LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 270.-21 JULY, 1849. From the Spectator. sympathetic diseased action; the disease probably THE DOOM OF QUARANTINE. being the direct natural method of eliminating that diseased matter. In this sense, perhaps, THE arguments against the continuance of no disease is non-contagious. But the greatly quarantine-regulations have come to flower in increased mass of evidence respecting the epithe report just issued by the Board of Health, demic diseases called contagious distinctly points and now, it is to be hoped, they will bear seed. to other causes. They are all fevers, all partake The report is a very masterly and lucid exposi- of certain leading traits common to fever, all tion of the knowledge bearing on the subject, find their abode in certain habitats which are illustrated by well-selected facts, and so marshalled ill-drained and ill-ventilated, all are fatally agthat the whole must enforce conviction, even, gravated by the artificial causes that increase we should think, on the most prejudiced mind. those natural defects-by over-crowding, closeThe argument is exhaustive in its process, and shutting, and filth of dwellings. The typhus is so broadly based as to make it almost im- fever, in its horribly aggravated Egyptian form possible that any essential mistake can have crept of "plague," does not come from Alexandria in. to London in the twenty-five ships sent out at the heighth of the plague season; it is not carried into the bosoms of our families through the cotton packed and shipped by persons actually under the infection of plague; but it is in London, created by the plague-producing local causes of bad drainage, over-crowding, bad ventilation, and filth. Epidemic fever is not imported as a thing, an article of export and import, by ships and travellers; it is not carried by tramps from workhouse to workhouse; even the Irish fever was not imported by the invading hordes of Irish starvers. But, in one sense, fever is imported; the migrants bring to the low, over-crowded, and ill-constructed districts of our towns, increased numbers and the habits which originally produced the disease; and hence, where such persons settle the disease appears. 66 Quarantine is founded on the assumption that certain diseases, and most chiefly Oriental "plague," are contagious"—that is, propagated by the contact of the sick with the healthy. The report refutes the theory of quarantine out of its own practice: the strictest observance of quarantine does not exclude plague or other contagious" diseases from places liable to such visitations; places, classes, and persons, not in themselves liable to such visitations, do not become infected by any breach of the quarantineregulations. The well-known case of cotton imported from Egypt is conclusive, even if it stood alone the feeblest reasoner, arguing by the method of differences, would have no difficulty in pronouncing that the cause of infection cannot be the contagion, while the disease is propagated where the contagion is prevented, and is not propagated where contagion is not prevented. The same result, however, is to be traced through the whole practice of quarantine: give other circumstances favorable to epidemic or zymotic diseases and no prevention of contact can arrest the disease; give circumstances favorable to continued health, and the door of quarantine stands open in vain. : So it is with ships: they are floating "cellars," undrained, ill-ventilated; the bilge-water of the hold is an infectious pond of decayed animal matter within the dwelling, and by the motion of the ship it is forever stirred. Its noxious fumes often affect persons of a weakly or irritable temperament at the first encounter. Ships, therefore, are disease-manufactories-they make the disease they are supposed to convey. In sea produced by infectious or zymotic diseases is 55.9 per cent. on the total of deaths-more than double the ratio (26.5) that the same class of deaths bears on shore. The disease is made in the ships in spite of several circumstances conducive to health, especially the free ventilation of the sea and the invigorating effect of life above deck. Of late years there has been a considerable the mercantile navy, the number of deaths at impulse to the inquiry into so-called contagious diseases, with a corresponding accession to a true knowledge of them. Hitherto each disease was supposed to possess its own peculiar "virus"; and, in some degree, that may be true, but only in the same way that every disease known to the pathologist exhibits a tendency to propagate itself by the actual exhibition of diseased matter in healthy flesh. Puncture with the bone of a hare Experience shows, therefore, that the disease that is "high," will cause mortification and is not exported, because no quarantine strictness sudden death; yet we do not say that venatus can confine it to one spot, no quarantine laxity or the chase is a contagious disease. Introduce direct its encroachments; it is not carried in diseased matter into a healthy body, and the ships, because no "contagious" medium has disease has a tendency to spread by inducing a been known to convey it to