The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—Her Majesty's Message was yesterday
delivered to a Parliament which, though its mem-
bers may have been as laborious as usual, has not
produced in the present Session many measures of
great public importance. The Legislature follows
the instincts of the public, and takes greater interest
in discussing questions of foreign policy and further-
ing the material improvement of the country than
in making reforms in our laws and institutions.
This tendency of the Session just closed is re-acted
in the Royal Message. There are more than the
usual number of references to international quese
tions, and the rest of the Message is devoted to con-
gratulating the two Houses on the prosperity of
the country and the empire. The few new laws to
which it alludes are of the most practical character,
such as may be enacted by a contented people care-
less of political theories and abhorring organic
change. As might be expected, the Danish question
has the first place. The Session has been almost
exactly co-extensive with the war by which Den-
mark has been crushed. In the early days of
February the Allies attacked the Dannewerke, and
in the present week the Danish Plenipotentiary
has had his first interview with the Prussian and
Austrian Ministers preparatory to the new Con-
ference, in which Denmark will obtain peace by the
cession of everything that is demanded of her. A
melancholy passage in European history, a series
of events which have engrossed the attention of the
country for eo long, could not be passed over without
notice, and the recent acceptance of the Ministerial
policy by the House of Commons makes it
more easy for the Crown to speak with dignity on
the subject. As the House has formally approved
the determination of the Government to remain at
peace, the Queen can be satisfied with expressing
her regrets that the endeavours to bring about a
reconciliation between the belligerents failed, and
that the hostilities which had been suspended during
the negotiations were resumed. It is no more than
just that Her Majesty should expressly state
that these endeavours were made in concert with
the Emperor of the French, the Emperor of Russia,
and the King of Sweden. The presumption of all
foreigners and of a good many Englishmen has been
that this country was pledged in some especial
manner to support the Danish claims, and could not
justly hang back, even when other neutrals refused
their support. The fact is that though a somewhat
excessive zeal on the part of the Foreign-office may
have given colour to these opinions, they have no
real foundation. As has been repeatedly shown,
the action of England was entirely free, and neither
at the outset of the dispute nor at the close was she
in any way bound to interfere alone. It is the best
answer to misrepresentations both at home and
abroad to state that what was done was in concert
with the other neutral Powers, and that their
ostensible policy was as much thwarted by the
failure of the negotiations as our own. As these
are the last Royal words which will probably be
uttered in public on this unhappy affair, and as
they will be read in every capital of Europe, it is a
satisfaction to perceive that they have placed the
negotiations in their true light. The Royal Message
then turns to a more agreeable subject. The re-
cognition of the Greek revolution, the selection of a
King for the bewildered little State, and the trans-
ference to Greece of the Septinsular Republic have
been among the happiest acts of Lord Palmerston's
Government. We could not have gone on for ever
holding down these lonians; we might never again
have had so excellent an opportunity of letting
them go free. To suppress their demonstrations
year by year looked like tyranny ; to yield to them
without some occasion would have been taken for
weakness. Tho revolution of two years ago came
to rid the country of this embarrassment. The
Greeks made the first steps towards amity by send-
ing here for a King, and they were happily met in
the same spirit. The consequence has been that,
after some eighteen months of negotiations, the
islanders and the Protecting Powers have parted on
excellent terms. The British flag has been hauled
down, not by a victorious enemy, not in ungracious
concession to seditious and hateful subjects, but
with an air of generosity on the one side and gra.
titude on the other which is seldom found in
international transactions. When the events of
the present time are viewed from a few years'dis-
tance and appear in their true moral proportions,
there is little doubt that the failure of a
too eager interference in the North of Europe will
be forgotten by the side of the political success
achieved in the Mediterranean. More genuine in-
fluence will have been gained by a well-timed con-
cession than has been lost by a diplomatic mistake.
