The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-01-23 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA AT TOOTING.

On Thursday, Mr. Mills concluded the adjourned
inquest on Josiah Joseph Coster, aged 5, a pauper child,
who died in St. Pancras workhouse, of cholera, after his
removal from Surrey Lodge, Tooting.
Mr. M`Gahey, clerk to the board of guardians, deposed
that, with the approbation of Mr. Hall, assistant poor law
commissioner, and Mr. Tuffnell, inspector of poor schools,
the guardians of St. Pancras farmed out the pauper chil-
dren to Mr. Drouet, at 4s. 6d. a head per week. They
had previously satisfied themselves that the place was
fully suited to the children. Every month a committee
visited and reported upon the condition of the children.
These reports were satisfactory until August, when, in
consequence of a report of a boy who died having been
ill-treated there, Messrs. Robinson and Johnson, two
medical officers, were deputed to make a personal inspec-
tion of the boys. They did so, and found that several had
wasted limbs, large abdomens, and suffered from debility,
the results of bad or insufficient diet. Fifty-eight were so
affected. It was also their opinion that the master was
rather severe. The guardians communicated that to Mr.
Drouet, who promised that those things should not
again occur, and that it would not be his fault if the boys
did not in future look plump.
Mr. Pitt, actuary to the guardians, estimated, from the
workhouse dietary, that the net cost of each child would
be 3s. 7d., and therefore he fixed on 4s. 6d. as a fair sum
for Mr. Drouet. Upwards of 30 apprentices from Mr.
Drouet's passed through his hands. They all proved
strong athletic lads, fit for sea, to which they were sent.
Coroner.—lt was singular that he found the bodies of
the children quite emaciated, although their faces appeared
plump.
Mr. Pitt.—Mr. Drouet gave notice of the outbreak of
the cholera instantly, when the guardians removed the
children without delay.

Mr. T. P. Baker, a guardian of the poor, and who had
been a medical officer in the Company's service 24 years,
gave a favourable account of Mr. Drouet's establishment.
When he visited it some of the children complained that
they had not enough to eat, others of having been beaten,
.and a few longed for their homes. When he visited it on
the 2d instant there were 57 cases of cholera and 11 deaths.
On the Friday following the cases were 240. Thought
that everything possible was done for the sufferers. In
his opinion cholera was not contagious.
John Woodhouse, aged 14, one of the boys from Toot-
ing, examined.—He went with deceased and other boys
to Tooting. They had not enough to eat. The master,
who would knock down and beat the boys across the back
with a stick until weals and sores were formed, beat a boy
and nulled the ears of others because they complained of
ins ufficienefood. Some boys ran away, and when brought
back had their heads shaved as a punishment. If he were
sent back he should like to get more food. He preferred
the workhouse, because he got more food there. Some of
the boys eat the potato peelings out of the pig tub. Mr.
Drouet was opposed to the boys being beat.
After some further evidence of a similar character,
The Jury found the following verdict, " That Josiah
Joseph Coster died from virulent cholera, a disease occur-
ring to him at a time when he was suffering from the
effects of insufficient diet, defective warmth of clothing,
and impure air at Surrey House, Tooting; and the jury
add to their verdict an expression of their regret that the
directors of the poor of St. Pancras did not bind Mr.
Drouet, the proprietor of Surrey Hall, to fulfil his duty
to such a large number of children as they had confided to
his care, under a written and a more definite contract than
appears to be executed by them ; at the same time the
jury most emphatically condemn the practice of farming
pauper children in the hcuse of strangers, because the
system engendered by it affords to unprincipled persons
disastrous opportunities of defrauding the poor children of
their proper food and clothing, in a manner that does not
seem to become publicly apparent, nor to produce such
adequate effects on the minds of the guardians, as to lead
them to the correction of the evils which inflict the most
direful effects on the hapless population of such an esta-
blishment."

CONSOLIDATION OF THE EXCISE STAMPS
AND TAXES.

The _Doncaster Chronicle says, that the arrangements
for this consolidation, so far as the Boards are concerned,
are completed, and there is now only one Board for all
Inland duties. The following are its members and their
salaries

John Wood, Esq. (chairman) .
John Thornton, Esq. (deputy chairman)
(His successor to have £1,000.)
John Hart Davis, Esq. (late deputy chairman) £1,500
(Mr. Davis is to retire in a few months.)
Thomas Harrison, Esq
Frederick Stephenson, Esq
Charles John Herries. Esq.
Charles Powlett Rushworth, Esq. .
Alfred Montgomery, Esq
Charles Pressley, Esq £1,200

The following .gentlemen (with their salaries annexed)
have ceased to be members of the Board since the sth
instant :

Henry Lewis Wickham, Esq.
Hon. William Henry Percy
Charles Ross, Esq.
Henry Seymour Montagu, Esq.
Charles Pressley, Esq.
(Mr. Pressley, as will be seen above, is now a Commis-
sioner. He was lately Secretary to the Stamps, &c.,
an office now abolished.)
The present Deputy Chairman will shortly retire

