The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 20, 1863

longer found to work satisfactorily. Great part of is well known that immense numbers of lucifer
the town, too, is below the level of high water, and matches are sold yearly at a very small price, but
this is especially the case near the river on the their cost to health and comfort is very differently
southern side, where the sewers are forced to run computed by those who take note of their effects.
below underground cellars, which themselves are The Commissioners remark on the prevalence of a
beneath highwater mark. The consequence natu- particular class of disease, called " jaw disease,'
rally is, that these sewers can only discharge their which has arisen since the working of this mann-
contents into the river at low water, being tide facture. They advise in this case also the attendance
locked for eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, of a sanitary inspector, to effect what is possible
and apt in times of heavy and long-continued rain towards the maintenance of the health of those en-
to overflow and flood the basements of the surround- gaged in this very unwholsome trade. The employ-
ing houses. It is long since these evils and annoy- went of boys as chimney-sweepers is the subject of
ancea were observed and discussed, but the vas* particular notice. Although some time back an
outlay required prevented any steps being taken Act was passed prohibiting this evil custom, the Act
towards remedying matters until 1856, when the is often allowed to fall into disuetude, and the nefa-
drainage of the metropolis and the purification of rious system continues. In order to obviate the
the river were entrusted to the Metropolitan Board prevalence of this practice the Commissioners have
of Works. The difficulties in the way of the un- suggested an excellent scheme, "that for the future
dertaking have been great, but they have been no master-sweeper shall be allowed to employ in
surmounted by patience and skill. The varying his business, in any capacity whatever, any one
quantities of sewage, the rainfall in heavy storms, under the age of sixteen"; and, further, that no
and the lowness of some of the districts, have been person shall be allowed to carry on the trade of a
among the principal obstacles. The projectors chimney-sweeper until he has received a license
have very sensibly acted on the principle of carry- from a magistrate, renewable under certain circum-
ing off as much sewage as possible by gravitation, stances. It is earnestly to be hoped that this
thus bringing one of the great natural forces to advice will be especially attended to, as there can
their aid instead of trusting to pumping. An im- be no valid reason adduced against it, and by the
portant point in their scheme is the reduction of adoption of this simple plen great suffering will be
pumping to its minimum, while the storm prevented, and the miseries of a persecuted class
waters, as they call the excess of the rainfall, will be put a stop to. There is hardly any style of
are provided for by " the conversion of the existing employment more cruel than this, and it is inctim-
mainsewers into storm overflows," which shall bent on our legislature to make it impossible at
carry the surplus waters into the Thames when the once by the ingenious device alluded to. Particular
intercepting sewers are full. On each side of the acts of prohibition are all very well in their way,
river there are three main tunnels which divide but if once they are evaded or considered a dead
London into three departments, and intercept all letter they are worse than if never calad into exist-

existing sewers flowing into the Thames, carrying
their contents to Barking-creek on the north side,
and Crossness-point in the Erith marshes on the

ence, because those who might plan an improve-
ment are deterred from so doing under the idea that
the evil exists no longer, while all the while in a

south. These three tunnels are called respectively
the High, the Low, and the Middle Level. The
first of these runs from Hampstead to Bow, and is
about 8 miles long, gradually increasing in its cir-
cumference from 4 feet 6 inches to 12 feet 6 inches.
It drains an area of no less than 14 square miles,
being laid at a depth of from 20 to 26 feet. The
middle level is still lower, being more than 30 feet
underground. It extends from Kensal-green to
Bow, and is nearly finished. The low level reaches
from Cremorne to Abbey-mills, near Stratford, its
waters being raised at Bow by engines to the level
of the others ,thence to descend by their own gravity
to the great outfall at Barking. One part of the
low level will pass through the Thames Embank-
ment, and this the last item in the northern system
of drainage, is expected to be completed in two
years and a half. In the southern districts the
arrangements are similar, and are proposed to be
fully completed by this time next year. The con-
tents of the high level sewer was on Saturday
turned on for the first time direct into the river.
The visitors proceeded in the first place to
Crossness Point and examined the extensive and
elaborate works there in progress, of which a re-
servoir covering an area of six acres, and capable of
containing twenty millions of gallons, is bat a
part. The floor of this immense receptacle is of
Portland stone, and its roof, not yet completed, is
to be formed of brick arches resting upon rows of
brick piers. Twice in the day it will be emptied
into the liver in order to prevent any accumulation
of sediment, a large tunnel on the land side will be
opened, as soon as the reservoir is emptied whose
waters rushing through will wash it out. The
main culvert delivering the sewage into the river
from the reservoir is of great size, and built with
brick sides, and the roof supported by iron girders.
As evidence of the vast expense and labour entailed
by these works, we may remind the reader that
.a
reservoir of even greater extent is required on the
Northern side, where it has to cover ten acres and
contain forty millions of gallons. The works on the
Northern side of the river are however less for-

