The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-04 00:00:00

DRAINAGE AND WATER SUPPLY.

The Earl of CAERNARVON presented a petition from
the Metropolitan Sanitary Conttnissiou as to drainage and
water supply. He described the system of drainage and
water supply now iu force, both of which lie said were in-
efficient. He said the stateliest mansions in the metropolis
hao lying under them masses of decomposing matter, and
the very walls of that house were sapped by pestilent abo-
minations. Considering the fatal results attending the
visitations of cholera, he urged on their lordships the ne-
cessity of some measures being taken to render drainage
more perfect, and to obtain better and more plentiful sup-
plies of water.
THE VIENNA CONFERENCE.

The Earl of CLARENDON—My lords, before your
lordships adjourn I wish to take the opportunity of apolo-
gisiug to my noble friend opposie
house on a previous occasion. My absence gave rise to some
s for having quitted the
remarks on his part, of which I do not complain, because it
is my business to be here, to answer any que.tion which may
be put to me with regard to the department over which I
have the honour to preside ; bat I quitted the house upon
that occasion because there was a great deal of business at
the Foreign-office waiting my return, and because Ithought
that my noble ft lend behind me (the Marquis of Lansdowne)
had stated that the Government would lose no time in
giving to your lordships the information which you have a
perfect right to expect. I hope that your lordships are not
under an erroneous impression that the Government have
any desire to withhold from your lordships any information,
and, for my own part, I hope that I am able to say
with justice that I have never shown myself unwilling
to answer any question which has been put to me, or
to afford any information which it was in my power to
give ; and I consider that duty especially incumbent upon
me at the present moment of intense and natural anxiety
to be correctly informed with respect to passing events.
Nevertheless, I have too often experienced your lordships'
kind indulgence not to feel sure that even now you will
not wish me to divulge anything which might be injurious
to the interests of the service. My lords, as a proof of
the spirit in which the negotiations at Vienna were cat-
ried on, and of the desire of .the representatives of France
and England to do nothing which could offend the honour
and dignity of Russia—as j mentioned the other even-
ing in answer to a question put to me by my noble friend
—the Russian Plenipotentiaries were invited themselves
to take the initiative, and to propose some method by
which they thought they could carry out the principle
to which they had assented. The Russian Plenipo-
tentiaries acknowledged as, indeed, they could not.
help acknowledging—the spirit in which that proposal
was made; but, somewhat to the surprise of their col-
league's, announced that they were without any instruc-
tiohs upon that important subject, and that it was neces-
sary for them to refer to St. Petersburg. The time neces-
sary for that purpose was given to them, but in the mean-
time the representatives of England and of France declined
to alter the order in which the four points stood, or to
take any discussion upon the fourth point until some set-
lement had been arrived at with regard to that most im-
portant subject, the means of attaching Turkey to the
European system. When the conference was again called
to receive the answer which had come from St. Petersburg
the Russian Plenipotentiaries said they had no proposals
to make. The allied Plenipotentiaries then submitted
to them a scheme which they thought that Russia
might have consented to without any hurt to her dignity,
and in a manner highly honourable to her as a first-
classtow raesmaosve the uneasiness of
European Power, if she had been inclined to prove
against future acts of pacific as she had
Eat ol
Europe
sewaboyerelgldai
giving
gaitt
guarantees
rbep:o l
oier
ay
aggres-
sion which she declared she did not contemplate. The
Russian plenipotentiaries asked for 48 hours to consider
the proposal which was made to them, and at the end of
commercial
war
purposes from the
that time absolutely rejected them, as well as another pro-
posal brought forward by the French Ambassador, and
andag
ale loft Vienna
Bl
roeeekdsteosb, by
uuds
ot
roe
n d e excluderita
seaall
for vessels
f alone. The conference was then suspended, not actually
ecos in order to receive
broken off. My noble friend Lord, J .
Lhuys and the Earl of t
h Russellt plenipotentiary
oosmofnamßit
oba3p,edotht,ooii
utt
tli:tnfeesntr:aimonth,ansfdueo,w),tih. Drouyn
days,
M. Drouyn de Lhuyse-
de
r
a
nfereuce
and the Earl of Westmoreland w
eive
ero invited, on the part
ussipWroeopaot:eha
lei
sn discussions possession
wo fhti the
he
tuWenreamsntsimo Westmoreland
those
ed
propositions,agr agreed
eei
(h
tt o
that
ebtnhutlet
not
took place upon them ; but the representatives of the allies
m
made were not
likely to promote the object which we have at heart.
My lords, this is the present state of things ; and, al-
though we are prepared to censider any distinct pro-
posal on the part of Russia, sill it is not considered desi-
rable that these negotiations should be continued without
the probability of their leading to any satisfactory result.
rleeipnree
rte
tho ereufportfohtseo
conclusioncdoi protocols toss discussions
whichlt ahi
a d upon
s
Ytbheoee untra
arrived
rreti,lvsnei hpt
tYs will fianth
at,
place, and of the feelings that were expressed by the re-
presentatives of each Power. (Hear.) I think your lord-
ships may not consider the statement I have hadthehonour
to snake to be either satisfactory or conclusive— conclusive
I mean as to what has actually taken places—unless I am
able to inform you of the course which Austria intends to
take hereafter—(hear, hear)—and it is on this particular'