THE SAVAGISM OF LONDON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, Issue 70, 28 November 1857, Page 3

THE SAVAGISM OF LONDON.

[From the Patriot.]

Dr. Letheby has given a statistical account of some courts in the east of London, their crowded houses, filthy apartments, and squalid inhabitants ; with the immorality and disease which necessarily accompany such a state of society. Sanitary commissioners and editors of newspapers profess to be horror-stricken at these scenes of human degradation in the centre of Christian civilization. It appears to us, however, nothing so strange. We believe that the same discoveries might be made in every crowded town of England and of the worlds It is the simple state of nature, so much lauded by the French and English Socialists. These outcasts of civilized society have a society of their own, corresponding, in all respects, with the features of savage life, despoiled of its nudity and tattooing, its clubs and spears. We start back from their gregarious and filthy habits, we shrink from contact with the pestilential fever which walks amongst them, we guard against their predatory habits, we sigh over these wrecks of human nature, and we ask, what can be done for their relief f But why not leave them to the enjoyments of nature? Why interfere with them, as the Westminster Review complains that we do with savage tribes abroad, by sending missionaries j amongst them to teach them Christian ways and habits 1 These social savages of London have rarely been troubled with parson or schoolmaster. They have lived from infancy according to the instincts of their own nature, except when they have been partially restrained by the police from plundering their neighbours. The difference, therefore, which prevails between them and the well-doing inhabitants of the metropolis, is just the difference which the direct and indirect influences of a pure Christianity never fail to produce. There is no reason why these reprobates of society should not gain a living in an industrious way, at least as labourers, except their natural love of indolence and vice. Regular work is distateful to them, and they frequently get more money by begging, fraud, and theft. The meanness and crowded state of their lodging-rooms need not always proceed from poverty, it is natural to them to live in this manner. Men are gregarious beings ; and it is civilization which separates them into the social circles, and creates the decencies of life. The single-roomed cabins of Ireland contain a whole family, of both sexes, with the pig that " pays the rint," and the fowls that roost over-head. Paddy would feel melancholy to sleep alone. It is the same in many semi-savage tribes, where there can be no complaint of the dearness of ground, and the expense of buildings* Beds, bedsteads, and separate bedrooms, are fruits of civilization. Negroes wrap them* selves round with a cloth, and lie down on the mud floor of a hut filled with the smoke of a fire j and they sleep like the dormouse, till the sun shines upon them. Egyptian and Nubian peasantry do the same, in the east of Africa. It is true that the adults of different sexes generally sleep apart; but this cannot always be done, especially in travelling. Delicacy of feeling is entirely the result of habit. In this country, a lady's ankle may not be seen in the streets ; though her arms and most of the bosom may be bare in a drawing-room. But there is none of this delicacy in tropical climes, where the merest shred of cloth is deemed a sufficient covering of the body, and is quite as much respected as a " train " that sweeps the streets and raises the dust in your face. A traveller informs us, that in Egypt he has met grown-up women, "who instantly covered their face with a veil, heedless of the exposure of the rest of their persons. We need not, therefore, wonder at the social savages of London paying no regard to modesty in their herding together. In such cases, when once chastity is violated, as it seems to be in very early youth, there is necessarily an end of all modesty, and, we may add, of all humanity ; only the animal is left. This is the condition which was some years ago depicted by the Owenites as the height of social perfection ! The filth which prevails in the houses where these people lodge, is not necessary ; it arises from gregariousness and indolence combined ; it becomes habitual, and is at last preferred to cleanliness. Holinshed mourned over the invention of chimneys in English houses, for before that time " our heads did never ake ; for the smoke of those days was a good hardening for the house, and a far better medicine to keep the good man and his family from tho quack or the small-pox, with which then very few were acquainted." So much for habit. It is perhaps on this principle that so many use tobacco smoke to counteract noxious effluvia. This, however, has no influence over the spread of typhus fever. This disease, we say it with reverence — is one of God's sanitaryscavengers. It thins the number of these citysavages in England, as other diseases thin them abroad. They die out, even as the aboriginal savages of other lands, under the operation of contagious diseases, from the infection of which their gregariousness and their uncleanness shut out the chances of escape. Our own protection demands that we draw a sanitary cordon round these nests of vice and pestilence. Humanity of the holiest kind urges us to civilize their inmates. For this purpose, two kinds of means are requisite, prevention and cure. Prevention must be accomplished by forcibly breaking up the savage hordes, and compelling them to live apart. • This necessitates the erection of lodg-ing-houses in different parts of the town ; for it does not answer the business of these tramps to live in the outskirts. Why cannot some houses be built four or five stories high, like old Scotch tenements, with a wide stone staircase, and having four double apartments on each floor, with separate doors of entrance ? Each house would then consist of two rooms, provided with windows to the street ; and the stone staircase would also have windows for free ventilation, which would be increased by the height. The police could then easily ascertain the number of inmates in each house, prevent aggregation, and compel cleanliness and ventilation of the stairs. This would also be a great boon to the working classes, who would like to have an airy house of two rooms to themselves at a moderate rental. And would it not pay? Let some of the rich companies of London,

