The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

HOPE FOR THE THAMES.

THERE is substantial truth in the old adage that
" when things have come to the worst, they will
mend." A great many evils are borne patiently
(or impatiently) because their removal seems diffi-
cult, or the way very doubtful ; until at last the
burden grows intolerable, a vehement effort is
made, and it is cast off.

Several concurring causes—the continual in-
crease of the filth poured into the I'hames-1
long succession of dry weather, diminishing the
volume of its stream—and, to crown all, an ex-
ceedingly hot season—have, together, brought
the river into a condition of settled filthiness,
and created an almost continual stench. This is
a state of things quite new, and altogether un-
bearable. All parties and all classes now agree
that " something must immediately be done."
This urgent necessity at once produces this
good, that the two Boards which have been " pro-
tocolizing " for two years past, the Government
Board of Works and the Metropolitan Board,
are forced at once to make up their differences,
and to determine that they will, if possible, agree
upon some course of action. And, in order that
our readers may understand the exact position of
the question, we will, as briefly as possible, state
where the matter now stands.

Two Commissions had broken down, to whom
" the Main Drainage" had been intrusted;
when, in 1855, the Government determined to
create the METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS,
chiefly in order to deal with this great question,
and to effect the object by a rate on the metro-
polis. That Board met in January, 1856, and
set to work with such zeal, that by Midsummer
it had prepared and submitted to the Chief Com-
missioner a plan. This great celerity is accounted
for by the fact that this new Board was enabled
to operate with the means and arrangements
which the two previous Commissions had be-
queathed to it.
Sir BENJAMLN HALL objected to the first plan
of the Board, and, subsequently, to a second
plan, on the ground that the outfall was too near
the metropolis. The Board, then, by a con-
ference, ascertained his views on this point, and,
in December, 1856, it delivered in a third plan,
in which his wishes as to the outfall were fully
met. And this is the plan which, we believe,
will now be carried into effect.

Sir BENJAMIN HALL, then, committed a
blunder. The Act, passed by himself, gave him
a veto ; and nothing more. He was fully en-
titled, before assenting to the plan offered to
him, to call in an experienced engineer, and to
take his opinion, whether such plan was feasible.
But he did more. He formed a new Commission
of three engineers, and he gave them instructions,
which empowered them to form a new plan.
They took seven months to report, and then
they brought up this new plan. But all this,
which was quite unauthorized by the Act, merely
created delay, discussion, and difference of
opinion. To this one false step of Sir BENJAMIN
HALL'S we must attribute the past delay of
eighteen months.
Matters being in this unsatisfactory state, the
present alarm springs up, and all men agree that
" something must be done." The METROPOLITAN
Boma) met on Tuesday last, and agreed upon a
course of action ; which was laid before the
Chief Commissioner, Lord JOHN MANNERS, on
the following Thursday. The main heads of
that scheme may be thus described:-
1. The Board adheres to its plan of December,
1856, fur a system of intercepting sewers for the
whole metropolis, extending front Hammersmith
and Wandsworth down to Woolwich and Barking.
The outfall proposed is near Erith. But the
Board leaves this question open. It has always
declared that it feels no objection to the carrying
the sewage twenty miles further down the river,
provided the Government will find the additional
cost. Its repugnance merely is to the taxing
the people of the metropolis for that which is
not a metropolitan necessity. If, therefore, the
Government think that the sewage should be

carried down to Sea Reach, and will provide the
extra 2,000,0001. which will be required for that
purpose, the Board will readily follow its instruc•
tions in this matter.

2. Similarly submissive is it on the question of
a Thames embankment. The Board does not
adopt such a scheme ; but if an embankment of
the Thames, from Westminster to Londcn
Bridge, is thought advisable, the Board
undertake it on receiving a contribution in aid
from the national revenues.

3. All plans for deodorizing sewage have
hitherto resulted in financial failure. Still, as
deodorization has some recommendations—esoe-

cially in obviating the necessity of throwing any
filth into the river—the Board agrees to make
trial of it, in the western district of the me-
tropolis.
Such is the present scheme of the Metropolitan
Board, upon which Lord JOHN MANNERS will
have immediately to give his decision. But the
Board adds now, as it has always added, a request
that it may have the aid of the Government in
raising the needful funds. Without a guarantee
of some kind from the Treasury, the Board
would not find it very easy to borrow 3,000,000/.
or 4,000,0001. on moderate terms. And if re-
pelled by the Treasury in this request, and told
to shift for itself, the Board would be very likely
to throw up the whole work in disgust, and to
leave the Government to work out the problem
for itself. But if met by the Government with
kindness and ready aid, this great work may now
be really commenced before the summer is ended,
and the year 1860 would not open before some
considerable progress had been made.

To any and every scheme, however, some
opposition will spring up. We observe that on
the same day which carried the deputation from
the Metropolitan Board of Works to the Chief

Commissioner, another deputation waited upon
him from Erith and its neighbourhood, to depre-
cate any plan which should propose to east the
sewage into the river near that place. That such
a repugnance and alarm should be felt is very
natural, more especially on the part of men who,
like one of the leaders of this Erith deputation,
desire to let some land at Erith on building
leases. Such a speculation would evidently
be retarded by the proposal to make Erith the
spot where the London sewage should be dis-
charged. Private interests of this sort will every-
where obtrude themselves. But they must be
overruled, or the stench which the river now
causes in London will never be remedied.

