The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-01 00:00:00

- - - -
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGI-
NEERS, FEB. 16.
Sir JOHN RENNIE, President, in the Chair.
The paper read was a continuation of that which was
brought forward at the last meeting by Mr. G. B. W.
Jackson, Assoc. Inst. C.E. It gave an " Account of the
mode of gaining laud from the sea, by Polders ; and the
art of building a ith fascine work, as practised in Hol-
land and Germany."
The paper commenced by reference to the works of
Mela, Weibeking, Spanzin, Calaud, Hyde Clarke, and
others, as having given the best known accounts of
Dutch water constructions, and the situations of these
labsurs. It then described the "Polders" as being
tracts of land recovered from the sea, by a construction
of a belt of dykes, gradually raised to above the water
level, and then pumped dry, by which means they were
still rendered habitable, the level of the many more an-
cient being beneath that of the sea. When thus re-
claimed they form the finest land, and produce, for
many years, immense crops, almost without the appli-
cation of manure. The usual construction of these
d 3 kes was describsd to be, by sinking successive layers
or ds of fa:•cin(s .'r faggots of about 30 inches thick,
vel
capped
aa3n;p:ipifoli
tiuhod theysi
wfB.
with
htmo reachedas
weightedl
flooring;a6n and
aia
htrbhedoi yards
erirliatiwidth,ea, the srwneedao
fully
ukslalet,
Ino:and:seldo,stef,hs:cpm,
rhrpiieobnupnegbodll proportionate
peer
withnacßa ottdipes.
quantities
suttriuticetsio
on
rofththeeilnaartgeerriaalsndemsee
clay, sea-weed, and salt. These layers were continued
eet
ardikneugnpifonoitiro
tttliiele,mdde.
el
delicate
Thelt difficulties of the usual
was constructed of more solid materials, and sometimes
w
.rololpof
etyhrteaehdtesi
on Jandnai ;m1
fe
et smalleresoisoinn dykes,gs
precau-
tions
at
nho
elraer
t3l.oebrnen 1,1
last portion of each dyke, which, unless skilfully con-
ducted, in proper weather, frequently hazards the safety
of the whole work.
The different kinds of lock-gates and sluices used for
facilitating the outflow of the land waters and prevent-
ing the ingress of the sea were fully described, and drew
from several members accounts of balance and other
gates of peculiar construction used in Holland and else-
where. The original kind appears to have been the
self-acting balance-gates of unequal surface, so placed
upon the pivots that on the rising of the tide they closed,
and remained so until on the receding of the tide the
weight of the accumulated land waters forced them open.
Recently machinery has been employed for opening and
shutting these gates, and the ordinary lock-gates have
genera ly been adopted, as it was found that they were
trcqui illy prevented from shutting by some floating
matter getting between the mitre posts, and great
leakage ensued. The general details were then given of
the methods adopted fur the subsequent drainage of the
Polder lands, the separation of the springs, the upland
and lowland waters, and the method of conducting
them out to sea. The slopes of the faces of the dykes
vary considerably; some of the low dyes are, in section,
of the form of an arc of a circle of six to ten feet chord,
and ten inches to one foot versed sine, covered with
fascine matting, staked down upon a clay bed. Others
have a base of 19 feet wide and 5 feet high, of a trian-
gular section, also made of fascines and stakes, secured
by hurdles and wattling ; with clay, peat, sea-shells,
and sand well rammed in, and then covered with turf.
Others are formed of rows of piles 16 feet long, with
their heads 6 or 7 feet above the shore, joined longitudi-
nally and laterally by waling timber, filled in and
around with fascine beds, and weighted with stones.
Ba,kets filled with sand are also used in certain situa-
tions, as well as various modifications of all these kinds
of protections. It was stated that these constructions
were found to succeed better, and last as long, as stone,
being, at the same time, about half the cost ; and in the
discussion which ensued, this statement was confirmed
even for some parts of England where stone was not
expensive.
Our limits will not permit a more extended notice of
this excellent paper, of which it was justly said by one
of the speakers that .` it is the first detailed account in
the English language of some of the most interesting
hydraulic works of Holland."

