The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-21 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE.

ON THE SANITARY STATE OF SOME PARTS
OF LIVERPOOL-LETTER IV.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

FREEMASON'S-ROW

This street, which is so notoriously one of the most
Jrgraded and nasty streets of Liverpool Proper, appears
'o be visited only every other day by the scavengers, on
the testimony of the r:•sideuts. Several of the hou.es
have no necessary conveniences attsched tl them, and I
may be permitted to quote Dr. Duncan's own words
Cram his Report, p. 13) to show the results which must
follow :

" The street Inhabitants who have no offices of their own
and who do mit or cannot make use of the courts, are drivet
to deposit in like manner their retuse in the streets or entries

so that, in addition to the privies and ashpits themselves, a
large surface of the ground within and about these ill-ventilated
courts and dwellings is constantly polluting the atmosphere
ffluvia.”

with its noxitia

Ir is plain- that, where an evil of this magnitude exists

should be made, at least, strenuously to abi.te it down to
its minimum of injuriousness:for the sake of the health
of the district. lam not aware whether the visits of the
scavengers have been systematically increased in the lower

parts of the town since the pubikation of Dr. Dnnean's
Report. Granting that they bave, for the sake of the
argurnen

evidence Deutz slender in ravour or it, yet
maintain that this and other parts of the town can never
be materially improved in a sanitary point if view, until
the plan of daily sweeping away the refuse /rom the
•street be adopted. In fact, it is easy to foresee that in a
few years the improvements in municipal regulations,
resulting from the diffusion of correct knowledge, will

not be limited to a daily besom, but also a daily irrigation
of the street smbee, when the weather is neither rainy
nor frost-bound. We may then expect to find the bless-

ing of health comparatively enjoye.d, and morals essen-
tially raised, by the predominance of thorough cleanliness
and ventilation amot'g the masses of our crowded tho-
roughfares. The people will feel attachment stronger
than at present to a Government, national and municipal,
which has be.towed paternal cares upon their condition,
and has shown o, jealous anxiety for the promotion of
their heal h, wealth, and happiness.
The following is an analysis of water from the court
yard over the drain of which a dour had been placed
for a bridge, which was alluded to in my last letter :
Specimen of Water No. 2. Dar k coloured, abominably
off-ns.vc in odour, esp-cially when heated, containing
sulphuretted hydrogen, even in larger proportions than in
the sewer water from Brunswick View, to be quoted di-
rectly. An imperial pint furnished 47 grains of solid
matter, 39 grains of which consisted of azotised organic
matter, making 210 grains in the imperial gallon.
I have already stated that the drainage of back courts
and alleys frequently finds its way into the cellars, front
or hack. ltt one of these cases the front and back cell tr
was kept from these can-es in a constantly flooded.state,
and the tenant of the rooms above laded out the water of
the back cellar for the purpose of putting coals there, but
was at last obliged to desist from the labour of the inces-
santly recurring task. and from getting inflamed state of
the eyes. The landlord had offered to remedy the effects
of the damp, if she would pay additional rent. The water
sto n 1 up to the ankles in both cellars.
The condition of the several courts and yards is deserv-
ing of attention. The tenants are often discouraged in
any attempts to keep them clean, from the hopeless
nature of the task. The public make all manner of in-
roads upon them in every discouraging way, whilst the
public authorities have no dominion over them in the
matters of cleansing and protecting against nuisances.
Of this kind there is one very remarkable example.
A court, which branches off to the right and left, pre gents
a disgusting assemblage of pig-styes, manure heaps, stand-
ing pools, and blocked-up drains. " in rich confusion
bl nding." Part of this the inhahitants try to cleanse
twice a week themselves; the scavengers never visit it. it
is no wonder that, under the discouraging circumstances
above-nvntioned, the work should not be sufficiently
done. One of these branches winds off in a zig-zag
course, which a stranger ve-uld hardly discover; but it he
chose to vent ire his footatens. as we did. he will find

few dirty-looking and unhealthy house-, with more manure
heaps ornamesitlng the corners. Into a desolate house at
Aped, and found the first floor in great

une corner we ste

eluded that it was a deserted place altogether, but we
found up stairs, occupying the "drawing ntom," as the
poor inhabitants r.,f Dublin would sat, a poor woman and
her daughter, w hn:e subsisrence was, ass a told
buying. salting, and selling &h.- This process, she
showed ns, w s performed in the back drawing room, and
from which, in defiance of the tree ventilation of a paneless
window, the tretnentious fi•hy smell proceeded. She lived.
herself, in the front drawing room, in the last state of
dest4ution and filth. The re was not a chair to sit
down upon—s broken table—a box or two—and a bro-
ken down bed.frad formed the whole of the furniture

