The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-26 00:00:00

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COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS
FOR, THE CITY OF LONDON.
Yesterday the Commissioners assembled in their
chamber in the Guildhall; Deputy Peacock in the
chair.

The REMEMBRANCEIt reported to the Court that
the standing orders of the House of Commons with
relation to the new Bill for the sanitary improvement
of the City had been complied with, and a few days
after th,• meeting of Parliament the Sheriffs would be
prepared to take it down to the House.
It was then determined to place the Bill under the
care of Mr. Mattison and Mr. Masterman, the working
Members for the city of London.

THE PRICE OF GAS IN THE CITY.
Mr. flaw, the chief clerk, read the following
letter, which had been sent by a number of the inba
hitants of Bishopsgate Ward to Deputy Peacock, the
Chairman of the Commissioners of Sewers. It was
listened to with much interest, as the subject has for
some time occupied the attention of the citizens :

" TO W. A. PEACOCK, Mi.
" Bishopsgate Ward, Jan. 17.
" Sir,—The undersigned have seen a paragraph in
the newspapers, stating that the Court of Sewers had
appointed a committee to inquire into and report upon
the price of gas paid by the citizens of London, with
a view to obtain a reduction in the rate charged, and
have subsequently learned that the city gas com-
panies, taking the alarm, have determined on reduc-
ing their charge to 6s. per thousand feet.
" It will, no doubt, be within your recollection,
that some of us presented a memorial to the Court
of Sewers, signed by 260 inhabitants, gas consumers,
of the ward, at the latter end of the year 1846, at
which time we made the same complaint to the Court
as that you are yourself now reported to have made
I (viz., that the company now supplying us at 7s. are
elsewhere charging 65.), and you are aware the
answer we then received to our complaint was by no
means such as we considered we were entitled to at

their hands.
" It is, therefore, with much pleasure we now re-
cognise, and congratulate you on the fact, that you
have shown yourself amenable to the wishes of your
constituents, and exhibited a willingness to take up
their cause by bringing this matter before the Court
of Sewers, and we trust that you will not fail to urge
and obtain a thorough investigation of the matter,
when we firmly believe it can only be by the failure
of that Court to do its duty if an arrangement is not
effected much more advantageous to the citizens of
London than that now proposed by the gas companies;
which offer at such a moment we cannot look upon

otherwise than as an attempt on their part to hood-
wink the independent members of the Court of Sewers,
and stifle inquiry by giring up an instalment of the

