The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-03 00:00:00

S U

t.3P/RIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALK.k.,--,-„!
-.-.
TIMES.—A Boston beauty once defised the * 7 ase-
tentions of a Pennsylvanian admirer as " So
honest courtship and sorter not; but a darned
more sorter not than sorter." Similarly I.And J.
,:., • ' ,
e
Manners, towards the close of the session, described-
the state of the new Victoria-street sewer as " partly - : -
satisfactory and partly unsatisfactory ;" nor do we• '
doubt but that the inhabitants of that neighbourhood
could fieish off the comparison. Finally, Major
Dawson, on the same subject, has delivered himself
of an address which is decidedly both agreeable and
disagreeable, and it is to this composite oration that
we now intend to refer. Like ingenious advertisers,
we really felt ourselves compelled to throw off with
an o
f anecdote.our
remarkslf w we hadwe
sh
oguriajve havelyi,announcedscared
athe
everysub-
ject
mission of Sewers" ascends to the
bnotr„ilsl Metropolitanlike
C otrabe-
reader. The very name of the
sug-
gestive of nothing but juggling, effluvium of an " untrapped guile
5-
• tis
abortions, and interminable del
thermometer at 75 degrees in the jabbers,shade,
ndcabal,.hope-
lesss,a
nobody
the.
willingly concern himself about the dLins dwoubl.d
feet. Yet it is to this topic that we mustunerefrorcels
return, and we do earnestly bespeak the perforce
consideration, for we have that to say which is very
greatly to the point. There have been three " Me-
tropolitan Commissions of Sewers." With more or
less discredit, these sanitary councils have been suc-
cessively extinguished, and on their ruins there has
now risen a fourth. On Saturday afternoon this new
Commission was formally opened, and the opportunity
was seised with great propriety by Major Dawson'
one of the Commissioners, to explain at length what
had hitherto not been done, and why not; as well as
to announce what was likely or unlikely to remain
undone still. It has heretofore been a peculiar feature
of these proceedings that whereas the business of the
commission made no perceptible progress, the public
has been kept wholly in the dark respecting the
causes of delay and the chances of improvement.
These obscurities Major Dawson bas betaken him-
self to remove, and in an address which, we may
observe in passing,
seemed to enlighten his own col-
leagues quite as much as the general audience, he
gave a perspicuous and intelligible statement of the
whole affair. In this part of his exposition we are
bound to say that the speaker left little to be desired.
He acknowledged that the true object of the Commis-
sion was not the mere " cleansing and repairing
sewers, laying down a few hundred feet of pipe, and
sitting to hear appeals against rates," but the prepa-
ration and execution of " a system of general drain-
age for this great metropolis ;" remarking, with
obvious justice, that in any other case there would
have been no necessity for the appointment of such
eminent and distinguished men to the office. He ad-
mitted, with unexceptionable candour, that as re-
garded this distinct and special object of three succes-
sive Commissions, the public were " very nearly in
the same state and position as when we enter office
in January, 1849 ;" that " the river Thames was as
impure now as it was then ;" and that, with small
exceptions, " not even the surface of the ground
had been broken for the introduction of any main
eewer," He confessed that the first Commission
" did little or nothing towards the accomplishment of
the main drainage, owing to a spirit of rivalry be-
tween two of its chief officers, each of whom bad a
project of his own and ridiculed that of the other."
fie owned that the second Commission, after devising
a system of main drainage,
and that the first
Commission was somewhat. shortrefistrrtsootgpprsaetdd:Pe.
critical point,
Major Dawson didspinedtlinain terms. straightforwardly
ec, f
tAhealti
third t
thishat
avow ; and such,
agreeable part of his communication.
Comparison, is the
their shortcomingsalng
Commissioners of Sewers appreciating their duties so
To find the
so
aextcorrectly, acknowledging
can-
didly, and publishing to the world sol
prospec-
tus of their intentions for the future, Pisa::
pleasant surprise.* In his exculpation cf his peelmaely
sirs in office the ajor is, perhaps, a little precipitate
We could remind him, if we pleased, that the obliga.:
tiors, whiehtor himself and his colleagues he now con-
fesses, were for many months together not only
eluded but audaciously denied, and he will surely see
upon reflexion, that a Commission, in which the " two
chief officers" sacrificed the public interests to private
cabals, must really have been open to some merited
censure. However, we are content to let all this
pass—to consider that the necessity of a great system
was always recognised, and the impropriety of turning
the Thames into a sewer always admitted. If the
Commissioners will go honestly to work at last, we
will say nothing about arrears of duty, but will give
them all assistance in grappling with the realities
before them. These realities Major Dawson has
clearly delineated, and to this disagreeable department
of the subject we must invite the reader's attention for
a few moments more. Work cannot be done without
money, and the money of the Commissioners is pro-
vided by rate. At present they possess 8,3511. 19s.
4d. actually in hand, and from arrears of rates uncol-
lected they are in expectation of 36,099/. 17s. 4d.
more, leaving a total of less than 40,0001. The rating
powers of the Commission extended originally to ls.
in the pound, a limit which was reduced to 3d.
some time ago, but increased again very recently
to 6d. Under these powers, when exercised over
the whole metropolitan area, they calculate on
levying 181,230/. But, on the other side, they
are in debt 58,9911.; the ordinary expenditure of
the Commission is computed at 48,4661., and they
have a prospect of requiring at least 244,0001. for ex-
traordinary works not directly relating to the main
drainage system, but " of urgent necessity, the whole
of which have been repeatedly presented to the Court,
estimated, prepared, and ordered to be carried into
execution." For two years, therefore, at the least,
we are to conclude that the whole prospective funds
of the Commission will be consumed in works exclu-
eive of the great system of main drainage, and Major •
Dawson openly informs us that this long-desired
scheme, though now actually devised and approved,
cannot possibly be carried into effect. Its estimated
cost is 1,080,0001, whereas the Commissioners for
the next two years will not have half-a-crown at their
disposal for any such purpose. We have no means of
checking the particular figures thus given, but if the
budget is correctly expounded, it is perfectly clear
that, the metropolitan public must either consent to
a larger temporary rate or go without purification
altogether. The points open to inquiry are the
" ordinary expenses" of the Commission, and the
exigency of the " extraordinary works"' which,
though not part of the " great system," threaten one
fourth of its whole cost. As to the estimate of the
main work itself, we should hardly think, speaking
by probabilities, that a million was an extravagant
demand. We might certainly, if we were inclined
to be captious, observe that the difficulties now ex-
plained at the eleventh hour must have been obvious
to every member of every Commission months and
months ago, and that a circumstance which renders
nugatory the appointment of any Commission at all is
not propounded with a very good grace at the solemn
inauguration of the fourth of these councils. Waving
e
this consideration, however, and coming at once
, if hise to
esti-
mates are unimpeachable, has air
point,m
we must admit that Msjor Da wly'm°Dade out his
f
ca It is hard to forgetthat these Commissions,
though invariably doing nothing, have never been
for leaving everything
without an elaborate exchue
million sterling cannot
undone. Nevertheless
fore us. Works deniabodi
a Commission whose current
t_ogrseesare plain facts now be.
possibly be executed
nexyt
two years must average
liabilities for the
sad whose gross available income
200,0001. We have fair complaint
against those
long made a mystery of their
who 50w16i011,0b0,301.n an
der year.
it is now duly stated, the responsi-
bility ia future
will rest with ourselves.
position; but if

