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Leader (1850-1860), 11th October 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 962, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      increase in the securities to the amount of 1 , 324 , 827 Z ., and a decrease in tlie bullion to the amount of 363 , 230 / . But that was only a . part of tie change which has been going on much more severely since . This continued outflow o £ the means at the command of the Bank was not stopped by the increase of discount from 4 * to 5 per cent ., on the 1 st instant ; ftfter the first sligbt clieck at that momejtt it be . caanftfiercer and fiercer , until , at last , on th ^ 6 th insfetnt , the Bant directors raised their discount to 6 per cent , for bills

      having 60 days to run , and 7 per cent , for bills having 90 days to run . This rate of discount 5 s more than equivalent to that of Finance , for it has always been considered that , in consequence of various differences "between the two countries , the Bank of England can safely rest about one-half per cent , below France , even , in time 3 of great pressure . When , therefore , the rate of discount is positively equal , we may assume that the pressure upon the Bank of England has been greater , or that the directors see the necessity for a more peremptory course .

      It is not to be denied that the conflict in the " United States becomes more painfully severe , although -we still "believe that the great mass of public opinion will sustain the Union and the promotion of American interests against every attempt to make sectional opinion paiviruount . Some men , however , are using their position to increase the confusion . Amongst these is Mr . Banks , Speaker of the House of Representatives ,

      " There is a skeleton in every house , " but some families cannot prevent their skeleton from being brought up at the police-court and exposed to public view . It is thus the public has leai * ned the miserable tale in the family of the druggist of Untcliffehighway , who figured last week as responsible for the " wild conduct of bis wife . She had attempted to drown her sorrows ,, or to frighten him . into sense , by taking a gigantic close of opium . The man has dted a victim to intemperance and agitation—died confessing his trespasses , and bequeathing all to his dear wife . " According to the tale , she had nearly become a victim to his example , while the devotion that she showed to him in his illness , imd his own affection for her , attest higher qualities . How many a creature is lost with capacities unknown , and is condemned as worthless , simply through the cruel ignorance and indifference of those who look on ! The picturesque history of modern bankruptcy receives new incidents :- —Robsqx , the Crystal Palace share manufacturer and" -zinc smelter , " has been captured at Copenhagen ; James Sadleir ' s goods have been brought to the auction mai't ; and the Royal British Bank has been seized , not

      only by the Court of Cliancery under the Winding- up Acts , but by the Court of Bankruptcy under an Act for extending the remedies of creditors of joint-stock banks . ITnder this last Act , the Court of Bankruptcy possesses extraordinary po . wers of inquisition and persecution by aid of the Attorney-General ; so that while there is an intervention with a double series of' law proceedings , threatening to place the property under a double course of devouring , the public is promised a history and anatomy of the defunct bank under the authoritative hand of a Bankruptcy Commissioner .

      who is ' making fun' of the dispute between North and South , and throwing out a hint that the South will never be admitted again to Washington , even by its representatives , except as a " humbug . " Surely , this is a gross misrepresentation of American feeling , which ought to lose him his position for ever . Men who talk in this manner ought to be personally responsible . When some of the Northern men are made responsible , they astonish their irresponsible followers by the course of action which they aro conscientiously forced to take . Thus the new Governor of Kansas has declared in favour of the local Government and the local law , simply because they are the Government and the law ; and he has suppressed the volunteer Governmentthat is , the irregular Government by mutiny .

      Brighton has had its ' demonstration '—a public meeting at the Town-hall to support the political Union of the Danubian Principalities . Some good points were brought out , general and special : the sea-side constituency being addressed by Mr . ScHOLEFiEt-D , representative of Birmingham ; and Other speakers , who convinced it that people who are not diplomatists have duties \ o perform in connexion with European affairs .

