The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-16 00:00:00

SHIPPING-THIS DAY,

LONDON, Aug. 16.—Wind this day at noon—W.N.W. ;
light breeze and cloudy.
FALMOUTH, Aug. 15.—Arrived— Thomas Dryden, from
Akyab.
SWANSEA, Aug. 14—Sailed—Isabella, for Prince Ed-
ward's Island.

HLLL, Aug. 13.—Sailed—Maria and Elisabeth, for
Quebec.

CARDIFF, Aug. 14.—Sailed—Brothers, for Mauritius—
Harmony, for Quebec.
PORTSMOUR, Aug. 15.—Wind N.E. to S.E.—Sailed—
Queen of the Clippers, from London, for BermuJa, after
stopping a leak.

(BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.

Arrived, August 15—Good Design, from Antwerp—
Eliz tbeth Ann, from Dordt—Oscar, from Droback—Per-
severance, from Medemblik—Vindex, from Charlotte Town
—Day Spring, from Boulogne—Exhibition, from St Malo
Swantje Groendeal and Thomas Rising, both from Amster-
dam—Earl of Carlisle, from Riga—Speedwall, from Am-
sterdam—and Belfast Lass, from Dunkirk.
Arrived, August 16—Elide, from Archangel<—Abeona,
from Riga—Vroaw Anna, from Worcum—and Concordia,
from Amsterdam.

THE DEATH RATE AND THE MAIN DRAINAGE.—
At the present time, and during the next four or
five years, the statistics of mortality in the metropolis will
have a peculiar interest and value. At a first glance at the
returns of the Registrar-General, or those of Dr Letheby
for the City, it would seem that the interest which ordinarily
attaches to such documents could scarcely be enhanced by
anything less than either a plague on one hand, or a cora-
plate cessation of the occurrence of death on the other. But it
happens that we are now in a transition state as respects the
public health. The vast undertakings of the Board of
Works are fast approaching completion; the sewage
is being diverted from old to new channels ; the breadths
of mud laid bare at every ebb tide on the banks of the
Thames will probably be less offensive and less injurious ;
and we are all looking forward hopefully to the time when
the river, which has made the City, shall no longer be
poisoned by it in return for its good deeds. There is just
one unfortunate circumstance connected with the main,
drainage works, and that is, that the means adopted for the
purification of the river consists only in removing the pol-
luting agents to a greater distance than formerly from the
abodes of the citizens; the river is not relieved entirely,
but the pollution is to take place where there is a vast
volume of water, and comparatively few residents
The poison will thus be diluted, and the point of its first
mixture with the water removed to a distance ; but it can
never be held that this method is so likely to be effectual as
the traneferance of the sewage to some quite different chan-
nels, as, for instance, the burnt-up meadows and barren
arable lands, where nature's chemistry would convert the
present sources of pestilence into sources of health
and happiness, and make wholesome food on land
of that which is the detroyer of food in the
waters. ror a time—say for the first seven years—the
main drainage will be on trial, and we shall expect to see
in the returns of registrars some evidence of the good ac-
compliehed, though, in principle, the drainage system is
open to so many objections. We do not know how many
agencies exist for the engendering and diffusing of morbid
toiluences in a place like London, which is neither a town
nor a city, but an aggregation of towns enclosing a city, and
the whole comprising so immense a population, that no
rule cf health found safe elsewhere can be said to apply
of necessity to such a case as this. We have need to
be thankful, however, ft .r what little we do know of the
Soli lifetot Ina it int 114
the midst of groat chid,. Yreva that
laws ft Q ‘) effect 04 life of the circumstances
little) we may safely oonclude that tauel, has been:accin.
towns;
number its
de s
vLeol
ineddont a nedo
ei nl u
dael
plfated already to lengthen the term ()Wife and reduee: the
l
we tttd
cotii
o
the 1 tr mg ruecaht
feEeitins to be done yet, and that every delay in the accom-
plishment must be paid for in so much aotual disease and
so many actual deaths; for though death is inevitable, and
mast come upon all men, nevertheless the death-rate is an
exact measure of the value of our hygienic resources, as
well as of the ektetit to Which destructive agencies are
rtnaitied to prevail,--City Press,
On Thweclay night last a murder was committed
in a house in the Avenue Lanaotte-piquet, on the person of
a young woman of loofa) character named Eugenie Elie,
aged 2d. A dragoon who called at her lodgings on Fri-
day morning found her lying dead on the floor of her
bedroom, with a calico night jacket twisted into a cord
drawn so tightly round her neck as to have forced a great
quantity of blood from her nostrils. As the unfortunate
woman's money and jewellery were found safe in her
drawers, rubbery could hardly have been the motive for the
crime, unless, indeed, the murderer had become alarmed,
and had not time to search for plunder. An investigation
has been ordered by the police authorities.

GREAT FIRE IS HULL.--A telegram from Hull
yesterday afternoon sap:, :—" A tremendous fire is
now raging in this town. Several valuable warehouses in
Railway-street have been consumed. Thompson, WE:ay,
and Co., and Carver and Co. are the &ups chiefly affected.
The loss of property amounts to many thousands of pounds.
The fire is still ragpg, and the vessels in the docks are
being removed.'_