The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-11 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, THURSDAY.

CITY OF LONDON SEWERS.
Messrs. Walker, Cubitt, and Brunel, the eminent
civil engineers appointed to examine into the sewers
of the city of London, have made their report, which
will be published in a few days. In the meantime
the following extract from that document will be read
with interest :

We beg to conclude with a short abstract of our ge-
neral opinion in reference to the City sewers.
We think, that although there may be;exceptions in
particular cases, the present sizes of sewers are not too
great, and they ought not to be lessened.
That the sewers, where made, are efficient.
That as from three to four miles only of the fifty miles
of streets, courts, and alleys within the City are without
sewers or drains, it is desirable that the same be con-
structed as soon as arrangements can be made for the
purpose, so that every street, court, or alley within the
City, may be efficiently drained.
That the City sewers, which receive the sewage of
the portions of the adjoining county, are sufficient for
the discharge of the county and City drainage.
That as, of the 16,000 houses anu buildings in the
City, 6,762 hare not private covered drains, it is de-
sirable that these be provided.
That the fall or inclination in the private drains is
generally such as to keep the drains clear of deposit.
That any general search for cesspools, for the pur-
pose of opening and emptying them in private houses,
would be impolitic as a general measure, and would be
likely to be more injurious than the cesspools now are,
if they are properly constructed, which should be as-
certained.
That thefona of sewers has practically very little to
do with the general question of their keeping clear of
d, posit, this depending very much upon their fall and
the quantity of water; but that no tall or quantity of
wat. r is likely to be obtained in the City sewers suffi-
cient to keep them clear of obstructions without tho
occasional aid of men in the sewer to remove hard
deposit.
That the most eminent men of their time have been
consulted in, or have directed the execution of the
City sewers, including Wren, Wyatt, Dance, and
Rennie.
That we have discovered nothing in the construction
of the works which can justify our charging the Com-
missioners with waste in respect of the size ur construc-
tion of the sewers or otherwise, although the outlay
during the last ten years must have been great, as during
that time more new sewers have been made than during
the previous 130 years.
That the system of flushing has been introduced lately
with great advantage, and is already considerably ex-
tended. _ _

•-_'...' ',I - '.',rte ,r3._':Aciri.3/4.) 7,73'Z'A
ST. .i_ ES'S 'THEATRE.
•-• Robert 41=udi the Prince of Conjprora!—is still
/ •
....... astonishing the ,
heagleisngoaflreQaudeyennstVoniicstloltrida 4,,,te2 s
•
/
evict.
~.. i her,velf by the marvels of his scientific tricks and
in a itable legerdemain. Talk of Herr Dobler, indeed,
or o •• = =olyphonist Love, or of the übiquitous Mathews,
or of Theodon, or of the Wizard of the North,
South, East, or West, or of Friar Bungoy, or of
Dr. Dee, or of Roger Bacon, or of all the ne-
cromancers who have ever lived from the time
of the magicians of Pharoah, down to the day when
Professor Risley first transformed his children into
human shuttlecocks—they are as nothing to the
marvellous andldelightful Houdin. On Wednes-
day evening we witnessed his wonderful Soirees
Fantastigues, but from the great press of the
Parliamentary debates in our columns have been pre-
vented from expressing our sense of the genius of this
extraordinary Frenchman before this day's impression.
We say genius advisedly, for every oue of the marvels
performed by M. Houdin, is an evidence of the, most
surprising of all the characteristics of genius
the genius of contrivance. We address ourselves
more immediately to those who have never
seen M. Houdin. We speak to them with all
the &,st if not with all the piquancy with which Gar-
rick told the ghost-story in the furm•kitchen—we.
speak with all the relish with which Bruce might have
srsc•cootelanntd the
de,
withith wool nder
theaswoef Aofobnye'ssiti
initiated
to
iatedhison friends
returning
inign
from the temple of Isis, with all the rapture of Aladdin
when he ascended fram the garden of precious stones, or
of Sinbad the Sailor when he emerged from the valley of
diamonds. We have been something more than amazed;
we have been bewildered ; and, certainly, but that we
look upon M. Houdin as too amiable a person to have
any complicity with his Satanic Majesty, and too
good a Christian to meddle with the per-
nicious lore of the art diabolical, we should
inevitably avoid him as a proficient in black magic, and
as an accomplice of the Diable Boiteux . Imagine amsza ,
extracting from the interior of an ordinary hat—a trum-
pery four.and-ninepenny it might have been—a blossom,
a nosegay, a bunch of nosegays, bunches of nosegays,
heaps of nosegays, a perfect torrent and inundation of
nosegays, armful after armful, and scattering them about
the house. Imagine him after that shaking out of the
same hat a similar cataract of fans. Imagine himholding
the hot suddenly as though it was enormously heavy,
turning it upside-down, and a cannon-b 1 drop-
ping out. Reversing it, holding it as if it
were again heavy, turning it once more downwards,
and allowing another cannon. ball to fall upon the stage.
Imagine this man with a common wine bottle in his hand—
the cork drawn—his wristbands turned up—pouring out
in an inexhaustible current all the wines, or spirits, or
liqueurs that the audience may happen to name—glass
after glass, out of the same bottle, claret, eau-de-vie.de-
Dantzic, port, noyeau, .Madeira, sherry, curlicue, hol-
lands, Burgundy, marischino, fieur-d'orange, &c., ace.
Imagine this man taking a shawl, a sheet, or a table-
cloth, and after flapping it as you would a damp towel,
flinging it round his shoulders, and suddenly bringing
out from under it a glass bowl filled to the brim with
water and golden fishes. imagine him placing his son
upon a table, extinguishing him with a hollow box,
something like a sentinel's watch-box, knocking the box
over with a bullet fired from a pistol, and lo ! no boy on
the table, but high up among the slips, near the ceiling
of the theatre. Imagine this man suspending the child
in a state of mesmeric slumber in the air—the boy lying
as it were recumbent upon nothing, if we except a slender
rod which is balanced upright on the stage and touched
by the tip of his elbow. Imagine all this and you will
not have imagined one quarter of the wonders per-
formed so adroitly, so gracefully, so elegantly, so
neatly, by M. Robert Houdin—the Prince of Conjurors.

