The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-14 00:00:00

CITY COURT OF SEWERS.

Yesterday the Court met for the first time since
the holidays for the dispatch of business.
The medical officer read the following report,
which had been drawn up by himself.
" According to the desire of the commission, I have
inquired into certain nuisances complained of in connec-
tion with the altered system of slaughtering in Newgate-
market. It appears that in consequence of the suppres-
sion of slaughtering cellars within the City, there has
been a greater demand, especially in this locality, for
other slaughtering places, and many or those persons
who own registered slaughter houses in Newgate-market
have been induced to share these with the displaced
slaughterers. In consequence of this hospitality, the
amount of slaughtering in particular premises has in-
creased very considerably, and such premises have, in
fact, assumed altogether the character of public slaugh-
ter-houses, where, on many days, slaughtering goes on
continuously, For this purpose they are absolutely un-
suited, in respect of their dimensions and ventilation, so
that neighbours who had patiently tolerated the previ-
ous system have raised loud objections against the re-
cent aggravation of the nuisance. It appears that in
22 slaughtering places of this locality there are slaugh-
tered annually about 141,800 animals, and, to measure
the evil accurately, it must be remembered that this
slaughtering comes unequally in different houses, and on
, different days. Thus, for instance, in one particular
slaughter-house, which is much complained of by its
neighbours, there have been killed 250 animals in a day
and the ventillation of this place can only be effected
through a sort of shaft, 12 feet wide, which is bounded
on the south side by the backs of those houses in Pater-
noster-row. These houses, accordingly, cannot but re-
ceive the entire effluvia of the shambles, and the inmates
naturally complain of this as an extreme nuisance and
injury. On other occasions I have stated to your hon-
ourable Court my opinion of slaughtering-honses gene-
rally, in its relation to the health and cleanliness of the
city, and I therefore confine myself now to what is dis-
tinctive and peculiar in the case under your notice.
" It seems to me that whatever evils inevitably belong
to intramural slaughtering are aggravated to the utmost
degree when unlimited license of slaughtering is con-
ceded to premises with defective accommodation, walled
in on all sides by high inhabited houses ; and I would
accordingly recommend that your solicitor's opinion be
taken as to the best mode of framing and enforcing some
regulation which may abate the nuisance, by restricting
the employment of every slaughtering-house to the bond
fide personal uses of its registered proprietor.
" Your inspector of slaughter-houses likewise reports
that there are great inconveniences in the present ar-
rangements for the removal of blood and offal, which re-
moval, he repeats, he has now allowed (contrary to the
first order of your honourable court, subsequently re-
scinded) to take place at any and all hours of the day.
This frequent, or rather continuous removal of offensive
material, is not only a nuisance to the neighbours, in
respect of its stink, but likewise, I am informed, inter-
feres with the business of the market ; and I would re-
commend that your regulation relating to the removal
of refuse matter be reconsidered, with a view to remedy.
ing these evils.
" The principles for such regulation would seem to be

—first, that the removal should take place at as early
an hour after the completion of slaughtering as can pos-
sibly be, without inconvenience to the Imblie. Secondly,
that by employment of a sufficient number of hands, the
entire clearance of the locality should be effected as ra-
pidly as possible. And thirdly, that it should be com-
pleted at a sufficiently early hour in the evening for the
inspector to be able at times to visit the premises, and
ascertain their freedom from all offensive matters.
" From such inquiry as I have been able to make on
the subject, it appears to me that three hours would
prove amply sufficient for the purpose of clearing away
all refuse matter from all the slaughtering places of the
locality, and that the hours from eight to eleven p.m
would be a convenient and suitable time. Likewise, in
case of your honourable Court approving any such regu-
lation as I have suggested, for restricting the employ-
ment of each slaughter-house to the personal uses of the
registered owner of the same, it appears to me that it
would very much conduce to the health and cleanliness
of the locality that slaughtering should be allowed only
within fixed hours, say from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., so that
during the greater part of the day the place might be in
a condition of tolerable freedom from nuisance.

" Of course the details of such regulations require to
be adapted very carefully to each other, and to the ne-
cessities of the trade. And perhaps your honourable
Court will refer these particulars to the consideration of
one of your committees.

