The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-07 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 7, 1848.

parcels-office in Whittlebury-street to the platform, the only
shelter being a few boards covered over. At the time the
accident happened two or three of the porters were engaged
in bringing parcels from the office through this purge, to
go by the mail train, and were nearly buried beneath.
For many boars throughout the day a large body of the
workmen, under the direction of Mr. Butterwick, were
engaged in reraor:ng the fallen debris, a rumour being pre-
valent that, in addition to the eleven sufferers so speedily
rescued, there were several others busied beneath. This
work was superintended and energetically aided in by Mr.
Butterwick in person ;and that gentleman refused to have
the roll of the men employed on the stupendous building
called over until every brick which bad been displaced had
been removed. The latest accounts report that one of the
sufferers has dicd.

METROPOLITAN SANITARY COMMISSION.—DRAIN-
AOS or Eeritem.—ln reply to the inquiries of the Sanitary
Commission, in their note, addressed to the clerk of the
Lewisham board of guardians, under date 28tk October,
1847, Mr. Thomas Lewin, of Eltham, an ex officio guardian
and the vice-chairman of the Lewisham board, states, that
" the parish of Eltham comprises a population ratheeexceed-
Mg 2,000 persons, the mass of whom reside in the village so
called. Having a good fall in all directions, EMI= admits
of drainage at no very greet expense. Although a proper
drainage of the village has long since and frequently been
thought of and at various times proposed, it has always
failed to be carried into effect from the difficulty of rasing
the required fund from the parties interested, in due propor-
tion to the benefit accruing from it to the several properties.
Some persons object, that they have already accomplished
the object, as respects themselves, by private drainage on
their own premises. Others, as nen-resident landlords, aro
unwilling to provide against an inconvenience which they
do not personally feel. While their tenants complain that
they are not the parties on whom such an expense should fall,
and it has become evident that unless this important object
be to be accomplished in some compulsory way, there is no
accordance, from which it might be expected, in the pariah
itself. The drainage of the village, such as it is, is in general
effected by the means of cesspools, many of which in rainy
seasons overflow, and (cession most offensive smells. The
drainage of the dwellings of the poor is most ina-
dequate. There are several courts in the village
in the mid space of which • mass of pestilential
filth may in general be noticed, and it is in these
situations that fevers meetly occur. From these
courts streams of filth are continually poured out into the
water-tables of the street, so that it is surprising there is not
even a greater amount of illness amongst us than we at pre-
sent experience, notwithn*iding the natural salubrity of
our air. The water at Elation is from surface springs, rang-
ing from 18 to 25 or 30 feet deep. The main springs
here lie very deep indeed, viz., from 150 feet to 200 feat
deep; and it has been suggested to me by a medi-
cal gentleman of the place that this surface spring-
water is in truth vitiated by our cesspools, and
the soakage of their overflowing.. There is one
considerable ditch partially covered which serves for the
drainage of a good many houses, at the western end of the
village. This ditch in the open part of it is very offensive,
particularly in a nursery garlen through which it flows,
and where it is dammed up for the purpose of accumulating
manure. There is also another open and very offensive ditch
at the eastern end of the village, which serves for the drain-
age of a house there. This runs • little way along the high
road (very stinking), and then runs down some fields, ter-
minating in a large hole or pond close to some cottages and
to a gentleman's residence, where several have lately had
fever. A part of the parish, called Pope street, about half a
mile to the south-east of the village of Eltham, lies in a low
flat or bottom, and the people there, whether from drainage
being imperfect or from the want of free air, are apt to have
fever. I leave to the medical officers to say what corrections
we require, and will only add my hope that we may be con-
strained by some well advised sanitary law to take better
care of ourselves in this parish.—Tliona Lewitt."
SANITARY REFORM.—PARISH OP ST. ANNE,
LIMEHOUBE.--Yesterday forenoon, an adjourned meeting of
the parishioners of St. Anne, Limehouse, was held at the
Town-hall, Church-lane, to receive the report of a committee
appointed to draw up a memorial to the Metropolitan Com-
missioners of Sewers, on the sewerage of the parish gene-
rally, and the nuisance complaiaed of, with reference to the
sewer which empties itself into Limekiln-dock, in particular,
which question was brought under the consideration of the
vestry in consequence of a statement by Dr. Barnett, that
the first case of cholera in that parish had its origin in Lime-
kiln-dock. Mr. J. Rugg, churchwarden, in the chair. The
memorial stated that " the attention of the memorialists
had been drawn to the injurious consequences which
happen to the health of the people of the parish, from the in-
halation of an atmosphere contaminated with noxious gases,
and generated in an atmoaphere:of highly refuse matter ;
that very few sewers had been made in the parish of Lime-
' house for the last century, and that heavy sewer rates had
been from time to time levied on the parishioners. That
there was an inefficient drainage throughout the parish, and
the endeavours of the inhabitants to keep the cellars and
other plasm clean had been frustrated from that
cause ; that the yards of the houses in the upper district
were, in many lest taws, covered with stagnant water, in
which is mixed, vegetable matter in every stage of decompo-
sition ; that Vitt_ part of the sewer which did exist was of
but little use, inasmuch as the channels of the sewers lie
ab )ve the level of the floors of the basement stories of some
of the houses, and the only mode the inhabitants had to rid
their premises of retail water, was by stoking cesspools and
pumping it from thence into the street ; that the main
sewer, which passed through the parish, emptied itself into
the Limekiln Duck, which was situated in a densely popu-
lated neighbourhood, and closely surrounded by houses and
places of business, the effluvia arising from the mouth of
