The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-20 00:00:00

PROCEEDINGS IN BANKRUPTCY.

In April last the Lord Chancellor, displeased with
the accounts of the official assignees and messengers
of the Court of Bankruptcy for the Leeds district,
requested Mr. Commissioner Ayrton, one of the
commissioners there, and Mr. Harding, the well-
known London accountant, to institute a rigid exa-
mination and scrutiny of all their books, and to
report to him on the subject. The result of this in-
vestigation turned out to be of so very lament-
able a character that his lordship, immediately it
was made known to him, followed up his request
by issuing an order directing a similar proceeding
as to the accounts of every official assignee and mes-
senger in all the district courts in the country, with
power also to inquire into the manner in which the
bills of costs were taxed by the registrars of the
various courts. That order was dated the 2th of
May last, and is as follows :
Lord Chancellor.—ln Bankruptcy.

Friday, May 20, 1864.
Whereas defaults have from time to time been made by
several of the official assignees of the Court of Bankruptcy,
and serious losses have thereby been occasioned to creditors
under bankrupt estates, and it is desirable that such occur-
rences should be prevented for the future; and whereas,
from a recent investigation directed by tee into the accounts
of the official assignees and messengers of the Court of Bank-
ruptcy for the Leeds district, it appears to me to be expe-
dient that the books and accounts of every official assignee
and messenger of the court should undergo a similar inves-
tigation ; and whereas I deem it necessary also to inquire
into the manner in which the taxation of bills of costs by
the registrars, both at Leeds and in the other district
court, is conducted ;—Now by virtue of the Bankruptcy
Act, 1861, and of every authority vested in me, I do hereby
give power and authority to William Scrope Ayrton, Esq.,
one of the Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy for
the Leeds district, and Robert Palmer Harding, of Bank-
buildings, Lothbury, in the city of London, accountant, to
make further inquiry into the matter aforesaid in the court
of bankruptcy for the Leeds district, and also to investigate
and make inquiry into such matters in the court of bank-
ruptcy at Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Liverpool, Man-
chester, and Newcastle, and to report fully to me thereon,
with power to them to examine such persons and to call for
the production of such books, papers, and proceedings as
they may think fit.

WESTBURY C.
We believe the inquiry under this order has been
completed so far as regards the courts at Leeds,
Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, and the
result is that, besides the discovery of many very
gross irregularities, it has been found that large
sums of m)ney have been improperly retained, both
by the official assignees and by the messengers,
which ought to have been paid over to the chief re■
gistrar's account—sums, we are told, already amount,
ing in the aggregate to upwards 0f..E14,000. The
examinations at Leeds and Birmingham were, we be•
lieve, completed in time to be communicated to the
Parliamentary Committee on Bankruptcy, and as
the evidence taken before that committee, and an ap-
pendix containing a variety of documents that were
called for, will ba printed in the course of a few
days, the public will soon have an opportunity of
forming a judgment on the importance of the inquiry
ditected by the Lord Chancellor, and still in course
of prosecution, and on the disclosures which have
hence come to light. It all we hear be true, we are
only afraid that his lordship will very generally be
considered to have been but too lenient with the
offenders—to have erred on the side of mercy. We
believe it is his lordship's intention that the inquiry
shall be extended to the accounts of the official
assignees and messengers acting in London.

The Thames Embankment.

