The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-08 00:00:00

LYNN AND HUNSTANTON.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
at Lynn on Saturday; Mr L. Simpson in the chair.
The report stated that the traffic receipts for the
half-year ending Jane 30 amounted to £3,500, from
which, after deducting working expenses payable
to the Great Eastern Company, with interest on the
debenture debt and other expenses, there remained
a balance of £1,372 applicable for dividend. The
directors recommend a distribution at the rate
of 4 per cent. per annum, leaving £173 to be
carried forward to the next account. The gross
traffic for the corresponding half 1863 amounted
to £3,049, so that the receipts for the
past half-year showed an increase of £451
The directors added that the Royal assent had been
given to an Act for the construction of the West
Norfolk Junction line, and that the contractor had
made arrangements for the vigorous prosecution of
the works. It was proposed to erect an hotel at
Hunstanton. The agreement for the working of
the line by the Great Eastern had received the seal
of the two companies.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the directors left it to the shareholders
to determine whether the dividend should not be 4;
per cent,

Mr. Slum' suggested that the dividend should be
at the rate of 4 per cent.

This was agreed to, the report was adopted, and
the proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the
directors.

MID-KENT.

The report of the directors of this company states
the bill authorising the amalgamation of the Mid-
Kent Company with the South-Eastern Company
has passed both Houses of Parliament, and the
arrangements for carrying its provisions into efft.ct
willA d
d beo completedrab:
extension
was
p as practicable. The
opened for public traffic
on the Ist of April last, and the interest on the capis
tal employed in its construction became from that
date payable by the South Eastern Company. The
revenue account shows a disposable account of
£2,615, which enables the same dividend to be paid
as last half-year—TlZ., at the rate of 61 per cent.
per annum, leaving Ll 5 to be carried forward.
The balance sheet showed that £169,938 had been
expended on capital account.

SOLWAY JUNCTION.
The firsrordinary meeting of this company was
held on Friday, at the offices, Victoria street,
Westminster; Mr. J. Dees in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
m
report, congratulated the shareholders on the pass-
ing of the, bill in its integrity. The great utility
of the line from Annan across the Solway to Bray-
ton the Glasgow and South-Western Company fully
admitted. The traffic in hematite ores from West
Cumberland to Scotland had increased from 22,000
tons in 1857 to 150,000 in 1863, and had tripled
itself in the last three years. He showed that
200,000 tons per annum would be carriel upon the
traffic alone encompleted and opened, and that this
would yield a dividend of 5 per cent.
per annum. The receipts from
the usual traffic pro-
mised a dividend equal to any of the West Cumber-
land lines, which ranged from oi
to 12 per cent. per
annum. _ _

The report was adapted, th, retiring directors
were unanimously re-eleoted, and the proceedings
terminated,

The French Occupation or
Cochin China,

According to the 31°/liteur the intelligence
brought to France by
China is far from confirmicg the reports current in
every mail from Cochin
colonial establish-
Pv
earrni smlast t
intended winter,
ttoh e l
jemffei
tc t that
its
La Grandiere,
French
amoetnotftthheerge
otvoeranvoerr, yiteraers.tAricdtmedirrioiezpotion. Every
nentaeien,ing
abueathrsorwitiytneasnsdto
ethxeteinndteinn
gtionitsofimnfiani
as will be
seen from a rapid mention of the recent proceedings
of the local administration. In
February the go-
vernor, in order to prevent usury, which is the
scourge of the East, decided on founding five Monts
de Pi6te, being one for each of the provinces ceded
to France. As these establishments are to lead
money at 3 per cent. per month, the current rate in
Cochin China must have been most exorbi-
tant. In April, the first careening dock, con-
structed in the Government arsenal at Saigon, was
opened ; it is 72 metres (236 feet) long, and will
admit, ordinary tides, vessels drawing 4.20 metres
(13ft. 9in). This dock has cost 70,000 fr. But the
most important event in the ratification, by the
French Government, of the treaty of protectorate
concluded last year by Rear-Admiral de la Gran-
diem with the King of Cambodia, who, when the
King of Siam threatened to annex his territor3,
applied to Franca for protection, and obtained it.
" The fact," says the official journal, g, is the most
formal contradiction that can be given to those
persons who circulate alarming rumours. The Go-
vernment has never had the least thought of re.
stricting French domination in Cochin China." The
French college at Adran, confined to Catholic rois_
sionaries, is making constant progress. The adop•
tion of the European alphabet has greatly facili-
tated primary instruction. Most of the boys now
learn as much in 10 months, as the pupils under
the native teachers can in ten years, A great
number already read French with ease, and some
of them speak it very passably. Four of the native
boys al •
e noW v.eting as interpreters gt MO difloont
stations,

