The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-20 00:00:00

arp-

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 20, 1862.

FINANCES OF THE PIZAZILIAN EMPIRE.

A report on the finances of the Brazilian empire,
drawn up at the commencement of the present year
by Mr. Baillie, her Majesty's Secretary of Legation
at Rio, has recently been published. It appears that
for 1862-63 the estimate of revenue is £5,650,000,
and of expenditure £5,800,000, showing a deficit of
£150,000, and that since 1858, when the revenue
reached the highest point, and a balance of
£1,265,000 had accrued in the Treasury, there has
been a deficit each year, which has now, after ab-
sorbing the sum in hand, accumulated to a total on
the other side of £1,460,000. The next mail will
probably bring information of the mode in which
this is to be provided for by the new Ministry,
which has just been called to office, on the meeting
of- the Chambers. Thus far there has been con-
sidered to be no necessity for any loan, the late
Minister of Finance, who took a hopeful view both
of the future growth of the revenue and the pos-
sibility of reductions in the expenditure, having
been enabled to meet current wants through an
authority that was granted to him for the issue of
Treasury notes to the amount of £900,000. The
Minister stated a few months back that the revenue
had increased during the last months of the finan-
cial year, and that although the events occurring in
the United States might exercise some effect upon
the exportation of coffee to that country, which
takes annually more than one-half of the crop, he
did not think it would be serious, symptoms of a
recovery in the demand to itb urdinary movement
having already become apparent. Much of the im-
mediate prosperity of the country depends on the
coffee harvest, which was last year very bad., owing
to the existence of a disease in the trees, thought to
be analogous to that which has affected the vines in
Europe. This year the accounts are rather con-
flicting, but seem on the whole to be less unfavour-
able than had been anticipated. Annexed are the
latest statements of the revenue, expenditure, and
public debt of the empire :

REVENUE.

Customs .• ..
Interior taxes ..
Municipal Receipts
Extraordinary ditto

.. 4,320,000
.. 1,060.000
.. 200,000
.. 70,000

£5,650,000

EXPENDITURE.
Ministry of Interior .. • •
Ditto, Justice
Ditto, Foreign Affairs • • • •
Ditto Marine
Ditto War .. •• ••
Ditto, Finance (interest on debt, pen-
sions, &a.) 1,000,000
Expense of collecting revenue, miscel-
laneous charges, &c.

.. 1,170,000
.. 570,000
.. 100,000
.. 830,000
.. 1,420,000

.. 71P,000

£5,800,000

.. .. 7,650,000
.. .. 7,590,000
.. .. 5,030,000
• • .. 520,000
.. .. 980,000

.. .. .. 409,000
.. .. .. 185,000

£22,364,000

on his part no effort will be omitted to enhance the amicable
relations which happily exist between the Argentine Re-
public and Great Britain.
" The undersigned avails himself, &C.,
~ EDWARD THORNTON.
" To his Excellency Dr. Eduardo Costa, &c."

THE ACCIDENT TO THE UNDERGROUND

RAILWAY".