those in healthy VOL. XXII. 7 CCLXX. LIVING AGE. condition and circumstances; it is made in ships, | Nay, quarantine regulations are positively misby causes that make it elsewhere; it is made chievous-as mischievous as any fantastical mediamongst us, by domestic causes to which quar- cation detected by travellers among savages. antine as little applies as the Coast Preventive Sufferers from the African typhoid in the Eclair Guard checks private stills. steamer must have been doomed to more certain death by the confinement which quarantine enforced. But a diligent scientific inquiry seems to be gradually approaching a knowledge of the specific causes; which are of two classes. The investi- What the Board of Health proposes to do is, gation of the bold explorers into the abodes of to substitute sanatory regulations for quarantine disease have uniformly detected the presence of regulations-in other words, to apply the operaputrid or decaying animal or vegetable matter, tions of science to the actual and not the tradior both, in the atmosphere immediately surround- tionary causes of disease; just as a physician ing the patient-even lodged on the walls of the now sends in drugs to an atrophied patient, room in which he lies. "Dr. Angus Smith has instead of nailing a horse-shoe on his door to shown, that when the vapor which condenses on keep away the hag that has bewitched him. A the walls and windows of a room in which large change of that kind can scarcely be deferred, now numbers of persons are assembled is examined, it that the better knowledge of the day has at last is found to be impregnated with animal matter in received the stamp of authority. It immediately a high state of putrefaction." In the case of a affects three large and important classes of the patient under acute diseases, the noxious fumes community-travellers, a class who represent may have floated from various sources; but in England in every region of the globe; sailors of proportion as the room is closed the virus is the mercantile navy, about 200,000 in number— concentrated, especially when the sources of it men who are scourged by the pestilent fevers, still are incessantly renewed: the morbid exhalations trusting in a horse-shoe nailed to the mast; and of the patient himself-any accumulated organic merchants with property of which the floating matters, diffusing their decayed particles into a portion is roughly estimated at 2,000,000l. annulimited space-supply an atmosphere charged ally. The reform is the more likely to be accomwith mortification, exactly like the mortification conveyed by the puncture with the decayed hare's bone. But this source of disease is one easy of removal and dissipation-just as the dead hare may be thrown away or buried. Here you have actually captured and identified that dreaded obscurity the virus; and you find that it is a thing which, instead of being forced into the lungs at every breath, may be carried away by the scavenger and blown away by the winds of heaven. plished, since it affects no political interests and must bring credit to any statesmen that do accomplish it. In order that they may make sure of achieving it, we should advise our present ministers to do it this session-at once. Why not? From the Examiner. THE SCOTTISH MARRIAGE BILL. The prac SUCH laws are only fit for barbarians," was the indignant remark of Madame Grant, the wife, The other class of causes is meteorological; or more properly speaking, the lady of Talleyrand, and although it is less distinctly understood, when she heard that some severe laws directed enough is known to point out the nature of the against conjugal infidelity were likely to find their morbific causes and to stimulate further inquiry. way into the new French code. One would supExcess of moisture in the air naturally aggravates pose that some such sentiment, from some such perall the evils attendant on bad drainage and ven- son, had given its vitality to the preposterous oppotilation by checking evaporation, and by throwing sition to the bill for abolishing indecorous methods increased duties on the functions of the human of constituting marriage in Scotland. skin. Electricity is evidently connected in the tices against which the measure is directed have closest degree with the phenomena of vitality; been a disgrace to the empire, and a scandal to and a "low" condition of "positive" electricity the country in which they have so long been toler-terms, as yet used in a very vague and arbitrary ated. The usual type of the nuptials beyond the sense, to express obvious but ill-understood sets border, in which the blacksmith of Gretna Green of phenomena- -seems to be very unfavorable to is the priest, and his anvil the altar, is decency the action of vitality. These meteorological causes itself when compared with other methods of comcannot be prevented; but their morbific tendencies pleting the matrimonial union. may be counteracted by whatever promotes evaporation and vital action-by good drainage and good ventilation, by proper diet, clothing, and regimen by sanatory regulations. Quarantine, however, can have little effect in regulating the importations of the electric fluid, or