On this page
-
Text (6)
-
Ma* 4, 1850. . ©&* &£&fr£f+ 125
-
SPANISH SCANDAL. The royal palace at Mad...
-
AMERICAN NEWS. The Europa brings advices...
-
SANITARY PROJECTS. A numerous deputation...
-
A meeting of churchwardens, overseers of...
-
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The annual meeti...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
France.—The Elections And Its Consequenc...
the offices of the papers . Papers were even snatched by the police from the hands of passengers , on pretence that the owners were distributing the papers . Half Paris was bewildered by this sweeping stroke , and no one could get his Sifcle , National , Presse , or any other Liberal paper , unless he was a regular subscriber , or went to the abovementioned sanctuaries , which the police d irst not invade . Three thousand copies of the Evttiement were sold under the Porte Cochere , in the liue Montmartre , which miens to the office of the Presse , The Democratic
journalists answer the provocation by opening subscription-lists , in order that they may evade the new application of the laws by giving their journals gratuitously to the public . " Henceforward / ' says their circular announcing this determination , •« every workshop , every wine-shop , every restaurant , every lodging-house , everyplace , in fact , in which the working population assembles , must be provided at least with one Democratic journal . We are ready , on our side , to make all necessary sacrifices , and we reckon on the support of our countrymen . " correctness of the Prefect
The Presse denies the ' s law , and promises to continue its sale as usual , to contest the question . The Presse says that the judgment of the Court of Cassation did not apply to newspapers . It was upon a simple question , Whether the sale of books or pamphlets by an individual not a bookseller , at his own house , without authorization of the Prefect , constitutes the fact of hawking or distribution punished by Article 6 of the law of the 27 th of July , 1849 . That article applies only to " written or printed papers , " as distinguished from " newspapers and periodical writings . "
Ma* 4, 1850. . ©&* &£&Fr£F+ 125
Ma * 4 , 1850 . . ©&* & £ & fr £ f + 125
Spanish Scandal. The Royal Palace At Mad...
SPANISH SCANDAL . The royal palace at Madrid , if we may credit the exact accounts of the correspondents of our morning journals , has just been the scene of an incident , which very worthily becomes the pendant of the famous Spanish marriage . It is said that the King Consort had been trying to obtain his appointment as Regent during the Queen ' s accouchement . To rid herself of his importunities the Queen sent for General Narvaez . A scene of violence is described as having taken place between the three , in the course of which the King Consort declared that he
should immediately set out for Aranjuez , and that on the very day of her Majesty ' s delivery he would quit the Spanish territory . He also stated his intention to publish a manifesto to the nation , explaining his reasons for taking such a step , and for not choosing to be present at the birth , of the royal infant ; and he added that he should recount all the incidents , however strange , which had led him so to act . To " save the honour of the Crown , " it was then determined to keep the King prisoner . However , after a short captivity , with , the halberdiers
stationed before his chamber , his Majesty capitulated , " and the royal couple were reconciled . The finishing touch to this dainty Court episode is given by the Popular ( the semi-official paper ) of the following day , announcing , in a sentimental manner , that on the previous evening the Queen , accompanied by the King Consort and Queen Christina , drove through Madrid in an open carriage , and that «• her countenance , as well as those of the august personages who accompanied her , reflected the felicity felt by the Spanish nation , thanks to the state the illustrious Princess is in who occupies the throne . "
American News. The Europa Brings Advices...
AMERICAN NEWS . The Europa brings advices from New York to the 17 th , and Halifax to the 20 th April . On the 18 th , a resolution was passed in the Senate referring the whole question of California and the territories to a committee of thirteen , to report a plan for compromise . the
A curious petition has been presented to Sfnate by some of the Abolitionists . It was to the effect , that as the militia duty of the country is now unequally performed by the Whites , a law should be passed enrolling the slave population , putting arms in their hands , and instructing them in the art of war . The object of the petition was to expose the insir . cerity of the Southprn party , who were boastful of the fidelity of their slaves in the event of a rupture with the North . Of course the petition was not
received . On the 16 th the Senate rejected an amendment , offered by General Cms , to strike out a diplomatic appropriation to Austria . On the 17 th , during a debate on slavery , a violent altercation occurred between Benton and Foote , in the course of which Foote drew a pistol and aimed at Beniun . Foote -was immediately disarmed , and a
committee of investigation was appointed . The Nicaragua treaty is completed , Sir Henry Bulwtr having agreed to insert a stipulation proposed by the American Administration , that under her protectorate as ally of the Mosquito King , Enghmd shall set up no claim nor attempt to enforce any right of any nature , by virtue of that protectorate , or in the name of the Mosquito King , that she has consented to abandon under her own name « nd in her own right .
