The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-03 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

" Brighton,
The Duke of Devonshire, Lord-Lieutenant of the
county of Derby, has just addressed the following letter
Jan. 1.
to the Deputy-Lieutenants of that county, on the neces-
sity of for a second regiment of Derbyshire Militia :
" Sir,—l have the honour of addressing you, as one
of the Deputy-Lieutenants of the county of Derby, to
request your attendance at a lieutenautcy meeting, to be
held at Derby, on Wednesday, the 10th of January, at
10 o'clock, to consider the propriety of taking measures
for raising a second regiment of militia in Derbyshire..
"I believe that the general op:viola of the county is
strongly in favour of an endeavour to raise the second
regiment, and it has appeared to me to be a duty incuan
bent upon me, as Lord-Lieutenant, to bring the matter
under your notice ; and if at the proposed meeting
active exertions should, as I anticipate, be recommended
I should then request the co-operation and assistance of

forefoot ; and this was accomplished so easily that per-
sons witnessing the operation almost doubted their own
eyes. She strained nothing whatever, and when her
defects had been made good she was let down, the water
in her fore compartments pumped out, and in 12 hours
she regained her natural position, and looked as trim on
the water as she ever did—that is after she got her
mizenmast in and topgallantmast pointed, yards squared,
&c. It will be seen that she was water-borne the whole
time, and that by destroying the buoyancy forward the
assiAtanee she required aft to raise her was compara-
tively small. '
• She brings home from Malta several wounded and in-
valided officers from both services, among whom are
Capt. Graham, R.N.. Into of the Rodney, and Lieut.
Bridge, R.N., late first of the Vengeance, but serving
lately with. great zeal in the trenches, invalided ; the
gallant Capt. White, of the 17th Lancers, severely
wounded in the rash but noble Light Cavalry charge on
the 25th of October; Major (now Lieut.-Cul.) Hume,
95th, badly wounded at Inkerman ; Lieut.-Colonel
Berkeley, Scots Fusilier Guards, also severely wounded
at Alma ; Dr. Manifold, in medical charge of the in-
valids ; Captains Stour and Knollys commanding them ;
Mr.. Cot rave, midshipman, the fortunate and only sur-
viving officer of the ill-fated steam-ship Prince ; also Mr.
Owen, the only officer saved from the Resolute transport.
She also brings invalided and wounded men, women, and
children from no less than 42 different regiments, thus—
men, 140; women, 225; children, 295 ; naval invalids, 12;
shipwrecked seamen from the Black Sea, 116; second
oh.eo paecengore and am vantS, 35—making a total of 845
souls, beides her own crew, of"whom one man has died
during the 'passage, and five children have been
born. Sts anxious was Admiral Stewart to get the
Himalaya to England that she was hurried off from
Malta ins by no means a very fit state for sea, and
meeting with the bad weather she encountered for the
first three days caused necessarily a great deal of dis-
comfort to the invalids, women, and children ; but every-
thing that could be done to make them as comfortable
as the circumstances would admit of was done by the
officer in charge, as well as the medical officer (Dr.
Manifold, staff surgeon), assisted by the surgeon of the
ship (Dr. M'Cann) and by the different officers on
board.

She was detained at Gibraltar from the morning of
the 25th to early on the 28th getting a supply of coal.
She coaled in the New Mole, which for a ship of her
great length is not a very convenient place for the pur-
pose. This may have been in some measure the cause
of her apparently long detention at that port.
At Gibraltar her Majesty's steam-ship Hecla, Com-
mander Hawker. The Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany's ship Indus, Captain soy, arrived at the Rock at
noon on the 25th, after a fine passage of four days 21
hours, and proceeded to Malta and Alexandria at 6
p.m. the same day, all well. The same company's
ship Iberia arrived at 6 p.m. on the 27th. On the 24th,
off Cape de Gatt, the Himalaya exchanged signals with
her Majesty's ship Neptune, bound to the East. The
screw transport Gothenburgh, No. 133, left Gibraltar
for the East on the 25th.

The Sprightly, steam tender, went out from Porte.

mouth harbour to Spithead immediately the Himalaya
anchored, and took in a few of the most urrent cases;
whom she landed at Haslar, after diserotbarkinc, at
Portsmouth dockyard Captain Graham, R.N., Colonel
Berkeley, Captain White, and Lieutenant Saunderson,
of the 62d, who went to the George lintel, where they
remained for the night. The rest of the Himalaya's melan-
choly freight will be disembarked to-morrow, most pro-
bably at this port. She camp up to Spithead with the
yellow flag flying, but soon hauled it down.

THE METROPOLITAN COMMISSION OF

SEWERS.

Yesterday a Court of Sewers was held at the offioe of
Le commission, Greek-street, Soho. Mr. Jebb was in

the chair.

With a view to shorten the duration of the proceed-
ings of the court on its ordinary days of meeting, it. was
arranged that courts, which only a portion of the com-
missioners should be expected to attend, should in future
be held on alternate Wednesdays, fur the transaction of
routine or formal business:

Sir J. SIIELLEY inquired of the chairman whether the
commission had power to take land for outfall works at
Barking-creek ?
The CEIAIRIUN replied that as the conimission was
empowered to take land for such purposes, only within
the limits of its own juriedit-,tion, and as her Majesty
had been ploased to include within those limits no past
of the county of Essex, the commission could not take
land-for the purposes referred to at Barking-creek, which
was in that county.
Sir J. SHButir gave notice that be should, at the first
court held in the month of February, move resolutions
declaring that for the drainage of the metropolis there
ought to he two sewers, one on the north and the other
on the south side of the Thames, whose outfalls sheuld
be so near the mouth of the river as to prevent the
filth, when once discharged, being brought back by the
tide • and that it was necessary that the commission
should be empowered to purchase land for the purpose o
constructing the required outfall works.
In reply to Mr. OFFER,

The eiIAIRUAN stated that a sewer, about two hun-
dred feet in length, had been constructed by the late
commissioners, under Sir George Duckett's canal, at an
expense of from 1,5001. to 2,0001. The work was exe-
cuted because the canal was at the time emptied for the
purpose of being cleaned. Had not this golden oppor-
tunity been seized, it would, in order to pass under the
caul, have been necessary, at a groat expense, to stop
the traffic.

In answer to another question from Mr. OFFER,
The CIIAIRUAN said that he had no doubt that the
officers of the commission held their offices during plea-
sure, and that it was competent to the commissioners to
disthiss•them or reduce their salaries.
Mr. OFFER gave notice that he should, at a future
court, move the appointment of a committee to inquire
into the salaries, which, though be did not know what
wcrk was performed by them, were, be, thought, too
high..
The CIIAIF.ILIN denied that the salaries paid were ex-
cessive, but should be glad that an inquiry should take

•
place.
Mr. WADE gave notice that, on the 16th January, he
should propose to the Comt to offer a premium of 5001.
for the best plan of ventilating the sewers under the
control of the commission.

Mr. THWAITES gave notice that at the same Court he
should move a series of resolutions expressing approval
Of the "Great London Drainage Scheme" (as opposed
to the plan proposed by Mr. Bazalgette, the enginser to
the commission) for the drainage of that part of the me-
tropolis south of thci Thames.

The que:ititin 'of the liability to rates of tithes in the
hands of ecclesiastics having been mentioned,
Mr. OFFER gave notice of his intention to move its
considoration as early as possible, with a view to the
consultation upon it by the law officers of the Crown.
After the transaction of some other business, the
Court adjourned.