The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-02 00:00:00

it. He also thought he recollected the prisoner's face,
and also that he had succeeded in obtaining a guinea
from him the previous year by a similar story. The pri-
soner then pulled out a paper, and begged he would look
over it. The paper was as follows:
" Mr. Henry Anderson has been examined before the
Committee of the National Schools, and is found com-
petent to be admitted as a master.
(Signed) " W. J. KENNEDY, M.A.
" Mr. Henry Anderson is a person highly respectable,
and having been reduced from a sphere of comfort to pe-
cuniary difficulties, I earnestly recommend him to a few
friends.

(Signed) " W. ROBINSON."
Various subscriptions, from 10s. to 21. 25., were ap-
pended to this paper. Ho asked the prisoner whose
name was on the paper? The prisoner mentioned the
name of Andrews. He told the prisoner that as he did
not even know the name on the paper; which was An-
derson and not Andrews, he should refer him to a con-
stable named Horsford, who was waiting below, with
whom he probably had an acquaintance.
The defence of the prisoner was that he did not ask
Sir Henry Meux for his subscription. He merely said
that he understood Sir Henry Meux was a subscriber to
the National Schools, and he then requested him to
look at a paper which a person, who was then waiting
outside, had requested him to allow to Sir Henry Meux.
Horsford said the prisoner had been convicted before
for obtaining money under false pretences. On the pri-
soner was a paper, with the names of noblemen and
ladies, from whom the prisoner had, no doubt, obtained
money. He wished, therefore, that the prisoner should
be remanded until the authenticity of the signatures could
be inquired into.
Henry Baker was next put to the bar.
Horsford said while he was waiting at Sir Henry
Meux's, he was told that another person had just sent
in a note, and had obtained an interview with Sir Henry
Meux. Suspecting that this might be another of the
gang, he gave a message to the valet to deliver pri-
vately to Sir Henry Meux. The prisoner, however, most
probably suspected something, and terminated the in-
terview abruptly. As he was going out witness came
forward and recognised him as Dublin Harry, one of the
most incorrigible begging-petition impostors in London.
The prisoner's business with Sir Henry Meux might be
inferred from the following note which he sent in to Sir
Henry:—

" ➢rlr. Jennings, of Bishop's Stortford, begs the favour
of a few minutes' interview with Sir Henry Meux on a
little business of a pressing and important nature."
Horsford added, that as the prisoner had been put on
his guard, he could not bring any evidence beyond what
he bad produced.

Mr. BINGUAM said the evidence was not complete, and
therefore ho must discharge the prisoner.
The prisoner declared he would bring an action against
the constable for false imprisonment.
Horsford said the prisoner had been convicted over and
over again for obtaining money by false pretences.
William Johnson was next placed at the bar.
Sir Henry Meux said the prisoner called on him last
week with a petition very full of miseries, and seeing
several signatures attached to it so admirably executed
for subscriptions, he believed the case was one of real
distress, and he therefore ordered his cashier to pay him
101. Witness afterwards had some conversation with
parties whose names were affixed to the petition, and he
then ascertained he had been imposed upon.
Horsford said as soon as he heard the prisoner's de-
scription he knew who he was, and where to find him.
He went to Westminster and found the prisoner. When
he took the prisoner into custody he said to him, " I
wonder what you men do with all the money you get,
you had 171. among you last week from Sir Henry Meux
only." 'rhs prisoner said he had just come out of pri-
son, and had a few debts to pay.
Horsford said he found a paper on Smith with the
names of Lady Rolle, Lady Webster, Lady Munro,
Sir J. Kempt, Lord Ward, Lady Louisa Cator, Lad)
Ellerton, Lord Eglinton, Mr. Newdegate, and Mr. Rice,
on it. He had no doubt that when the case was pub-
lished he should get plenty of further evidence, if the
prisoners were remanded.

- They were remanded till Saturday next.
WESTMINSTER.
Yesterday, John Hawkins, Thomas Hugginson, and
Denis Wilson, three young men, were finally examined,
charged with burglariously entering the dwelling-house
of Mr. W. Wollop, 23, Rutland•gate, and stealing
a large quantity of jewellery and some money.
The particulars of the case have already appeared ;
the accused, having effected an entrance, were disturbed
in the course of their operations by the presence of mind
of a young lady in the house, who, although they had
locked her in her bed-room, contrived to raise an alarm,
and to procure the attendance of the police.
The MAGISTRATE considered the evidence adduced
sufficient to implicate all the prisoners, and committed
them for trial.

SANITARY REFORM.

