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April 18,1857.] THE.LEADP, 373
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DR. LETHEBY AND THE CITY LETHE. A sudden...
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POLITICAL POINTS—THE BALLOT. The necessi...
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.
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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.
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How We Ch1ustian People Spent The Day Oi...
such subjects ; though ^ yhat can intended to define we can scarcely understand , for we can . scarcely-bring distinctly to the mind what can be an ? mbelieving Christian . If there are such things , we might imagine that to them Good JYiday would only be an occasion for closing shops , wearing one ' s best clothes , and going " somewhere ; " to any resort where the Public-house Act would permit . Outward conformity to all which is absolutely required , and inward disregard of such commemoration , would he exactly the kind of conduct that we might expect from an unbelieving Christian .
It is strange that the manners and customs of the English , as exemplified on that particular day , should so exactly agree with what we imagined as the manners and customs of that unaccountable creature which we have called the Unbelieving Christian , and whose existence is involved in the expression " Believing Christian . " How this' comes about we do not know , though of course there are reasons for it . It is not for us to conjecture why it is tliat there can be " Christians"' in this ¦ country whose feelings run in the track of excursion trains on the most ¦ mournful
anniversary of their Church . Possibly some in the crowd at Sydenham on Friday last may have been to divine service before attending profane service in the Crystal Palace ; they may have gone through the ' proper suit and service so as to < juit themselves of their duty for the day ; but we are not now speaking of forms and ceremonies , which are quite consistent Avith the idea of an unbelieving Christian . ; we are speaking of conviction , and still more of feeling .
Perhaps some of our clergymen could throw light on this subject . Many of them have confessed the difficulties with which they have to Contend , in the apathy of the people generally . Qur churches are only designed to hold about one-fifth of the people of the country , the Crystal Palacea that are built are intended for much larger multitudes . It is true thut the Crystal Palaces hitherto constructed could not ' hold all the people of this country at any one given hour ; they are not made for thos ' e wbo
cannot pay to support Crystal Palaces as a weekly institution ; nor is it necessary that they should be . But it' we understand the doctrine of our clergy , it is necessary that all the adult population of this country should be present in some of our churches or chapels nearly about the same time every Sunday . If some are too poor to pay for their admission , that , we conceive , does not affect the question . Those who possess the means should give to the Lord a tithe ot
their possessions , which would at once settle the question of free admission , for the whole of the poorer classes ; and if the wealthy really tocrc " believing Christians , " we can hardly imagine that that mechanical difficulty would not be settled . The railway companies find no difficulty in providing excursion trains , the directors of the Crystal Palace can provide concerts ; so that the English peoplo evidently believe in junketing and concerts . °
If it were possible , it would be very useful for purposes of moral politics to obtain the statistics of the state of belief in thia < country ; distinguishing the Believing Christians from the Unbelieving Christians ! A further question would arise—How it happens that the Unbelieving Christians consent to keep up the appearances which are involved in that self-contradicting designation ? Are they too degraded , either by Want of education or by the mercenary habits of this country , for tho genuine faith and sublime morals which were inculcated by the i'oundor of Christianity ? At all events there
seems to be ample room for the missionary ; the . '¦ ¦ difficulty is to find a missionary of sufficient influence to obtain the means for his mission from the Believing Christians , and the means of success with the Unbelieving Christians .
April 18,1857.] The.Leadp, 373
April 18 , 1857 . ] THE . LEADP , 373
Dr. Letheby And The City Lethe. A Sudden...
