The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1858 whom she had seen in attendance on the Cardinal, in such a plight, and uttering a pious ejaculation of surprise, she begged to know of the official ivhether the holy man had been " larking.' To this that precipitate individual replied' contemptuously that his captive was nothing but c a " big j u mper." This impious retort at once led to an explanation, which ended of course in the release of the consecrated prisoner, and the abject prostra tion of his captor. The fbrmer returned to the nunnery and finished his m ass, and the latter is perhaps doing penance to this hour. The funny elements in this story are—first, that being in the land of true Catholics INfonsignor did not at once disclose his real character to the "Beak;" secondly, that the good old lady who invoked the emblem of her faith when she saw a priest in custody should have so naively inquired whether his Reverence had been " larking." Is it customary in Ireland for the members of the priesthood to come home with the milk, to wrench off knockers, to ring at strange doors under the impression they are at home, and otherwise to emulate the young gentlemen in the comedy of London Assurance p What meaning may be attached to the word " larking "in Ireland we do not profess to know to a certainty : but at least we should surmise that it must mean something not wholly consistent with the gravity supposed by Englishmen to be becoming in a clerical gentleman. That excellent woman, who relieved Monsignor from his embarrassment, has excited our curiosity very much to know something of the jolly fellows in question, whom we have read of in "Jack llinton " and " Charles O'Mally," but had feared were now extinct. A copious Blue-book has just been issued by the Select Committee on the River Thames, containing the evidence whereon their Report was founded. That document was promulgated shortly before the session closed, and, as our readers may remember, set forth conclusions which, though not without their value, were chiefly of negative character. In fact, the Committee could do no more. Their time was limited, while the range of investigation permitted to them was practically restricted within very narrow bounds. The special subject on which they were required to report was the plan proposed by Mr. GOLDSWORTHY GURNEY for the purification of the Thames; and, being naturally anxious to show some result of their inquiries before the prorogation, they very sparingly availed themselves of the license for wider investigations accorded in the permis sion to " take into consideration such other suggestions as they might " deem it expedient to entertain" for the same object. The net result of their inquiries came to this—that Mr. GURNEY'S plan for covering the river-side with a sloping bank of gravel, and dredging out two channels at low-water mark along the river-bed, was totally ineligible ; and that his scheme for getting rid of foul gases from the sewers, by burning them in furnaces, was available only to a limited extent, under special circumstances (as in sweetening the atmosphere around the Palace of Legislature), but altogether impracticable as an ele ment in the general s) stem of metropolitan drainage. Further than this the Committee did not venture to hazar , l any expression of opinion. The volume of evidence now published contains many facts and hints of con siderable importance, but involving questions which the members avowedly considered too wide and intricate for adequate investigation in the limited time at their disposal. An opportune report on the subject has within the current week been presented by Dr. LETHEBY to the Court of Common Council. The City medical officer treats the subject upon scientific principles, tracing by syn thetical, or detecting by analytical processes the various ingredients—solid, liquid, and gaseous—which contribute their several pollutions to the London river and atmosphere. The total quantities of these various forms of foulness are formidable enough. Every day, as Dr. LETHEBY calculates, there are sent into the Thames 152 tons of solid matter as the " ejecta" of the metropolitan population ; plus 81 tons derived from the streets, and comprising granite dust, iron from horses' hoofs and wheel-tires, and leather from the boots of pedestrians; plus 102 tons of saline matters held in solution ; and plus 152 tons of organic and other matters from various manufactories and " artistic " establishments. Total, 487 solid tons per diem diluted with 841 million gallons of water, wherein it appears the or vanic substances are either dissolved or suspended in about equal proportions. But besides this solid or fluid pollution there are various gases which play a not less important part in the general and most unpleasant result. sundry gases whose chemical composition and deleterious effects are minutely analyzed by Dr. LETHEBY exhale from the sewage-water at the rate of about one and a fifth cubic inches per gallon per hour, by a process of fermentation which he has discovered continues in almost unabated activity for nine weeks. He acquaints us also with the agreeable fact that in this respect the water of the Thames at ebb tide and near the banks is precisely similar to that in the sewers. As another contribution to atmospheric impurity, the London gas companies transmit by leakage into general respiration 380 million cubic feet of coal gas per annum—or say a million per diem—the gas containing sundry "hydro carbons" of highly poisonous properties. On this question of gases, Dr. LETHEBY entirely concurs with the Committe e i n re p u di a ti ng M r . G UR NEY'S plan of getting rid of them y burni ng . Hi s propose d f urnaces , we are a s sured, would at best very Imperfectly abate the nuisance, and would cost 80,000/. or even 200,000/., It year for fuel. In fine, Dr. LETHEBY'S chief reliance seems placed upon Charcoal. To that conclusion many other investigators have arrived. And really, as matters stand, it would appearlthat a solution of the great drainage problem is to be found, if found at all, in that single word. Charcoal possesses very singular properties. Alone, among all substances hitherto known, it exercises a purifying power over matter in all its forms — deodorizing solids, filtering fluids, and absorbing gases. A cube of carbon from some porous wood will absorb 100 times its bulk of Fas, and a thin bed o f p u l v eri z ed charcoal will transmit the most turbid waters in a pellucid stream, arresting and neutralizing all the so lid impurities that may have been held in suspension. At the same time it does not, like al most all the chemical deodorizers, destroy the value as a manure of the