The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-25 00:00:00

)f existe

those who follow it. For four years that of this family
had been a wandering one ; and, whilst- so, they had
known little more of settled habits than is afforded by a
few months' residence at a time at some common lodging-
house, or in some cheap apartment in the town, or vil-
lage, nearest to the place of the husband's employment.
During the last eight years of his residence in Liverpool,
whilst his employment had been principally in sinking
foundations and in sewering, they had been located in
filthy dens, such as this in which I now found them, with

bad exampl,

ndecency, and vice raging on
the animal vigour and insensibly

deb;sing the minds of both to the level of those of the
mass, into which they had been cast. I need not trace
thd course of the unfortunate wife and mother's fall.
Perhaps it was hurried on by the contrast, ever presenting
itself, between her present lot and that which she deemed
Teas lost to her for ever. It is a well-known fact, that
the lapse into intemperance of a mind of superior order
is less easily retrievable than that of one which never

feels sensibly that it has fallen at all. To the waking
miseries of the one, there is superadded self-reproach
and loathing of the contamination seen around. The
being who has never seen any higher gratifications than

those of a debauch, or any higher comforts than those
afforded by a full meal in a wretched and impure dwell-
ing, scarcely feels, when he has sunk into habitual squa-
lidness, that he has fallen at all. But the most strongly
inducing cause, in the present case, I have no hesitation
in affirming, was to be found, directly, hi the impure air
and the noxious gases which she had been for those eight
years constantly inhaling, and froth the effect of which
she had found in ardent liquor a temporary relief. Add
to the craving of the constitution, thus created, the effect
of example. Consider, too, that she was placed amongst
a population, by whom the exhilaration produced by
drinking is regarded as the only one within their reach ;

and to Whom the mere change, from the dark and close-
smelling apartment, or the filthy court, to the gaudily-
prated and well-lighted gin-palace, with its bright
rnaments, is of itself ca-

array of br
pable of pr

pon the mi

to wonder I

why she fell, or to feel

curious to trace ti

he two girls, to whom I have referred, what need
I say With associations and examples such as those
amongst which they had been thrown in their spring of
life, if such beings can be said to enjoy any such spring,
is little to be wondered at that they were utterly
degraded and unnaturally heartless. They thought they
law passing away, upon that sick bed, the only being
:chose authority had ever been powerfully interposed to
-qities ; and it is much if their
feel*

ok their vicious prop

Lgs were any other than those of gratification at the
speCtadle of his sufferings and the thought of his probably
approaching end. It is painful to think that there can
be in human nature such sad and revolting features.
They do occasionally present themselves, however; and
although statesmen and dreamer

well meaning men,
—may point at imaginary causes, and devise

cumbrous pri;on regulations and other similar devices
for:the removal of early crime, the medical man, or any
man privileged to visit the wretched hovels of our poor
and to observe the contaminations with which they are
surrounded, will readily arrive at a conclusion thatP the
curative effort must be made in another direction. We
may talk of education for our poor, and parks and places
for their recreation ; but we must first afford them com-
fortable homes, if we wish to preserve their minds from
moral abominations more offensive than the material ones
of the. worst and most filthy sties in which ever a pig
herded or a reptile crept. Without such an improvement
of their condition, the schoolmaster and even the clergy-
an toil in vain ; and prison regulations are a mockery.
courts, our alleys, and our cellar habitations, are
lino crime faster than the best-devised efforts, from
pe to succeed in providing a cure.

To the medical man, the object of whose care is the body,
operated upon by the same influences, this conclusion
has long been patent. When will it be able to pierce the
theoretical cobwebs, which interpose to prevent truth and
common sense from reaching the minds of our statesmen

ma philosophers ?
Of the character and mental capacity of the patient
limself, it will naturally be gathered that ,my first visit
ifforded me no opportunity of forming a judgment ; and
unfortunately he never rallied sufficiently to enable me to
lo so. From his poor wife, however, I learnt that he had
been throughout life an affectionate husband, and less
uldicted to vicious indulgences than most of his class.
Originally he had been a stout, and indeed.a strong man;
but severe labour, and the exposure to the atmosphere
and the elements, peculiar to the nature of his daily avo-
cations, had told fearfully upon his constitution. For
three or four years past, he had been occasionally inca-
pacitated for work by rheumatism ; and this deprivation

its necessary consequence, a want
suppoit, which had induced considerable
ion, and, no doubt, predisposed him for succumb-
- - In addition, I found that
ffected by the incorrigible
veloping themselves in his
t, also by the weakness of the

ticient

n seriously
and vice,

that he manifested an affectionate leniency
st creditable to him. Such a mental and bodily con-

s serious impediments to the cura-
ical man ; and, in the case before

111 the first two days, however, the treatment pursued
the operation intended ; and I expected, with some
-on of the system would be pro-
mptoms, under which he la-
ter which there was a pros-

boing on around him was re-
-11 forget the looks of grateful
hick the poor man now began to regard

Rd I never