The construction of the greatest of metropolitan
improvements—the Thames Embankment—has at
length been fairly commenced. Year after year the
necessity of such a work had been pointed out,
commission after commission, and committee after
sommittee have sat upon, and considered, and re.
ported in its favour. Martin, the painter, and Sir
Frederick Trench who set up the molten image of
Wellington upon the triumphal arch at Hyde-park,
had called attention to the necessity and value of
the work; every tourist who had seen the banks of
the Seine had wondered why London should not
make the banks of its noble river as ornamental as
those of Paris; travellers and merchants, and trades-
men, who had to go from east to west in the metro-
polis, and who were subjected to all the annoyance
and vexation of delays, in consequence of the
thronged condition of the streets, wondered why
the great silent highway of the Thames should not
be made available as a leading thoroughfare for the
metropolis. The necessity of providing for the
construction of the Lew Level Sewer, with-
out interrupting the traffic of London for an inde.
finite period, at length brought the question to an
issue, and the Thames embankment is now some.
thing more than a vision of the painter, or a dream
of the social reformer. Long rows of piles on the
north side of the river between Westminster and
Blackfriars bridges, the thuds of falling weights
from the pile.driving machines, and the hiss and
whistle of about 30 steam engines pumping and
working upon the temporary stages; the ceaseless
line of carts that crawl slowly along Fleet-street
and the Strand, laden with the rubbish that may
now be shot into the river, bear evidence that the
work is being pushed forward with rapidity. With
respect to this latter portion of the works, these
rubbish carts are the greatest nuisances of the day,
and it is much to be desired that some wholesome
police regulation could be enforced to make them
" move on," or take some hours of the day when
the public traffic would not be incommoded.
This, however, is an improvement which is rather
to be hoped for than one to be reasonably ex-
pected, and it is a necessary evil which we suppose
must be endured while the work is in hand, for pro-
bably nothing short of a special Act of Parliament
would put an end to the nuisance. The foundations
of the river wall of the embankment are carried
down to 22 feet below high water level, or 14 feet
below low water. From the foundations to about
six feet below low water the whole space is to be
filled up with concrete. Within the embankment
there is to be constructed the Low Level Sewer, and
a subway for water and gas pipes and telegraph
wires, access to which may be obtained at any time
without breaking up the road. The Low Level
Sewer, between Whitefriars-street and the Victoria-
street Sewer, is to be eight feet three inches in dia-
meter, and formed in brickwork, 134 inches thick.
From the Victoria-street Sewer to Westminster.
bridge the Low Level Sewer will be seven feet nine
inches in the clear. At Whitefriars the invert of
the sewer will be six feet three inches below what
is termed ordnance datum, or 20 feet three inches
below low water; the fall in the sewer will be at
the rate of one in 2,640, or two feet per mile. The
subway to be formed above the sewer, but with an
interval of 4 feet between the bottom of the crown of
the sewer, will be 9 feet in width, and 7 feet 6 inches
in height, bringing the crown of the subwayto a trifle
more than 2 feet below the level of the roadway, the
surface of the embankment being 4ft. above high
water. The floor of the subterranean way, through
which the gas and the water and the electric fluid
are to be conducted, will be gravelled, and will be
51t. 6in. below high water, so that ample room will
be afforded for the workmen to walk through it, and
to execute the necessary repairs. The river wall of
the embankment is to be faced with granite from
2ft. below low water, and at high water mark there
will be some bold mouldings of granite, and the
parapet will be formed as en open balustrade at the
parts where there are steamboat piers and landing
stages. A solid mooring bar of iron will be laid
along the whole length of the embankment, and to
it will be attached 58 mooring rings, held in lions
mouths, and to which barges, steamers, and river
craft may be made fast. The dredging of the river,
on the line of the river wall of the embankment, and
sinking the foundations, are works of a very formid-
able character. The line of the face of the em-
bankment is formed in the first instance with
sufficient accuracy for the construction of the
coffer dam. The curve of the line of embankment
is about 9,000 feet radius, and it is formed by
offsets from lines taken from a pole set up
about midway between two of the bridges to two
other points on the bridges; these form an angle,
and from its sides the effects are taken at every
length of 50 feet, which determine the curve of the
river front of the embankment. In one portion of
the work, Mr Kitson, the contractor, adopts the old
form of cofferdam for getting to the foundations,
while in the section of Mr Furness caissons are em■
ployed. These caissons have an elliptical shape on
plan, are 12ft. 6in. by 7ft. outside measurement,
and have a groove 6in. in width and depth at each
end. This groove, along with a similar one in the
butted end of the next caisson, is to receive the
timber pile which forms one of the guides to the
descent of the caissons, as well as a joint, water•

