The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-19 00:00:00

THE VACANT SEE OF LLANDAFF.

A meeting took place yesterday evening, at the
Freemasons' Tavern, which was convened by gentlemen
belonging to the principality, with a view to an expreuien
of opinion in gavotte of the appointment of a Welsh clergy-
man to the vacant see of Llandaff. The subject wee one
which derives additional interest from the fact that the de-
ceased prelate, not long before his death, refused to institute
a clergyman who bad been appointed to a living in his
diocese by the Lard Chancellor, on the expreu ground that
he was not acquainted with the Welsh language, and that
although the clergywan offered to learn, and actually com-
menced learning, the native tongue, the refusal was per-
risied in.
The choir was taken about half past seven by Mr. Barer.
Law SIZXCE.
The sitting was addressed by Mr. G.MCWr, Mr. Owen
Rowland, Dr. Evans. Mr. Meredith, Mr. Wm. Thomas, the
Rev. R. Janis, the Rev. M. Davis, the Rev. Charles Phil-
lips, Mr. James, and other gentlemen. It was stated that
since the Rouse of Brunswick had reigned in this country
no Welshman had ever been promoted to a Welsh bishopric,
the effect of which was that thousands had been driven out
of the church, and had j in. d the ranks of the dissenters.
Wales had a national tight to a Welsh hishep,and their only
plan was to demand such an appointment at the hands of
the premier. the present system was destructive &Ike to
the people of Wales and to the church itself. Resolutions
which tamed the deeireableneu of the appointment of a
native of Wales to the vacant see having been adopted, a
memorial to that effect was drawn up for presentation to
Lord John Russell. A committee was appointed for the
purpose of waiting upon his lordship, to ascertain his views
upon the matter.

THE SEWER ACCIDENT IN PIMLICO.

ADJOURNED INQUEST.
The inquiet on the bodies of the five men who
recently lost their livea in the sewer in Kenilworth-street.
Pimlicd, was resumed at two o'clock yesterday, at the Cia-
rendon Tavern.
The first witness examined was Mr. John Phillips,
chief surveyor to the Metropolitan Commission. He said :
I live at No. 9, Priory-road, Wandsworth rod. I
am chief surveyor to the Metropolitan Commission of
Sewers. With respect to the sower in question, it was built
by Mr. Cubitt, in January, 1848. I did not see it at that
time. I believe that directions were given previously by
the commission as to how it was to be bait. It was built
under the regulations extant at that time. They are printed
and give directions as to the also. f.:rm, and material of
sewer. Mr. Cubitt was suoplied with those printed direc-
tions. The witness then read the petition of fhos. Cubitt,
for leave to build the sewer in Warwick-street, in which
petition be binds himself to build the sewer according to the
printed regulations. The work was superintended by the
commiseionen' officer, but I (Mr. Phillips) did cot see any
part of it built. So far as the works have gone, the printed
regulations have been complied with. The sewer is not yet
completed. I have recently inspected that part of the sewer
in which the accident took place. I made a report to the
commissioners yesterday of the result of my inveitigat on.
The sewer consists of brick work 9 inches thick, 4 feet high,
by 2 feet 6 inches wide in the clear. It is nearly
on a dead level. I am informed that it was
closed up at the end, but did not see it my-
self until after it had been opened. I believe
it bad been built up. That would cause it to
unless there was • sufficient supply of water to carry it to
the main sewer, to which there is a slight inclination. The
deposit found in the sewer could not have been the result of
house drainage, seeing that as yet there are only three houses
in the street (Henilworth street). The wall would no doubt
toad te awe an accumulation in the sewer at that end. I
mnseint for the accumulation by the fact of the sewer being
a deed level. There are two gully boles into the sewer in
Warwick-street. They are about 400 feet from the wall at
the end. There were, in faze, no means of ventilating the
slower.
Coroner—There was then no attempt made to ventilate the
sewer previous to the accident ?
Witaess—The sewer is not yet completed.
Oftssiner—Do those facts, the sewer being blocked up,
there being no air-holes, and the deposit in the sewer from
bash current, account sufficiently for the generation of the
penmen pa ?
Whaess—No ; the deposits from house drainage were not
snificient to account for the gas. The deposit consisted of
earthy matter, sand, filth, and water, quite diff from
house sewage. I can account for the foulness of the drain.
Immediately after the accident I examined the sewer, feeling
seeding that the house deposits had not been sufficient to
ems the mischief. Close to where the men were found
dead I found • layer of lime that had, I presumed, been
need at a gas factory for the purpose of purifying gas, which
I believe is an unusual thing to be found in • sewer. It was
about six inches in depth, and extended through the whole
of the open portion. I never knew such a material to be
put M a sewer, or near • sewer, before. I was curious to
know what it consisted of, so I got a piece which had been
thrown up, and smelt very badly, and I found a precisely
similar smell as at the head of the sewer. I procured
a bottle of the fluid from the sewer and took it to Dr. Ure
for analysis. I wanted to see whether the constituents of the
solid and arid matter were the same. The accumulation
was ia a semi-fluid state, an was to the depth of about •
foot in the sewer. I felt convinced at the time that its
presence was the canes of the gas, and the deaths. I con-
cluded that the surfaces water, passing through the lime,
had caused the generation of the poisonous gas, and conse-
quently the accident. I have been in many sewers all over
the metropolis, constructed similarly to this, and often very
full of depoeit, and in num except this were these emana-
tions dangerous to life. I often found the atmosphere very
elate, but certainly not immediately dangerous to health. In
such calm I always took • Davy lamp with me and a smell-
' hag bottle, but no other precaution. I believe that there is
no sewer in London immediately dangerous to life. I have
frequently passed through them sad stirred up the deposit,
wiilt my feet. I have passed through miles of sewers and
never found a sufficient accumulation of poisonous vapour to
be immediately dangerous to life.
Mr. Phillips then put in, and the coroner read, the printed
regulations for the construction of sewers.
After • few unimportant questions, Mr. Phillips pro-
posed to read as part of his evidence the report which ap-
peared in our paper of yesterday worming.
The Coroner objected to the resoling of the document as
not being legal evidence. After a short dierimaion, Mr.
Phillips was permitted to read his report, fa which see
E s of yesterday.
irre.l Phipps, bevies finished median his report, pro-
ceeded—l am of opinion that if the same deleterious rubbish
be allowed to remain in the sewer, the Sian consequences
will be likely to occur again.
In answer to further questions, Mr. Phillips gave his
opinion that bone drainage should be carried on in all large
towns in pipes, so constructed as to prevent percolation. No
drainage could be effectual without it was made general, and
so arranged as to carry away the sewage completely and at
once. Rethought it could be very molly done, and bad pre-
pared • plan for the arpse.
Severel questioas were asked by one of the jurors, in
answer to which Mr. Phillips stated that he had bees
chief officer under the Westminster Commission, and had
submitted a plan for egg-shaped sewers, bat bad not until
lately coma to the conclusion that impermeable pipes were
necessary. That plan suggested itself to him in Jedy last.
Juror—Have there not more new lights occurred to yin
since this accident ? Is it not the trr.th that since it mewed
mien have been given to ventil•ste all the head sewers in
London ? lam not aware of suy such radius having been
given. I gave none myself. I believe that the principal
portion of the gas in the sewers gets in from the gas
PiPm•
Crossuzamined by Kr. Cubitt's solicitor, Mr. Hopwood.
The seven in this distriM are not worse than In others; on
the contrary, they are better. There is an objection on to
emit of leveL
Is answer to Kr. Cubitt, Mr. Phillips stated that the bot-
toms of the sewers were is a perfect state of repair, and built
according to the olden of the commissioner.

