The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-19 00:00:00

could command, and we have had some experi-

ence of how much that is that the disemborgued
sewerage would find its way to a bourne from
which there is no return, but observation of the
river below Barking Creek had left us incredu-
lous. We are heartily glad our opinion has met
with such powerful support, and that the stop-
page of the plan affords opportunity for the
rescue of the Thames from further pollution, and
the inhabitants of Greenwich and Woolwich from
the serious danger impending over them. Had
it been carried out we should almost have
despaired of the Thames being ever re-
stored to an approximation to purity and
as a legitimate consequence of the work of
sanitary reform in the metropolis being ever
completed. The long prevalence of easterly
winds during the past winter and spring, con-
sidered in relation to this subject, could not but
hare considerable weight, and leave behind an
impression sufficiently painful to make the recent
act an absolute relief.

What will now be done passes, we should fancy,
the skill of the most accomplished journalist to
pronounce, and for our part we give the puzzle I
up. One thing, however, lies before us as a duty
to be discharged, and that we are not disposed to
evade. In the rejected scheme no provision was
made for the utilisation of the sewerage. Is it
necessary, we again ask, that what in our simplicity
passed with us for a tide of wealth should be sup-
posed to run to waste ? Since the obtaining of
information on this head by communication and
experiment waslast recommended in these columns
sufficient time has elapsed for the obtainment of
important and reliable results. Have any steps
been taken to secure them ? We very much
doubt it; and yet the utilisation of the excre-
mental and other refuse of between two Sand three
millions of people would seem to call fk)r some
consideration ere it was cast utterly away, To
deny its marketable utility because of its dilution
is an absurdity which the rawest chemist must
laugh at. If the elements of fertilisation be '
there they are to be got at, and made marketable
or chemical science has made us capable
of but a stray and one-sided advance.
The waste alone being of such magnitude should
insure the trial or failure of many experiments
before it was consented to, but when it is remem-
bered that such waste involves serious mischief,
and no little annual expenditure, the most careful
and patiout scientific research should be forth-
coming. A supply of guano cannot accord ing to
all accounts long continue, and some substitute
will be called for. Why, if possible, should not the
refuse of large towns enter into the composition
at least of that substitute ? It would be difficult
to persuade us that the objections advanced
against the employment of sewage manure, or
manure obtained from sewage, are founded iu the
main otherwise than on prejudice; and were this
not the case we can see no reason why the chemist
should not be invoked towards the improvement
of it. We are perfectly ashamed of the helpless,
hopeless apathy of the Board, aye, and the public
too, on this head. For a pe)ple delighting to be
accounted practical to assent so tamely to so mon-
• strous a waste is really surprising. Let us hope
I wore consideration will be given to this im-
portant subject than hitherto has been, and that
future generations will not rise up to laugh at us
for ignoramuses who knew no batter use for a
treasure than to throw it away.

THE POST OFFICE DIRECTORY.

FOR DEVONSHIRE AND CORNWALL.

A remarkable pendant to the world-renowned
" London Directory" has just been issued from
the press by the indefatigable proprietors, the
Messrs. Kelly and Company—in the substantial
form of this goodly volume of nearly 800 pages
" The Post-office Directory of Devonshire and Corn-
wall." Although the present is the inaugurative edi-
tion of this most remarkable work, it bears about it
the evidence of having been the resultof the labours
of men wondrously practised in the toil of compi-
lation, and skilled to a nicety in the adroitness of
at once minute and comprehensive classifica-
tion. As illustrative of the method in which the
production before us has been prepared for publi-
cation, it is only necessary to note the simple
but significant circumstance that the Maps—en-
graved expressly for the work have been
corrected to the very time of the book's appear-
ance. And so too the multifarious details com-
prised alphabetically under the heads the
various prospectuses. Conspicuous among
these divisions of the Directory being the
Banking, Assurance, and Miscellaneous Depart-
ments. Devonshire, of course, monopolises
the lion's share of the undertaking, extending over-
upwards of 500 pages, leaving between 200 and
300 for Cornwall, and divers supplementary ones
for the vast mass of appended advertisements.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, FRIDAY.

It is stated by the friends of Mr. Smith O'Brien
that it is his positive determination to resist all
attempts to induce him to take part in the politi-
cal affairs of this country, as he has made up his
mind to attend henceforward solely to the duties
of a resident country gentleman.
ATTACK ON A ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN.
—The Belfast Mercury states that the Rev. Mr.
parish priest of Maralin, county of Down,
while returning on Monday from a confirmation
by the Right Rev. Dr. Blake, was beaten very
badly by a body of men, said to be Orangemen,
within a short distance of his house, near Lurgan.
The injuries sustained by the rev. gentleman are
said to be very dangerous.
THE SADLEIR CONSPIRACY.--.The commission of
the South Riding of Tipperary was opened this
day at Clonmel by Mr. Justice Moore. After his
lordship had delivered his charge the grand jury
retired, and shortly after brought in a bill against
James Sadleir, for conspiracy to defraud the de-
positors and English shareholders in the Tipperary
Joint-Stock Bank.

The Thomas and Ann Cole has arrived from Mel-
bourne with 2,000 ounces of gold, valued at'B,ooo/. The
Kent had reached Port Philip on the 27th of April,
making the passage from Plymouth in 71 days.
The fortnightly remittances of specie to India and
China, to be made to-day will on this occasion be
smaller than for some time past. The amount, it is
said, will not exceed 350,000/.
The suspension was announced yesterday of Messrs.
Marzetti and Sons, merchants and ship insurance agents.
The amount of liabilities is not ascertained. The house
has always borne an excellent character, :and it is hoped
that the assets will prove considerable.
The half•yearly meeting of the proprietors of the East
and West India Docks was held yesterday, when a dividend,
at the rate of three per cent., free of income tax, and pay-
able on Monday next, was declared for the half-year end-
ing the 30th ult.
THE ASTLEY COOPER PRIZE FOE 1856.—Tbis prize of
3001. has been awarded by the physicians and surgeons
of Guy's Hospital to Dr. W. B. Richardson, 12, 'Enda-
street, Manchester-square, for his essay "On the Cause
of the Coagulation of the Blood." _

NEW ROAD INTO ITALY.—A plan of a road from
Grenoble into Piedmont by the valley of the Drac and
the department of the Hautes•Alpes, crossing the frontier
by a tunnel through Mont Genevre, has received the
approbation of the Pouts et Chauss4es.
Yesterday morning Col. R. Jervis, Commandant of
the Provisional Battalion, Chatham, inspected the troops
belonging t 9 the Indian depots at Chatham barracks,
under ordere to embark at Gravesend for Kurrachee to
j in their respective regiments.
A deputation from the Tower Hamlets, consisting of
the Rev. T. 0. Goodchild, rector of Hackney, G. Offor,
Esq., J. P., Mr. Churchwarden Bennett, J. Ware, Esq.,
of the Metropolitan Board of Works, introduced by Mr.
C. S. Butler, M.P., yesterday bad an interview with the
Hon. C. Gore, her Majesty's Chief Cornmissionerof Land
Revenues, on the subject of the proposed erection of
buildings in the Victoria Park. The interview lasted a
considerable time,