The reconciliation of Prince Couza with the Sultan
is an event likely to have a most favourable influence
on the progress of the Danubian Provinces, where
the present generation is witnessing changes of the
highest importance. Any good, however, that the
Great Powers can effect by mediating between the
Turkish Suzerain and his chief Christian vassal is
of lit* moment in comparison with the benefits to
mankind they might accomplish were it in their
power to bring about a reCouulliaLtun
contending Federations of North America. The
Royal Message only enunciates the opinion of the
whole country when it declares it expedient for this
country to maintain a strict neutrality between the
belligerents. We cannot hope that the interference
either of ourselves or our neighbours would have
any other effect than to exasperate those whom it
sought to calm. In such circumstances it is, per-
haps, advisable to dissipate every suspicion which
the action of any English Association may have
excited in American breasts, and to declare formally
that in no way and in conjunction with no other
Power will England meddle in American affairs.
It when we look abroad the prospect is chequered,
all is bright at home as well as in the principal de-
pendencies of the Crown. The war in New Zealand
makes an exception to the general prosperity and
tranquillity of the empire. With the exception of
this passing cloud there is nothing to darken the
landscape. In the manufacturing districts of Great
Britain the want and anxiety caused by the blockade
of the American cotton crop is being relieved by one
of the most remarkable industrial movements that
has been witnessed in our time. Truly we may hope
that the world is becoming united in stronger bonds
than ever, when it is found that the great staple
which the Southern States of America spoke of as
their monopoly and looked on as able to control
the action of England is being rapidly produced
by communities which the planters of the New
World and their Lancashire customers have been
accustomed to consider as effete or barbarous. The
spread of knowledge and the desire of material well-
being have affected the most ignorant and the most
apathetic populations, and there is good reason to
believe that if the American war lasts much longer
the supplies of cotton will be abundant enough to
restore the manufacturing classes to their former
prosperity. In the chief dependency of the Crown
particularly are the energy and progress of the pre-
sent day most remarkable. The advance of India
in material prosperity and the contentment of its
vast populations are things by which the present
time will be remembered, and they furnish a fit sub-
ject for the congratulations of the Throne, After
mentioning some of the principal measures of the
session, and among them the Government Annui-
ties, and the act for giving increased facilities for
the construction of railways, her Majesty dismisses
Parliament with some cheerful remarks on the
general wellbeing of the country. In these felicita-
tions one might, indeed, contrast the many blessings
which Providence has sent us with the very few that
are owing to the Legislative labours of the present
session ; and remonstrate against the "Prosperity"
and " practical comfort" argument when urged in
defence of Parliamentary supineness. But it is so
plain that it is the prosperity which has caused the
apathy, that the enjoyment of the present has pre•
vented the labour for ttse future, that it must be a
severe critic who would lecture the legislators whom
the day's proceedings set at liberty.
POST.—The inhabitants of the metropolis have
submitted patiently to the taxation necessary for
getting rid of the nuisance caused by sewage flow.
ing into the Thames. The Main Drainage Commis-
sioners will be thoroughly entitled to the gratitude
of the public when they shall have decided upon
some plan for utilising the refuse matter of from two
to three millions of people. The mere !act of pro-
jecting, by means of the engineering skill and vast
wealth of London, its filth into the Thames. estuary
does not necessarily furnish any guide to 'the na-
tion at large, and to provincial
towns in particu-
lar, as to the most economical method of dis-
posing of their sewage. If the Essexmarsh
could
some other districts washed by the Thames,
be rendered by the application of sewage as remu•
nerative as the meadows between Edinburgh and
Leith, or the fields of the Earl of Essex, fertilised
by the excreta of the town of Watford, then we
should anticipate the coming of the happy time
when the rates hitherto paid by Londoners would
assume diminished proportions, and also when they
would have theadditional satisfaction of proving to
the kingdom at large what vast sources of wealth
are wasted by emptying the drainage of towns into
adjacent rivers or brooks. The sewage question has
assumed gigantic, proportions of late years. It
threatens to set landed proprietors, farmers, and
others interested in the cultivation of the soil, at
variance with the inhabitants of towns. The other
day the legal representatives of the Conservators of
the Thames appeared before Vice-Chancellor Sir W.
Page Wood, asking for an injunction to restrain the
mayor and corporation of Kingston-on-Thames from
discharging the sewage of that town into the river.