DR . LETHEBY AND THE CITY LETHE . A sudden alarm was created last week by a Report from Dr . He ^ hy Letheb y , the Medical Officer of Health to the CiEy of London , on the state of the City district generally , but more especially of the Eastern Union . His Report exposes a very horrible state of things . The total mortality of the City is at
the annual rate 2 G 2 per thousand of the inhabitants , the -usual yearly average being 25-9 ; but the mortality has been , very unequally distributed . In the City proper it has been 20 * 7—a , low rate , in part to be accounted for by the rather high average of the inhabitants in the scale of society , and by the residence of a very considerable proportion out of the bounds . But the xate in the
West London Union was 29 , and ia the Bast London Union 31 ' 4 < . The chief causes of death arose from the disease of the respiratory system . But there were 58 deaths from violence and starvation . — -more than one a week in a section of the British capital ! The ulterior causes of this mortality are soon ¦ ascertained .-. '' -Iii' the 1989 inhabited rooms circumstantially inspected during the quarter there were 5791 inmates , belonging to 1576 families . But the crowding of rooms was not confined to the same family ; strangers were lodged together , even bedded together—men and women , adults and children ; the
incidents of life , from birth to death , going on in the same room , in an atmosphere loaded with moral and physical filth ; the beggar , ' the prostitute , the woman in labour , the infant , the corpse , all literally " pigging together . " Such abodes perpetuate fever and its allied disorders ; but they perpetuate something worse ... - ¦ ' " There stalks side by side with tins pestilence a yet deadlier presence , blighting the moral existence of a rising population , rendering their hearts hopeless , their acts ruffianly and incestuous , and scattering , while society averts her eye , the retributive seeds for increase of crime , turbulence , and pauperism . "
This disclosure has astonished the world as it' it came out for the first time . Dr . Lithe by , however , remarks , "This was the language of Mr . Simox years ago ; " it has been tho language of Dr . Suthekxanb , Dr . SoumwooD Smith , Dr . Lynch , and many others ; it wus used four or five years ago by Mr . Simon , ten years ago by S ' uthbkl . vts ' 1 ) , twenty years ngo by JSoutiiwooD SiriTii . Lord Carlisle can vouch for the strict
accuracy of these expressions . Tiie existence of these depots of fever , moral and material , has been officially stated to the public any time within those last twenty ycara ; the depots themselves having existed for a century or more , in fact pver since our towns became so closely packed . The depots are found not only in London , they aro in all
great towns . In Dublin , tho ruins of the old manufacturing district will exhibit something of tho same kind . In Edinburgh , tho " closes " of tho old town , although perhaps not inhabited by so very low a population , arc without drainage , without inspection that penetrates the street-door , and arc a patented apparatus for cooking condensed essence
of fever . Tim wviwla rvf rj-ioan , / Vi « r „ , „ . of fever . Tho wymla of Glasgow are as famous as its commercial port ; and wo can only say that an English beggar is a cleanly , distinguished , and ventilated animal in comparison to a Scotch beggar . Tho Scotch animal can only bo compared to the rag-picker of Paris .. But it is not only
in these particular depots that the evil consequences are to be found s they are not traced only in the amount of mortality . "We venture to say that entire districts around the City— -a wide space , for example , at Clerkenwell , a very large district round St . Luke ' s , Somers-town , or Pimlico ^ present a population mingled with such as inhabit these lowest neighbourhoods ; "bat the infection
extends , debases the physical health of the wliole neighbourhood , impairs the energies of all classes , and results , not only in . the increased number of deaths , in frequent prevalence of fevers , but in a permanently low state of health , diminished energies for the work of life , and . diminished energy even , for local improvement . And all our towns have this stigma upon them .
" What are the remedies r - Dr . Letheby can think of nothing but the enforcement of the Common Lodging Houses Act , with its inspection , and its penalties to compel repairs , drainage , '' washing , and so forth . It is a very good instrument in its way , but there are many things which . . it . cannot do . It cannot feed the hungry—those tens of thousands in this great city who are deprived of
employment by the changes and caprices of commerce . It cannot educate the ignorant , who submit to contagions that they might conquer had they but the elements of knowledge . It cannot redistribute the population , forced into these special quarters by " improvements "that raise rents elsewhere , and drive about the working class as if it were no better than vermin—than rats who
are not consulted , but rather the reverse , when houses are rebuilt and neighbourhoods remodelled . The selfishness of modern times has been pampered by prosperity . The well-to-do classes , when they speak . of politics or of social improvement , think of themselves ; they improve for themselves ; they regulate for themselves ; and they leave those classes who are most helpless not only to themselves , but to themselves in places cribbed , cabined , and confined , by the encroachments . The working ' classes are not only abandoned without aid , but they are injured by the improvements of their fellow-creatures . There are
grand exceptions . Here and there an earnest priest or layman conies forth to hold out tho hand , of 'help ) for his fellow-men however debased , charity will extend its pittance , and an association will pick up some few to elevate them by teaching . But while the whole of society is putting down tribes , charity is but rescuing individuals , and an association here and there is only redeeming tho wholesale vork of injurv inflicted by the system .
But again we say , wliat avo have so often said before , that social reform , which it is at present the iashiou to talk of , has never yet appeared save as tho handmaid of political to form .. In a despbtical country the aristocratic classes , the knights of liome , the purple emperors rising to couches of luxury , render the attendant classes first the slaves iind then tlio victims of the system of favouritism thus established . The iucrease of luxury for particular classes has been tho sign of thab crowning prosperity which precedes ' the down fa 1 of nations . It is when
other classes have- obtained political power that they assert their right to the share of the good things of thia life , and the prosperity is better distributed . We may have a talk , about practical reforms , but the million will nob get its duo share until by using its own political power it can make" its voice hoard and felt in the making of laws and in the administration .
Political Points—The Ballot. The Necessi...
POLITICAL POINTS—THE BALLOT . The necessity of the Ballot ia the practical moral of the General Election . That neces-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 18, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18041857/page/13/
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