stealthy manner it is working out its designsand
swelling the ranks of its victims. The CiMMlS-
sioners are now directed to inquire into the condi-
tion of the dressmakers and milliners' apprentices,
and to ascertain what steps may be taken to im-
prove their condition. They could not be employed
in a better work, and the result of their investiga-
tion is sure to conduce to the welfare of the class
in whose service they are engaged. There are sure
to be many obstacles in the way, and many well-
disposed persons are certain to declare that
it will be impossible to render their
condition any better by interference. There is this
consolation, however, for those who earnestly desi-
derata some striking change to be introduced at
once, that no opposition can be greater than that
which was in force against the factory improve-
ments, nor can any denunciations as to the imprac-
ticability of all interference, and the ir.jurieus effects
of arbitrary rules, exceed the wrath and con-
sternation of those who militated against the Ten
Hours' Bill. Many years have passed away since
then ; the excitement has long since ceased and been
forgotten in many quarters, but the effects of the
good deed then accomplished are still extant among
us. So it will be when a like reform has been once
instituted in those establishments where helpless
young females tcil from early morn till latest eve
at pursuits that are enervating to the mind and in-
jurious to the bodily frame, that exhaust vitality,
destroy the health, and often sow the seeds of death
itself. Once let prejudice and self-interest be cast
aside, and there can exist no cause why inspection
should not take place in these departments of labour
as easily as in others where it has been tried suc-
cessfully for years. It is certain that to limit the
number of hours to a reasonable standard is the only
real and effectual mode of treating this subject. If
employers are compelled to keep within due
limits the tasks they set to their apprentices, an
important end will have been attained. If the
state of the establishments with regard to ventila-
tion and other matters of a sanitary kind be also
attended to, a vast boon will be conferred on hun-

midable, owing to thediffereuce of the level and the
consequext power to discharge the sewers by
gravitation instead of by pumping. The visitors
were equally surprised and gratified at the pro-
gress already made, as well as by the vest size
and comprehensive character of the works. They
were regaled with a subterranean lunchecn beneath
the vaults of the great reservoir and in this
singular spot, speeches were made, healths pro-
posed, congratulations exchanged, and all the forms
of a regular banquet gone through. Mr.
THWAITES, the chairman of the Metropolitan

dreds of the community. If it be too late as regards
many hapless toilers to rectify the evils produced by
the pernicious old system, still it will be gratifying
to think that a new regime has been introduced, and
that all new corners will start under favourable
auspices, and not run the risk of an untimely
death, and the fearful certainty of a wretched life,
with broken health and impaired energy, till they
fall into a state that may be considered as more
painful than death itself. In the second report the
commissioners are sure to speak out strongly as to
the deleterious practices now in vogue, and most

Board of Works, presided, as was due, at this
underground festival, and we may suppose looked
round on the result of the labours of his Board

ikely they will suggest many improvements. One
:hing is certain, that no one in any rank can now
ay claim to ignorance on this subject. Through

with feelings of unmixed gratification. Lord
STANLEY, who was among the visitors, in a brief
address distinguished by his usual good sense, con-
gratulated the Board on the fulfilment of this great
undertaking, and remarked that although the
works were strictly of a utilitarian character, the
magnitude of the design, and the perfection of the
execution, deserved the epithet of magnificent.
London, added the noble lord, had long been
said to be the worst drained city in Europe,
but it would soon stand at the head of all
cities in that respect. Mr. TEWAITES, in acknow-
ledging the compliment paid him in drinking his
health, remarked that the cost of the work would
be found to have exceeded the estimate by £900,000
owing to bricks having risen in price, and to the
bricklayers having struck for higher wages. The
public, however, are not likely to begrudge the
amount,if they see this important undertaking
satisfactorily carried out. It will accomplish the
double purpose of improving the drainage and of
purifying
the river, and, in both cases, tend greatly
the benefit of the public health. Ventilation and
a fair way to secure the most
drainage are the two
.great secrets of health in towns,
It of these necessaries we may hope
costly and difficu
and now that we are in
of the common yet priceless
that a larger supply
blessing of pure air will soon be brought into our
dwellings.