organic substances which 901 it arrests or the gases which it absorbs in transitu. A mass of charcoal through which a stream of sewage water has been filtered would become an innocuous and most valuable fertilizer of land. It would be curious if in this article of household use we should find the means of conquering what has become, in metropolitan acceptation, the great difficulty of the day. Nay, it might be more than conquest. The enemy we have dreade d so much. and deemed so invincible, which invaded our homes, destroyed our comfort, and threatened pestilence in our city, may be converted into a source of wealth and an element of prosperity. Such things have happened befbre—and may again. Let the prospect stimulate the activi ties of the Metropolitan Board, who, sooth to say, appear somewhat in need of encouragement. Mr. FRITH has depicted the humours of an English crowd, on Rams gate sands, or the "hill" at Epsom. With a few shadows, introduced for the sake of effect, the whole scene is one of mirth and serenity—every thing is gay, jolly, and riant. Gather the same crowd within four wislls, startle them by some casual cry of alarm, and Miciimm ANGELO himself would fail adequately to portray the horrors of the tragedy that must ensue. Yet Englishmen—or Englishwomen and children—are not naturally cowards. Within Lucknow intrenchments, and upon the decks of wrecked ships, they have faced danger in its most terrible forms with unflinching courage. But if packed in some edifice, be it a church, theatre, concert-room, or lecture-hall, frequent experience has shown that the slightest cause will produce an indiscriminate and murderous panic. Few, if any, pause to ascertain whether the danger be real or fancied, but the whole throng rush pell-mell to the points of exit, crushing and trampling upon one another in the blindness of their terror, and in their haste to escape producing and suffering far worse consequences than would probably have occurred if the apprehended casualty had actually over taken them. This is the real danger of crawded assemblages. The worst of it is that it cannot be obviated by any preliminary precautions. Most careful watch, for example, may be kept against fire—nay, the building may be made actually fireproof—and nevertheless a single exclamation uttered in joke or by mistake will spread alarm among thousands, and induce results as deplorable as those which occurred on Monday night in the " Surrey Music-hall" at Sheffield. On that occasion there was no real peril. The investigations at the inquest are only commenced, but enough has transpired to show that no symptoms had occurred more formidable than the momentary flash caused by the ignition of some gas from a leaky pipe. This, however, was enough to occasion a " stampedo" among the terror-stricken crowd, in which six persons lost their lives and several hundreds their self-control, and even their common sense, in the overmastering instinct of self-preservation. The intensity of fright induced in some minds may be estimated by the fact that among the victims was a young man who actually threw himself from a window in his anxiety to escape where no danger pursued, and was killed by the fall. We hare here a phenomenon, frequent in recurrence, terrible in its results, and invariable in its incidents. Scenes like those of Monday night are frequently repeated, under circumstances very slightly varying, but with an alarming probability that on the next performance the sufferers may be numbered by hundreds instead of units. Nor can the evil be remedied by taking precautions against practical danger. A false alarm is nearly, if not quite, as calamitous as a true one. Terror is contagious, and men thronged into masses, under the influence of fear or rage cease to be reasonable animals. And that alarms, either true or false, should be propagated in a multitude of individuals so placed is just as likely as an explosion in a firework manufactory. The pro fessional dealers in averages, by a little investigation, would under take to compute the chances of such an eventuality, and establish as a result not less regular than any deduced front the " Carlisle Tables," that if a theatre be filled chockfull every night, once in so many weeks or months there will be an alarm among the audience followed by a panic rush to the doors. In the invariability of this result we find the proper remedy for the evil clearly indicated. It is a case in which the Government is called upon to interfere, and fully justified in the most peremptory interference. When lives are sacrificed through the inade quacy and unscientific construction of the exit avenues , the Executive has a right to demand that the want should be supplied. The very knowledge that ready means of escape were available would often entirely prevent any panic from arising among theatrical audiences, and in any case prevent the occurrence of serious catastrophes. Yet this obvious precaution has hitherto been totally neglected. With the exception of the new Covent garden Opera-house we hardly know of one single house of public enter tainment in London where the approaches are even decently adjusted to the magnitude of the human tide intended to flow and ebb through them. They all seem constructed on the bad model of Old London-bridge. On nights of any extra attraction it is difficult to get in with comfort or safety. If a panic broke out inside it would be impossible for any but a few luckily-placed persons to get out ; and should a conflagration really occur—a contingency which we have reason to know is not very impro bable—the survivors would have to relate that, while a hundred or two struggled and crushed one another in the doorway, the great majority of the audience were burnt to death as helplessly as if they had been immured in some " chambre ardente." The Government looks rather closely after our private edifices. Official inspectors take care, before allowing any house to be built, that the drains are scientifically con structed, the foundations properly laid, the party-walls of sufficient thick ness, and, if any manufacturing operations are to he carried on, that the furnaces consume their own smoke. While all this is done, with heavy penalties to insure obedience to the Act, it is surely competent upon the Executive to provide that when a house of more public character is erected, into which it is avowedly intended to invite some hundreds or thousands of her Majesty's subjects, proper and sufficient means of exit should be pro vided so as to prevent the lieges from being entrapped into a place where, in case of accident, they must either perish in their seats or run. the risk of death or dismemberment in their endeavour to escape.