Epidemic of influenza — A scene in some Metropolitan graveyards — Lord de Ros and his cheating at cards — Invention of sewing machine — Coming of age of Princess Victoria — Illuminations, etc. — The Spitalfield's silk weavers' ball — Illness of the King — His death and burial.
This year opens dismally with influenza in a most virulent form. To give some idea of its ravages, let me quote the Standard of January 12th—
"The epidemic now raging has been seriously injurious both to public and private business. On Saturday ninety clerks were absent from the Bank of England, but on Tuesday the absentees amounted to a hundred and thirty. At the Post Office, Custom House, and Excise Office, as well as the Government Offices at Somerset House and Whitehall, and at all the theatres, similar inconvenience is daily felt, from the illness of the clerks and others employed. Nor is the evil resulting to business from the effects of this epidemy confined to public establishments. Upwards of sixty men have been absent from the brewery of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins within the last few days; the same number from Maudslay's the engineers, in the Westminster Bridge Road; seventeen from the warehouse and shop of Ellis on Ludgate Hill; twenty from Hitchcock and Rogers'; and as great a number from Shoolbred's. Indeed, so much has the influenza prevailed in some quarters, that whole families have been laid up, their business entirely suspended, and their shops closed; such is the case with a shop in the Minories, and also with a public house in the neighbourhood of Grafton Street, Gower Street."
On the 16th the same paper tells us of three judges and many members of the bar incapable of work through this cause—and also that, within the last fortnight, sixty-four of the pensioners in Greenwich Hospital had died of the complaint; but the scene on Sunday, January 22nd, as reported in the Times and the Annual Register, seems to have been very bad—
"Death had a high day in the metropolis last Sunday; and, perhaps, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, such a scene has not been witnessed. There was scarcely an undertaker unemployed, and many were unable to accomplish their orders. Hearses and mourning coaches were to be seen driving through the streets, hurrying from the execution of one funeral to the commencement of another. Walking funerals were met at almost every corner of the public streets, and many who had ordered carriages were unable to procure them, and were compelled to wade through the dirt and wet on foot. The churchyards seemed to be all bustle and confusion. The principal interments took place in the parishes of St. Pancras, Marylebone, St. Giles's, Clerkenwell, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, and St. Margaret's and St. John's Westminster. It is computed that not less than a thousand burials must have taken place on Sunday, and when it is considered that the number of parishes in and around the metropolis is near two hundred, the calculation does not seem to be an exaggerated one.
"In the churchyards of St. Pancras and St. Giles the scenes were truly awful, and even disgusting to the feelings. The burial ground in the former had more the appearance of a ploughed field; furrows from the graves were turned up all over the place, and such was the scene between three and four o'clock, that not less than between forty and fifty interments took place, the undertakers scarce knowing which grave to go to. Groups of mourners, with corpses waiting, in every part, for the clergyman to take his turn in performing the funeral service; then the horrid manner of the grave-diggers (navigators, who seemed hired for the purpose), their awful language, and careless manner of filling in the graves, jumping and stamping on the coffins—such a sight, indeed, was enough to appal the hardest heart. Some of the mourners had actually to wait upwards of an hour before their relatives could be interred.
"The epidemic seems not only to have been destructive in its own natural form, but, at Guy's Hospital, in the wards, where a free circulation of air existed, it has, in many instances, run into bronchitis and pneumonia, and has even induced severe symptoms of typhoid or yellow fever, in all which cases, it is easy to guess what were the consequences. So very fatal, indeed, has it proved in this way, that the managers of several hospitals have set apart wards exclusively for patients with influenza. Dr. Johnson, at the last meeting of the Westminster Medical Society, stated that it has been far more violent in its character, and universal in its extent, than the epidemic of 1833."
At the Court of King's Bench Lord Denman and a jury spent the 9th and 10th of February in trying an action for libel brought by Lord de Ros, the premier Baron of England, against a Mr. Cumming, who had accused his lordship of cheating at cards. The trial excited the greatest interest, and was attended by most of the nobility and members of good clubs.
It was charged against Lord de Ros that, at the whist table, he frequently contrived to have a violent fit of coughing when his deal came round, which obliged him to put his hands under the table; and then it always happened that he turned up an honour; and that the aces and kings in the packs Lord de Ros played with were frequently marked, slightly, but perceptibly, with the thumb-nail. Many gentlemen swore to their having been cheated by these tricks, and some refused to play with Lord de Ros; and, though others did not shun him after his cheating had been discovered, they sent him anonymous notes of warning, and hoped that he had left off cheating. The play of these gentlemen was sometimes very high, and one of them, Mr. Brook Greville, admitted that he had made £35,000 by play; another, Captain Alexander, said that he was a "better man by £10,000 for card playing."
On the part of Lord de Ros, it was stated that he had a stiffness in his finger-joints, which prevented him from playing tricks with cards, though he could cut and shuffle them. But Sir William Ingleby swore to the repeated frauds of the peer. He had seen him fifty times perform the trick called "sauter la coupe;" which, in effect, was to cut the cards so as always to turn up an ace or a king when he dealt. Several witnesses proved that the aces and kings of the packs with which Lord de Ros had played were marked. The persons who gave evidence against Lord de Ros were, generally, professed gamblers; but no evidence was adduced to prove that they had any spite against his lordship, or that any conspiracy had been formed to ruin him. There never was a clearer case against any delinquent; and the jury took only fifteen minutes to determine upon their verdict, which was in favour of the defendant. This was equivalent to the conviction of Lord de Ros of cheating at cards, and he took the very prudent step of leaving England that night for Rotterdam.