this vast erudition
he ventures to assure his countrymen that the
" measure submitted the last session to Congress
is the best and only measure for the country."
The source of his knowledge inspires us with
the deepest distrust of his conclusions. An Ame-
rican statesman who draws the rules of his con-
duct from the politics of Europe must necessarily

go wrong. He should not be ignorant of what
is said and what is done here, but the origin of
political power, with the form of the political con-
trivance, and the distribution of property, are so
essentially different in Europe and America,
that he should study the course pursued by the
Governments of Europe rather to shun than to
follow it.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING , OCTOBER 21, 1842.-

EXTRACT FROM :Tat INQUIRY
INTO THE SANITARY-CONDITION OF THE
LABOURING POPULATION OF GREAT
BRITAIN."—(CorriN um)
Many of the miners, including young persons
and boys, will go three miles and upwards from
their own homes in the morning to work in the
mines, or to wash the ore, and return again after
their work at night. Some miners, who are too
far off to be able to go and come in this way,
find lodgings for the four nights in the week,
and the washers for five nights, at some Houses
not too far from the mines. The usual price is
sixpence a week each, for which sum there is a
bed between two of them, leave to make their
" crowdy" on the fire in the morning, and they
have their potatoes boiled for them in the even-
ing. They bring their provisions in a wallet on
the Monday mornings; the miners go back on
the Friday, and the washers of ore on the Satur-
day. But there are many mines, and some of
them very large, in remote situations in the Fells,
far away from all dwelling-houses, where lodg-
ings might be had, and the proprietors have
erected for their miners and washers buildings
called " lodging-shops," which I now am about
to describe :—The first one of them which I
visited was about nine miles across the Fell,
south from Stanhope. It was a plain building,
constructed of sandstone, covered with a coarse
slate; and all very substantial. There was no
opening or window at either end, nor at the
back, nor on the roof. On the front or south
side was a door towards the west end, and two
windows, one a little above the other. On en-
tering the door, it was seen that the lower part
was one room, lighted by one of the windows,
and had a great fire burning at the east end. By
pacing the floor the length was ascertained to be
about eighteen feet, and the breadth about fit:
teen feet. Along the one side, that next the
window, was a deal table, extending the whole
length of the room, and alongside of it was a
form, and there were two other forms in the
room. All along the other side on the wall were
little cupboards, forty-eight in number, in four
tiers above each other; six of the cupboards with
the doors off, but the most of the rest carefully
locked with padlocks, and in which the several
miners had deposited their wallets with their pro-
visions for five days.--Page 109.
It is a singular fact, which has been noticed
by several writers, that fever is more fatal among
the higher than among the lower classes. Dr.
Braken states, in reference to the fever which
prevailed at Waterford during the years 1817-
18-19, that " it would be difficult to adjust the
rates of mortality to the upper classes, but it
seems probable that one-fourth, or perhaps one-
third of all those persons that were attacked with
fever fell victims to its power." Drs. Barker
and Cheyne, in their histdricalf account of the
Irish epidemic, state that, " in every part of the
country, fever was reported to have been much
more fatal amongst the upper than the lower
classes." To what is this difference of mortality,
so generally remarked by experienced hospital
physicians, to be attributed, and which in Ireland
seemed to be very remarkable, namely, in the
lower classes about one in twenty-three cases,
and in the upper classes one in three or four ge-
nerally, but in other places about one in seven ?
Can the difference in the mode of living account
for this anomaly? as the first live very much on
potatoes, while the others use a larger or smaller
proportion of animal food; and the lower classes
almost everywhere in this country use less ani-
mal food and stimulating dishes than those who
are more wealthy and in a higher sphere of so-
ciety.—Pages 145, 146.
The progression of the population and the in-
creased duration of life in Geneva were attended
by a progression in happiness : as prosperity ad-
vanced marriages became fewer and later; the
proportion of births were reduced, but greater
numbers of the infants born were preserved ; and
the proportion in manhood became greater. In
the early and barbarous periods, the excessive
mortality was accompanied by a prodigious fe-
cundity. In the last ten years of the seventeenth
century, a marriage still produced five children
and more ; the probable duration of life attained
was not twenty years, and Geneva had scarcely
17,000 inhabitants. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century there .was scarcely three chil-
dren to a marriage, and the probabilities of life
exceeded thirty-two years. At the present time
a marriage only produces 21 children ; the pro-
bability of life is forty-five years, and Geneva,
