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was spreading its new infection to all kindred soils.
Repelled again from the dry and airy acclivities of
the earth, and their hardier population, it filtered
along the blending-line of land and water—the
shore, the river-bank and the marsh. Conducted
by the Oder and Vistula from the swamps of
Poland to the ports of the Baltic, it raged east
and west, from St. Petersburg to Copenhagen, with
frightful severity, and obedient to old precedents
has let us witness its arrival at Hamburg.
Twice in the European history of Cholera, had
this town seemed the immediate channel of epidemic
communication to our island; the disease having
on each occasion commenced in our north-eastern
sea-ports within a very short time of its outburst
there. A third time, not unexpectedly, has this
dreadful guest, following the line of former visitation,
touched upon the banks of the Tyne; where
a worse than beastly condition of the crowded
poor, and sewage-water diluted through the people's
drink, had prepared it an appropriate welcome.
Next the disease was rumoured to be in London.
Hope and belief are too near akin for this not to
have been doubted and denied; but the last few
weeks have shown, with sad incontrovertible certainty,
that after only four years absence, Cholera
has again obtained its footing on our soil. Six or
seven hundred deaths, registered in the metropolis
since the begining of September, have already
attested its presence.