      There has been a great show of agricultural meetings in agricultural districts , but the style has varied extremely . At Ba ' singstoke , for example , Wiltshire and Hampshire have been represented by the Bishop of Gloucester , the Bishop of Salisbury , and several other clerical persons , in a meeting to promote adult education amongst the rural labourers—the third anniversary of a society that gives prizes , and is actually successful . At Epsom , through the mouth of Mr . Hjenky Bhummond , Surrey is demanding a reduction of the malt duty , and he actually canvasses

      for petitions on the subject noxt session , with a hint that Mr . Dtsraem would have done it if he had not been prevented by Manchester . At the same time , at Castle Iledingham , Mr . Bkuksfoud is announcing that the Tories will stand by Church-rates and anti-Mnynoot . lt agitation—a course which pUCes Major Buitrcsroiu ) completely at issue with his Caatlo Hcdinghum predecessor , Mr . Disraeli ; while Sir John Pakington appears at another agricultural meeting arguing in favour of agricultural statistics like the utouiept Liberal of thorn all .

      Untitled Article

      SANITARY MATTERS . Health of London iraRixa Last Week . —The return of deaths for last -week is a 3 ibt unfavourable indication of the present state of health in London . The total number of deaths registered -was 1071 , of which 540 -were those of males , 531 those of females . The deaths from diarrhoea declined from 72 in the previous week to 64 last week . Scarlatina carried off 47 children , nearly the same number as in the previous week . A house is reported , No . 7 , George ' s-cottages , Brixton-hill , in which three cases of ''fever" have occurred within the last month ; the . drainage is stated to be "in very bad

      condition . " In Wellesley-street , Somers-town , also , there is a house , No . 1 G , where fever and other complaints are common , these being caused , or much aggravated , by the offensive state of the drains ; and in the adjoining house , No . 15 , a woman died from disease and want combined . Seven persons died last week whose ages were from 90 to 93 years . Last week , the births of 828 hoys and 7 G 8 girls , in all 1-596 children , were registered in London . In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 184 C-55 , the average number was 1417 . —From the Registrar-General" s Weekly llettirn .

      The Registrar-General ' s Quarterly Return . — In the thirteen weeks that ended September 27 , 14 , 066 persons died in London , which , is about 1000 more than in the same quarter of 1855 . Diseases of the zymotic character were fatal in 4093 cases , against 3 G 61 in the summer quarter of last year ; of these 101 were due to croup , 108 to small-pox , 382 to hooping-cough , 393 to measles , 433 to scarlatina , 573 to typhus and common fever , 1 G 10 to diarrhoea , ( against 1258 from this complaint in tho same period of last year ) , 131 to cholera , chiefly " cholera infnntum ; " th « rest to various other diseases of this class . Very young children were tho suftorers from diarrhoea in a very large proportion of the cases . Tho deaths from measles were most numerous in

      tho south districts , those from scarlatina and typhus in tho east . Diarrhoea Appears to have prevailed with considerable uniformity over tho great divisions of tho metropolis , though , if the sub-districts be compared with each other , both with roferencc to population and deaths , results , in many instances , widely diflbrent will bo obtained . Phthisis ( or consumption ) carried o ( V 1704 poi-wons , the ¦ number in tho corresponding quarter of 1855 having been 1 G 45 ; bronchitis , 5 G 2 ; pneumonia , 581 ; being nn increase on the previous year from both diseases . I'lighty-six . women died from diseases of tho

      puerperal sUte . Eighteen persons died of carbuncle , the numbers in tho summer quarters of the last live years ranging only from 15 to 19 . Ten persons died from tho intemperate use of liquor , besides those who sustained fatal injuries when intoxicated , and thoso who died from maladies yuneratal by intemperance , which , however , is not shown in tha medical certificate ; 35 from delirium { remans , 0 unfortuuato persons from want , and 145 children from want of brcustnnlk . 1 ' oison destroyed 22 lives , tho number in live quarters of 1852 to 18 G (> ranging from 13 to 23 . Drowning is recorded in 138 cases , which ia considerably more than the average .

      Untitled Article

      * Times , October 2 . - | - Ibid , August * - '!> ' . % / bid . § Letter from Jassiliez , published by tho F . nfc'lis " press on tho 15 th' of February , 1855 , and lel ' L unanswered . || Times , August 28 .

