Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-03 00:00:00

DEFECTIVE' FOUNDATIONS OF MOUSES.

- The. following report was read , . .
"In accordance with a resolution of your committee, dated
the 17th of March, 1859, I was instructed to'eiamintL.aad
'report on houses in Washington-street, alleged to have-been.
damaged by the seweragei' and I hay.e the honour to subialit
the following report :---F carefully examined the propeitylln
suestion in Washington-street, and found that a very- con-
siderable settlement hadtaken place). running nearly diagonally
across the building from. front to back. The floors had
dropped upwards of eight. inches. The sills and heads of
windows and doors were broken, and the whole fabric
shaken. Shortly after this inspection I observed that .work-
men had been .e,mployed, to pull down the party walls- and
those portions of the frontand back that were injured. Leare
fully watched this operation, and when the foundation was
laid bare the cause-of the settlement was apparent. The line
of fracture was coincident with the face of an old quarry, a
portion of the house walls standing on solid rock and the re—
mainder on loose rubbish and debris of the quarry. In re--
building the walls, precautions were taken to prevent-future
settlements. Piles were driven down and longitudinal beams.
laid upon them, on which the footings rested. Many cart-
loads of rubbish had:to be removed. The floors were propped
and raised to their original, levels, and the whole. property
restored. I have purposely delayed sending in my report
until, from inspection from time to time, I was satisfied
that the work aloud. lam able, therefore, now to report that
all is now securely. and firmly restored. I attribute the acci•
-
dent entirely to the want of common precaution.on the part of
the original builders of the property, for there was no founda-
tion on withal the building could securely rest, and no> provi.
sion was made. for securing them. The result
•of my inspec-
tion is that I do not think that any blame ia attributable. to the
Health Committee or their officers-in connectilon 'with the
sinking of the houses in question,

The CHAIRMAN said the report was a most important
one, because there were so many people interested in
building that might take a lesson from it.
MT. WG-owAN said £l,OOO damages were.elaimed by
the owners of the property from the. committee, and
asked what was the pleasure of the committee on the
subject. .
It was unanimously agreed that if any action were
brought against the committee, the Town-clerk should
defend it.

The communications referred by the Council on the
previous day to the Health Committee, were read and
referred to the General Purposes sub-Committee.
The other business before the committee was of a
routine character,

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GALLANT LIFE-BOAT SERYICES.—ARRLOVV, COUNTY
banks. The life-boat of the Royal National Life-boat
Institution stationed here was under weigh about ten
o'clock. On reaching the banks, she found several
Arklow fishing-boats lying off and on, but none of them
could get even within hail of the vessel, owing to the
tremendous sea running on the banks. The life-boat
had some difficulty in getting 'alongside; but by skilful
management, she succeeded, at length, in doing so, and
taking off nine of the vessel's crew. The life-boat
afterwards put thdm on board the steamer Ruby, bound
for Bristol, according to the men's particular wish,
which on seeing the vessel in distress had lain-to out-
side the banks. The remainder of the vessel's crew had
been put on board the steamer by the ship's own life-
boat. The chief boatman of the coast guard, who went
off in the life:boat, and her crew reported the behaviour
of the life-boat as magnificent, and that they w 0414 tivt
fear to be in her in any sea.