The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-08 00:00:00

wheels. A thousand incidents of a similar kind are
familiar, we doubt not, to the popular recollection.
Yet it has long since been demonstrated with tolerable
distinctness that cities can be illuminated with coal-
gas, that trains can be be conveyed to and fro upon
iron rails by the steam-engine, and that ships
of a rather considerable burthen can be enabled to
cross the ocean not merely through the cumbrous
instrumentality of paddle-wheels, but with the in-
visible assistance of the screw-propeller. Greater
marvels than these have been effected, moreover, in
our own time—greater marvels than even HORATIO
could, by any possibility, have ventured to dream of
in his philosophy. We have seen how easily a metal
tube can be thrown across the Menai Straits for the
oonveyance of the crowd of travellers between England
and Ireland. We have seen how readily Time itself
can be outstripped by the magical swiftness of the
electric telegraph,—we have seen how effectually the
sunbeams can, by the adroit employment of iodine, be
made to take our portraits according to the exquisite
process of the daguerreotype,—we have seen how the
electrotyping arrangements can grow copper with the
utmost imaginable delicacy and precision,—nay, more
than this, we know how, through the development of
the powers of the microscope in one direction, and of
the telescope in another, the infinite mysteries of
creation have been disclosed more and more plainly
to the sense of vision—here in their minuteness,
and there in their magnitude. Nevertheless, with
all these testimonies before us, with all these
examples glaring upon our judgment, with all
these truths forcing themselves irresistibly upon our
remembrance—we are still as resolutely determined
as ever to throw cold water upon whatever change is
suggested, no matter how obviously it may be calcu-
lated to benefit the community, and to enhance the
comforts or the luxuries of the population. An alter-
ation of the existing state of things has only to be
proposed, to be pronounced by a hundred different
voices as wholly preposterous. This propensity to
discountenance whatever is novel appears to us to
contain within it the reason why so little has been
effected in the way of sanitary innovation. Other-
wise GEORGE ALFRED WALKER Would not have
talked so long, unheeded, about the necessity for ex-
tramural interments. Otherwise SOUTHWOOD SMITH
would not have argued in vain so long in favour of a
more wholesome method of house ventilation. Other-
wise the citizens of London would have obtained
years before now better drainage, better water for
domestic consumption, and a whole host of other and
equally necessary metropolitan improvements. The
facts are before the nation as plain as pikestaves
—but no ! they are new—that is enough—they
are new, and therefore are neglected. Evi-
dence to this effect has been collecting during
more months than we like to think of, by the
Commissioners of Gwydyr-house. It has been dis-
cussed again and again in both Houses of Parliament.
It has been considered in Committee—it has been re-
corded in Blue Books—it has been insisted upon in
the public journals. The thing is notorious—as no-
torious as the abuses in Chancery, or as the abomina-
ble architecture of the National Gallery, or as the
absurdity of the fountains in Trafalgar-square, or as
the non-completion of the unfortunate Nelson Testi-
monial. Yet the refuse of the capital is still not properly
cleared away; the contaminated water of the Thames
is still swallowed daily, by wholesale ; corpses are
still buried away in our intramural grave-yards—as
though Mr. WALKER had never written his pamph-
lets ; as though Dr. SMITH had never published his
books; or, as though Mr. CHADWICK had never been
installed in that unlucky building in Whitehall-gar-
dens, so long and so bootlessly dedicated to the
labours of himself and his brother Commissioners.
The reason of all this is, unhappily, precisely as we
have stated it. The changes are obviously practicable,
are obviously advisable, are obviously necessary,
but then they are new, and therefore
they are discarded. Popular as Reform is
amongst us, we are still, very many of us, far the
most part, in this way—Conservatives. Only we ap-
pear unluckily to begin at the wrong end—by endea-
vouring to conserve whatever happens to be the most
flagrantly worthless. We see the abomination before
our eyes, we have its demerits dinned into our ears,
we come at last to that stage of perception that the
evil is actually " stinking in our nostrils," and yet we
somehow or other seem to hug it to us the more
closely, and to cling to it with the more unrelaxing
tenacity. In this manner, as we asserted at the com-
mencement of these remarks, the innovator, however
rational or commendable his enterprize, invariably
encounters the bitterest opposition.
Aware of the truth above mentioned, we are by no
means surprised to observe the discredit thrown from
various quarters upon Mr. CHARLES PEARSON'S mag-
nificent scheme of a Grand Central Railway Ter-
minus in the metropolis. Everything combines to
prove this project as practicable as it undoubtedly is
desirable. Granted that it must necessitate an enor-
mous outlay; but then the returns must no less cer-
tainly be proportionally great. Already we have
taken occasion more than once to direct public
attention to the proposed undertaking. It appears to
us, however, so peculiarly remarkable in its character
that we must, perforce, avail ourselves of every rea-
sonable opportunity of reverting to it until such time
as we may have the satisfaction of witnessing its
actual completion, or at any rate its actual com-
mencement. The meeting held ca Monday last at
the London Tavern, and presided over by Sir JAMES
DUKE, presents to us, we conceive, precisely one of
these welcome opportunities. Upon that occasion
the originator of the enterprise submitted the details
of his plan to the serious reconsideration of his fellow-
citizens. Reflection seems only to convince him the
more fully of the entire feasibility of his proposal.
And no wonder The inducements to its acceptance
are so numerous as to be rather difficult of enumera-
tion. Foremost among them is that rather terrible
consideration that whereas the houses in the city of
London have within the last forty years diminished
by 1,500, the population has increased by 4,ooo—an
overcrowding which Mr. PEARSON justly designated
as " revolting to decency, and injurious to
morality, and destructive of health, and even
of life." Anything that can tend to ameliorate
the condition of those who are the innocent victims of
this over-crowded state of the metropolis, must as-
suredly command for it the sympathy of each sincere
and practical philanthropist. Nothing could more
effectually secure a really beneficial change in this
direction than the establishment of a central railway
terminus, such as would place within the reach of the
humbler classes a cheap and ready means of convey

