The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

all able in draining them • and thus 40oV‘Ily
spoil one or other of them, but we iii, our
rivers. By a due economy of wider atigiiiid
we should regulate the river currents and mill-
streams, which are becoming more aid more
untrustworthy every year. We have torrent. or
dry channels where there need to be a steadily
flowing stream ; we have either muddy floods on
the meadows or muddy shoals in the watercourse,
where formerly thee were clear and uniform
depths lively with fish.
While the supply of the pure element becomes

capricious and yet declining, the supply of impure
elements from the human frame and the apparatus
of human industry is always on the increase. This
is one class of mischiefs ; and if we bad to deal
with them singly, we might hope that individuals,
and neighbours, and communities would presently
set to work in their own place, store up the pure
water which now flows to waste, and when it
must depart so regulate its course as to do the
best that can be done by the river.
But there is a fatal mischief which individuals
and neighbourhoods cannot deal with. The dis-
trict or arterial drainage which has been attempted
under the Act of 1861, and all that can be
attempted under the same conditions, must alto-
gether derange our river system by its partial
character. It goes on without any consideration
of higher or lower, of continuity or uniformity ;1
and thus one tract of land floods another or lay,
it dry ; one has an outfall and another has not ;
one work is properly based on due under-
drainage, while another is unprepared for by any
underdrainage at all ; and all the time the In-
closure Commissioners, who are supposed to be

managing the whole business, have to sit by and
seethe ruin wrought without any power to interfere.
They fix the limits of the area to be treated, and
they sanction the raising of the needful funds by the
mortgage of the rates ; but they cannot interfere
with the way in which the work is done. This evil has
become more and more apparent during the three
years of the operation of the Act ; and now that
the LORD CHANCELLOR'S newlmprovement of Land
Act will create, in conjunction with the Act of
1861, new drainage to a great extent, there is
really no time to lose in inquiring bow the neces-
sary and inevitable drainage of our soil can be
made a saving operation for the whole country,
instead of a fatal procedure, as far as it goes, in
hundreds of the valleys and table-lands of England.
A wise nnderdrainage of the productive soil is a
work which might, by itself, have been left to the
advancing intelligence of the landed interest ; but
the system of arterial drainage which we shall have
to establish sooner or later is a work for the na-
tional understanding to employ itself upon. The
first step is such an inquiry as the Government is',
requested to institute ; and if the drought of this
summer and the consequent prospects of next
winter, with its dear provisions for man and beast,
do not rouse us to obtain that inquiry, it is hard
to see what will. At all events, there is no es-
caping the fact that it is nothing less than our
national water supply that is in question and in

THE REPRESENTATION OF FINSBURY. Lad
night Mr. Torreon addressed the tuba/tants of Clerlienwell,
at Goswell-hall, Cos'sll-street • Mr. A. Walker presided,
sod there was a very large attendance of electors. The
Chairman having briefly introduced Mr. Torten& to the
meeting, that gsatleman expounded his Witiad view at
considerable length. after which a resolution eirpreedng the
opinion of the meeting, that the hon. candidate was a fit
person to represent the borough in parliament, was una-
nimously adopted.
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL Socir'y—On the anni-
versary of the Prince Consort's birthday, 26th of August,
the following bands have volunteered their services to play
Fratnitously at the
_Horticultural Gardena, South
tiensiogton, when the Usrdsm will be freely open to the
public :—the Second Life Guarda,Coldstream nerds, Bugle
Band of Royal Artillery, Hon. Artillery Company,
let Middlesex Engineer Volunteers, St. Georges Rife
Volunteers, North Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, G and H
Divisions of Police ; also Drum and Fife Bands of the Duke
of York's School, Royal Naval Schaal, and St. Philip's
Orphanage Oratory.
CONFTRILATION OF PRISONERS BY THE ARCH-
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY AT MAIDSTONE—On Sunday
morning, shortly after 9 o'clock, his Grace the Archbishop
al Centerbury arrived at the county liaison for the pur-
pose of holding oonfirmatioes in the chapel at the goo/.
He was received b 7 Ceptaia Cheers, R.N., and Major
Best (minting Oates) ; .
by the Rev. Shirley Wachner,
(chan) ; the Rev H. Fitzroy Woobych, M.A.
(assistant chaplain) ; Major Bannister (the governor) ; and
H. W. Joy, Fan., J. P. (surgeon). After the usual
morning service at the men's chapel, which was reed
by the chaplain, his grace delivered a plain affectionate
charge oddness& chisfiy le those shoot to be
confirmed, and, at its close, to the prisoners generally.
Speaking with the loving authority at their spiritual
Father. his words were listened to with breathless atlas-'
Moe, and viably affected his hearers. The number of ma
confirmed was 31. After a abort interval hie grace pro-
ceeded to the women's chapel and confirmed 19 of the
female paean. To them also be delivered • heart-
searching address. We tindentuid that many of these
young women will, et the expiration of their esntences, pro-
ceed to various homes or penitentiaries through the incite.
mentality of the Kent Discharged Primates Aid Society.
The archbishop also held a confirmationservice in All
Seised Church on Saturday afternoon, and in the seine
place on Sunday afternoon, and large masts were con-
both Maeda
__

