On this page
-
Text (3)
-
No. 391, September 19,1857.] THE LEADE B...
-
EVANGELICAL CONGJIESS AT BEltLIN. T1112 ...
-
THE PUFFING PLAGUE. There will he puller...
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.
London Air And Water. Jfour-And-Twenty R...
be decent to describe ; the drainage overflowing into the parlours , the close courtyards overlaid with filth of every description , and the walls reeking with damp . If we travel eastward to Hackney , we find low streets ' built back to back so as to shut out the possibility of ventilation . Here scarlet fever , typhus , and small-pox reign supreme , and iii 1839 and 1849 found numbers of ready victims . In the far-famed Lamb '
s-fieldsthe St . Giles of Betlmal-green—men , women , arid children are crowded together in rooms where they pass their days at the looms , and sleep , for the most part , without chimneys or other means of ventilation by which to carry off the breath-poison and the aerial impurities of undrained or badly-drained soil . As a striking proof of the unmistakable manner in
which life is shortened and disease multiplied by these . causes , ¦ it is only necessary to turn to the district of Paddington , and especially to that part of it bordering on the canal . This canal is a real Avernus , a stagnant and fetid pool containing a large quantity of animal and other organic impurities , and from its surface every breeze carries noxious emanations . Takinsr an area of two hundred
yards on either side of this black river , and comparing ; the average of deaths taking place there with the average for the rest of the parish 3 we observe that in every hundred 3 iouses situated within this distance of the canal there occurred , during the six summer months of last year , at least four times as many deaths among children under five years
old as in the same number of houses in the rest of the parish . It is advisable to take the death-rate of young children as a gauge , since it gives a fair index of the healthiness of a locality , the 1 foody at the early-periods-of life being incapable of resisting those morbific influences which are comparatively- harmless when acting on the adult .
The largest amount of deaths in any metropolitan district have taken place , strange to say , in the Strand district . From very extensive observations , it has been ascertained that the number of persons who die annually in a healthy locality is 170 in 10 , 000 ; and taking London at large , the proportion is 2 IS in every 10 , 000 ; but hi the Strand district the proportion is 231 ' , or 1 ( 5 more than in any other metropolitan district , and 72 more than in a
healthy locality . ^ Vhat , then , is the cause of this high mortality ? In respect of drainage , it is asserted that this district is second to none in London ; it is remarkably dry , has a mean elevation of fifty feet above Trinity high water mark , and lies on a gravelly soil . Analyzing the subject a little farther , we arrive at the true cause , and a fearful picture it presents . There are three sub-districts—St . Anne's , Soho , St . Mary-le-Strand , and St . Clement ' s Danes .
Out of every 10 , 000 of the population tlicro die annually—in the first district 207 ; in the second , 221 ; and in the third , the enormous proportion of 276 , that is , 58 more than in tho same number of persona in the whole metropolis . It is to young children that this district is so destructive , 48 S of tho deaths out of tho 105 (> which occurred there in 18 / 56 , or 46 per cent ., being those of children . Yet this excessive mortality is not attributable
to tho undue proportion of children ; instead of there being more there are actually fewer in this than in other districts , tho number being 125 less in every 10 , 000 inhabitant * . For every 81- deaths , then , occurring at thia period of life—that is , up to live yom-n— in London , 9 G occur in tho Strand district , and no fewer than ll : i in tho St . Clement ' s Danoy Bub-diatrict , being » n execaa of 29 per 10 , 000 over the whole metropolit ) .
Of course such a surplus of disease and death becomes a costly article in the expenditure of a parish which has to provide medicines for the sick and . burials for the dead . If we turn to other districts we shall find that in one year alone the presence of a fever epidemic created an increase of outlay on the part of the parishes of Bethnal-green and Whitechapel of 2467 Z . 16 s . ; whilst the cost of the cholera in the Belgrave sub-district of St . G-eorge's , Hanover-square , amounted to 15007 . in six months , being at the rate of
3000 Z . per annum . In a financial point of view , then , to root out these festering- spots and prevent the generation of spreading disease is better than waiting to cure them . If , however , we regard the question from , another point of view , and consider what the death of each man costs the community at large , we shall bo forcibly struck with "the prudence of preserving life as far as it is possible by sanitary regulations . In working out this
calculation we are materially aided by the Reports . The deaths in the parish of St . James ' s , Westminster , were 108 less last year tha . ii the average for the ten years previous . Sinking a higher view of the question , it must be acknowledged that life , as the Report observes , has a money value , every man contributing to the community more than he consumes . Basing our calculation on the annual income of the country , it will appear that the 108 lives thus saved bear the nominal value of
10 , 000 Z . On the contrary , 1 ) ad this number died , there would nob only have been so much creative power lost to the nation , there would have been the additional charge for-the attendance of medical men , nurses , and others , upon the sick ; besides which , in many instances , the deceased leaves behind a widow and orphans to lie supported fqom . th . e ,, p ^ -r rochial treasury . Where one person dies it is estimated that ten are taken ill and sur-.
vive ; but it the cause of the death of one individual be removed , the probability is that the sickness of nine will be prevented . Following up the calculation already begun , we may allude to the ravages of the cholera in 1854 , which decimated a limited district in Westminster . In that year the bills of mortality for this district were increased from the average of 750 to 1200 , thus laying upon the parish a considerable part of the cost of 'LoO persons . If , therefore , we take into the estimate the value of these four hundred and
fifty lives , the cost of funerals , and attendance on the dying as well as on the sick who recover , and also the loss arising from tho flight of those lodging in the cholera district , we should have a sum little below 100 , 000 ? . We reserve a statement which will show what progress , in London sanitary reform , lias been eifected .
