The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-13 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 13, 1852.

THE POLICE COURTS.
MANS—ION-HOUSE.
SANITARY PROSECUTION AGAINST TEE CITY
GAS COMPANY.
Me. Gray, the chairman of the City of Leeks Gas Com-
pany, appeared In answer the complaint of a member of the
inhabitants of balm be file vicinity of Bridge-street, Black-
Ilium the bathe. Mt the refuse of the emant flow
her th themid the Itma
maim sso tie
Mato river
the imadaent Imant of the publis
peillation .
The City fielisiter append fee the prosecutioa.
Mr. Carlow imtruslind Mr. Timothy Tyrrell, the so-
licitor to the oompeay, eiMmied for the defendant.
The presmdiage erase eat of the report made to the Cow
itheionere el the City hewers by the surveyor of that WV.
Mr. Thomas G. Conyers, of No. 33, New
secretary to the Crown Life Assurance Comleikr
by the City Solicitor, said—l remember ha thee with
other gentlemen to the Commissioners of et the
Guildhall to make a complaint. As I was subthelleg hem
the Temple Gardens to my house this day these weeks at
half past four o'clock to the best of my YAK I found a
very disagreeable smell which increased inn awry when I
reached Tudor-stmet where there are some gas works. I
was so impressed with it when I got.home where they
thought it preceded from the drains, but 1 concluded it
must have orignated In Dorset-street. 'the 'leach was so
bad as to lead me to believe that if long permitted to con-
tinue it would be productive of very had consequences. It
appeared to be as bad in my house as it had been in Tudor-
street.
Mr. Michael Seward, of No. 9, Chatham.plese, exa-
mined by the City Solicitor—l am not in the least
connected with the new gas company, nor bevel boon ap-
plied to by any one connected with that to NSW
plain against the company summoned upon ifti ethesime.
I did not particularly observe on the day specified the bad
smell. On many other days I experienced smells of the
meet abominable description ; and on a previous eveting,
between 9 and 10 o'clock, the smell was particularly offen-
sive. This obnoxious smell arises at particular periods,
semistiesse It SC been, sometimes in ;W. In consequence
Mlle peededisel be.. of these most offensive smells I wrote
sham to Mr. Gm, the Chairman of ,the City of London
Mae Company, on the 30th June, 1850, and he came to my
Wisc. I stated to him and the °Seem who
accompanied him that I had discovered that
their gas works had pipes laid down into the
Thames, and that they let off their waste water into the
river, which I believed to be the cause of the horrible eel.
since. Mr. Gray did not deny that they hail pipes down
there, and he promised that it should be remedied. He
stated to me that they were about to adopt the new system
of clarifying gas, and that then there would be no neeeisity
for letting the waste water into the Thames. Ile trusted,
therefore, that time would he allowed for these alterations
to be made, and promised if that were done the nuisance
should be abated. Previously to that, and in consequence
of the letter I had written, Mr. Gains, the engineer of the
company, called upon me. I had stated in the letter that it
weedd be painful to me to adopt hostile measures, but if the
offence were not discontinued, I must attend the committee
upon the new gas bill then before the How of Linda.
The City Solicitor—Did you attend that committee ?
Witness—l did not. I was induced by the promise I
received that the evil should be remedied from going
before it. 1 stated that I intended to use what was going
on for our purposes. Mr. Gains called 011 me ten minutes
after the letter had been sent, and stated that he did so ea
behalf of the company. He denied alto-nether that they
had pipes down into the Theme*, and he denied that they
had let the waste water into the river, and that they were
the cause of the nuisance I complained of. 110 had
a good deal more conversation of a contradictory
nature in which I asserted, and he denied, that
they had pipes. I was induced four or five days
afterwards to go down to the gas company's
aim at the request of my friend Mr. Anderton.
I mentlithe, and saw the secretary, Mr. Benham, who be-
meshy slating that 1 was altogether mistaken as to this
bibs the cause of the nuisance ; that he had a bottle of
elate water taken up after it lied been discharged into the
Thames; that he hail had it analysed, and that it contained
a certain quantity, but a very small quantity, of deleterious
matter in it. I then observed, Oh, then you do let the
waste water into the Thames, do you ?" "Yes," replied
be, "we do. I don't mean to deny that." 1 then turned
wound to Mr. Gains, and asked him how he dared to tell me
each a falsehood, to which be could make no answer. I
then asked them to show mo where these pipes
were, which they consented to do, and they ac-
aordingly showed them to me. There arc two
pipes. One of them was that which I had discovered
biere, and which goes directly out from the gas works.
