The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-09 00:00:00

THE BOARD OF WORKS,

clause.

Mr. BAZALGETTE, in compliance with the resolu-
tion of the board, brought up his report on the pro-
posed bills now before Parliament for the construc-
tion of various railways within the metropolitan
area, and as to the extent to which they would
affect the works of the board. The report also re-
commended certain steps to be taken with regard to
the bills seriatim. The following is an abstract of
the report :

REGENT • CIRCUS RAILWAY.

The intended railway commenced at the Great
Northern Railway Terminus, King's-cross. passing
over the Metropolitan Railway, in Old St. Pancras-
road, and the Euston-road, the former of which it
was intended to stop up, and to raise the latter 11
feet, at an inclination of lin 30. The line was to
terminate at great Windmill•strect, Haymarket.
The whole length Df the railway would be under-
ground, and would very materially affect the sewer-
age of the district through which it passed. It
would therefore be necessary that a special saving
clause should be inserted in the bill. The proposed
alterations of the St. Pancras and Euston roads
would be injurious to the public traffic, and he re-
commended that the solicitor's attention be drawn
to that point, with a view to determine whether it
was the duty of that board, or of other parties, to
protect the interests affected (standing orders not
complied with).
HAMMERSMITH AND CITY RAILWAY (JUNCTION WITH THE
GREAT 'WESTERN RAILWAY).
This line did not interfere with the sewer, and,
therefore, a general saving clause would be sufficient.

GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.

This line was to run from the Junction of the
Enfield and Edmonton Railway at Edmonton to
Finsbury-circus. The railway would pass over the
Northern High-level Sewer iu Amhurst-road, the
London-bridge sewer in High-street, Shoreditch,
and the Middle-level Sewer in New Inn-yard; but
being on a viaduct it would not materially affect
those sewers ; it would, however, cut through the
sewer in Dalston-lane, end a special saving clause
must be inserted in the bill.

HENSINGTON, KIsiIGIITSBRIDGE, AND METROPOLITAN

JUNCTION RAILWAY.

This line was laid out from London-street, Pad-
dington, where it would join the Metropolitan Rail-
way to Hyde Park-corner, with a branch to Young-
street,
Kensington. The whole of the line was
below the surface of the ground, and would mate-
rially affect the drainage of the district. A special
saving clause must, therefore, be inserted in the
bill.
METROPOLITAN, TOTTENHAM, AND HAMPSTEAD

RAILWAY.

The proposed railway commenced by a junction
with the Metroplitan Railway close to Gower-
street Station, aid terminated at Swain's-lane,
Highgate. The entire length of the line would be
beneath the surface and would seriously affect the
drainage of the district. A special saving clause
was inserted in the bill, and should be continued in
the act.
NORTH LONDON AND EDMONTON RAILWAY.=

The company did not intend to proceed with this
bill this session,

MIDLAND ItA.ILVAY.-EXTENSION TO LONDON.

This line was to commence at the Euston-road,
near King's-cross, and was to continue to the
Edgware-road. Ttat portion of the line within the
jurisdiction of the board was to be constructed be-
neath the surface or the roads, and would materially
affect the sewerage; a special saving clause should
therefore be inserttd in the bill.

BLAtIiVRIA.ILS BRIDGE.

A special clause should be inserted in the bill for
enabling the Corporation to re-build Blackfriars
Bridge, as the works proposed might affect the
Fleet sewer, the Thames Embankment, and the
new street to the Mansion House.

ALBERT STATION AND MID-LONDON RAILWAY .

The works proposed were beneath the surface of
the streets, and would seriously affect the drainage
of the districts through which it passed, besides
which it would prevent the construction
of the Piccadilly branch of the Middle
Level Sewer now in course of construction. The
preamble of that bill should be opposed by the
board, as no clause would be sufficient.

T LONDON IZAILWAY.-VICTORIA STATION.
Nearly the entire length of the line was on arches
or embankment. It proposed to lower the road in
Gloucester-road, Kensington, five feet, anti that
would destroy the arch of the main sewer, No pro-
visions for the headway and span of the bridges

over the streets crossed appeared to be made. A
special saving clause should therefore be inserted in 1
lieu of the general one already introduced.

