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Leader (1850-1860), 12th February 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18, "THE ORGAN OE THE MANDARINS." Newspapers...

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      Administrative Patronage. Tub Manner In ...

      and dangers at Scutari and 'elsewhere- was secured . The viceroyaity of Ionia has long been treated by successive Governments as a perquisite of party power , and has been made use of unhesitatingly as a means of providing for needy , troublesome , and effete political dependants . It is now conferred upon a man Jn the vigour o life , unshackled by factious ties , thoroughly cognisant of the region he is going to and the races helias to govern , and who , in short , possesses what Mr . Garlyle terms that not very common but rather indispensable appendage— - a , head . The post is an eminently difficult one , and for that reason Sir Bulwer ! Lytton was wise in choosing such a man as Sir Henry Storks to fill it .

      210 The Leader. [No. 464, February 12, I...

      210 THE LEADER . [ No . 464 , February 12 , Ig 59 .

      Last Quarter Of 1858, 2305 Above The Dea...

      last quarter of 1858 , 2305 above the deaths in 1857 ( nearly 15 per cent . ) , and 3443 ( nearly 24 per cent . ) aoove the deaths in 1856 * in the same period , or a death irate in the last quarter of 2 . 402 ,, compared to a death rate in 1857 of 2 . 265 , and , in 1856 , of 1 . 995 , was certainly not due to any neglect of sanitary regulations , which have been diligently and incessantly enforced . " The excess , too ^ of mortauty was in the six cold months , " and the neglect of sanitary arrangements is usually most injurious in the summer . Severe cold puts an end to the deleterious effects of '" middens , cesspools , and English guano . " In summer , the Thames arid all its tributary sewers and gutters were most complained of , but then the mortality was not in excess . The early and severe cold of November-, though fatal to

      persons poorly fed , thinly clothed , and huddled together in the streets—our houseless , homeless poor , checked exhalations from filth , and from the " shameful poisonous nuisances we still leave in or near dwelling-houses . " Again , the deficiency of the supply of water , felt as much if not more in country places than in towns , was , in most cases , the consequence of the " smallest rainfall in the year 1858 since 1840 . " A deficiency of rain , of food , of clothing , of fuel , of house accommodation are ail provocative of disease and premature death , and unless sanitary arrangements means providing all these in abundance , it is obvious , on the Registrar ^ General ' s own showing , that the increased mortality in 1858 cannot with justice be ascribed chiefly to a "fatal neglect of sanitary arrangements . "

      derable period of much profitable industry . The multitude , previously drained and enfeebled by a comparatively high price of food , were pauperised to a considerable extent . The price of food was low in 185 S , but multitudes had no mekns of buying it ; In the third -week of January the increase of panperism in Lancashire was 50 . 75 per cent ., and in Yorkshire , 21 . 21 per cent . In Sheffield , at Ladyday last , the poor-rates were almost doubled . The means and the hopes of employers -were reduced , and with the great pressure on the poor ^ mortality increased ana marriage decreased to a very remarkable extent in 1858 . How any attention to the most refined sanitary arrangements could have improved , or in the smallest degree circumstances

      have influenced these , we cannot conceive ; arid , till the Registrar-General explains , he " must be content , we think , to lie under the imputation of haying been hurried by his zeal for his craft into giving a very imperfect and incorrect explanation of the cause of the deteriorated condition of society in 1 S 58 . To the nation these different views are of undoubted importance . As it coincides with the Registrar-General it will look for future safety to' more and improved sanitary regulations ; as it coincides with the Leader , it will be aware that only by lessening the pressm-e imposed on the poor by the superincumbent mass can it hope permanently to lessen the death rate and continually increase the marriage rate , or permanently promote .. ' the abundance and the liappiuess of human life .