tight with packing. Each caisson is built in divi-

sions of 4ft. 6in. in height, which aro of wrought
and rivetted boilerplate iron where to be below the
bed of the river, and there left in, and of cast-iron
where above and intended merely to serve the pur-
__

pose of the cofferdam. There is a " cutting edge"
at the bottom of the pile or stack; but the other

joints of the caisson are formed with angle-iron, or

flanges; so that the divisions can be screwed toge-
ther inside, and, with a packing of felt and tar to

o h
the joint, can be made water-tight. The thickness
o isf t
511 e mietal
ibsy -3i nicnhc, h !st hsb ;y
tdh s the
of aanngleinircohn.
These caissons are raised by the steam crane. and
dropped into the intended positionwoenigthhte; raivnedr bthedis,
being guided by the piles. Thewehndh sinkspilei slightly
driven
tl
y
ibsetloo wt
hteh embuodt too
rmsooifitbhye ciatiss soo
own, which

pile is kept driven in advance of the sinking, so as
to form a perfect guide. The caissons are then
weighted at the top and inside on the flanges by
numerous blocks of iron, each of which fits the curve
of the ellipse. The materials of the strata, when
not too hard, are scooped out of the inside of the

caisson by the eJnamon contrivance called the bag
and spoon, which is used by ballast heavers. It is
simply a bag made of strong leather, and attached
to a scooping edge and a strong framework of iron.
This spoon is drawn along by a chain, and guided
by a strong pole, placed as the handle of the spoon.
A modification of the usual form of bucket has been
made by Mr Slater, one of the assistants of Mr
Farness. This bucket has a species of false bottom,
which is moved as the bucket is delivering its con.
tents,whereby there is no sticking, and no duty cf
the machino lost. This improved machine also in-
cludes an arrangement for lengthening, telescope
fashion, the stretch between the centres cf revo-
lution, or points of filling and delivery of the
buckets. The dredging contrivance scoops up
. _

the gravel or other material from the middle of
the elliptical space; the material from the sides
keeps falling in, and the weight causes the
caisson to sink. Any fresh lengths of the caisson
are built on to make up the weight required.
As
soon as the clay is entered, or even when the mud
has been passed through, the caisson can be pumped
dry. By a simple contrivance, weight can be taken
off at the moment when the caisson shall have sunk
to the proper depth, The labour of putting together
and sinking one of these caissons, it has been found,
occupies a week. Of the area between the embank-
medt and the river side a large portion is still under
water at every tide, but this area is daily becoming
less by the hundreds of cartloads of earth which
are tipped into the river upon this enormous rubbish