checking the march of fog-laden winds. In that matter, with our quarantine-officers, we intelligent Britons are on a par with savages who carry out drums and cymbals to dissipate the foreboding of an eclipse. In a brothel, a couple, elevated by hard drinking to the sublime sacrifice, declare that they agree to be from that moment man and wife; and the surrounding prostitutes bearing testimony to what they have declared, this is a marriage, as complete and indissoluble as if it had been solemnized by a Blair or a Chalmers. Nay, concubinage, if steadily persevered in, with a certain demure uniformity, has the faculty of gradually expanding itself into marriage, in such fashion that no one can tell the precise point at which the unholy state | multitudinous tribunals are well known to contain terminates and the holy one begins. Such is the " 'a perpetual feast of nectared sweets;" and if nature of the law, by which persons who have for common report do not belie the reverend gentlea considerable period lived together "habite and men, the same materials provide an ample fund of repute" man and wife, are counted married per- anecdote and jocularity for distribution "after the sons. Its effect is, that at this moment there are cloth is removed," at synodal entertainments and many couples throughout Scotland who cannot tell presbytery dinners. Wilder theories have been whether they are married or not, and many people formed than the supposition that the craftsmen are who are in doubt whether they are legitimate or unwilling to lose the occupation of constructing, illegitimate. in the investigatorial procedure connected with irregular marriages, the shrines of their chaste Diana, the Scottish marriage law. And yet an outcry is raised against a project for removing this scandal, by providing that all those who refuse to conform with the becoming practice of having marriage solemnized by a clergyman, shall be prohibited from adopting the vague and immoral methods of accomplishing that union heretofore followed, and must submit at least to a distinct official registration of the fact that they deliberately enter on the marriage state. If the measure were calculated in any way to lessen the respect and efficacy given to the ecclesiastical ceremony, the opposition to it might have been understood; but this form of solemnization is scrupulously preserved in its integrity, the registration being only a substitute for irregular marriages. We are charitable enough, however, to believe that the outcry is chiefly caused by the inability of men of isolated habits to appreciate the capacity of enlightened legislation to correct the social immoralities which protrude from barbarism into civilization. In the Cottagers of Glenburnie we find, that, like these church courts, the great conservative Mrs. MacClarty expresses her disgust when the venerable dunghill in front of the schoolhouse is superseded by a plot of conceited flowers diffusing around their impertinent perfume; and wonders "What the warld will come to at last, since naething can serve the pride o' William Morrison, but to hae a flower garden whar gude Mr. Brown's middenstead stood sappy for mony a The noisiest opponents of the lord advocate's bill are, strange as it may seem, among the clergy. They have been for some time employed in | day.” directing a continuous torrent, or rather squirt, of opposing petitions on the legislature. These documents, after recording some profound opinion about the danger of unsettling old established customs, and of substituting theoretic excellence for imperfections which have worked well, almost invariably record the unqualified belief of the petitioners, that through the instrumentality of the present system of the law of marriage, they live in the midst of the most moral and religious community in the world. There are grounds only too ample for questioning the purity of the Scottish peasantry, in the branch of morality which the law of marriage chiefly affects. Lord Teignmouth, in his Sketches of Scotland, made his readers shudder by saying a Scottish clergyman had told him there was but one married woman in his parish who had not gone astray before marriage; while another said, that "in the first year in which he took charge of his congregation, sixty-one illegitimate children were offered to him for baptism." Perhaps Lord Teignmouth's accounts are exaggerated; but are such things very unnatural in a country where one of the methods of becoming married is to live for a certain time in concubinage? It is true that all the irregularities thus created are visited by "censures" and other various kinds of peculiar and exciting proceedings in the Scottish ecclesiastical courts. These judicatories have, indeed, long been celebrated for the sagacity with which they scent out irregularities, the minute practical ability with which they investigate them, and the hearty satisfaction they exhibit in rubbing the offender's nose in his offence. To those who are curious in prurience, the proceedings of these Partly, too, this phenomenon of multitudinous petitioning must be attributed to the church courts and some kindred bodies becoming delighted with the sound