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592 __ THE LEADER. [No. 430, June 19,185...
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THE PRESS PROSECUTIONS. It is something ...
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THE SETTLEMENT WITH NAPLES The settlemen...
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SANITARY CONDITION OF THE ARMY.. ' . . ¦...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Thames Pestilence. A Gigantic Flood ...
under the loathsome influence ; city p hysicians and surgeons find the numbers of their patients increased ; something only a few degrees removed from cholera makes its appearance , and the Board of Works deliberates upon the necessity of " doing something . " What they in their wisdom devise , is to carry to the centre of the stream the double line of tributaries which accumulate , under the noses and mouths of three millions of people , the sewage and suppuration of the London basin . That is to say , instead of being voided upon the river beach , so as to crawl across a broad and oozy
surface in the light of the sun at low water , it is proposed to extend the arched outfalls so that their discharge may at times be concealed . If we are professionally told that the evil will thus be diminished , it is with gratitude we accept the suggestion ; but , at the best , this will only be a partial and tampering process . The Thames will still be our main drain—our huge receptacle of dead animals , decayed vegetables , ordure . , putrescence , and all else that should be carried far from the habitations of men . It will still be a body of murky , cloudy , dense , and stinking liquid , with the
consistence of Warren ' s blacking , the smell of assafoetida , and the colour of the cuttlefish ' s secretions ^ "With a hundred fountains , fed by the latrinaries , urinals , and other deleterious sources playing into its bed , it will remain the great Plague of London—a perpetual nuisance and pollution . Legislators in the library of the Commons express themselves with profane emphasis when the gross vapour rises to their nostrils . Ticket collectors on- the piers threaten to throw up their situations . Even old watermen make oath and say that the Thames has become unbearable . No crocodile or
hippopotamus , "we are sure , would Jive for an hour in . these foul and hideous waters . Birds ,-we believe , seldom jfly across this Avemus except from-sheer necessity . TChe swans keep far above the bridges . And theLord Mayor las abolished the procession of state-harges on the 9 th of November . Moreover , we can assure the ^ steam-boat companies that the river traffic is seriously depressed by tlie noxious exhalations that sicken every passenger , and render omnibus tumult pr eferable to a passage through the Italian Hell of Stenches . The summer , which blesses the land , curses the water—at least in the London
valley . The slimy putrefaction of the Thames simmers in the neat , and from every bubble breaks a discharge of insufferable miasma . Well , then , as we have said , the Board of Works intends to move ; but the City Commissioners of Sewers must be consulted , and these gentlemen haggle over expenditure . They are asked to sanction two schemes—one for carrying to a distance below low-water mark the [ London Bridge sewer , and another for constructing similar works at Dowgate Dock . Who is to bear the cost ? becomes the question , and a paltry argument
is stated to this effect : Is the City to pay for the improvements , although other than citizens may benefit by them ? Is " the City to pay the Lord Mayor ' s allowance , though country cousins may enjoy a sight of his scarlet , and think him a mighty man ? Is the City to poison itself , because other wise persons , not citizens , may be bettered ia health P We can only say that , with our Boards of Health , our Sanitary Commissioners , our Sewage Commissioners , and our Board of Works , it is infamous that the Thames should continue to be an . unwholesome ditcli , overflowing with the ori and
ginal patent elements of typhus . Wo will none of us have open sewers under our houses , but we liave one of immense proportions intersecting our capital city , and the revoltinfr souni is deposited in front of a double line of wharfs and buildings several miles in length , with , scortss of steamers struggling against the heavy flux and reflux of filth , and -wrth every tide leaving at its recession , hillocks of that which Dr . Lcthcbj calls " putrid squash "—the oozings of graveyards , the refuse of unhealthy manufactures , the lees and sediment of humanity—all that is nameless and polluting . 1
Ihe public is not extravagant inits demands . It doea not ask that the river-side , insteadLof "being the ugliest and dirtiest in the world , shall be adorned with quays , and lighted with regular row 3 of lamps . It does not insist upon the granite walls that contain , the clear flow of the Neva ; it does not care for an architectural perspective , traversed by bridges like that of the Seine ; But it understands , in spite of economical Boards and the squabbles of engineers , that the sewage of London might safely , easily , and profitably be carried away , purifying the river , imd relieving the capitnl from the presence of an
interminable cesspool and an incessant pest . Until then , the Board of Works should be compelled to deliberate , as emperors have done , upon a floating platform , and that platform moored between Blackwall and Putney .