Yesterday morning the foundation-stone of the
second portion of this magnificent work was laid by
Mr Bazalgette, its chief engineer, in the presence
of the chairman, the members of the Board of
Works, and other gentlemen connected with the city
corporation. The ceremony was conducted so
quietly as to be almost a private one—in fact, it
would be difficult in the extreme to devise any
method by which originality could be imparted to
these formal events. There is a sameness which
cannot be got over in laying foundation stones of
all kinds, and the mere simple formula which was
gone through yesterday with the foundation stone
of a Thames Embankment would have to be repeated
in all its dry detail to-morrow if a lamp post or
parish pump was publicly begun. Still, though
there is little to sly of the commencement itself,
the occasion offers a good opportunity for noticing
the progress which this stupendous undertaking now
makes so rapidly.
The length to which the present Act of the
Board now enables them to take the Embankment
is only from Westminster to Blsckfriarsabridge, a
distanoe of about a mile and a half. That its beauty
as the finest roadway in the world for its length and
its enormous value to the public as a thoroughfare
will soon after lead to its continuation to South.
ivark-bridge, at least, is almost certain. But, for
the present, it cannot go further than Blackfriers ;
and, in consequence of the improvements connected
with the new street and new bridges there in pro-
gress, the work of completing the Embankment to
that part of the river has to be divided
into three sections. For the first section of
3,800 feet in length—that is to say, from Westmin-
ster-bridge to east of Waterloo, the contract bile
been let to Mr Furness, and the works are con.
siderably advanced, more than 700 feet in length
of the caissons are fixed and ready for the granite
facing, and in a short time the masonry which is to
form the river wall will be commenced. Two years
it is expected will witness the completion of this
portion of the great work. The mode of construction
is of the simplest kind, yet the mere quantities of
materials required and work to be dons on this first
portion of the Embankment alone give colossal
proportions to the whole scheme. Nearly 800,000
cubic yards of earth have to be excavated, ani.
650,000 cubic yards of concrete laid in for the
foundations, 600,000 cubic yards of earth have to
be filled in behind the wall, 400,000 cubict feet of
granite will be required for the facing, with 42,000
cubic feet of brick in which to set it, and 350,000
cubic feet of brickwork for the low level sewer
and subway for gas and water mains beneath the
road. These, with nearly 3,000 tons of wrought
and cast iron and some odd thousands of tons of
cement and stone of various kinds, and tons of orna-
mental bronze eastings, make the chief items in this
first part of the contract, which has all to be finished
for £520,000, and in two years from the present
time. The mode of construction is, as we have
said, very simple. It consists in forcing down the
cast iron caissons, which are elliptical in shape and
12ft long by 7ft wide, along the line of the outer-
most edge of the works down far into the bed of
the river till the London clay is reached. The depth
of the foundation therefore varies, for, no matter
what the depth attained, down the caissons must be
carried till they go no further, which only happens
when the blue clay has been struck and penetrated
a few feet. The caissons, which are water tight,
are then pumped out and dredged out from the shore
side, the concrete poured in, and on this last the
masonry commenced inside and afterwards on the
caissons themselves. Once the granite with its
brick backing has been begun, it is a mere question
of piling stone on stone and tier on tier of
brickwork till the whole is completed. The granite
is continued 2ft below the lowest low-water mark,
and below the water is the ordinary Ross of Mull
granite, of a dull red colour. Above the water it is
of a whiter colour than grey, and is got from the
Kirkconnell and Dalbeattie quarries in Scotland. Ali
the blocks used ale large, averaging throughout two
tons each. The width of the first length of the Em-
bankment will average 300 ft, its greatest being at
Hungerford, where it is 430 ft wide; its narrowest
part where it joins the second length of the work
east of Waterloo.bridge. Here it is only 200 feet.
But though the work to be done in constructing the
Embankment varies in width, yet the roadway
which it is intended to carry out will be of uniform
area from end to end—namely 100 feet. This will
be divided into a roadway of 70 feet (the width of
the widest part of Cannon-street) and two footways
of 15 feet each. The Embankment road will be con-
tinued across the end of new Blackfriars- bridge.
road, and thence by the new thoroughfare from Earl.
street into Cannon-street. From the unequal widths
of the Embanktnent and the equal width of the
road which will be near the river side it follows that
the Board of Works will have at their disposal in
many places magnificent plots of land for building
on. Along the whole length of the structure will
run the low level sewer, and above it again the sub-
way. The sewer will be a plain massive circular
shaft of brickwork of about nine feet in diameter,
and built of great strength, having its lowest cir-
cumference below the level of low water. Three
feet abc,ve the crown of this sewer the subway will
be built. This will be an arched passage with a flat
floor nine feet wide by seven feet high, the crown of
its arch being three feet from the base of the granite
paving of the road above. Al► gas and water pipes
arc to be laid here, so that the endless pulliog up
of pavements, which, in the inconveniences they
occasion, almost make one wish that gas was
out of the city altogether, will in the Embank-
ment be done away with for ever, and the trees
with which our great boulevard is to be planted
will flourish with their roots at least undisturbed.
The portion of which Mr Bazelgette laid the foun-
dation stone yesterday is that section which comes
from near Waterloo-bridge to the east of the
Temple-gardens. Tais, in length, is only about
2,000 feet (1,970.) Here the width of the general
works is not nearly so great as the first part,
though sufficient in some few places to allow of
frontage for building. Mr Ritson, who has taken
this portion of the contract, has commenced his work
with a cofferdam on the old style, and in this the
foundation stone of yesterday was laid. It is not,
however, intended to continue the work by means
of cofferdams, but resort to iron cylinders with iron
girders crossed between, and iron plates rivetted
over them, behind which, as behind the caissons, the
masonry will be laid. Here, as elsewhere, the foun-
dation will be carried into the clay, and the clear
height of the granite parapet above the water will
be 24ft. The quantities of work which have to be
done at this mid section are as large in proportion
as those:enumerated as belonging to the first part,
but the cost of this latter portion is only £229,000.
Yesterday, when Mr Bazalgette laid the stone in
the cofferdam he Was loudly cheered, and in the few
words in which he replied to these greetings he
pointed out forcibly what might have bean effected
had a mare liberal scheme been entertained by the
Legislature, and money spent in buying property
instead of paying owners large sums for permission
to improve it for them. With the simple ceremony
of laying the stone the proceedings terminated, and
in this quiet manner the second part of the great
Thames Embankment was peaceably begun.
It is to be wished that the promoters of the
Thames Embankment underground line would so
far hurry forward their preparations as to
.enable
the two works to go on simultaneously. As it is,
we are threatened with seeing when the bank is
nearly complete all the works pulled up again for
the formation of the railway. Such malaadroitnese
as w .uld disturb new made ground supporting the
heavy pressure of the river wall leaning back
against it would not only make the railway works of
extra difficulty, and therefore of extra cost, but
might probably injure the bank itself, and would
be almost certain to affect injuriously the new made
tunnels for the low level sewer and subway.

SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday. Tho Hamburg.
American Company's screw steamsh'p Germania, Capt. H.
Ehlers, sailed at 2 p.m, to-day for New York, with Ger-
man, French, and English mails, 143 salocn. and a hrge
number of steerage passengers, jewellery from Havre,value
5,000 f, and a fair amount of cargo from this port. The neat
steamer of this line to arrive from New York is the
Sax3nia, Captain H. N. Trautman, which is expected oil
Cowes, oU tho 26th, with mails from New York of the
16th,

11.4
n rt Ortigm

HER MAJESTY.

• BALMORAL, Oct. 17.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Heleaf
wont out in the morning. In the afternoon hi
Majesty drove to Glen Ey, accompanied by Prlnce!
Helena, and attended by Lady Augusta StanleY.,
The Hon. Sir Frederick Bruce left the C4stle 11
the morning.

1 -
The Queen's Return from Scotland.
The Queen and Court will leave Balmoral for OP
season on the 26:h inst., not the 24th, 0, stated
Arrangements will be as follow t alraor.a
shortly after midday, posting to Abo 3 ne. A sr°
train will start from this point at half-past tiv
o'clock. Ferry hill (near Aberdeen) will be rescheei
at 3.32, and a stay of five minutes made to cbavgd
—Leave B
engines, &o. Perth will be reached at 6.181 and
here the royal party will take refreshments, remain
ing an hour. A stoppage of a few minutes will
Will
b 3 at Carlisle for refreshments, and Windsor vil"
ba reached at nine o'clock the following mornivili