The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-01 00:00:00

with Such a monster ? It wants govt
how shall it be governed ? A great c.
evil; and, do what we will, we must
bad to predominate—bad morals, bad
bad condition, bad air, bad water,
int, bad everything. Nevertheless,
is incurably bad must be governed, and
it is the more it wants government. Even the
Titans we speak of called for discipline, sand had it.
Yet the difficulty is the same whether these
2,500,000 people govern themselves or are brought
directly under the Imperial Gov(rament. Hitherto ,
everything has been left to the smallest of chances.
Wherever there was an old rag of jurisdiction, a
half obsolete court, a corporation, a ward, a bo-
rough, a
parish, a district, a liberty, a trust, a
commission, an institution, a board, or anything
that possessed or could claim ten yards of hikll...
way or as many miles of watercourse, it was per-
mitted to stand its ground and fight its way with
its thousand or more rivals. It was wholly im-
possible that anything great could be done in this
chaos of petty institutions, which, like the wars of
the Heptarchy, might be compared to the battles
of kites and crows. Successive Governments ap- -
pear to have enjoyed a confusion and a consequent
disorder which did not touch their comfort, which
secured them from a rival legislature at their doors,
and left them at liberty for those foreign aid
colonial affairs which have been the more con-
genial employment of most British statesmen.
At length the discovery was made that the wel-
fare of the metropolis ought not to bo sacrificed to
imaginary apprehensions, and attempts have accor-
dingly been made at a common municipal govern-
ment. These attempts have elided for the present in
the Metropolitan Board of Works, which, advanced
as it may seem-in comparison with its predecessors,
bears about the same proportion to a municipality as
the most uncouth, misshapen monster, in the lake at
Syde- - of the ii--*
creatik
and at
little
,pia
electi.
is as mixed as that of higher bodies, and its dis-
cussions, among occasional indications of jobbery,
show some sense and information, together with
some violations of good temper and good manners.,
It is'experimental in the limited range of its sul
~
jects, almost strictly confined to the paving, ligl
watering, and arterial drainage and sewerage,
and the health of the metropolis. On this point
the best that can be said of it is that it h.a.s, dis-
cussed most, if not all, of the current plans of ar-
terial sewerage ' • but, if it has come to no furnclu-
sion yet, it must be said there never was a more
difficult engineering problem. It is experimental
in its powers ; .it can only raise a certain amount
of money ; it is liable to have its mess ures voted
by the Government Board of Works, which appa-
rently examines them at its leisure, and in one in-
stance certainly has taken a month to pronounce a
veto that only needed a day. Though the metro-
polis is especially excepted from the jurisdiction of
the General Board of Health, yet it cannot but
feel the influence of that body. The) Board of
Health, indeed, has not much of what is usually
called power, and enjoys but a shady sort of exist-
ence. It makes suggestions, pursues inquiries,
sanctions, affiliates, and communicates with local
boards, and concocts Parliamentary bills, which are
generally shelved from one session to another. Be-
tween these three Boards there is naturally some
confusion in the public mind. They are, however,
easily distinguishable. The Board of Health thinks;
the Metropolitan Board of Works talks; the Govern-
ment Board of Works does. This is no necessary
disparagement of the two former, since there is a
time for all things, and thoughts and words may
sometimes be better even than deeds. The Go-
vernment Board of Works may be said to be of the
masculine gender, the Board of Health feminine, the
Metropolitan Board of Works neuter. As a cor-
respondent observed the other day, the first is
under the energetic monarchy of Sir Benjamin
Hall, and the last a republic under the mild presi-
dency of Mr. Thwaites, while the Board of Health
seems to possess as yet a highly Platonic constitu-
tion.

