The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-24 00:00:00

AFORESAID.

13, Gallialt-place,-Iguihnvieimn
nldB4lofi.nd
subject however
DEAR SIR,—I understood when I saw you that Mr.
Walker was willing to take down all the iron work from
the mouth of the Fleet Sewer ; but in consequence of
a letter I received this morning,,
that he much wishes to give the air flaps a winter's
trial. As far as regards the Holborn and Finsbury
15t:he appa-
ratus
District,
what I
mcaanysbeee
deemedno objection
a fa i
rto h i his
trial,
to the condition,that the Bridge Committee shah engage
to remove any obstruction or deposit, should any such
some other mode might
be caused, and to make good such damage as may arise
prevent the nuisance from the apparatus being fixed. I think it really would
be harsh to prevent a trial on these terms, particularly
as so much money has been expended ; and the effect
would be seen, and if found not to be such as is ca.
be
e petted
adopted by t
oM
remove
com-
plained of.
flap
in those •
Mr. Walker will place ll portions of the
mouth of the sewer, which was intended to close en-
tirely, if he be allowed to give. the
. matter a trial.
mNoVvealokrer,
When you report to your Commissioners you can read
my letter to them. I have sent to-day as lam leaving
town for a short time.
'
I beg to remain, dear Sir, your 's respectfully,
JOHN ROE.

At a Public Meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers
of the City of London and. Liberties thereof, in the
Guildhall of the said City, on Tuesday, July the
14th, 1840 :
The Clerk laid before the Court the following letter,
which was read in these
directed by the Com-
missioners :
Office of Sewers', Hatton Garden, July 10, 1840
SIR—In reference to your letter of the 16th ultimo,.
inclosing copies of correspondence on the subject of
Mr. Walker's proposition on behalf of the Blackfriars
Bridge Committee, relative to the outlet of the 'River
Fleet into the Thames, „,, are di
of Sewers for the Holborn and Finsbury divi-
sions, Middlesex, to acquaint you, for the information of
the Commissioners of Sewers for the city of London,
that they decline giving an opinion on the plan pro-
posed, and that they rely upon the Commissioners of
Sewers for the City district, preserving and securing at
ail times a free passage for the waters of the River
Fleet into the Thames.
We arc, Sir, your obedient servants,
STABLE AND LUSH.
Joseph Daw, Jun., Esq., Clerk to the Commissioners of
Sewers of the City of London.

At a Public Meeting of the_Cornrnissioners of Sewers
of the City of London tuld Liberties thereof, in the

Of all the sewers that contribute towards the
above certainly very undesirable ends, the Fleet
Sewer is probably the greatest and most powerful.
Formed in the channel of what was originally the
River Fleet, it receives the drainage of the vast popu-
lation east and west of it, extending on the north of
Holborn to beyond Battle-bridge, with the surrounding
district, perhaps the most densely-peopled of the me-
tropolis, including the neighbourhood of Smithfield
with the numerous slaughter-houses round it. Its
discharge is close to the foot of Blackfriars Bridge, a
principal thoroughfare and principal point of commu-
nication with the water, and where the tide ebbs
nearly 100 yards from the shore. Passengers along
the bridge or upon the water need not, at the proper
time of tide, to have looked for the place, the smell
was sufficieut for them ; but if they had occasion for
a nearer approach, they could scarce avoid seeing the
shore rendered black by the decayed animal and
vegetable matter, or the carsases of dead animals
in the different stages of putrefaction. In his re-
port to the Poor-law Commissioners, Mr. Apple-
ton, the medical officer, I presume, for the dis-
trict, describes this sewer and its effects in the follow.
ing terms : "In the neighbourhood of an open sewer,
a river of filth, formerly known as the Fleet Ditch,
emptying itself near Blackfriars Bridge, fever is seldom
absent." I name the above in proof of the magnitude
of the evil, which the work ordered by the Committee
of Blackfriars Bridge would, it is thought, tend to re-
medy. How that Committee had to do with the
subject may be stated in a few words.
the repairing and supporting of the bridge was re-
quired, as you are aware, partly by its decayed state,
and partly by the deepening of the river, and danger to
the foundation of the piers by the removal of old
London-bridge, which had also increased the nuisance
of the sewer by a greater exposure of the shore at low
water. The enlargement of the waterway through the
bridge, by dredting, as well as the lowering and ex-
tending of the watermen's causeways down to low-water,
became contingent works, and increased the previous
nuisance of the black mud settling under the first arch,
and upon the causeway. 'I here were constant applica-
tions or petitions to the Committee, and I was asked
to suggest a remedy ; a plan was proposed, contracted
for, and has been partly executed. I was not aware
until after the works had been nearly in their present,
state, but Unit the approval of the Commissioners of
Sewers had been given, and this appears to be a geeeral
impression, though an erroneous one.
The works are described by Mr. Kelsey as consisting
of a culvert and tide flaps affixed at the mouth of the
Fleet Sewer. I am informed that the jurisdiction of the
Commissioners does not extend to the culvert, which is
laid in the river, and which is by far the most impor-
tant part of the work. Mr. Kelsey's remarks, how-
ever, apply to both, and therefore I am called upon
to explain the culvert also.

