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Leader (1850-1860), 8th January 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, •NTo. 459. January 8,1659.J THE X E A D ...

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      Of Smithfield, Halfiicld, Tialfmarsh, Ad...

      new theatres were built , for the erection of which Ivilligrew and Davenant had , in 1660 , each received a Pa £ dy Holland ' s Mob is an institution of the Pair which seems to have been founded in the time of th Commonwealth . It is a Mob without a literature , which has no account to give of itself ; nevertheless the date of its ' beginning is not hard to . guess . We remember that the suppressed players had , under the Commonwealtbi a special gathering-p lace for secret performances in Holland House . The ladies of the family after the coalescing of the peerages were Lady Warwicks . The

      first Lady Holland , as we have seen , was that heiress of Sir Walter Cope , who brought the Kensington Estate into the family , wifo of the Earl -who was beheaded by the Parliament in the same year with King Charles I . She it is who , in the days of the Commonwealth , was Mistress of Holland House , and her son ' s wife was the only other Lady Holland . It was this energetic Lady who set builders " to work on the house , and entertained the condemned players . She , therefore , must have been the Lady Holland of the Mob . in

      There is also much else that is entertaining Mr . Morley ' s essays upon what maybe sty lea the low drama of the tune , when Bartholomew Fair was in its high-and palmy estate ; his observations show that he is not unacquainted with the works of the best dramatists of that time , and , consequently , that he is . able to justly appreciate the efforts of the composers of the broad farce embodied in a Droll . Indeed , we have in Mr ., Morley ' s pages a critique upon the plays of Elkanah Settle , the City Poet , who at last turned actor in Burtlcmy Fair , u

      played the Dragon in a green case of his own invention . " The "Daw , you must do it , " Coleman , the younger , is the only parallel we recollectof Elkanah " Settle ' s down-taking .. To sum . up , the very mention of Bartholomew Fair , to dramatic minds , brings back a redolent whiff of that racy adjuration oiDott I ' earsheet io the fat Knight , Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig , and of the comparative intellectuality of ' the chaos- — . : Not that of pasteboard which men shew For groats at Fair of Barthol ' mew—( Hudibras , canto i . ) about which latter " motion" we should have been

      glad if Mr . Mo ' rley could have afforded . us a notice in his entertaining commentary upon the bygone vulgarities of this civic festival , which , were extended from century to century , to the times of our own youthful days , when we gazed upon the spangled Miss Gyngell , Miss Saunders , Master Saunders , and the little boy from Flanders , in the slack-wire dancing-booth , with wonder and delight . To conclude , we can assure our readers that Mr .

      Morley has done his best to redeem the expiring memory of Bartholomew Fair from oblivion , and ( to use a Johnsonian phrase ) entitled to be distinguished from him who has done nothing , a pompous negation with-which we shall not content ourselves , for there will always be a numerous class of readers to whom these Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair will always prove a source of genuine entertainment .

      •Nto. 459. January 8,1659.J The X E A D ...

      • NTo . 459 . January 8 , 1659 . J THE X E A D E B . 45

      Advocacy Of Necessary Reforms, Publislie...

      advocacy of necessary reforms , publislied from week to week , nay , almost from day to day , the views of a practical military officer of twelve years' standing upon the necessity of redressin < - the soldier ' s well-known grievances , consulting his comforts as well as perfecting his drill , adapting his dress to the conditions of his life , and , generally , of defending him as sedulously against fever , dysentery , rheumatism , and catarrh , as against gunshot and bayonet . That well-informed and conscientious writer , who was in due time echoed when lie had roused the public by the Leviathan and the minnows of the press * proposed , in fact , that the soldier should be treated as a valuable chattel , costly

      to buy , more costly to maintain , and , most of all , costly to replace . His essays attracted attention . Officers who knew the strategic value of lives were very much inclined to adopt his views ; others felt for thc private soldier from sympathy ; John Bull growled faintly as he thought of more impending income-taxes , but drowned reflection in drinking health to the legions as they went to death and misery ; and the red-tapists cast a little oil upon the waters by the imposition upon us of those best

      of men in the best of places , Ramsay and Ho well . What these people effected may be found in the death-rolls of the Crimean army and the records of the contract commissions . But now , happily , we have meii in authority at the Horse Guards and at the India House , who " , each conscientious , each full ot practical knowledge in his own department , each rich in national esteem and strong in Parliamentary support , will not permit such shameful , cruel blunders ¦ as-have immortalised the war