THE INDIAN GABELLE.
(From the Examiner.)
Humble trade is, after all, the great civiliser and humaniser
of mankind, and has, unquestionably, contributed far more to
the prosperity of our Indian empire, than statesmen and
warriors. It, alone, overthrew the great commercial mono-
polies; abolished all-pervading transit duties and Octrois ;
bound the Custom-house to moderation ; gave personal free-
dom to British subjects in exchange for proscription; created
an Indian public opinion, and established the freedom of the
press—the security for all other freedom.
We observe that this busy agent is again engaged in its
quiet, bnt effectual labour of benevolence. Its present ob-
ject is the overthrow of the notorious gabelle of Bengal, by
tar the ugliest, and the most comprehensively mischievous
of all the monopolies which still continue to disgrace the
legislation of this empire. Cheshire, Worcester, Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull, Bristol, are
all alive to the subject ; and, as the question will soon come
before Parliament, we shall give a brief account of the pre-
sent state of the great public nuisance.
There exist, all over British India, either monopolies in
salt, or heavy duties, which are bad only in the second de-
gree. This, of course, includes all the native states within
our frontier, called " under our protection," and, consequently,
this necessary of life is vended to an indigent people,
amounting to 150,000,000, at prices the most exorbitant,
while the subjects of the native princes, beyond the walls of
the fiscal prison-house, with its peine forte et dare, get their
salt as cheap as the citizens of New York—that of Cheshire.
But the salt monopoly exists in its most exquisitely per-
nicious form in the finest provinces of our Indian empire;
those of Lower Bengal, over about forty-eight millions of
people. This country is low and moist ; its coast, in propor-
tion to its area, small ; and here alone, for there exist neither
salt• lakes, nor brine springs, nor fossil salt, can salt be
manufactured.
On this limited coast, covered for the most part with un-
wholesome jungle, the brine is weak, because the sea receives •
at it the drainage of the Himalaya and Vindya ranges, as well
as that of the Gangetic plain, 1,500 miles in length, and often
500 in breadth.
The natural cost of manufacture is, consequently, great,
and it is enhanced by the unskilfulness of the sole manufac-
dtuerleegrsa,te on
eIl behalflon. t
of theheEast Crownlndia Conmt
Gparneya,t
Britaintheleas dehaonld
Ireland. The process is rude, in fact, beyond what would be
credited at Nantwich or Droitwich—such as it was under the
Moguls and the Patens, and most probably in the time of
that great legislator Menu, or when the Shastres and Puranas
were written. The first cost is about 60s. a ton, or about
thrice the price of better salt at Liverpool.
The delegates of the Imperial Crown is not only the sole
manufacturer, but, in violation of the spirit and letter of its
engagements in 1833 to forbear from every kind of trade, the
sole wholesale merchant. It conveys all the salt for the
consumption of forty-eight millions of souls to one spot, not
a centrical one, the town of Calcutta, and here it sells whole-
sale, or even retail, the salt of the best quality at near 121. a
ton, being about twelve-fold the price of good Cheshire salt
in Liverpool.
Then, the salt falls into the hands of a small combination
of native dealers who exercise a second monopoly in it, and
having, according to the analysis of Professor Farraday, laid
before a Committee of the Commons, mixed it with from
fifteen to twenty per cent. of earth, proceed to dispense the
" black drose", which has lost every feature of a muriate of
soda, over the provinces. The transit is generally against
the current of the Ganges and its tributaries, so that by the
time it has got to a moderate distance, the price ranges from
301. to 401. a ton ; that is, from about fifteen to twenty times
the retail price which the people of England pay for their
~ .
salt!
Let us now turn to .the capacity, as taxepayses, of the
people who are to consume salt at sueh prices. `, The vast
majority are rural labourers, earning at the utmbst from 3/.
to 4/. sterling a year, and the majority not near so much.
The bard earnings, then, according to distance from the sup-
ply, of from a month and a half to three months of a labour-
ing man are required to furnish his family with a supply of
salt, the consumption, which with a less stimulating diet, and
hardly any other condiments, ought to be greater, being less
than one-half the average consumption of each individual
in this country.
