The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-30 00:00:00

THE SUN

wanting to the effect that that great man had been I
arrested by the clouds of Cossacks now infesting and
ravaging those dominions. Yet, in spite of these
sinister reports, which stand in need of every possible
corroboration, we are still sanguine that the Chief of
the Hungarians will evade the grasp of his bitter and
unrelenting enemies, and that before many weeks
have elapsed he may stand upon the shores of this
land of freedom—the guest as well •as the admiration
of England. Then into his hands we may pour the
guerdon of an heroic and unsullied patriotism, the
spontaneous evidence of the homage and sympathy of
Great Britain.
While day by day we are receiving the most
mournful corroboration of the disastrous intelligence
recently obtained from Hungary, we can point with
the most elevated satisfaction to a document pub-
lished in another column, a document the existence of
which we have more than once intimated—we mean
the Memorial addressed to the Prime Minister and to
the Foreign Secretary, by several members of
the Imperial Legislature. That memorial, the pro-
duction of the Noble Lord, the Earl FITZWILLIAM, ex-
presses to her Majesty's Government in eloquent terms,
and with befitting distinctness, the feelings prevalent
throughout these islands in regard to the treatment
of Hungary—feelings of horror at the atrocious
violation of so many sacred rights by the Austro-
Russian Coalition, and of mingled pain and indigna-
tion at the culpable indolence of the British Cabinet.
Elsewhere, also, in this evening's impression of our
journal, will ibe found a very simple and logical
exposure of one of the greatest humbugs in this age
of delusion—to wit, the well•known squad of
Utopians who are at present disporting themselves
in the French capital, under the conciliatory
title of the Peace Congress. The frivolity of
their arguments, the utter and preposterous
_ _

impracticability of their schemes, and the monstrous
and evil consequences which have followed, from a
recent experiment of their principles, are therein
clearly and honestly particularise& In truth, it
requires no very elaborate effort at persuasion to
demonstrate to the comprehension of any sane man
that the much eulogised non-intervention system (the
nostrum or panacea of these benevolent, but very short-
sighted enthusiasts) has recently tarnished the repu-
tation of England, while it has desolated Hungary
with carnage, and rapine, and arson, and murder, and
bombardment, leaving its fields to be ravaged by bar-
barians, its fairest cities to be given up to pillage and
conflagration, its women to be deflowered, its men to
be butchered, and its holiest rights to be trampled
down under the heel of an accursed Despotism. Such
are the infamous results of that mawkish sentimentality
whose predictions are nothing less than the ravings of
a delirium arising out of the fever of a diseased phi-
lanthropy.

The report of the Registrar-General on the state
of the health of London during the week states that
7,470 lives have been destroyed in London alone
fro.n cholera since the commencement of the
epidemic, and the
_Registrar very justly adds, that
while the present epedemic has excited some talk and
terror, the efforts which have hitherto been employed
to combat it look feeble and insignificant when con-
trasted with the vast means and agency which are
brought to bear by the nation in other fields for the
protection of life and property.
We have Sanitary Commissioners and Commis-
sioners of Sewers, each with a well-paid staff of

officials at their command, and when we endeavour to
ascertain what they have done to arrest the progress
of cholera by removing its causes, we find that
with the exception of the adoption of that very ques-
tionable measure, the flushing of the sewers, by which
their filthy and putrid contents have been disturbed
and diffused, and the Thames polluted and rendered a
medium for the propagation of contagion, as any one
who travels on it may satisfy himself, by the evidence
of his own nostrils, these two Boards of Commis- i
sioners have done nothing. The Commissioners of
Sewers have indeed stated their readiness to receive
any plans which may be sent in for the effec-
tual drainage of London, but they are too much
occupied with the squabbles of Mr. CIIADWICK
and Mr. LEslaz to do more than " receive" plans
which appear to be treated by them some-
what after the fashion in which petitions are
treated by Parliament. Among the various plans
which have been thus ordered to be laid on the table,

two have more especially excited the attention of en-
gineers, scientific men, and the public, viz., that of
Mr. W. YATES FREEBOBY and that of Mr. RICHARD
DOVER. Mr. FREERODY, in his letter to the Com-
missioners, thus proceeds to state the objects which he
proppses to effect. He says—
" The first plan is to obtain an efficient supply of
water—sufficient to cleanse at any given time all the
sewers under your control, and constantly afterwards to
flow in sufficient volume to prevent accumulations therein
of noisome materials or other obstructions.
" The other design is to flush that part of the channel
of the River Thames between Batters, a and Greenwich,
so as to obviate along its course the deposit of offensive
matter—a measure, I presume, necessary to be- adopted,
in the event of your arriving at the determination that
the River Thames is still the best practicable out-tall for
the drainage of so vast a system as the one now under
your care and control."
- - - - - -