      administration of the two preceding ¦ Governments , and are not tied by . party traditions to abhor and flout popular interftnencer AVc are not without hope that the industry and good sense of the General Commanding-in-Chief and of the President of the Indian Council will'hereafter be so brought to bear upo . u the War Department that the health of our "Indian armies , whoso maintenance must draw largely upon our population , and perhaps finance ; for years to come , mav be really treated as a necessary element of their efficiency ; and that , instead of mocking lamentation for regiments decimated by sun-stroke ,

      fatiguc , and pestilcncc , the adoption of prophylactics against those powerful causes of mortality may come to be recognised as an equally integral part of the routine official duty of our military authorities , as the preparation of rifle , bayonet , and cartridge . Let us , therefore , we say , go on in hope yet a Tittle longer . Mr . Jeffreys affirms—and , though we have no official figures before us , we are warranted by our recollection of facts in believing him—that if the British forces in India , caparisoned as they arc , should have to keep the field continuously , and with little support from native troops , the casualtics from climate alone , after the first year , which

      is seldom fatal to Europeans , may bo estimated at 50 nor cent , per annum at least , and that of these a large proportion would be traceable to nearly avoidable causps . The strength of the Madras Fusiliers was reduced , it is said , in six months , from $ 50 to 190 men ; and it is but a few weeks since we had occasion to quote in these pages the trustworthy allegation of Mr . Wingrovc Cook , that of GOO men who , while he was at Hong-Kong , formed the strength of II . M . 59 th Foot , no leas than 150 were in hospital , and that the same regiment had consumed 2000 men in eight years . Every mail from India brings homo continuation of our belief that tho bullet and the

      MILITARY HYGIENE . The British Army in India : its Preservation by appropriate Clothing , Housing , Locating , recreative Employment , ami hopeful Encouragement of the Troo }> s . 13 y Julius Jeffreys , F . U . S ., formerly Staff" Surgeon of Cawnporo , Longman itml Go . The topics discussed in the eloquent work before us aro , wo hopo , likely to engage the sympathy of many and influential readers , concerning as they do , not alone the Anglo-Indian army , but every citizen who has thought for his brothrcn afar , or for the husbandry ofliis own ( ax-paying powers . It is too true that , for years past , unnumbered lives , of which we have in thu first instance purchased tho disposal in a somewhat equivocal manner under

      our so-called frco enlistment system , have been wasted through obstinuln know-nothingism ( uot ignoranoo ) of Military Hygieno . It cannot bo allogod that no competent porsons have lifted up the voieo of warning . Evon tlio much-abused Dr . Androw Smith , at tho outbroak of tho war with Russia , propounded in a memorial to the then War Ministry uomo onlightoned views upon tho bearing of costume- upon tho soldier ' s hoalth . But , if wo remember right , ono of his chiofs was too overworked to attend tp lam , and the other , who lectures during those times of poaoo upon army inaimgqmont , as though Ho wore an authority , Btruok work before tho work had much moro than commenced . Again , from tho beginning tilL nearly tho end of tho Crimean campaign , tho columns of a daily contemporary , distinguished above all others for its oarly

      bayonet are not the most deadly enemies that the plains of Hindostau raise up against tho British soldier and the British taxpayer . Every mail brings desolation to hundreds of English hearths , for which the sufferers have to thank , not glorious war , but sneaking , miserable fashion . To pretend that the tailor-tormented soldier is slain for economy ' s sake is rank folly . Red tape and recklessness make his wretched shoddy coat ami blotting-paper inexpressibles cost Iho country as much ns urondcloth , Fashion and the amateur military

      tailors making a frightful guy of him by way ot giving him a smart , neat , soldierly appearance , stretching their bursting misfits on his painful bones to clry and prepare him for tho reception , soonor orlator , of phtnisis and rhounmtism . When fashion ( auyij tho Author ) is playing into tlio hands of ( loath , and . filling tlio grave with her victims , her dospotlsin , boooinos inaiifl'ortxblo . Conceding to tlio ordinary dross-anna , shakos , nnd liolmota ( saving that Ingeniously faulty conceit , tho bearskin cap ) a suitnblonosa for our particular climate , wo nood not go further