of their own voices, and agreeably surprised by the noise they have been able to make. They seem to have taken a wonderful interest in the outery; and it could not but add infinitely to their amusement, that the same individuals among them were able to petition in several capacities, each with an important title-as, for instance, in representing the kirk session, the parochial board, the presbytery, and the synod. It will be difficult for the select committee on public petitions, when the moderatorships and chairmanships of such bodies are judiciously shifted and twisted about, to find which thimble the pea is under. It is a further evil of this beginning, that the practice of petitioning against bills has made a sort of epidemic progress through these ecclesiastical corporations; and, spreading, has infected certain county and civic assemblages. The very necessary registration measure, to extend to Scotland the system that has existed in England since 1836, has thus been vehemently opposed; and, indeed, it has become a sort of fixed order of procedure with many of these bodies to petition against the last bill brought in for accomplishing any object of internal improvement. We can compare the practice to nothing nearer it than the propensity to utter some peculiar and incomprehensible sentence, which occasionally visits the youth of the metropolis with a uniform pertinacity that makes the phenomenon terrible to the passer-by; as where with one accord they have given themselves to bawling forth, "Does your mother know you 're out?" or "What a shocking bad hat!" The petitioning nuisance will not easier be abated than this mysterious practice, of which no one ever knew the beginning or can calculate the probable termination. Like this, it must be borne with; but it may be hoped that the judicious remarks of Lord Grey on the method of getting up petitions are not overlooked by those who examine the objections to a reform of the marriage law of Scotland. Since these remarks were in type, we have seen the evidence delivered before the select committee on the law of marriage in Scotland. It is in complete conformity with what we have said, except that it is more full, vigorous, and complete in condemnation. Lord Brougham begins with a statement that "in some respects the system is the least like the law of a civilized community of any with which he is acquainted in any country;" and he goes on to say how an English judge browbeat a witness for having the impudence to say there was such a law in this empire. Lord Campbell is severe on the clergy, attributing motives; and Dr. Lushington is at a loss to conclude whether the facility for contracting marriage under the influence of wine is more dangerous to the male or to the female sex. From Sharpe's Magazine. IN A DILIGENCE BELONGING TO THE PRUSSIAN "That's well looked to, at any rate," was my observation. 66 'Everything is well looked to in Prussia," responded my neighbor. I bowed my head in token of assent. Not for worlds would I have differed from a gentleman who was so thoroughly impressed with the superiority of the laws and ordinances of his country; independent of which, he had been too complaisant in answering my many questions to admit of my wounding his feelings amour propre. I saw that my silent acquiescence to his opinion had gratified him; so I ventured to resume the conversation, by inquiring the precise hour at which alone we had the privilege of entering Aix-la-Chapelle. 66 'Thirty-five minutes past four in the morn "But if the watches and clocks don't agree?" "Watches and clocks always agree in Prus sia." There must be something more than meets the eye, thought I, in this said kingdom of Prussia, when even time seems regulated by dictatorial edict. Really puzzled, I begged an explanation. "The conductors," continued my companion, have a timepiece placed before them in the cabriolet, which is secured by a padlock, to prevent all touching of the works to suit their convenience. These are regulated by the clocks of the I ARRIVED at the coach-office just as they were putting the horses to, procured my ticket, and was putting it in my pocket, when a bystander rather significantly said, "You had bet-ing." ter read it, sir." I took his advice. These tickets, for the convenience of travellers, were printed in German and French. I found I was to occupy the fourth seat in the vehicle, and was strictly forbidden to change places with my fellow-travellers, even if such an arrangement should be agreeable to all parties. This despotic military discipline was a sufficient indication of our nearing the territories of his Prussian majesty, Frederic William." However, when once snugly ensconced in my corner, the tyranny of his majesty gave me but little concern ;—I fell fast asleep, and enjoyed as sound a nap as could fall to the lot of any man in a land | Messageries, and by them the moment of arrival of perfect liberty. It was about three o'clock in the morning that is to say, daybreak-when I awoke; the rocking of the carriage—so soothing to the drowsy-had ceased, and my slumbers broken. At first, I anticipated some evil-the loss of a wheel, a horse fallen down, or some unfortunate accident. I advanced my head to the carriage window; all was right; there we were, alone, brought to a stand on one of the most beautiful roads I ever saw. I took my ticket from my pocket, to see if I could gain information as to this rather unusual method of travelling.