      Untitled Article

      962 ¦ ¦ ¦ _ th ~ e ^ je a ^ e r ^

      Untitled Article

      LOUm BLANC'S REPLY TO THE FRE ^ m GOVERNMENT . X ^< -H Thb subjoined letter from M . Louis Blanc , havinereference to the sophistical defence of the Cayenne cruelties published in the Moniteur , appears in . the Londbnt daily papers .- — Sir;—The Times , but two daj'S since , very prop erlv said , — " -When a man is put on his defence there L nothing Kke a hold denial . There is no argument in the -world Eke your strict con trad ictorv . If anvthinsia declared to be death , assert at once it ' is life . " * ' So has the French Government done , as if-takin g the hint , - through the official columns of the Monitor Hitherto tlie prevailing notion about Cayenne wa- tint " scorching suns , thick-matted vegetation , growin g withering , and rotting through centuries , with a soil of

      alluvial mud . beneath , made Guiana one of the most fatal regions of the world for men ^ of European birth " + All this was a mistake of ours . " We are taught by the Moniteur that , " in the establishment of Cayenne it Vis justly considered that the convicts of the * ba < nies encumbered in France within confined and unhealthy spots , might be much better treated in a colony . " So that it was merely from a ¦ fe eling of morbid philanthropy that the French Government resolved to favour its conquered enemies with a transportation which according to the Times and to all the world , is " a ' sentence of death—death , lingering and horrible ; death to which a file of musketeers or the guillotine would be mercy . " ±

      Now , to give us a striking illustration of how beneficent the climate of Cayenne really is , the Monitcvr . proceeds to state that , in the course of four years , 52 men only have been carried off out of much less than 320— - as those must be deducted from the total number who happened to escape or were discharged . Fifty-two deaths out of some 250 or 260 men is a number that may " surprise by its small amount" such as did not scruple on the 2 nd of December to shed blood like water ; lnit we cannot possibly share in this self-exalting astonishment . It is true that we are told of the yellow fever

      raging in Guiana during the above-mentioned period . Well ,. it is precisely because yellow fever is an evil incident to the climate of Guiana that that climate is considered a murderous one . But the accuracy of such a-statement , . terrible'as it is , may be questioned when one refers to the following passage of a letter signed by a man unfortunately entitled to say : — "——t Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi , Et quorum pars magna fui . " "Five-and-thirty bodies , out of 20 O men , have been , in a few months , east as prey to sharks ; for in ( lie Island of St . Joseph the prisoners have no other cemetery than the sea . '" § . . " Whereupon , we must not let pass unnoticed how carefully the . 'Moniteur- hides from the French public a most important fact , namely , that the accusations it endeavours to repel , w « re brought against the French Government by the very victims of the system denounced , in a letter intended for publicity , and to . which as many as thirty-eight prisoners did not hesitate to affix their

      signatures , utterly regardless—so intolerable were their sufferings !—of the awful consequences likely to follow upon such a step . Why was the Moniteur afraid to allude to this circumstance ? Why was its answer calculated to make the French public believe that the political exiles at Cayenne found nothing to complain of , and were perfect strangers to the charges levelled , on their behalf , at the French Government ? Again ,--why was the Moniteur so slow in meeting these charges with which the world has so long become acquainted through the channel of the English piess ? And how is it that no French paper has been allowed to whisper n word concerning a question in which so many French

      families are deeply interested ? Is it fair that poor prisoners , living at a distance of about 0000 miles from their native land , under the despotic sway of subaltern agonts , whom the absence of control and the sense of impunity may goad into all manner of violence , should be deprived of every means to l » ave their cause advocated in their own country by their friends or relntivos , and tho justice of their complaints discussed in their own languit ^ c ? Is there not something dreadful and quite heartrending in tho fact of tho French Government raising a loud voice to teim every distant complaint a calumny , while all those are terrified into silence who could throw light upon the subject and aflord irrefragable proofs ? But let us examine the official answer ? us published , in tho Monitcur . The following were the questions put to the French Government by public opinion : Is it true —\ ea or No—That without uny regard to tho laws of civilization in this nineteenth century , men " who are guilty only because they wero unsuccessful , " || hava been si'iit , in consequence of Hhmn trials , or without any trials al nil , into a country to which transportation is " a scnti'nce of death ? "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 962, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2162/page/2/