The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 20, 1848.

Vie Orpregio.

MAILS.

The West India Malls, incitieling---tierns tids, Nome, Mamma,
Ilasiluraa, New Orleans, Vets Crux, T.anpico, and Perth Rico, and
excluding those for !Weirs. Jaemel, Carthagenc, flairds Martha,
Chum, ?anima, West Coast of South America, and 84. Jundi.
Nicaragua, will be made up on the morning of the 21st, June.
The malls foe British North America, and the United Matmii
will be made op en the evening of the 23rd June.
The overland eloped malls, rut Marseilles, to the Mediterramen,
Rapt, Aden, Ceylon, Ind* Hong-Kong, Ate., will be made up on the
evening of the 24th June.
The walla for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Oibraltar
will be made upon the morning of tit. 27th June.
The malls for New Muth Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up tot the evening of the 30th June.
The nada for the W“t Win of Melee and Madeira will be made
sip on the evening at the 30th June.
The mails for We Basile, the River Plate, Monts Video, Pernam-
Wow Itobia, Madeira, and Button Ayres, will be made up on the
evening of the 4th July.
The overland malls for Gibraltar, Matta, Greece, the lonian Island.,
124fypt, Aden, W7lon, India, llong-Kong, and Chins, rio eouthanir•
tou, will be mode up on the monthly of the 20th Jail,.

upon these natural supplies of water are that when
stagnant they are unhealthy, and when deep they are
dangerous. Although it would appear to have been
an easy task. yet with all our anxiety about bathing,
scarcely anything has been done to remove either
the unhealthiness or danger of our places of
commor resort for bathing. Amlngst the spots
frequented by the inhabitants of the metro•
pulls there is none so often visited as the sheet
a water in Hyde-park called the Serpentine; yet,
perhaps, of all waters in the kingdom this is the
most unhealthy and dangerous. So dangerous is it
that the Royal Humane Society keeps up an esta-
blishment ate great cost on its banks, for the purpose
of preventing accidents in its waters. A tenth part
of the sum thus spent would have put the Serpentine
into such a condition as to render accidents almost
impossible. The danger of this place arises from its
great depth at some parts, so that every year during
the bathing and skating seasons a number of lives are
unnecessarily sacrificed.
Nut only is the depth of this place objectionable on
the score of danger, but the supply of water to it is so
small that there is no current through it, and it is
nothing more than &stagnant pool. The water which
originally supplied it was a little spring rising on
Hampstead-hill. Thin brook has long since been
convened into a public sewer, flawing through
a populous district, and after every shower, the filth
from this sewer is allowed to overflow into the
Serpentine. In addition to the water thus ob-
tained, a supply is procured from the Chelsea
Waterworks Company, and a few springs here and
there pour their contents into this lake. But all
the water that is thus supplied is not suffi-
cient to allow of a current to pass
through, the daily evapora•ion being as great
as the supply. The consequence is that year
after year the Serpentine developes increasingly the
effect of a stagnant pond. It has been well known to
the medical men of London for some time, that a walk
near the Serpentine was anything but desirable for
delicate persons, and there can be no doubt that
serious disease has been contracted both by bathing
in its waters and walking by its side. This arises
from the fact that when water is thus confined, the
vapour passes off, leaving an accumulation of vege-
table and animal matters, which, during their decom-
position, give off poisonous effluvia that are
deleterious. This state of the Serpentine not only
prevents many persons from enjoying the air
of one of our most beautiful parks, but it has
been felt to be so great a grievance by the in-
habitants of Chelsea and Kensingtoe, that a
crowded meeting was held a few evenings since
at which the Earl of HARROWIer presided, for the pur-
pose of petitioning parliament to apply some remedy
to this subject of general complaint. This meeting
was attended by several medical men of eminence,
who were unanimous in the expression of theii opinion,
that the present state of the Serpentine was not only
unfit for the purposes of bathing, but that it was a
source of danger to those who frequented its banks.
The evils complained of are of a nature to be easily
remedied. In the first place the sewer, whose con-
tents so frequently overflow, could bed •eptned, or its
course diverted. In the next place, the supply o
water might be trebled or quadrupled from the
Chelsea Water Wm ks,without increasing in proportion
the expense. An artesian well might be sunk, which,
at a much smaller expense than the present poor
supply is obtained, would send a current of pure water
through its whole breadth and length. Whatever
is done, the present bottom of the pool
should be cleared out, as in many places
it is several feet deep, with a filthy pestiferous mud.
Once empty, we see no reason why the bottom should
not be considerably elevated. Surely five feet in
depth would be enough to allow any person to swim,
and such a depth would ensure that there would be
no sacrifice of human life. The subscribers and friends
of the Royal Humane Society Lave an expensive esta-
blishment on this sheet of water for the purpose of
rescuing persona from drowning. Would it not be
better to prevent the possibility of this taking place?
We understand that a deputation has been ap-
pointed to wait oh Lord Mot:re:llr, who is anxious
that something should he done on this subject ; and we
trust that this place which is equally resorted to for
the sake of health by the peer in his evening drive,
and the butcher's boy for his morning's bath, may be
speedily purified from its present filthy and disgust-
ing condition.

MARSHAL RADGTSKT and General Nitnvsr2 are
worthy brethren in the art of war. To shoot and
massacre, pillage and bombard, levy contributions,
and drag away citizens to prison—such are the mili-
tary feats of the two heroes.
the Autirian Marshal seems now determined to
close his career as he commenced it. His retreat from
Milan was marked by pusillanimity and cruelty. He
now retreats from the Mincio, and invades the inof-
fensive cities of the Venetian territory, which are
nnfortified, not for the sake of holding them, of
prolonging defence. or protecting his army, but
palely for the sake of revenge, mischief, and pillage.
Vicenza, and no doubt l'adua, will be subjected to the
idle vengeance of this ruthless soldier, who, previous
to his retreat from Lombordy, is no doubt anxious to
grasp all that is valuable and portable, and to destroy
what he cannot carry away with him. No military,
object can possibly be gained by the movement of
HADETSKI. He leaves, no doubt, a strong garrison
in Mantua, but Verona he gives up, as he will
successively Vicenza and Padua to retire behind the
l'iave or the Tagliameato.
Without a government, or reinforcements, or
money, or supplies, it was no doubt impossible for
RADETSKI to resist CHARLES ALBERT. But in obey-
ing the necessity to retreat, the Austrian Marshal
ought to have refrained from idle vengeance, spolia-
tion, or cruelty. Such gratuitous cruelty on his part
can have merely the elf et of inciting the Italians to
retaliation, and to advance into the provinces of
Friuli and South Tyrol, and thus add to the painful
throes in which Austria, thanks to the imbecility of
the NIETTERNICII reyinie, seems hopelessly expiring.