EAST LONDON AND ROTITERIIITHE RAILVA.,/

This lice would commence by a junction with the
Blackwall railway, near Wellclose-place, crossing
through the Thames Tunnel and terminating at the
Lower-road, Deptford. This line would cut through
the Wapping-wall main sewer at King-street, and
otherwise interfere with the sewerage of the dis-
trict. A special saving clause should be inserted in
the bill.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH-COAST RAILWAY (EX,
TENSIONS, ALTERATIONS, &C.)
The Battersea loop-line would cut through the
proposers low level sewer at Battersea-road, but the
rights of the Board and Vestries were protected by
the 20th section of the bill.
GRAND SURREY AND COMMERCIAL DOCKS RAILWAY.
A general saving clause would be saficient for
this bill.

BARNES, HAMMERSMITH, AND KENSINGTON RAILWAY.
There was a special clause in the bill which should
be maintained in the act.
SOUTH LONDON, GREENWICH, AND WOOLWICH RAILWAY.

This line proposed to affect the road through
which the southern outfall sewer ran, and would
therefore require a special saving clause.

GREENWICH AND WOOLWICH RAILWAY.

This line would pass over the southern outfall
sewer, lowering the road 2ft 6in. A special saving
clause was necessary.

FULRAINI AND HAMMERSMITH RAILWAY.

This line would affect the western drainage
sewers, and therefore a special clause should be
introduced into the bill.
METROPOLITAN RAILWAY (ADDITIONAL LANDS.)

This bill would require the insertion of a special

ROTHERHITHE RAILWAY.

A general clause would be sufficient for this line.

PIMLICO AND FADDINOTON RAILWAY.

This would seriously affect the sewerage of the
district through which the line passed, and a 2pecial
clause should be introduced.

The report was adopted, and the board adjourned.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SPECTATOR.—Lord Palmerston has resolved once
more to play a defensive game. This passiveness
may be exceedingly wise, but it is also exceedingly
dull, and its wisdom is not apparent upon the face

of affairs. Dull Uovernments always die. The House
of Commons is not a body which (mu be safely left
without work, and idleness will only increase its

appetite for the criticism which promises strong ex-
citement. Lord Palmerston hopes for a quiet Ses-
sion, and he has two circumstances in bis favour.
The Royal Marriage will for six weeks indispose
the class from whom our legislators are drawn to
commence a strife which, however it ends, must in
its progress interfere with what should be a festive

season. The promised reductions will, for three
weeks more, indispose the nation to interfere with
the Minister who may diminish the in come-tax

But those barriers once removed, Lord Palmerston,
unless we misread the signs of the times, will be
subjected to a storm of attack which it will tax
every faculty he possesses to resist. The very calm
of the public mind, the absence of any engrossing
subject of interest, vial only increase the excitement
of the coming party strife. The Tories are strong
enough if they please to take the helm, and signs are
abroad in all directions that the armistice is at an
end. Unless they are prepared to allow that they do
not care for office, and so place themselves in the
exhausting position of a besieging army which does
not care to attack, they must this Session make a
bold push for power. Their only difficulty wilt be to
select the fitting point of assault, for they must find
one which will fulfil many and diverse conditions.
They must oust the Administration upon some point
which involves a vote of confidence, yet will not

pledge them to impossible action, or run the risk of
exciting the quiescent (because half-sated) Liberal
predilections of the nation. The working of the
Revised Code, by far their best chance in the coun-
try districts, scarcely fulfils the first condition. Lord
Palmerston would consent, and in the present posi-
tion of Europe would wisely consent, to any con-
ceivable change in the department of education
rather than quit the reins. The cession of the
lonian Islands does not fulfil the second, for Go-
vernments cannot reverse accomplished facts, or break
engagements, however annoying, to which British
faith is pledged. And the American struggle—
whatever Mr. Hope may imagine—does not fulfil the
third. The governing class in the last resort cannot
quarrel with the 10-pounders, and if the Tories yen-

Lured formally to vote recognition, the anti-slavery
feeling, half latent, but quite irresistible, would
in a week destroy their chance of power. They are,
_ _

