The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-14 00:00:00

' • o ld Toryisn3, of respected memory , but a su pp orter of that more modern, more liberal{ and enlightened Conservatism which reco,enizell the great principle o f ccmhining progress with preservation. Mr. W. Egerton, M.P., returned thanks. He said as a Con sanative be was naturally disposed to give a general and independent support to the present Government , . believed it would promote measures of ganeral benefit, and maintain peace with due regard to the national honour. He contrasted the ability, fairness, and moderation with which this Government had treated the difficult questions of foreign policy with the mode in which thous questions had been dealt with by their predecessors in office. lie believed the Government of India had been ad vantageously transferred to the Crown, though the expediency of the measure at the present juncture might be questioned. No one could doubt the ability with which the bill had been conducted by the pre sent President of the Board of Control, and its operation would no doubt greatly facilitate communi cation between the authorities at home and those in India. Lord Derby had promised a Reform Bill, which he (Mr. Egerton) was confident would he dic. tated in no party spirit, nor for the benefit of any particular class, and, though he did not think Re fecal was very much demanded in the country, the increase of education and intelligence was a claim to a fair extension of tbe fianchise. The question of church-rates could not long be allowed to remain in its present state. As a firm supporter of the Church of England, he would not consent to any abolition without some compensation to the Church, for with out them those time-honoured fabrics erected by oar ancestors, which it ought to be our pride as well as it was our duty to maintain, would fall into neglect and ruin. While advocating a wise and economical administration of the national finances, he was en tirely opposed to shortsighted reduction of our forces. Mr. Tatton Eger:on, the late member, pro posed a vote of thanks to the High Sheriff, and ex pressed his heartfelt acknowledgments for the kind ness be had received from the constituency during his twenty-six years representation of them. The motion was carried by acclamation, and the proceed ings concluded with " three times three" for the new member and the Queen. 787 THE PRESS, AUGUST 14, 1858. - - far removed that the sewage should be no nuisance, and not come back again within the limits of the metropolis. He then generally combated the objec tious which had been urged against the plan, and particularly referred to one, es to provision only being made for a population of 3,500,000. He said at any future time, if any extension of the plan was required for an increased population, that could be effected at a comparatively small expense, and contended that it was not the duty of this board to make provision for a state of things which might arise at some very distant period. He concluded by moving the adop- tion of the report. Mr. CRELLIN, although desirous of seeing the sewage of the metropolis altogether abstracted from the river and applied to useful purposes, seconded the motion. His object was to afford some remedy to the present state of the sewage of the metropolis. Mr. LEst.in said he was anxious not to take up the time of the board, but still he was utterly unable to say what the plan before them was. Indeed, it was a series of plans, without any connection with each other. He contended that the calculations which had been made by the engineers were erroneous, and urged them to delay the execution of these works for a time until they ob•ained further information, as a false step then taken might be fatal to the existence of that board. He contended that the pumping stations, reservoirs, and liming were altogether un. necessary, and said that in Paris the whole evil from sewage was met by negative artesian wells, placed under the municipality of that city. He alined to the hospital at Bicetre, where a negative artesian well was constructed in 1790, and it had gone on working satisfactorily up to the present time. These wells were also formed at the laystalls of Montfaucon, and although a number of horses were slaughtered in that district, the whole of the refuse from the knackers' yards was passed down negative artesian wells, got rid of, and that without any nuisance to the wells sunk in that neighbourhood for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants with water. This plan was supported by Mr. Hyde Clarke, a civil engineer, and he was also supported by Monsieur Duchatel and other eminent French engineers. If this plan were adopted in the metropolis it would save a large amount of money, and would also avoid the necessity of breaking up the public streets. He concluded by moving, as an amendment : That the Metropolitan Board of Works come to no decision upon the subject until the evidence upon the geological drainage of the metropolis be received by the board, one important fact being, that at an expense of 3301. a