The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-18 00:00:00

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tins DAT. Morning, 10 min. past 1 ; Afternoon, 29 min. past 1.
TO.MOILItOW.—Morning, 47 min. past 1; Afternoon, 6 nun. past 2.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOY. 18.
WE see with pleasure that the sanatory question
has awakened an interest in the city of London.
At a Wardmotc for the Ward of Farringdon With-
out, on Wednesday last, a proposition of the Common
Council for widening Cannon-street was rejected,
principally on the ground that there were other and
stronger claims upon the city funds for sanatory im-
provements. The Wardmotc was adjourned for a
week, with a view to a more complete consideration
of the subject.
The appearance of this spirit indirectly strengthens
the opinion expressed by the Committee of the Hcaftli
of Towns Association, in their report on Lord LEN:-
Col N'S bill, that it is inexpedient to exclude the
metropolis from the operation of that measure.
The greater the zeal of the city improvers,. the
more necessity for controlling and guiding it
by the directions of a well-considered legislative
act. In no matter is the subordination of particular
parts to a general plan more important than in sena-
tory regulations. In no city are the evils of isolated
it
action, in such matters, more apparent than is Lon-
don. The first provision of Lord LINCOLN'S Act is to
place the supply of water, sewerage, drainage,.
cleansing, and paving, under one and the same
authority. In the metropolis, not only has each of
these departments its distinct administrative, but its
several distinct administrations for different districts.
As many boards, so many centres ofjobbes7,profitless
expense, and mischievous inefficiency. There is no
such thing as a surveyor's map for the metropolis,
furnished with contour lines, to determine the levels,
in the mode adopted in the Ordnance plan of
Windsor. For lack of such a guide, the
different Sewerage Boards, acting each on their
own plans, often inaccurate, have been work-
ing on different data, so as to produce the least possi-
ble amount of good at the greatest possible expense.
From this want of general superintendence we have
whole miles of sewerage with insufficient outfall.
To the same cause we may attribute the necessity
of constant breaking up of the streets for the
purpose of aeommodating old sewers, and other sub-
terrancous conveniences, to new levels. It frequently
happens, after new streets have been bulk, sewers
formed, gas and water-pipes laid, and pavements put
down, that some one of these arrangements will be
found by a particular board unsuitable or insufficient.
Up comes the new pavement ; water-pipes are raised ;
!MT '
pipes sunk • enormous expenses incurred ; traffic
Interrupted ; and houses rendered unapproachable, all
for want of proper surveys in the first instance, and
the supervision of a permanent and general authority.
Under the present system, both in London and
elsewhere, it is very common for Commissioners to
execute as well as plan and superintend improvements.
A curious illustration of the effects of such a union of
functions in the Westminster Court of Sewers is fur-
nished by the report.
Mr. Leslie, one of the Commisdoners of the weeminuer Court of
Sewers, states, that a large proportionof the acting Commissioners
for Sewers in this district are in practise here es architects, surveyors,
opens, and nollcitors, or are otherwise commend with building pro-
perty ; that he regards such appointments as highly detrimental to
the public intermits ; and he gives a history of the King's C.oUege
, - Scholars' Pond Sewer as an Illustration of the manner in which the
Winces of this Court is conducted. It appears that the then existing
IMe ofisewers for this district was ta 1007 minutely surveyed by John
Esq., civil engineer, who reported that it was not only laid
down in so irregular a direction, but so imperfectly executed,
be such had repair, and had so bad an outran into the
Thames, that it would only be wasting money to attempt to render
it perfect ; and Mr. Rmnk lays down a plan by which this with's..
thinks the drainage of this Important district would have been coiw
plete. Ant tasted of adopthis Mr. Rennie's plan, the Commissioners
set to work to repair the old sewer which Mr. Bennie had condemned.
though the report of their own surveyor contains the following
remarkable words Beggingft may be understood that lam
most perfectly convinced of the superick advantage of Mr. Rennie's
plan, I now proceed, in obedience to the directions I have received,
to consider what alteratroos will be required In the existing 'ewer."
Notwithstanding the eondemnalion of this sewer by both their
I=l...7erinal advisers, and after this official condemnation of it, the
have actually upended upon it nearly two hundred
thousand pounds ! Thus, the entire length of the sewer being 16,522
fret, they have spent upon a small portion of It, namely, upon 5,293
feet, the sum of 70,104/. 17s. Id.; and of the portion upon which this
amount of money has been expended, it is dated that it is at the pre-
sent moment an open uncovered sewer (with the exception of 1,009
feet recently covered baby Mr. Cubitt at his own expense), with an
outlet so bed, that the wirer is penned beck during a considerable
period (ail boors) of 'sande ; a most disgraceful nuisance in a great
metropolis." On the remaining part of this condemned line the Com-
missioners have spent the further sum of 100,0001. and upwards; and
with this result, that the very evils of this sewer which existed prior
to the expenditure upon it of a single shilling of this money, still Wet
is their full forte.
Of the colossal scale on which jobs are conceived
and carried out by those bodies, take another example
from the same authority:
In the same spirit the commissioners purchase for their office a
house, the property of a deceased commissioner, allowing induals
of their bed, having a personal or family interest in the sale, to
manage the affair. They pay for this house 5,000/. purchase money, and
*emend upon it inrepiurs the further sum of 4,9031. 3s. Id., though
frora the reportsof the two surveyors appointed to value the premisee it
appears that theirsworn valuation, 4,5001., amountedto very llttlemore
than the sum expended on repair* and u`terations alone. " The house,"
aziirL,Leslie, was purchased of teedamiy of a deceased can-
tor 3,000/. ;it cost to repair fit it for the purpose of the
commission, including 1461. 12a. 6d. interest an the tradesmen's ae-
counts, and also including 2191. Is. 10d. law charges, 4,9091. 3e. Id. ;
making the total charge to the public for that office within a fraction
of 10,0001. The tradesmen who were employed, and received an
amount of neatly one-half of the sum ',mended in repairs and
alterations, appear to have been upon the Juries at that period.
Yet Lord LINCOLN'S bill, as it stands, makes
its proposed boards of Commissioners executive,
instead of merely supervising bodies. Instead
et charging the responsible surveying officer with
: stetims=pulsory duty of preparing plans and
the commissioners of each town are, by the
evailowered "from time to time, as they shall
e ta, fit, ha widen, deepen, embank, alter, arch over,
amend, clear, and scour out all and each of the sewers

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