There are rumours afloat affecting the character of the Secretary of War , the Secretary of the Treasury , and the Attorney-General , seemingly grounded on the fact that the first of these officials ( Mr . Crawford ) , with the sanction of the others , had collected a sum which had been refused him " before he came into office . Mr . Crawford has demanded , and Congress has appointed , a committee to inquire into the affair . New York letters give some interesting details from California : — "A million and a half of gold has been brought by the Cherokee , her passengers brought half a million more , and by the Empire City a million more came to hand . The accounts brought by these vessels were as flattering as ever . The mines were unusually productive , and the influx of emigrants great . Upwards of one thousand women had arrived in a short time from Sydney , their mission was by no means equivocal . Great apprehensions are entertained by the Americans at these arrivals from convict colonies , and the new comers are very plainly told that , if they become a nuisance , they will be put to death without mercy . Notwithstanding the anomalous condition of California , the greatest respect is there paid to private right . Property , whether
legally protected or not , is perfectly secure ; thefts are almost unknown ; but the vice of the country is gambling . It is already infested by all the blacklegs of the world . There are also courtesans there , who live in the most sumptuous and extravagant manner , realising thousands of dollars every week by their shameless trade , and strange as it appears , there are houses in San Francisco which are already furnished with the most beautiful of English ( Wilton ) carpets and the last fashions of the Paris drawing-rooms . A flourishing trade with the Sandwich Islands has commenced , China goods are also pouring into San Francisco . That city may in five years ' time contain 300 , 000 inhabitants . " There is a great deal of cholera on the Western and Southern Rivers , and at New Orleans .
Sanitary Projects. A Numerous Deputation...
SANITARY PROJECTS . A numerous deputation , representing various sanitary , philanthropic , and architectural associations of the metropolis , waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer , by appointment , on Friday , to discuss the subject of the Window Duties . The deputation was introduced by Lord Robert Grosvenor , and Sir Ralph Howard , as chairman of an association for improving the dwellings of the working classes , opened the conversation . He said he had found the Window Duties an insuperable barrier to the progress of that
society . The great superiority of the model lodgings which the society had erected , consisted in the arrangements they had made for an adequate supply of air , light , and water ; but these arrangements had led to such an increase of taxation that no landlord could be expected to imitate the example , unless the Window Duties were repealed . Upon the buildings of the society in the Pancras-road , they were paying £ 162 16 s . of Window Duty ; and of that sum no less than £ 35 was for duties charged upon their sculleries and water-closets . Mr . W . E . Hickson said the
case of the model lodging-houses , important as it was , represented comparatively but a small part of a wide-spread evil : — ' In his place in the House of Commons , Sir Charles Wood had contended that the Window Duties did not press upon the poorer classes of the community , inasmuch as there were 3 , 000 , 000 houses in Great Britain exempt from their operation . But why were 3 , 000 , 000 houses exempt ? Because in the case of certainly a third of the number they were inadequately lighted and ven tilated , and were so constructed in order to evade the law . It ought to be understood that the sanitary
objections to the Window Duties do not apply to the windows opened under the existing system , but to the windows closed . The Chancellor of the Exchequer refuses to remit the tax in favour of those who study the laws ot health ; but a landlord , content to allow his tenants to live in dirt and darkness and their habitations to become a focus of contagious disease , is to receive every possible encouragement . In favour of a man who has reduced the number of windows in his house from twelve to seven , the Chancellor of the Exchequer remits £ 2 4 s . 9 d . per annum ; or of another , who had reduced his windows from thirty to twenty , the sum of £ 4 4 s . per annum . This is practically to act the part , not so much of a Finance Minister as that of a Minister of Pestilence .