which exceeds 27,000 in population, has arrived
at a high degree of civilization and of prosperite
materielle. In 1836 the population appeared to
have attained its summit; the births barely re-
placed the deaths. M. Mallet observes, that it
is difficult, if not
impossible, to distinguish the-
different causes,
and the different degrees of in-
tensity of each of the causes, that have tended to
produce this result. It is, however, attributed
generally to the advance in the condition of all
classes; to the medical science of the public
health being better understood and applied; to
larger and better and cleaner dwellings ; more
abundant and healthy food; the cessation of the
great epidemics which, from time to time, deci-
mated the population ; the precautions taken
against famine ; and better regulated public and
private life. As an instance of the effects of
regimen in the preservation of life, he mentions
that, in an establishment for the care of female
orphans taken from the poorest classes, out of
eighty-six reared in twenty-four years, one only
had died. These orphans were taken from the
poor. The average mortality on the whole po-
pulation would have been six times as. great.—
Pages 175, 176.
CAMBORNE MINE.—Tn the parish of Cain-
borne, in Cornwall, great attention is paid to
obviate agencies injurious to the miners. Care
is there taken in respect to ventilation in the
mines. The ventilation in Dolcoath is particu-
larly good, and the men are healthier than in
most other mines; there are more old miners.
Care is taken for the prevention of accidents.
" Our ladders," says one of the witnesses exa-
mined by Dr. Barham, " are about two fathoms
and a half in length, generally with staves one
foot apart. We use oak staves; old ship oak we
find the best. We formerly used the haft-3 of the
picks and other tools, but round these unsafe, the
wood being sleepy and flawed, and sometimes
breaking off in a moment, without having shown
any outward sign of unsoundness. Iron staves,
besides being at times very slippery, are apt to be
corroded, so as to cut the hand. We have had
no accidents on our footways for a long time."
They have introduced the safety fuse, and the
witness says—" Very few accidents now arise
from explosions; they used to happen frequently
formerly." Care is taken of the miners on quit-
ting the mines; hence, instead of issuing on the
bleak hill side, and receiving beer in a shed, to
prevent chill and exhaustion, they issue from
their underground labour into a warm room,
where well-dried clothes are ready for them, and
warm water, and even baths are supplied from
the steam-furnace, and, in the instance of this
mine, a provision of hot beef-soup, instead of
beer, is ready for them, in another room. The
honour of having made this change is stated to
be due to the Right Hon. Lady Basset, on the
suggestion of Dr. Carlyon. " Hence in this
mine," says Dr. Barham,
" we may fairly attri-
bute to the combination of beneficial arrange-
ments just noticedy that in Dolcoath, where 451
individuals arc employed underground, only two
have died within the last three years of miners'
consumption, a statement which could not, I be-
lieve, be made with troth nor be nearly ap-
proached in respect of an equal number of
miners during the same term in any other
Cornish district." The sick-club of the mine "is
comparatively rich, having a fund of 1,500/.'
When " care" is mentioned as taken for sanitary
measures, it is to be remembered that it is care
only at the outset, and that when in habitual ac-
tion the care required is really less, and the mea-
sures should be characterized as means for avoid-
ing care and trouble and diminishing pecuniary
loss The improvement in Camborne
had not reached the residences, where the miners
kept pigs, in sties close behind the house, and a
dung-heap is
carefully fostered in a catch-pit
adjacent. Dr. Barham, and the medical men
practising in the vicinity, attribute to the decom-
position of vegetable matter in the, soaked
soil from the receptacles near the dwellings a
form of fever which has been hanging about
Camborne, and has often
prostration of
condition, passed into the typhoid
and attended
has been ,with great
strength.--Pages 197, 198.

The late Lieut.-Col. Tomlinson, who is reported in
the last accounts from China, as having been killed
whilst gallantly leading his inen through the door-
way of a temple in which a body of 300 Tartars were
desperately defending themselves,.was appointed to a
commission in the 18th Royal Irish Regiment very
early in life, and served constantly with that corps
till he obtained its command, and thus fell nobly at
its head, in the service of his Sovereign and coun-
try, at the age of thirty
Teight years. As his con-
duct ensured the affection and esteem of all with
whom he was connected through life, so it was ma-
nifested to the last, by the soldiers of the 18th being
with difficulty restrained from putting the priSoners
to death, so exasperated were they at the loss of their
Colonel, and by his remains being honoured with a
public funeral. Two days after the battle they were
placed on board a steamer, which putting a little way
out to sea the body was sunk in deep water, the Gene-
ral and Admiral, Commandere-in-Chief, and a nume-
rous body of officers attending ; and the flag-ship firing
minute guns.—Brighton Gazette.