The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 3, 1858. and contact. This has been one of the works of the session which is drawing to a close ; and it is no small gain, as regards the progress of civi lization and the interests of humanity. HOPE FOR THE THAMES. THERE is substantial truth in the old adage that " when things have come to the worst, they will mend." A great many evils are borne patiently (or impatiently) because their removal seems diffi cult, or the way very doubtful ; until at last the burden grows intolerable, a vehement effort is made, and it is cast off. Several concurring causes—the continual in crease of the filth poured into the I'hames-1 long succession of dry weather, diminishing the volume of its stream—and, to crown all, an ex ceedingly hot season—have, together, brought the river into a condition of settled filthiness, and created an almost continual stench. This is a state of things quite new, and altogether un bearable. All parties and all classes now agree that " something must immediately be done." This urgent necessity at once produces this good, that the two Boards which have been " pro tocolizing " for two years past, the Government Board of Works and the Metropolitan Board, are forced at once to make up their differences, and to determine that they will, if possible, agree upon some course of action. And, in order that our readers may understand the exact position of the question, we will, as briefly as possible, state where the matter now stands. Two Commissions had broken down, to whom " the Main Drainage" had been intrusted; when, in 1855, the Government determined to create the METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS, chiefly in order to deal with this great question, and to effect the object by a rate on the metro polis. That Board met in January, 1856, and set to work with such zeal, that by Midsummer it had prepared and submitted to the Chief Com missioner a plan. This great celerity is accounted for by the fact that this new Board was enabled to operate with the means and arrangements which the two previous Commissions had be queathed to it. Sir BENJAMLN HALL objected to the first plan of the Board, and, subsequently, to a second plan, on the ground that the outfall was too near the metropolis. The Board, then, by a con ference, ascertained his views on this point, and, in December, 1856, it delivered in a third plan, in which his wishes as to the outfall were fully met. And this is the plan which, we believe, will now be carried into effect. Sir BENJAMIN HALL, then, committed a blunder. The Act, passed by himself, gave him a veto ; and nothing more. He was fully en titled, before assenting to the plan offered to him, to call in an experienced engineer, and to take his opinion, whether such plan was feasible. But he did more. He formed a new Commission of three engineers, and he gave them instructions, which empowered them to form a new plan. They took seven months to report, and then they brought up this new plan. But all this, which was quite unauthorized by the Act, merely created delay, discussion, and difference of opinion. To this one false step of Sir BENJAMIN HALL'S we must attribute the past delay of eighteen months. Matters being in this unsatisfactory state, the present alarm springs up, and all men agree that " something must be done." The METROPOLITAN Boma) met on Tuesday last, and agreed upon a course of action ; which was laid before the Chief Commissioner, Lord JOHN MANNERS, on the following Thursday. The main heads of that scheme may be thus described:- 1. The Board adheres to its plan of December, 1856, fur a system of intercepting sewers for the whole metropolis, extending front Hammersmith and Wandsworth down to Woolwich and Barking. The outfall proposed is near Erith. But the Board leaves this question open. It has always declared that it feels no objection to the carrying the sewage twenty miles further down the river, provided the Government will find the additional cost. Its repugnance merely is to the taxing the people of the metropolis for that which is not a metropolitan necessity. If, therefore, the Government think that the sewage should be carried down to Sea Reach, and will provide the extra 2,000,0001. which will be required for that purpose, the Board will readily follow its instruc• tions in this matter. 2. Similarly submissive is it on the question of a Thames embankment. The Board does not adopt such a scheme ; but if an embankment of the Thames, from Westminster to Londcn Bridge, is thought advisable, the Board undertake it on receiving a contribution in aid from the national revenues. 3. All plans for deodorizing sewage have hitherto resulted in financial failure. Still, as deodorization has some recommendations—esoe- cially in obviating the necessity of throwing any filth into the river—the Board agrees to make trial of it, in the western district of the me tropolis. Such is the present scheme of the Metropolitan Board, upon which Lord JOHN MANNERS will have immediately to give his decision. But the Board adds now, as it has always added, a request that it may have the aid of the Government in raising the needful funds. Without a guarantee of some kind from the Treasury, the Board would not find it very easy to borrow 3,000,000/. or 4,000,0001. on moderate terms. And if re pelled by the Treasury in this request, and told to shift for itself, the Board would be very likely to throw up the whole work in disgust, and to leave the Government to work out the problem for itself. But if met by the Government with kindness and ready aid, this great work may now be really commenced before the summer is ended, and the year 1860 would not open before some considerable progress had been made. To any and every scheme, however, some opposition will spring up. We observe that on the same day which carried the deputation from the Metropolitan Board of Works to the Chief Commissioner, another deputation waited upon him from Erith and its neighbourhood, to depre cate any plan which should propose to east the sewage into the river near that place. That such a repugnance and alarm should be felt is very natural, more especially on the part of men who, like one of the leaders of this Erith deputation, desire to let some land at Erith on