The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

FILTRATION OF A RIVER.

THE Medlock, which passes through the heart of
Manchester, receiving in its way a considerable
number of sewers, and being used by dyeworks and
various manufactories, empties the greater portion of
its water in a state indescribably filthy and noisome
into the Bridgewater-canal, of which it is the prin-
cipal feeder. The water is, at the entrance of tho
canal, near the western boundary of the city, nearly
as black as ink, and almost as thick. In the canal,
which passes through Hulme and various other
places for a distance of eight miles towards Liver-
pool, it becomes more offensive than in the river,
because the drainage is comparatively small, and the
water is at times nearly stagnant. The districts
through which it passes out of the town are those
which have been found most. eligible for villas and
suburban residences of the middle classes and gentry,
and all are rapidly rising towns, where people who
can afford to do so seek to escape from the smoke
and impurities of Manchester. The Altrincliam
Railway, by which they travel backwards and forwards,
runs nearly all the way close to the canal, and only
those who have travelled by it can form an idea of
the stench and malaria that it spreads around. The
canal, in fact, is a great open sewer, and any plan
which can be adopted to purify its waters must, of
course, be a great blessing to such an extensive
neighbourhood. An experiment is now iu the course
of being made to filtrate the water of the Medlock at
Manchester, near the point where it empties itself
into the canal, and by a very simple method. On the
left bank of the river, forty or fifty yards from the canal,
a good-sized tank is filled with lime and water, and
resembles one of the lime puddles often seen near to
new buildings for the purpose of mixing with the
other constituents of mortar. From this tank a trough
or open pipe is carried across the river, along which
the lime and water flows, and small holes, about an
inch in diameter, at the bottom of this pipe, allow
the fluid to fall through into the river at different
points. From the place where the lime-water falls
into the river to its entrance into the canal the river is
converted into a reservoir by means of a weir or
backwater at the mouth of the canal, the object being
to hold the water here while the lime can operate
upon it, and precipitate the impurities mingled with
it to the bottom. The surface water out of this re-
servoir flows over the weir in a stream of only about
two inches deep or little more ; and, though not per-
fectly clear, the water as it passes this point shows
that the experiment has not wholly failed, but has
accomplished a change already which is a deside-
ratum. There appears little doubt, upon the approach
to success which the experiment has attained after
only a few days' trial, that the perfect purification of
the river is quite possible, and is likely to be accom-
plished. The refuse and lime which sink to the
bottom of the reservoir will, no doubt, be exceedingly
valuable as manure.

A NUMEROUS MEETING of the friends and admirers
of Admiral Sir Charles Napier was held on Monday
evening at the Three Compasses Tavern, Silver-
street, Golden-square, to consider the best course to
be adopted to raise the necessary funds for a testi-
monial to the gallant Admiral Sir Charles Napier.
Mr. James Homes took the chair, and, several gen-
tlemen having addressed the meeting, resolutions
were passed, approving of a public subscription and
address. It was also determined that a public meet-
ing should be held on an early day in the ensuing
week in furtherance of the object in view. The ad-
dress and resolutions have been extensively circu-
lated throughout the metropolis, and it is stated that
in many of the provincial towns the subject is
warmly taken up, Sheerness alone having promised
to contribute 2001. in furtherance of the object.
ON the telegraphic line from Constantinople to
Shumla, by Adrianople, which is now terminated,
the different experiments have perfectly succeeded,
and in a few days it can be opened for public use.
Its length is not less than 106 French leagues. By
the establishment of the line, the distance which
separates Constantinople from Adrianople, and the
latter town from Shumla, heretofore but imper-
fectly known, has been precisely ascertained. Tho
carrying of the electric wires across the Balkans—
through almost impenetrable forests, and in which it
was necessary to have recourse to the compass only
SK a guide, and which did not even contain a single
tree fit to be utilised—presented great difficulties.
M. de la Rue, however, the contractor for setting up
the line, did not allow himself to be discouraged by
any obstacles, and Constantinople is now in commu-
nication with all the capitals of Europe. But it has
been necessary to provide for the security of the
telegraph as well as to erect it, and, accordingly,
fifty one houses for keepers have been built
on
different parts of the line, and a complete surveil-
lance, by men on foot and horseback, has been
organised. Employes to work the line have been
brought from France and installed at the different
stations. The telegraph is to be conducted on the
Irenoh system.

f i t tr a tu r t.

BIBLICAL EXEGESIS.

Historical and Critical Commentary on
.tll4

Old Testament. With a New Translation.

Part 1., Exodus. By M.Kalisch, Ph. D., M.A.
The Same. English Edition. London : Long•

Specimen of a Revision of the English Scriptures
of the Old Testament from the Original Hebrew.
On the Basis of the Common English Ver-
sion Compared with the Earlier one on
which it was Founded. By Thomas J.

Conant. New York : American Bible
Union. London : Triibner and Co.
TRANSLATIONS of the Holy Scriptures, made
under no matter what adverse circumstances,
preserved from destruction by no matter what
strange means, and issued against no matter
what edicts and ordinances—whips or scor-
pions—have ultimately found their way during
the middle age to the hearts of men with their
kindly task of humanising the savage to a
higher code of morality, tenderness, and
hustice, filling the hearts of the proud with
umility, giving consolation to the troubled
in mind, and rescuing humanity from a con-
dition not to be realised or conceived by the
mind amidst the gloss of our present civi-
lisation. Made from languages of which
often neither grammar nor lexicon were to
be had, into ruder dialects where the ma-
terials would scarcely have furnished a
vocabulary, where, all roughcast and frag-
mentary, the ruins of some noble and ancient
tongue lay awaiting the reconstructive mind
that would write down and settle its inflec-
tions, and give order to the chaos of thought
underlying the harsh and quite unformed
vernacular, these translations were abounding
with errors, bristling with circumlocution, or
engulfed in dark abysses of unpractical com-
mentary ; and while clearness and perspicuity
were creeping into all affairs of ordinary life,
our ignorance of the Sacred Tongue shut us
off from the vividity of the life depicted in the
noble pages of the Bible, and only when some
such scholars as Walton or Kennicott opened
the portals of learning, did we get even a
glimpse of the wonderful history of that stiff-
necked people, of whose wanderings in the
wilderness, thrust forth for a space from the
communion of its fellow-nations, the Book of
Exodus, which it is our office here to examine,
is the record.
Thus, notwithstanding our advance in the
knowledge of science, in our acquaintance
with the East and its customs, our good store
of philological means and lexicographical
appliances to boot, so long as it was considered
unnecessary to give practical illustration to
the history contained in the Bible, we re-
mained at a standstill after the promul-
gation of the Authorised Version of King
James, which, although abounding with
mistranslations and misconceptions, still con
tinues the uncorrected text-book of our
lives and faith. Hence our knowledge of the
Word of God derived from the English trans-
lation is of necessity imperfect. The same
may be said of the Melanchthon-Luther trans-
lation in Germany. While for the sterling
value of the English Bible, as a noble piece of
English composition, we have the utmost
respect, we cannot but regret the want which
has long existed of a version equal in
linguistic exactitude and archaeological ac-
curacy to the capacity and advancement of the
age we live in.
To what wonderful and excellent results,
considered from a philological point of view
alone, has the necessity of translating the
Scriptures led us ! As soon as a language
had, in the media3val period, arrived at such a
point of advancement that its grammatical
peculiarities became susceptible of classifica-
tion, we find its code of intlecticns settled and
ordered by translations from the Old and New
Testaments, or by rude songs founded upon
scripture history. Languages otherwise utterly
lost to us live in history eulely in consequence
of the versions of Soripture existing in them.
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