The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-29 00:00:00

* "Ireland Before and After the Union," by B. Mont.
gomery Martin, Esq. Third Edition. Pp. 83.

THE ►S UN,

great evil untouched. Be it remembered that there
are not only 70,000 houses, containing 350,000 in-
habitants (at present totally dependent upon the
scanty and precarious supply of water furnished by
the few public wells of London), to be provided every
day and all day long with pure water, but that Fr.,-
vision is to be made for a constant and unintermitting
supply of water, not only for the whole metropolis
as it at present exists, but for the whole metropolis to
whatever extent it may hereafter spread. To procure
a body of water sufficient for this purpose, there is
but one source to which we can go. The Thames and
the Thames alone can supply a sufficient quantity of
water to meet all the requirements of the metropolis;
and accordingly the Henley and London Waterworks
and Navigation Company (a report of the proceedings
of the promoters of which appeared in The Sun of
yesterday) have done wisely in choosing the Thames
as the source of the supply of water to the metropolis.
But the Thames is, unfortunately, from the Nore up
to Teddington Lock, polluted by the sewerage of the
metropolis and its suburbs, the contamination derived
from which is held in perpetual suspension by the
perturbation of steam boats. It is therefore neces-
sary, in order to insure a supply of pure water, to go
beyond Teddington, and accordingly the company
proposes to,take the water from the Thames at Henley.
Of the comparative purity of the water at Henley and
of that at Chelsea, the highest source of the present
supply, our readers may form some idea when they
remember that, independently of the contamination
derived from the sewerage of London, which is
brought up to Chelsea by the tide, the Thames re-
ceives, between Henley and Chelsea, the drainage
derived from a population exceeding 75,000 persons.
The company proposes to bring the water from Hen-
ley to Paddington, where a reservoir will be formed;
and as the Thames at Henley is 106 feet above low-
water mark at London-bridge, which level will bo
maintained, with a decline only of three feet, into
Paddington, the water from the Paddington reservoir
will flow, by its own gravitation, to the upper stories
of most of the houses in London, and all the houses
in Westminster and the City ; whilst, by the fall
of water thence to the lower parts of Lon-
don, a mechanical power will be derived, which
will fill a high• service reservoir, intended
to be erected on the top of Primrose-hill,
which will command the highest part of London and
its neighbourhood. The water is intended to be
conveyed in a navigable channel 19 miles in length
from Henley to West Drayton, where it will reach
the Grand Junction Canal, and be conveyed to Lon-
don either in the bed of that and the Paddington
Canals, or in a separl.te channel alongside of those
navigations. This will have the effect of diminishing
the navigable distance between Henley and London
by snore than 20 miles ; a uniform surface will be
preserved throughout the whole distance, and to
maintain the purity of the water, the bed of the
whole channel will be formed of concrete. "The
quantity of water," says the author of a pamphlet re-
cently published explanatory of the views and inten-
tions of the company* .
" The quantity of water intended to be supplied to
London is one hundred million gallons daily ; and the
present design is not to embark in a competition ith
established water companies, but, on the contrary,
to contribute to the efficiency and success of those
bodies upon conditions advantageous to the public ; by
enabling the companies, each in its own district, to give
to the smallest house in its own limits, all the water its
inhabitants can want, by perpetual high service, and at a
cheap rate. Abundance will still remain to fill the or-
namental waters in the parks, to supply fountains, arid,
above all, to cleanse the drains and sewers of the me-
tropolis."

The cost of the undertaking is estimated at
T 50,0001., if the channel is only cut to West Dray-
ton. Should it be deemed advisable to have a separate
channel the whole distance between Henley and Pad-
dington, the additional expense will be about
250,0001. With regard to the revenue that will pro-
bably be derived, the writer of the pamphlet says :