When our report appeared of the bursting of the
iFt laeye-ts-
tdri
et
ec h t
aonnd Saturday and
-hll
every Sunday
hope
betweenenter-
tained that the prompt measures then taken would
prevent any further injury being done to the works
of the Underground Railway Company. This has
not proved to be the case. The heavy rains which
have recently fallen caused an immense volume of
water to collect in the sewer, and early on Tuesday
morning it became evident that unless some new
outlet could be made for it serious injury would ac-
crue to the works. Just below the workhouse, and
running along Ray-street, about a quarter of a mile
of lofty brick arching and tunnelling had been
finished, and about 2 o'clock on Wednesday after-
noon the pent-up water forced its way into the in-
terior to the depth of 10 or 12 feet. The brick-
layers were at once ordered to leave their work, and
the water was in several parts forcing its way
through the sides of the tunnel, several men were
let down in baskets, with the view of breaking holes
in the brickwork to allow it to escape into the exca-
vations on each side. This had been continued for
some time, when it was found that the foundations
of the arches were giving way, and the men were
immediately called up from their dangerous position.
The last man had scarcely reached the surface when
the whole of the arches and tunnelling, to the length
of several hundred yards, Was raised up by the force
of the water, and fell in one mass into a heap of
ruins. As soon as the dust had cleared away a scene
of great destruction presented itself. Several acres
of ground were completely covered with huge masses
of brickwork and timber, and the water was pour-
ing out in all directions. When the alarm had so
mains were
i n busily
vi ne
tar subsided several hundred labourers were set to
work to divert the course of the sewer into the old
Fleet ditch at the corner of Vine-street, and up to a
at
employed in the
wnerk our. Thelst
-street, Ray-street,
late
g as evening
Back-hill, and all the adjacent streets, were de-
stroyed by the force of the water, which seemed to
have uncontrolled possession of the whole district,
the cellars of the houses being all inundated to the
depth of several feet. In that part of the tunnel
destroyed were the locomotives and trucks employed
in carrying away the earth from the excavations
made. They now lie buried beneath the ruins.
The whole of the retaining wall, about 30 feet in
height and six feet in thickness, which had been
erected with the best available materials, together
with the massive piles of timber placed as shores
along the roadway, extending from the end of the
tunnel to the corner of Vine-street, about 100 yards
in length, was converted into a heap of ruins.
It is supposed that the deep cutting necessary for
the railway had loosened the earthworks at the side
of the sewer, which at this spot runs close by the
tunnel, and caused the crown of the sewer to col-
lapse. The great volume of water always pouring
through the sewer after heavy rains was thus ena-
bled to make its way under the foundation of the
retaining wall, and the work of this being quite
new, and the soil around being light and loamy, it
soon became a prey to the torrent.
During the night great quantities of earth, brick-
work, and timber were constantly falling. Imme-
diately on the spot where the accident has taken
place was a few years since the burial-ground of
St. Peter's, which was removed upon the making of
the new street. The bodies then remaining in the
ground were mlleeted and placed in a mausoleum
erected on the spot in an excavation purposely
made. Last night this building was struck by the
falling timbers of the railway, and the upper por-
tions of the walls shattered to pieces, while the lower
part was flooded by the water from the sewer to the
depth of several feet, and many of the bodies, or
what remained of them, were washed out into the
open excavation. Under the direction of the Rev.
J. W. Laughlin, the rector of St. Peter's, and the
parochial authorities, they have been properly
cared for.
At the time of high tide in the Thames the water
comes up this sewer as high as the end of Ray-street,
forcing back the regular water of the sewer, and
this being the case at 12 o'clock yesterday, the water
was pouring into the tunnel at the rate of many
thousand gallons per minute, and at that time it
was estimated there were at least 10 feet depth of
water in the tunnel as high up as King's-cross.
Throughout the whole of yesterday, and up
to last evening, the works in mitigation of the
evil have been proceeded with without interrup-
tion. Rival contractors have vied with each
other as to who could spare the most men to assist
the surveyors of the Metropolitan Board in
their emergency and Mr. Jay out of the diffi-
culty in which he is placed in consequence of the
accident and by the great damage sustained by
the underground railway. The result has been that
within the brief space of 20 hours a new cutting of
considerable width and of a serpentine form, fol-
lowing the natural level of the Old Fleet-valley,
has been nearly completed, its object being the
divergement of the artificial line of the Fleet Sewer
from a point north of the breakage along the
western side of Victoria-street to another point on
the south, where it is intended to form a junction
with the sewer, so as to cause the now accumulat-
ing sewage to flow away instead of running into
the railway cutting near the mouth of the tunnel
in Coppice-row. If from this time all happens well
this most desirable work will be completed before
this notice reaches the public eye, so that no further
danger from any increase of the inundation need be
apprehended. Mr. Jay, the contractor for the line,
and his numerous foremen and assistants, have been
indefatigable in their superintendence ever since
the repetition of the calamity, and by their judi-
cious arrangements, we are able to state positively
that the whole of the foundations of the retaining
walls standing from the springing of the arches
across Ray-street are safe within 20 feet of the
point of the breakage, and that the tunnel and the
permanent way, though flooded a considerable part
of the way towards Bagnigge-wells-road, is but
triflingly injured. Several men were yesterday
engaged in hoisting the dislodged timbers used for
internal shoring and scaffolding, but broken away
by the fallen brickwork, and the contractor has
two very powerful centrifugal pumps, which will
be brought into immediate play as soon as the diver-
sion of the stream and its junctions with the sewer
are effected.
Mr. Cooper, the engineer of the district, Mr.
Fry, his assistant, and Mr. Lovick, another of the
engineers of the Board of Works, have been
throughout the day in constant attendance upon the
men, and, the roadway having been unpaved, steps
will be taken for an examination of the sewer as to
its state both outside and in the interior as soon as
possible, for the purpose of rebuilding it where it
may be necessary to do so.
It was extremely fortunate that at the time of
the occurrence Mr. Johnson, the engineer to the
Chartered Gas Company, was in the neighbourhood
of doppice-row, superintending the laying of some
new mains; inasmuch as that gentleman took im-
mediate steps to cause
to be ,
the supply of gas to the
large service pipes ready for stoppage at a
moment's notice, in case of a breakage of the large
mains by the falling materials, thus preventing the
possibility either of an explosion or the alternative
of midnight darkness for several hours throughout
the densely populated district.
During the course of the day the ruins were
visited by Mr. Wilkinson, the Chairman of the
1 Railway and several of the directors,
Metropolitan
including a few of the corporation representatives