His salary
As also another Commissioner's salary

£2,000
£1,200

Besides these gentlemen many others will retire from
the Secretaries' departments—solicitors, receiver generals,
accountants, &c. &c., which, with the above reductions,
will effect a large saving to the country. The secretary
to the late Excise Board, Mr. Freeling, son of the late
Sir Francis. Freeling, is appointed secretary to the joint
Board. The receiver-general, Mr. Thornton, is to be re-
ceiver-general to the new Board ; the accountant-gene-
ral, Mr. Lyne, late of the Excise, to be the accountant-
general to the new Board. There are at present three
solicitors, two in England, and one in Ireland, with an
extensive staff, and two assistant solicitors. The services
of two at least out of these five legal gentlemen are to be
dispensed with ; but whether the Excise or Stamps gen-
tlemen go out is not fully determined; nor is it finally
settled how many of their clerks and other subordinates
are to retire. A great number of excise-officers, permit-
writers, and supervisors, have been dropped, or put on
the superannuation list in those cases where the period of
service has entitled them to a retiring allowance. Indeed
it is averred that, amongst the latter, the pruning knife
has been used much too freely for the due security of the
revenue, and the protection of the fair trader.

STATISTICS OF DISSENTERS

(From Me Record.)

About the year 1832 or 1833, when the Anti-State
Church controversy first began to rage, Churchmen na-
turally looked into the statistics of this question, and they
found in the Congregational Magazine for 1829, a com-
plete list of all the meeting-houses and ministers of that
denomination in England ; and the number given was
1,289.

In the Congregational Magazine of 1827 another tabu-
lar statement was found, showing "the three denomina-
tions :—lndependent, Baptist, and Presbyterian. The
total of the ministers of the three sections was only 1,775,
of which it was confessed that 204 were Unitarian. The
free Evangelical Churches and ministers, of the Dissenters,
then, were in 1827, by their own confession, 1,571.
But the citing of these facts, though resting wholly on
their own statements, greatly annoyed the Dissenters.
Their writers immediately began a course of exaggeration
which deprives their recent statements of all value. Thus,
in ten years after, they contrived to swell the number of
their churches and ministers (of the three denominations)
up to a total, quoted by Mr. Noel, of 3,649—thus adding
more than 2,000 in ten years ! In the same unscrupulous
manner they set down the Methodist Churches and minis-
ters at 4,239, although the Conference knows no more
than 1,010 ! ! Of what use are such statements as these !

- -
The same wonderful change has been made in the
American statistics also.

In 1834, the American Baptist Home Missionary So-
ciety, in their Report for the preceding year, state, that
"They have descried the land in its length and breadth.
This survey has evinced a wide and fearful moral desti-
tution in the country." "To supply a population of
13,000,000 with religious instru:tion, there are about
9,000 ministers. But from this number a large deduc-
tion must be made for (Roman) Catholics, and such sects
of professed Protestants as are propagating error; for
those who are too ignorant of Christianity to teach its
doctrines with advantage to others ; and for those engaged
in secular occupations. These and others amout, in the
aggregate, to several thousands."

Several thousands less than 9,000 ! Such was the state-
ment printed by the American Home Mission Society,
only fourteen years since. The same testimony was
borne by the American Tract Society, and several other
religious bodies; and this at various periods, from 1827 to
1835.

But the exposure of these facts to England seems
to have irritated the national pride of some of
the American writers. And accordingly, we have per-
ceived a sudden enlargement of all the totals for several
years past. The statistics which Mr. Noel copies are
dated 1845 and 1846, only eleven or twelve years later
than the statement above cited ; but these, instead
of a total of 9,000 ministers, bad and good, for a popula-
tion of 13,000,000. tells us boldly of 15,000 ministers, all
Evangelical, for a population of 17,000,000 ! If the
Home Missionary statement of 1834 was reduced to minis-
ters of the Gospel, it would not exceed 5,000. Yet in the
course of twelve years, these are suddenly increased to
15,000 ! What can we say to such things, but that it is
impossible to set any value on such statistics ?
Hence as a general result, we consider Mr. Noel's posi-
tion to be not satisfactorily established,—that we maysafely
abandon all endowments; and cast ourselves hencefor-
ward, upon the Voluntary System.

&tneral

Mr. Bunn has accepted £2900 in satisfaction of damages
and costs in his late action with Jenny Lind.
Among the recent importations from the United States,
have been American partridges in considerable numbers.
A statue of Richard Lander, the African traveller, is to
be erected at Truro, his native town.
Don Miguel, ex-King of Portugal, is now residing at
Stevenag, Herts.
Captain Siborne, the constructor of the Waterloo
Model, died on the 13th instant. _

At Bow-street Police-court, on Tuesday, two letter-
carriers in the pay of the General Post Office, were com-
mitted for trial on charges of stealing letters containing
money, &c.