" I deeply regret to apprise your honourable Court,
as an ample justification of whatever strictness you may
think it requisite to apply in -sanitary regulations, that
at the present time there is great reason to apprehend
a renewed visitation of Asiatic cholera through the
country, and I have already received official information
of the disease prevailing in an epidemic form at New-
castle-on-Tyne."
Mr. H. L. TAYLOR said that although the con-
cluding paragraph of the report rather tended to
alarm, yet he hoped that there were no sufficient
grounds to anticipate the existence of cholera in
this country, at all events in the City. The sub-
ject-matter of the report was one of the greatest
importance ; but before the Court could deal with
an evil of so great a magnitude, ample provision
must be made for slaughtering in another place.
In a few minutes some members of the Court, him-
self included, intended visiting the site of the new
market, where convenient and suitable houses
would be erected for slaughtering cattle, and when
completed, which he hoped would be at no distant
period, the Court would be in a position to take the
most efficient measures to get rid of the nuisance com-
plained of in the report. He thought it of great im-
portance, with a view of mitigating the existing evil,
that registered owners of houses who allowed non-
registered owners and others to slaughter in them
should be made amenable to the law, as suggested
by the medical officer.
Mr. ELLIoTT said that, in his judgment, the
whole city of London ought to be grateful to Mr.
t
Simon for his very able report, and moved that it
be referred to the General Purposes Committee, to
consider the best means of carrying out e excel-
h
lent recommendations contained in it.

The motion having been seconded-by Mr. Deputy
CIIRISTIE, was carried unanimously.
It was unanimously decided that Gracechurch-
street should be paved with wood, under Mr.
catrey'g patents after Which the Court adjourned.

August 11, orders that "from this day, and through the
whole of December of the present year, no customs'
duty shall be levied upon the importation into our royal
dominions beyond or within the Straits, of wheat, bar-
ley, oats, maize, pulse and flour, the produce of foreign
countries." These facts and precautionary measures, if
not signals of alarm, are at least symptoms of anxiety.
The state of the money market is as unsatisfactory as
the state of the corn market. In the face of unprece-
dented importations of gold, derived from newly-disco-
vered mines, the Bank, alarmed at the drain on its bul-
lion, has been compelled to check it by raising discounts.
About this period last year it held in its cellars
21,852,000/. ; it now holds only 16,962,000/. ; the differ-
ence being 4,890,0001. On the 24th App, 1852, the rate
of discount was two per cent. On the Bth January,
1853, it was raised to two-and-a-half, and on the 22d
of the same month, to three per cent. On the 4th June
it rose to 3/ per cent., and on the Ist September to four
per cent. Thus it appears that in the short period of
15 months the value of money, as tested by the rate of
interest, has been doubled.

Our commerce, as measured by our exports, has in-
creased at a most remarkable rate.

Value of Exports in 1832 ... £36,000,000
PP 21, 1842 ... ... 47,000,000
PP„
1852 ... ... 78,000,000
This advancing movement has gone on with accelerated
velocity during the first six months of the present
year. As compared with the first six months of
the year 1852, there is an increase of ten millions, and
should this continue in an equal ratio to the close of the
year, then the aggregate exports of the present year
will reach the amount of 98,000,0001. In the twenty
years from 1832 to 1352, this commerce has been doubled,
nor is there any reason, under real free trade, why this
prosperity should not progress even more rapidly and
more extensively. As we enrich our neighbours we en- 1
rich ourselves, for if they are not in a condition to pur-
chase, all our efforts to sell must be vain. David Hume,
in his essay on the " Jealousy of Trade," clearly saw
this truth, concealed from the statesmen of the age in
which he lived, who upheld the prohibitory system in
the hope of becoming wealthy by impoverishing those
who were separated from them by rivers, mountains,
and oceans.