592 __ The Leader. [No. 430, June 19,185...
592 __ THE LEADER . [ No . 430 , June 19 , 1858 ;
The Press Prosecutions. It Is Something ...
THE PRESS PROSECUTIONS . It is something almost incredible that the Government should persist in its prosecution of the two booksellers accused of publishing libels against the French Emperor . These indictments are what Mr . Bright called " the verminous rags" left by Lord Palmerston in Downing-street . Why not be generous and politic , and abandon them ? They taint tlie hands of the Minister . There is neither common sense nor common honesty in the whole proceeding . The prosecutions are dishonest , because they are dccduonal and partial ; and they are absurd , because they bring the law into contempt , and result in the establishment of no principle whatever . The doctrine of tyrannicide , and the theoretical assassins , who talk of daggers but use none , ' rnay safely be left to the healthy action of public opinion . If not , the Courts at all events are not competent to abate the evil . They may punish Mr . Truelove and the noor Polish bookseller—if they can get an English jury to convict—but after this show of deference to Louis Napoleon , the matter will stand where it did . Libellers -will only become more ingenious , and persons who believe in the virtue of sudden pistol-shots will learn to keep the law at arm ' s length without their meaning being less clear or less deadly . Let a publisher be imprisoned to-day for advocating the assassination of Louis Napoleon , and it would be perfectly safe for any one else to do the same to morrow . The only difference would be , that the argument , must be necessarily more sedate and seductive . Therefore , the approaching trials will be mere burlesques of justice . Bnt they are more . They revolt the feelings of every Englishman . Sir William Peel said , of the Conspiracy Bill , that , reason or no reason , it ought never to have been introduced . From that point of view , also , these press
prosecutions are disgraceful . We know what to understand by them . They are apologies to France . They are measures of " policy , " not ot judgment . They are concessions to the [ French , colonels and to M . Walewski . If a verdict could be obtained it would be telegraphed to Paris , and Lord Mahnesbury would rely , "with additional confidence , upon the pacific tendencies and the moderation of his august and gracious friend . But , in this instance , the pretext is the most empty hypocrisy . We have all of us admired assassins , if not advocated the use of the dagger , at some period of our lives . Scsevola and Brutus have been our heroes . With Mr . Disraeli we have blessed the hand " that dares to wlad tne
regiciual steel . " We have forgiven Fenfcoa and wished there had been Roman Ravaillacs to smite the Caesars of the Lower Empire . This is one among the inevitable fine frenzies of youth . If , however , a man is pleased to abide by the doctrine of the dagger , confute him , hold him up to ridicule , execrate his ideas , prove them monstrous and unnatural , but do not goto the Queen ' s Bench and ask the judge aud jury to fine and imprison him . When lie come 3 out—if he be the real offenderhe will substitute Napoleon I . for Napoleon III ., and who shall then prevent him from invoking all
the Pianoris and Orsinis , past , present , and to come p The infamous prosecutions now pending assail , however , not the writers themselves , hut their publishers , and while Mr . Truelove takes his trial , Mr . Adams , or any one else , is at perfect liberty to sigh ( in print , price one penny ) for the swords of Harmodius and Aristogiton . We hope no jurymen will lend themselves to this miserable attempt upon , the liberty of unlicensed printing . If they acquit Mr . Truelove and the imp licated Pole , they will be " mute Miltons " indeed , but not inglorious , for thev will assert the same
principle as that in defence of which was composed one of the finest arguments in the language . They arc not called upon to vindicate the classical propriety of the doctrine of assassination , but to deny the right of the Crown officers to establish a precedent of persecution against the press . Let them remember that , in a wcll-ordcrea society , _ any ^ publication , however objectionable , will die of its own discredit far easier " tlian undor the strokes of a State persecution . When the public have no ears for ribaldry , ribaldry will have no tongue .
