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Untitled Article
the court is only the domestic character revealed . From the beginning of the day until far into the next day there is a continual tumult—the effervescent sport of the boysa tumult which no school hours suspend . "When night comes on , before these puerile tumults cease , the drunkenness of the maturer class adds to the chaos . The language is not such as would instruct the hearer ; and the disorder of noise is occasionally varied with disorder of a more substantial kind .
Now it is possible that if the Buildings had been very substantially reformed , a thoroughly respectable class might have been called to them , and the non-respectable class might have been kept away by the force of extrusion—by the pre-occupation of the place ; such is not the case . When the repaired houses are first visited , they have unquestionably a show of cheerfulness and cleanliness strikingly in contrast with the squalid houses usually belonging to the class . It would be very desirable if the exhibition of such renovated dwellings were examined by competent persons . The grand object is to get rid
of the decayed wood-work , and of the vermin bred and harboured by the squalid and dilapidated state of the dwellings . To that end the walls should be thoroughly scraped , the old paper hangings should be entirely removed , and the old dado-skirting and other wood-work should be carried off to be replaced by Keen ' s or other cement . This would destroy the vermin and remove all harbour for them . It would perhaps cost a little more than the process actually employed , which consists in putting yellow ochre over the surface—an expedient superficial in every sense of the word .
When the houses are first repaired they have unquestionably a beautified aspect , aud they have been cleaned . Hevisit them after they have once come into use , and yon will find the old abuses existing as before—the drains choked with filth , unsluiced with water . And the want of water , indeed , gives occasion to many of the altercations that disturb the peace of such places . Wo can understand
that this course may entail less outlay , and may therefore exhibit , with comparatively small subscription , a good balance iu the annual account . We can suppose that there is some real improvement in the state of the houses . But when wo are asked , as we have been aaked , whether this is doing the work in a thorough stylo , undoubtedly we arc not prepared to reply .
Wo must hand the question over to the Society . Wo must ask whether the builder ' s work has been thoroughly done ? Whether , if the beat class of tenants cannot be called in to occupy the whole of the space " reformed , " somo protection should not be afforded to those of a better class who do begin tho colonization of the " low" neighbourhoods , by establishing somo sort of beadledom to defend the peace . Not long since , tho leading journal , in an article entirely after the fashion , informed us what tho Society had dono to improve tho neighbourhood : wo aro challenged to state what the Societ y has not done .
Now this Society is extending its operations , and avo would respectfully suggest that if . it desires to maintain tho character which it claimed for itaolf , it will perform itn work horoafter in a more thoroughgoing atylo . Its next operations , wo understand , nro to bo directed to Church-passago in George-street —a very don of iniquity . When the present leases aro out , this place , wo hear , is to bo handed over to fJlio Society to bo reformed . Perhaps before that time tho Society will have reformed itself , and will bo able to execute that good sit which it has . heretofore so creditably aspired . . Indeed , George-street
might claim the attention of the Society , if it were prepared to realize the objects which it professes . Of course a Society so respectable , and intending to perform services so sterling , can neither expect nor wish to escape criticism . It cannot intend to improve the dwellings of the poor only within Exeter Hall ; but of course it must desire to be judged by the dwellings of the poor where those dwellings exist , —to bejudged by the resultsin Clark ' sbuildings or Church-passage .
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THE GENERAL POISONER . It would be worth , while to inquire whether any connexion exists between the defective intellect of the baker and the sulphate of copper he puts into his bread ? And whether that defect entitles him to . mercy ? And what is to become of the population , supposing that to be the case ? It may not be very lamentable to eat potato starch with
arrowroot , roasted wheat with coffee , sugar with cocoa , flour with mustard , or even turmeric with cayenne ; but to be dessicated with alum , dyed with red lead , choked with plaster of Paris , burnt with caustic lime , is more than can reasonably be endured . Take notice that according to the final Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons , we are poisoned , or cheated , as follows : —
Arrowroot is mixed with potato and other starches . Bread with potatoes , plaster of Paris , alum , and sulphate of copper . Bottled fruits and vegetables with various salts of copper . Coffee -with chicory ( adulterated ) , roasted wheat , beans , and mangold-wurzel . Chicory ( to adulterate the coffee ) with roasted wheat , carrots , sawdust , and Venetian red . Cocoa with arrowroot ( adulterated ) , potato-flour , sugar , chicory ( adulterated ) , and ferruginous red earths . Cayenne with ground rice and mustard husk , coloured with red lead , Venetian lead , and turmeric . Gin -with grains of paradise , sulphuric acid , and
cayenne . Lard with potato-flour , mutton suet , alum , carbonate of soda , and caustic lime . Mustard with wheat-flour and turmeric . Marmalade with apples or turnips . Porter and stout with water , sugar , treacle , salt , alum , cocculus indicus , grains of paradise , nux vomica , and sulphuric acid .