The other slants upwards in a diagonal direction, coming
oat opposite the V. hitch iars Dock. They then wished to
panuede me that they were not the cause of the particular
smell of whichl complained. I 11.111 taken down to the I
I
mouth of the sewer in order to be c nivincid that I was
wrong. When, however, we went down to the sewer, the
flavour arising therefrom was a comparative nosegay to the
salience of which we complained, and in consequence I
stated that I should persevere in having the nuisance abated.
The City Solicitor—Did you examine the pipe ?
Witnees—l (lid. There was a piece broken out of it.
We examined the fracture at low water, which had
the gas colour and flavour, called "Blue Jack," which is
olinstantly floating about there. In justice to thine gentle-
men, I must say that after Mr. Gray pledged his word that
the nuisance should be abated, I rested upon his word that
it should be done.
Here the correspondence alluded to in the evidence was
read, after which—
The witness, in answer to the City Solicitor's question,
whether he had anything more to state which might be use-
ful to the inquiry, continued :—On Tuesday three weeks
he went to the Commissioners of Sewers. On the Wednes-
, day morning following, as I had had so much comenunicm
Don with gas-works, I called to see the engineer. He wee
sot there, but he came in about an hour afterwards. I
stated to him the complaint which the inhabitants
Bridgeoareet went up to make to the Commis-
sioners of Sewers previously ; and that I did so
is order that the company might be made acquainted with
what had really taken place—that it was the spuetancous
act of the street. The engineer then said, "Well, it can't
be helped; we must pull our machiet ry about at certain
times, and whenever we do pull it about this nuisance w ill
arise." I then asked him whether it was inherent in the
system. He said it was. I asked him whether they pulled
the machinery about previously to Monday. He said they
had, and also that it had 11C1:11 pulled about on the previous
Sunday evening at ten o'clock, and that the stench was the
consequence. After discussing the matter over and over
again, he said that it was absolutely necessary that about
every 24 or 3C hours these scrubbers should be cleaned,
otherwise something fatal would occur, or a coroner's
inquest would be the consequence.
Mrs. Anderton, wife of Mr. James Anderton, of No. 20,
New Bridge-street, said—On Monday three weeks, about
eve o'clock in the afternoon, we found a very bad smell in
the house. It affected my throat, and made me quite ill.
I was unable to do anything, and was obliged to go to bed
from the effects of it. It appeared to come mostly from the
lank of the premises, and impregnated every room. When
I opened the window in the back I was attacked in the
throat. My servants complained of it. It occasioned vio-
lent nausea for a time, but the nausea did not continoe long.
John Bull, piermaster at Illackfriare—On the 3rd of July
I accompanied Pearce end uthers to the house oppoeite to
the gas works. I saw a man dig fur a pipe, and two pipes
were found. In pursuing one of them towards the river
we found a hole in the largest pipe eleven inches
and a quarter in the bare. It appeared to me to
have been drilled through. The sin of the orifice
was three inches and a half. There was a slate or stone
covering it. On uncovering the pipe, we came to the orifice
I put my hand iota the hole fur the purpose of
taking some out, and filled a bottle with the steal took
out. The stuff was sticking to the inside of the pipe. 1
have been pier-master 7 years, and have seen the gas fluid
flouting on tho surface of the water in the ebb tide. I have
observed tho state of the river for the last two er three
years. I have very often experienced unpleanut smells.
Particularly when steamboats come along the river, the
smetis awful. I have picked up fish half dead in my net
out a the river. On the Monday dune weeks there was a
great stink.
Cross-examined by Mr. Clarkson —I cannot say how
many gas-works empty their refuse into the Thames. I
never went to look. A common sewer is by no means a
pleasant amell—(laughter?—far from it.
Mr. J. L. Barclay, of kurringdon.stteet, wholesale patent
medicine manufacturer, aid-1 am one a those who com-
plained, and am not connected with any Rita company. I
carnet keep my children in the hence in consequence of the
smells, and have taken a house for them in Dulwich.
Mr. Richards, of 40, New Bridge-str. et, also bore testi-
mony to the badness of the smells.
Mr. I'. Taylor, lecturer on chemistry, described the stuff
contained in the bottles produced as composed of the waste
water from a gas manufactory.
The Officer of Health of the City of London said he
would expect to flud persona in the vicinity of such a
nuisance complaining of nausea and headache, and heat and
burning of the throat, such as had been described.
Mr. Clarkson said the company which he had the honour
to represent took it fur granted that the evidence had been
taken in this case with a view to an investigation before a
jury. Ile assured the Lord Mayor that the object his
clients had at heart was to go at once with all the facts
before a tribunal of the kind, which they had no doubt
would do them justice. It was not his intention to attribute
motives fur the particular evidence which hail been Riven,
but he would state that &great many of the aUitetucies would
receive many important contradictions and qualifications
from thine to whom they especially referred. It was cer-
tainly a very extraordinary thing, that in a locality in
which such coutbivatiuna of villaiisows smcll6 were said to
abound, hotels of high character were established rind main-
tained their position notwithstanding. It would be Woad
that before the proper tribunal the case would assumes
very different aspect.
