The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-03 00:00:00

New Year's-Day at the Tuileries.

The Moniteur of yesterday contains an account
of the grand State reception at the Tuileries on
New Year's-day, in which the names and dignities
of the principal persons present are enumerated.
After receiving the members of the Imperial family,
the chief officer of the household, the superior
clergy,, the ministers, the members of the Privy
Council, and a few more privileged persons, the
Emperor and Empress attended mass in the chapel
of the palace, and then withdrew to their apart-
ments. At one o'clock the members of the Diplo-
matic Corps were received in the Salle du Trone by
the Emperor, the Papal Nuncio addressing his
Majesty in their name to the following effect :
Sire,—The members of the Diplomatic Corps beg your
Majesty to accept the respectful homage which I have the
honour to offer you in their name on the occasion of the
New Year. We are delighted, Sire, whenever we have an
opportunity of expressing the desire we feel for the happi-
ness of your Majesty, for that of your august family, and
for the prosperity of France.
To the above address the Emperor replied in these
words :

The sentiments that you express in the name of the Diplo-
matic Corps deeply move me. I am happy to see myself sur-
rounded by the representatives of all the Powers at the
commencement of the New Year. They will be enabled to
testify to my desire to maintain with them those friendly
relations which are so essential to present and future
security.

The members of the Diplomatic Corps then with-
drew, and the general receptions afterwards took

place.

Progress of the Main Drainage Works.

Mr. Bazalgette presented his monthly report of the pro-
gress of the main drainage works to the Metropolitan Board
of Works yesterday, as follows :
"The progress of the main drainage works, making
allowance for their partial stoppage in the Christmas
week, has been satisfactory during the past month.
"Messrs. Brassey and Co. have now completed about 7
miles 2,900 feet of sewer in connection with the middle
level line, at a probable cost of about £205,000, of which
£15,000 is due to the past month.
" Mr. Furness is proceeding with the brickwork of the
treble line of sewers forming the northern outfall, and is
closely following up the embankment of the same. The
ironwork of the bridges has been delayed, owing to the
difficulties into which the party undertaking it has fallen.
Mr. Furness has, however, made arrangements with
another firm to resume this portion of the work on Mon-
day next. The outlet work into the river is going on
well, the dam having been completed, and the excavation
for the sub-structure and side wall of the reservoir being
nearly finished and the concrete put in. The value of
these works is about £500,000, of which about £2C,000 was
due last month.

" Mr. Webster has excavated about 66,000 cubic yards of
earthwork, and put in about 25,000 cubic yards of concrete
for the foundations of the Crosness engine and boiler houses
and the reservoir ; and he has also executed about 160 rods
of brickwork, making a total amount of £40,000 for the
work done, and being £lO,OOO more than was reported last
month.

" Messrs. Aird and Son have now completed most of
the works embraced in the Deptford pumping station
contract, so far as they can be furnished before the engines
are fixed. With the latter work Messrs. Slaughter and
Co. are now proceeding, the boilers and pumps are fixed,
and the heavier parts of the engines are being got into
the building. The total cost of the works executed by
Messrs. Aird and Son amounts to about £95,000, £l,OOO in
excess of my last report.
"About 1,000 feet of the Bermondsey branch of the low
level sewer have been completed by Messrs. Aird and Son,
and an equal length is in an advanced state. The value of
the work done under this contract, up to the present time,
is nearly £B,OOO, being £3,000 for the past month.
" Messrs. Lee and Bowles have at last finished the
southern high level sewer, the works of which have been in
hand for more than three years. The paving and repairing
of certain streets and reads, and the cleaniag-up of the
sewer are the matters yet remaining to be done. The total
cost of the work amounts to about £193,000, £2,000 more
than at the date of my last monthly report.
" Mr. Pearson has completed about 2 miles 1,560 feet
of the southern high level extension sewer at a total cost
of about £12,000.
" Mr. Webster's work in connection with the diversion
of the Effra sewer at Brixton has been kept back by the
flood waters, which will now, however, soon be diverted
into the southern high level sewer at Dulwich. The total
length of sewer constructed is about 4,600 feet, at a pro-
bable cost of about £8,500.
" Mr. Downs has completed both the roadway and sub-
way of Southwark-street, between High-street and Great
Guildford-street. The length of the subway is 514 yards,
and of the sewer in connection therewith 1,415 feet, with
which there has been formed about 2,400 feet of pipe
branches. The roadway paving comprises about 12,600
square yards of granite, and the footways about 4,400
square yards of York stone. The total cost of the whole is
about £24,300, being an increase of £1,300 upon last month.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO A FEMALE ACROBAT.--
In accordance with a previous notice by bills that a
Female Blondin would give a series of performances on
Thursday afternoon, a rope, 20 to 25 feet high, having
been stretched across a vacant spot adjoining the road and
near the church at Northfleet, near Gravesend, a female,
about 18 years, ascended by means of a ladder and traversed
it twice. She next proceeded to blindfold herself, and had
partly crossed the rope again, when one of the gymnastic
party, a man of colour, climbed the poles by which the
rope was suspended at one end to receive her, and had no
sooner arrived at the top than he called out to her to go
back, and at that moment the pole broke in two, and preci-
pitated both into the road. The man received very severe
injuries from the fall, one arm being broken in three places.
He was conveyed to the Gravesend Infirmary, after receiv-
ing temporary assistance from Dr. Crook. The female was
less seriously injured, though much bruised and shaken by
the fall.

A notice from the Prefect of the Seine has been
posted up, stating that 37 houses, expropriated,
in the Rue du Faubourg Poissonniere, Rue Montholon,
Rue de Provence, Rue de Faubourg Montmartre, Rues do
la Victoire, Bellefond, and Rochechouart, wil, be sold for
demolition on the 16th instant. The sites of those houses
are required for the continuation of the Rue Lafayette.
Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal lam left Fenton's Hotel
for the Continent:,