The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

ma& the eagerness and zeal with which every Papist in either Honer ef
Parliament has striven to carry this measure,
. for stripping the B
its ritish
Constitution, as far as possible, of Christian. character. Can any ega.
not absolutely childish, imagine that all Cardinal WISEMAN'S humble
wants are really and honestly turned into ,`4l44ds of. civ4 and religion
liberty"? , mitt, ttpttl. wne
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Mr. F. 0. WARD is a clever man, but a. thorough • doctrinsiie.
He is perpetually getting hold of a single idea, the truth of which je 80
strongly impressed on his mind as to shut out from his vieer ail the
balancing and countervailing fhcts, which 'precasts!: ii li' knifrie:,itid '6eessential to a correct notion of the whole case:::', Pik, I. : ficitn years
ago, he actually published in the Morning, 4iranic
~ tyro or three
t*
letters, extolling the Parisian system of" licensed tradem",lw ;which only
just so many butchers, or so many bakers, were permitted to exist in
that city—a system which naturally worked well for the Ineleded and
favoured few, but quite the reverse foi"tlhe excluded andfforbiacn many,
Within the last year or two the French Govexnment.haa had to abandon
this same system—a system which, if good ihmouty, ought to be good
for all, and which ought to impose upon the. itPtiternal Government"
the duty of permitting or forbidding marriages, and almost of prescribing
the number of children. In the same vivid, and we have no doubt sin-
cere, view, Mr. WARD has now seized hold of one or two notions con-
nected with the drainage of the metropolis, And these,
,potions have
some truth in theM—Just as it was unquestionably tree, that 2,000
..
bakers might make a good living in Pirta,-iibile 5,000 0,1401 t he half-
starved. The doctrines in question he thus states : i, ,i j •I, ,
1. All the rainfall which visits the whole m,tropelitam 4lisiri..
ct is dice
to the-river, and to divert it from A* ,gigerimi,tq,4aroduea -itu injurious
and Perilous result. .. ,iii :-- ,'11:141M teoin If '11:141M illi'S
2. All the excremeitliiioas matter. mlatti is dot•'to ibefflowl,l and
it is a fatal blunder to Omit itinto the rivet.? . ,I, 1.1.),1mi•4it 0
These two doctrines idad to this practical result, that the meetepofis
ought to have a double erten of drainage—one for the rainfall and
another for the water-closets; the rainfall being at once sent into the
river by the shortest road; the manure being saved and used, upOn the
land. Now, these two notions have undsabted)r 00111e*, frdA 'Meat
them ; but Mr. WARD has shut out, as his =sutler Wa:tieslit of other filets
which greatly modify them. For instance :'.4461 II "li'r• ''l '.' ' ' . 1 ''' •
1. We have been, for the last thirty"yisfesiltaouglit lin-
proving the water-closet provision of the', nicht poliii, n'aholishing
cesspools, so that we have nearly got the " exeretlientithibe) Matter" of
the human race into a manageable condition. But what have we done
towards providing water-closets for our beasts?' 'rlie iiiiijmals' of the
metropolis are reckoned by scores of thousands, and their ordure by daily
scores of tons. All this is at present mixed with the rainfall, a large
portion of it being scattered about the, streets. Supposing we created
a distinct house-drainage ibr the '4 excrettientitibus' 'matter" of
2,500,000 human beings, what is to be done with the hundreds of
waggon-loads of that produced by the beasts ? How is this to be got
into the water-closet drainage?

2. To remove manure, itself a heavy matter, we must have some
kind of motive power. In some cities (as at Paris) it is carried off in
carts and waggons. But London would not submit to this. In London
it is carried off by a large flow of water, the rainfall being continually
needed to cleanse and scour out the sewers. Should we, then, withdraw
the bulk of the water, and require the manure to " move on " by the
mere aid of the house water-supply, mightnpt :this prove insufficient?
The practical difficulty is this :—At present we carry off the ordure
by a large mass of water mixed with it and bearing it along. Withdraw
this, and we may find the movement of the "excrementitious matter"
too slow. We may be blocked up with, and imbedded in, inanure.
Our choice appears to be this. At present, we float and carry off an
enormous mass of valuable manure ,by means of a still more enormous
mass of water; but then the result is that the manure is loott by reason
of the dilution. Stop this great dilution, and you may stop he motion
of that matter which we need to have removed. ONO Mr. WARD
show us how the manure is to be carried off without, oirts dr wheels,
and yet remain undiluted and therefore valuable? Still, we must admit
that he has presented an important question to the Government and the
Board of Works. And we have no doubt that this question will receive
an earnest, painstaking consideration. Doubtless, the saving and the
using of such an enormous and valuable mass of manure is an object of
prodigious moment, if it can he shown to be,reak sracticable.
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It may be definitely announced, upOtt• viery litanthFq,,i that the
age of sentimental legislation is passed;
,-.7--
begun. Lord Tit t• Ro has pronounced jndgitietiii to' hat -, 7. iik. tse House
gad 'au' '",.,'.1. .. .i. era is
of Lords; Mr. Herr, who has heard legislatiiilii 'Utter their oplons in a
public capacity, and, what is more important , has attended to their ex-
pressions in a private capacity, is convinced, by comparison, of the fact ; and
the Times, finding itself every day less potential with men who think and
discern, annoyed at its repeated mistakes, and anxious to conceal its real
want of information, fortifies itself ii well-known principles of trade, and
supplies average articles, which may just meet bet never exceed the average
demand for facts or reasons. The age no longer cares about abstract princi-
ples; we have passed out of the pupillary state of disti • • between
right and wrong. Any public recognition of a ores " . of more
iarfri7

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