Ihe City Solicitor said the question was in the hands of
the Lord Mayor, and according to his lordship's directioth
the caw should be proceeded with by iudictm int or otherwise.
The Lord Mayor (Alderman Wilson hoeing been obliged
to leave the hunch before the long investigation termi-
nated) said lie felt a difficulty in deciding what course to
take without consulting his brother magistrate upon a
question which appeared to him to involve such important
I interests.
The City Solicitor mid that his lordship would feel pro-
, biddy gratified at reading over the short hand writer's
notes before he gave his direction=. It would cer-
tainly be n to secure the river from further polls-
tion, such as had been described, pending the deliberaticwa
on the question as to the nature of the proceedings to be
adopted.
The Lord Mayor—l shall read over the evidence, lad
decide, with the assistance of my brother magistrate, to the
beet dray ability and judgment.

end, the sane position as at the Int santiag. The decli-
nes eithis asset, which west to milehlish the ps
had newer boa immeshed Is the 'MOM degreellir
bees aplomb. against, led ths auwwweenes was to sued the
haling to a jury, which eitedtood Lasideroble delay,
may to trusted by the Lords ledises as yyasMiese set
feet havie hese coosidered by Lard Osmpbe gumless
of law. Thu eine seeordingly stood OM 4lrbeat tens I
and his ILL% as British amataate, net bag eery
liar with Le Liaised,' el thershl it lard that
their remedy amid be se Liked law.
ef allteimat. Iwo-
easy, they MI net wish to more
of
the Lad
Loved asseaeobieut the wig el the bankrupt
was net anemia to their dills.
ills Hamm saki °risks he bia supreessd at the lad
reeding was act at all shaken, awl be siweld Lai with the
cuss as he then lodinated. He had said that if the ofikid
misses LAW thst he bed Lambed die accounts on
behalf of ths wellieve `caeca_ y. sad WY satisfied there-
with, he shesid, la all pretabUity, think it right to say
that the Iteshatoteeibt le peso Ormidering the length-
ened time whisk the sass bed beta Like the court, and
all the eireamstesses of it ; and assuming that the official
amigos, fortified lint he had examined all the accounts
and igases, sal was satisfied with Loy the bankrupt
weaN be Mewed to pass his last esanisades. This would
be without prefelise to any individual milt= who wished
for • feather ezmiontisa, or to say of the NM erediton ;
and, °toms., se we wield be mile is Ls ether bank-
ruptcy of this bankroll boring peal lib bust ountindiss.
It we sot at all to be takes as say mem why ths asset
might not come to a diarist eradeaw wpm the evidence
which alight come before it under that bankruptcy.
Mr. Penney asked that • day shield be fixed for the
certificate meeting.
The Commissioner—Yon may have a day appointed ; but
I must at once intimate to you that there will be consider-
able objection to considering the question of the certificate
of Frank Contain gone until the question of the joint bank-
ruptcy is also before the court. For this reason—there
being a joint and a separate bankruptcy, and the pro-
bability being that the joint creditors will only come in
under the joint bankruptcy, it wouhlbe rather a strong
measure, in the present position of the case, to give him a
wetlands, the effect of which would be to release him from
all the debts, joint and separate.
Mr. Peachey said it was competent for the joint creditors
to come in under this bankruptcy, so as to oppose the certi-
ficate. Ile must, therefore, ask for • day to be appointed.
Mr. Lawrence would consent to a long day being named,
without prejudice to his application then for a postpone-
ment. Meantime he wished to enter a claim to prove, and
to be heard in opposition to the certificate, on behalf of
Masers. Lafuente and Webster, and Messrs. Peter Clarke
sled Co., of :Sante.
Mr. Nobler proposed to enter a similar claim for Mr.
Winne', of Sante.
Mr. Cotterill objected to this. The wieners were about
le declare a dividend, and the effect of these claims would
he to tie up the wets.
Mr. Groom, in answer to a question, stated that there
was about 5,0001. in hand.
Mr. Cotterill said that the whole of then assets had
arises from the business as carried on by Mr. Castelli him-
self since the dissolution in 1850.
Ills Honour said the just course would be not to appoint
• dividend sitting at present, but to let the matter stand
ever until it was seen whether there was any probability of
this special case being decided within a rearuneblo time.
The 7th of September was then named fur the certificate
meeting.