THE Doris or NoßwlcE.—A disturbance took
place at St. Limners's Church loot week, in coenoxise with
the services and tie presence of the monks. A Mr. Jones,
a plumber and glazier, of the city, happened to stray into
the church to heir the service, and 400 d up daring the pro-
gress of the lame refusing to take s seat when asked to de
so. Wham Genic, had °occluded, sproceeeies, as nanal, was
formed by the monks se their leaving the church, and they
marched down the centre aisle os their way to the monas-
tery. The Yr. Jones mentioned, not nadentandiog the re-
qairentecte of the order that every on should remain lump-
vend until the masks had left the church, presumed to
place his hat on wine beanies(' at the transept. This gave
offence, and a Dr. Panics knocked is off again, which might
have resulted in a serious breach of the peace. The result
wee that a charge and counter-charge were preferred at the
police-court, which ended in the cue being dismissed on
Saturday. Though not approving b' any mean of monkish
ceremonies, we think parties who wish to be present at the
ser►ieee should preserve a proper decometi.—Bury sad Nor-
rielt Poet.

--ffiliilTßltrY TURNPIKES. —Active measures are
being taken for the removal of the toll-bars which pram so
heavily upon the trade of the south side of the Thames.
The Act 27th and 24th Victoria, cap. 73. called " Turnpike
Ads Coetinnanm," Am, provides that the six tete of par-
liament in existence so to the turnpikes on the Bermondsey.
Deptford, and Rotherbithe roada, the Greenwich and
Woolwich Lower-road, the New-croen-roads, and the Sorrev
and Suasex-roada, which latter keep up the gates at Wal-
worth, Kennington-park, and Wandsworth-rued, shall
"continue in force until the Ist of November next year and
no lower, unless parliament in the meantime eontinues the
same " the object being that, unless these several trusts
are continued by individual private acts of next melon, they
shall be determined on the 31st of October, 1865, nod the
reeds then set free from toll gates and ban. Sir George
Grey has stated in a communication to the deputation which
waited upon him on this subject that such is the intention
of the Home-office end be has also addressed a very &Mer-
in letter to the Eial of Lousdale, for the course taken by
the Metropolis Roads Commissioner, last year in earryleg
through the act in reference to the removal of the gates on
;he north side of the Thames. A committee of wharfingers,
millowners, and inhabitants on the Surrey side has been
formed to prosecute the proceeding, necessary for the re-
moval of the sates on the south, and Mr. J. E. Bradield,
who acted in the north side proceedings, conducts the busi-
ness of the Sarin aholitioeists.

THE SYDNEY UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.—The Uni-
veteity Library, Svilney, has been enriched by a present
from the Queen. The governor received by the mall • copy
of the collected speeches of the Prince Consort, with an
autograph from the Queers dedicati it to the univerdty.
His excellency delivered this precious gift in person on thio
let of Jobe. The senate resolved, " That an address to
bet Majesty, exp.nmilve of their gratitude, should be me.
pared by the vicinchanoallor." The volume is bound in
white vellum sod gold, and stamped with the crest, motto.
and name of the Prince Goosed.. In the first page are the
following words written io the Queen's own heed:—" Pre-
sented to the Sydsey University LiUm.y, in memory et her
great and good husband, by his broksn.heartsd widow,
Victoria IL., 1864." The book is to be prootrred as a royal
gift in a box of ask heed with purple velvet
THE BII.EART RIOTS.—THE sl7lw AND
WOUNDIID.—The Northern Whig states that there kayo
been 147 people jojorod with gosobA womb, of which
seven have already been fatal. There roust havebeen many
others of whom no information will probably ever be
received.