The third objection is the stopping the discharge of
fcetid or inflammable air from the sewer. I do not appre-
bend this would be the case, even if the space above the
flaps were closed, as criginally intended. First,—Because
at low water a portion of the iron culvert is open to the
air :—and, secondly, Because the flaps are loose, so as
to open and shut by a very small force. But at present
it cannot be the case, as the space above the flaps, con
taming an area of for:y-four feet, is perfectly open.
And here also I shall be very glad to profit by Mr.
Kelsey's suggestion, and to suspend very light boards in
place of iron plates, over this space, without arguing
the principle (one worthy of his very serious attention)
whether the quantity of foetid air is not increased by
the free admission of atmospheric air ?—and whether
the closed sewers, which those of Westminster gene-
rally are, are not less offensive and less injurious, than
an open-mouthed sewer like the Fleet ? To carry the
air-admission principle to its extent, would be to make
the open ditch preferable to the common sewer ; and to
make London. which (notwithstanding its numerous
defects) is the best sewered city in the world, the worst.
In this second Report, '24th July, 1840, Mr. Kelsey
again states his objections to the culvert and the flaps,
which he illustrates by two cases of damage, or the ap-
prehension of damage—the first, by allowing (in 1777)
the water of Dowgate Sewer to be converted into a
mill power—certainly a rather extraordinary experiment
to be permitted by the Commissioners ; the second, by
the case of a storm of rain being prevented getting off,
the tide being at the time high in the river ; and the third,
by the occasional rising of the waters towards the upper
end of the Fleet Sewer. Now, if I have been under-
stood in my description of the works at the mouth of
the Fleet Se.ver, none of the cases arc at all applicable ;
and I cannot see why Mr. Kelsey should have introduced
them in his argument, because nothing is done. or in-
tended to be done, to interfere with or obstruct the
free passage of the flaod•water down the sewer or into
the river.

