The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-12 00:00:00

Tie BIEPRESS,

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Rleakrieley lad Lard werey (belled) Bill.
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fitness for administering the affairs of that very
pother portion of the emplea. We leave act the
slightest objection to his acitinuanos to arse, pro-
vided always a fitting post is found for him. But
we do think it a pity to see a man of quick and
susceptible temperament exposed, for no earthly
reason that we can define, to the trying and tanta-
lising influence of polemical and political discussion
on all Manner of topics, such es en Irish Secretary
is forced to endure. If the ales be useless let it by
all means be abolished t but if it have any real or
specific use, it must require local knowledge and
personal fitness of a peculiar kind, in ordcr that its
duties may be well performed. We hate no desire
to disparage either of the gentlemen whom we have
named, or to deny them the posserlon of qualities
that may be useful to the pubic service, but we
should fail in our duty if we omitted to observe,
that both of them belong to that class which has so
ion monopolised nearly twory °sloe of the State
and that the one is the brother of an English, tlu
other of an Irish Peer. Is Lord PALIILISTON de-
termined to Mind by b:is order, come what may ?

Mums upon eCiles of street in this great brick old
molar Babylo•a are the results of building speeds-
lioa w eilod.iy-nine rue hors. If the dwelliigs
of able *ay are einareed outlast the eentuy,
OM Mara for ad the peeled for which they sere
ornetreeted. Whoa we consider thin WA,
and fa ether recollect that Metropolitan Buil'Aing
Acts r the growth of oregaratively recant, legis_
lade 11, the monist will bo, not that the dourqd of
Ler.tden bows is so hopent. but that it is so
eras /mocker IMO We to the instability of
'Aso ill.eadrivol ear mom • mosttucted
MAIM LIIO6III4MINSt amient itself With the MOM-
I mead= tint seedelled oil Imeleu. Modern trade in
the wet site' is eireislly exigent in its demands
he mom Mh esprittire and centralising, tenting
to toserMse odebilitleents, to acres of warehouis,
end WM abash of frontage. The leviathans of re-
tai hole especially rejoice in adding house to Muse
hi the most literal scone of the word. Party vans
ere themilnhed, beams tampeted with, joists and
lemermeot brag away, till some half down houses
built Immo then hell' a century bask, and not cake-
toted to oey awe to last half a century longer,
are 1111114.4 by., the poems of being thrown
into ward mindmoe little principle of oo-
Sea flow 'wee pearmesd, end behind their
hapoeip IMeiege of seehheitural stucco, gilt capi-
tals, and burtiesdiethres, may wait some accidental
shock to tendril," in a crash of hideous ruin.

Suck seems to have been the history of lest
Saturday's miserable catastrophe in the Tottenham-
court-road. Meows. MAPLE and Co. and Mr.
Hanna, two rival upholsterers, had extended
t►eir dominion over five houses in that well-known
thoroughfare. Messrs. MAPLE owned Nos. 14A, 148,
and 147; Hrwrgi, Noe. 148 and 149. There had,
it appears, been a fire some litth time bask at
HUNTER'S, neeemitating repairs. As the rival firm
was putting itself in order, Mr. MAPLE seems to
have thought the opportunity a good one to do

some beautifying and enlarging on his own
account. The works went on till Friday last
without interruption. People paring through the
street thought the thing looked exceedingly perilous,
and shaking their heads, almost anticipated a erash.
On Friday afternoon the Diebiet Surveyor, it seems,
interfered. He i• stated to have eoudemned the old
party-wall of blames three houses, to have given
directions that it should be underpinned, and that
new brickwork should be pat in from the ground
floor to the first floor. He does not appear to have
reported it to be dangerous, nor wee any order
made, under the 82nd section of the Metro-
politan Buildings Act of 1836, for the removal of
the inmates. The direction were given on the Friday
afternoon ; on the Saturday morning, at 6 o'clock, the
workmen proceeded to carry them out by removing
the old brickwork. At 7 o'clock the party wall
gave way, and the whole mass came down with a
rush into the street. Nos. 143 and 149 were left
standing. a tottering and disfigured wreck; Nos. 146,
147, red 148 lay a heap of bricks, beams, and
mmigled bodies in the street. Some twenty or thirty
young people were in the upper rooms of the rained
houses when the emit came. Five corpses were
takes set et the elebria ; of the webers several
wen smiled mimed to the hospitals; others were
Simedmisseniously unharmed.
Mimeo we shall speedily have thrown upon this
miaseabie elate all the light which a coroner's jury
la eapahle of imparting. Without meaning to cast
the sligleMet disparagement upon this venerable and
excellent tribunal, it is impossible to forget that the
result of shiest every each inquiry lase bees to
prove, to the universal dissatisfaction of the public,
that no one is to blame for what everyone feels to
be meet blameworthy. We do not of souse mean,
in the present stage of the business, to suggest
in what (porter the main burden of reeponsilility
should net. Bat it memo impossible, even on the
wet sopeasisl view of the fasts, to avoid the coaclu-
Am that bees the Surveyor of the District and the
surveyessemployed by the owners were guilty of very
great negligesee. It is very diMealt to suppose that
the state of the building was not such as to suggest
extra precautions to any skilled person of ordinary
pnamee in the daily habit of inspecting them daring
the repairs, and it certainly appears to be a matter
fee levet that the District Surveyor had not
Mehra before the Friday afternoon, and
' that, whoa he did so interfere, be had not gone
further. If the party wall of the premises
wee in so bad a state as to have been coodemned on
the Friday afternoon, it was surely not sate to allow
some thirty people to sleep in them that night, still
kes to allow the workpeople to go to work in the
morning before these unlucky inmates had left their
beds, in order to undermine the already tottering
wall, by breaking holes of six fret by three is the
brickwork of the ground-floor. Should it turn out,
on investigation, that the statement which has ap-
, peered as to this part of the ease is enbetantially
. accurate, it will certainly not be eery to escape from
. the conclusion that on the part both of the District
, Surveyor and of the private Surveyors there has been
very grow negligence.
The defect would appear to be not so mash in
the law as in its administration. Part 11. 'of
: the Metropolitan Buildings Act, 1853, relates
• exclusively to the subject of dangerous structures,
• and in a series of a dozen clauses (sees. 69 to 81)
provides a machinery for remedying the mischief to
; be apprehended from them. No doubt the process
is somewhat cumbrous. The District Surveyor is to
certify to the Commissioners of Police, the Commis-
• wieners of Police are to complain to a Justice of the
Peace, the Justice is to make his order on
• the owner, and on the owner's failure to comply
with the ceder the Conmaisioners are then to
cause the building to be taken down, repaired,
or secured. This supposes the ere of an owner
who refuses to act till compelled to do so by legal
process; in the generality et instenses an loo'
eon (rani the District Surveyor
sunciest, and the peat object, t/
DighietelilYetOr Avoid be a I
vict eneigr. (a the' pretrial
that what he mewed to be done