-Not a word; but as there was no prohibition to my holding conversation during the journey, why, I turned to at each town and village is ascertained, to our final entrée at Aix-la-Chapelle." "With all these precautions, how happens it," I continued, "that we are obliged to be waiting here on this bowling-green of a road?” "I suppose the conductor, like yourself, sir, fell asleep, and during the time the postilions pushed on at too great a speed, and now they have to pay for time overspent." "Oh! if that's the case, I will profit by the halt, get out of the carriage, and look about me a little." "You cannot get out of a diligence in Prussia till the end of your journey.” "It is the castle of Emmaburgh." I was nearly tempted to utter a deep and bitter to his castle of Hautefort, and prepared to hold it imprecation against Prussia and all who belonged out against the English. After an obstinate siege, to it. I, however, suppressed my anger, and it was at length reduced, and Bertrand was taken begged to know what were those ruins I saw at a and led bound into the presence of Henry. The little distance. king was about to pass sentence of death on him, when Bertrand in a few touching words spoke of the love which the dead prince had ever borne him, and the monarch, bursting into tears, pardoned the Lord of Hautefort, and, for the sake of his son, restored to him all his honors and possessions. Why do the island banners gleam, the island knights advance, "And what is the castle of Emmaburgh ?" "It was there that the adventure of Eginhard and Emma took place." "Indeed! Do, pray, have the kindness to change places with me for a few minutes, so that, at least, I may view it from the window." "With great pleasure would I comply with your request, but we are forbidden to change places in a public carriage in Prussia." "Confound Prussia!" I exclaimed, my patience completely worn out. Instantly I recollected myself, and apologized for my indiscretion. "Oh! dose Frenchmen always chatter, chatter -dere tongue neber still," growled forth a fat German, without unclosing his eyes; and these were the first words he had uttered since we started. "What is that you say, sir?" asked I, not half pleased at his observation. "I did say-Oh! noting, noting." "You had much better go to sleep again, sir," I said to him; "and if it is your habit to dream aloud, I recommend its being in your mother tongue." The German began to snore. "Postilions! vorwarts-vorwarts!" cried the An English knight came spurring fast, he rushed conductor. Crack went the whips, at full gallop the horses; -I tried to catch a peep of the poetical ruins, but a sudden turn of the road cut off all view. At thirty-five minutes past four, to a second, we drove into the court of the Messageries at Aixla-Chapelle. From Sharpe's Magazine. BY MRS. HOARE. into the hall : "Good news!" he cried, "my liege, I bring from Hautefort's ruined wall. The strong-barred gates are battered down, the cit adel is ta'en; Our soldiers forced their bloody way o'er pyramids of slain. "And there within the donjon, at bay, and fighting still, We seized the traitor Bertrand, and bound him at our will. Without he waits thy sentence-will it please my liege to see The rebel lord in life, or shall we bear his head to thee?" would see him near, "Bring him in hither," said the king, "I fain Who dared to raise him arm in fight, spurning our kingly fear." They led the sword-reft prisoner in, his stalwart limbs bound tight; The dust they scattered on his head had dimmed its golden light. His fearless eye looked up, and still an untamed fire HENRY the Second, harassed by the continued rebellion of his eldest son Henry, at length went over with an army to France, in order to put down an insurrection which the young prince had raised among his vassals in Guienne. Bertrand de Born, Lord of Hautefort, was a noble equally celebrated for his poetic talent as a troubadour, and his valor as a warrior. He warmly espoused the cause of young Henry, and accompanied him to the castle of Martel, whither he had retired on hearing of his father's approach. The king encamped at Turenne, and hostilities had already commenced, when a His proud lips moved, yet sent they forth no uttermessenger arrived at the English camp, bearing tidings that Prince Henry was dangerously ill, and He bent no knee in reverence, there stood that prislonged to see his father, and receive his forgiveness before he died. Henry, however, had so often been deceived by his rebellious son, that he believed this to be a stratagem, and refused to visit the castle of Martel. In a day or two the prince died, and Bertrand de Born, dreading the king's vengeance, fled was there, ance of prayer; oned knight, As proud as when his cuirass gleamed and falchion waved in fight. Firm and few the words he spake, and yet they touched a string That thrilled the parent-stricken heart of England's mighty king; |