The lei unction Was
granted so far as to inhibit the
Kingston munieipa authorities fromcutting through
the towingepath or opening channels other than
thee aleeedy existing for conducting the contents

of their cesspools into the Thames. This case 1S
now referred to on public grounds, and without the
slightest wish to prejudge the decision which is to
be
pronounced on a discussion of the merits, which is
to take place hereafter. Chelmsford, Birmingham,
Uxbridge, Malvern, Banbury, and several other
towns, have either been sued, or are at this present
moment in legal conflict with various parties for
discharging their obnoxious matters into adjacent
rivers. The present hot summer has doubt'reas
aggravated a state of things which the absence of
rain has rendered worse. At this moment there
are thousands of acres of land in England as dry"
and dusty and as bare of herbage as Rotten-row
or Hyde-park, entirely from want of moisture.
Agriculturists in certain districts are at their wits
ends to devise means for keeping their cattle in
condition. The old pastures are in many placed.
burnt up by the heat of the 'sun. The eecond.
crop of clover has been eaten off by stock, instead
of mown, as heretofore. The last resort is the
aftermath, which in most casss is to be found in the
greatest abundance in meadows adjoining rivers.
These, however, in the vicinity of towns whose
municipal authorities turn the adjacent rivers into
common sewers for their own convenience, are
almost unapproachable either by man or beast.
The pastures in such localities are comparatively'
useless, by reason of the drying up of the initial
springs during this hot season. The water in the
rivers is so polluted by the feculent matters carried
into them by the drainage of towns that bullocks.
and sheep will not taste it, and, if they did do so in
the extremity of thirst, they would be seriously
injured thereby. The consequences of municipal
authorities discharging their offensive matters into
the nearest rivers has been very serious to the
sufferers ever since the system began. A dry
season like the present has made matters worse
than usual. Not only have agriculturists
been prevented, by the offensive nature of town
sewage, from using their aftermath for their
famishing cattle, but fish, also, in certain streams
are at this moment utterly destroyed. We could
now place our finger on the map of England and
point out one river in particular in which the
fisheries have been completely ruined. Pike,
eight and ten pounds each, perch weighing from
one to two pounds, and eels the length of a walk*
ing stick, are all to be found floating on the stir.
face, either dead or in such a state of intoxication
as is produced by slaked lime when put
into rivers by poachers. This latter substance
is a favourite deodoriser with boards of health.-
The sewage of towns during a season like the pre'
sent will kill all serts of fish for a distance of at
least six miles downwards from the junction of the
main sewer with the river. Farmers, millers, and
landowners have lately become more than usually
anxious about this matter. The practical solution
of this question concerns the health of the dwellers
on river banks. A wind blowing up stream, end
carrying back the miasmata, generated by putre-
fying matter, to the place where they originated,
has a tendency to rouse urban populations to the
serious evils, which they try to remove a step or VW°,
from their own doors only to place them at those 01
their neighbours. If farmers and millers find, as
they actually do, that their interests are seriously
affected by this increasing nuisance, then the ques
tion of rent must be discussed, and the value of all
property along the banks of rivers polluted by
sewage will gradually diminish. The present sum;
mer has, in its way, tested the reckless system
turning British rivers into huge sewers. In the
olden time they were the glory of the landaeaPe
and the theme of song. No doubt they have been
reduced in volume by the drainage of the land. A
flood is now carried off to the sea in as many days a,
it used to take wells to accomplish. It requireu
years of experience, attended with terrible epidemic'
and expense, to induce urban populations even 10
iend an ear to the advice of those who recommended
them to adopt the provisions of the Health of Tow°
Act. They have to a great extent got rid of the
most prevalent causes of many forms of disease bY
the adoption of wise sanitary regulations. It Tr
mains to be seen whether no other induceraen-!:
short of expensive suits in Chancery, can preiral'
upon boards of health to deposit their sewage °I
the land, as recommended by Liebig, instead °_
forcing it into the nearest river, as is now done, I°,
the injury of man, beast, and fish, and in fact o_l
every living thing. Croydon was restrained, a few.
years ago, from polluting the Wandle. The Ine'll
hers of the Board of Health. like sensible We"!
rented several hundred acres of land, a mile or. tiv°,
from the town, to which they applied the l4°
manure, and with beneficial effects. If the sysc!
followed there and at Watford, in Essex, were woru
generally adopted throughout the country, the
neru•
suits would be satisfactory to all parties coacer