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commonly propagated by a specific contagion; yet certain external circumstances are sufficient of themselves to generate the disease in the human body. These are, damp houses, ill-ventilated, and crowded with inhabitants; wet winters, scarcity of food, and all the depressing concomitants of poverty. In this way have originated hospital, camp, and jail fevers, which are of a contagious nature, and may be collectively included under the appropriate name of typhus.

The digression upon the animal and the atmospheric origin of Egyptian plague and typhus fever, was introduced to prepare the reader for a few observations regarding the origin of Spasmodic Cholera. While the disease was restricted to Hindostan and its neighbourhood, the members of the medical profession in India, endeavoured to discover the medium through which it was propagated. A large majority, more particularly of the Bengal Presidency, declared the disease to be noncontagious. But in Bombay, the contrary conclusion was ably maintained. In justice to the early advocates of non-contagion, it should be observed that the question, at the period to which we refer, wore a somewhat different aspect from that which it assumed under the impression of later events. The progress of Cholera had then scarcely exceeded the boundaries of Hindostan, and here the mild and malignant varieties were indigenous. The non-contagionists might, therefore, reasonably ask, "why a disease which began at Jessore independent of contagion, should not likewise be generated in other localities under the influence of atmospheric causes?" We believe that it was so generated in many instances, and upon the strength of this admission, we would reconcile several apparently conflicting statements; the leading features, however, developed in the history of the malady cannot be satisfactorily explained, in the absence of contagion, on any known accidental condition of health and of the atmosphere. These features are—

1st.-Epidemic Cholera has travelled as often against, as with the course of the winds. In the very face of a strong S. W. wind which blew in that direction for some months, it passed from Bengal to the Deccan. It has prevailed in every kind of weather common to the climates affected. In the driest weather, and during the deluge of periodical rains; in storms, and in calms; under the scorching sun of Arabia, and amid the snows of Russia.

Opposed as are these facts to the usual progress of maladies, the extension of which depend solely upon the atmosphere, the character of the succeeding favours in a still greater degree, the existence of a contagious power.

2nd. Epidemic Cholera has in general rigidly followed the great highways of human intercourse. Pursuing the line of navigable waters, and the route of caravans, it entered or traversed the different countries. Through India it extended along the rivers Ganges, Hooghly, Jumna, and Nerbudda. Arabia, Persia, and Syria, were penetrated by the Persian Gulf, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. Moscow received the disease by the route of the Volga. China, other parts of Eastern Asia,

* Vide the different Reports compiled by order of the East India Company; and also the Publications of individuals upon the subject.

and the various islands were infected over sea, as appears from the Cholera making its earliest ravages in the port towns and maritime districts. Agreeing with the disposition of contagious diseases, the Cholera has been most virulent wherever human beings were numerous and concentrated. In densely-peopled cities; in armies encamped, or upon the march; in localities unfavourable to free ventilation, as low sheltered grounds, narrow streets, close dirty houses. The slow rate of progression at which the epidemic advanced from place to place in succession, and the temporary halts which it occasionally made, perfectly agree with a contagious origin; but they cannot be reconciled to an atmospheric. It travels, on an average, at a rate varying between ten and eighteen miles a day. But often, in particular instances, much less. Within the Zillah of Nellore it proceeded thirty-two miles in twelve days; in the next twenty-seven days, eighty miles.

Writers who deny the contagious nature of Cholera, rest their belief chiefly upon the circumstance, that many persons were attacked without having had previous intercourse with the sick. This objection brings little weight with it. In Hindostan such cases may have, at times, arisen from external causes, as at Jessore; but in other countries, where Spasmodic Cholera had never been known until the Indian invasion, we would refer them to contagion, for it is notorious that contagious exhalations may be carried about in merchandise, clothing, &c., their infecting energy remaining for a considerable period unimpaired.

The Russian government was of opinion that the Cholera, during 1829, had entered the province of Orenburg with the caravans trading between Orenburg and Boukhara, the commercial entrepot of Central Asia. The Russians, indeed, have uniformly treated the disease as if contagious. The medical council of Petersburgh issued quarantine orders, under which every patient was to be strictly prohibited from holding close communication with persons in health. Even the Emperor Nicholas, who, to encourage the inhabitants, visited Moscow during the prevalence of the Cholera, underwent, before his return to Petersburgh, the usual ordeal of purification in quarantine. How far these precautions are productive of benefit, it is difficult to say. The disease was equally mortal in Russia as elsewhere, comparing the number of deaths with the number of the diseased; but it is a remarkable fact that fewer of the people by far were attacked there than in southern countries. Whether this partial immunity resulted from the influence of climate, and the stronger constitutions of the Russians, or the rigid quarantine, or from a combination of these three circumstances, it is, perhaps, impossible at present to decide. In the island of Bourbon, however, where sanatory regulations were prescribed and enforced, the malady spread less extensively than in the neighbouring island of Mauritius, in which these things were neglected. As the character of the inhabitants and of the climate is similar in both islands, this fact is in favour of the utility of quarantine; but the strongest evidence in support of contagion, and the propriety of enforcing quarantine, is, that the appearance of the disease in one country or district, has been generally shown to have soon succeeded to the arrival of persons from another, in which the

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epidemic had prevailed. In Persia, the gates of Ispahan were closed against the suspected caravan. It consequently passed through Yezd. Shortly afterwards the Cholera destroyed 7000 of the inhabitants of Yezd, while the former city escaped.

