The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

THE SHEFFIELD INUNDATION.
(From the She*id Independewt.)
Great as have been the efforts made to clear away
the slush and mod from houses and drub, to restore the
thickly populated parts of the district over which the flood
has mewed to their wonted condition of oecaparative cleanli-
ness, and to give to machinery its accustomed activity, they
have not yet been completely successful. From Bradfield
down to Owlertoo sanitary measures have not been urgent.
The flood 11411 left little behind it in those country districts
but stoned, sod earth, and sand. The few occupied houses
left by the torrent have beau cleaned and monied again a
comforted* appearance, exempt that in many instances
only w retebed wrecks remain of the handsome polished fur
niture which adorned the cottages of better to do artisans.
Temporary wooden bndgee have been erected at Damflask, sad
Rowell bridge acd other places where the old bridges were
swept away. The roads have been cleared and made pass-
able. The owners or occupiers of missing mills have been
busy examining ruins and collecting together such remnants
of 'toile and machinery as the flood has left them. the
sitas of vanished houses have in a few iastances been care-
fuliy explmed for relics of departed friends and relatives.
But the work of rebuilding has scarcely yet begun, and
with the exceptions named the valley remains to all ap-
pearance as it was left by the floi,d, with this difference, that
the " see of mud" which covered the valley is now a dry
sand bank. At Hillsbrough the bridge has been rebuilt,
and traffic has resumed its course along Langsett-road.
Below Ilillabrough the work of renovation has been
rather more actively carried on ; but amid the wide
cease of devastation which the flood has spread over the
opea valley, the little that has been done in the way of
restoration is scir.oly recognised. Farfield and Neepsend
gardens remain just as they were left by the deluge. Here
broken fences, uprooted fruit and other trees, wrecks of cot-
tages and garden houses, hedgerows covered with hay and
straw thicker than summer foliage, and crusted with dirt to
their winutst twigs, vary the landscape, which at Owlertoo
is an alum st unbroken expanse of mud. A slight temporary
foot-bridge has Liken the place of the firm and solid strut.
turn which until a fortnight ago spanned the river at
Hillfoot. Mr. Fawley's tannery, and the adjoining '
work, of Messrs. Marchinton and Makin, have bees in
part restored. Mesas. Butcher and the proprietors
of neighbouring works are also restoring their pro-
mises more or less actively. At these and the menu-
factories which border the river lower down, and were
itreply flooded, every day of stoppage necessarily added,
and that seriously, to the loss resulting from the flood, the
more especially as in many instances orders were large and I
pressing. It would be going too far to say that the damage
caused by the flood has been entirely repaired, and that a I
complete resumption of work has taken place. But at all
these wheels and works, with only a few exceptions, such
es thou of Messrs. Butcher, where the damage was very
extensive, work has been resumed more or less completely.
During Thursday sad Friday tell chimneys were sending
up thsir accustomed volumes of smoke ; grinding stones
were spinning and boning, and machinery was a 'Arlin;
and fettling all along the sides of the Don, pretty
much as before the inundation. It was gratifying to hear,
on all sides, the hum of renewed activity, arid to feel that
tiers most be some end to the enormous claims for comp.°.
satiou with which the unfortunate owoersof the waterworks
will have to deal. In the populous parts of the valley the
work of cleansing sod renovation was very urgent and has I
been caries' on with commpooding activity. Though the
danger of fever and disease from the accumulated filth is in
a great measure past, owing to the judicious precaution
that have been taken, • hard week's work still
remains to be done before a thorough clearance is
etmtal. As we have previously stated, about 100 carts
and antral hundred men have been at work for days
removing the slush, and mud, and filth that encum-
bered the streets on oath side of the river, filled the cellars,
and covered, with a thick adhesive layer, the houses and
yards of the ishabitenta. Hundreds of loade have bees
carted to hollows at Neepuod. to vacant ground below
Sussex-street, and to other places, in addition to the
enormous quantities that have been emptied into the river
at different points in spite of the very violent protest.
of persons considering themselves aggrieved thereby.
acme parts, however, the supply of filth and mud has
seemed to be inexhaustible. As fast as use accumulation
has been carted from the streets another has been
supplied from the cellars awl yards. Orchard-street,
adjoining Harvest-lane, and other streets similarly
situated, are still impassable. Cellars are being emptied
with buckets or barrows, and the slush sod mud carried
out of them lies across the street knee deep. The quan-
tity of such refuse left by the flood io some of the lowest
districts is amazingly large, its vastness being Mex.
pliuble, netnews remembers that, in addition to tbe quantity
deposited in living rooms and yards, there are hundreds of
cellars full to the top. The changing of houses, cellars, and
yards, in many street. is complete as regards occupied .
houses, and as complete in the deserted houses as shovel '
and bosom an make it. Lime sad chloride of lime have
been plentifully used wherever danger to health Ima been
feared. In Harvestelane, sal some other districts, lime has
been scattered over the entire surface of, the streets and I
over the house and cellar floors and yards. The same dim t
infectants bays been mixed with the mod carted into the
hollow,, aid upon occupied site., lime having been used to
such an extent that the heaps of refine look pretty much u
if they Ind been exposed to half as hour's snow storm. The
value of all this is evidenced in the reports of the sanitary
committee of medical men, that the inundated districts are ,
a. healthy as the rest of the town.