the length and breadth of the land the voice of
wailing and lamentation has been heard concern-
ing these distressed workwomen. Their cry has
reached alike the palace and the cottage, and
to all the varying grades and several classes
which exist between, may their appeal be
addressed. A more universal claim on general
sympathy, or one more invested with personal attri
butes cannot be brought forward. It certainly
brings into immediate contact the most diverse
classes of society, from the lowest, whose children,
born the heirs of toil, may any day be engaged in
such precarious vocations ; to the highest, whose
lives of ease render them an especial cause of that
employment for others which in this branch pro.
duces such direful effects. The consideration of this
subject should not, therefore, be regarded as one
solely in the charge of the Commissioners. Thera
are many others who should make the task their
own during the leisure hours that the approaching
autumn will afford them. If next season is to wit-
ness no amelioration in the cruel system now in
vogue, it will be a disgrace and a scandal to the
reputation of all concerned in the immediate traffic,
and a reproach to those more remotely connected
with the affair. In the days of old it was considered
that every English archer carried twelve men's
lives in his belt, and it would seem as if some per-
sona wished the ladies of this generation to
emulate the renown in a different style, so that
nretfthleefcytproceed
edeach
to some
cdhsumptuous
forms
gay
placeand
robe
es
tr
iheysaosvr they
cane clwiafhne e.
of these victims could appear at some gorgeous ban-
quet, they would rival the effect of the skeletons
at the Egyptian feasts of •
antiquity. ' There are
some things too inimical to the tastes and repug-
nant to the feelings of humanity to be tolerated,
and this overworking of children and young per-
sons is one that comes essentially into the category.
It is high time that a new era be introduced, and
that, in the over-haste to make rich among the
grasping spirits of this time, they do not destroy
what no wealth can replace, and yet what should be
counted as among the choicest riches in the stores of
When the Psalmist invoked
the well provided State .
n the people, he not only de-
the chiefest blessing o
sired that their garners should be plenteous, afford-
ing all manner of store, but that their sons should
grow up as the young plants, and their daughters
should be as the polished corners of the Temple.
Those who sap the strength and waste the health
of on the
of the rising generation are inflicting i
Community that no prosperity will counterbalance,
and terbalance,
and robbing their country of its mainstay and sup-
port, b—
y
Truly undermining its vital source of welfare.
Y has the poet illustrated this sad state
things in these lines :
" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth of
accumulates and men decay,"

Employment of Children is w
The report of the ComTissioenllerws
ocrotnheyerenfincgontshie.
deration. Some time since the Government ap-
pointed a royal commission to inquire into the
sons
em-
ployment of children and young per in trades
and manufactures not regulated by law. The Com-
missioners have taken note of children engaged iP
potteries, lueifer match manufactures, lace and
hosiery manufacturers, and chimney s weep-
ing. They have reported the result of their
varied experience, and they recommend the adop-
tion of various alterations and improvements. They
advise that in potteries, the premises should be im-
proved by a better plan of ventilation, and also that
overtime in works shall be discontinued ; also that a
medical inspector watch over these regulations for
the period of two yean, and that afterwards the
duty be carried on by the inspectors of factories. The
next recommendation would be of incalculable bene-
fit, but its adoption would be more difficult to carry
out. They suggest the gradual introduction of the
half-time system, so that the children may have
more opportunities afforded them for recreation and
education, and that on attaining the age of thirteen,
each child be presented with a certificate of the
" amount of education received." The most
deleterious occupation on the list is that
of the lucifer manufacture. This trade
furnishes employment for 1,613 children. It