overcharge.
" Under these circumstances, pending any public
demonstration on the part of the ward, we have
thought it right at once, as fully as possible, to put
you in possession of our views (which we believe to
represent the universal feeling of the ward), in order
that, as our representative, you may be in a position
to support our interests, and in the belief that in the
position you hold, by virtue of that representation
(as Chairman of the Court of Sewers), you possess
and can fairly exercise great power for the benefit of
your fellow-citizens in this matter.
" The considerations we offer to your notice are
as follows :
" Gas being an article of necessity to every trades-
man for the conduct of his business, it becomes him
and is his duty to obtain it as he would any other
marketable commodity of that party is ho will provide
him on the best terms, he taking fair advantage of
all circumstances in his favour.
" The advantage of supplying any district with gas
is greatly in favour of one in which the lights are
numerous on a given length of main, and against
another in which the lights are remote from each
other; as in the former there will be less capital sunk
in pipes, less escape, less pressure required, and less
incidental repairs and restorations with reference to
the amount of revenue therefrom. The city of
London is the most densely lighted district in the
metropolis, there being in the city of London one
light to every three feet of iron main, while in no
other of the metropolitan districts is there more than
one in every five feet, and in others the proportion
will be one in fifteen.
" The city of London is known and acknowledged
to be the best paying district in the metropolis, the
amounts collected being larger and snore promptly
paid than elsewhere, and the defaulters less nu-
merous.
" Notwithstanding these circumstances in their
favour, the citizens of London have been paying
more for their gas than the inhabitants of most other
districts in the metropolis. The cause of this
state of things, it is clear to us, and must be to
you, is, thst while: other districts are accessible to
competition, the city of London has been permitted
to be parcelled out by the two companies that supply
it, so that by an amicable understanding between
them, they have been end-led to exact as much as
they pleased or thought prudent to demand from the
private consumers; and they have done this with im-
punity from the knowledge that the Commissioners of
Sewers have uniformly refused to admit another
company in competition, until it has been so gene-
rally understood by those who might have availed
themselves of the permission that they have ceased to
make application for the purpose.
" The pleas of the Commissioners of Sewers for
this state of things have been, that competition would
cause a further disturbance of the already too much
distubred pavement of the city ; and that, as com-
panies must be remunerated, the investment of so
much additional capital by another company would
require, ultimately, a heavier tax on the citizens to
that end, While we are willing to give these con•
siderations their due weight, we must claim for our-
selves, that they are only operative when, on a full and
fair investigation of the circumstances, it can be shown
that the citizens of London are required to pay only
such a rate as will offer a sufficient inducement, under
fair circumstances of competition, for any company to
desire the supply.
" Making use of the best information at our com-
mand, we are led to believe that the city of London,
isolated from all other districts, offers advantages for
a supply of gas fully equal or superior to those of
any town in the kingdom ; it being our firm persua-
sion that the peculiar advantages we have mentioned
nearly, if not quite, outbalance even any of a local
nature with reference to the raw material of manu-
facture.
" We have been credibly informed that the supply
of such a district, apart from others of a less profitable
nature, may be afforded at as low a rate as 4s. per
thousand feet, and we feel confident that if not at
that exact amount, it may be at one more nearly
approximating to it than to the present or even the
proposed charge of gas companies.
" To avail ourselves of such advantages it is not
necessary the streets should be disturbed by competi•
tion for the individual supply. It may be perhaps
somewhat stepping out of our way to direct your
attention to the means; but we cannot refrain from
adverting to the plan by Ns hich the private supply
may be taken into the hands of the Commissioners
themselves, by means of possessing their own pipes,
and contracting with any of the companies for the
supply of gas ; the pipes already in the streets would
be available for that purpose; as, if it were known
they (the Commissioners) had decided on such ar-
rangement, it is nut likely the present owners would
refuse to accept a fair price for them, but prefer the
alternative of their being rendered useless, and there-
fore valueless. The full benefit of competition would
thus he obtained, and your fellow-citizens would no
longer be mocked by a pretended contract for the
street lights, or a one-sided bargain for a paltry re•
duction of ls. per 1,000 feet of their own consump•
tion, when they had become .too clamorous to be
longer denied.
" Having thus, as we consider, shown you that our
interest, or, in other words, the common interest of
your constituents and fellow-citizens, requires that all
the circumstances connected with the : supply of gas to
the city of London should undergo a thorough in-
and believing that by a different, and as
vestigation,
we think a proper arrangement, we should be greatly
relieved in a serious item of business expenditure, we
respectfully, but urgently request, and trust we may
rely on your efficient exertions in order to effect so
desirable au end. And we pledge ourselves, should
the Commissioners of Sewers not at once obtain for
us far more favourable terms than those now pro-
posed by the companies, to use every means within
our power, by public meeting or otherwise, indepen•
dent of them (the Commissioners) to effect the aboli-
tion of the monopoly."
Upon the motion of Mr. HARRISON the letter was
referred to the Committee of General Purposes.
The CHAIRMAN informed the meeting that the
Chartered Gas Company had reduced the price of gas
from 7s. to C. per 1,000 cubic feet.
The meeting then ajourned, after having received
intimations of the active exertions of the contractors
for cleansing the streets.

THE HOME AND COLONIAL I NFANT SCDOOLS.—
The Marquis of Lansdowne has sent a donation of 301.
to the. Home and Colonial School Society in aid of their
fund to enable them to meet the Government grant.
We read in the Courrier Francois:—" A French
Protestant, who kept at flonfleur a small reading room
for English sailors, died one day last week without
friends or relations, and in a state of almost abject
povety. The usual declaration of his death was made
by ar neighbour to the Commissary of Police, with a
request that he would order his interment at the public
expense. The Commissary, however, declined interfer-
ing, because the fraternity who took charge of these
charitable offices were by their statutes confined to
Catholics, and recommended an application to the English
Protestants. The neighbour thereupon went to the
English Consul, but he replied that as the deceased was
a Frenchman he could not interfere. The neighbour
was obliged to return again to the Commissary, who, at
last, ordered the body to be carried to its last abode by
common porters."