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■who build almshouses for the poor, perform this greater net of charity. Or let some philanthropic individuals subscribe the needful capital, for which a good interest would be returned. There might also be a common saloon in each house, where the inmates could assemble for some hoars in the evening, and be supplied with tea or coifee, newspapers, and innocent amxisements, at a small price. Here, also, a ragged-school might be kept in the daytime, and a homely religious service might be performed on the Sabbath by city missionaries, and other qualified persons, for the instruction of those who cannot or will not go to church or chapel. There is little use in exposing prevailing evils without proposing a cure. This, or something like this, is the means which we humbly propound for civilizing our city savages, and for preventing the growth and extension of metropolitan savagism in succeeding generations.

Portable Gas Apparatus for the Manufacture of Coal Gas in Isolated Places. — The Gardeners' Chronicle of August 8, 1857, contains a drawing, with particulars and description of a portable gas apparatus. The inventors and patentees are Messrs. Bridges, Aubury, and Co., 84, "Webberrow, "Westminster-road. By the description, we gather, that shopkeepers, hotel proprietors, and others requiring a limited number of lights, can now, by the use of the above patent, make their own gas. It is said to be admirably adapted for exportation, the patentees having sent several abroad. It is really portable, and can be taken to pieces and put together again, and gas obtained in a short time. The Triumphs of Genius. — Thirty years after he had been a worker in a pit at New castle, he (George Stephenson) travelled from that city to London, behind one of his own locomotives, in nine hours. Liverpool gave him, or itself, a statue. Municipalities asked him to honour them by accepting " the freedom of the city ;" Kings and Queens abroad sat down with him to hear him familiarly dcs cribe the geological formations of their kingdoms ; and the English Government, ever forward to recognize merit and to reward it, offered him a superb piece of patronage — the right to appoint the postman between Chatsworth and Chesterfield, which official was to receive twelve shillings a-week ! He did not care for honours. Leopold made him a Belgian knight, but the Chevalier never wore the insignia. Knighthood was ultimately offered him at home, but he refused the infliction. Some one asked him what his "ornamental initials" were, for the purpose of appending them to a dedication. " I have no flourishes to my name, either before or after; and I think it will be as well if you merely say ' George Stephenson.' " — Athenaeum.

Medical Properties from Dead Bodies. — A quack doctor, known by the name of Nugent, residing in North Carolina, applied to a man to assist him in taking up a child that had been buried a few days before. The man made the request known, and intimated that two little girls, daughters of a very respectable gentleman in the vicinity, had been removed from their graves by this man Nugent, for the purpose of extracting medicinal properties from their flesh and bones. To ascertain the truth of the rumour, the father had the grave opened, and found the coffins and bodies missing. Of course this created a deep sensation, and we are informed that it was determined to inflict summary punishment upon Nugent ; but on visiting his house he was found to be very sick and in a dying condition. One report says that he took poison, after learning that his operations were known to the public — and another, that he died from a disease contracted from frequent handling of decomposed bodies. Nugent died on Wednesday last. He made a statement before death that he had exhumed about sixteen dead bodies in Concord and elsewhere, and after using them for making medicine, he burned the flesh, coffins, and everything, to prevent detection. His ash pile was examined, and teeth and bones found therein. His theory appears to have been that a medicine could be made by boiling the liver of a human being, that would cure liver-complaint. — American paper.