The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-23 00:00:00

OY HOUSE FALLING IN GENERAL

The dispute whether or not jack-shores supported
the lower part of the house which fell down, the
other day, in the Strand, is a question of much
smaller importance, closely u it concerned life and
death, than the momentois question whether many
other houses in the metropolis art constituted to
stand or fall. The example of that downfal caused
a lively sense of the attraction of gravitation in the
tenants of many other houses ; and, besides, the
awakened vigilance of district surveyors, who have
been distributing jack-shores to prop up the weak-
nesses of the metropolis in various places, there is
no doubt that many a tenant, at the present
moment, is watching the shakes and oscillations of his
house, as the carriages pass in the street, and is listen-
ing on quiet evenings with an uneasy conscience to
the crackinga of the timber. And there is rood
ground for apprehension. The particular split which
almost startles him oat of his five senses, may not
have in it so profound an importance es his fears
conjure up : but in many streets there is a better
foundation for fear than for the houses. This con-
sideration affects the buildings of the metropolis in
two respects: it suggests the necessity of taking a
diagnosis of the diseased and feeble portions, and the
expediency of building better for the future.

Tke experience of one downfal, in calling
atttention to the possibility of others, has re-
minded us that the period has about arrived
when perhaps a goodly number of houses in the
metropolis should fulfil their destiny by tumbling
down. It is almost their duty to do so. They were
built to stand for a certain number of years; they
have performed their allotted task manfully ; and
now they have a right to retire upon their founda-
tions. London houses are among the best examples
of the false-cheap system ; and we are now about to
realise, sometimes is the form of disasters like that
which happened in the Strand, sometimes in the
shape of expensive repairs, the result of the false
economy upon which our immediate forefathers acted.
It is about sixty years since a very eminent builder,
the father of the modern cheap system, began to
beautify a portion of the metropolis—which was
then rustic—the district now distinguished
by Rumen-up/are, with the adjacent Found-
ling Estate. It is a tradition of that now an-
tique neighbourhood that the lenses contained a
stipulated prohibition against dancing in some of the
houses. We know well that tenants have not ven-
tured upon that species of festivity. If the houses
could not stand dancing in their youth, most unques-
tionably their dancing days are now over. Mr.
Mulready, who but a few years back exhibited a
landscape taken on the site of Russell-square in 1808,
may yet live to sit, like another Marius, and paint
the ruins of some antique building on the same spot.
We do not know the exact term allotted to some of
these creations of the cheap building art; but we are
are inclined to think that with many their time is
nearly up. They were contracted for to stand so
many years, and why should they stand any longer,
when a longer term was not paid for?
The cheap system has had its fling, and the pro-
fessors of the art have revelled in the license which
they have been taught. There are two grand
sources of accident arising from the construction of
houses: sources which have been opened up during
the interval since the originator of the system began
with singular assiduity. One is undue speed in the
construction, a speed in the elevation of the walls
which exceeds the evaporating power of the at-
mosphere in consolidating the structure as it
rises. The other is insufficient and bad mate-
rials. Time is money ; and the contractor,
screwed down in his estimate, revenges himself
by contracting the period necessary for the
work. Nay, a kind of reputation has been earned
by skill in getting up the appearance of a house,
made for sale and not for use ; since they who were
interested in the process looked only to the sale, and
knew nothing about the tenants who might be des-
tined to try the powers of the ghostly structure.
The materials are bad, for every reason, but espe-
cially because they are produced by interests sepa-
rated from each other. The man who buys a bit of
land with adhesive earth in it, is struck with the
idea that it will make bricks. Whether it will make
bricks which will hold together under the
tread of human inhabitants he cares little,
so long as the baked and reddened earth
will sell "at per thousand." The timber is bad,
partly from the constant effort to pass off an
inferior article for the stipulated price. The lime is
often adulterated; any rubbish which will pass
muster to the sight being set into the walls. fhe
opening of the roads for sewers and other subterra-
nean works, which so frequently shakes the founda-
tions, and which is likely to be so common under our
sanitary improvements, the feeble defence afforded
to the Englishman's home and hearth by the Build-
ings Act, are subjects too considerable in themselves
to be despatched in a parenthesis. Suffice it to say,
for the moment, that the regions of cheap houses
which began to arise some fifty or sixty years ago,
have been imitated and emulated in many a new
town now forming the suburbs of the metropolis.
Perhaps the vice has reached, or even pawed, its
extreme point. Unquestionably a better system has
begun ; and the City of London, for all its antiquated
abuses, may claim the credit of being more particu-
larly the site for this better and honester system.
The real commercial advantage of making the floor
and walls which support and shelter us sound and
sterling is ones more understood; and there is no
doubt that the outlay now incurred on that head will
save a considerable amount to those successors for
whom, indeed, we lay up oar savings. To continue
that system will be only to follow the rule of
common sense ; but the recent accidents, and the
expectation of more, remind us that we have
another business; which is, to set the cheap-system
houses in order to stand at least until we can re-
move from them, if not until weean build others. It is
very unpleasant to have your house give way under
you daring the night ; and no expense that can be
i incurred n the business of making your house safe
will be wasted. It really is worth the while of
tenants in suspected neighbourhoods to attend to this
domestic vodka.

