The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-04 00:00:00

ME7ROPOLITAN DRAINAGE.

Yesterday, in pursuance of an invitation issued by
the Metropolitan Board of Works (through Mr. H.
Bazalgette, their engineer) to the members of both
houses of Parliament, a large number of peers and
commons assembled in the tea-room at half-past
ten in the morning, the Board of Works being
anxious to give the members of each house of the
legislature an opportunity of viewing portions of
the main drainage works during their progress, " as
they are of an unprecedented character, and cannot
be viewed after completion." About 120 gentle-
men accepted the invitation, and among the list of
names we observed those of Lord. Calthorpe,
Lord Fortescue, Lord Hamilton, Lord Overstone,
Lord Exmouth, Lord De Ros, Lord Belper,
Lord Deiamere, Lord Robert Montagu, the Duke
of Devonshire, Earl of Caithness, Lord Rag-
lan, Lord Burghley, Lord John Manners, Lord
Gage, Lord Talbot de Malahide, Lord Powis, Lord
Proby, Lord Dartmouth, Lord Hotham, Lord
George Lennox, the Earl of Essex, Lord Orkney,
Lord Naas, Lord Longford, Lord Redesdale, Sir
Robert Peel, Bart., M.P,, Sir William Fraser, Col.
Greville, Hon. Mr. Portman, Sir P. Egerton, Colo-
nel Cartwright, Colonel Russell, Right Hon.
Mowbray, Hon. Mr. Tollemache, Hon. P. Bouve-
rie, Hon. Locke King, Sir M. Cholmondeley, Sir
Henry Bruce, the Hon. G. C. Bentinch, Hon. Ci
Calthorpe, Colonel Sykes, M.P., Alderman Sidney,
Messrs. H. J. Adams, W. T. Milford, T. Main-
waring, M. C. Onslow, H. W. Freeland, John
White, F. Doulton, W. Tite, Thos. Miller, &c.
At the hour named, the engineer of the Metro-
politan Board of Works, Mr. Bazalgette, proceeded
briefly to describe the character of the works. He
commenced by alluding to the former system of
carrying the sewage of houses into cesspools. Sub-
sequently sewers were built, which were partially
covered over, brick sewers of various sizes being
left open, and this proved to be a very defective
system. In 1847, by an Act of Parliament passed
`.pau the subject, all persons were required to de-
trop their cesspools, and to divert their sewage
into the sewers. That Act had been in operation
since 1847, and
had been carried out most vigor-
ously.
Eight thousand houses in one year had
their cesspeeie
royed, and the sewage was turned
into the Tharia,:
• This polluted the river, and in
dry seasons and ,
at a low level, as much as from four to
not weather
the Thames in many
it became very
offensive. The land
a
were built with basements and the
below the level of high water. Upon that
spilxa cfeese
twas,
entered the Thames at the level
constructed below the basement,
o f lando w
water. The sewers
the sewage slaenwdershowuesrees
would only discharge the sewage
at low water, or under low water, and the sewers
were tide-locked for ls hours out of the 24, so
that the stagnant sewers being pent
sewage evolved the most noxious up the
gases. The tide
in the river rising above them shut the flaps at their
mouths, and hence the sewage was pent up. An-
other objection to the then existing system of
drainage was its being discharged only at low
water,
an—a
was thus diluted with the water, and
was carried up the river instead of down the river
by the receding tide. New sewers could not be
Constructed for want of deeper outfalls. Various
plans had been devised to remedy these evils, and a
. main feature in the plan now being executed Was