this sewer were horribly offensive, destructive to health, and
injurious to trade. The memorialists having learnt that an
immediate survey of the metropolis had been directed to be
made, respectfully submitted the above facts to the consider-
ation of the commission, trusting that they would carry out
those plans which would be most likely to be beneficial to the
inhabitants."—Mr. Dunbar, a ship-owner, observed that the
inhabitants near the Limekiln Dock suffered seriously
in their healths from the foul state of the
air. It steps were not taken to remedy the
evil, he would be compelled to remove hie business.
In the year 1843, a. memorial was sent to the poor law
guardians and the commissioners of sewers for the Tower
Hamlets, complaining of the injury done to the health of the
inhabitants.—Mr. Wilson, chief clerk to Mr. Dunbar, stated
that he had been very unwell for some d aye, and unable to
eat well. He called on his medical adviser, who said he was
suffering from indigestion brought on by the impure air of
the locality in the neighbourhood of the office.- -Mr. Snape,
a butcher, remarked that meat was rendered putrid by the
effluvium from the sewer. His wife, before she came to
reside where they at present lived, was in the enjoyment of
excellent health. She was now always unwell, while he
almost always had the doctor in his house for his children.—
Seversl other parishioners having spoken to a similar effect,
Mr. Dunbar proposed and Mr. Dixon seconded the adoption
of the memorial, which was unanimously agreed to.—
Thanks were then voted to the chairman, and the vestry
broke up.
THE REPORT OF THE ORDINARY OF THE GAOL
Or NIWOATE.—At the last court of aldermen, Mr. Davie,
the ordinary, presented a report on the gaol of Newgate.
The following is en extract : " Those who have never been
brought into close contact with parties committed to New-
gate, can have little idea of the dreadful scenes of distress
witnessed when charges of embezzlement, or forgery, or
breaches of trust, are alleged against members of respectable
families. I often think that if a young man could on a
visiting day see a heart-broken father have his first inter-
view with his criminal child, or if he could behold an ago-
nised widow sinking to the earth with agitation at the
sight of her boy in jail; could he witness the shame
and di race felt by near and dear relatives who are
involved in the consequences though free from the guilt
of his offence—he would surely pause before he ap-
propriated his employer's mosey to his own pur-
poses, and would suffer any extremities of poverty,
rather than subject his relatives to such heart-rend-
ing sufferings. Our feelings are continually harrowed
by such . spectacles, and I wish that the guilty could
see them in time to avert their repetition. Many such per-
sons are committed to Newgate, convicted, and transported
in the course of • few slays. They not unfrequently receive
a heavier sentence than the youth who has been for years a
thief, and several times previously convicted of crime. Moat
affecting circumstances are elicited by the correspondence of
such persons with their friends. Some of the most distress-
ing pictures of sorrow are exhibited in the affectionate letters
of a sister or confiding wife, the desolation in the domestic I
circle, the heart-stricken parent, the manly and yet
merciful reproof of a well-informed brother. But
the most striking affection of all is in the poor
widowed mother—no crime can kill her feelings :
they remain in the most deplorable cases of guilt, as a ruin
in a desert, to show what has been in former days and what
is now. These painful feelings ought to be dwelt upon. They
contain almost the only ray of hope that will effectually deter
offenders from these crimes. Many painful instances tran-
spire, some at every sessions, of vices separating a member
from a family circle otherwise happy—children looking up
to a father for bread, but find hint in Newgate. Can words
describe the distresses of a virtuous wife thus surrounded
and worse than widowed by the dissolute conduct of her
husband? And can any young man read this exact
picture of what is continually occurring, and yet
be, heartless enough to plunge his relatives into such wretch-
edness ? The records of the last year show that the near
connexions of magistrates, clergymen, dissenting ministers,
merchants, physicians, solicitors, and almost all classes haws
so fallen ; and 'I fear that the coming year will disclose Simi-
lar results from similar vices. It would he a happiness if
these remarks could reach a guilty youth, and induce him to
abandon his associates, his pleasures, and his criminalities
before they involve himself and his Mends in the fearful
severities of penal inflictions.
INQUESTS, YESTERDAY.—ACCIDENT AT THE NEW
Hot:SN OF LORDS.—Before Mr. Bedford, at Westminster
Hospital, on the body of J. Webb, aged 27.—The
deceased, a mason, was employed at the new Home
of Lords, and on Saturday morning, while descend-
ing a ladder over the central arch, his coat was caught
by one of the upright poles, which occasioning him
to ore his balance he fell a distance of ten feet on
to the stones below. He was taken to the hospital insensi-
ble, exhibiting no external injury, but he died on /docility
morning, his. death resulting, as ascertained on the body
bring opened, from rupture of the intestines and constipated
inflammation of the abdomen. Verdict—. Accidental
death."---ALLEOZD DZATII Tame FURIOUS DRIVINO.—
Sams coroner and place, on the body of J. ;Nash,
aged 58, a horse-dealer, late of Cumberland-make;
who was alleged to have died from injuries received by the
reckless driving of a man named French on the 4th of June
last, The man French went in a gig to show the horse,
which was harnessed to it, to a person at Chelsea, and on re-
turning met deceased. ne latter jumped up, when on

entering Birdcage-walk the horse set off at full gallop, and
the off-wheel wining in contact with the park railing they
were both thrown out, deceased sustaining • compound frac-
ture of the right leg. He was conveyed to the hospital,
where he had not been once visited by French, who he re-
peatedly said, by whipping the horse, was the cause of the
occurrence, and who while he lay onthe ground trod upon the
injured limb.—French, who was present, positively denied
deceased's statement, and said that the horse took fright at
the soldiers in St. Georges Barrackyard.—Deceased lingered
till Tuesday last when he died.—A verdict was returned
" That deceased died of fracture of his leg, but how occa-
sioned there was no evidence to prove."