The accompanying illustration is by Seymour, and purported to be sketched from life. It is called, "The Unknown Tongues—Daybreak at the National Scotch Church, Regent Square. Refrain from these Men, etc., Acts iv." Irving is seated, Mr. Tamplin is standing with an open book, Mrs. Hall is one of the ladies, and Mr. Carsdale leans his head on his hand.
The sect which Irving founded is still in existence, and is called by its followers, "The Holy Catholic Apostolic Church." Their principal place of worship is in a beautiful church in Gordon Square.
The cholera was advancing step by step through Europe, and it became certain that England could not escape its visitation. As a matter of precaution, the Board of Health, early in October, issued a notice detailing the symptoms of the disease, and the remedies to be applied in case of seizure. And, not content with trying earthly means to avert the pestilence, the aid of Heaven was implored, and a form of prayer, with that intent, was read in all the Metropolitan churches on November 6th. But the "destroying angel" prayed against, came in due course, and made its first appearance at Sunderland. The earliest account I can find of it is in the Globe of November 11th, which says—
"We have been favoured with the following official return from Sunderland, received this morning by the Board of Health:—Four deaths; seven new cases."
That acute observer, Greville, writes under date November 14th—
"For the last two or three days the reports from Sunderland about the Cholera have been of a doubtful character. The disease makes so little progress that the doctors begin, again, to doubt whether it is the Indian Cholera, and the merchants, shipowners, and inhabitants, who suffer from the restraints imposed upon an infected place, are loudly complaining of the measures which have been adopted, and strenuously insisting that their town is in a more healthy state than usual, and the disease is no more than what it is usually visited with at this season.
"In the mean time all preparations are going on in London, just as if the disorder was actually on its way to the metropolis. We have a Board at the Council Office, between which, and the Board at the College, some civilities have passed, and the latter is now ready to yield up its functions to the former, which, however, will not be regularly constituted without much difficulty and many jealousies, all owing to official carelessness and mismanagement. The Board has been diligently employed in drawing up suggestions and instructions to local boards and parochial authorities, and great activity has prevailed here, in establishing committees for the purposes of visiting the different districts of the metropolis, and making such arrangements as may be necessary, in the event of sickness breaking out. There is no lack of money or labour for this end, and one great good will be accomplished, let what will happen, for much of the filth and misery of the town will be brought to light, and the condition of the poorer and more wretched of the inhabitants can hardly fail to be ameliorated.
"The reports from Sunderland exhibit a state of human misery, and necessarily, of moral degradation, such as I hardly ever heard of, and it is no wonder, when a great part of that community is plunged into such a condition (and we may fairly suppose that there is a gradually mounting scale, with every degree of wretchedness, up to the wealth and splendour which glitter on the surface of society), that there should be so many who are ripe for any desperate scheme of revolution. At Sunderland, they say, there are houses with 150 inmates, who are huddled five and six in a bed. They are in the lowest state of poverty. The sick in these receptacles are attended by an apothecary's boy, who brings them (or, I suppose, tosses them) medicines, without distinction or inquiry."
It spread to Newcastle early in December, and thence to other neighbouring places, until the returns were, on December 30th, as follows:—