Mr. Kelsey also repeats his objection to the stoppage
of the discharge of fccid air from the mouth of the
sewer, and the proof of this is afforded by the complaints
of the inhabitants of Stonecutter-street, of foul air
being forced into their houses by the gullies in Shoe-
lane having had stench flaps placed in them. Now, if
Shoe-lane drain communicates with the Fleet sewer,
which 1 believe it does, this is rather an unhappy illus-
tration, as it shows what the openmouthed sewer does ;
whereas, if the sewer had been closed at the mouth
and trapped at the street gratings, there would not have ,
been a rush of air up the sewer to force the feetid air
1
into the houses ; and thus the open mouth might be
the cause of the rush of the nuisance.
Dr. thrkbeek's opinion is produced, which was, that
if stink-trips were formed in every gulley, and the air
shut in, it would become so deadly that no human being
could venture into therm This is a decided opinion
against stink-traps with closed sewers, and yet stink-traps
are now adopted in the close sewers without these
effects. In his valuable letter to the Registrar.
General, Mr. Farr, Assistant-Registrar, recommends
large well-constructed trapped sewers as one of the
means for removing the principal sources of the poi-
sonous exhalations ; indeed, I have never heard of any
sewer operation so fatal to human life as the cleansing
of the Fleet Sewer was some twenty years since. Yet
the sewer was then, as now, open next the river. But
if the air were, by confinement, to become thus so much
more
deadly, might not a current be passed through it,
teol:festeiss,tarane
thousands
named
so the
nl \
rti.
thenoKyseaalnsme
w Kelsey
ye
tan.loieren there is no occasion to descend, without
a allowing
it to rise at times into
an
idi
,d4,apini; gtea tt,i)wt htew
ah health
oinf eixBp2l(6-is,ioatindot
tghaes
other inWleBst3m3i.nstr eSewers, one
Even supposing
Mr. Kelsey to be perfectly correct, I repeat that the
air would not have been exclud ed from the Fleet, as it
isithtngeh
his
inthree,sca,
lo,sit?g, sewer I have referred to ; but
a
and the authorities he adduces,
In]glit, in the present case' warrant the inference that
he is an advocate for sewers being open at one end and
not trapped at the other, allowingtheair to blow through
them, and to escape by the gratings into the streets. I
cannot suppose this to be his general opinion. If it is,
it is distinctly opposed to my idea of the best system for
`pity sewers. and the prevention of nuisance and disease.
I.n t 1: eic,tah,sien
ko
,v. g.aitshfrNoimr: the pipes forced in by pres-
sure,that a current of
would tend todissipate the gas, and therefore de-