-
Having explained the method which he proposes to
adopt for the purpose of obtaining an efficient supply
of water, Mr. FREBBODY proceeds as follows :
" Should you, after mature consideration, elect to con-
tinue the drainage of the metropolitan sewers to the
valley of the Thames, I have next to direct your atten-
tion to the second proposal I desire to bring under your
notice, viz , to flush that part of the channel of the M!. AN
Thames between Battersea and Greenwich.. I purpose
to effect this by placing across the river, at a point be-
tween Battersea and Wandsworth, a solid dam of
masonry, pierced by seven locks. The lock-gates may,
very generally, be kept open, and the tidal and downfal
currents allowed to pass unobstructed ; but in process
of time, or more especially in dry seasons, the river
throughout its populous vicinity —from Battersea to
Greenwich—may, trom its continuing to be the out-fall
of above 140 sewers, have a considerable quantity of soft
foetid matter deposited in its course that would need re-
moval ; and, at present, there is no agency under your
control that will effectively perform that duty. To in-

quire your power to erect such a work is unimportant
here ; the sewers, as at present constituted, have a ten-
dency to pollute the river, and to cause obstructions in
its channel that may become insalubrious. I will, there-
fore, assume that the required authority to ameliorate
the conditions of those evils will be intrusted to your
Commission when found requisite.
" Were these locks constructed, their action when em-
pl.)yed would be as follows:—During the flow of the tid)
the gates would all remain cpen until high water,
and the tidal waters would, as usual, run up to Tedding-
ton Lock, with the varied heights due to ordinary causes.
From the time of high water the gates (except for pass-
ing vessels) would remain closed for about four hours of
the six and a half hours (which is about the duration) of
an ordinary ebb tide. By this means the channel of the
river, for a length of twelve miles five furlongs, would be-
come one vast lock-poo!, of an average width of 154
yards, and assuming a medium tidal lift of only 6 feet over
the entire distance, it would give 185,081,520 cubic feet
of water, to be passed along the river from Battersea to
Greenwich, and probably below, in a given time, and
with a controllable velocity. The water so conserved
would by this means be brought into use at a period
when most needed fur purposes of salubrity, viz., during
the two hours preceding the time of low water, and any
inconvenience caused thereby to navigation could not
exceed what is now often experienced in rainy seasons
(when the whole valley of the river between Oxford and
Teddington is flooded) the sluice area so governing the
rate of current as never to permit it to exceed the velo-
city generally consequent on ordinary freshes.
"in order to preserve the sides of the river from de-
posits of filthy material, principally those sites varied
almost diurnally, between high and low water marks,
many of the minor sewer out-falls should be united into
one common channel, and conducted downwards to a con-
venient discharge point, by drains of the usual construc-
tion, or by cast-iron tubes. It is also very important
that greater care should be taken with that part of the
various out-fall sewers necessarily left open on the site
nearest to low-water marks. These outlets should all
be properly graduated and proportioned, so as to avoid
deposit near that spot, and to retain the full benefit of
the relative gravity due to the force of flush obtainable,
the desideratum being to carry the sewer contents as far
into mid-stream as possible."
There is one great and to our minds insuperable
objection to this plan, it still makes the Thames the
receptacle for all the filthy and corrupted sewage of
the metropolis, thus turning it into a Purveyor of
infection to all who live upon its banks. The plan
of Mr. DOVER, as explained in his recently pub-
lished pamphlet,* and in his letter to the Commis-
sioners of Sewers, is not open to this objection, and
while it maintains the Thames in a state of compara-
tive purity, it turns the sewage to profitable account,
and that by a simple
la and
plan
in he
the, pamphlet
process .t Mr.
whichD oavl
allu-
sion a
o
thus explains his p
has
tis pa
alreadyrctabic been
for h
enm
tadee t--
"It hames to carry with it
health instead of sickness! and in doing so to combine
with vast national pecuniary gains repeal of the sewer-
rates!! This is by intercepting the sewage at the exit

* " The Public Health, with National Pecuniary Gain,
versus Pestilential Disease and Increased Taxation." '

of each sewer, and, with anti-contagions and innoxions
de•putrefying chemical agents, fixing and precipitating
the awmuniacal and other valuable pr,)pertit.s th,rsie,
and then converting the residuum into a cheap portable
guano or manure, of extremely fertilizing powers, for
agricultural and horticultural purposes, when spread
upon or drilled into the ground. It was also repre-
sented that my system of operation does not require the
lowest of any of the present levels [at low water mark]
to be raised; on the contrary, it will be more advanta-
geous to me to have the wells ten or even twenty feet
below the lowest of the present levels of sewers in
Londcn. . _ .

