15 April - 21 April 1865
This week in the London Times
Saturday 15 April
"Recollections of General Sherman," 15 April 1865
from the American New Harper's Monthly Magazine
To the British reader, the United States Civil War was still concluding.
Of the few prominent men developed by this war who will leave a lasting impression on the mind of the nation W. T. Sherman may be ranked as among the first and most original. The recollection which are here given are those of one who, at a respectful distance, has watched his career almost from the beginning.
What follows is a general character biography of General Sherman.
An article on "The American War" follows, giving an account of the war to date. Both articles take up a large portion of the page.
The paper also begins its reading with reflections on the French Empire, with a focus on Alphonse Thiers, the voice of the French Chamber anti-imperialists,
Those who have faith in liberty have need of patience when they contemplate the state of parties in France. The may look without being daunted at the shortcoming of the Imperial regime, for those shortcomings must by and by be made good. The Empire will, doubtless, continue to exist, but its present form can only be regarded as provisional. A Government by a single person, responsible in name only to the people he governs, is a system which may be upheld by the exceptional genius of one man, but it wants all the elements of permanence, and some modification must be introduced into it that it may not drop as suddenly as it arose.
Typhus is on the increase in the metropolis. While unpleasant, the Times feels it is a duty to report on "one of the most dangerous and intractable of maladies..." The number of people admitted into the London Fever Hospital rose from c. 2,500 in 1863 to 3,600 in 1864. The number in 1865 is even higher still, by more than 200 patients by the same time in 1864.
There is an ongoing epidemic in Russia.So far, it seems to be a form of relapsing fever or typhus.
The yearly report on British fisheries came out again on Lent. While fish may have - in the past - had religious associations, it it no longer something that can be enjoyed by the poor. Fish has now become a luxury since increased demand has increased its price:
Now, the increasing demand and the enhanced price have long placed the better varieties of fish beyond the reach of the poor, and even of those of limited means. To compel these classes to eat fish at special seasons or on certain days, instead of butcher's meat, would be like enjoining them to wear silk instead of their ordinary fustian, and drink wine instead of beer... So completely have ideas and language changed that the term a 'fish dinner,' so far from distinguishing a day of fasting, rather implies a kind of banquet with which no sense of mortification is connected.
Environmental degradation has removed much of the fish from British waters, necessitating the Fisheries Act of 1861. The Act, luckily, seems to be working and salmon production is increasing.
"Election Intelligence" for various regions remains a topic of conversation. Some regions seems to be hotly contested.
LATEST INTELLIGENCE.
AMERICA.
DEFEAT OF LEE
EVACUATION OF RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG.
New York, April 4
Rejoicing commences as Richmond falls to President Lincoln's Northern troops.
Public Schools Bill is up for debate right now. This bill would allow schools to temporarily increase the number of "persons distinguished for literary or scientific attainments" on their board. One reformer questions this vision. Certainly the previous people are no less distinguished. The reformer had hoped, instead, to accomplish three goals: "a reform of the governing bodies; secondly, a curtailment of their patronages; thirdly, a careful definition of the functions."
A thorough discussion of the British Americas and their relationship to the United States follows, with attention to defense. A later article mentions the many discussions of commerce and reorganization of Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
News from the Crystal Palace, the grand, plate-glass building erected in London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Good Friday at the Crystal Palace is the most popular festival to attend, surpassing even Boxing Day!
Monday 17 April
A reflection is offered between the relationship between "masters and men," or what we would think about as labor practices. There seems to be unrest in the workhouses. The strikes in Carlisle seems to be coming to a close in some trades. The painters went on strike and gained a reduction in working hours for the same pay.
The Royal Dublin Society's Easter cattle show is next Tuesday. The event is the largest agricultural event of the year in Dublin - and possibly the entire United Kingdom.
Tuesday 18 April
All reports indicate that the United States Civil War is finally over. General Lee is defeated and only one remaining Southern army remains.
The Reformatory Movement in Essex seems to be going well, with the reform school having no serious illnesses and productive conversion of detained boys into productive people.
His Excellency Sir John Young, the Viceregal chair of New South Wales, opened the new parliament with a speech. Of the two main topics, bushrangers leads as a major threat to social order.
The Southern collapse is attributed to the Confederates' inability to recruit to their army.
It is a kind of struggle the Old World knows full well. Over and over again it has seen a pure and noble race, perhaps too proud, too jealous, and too exclusive to add to its strength numbers, and wealth in proportion to the freer and more open communities around, becoming more sensitive, more incompatible, and more intractable than its resources would justify, and allowing itself to be provoked into a contest with all the surrounding world. But many the nations and many the men that have found it impossible to fight the world singlehanded.
News from Prussia is that the St. Petersburg plague is getting worse. The illness had gone from being mostly from the lower classes to widespread.