A —An important
ActlErB
was Passe • to the carriage of passengers by sea." laws relating
date the NElvd in rhAeSlsaEteNGseEsßsison ti"ctoLamend and consoli-
date
to carry the Act into execution. On the let
se°tacint:il3nrsgerf°th7fleAacntdise.xtocecpotmaesintoto
aonperoartdioern,i:lcenoutnhceil
There are 91 clauses in the Act, and several schedules, con.
Act 1849" is to be repealed, except as to the:e'dxPaitasesi
ing liabilities,
The 6th October, 1t49. The Act is to extend to every pas-
sengera ship proceeding on any voyage from the United
kjegdom to any place out of Europe, and not being within
the Mediterranean Sea, and on every colonial voyage as
stated. It is not to extend to her Majesty's ships of war,
sm, The Commissioners of Emigration are to carry the
Act into execution. There are various provisions as to the
accommodation and diet to be afforded to passengors. No
passenger is to be landed without Us previous consent at
any port or place other than the port at which he may have
contracted to land. Her Majesty may, by orders in Council,
prescribe rules for the preservation of order, &c., in vessels
bound to the colonies. Only a certain number of passen-
gers is to be allowed, according to the size of the ships. The
forms in the schedule explain the manner in which the Act
is to be carried into force.
CHILD MURDER.—Christopher Maisey, the person
against whom the jury returned a verdict of
" WroinCi
hiatiere.l, acnlie
murder', in the inquest held before Mr. Wasbrough, coroner
for Berke, on :the .body of the child found in WitinelYpZen
fishpond, has just been captured at Liverpool.
the ill
is due to the police officer, Mr. J. Jefferies, for tilsinisplayed
which he acted, and the ingenuity in which ae wash m"
in effecting the capture, for it appears therepo
sealed s in
underlodgings,
the at
nameLiverpool,ef
order having been sent to him in thst
landlord for the money,
Moreton-
in-the-Marsh the prisoner sent hiesto
detain the person who
when an officer was in readiness to
thereby discovered the
applied for it, which he did, eventuallyand secured him. It
winthat it was his inten-
t.sh,
1 rt
rnodane ll)est - post-office
ffih:b
first opportunity dressed
the country .
appeared by
bwyhleertetearbsoufotss,ndantlpont_e
Part e bustle, curls, &c.,
in
niown
woman's
agne,tsoautttoirfe. , of. his dress was
whis-
kerygoatnrdehacilsy,and
LisenntoAwssiszaefselyatloßdegaetning.
gaol, to await his -r--wbu was the prisoner's servant, who
The young visnund, which, though born alive, she never saw,
gave birth to the corn
am o n
wereit aclvoesreyly s
5 charge at the recent summer assizes,
witted, the counsel for the prosecution (Mr. Sergeant
declined to offer any evidence against her, as
Allen) havor,
the real perpetrator of the shocking ail"' ...
t bre.r.
Maisey was
tbority, the
informed, on good au. eof Mr.
r are
0 fitilliiesalvjealgtehfre.nelixte
eeeas
:lull will.
created
wa:ltreied on the
be nominated for Oldham, the d
a vacancy in the top recantation of
biciitirdaviuc
ft
having
, _ lt.)boantc town.—Liverpool Albion.