ante—between the place of busiGess and the suburban
residence. It has been calculated that, as things are

at present situated, the cabs and omnibuses of London
make (Lily no Icsa than 12,000 jclurneyE, couveying

on the average no less than 144,000 passengers

Place a cheaper and a readier means of conveyance at
the command of the hard-worl:ing inhabitants of the
City—we allude here more particularly to the clerks
end subordinate officials in our various metropolitan

establishments—and instead of living, as at this period
they de, in over-crowded, and even, in scme in-
stances, e valid and delapidated tenements, in the

:hick of the ill-ventilated and ill-drained bywaya o

the capital, they might occupy wholesome and decent
dwellings in the suburbs, with no fear of any lapse in

punctuality. That is merely one among the very
many inducements to Mr. CHARLES PEARSON'S enter-
prize. Numerous other, mentioned before now by
ourselves, might very readily be recapitulated. Such

a recapitulation, howaver, we cannot but regard as
altogether unnecessary. We repose confidence in the
good sense of the majority of our fellow•citizens, and,
doing so, rely upon their energy for the furtherance
of this noble scheme of a Gsntral Railway Terminus.

g nator of the
presents
tteorprtihzee
Farringdon-street, as the originator
has admirably well demonstrated,
public precisely the very site that was seeded for the
due carrying cut of the undertaking. Let not that
site be lost for ever by the shameless timidity or
injudicious procrastination. Let the supporters of the
rherne, on the contrary, combine vigour with vigi-
Jrn'nee‘ in the task of its promotion, and many more
ininaay:welaaypse before Mr. CIIAELES PEARSON
may be enabled to rejoice in beholding his darling
penetB
of rapid and prosperous realiza.
tion.

OW Government knows its fate. Manchester, and
no inconsiderable portion of the
House of Commons',
have spoken plainly enough. Every one knew they
would do so, as every one
QuEEN
knows that the 'S
speech will not do it. Ais settled now that Protec-