The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TH 1 jRSDA y EVENING, JULY 26, 1855.

Before Parliament disbands we want to know how'
far they have advanced beyond these views. It.
the War to be " curied on with vigour," to get
a treaty of German paper manufacturing, or to
wrest for ever froth Russia territories and fortresses
which she has stolen or built for the subjugation
of Turkey and the East, and the mediatising of
all Germany ?
To know this is essential to that confidence in
the Government, which is necessary to the success-
ful administration of affairs. It is useless to
vapour about the danger of telling the enemy our
projects ; the danger lies in concealing them. No
one wishes any Lord JOHN to give Russia notice
a second time of the particular place we mean to
attack at a particular time ; it is mere affectation
or disingenuousness to confound things so totally
distinct. If we now, on the contrary, publicly
disavow Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S conceited, yet fatal, j
declaration, of wishing to leave the Russian terr4e.
tories undiminished, if we avow that we will e'in-
quer from her, and keep from her, everything we
can, from the gulf of Finland to the Blarik Sea,
that we will continue to fight for red securities
till we get sufficient, or till Russia strikes, not
only would the people of this country be reassured,
and rendered cordial in their support of the Go-
vernment, but Russia, not knowing where she
would be attacked, would be compelled to
divide her army while she increased its numbers,
at the same time exhausting her resources and
diminishing her strength in each locality.
We hold it, therefore, to be the duty of our
House of Commons in some way to declare its
own view, or rather that of the nation, on this
all-important question, and to require the Go-
vernment to do the same. Such a course will
save us at home six months' suspicion and dis-
trust ; will encourage the country, the army, and
the navy; will distract and intimidate the enemy;
will bring Austria, Prussia, and all Germany to
their senses ; and, as we believe, will materially
shorten the War. Without such a pledge we
shall be draggled along another six months at the
tail of Austria.

The alarm sounded by Professor FARADAY, re-
specting the dangerous condition of the Thames,
has not been without some effect. The
Lord Mayor, it is well known, responded to the
Professor with becoming alacrity, and straight-
way instituted an inquiry into the cause of the
extraordinary pollution complained of. Further
revelations as to the state of the river have fol-
lowed, and the public had the strongest corrobo-
rative testimony given to the absolute correctness
of the Professor's statement. A tidal river like
the Thames, receiving the ermice of two millions
and a half of people, and depositing mud a foot
in depth, at a short distance, every week,
to be turned up at each successive tide,
could hardly fail to be in the con-
dition described. Among the results of the
inquiry so far, would appear to be the discovery
that ono great aggravation of the evil of late has
arisen from encroachments made on the bed of
the river, and Sir JOHN APISTEIL, who has called
attention to this fact, suggests a measure of a reme-
dial nature.

Starting with the conviction that the greater
the volume of water carried up with the
tide, the greater will be the scour on its return,
Sir Joiirt recommends that the tidal river above
the bridges should be enlarged and widened,
and that reservoirs should be formed for
the penning of the clear water, and
letting it come down afterwards, when the
tide is out. Granting the correctness of his
theory, and supposing its being immediately put
into practice, there can be no reasonable hope of
an amelioration which will supersede the necessity
for a more thorough and costly measure. Sir
JOHN'S recommendation may be worth carryinc,
out, but cannot be made to do what is wanted.
There, however, the evil exists, and something
must be adopted to remedy it, great and threaten-
ing as it is. Accordingly, the disemboguement of
the sewerage of the Metropolis into the Thames
being confessedly the prime cause of its pollution,
we find a large minority of the Commissioners of
Sewers have come to the conclusion that the best
thing to be done is to put a limit to the quantity
of sewage admitted into the river. This, of course,
won't answer ; indeed it would most probably
involve
ignrterzottcletricetvioili might now-
turn
olt t a the
still rl,
use of cess-
pools, reservoirs whose poisonous exhalations
might assail the population with deadlier force
from being more concentrated than, to. the ma-
jority of the population, those of the Thames can
well be.

Nor can we feel satisfied with the prospect of
having the sewage entirely diverted from the
Thames, according to Sir B. lIALL's proposal, at
the termination of six years. Supposing the
public could afford to wait, which they cannot,
until that time, what provision would then be
found for the carrying away of the sewage ? It
is all very well to know that at a given and not
very remote period a noble stream, worthy an im-
perial city, will have a chance of rescuing itself from
the condition of a sewer, but the satisfaction to le
derived from this assurance must be seriously di-
minished when there is no reason held out to be-
lieve that that which has poisoned the Thames,
and rendered its exhalations noxious, will not le
suffered to collect and breed malaria at our very
doors. With nothing less, in short, can we le
satisfied, for nothing less will suffice than the
finding a substitute for the Thames, laying down
a great main sewer into which all the sewage of
the Metropolis. may flow, to be discharged therefrom
at a convenient distance into suitable reservoirs,
and afterwards converted into saleable manure.
To this the public must come at last, and
while we would thoroughly approve of every
necessary step being taken to give, as we may say,
the river fair play, by removing encroachments on
its bed, which, apart from the question of sewage,
are seriously injuring the tideway, we would
seriously urge the propriety of immediate steps
being taken to carry out the above, or some other
equally efficient plan, which, whatever it may be,
cannot be in operation too soon. The credit, as
well as the health, of two millions and a half of
people, calls for the greatest promptitude com-
patible with the magnitude of the undertaking.

LATEST NEWS.

THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL.

WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 26.

Dird Panmure has received the following cora-
ran nication from the Crimea, dated the 25th of

J:uiy, 5 p.m.
Cholera has lot increased since my last report,
And the army continues in satisfactory health.

increased, and its inaligtiity is such that most of the
cases prove fatal. The inhabitants, who hitherto ap-
peared to view with in .ifference the ravages of the
scourge, are now in the greete.t terror of it. Count
de Villa Real, a Portuguese Lieut.-General, Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary of the
King of Portugal to the Court of Russia, arrived
this morning from Lisbon, and will leave after to•
morrow for St. Peteriburgh,"