GMAT CONGRESS AT MALINES,

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

In less than a month from this day there will be assembled
together, at Malinee, an immense Congress, composed of
distinguished personages from all the great countries of
Christendom. The precise date fixed for this vast assem-
blage is the 18th day of August. It is a distinctly inaugu-
ral meeting—a meeting inaugurative of a movement calcu-
lated to exercise an extraordinary influence over the future
interests of morality, of enlightenment, of education, of
benevolence, throughout all the various States of the Euro-
pean Continent. The title of the Congress is simply,
L'Assemble Generale des Catholiques en Belgique. It is
designed to hold its meetings henceforth annuity—now in
one city, now in another. The Baron Gerlache has been
selected as the President of this Great Congress for this
the year of its inauguration. And it is significant
of the importance attached to the whole scheme of the pro-
ceedings that the State dignitary thus chosen vs President
for the very first year of the Congress should be no less ele-
vated in position than the chief judge of the Cour de Ces-
sation, a legal luminary exactly corresponding in his posi-
tion in Belgium to that ocoupied amongst us here in Eng-
land by the Lord High Chancellor. In order to realise at
once, as vividly as possible to English minds, the motive
of the design kept in view by the originators of this project,
presented to notice for the first time, by the gathering
together of this remarkable Congress at Malines,
we may describe it as based upon a scheme in a
great manner analogous to that marking out
from year to year the proceedings of the British
Association. Only with this difference—that the Belgian
Congress now about to be convened for the first time on
the 18th of August, at Malines, and to be held thenceforth
annually at whatever place may in each successive year be
selected for the next rendezvous—is what we have thus
hinted—and something more. It is more than the
mere expansion of the original idea of the projectors of
the British Association, into an European Association I It
is as if the Social Science Congress and the British Asso-
ciation were amalgamated, and, after being amalgamated
were applied not to the affairs or to the future of one na-
tion, but of all nations ! In other words, as if those com-
bined projects after having been thus intimately combined
were transformed from a simply patriotic purpose into one
of a cosmopolitan character. Yet even then we have
hardly said all—in illustration of the scope or of the
significance of the Congress about to meet at
Malines. For, while that assembly is designed to
further the interests of art, of science, and of literature—it
holds still nearer and dearer to its desires the hope of
beneficially influencing the higher, and far more sacred in-
terests of morality and religion, Its design relates not
merely to the furtherance, if it be possible, of the general
develcpment of the benign scheme of modern civilisation,
but with that, and beyond that, the furtherance also, in so
far as may be, in any way possible to it, of the ineffable inte-
rests of that which is far above civilisation, and in no imagin-
able way antagonistic to it, Christianity I To summarise, as
rapidly as possible, in a very few words, the merest outline
of the Congress about to be inaugurated at Malines, it will
be sufficient if we add, here, this evening, but a sentence
or two additional. The General Assembly will, it appears,
be subdivided into Five Sections--the Ist relating to Re-
ligious Works; the 2d, to Works of Charity; the 3d, to
Instruction, and especially Christian Education ;
the 4th to Christian art, the sth and last being of a very
miscellaneous character, having reference at once to reli-
gious liberty, to publications, to international correspon-
dence, and so forth. The labours of the Congress arc to be
extended annually over a period at the least of about four
days—about four days, that is to say, upon the average.
Each year these proceedings are to be ushered in by the
solemn ceiebration of Divine service. At half-past rime
o'clock, for example, on the morning of the 18th proximo
the membees of the Congress assembled together for the
first time at Malines from all parts of Europe are to meet at
the place of rendezvous, thence to proceed in a body to the
metropolitan church of St. Bornbaut, where mass is to be
pontifically celebrated at 10 a.m. by his Eminence the
Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, the Primate of
Belgium. Afterwards the members of the Con-
gress will repair to the place where they are to hold
their sittings. They will then listen to the inaugural
address of the Baron Gerlache, already mentioned, as the
Lord Chancellor of Belgium in his official capacity as Chief
Judge of the Cour de Caseation, the learned Baron having
been selected as President of the Committee of Organiza-
tion. The Congress, or Assembly, will then be formally
constituted. The members of the Central Bureau will be
nominated, and Presidenls of the various sections ap-
pointed. According to the regulations already chalked out,
the sittings of the Sections are to take place in the morn-
ings—those of the General Assembly of the members in the
afternoon—those of the more public assemblages connected
with the Congress taking place in the evenings.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
THE POLISH PRISONERS IN ROUMANIA.

BUCHAREST, JULY 19,

By order of Prince Couza the Poles captured in
the recent engagement with the Rouman troops are
to be treated as military prisoners, and receive
rations as if with a regiment.
Milcowitz, the commander of the Poles, has been
relased upon parole.

BERLIN, JULY 20.

The Breslauer Zeitung, of the 19th, publishes
intelligence from Warsaw to the 16th inst., stating
that the insurgent leader Wiederzbieki has defeated
800 Russians near Lubartow, and that Chrezepecki
gained a victory over 500 near Sobota.