No. 391, September 19,1857.] The Leade B...
No . 391 , September 19 , 1857 . ] THE LEADE B ; . 905
Evangelical Congjiess At Beltlin. T1112 ...
EVANGELICAL CONGJIESS AT BEltLIN . T 1112 Austrian journals appear to regard the Evangelical Congress at Berlin , at which the King and Ciueen of . Prussia . ' assisted , ' as an act of Protestant aggression . It is certainly a proof that there is such a principle as Protestantism at work on the Continent : but we should HUo to know the private opinion of the Chevalier Bunshn as to the probable results of the "Evangelical assemblage . It
scjoiiis to have boon converted into an opportunity for a good deal of personal ^ loriiieution , as well an for a display of sen riot plush personified . That in t : o say , the ' . ISngliali dchigatcH made the usual . English exhibition of folly , and wore , at Potsdam , as a mutter <> l oouivso , the woi'Ht-bohaved of the pnrty . Inntead of Iccoping in their plaeeH , as the GormaiiH and Americana did , they broke tho order of tho reception , rushed towards the King-, frightened tho Q , tieen , buzzed in a
hustling mass around those royal persons , and made themselves supremely ridiculous . It has been hinted that our countrymen reached , on this occasion , the climax of absurdity . In justice , however , to the Evangelicals at Potsdam , we cannot say that . We saw at Boulogne , upon the occasion of the Queen ' s visit , a knot of Englishmen humiliate themselves by dropping on their knees and joining a sort of degraded Coryphean group on the deck of a steamer as they passed the spot where Louts Napolxoit sat
on horseback . That must remain for ever , to us , the morning-star of memory with respect to the flunkey ism of the English abroad . At Potsdam , however , the affair was laughable enough , and inclines us to hope that a few-Prussian gentlemen will com e to London next season and learn that the foolery enacted at Potsdam was not representative of English
good-breeding in general . At all . events , Chevalier Bitjtsjsn knows bettex * , and may eulighten the wondering majesty of Prussia . The German delegates were solemn , and preserved their dignity . The Americans were quiet , and saluted tlie king with perfect propriety . The French seem to have experimented in courtly arts . Only the English made a mob and a nuisance of themselves .
Among them , of course , there were exceptions . " We cannot suppose that Sir Cui / lin g Eajid - xey was any thing ; but a ' most calm , proper , modest Evangelical . Sir Culling and the King standing on the same carpet might , in fact , have been mistaken for brothers . Not that they are of the same height , size , outline , or complexion , but that FiiEDEitiCKWiiiLiA-M , had he been an English squire , would have been Sir Culling EardxiIs y , aud that Sir Culling , had he been a , German monarch , would have been Fjiudebicic William .
The proposed object of the 'C ongress was to stimulate Protestantism . Its real result was a report upon pthe condition of Protestantism . From "France the report was bad . From Turkey , good . From Sardinia , encouraging . From jLombardo - Venetia the worst of all . From Spain , scarcely better than from Lombaido-Veuetia . From America and Englaud , triumphant , but perhaps one-sided . We cannot say that much of special importance was elicited . The speeches , in general , were wordy and unsubstantial Perhaps , however , there was a sound reason .
for this . The Congress was but half sincere —the King of Pkussia . not half . He is a Protestant himself , but lie is an ally of the enemies of all liberty , religious and civil . He is a part of the system which oppresses the human mind . "With his bayonets , his artillery , and his fortifications , he is a partner with Kussia , Austria , and France , in the work of holding Europe in bondage , so that we augur little good for the ' truth that makes us free , ' when aiinc hundred gentlemen assemble ab Potsdam , after an Evangelical Conference , to present their compliments to the King of Prussia .
The Puffing Plague. There Will He Puller...
THE PUFFING PLAGUE . There will he pullers , and no one can help it . We do not expect that a erusado by all tho respectable critics in England will put an end to the practice of advertising lingo masses of manufactured praise to promote- tho sale of worthless books . But cue thing may bo done . The public may bo warned against t-hc fallacy of believing in laudatory paragraphs to which , tho niLincs of no critical journals arc- appended . They arc invariably unmeaning ,, and of no more authority than a tailor ' a rhyme or a blacking-maker ' s illumination . What ia it to any nenaible pernon thai ; a speculator in boolca advertiweB a novelist an < ao great n .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 19, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19091857/page/17/
-