"Were such narrow and malignant politics," says
Hume, " to meet with success, we should reduce all our
neighbouring nations to the same state of sloth and
ignorance that prevails in Morocco and the coast of
Barbary. But what would be the consequence ? They
could send us no commodities ; they could take none
from us ; our domestic commerce itself would languish
from want of emulation, example, and instruction, and
we ourselves should soon fall into the same abject con-
dition to which we had reduced them. I shall therefore
venture to acknowledge, not only as a man, but as a
British subject, that I pray for the flourishing condition
of Germany, Spain, Italy, even of France itself. I am,
at least, certain that Great Britain and all those nations
would flourish more did their sovereigns and ministers
adopt such enlarged and benevolent sentiments towards
each other."

The sentiments or doctrines of David Hume are now
incorporated to a great extent in British legislation, and
we behold the results in the increased exports to which
we have referred. It is equally certain that our home
trade has also been prodigiously enlarged under our
more liberal policy ; but something more is required
than free ports to secure the expansion and uninter-
rupted course of prosperity of which we are tasting the
first fruits. Scarce and dear money will destroy all our
hopes, and this instrument of exchange is perfectly under
our control, albeit we have no control over harvests. On
the subject of currency we wish to call attention to
some remarks made by the City editor of the Times in
reference to the last rise in the rate of discounts. After
assigning a variety of reasons, suggested by a fertile
imagination, for the drain of bullion, he decides that the
inconvenience will only be temporary ; but we are bound
to give his own words, because, in some quarters, the
writer is looked upon as an authority :
" Under all circumstances, therefore, the conclusion is
evident, that the position of the country is safe in every
way, and that at no distant period a decided and steady
reaction from the existing condition of the money-mar-
ket is to be looked for. But this safety, and the early
prospect of greater ease, can be rendered certain only by
a rigorous adherence on the part of the Bank to the prin-
ciple of letting the currency contract with the efflux of
bullion, so as to increase the value of the capital which
is being extracted from us, until the inducement for the
drain shall be terminated by its becoming dearer here
than in other quarters. It may be hoped that the step
taken to-day will finally answer that purpose, but ano-
ther month must at least elapse, so as to admit of the
harvest question being entirely settled, before any confi-
dent view can be arrived at, and no doubt is felt that, if
the result desired should not speedily be attained a fur-
ther advance will be adopted without hesitation."
There is also another passage that must be extracted,
that we may have a complete view of his financial philo-
sophy :
"At the same time the call for extra circulation ren-
dered necessary by the higher prices of goods can be
continued only if the rise should go on, and, as it has
already obviously been beyond what can be accounted
for by the influence of the gold discoveries, there would
be no reason to suppose that this will be the case, even
if it were not rendered impossible by the present move-
ment of the Bank of England."
It is very evident that the writer of these opinions
has drawn his inspiration from the teaching of
Lord Overstone, whose pernicious errors, embodied
in the act of 1844, highly aggravated, if they did not
wholly cause, the panic of 1847, and which, ere this,
would have strangled the principle of free-trade had
not California and Australia come to the rescue. We
are told, in the first extract, that the bank must con-
tract the currency with the efflux of bullion, " so as to
increase the value of the capital extracted from us."
Here capital is used in a false and exclusive sense, being
limited to gold, without considering all other commodi-
ties, of which gold is the most contemptible in the eyo
of reason, though artificially exalted above all others by
an usurious and pawnbrokering legislation. To increase
the value of gold is to lower the value of all other goods,
so to maintain an absurd and spoliating system the pro-
perty of all producers is to be arbitrarily depreciated.
There is no mistaking this interpretation of the language
of the writer ; for in the closing paragraph of the second
extract it is avowed that a rise in prices " is rendered
impossible by the present movement of the Bank of
England ;" and at the end of the first paragraph that
"if the result desired should not be speedily attained, a,
further advance will be adopted without hesitation.'
Now the practical result of these tactics is to lower
prices, the consequence of which is to take away the
motives to production, and therefore to restrict trade,
both foreign and domestic. All this evil is to be in-
flicted to retain bullion in the Bank of England, and
forcibly uphold a system concocted by cunning, and as-
sented to by ignorance.
The working classes have lately enjoyed, and are still
enjoying, constant employment and remunerating wages.
How will this rise in discounts, threatened to be in-
creased, affect their interests ? When money is abund-
ant and cheap, the class of employers extend their busi-
ness, and of course require more hands, but when money
becomes scarce and dear, they contract their business
and dismiss their workmen. To the class of employers
money is a tool with which they work ; but when the
tool becomes more and snore expensive, they are
compelled to discontinue their operations. Now we
have seen that the value of money has been doubled
in fifteen months, therefore the lenders of the tools
have doubled their incomes, for they_ live upon interest
charged for the use of the tool. This tool they call
capital ; and though they have not the audacity of de-
nying, in plain terms, that houses, acres, ships,
rail-
roads, docks, and commodities in general, are capital,
yet, by using language in a false and deceiving sense,
they have duped large masses of the people into the be-
lief that gold money, the article in which themselves
deal, is, in a special and superior sense, capital par ex-
cellence ; so of old, stupidity worshipped the golden
calf, and the priests looked on, laughed, and fattened.
And, in later times, Demetrius persuaded other dupes
to exclaim, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians," by say-
ing to them, "Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have
our wealth ;" while the town-clerk told the people,
"that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the
great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down
from Jupiter." In this enlightened City of London a
similar superstition prevails, for it worships the image
which Mr. Huskisson set up, and which Mr. Jones
Lloyd polished into seductive attractiveness. There is

