The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-09 00:00:00

CITY COMMISSION OP SEWERS.

Yesterday this Commission held a meeting at Guildhall,
after a recess of six weeks—Mr. De Jersey, the chairman,
presiding. A design of the proposed railway viaduct across
Ludgate-hill was submitted for their approval by Messrs.
Freshfield and Newman, the solicitors to the London,
Dover, and Chatham Railway Company, who had engaged
to make the structure after a plan to be sanctioned by the
Commissioners. The company propose to widen Ludgate-
hill to the extent of 16 feet, by setting back the houses that
far on the south side of the hill, from about the Old Bailey
to Bridge-street. The present width of the hill is 44 feet.
It will thenceforward be 60ft., with a carriage way 30ft.
broad. The proposed viaduct will allow a clear headway of
18ft. for the carriage traffic, and have sides Bft. high. It will
be an iron structure, with a span of 60ft., and with orna-
mental brackets at each end, placed against the sides of the
abutments, and leaving a headway for foot passengers of
about 9ft. There will be a great deal of surface ornamenta-
tion on the sides, which will give it the appearance at first
sight of an open, perforated bridge, but it will in fact have
an interior lining to prevent the fall of burning cinders from
passing trains. The design, as represented on paper, elicited
some expressions of admiration from the Commissioners, but
their engineer, Mr. Heywood, took occasion to warn them
that the thing itself, when put up, would probably fall short
of the expectations which the drawing was calculated to pro-
duce. They eventually passed a resolution to the effect
that they saw no objection to the adoption of the design.
A conversation took place on a memorial from inhabitants
of the Ward of Cheap urging the widening of the thorough-
fare at the east end of the Poultry, in anticipation of the
projected new street from Blackfriars to the Mansion-house.
The old banking premises of Sir John Lubbock and Co.,
at the north-east corner of the Poultry, have recently
been pulled down, to make way for a more commodious
structure for the purposes of the bank, and it is urged
upon the Commissioners that the opportunity should not
be lost of setting back the new building some 25 or 30
feet, and buying so much of the ground from the banking
firm, with a view to the eventual widening of the Poultry
at the point of junction with the new street. The
ground there, as in other of the central parts of the city,
has a value which some people would regard as fabulous,
the little patch which it is proposed to rescue in this
case for purposes of public improvement being yesterday
estimated by the surveyor to the Commission as probably
worth tens of thousands of pounds ; and the Commissioners,
convinced of the necessity for the suggested improvement,
have invited the Metropolitan Board of Works to join them
in bearing the cost. The matter is still under negotiation.
Dr. Letheby, the Medical Officer of Health, reported on
the state of 722 houses that had been inspected since the last
meeting of the Court in July, and he submitted a list of 90
places for sanitary improvement. He also submitted a list
of places that required further proceedings on account of
orders already issued but not yet complied with. He re-
ported that the markets and slaughterhouses had been duly
inspected, and that the officers had condemned in the course
of the last six weeks 43,5231 b, or rather more than 19 tons
of meat, as unfit for human food. It consisted of 166 sheep,
34 calves, 53 pigs, 193 quarters of beef, and 804 joints of
meat-29,5161b, or more than half of the whole quantity
was putrid, the putridity having been caused by the unusu-
ally warm weather in the early part of last month ; but
9,8661 b were diseased, and 3,2111 b were from animals that
had died from accident or disease. In two cases proceed-
ings were taken against the persons who sent the meat to
market, and in one instance the penalty was £5 and costs,
and in the other a month's imprisonment with hard labour.
The mortality returns were above the average for the sea-
son. During the last six weeks there had been 317 deaths
in the city, whereas the average number for the correspond-
ing period of the last seven years was but 286 ; 129 of the
deaths were among children of less than five years of age,
and .55 among persons of 60 and upwards. The chief causes
of death were as follow :—Phthisis and other tubercular
diseases, 48—pneumonia and bronchitis, 24—continued
fever, 11—scarlet fever, 28—smallpox, 7 croup, 7
whooping cough, 7—diphtheria, 4—measles, 3—erysipelas,
2—infantile diarrhoea, 23—and the diarrhoea of adults, 5.
The number of births in the city during the six weeks was
340—namely, 163 boys and 177 girls. Touching the qua-
lity of gas supplied to the city, Dr. Letheby sub-
mitted the weekly returns of the testing of the gas sup-
piled by the three gas companies, from which it appeared
that during the last seven weeks the average illuminating
power of the Great Central Gas was 14.09 standard sperm
candles, of the chartered 12.64, and of the City Company
14.21. The total number of observations was 381; or 127
forb each company. The gas of the Great Central had not
been
once under the standard, that of the Chartered had
twincelB times under it, and that of the City Company only
t sulphuTrhieniltlhuemginaastiitnhgapaorwaneirgeodf tfrhoemglas3,grtahiensreftoorne,eahralyd
Central Company,
027- in generally
been
e
of the City Company pettm,
elroalolyeuvbei royfeseattiisnfacttho:.
gas Assuprepgliaerdd ebdythteheamooruenatt
these 13 were in excessa
from 13 7 to nearly 31 grains in the gas
Dee
the case of the Great Central,l.odf f.rtohme
29
91a4i
at
hmt to
ee
Parliamentary
sr ieyn thatosfta
nthdeao
standard
thede tiyn
Company, and 17 in th3osf
Chartered,
observationsthe
Chartered.
Tmha
ed em,
ea
an
nd
in
2a9sofaethefeCllhearte Chartered. gas,
thety threega s,
and
in 100 cubic feet of Great Centralw
pipe had
s :-19.09 grains of sulphur
of the gas in the supply 23.8 grains of the
Ci. The average pressure
one inch of water. been in each case above

Mr. Daw, clerk to the Commissioners, called their atten-
tion to an act passed in the last Session of Parliament in
reference to the scale of diseased meat, and giving power to
a single magistrate to impose a penalty of £2O on the owner
of each piece of meat exposed for sale and unfit for humaner
food, or, without the infliction of a fine, to order him to be
imprisoned in a common gaol for a term not exceeding
three months, with hard labour. It amends in these re-
spects the Nuisances Removal Act of 1853. He also ad-
verted to a Statute passed last Session and containing very
stringent enactments for regulating the trade of baking.
At his suggestion, the Commissioners authorised Mr. Daw
to prepare an abstrct of the provisions of the Act and cir-
culate it widely among persons engaged in the trade within
the city, with the view to give effect to the intentions of
the Legislature. After the transaction of some routino
business, the Commisssioners adjourned.

Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing Horniman's pure Tea ; very choice at 3s 4d. and
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strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it iu packets.