The remedy , if the money cannot be spared is a housetax . Such a tax might easily be rendered much more equitable than the present mode of assessment , which bears no reference to the rental . It is needed on the strongest sanitary grounds . A fearful epidemic raged last autumn ; it might break out again after the summer of the present year ; and although it may be said that there would be cholera if there were no window duties , the purification of the air by all possible methods is really the only known preventive . One broad fact is basement stories of several hundred thousand
this—the houses in Great Britain being now inadequately lighted and ventilated , become reservoirs of mephitic vapours ; these mephiuc vapourH , when rarifted by the summer heats , ascend to the upper floors and subject the inmates to fevers of a more or less typhoidal form . I he Chancellor of the Exchequer , therefore , so long as ho maintains a system which operates as a direct premium for the encouragement of diit , darkness , and defective ventilation , is incurring a heavy responsibility ; he is , in fact , making himself the accountable agent , in the case of some thousands of the population , for health and sickness , life and death . "
Mr . N . B . Ward repeated the evidence he had given on a former occasion to the Health of Towns Commissioners on the physical influences of light both upon plants and animals , and exhibited specimens of plants ( presenting a shrivelled and withered appearance ) which had been grown without light , under circumstances otherwise favourable : — - " With regard to the effect of a want of light on the human constitution , he had frequently traced some of the most lamentable instances of disease that he had ever met with in his prbfession as a surgeon to the living in darkened rooms ; that is to say , in rooms of which one or more of the windows had been closed to avoid the duties . "
Lord Robert Grosvenor observed that all men were now so fu lly agreed upon the magnitude of the present evil that he must really put it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer as a great public scandal that the resistance of the Government to a simple measure of sanitary precaution should have been prolonged up to the present moment : — " It must be obvious to every one that the window duties cannot be defended upon financial grounds . If the money were required , it could be raised by a moderate and equitable house-tax , which he should be quite willing to support , as a direct tax , preferable in
many respects to other fiscal burdens affecting trade and industry . Were it not for the fact that , in the midst of all our boasted civilization , we are taxing light and air , the existence of window duties might be taken as evidence of a state of barbarism greater than had prevailed in the middle ages , or at any period of the world ' s history . The advent of Lord John Russell to power was hailed by many persons in the belief that all objects connected with the moral and physical improvement of the population would be actively
promoted , and it was to them a source of grief and disappointment that the Government , instead of taking the lead upon these questions , should have unnecessarily thrust itself into a false position . Public -opinion is turning against Ministers , and the repeal of the Window Duties , it was now not improbable , might be forced upon them by a hostile vote of the House of Commons . He should take a part in such a vote with the greatest pain , and he implored the Chancellor of the Exchequer to put himself right with his friends and right with the country , in gracefully and generously conceding the measure of relief now solicited . "
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that th © deputation would not of courseexpecthimto reply then specifically to the different points on which he had been addressed . It had been his duty to listen to their representations , and it would also be his duty to receive several other deputations that had ^ written to request an interview upon the same subject . The question of the Window Duties would receive the fullest consideration of Government .
A Meeting Of Churchwardens, Overseers Of...
A meeting of churchwardens , overseers of parishes , and other persons opposed to the Government Interments Bill was held at the Craven Hotel , Strand , on Monday , to concert measures for holding a great metropolitan meeting on the subject . Mr . James Wyld , M . P ., who presided , condemned the bill , as tending to establish a great system of centralization ; as likely to tax the people to an enormous extent ;
and as interfering with the rights of individual industry . Other speakers complained that the bill would not really get rid of intramural interment ; since liberty might be obtained , to bury in vaults in freeholds , even in the metropolis . They contended that the new scheme was a gross job from beginning to end , and that it would entirely fail as a sanitary measure . It was finally resolved that arrangements should be made for holding ar public meeting on the subject .
The Zoological Society. The Annual Meeti...
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY . The annual meeting of the Zoological Society was held on Monday , at the society ' s house , in Hanoversquare , Sir George Clerk in the chair . The annual report of the committee stated that the entire receipts for the year had been £ 9688 , and the expenditure £ 9582 , leaving a balance of £ 106 . The ordinnry receipts of the society steadily increase ; a fact that indicates a greater feeling for the attractions of the collection , and enhanced interest in the study of zoology . The number of visitors to the gardens was
25 , 265 above the number for the previous year , and 75 , 347 above 1847 , the increase occurring chiefly among " the public , " or persons unconnected with the society or its members : this shows the complete success of the plan for admitting the public on Mondays and holidays at a reduced rate . The committee think that an elementary and popular course of lectures at the gardens would greatly increase the receipts , and more completely carry out the intentions of the founders , by diffusing information and facilitating the study of zoology .
The collection of animals in the gardens has unfortunately been diminished by the death of the bison , the rhinoceros , and some other valuable specimens ; but many animals have been added by the gifts of several friends . As an instance , the committee refer to the judicious expenditure on the reptile house : at the small cost of £ 240 it has vastly increased the attraction of the gardens , and been not only useful
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 4, 1850, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04051850/page/5/
-