not a merchant in the City who does not experience a
secret tremor when he reads in the Bank returns that
the bullion is disappearing, and yet he knows that the
value of the bullion, when at its maximum, is an abso-
lutely insignificant fraction compared with the aggre-
gate value of commodities which form the material
wealth of the country. However, we are said to be
poor when we part with a few millions of gold, al-
though rich in all other things ; besides that, when we
do part with it, we receive an equivalent in exchange,
either in wheat or wine, tallow or wool.
This superstition having sunk deep into the commer-
cial mind, every nerve is strained to get back from fo-
reigners these cherished idols, called sovereigns• The
Bank aim its disogute, and the private bankers and

1/Z-2-GZ ZI;--/
eg7Th
bill-brokers do the same. Money beeom hat is called
in the vulgar slang of the Stock Exchange "tight,"
which really means that usury is putting its sickle into
the harvest and plundering industry of its fair reward ;
goods become cheap ; that is, more goods must be given
to the same quantity of money than were given before
the discount was raised ; and when this happens wages
must decline, for what employer can continue to give
much money for making goods which he must sell for
little money? If, however, he does keep up the rate of
wages, then he must surrender his fair share of profits.
These are the inevitable results of the system. But
while the productive classes lose, the monied classes
gain, for interest rises as wages and profits decline. Such
is the nationals of turning the foreign exchanges in our
favour, and the substantiality of a favourable!exchange is
• the being paid in gold instead of being paid in goods.
There is another feature in these transactions which
ought not to pass unnoticed. Russia and Germany, from
whom we receive our chief supplies of foreign corn, have
made no liberal concessions to us in a spirit of recipro-
city ; they now manufacture for themselves on an ex-
tended scale, and will only take, speaking generally, gold
for wheat, so that the drain from those quarters will not
be readily stopped in times of scarcity. But the whole
subject merits a more comprehensive survey. Taking
the whole world as a market, England sells more goods
than it buys, so that the balance of trade is really in
its favour at all times, and if every transaction were im-
mediately and finally adjusted, the balance of gold
would always be in its favour ; but this is not the case,
for England gives credit to the whole world, and receives
none ; it is in this stage of advances that she feels the
drain, but it is one of time only, for in due season the
flood tide will restore what the ebb tide has carried
away. In the interval, however, danger presses and the
crash comes. Now, this is what is called undue specu-
lation, or over-trading—a vague expression, which re-
quires a careful scrutiny and a rigid examination. There
are clearly two senses in which it may be understood, as
we interpret the word " over ;" it may be over the wants
of consumers, in which case the producers are clearly to
blame, and the remedy is in their own hands ; or it may
be over the means of the Bank to take up its notes in
gold ; but this is not a case of over-production or over-
trading, but most clearly one of the under production of
the legal tender instrument of exchange. To suppose
that trade can be steady, while the sole instrument by
which it can be carried on is in a state of violent fluc-
tuation, is ridiculous ; or to suppose that it can continu-
ously expand, unless the instrument proportionately ex-
pands, is equally ridiculous. We have seen that our
exports in 1832 were 36,000,00G/4 that in 1852 they
were 78,000,0001.; and that we may expect them this
year to reach 98,000,000[. One of the causes of this
great increase is clearly the Californian and Australian
discovery, which enabled the Bank to feed the markets
with additional notes. We do not say it was the sole
cause, but it had its power in conjunction with the adop-
tion of freer principles of commerce. That discovery
enlarged the metalhe basis of the currency, and
enabled it to sustain a wider and a loftier superstruc-
ture. Money is to trade what water is to ships, and
as the depth of the river must increase with the
tonnage of the vessel to prevent its being stranded, so
must money be augmented with the magnitude of trade.
We hold this proposition to be universally true, though
perfectly aware that velocity of circulation may in some
cases compensate for contraction of volume ; but that
speciality or exception is beyond the main point we are
now desirous of urging.
It has been shown that trade has increased in a greater
proportionate ratio than the supplies of gold ; that com-
epxaporinrgtsoourf cloBm32manandd overthe exportsthe of 42
preciouslBme,t a
wl s e
h withad then no
greater monied facilities in the latter year than in the
former ; that an impediment has already interposed
itself, which may fix our exports at about eighty millions,
while they have a tendency to rise indefinitely, as other
nations and our own colonies improve their industry, and
increase their exchangeable wealth ; the main question
therefore is, how can this impediment be removed ? We
answer, by putting gold at its market price, and estab-
lishing a monetary system of small Exchequer-bills for
the whole of our internal trade. Thus we should econo-
mise the use of bullion ; it would only have one func-
tion to discharge instead of two, and the home trade
would not be periodically deranged to get back gold
from the foreigner. We should hear no more of the
fallacies of over-production and over-trading ; the rate
of interest would be nearly uniform ; panics never could
occur ; the condition of all classes would continuously
improve. It appears very evident that discounts must
again be raised to keep the bank secure, for under the
Act of 1844 every commercial interest is held subordi-
nate to the possession of gold ; and as the Bank Charter
expires next year, merchants and traders should at once
take into consideration the evils of the system as demon-
strated by past panics, in order to agree upon an effi-
cient remedy.