"It is proved beyond all doubt that a disinfecting
agent is known, by which sewage can be converted into
guana, to ' be employed for the production of food,' and
that by the aid of this agent all sewage can be rendered
a source of profit to the Government, the manufacturers
of guana, the farmers, the agricultural population, and,
in tact, to the whole community. Also that the sewage
of London (and every other city and town) can be con-
verted into guana, with sanitary as well as pecuniary

advantage.
" A very large revenue and gain can accrue to the
Government, and this city in particular, and to the
community in general, by the conversion of the sewage
of this vast metropolis into guana; and the millions
sterling per annum of value [in sewage] now wasted so
uselessly down the Thames, it has been proved practi-
cally need be wasted no longer.
" The agent will de-putrify the sewage, or any mat-
ters commonly passing through the sewers, emitting
putrid or rotten smell or scent, by fixing and precipi-
tating the valuable fertilizing properties, whereby they
are preserved and rendered available for agriculture or
horticulture when spread upon or drilled into the ground.
By itself, the residuum, or solid of the sewage, will net
pay; whereas, by being disinfected and converted into
guana, it can produce a very large revenue to the Go-
vernment, besides a very large profit to the manufac-
turers, and be sold to the agricultural community at little
more than half the price of the Peruvian."
But this is not all the advantage which Mr. Dovait
proposes to accomplish :
" After the sewage is disinfected, and the solid preci-
pitated, ' the supernatant water' is available and of value
tor sundry purposes [bleaching, washing, and purifying
floors and rooms in houses, or linen and clothes, used in
cases of typhus or other fevers, or where cholera is, or
may have been raging; also for washing slaughter-
houses, Stc.]"
Nay, this supernatant water becomes a most power.
ful agent for the cleansing and disinfecting of
sewers during the remainder of its course, for on being
returned into the sewer it deprives completely the
contents of the sewer of smell, de-putrefying them in
fact, and rendering them innocuous. Mr. DovEz thus