It is the experimental body, the Metropolitan
Board of Works, that just now one feels the most
interest about. It cannot rest as it is, for thus far
it has been little more than a debating society.
The question is, can it ever be anything else ?
What will it develops into ? Will it dwindle and
expire into the similitude of the Board of Health ?
Will it talk till its talk is no more reported ? Will
it advise, project, and prepare bills that never pass?
Or will it be fairly conquered, subjugated, and
finally absorbed by the Government Board of
Works, that now holds the rod over it ? Or,
without any change in its relations to other boards,
will it nevertheless acquire the habits of business
and the new powers requisite for larger operations
and for a more regular plan of proceeding ? We
are disposed to view its present embarrassments
with the utmost indulgence. An assemblage of
ordinary tradesmen set to convey the drainage of
this huge metropolis out to salt water are not to
be judged harshly if they talk before they act ;
and when one reads of high, low, and middle levels,
tunnels under the Thames, iron tubular drains a
dozen miles long, sewerage lifts of many hundred
horse power, storm vents, and all sorts of ope-
rations above, below, and between, one is only
too glad not to be a member of this over-
tasked company. But it is quite evident that
they must settle into something more like a
governing body if they would escape rude
interference. What would the House of Commons
be without her Majesty's Ministers, and its own
copious code of standing orders ? When the Re-
formed Parliament met five and twenty years ago
its enemies predicted the wildest disorder, simply
from the want of congruity and continuity in its
materials, as compared with the old House. There
was some confusion. Yet the conduct of the new
House soon elicited the admiration even of preju-
diced critics. The new members were, many of
them, at least men of business ; they bowed to the
standing orders ; and as for measures, there was a
matured policy and a prolific budget of bills in the
archives of the Whig Opposition. So they got
over their first awkwardness and went to work,
doing, however, by no means too much. The Me-
tropolitan Board of Works, as it appears to us, has
its destiny in its own hands. If it proves itself
equal to business and worthy of confidence, it will
most probably be intrusted with more work and
larger powers. Parliament is not quite the dog in
the manger that it seems to be. It is not from
choice that it monopolises so much business and
then leaves it undone. It would gladly commit
what it could to other bodies if it could trust them,
and such a body the Metropolitan Board of Works
may finally become.

THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN.

MALTA, OW. 25.
Intelligence continues to pour in from surrounding
and more distant countries which felt the earthiluake on
the night of the 11th and morning of the 12th instant.
It seems to have been more sensibly felt in the interior
than in the seaport towns of the neighbouring islands
of Sicily. In Naples the shocks were severe and of
long duration, and so likewise in Calabria ; but it appears
to have been generated in Asia Minor or Syria, as, in-
deed, has been generally the case when phenomena of
this nature having any degree of intensity have been
felt in Malta ; with which countries, rather than with
the nearer land of Sicily, Malta in this respect corres-
ponds. At Rhodes the shock was felt at 2.40 a.m. on
the 12th, and was so violent that 50 houses and the
celebrated tower are reported to have been razed to the
ground in the town, and many others seriously
while the village of Trianda is in ruins, with a deplor-
able loss of life. Alexandria also felt it, and in Cairo
there have been casualties from falling houses and mosque_.
minarets. The duration of the shock throughout Egypt
is reported to have averaged 75 seconds, the time agrees
with Malta. The Austrian Lloyd's steamers d
de felt it
though distant fully 50 miles from injured,
t_Esilhoe had' ern,*
so severely that all on board though
English steamer, bound to Alexandria.
l s from this last-
and Malta, at a distance of 300
miles
shock that she
on some new submarine formation. ThfreemSt.LAivenrdpreenwl
mentioned port, got so strained by
masts,
and bale goods
sprung a leak, lost one of her
hold..t:II:Ilia has
pehnegninoemr;, s inns of wind, heavy
were
T h
e pitched
varied into
natural the
quake,
ts in the offiing, to
rains, and waterspouts thunder-storms,
d its annals, and cannot but be
sub-
jected, are unexampled
extensive volcanic and volcanico.
inrief space of a week, been
lightnina:offrcieoxintroewmuhteieohhf
the bowels of the earth to
attributed recently, and
to withinm es
et
xhoeinnb
galvanic action going.
the island.
writer in the Malta Mediterraneo thus
An eccentric
the eastward, generating currents to the westward of
concludes
Le and successivethunderstorms and of
the earthqua
his article on the
successive
after speaking of
heavy rains :
""The atmosphere, in a word, paid back to Malta
with interest without funding or capitalisation the heavy
loan it had received, also through Malta, of eleetria
fluid from the volcano, just as Malta had restored its
owndebt on the same account. The sum restored will
beemeated-in the new formations consequent on the
suppreasio4 of the volcanic action. The residue remain•
ing to Malta will be invested in the winter vegetation
and next year's crops."

BRYN MALTA COLLIERY.—WR3ETHAM, Oct. 30.—The
inquest on the victims of the inundation was formally
opened on Tuesday last, but the inquiry into the cause of
the accident will not be proceeded with until next week,
in order to enable the Government Inspector to examine
the mine before it takes place. All the bodies have by
this time been recovered and buritd, after having been
hewed by the jury,

Inh.aln, does] the higher animals of the living
ion; Its character is eminently experimental,
at such. it has not lasted long
,endugh,sud'Xione -
- -Rs
enqugb.o,9 be co4dfAned, fo,ritte
expetuneitalja T.Wf_titiktit ,
and all but democratical. Its composition