ALADDIN.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE-
MENT OF SCIENCE.

HULL, TUESDAY.

The adjourned general committee meeting was held
yesterday afternoon, after the dispatch of our parcel.
The minutes of the preceding meeting having been read
and confirmed, and signed by the president, it was an-
nounced that invitations had been received from Liver-
pool, Glasgow, Leeds, Brighton, and Gloucester.
Professor PHILLIPS asked if any other gentleman had
the name of any other town which he was authorised to
add to the list.

Professor STEVELLY, on looking round the room, did
not see Professor Allman present, and therefore repeated
the invitation with which that gentleman was charged
from the city of Dublin, which was presented last year
at BelfAst.

Dr. DICKINSON, president of the Liverpool Literary
and Philoiophical Society, and chairman of a meeting
formed cf deputations from the various literary and
scientific societies in that town, appeared to present of-
ficially the invitations of those bodies to visit Liverpool
next year.

The invitation to visit Liverpool was supported by Mr.
Yates (the representative of the Mayor and Corporation of
Liverpool), and by Dr. Hume, who stated that that town
was about to expend a considerable sum of money in the
erection of a library and museum, open free to all the
world. (Cheers.) The invitation to visit Glasgow was
supported by Mr. Liddell, of that city, by Dr. Walker
Arnott, the representative 'of the Literary and Philoso-
phical Society of Glasgow, and by Mr. Smith, of Jor-
dan Hill. Mr. Ward, of Leeds, brought forward an
invitation for the association to meet at Leeds in 1856,
by which time the new Town-hall would be completed.
A letter, renewing the invitation from Brighton, was
next read. Mr. Gassiot urged the claims of Gloucester,
in the absence of any deputation from that city. He
was supported by Dr. Daubeny, H. E. Strickland, Esq.,
and R. Groves, Esq., but he ultimately withdrew the
invitation on the grounds that he had no means of
satisfying the officers of the. association as to what ac-
commodation there was for, the association in the event
of its accepting the invitation. James Haywood and
Dr. Scoresby urged very strongly the claims of Liver-
pool, and it was agreed on that the next meeting of
the association should be held in Liverpool in the
latter part of August or beginning of September, 1854,
the exact date to be fixed by the council.
On the motion of Colonel SABINE, the Earl of Har-
rowby was elected president for the Liverpool meeting.
Lord Wrottesley, Sir Philip Egerton, Dr. Hewell, Pro-
fessor Owen, Mr. Lassen, and Mr. J. B. Yates were
appointed vice-presidents. Mr. Dickinson and Dr.
Thompson were appointed local secretaries for the next
meeting, and Mr. Robert McAndrew treasurer.
The PRESIDENT then aunouuced that Dr. Royle, the
late general secretary, bad resigned his office, and moved
a vote of thanks to him, which was carried.
Colonel Sabine was, with his consent, appointed ge-
neral secretary. Professor Phillips was re-appointed
assistant-general secretary, amidst great cheering ; and
Mr. John Taylor, general treasurer. The council for