,-valid born-, excel t a few rig• hanging ;.bo it, and
anne ono. rtendii,g crockery ware. The window hail
three broken vanesin thetop half. which vverestuffed up with
(Teton wool ; the lower half was a wooden board, fu filling
all the duties of its transparent ptedecess er, tranarnission
of light excepted. Every chink and gap was filed up
with wool and rag; and dark as was this room, the
wr tchrd misery of every thing stood out in visib e
relief. The fl for was neither whole nor even decently
s ‘vpt—probagly never scoured. Tue look out from th,
lot th. rr filthy st— calf

of hrr F q

...row was . ,o vie narrow . Banastre-
street. As we looked out, sounds of discord and con-
fusion, with every painful attendant upon a drunken and
upbraiding scene in the lower walks of life, assailed our
ears. The old glass pane or two which still remained
true to their trust, and staunch in their inte'

grity, were

cowered with dust ; and for a struggling sunbeam to hay
entered through, the labours of a crusade must hay

have acecm

wall. The whole building sermrd to threaten, at no
day, "to come down with a run," as it is commonly
said. The asc,nt or descent of the staircase was a task

who a affair wms one of those tiumilnititl pic,utes of
human lite whirl' sinks upon the behnider with the in-
cubus pressure of sadness. Fur some time ale had occu-

pied this place free of rent. f•he had lived four years
there, end was content to dwell on for the sake of having
no rent to pay. But an evil hour h.d at last come to
even her; for she had notice, that a shillkg a wet-k wI uld
he rt gulled of her ! No bad specitren this of castle rack
rent. In fart, it would have be. n a hardship to the minds
of ml lions it any ol.e had offtred ihem a shilling a week
to live in the rooms for the sake of ventilating and

cleansing.
We hail entered from curiosity, and thouth the com-
mon mode of expression would follow. " and left it without
regret," yet, I most rtct rse this turn of the sentence,
and say. lest it with rev., t,—regret that a fellow-creature
wah test in the abject state in which we found her,—regret
that there was rush a differ. nt•e in he condition of fellow-
b.,ings as between th's poor creature's heart h and our own
chef riul fireside,—a-case admitiitig of rernedy,—a treasury
of philanthropy in society—in the shape of public speeches
and ornamented charities, and vrt here no sympathy of

search after .wr. tr hello, 83. Truly there is a class in
society whose shot t-comings of earnings finds assistance,
and is t ked out by the ant of varous chanties; and it is
upon these that. the appliances of philanthropy, and the
lessons of instruction do tall in a more or less abundant
stream —and it ought to he so but the re is yet
another class, whose grand fault is, that they ate
too wretched to be help-d ton low to be raised
too poor to he found uht in the daily cru-
sades against the inv.s;orts of want and disease—too hid-
den to be seen or sought out—too ignorant t t be taught
—ignorant of everything hut their own instinctite wants—
too remote from the pathway of knowledge and instruc-
tion in virtue. Hosts of similar cases abound in large
towns, where destitution, and ignorance, and instinct,
call depravity to their aid, and wherein, as in a slough of
disuond, shoals of human beings wallow in hopeles d;s
pair of amelioration. Many such have I seen in other
places besides Liverpool, and the task of improving, and
it achirz. and encouraging this legion, even in the lesser
v rtut s of human beings, is of such a magnitude that noth-
ing hut the espanaiveness 01 a charity can enterprise,
a hich r garde: the souls mote than the I mites of men,
Reverting. in conclusion, to this court, it is worth ob-
serving that out of it a dark covt red archway led into a
way which (wetted into Banastre-strert Along the
middle of the II tor of th s narrow alley, a channel was led,
into which it was difficult to avoid treading by those wh,r
were nnpractised in such matters. Thus there was a
communication from Freemason's-row into Banastre-
strett. by means of three alleys and two courts, yet an
circuttous that it is probably only known to those whose
interests may render it an ohject to acquaint themselves
with it. According to some of the inhabitants it is a fa-

vourite mode of escape from one street into the other, for
thieves and ,uch like character•, whereby they have suc—
ceeded in (-wiling pursuits. But it is with the ammo.
l.tions of unwholesome matters that I base oily to do.
I think I have brought forward (-nough of Freemason's..

row for my purpose. though tho,,e only will suppose that
I have exhausted i►s tends of filth, who krow little or
r►othing ahnut the matter—'or truly "one half the wotld
dogs nt.t kn',w how the o'h,r halt lives."

My frirnd, Mr. J. S. WalLt-r, has also been a witness
to many of the facts I have broached, and to yet more
which 1 shall hereafi'r no ice.

Yours truly, a C. WATSON

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS: —The la►e rrfreshing showers
And the generally forward state of vegetation have already
renlerrd these lovely grounds passing be.eutitul. Every
tree and shrub is bursting forth, and the various tints of
green they display is only equalled in richness by the
numerous flowers so tastefully dispersed about the gar-
dens.

The wanderine mariner whose eye explores
The wealthiest islewthe most er,ch.f ming shores.
Views not a spot.niore beautiful or ta,r,
(Jr breathes the - pir it of a purer air."
On no previous season have the exertions or expense
incurred been et vial to that of the present. The view of
Edinburgh is riipidlv progressinc, and its completion is
atitici wiled in about three wicks.

HOLLOWAY'S PILLS AND OINTMENT.—A REMARKA-
BLE CURE Or PILES, FISTULAS. AND BEARINGS-DOWN.
—A hall-pay 1 eutenant, lattly resioiog at St. Ilehers,
Jursev, whose name by request is omitted. had for three
tears suffered from piles and fistula, 13, lodes a gentral
bearing-down of the mmt distressing nature. He had
iwice utiOtrgone an operation, but to no purpose, and et
last gave himself up to despair. Yet. notwithstanding
this complication of complaints, together with a debili-
tated constitution, he was completely cured of all hi: in-
firmities, and restored to the fullest enjoyment of health
by Holloway's Hills and Ointment.