Let the English reader fancy to himself an English day-
labour earning 301. a year, obliged to pay for this single con-
diment of salt from 5/. to 101. a year, being, at the same
time, reduced to half a ration, and then he will have some
tolerable notion of this pet tax, so long and so obstinately
defended by the British Government of India.
We do not mean to assert that the prices we have given
are always paid by the Indian peasantry. We know that
they are not, for the smuggler steps in and relieves the
people of some share of the burden imposed on them—in-
deed of a considerable share, for it has been computed that
not less than one.fourth part of all the salt consumed is con-
traband ! There are, however, situations which his benevo-
lence cannot reach, and here the people eke out the pittance
of culinary salt they can afford to purchase, by the use of the
ashes of vegetables, muriate of lime, and Epsom salts, vul-
garly called the " bitter purging," an article which we ven-
ture to guess that our East India director wouldenot find a
pleasant, however much it might be a sanative ingredient is
his own curry!
The
respects eappelitlea,tiwoeehteis tax, isi
some con-
tributed so handsome a share towards bringing on the Revo-
monopowlynrsie is, in
than
Revo-
lution, for the old French Government distributed its mac
over the provinces, while the British Government vends it all
at one corner. The proof that it is worse is, indeed, afforded
by the fact that, deducting the supply derived from smug-
gling,n the average consumption in Bengal per head is q
itlie fact,
oald frightful French Gabel/e,
greater than under the Gabelle, where salt was dearest, an
d
greatly below what it was where cheapest.
yll the
increased I ndi an
taxation. Govern-
ment
India 8/. 3s. 6d. a.
American is about Bs. a ton. and in Britishßritish salt is sold at
ton, or above twenty times as much.earning 4s. a day at
New York to the labourers of that city
British labourers of Cal-
the rate of 455. a ton, and to the
aid,4d. a-day, at 12/. a.
• when very well P
cutta, earning,
ought to shame some people into m 0...
ton ; a contrast that
The duty charged en British salt in United States of
deration.
its much cherished monopoly is 1,300,0na,
from
less than the amount of our soap duty,
a-year, or
this derived
without by
any The British Government, although the salt duty
yielded to it, four-and-twenty years ago, above
tln,saoto,tohoeoLßasnygeaalr,
salt monopoly,
anlltohnonupgohlyi,t
vwoatsedinfiitnitaeleLliessasnoenseraonuds
abolished it. The year after the total abolition, 1826, the
whole public revenue was larger without, than it had been
All good example, however, is lost on the East India
Company in financial matters. In administr •
with Thteh esal wholet duty, revenue
and
administrative and judi-
cial reforms, it is often bold and judicious; but the moment
financels touched, it belsnge to the fifteenth century. In
1836 a Committee of the House
inquiry of Commons made s a
careful and searching into this very salt monopoly,
and the virtual Britt of its report
nuisance was that it was a pub-
lic which ought to be abated. Ten years have
passed away, and the Indian Government has done nothing
but nibble at it. The salt is as high priced as ever—as dirty
as ever ; the rulers of the monopoly are as stringent as ever,
and smuggling is more rife than ever. In finance the Com-
pany does nothing, except at the point of the boyonet. It re-
quired two heavy charges of that bayonet in 1813 and 1835
to drive them from their great commercial monopolies, as in-
jurious to England as to India, and ruinous to themselves in.
purse and character. A few years back the whole inland
trade of India was harrassed by an infinity of transit duties
and octrois, wlech were abolished wily by a bold act of
virtual disobedience on the part of one of their own servants,
whom good fortune hail placed in temporary authority..
They had long been filling their coffers by taxes on the
religious rites and superstitions of the Hindus, from the car
of Jagernat, down to the bathing or the shaving of a pil-
grim ; and these imposts, of worse odour than the famous
dirty tax of Vespasian, have, even now, been only partially
abandoned, and this not voluntarily, but through shame oC
the public opinion of England.