The plague, which at the time of my writing last had given way to fever, is getting the upper hand again. In the majority of the fresh cases death ensues within a few hours only. If private estimates may be credited, the number of coffins daily, or rather nightly, carried away, already exceeds 150.
The Cambridge and Oxford boat races are topics of conversation. It is quite probable that the rivers upon which each rowing team practices affects the outcomes of the races.
The Zoological Gardens at Regents Park reached an astounding high yesterday. Gates opened at 9:00a and by 3:00p an estimated 18,000 visitors were on site.
Wednesday 19 April
The labor contest in Staffordshire continues. While the iron trade workers of the southern district accepted a pay cut, their northern counterparts refused to accept this situation. The maters then effected a complete lockout of both northern and southern factories. The southern factories were unlocked later, but the workers were so upset at the tyrannical move that they refused to go to work. An agreement about future lockouts was agreed to, but the northern workers still refuse to work until wages are restored.
News from the United States is that the Americans are now celebrating the end of the Civil War.
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN RUSSIA
St. Petersburg, April 11
The new Press Law has been adopted by the Council of the Empire, and will be shortly sanctioned by the Emporer prior to promulgation. The chief clauses are as follows:- The censorship is abolished upon all books containing more than ten sheets of printed mater; also upon all newspapers, magazines, and periodical publications the editors of which are willing to submit to the systems of warnings. A journal is to be suppressed after three warnings. The first two will be given by the Administration, but the third must be sanctioned by the Senate. The Government reserves to itself in addition the right of presecuting the delinquents before the ordinary tribunals, and they will in that case have to submit to the verdict of the jury.
A controversy has erupted over the Ganges Canals in India. It seems as though one canal had been improperly constructed while another is operating adequately. The author compares "the financial failure of the Ganges Canal" to "the great works of Madras."
An article regarding the sewage of towns follows. The third report of the Sewage Commission has just come out. This commission has been assigned to see if sewage could be usefully applied to the land for agricultural purposes. The commission seems to have been successful and offers a number of conclusions.
Thursday 20 April
A series on customs and manners, including a thorough study of languages and races, is included.
The study of mankind is making rapid progress in our days. The early history of the human race, which in former centuries was written chiefly by poets or philosophers, has now been taken up in good earnest by men who care for facts, and for facts only, and who, if they cannot reveal to us the very beginnings of human life and human thought, have succeeded, at least, in opening board views into a distant past, hitherto impenetrable, and have brought together fragments of language, religion, mythology, legends, laws, and customs which give us a real and living idea of the early ancestors of our race.
There is an update on a fatal explosion in a coal mine in the Dill-hall Coillery, Chruch, near Blackburn.
The Annual Report upon Public Health has been published. It covers England and Wales' vaccination laws. It also includes an account of parasitic diseases which should only be read by the hearty non-bacon-eaters of the world. A large portion is also given to the overcrowding of urban areas and its effect on the poor.
On April 7th, American Southern General Lee makes another stand against the North. President Lincoln arrives in Richmond on the 4th. A recount of President Davis' flight from Richmond follows.
Spring weather is opening in a grand manner.
THE ST. GILES'S UNION AND THE POOR LAW BOARD
Mr. Farnall, the Poor Law Board Commissioner, yesterday resumed the inquiry into the circumstances and death of Richard Gibson, a pauper inmate of the Bloomsbury and St. Giles's Workhouse.
Oxford opens the Easter Term with a Latin sermon at St. Mary's.
Discussion continues in the Ecclesiastical Commission over the endowment of churches.
Friday 21 April
It is possible that American Southern General Lee's army suffered fewer losses than suspected.
An important discussion on a bill for "the better distribution of Poor Law Relief took place at Exeter last week."
Official reports on the Russian epidemic have reached the UK. Initial fears seems to have be slightly over-excited. The disease is, indeed, the old typhus common to overcrowded cities. It may have started in Asia.
MR. JOHN STUART MILL FOR WESTMINSTER
A letter from the philosopher and statesman, Mill, with regards to his views on reform bills and policy.
A pledge is being collected for the benefit of the blind. A generous donor has already given 10,000l. They hope to collect 50,000l total under the administration of the Committee of Almoners of Christ's Hospital.
FORGERIES AND EMBEZZLEMENT AT BLACKBURN
At the Blackburn Twon-hall, on Wednesday, Thomas Lund, late secretary to the Blackwell Cooperative Cotton Spinning and Weaving Company, was charged on remand with forging the names of several tradesmen to vouchers, to defraud the comapny of several sums of money.
The St. Giles's Union and the Poor Law Board case comes to find that the union "greatly accelerated" the death of Richard Gibson through neglect connected with the workhouse.