Inc Court.

._._...._
BALMORAL, Su?. 21.

Her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Princess Royal
sad Coast Alesaader Meuadorf, drove yesterday to the
Liao of Quoieh.

The Duchess of Kent. Count Alezander Mensdorff, Lady
Augusta Bram and the Hon. Mrs. Gordon, joined the
dinner putt yestarday

Sir John Liddell, M.D , Surgeon and Medical Inspector
of Greenwich Hospitals, and Dr. Drnativmd, from the Ad-
miralty, attended the General Board of Heal•h yesterday,
at their ofllces, Whitehall. to confer a, to slipping regula•
tons to be issued by the board in relation to epidemic
disease.

Ihe Secretary of the Colocial Land or Emigration Board,
Mr. Stephen Walcott, also had an interview with the
II I Board of Health, yesterday, is relation to special
regul.atons for the protection of emigrant passengers.

THE FOLTUCONING ELECTION OF LORD MATOR.
—The election of a Lstd Mayor fir the City of London in
the room of Alderman Challis, M P., who will complete
his year of office, on the 9th of November, will take place
is the Cituldhall en Thursday next, the •19th inst. The
aldermen who have not yet petee.d the chair, rad who are
I therefore, eligible for 'teeth:a, stand in the following order :
Aldermen Sidney, Mono, Salinnoss, Ennio, Laurent', Sir
It. W. Carden, Wire, Carter, Cubitt. and Muggeridge•
According to usual custom the sissecoliied livery will pre-
sent two of these gentlemen to the Court of Aldermen, who
will select one, so that if the choice of the livery should fill-
', upon the two senior aldermen, aa it undoubtedly will, All
derman &Unity, being the tiro will, in all probability, be
ehi.en to fill the mayoralty for the year 18434.
TILE FATAL BOILER EXPLOSION AT LEEDS.—WO
regret to state that the latest report en the results of tt •
b,iler :plosion at the mill of Messrs. George Ii immord
and Son gives the number of d atlas at fire, and others still
tonsin in a precarious -'ate. Th • tn..nor's inquiry is ad-
! jouraed v. Wednesday neat, after a nar,:y formal openL g
EMr INDIA Hot3s.—On Wednesday a Court of
D:r Oars was held at the East India House, when FreJe
tie. Janus Ral:iday, Esq.. wail appointed provisional mem-
' bus of the *Doug of India.

RUSSIAAND 'MkKilt:,
4:
Advips
tin

.
from Ana el4blielt with saperfitmos
abaknd ent of Irina and Eughind by
in the • ish Theism. We jay" yester-
Amy and on Wednesday despetffitts showing that
Austria was resolved to renounce the exeroissof her
• good" offices is the strife between Turkey end-
Russia, unless the torte would adopt the Vienna note
although its injurious character had been attested both
at St. Petersburrgg and Constantinople. The note pro-
posed by the am'bwadaes of France and England to
overcome the difficulties raised by Reschid Pacha,
found no favour in the. eyes of Austria, because it
Seeded to give a to the Vienna note opposst
to that assigned to it the Czar. The Uttar elf
OW French correspondent contains a telegraphic
spatch which has been published in the
papers, as well as a disguised form of the same,
which we hays noticed in the columns of our Eng-
lish contemporaries. So tar as they are genuine,
they show that the Four Powers have ceased to set
collectively, and that the Vienna note has ceased to
be a basis of agreement between them.
The Constitutionnel notices, in order to rectify, a
statement which has appeared in some of the German
paws. "It is not true," says the Constita:ionnel,
a that the Vienna conference had met for the per-
pees of preparing a new note. It would have been
rosemary to submit the new note to the approbation
se both Russia and Turkey, and that would have
been to create a double difficulty. The Conference of
Mona could not meet except to examine what was
to be done in presence of the situation brought
teat by the modifications proposed by the Sultan."
The " new note " of the German editorial imagi-
nation is the collective note which it was pro
to send to the Porte for the purpose of tranq
.ii
Ile thensions on the subject of the note w 5 •
wee siffieed to the Sultan for signature. This col-
lective note our readers know has not been adopted.
The Frankfurter Poet Zeitung publishes a letter
from Posen of the 17th fast., in which we read the
following passage :
"It is without fear of contradiction from the
event that I can affirm, all assurances to the contrary
notwithstanding, that the Russians will not evacuate
the Principalities. The Czar will pa_y every respect
to the representations of the Great Powers short of
allowing them to delay the execution of his compre-
hensive plans. The Czar still offers to accept the
Vienna note, but well knows that the Sultan cannot
sign it after what has taken place, and that if he
should, Turkey could not furnish the millions which
he would demand as an indemnification for the im-

mense cost of the Ronda) preparations. According
to the most recent letters from Warsaw the rejection
of the Turkish modifications has been followed by
numerous movements in the corps d'artnee stationed
there, bet it is got stated whether these had reference
to au advance Upon the Danube or to the expected
visit of the Emperor. The Russia* officers are in
ecstasies, for they regard a war as inevitable. A
letter from Jassy confirms the statement that the
Russians there entertained no expectation of leaving
the Principalities. A letter from Kaliach states that
several Polish nobles who had been arrested at Wroc-
law& had been brought thither and imprisoned."
We read in the Constitutionnel:

" The following fact has been communicateed to
us, and we find it confirmed by letters both from
Constantinople and Schnmla. A European physician
who arrived some months back at Constantinople,
obtained by dint of solicitation the direction of the
military hospital at Schumla. It appears that Omer
Pacha soon perceived that this person kept up
mysterious relations with Russian spies, and in con-
sequence he kept on his guard. Soon after, being
warned that there was an intention to poison him,
he feigned to be indisposed, and sent for the medi-
cal man in question to attend him. This person,
after examining the patient, went out to prepare a
calming potion, which, on his return, he presented
to Omer Pacha to drink. The general-in-chief of
the Turkish army requested the physician to taste
it first himself, and as the other refused to do so, he
forced him to drink the whole of it in his presence.
Seeing that the physician then wanted to hurry out,
he forced him to remain in the tent, in order that
he might judge of the effect of the potion. At the
end or some hours the physician died from poison.
We publish the fact such as it is related to us in our
private letters."
This is doubtless the same story that was contra-
dicted several days since.

CONSTANTINOPLE, SIFT. 8.
Russia, u mentioned in my lest, has been actively
employed in endeavouring to carry on unofficial ne-
gotiat►ons directly with the Porte, and to prove that
all the difficulties of the present question have arisen
from the meddling and pernicious intervention of
the Western Powers.

Her agents have been observed in continual mo-
tion, besieging the different departments, and em-
ploying, it is said, an ample fund of their usual
arguments to impress on the government the neces-
sity of a Russian alliance.
M. Argyropulos has seen the Seraskier and Me-
hemet Nucterdjim, the chiefs of the war party, and
had, moreover, on the 4th inst., a long interview on
this subject with Reachid Pseba, in which he de-
clared the impossibility of his government's adher-
ing to the modifications of the Porte. "In that
case," said the minister," we are prepared for all the

The Egyptians have terminated their quaran-
tine, and several steam-frigates are conveying them
to their destination.

We are anxiously expecting to-day news of the
impression produced at Vienna by the modified pro-
ject transmitted on the 20th ult. I have just heard
that a courier arrived yesterday at the Austrian em-
bassy, which is not improbable; for a Russian
steamer, which was to convey the mail next week,
started for Odessa about four in the afternoon.

Mehemet Paths, commanding the fortress of ,1
Varna, has received orders to prepare for the recep li
-
tion of 12,000 men. The fortifications of that place
are almost terminated under the direction of French
and Prussian officers; the soldiers work four hours a
day—and the inhabitants each one day in ten.
Lord Palmerston's noble speech made a profound
impression, and nothing can equal the gratitude of
all ranks and all classes towards this statesman. I
have heard several Turks say that were it possible at
the present juncture to quit their country, they would
willingly start for London to thank him in person
for the services rendered in this trying emergency.
I have even heard spoken of a national address to
this effect, but to which, for obvious reasons, there
might be some difficulty in obtaining the assent of
the government.

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY ETININSI,

The Emperor and fripreSi
left St. Cloud at half-
put eleven this morning for the Northern Railway,
where they were received by M. Rothschild, jun.,
and the directors of the railway. The imperial trains
left at about half-past twelve.
Nothing has been neglected to surround their
Majesties during their northern tour with all the
accompaniments of luxury and pomp. Count Lepic,
Deputy-Governor of the Palace; Baron Varennes,
Prefect of the Palace, and Count Teacher de la
Pagerie, Marechal des logis, have been sent forward
to make arrangements. Upwards of 80 cooks and
domestic servants accompany the imperial cortege.
In the various towns in the route preparations are
going on for all sorts of spectacles, decorations, and
illuminations. The style of decoration adopted by
M. Visconti at the fête of Aug. 13 is the favourite.
The Hotel do Ville at Valenciennes is transformed
into a Moorish palace, and miniature Alhambras have
been improvised in other places.
The Montle/4r announces that the Queen of Eng-
land has designated the Earl of Levin, the Marquis
of Worcester, Lord Bingham, and Colonel Dupuis, to
isit the camp of lielfaut to compliment the Emperor.
The camp will be broken up on the 27th, immedi-
ately after the Emperor's visit.
The Bourse opened heavily, but not at such low
prices as might have been expected considering the
serious aspect of the Eastern question, and the fall
in Consols yesterday. The Threes opened at 70fr.
85e., and fell to 76fr. 63c., but just before the close a
sudden reaction brought them up to the opening
price, so that the fall was only lite. from yesterday.
'rho Strasbourg Railway rose Ulfr., but most of the
other lines fell, though not heavily.
The Courrier de .4014 states that M. Victor Chauf-
four, ex-representative, exiled from France for ma-
sons of general safety, is at present at Therm, at the