continues :
" The works requisite for taking up and disinfecting
the sewage are neither complex nor large, and can be
established at the exit of each sewer into the Thames,
or in any other part of London more convenient! The
sewage to be pumped up by steam-power into tanks or
vats averaging from one to three thousand gallons each,
and disinfecting progressively whilst filling, as the agent
fixes and precipitates all the matters that will putrefy
(and valuable therefore as fertilizers), leaving the super-
natant water clear, and free from offensive smell. By
the time the tank is full, its contents will be ready for
filtering a r Egyptien. The residuum is then removed
for draining upon the premises [if there is sufficient
space], or run into barges for transport to other pre-
mises, up or down the river. Thus all the offensive and
putrid or putrefying matters now running disadvanta-
geously and wastefully, out of London into the Thames,
would be made available for agricultural and horticul-
tural purposes, and to national profit."
We were present a few days ago at some experi-
ments which were performed for the purpose of
testing the merits of Mr. DOVER'S plan, and the result
of those experiments was most satisfactory. A bucket
full of sewage was taken from the mouth of one of the
common sewers as it was emptying itself into the
Thames at low water. The effluvia proceeding from
this was, as may be imagined, most offensive. The
sewage having been placed in a glass receptacle, had
poured into it the disinfecting agent ; in the space
of a few minutes the process of de-putrefaction had
taken place—the manna had been precipitated and the
supernatant fluid was perfectly clear and quite free
from any disagreeable smell. It exhaled a slightly
acid odour, arising from the fact of its retaining a
sufficient portion of the disinfecting agent in solution
to enable it in its turn to act to a certain extent as a
deodoriser and deputrefier. The proposal of Mr.
DOVER appears to us worthy of every attention; it is
cheap, simple, efficacious, and will preserve the
Thames from pollution.
But these plans only go to remedy one portion, and
that the smallest, of the evil under which we are la-
bouring. What is to be done in cases where there
are no sewers P Neither of these plans would be of
any avail in such cases as the following, which we
quote from the Registrar-General's report as--
" On the 9th August a stockbroker died at No. 12,
Albion-terrace, Wandsworth-road; a widow lady and an
old dementia servant at No. 6; in the five preceding
days in the same terrace the daughter of a grocer, a
child of five years of age, had died at No. 1; the widow
of a coach proprietor and a commercial clerk, at No. 2;
a gentleman's widow at No. 3; a surgeon's daughter at
No. 4; a spinster of 41 at No. 5; the wife of a Dissent-
ing minister, his mother, a widow lady, and a servant at
No. 6; a young woman of 21 at No. 10; a gentleman at
No. 12, where the stockbroker died; a commercial clerk
and a young woman of 19 at No. 13, where a young
woman also died on July 28th; a gentleman's wife at No.
14, who had seen her daughter die there the day before.
The nineteen persons died of cholera; many of the in-
habitants of the terrace were dispersed; and the deaths
of several have been registered elsewhere. 'lt appears,'
says the registrar, Mr. Frost, that at No. 13, inhabited
by Mr. Biddle, where the first death occurred, and
where two deaths were afterwards registered, the refuse
of the house had been allowed to accumulate in one of
the vaults (which is a very large one) for about two
years, and when removed last week the stench was
almost intolerable, there being about two feet of wet
soil filled with maggots. The drains had also burst,
overflowed into the tank, and impregnated the water
with which the houses were supplied. On the back
ground, in the distance, was an open ditch, into which
nearly the whole of the soil of Clapham runs.' "
We cordially concur in the eloquent denunciations
of the Registrar-General against the murderous
carelessness with which the contents of Mr. BIDDLE'a
cellars were suffered to accumulate; but how can it be
expected that private individuals will go to the expense
of erecting sewers and drains, when the Government
of the country sets them the example of leaving thi
refuse and drainage water of one of the largest public
establishments in the neighbourhood of the metropolis
to accumulate in cesspools, forming centres for tie
diffusion of poisonous miasma, becoming, in short, hot-
beds for cholera.? Our readers will scarcely believe
that Woolwich, with its enormous Government esta-
blishments, and its densely crowded population, is the
greater pirtion of it undrained to this very
Lour, and that for the draining of the small portion
of it, in which sewers have been recently built, the
public is indebted not to the Government, not to the
exertions of the inhabitants of Woolwich themselves,
but to the North Kent Railway Company, at whose
expense the sewers have been erected, and more es-
' ecially to Mr. M‘Gneeioß, the excellent and able
Chairman of the company, who has added to the
many obligations which he has conferred on thi
public by his indefatigable and praiseworthy exer-
tions in this matter of the Woolwich drainage. The
company, in carrying on the works of their line
in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, found that
they were constantly breaking into the cess-
pools, in which the filth of 'Woolwich
was collected, and the overflow from which at one
time appeared likely to drown their works in a sea of
corruption. Mr. ArGREGOB, with his wonted energy
and decision, immediately undertook the substitution
of a proper system of drainage, and the people of
Woolwich are indebted for the removal of these re-
servoirs of pestilence, not to the Government, not to
the Sanitary Commissioners, not to the Sewers Com-
missioners, but to the extension of the railway system.
It is one, and that not the least of the advantages
of the extension of railways, that they are invariably
accompanied by the introduction of an efficient system
of drainage ; and the public will find that, probably
after all, the only really effective sanitary board is a
board of railway directors. And this case proves how
much better it is to trust to private enterprise for the
accomplishment of great useful public works, than to
that most inefficient, most expensive, and most ob-
structive of all contrivances—a public board of paid
Commissioners.

Is there never to be an end to clerical vagaries ?
Scarcely has the public mind recovered from the
shock occasioned by the outrage upon decency per-
petrated by the torturer of the unfortunate MARY
BALL, when a Reverend Gentleman, in the centre of
the metropolis, exhibits the most heartless features of
intolerance by refusing to administer the rites of
Christian burial to a youth who met his death by
falling from a housetop whilst engaged, as it is sup-
posed, in a burglarious attempt.
In the case of the chaplain of the
Coventry gaol the revolting conduct of that
functionary was followed by his virtual dis-
missal from his situation by the visiting jus-
tices, and Sir GEORGE GREY has very properly
signified to those gentlemen his entire concurrence in
the course pursued by them, namely, the immediate