      There was , however , a decrease in marriage as well as an increase of deaths ; both are adverse to social welfare , and the former cannot by any possibility be referred to neglect of sanitary arrangements . If it be said that the increase of mortality removes marriageable persons , the answer is that the great increase of mortality was in the last three months of the yeaiv and all the decrease in marriages occurred before the end of September , The increased mortality , therefore , could not be the cause of decreased marriage . One cause , however ,

      very slightly noticed by the Registrar-General" the pressure in the early part of the year , on the poor " - —will suffice to explain both much more satisfactorily than the neglect of sanitary arrangements . We will illustrate this by a reference to former periods , and let not the reader pass over the illustrations as dry and tedious , and leading to no practical end ; for as he forms correct opinions on this subject , so will he be an advocate or an opponent of a vast system of bureaucratic meddling legislation .

      The " annual rate per cent , of marriages , births , and deaths , " shows that the year 1846 is the first subsequent to 1841 when the death rate 2 . 307 was above the mean rate 2 . 238 of the ten years ended with 1851 . Now we all know that in 1846 the potato-rot began ,, and in December of that year the price of wheat rose from 55 s . 6 d . per quarter in January to 60 s . 3 d . In June , 1847 , it rose to 92 s . lOd . The consequence was that the death rate rose in 1847 to 2 . 472 , and in 1848 to 2 . 5 ) 3 .

      Following this increase of mortality , tho marriage rate fell from , 861 in 1840 to . 793 in 1847 , . 70 S in 1848 , and . 809 in 1849 . Here , then , we have a plain and distinct proof that " pressure on the poor " in 1846 and in 1847 , when the commercial convulsion oocurred , was sufficient to cause both increased mortality and decreased marriage . In 1848 the average price of wheat fell to 44 s , 3 d ., in 1850 to 40 s . 3 d ., and it continued below 50 s . till 1853 . Tho consequence was that in 1 S 50 the death rate fell to 2 . 077 , and the marriage rate again rose to . 800 , to reach in 1853 . 894 . This relative decrease of mortality and increase of

      marriage continued till after tho rise in the prico of wheat in 1853 , This , then , is a second but converso examplo of the rates of marriage and death being greatly influenced by an abundance or scarcity of the means of subsistence . Through all the interval sanitary arrangements were continually improved and enforced , and they had no corresponding effect . What has happened now P For three years we havo had a high prico of food , but wo have had also a most flourishing trade The people have boon able to buy tho dear food , tho rate 01 mortality has been comparatively low , and the marriage ratp comparatively hrgn . In 1857 , however , this flourishing trade was interrupted , A oommeroial oonvulsion ensued . Tho adjustment of tho employers' or capitalists' aooounts in England and the United States , & o ., was the suspension for a

      consi-THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE—HOW TO IMPROVE IT . The quarterly returns of the Registrar-General inform us that the deaths in 1858 in England and Wales were much above the average , and the marriages , to the end of September , were much below the average . In 1858 the natural increase of the population in this part of the empire was 428 daily ; in 1857 it was 665 . In the fourquarters ended September 30 th , the number of marriages in 1858 was 154 , 457 , and in 1857 , 161 , 507 . These facts indicate a ffreat retardation in the progress

      of population ; and if , as the Registrar-General says , " one great nuisance perpetually increases with population , " it cannot be denied that with it knowledge , skill , division of labour , conveniences . arid luxuries also increase . Population is only another name for society . It embraces all that is new and , all that is good , as well as all that is evil . It is impossible ^ therefore , to have a more interesting , subject brought under notice than the progress of population . As the Leader necessarily swears by no master , and thinks all kinds of idolatry ,, including worship of officials , a source of mischief , and as it

      cannot ; agree with some of the deductions of the Registrar-General , it means to examine them , and ¦ s tate the reasons for not accepting as infallible , like some of its contemporaries , the conclusions of this officer on this all-important subject . The facts adverted ° to are unimpeachable ; but the Registrar-General says , on examining them , " It is evident that the excessive mortality of the year 1858 may be traced partly to the pressure in the early part of the year on the poor in the manufacturing districts ; partly to the extreme cold of

