The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-22 00:00:00

(From the Morning Post.)

•
Without attributing any uncomfortable energy to Mr.
Thwaites' Parliament, or presuming that their councils will
rival the efficiency of one autocratic will, we may fairly as-
sume that the drainage of London elsewhere than into the
heart of the metropolis, into which it so liberally &at...barges
itself at present, is a thing that is to be done within no great
number of years. Done it must be, thoroughly, and, if need
be, even by the projected canal, into the sea beyond South-
end. Once we get the nuisance out of London, we must
have done with it for ever, all tides whatever notwithstand-
in:r. But forty miles of canal will cost money, and, however
brilliant the engineering inky be, that must be considered as
well as the moot point who is to pay for it ; and forty miles
of polluted fluid will be neither beneficial nor ornamental to
the county of Essex. Indeed, all localities discourage the
advances of the pestilential visitor, and it is quite evident we
are in sad want of an Edipus to solve the problem—need he
be pestilential at all ? If a successful and inexpensive me-
thod of accomplishing the purification of the sewage of Lon-
don could be discovered, the expense of the canal would be
saved, the nuisance on its banks would be averted, and au
income be created by the sale of manure which would pro-
bably go far to reimburse the expenditure, and possibly even.
cover it altogether. And this is not merely a question of
finance, but a question of humanity. The epidemics arising
from those impurities fall chiefly on the poor—the incapa-
city of 'earning, arising from illness, upon those who live
by their daily toil—the widowhood and orphandom, upon
those who have no settled provision. In the form which our
population is now assuming—aggregation in large masses—
and which the railway system will mould into greater masses
with still greater rapidity, it is becoming the sacred duty of
the governing classes to provide that those masses do not in-
clude within themselves the seeds of disease and premature
death, as they have hitherto done, Many plans, varying, of
course, with local circumstances, have been propounded for
this purpose, but the honour of effecting it has been reserved
for Leicester. The first step taken was the improvement and
deepening of the sewers of the borough, with a view of col-
lecting the whole into one main drain at a sufficiently low
level where the sewage works were to be erected. This is
precisely what we are doing, or about to do, in London. The
question is, what next ?
At Mr. Wickstead's works, in the neighbourhood of Lei-
cester,. the deodorant used.is lime, the process precipitation.
It is thus described :—The whole of the sewage matter, in-
cluding the .refuse from dyers and scourers, is brought by the
main sewers of the town to the works at the ontfall, and in
its passage to the reservoir the proper proportion of cream of
lime is pumped into the pipe through which the sewage-water
passes. It is then passedthrough agitatorsbefore entrance into
the reservoir, and, when admitted, the solid matter begins to '
precipitate immediately, while the sewage-water, thus gradu-
ally freed from impurities, flows into the river in a disiufected
state at the further end of the reservoir. From the begin-
ning to the end of the works no unpleasant smell whatever
was perceivable—although the subsiding tanks, and all the
processes mentioned, are in the covered part of the buildings.
The dcodorisatiou is complete. These works were opened in .
May, 1855, and have been consequently in operation day and
night for 18 months, and have completely deodorised the
sewage of Leicester, containing a population of 65,000 inha-
bitants, including all the refuse from the works aud manu-
factories of the borough. The effect of this treatment of the
sewage, and the consequence of its being kept out of the
river and canal, has been truly astonishing. These streams,
from being of the most polluted and disagreeable character,
aro now changed into a comparatively clear and perfectly in-
odorous state, and in a portion of the town where a branch
of the canal forms a sort of reservoir, fishes and plants have
been observed where none would live before. Here is the
fait accompli—tho great sanitary problem of the age solved ;
and though Mr. Wickstead does not yet claim any very bril-
liant pecuniary results, there is no doubt the process, like all
new ones, may be considerably cheapened, and that its pro-
duct would fetch a much higher price near London. There is
no reason to suppose the Thames more impracticable than the
Soar, or the manufactures of Loudon more refractory to the
laws of chemistry than the woollen and hosiery that are said to
afford occupation to twenty-five thousand persons in Leices-
ter. It is but to multiply the machinery, the area, and the ,
agent. fortyfold, and visions of Thames salmon, water-lilies,
and pleasure excursions may again float before our eyes ; a
fish dinner at Greenwich need no longer involve a smartish
race with cholera, and Blaekfriars-bridge be no longer made
terrible -by its pestiferous contributory.
We recommend the study of Mr. WiAstead's process
str ,ngly to the attention of Mr. Thwaites and his fellow
rediles. Not only a huge expense may be thereby saved, as well
oas much delay and bickering arising from the really difficult
question in what proportion the expenditure should be divid-
ed between the metropolis, the county of Essex, and the
country at large, but even taking the price of the soil so low
as five or six shillings a- ton, a revenue might beexpected
that would almost cover the cost, which can hardly be the
case if it is simply to be allowed to discharge itself into the
German Ocean ; and another evil will be avoided—
that of
a body of water from the mouth of the
diverting such
Thames, the navigation of which is difficult enough as it
is. The amount of food added to the stock of the nation
by the enormous increase of manure which this process
would insure daily and hourly, is also to be taken into
consideration, especially when it is remembered once
the example is set by London—the plan is shown to bnot
only feasible, but profitable—every city in -1.10 kingdom
will adopt it, and throughout the length
of the land this gigantic economy
wildactions, making
will
incessantly preparing the soil for fresh p r°Le at work,
and breadth
us independent of guano, and perhaps;
even at no distant
date, relieving us altogether from the necessity of the impor-
I
s n
with respect to exor-
bitant prices, not merely by
talon of food, and removing any alaeramis
the yield of land
ste or devoted to purposes
much now w
nai has been tried, it has been
already under cultivation, but by making it profitable to
bring under tillage
of inferior value. The*experi.me
ow for the Board of Welks
eminently successful, and
metropolis, or show cause
cwithhymittios apply
inapplicable. system ittoi the

—Artillery, 12,000 ; cavalry, 12,000 gi,
netra,
The military force of Spain has been ,
fixaenddasenfollows
3,600 men.
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH COMPAITY.—On ThnrsdaY
a deputation from this company waited upon the dile°.
tors of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and sub-
uently upon the directors of the Manchester Com.
sueaeircial Association, to lay before them the objects and
prospects of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, who,
after making three careful surveys of the route, propose
laying down a submarine cable between Valentia, in
, Newfoundland, with seven
distance of
etofjl,ooo statute miles. The estimated
clworiesrtleaBinecia3 ai150,000/., but with facilities that may be obtained
()
e
from the Governments on each side the Atlantic there is
a possibility of this being reduced to 250,000/. The bot-
tom
ce of,
the ocean
admirably
is
adapted
epdlafionr otvheer tphnerp wholeseThe
d is -
ta
capital is to be raised in 350 shares of 1,000/..each. and
it was stated that 53,000/. of this amount had akeady
been subscribed in Liverpool. The deputation, consist-
ing of Mr. Field, an American director, Mr. Brett, the
engineer, and Mr. Statham, were received by a numerous
body of directors at both associations (including the
presidents), and were listened to with great attention.
Several gentlemen announced their willingness to take
up shares.