MR. KELSEY'S REPORT, IN REPLY TO MR WALKER.
To the Honourable the Commissioners of Sewers of
the City of London and Liberties thereof.
GENTLEMEN,—Having had the advantage of a
perusal of the Report made by Mr. Walker to the
Worshipful the Committee for conducting the reenrae
tion of B:ackfriars Bridge, as communicated ;I, your
Honourable Court on Tuesday, the Bth instant, I eery
respectfully request leave to observe, as to those points
which seem to impute that I have been guilty of making
false statements, that my authority for mentioning tho
the surveys of the Fleet Sewer by the Holborn and
Finsbury Commissioners, was derived from Mr. Wil-
liam NVickings, many years Surveyor to that Commis-
sion, and who (in one of those periodical examinations,)
fell upon the side of the punt and had two of his ribs
broken ; and, that the practice had been still continued, I
was led to infer from the occasional receipt of notices of
the obstructed or dilapidated state of the sewers within
the City, which could only have been known from actual
observation. There is not a syllable in any of my Re-
ports to hang the insinuation upon, that I ever stated
the Commissioners of the City had passed through the
sewer :—that is wholly gratuitous,
As to the cleansing of the sewer by using a punt,
that was ordered to be adopted several years since by a
contractor. It has certainly been discontinued, but cir-
cumstances might hereafter render it eligible ;. and as to
the later examinations in boats by your officers, in nddi•
tion to those of Roger Stonhouse, one was carefully
made by Howarth in 1830, and repeated by Hogarth
and myself, and one by William S intler in November,
1834. Their Reports were sufficiently fearful, but it
pleased your Honourable Court to repose confidence in
my opinioa, as to the tenacity of ancient although dread-
fully dilapidated brickwork, and take the risk of its
clinging together, rather than strive to uphold that
which would probably have brought down the incum-
bent houses in the attempt.
) These examinations were discontinued for fear we
should see too much, and be frightened into an useless
expenditure, upon that which was intended within a few
years to be destroyed. This was done with the distinct
knowledge of the Court, and the result has happily jus-
tified the risk which was incurred.
As to the rise of water—after a storm it has corn.
monly been about five feet, both in the county and in
the city. That rise is looked for, and not wondered
at ; but in September, 1839, the men were driven out,
more than once, by the water rising about twelve feet
in the west ern branch of the sewer in Farringdon-street.
In the middle of October, 1839, the stream rose upon
the men nine feet in the space of an hour, above the
usual depth, in the western branch. It snapped a twos
story ladder in two, and swept the lower end into the
river, together with a quantity of timbering and scaf-
folding, with ninny deals, of which between forty and
fifty were sexed by a man who chanced to be at the
mouth of the sewer in a boat. He fished them up, and
put them on some barges ; and James Brown, the
contractor, commuted the salvage by giving bins i I.yeuty
shillings for his trouble.
On or about November 13, 1839, the water rose, at
the end of Black Horse Alley, to within two feet of the
crown of the arch, the sewer at that spot being fourteen
feet four inches high, and during the late reparation of
the sewer in Farringdon-street and Fleet Bridge (as
well as in former reparations above Holborn Bridge),
it It is been an often repeated or. urrence to tear ae ay
the dams, sweep out the new bottoming, and force the
men to flee for their lives.
These facts can be attested by Mr. Brown and his
men, as well as by Mr. Santler.
As bearing upon the question of the sudden rising of
a sewer after a storat, ou will allow me to mention,
that, even with the headlong current of Holborn Hill,
the water has risen three feet at a rush (in the old
sewer), and flooded houses at the south end of Hatton
Garden.
With respect to the chances of obstructions oc-
curring from accumulations ; I have only to state•that
the quantity of hard material, consisting of bricks,
large stones, gravel, coarse sand, crockery, scc., almost
entirely free from mud of any kind, but quite black,
ranged in the sewers in Farringdon-street, from four to
six feet in depth.
Conceiving one fact to be of more worth than the result
of a thousand reasonings, while expressing my apprehen-
sions, I have endeavoured carefully to avoid the sem-
blance of arguments in my reports, and confined my-
self to a succinct statement of circumstances which I
believed to be facts, and havert io
nl esf tai
snit
t pout
rpnoayoyor
tue
trxoab meinmat
made
ode
n
of
Honour-
able Court to draw such inferences as those facts would
justify
such
: olbsdeorvnaotito,ntsheorreta'osrsee,enter
in reply to or in contradiction of arguments which have
nvoicrioiussitcanrre ye
idnfgu I
omu
to roef tohnaen
atso.
ne
paintver
ofivatd
that, existencei
t tll :o
asusmimeidiapriryin,e.iicpiloeuws ocuoludrsleeaodf tpor
oacne
ea
db;snugr
,d i
it
ny
aonn mopyppoastrtte,
direction, would lead to an equal absurdity in another,
and while it may be perfectly right to go owe certain
length, it may be unjustifiably wrong to pass beyond it.
Notwithstanding Mr. Walker's Report, I venture to
hope that you as my employers will feel satisfied I have
been, and am, only actuated by a wish fairly and faith-
fully to discharge my duty to you, and to free myself
from blame, without impugning the veracity or dero-
gating from the skill of others ; and that the more espe-
cially as, while the concession of Mr. Roe rests PP"
the concession that a valid guarantee can be given t•
save both Commissions harmless, the whole bli
the responsibility of preserving and securing
otorltih:intneos
a free passage for the waters of the Hirer Fleet into
the Thames, has been distinctly'upon you, by the Commissioners of th •
and unreservedly
Finsbury Division.
1 have the honour to be, Gentlemen.
rielsoeribvoerdnly
al en fdt
Your faithful Servant,
RICHARD KELSEY, Surveyor.
Sewer's Office, Guildhall, Sept. 15, 1840.

LARGE s._Tliare are now in the
availablehlPil
=-.__---
Coburg DockS therfoEuAr.ol7sil
l ifi:testand largest steamships
the world, occupying
President, just arrived here from
the greater
part of th
qt,Ry-ruom ; viz.
New York ; the Great Liverpool, of the Mediterraremn
line of royal mail-ships ; and the Acalia and Caleclmia,
of the Halifax and Boston royal mail line. The floating
capital in these superb ships is imincnse.—Liveroo/
Standard.

AN EXCUSE.--I‘liravaux Was onr.: day accosted
by a sturdy beggar, who asked alms of him. " How is
this," inquired Miravaux, " that a lusty fellow like you Are
unemployed?" "Ah !" replied the beggar, looking V. rY.
piteously at him, " if you did but know bow lazy I as
The reply was so ludicrous and ucczpected, diet D3irpv4P7
gave the varlet a piece of silver,

EVENING EDITION.