Cholera is capricious in the selection of its victims. The infirm and debilitated are its favourite subjects. Yet the best state of health will not ensure exemption. This is not opposed to our view of the proximate cause; debility renders the system more susceptible of morbid impressions, be they sedative or be they stimulant. The black population suffers in a greater proportion than the white. It is calculated that four millions of the natives of India have been swept away by the Scourge since 1817. A share of the mortality, however, may be fairly attributed to partial or total want, in a multitude of instances, of medical assistance. In one district, the population of which is about 200,000 souls, the cases of Cholera amounted to 15,945; of these, 1294 had been without medicine or medical aid, and there is reason to believe, that of the number every individual perished. When proper remedial means could be supplied at an early period, and their use continued, the result was gratifying to the friends of humanity; and creditable to the profession, if the intractable nature of the malady be taken into account. The Madras army consisted of 83,336 men, European and native. During 1818, and the four succeeding years, there died 54 per cent. of the whole force; or 233 per cent. of those who had been attacked by the epidemic.

The laws of Cholera bear the impress of that presiding Intelligence who has described a circle, beyond which every species of physical evil must cease to mar the harmony of life. Were the disease to continue its ravages in the same place uninterruptedly for a series of years, it would depopulate the world. Few localities have suffered longer than four or six weeks, at a time, under the worst form of the distemper, and to this succeed long intervals of safety more or less complete. It does not, moreover, promise to be a plague that will descend a miserable inheritance to many generations. Some countries, formerly afflicted, are even now returning thanks for permanent relief; and in most, the destroyer has relaxed its severity. Wherever it may next direct its course, the principal danger is to be apprehended. May its footsteps be averted from the dwellings of the poor in Great Britain and Ireland !

To elucidate the subject of Cholera still further, a chart of the principal towns and countries, traversed in its geographical progress, accompanies this paper Since the appearance of the paper in the first number of The Englishman, in which we pointed out the danger to which England was exposed from the contagion, the Government has issued the following Circular.

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Regulations to be observed by Masters of Vessels arriving in Great Britain,

from Ports in Russia.

'Every master of a vessel arriving from ports in Russia, will be required to perform quarantine; and it is absolutely necessary, that each master shall bring with him a certificate of the state of health prevailing at the ports of lading and departure, and in the neighbouring country, signed by the British Consul or Vice-Consul. Such certifi cates need not be signed by any Russian authority, or be accompanied with a certificate from any medical man."-Times.

April 19th.

THE SLAVERY QUESTION.

In announcing the principles of The ENGLISHMAN, in the first article of our first number, we declared our unequivocal abhorrence of the abominable system of Negro Slavery, and our determination to wage against that system immitigable warfare, until the British nation had thoroughly purified itself from this great iniquity, by effecting its final abolition throughout every province and dependency of the empire. We now enter the lists; and, though, as regards monthly periodicals, we do so almost single handed against a host, we feel not the slightest misgivings on account of the odds against us, or the shadow of an apprehension for the issue of the conflict. Though our single arm may be in the strife comparatively but as that of a child with his spear of rush, yet we entertain undoubting assurance that the battle will be gained, and speedily; for our cause is that of truth, justice, and mercy: it is the cause of God and of humanity; and the moral strength of the people of England is with us, opposed to a small, interested, and cruel-hearted faction, who, with other foul birds of evil omen, are, we trust, now doomed to be hurled from their long accustomed roost on the tree of corruption, by the axe of REFORM.

In entering upon this momentous question, it will be proper to revert to the history of the great struggle which ended, in 1807, in the glorious abolition of the Slave Trade, both for the information of such readers as may not have previously given more than a superficial attention to the subject, and also in order that we may thus be enabled to exhibit more distinctly the actual position of the contending parties, and the true aspect of the Anti-Slavery Cause at the present crisis a crisis so pregnant with mighty and memorable events, and which opens prospects apparently so favourable to the general interests of freedom and humanity throughout the world. If it should be asked why we connect the Slave Trade with the present System of Slavery? we answer, because they are most intimately and necessarily connected; the one is the Cause, the other is the Effect; and the history of the former controversy will assist us most materially in developing the real merits of the present. The same passions and prejudices, the same parties and interests, have been in both cases alike called into action; and the course of the second great conflict of humanity, up to the present point, has been, to a remarkable degree, a counterpart of the first. In short, they are only the first and the second acts of the same great drama.