Pickles and preserves with salts of copper . SnufF with-various chromates , red lead , lime , and powdered glass . Tobacco with water , sugar , rhubarb , and treacle . Vinegar with water , sugar , and sulphuric acid . Jalap with powdered wood . Opium with poppy capsules , wheat flour , powdered wood , and sand . Scaminony with wheat flour , chalk , resin , and sand .
Confectionary with plaster of Paris , paint , with deadly pigments , and essential oils containing prussic acid . This is no longer suspected , but proved . But tho Committee of tho House of Commons , for once reversing tho maxim that property is more valuable than life , propose to exonerate the cheat , and to fine or imprison only tho poisoner . Had they looked far into tho nature and effect of laws , they would have perceived that dishonesty , legitimatized , becomes dangerous , and that to admit tho practice of adulteration is to encourage adulteration of all kinds , whether hurtful to life or not . If yoxi suffer tho petty tradesman to mix ground rice with cayenne , is not that a
temptation to the use of Venetian rod as a colouring matter ? Suppose the law were to prohibit tho Venetian red and allow tho ground rice , would not tho adulterator find out some unnoticed poison , such as thoso which have been lately discovered in ' South America , and thus evade tho index exjpurgalorius of colouring ingredients P The only safe and intelligible principle is to insist that what is sold as Hugnr shall bo sugar , and not plaster of Farin , and that to forgo a green tint in pickles with suits of copper shall bo as illegal as to utter a spurious bill of exchange When is money obtained under false pretences , if not by tho dealer who sells powdered
carrots for chicory , flour for mustard , potato meal for cocoa ? Of course the sale of caustic lime for lard , and powdered . glass for snuff , is a worse offence ; but it is theoffice of legislation to discriminate between the qualities , of crime 3 to inflict on mere rogues the ' penalties oi roguery , and on "the more desperate adulterators , who traffic in poison , punishments adequate to the atrocity . If the maxim of law holds good , that a man intends the consequences of every deliberate act , why should the miscreant , who , taking advantage of the confidence of trade , introduces into your
system a daily dose of red lead , or sends ground glass into your brain , or prepares you for the Asiatic cholera by infusions of verdigris , be treated as less than a felon or a misdemeanant of the worst order ? But , that he should be punished severely is no reason why the " cogging knave" who gives the poor invalid potato starch for arrowroot , or decomposed turnip for marmalade , should not be punished at all . What we want is honesty , and the law that should tell the tradesman he may be dishonest , but only " to a certain extent , " would not be a very creditable addition to our statute-book .
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THE DULL DAYS . Even on -the dullest day something may be said . We can always say , How dull it is ! Yet that is not very interesting . With Parliament dispersed , men silent , books few , everybody engaged in the serious pursuit of pleasure , publishers abroad , announcements held back , how many are forced into reminiscent moods , to east up the accounts of the season . It is carefully recorded what bills were passed , and what were not passed ; f ntal amounts connected with trade and
revenue are laid before us ; leaders count their parties , and parties criticize their leaders . Still the days are dull . There is no excitement anywhere , except that of some agonizing scene in a court of justice , or the miserable moralities of the scaffold . This week , one of our excellent contemporaries was furnished with a fictitious report of a trial in the Court of Exchequer , which is not sitting , and printed it at the cost of an apology . The whole case —names , dates , incidents—proved to be a fabrication ; but as they raised the curtain upon some of the equivocal dramas of modern life , the story was too acceptable to be laid aside for authentication .
The Court is not particularly active just now , so that Court correspondents have nothing to say , but that Prince Albert went up Southampton Water in the Elfin , and then joined the Queen in tho Fairy , and that afterwards they asked Lord Ebnest Bruce to dinner . It is true that , a few days ago , tho " authorities" at Plymouth were " astounded " —did not tho Post say so ?—by a signal that the royal yacht was in view , and that the establishments wore to be royally inspected . But such events have been few . We have
fallen back on comets , and count tho meteors . AVo hear with interest that turnips are late , that wheat looks well , and that oats have stood tho rain surprisingly . Some one , too , has come to tho relief of tho used-up , by inquiring why the Victoria Cross idea ban faded with tho rosoa and lilies of 1850 . There ia even a disposition to forgo bright sayings of Sydney Smith ; but tho weather is against it . Nor has tho Krnkon loomed this early autumn off the Norway coast . Of course avo have had tho British ,
Association , but that is over—tho breakfasts , the presidential oration , the sectional tables , oxcuraioning , tho dining , and promonading . A great philanthropic congress , however , ie held at Bristol , and one of tho happiest things connected with it is that Lord Brougham has emitted a spark . 'The Em-
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AtJOTST £ 3 , 1856 . ] J . HE IE . ABEB . 807
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1856, page 807, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2155/page/15/
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