" In calculating the revenue to be derived from the
undertaking, large allowance has been made for the ne-
cessity admitted on all hands, and which will probably
be enforced by Parliament, of diminishing the cost of
water to the labouring classes. All the other water com-
panies it can b• proved, and to a certain extent the
New River Company also, will find it more profitable to
buy watt r from the proposed reservoir and let it flow
down their mains, than to pump it up from their pr, sent
sources. Assuming them to pay only one penny fur
ono thousand gallons, and that only one half of the
whole quantity brought into London by the proposed
means produces a pecuniary return, the net annual re
venue will amount to more than nine per cent. on the
original outlay ; whilst the economy of machinery by
the high level of the reservoirs, and the nearly un-
limited quantity of water, will enable the various com-
panies, even with increased profit to themselves, not
only to supply abundantly the meanest house in London,
but most materially to diminish their charges."
It is not so much, however, in a private and pecuni-
ary as in a public and sanitary point of view that we
are inclined to regard this undertaking. That it is likely
to be a profitable undertaking to its promoters we are
rejoiced to learn, because the prospect of profit is the
surest guarantee for its speedy completion ; but, even
if there were no prospect of pecuniary profit, it is
•ne of those few public works which a Govern-
ment would be bound to undertake, because it is a
work from the completion of which every individual
member of the metropolitan community would de-
rive an equal advantage, and in the success of which
every inhabitant of the metropolitan district from
Belgravia to Bethnal-green is equally interested.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
In the National Assembly, on Wednesday, an im-
portant financial statement was made by M. lirrro-
LITE PASST, the new Minister of Finance. On the order
of the day for the adjourned discussion on the Salt
Duty Bill, after a few words from M. OONDIER
and M. AtheusTE AVOND, the Minister of Finance,
M. H. PASSY ascended the tribune and spoke as
follows :

" I think (he said) that the question will be much
simplified if I state at once with what views the Govern-
ment demands from you to maintain the salt duty until
January 1, 1850.—(Movement.) I do not mean to con-
test, in the slightest degree, that the duty in question is
a most oppressive one—that it is most deservedly held
•in disfavour ; yet, with all this conviction, I feel myself
obliged to demand its maintenance for six months more
than the period recommended by the committee. The
reason is easy to be divined—that the state of the
finances will not permit us to give up the twenty-three
millions which the salt duty furnishes.—(Movement.)
What is that situation? I will tell you with the utmost
plainness.—(Marks of attention.) My predecessor in
office has already informed you, in the financial state-
ment which he laid before the Assembly, that at the end
of 1849 the whole deficiency in the Treasury would be
460 millions. Since that declaration was made, new
facts have taken place. Thus, on January 1, 1850, a
sum of 3$ millions must be reimbursed to the savings
banks !—it is a sacred debt, and must be paid.—(Hear
hear.) My predecessor has also calculated that for 1849
the deficiency, after the budget had been finally settled
and balanced, would be 91 millions. But facts already
known force us to carry that sum to 107 millions, to
which it will be necessary, on the one hand, to add 21
millions, and on the other, 38 millions, which will bring
the sum to 166 millions. My predecsssor has with good
reason, in my opinion, anticipated an augmentation in the
indirect taxes ; the sum put down, according to him, is
83 millions, which I think will be received. The sum
assigned for the forests is, I think, too high by
10 millions. The produce of the customs and
of the new taxes lately proposed, has also
been set down with an augmentation. The augmenta-
tion is calculated at 99 millions for the new taxes. Idc
not think that the amountcan possibly be more than one-
half that sum. The statement of my honourable prede-
cessor takes no notice of unforeseen expenses. I hope
that the augmentation arising from the diminution of
the expenses, and the increase of the receipts, will com-
pensate for the unforeseen expenses; but it would ill
become me, as Minister of Finance, to suppose that an
entire year is to pass without unforeseen expenses. In
recapitulation I have to state to you that, in my opinion,
in place of a deficiency of 460 millions, we shall
have ono of 560 millions.—(Sensation, which manifested
itself for some time.) Surely, that is not an ordinary
position; surely that is not a state of the treasury which
can admit of so considerable a reduction in the receipts
as the amount of the salt duty. The committee pro-
poses to take off the tax from July 1, 1849, and has
put forth figures to prove that the loss to the trea-
sury would be only 5,400,000 f. The committee, I
am of opinion, has strangely miscalculated, and never
in any country has an example been seen of such
results on taking off a tax as it presents. It declares, in
fact, that the augmentation would be all at once not less
than from seven to nine kilogrammes for each indivi-
dual per annum. Such an augmentation is an extraer-
dinaty exaggeration, as, under the old monopoly (:he
gabelle), the whole consumption was only four kilo-
grammes each person in the provinces on which the
duty weighed, and to nine in those freed from the tax.
But, however that may be, however the calculations of
the committee may or may not be correct, the Govern-
ment cannot consent to the proposed reduction. It may
be said that we can make up for the loss to the Treasury
by imposing new taxes; I reply, that the new taxes pro-
posed by my predecessors, such as the income-tax, I tc-
cept, but I absolutely set my face against any other new
ones at present.—(llear, hear.) This is not a time for

* " Supply of Water to Loudon by means of the
Henley and London Waterworks and Navigation."