MORMOXISM IN DIFFICULTIES.
AT the foot of the Lake of Derwentwater there is,
or was, no long time ago, to be heard a remark-
ably fine echo. It attracted during the summer
a large number of tourists, and gave to the place
a religious value which was turned to proper
account by the hotel-keeper. Of course echoes
cannot be produced for nothing, and the echo at
Lodore was, on the whole, rather expensive. It
was sufficiently pliant, however, and adapted
itself according to pecuniary circumstances.
"The first quality," a really fine, full, and well-
recommended-echo, could only be had for five
shillings, which seas not dear, the price being
little less than the cost of the gunpowder expended
in producing it ; but an inferior echo by no means
unsatisfactory might be enjoyed by tourists of
limited means for half that sum. On a similar
graduated scale to that of the English echo, the
superior echoes and visions with which Mr.
littumAsi YOUNG has regaled from time to time
his wonderful colony at the foot of the Salt Lake
have adapted themselves to the force of outward
circumstances ; and at present echoes and visions
of only a very inferior quality can be produced.
Having exhausted his figurative supply of salt-
petre and sulphur, and having signally failed in
his attempt to disperse or circumvent the United
States army in its advance towards Utah, Mr.
BRIGHAM YOUNG makes the best echo he can
afford under the circumstances, and has been
commanded

o destroy the cities, and to

68

occupy Southern settlements. That, in fact,
as it appears to us, is the only course which
Mr. Ritual/km YOUNG can safely pursue. No
prophet, nor seer, however ancient his style,
however lofty his pretensions, can contend against
Destiny, especially when that personage is sup-
ported by eight or ten thousand riflemen. Hunger,
and frost, and cold, and marauding Indians, were
evidently fighting against the Gentiles, and in
favour of Prophet YOUNG, but when Gentiles
are found who can live upon oil and candles—who
can starve a whole winter in snow and frost,
bivouac in bleak plains, and make their way
through intricate gorges, as brave American
Gentiles have done, what can the ablest prophet
do ? Resignation under arduous circumstances
was the favourite doctrine of the Eastern, as it
seems to be of the Western prophet. Only the
force of that iron necessity which vanquished
classical mythology can vanquish a mythology
which is anything but classical.

Mr. BRIGHAM YOUNG, having had a very
peremptory summons served upon him, finding
a very strong and determined company posted at
the entrance of his premises, his domestic ar-
rangements being by no means in a satisfactory
con lition, thinks it advisable to remove to the
South. There are hiptorical precedents for such a
course. JOHN of LEYDEN, if we remember right,
removed, though disadvantageously, when the
Bishop of MUNSTER took possession of the city,
and Prophet SMITH also removed under equally
painful but pressing circumstances. It will not,
therefore, be matter of surprise that ex-President
YOUNG should announce his intention of removal
in his own very characteristic manner. To the
Mormon congregation assembled at the Taber-
nacle in Utah for Sunday recreation, Mr. YOUNG
is reported to have spoken as follows :
" I have a good mind to tell a secret here ;
I believe I will tell it anyhow. They say there
is a fine country down South there. Sonora is
it ? Is that your name for it ? Do not speak of
this out-of-doors, if you please."
-At the date of this notice, Governor CUMMING,
the newly-appointed President of the territory,
had made a peaceable, if not triumphal, entry
into Utah. An escort of armed Danites con-
ducted him at night to the entrance of the Mor-
mon settlement. At every turn of the road par-
ties of armed Mormons were posted, and the
Governor was received with a military salute and
every demonstration ofpopular welcome. Bonfires
kindled all along the hills, which were still covered
with snow, lit up the marvels of the valley. On
Governor CuMMING'S arrival, the records and State
papers were duly delivered up in perfect preserva-
tion, and, with the exception of a momentary tu-
mult in the Tabernacle, which the new Governor
somewhat needlessly provoked, there was no
show of resistance. The preparations which had
been made for a move evinced the still potent
authority of the chiefs, and the obduracy of the
Mormon fanaticism. In many of its details, this
second migration reads like a chapter out of
Ilerodotus or Ciesar. All those living in the
southern part of the territory were directed to
quit their houses first, in order that the vacant
dwellings might serve as a shelter and resting-
place for those who should follow from the north.
The roads were everywhere filled with waggons
laden with provisions and household furniture
--women and children, often without shoes and
hats, driving the flocks they knew not where, for
" It is the will of God" cried these poor miser-
able fanatics. On the part of the leaders, we are
told, there was a good deal of stoicism. Appa-
rently without reluctance they resigned their
spacious houses, and joined the long train of their
followers. Due notice was given that the city
would be burnt as soon as the Gentile army set
foot in it ; and it seems by no means unlikely
that a chosen band may be commanded by the
shrewd Prophet to return and take advantage of
any favourable juncture for repossessing them-
selves of the soil. Under these circumstances,
the proclamation issued by the President of the
United States, and the attitude of the invading
army, is wise and conciliatory ; and though no
more than sonic 120 have claimed the protection
of the new Governor, and asked for help to
enable them to return to a monogamous country,
there can be little doubt that a result has been
obtained by the Executive of the United States
no less creditable than it is auspicious.