Last night, in pursuance of a requisition addressed to
;he churchwardens and overseers of St. George the Mar-
.yr's, Southwark, a meeting was held at the Parochial
School House, Borough-road. Ou the motion of Mr. J.
Lee Stevens, Mr. Robert Archer, one of the church-
wardens, was voted into the chair. The requisition,
which was signed by 28 persons, the majority of whom
were connected with the medical profession, was couched
iu the following terms :
" We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the above parish,
fully impressed with the importance of a strict observ-
anco being maintained of the principles that influence the
Legislature of this kingdom in granting sanitary reform.
and which are so forcibly expressed by Mr. Chadwick,
one of the members of the Metropolitan Sewers Commis-
sion, That all smell from sewers, if it be intense, is at-
tended with immediate acute disease ; and that eventu-
ally, by depressing the system and rendering it sus-
ceptible to the action of other causes, all smell is disease;
and having observed, therefore, with concern
and dismay, the system that is now being pur-
sued of allowing the noxious compounds of putrefaction
generated in the sewers of this vast metropolis freely to
mix with the atmosphere we breathe—request you will
take the necessary steps to convene a public meetins
in this parish, in order to consider what measures should
be adopted to put a stop to a nuisance in every respect
calculated to engender an unusual amount of sickness
and disease."
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said
that the matter they had to discuss was the complaint
which was made of the opening of the sewers into the
public road. The evils which arose from the traps no one
could doubt; and he had often asked himself whether
the Commissioners of Sewers could have any regard
for the public health, in the system which they pursued.
The cases of danger to the public health from the efflu•
vium arising from the sewers abounded so, that they
needed no further evidence of the evil. The question
of the sewers was one which they had to discuss, and ht
hoped gentlemen would confine themselves to the ques-
tion, whether these apertures lately made by the Com-
missioners had not produced alarming consequences,
and whether they were not highly prejudicial to the
public health.
Mr. SOLLY (chemist) said that the first time his at-
tention had been called to those foul-air escapes was
passing over one of them, near the Elephant and Castle.
lately ; the effect produced upon him was sickness, fol-
lowed by a severe headache, which lasted for several
Commissioners days. When he found that the were
about to put down one of the noxious gas escapes near
him he became alarmed, and he found the result was but
too severe with one member of his family. He found
there was a continuance of disease in his family as long
as there was an east wind prevailing, because then the
noxious effluvium was thrown into his dwelling, and
when the wind shifted to the westward then his family
got rather better. But the whole neighbourhood was
deluged with fever, and the medical men were worn off
their legs. The speaker here read a letter from W.
Mutre Farebrother, surgeon, of the London-road, bear-
ing his testimony to the propriety of the object for
which the meeting had been convened, and condemning
the opening of the gratings of the metropolitan drains,
by which a vast amount of sickness was produced
from the pestilential miasma thus raised. Now he
(Mr. Sully) must observe that the only question was
whether we were to be visited by the cholera at the end
of this year, or the beginning of the next ? It there-
fore behoved all men to put their shoulder to the wheel
to keep it away, if possible. He held in his hand a
letter from Dr. Barlow, of Union-street, who expressed
a strong opinion against the present system of ventilating
drains. That plan could not fail to produce a quantity
of noxious gases, which, when evolved, must have the
most prejudicial effect on those who were exposed to
them. He quoted several passages from the Lances
bearing on the subject, and concluded by moving the
first resolution, which was to the following effect:—
" That, fully concurring in the opinions expressed by
Mr. Edwin Chadwick (now one of the Commissioners of
Sewers for the Metropolis), in his evidence before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on the
Metropolitan Sewage Manure Company's Bill, viz.:—
' That all smell from sewers, if it be intense, is attended
with immediate acute disease; and that eventually by
depressing the system and rendering it susceptible to
the action of other causes, all smell is disease;' this
meeting views with alarm the plan adopted by the Me-
tropolitan Commissioners of Sewers for the ventilation of
sewers, by which the noxious gases formed in the pro-
cess of putrefaction in those receptacles of nightsoil and
other animal and vegetable matter are emitted in a con-
centrated form, and mix with the atmosphere in,danger-
ous proximity both to residents and passengers. '
Mr. RENDLE (parish surgeon) rose to second the reso-
lution. It might be thought, perhaps, invidious that the
requisition should have been signed by so many medical
men. It certainly was signed by medical men, who con-
sidered it a part of their duty not only to cure, but to
prevent disease, and their studies led them to investigate
the causes of disease. There could be no question that the
diffusion of noxious gases was a prevailing cause of dis-
ease. That fact unhappily need not be left to his testi-
mony alone, because he had the power to show from the
testimony of those persons who lived near or over those
sewers, what were the effects produced. Such an in-
quiry as they were entered upon was necessary, and more
necessary es the population increased. The effect of
knowing the causes of diseases aided them in removing
those causes of mischief and evil. The part of the reso-
lution which more decidedly bore on the question which
they had to discuss, was the opinion pronounced by Mr.
Chadwick, " that all smell from sewers, if it be
intense, is attended with immediate acute dis-
eases, and that eventually, by depressing the system
and rendering it susceptible to the action of other
eases, all smell is disease." Now he believed that
under the new arrangements of the commissioners all
water-closets must be emptied into the sewer through
the drains. This admitted the offensive material into
the sewers, and it was requisite that better means than
were used formerly should be adopted to keep those
noxious vapours arising from decomposed matter from
spreading among the people. Formerly, when the de-
posit was lodged in cesspools, every individual had to
look after his own comfort; but now the noxious matter
was carried into the public streets. The speaker pro-