      southward than the Mediterranean stations for their deficiencies to tell upon the health of troops exposed to ¦ the . sun / But when we approach the tropics , we have the atmosphere for six months ranging fifteen degrees on either side of blood heat . Being already charged With heat , it is little able to wash away by convexion the sun ' s rays as they fall upon any surface ; the inadequate thickness of all ordinary head-dress , even of the best in use , would , be glaringly manifest to any one who could have witnessed the preservative power of one of adequate dimensions . As it is , the sudden or gradual destruction of life or health is viewed as somehow

      inevitable , or referred to various auxiliary causes , not wanting , indeed , in number and power , arising out of the imprudence and irregular habits of soldiers . The following remarks on tropical virulence arc full of sense and truth , and should be pondered over by those who are quieted , if not gulled from year to year , by the stereotyped official excuse for military mortality conveyed in those words , "the imprudence and irregular habits , of the soldier : " — In India , the British soldier on duty , surrounded by the atmosphere , with the sun over his head , and , the ground under his feet , presents to our view the unfortunate subject of three hostile agencies . It is the influence of these agents upon him , both in their distinct and in their combined operation , which must'be . studied before we Can successfully * avail ourselves of the best

      means nature affords for insulating him so far aa to enfeeble their power 1 Confined as he is to the ground , his pulmonary and outer skins become assaulted , and too often carried , by malaria in its nascent and direst form . But subtle and baneful as are all forms of malaria , they may , to a considerable extent , be neutralised by various means , especially by combating , in the first instance , their powerful coadjutor , the sun's rays , and in the second , their great opportunity , atony in the cutaneous defences , manifested bv a suppressed perspiration .

      The sun then is the foe whose assaults we have first to ward oir , and the author having philosophically considered its mode of action and the value of the " protective agencies we at present oppose to . it , ends , as might be imagined , in a total cohdemnation of every Hat , forage cap , shako , and helmet now in use . * He proves forcibly enough that , the discomfort of soldiers' head geaivoften ciToneously attributed to their-weight , is due , in fact , to imperfect poising , want of porosity and ventilation , and to tin-lit ness . ' He lays down with considerable

      force that the defensive principles to be employed in the contrivance of a tropical head-dress , are— - 1 . Reflexion ; 2 . Retarded conduction ; 3 . Correction ; . Radiation ; 5 . Ventilation ; 6 . Evaporation ; and lie describes several contrivances of Tiis own in which he has embodied them . The foremost of these are helmets of metal plate , or of metallised cloth , built on an ingenious wire basket work , and likely to weigh from 2 £ t , o 2 § pounds . Then follows a" neck curtain of many folds , and a radiative body dress , or surcoat , complete the list of suggestions for soldiers' tropical costume .

      For the preservation of the men in barracks , Mr . Jeffreys is wisely no less solicitous . His proposed reticulation of wells and connecting galleries , to be p laced near every barrack , for the absorption of heat in summer and for the warming of air in winter , is , on the face of it , so ingenious and so ' cheap , as to be well ¦ worth " tlic notice of military engineers and authorities , lie would construct such an equalising air reservoir , by piercing a block of ground 100 yards square and 50 feet deep , with 200 wells 7 yards apart , -i-0 feet deep , and 10 feet in periphery . He would connect them at one end with the atmosphere , at the other with the building to be ventilated , and also laterally ; and ho estimates that tlic entire tubular area thus obtained would amount to 100 , 000 square feet . The capacity would be 3 , 000 , 000 cubic feet , or 530 , 000 , 000 pounds , which , were the process to be in dail y operation , would allow 20 , 000 pounds ^ of new air per hour , or renew tho atmosphere of a building 240 feet , long , 00 foot wide , and 20 feet . high . Tho cost of tho wells would bo as little as 20 / ., and nh though that of the connections and apparatus is uot given , it . seems clear that tlio system advocated could not , in the whole , be so costly as that of taitees , punkahs , and blast fans , while it is as cvi * dent ly far moiv philosophical . We make no pretensions to tlio ability requisite for its critical examination , but we are satisfied wo should bo failing in our duty did wo omit to do our part in attracting attention to tlio plans for the soldiors ' benefit , of whioh an army surgeon of such long experience nnd such hearty sscal as Mr . Joffroys has oast upon tho waters of publicity . Our author is no novice , -wo should observe , about Indian mottors . for as long ago as 1 S 2 A ho

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011859/page/13/