building leases. Such a speculation would evidently be retarded by the proposal to make Erith the spot where the London sewage should be dis charged. Private interests of this sort will every where obtrude themselves. But they must be overruled, or the stench which the river now causes in London will never be remedied. MORMOXISM IN DIFFICULTIES. AT the foot of the Lake of Derwentwater there is, or was, no long time ago, to be heard a remark ably fine echo. It attracted during the summer a large number of tourists, and gave to the place a religious value which was turned to proper account by the hotel-keeper. Of course echoes cannot be produced for nothing, and the echo at Lodore was, on the whole, rather expensive. It was sufficiently pliant, however, and adapted itself according to pecuniary circumstances. "The first quality," a really fine, full, and well recommended-echo, could only be had for five shillings, which seas not dear, the price being little less than the cost of the gunpowder expended in producing it ; but an inferior echo by no means unsatisfactory might be enjoyed by tourists of limited means for half that sum. On a similar graduated scale to that of the English echo, the superior echoes and visions with which Mr. littumAsi YOUNG has regaled from time to time his wonderful colony at the foot of the Salt Lake have adapted themselves to the force of outward circumstances ; and at present echoes and visions of only a very inferior quality can be produced. Having exhausted his figurative supply of salt petre and sulphur, and having signally failed in his attempt to disperse or circumvent the United States army in its advance towards Utah, Mr. BRIGHAM YOUNG makes the best echo he can afford under the circumstances, and has been commanded o destroy the cities, and to different view, and shall give an absolutely con tradictor7 answer. We will venture to assert that Parliament and the Government which is maintained by it have done in this session more for their country and for Europe, more for the steady progress of civilization and the security of peace, than has been effectea since 1842. At home the sagacious course taken by the Cabinet, with the aid of the House of Commons, has freed us from the incubus of "Family Government;" and, fortunately for the future proress of the country, it is conclusively established, after many doubts and fears, and many struggles indeed, but still conclusively established, that Parliament can supply her Majesty with an Administration in which there shall be neither a Russell, nor an Elliot. nor a Grey, nor even a Palmerston or a Cowper. We are free from the tyranny of Family Com binations, under which we have groaned ever since the disruption of the great Conservative party, of which Sir R. PEEL was at once the con structor and the destroyer. The desperate attempt made to reinstate the old order of Whigs through the instrumentality of Mr. CARDWELL'S motion was fortunately foiled by the good sense, or the alarm, of the House of Commons; and we have seen, in the manner in which the Bill for the or ganization of a new Government for India has been discussed and conducted, the first fruits of our deliverance, and of the better relations estab lished by it bctw.ien the Administration and the of House Commons. Lord PALMERSTON sought to make India the subject of party conflict and the instrument of party victory; and had he succeeded in his attempts the Government of India, the policy of India, and the patronage of India, would have become henceforth as much party matters, dis cussed and contended for as such in Parliament, as were either the Corn Laws or Parliamentary Reform. The country has been saved, fortu nately, from such a discreditable and disastrous conclusion. The Government and the house of Commons have been able to apply themselves to the great task of recasting the Indian Adminis tration, with minds free from considerations of party ascendancy; their conclusions are embodied in what promises to be a useful and practical measure, and there is every ground for hoping that under the new form of government India may continue to be kept out of the category of English party questions. Abroad, the effects of our deliverance from the PALMERSTON Cabinet have been still more remarkable, and the influences of the change still more important. It is unquestionable that Lord PALMERSTON had by his demeanour and language, if not by his policy, through a long series of years, so profoundly wounded and irri tated the feelings of foreign nations, that friendly and temperate negotiations with our neighbours, and even with our allies, had become almost im possible. We were always in hot water—always writing and receiving notes and despatches that seemed to be thrusting us, whether we would or no, to the very b r i n k o f h os tiliti es , an d obtaining no other satisfaction than hearing from his friends and admirers that the dexterity, audacity, and Food luck with which Lord PALMERSTON had just saved us was astonishing, and that the expense of a Chinese war was not to be thought of in co m p ar i son . It i s remarkable that Lord PALMERSTON never concluded a difference peaceably without leaving a sting behind, and sowing at the same time the seeds of future dis like and of new discussions. The altered footing upon which the present Government, by their temperate language and firm yet conciliatory conduct, have already placed our relations with our neighbours--with France, with Naples, with Sardinia, and with America—and the new and better feelings which their policy and manage ment have so quickly begotten, cannot but open the eyes of the public to the fact, that it was to Lord PALMERSTON'S personal character that we owed a very considerable portion of our frequent and serious diff erences w ith f ore i gn Governments. The Cabinet of Lord DERBY, IBM ably represented by Lord MALMESBURY and .N.r. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD, has materially improved and amended our foreign position, and while vindicating the dignity and asserting the rights of England, has at the same time not only established peaceful relations, but created kindly feelings b e t ween ourse l ves an d t h ose countries with whom geographical position or commercial relations bring us in neighbourhood I i I f 1