That the desiderata, in order to perfect the sewage
of the City, are the formation of the three to four
miles of sewers, the extension of private drains, and the
flushing system by gates and tanks, as described in our
report.
That neither of the new plans suggested by the sur-
veyor to the Metropolitan Sewers Commissioners, nor
that of their consulting engineer, is applicable to the
City sewers.

NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.—Last evening ano-
ther numerous meeting of engine-drivers and firemen in
the employ of the London and North-Western Railway
Company was held at the Railway Tavern, Hampstead-
road, for the purpose of affording further information as
to the state of the line during the last two days, and
further to consider the position of affairs with regard to
the disagreement. Mr. J. Brown, an engine-driver,
having been called to the chair, stated that, by appoint-
ment, a deputation had at that moment (half-past ten
o'clock) returned from an interview with Mr. M'Connell,
the chief of the locomotive department, and one of the
directors, and a wish had been expressed on the part of
the directors that every man should return to his em-
ployment and that all that had transpired should be
buried in oblivion.—(Loud cheers.) Under these cir-
cumstances, a further appointment having been made for
the deputation to wait on the authorities at nine o'clock
to-morrow morning, he begged to propose that the meet-
ing stand adjourned until the following evening, out of
respect to the directors of the company. A general feel-
ing having been unequivocally manifested to refuse to
submit to the classification propoAed, the proceedings
terminated at a late hour.
THE LATE FATAL EXPLOSION IN ALBANY-STRKET.
—CORONER'S INQUEST.—Yesterday afternoon Mr. Vlrak-
ley, M.P., and a respectable jury, assembled at the
Elephant end Castle Tavern, Camden-town, for the
purpose of inquiring into the circumstances connected
with the death of Mary Ikntley, aged fifteen, nurse-
maid to Mr. Loten, Berlin wool dealer, whose premises
were destroyed by an explosion. After the jury had
viewed the body of the deceased, the Coroner said it ap-
peared to him to be impossible to conclude the inquiry
that day, for he was given to understand that the prin-
cipal witnesses, Captain Loten and Miss Burgh, were at
present in the hospital ; and they being the only parties
in the house when the explosion occurred, their evidence
would be absolutely necessary. It would, therefore, be
advisable to adjourn the case for a week or ten days at
the occupier of the premises that
ylmedt,ens'aid that he was very desirous that
the inquiry should take place as speedily as possible, u
hth a e d
teenea s t.
rumour bad gone forth that the explosion had occurred
desitri:o
from gunpowder or gun-cotton. He begged to deny
that there was any such explosive materials on his pre-
mises. In answer to a question from a juror, the Coro-
ner said, if the jury wished to inspect the ruins and gas
pipes, it would be advisable to do so at once. The secre-
tary of the London Gas Company denied that repeated
Applications bad been made at their offices respecting the
escape of gas. The inquiry was then adjourned till Mon-
day week, and the jury repaired to the ruins, and made a
minute examination of the gas pipes, &c.
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE AT BATII —BATH,
TUESDAY MORNING.—An event f o an extremely dis-
tressing character took place here last evening.
sons of Lieutenant Williams, a retired navalf The
e
re-
siding in Springfield-place, children of the r„
ages of ten
and twelve years respectively, had gone out to play with
i
a schoolfellow named Brown' ohn. The latter had brought
with him a pistol, in which, by some *nadvertenoe, a ball
had been lett. The •,t
pls.() had an old flint lock, and the
boys amused themselves b
y pouring powder into the pan,
and flashing it. At length, having,
it is supposed,
primed with a larger portion of powder than byfore,
the elder of the Williamses pointed the pistol at the
head of a little boy named Willes, who was passing by,
and, melancholy to relate, the ball entered the child's
forehead, and passed out at the back of its head, the
brain protruding through the orifice. The three boys,
have been in custody all night. Strange to say, the
wounded child still lingers alive, although, of course, not
the smallest chance exists of its survival.
MARRIAGE IN HMI LIFE.--Yesterday the mar-
riage of Lord C. P. Clinton (Ist Life Guards),-second
son of the Duke of Newcastle, and ?this tif Con-
gatton, only daughter and heiress of the late Mr. W.
Grant, of Congatton, N. 8., was solemnized at St.
George's Church, Hanover-square. A
CURIOUS ADVANTAGE.—The following adver-
tisement appears in a Dublin paper:—" If Edward
Headen, house painter, who is in the habit of travelling
to all parts of the couistry in prosecution of his business,
will communicate with his brother, Henry Headen, at
48, Golden-lane, Dublin, it will bo for his advantage, as
Ws wife is