moreover, precluded from fighting upon the budge
They could, we sincerely believe, drive the Ministry
from power by insisting upon the devotion of every
shilling of surplus to the relief of the propertied,
professional, and trading classes, but they them-
selves proposed to diminish the duty on tea. They
cannot, therefore, complain if Mr. Gladstone de.
votes half his savings to carry out their own will,
and Mr. Hubbard's idea, almost the best card in
their hands, is thus trumped before it is played,
They can scarcely outbid the reductions, for Napo-
leon still reigns in France, and even Mr. Disraeli
must be by this time aware that subservience to
Napoleon is not a price his party will pay for
thrift. Upon the policy pursued in China it is clear
they are very unwilling to fight, even if they had
forgotten the dissolution of 1857 ; and the Govern-
ment, if very hardly pressed, could, we suspect, plead
reasons for assisting Prince Kung which are not yet
before the public, but which no party would disre-
gard. The Danish business may be dangerous; but
the history of the affair is as yet bat little known,
and no Tory leader will be eager for power acquired
by a bitter quarrel with the whole of our Germa n
allies. On the cession of the lonian Islands they
could not obtain a vote, for on this point every W big
is in unison with every Radical, and with that large
section of Tories whic i has the heart to exult in an
act of national self-denial. It is possible to smile
at the cool sang froid which dictated Earl Russell's
offer of an asylum to the Pope, and the Ultramon-
tanes will, doubtless, endeavour to elicit some sort
of censure. But serious reprobation of any mea-
sure tending in any degree to move the Pope from
Rome would split up the party which offered it, and
the Irish votes would be dearly bought at the price of
the deadly hostility of English country clergy. The
volunteers are the Tories' pets ; no marriage bill can
be twisted into a Cabinet measure ; everybody wants
law amendments; and it is not for Conservatives to
argue that Ireland needs reform. There is no foot-
hold visible yet, but, nevertheless, we believe the
session cannot pass without an earnest struggle for
power. In this country it is the ebb and flow of opi-
nion, far more than any accidental discussion, which
makes and unmakes Cabinets, and for five years the
tide has flowed in the Conservative direction. They
have gained in all English elections ; they will gain
at the next dissolution in Ireland. The entire ne-
glect of home questions, which is Lord Palmerston's
permanent weakness, has blunted the edge of
Jibe-
ral sympathies, and now that Italy seems to be safe
foreign affairs excite no very passionate feeling.
Either Administration will resist extravagance as
much as it can, either will keep up the defences,
either will rest content to do as little as possible in
America or the East. On the whole, the public
mind is inert, and is therefore naturally still swing-
ing round to the party whose professed theory is not
to disturb that inertia. There is a feeling even
among Whigs that a couple of years of Lord Derby
would brace up liberal nerves, restore a relaxed or-
ganisation, and enable them to re-enter on power
with some prospect of a majority able to assume an

LONDON REVIEW.—The warfare in Parliament
this session will regain some of its pristine vigour,
in consequence of the increased sunshine in the pa-
lace. Last year, by common consent, animosities
were buried in a common sympathy for the Queen.
Towards the close of the session a few passages of
arms relieved the Conservative party from any im-
putation of unnatural magnanimity. The fact is,
that even in moments of the profoundest political
peace, Mr. Disraeli never goes anywhere without
his tomahawk ; and the temptation to strike a sud-
den blow was at last morcthan he[could withstand.
But the Tory tribe bad buried their weapons early
in the session, and could not be brought to dig them

up again at a moment's notice, even at the well-
known signal of thoir great medicine man. Mr.
Walpole turned pale at the sight. of his own war-

paint, and his disinclination for the fight proven in
fectious. The season passed over without a general
conflict, and the generous professions made by
Lord Derby in the spring were, in the main, ful-
filled. The new session, however, will, in all proba-
bility, not be so uneventful as the last. The
years are slipping from Mr. Disraeli, and
little hss been done of late. The sun is going down

upon him, yet his defiant rival still fronts him,

seated, with an air of biting sanctity, upon the
Treasury benches. It would be doing injustice 10
the other chiefs of the Conservative host to suppose
they have not also the passions of their kind. Sir

Stafford Northcote doubtless longs to chalk his

fingers over a Treasury slate of his own ; and a fear
of permanently obstructing his party may possibly
induce Mr. Walpole, who was the saint of last ses•

sion, to be the sinner of th. next. This year, at ali
events, there can be no doubt that opportunities of
assailing Lord Palmerston will not be flung aside.
The clans are gathering and mustering. Mr. Dis-
rali intimated pretty clearly on Thursday night that
the conflict will not flag for want of energy on his
part. Though there was no division on the Address,
the debate that occurred up,m it gave omens of a
stormy session. It will not be necessary during the
ensuing year to fall back upon the cry of the
Church's danger to rouse the Conservative blood.
The list of Ministerial blunders with which the
leader of the Opposition regaled the country was
one from which acrid Conservative orators may pick
and choose for months to come. By an ingenious
artifice, even the national expenditure was made to
seem a necessary consequence of a meddlesome
foreign policy; and thus Mr. Gladstone's finance
came in for a portion of the blows which were os-
tensibly directed against Lord Palmerston's leathern
doublet. Schleswig Holstein, Italy, America, and
the lonians Islands, have all been dealt with by the
Cabinet during the interval since last autumn ; and