Kr. Cabitt—)a then not an

:simulation of soil in them ?

Me. Cubitt—And ought they not to be clean ? —lt is Ma-
pinelble, in conarquesite of their being nearly on a level.
Mr. Cablit—Aad yet they are confessed to be under the
complete control of the commissioners. If I wanted to get
fa, I could not, and 143 isonsaquence of the new gyres' of
Busking, the dirt is tarried from one part to soother, and
there allowed to accumulate. The old commissioners would
have sent carts sad taken ell the sewage aw. y. If the com-
tulteloten had kept the meta! clean en th. y ought have
done, there woulo knot been no aoeumnialion, and wow
qcently the men when they fell would not have been
stitot:Mmid in the mad. Now, Mr. Phillire, have not the
greater poren of the semen in the metropolis as little fall at
thous in this neighbourhood ?—Yes.
Mr. Cubitt—Might they not have boon constructed with a
greater fall ?
Mr. Phillips—ln some cases they might.
Mr. Cabitt—lt appears that one of the deetased moons
was suffocated, in c .nsequence of his head having been
buried in the soil. Could that have happened if the sewer
had been kept clean by the commissioners ?—Certainly not.
The next wham examined was Dr. Ure—My name is
Andrew Um, and I live at 24, Bloomsbury-square. I am a
doctor of medicine, and am sow chiefly employed as an
analytical chemist. I produce a piece of gas lime, which I
pinned up from the shelmitig side of a trench recently dug in
this neighbourhood. The trench is dug down to the crown
of the arch of the sewer in War srickotreet. I produce also
some of the deposit, which Mr. Phillips brought to my
house. It his undergone the change which comlunatiens of
sulphur suffer en exposure to the air. It has become white,
but was green. It will much shorten my evident* if Ibe
allowed to read my report, and I can answer any questions
after. The witness then proceeded to read the report,
which was published in yesterdays rpm Dr. Ure then
produced specimens of the fluid and the lime. The smell
was so offensive as seriously to affect every person in the
room. _ _ _