In the history of this question there are three eras which naturally point themselves out:-1st. The year 1787, the date of the formation of the Society for the abolition of the Slave Trade; 2nd. The year 1807, the date of the accomplishment of their labours, when the bill for the abolition of that trade was passed into a law; and 3rd. The year 1823, when the Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions was organised, and when the House of Commons pledged itself, in the celebrated Resolutions introduced by Mr. Canning, to adopt measures for its immediate amelioration and ultimate abolition.*

In the year 1787, a Society was formed in London for the purpose of promoting the abolition of the Slave Trade. But it must not be supposed that the ultimate object of this Society was to be viewed as accomplished when the Slave Trade should be abolished. The ulterior object was, from the commencement, openly

* In this brief historical retrospect of the Anti-Slavery Cause, we have pleasure in noticing an excellent pamphlet, entitled Considerations on the Exact Position of the Slave Question; by Thomas Miller, Esq.;" published in January last at the Cape of Good Hope, and which has reached us within these few days. We have availed ourselves freely, of this publication, without the formality of direct quotation, in drawing up the present article; and shall revert to it, and the beneficent object the author has in view, in a subsequent number.

avowed, and never abandoned by the friends of the cause; it was the total abolition of SLAVERY throughout the British Dominions. But it was then conceived, that this object would be best attained by striking exclusively at the root of the Upas Tree, and that, the further importation of slaves being strictly prohibited, the system of slavery would gradually, and perhaps with the unreluctant concurrence of the masters themselves, fall into desuetude. But, alas, for humanity! this was, as it has turned out, an anticipation far too favourable. The proceedings of this noble association, if we could enter into them fully, would perhaps present the most wonderful instance, in the annals of the world, (apart from occasions of miraculous intervention,) of the success of insignificant means in attaining a vast object, when opposed by wealth, rank, influence, and almost every obstacle which can daunt the human mind. The Society was originally composed of twelve men, who, with the exception of Granville Sharpe, were utterly unknown, destitute of money, rank, or reputation, and possessed of nothing on which they could ground, in the eye of the world, a feasible chance of success. But they were animated by a lofty and disinterested enthusiasm, the first and most indispensable requisite in a good cause.

They commenced their operations by the dissemination of pamphlets proving the justice of their cause; they engaged the editors of newspapers to devote a portion of their columns to the constant discussion of the question; and, finally, they appealed to various influential members of both Houses of Parliament, who it was supposed by their general line of conduct, would favour their views. By these and other means, they produced such an impression, that in less than two years, an inquiry was instituted before the Privy Council, and it was intimated to the Society that evidence would be heard in their behalf. It was then, that through the wonderful exertions of CLARKSON, the indefatigable labourer of the cause, that massive pile of evidence was raised which nothing could afterwards overturn. And it was then (in 1789) that WILBERFORCE,

'Clarum, et venerabile nomen
Gentibus,'

devoted himself to become the great supporter of the cause in Parliament, while Clarkson continued its prime mover out of it. While the one was giving it all the celebrity which his political and personal influence could confer, the other was dragging, with infinite toil and a zeal unquenchable, the infernal brood of its criminal atrocities, from darkness and concealment, into the broad glare of open day. While Wilberforce was exhausting the wonderful powers of his eloquence, Clarkson was exhausting the no less astonishing powers of his research, travelling from one end of the kingdom to the other, in pursuit of evidence, by slow, vexatious, and often unavailing means. While the one was subjected to every art of ridicule and slander which interest, prejudice, and exasperated malignity could devise, † the other was exposed to the midnight assassin-to personal danger of every description. But danger and opposition only animated these extraordinary men to more instant zeal in their good work,

The first committee of this memorable association was formed at the house of James Phillips, George-Yard, Lombard-Street, on the 22d of May, 1787. It consisted of the following individuals, the majority of whom were quakers :-Granville Sharpe, (Chairman,) William Dillwyn, Samuel Hoare, George Harrison, John Lloyd, Joseph Woods, Thomas Clarkson, Richard Phillips, John Barton, Joseph Hooper, James Phillips, and Philip Sansom.-See Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Vol. 1. p. 256.

+ Among the innumerable libels with which the corrupt portion of the press then and subsequently teemed against Wilberforce, one was the composition of the Reverend Mr. Bridges of Jamaica, an individual who has recently rendered himself so opprobriously distinguished by his cruel treatment of a female slave. It was in the following terms that this person (a clergyman, too, of the established Church) dared to describe the mild, benevolent, pure-hearted champion of humanity-a man whose noble devo

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