the ensuing year was then appointed, and the committee
adjourned until Wednesday afternoon.
This (Tuesday) morning the various sections sat for
the last time in Hull.

SECTION A.-MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
Professor Helmholtz read his paper on the mixture of
homogeneous colours. Dr. Price, on a new photometer.
William Lawton, Esq., meteorological observations at
Hull. J. K. Watts, Esq., on parbelion observed at St .
Ives. The Rev. Thomas Rankin, meteorological sum-
mary for 1852, of observations at Huggate, Yorkshire ;
also on the continuation and the country of the thunder
and rain storm, which commenced in Herefordshire on
September 4, and terminated in the Yorkshire Wolds,
on September 5, 1852 ; and a notice of a terrific
thunder cloud on the Wolds, September 26, 1852. Dr.
Lee communicated suggestions on medical meteorology,
by Mr. James Day, hydrographer. Papers were also
read by George Rennie, Esq., C.E., on the combined
steam and ether engine ; by Cornelius Varley, Esq., on
his graphic telescope ; by .the_ Rev. Dr. Scoresby, on
deep-sea soundings and errors therein from strata cur-
rents, with suggestions for their investigation. By Dr.
Built, on a submarine current measurer ; also on a new
hygrometer and mountain sympienometer, and o.!1 s,
rcnarkable hail storm in India. William Monday,n,y,
Esq., exhibited and described a model of a self-registering
thermometer.

SECTION B.—CHEMICAL SCIENCZ.
Professor Johnson, on the causes, physical and che-
mical, of diversities of soil. W. H. Walenn, Esq., C.E.,
described some new forms of galvanic battery, by M.
Kukler, of Vienna. Professor Hodges, M.D., made a
report on the gases evolved in steeping flax, and on the
composition and economy of the flax plant. George
Lowe, Esq., C.E., made some remarks on the advan-
tages arising from the purification of coal gas, by the
application of water in an instrument called " the
scrubber."

SECTION C.-GEOLOGY.
John Calvert, Esq., read a remarkably interesting
paper on the production of gold in the British Islands.
SECTION D.-ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.
In this section several papers were disposed, of.
SECTION E.-GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY.
Lieut.-General Jechmus, Notes on a journey to the
Balkan or Haemus, with maps of
E the routes of Darius,
Alexander, and Diebitch ;G. arle, Esq., F.R.A.S.,
on the progress of disccvery in the western portion of
New Guinea from 1828 to 1852 ; Lynch Kerr, Esq., on
Vie tombs of Eziekel, and the country to the west of the
Euphrates ; R. W. Plante, Esq., on a journey to St.
Lucia bay, and the adjacent country in S. E. Africa ;
Ernest Haugh, Esq., on a proposed expedition to ascend
the Victoria and descend the Albert in N Australia ;
the Rev. A. W. Anson, on the Gha language,
W. Af •
Dr. William Freund, on the
Romanish- languagesirca
of the
Tyrol and Switzerland
; A. Petermann, Esq., on Cen-
tral Australia.

SECTION r.-6TATISTICK.
F. G. P. Nelson, Esq., an analytical view of railway
accidents in this country and on the continent of Pl`
rope in the twelve yew, 1840-1852.