negative artesian descent fur foul water has been made, 234 feet in depth, which has been discharging at least 2,700 cubit feet per hour. Mr. Alderman CUBITT hoped they would come to no conclusion upon this subject before the adjourn ment for the holidays, and said that as their officers had been at work for years upon it, the public could well afford to wait for two or three months to enable them to receive further information. Mr. BENNETT did not think the board could be charged with precipitancy, as the scheme, with few exceptions, had been for two years before the board, and during that time it had been well sifted, both by the board, and also by the engineers, to whom it had been submitted by the President of the Board of Works, Sir Benjamin Hall. He hoped the board would not adjourn until after the subject for the main drainage had been disposed of, or was in some progress. After a few words from Messrs. D'lffanger and Offer, Mr. CAnrMAEL replied with a few brief remarks. The CHAIRMAN put the motion, and on a division it was carried by a majority of 19 to 1. THE selection of seven members of the Court of Directors of the East India Company for the new India Council took place on Monday in Leadenhall. street. The successful candidates were Mr. Charles Mills, of the banking firm of Glyn, Mills, and Co., and senior director of the East India Company ; Captain John Shepherd, lately deputy-master of the Trinity House, and governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, both of which appointments he has re signed for his present office ; Mr. Elliot Macaaghten, formerly of the Indian bat, and ex-Chairman of the India Company ; Sir James Weir Hogg, late member for Honiton, and twice chairman of the company ; Mr. B. D. Mangles, member for Guildford, and last year chairman of the company ; Mr. W. J. Eastwick, formerly captain in the military service of the com pany ; and Mr. H. T. Prmsep, formerly Government secretary in Calcutta, and afterwards member of council. The unsuccessful candidates were Mr. Astell and Colonel Sykes, togetber with the five directors who held seats as nominees of the Govern ment :—Sir F. Currie, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. J. P. Willoughby (the member for Leominster), Sir R. H. Vivian, and Sir G. Pollock. The Government have now to appoint eight members to make up the total council of fifteen, which must be constituted by the Ist of September, when the East India Com pany will cease to exist. We are at liberty to state that Sir John Lawrence, who is now on his passage home, has been offered and has accepted a place in the new Indian Council. It is stated that Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. Willoughby will also be among the members nominated by her Majesty's Government. glttropolitan. METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS. THE MAIN DRAINAGE OF THE METROPOLIS. A SPECIAL meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works was held on Wednesda) at noon in the Council chamber, for the purpose of considering the main drainage of the metropolis. Mr. J. Thwaites in the chair. _ _ The meeting was very fully attended. The following report from the committee of the whole board on the subject of the main drainage was presented:— No. 1, Greek•street, Soho, Aug. 11. Your committee have, in obedience to the reference of the board of the 3rd inst., considered the plans for the main drainage of the metropolis presented by the board to the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Works, &c. your committee have also conferred with Messrs. Hawks ley and Bazalgette, Mr. Bidder being absent from London, on those and other plans, and your committee have come to the conclusion that the principles of drainage recom mended in the report of Messrs. Bidder, Hawksley, and Bazalgette are those most suited to the requirements of the menapolie. Your committee, therefore, recommend that the board should without delay instruct the engineer to report as to the order in which the several parts of the works recom mended in the report of Messrs. Bidder, Hawksley, and Basalgette may be most advantageously and conveniently carried out. Your committee further recommend that the engineer be instructed by the board to prepare specifications for carrying out the several works set. forth in the repert of Messrs. Bidd e r, H aw k s l e y, an d li a zalgette, commencing with those parts of the works which the engineer considers to be most urgent. And your committee farther recommend that the en gineer be instructed by the board to prepare plans anti to report to the board as to w hat advantages may be derived by having the outfall on the south side of the river Thames In . . Greenwich marshes, providing, in that case, for deodo• ruing the sewage continuously throughout the year. All which your committee have to submit. J. THWAITES. WILLIAM CARPMAEL. PHILIP CRELLIN. Mr. CARPMAEL moved the adoption of the report, and at some length stated what had been done for some years for the removal of sewage from houses, in doing which they had largely contaminated the river Thames. That