The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-22 00:00:00

GAS COMPANIES.

A letter was read from the Secretary of the City of
London Gas Company, in which the report lately made
to the company by Dr. Letheby, respecting the compa-
rative illuminating power of the Central Gas Consumers'
Company and the City of London is thus referred to :
..

"As the statement respecting the gas of this company
has been made officially to your honourable court, and
through you circulated by the press, the committee trust
that you will give equal publicity to this positive denial
of the truth of the statement as relates to the gas of this
company, as the committee are prepared to provo upon
oath, if necessary."

The letter concluded with a repetition of the request
that the City of London Gas Company's committee
might be furnished with a copy of the daily record of
Dr. Letheby's test of their gas.
A motion favourable to this request was carried.

METROPOLITAN COMMISSION OP

SEWERS.

A court was held on Tuesday at the office, in Greek-
street—Mr. R. Jebb in the chair.

The SECRETARY reported the available balance in hand
to be 49,369/. 16s.

District sewer rates of 6d. in the pound were made on
the following districts :—Western division of Westmin-
ster sewers, Spitalfields, &c., level, Hackney-brook level,
Hermitage-street level, Lower Wapping level, Poplar
and Blackwall district.

The SECRETARY read the draft of a petition to the
House of Commons, praying that a bill for the formation
of a pumping station for the purposes of drainage at
Deptford, and of which plans had been deposited with
the clerk of the peace for the county of Kent, might
pass into a law. The petition was agreed to, and the
official seal was ordered to be attached preparatory to
presentation.
Mr. HENRY, secretary to the Imperial Gaslight and
Ceke Company, with other officials connected with the
company, appeared before the court, pursuant to sum-
mons, to show cause why they had, without permission,
broken into the sewers of the commissioners.

A. report was presented by Mr. Roe, the engineer,
setting forth that the men in the employ of the gas com-
pany had, without any previous notice, eut through
three arches of the Hackney-btyok sewers, to lay in
their pipes in the crown of thoehes, and continuing
them in the line of their drain. They had so materially
interfered with them in some places that they would re-
quire to be rebuilt. He advised that proceedings should
be taken against the company.
A further report was presented from Mr. Pulley, the
clerk of the Hackney union, complaining of the great
nuisance experienced by the poor, in consequence or
the present open state of the drains in that neighbour.
hood.

Mr. HENRY, on being called upon, said the report
was quite true, but it had arisen through an omission on
their part to give notice. He did not mean to say that
it was the fault of the contractor, for he had been urged
to proceed with this work with all possible haste, and
the giving the necessary notice had been forgotten.
They should be most happy to put themselves into
the hands of the commissioners to make reparation,
and the contractor was quite ready to do all in his
power.
The court considered the explanation satisfactory, and
the matter dropped.

The other I;iisiness transacted was of no public in-
terest.

STATE OF TRADE.

(Front the Manchester Guardian of yesterday.)

MANCHESTER, Dec. 20.—The untoward events that
have happened in the Euxine, with the political mis-
givings which the retirement of Lord Palmerston has
occasioned, are undoubtedly operating as restraints upon
business ; and yet we had sore further indications
to-day of that tendency to an improvement—slow and
hesitating as it is—which has latterly been showing
itself in our market. The German houses are indeed
kept back from operating, in any but a retail fashion, by
the season of the year and the state of the rivers. But
the India and the Levant merchants are purchasing
suitable goods and yarns ; and even for China some
little business has been ventured upon. For some other
distant quarters, too, there are transactions in progress
of limited amount. The home consumers of yarns are
still buying ; and the home dealers in goods are now call-
ing upon the manufacturers and agents. After all, how-
ever, great caution characterises the proceedings of
buyers ; and, without a caution, what we have said above
may easily be construed as indicative of greater amend-
ment than has been realised.

ROCHDALE, Dec. 19.--We have had a rather slack at-
tendance of buyers in the market to-day, and a very
limited amount of business transacted. In wool there is
little change,; the manufacturers buy for immediate use
only, but prices keep very firm. This is generally con-
sidered the last market in the year, as there is little doing
till the new market, which is held the first Monday after
old Christmas-day.
HALIFAX, Dec. 17.—1 f there be any change notice-
able to-day in our piece hall, it is that there has been a
little more demand for light mixtures of low quality.
For lastings there is scarcely any inquiry. Higher rates
have been obtained for some descriptions of yarn, but the
general disposition seems to be not to operate to any
extent. There is not so much doing in wool, and
another advance has been established.
HUDDERSFIELD, Dec. 20.—Since last Tuesday, busi-
ness in the warehouses has generally been good, consi-
dering the tires of the year ; and a considerable quan-
, tity of finished woollens and waistcoatings have changed
hands. In the Cloth Hall and the manufacturers' shops
to-day, the demand has not been so brisk as the close
of last week would have led one to suppose ; but it has
quite as
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given
tend marketen
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yandof whichb pricesehea been
sb\bvueehceeicnneehecihdpueerild by a tone of firmness which the state of the
wool market is likely to uphold, for some time at least,
if we may judge from present appearances. During the
week and to-day a good business has been done by the
woolstaplers.

DEPLORABLE FATALITY.—It is rarely that we have to
record an accident of so painful a nature as one that oc-
curred at Devonport on Friday night, when a young
man was suffocated under very extraordinary circum-
stances. It appeared that Isaac Jewels, a young man,
the deceased, arrived from London at Devonport on
Friday, and on that evening he fell in company with a
young woman, named Sarah Bundle, who induced the
unfortunate young man to accompany her to a house in
Francis-alley, where he retired to bed with her. On the
following morning the woman found him lying by her
side dead. A surgeon, Mr. Baldy, was called in, and
on examination of the deceased it was ascertained that
he had lain with his face on the pillow, and the pressure
of his body on his chest so cumbered his lungs that they
had no room to play, and suffocation ensued. This very
awful event has occasioned the most poignant grief to
the respectable family with whom the deceased was con-
nected. An inquest was held on the body, and the jury
had no difficulty in arriving at a decision as to the cause
of death,—Plymouth Mail.