The Settlement With Naples The Settlemen...
THE SETTLEMENT WITH NAPLES The settlement with Naples is one which we must regard with moderate satisfaction . In the first place , the award of fifteen hundred pounds sterling to each of the English engineers is a mitigate ! atonement to them for the outrages and injuries they had endured . Imprisoned during the greater part of a year , subjected to loathsome mfltreat ment , reduced to a bed of sickness , and half bereft of reason , will fifteen hundred pounds sterling com pernsate the more unfortunate of the two sufferers " and is it worthy of a State , admittedly in the wrong , to redeem itself by a concession of this character ? If China had been the offendhe nowpr and if Mr . Watt and Mr . Parkes had beenloSd for ten months in the dungeons of Canton a
waggon-load of Sycee silver would have been demanded . But Lord Malmesbury has an aptitude for making small money bargains in vindication of Givis Romcinus . We will not assert , however , that he was bound to refuse the Neapolitan ' offer . There were circumstances which rendered it expedient , perhaps , to patch up the quarrel , so as to give no possible advantage to the abettors of , certain schemes now in rapid action , the results of wliich will be known when they are known . However , the Government can claim no particular triumph in the case of the engineers . Still less in the case of the Cagliari . Sardinia recovers her steamer and crew , but what is to be her compensation 01 that of the officers and men ? What of the
maritime principles involved ? The difficulty has been smothered away by private arrangement between , the Cabinets of London and Naples , with , an exyast facto—and . it is now said partial—sanction from Turin ; and it may again be said that nothing was raore desirable than that , considering the political liabilities of Italy , everything should he prevented that might strengthen the hands of the Muratisfc conspirators . "What Lord . Malmesbury has accomplished amounts , therefore , to this : he has successfully compromised the litigation between Great Britain and Sardinia and Naples , and has obtained tie consent of the parties concerned . But he has written ^ a despatch which wil 1 certainly improve his reputation-
Sanitary Condition Of The Army.. ' . . ¦...
SANITARY CONDITION OF THE ARMY . . ' . . ¦ ¦ ; ' ¦¦ vi . - . ¦ ¦; ' ¦ ¦ . ¦ "¦ ¦ ¦ Setting aside the humanity view of oul- soldier and his right to be included in the general progress of the community ; forgetting for a moment , as is unfortunately too much the actual case , all our eternal obligations on the score of Waterloo , Inkermann , Lucknow , and a host of victories only less celebrated , because the destiny that hung upon the issue was not so momentous ; and looking at the soldier simply as a fighting locomotive , he is a most valuable and costly machine . Every man is calculated to cost a hundred pounds , without a word about the outlay of bringing him into the field , and
¦ working him , which , as every one knows , is always a question of millions . So that to neglect him , to let him get out of order by bad housing or feeding or clothing , or to work him badly , and make a vain sacrifice ot him by placing him in positions ¦ where injury and destruction are just as perfectly certain to fall upon him as they would be averted by ordinary foresight , is not only a lamentable folly but a great failing in administrative skill . It is suffering the penny wise and pound foolish policy to be applied in a most mischievous way , and in a manner unjust both to the public aud the soldier .
It is not a grateful task to rake up old grievances , but the questions are practical , and not without future benefit , perhaps , of—How much of the 60 , 000 , 000 / . spent upon the late war is attributable to useless expenditure , not to say useless blunders ? How many lives would have been saved if the sanitary measures at last adopted had been set to work at the outset of the campaign ? Mr . Sidney Herbert asks Colonel Tulloch , " Suppose the rate of mortality could l ) e reduced by proper sanitary precautions to the same amount as in civil life , would
not that have a very considerable effecl ; both on the expenses of recruiting and on pensioning P There is no doubt of it . In every way tlmt you reduce the mortality on foreign stations , you diminish the expenses for rcoruiting , and for every man you save , you gain 20 / . or 30 A at least . " Dr . J ohn Sutherland also says , " It has been demonstrated in civil h ' that the expense of all sanitary strictural improvements is repaid over and over again even within the short lite of a man . Beyond all question it is the worst economy in tlio world to s : vvc money
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061858/page/16/
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