was the only expedient then open to them ; but now, in consequence of the in creased powers conferred upon them by Act of Par liament, they were called upon to do away with that nuisance by a system of intercepting sewers. That remedy was to be obtained by the plan proposed by Messrs. Bidder, Hawksley, and Bazalgette, which was calculated to remove the sewage to points on both the north and south sides of the Thames, so Maio an Volta. D.INGEROUS WIDOW. A•r the Guildford assizes on Monday, Mrs. Gordon brought an action for breach of promise of marriage against Mr. Woo'ridge, a chemist, of Holborn and the New•road. Mr. Sergeant BALLANTINE, in opening the case, said that the plaintiff was a widow, and that the intimacy between the parties first c immenced in the year 1856, at which time the plaintiff had been a widow six or seven years, and she had one child, a girl, about seven years old. He was not aware exactly of the nature of the plaintiff's moons, but he did not believe that the slightest imputation emit' be cast upon her cha• racter. She was about thirtylour or thirty five years old. He was not able to make out clearly how the connection first took place, but lie believed that the plaintiff having gone to the shop of the defendant to have some prescription made up, an intimacy at once sprung up between them which ripened into affection, and ended in the defendant desiring to make the plaintiff his wife. He need hardly remind the jury that pi otnises of marriage are nut always made in positive and distinct terms, and the defend ant, in the letters he had written, had undoubtedly been very guarded in his expressions ; but when they looked at the correspondence they would say, as reasonable men, whether any other conclusion could be come to than that the defendant intended that the plaintiff should become his wile, and that his letters contained matter that amounted to a promise to that effect. The learned counsel then read portions of some letters written by the defendant to the plaintiff. They all commenced "Dear Annie," but were couched in very general, ambiguous terms, referring to the excitement he had sustained during some of their interviews, and one of them referred to a request he had made to her, to which he said she had returned the monosyllable " No," and asked her whether she persevered in that answer. It also appeared that upon one occasion the plaintiff lied gone down to Gosport, and the defendant accompanied her to the railway station, and upon the next occasion, when the defendant wrote to her, he expressed his regret that lie was not with her during the journey, par ticularly the latter part of it, when he said they should probably have been aloue in the carriage, and the " shades of evening " approaching; and this letter concluded by stating that the plaintiff had given hint a parting gift in the shape of a" blossom" on his under lip. The learned sergeant pioceeded to state that there could be no doubt that for a very considerable time the parties were on the most inti mate and affectionate terms; but, he said, towards the latter end of 1857 the defendant's letters became shorter and cooler every time he wrote, and at length , on the 27th of February in the present year, the de fendant wrote a very extraordinary document on a slip of paper, in which he stated that lie had put " this and that" together, and that he could not see the advantage of effecting that which was a mere form, and asking the plaintiff whether this was not her own opinion upon the same subject. The inti macy, he said, was thus broken off between them, and the plaintiff had no alternative but to bring the present action to obtain redress in the shape of damages from the defendant for the breach of his promise to make her his wife. Evidence was then adduced to show that the defendant used to come and visit the plaintiff generally twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, while she lived for eight weeks in Gerrarlstreet, Soho, and that sometimes he used to take tea with her and remain till ten or eleven o'clock at night. He seemed as though he was going to make her his wife. (A laugh.) What she meant by that was that when he went away from her lie used to appear very affectionate, and used to kiss her. She thought the old gentleman was Mrs. Gordon's sweetheart. (Laughter.) Madame VALBERT, a Frenchwoman, said she lived in Wardour-street, and the plaintiff lodged with her fifteen months ago. She was in her house six or seven months, but she did not know where she catne from. The defendant used to visit her twice a week —on Sundays and Thursdays. She was not visited by any other gentleman. By Mr. JAMES : There were no other lady lodgers in her house. A lady and gentleman occupied the second floor. CHARLES LEAKE, who proved the defendant's hand• writing, stated on cross-examination that about this time last year, in consequence of a note front the plaintiff, he went to her lodgings in Foley.place ; when she told him that there had been an improper connection between herself and the defendant, which she had permitted because she could make nothing