at the Board. A deputation from the Clerkenwell
Board of Works, headed by their chairman, Mr.
Benjamin Foster, also made a lengthened inspec-
tion, the accident having happened within their
jurisdiction, and at nightfall, when our reporter
left, several hundred persons were gazing at the
ruins, and expressing their astonishment at the
rapid progress being made in the work of " turning
the sewer" into its temporary bed until its new one
is provided.
The probable loss is estimated by practical men
at nat less than £12,000 for the damage to the
sewer, the roadway, and the railway line. The
accident will cause a delay in the opening of the
railway of at least three months.

THE lIVIEBNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

The same mysterious law of counter-attraction
which filled the Exhibition building on the great
Derby anniversary seemed also to be in operation
yesterday,for notwithstanding the temptation which
the race for the Ascot Cup offered to people to leave
town, the day was one of the most numerous Exhi-
bition attendances of the season. His Royal High-
ness the Prince of Wales came in the morning and
passed through several of the courts, but as yet his
Royal Highness has not commenced any very close
examination of their contents. M. Rouher, the
French Minister of Agriculture, visited the wes-
tern annex, accompanied by two young ladies, his
daughters, and passed a good deal of time examin-
ing the machinery ie. ...tin. Thp party were
attended during their visit by Mr. Clarke, the
superintendent of the department. Shortly after
11 o'clock an accident happened, which, although
only resulting in the destruction of a valuable plate
of glass, might have been attended with very serious
consequences. A porter, in passing across the wes-
tern platform with the plate in question, put it
standing on the ground for a moment to rest him-
self, when a young lady who standing near turned
round suddenly, and her dress caught the glass,
which fell over on her, breaking into a hundred
pieces. The lady, who was slightly wounded, ran
away alarmed and bleeding, and the porter did not
diminish her nervousness by following, and in a
rather rough manner demanding £7 for the glass.
Some gentlemen, however, interfered, and it was
ruled that no claim lay, as the glass had no right
to be on the platform after 10 o'clock in the morn-
ing.
On going into the French court we observed it
to be almost wholly filled with French people, who
seem to be quite satisfied that when they have
examined the products of their own country they
have " done" all that is worth doing in the world.
No doubt the contents of this court are some of

them very beautiful, the tapestries of the
Gobelins and Beauvais marvellous, and the por-
celain of Sevres most worthy of admiration. But
surely our neighbours must have seen all these
often before, and they might, seeing that they have
incurred the expense of a visit to London, devote
some time to the exploration of other departments
where they would certainly see something both to
instruct and amuse them. Behind the French court
there is an immense tract stretching down to the
Zollverein which has as yet received very little at-
tention from the public. It contains a great number
of French carriages of handsome design and taste-
ful execution, and a Bois de Boulogne omnibus,
which, now that omnibus accommodation is the
question of questions, might be well worth a visit.
It is exhibited by the company which rules the
streets of Paris, and the attendant offers a printed
paper containing the whole details of that great
establishment. It might he well worth the atten-