      November ; partly to the defective supplies of pure water j and partly to the prevalence of the epidemic o diphtheria . " Then , carried away by official zeal , he adds : "At the rates of comparatively healthy districts , the deaths in the year should not have exceeded 349 , 398 ; the actual deaths amounted to 450 , 018 , and the excess of 100 , 620 deaths 13 * due chiefly to the fatal neglect of the sanitary 'arrangements which are required in every district , and are indispensable in densely-peopled cities . " The public interest is deeply concerned in ascertaining the causes of the inpreased mortality nxJk decreased the istrar

      marriages , Arc they , as Reg - Cceucral asserts , " chiefly the neglect of sanitary arrangements ? " or are they chiefly- —not partly t in a . small degree— -but chiefly duo to the pressure on the poor , which , great in the early part of the year , as at all times severely felt ft As we agree with the Registrar-General , wo shall back his recommendation for a now stringent law to impose a heavy fine on every occupier who retains * ' English guano " near a dwelling-placo ; as we differ from him , we shall endeavour to relieve the great multitude from tho pressure which , always weighing on them , can never bo increased without causing their

      destruction . By sanitary arrangements we understand regulations suggested b y medioal men , carried into execution by officers of health and enforced by penalties , as contradistinguished from poverty and destitution , and the pressure , not of cold or heatfor to these all are equally subjected- —but of taxation , <& o ., which falls exclusively *— -by what circumlocutory process we stop not to inquire—on the poor . Sanitary arrangements havo now been carried into effect for several years , and " never before , " says the RogistnwvGenoral , " were so many deaths registered in any autumn quarter . " Every town in the kingdom has been annoyed by the doctors , and the result is an unprecedentedorrortolity . "Tho excess of deaths in West Derby" ( Liverpool ) , says tho medi * oal officer , " cannot do ascribed to a want of good sanitary regulations . " In London , the very home of the Board of Health , the excess of deaths in the

      "The Organ Oe The Mandarins." Newspapers...

      " THE ORGAN OE THE MANDARINS . " Newspapers have a double character . They represent their writers ; they also represent their readers , when they have any , which is not a matter of equal certainty . In . their first and personal aspect , we hold that they should be exempt from comment , at any rate , at the hands of their literary contemporaries . We of the press ail live in g lass houses , and are therefore eminently disqualified for the amusement of stone-throwing . lu their second

      and public character , we consider newspapers to be a fair subject of legitimate discussion . At the present moment the hopes and fears , the likes and dislikes , the convictions , and the prejudices —in fact , the whole mental condition of the different classes of the community—are matters of more than common interest . The operation performed by Medea upon her husband ' s sire is about to be repeated ; the body politic is to be boiled down in the cauldron of Reform ; the prayer of the dissenting Dorcas is to be fulfilled ; the old woman is to be turned into a new man . So fur so good . No doubt when all is over—when the ancient Aduin

      is driven out , and the process of regeneration is complete—everything will turn out to bo . for the best ; but still , pending the coniinenccment of operations , every class amongst us exhibits a not unnatural anxiety to assert its peculiar claims to an exemption from pain and a prominent position in the regenerated structure . It has been the fashion of late years to advocate the superior claims of the intellectual class . " Pity the sorrows of an educated man , " has bceu the cry of the hour . We need hardly say that we have no prejudice against education . Beforo , however , we admit the proposition , that those who have received the benefits ot classical instruction outrht , % mofactot

      to have an exclusive or even a predominant uu iluejice ozi the conduct of public a . lluirs , we are disposed to inquire what espeoial qualifications for the task of government they have given proof of . Now , of all the organs of the educated classes thore is nono so exclusively or so completely a representative as the , Saturday liooiow . It represents the very orfime do la cr & mo . of English cduoation—the upper tea thousand of our university claims

      world . This well-conducted periodical — - and , wo believe , olaims with justice—to ronrosont the opinions of the highly-respectable and educated publio for whom it is wnttcn . It is , therefore , m no spirit of hostility , bub as a matter of ourioua investigation , that wo have ondoavourod to discover what those opinions may be . If roport errs not , the . Saturday £ 00 tow is a sort of posthumous bastard of the oW Morning Chronicle . When that . venerable porlodioul »! et " ' . 7 from publio notice , in common with the Foeluo partyit was suppoaqd that the whole

      con-, cern was dafunofc , without hoir or offspring . After a time ,, however , it was discovered w « t eomo of tho survivors of the shipwreck km

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12021859/page/18/