A question that constantly occurs to the mind in milking
through the lower districts bordering the Don is, "What
has become of the inhabitants" In some streets there are
whole rows of deserted and ttoeccupied cottages. Families
who have had their clothes and everything else they had
left is their lower rooms earned away or destroyed, and
who, as the condition of being able to remain in comfort,
have had e house and cellar full of filth mad dirt to clear
away, have naturally preferred to seek other abodsa,
tag their landlords to prepare the houses as bait they may
for new and, it is to be hoped, more fortunate tenants.
Shopkeepers, publicans, and others, with ties of business
or convenience, have stuck to their houses despite their
deplorable condition, and laboured bard to cleanse and
renovate them. A few with no such time have also
remained—some of them, no doubt, becalm of their ex-
treme indium*. The feeble and indolent have retired to
their upper moms, leaving the accumulated dirt below to
take its chance of removal. The more active and energetic
have laboured early mid late ; and, as the result of their
exertions. scrupulously clam and elaborately pot-moulded
floors have succeeded to thick layers of filth, and home com-
fort is once more in the ascendeot. At the time of our
inspection not a few were still straggling courageously with
the thick, sticky, but gradually diminishing dirt, with as
evident doerroinatiou to achieve a conquest before the
dawn of another sabbath. One of the saddest evi-
dence' of the ravages of the flood, in the houses of the
poor is to he found in the piles of broken furnitere at
the doors of many of the cottages still occupied. Broken
skeletons of drawers, chair and table legs, sofa backs. legs
and tops of tahles, drawer knob sled sides, and a dozen
other intermits heaped together as the useless wrecks of the
contents of a comfortably furnished room, are to be seep at
rime,. • cottage door. Even in the thickly popula,ed dis-
tricts little proven has yet been aide by the builders.
Here and there • fallen fence well has been rebuilt, bat
Lundrede of houses deprived of one or more of their wells,
of their &ors, doors and windows, or dashed wholly to the
ground, remain just as the flood left them, to excite the
wonder and gratify the curiosity of the thousands of persons
who daily visit the town to see the devastation.
The piles of timber end other articles which the Good
piled up ..gainet the bridges and other places have bees
removed, hut only to be succeeded by great heaps of
mud, which have been carted from the works, streets, and
houses, and for the removal of which • second flood would
be acceptable, if only it would come on • sufficiently dimi-
nished scale to be confined within the river walla, The
recovery of bodice proceeds veer slowly. Only about six
have teen recovered during the week. Of these there were
forted tot Saturday. Mrs. Nokia and John Millwood, at
Neepsend.bridge, and • child not identified at Hillfootweir.
Two children were found at Marshall's paper-mill, Oster.
ton, one on Monday and the other on Tuesday ; and oa
Thursday • baby, supposed to be that of Mrs. Price, of
Malin-bridge. was found at Burrow-lee, Dear °slates.
There are still :t0 or 40 remora missing. Cheap trains were
run on Friday from Manchester and other places, and the
imene of devastation, as on previous days, was visited by
thousands of people of all classes.

HETI lIEMENT OP TH RVIHT HON. SIR F. T.
EA ;am:, Bahr., M.P.—lt is with unfeigned regret that we
Tilegraph) have to announce the intention of
• e.:r esteemed borough member, Sir F. T. Baring, to retire
from the representation of Portsmouth at the next gene' al
elective. We are sure that that regret will be shared by
all nu ~.tancis's parliamentary supporters, and we believe
we are justified in saying that the right boo. baronet will
retire irdo private life with the goodwill end esteem of his
I.vfaiuul opponents as well an of his political friend.. The
subroined letter explains the reasons of Sir Francis's
intended retirement —" Stratton, March 24th,
My dear Sir.— I address you as chairman of my com-
mittee et the last election. and wish you would inform my
friends, out make it generally known, that it is not my in.
teition to become a candidate on the dissolution of the
greseiit t o Hien-mot. It is hardly necessary to give any rai-
sins iu detail. No one will feel surprised that I cannot face
en election contest with the same vigour as I have don. on
frrmer o-csoiooa, 0r undertake if elected to mrtorm effi-
meutly the duties which fall on the member for Portsmouth.
It is time for me to retire, and leave the held epee to
others. Ido not expect en immediate dissolution, and
wished to have delayed this announcement until the time
for the election approached, and thus have snared the borough
the bustle of a long canvases:id all the ineormeninem attend-
leg a protracted election contest. But from many quarters I
bear the tan active CritiVae has already begun. It is necessary,
therefore, in justice to my friends and electors generally,
that my intentions should be known—that they may not
act under the supposition that I should stand again and be
taken by surprise when the dimolutton is announced. It is
not the f r Ter time for me to issue a farewell address, and
lam not sorry to poetises. that duty. My long ooenexion
with Port.mouth, the frieedships, penonal and political,
wi.ieh I have formed there, the many kindnesses I have
received, the conidenoe with which I have been honoured
for so moat yearn, cannot to forgotten, end will make the
task pun' .l (however neeeseeryl when at the diuolution I
shall hove to my • formal ' farewell.' —I em, of, dear sir,
yours very truly, V. T. BARING. —A. Nuance, E.q."
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