tion of the persons interested in this now highly
lucrative trade here to visit this unfrequented
corner, study the beauty and completeness of the
Paris vehicle, and learn the details of the Paris
system. There are also in this department French
sewing machines in full work, such as are used in
making the clothes and shoes for the French army
and an immense variety of articles which visitors
would be sorry to learn they had missed, if they had
passed the day in the building without seeing them.
Another district not much visited is the Sheffield
court, into which the civil engineering department
fuses by imperceptible degrees. There are here a
great number of " things not generally known,"
from the most intricate-looking machines to the
simplest and yet very useful contrivances. Amongst
others, we think that Brown's cloth padded strips
deserve to be rescued from obscurity. Is there a
single man in England who ever finds draughts (of
cold air), or dust, or wet, to be amongst the ble-
mishes still remaining on his national architecture
Mr. Brown has thought of that individual, and
invented his padded strips, which will stop super-
fluous chinks in doors and windows, protect books
in bookcases from dust or wet, and can• be applied
to any case, door, or window by any ordinary car-
penter. It is a very simple contrivance ; but if it
answers the purpose intended, it would be very
useful, and it is therefore worthy of being pointed
out, as it is a great question if otherwise it would
attract much notice from the visitors. Clergymen,
students, merchants, and lawyers testify to the
value of the padded strips, and the inventor thinks
so much of them that he has patented his discovery.
Then there is the Music Court—that eternal Babel
of sweet sounds—there are in it one or two novelties
which are worth examination. One manufacturer
exhibits a piano in which a note and its octave may
be obtained from the same key—an improvement of
great value, and which will be appreciated by those
whose small hands render " stretching an octave a
difficult and fatiguing operation. We do not pledge
ourselves that this invention answers the purpose
intended, but we think it is worth examination by
the learned in the divine art. Another improve-
ment of somewhat similar intention is exhibited as
applied to the double bass: Any person who has
seen an excited contrebasso apparently flinging his
whole body up and down the fingerboard of his huge
instrument, will think it worth while to go to the
music court, and ascertain whether an invention
which professes to do away with the necessity for
these painful gymnastics really carries out its
purpose.
Of the miscellaneous news of the day we may
mention that the Austrians announce that the talk-
ing machine has not come, and is not coming. The
truth is that it never had any existence, the instru-
ment promised being a singing machine, that is to
say, a musical instrument constructed to imitate the
notes of the human voice in singing. Somethinc,
however, has happened to the instrument, and
will not take its place in the present Exhibition.
Another item of news is that the ticket
packages
go off rapidly, and that applications Isar:
edaily
made to the Commissioners to admit very g
ties, school children, and othezrese,l aitn rperdeuvcieddinrgatiens:
The Rev. Mr. Brown, whose
nocent recreation for the very poorest of his pa-
rishioners in his parish of Christchurc
ree th, Blacksix
-
friars, would organise a party of from tho
thousand if an abatement could
.be made, but we
fear that at present this is impossible, and that the
consideration of such applications must be post-
poned until towards the close of the season.
It is much to be regretted that the Commissioners
have not as yet seen fit, in Father Daly's phrase, to
" take action" in assisting the public to betterhe
omni-
buses ways
of getting to and from the Exhibition. T
and cabs are quite insufficient, and the extor-
tions of the latter are quite unbearable. We some
time since pointed out the facilities which the river
presented to visitors from large districts of London,
and the three metropolitan counties of Kent, Essex,
and Surrey, but we regret to find that the steamboat
companies have neutralised the advantage to the
poor by doubling their fares to and from Cadogan
Pier. We had heard that the CommissicOrs were
about to organise a service of express boats from
London-bridge, both sides, and touching at all the
intervening piers, died
but the project seems to have _
away, and the public left to the tender mercies_of